BASICALLY ALL RELIGIONS HAVE THE SAME TENET!

01:46 - Thursday, August 3, 2006 - post comment

um...have you been to America

Dawnie...I love your commentary in your blog and readership and comments on my blog, but...



How would you like it if I characterized Aussies as being criminal secularists bent on personal gratification and aboriginal domination? After all your country began as a penal colony and british imperialists nearly wiped out the aborigines (I don't see you that way, by the way) :o)



The America you describe in your post, and the one that I actually live in, are not the same. Your post convinces me that the documentary you saw is some sort of propogandastic fantasy America hated by the world. Christianity and American citizenship are two different things and completely unrelated. And I am a Bible-carrying minister of the gospel. Your blog reads like we Christians hang out on street corners just waiting to bash someone who believes differently than we do, while waving the American flag as we do so. I have never seen it. True...we have Fred Phelps right here in Topeka Kansas. He is a sick and aberrant cultist who in NO WAY represents biblically based Christianity. But he gets press coverage because he is vehemently anti-gay. Contrary to the documentary you saw, Christian faith is not about hating homosexuals or neo-pagans. It is about loving them while carefully calling them to compare belief systems with the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus loves sinners. He died for them. He ate dinner with them and cared for their needs so much that the religious leaders of his day accused him of being a street-level drunkard.



I don't care for Wiccan or New Age Philosophy. But public debate and private conversation are the right places to explain doctrinal differences. I am not sure who made the documentary that you reference, but it definitely was made with an agenda and was NOT factual.

troutdude - 06:00 - Thursday, August 3, 2006

Dear Dawnie

I totally agree with you and partially agree with troutdude the fact is I live in the USA and contrary to troutdude there are many extremist bigoted christian evangelicans that have no respect for what troutdude referst to as Neopagans maybe he fears the word Witch or Wicca I have seen the contempt in which they are treated, i've seen many fired from their jobs for their beliefs. I constantly see extremist bilble thumper morons accuse Witches that practice Wicca as being evil which is simply NOT TRUE! Yes there are some evil witches but there are evil christians as well and what trroutdude won't admit is that christianity adapted many pagan rituals and called them their own and put christian labels on them.

There are many Witches here at Journal Home my question is has troutdude reached out to them? has he any of them listed on his friends list? Has he even tried to understand their culture or religion? Sure troudude I assume you are a nice man but lets be honest you said in your post that Jesus went to sinners that he loves sinners and ate with them and that you are a minister that being so when is the last time you visited a Witch or ate with a Witch or listed a Witch as a friend? Troutdude don't you think you should practice what you preach instead of lecturing Dawn about her own country and culture? Dawn is a Mother with children and grandchildren she hardly needs any lectures I am sure you are a nice man and meant well but a little more respect to her in her own site would have been well served.

Dawn sorry I have not been active but my laptop I had to take in to have my hard drive reformatted I should get it back in a few days as of now I am on my neice's laptop

(((((((((((((All My LOve Hugs and Kisses))))))))))))))))))))

Love

Anonymous - 07:41 - Thursday, August 3, 2006

Dear Dawnie

I totally agree with you and partially agree with troutdude the fact is I live in the USA and contrary to troutdude there are many extremist bigoted christian evangelicans that have no respect for what troutdude referst to as Neopagans maybe he fears the word Witch or Wicca I have seen the contempt in which they are treated, i've seen many fired from their jobs for their beliefs. I constantly see extremist bilble thumper morons accuse Witches that practice Wicca as being evil which is simply NOT TRUE! Yes there are some evil witches but there are evil christians as well and what trroutdude won't admit is that christianity adapted many pagan rituals and called them their own and put christian labels on them.

There are many Witches here at Journal Home my question is has troutdude reached out to them? has he any of them listed on his friends list? Has he even tried to understand their culture or religion? Sure troudude I assume you are a nice man but lets be honest you said in your post that Jesus went to sinners that he loves sinners and ate with them and that you are a minister that being so when is the last time you visited a Witch or ate with a Witch or listed a Witch as a friend? Troutdude don't you think you should practice what you preach instead of lecturing Dawn about her own country and culture? Dawn is a Mother with children and grandchildren she hardly needs any lectures I am sure you are a nice man and meant well but a little more respect to her in her own site would have been well served.

Dawn sorry I have not been active but my laptop I had to take in to have my hard drive reformatted I should get it back in a few days as of now I am on my neice's laptop

(((((((((((((All My LOve Hugs and Kisses))))))))))))))))))))

Love

Heather

Heather - 07:43 - Thursday, August 3, 2006

Hold it there troutdude

Before I start I mean this without malice but I'm sorry troutdude but you can't be serious quote:

"How would you like it if I characterized Aussies as being criminal secularists bent on personal gratification and aboriginal domination? After all your country began as a penal colony and British imperialists nearly wiped out the aborigines"



And you don't find this in the United States? Ask the Native Americans how they feel about being almost wiped out by bible believing Christians who wanted to expand their territory. Or does this part of history escape "believers" today. In fact entire tribes were wiped out and in many cases the bodies sent back to the east to be cut up and studied. And the founding fathers were not most of them British imperialists once themselves? They certainly were not poor men and if they were such professing Christian men why did many of them own slaves?



