No matter how inconsistent, illogical and outright morally evil you are, you’re the one in charge, so everyone has to pretend you’re the most perfect, loving father figure ever to exist.
One of my theories, from personal experience and observation, is that a great deal of mental illness is caused by the gulf between what is, and what we want things to be; between Objective Reality and Subjective Reality. That it is that tension that breaks and destroys us.
So when the Vision of God is that he gives us a definition of Sin and Guilt that is impossible for us to satisfy and he holds the power to judge us for all time over the slightest error; but at the same time, those rules do not apply to him - and yet he is “without sin” and “perfect”; there is a monstrous gulf of tension between what we are told to be and what we’re told God is on one side, and what we observe, even if not consciously, about how God acts on the other side.
So why is the world filled with such Religious Insanity? Because the Vision of God that we are given is deeply flawed, colored by the dreams, goals and ideas of men, who foist off their own flaws onto God.
Don’t feel bad; I think you work hard to earn that contempt.
The responses to this thread sounded like a debate to you? That would explain why you continually post rants in GD: you clearly have no idea what a genuine debate might be. What you got in this thread was a random selection of mildly differing views about a private action that impinges on no one. Some people thought it was OK. Some people thought it was not OK. Nearly everyone in this thread (plus your spouse who is not even participating) thought that you were demonstrating overwrought dramatics in response to finding a book in your room that you knew was there before you entered and that you could have had removed with a polite call to the desk. No genuine debate emerged.
You might consider my action contemptuous since I moved the thread to MPSIMS instead of the Pit. I would differ in that I only chose to move a small display of personal angst to the appropriate Forum. Marley simply moved the thread to the Pit when the rancor among some participants began to threaten the good order of MPSIMS. Neither action actually demonstrates contempt.
No one in this thread said that you could not ask that it be removed. Now you are whining about things that have not even occurred. (This is the sort of thing that might earn contempt–even though such contempt has not yet been displayed.)
Is having the Bible to read better or worse than reading Be My Guest for the umpteenth time?
(frequent business travelers know exactly what I mean…)
Ah, screw that - they should put Calculus books in hotel rooms. You want to put yourself to sleep, then read about the wonders of the brachistochrone problem.
Actually, a genuine debate DID emerge over various interpretations of the book of Job. But not until after the OP bowed out of the thread. Interesting, that.
This’d be the sticking point for me - i’d agree they’re different in action, but I would say they are equal in immorality. When your potential action costs you nothing, iny my book it’s just as bad. And i’d say that it’s just as possible to deliberately cause something through inaction as it is through action.
Thanks for the book link, though, Thudlow Boink. I may have to pick it up.
I’m all for the rights of same-sex couples.
I also don’t have much love for organized religion.
But seriously? I hope you’re joking. You can find damn near any kind of “hate speech” in the bible tailored to you. I seriously hope you aren’t familiar with the fact that the Gideons do this. I can’t imagine how you wouldn’t be, as they are in damn near every motel room you go to.
I’m a pretty Heavy Duty, In-Your-Face Queer - I’ve been in die-ins, demonstrations, met with politicians to fight for LGBT rights for the past 30 years… But I can honestly say I’ve never paid attention to the bible in hotel rooms.
Then again, I’m either traveling cheap a la Motel 6 while driving across the country, and am too tired to do anything but sleep, or stay at Gay Bed and Breakfasts or resorts which are probably “Gideon-free”. ( Not that I checked… )
All of this over a bible in a hotel room drawer. Honestly, someone needs to grow up. Sometimes you just have to get over it. Ya’ know how there is that saying “you can’t please all of the people all of the time”?
I am Jewish, and I am sure that the Gideon bible has says all sorts of mean stuff about Jews ('cause you know we killed Jesus). I know that the bible is there. Do I get my panties all in a twist over it? No. I don’t call and complain. I don’t whine to people about it. You know what I do? I leave it in the drawer. End. Of. Story.
As others have said, hotels/motels are private companies and they have every right to put whatever they like in their hotel nightstand drawers.
And they do make warning stickers for placing on bibles as seen here and here.
The Gideon Bible is just a regular Christian Bible (KJV). It contains the same Old and New Testaments as any other Bible. It doesn’t have any extra anti-semitic stuff.
In fact I think Valteron did have a genuine point to make. But not for the first time, even when he has a valid take, it was overwhelmed by the abrasive way he talked about it.
Smoke it. Not sure how the Gidion Bible is any different from others but from my experience the very thin paper most Bibles are usually printed on make for fairly good rolling paper if you’re out of same.
In that vein Bibles have served me well over the years – have no idea how many chapters have gone up in smoke. Of course, YMMV, as the last thing on my mind was the BS contained therein. Got through that after a couple of years in Jesuit schools with priests the couldn’t answer a straight-forward question. Just glad I met a few that were frank enough to acknowledge they didn’t really know shit either…
Like I said, I never looked at the Gideon Bibles in the hotels. I was just making a statement. However, the New Testament has anti-Semitic undertones throughout (The Gospels, sections of Acts, Mark, John, Matthew, Thessalonians and Revelations).
Oh wait, you said doesn’t contain any extra Anti-Semitism than the Regular KJVNT
