You know I never heard that before. Why can’t religious folks interpret the TRUE SIGNS of God.
Man, people like Robertson have a terrible price to pay when they reach the pearly gates. Sometimes I imagine Jesus up there in a drunken stupor, frustrated from years of seeing how his teachings have been twisted into evil, yelling down, “No you F****** morons, that is not what I meant. How the F*** did you misinterpret ‘Love one Another, Blessed are the Humble, Blessed are the Peacemakers and Turn the other Cheek’… Hey Dad, is it time for Judgment Day yet? I have been limbering up the smiting stick, I told you they were too stupid.”
I myself took it to mean extremist Christians. That is what these two nut jobs are known for. I’m confident that most Christians don’t believe that people deserve punishment in the form of natural disasters. The thread that I had about my stupid-assed cow-orker is about having this exact view. But I certainly don’t despise all Christians, only those who have irrational and extremist views and those who try to force it as the rule.
Pfft. He’s supposed to be omnipotent. He should have foreseen the consequences of showing up in a jerkwater town in the middle of nowhere before the invention of the printing press. He coulda shown up after TV and gone on Larry King – then He’d have something to whine about when He got misquoted.
And in the spirit of bi-theismship (or whatever the religious parallel is to bipartisanship), how are those fundraisers at American Atheists and Infidels.org going? Raising lots of secular money, are they?
Maybe I am still hung over, I still do not see what is being blamed on Christians. I have no beef with anybody objecting to Falwell and Robertson being called mainstream, I’m just curious where “blame” comes into it. What do you think the OP blamed on Christianity? The occasional stupidity coming from Falwell and/or Robertson’s mouths?
I haven’t opened any recently that I can recall, so I can only speculate on the motives of others. Perhaps it’s because quite a lot of Christians are judgemental towards others? Or maybe because they hold beliefs that others may find improbable and bizarre? Or maybe they fear Christian beliefs are being improperly influential in government and law? You’'ll have to ask the actual folks who open these threads their reasons, I can only guess.
After Falwell’s comments on 9/11 and Robertson agreeing with him, it doesn’t seem like a far stretch to wonder if they had said something equally stupid about the tsunami. And asking in the BBQ pit is just efficient, saving a mod a bit of work later.
I fail to see how it’s unfair to simply ask if one of them had made a new comment similar to a previous comment that nobody disputes was made.
While it may never be anybodys intention to insult one by sex, race or creed. If it’s mentioned, it’s best just to put it in The Pit, or Great Debates. It’ll always end up there anyways.
I think it’s closer to “I’m going to Pit someone not for what they’ve actually done, but for what I imagine they could or might do, seeing as how they’ve done it on several occasions beforehand.”
Polycarp, thanks for the correction - it’s damn hard to keep track of which one is which.
FWIW, I took the word “mainstream” in the OP to be sarcastic. While their brand of hatred may be sadly widespread in the US, it’s still in the minority.
Your powerful rolling-eyes smiley has caused me to completely change my mind and agree with you 100 percent, and I throw myself at your feet and beg you for mercy for ever doubting your wisdom!
Thank you for pointing that out. Operation Blessing has done much more good work than either of those organizations and I apologize for lumping them together.
Secular organizations have always been eligible for federal grants for charitable purposes. Now they may, if they choose, include some specifically secular elements in their programs (things like “God doesn’t exist and praying to Him isn’t going to help you – you’ll have to do things for yourself”) and as an atheist I’d encourage them to do so. You know, if they had charitable arms.
I’ve been busy today, and I’m just now getting back to the thread I started. Many people have posted. Some have guessed at my motivation for starting the thread. Most of the speculation was misguided. (It was all over the map, so a lot of it had to be off-target.) Although my OP was pretty tame, I knew that the controversy surrounding Mr. Falwell and Mr. Robertson would soon land the thread in The Pit. No matter where it started, some mod would have told me I should have started it in the The BBQ Pit. I called the two clergymen “mainstream” because that’s the official position of the ruling party. Ask any congressman of the majority party, and he’ll tell you that Mr. Robertson and Mr. Falwell are mainstream preachers. They would not dare to say otherwise.
Some posters have filled us in on these fellows’ remarks about the Florida hurricanes smiting the Sodomite Disneyans and the 9-11-01 massacres being God’s answer to America’s sins. They didn’t mention the announcement by one of them that a hurricane had missed the preacher’s headquarters due to his prayers.
I asked what those two distinguished gentlemen said about the disaster because I don’t like them, and I don’t want to personally read any more of their twaddle than I have to. I expected them to say something imprudent about God smiting the infidels. If they didn’t, good for them.
Brutus, I don’t think that people are specifically attacking Christians. It’s more that ignorant blowhards such as Falwell and Robertson are made more obnoxious by their propensity to claim that God gives them the right to behave like jackasses.
It’s difficult to separate these buffoons from their religion, since they cling to the trappings of it so tenaciously.
There are countless Christians who are not publicly lambasted, simply because they have not earned said lambasting.
People from all walks of life and all faith backgrounds (including no faith) are giving generously to help those hurt.
Is this to become one upmanship–which religion is more giving? I am a Christian, who chose to give through a secular organization–BECAUSE I didn’t want any chance of evangelizing, preaching, converting or backslapping on the part of my religion towards those who are suffering.
I doubt that Falwell or Robertson will come out about the Wrath of God towards the heathen right now–it’s too big a story and disaster. I wouldn’t be surprised if in future sermons, they refer to it as a Judgement, though. That’s the way they think.
