jlzania,
I don’t post here often (this thread being an exception).
You and anyone else may e mail me at missingsocks33@yahoo.com
Thanks for the prayers!
Vanilla,
You don’t know me, I’m more of a lurker than a poster. Like Eve, this change in your posting has blind sided me. Such…well, it almost seems as if you’re trying to be insulting in some of your posts to others in this thread… 
I’m at a loss.
Though I struggle with my faith, I wish you peace and love. I have seen some wonderful and inspiring acts/messages of Christianity AND Humanity here.
The good old days…
I can thank Vanilla for reinforcing the truth that nice Christians are just good folks by nature and that this “becoming a new creature in Christ” is just a myth. Seeing that there are just as many good folks and downright jerks who claim to be Christian as there are secular, it’s clear that there is no supernatural agency that makes all Christians virtuous.
If I had ever given any thought to theism, Vanilla has helped cure me of it. Thanks again for helping me see the light!
You had gospels? :eek: All we had were parables, and the SDMB got annoyed.
Eddy,
you had parables?
We only had one bull!
You had a bull? All we had was a fatted calf, and Dad slaughtered it!
E-mail me. And anyone else.
vanilla, don’t worry, I won’t interrupt your little board. I just wanted to see it for myself.
All I can say is that I’ve always liked you. I always counted you as a friend. And to see you like this, DOES make me worry. I’m hurt, but I’m more concerned than hurt.
If you were only pretending in the past, because you wanted us to like you, I’m very sorry for that.
you had a fatted calf?
All we had was an otter, and he was on a diet!
Well told, Gobear. There is certainly nothing here that I (or any of the christians in this thread) want to emulate. It’s the story of the wolf in sheep’s clothing; the old switcheroo. I try to evaluate people on their individual merits, but I’ve gotta say…a red flag goes up every time someone tells me they’re a Christian. Because of people like Vanilla.
Yeah, I thought that, too, and I was really hoping that’s the case. But it’s been a couple of days now, and I’m pretty sure it’s really her. Sad though that is.
What’s most sad is that she doesn’t bother to respond to the sensible posters (like DDG and Aries28 and others) who take the time to write a long, involved and thoughtful post with anything but a tossed-off line about hate and the gospel.
From what I’m observing, it seems some of her fellow “true Christians” have been giving her guilt trips about her stance here, that she’s not a true sister in Christ.
Because she allowed them to be treated like shit. Though they treat everyone else the same way, it’s okay, because they’re Christians. And because they’re Christians, she should stick with them, not want to be popular.
vanilla, if you need to talk, I’m willing to listen.
You had an otter? All we had was a groundhog, and he ate all our peonies.
It fascinates me that hard-core Christians are so worried about watered down Gospels but never poisoned ones.
Yep, just like those Al Queda types hate us for our freedoms. Not because we prop up corrupt dictatorships in their homelands or anything. Yep, our freedoms, that’s the bee in their bonnet.
Enjoy,
Steven
Well, now she’s all hardy-har-har cuttin’ up with people and totally ignoring her own fucking post. :wally
I gotta say, I find it odd that people are flaming vanilla for believing what is clearly stated in the Bible, and implying she is less tolerant that other Christians.
According to the Bible, Jesus said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through me.” (John 14:6)
Are there really a lot of Christians who ignore that particular verse? I always thought it was pretty central to Christian thought. Is it really so easily dismissed by those who call themselves Christians?
I would not have even thought it possible for a person to call themelves a Christian, while ignoring the words of Christ Himself.
I would welcome some elaboration on this subject.
Happy to oblige.
There’s a difference between:
-
Me privately thinking, “Revtim [or whoever] is going to Hell because he doesn’t believe in Jesus”.
-
Me thinking, “Revtim [or whoever] is going to Hell because he doesn’t believe in Jesus. I’d better tell him about Jesus.” And me making friends with Revtim [or whoever] and showing him by word and deed what a difference Jesus makes in my life, and when the time seems right, and the conversational opening presents itself, me explaining to Revtim [or whoever] that he, too, can have what I have, if he will only accept Jesus as his personal savior.
-
Me thinking, “Revtim [or whoever] is going to Hell because he doesn’t believe in Jesus”, and then posting, “Revtim [or whoever] is going to Hell”, loudly and judgementally, in the middle of a thread on a public Internet message board, along with a smug and self-congratulatory pat on my own back for having had the good judgement to already have accepted Jesus as my personal savior, thus entitling myself to (a) spend eternity in Heaven, not Hell, and (b) pass judgement on all the other stupes who haven’t Seen The Light yet.
