@dkmich

I can't wait for these loons to push the envelope far enough that the Church of Satan and other religious groups can give them everything they asked for. If I owned a business, first thing I'd do is refuse to serve Evangelical Protestants.

You might want to check out The Satanic Temple. Their principal religious practice is to "push that envelope". From the linked site:

About Us

The mission of The Satanic Temple is to encourage benevolence and empathy among all people, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense and justice, and be directed by the human conscience to undertake noble pursuits guided by the individual will. Politically aware, Civic-minded Satanists and allies in The Satanic Temple have publicly opposed The Westboro Baptist Church, advocated on behalf of children in public school to abolish corporal punishment, applied for equal representation where religious monuments are placed on public property, provided religious exemption and legal protection against laws that unscientifically restrict women's reproductive autonomy, exposed fraudulent harmful pseudo-scientific practitioners and claims in mental health care, and applied to hold clubs along side other religious after school clubs in schools besieged by proselytizing organizations.

source

As for unilateral taxation of churches, I'm not an enthusiastic supporter; but for the principal reason that I'm leery of any incursion on the Wall of Church-State Separation no matter whence or how it might come. Of course, I do support taxation of profit businesses held by churches, and I do support taxing entities which claim to be churches but are really for-profit businesses (like $cientology or Focus on the Family). I realize that's a complicated can of worms, but religious freedom is critical, always has been, and always will be.

n.b.: Focus on the Family doesn't claim to be a church, but it still claims the tax exemptions of one.

They can be pro-alien and anti-apple pie for all I care. I just want them to keep their religion out of my life. Nobody passed any laws against heterosexuals getting married just because they believed gay people could marry. The religious right has abused their power to a point that they deserve no consideration. In fact, churches should be taxed, and religion should never be a reason for an exception to anything.

I can't wait for these loons to push the envelope far enough that the Church of Satan and other religious groups can give them everything they asked for. If I owned a business, first thing I'd do is refuse to serve Evangelical Protestants.

@EdMass
over the issue of abortion. In the first place, it is not a yes/no, pro/anti kind of question. It is rather, an ill-defined controversy that is fraught with moral and religious complexity, for which there can not possibly be any single, universally-acceptable solution. The issue is highly divisive, and is prone to being used as a political football that benefits no one.

IMO people would do well to chill out a bit, and start practicing the arts of compassion, tolerance, and mutual respect, rather than trying to distinguish absolute Right from absolute Wrong.

There is no compromise.

You either believe human life starts at conception, or you don't.

This is an observation.

I will not say which side of the fence I am on.

But there is a fence.

It shall not be easily or ever resolved.

@Big Al

It's this:

Democrats and the democratic party are currently the leading warmonger organization on the planet while pretending to be benevolent humanitarian interventionists and protectors of demockery.

IMHO, befuddled Christians are no match for the PARTY...

isn't as hypocritical as any pro-life warmongering Christian? Seems to me the pro life hypocrites would fit in just fine. Democrats and the democratic party are currently the leading warmonger organization on the planet while pretending to be benevolent humanitarian interventionists and protectors of demockery. That's as hypocritical as it gets. What's the opposite of pro-life? Those that are for abortion rights, i.e., democrats, are just as likely to be pro-war, pro-torture, pro-imperialism, and just as anti-women's rights as the anti-abortionists, and just as hypocritical. In fact, maybe they deserve each other.

@CB

BTW, the real existential threat to the world is American foreign policy.

The real existential threat to America and all her People is American foreign policy as well! Our rulers intervene in the decor choices of other nations while our own national home is burning to the ground!

EDIT: This is why I continued supporting Bernie Sanders in the face of Clintonites who castigated him for lacking foreign policy experience. My response: "It's about time we had an Administration driven by domestic policy for a change!"

"But we are going to need to stay in long enough to prevent chaos and to stabilize the country."

BTW, the real existential threat to the world is American foreign policy.

@pro left

Wait, I really don't care who they let in since I'm done with the dem's anyway. As far as being pro-this or anti-that its much easier to say than do, unfortunately most things just are not that simple but in this country it seems everything has to be black or white (and I'm not talking about race although that might apply as well) when really most of it is grey.