And I'm sorry but you don't say you love thy neighbor then send off your young men and women to kill another man with God's blessings. I've seen it and I've heard it all 25 years in the corps. I also apologize but just about every Christian I knew outside of a handful were judgmental it was there way or no way. They were right and you were wrong and if you disagreed you had a date with hell. As a matter of fact it is these same Christians that would crucify Christ afresh because they would not want the Son of Man to interfere with their dark deeds. When man got a hold of the word of God he's been twisting to his way ever since. He has used it to hide behind, to commit unspeakable acts of violence, persecution and immensing great wealth. Cortez destroyed an entire race for its gold then sent the gold back to Spain where the church lined its great cathedrals with it. I've seen people live in the most horrible conditions, go hungry or homeless while the church prospers because they are told this is what God asks of them or deny them help because they are not of that faith or a member of their church.



It is true and has been commonplace for centuries, the rich can do anything they please. The rich don't fight wars they start them and they send the poor to fight them. Our own revolution was put in motion by economic reasons and only a small part was religious.when you read the history tell me what was the main purpose for our revolt was it not TAXES? And how can a faith that is always saying they are just "passing threw" and "this is not our world" be so entangled in something so worldly as politics? Did not Jesus warn believers that they couldn’t serve two masters for they will hate one and love the other? I didn't know God had a political preference? I didn't know God gave a rat’s ass about men's kingdoms and governments? Not only that if you pitch the "freedom' angle people have a right to freedom of religion so why is the religious right so bent on having it their way? Who are they to say? Who are they to judge? Or did they forget that GOD is the supreme judge?

That's because it's about power, control and money not saving men’s souls.



And please spare me the argument that this nation was founded on Christian principles and as I pointed out above only a small portion of it was about religion mainly it was about money and the rate of taxation. But let me throw this point in, for clarity, you will say that the founding fathers put it in writing that this nation was founded on Christian principles no they did not they included their faiths in God but they did they not sponsor a central religion or faith. The founding fathers found that a central or main faith or religion would undermine any liberties or freedoms that they wanted the young country to have. At the time Europe was dominated by one faith and that was Catholism and to be any other faith was a sin in the eyes of the church and the founding fathers where of many faiths and they did not want this to happen in the new world.



I will stop here and I'm sorry Dawnie for making my comment on your writing my own blog. So please troutdude don't be like my other countrymen who speak before they think. Take a look at America's not-so-rosy past before you hammer another person about their country. American was never above sin nor shall it ever be.



Hugs to you Dawnie,

Micheal

Edited by Darragh61 on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 at 21:33

Darragh61 - 11:25 - Thursday, August 3, 2006

Finally! Some vigorous discussion!

Looks like my comment got read. I could have commented on your most recent post, Dawnie, but felt like keeping my reply in the context of the original post where it was made.

To Heather and all the Wiccan friends at journalhome:

You can be a neo-pagan witch if you want. I can't make you make a choice to change. Go ahead. But it is a choice and the concept of choice is pretty personal. I make the informed choice to embrace Christian faith (warts and all...yes, there are Christians who act moronically in their zeal. Yes, some did wipe out Indians. I did not do any of these things personally. It was nonetheless wrong. So was the pagan sacrifice of children to the corn god. So was the Mayan practice of human sacrifice.) And I am sure that you do not want me to characterize modern wiccan paganism as child-sacrificing or advocating the kind of helter-skelter thinking that Charles Manson espoused. After all, his followers drew pentagrams in blood on their victims. But by lumping Christianity into the same mold as your accusations, you commit the very same thing you are angry about. To be fair...you only asked me to deal with the tension of some Christians being less than they should. I did. I admit it. Christians are not perfect. Some of us though try to live by the standards set by Jesus Christ and the New Testament writings. That was part of my point. Those who bash others or act in hatred should be held to the biblical standard and considered UNCHRISTIAN in their actions. Just like you would hopefully consider a Wiccan who did something similar as UNWICCAN.



To Dawnie:

Really I was just pointing out that the documentary does not show the whole story. My day to day life in America is not what you described in this post. I felt like your description based on the documentary was unfair. I did not mean to sound like I was flaming you as a result. Your kind clarifications in following posts are very sweet and charitable. I ask for your forgiveness if I sounded either offensive or offended at you. I was just trying to clarify some things.



Have a great day everyone...and let's always keep the journalhome community a place for friendly, vigorous debate...even if we disagree.

Edited by troutdude on Thursday, August 3, 2006 at 15:15

troutdude - 05:13 - Friday, August 4, 2006