I can relate to this. I was an elder in a theologically conservative denomination. As my knowledge of the Bible, theology and doctrine increased, along with what I heard from the pulpit and elsewhere, I found I was asking more and more questions. I was literally told by another elder that I thought too much. Difficult questions were rarely welcome or answered by the various pastors and other elders over the years. I finally stopped asking when I realized their knowledge was either so limited or codified that questions, even obvious ones, rarely came to their minds. It was all about promoting and preserving the institution, including their incomes. It took a few years, but I finally left. And just in time, too. The main focus of such churches is now rightwing politics, mostly the white male MAGA variety.

Indeed, DJT and the GOP will try to figure out someway to keep him in 2029, if he lives that long. But he will be older than Biden is today. There are some parallels to the Roman Republic and the eventual ascendance of the emperors, while maintaining the illusion of a republic. I could see that happening here. Trump won't live forever. Julius Caesar the dictator died, by assassination. DJT's passing will likely be from old age or infirmity. Unfortunately, he will likely "appoint" his successor before that, either his VP or some other groveling Christian nationalist and then the GOP and rightwing white evangelicals will follow that person. Whatever Republican President follows Trump is likely to be younger, a lot smarter and even more dangerous. This fight may last for decades if the country doesn't collapse first.

The fight against the ideas in P25 will go on for years after both Biden and Trump are gone, which is at most about 4 years from now. P25 is intended for the next conservative President, whomever and whenever that may be. P25 is expansive. Look for areas and topics in P25 in which you are knowledgeable or feel strongly about and do whatever you can to fight them. Climate for me.

Perhaps the party gained confidence with the SOTU where Biden was strong and confident. Regardless, he should have announced months ago that he was not seeking a second term and let younger people step up.

What happened between the SOTU and this debate? A younger, smarter person could have taken Trump down. Kamala Harris or any number of other Dems could have been much more effective. So will Biden drop out in the next few weeks? Can that even happen?

Unfortunately, you are probably right. This will likely be at least decade or two before this slows down.

Yes, leaving in the last hours is definitely not for everyone. Fortunately, Dorian turned as predicted. Not for much divine intervention, but we did get lucky. It would have taken a very long time to recover. Speed of movement and size of the storm and the traffic are critical if you want to wait to escape. And having enough gas! A two-hour drive at most would have worked for Dorian. Most roads on the mainland are clear before tropical storm winds arrive. The roads to GA were clear in the last day before Irma hit Florida. People left days earlier and got stuck.

Depends on how far inland you are, both for wind and water, and the house construction. The vast majority of people are killed by water, not wind. I've stayed through the eyes of Cat 3 hurricanes and a few lesser hurricanes over the decades, no problem. But, if the eyewall of a Cat 5 is a possibility, I'm leaving home. Cat 4, maybe. Dorian, Michael and Andrew were fairly small storms and you would not have had to driven far to avoid the worst. One-third of the state left for Irma very early and most spent many hours on the roads trying to get out. I loved the relative quiet before the storm. There's almost never a need to leave the state to protect your life.

This guy is looking for adoration from the Christian nationalist/MAGA movement. Hopefully, the backlash against this will finally wake up a lot of people who don't think this movement is a threat to the country. It would make a good question for Trump during tonight's debate.

Numbers 31 - genocide, including women and infant boys. The only exception was the virgin girls who were distributed to the troops. I wonder what the parents in OK would think about their young daughters studying that in class.

Of course, it is unconstitutional. This is just showboating by the wacko OK superintendent. But it's a warning to all of us that the christian nationalists will stop at nothing to force their religion on the country. On the other hand, maybe OK teachers should read Numbers 31 to the kids so they can see how horrible this god and his followers were/are. If you haven't read it, it's one of the most horrifying stories in the Bible. It is almost never discussed in church or Sunday School for good reason.

death penalty for sexual abuse of children? I wonder what they would do with the countless pastors and congregants, guilty of this crime. A recent example is Robert Morris, a big Trump supporter and, very belatedly, the former pastor of a Texas megachurch. There are many examples across the world of rightwing evangelicalism in which the crime is covered up by church authorities.

