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moakley
SFN Regular
USA
1888 Posts |
 Posted - 11/14/2007 : 05:32:45
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Worship the same God, in much the same way, but open your arms to those who live their lives differently. Well that's another story.
Delegates to the annual meeting of the N.C. Baptist State Convention voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to expel Charlotte's Myers Park Baptist for welcoming gays and lesbians without trying to change them.
The liberal church of 1,970 members became the first to be kicked out under rules passed at last year's meeting that said any Baptist church that affirmed or endorsed homosexual behavior would be considered "not in friendly cooperation with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina."
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Life is good
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -Anonymous |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 11/14/2007 : 11:01:56 [Permalink]
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One thing I noticed in reading the entries on Baptists in Wiki is how cannibalistic that huge sect is. All through their history, the Baptists have been fighting not only the sinful world in general, but -- their particular specialty -- other Baptists. It's a religion where "holier than thou" seems to be the key point of doctrine. The Southern Baptists split from other Baptists because they saw slavery as holier. The SBC itself has repeatedly been taken over by more and more bigoted and conservative forces, with wave after wave of slightly more moderate groups being expelled or leaving in disgust.
Dembski's spat with Baylor University is rooted in Baylor being run by slightly more moderate Baptists than dominate the SBC and his present school, the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
The Baptists, in general, are a nasty, infighting bunch. It probably comes from their extreme Calvinism, which contains the self-righteous idea that there is only a small number of pre-chosen "elect" that will get into Heaven, and that those blessed few are "once saved, always saved."
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 11/14/2007 11:08:38 |
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 11/14/2007 : 11:10:45 [Permalink]
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As I understand it, Christians are called upon to live by the Word of God, to spread that Word far and wide, and to accept everyone with generosity and compassion regardless of their lifestyle and whether they accept the Word or not. And that's pretty much it. Do that and Heaven Awaits.
God seems to be all about Free Will. That's what Faith is about. God knows if He revealed Himself in no uncertain terms to humanity, then humanity would obey whatever He demanded. But God wants us to choose to be good and loving citizens of the universe. He wants us to behave well from our hearts, motivated by love, compassion, and understanding; not just blind, fearful obedience. So God only reveals Himself an uncertain little bit and charges the lucky few to spread that revelation to those who weren't there to witness it.
So goes the only reasonable explanation for Faith I've ever heard.
If this is true, then to seek to make Jesus' and the rest of the Bible's teachings into law is to directly oppose God's will. Anyone who supports legal bans on abortion or gay marriage is committing a greivous sin of Pride; they dare take away freedom that God Himself wishes preserved.
Right, so the wise-ass has to say: "well then murder and stealing should be legal by that logic." Not so! Such restrictions are fundamental to any kind of workable society, for the most part. I suppose you could say that the practice of honor killing is socially acceptable murder, but it isn't the same as carte blanche kill as you see fit. Imagine trying to maintain some kind of social order in a city where murder and theft were legal; fundamentally impossible.
But practices like gay marriage, divorce, abortion, adultery, birth control, and whatever else are not key to maintaining a civilization. You can have all these and have a thriving, safe, benign, rich and wonderful society. Indeed this fact has been demonstrated all over the world. So the only reasoning to make them illegal is culturally based - to comply with some moral code, like those found in the bible. And if that's the sole source of the restriction, then God Himself has allowed people to choose, else there would be no Mystery of Faith.
And it makes sense too - how can you be Judged good or bad if you've never been given the opportunity to choose between the two? How can you understand the difference between right and wrong if right is meticulously enforced in some draconian police state? So to all the anti-gay and anti-abortion activists out there: Congratulations! You've pissed off God and He may be warming up a special place in Hell just for you! |
-Chaloobi
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 11/14/2007 : 14:24:43 [Permalink]
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My favorite Baptist joke:I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said "Stop! don't do it!"
"Why shouldn't I?" he said.
I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!"
He said, "Like what?"
I said, "Well...are you religious or atheist?"
He said, "Religious."
I said, "Me too! Are you christian or buddhist?"
He said, "Christian."
I said, "Me too! Are you catholic or protestant?"
He said, "Protestant."
I said, "Me too! Are you episcopalian or baptist?"
He said, "Baptist!"
I said,"Wow! Me too! Are you baptist church of god or baptist church of the lord?"
He said, "Baptist church of god!"
I said, "Me too! Are you original baptist church of god, or are you reformed baptist church of god?"
He said,"Reformed Baptist church of god!"
I said, "Me too! Are you reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1879, or reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1915?"
He said, "Reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1915!"
I said, "Die, heretic scum", and pushed him off.
— Emo Phillips |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 11/15/2007 : 09:04:13 [Permalink]
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| Yeah, the SBC is almost entirly focused on Revalations and Satan/damnation, you would be hard pressed to hear a sermon on the Golden rule in a Southern Baptist church. Their selective reading habits are nearly unmatched, they are far more militant in their views than the vast majority of other Christian sects, leading them to focus on our way or the highway type preaching. They also are notorious for reading into the Bible to find passages which fit their view of the topic of the moment, such as abortion/homosexuality and ignoring the passages which refute their positions. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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Hate the sin. Hate the sinner.
