I’m as pro-choice as they come (well, close at least) but I don’t think that having had an abortion is ncessarily inconsistent with thinking abortion is wrong, or even supporting its criminalization. The person who has had the abortion who rails against it as baby-killing is just as incorrect, not more so, than a person who has not had the procedure, and holds the same beliefs. I’m pretty sure we all have things in our past that we did, but which we would would not now do, recognize as wrong, and indeed would seek to prevent others (or at least discourage them from) doing. That doesn’t necessarily make us hypocrites. To oppose abortions vocally, and then to actual have one because one’s own situation was somehow different, would be hypocritical. To believe something now despite having acted differently in the past is not.
Ah I feel the love towards all christians.
Thanks for proving that if you actually stand up for Gods’ word (and not saying God condemns no one; all sin is a- okay) you get viciously flamed.
I bow to you.
Please also show me wher ei said or even implied I felt superior to anyone. Doubt you can, cause I don’t and never have.
This is proof right here that unless you water down the gospel this board HATES you.
Though I doubt anyone will even understand that.
What? No we just hate you cause youre a bigot(no proof of that either)
Seige, nah, you’d never do anything to be popular, this board loves watered down gospels.
Thats why.
. . . Notice vanilla is completely ignoring the posters in this thread who have said they’re worried about her, is anything wrong?, do you want to talk . . . Those of us who feel hurt and betrayed by her about-face (“I was only pretending to like you”) are owed an apology, I think.
1 Corinthians 13:1 - If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
Go away noisy gong. You don’t come across as speaking to anyone here in the spirit of love. You come across as condemning (which as others have pointed out is not your place to do). You come across as a clanging cymbal…nothing but noise.
You dishonor the God you claim to serve by belittling and judging those he loves…ALL those he loves.
You cannot possibly see the speck in other’s eyes because of the beam in your own.
This board and its members do not hate those who are religious or hold to any belief system. It hates and mocks those who hide their own hatred and agenda of superiority behind a facade of religion.
Where did anyone get the idea I was pretending to like anyone?
I don’t see it.
I still like the same people I always have, and that inlcudes Eve (and the wonderful Homebrew who has e mailed me).
Go figure.
Well, how’d you like that backhanded dismissal she gave you, huh? Gosh, Siege – you better stop watering down those Gospels before you unleash another Flood on us all. 
Aries28 has got it right. Going… going… GONG!
In damn near every one of your posts. Any time you tell someone what a sin is (particularly those of us who don’t buy into the whole sin/guilt thing). Any time you threaten someone with going to hell (as if god were coaching you through your entire schpiel). Any time you say abortion is wrong you’re taking a superior attitude. Which is really fucked up, since you had one yourself.
You’ve marginalized your so-called friends here. You’ve taken it upon yourself to strike down your fellow believers, supposedly using god’s lightning.
And you can’t type worth a fuck.
Light begins to dawn. I think.
Here’s a possible explanation for what’s really going on here, folks. It’s a two-parter.
Part A:
Vanilla, geez, how many times have you been to see this? Be honest now.
Part B:
My guess is going to be that it’s Spring Missions Revival Season, which this year has been strongly tied in with the release of Mel Gibson’s little flick. All across this great nation, for the last two months, revivalists, spurred on by greater public validation and acceptance than they’ve ever received before, have been traveling around, spending a week at this church, a week at that church, exhorting the membership to get off their butts and go out and Save Souls. This is a traditional springtime ritual for many denominations, even without the added fillip of a blockbuster movie release to add impetus to it.
