[B5JMS] Attn JMS: taste; was: various bounced replies from jms

[b5jms-admin at cs.columbia.edu]

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From: "Christian McNeill" <christian at quicknet.com.au>
Date: 26 Feb 2001 21:04:41 -0700
Lines: 58

"Shaz" <hypatia at Dial.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:97etqq$2vf$1 at lure.pipex.net...
> "Kevin Munoz" <kevin at tesarta.com> wrote in message
> news:260220011850209197%kevin at tesarta.com...
> > In article <3A9ABA15.D09FC96D at mailbox.bellatlantic.net>, John W.
> > Kennedy <jwkenned at impop.bellatlantic.net> wrote:
> >
> > > I suspect he gets a lot of static from people who want to "save" him.
> >
> > It's really funny, actually...I've been in my field now for quite a bit
> > of time, and not once, NOT ONCE, has anyone tried to "save" me. And I
> > work with Christians of all stripes, flavors, colors and odors.
>
> I, on the other hand, used to be a regular, church attending Christian
until
> a bunch of Bible bashers made it their life's work to make me as 'happy,
> slappy, clappy' an evangelist as they were. By refusing to take 'no
thanks,
> I'm quite happy with my version' and 'go away' for an answer, they put me
> off Christianity for life. These days I'm open to any religious approach
> that makes sense, including the Minbari one. Actually, I find that makes
> MUCH more sense to me than anything I've encountered from official
sources.
> And the more I hear of people praying for my soul, the more I want to
throw
> up.

I always thought the Minbari religion was all the good ideas found in the
official sources.


> I don't blame God for religion, but I am inclined to applaud the bumper
> sticker I once saw in Michigan which said "God save me from your
followers".
> I know there are loads of decent, honest, faithful members of religions
out
> there who mind their own business and lead by example, rather than trying
to
> beat you senseless, but the ones who DO try and beat you senseless drive
me
> further away every day.

Just don't go too far.  I know someone who was driven so far away from the
catholic religion that he started challenging their faith.  To me that
behaviour makes him no better than the bible bashers you are describing.


--


==========================
Christian McNeill

E-mail: red at underground.com.au
Web: http://red.underground.com.au




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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 26 Feb 2001 21:41:34 -0700
Lines: 32

>Just don't go too far.  I know someone who was driven so far away from the
>catholic religion that he started challenging their faith.  To me that
>behaviour makes him no better than the bible bashers you are describing.

Do you mean *challenging* or do you mean *mocking*?  Different things.

Everyone's beliefs, whatever they are, should be challenged from time to time. 
Challenged in conversation.  Challenged by new discoveries.  By internal
reflection.

If our ideas are not challenged on occasion, they run the risk of becoming so
concretized that we no longer *think* about what we actually *believe*.  And we
are not able to therefore justify them or explain them.  At the end of that
challenge you may wind up right where you started, but at least you will now be
stronger and more able to describe what you believe in, and why.

(There's a great story by Mark Twain you should read for more on this: "The Man
Who Corrupted Hadleyburg."  It says a lot of what happens to faiths when they
are not challenged from time to time.)

Mocking, of course, is something else again.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2001 by synthetic worlds, ltd., 
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine 
and don't send me story ideas)




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