The SDMB doesn’t suffer fools lightly but I have never felt out of place as a Christian here. Things get heated now and then but there is a remarkable amount of tolerance in the exchange of ideas.
Don’t worry JarbabyJ. I wasn’t mentioned either but it didn’t bother me. Maybe I don’t witness enough in GD. Don’t forget resident Chick fan His4Every though I’m not sure if I’ve seen a post from her recently.
Christian here. Baptist-church-going Christian, to be more specific.
And I’d like to point out that what Zev Steinhardt said is true. There are athiests, agnostics, Pagans, Wiccans, Muslims, Buddhists, Christians and Jews here.
One of the things Zev didn’t mention is an inclusion of himself in his list of respected Dopers of Faith. But he is modest to a fault, so it remains for someone else (i.e. ME) to mention him.
There are a lot of theologically significant Christian dopers. And, of course there are a whole lot of quiet Christian dopers, too. Let’s not forget to mention the learned and wise Christian dopers, the loud and obnoxious Christian dopers, and the crazy deluded Christian dopers too. Wouldn’t be a representative collection of the Lord’s children without them.
It’s pretty much a typical collection of Christians, although a bit smarter than average, what with the unending fight against ignorance.
Not to mention our reliably informative Jewish scholars, the occasional Taoist, and Bhuddist and whole crowds of erudite Atheists, and Agnostics. And the very intelligent and perspicacious heathens, too. Beloved children of God, each and every one. I don’t recall reading any really detailed accounts of the Hindu religious tradition from a Doper, but I might have missed that.
We generally keep the theological discussions in Great Debates. At times, as a demonstration of our Christian Love, we adjourn to the Barbecue Pit to roast the unbelievers over open fires, er . . . continue discussions in a more spirited format.
You are cordially invited to join in, when and where the spirit moves you.
Tris
“The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.” ~ Hubert Humphrey ~
:: hand being waved from the back of the room (coz that’s where Lutherans sit…) ::
Hey, y’know, there ARE a lotta Christians here. Maybe we ought to get together, sometime. Form kinda a club. Maybe meet once a week… snap That’s IT! We’ll form the First Church of Dope! Our Lady of Secular Enlightenment! We’ll minister to the heathen under-informed! Proselytize to the Christian-Ignorant, and the Ignorant-about-Christians, alike!
Of course, knowing us, we’ll debate amongst ourselves for years on end regarding methods and specific doctrine. But hey, the upside is that the end product will include a fully functioning plan for re-uniting the Church Entire, AND a never-fail argument for converting the heathens! woot!
Tygr, I heard a great commercial on the radio the other day for Lutheran Charity and it said “not all of our meetings are in the church basement… but there will always be coffee”
I thought it was a riot since I went to a lutheran school.
You left off the end though – nunc et in hora mortis nostrae.
I am Catholic, though not old enough to have been taught the Ave Maria in Latin, in a non-choral setting anyway…
And – never mind that I don’t really post all that often anywhere unless I can cram in a gratuitous Shakespeare reference – I generally don’t post in GD either. I’d like to have things sorted out for myself before I attempt to argue about them…
Add another to the rockingest congregation in the land, Baptists.
I assume that the number of religious leaning Dopers may seem low for a couple of reasons.
Like myself, tend to avoid posting to religious themed threads due to the population of more scholarly, well-spoken Dopers
Avoid religious arguments knowing that an online message board is an unlikely place to change a mind (regardless of the argument)
Plus, teh beauty of this board is that it allows people of widely varying beliefs or opinions to skip past those widely varying beliefs and or opinions and make a connection on some other (marginally less cosmic) topic.
IMHO, one of the best ways to sort 'em out is to try to respond intelligently and respectfully to somebody else’s POV, taking his/her views into account and showing how your own differ – you end up thinking through your own in ways you never had occasion to do before!
My word! Someone noticed me? I just have this feeling I wander around saying mildly eccentric things about cats and cooking, and being politely ignored, in a kind of nice-lady-with-the-tinfoil-hat way. Don’t get me wrong. I LIKE my hat. It protects me from space rays.
Welcome to the club, Meros. Conservative goth-ish type here.
This is turning into an altar call, people. I’m not sure if I do altar calls. They’re so… Baptist. (shudder)