So I’d guess that sometime in the last week, Vanilla, after having seen The Passion “X” number of times since the end of February, and after sitting through a lengthy and fiery sermon on “Brighten the corner where you are!”, went down for a “rededicate your life to Christ!” altar call, and that she then and there resolved to make the SDMB her “own personal mission”. Thus the gloves are off, SDMB-wise, and she’s going to “tell it like it is”, because there is Eternal Punishment Promised For The Christian Who Does Not Extend The Hand Of Salvation To The Drowning Sinner, The Eternal Punishment Of Guilt!, Knowing That Those Souls Could Have Been Saved, If Only YOU Had Cared Enough To Preach The Gospel To Your Neighbor!! Now, You May Ask Me, “Who Is My Neighbor?!”…
And the story of the Good Samaritan follows. It’s in the script.
Anyway, she’s worried that she’s going to, not burn in Hell, because you don’t go to Hell for “not telling people about Jesus”, but rather have her time in Heaven ruined, simply ruined, by feeling guilty throughout Eternity that she didn’t Extend The Hand Of Salvation To The Drowning Sinners Of The Straight Dope Message Board.
Vanilla, I see where you’re coming from, but what you’re missing is that you don’t bring people to Jesus by shouting at them and pointing your finger at them and telling them they’re gonna burn in Hell (forever!) unless they repent. It doesn’t work like that. For starters, you don’t know any of these people in real life (do you?), or at least very few, so you can have no idea of what’s going on in their lives, or how the Holy Spirit might be working in them. You can’t save people over the phone, and you can’t save people on the Internet. You can only lead people to Jesus one-on-one, in close personal contact. Preachin’ at 'em long-distance never, ever works.
What preachin’ and finger-waggin’ does accomplish, though, is that it alienates people. And they’re not gonna listen to you if they’re feeling alienated. It’s possible to have a completely civilized conversation with a person who you personally feel is a flaming sinner, without feeling obligated to point out to him, at every opportunity, that he’s a flaming sinner. Because if that’s how you’re gonna run the conversation, then he’s basically gonna tune out everything you say, including the Gospel message.
And–the dogma that says that “as long as they hear the gospel preached, it counts as a potential ‘save’, and you’re off the hook, because at least you told them, and if they chose to turn their backs on the gospel, that’s their lookout, if they wanna burn in Hell forever, it’s not your problem because you told them about Jesus”, well, that’s just not valid here. Merely reading a tract–or having someone on the Internet merely tell you that “Jesus died for your sins”–doesn’t count as “hearing the gospel”, no matter what the tract-hander-outers may think. “Sharing the gospel” with someone means you have to sit down with them and go over it slowly and carefully, making sure they understand it. And if you’ve done that and they still won’t accept Jesus, then you’re off the hook, you did your best.
But simply telling people on an Internet message board, “You’re going to Hell if you don’t accept Jesus” doesn’t count as “spreading the Gospel”. It’s not even up to the level of leaving tracts in the bathroom at the mall, because at least someone could possibly take that tract home with her and maybe it could spark some questions in her mind. But hollering at people here at the SDMB that they’re all goin’ to Hell isn’t going to accomplish anything except make them hit that Back button mighty fast, and as Eve pointed out, you’re making the rest of us LOOK BAD.
So cut it out, eh?
This appeared while I was composing my post:
It goes without saying that an essential component of the mission field is the ever-present possibility of martyrdom. :rolleyes:
I think we’re done here, folks. Vanilla has obviously decided to martyr herself on the SDMB mission field, and I think we should get out of her way and let her get on with it, since it seems to make her happy.
I would like to point out, although it’s been mentioned before, that not all of us Christians are like Vanilla. Many of us are perfectly capable of having civilized adult conversations with people we personally feel are flaming sinners without necessarily feeling obligated to point out this fact to them, constantly.
Just a cult huh? Well according tothis Christianity could also be described as a cult.
Listen, Jesus preached a message of love and forgiveness. He said to love one another and be decent to each other. You aren’t being very loving. Infact you are being very judgemental. It isn’t about whose beliefs are right or wrong it’s about being a good person. I suggest you actually listen to the man you supposedly worship and start acting Christlike.
Luke 6:37 - “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven”
Romans 2:1 - “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, whoever you are, when you judge another; for in passing judgment upon him you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things”
Romans 2:3 - “Do you suppose, O man, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God?”
