[Peace-discuss] RE: The Christmas He Dreamed for All of Us

[Phil Stinard]

Agreed, Carl, this is a collection of red herrings, and the discussion is 
going nowhere profitable.  I'm standing down on this thread.

--Phil


>From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at uiuc.edu>
>To: "Chas. 'Mark' Bee" <c-bee1 at itg.uiuc.edu>,        Phil Stinard 
><pstinard at hotmail.com>, peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] RE: The Christmas He Dreamed for All of Us 
>Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2006 03:13:40 -0600
>
>This collection of red herrings would do the late Fulton Fish
>Market proud.  And it ends with a call for church discipline
>that would warm the cockles and muscles (I know, I know) of
>the heart of the new bishop of Rome ... alive, alive-oh. (Damn
>-- the style is catching.)
>
>Along the way it touches on a bromide -- that the Abrahamic
>religions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) share a peculiar
>notion of deity -- and implies (I think) an unhistorical
>reading of the Hebrew bible ("hideously draconian old
>testament law").
>
>But of course Christianity is threatening.  It's supposed to
>be.  Jesus was executed by an occupying army as a political
>threat, and announcers of the Christian good news were
>apparently regularly regarded as "people who have been turning
>the world upside down" (Acts 17.6b).
>
>Christians and AWAREists should get back to that job.  --CGE
>
>
>---- Original message ----
> >Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2005 11:25:03 -0600
> >From: "Chas. 'Mark' Bee" <c-bee1 at itg.uiuc.edu>
> >> ...
> >>>Why are people threatened by Christians? Because most
> >>>Christians believe that their God is the only True God.
> >> Yes, we believe that.  Why is that threatening?
> >
> >  Because it leads to calls to overthrow the US government in
>favor of
> >Biblical law.
> >
> >  Because it leads to calls to stone homosexuals in the streets.
> >
> >  Because it leads to calls to allow women to die in delivery
>wards.
> >
> >  Because it leads to calls to withhold funding for academic
>institutions
> >based on religious tests.
> >
> >  Because it leads to eviscerating our crucial science
>curricula in favor of
> >fairy stories.
> >
> >  Because it leads to withholding antiimplantation drugs in
>emergencies like
> >rape and forcible incest.
> >
> >  Because it leads to real and fake Anthrax attacks and
>murder of health
> >workers.
> >
> >  Because it leads to sectarian violence all over the world.
> >
> >  And, last but not least, because it's false.  Jews and
>Muslims worship the
> >same God, despite current rampant religious propaganda to the
>contrary, most
> >of it produced by 'christians' (note small C).
> >
> >  I'm a born-again Christian, Phil.  I've had to abandon most
>of those folks
> >now, because a very, very large chunk of Christ's Church has
>been straight-up
> >co-opted by Satan, whereby it falls back on hideously
>draconian old testament
> >law and runs forward into desires for totalitarian rule
>according to that law.
> >If many of what used to be Jesus' flock had their way, we
>would be no better
> >than the repressive religious government these people think
>they profess to
> >fight in the Middle East.
> >
> >  Until the Church gets a way to rein in its crazies and
>clean house instead
> >of maintaining an 'every-congregation-for-itself' model, it
>remains vulnerable
> >to every hate-spewing would-be monarch who can afford a
>million watts of radio
> >waves or fire up a hateful internet site.  Every time it
>falls into that trap
> >it becomes a portal for organized, unrepentant evil.  And
>that's threatening.
> >Period.
> >
> >  I'm not saying you're part of the problem, this is by way
>of explanation.
> >