It’s possible to believe that someone is going to Hell without being crudely judgemental or loudly overt about it. The verse that sez, “all of y’all who don’t believe in Jesus are going to Hell” is there, yes, but it’s possible to ignore it for the sake of civilized conversation with someone who doesn’t happen to believe it, and bludgeoning him over the head with the fact of the verse’s existence is IMO not civilized behavior. One’s acquaintances of the Muslim faith do not ordinarily bludgeon one over the head during every conversation with fact that one is not a Muslim. One is an adult who understands that not everybody out there happens to believe the same things that one believes, and one is content to let it lay.
Yeah, I suppose it counts as “ignoring the words of Christ”, but then, Christ himself was prepared to “let it lay” occasionally for the sake of seeking and saving the lost. He sat down to meals with all kinds of sinners, and the Bible doesn’t record that He preached at them incessantly during dinner about the fact that if they didn’t believe in Him, they were all gonna burn in Hell forever. If He had, they wouldn’t have invited Him back, that’s fer damn sure.
But did vanilla do that? That seems to be reading quite a lot into a sig that says “Jesus is the only way to Heaven. All other ways are wrong.”
Or was it other posts vanilla in this monster of thread that I missed that could be contrued as having the tone of a “smug and self-congratulatory pat on my own back”? I certainly may have missed them.
DDG is right in that vanilla is now basically getting off on her own righteous martyrdom. Hey, isn’t masturbation a sin too? I guess if we help her, she can pretend she isn’t doing it herself.
I don’t have love towards all Christians. (Though I do have enough respect for them to press down on the SHIFT key for a millisecond so I can spell their name correctly.) I love and respect those Christians (or other religious types) who are compassionate, generous of spirit, humble and smart enough to understand the doctrine they espouse.
I have CONTEMPT for those who throw stones despite their Savior’s own teachings*, who proselytize and dismiss others’ beliefs, and those who are staggeringly ignorant of their own government (remember way back, when this was ON TOPIC, and you laughed at the thought that Bush could take away women’s right to choose abortion?).
“Gods’ word”? You’re polytheistic now?
But you said yourself all sin is a-okay. All you have to do is say “oops, I get it, it’s wrong now! Jesus died for me, woohoo, I’m clean!” and you’re as good as anyone who never committed the sin in the first place.
I’m an agnostic. I don’t know if there is or isn’t a Supreme Being. But I do know that I wouldn’t believe in one who lets people act any ol’ way they want to as long as they later wave their hands and say “Jesus Loves Me” at every opportunity.
To villa – I agree that it’s certainly someone’s prerogative to feel sorrow for sins they’ve committed, and they’re not necessarily being hypocritical. But that’s not even what vanilla here is doing. Under the guise of being repentant she still tried to excuse her decision to abort her child, saying basically “I suppose some would say there were very good reasons for me to have the abortion…”
Pretty clever of her, trying to draw out the sympathy of a bunch of folks waaay more compassionate than she is, while proclaiming how wrooooong and sad and repentent she is. And simultaneously ignoring everyone ELSE’s good reasons for having abortions.
You see, to our dear put-upon martyr vanilla, other women only want abortions because they’re out wantonly spreading their legs, carelessly allowing themselves to be raped (or “being taken advantage of by men” as she calls it), and irresponsibly using abortion in lieu of birth control blah blah blah PUKE.
And RevTim, as I and many others have said before – yes, Jesus and God may judge sin and sinners according to their doctrines. Fine, Jesus apparently says He’s “the way.” Well, you know what? Jesus is Jesus, and He gets to make comments like that. Being, y’know, God and all. I’ll put up with ego-centricism in return for getting the Christmas and Easter holidays off.
However, unless there’s some actual proof that vanilla is He Who will allegedly rise – I dunno, maybe she could poke out a couple of stigmata or somethin’, or try on the Shroud of Turin to see if it fits – it is not her place to “warn” or judge anyone. Jesus HIMSELF told her and her holier-than-thou ilk to shut the hell up and leave the judging to Him.
At least four people have reminded her of the words out of Jesus’ own mouth: LET HE WHO IS WITHOUT SINS CAST THE FIRST STONE. She has yet to comment on what Jesus meant by that.
How can anyone as pious as she be filled with such hubris that she’ll ignore her Savior’s own teaching?
I know you’re trying to be sarcastic, but isn’t this exactly what you’re saying? By your own admission, and according to your own belief systems, you murdered a child. And yet, despite commiting this most heinous and inexcusable of acts, you still expect to go to heaven. Is that not the “acceptance of any and all sins”? Where, exactly, is the consequence to your sin? Where is the judgement?