I really do try to stay out of any religious type debates or flames. I try to be courtesy and just bite my lip and move on. But when somebody claims to be a Christian then goes around making those of us who are sincere look bad it just pisses me the fuck right off.
And–
Now that it’s obvious that “intentional martyrdom” is what’s going on here, I would like to point out that every one of you who posts a “Fuck You!” or some other “you are a terrible person and I hate you!” type of thing, are just catering to her need for martyrdom, to her need to reinforce in her mind the idea that ya’ll are just picking on her, and that she’s the Good Guy and ya’ll are collectively the Bad Guys. She’s having a good time feeling sorry for herself, she’s suffering for Jesus, “Jesus died for me, so now I can ‘die’ for Him.” That’s exactly what’s going on here.
In other words…guys, you’re feeding her.
I’m not saying Vanilla’s a troll, but c’mon, y’all, what do we normally do when people come into the Pit and beg for attention like this? Do we oblige them? Or do we shrug and hit the Back button?
So I’d strongly suggest that from here on, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all, or else this puppy will be up to 10 pages by tomorrow afternoon–and Vanilla will have had this behavior reinforced permanently. She will have gotten lots and lots of wonderful attention, and she’ll be in permanent martyr mode from now on, not that I care personally who climbs up on what cross and what brand of nails they use, but this “feed me!” exercise is taking up valuable space on Page 1.
Remember, this started as a rather lame rant about Whoopi Goldberg and Cybill Shepherd, which should have gone to barely one page IMO, not as the “It’s All About Vanilla” thread.
Ah, thanks, DDG. Your deductions about what’s gotten into vanilla make sense. One can only hope that the missionary fervor will burn itself out before she fries herself here.
Hey, Christians like you are 
with me. Hmmmm… think a Flaming Sinner might come in handy for toasting marshmallows? 
Tsk, tsk – such language! You’re gonna fry fry FRY!!! 
Back to DDG: Okay, so we knock off feeding the martyr. What next? Hmmmm… I’ve got it!
You had crosses? :eek: All we had were coatracks, and the hooks weren’t even pointy.
Feh, everybody knows Catholics aren’t real Christians and are gonna burn. Don’t you ever read Chick tracts.
True story. Before I started posting here I had never ever heard of Fred Phelps or Jack Chick.
vanilla, although you’ve never actually bothered to reply to any of my posts (and yes, I knw I’m not one of the cool popular posters) I just wanted you to know that I don’t hate you and I’ll include you in my prayers tonight.
I think you’re being very foolish but I’ll gladly forgive you your trespasses in the name of the God we both worship.
May God bless and keep you vanilla
Well… I think you’re cool. 
So…back to the movie stars. I see nothing wrong with using celebrity to promote a political cause. Shit. Half the politicians ARE celebrities. If it brings attention to your cause, use those famous faces!
This is insane. Anyone think that maybe a totally different person got a hold of her computer? This an almost complete turn around. I remember posts by Vanilla being easy to read, and usually correctly formatted, with none of the nutty syntax we see here.
But I could be wrong, and I don’t have time for a search.
Vanilla, people thought you were their friends. They once knew a kind and caring example of what a Christian should be. You have turned your back on that. And you have hurt a lot of people in the process. Now, if you were half the woman you claim you are, you would think long and hard about that. You. Hurt. Your. Friends. And made them beleive you were never their friend. Now try to do the right thing.
p.s. I know I don’t know you very well, I’m trying to say what others have tried to bring to your attention.
Duck Duck Goose
I wish I could make you happy by saying you are correct but
1.I’ve never seen The Passion.
- haven’t seen a traveling or stationary missionary or revivalist in years.
Sorry.
Yes, this rant started about celebrites screaming about christians being stupid.
But it has evolved simply because of my point; tell the gospel and the sdmb hates it.