Perhaps the parents were Jehovas Witnesses and would not allow a medical procedure be performed on their son…?
Hee
I think this analogy is so bad, it actually denigrates Christ’s sacrifice.
Think about it. Christ went willingly to the Cross. He could have split Gethsemane and, oh, moved to Tibet. He could have called down angels to rescue Him, being that He is God. He could have simply not come down from Heaven and not been incarnated as a human being in the first place.
The child in the glurge had none of these options.
I know some of these points have already been covered, but…
I am not ashamed of God and what He did for me, but I would be ashamed to send along such an inane piece of pseudoinspirational tripe.
On further reflection while performing certain excretory functions, I think that the aforementioned glurge would be quite suitable for justifying child sacrifice.
“But if you don’t let us kill your son, Demeter won’t be able to make the crops grow! Famine! Mass starvation! Everybody will starve to death, and it will be all your fault, so hand the kid over already!”
As tempting as it is to discuss it with her, I’ll have to pass. I can guess how well she’d take to it, and also how she’ll worry about me going to hell for considering the theory…
It is an interesting theory, and I’m a bit surprised I never heard of it before or even thought of it myself. Seems almost obvious.
WOOOO!
thanks for the Dean reference.
vanilla Dean
How can you celebrate? My friend’s only son died for you!
What? How?
The disease! The cure! That was him!
Never heard of it.
What? But everyone knows.
I don’t. Wasn’t on the news. No-one else’s heard of it. What happened?
[Glurge]
How’d you know this happened?
I got this email from my friend’s second cousin’s driving instructor!
And you believe this, why?
Ummm…
There are so many freacking flaws in this… I’m not christian myself, but I’m so tempted to write a good analogy in the hopes I won’t have to read this blasphemous drivel anymore. (To be fair to it it got ONE thing right - the death of the son reminds us how bad it supposedly was for God and Jesus to go through with it.)
The story that you received revtim, is the kind of tripe that creates wrong impressions of most Christians, yet infuriates all parties except for the twisted individual(s) who made the story up on behalf of all Christianity. I personally cannot find any actual similarities between the child and Christ in the story, nor would I even consider trying to improve the story because there is no comparison that would come close to the death and resurrection of Jesus. Had your mom been a little more astute with the crappy analogy and not awestruck with the name of God and Jesus tossed around in the story, she would not have sent it to you, which in turn, gets you fired up over the issue of God in the wrong light. Faith is much more than tossing around literature with the words “God” and “Jesus” in it. Example given: “Chick Tracts”.
Of course, I was looking for the disclaimer:
“Hi, I’m God, and I give approval to the email story that you are about to read.”
Since I didn’t see the disclaimer, I’d hit the <delete> button…
So do I, and I’m not a Christian at all!
My mom does the same thing.
Used to be she kept her religion to herself because she thought Dad & I would denegrate her for her beliefs. We wouldn’t have, but she didn’t know that. Recently she started going to church again, and sure enough, I’m starting to get religious glurge from her. Today I asked her not to send them anymore since they annoyed me and anyway I just deleted them without reading them. Her response?
“Live with it”.
I’m thinking I need to start sending her humanist/atheist/agnostic glurge. Anyone have links to stuff like that?
Send her Kissing Hank’s Ass.
How about this response:
"Once I met a man who had been, believe it or not, the private secretary and advisor to a king in Europe. He was good at his job and had the kings ear, but over time came to feel that things weren’t right. All day people complimented the king and all he had to do was sit back and take it in. In fact, he commanded the citizens of his country to put up his picture in every room in their homes and his billboards and posters were everywhere. The advisor felt that, without the assistance of himself and others the king wouldn’t have been as successful as he was.
The man eventually started to wonder if this king truly deserved the adoration he demanded. Finally, one day he spoke up.
“Your majesty,” he said, “I appreciate your rule as much as any man, but I have to wonder if it’s appropriate to demand so much acclaim from your people. It seems…arrogant and may one day lead to your downfall. Don’t forget, you are not solely responsible for what has happened here.”
The king was outraged. “How dare you! This is my country, and I shall decide how the people are to behave! If they…if you can’t follow one simple command and show me the proper subservience, you shall be banished.”
The next day the advisor found his belongings outside his office and officers waiting to escort him to the border.
As I listened to the man tell his story I realized what I was hearing and how unfairly the man was treated.
His name? Lets just call him…Stan. Stan Lucfer.
Okay, it’s written quickly without any rewriting, but what the heck. 
[reverential tone]Oh, gobear, that’s lovely.[/reverential tone]
It ought to annoy her just as much as the thing she sent to me today that annoyed me into (finally) saying something instead of just silently deleting it.
The story she sent me today was called “Happy Easter”, wherein Edith Burns Saves the Souls of Many Women as She Lies Dying in the Hospital With Her Big Black Bible on Her Lap By Explaining What Easter IS and What It MEANS. The treacle is thick enough to walk on without sinking so much as a hair’s depth.
Now, if I could just find something like Kissing Hank’s Ass that was equally treacly to “Happy Easter” . . .
…Human sacrifices, dogs and cats living together, MASS HYSTERIA! 
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
Ursula Le Guin
My Mother did the same thing, up to and including saying “Live with it” when I asked her to stop sending things to my work address. (I don’t have any other ones).
It stopped when I sent this reply to her. Just a reply, nothing fancy since she barely understands Email anyway:
>>MAILER-DAEMON VIOLATION
This Email does not comply with Microsoft Corporation’s Religious Policy Standards and has been Deleted. Continued Emails with similar subject matter in violation of this Policy can lead to termination of this account.<<
It took one phone call beyond that with me explaining the company’s no tolerance “religious policy” and her tossing out a few “well I think that’s TERRIBLE” comments and I never got any more glurge.
[QUOTE=Sublight]
… Therefore, it’s actually Judas who made the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, since without his betrayal, Jesus never would have died on the cross.
…QUOTE]
Good point!
(Leon Rosselson)
http://mysongbook.de/msb/songs/s/standupf.html
Sublight, could I get a cite on that? Not that I don’t believe you, but I love Borges and I’d like to track down this story/essay.
I was interested enough to track it down myself: “Three Versions of Judas” by Jorge Luis Borges.
Sweet! Thanks, Revtim!
It’s one of his short stories (“Three Versions of Judas,” I think), included in the collection Labyrinths.