On Mar 15, 2006, at 5:28 AM, Dave Land wrote:
On Mar 14, 2006, at 12:23 AM, The Fool wrote:
Hyprocrisy.
One more good reason not to watch South Park. I was deeply insulted
when
a friend that I *thought* knew me better said that he thought I'd
enjoy
that show.
:) It's offensive, but it's often clever (and it's offensive to
everyone). Like a lot of American shows it has gone a fair way past
its sell by date, however. Typical of someone like Hayes to only be
offended when it's his own beliefs in the spotlight. (Although my
better half did make the point that it's likely that there would have
been substantial pressure from within the "Church" of Scientology...
Tom Cruise might have had a go at him to leave too...).
"Among the most detestable villains in history, you could not find
one
worse than Moses. Here is an order, attributed to 'God' to butcher
the
boys, to massacre the mothers and to debauch and rape the
daughters. I
would not dare so dishonor my Creator's name by (attaching) it to
this
filthy book (the Bible)."
--Thomas Paine
Mr. Paine reveals himself to be what would be labeled a "liberal"
Christian with this quote... The idea that the Bible is a human,
rather
than a divine product (the work of men, not the Word of God) is very
much alive today, promoted by the likes of Marcus Borg, Jack Spong and
John Dominic Crossan, to name a few. I think I've sung the praises of
Spong's "Rescuing the Bible from Funamentalism" here in the past. The
first half of the book covers this topic in spades.
It's not a new idea, and a far more common view in Europe
(substantial exceptions, of course, it's not hard to find literalists
about). It's the States where the (arguably heretical) view that the
Bible is literal Truth has most steam - in its English translations,
bizarrely. Plus the hypocrisy of acting on large sections of the OT
as literal, yet ignoring others.
It's slightly strange to me that the Founders were considerably more
"liberal" in some ways than a vast proportion of modern America,
where those freedoms that were enshrined in the Constitution are
anathema and religious intolerance is rife. :(
Charlie
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