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To: Ingtar; Conservative Vermont Vet
I’ve lived in the South and can answer your question, at the risk of being flamed. This is the Bible belt, where a man can be forgiven for cheating on his wife, but never trusted to be alone with your own wife. According to the exit polls I saw, Santorum beat Newt among Evangelicals and the TEA Party, especially in Alabama.

That reminds me of something a pastor told me many years ago during a time I was in Oklahoma. He said (and I am paraphrasing since it was almost a decade ago) that someone in the congregation can stand up during altar call, and go up and confess of how he used to use heroin/cocaine/meth. How he was a major alcoholic. Used to be a compulsive gambler and in the process lost his family and house. Or used to steal and rob. Or any number of things. The congregation will embrace him and use him as an example of the power of redemption. But dare he say he used to be an adulterer, or a woman say she used to be a prostitute. Basically, any sin seems acceptable apart from sexual sin, which will elicit a lot of 'looks' as if the person is anathema. Interestingly in the Bible Christ said something about throwing the first stone when a certain lady of certain 'repute' was about to be put to death. Also, I remember someone else saying at the church that, at many times (but obviously not all, or even most) that some of the people most vigorously shaking their fingers and tsk-tsking are also embroiled in the same sins.

33 posted on 03/14/2012 7:12:09 AM PDT by spetznaz (Nuclear-tipped Ballistic Missiles: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol)
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To: spetznaz

Even worse have the person say they are//were addicted to pornography.... Talk about being shunned. You can do heroine or coke or rob cheat and steal... but admit you were addicted to porn and you might as well have thrown a dead cat on the pulpit.


35 posted on 03/14/2012 7:22:55 AM PDT by Rightly Biased (How do you say Arkanicide in Kenyan?)
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To: spetznaz

It goes back to the line, “Trust, but verify.” Would you trust that heroin addict to hold onto some drugs for you? Forgiving someone is quite different from trusting them after they have shown a weakness.


37 posted on 03/14/2012 9:29:55 AM PDT by Ingtar
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