Look to the Scriptures for truth

http://www.newburyportnews.com/puopinion/local_story_125231449.html?keyword=secondarystory
5/6/09

To the editor:

Having been singled out in Julia Kirst's recent letter, April 21, regarding the proposed "Bathroom bill," I hope I am permitted to respond. For, although I can and do understand the real struggles of those who are born anatomically ambiguous, this is not the issue. The issue is the perversion of "->-bleeped-<-" where anatomical men want to be seen as women and anatomical women want to be seen as men. The two are not the same. I am intolerant toward this perversion and I hope I never achieve the level of tolerance toward it that she says someone with the title pastor should have.

Things like this make me wish I wasn't associated with religion.

Things like this reaffirm my beliefs that they are all mostly full of it.

I have a friend who is Jewish and they are taught to question everything. There are even publications that extend the teachings by gathering the thoughts and wisdom of great Rabbis. Makes it much easier to deal with a religion that continues to evolve and to question than it is a segment that has bumper stickers that basically says that since the bible says it is so then there is no questioning it.

Religion is man made. The Bible is written by men. They also use ideas and words quoted from Epicurus who lived 300 years earlier and had disciples as missionaries throughout the civilized world. Many learned their values from those schools and converted later to Christians after the leaders frowned on non believers.

Quote from: Syne on May 06, 2009, 07:07:38 PM
Things like this reaffirm my beliefs that they are all mostly full of it.

I have a friend who is Jewish and they are taught to question everything. There are even publications that extend the teachings by gathering the thoughts and wisdom of great Rabbis. Makes it much easier to deal with a religion that continues to evolve and to question than it is a segment that has bumper stickers that basically says that since the bible says it is so then there is no questioning it.

I'll second the above.

The lack of apologetics, "classic" language studies, understanding of history, and classic philosophy is what troubles me most the about the fundementalist sects of Christianity. And these people wonder why articles are being written predicting the demise of "evangelical Christianity," not to be confused with "mainline Protestantism."

The only thing that's wrong with religion is ... the people who adhere to it's most common denominator advocates.

Quote from: michellesofl on May 06, 2009, 07:32:44 PM
I'll second the above.

The lack of apologetics, "classic" language studies, understanding of history, and classic philosophy is what troubles me most the about the fundementalist sects of Christianity. And these people wonder why articles are being written predicting the demise of "evangelical Christianity," not to be confused with "mainline Protestantism."

I heartily agree with you.  With each passing year, it seems to me like the gulf between evangelical fundamentalists and the "little brown church in the vail" grows wider, and more troublesome.  Are they slowly developing a completely new version of Christianity that is incompatable with its more traditional forms?

From some of their public comments I have often wondered: have they ever actually read the New Testament?

What do you expect from a religion invented by nomadic, bronze-age goatherds.
I always wonder how the 'non-fundamentalists' (from the lovely little congregations that don't hurt anyone) reconcile the fact that their God ordered homosexuals to be murdered, along with adulterers and children who talk back.
Was God wrong to order these murders? If not, why don't we still murder homosexuals, adulterers, children, people who work on the sabbath and all the other things that the Lord kills people for?

Always appreciate religons that preach tolerance and love, turn the other cheek, do no harm to another etc etc, are essentially facist.
Why has fundamentalist christianity got a hold in the US? serious question, I'm Australian and although it has a presence most people think they are dick heads (I'm I allowed to say that?)

Cindy

The colonization of the US began for one of two reasons, sometimes - often even - for both.  The first reason was financial, gold pretty much.  The second was religion - tending to weird, fundamentalist, and communitarian.  So, from the get-go a huge part of the American deal was all about a very deep and perverse kind of religious experience.  In part seeing in the New World a chance to redo the Bible from the beginning, seeing the virgin American continent as the new Eden, and rising up to build the New Jerusalem, A Shining City on a Hill (and yes, they talked like that) --- well, let's just say with all that they had some visions going down.

In my rather poor understanding, the settling of Australia was basically Irish convicts, more Irish convicts, and still even more Irish convicts - America got religious nut jobs and big-wig financiers looking to make an easy buck.  It's a very explosive mixture to say the least.

Yes Australia was mainly convict settled except SA which was free colonisation, and it was the most religous from German migrants. As someone said all good Aussies are descended form convicts, the really crappy ones are descended from the prison guards and wardens.
Yes I'd forgotten about the Plymouth Brethern. Never had a hope did you?
Cindy

Yes I'd forgotten about the Plymouth Brethern. Never had a hope did you?

Oh god no.  And it wasn't just them, there were hordes of them, of all stripes, puritans, anti-baptists, real baptists, catholics, lots of people starting communes, and then we kept having these great awakening deals, where snake bite evangelists rode around stirring everything up every couple of generations or so.  Add to that the Mormons, and Christian Scientists who started here, and people like Jim Jones and David Koresh who ended here. 

No wonder we love making money so much, it was the only sane option.

Quote from: CindyJames on May 11, 2009, 04:10:27 AM
Why has fundamentalist christianity got a hold in the US? serious question, I'm Australian and although it has a presence most people think they are dick heads (I'm I allowed to say that?)

1st Amendment in the USA says "Yes".

And here in Oz, truth is a pretty good defence against a libel action.

Just remember though that here, 1 in 3 are Catholic. Hence Rudd's opposition to SSM etc.

Quote from: ZoeB on May 16, 2009, 01:43:55 AM
1st Amendment in the USA says "Yes".

The government cannot censor speech, limited exceptions...TV no curse words, cant "yell fire, in a crowded theatre."  Private organizations, like Susans, most definitly can censor... its called Terms of Service (TOS) for a reason.

Sorry, getting off the thread.
If in the USA 1st amendment modifies speech on TV shows, it doesn't in the film industry? I hate watching movies in which F*** is the only adjective.
F*** this is a question not a statement F***

Cindy

Quote from: CindyJames on May 16, 2009, 04:04:35 AM
Sorry, getting off the thread.
If in the USA 1st amendment modifies speech on TV shows, it doesn't in the film industry? I hate watching movies in which F*** is the only adjective.
F*** this is a question not a statement F***

Cindy

The reason is that children can watch TV unmonitored.  Movies are monitored, thus the rating system.  I also hate hear the F word in ever sentence.

Bigots hide behind the !st Amendment.  And despite the separation of church and state, Christianity is the unofficial religion of the US.  Thus laws that are based on the teaching of the Christian Reich.