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Posted on 07/06/2010 6:54:33 AM PDT by Brian Kopp DPM
Spot on!
Hopefully my reply wasn’t too zealous and indiscrete. ;^)
Well that’s interesting kid...
Do you have a LINKy to that comment ???
There is one if that was ever said in a FR thread..
I hate intolerant people...
Some FReepers in the Religion Forum voted for Obama???
Are you talking about yourself?
.-)
“There’s only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people’s cultures and the Dutch.” - Austin Powers
LOL!
Moderate chirpiness is okay ;-). However, a sign of a person who might be suffering Intemperate Zeal is that he gets in an even louder fuss when exposed to moderate chirpiness.
The problem being, however, that sometimes the messenger's zeal is accompanied by such unpleasant behavior that the the message itself is lost.
One would hope that that person who accepts the burden of carrying God's truth to others, would do so in humility. But we all too often do not.
St. James had it right:
So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. (James 3:5-10)
I'd encourage you to talk with regular teenagers sometime, about their opinions of Christians. You'll quickly discover that those opinions are often quite negative; not because of the message itself, but rather because of the people who presume to carry that message into the world.
They sense a rather prevalent arrogance and dismissiveness among those who claim to represent Christianity -- perhaps especially among those who call themselves "Evangelical."
Certainly not all, or even most, Christians are that way -- evangelical or otherwise. But there are those self-appointed messengers who leave their humility at home, and they do great damage.
Good advice by the Pastor.
However . . . Dear Heart . . .
some of my fiercest writing is when I’m exceedingly calm—no raised heart beat or increased breathing rate etc.
Most of my writing—95%?—is when I’m quite calm.
I love playing with words. I love saying things in emphatic, startling, memorable ways.
Maybe I sat through too many boring lectures and read too many boring text books on the way to the PhD.
Maybe I got what few rewards I got growing up by writing vivid, even startling things in English and Social Studies classes.
Besides all that, the instense exchanges are much more alive, authentic, real, to me. I hate shallow discourse more than I hate a LOT of other things. Actually, I don’t hate many things, at all—that is, I hate very few things, total. Hate is just not a familiar feeling to me.
And, I have been the brunt of a lot of ridicule my whole life.
And, I have seen how effective the disinformation psy-ops folks have been using ridicule against UFO disclosures.
I suspect all of that has had some part to play in my ‘style.’
It’s rarely personal—except to highlight some folks pontifications who seem to delight in making abjectly foolish, outrageous assertions. I enjoy the fray—rather collegially, actually.
I mean . . . if folks are going to BEG for such a response, who am I to refuse to be generous!
Of course, there are a few who seem to ENJOY being just personally harsh, mean and personally assaultive as though they were Saul putting to death Prottys—or wishing they could. Those can be particularly fun highlighting their absurdities, double standards and hypocrisies.
Of course, I realize that I can be absurd as well. I sure earnestly endeavor to be well beyond double standards and hypocrisies. By God’s Grace, He helps me usually succeed on those scores.
If one is going to be silly, brash, fiesty, startling in communications, one has to be a pretty good capacity to see their own clay feet.
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.
Now now . . .
some of us ENJOY water fights.
Of course . . . some few use the very WRONG kind of water!
LOL.
There is an unfortunately large number of people who believe that “right and obnoxious” is an effective tool of evangelism — thus putting the “tool” in “tool of evangelism”. Haha.
Pride is a nefarious sin ... there comes a point when being “right” in a debate is no longer about what is right, it is about vanity (i.e. proving you’re the smartest, holiest, most Christian one in the room).
We are called to spread God’s word, not to convert people. We don’t convert people ... Christ converts people through us, and he does so more often through love, service and humility than through arrogance and belligerence.
Is it possible that we’ve gotten so caught up in being “right” that we’ve lost sight of what it is to be “good”? Is “right and obnoxious” on doctrinal matters really preferable to “wrong and humble” (though wrong and obnoxious would clearly be the worst of all possibilities)? Do the doctrinally wrong require more forgiveness (Grace) to correct doctrinal errors than the right need to correct for pridefulness?
SnakeDoc
I’d encourage you to talk with regular teenagers sometime, about their opinions of Christians. You’ll quickly discover that those opinions are often quite negative; not because of the message itself, but rather because of the people who presume to carry that message into the world.
- - - - - -
I disagree. I used to work with teenagers (both as a teacher and a church youth director). Their negative view of Christians is because of how Christians are portrayed in the media, movies, TV, news, etc.
Several years ago, I had a friend, upon finding out that I was a Born Again Christian responded with a shocked look and an exclamaition of “No you’re not! You don’t act anything like the people in that movie ‘Saved’!!” I had similar conversations with a few other friends.
Her impression of Christians was not from personal experience but from media portrayal. BTW, that friend is now a Born Again Christian.
There is a lot of hatred of Christianity based upon Hollywood’s views rather than actual experience.
Many could take this as mind reading or an intemperate statement on your own part. Ecclesiastes notes that for every thing there is a time. There is a time for more 'temperate' or 'descreet' discussions. Then there are times for more zeal (such as the Apostle Paul's statement that he wished the Judiazers would castrate themselves (Gal 5:12)).
we all talk about 'believers' and how their walk should be. What is a 'believer'? What is it a believer believes in? Here is where the line gets drawn. A non-catholic does not believe the things a catholic believes. And vice-versa. These are not small things, either. Salvation, sanctification, eternal security, The Gospel of the Grace of God. On the other side, we have works for salvation, the power of priests to remit/retain sins, the keys to the kingdom, traditions, eucharist, Mary, pergutory, prayers for the dead, the Pope, etc.
Obviously, we have completely separate BELIEFS. We are NOT BELIEVERS of the same message. These are so opposed that they cannot find a common ground in false humility and prayers for what brings us together. Nothing brings us together. The name of Jesus? Paul talks about "another Jesus" being preached.
Not only that, we are not called to yoke ourselves to unbelievers. It would be a farce to pretend otherwise. We are told to be ready to preach the Gospel. In season and out. And stand in truth, not sit in quiet disagreement.
I have a cousin who says “I am really intolerant of intolerant people”.
(Since he is a left left left wing lib, he does not see the humor in this statement.)
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