Yeah c’mon people. This thread is about loving and accepting one another. I personally like this idea of heaven. Where all those who accept others are accepted and all those that don’t are refused. Tris was just telling us a story about what heaven should be like. But now its turned into yet another religous debate. Now just stop and spread some love you sinners. 
Well, Triskadecamus, I’m glad I finally told you then. I probably should have said something sooner. Even when I was going through my “I hate all believers” phase last year, I still looked forward to your posts about religion and God. You’ve never said anything that’s made me have anything except respect, admiration, and appreciation for you.
Ok, sorry for hijacking the Pit thread with a lovefest. I’m sure it probably offended a few of you…what with the love and all.
I think I understand why this is true, and I feel very guilty as a result. It’s because Tris shows God’s love whenever he speaks to the subject of God, one’s faith, one’s religion, etc. His posts are so clearly the product of a loving spirit that it has the effect it had on you, plg.
I confess that my argumentativeness and desire to show people what’s right about my POV have failed to do what Tris does – and what He does what my Lord commanded us Jesus followers to do – and said that that is how people would know Him to be whom He claimed to be.
I know the amount of Christian love of which several major participants in this thread are capable – Lib, Edlyn, CJ, Joe Cool, & Jersey Diamond being particular examples. And it grieves me that what we’re exhibiting to the world – and I include myself in that mix – is akin to a bunch of fourth graders attempting to argue about who’s right.
I’m going to ask the Christians reading this thread to join me in a prayer, adapted from the Anglican tradition but, I think, suitable to any and all of us:
I posted a message here, just a while ago, which the hamster, in his infinite wisdom decided should go to the bit bin. I am very glad he did. God bless you, you little rodent.
Poly
The fact is that there is nothing particularly special about me, aside from a moderate facility with words, and a good text editor. The love you notice is all the Lord’s. I do have to remind myself to reread my posts and direct the words to the Lord Himself, if I am speaking of Him. That’s where the text editor comes in handy. Delete is a very good function.
So, I speak what passion demands, and delete what love requires. What is left is how my faith makes me feel. This thread has been a mistake. I should never have put it in the pit, and never have named it what I did. I was being clever. Clever is not often a good expression of Christian faith, in my experience. Clever is being me. And believe me, no one wants to be a Triskadecamarian. It’s been done. I am absolutely stunned that the Lord wanted one of me. I am sure he doesn’t need another one.
But to all my very beloved Dopers, I want you to know that I love you, as does my Lord Jesus, although probably not for the same reasons.
Tris
MODS, please close this thread, it was a mistake. I am sorry.
It wasn’t a mistake, Trisk. I, for one, enjoyed you OP, and got much from it.
Please don’t be discouraged. 
Triskadecamus, please do not ask the mods to close this thread. Your OP was beautiful, and, I would argue, necessary. Yes, a certain amount of darkness has crept into this thread, but that darkness is what we are called to fight. If it were not for Christians like you, as pepperland girl has already told you, some people would continue to think of Christians as “stuck up, arrogant, holier-than-thou prigs,” if I can quote myself.
There’s a joke I heard sometime ago about how, after Gandhi died, he was shown around heaven. He saw people of all races and religions wandering about happy and content, heard a jam session with Bach, Mozart, and Duke Ellington, and was told that Jesus and Buddha couldn’t wait to talk to him. While he was getting the grand tour, however, he noticed a group of people sitting on a hill while walls shimmered about them. “Who are they?” he asked. “Oh,” said St. Peter, “those are the Christians. They think they’re the only ones here.”
I know, I know. Some people I’m sure will accuse me of blasphemy. Quite frankly, at this point, I don’t care. I’m tired of people who drive others away from Christianity. I sometimes think they think Christianity should be a country club to which only people like them can belong. They agree that tax collectors and prostitutes became followers of Christ, but they also claim that they left all such attributes behind. An oddball non-Christian, or even this odd-ball Christian could hear that as “Once you become a Christian, you become just like every other Christian and lose that which makes you unique and special.” Stepford Christians, anyone?
Good luck, and don’t give up, my friend. We need you, badly.
CJ
Triskadecamus, I’m an athiest and I appreciated the ideals behind your OP. Posts such as yours (and Polycarp and cjhoworth, among others) remind me to be tolerant of religious believers because some of them are good, kind, loving people.
Joe_Cool, Jersey Diamond, and His4Ever, however, remind me of why I’m generally hostile towards religion and hope to see its influence gradually disappear from the face of the earth.
If I may quote one of my favorite brilliant minds:
“If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.”
~Albert Einstein
IANA Bible scholar, but I would have thought that this…
…was effectively negated by the parable of the Good Samaritan, in that Jesus clearly indicates that those who left the poor unfortunate traveller in the ditch in order to avoid soiling themselves were not acting as God wished.
But then, from the Bible’s point of view, we’re all sinners in one way or another (“For all have sinned and fallen short yadda yadda yadda”), so arguing degrees of unworthiness seems to me to be missing the point. It also seems to be missing the point of the parable (if I can get through the crowd around this dead horse and take a few whacks myself), which (IMHO) is not whether or not Heaven is for “faggots, Jews, drunks, etc.”, but whether it is for those who abandon those in need for their own selfish ends. I seem to recall that Jesus was kinda big on compassion.
And finally, to repeat a phrase I heard somewhere or other: Jesus only guaranteed a place in Heaven to one person – and he was a convicted criminal. Something to think about.
Jesus, too, was a convicted criminal. More food for thought.
Tris, I read the OP and copied and pasted it into my small file of Tris stories (you don’t mind, do you?). Today, I read the rest of the thread. Now I am going to completely forget the rest of the thread, both what I agree and disagree with, and just remember the OP.
It wasn’t a mistake. And thanks.
I’d also like to say thanks to Tris for posting the OP. I wish there were more Christians like you (and Poly, Lib, Jar, Masonite etc.)
My sister joined a church a few years ago, and I was worried she was going to turn into one of “those” Christians. You’ve helped me realize you’re not all like that, and reminded me what Jesus’ true message was. I’ll never be a believer, but I will always admire him and what he stood for. Thanks to you all.
“If the majority of Christians were like Poly and Tris, I wouldn’t mind being one.”-fizzzzzy (she’s been drinking a lot of soda lately)
Hoping I get this in before (if? One can hope they do not) this thread gets closed:
Poly, you exhibit one aspect of God’s love. Tris exhibits another kind, or he exhibits it in a different way, or something (I happen to think that the idea that God has a finite number of ways in which he can love is rather silly. Just because we only have X words for it doesn’t mean there aren’t more). Neither of you is going to do exactly as God wants all the time because of this little bug in v. 1.0 of Human Being: “imperfection”. But what if I told you that I’ve thought to myself (though I never really felt any sort of calling to say it here, or I don’t remember doing so) “Polycarp is one of the few Christians on here who gives me hope for the rest of them.”
There’s a whole lot of bad in this world, and even on this board of late. You, Poly, you’re a whole lot of good. You may not think it, but I promise you are.
Gladly.
Is it a miracle? 