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eredienI found this article on Arc's livejournal.
It made me mad.
It made me mad because as a Christian at a liberal school, this is the kind of thing that makes people look at me funny when I tell them I'm a Christian. This is the kind of thing that makes me ashamed to be putting myself under the same word as these people.
Whatever happened to "love your neighbor?" Jesus didn't say, "love your neighbor as long as they're not gay, or not pagan, or not abortionists."
It made me mad because the ACLU is one of those few organizations, in my mind, speaking out for true freedom. Sure, they're protecting the rights of truly out-on-the-left political pundits. But they're protecting the rights of people like these two to be able to say what they just said; and I'm sure that if someone tried to systematically silence people like Falwell, the ACLU would be there battling against the silence. They might not be crazy about it, but they'd be battling. "I might not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
And no, I don't think it's great that they've taken all mention of religion out of public arenas like workplaces and schools - I think that if you want to pray in school, great, go ahead. If you want to stop the business meeting to have some little quiet time between you and allah, go ahead. But this "throwing God out of the public square" has not stopped people from finding faith in something bigger than themselves. People are looking for answers, and they've not going to stop that because they're not handed them on the silver platter of civics as perhaps they were 50 or 100 years ago.
But blaming the bombs on the wrath of God brought on by "pagans, abortionists, feminists, those gays and lesbians trying to make it an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU and the People for the American Way..." my God.
My God.
Isn't there enough hate in the world without creating more?
People should be working together to mend. This isn't a time to tear apart the already tenuous social fabric of this country.
If the apocalypse is coming, I think people like this are bringing it down on their own heads, through their own efforts, without even knowing what they're about.
It made me mad.
It made me mad because as a Christian at a liberal school, this is the kind of thing that makes people look at me funny when I tell them I'm a Christian. This is the kind of thing that makes me ashamed to be putting myself under the same word as these people.
Whatever happened to "love your neighbor?" Jesus didn't say, "love your neighbor as long as they're not gay, or not pagan, or not abortionists."
It made me mad because the ACLU is one of those few organizations, in my mind, speaking out for true freedom. Sure, they're protecting the rights of truly out-on-the-left political pundits. But they're protecting the rights of people like these two to be able to say what they just said; and I'm sure that if someone tried to systematically silence people like Falwell, the ACLU would be there battling against the silence. They might not be crazy about it, but they'd be battling. "I might not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
And no, I don't think it's great that they've taken all mention of religion out of public arenas like workplaces and schools - I think that if you want to pray in school, great, go ahead. If you want to stop the business meeting to have some little quiet time between you and allah, go ahead. But this "throwing God out of the public square" has not stopped people from finding faith in something bigger than themselves. People are looking for answers, and they've not going to stop that because they're not handed them on the silver platter of civics as perhaps they were 50 or 100 years ago.
But blaming the bombs on the wrath of God brought on by "pagans, abortionists, feminists, those gays and lesbians trying to make it an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU and the People for the American Way..." my God.
My God.
Isn't there enough hate in the world without creating more?
People should be working together to mend. This isn't a time to tear apart the already tenuous social fabric of this country.
If the apocalypse is coming, I think people like this are bringing it down on their own heads, through their own efforts, without even knowing what they're about.
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Every religion has its extremists
15/9/01 05:10 (UTC)They did have the right to voice their minds though, you are right about that. My "cut their own throats" statement was in a sense that they will turn their own followers against them and the media will probably shun them after this (I hope). I didn't mean they should really have their throats cut. I meant that metaphorically.
That quote was from Thomas Jefferson I believe. Heh I actually used that on Wyrm once :P But anyway...
As for prayer in schools, as far as I know you are allowed to do that, but you have to do it of your own volition, the way it should be. If that's wrong and they are punishing kids seen praying, then that itself is a violation of their rights. Its ok so long as the school (or company or whatever) doesn't lead people in prayer because then if you don't you feel as if you are being singled out. I wouldn't mind if they simply called for say "Ok please take a moment of prayer, thought or silence" and left it at that. Then you can participate without having to really adhere to any religion, basically it says do whatever your religion deems appropriate and if you don't have one, you can use just take a moment of silence or just sit and think. That I think is a better compromise.
As for public squares, I don't see the problem with a prayer group there so long as they have a permit to be there or something and so long as they don't bother other people and try to make them join in. In a public square you could then have any religion really take their turn there be it Christians, Jews, Muslims or Wiccans, etc. The only drawback is that the last two may well suffer problems from bystanders who listen to jackasses like Pat and Jerry... That might be why they should require a permit, so appropriate officers can be put out to handle any crowd control issues.
I don't think any kind of apocalypse is coming, unless we do it of our own hand. As you know, I'm not Christian myself, not really any religion with a name actually. Back around age 17 I decided to follow my own path, using wisdom from wherever I could find it. If it sounded good, I include it. So in a way this is a "personal" religion, cobbled together from bits and pieces of quite a few religions. I doubt I could even name some of what goes with who anymore. I took a history class on non-western history and we were pretty well exposed to some of the religious beliefs of non western religions. We had to read up on Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, some about the Chinese and Japanese ancestral worship, a bit about some African religions (including the ancient Egyptian's :) ). This really helped open my eyes to the fact that there isn't really any one true religion for all people. Instead I think you have to find it for yourself what works for you. I think religion is a deeply personal and private thing which is up to you to practice as your please and decide what you share with others about it.
Re: Every religion has its extremists
15/9/01 05:21 (UTC)I'm not really sure yet if I believe in a god or not, its really something still up in the air for me. My current "theory" is that maybe there is some spirit which exists because we do, a culmination of all our life forces which helps watch over us in a way but can't really interfere directly. However it could interfere indirectly by say inspiring someone to do something. This entity is not male or female or really any shape in reality. Instead you see it in whatever form and gender you are comfortable with in a god. Some might see it as the well known fatherly God figure. Me I would actually see her as female and probably an anthro bat. More of a motherly "Gaia" or "Earth Spirit" kind of figure. I might also see it as one of the Egyptian gods if that is my mood currently, taking on the aspects of that god if that is what I require at the moment. I'm not totally sure about that one as of yet... like I said I've got a lot of puzzling out left to do.