P25 reflects the long-time goals of the white christian right. We are already seeing the implementation of these goals to limit freedom in the red states controlled by the conservative GOP. They desperately want to take this to the national level. If DJT, who's not a christian, but will do anything to use them, is elected along with a GOP Senate, he will be able to appoint more, even worse, young christian conservatives to the federal court system, including the Supreme Court. Because they are life-long appointments, that will kill freedoms for decades. DJT does not know enough and have the time to select them, but the people who wrote P25 will provide the nominees for him. This has to be stopped, unless we want to go back to the repressive system that existed before the 1960's.

I'm sorry that it does seem to boil down to this. A new life with a new partner, but with very likely no meaningful relationship with your kids, even if you somehow get part-time custody, at least for years, and a considerable cut in your financial situation. There are scenarios that could work, like finding a new partner who can contribute to the household income and maybe even start a family, if the partner is young enough, or adoption, if not. I was very fortunate. Even though our daughter was primarily homeschooled by my wife, who was and still is a christian and I was too at the time, it was not for religious reasons. My wife has training in science, math and literature from the British system and college. She quickly rejected the crappy Christian homeschool material and the unfortunate poor choice in public schools and did a superb job at homeschooling in all subjects, later combined with online AP courses. My wife and now-grown daughter are currently occasional attendees at a fairly liberal church, whereas in the past all three of us regularly attended a conservative church. I rarely discuss religion with my wife and that works OK for both of us. There's so much else to talk about. Unfortunately, if someone like your wife was born into a very conservative, typically white christian family and the insulated, constantly reinforcing culture, it is difficult, though not impossible, for them to change.

Ironically, your wife is violating the biblical standards of a wife with respect to intimacy and likely in other areas of marital and family life as well. You are obviously not in the charge of family or married life. She is. But, apparently she, her parents, her pastor and everyone else around you doesn't care about that part of the Bible.. If you stay, the best you can do is probably what you're doing now. Perhaps, you can develop some outside contacts and activities to stay emotionally and intellectually refreshed. Biblically, she cannot divorce you unless you are unfaithful and she finds out (something to think about). As far as the children are concerned, they may deconstruct when they're adults and realize that you were right all along. That's the best you can hope for, and it can happen obviously. Before that, they will be turned against you if you seek a divorce. A divorce at this time means a complete break from your current life, including your children. You'd be starting a totally new life at 51.

And private equity is growing rapidly, where the very rich benefit the most and mostly in secret.

Trump literally warned them that they need to contribute to his campaign.

download P25 and do a word search for climate, NOAA, National Weather Service, etc. P25 is going to be devastating for climate and weather research and operations. And it's not written by anyone who knows the science.

For those who don't believe this is true, US Bureau of Labor Statistics for unemployment, inflation, wages. US Border Protection for crossings. Stock market numbers are everywhere.

that shows wages are not rising as fast as their historically rate that they were several months ago, but they're still increasing at 4.7%.

Unemployment low, inflation rate decreasing, stock market high, wages increasing, border crossings dropping. You can easily look this up in minutes. Trumpeteers believe the opposite is true because their orange god tells them so.

The 10 commandments (actually, I understand they're posting 11) is no surprise. It's political theatre for the purpose of showing off to their supporters. It's unconstitutional, we hope but you never know with the Supreme Court. What is scary is the legislation they're passing that restricts personal freedoms, abandons public schools, bans books, bans vaccine mandates, bans DEI, etc. And they will only become more emboldened if their new god, aka DJT, is elected and they also keep the House and gain control of the Senate. Then we are in very big trouble.

Scary that these people are playing a major role in elections from the president on down to school boards.

God's moral standards are absolute, unchanging, and not culturally dependent - except when they're not.