Comments: A good (nay, great) rant

Keep laughing at our Christian values and we'll keep kicking your ass in national elections. Works for me.

Posted by Dru-Mo at November 16, 2004 2:17 PM

Dru-Mo: If you're the sort whose "Christian values" are derived from cherry-picking only those concepts from the Bible that reinforce your prejudices, you deserve all the derision you get, esp. from Christians who are trying to live the lives God ordained for them. If you agree that the Ten Commandments stand as the immutable Word of God, check out www.religioustolerance.com for some enlightening information about their evolution through the ages. Meanwhile, don't attend a church that contains any graven images, don't work on Sunday, and don't kill, even if your hunger for meat overwhelms you. If you want to limit the interpretation to killing human beings, join the Quakers or the Mennonites to remain true to your values. BTW, the Westminster Larger Catechism interprets the 7th commandment to include drinking and idleness either together or individually.
If you cherry-pick the Constitution for similar purposes of reinforcing your preconceived notions, you might find yourself someday looking down the business end of an AK-47, the possession of which you believe is protected by the Second Amendment: "A WELL-REGULATED MILITIA BEING NECESSARY TO THE SECURITY OF A FREE STATE, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." You may interpret this to mean the guy who is about to obliterate you with his AK-47 has the right to have the weaoon. When he breaks the law by killing you, he'll be punished for it. Congratulations! You'll have made your point. I, on the other hand, may say that, if you insist on having the weapon, you should be using it NOW in Iraq, or Afghanistan as a member of the forces who are trying to secure our country. You see, I'm including the the first clause of the amendment in my interpretation. Many interpretations fall along the spectrum between these views.
The point is, great religious, moral, and political texts are, generally, open to various readings. Scholars through the centuries have been hashing out the meanings of the Bible, the Torah, the Koran, the Constitution. Some guys in the MidEast think they have the only correct interpretation, and they're blowing up people to prove it. Do you think you have the only right view? If you do, God bless you. And God bless America. We'll need it.

Posted by fuzzball at November 17, 2004 3:17 PM
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