Humorless Politics Thread

[Gilly]

There is a certain price you pay when you turn your beliefs and your mind over to someone or something else.

I wonder - seriously - if it's worth it.  It must offer something for so many people to do it.

It's worth it if you've studied the Bible and have made a well thought out decision to believe. The problem is a large number of Christians only have a Sunday School knowledge of a faith they are basing their life on and then telling people they need to live that way as well.

My mother in law was adamant that we get our son baptized. We did just because it didn't matter either way to us, but she told us we had to because John 3:16 said, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him and is baptized shall not perish but have eternal life." Yeah, that's not how the verse goes. It says nothing about being baptized and especially nothing about infant baptism. But this is how it is. People have this very basic knowledge of the Bible and have never really studied it let alone read more than the Easter and Christmas story and feel they can tell other people that they should live by it.

[buffcoat]

Yes.  For the record (and I suppose that on the Internet one needs to be clear about these things), I was referring to the particular woman in the particular broadcast, who seemed to be unable to do anything but parrot what her vicious preacher had said. 

I was not intending to tar the entire Christian faith - or, writ larger, all people who belong to a faith - with that brush.  I think people get where they're going in all kinds of ways.  Not my business.

[fonpr]

It's worth it if you've studied the Bible and have made a well thought out decision to believe. The problem is a large number of Christians only have a Sunday School knowledge of a faith they are basing their life on and then telling people they need to live that way as well.

This implies a superiority I find offensive.

[dave from knoxville]

It's worth it if you've studied the Bible and have made a well thought out decision to believe. The problem is a large number of Christians only have a Sunday School knowledge of a faith they are basing their life on and then telling people they need to live that way as well.

This implies a superiority I find offensive.

Get right or get left behind, Fred.

[Gilly]

It's worth it if you've studied the Bible and have made a well thought out decision to believe. The problem is a large number of Christians only have a Sunday School knowledge of a faith they are basing their life on and then telling people they need to live that way as well.

This implies a superiority I find offensive.

How do you mean? What I am implying is that the vast majority of Christians have only a basic knowledge of their faith and then some of these people want to impose their beliefs on others even though they probably have no idea if their beliefs are actually Bible based. Christianity is basically a folktale for them, they just know what was passed down to them. It's one thing to have childlike faith, but then again a child isn't going to be going to the voting booth to tell someone they can't live their lives like they want to.

The Westboros, the Terry Jones, the Pat Robertson's of the world need to have some of the blame placed on them but it's just like politics. People have these firm beliefs and they aren't based on anything but hearsay. They don't read the Bible to see what things actually say, they don't read the Constitution when they spout off how things are unconstitutional.

[fonpr]

I'm with you Gilly. 

People who have read less of their holy book than I have, somehow think they have a spiritual superiority. 

And from that postion of superiority feel they must "save me" from my less rightous path.

I'd tell them to go to hell but I don't believe in it.

[cutout]

Atheists, agnostics most knowledgeable about religion, survey says

[Gilly]

I'd still say there are more Christians that know the Christian faith better than atheists and agnostics, but percentage wise it probably goes to the latter.

But in terms of knowing about religion as a broad term, I'd definitely agree. I went to a Baptist church growing up that wasn't progressive but it wasn't your typical conservative Baptist church either. My youth pastor took 2 months taking us to different churches of other denominations and holy places of other religions. We came back to our church and discussed the differences, but never once did anybody teaching us say how they were wrong. I remember some parents being upset, I think one family left the church if I remember right, but most thought it was a fantastic idea. It's important to know how your faith differs from others, but most churches just take an us vs. them approach.

[Steve of Bloomington]

Westboro sounds kind of like Westeros

[cavorting with nudists]

The people's favorite!  Dig that Applause Face.

Mitt Romney Gets A Round Of Applause

[Smelodies]

The people's favorite!  Dig that Applause Face.

I'll bet you everybody makes the same sort of face in such a situation.

[dave from knoxville]

The people's favorite!  Dig that Applause Face.

I'll bet you everybody makes the same sort of face in such a situation.

It's a shame there's no way to verify that. If only there were a network of machines capable of showing us videos of people being applauded!

[Kormod]

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8157339/view/full/qa-batman-beetlejuice-star-michael-keaton-mister-rogers-fly-fishing-roles-turned-more

Daniel: All right. (3) You ever meet a president?

Michael: Clinton and Obama and … uh … didn't meet Carter. Clinton and Obama.

Daniel: And?

Michael: Yeah, first words out of Obama's mouth — and again, I was just meeting the man who was about to become the leader of the free world. He's walking down the hallway, arms outstretched like this to greet me — and his first sentence to me was, "Why don't you make more movies?"

[Both laugh.]

Michael: And you have to backpedal a bit, like, whoa man, I thought we were going to talk about a whole bunch of other stuff.

Daniel: He probably wants to talk about movies; you want to talk about politics.

Michael: Exactly, exactly. He's a huge Beetlejuice fan, a huge fan actually. "Man, you've got to keep making movies, how come you're not doing it?" I had to talk about that for a minute and then say, "Hey I want to talk to you about this environmental thing, [laughs] but by that time, he's thinking, Oh man, that's a drag, I want to talk about movies.

[Smelodies]

I heard Obama was very high when he watched Beetlejuice (and perhaps when he met Keaton as well).

[Kormod]