To add to what I said; a great deal of bigotry isn’t based on any sort of objective fact that that omniscience could prove or disprove. “Homosexuality is disgusting”, for example. A great deal of bigotry is a matter of taking subjective feelings like that and elevating them to a moral principle.
No, the real tragedy was that this “member of the human species” spent his life preaching hurtful irrationality. If he was one of “God’s children,” so were the people he hurt. The only person I have compassion for was the other driver.
I read The Cross and the Switchblade. There was a part where he trusted some gangbanger with the church’s tithes. I donno why, but it stuck with me. A couple of times I’ve had a few bucks or my lunch out in the classroom and someone would say, “Aw, Miss, someone’s gonna steal it!” and my rationale was, “Well shit; they must need it.”
anyway…that’s what I remember of the book. 
I wouldn’t celebrate his death. I’m sure he did a lot of good - evangelicalism aside.
Hitler himself was a tragedy.
This pastor was not a bad person. He wasn’t killing people, committing rapes, stealing, whatever. All life is meaningful, Der Trihs, even people don’t ascribe to your values.
Yes he was. He spent his life spreading an evil and delusional belief system. No, he wasn’t a Hitler; but Hitlers rise to power using the kind of hatred and irrationality this preacher spent his life creating.
:rolleyes:
Get over yourself.
And what did I say that was wrong? His religious nonsense is delusional, and the hatred of homosexuals has caused a great deal of suffering and death. And considering that homosexuals were rounded up and killed by them, the Nazi comparison is a fair example of where that kind of hatred can and has led. It’s no more unfair than someone bringing up Hitler when the subject is antisemitism.
This thread is all the evidence I need to rest assured that, his apocalyptic & holiness extremism to the side, a great man of God who saved a lot of lives, not to mention souls, passed to his reward this week. Pick on, vultures.
How’s that?
Color me confused- how is this thread the evidence you need?
Yeah, it’s not like telling people they are evil for falling in love is a bad thing, right? And hey, if he drove a few people to suicide or murder, well that just proves they were evil and deserved it, right?
Cite?
Say what? Are you really going to claim that you’ve never heard of gay bashing? Or how the Nazis rounded up homosexuals?
You need to cite that he preached what you say he preached. And that, even if he did, that that kind of preaching led to Hitler and the holocaust.
I’d also say you need to cite that religion is delusion, but that’s easy to do–the problem is that those people don’t really have any proof, iether. But a cite from someone who deals scientifically with delusions, like a psychologist, might be useful.
Or, you could just say, “It’s all just my opinion,” and leave it at that. If you do that, you can even use, “My post is my cite.”
Twain remains an insightful writer.
Regards,
Shodan
I really couldn’t care, all I wish to stop seeing is those damned Chick tracts, especially this one, http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0093/0093_01.asp
I think you have “evidence” confused with “poor excuse to believe what I already believe”. Outside of his publicity machine, what evidence do you have?
I’m going by what’s in this thread; I never heard of the man while he was alive.
It’s called “cause and effect”. If you preach that Jews or homosexuals are evil for centuries, and people kill them because they believe Jews and homosexuals are evil, then there’s a very clear cut cause and effect relationship. The people who are being implausible here are the apologists for religion who try to pretend that there’s no connection between preaching hatred for a group and violence against that group (but of course, there is a connection between preaching good things and good behavior).
The laws of physics are my cite. And the fact that the believers have been so relentlessly wrong throughout history.
I’m kind of wondering that, myself. Did the late pastor invent a vaccine or something? Did he run or found a successful drug-treatment center?
Well, if you thought that Teen Challenge (already mentioned) was very effective in reducing drug and alcohol use I suppose it’s not too far a stretch to implicate Wilkerson in saving “a lot” of lives. But its true efficacy is debatable, to say the least. It’s not easy to praise him, but I can’t imagine why anyone would celebrate his death.