July 30, 2005

• One blogger supports a point of view that many of us also support. Film at 11.
• I've only read part four so far, but I'd say it's a bit more than that. Of course, I used to belong to a fundie church myself when I was a youngster, so I'm intrigued to hear another expat's take on it. And it's always a good thing to know where the other guy's coming from. Good post, thanks.
• Poster comments on a link s/he hasn't read. Film at ten! I don't get the fundamentalists whatsoever, and it's important, now, to understand why they think the way they do. This series of essays educated me.
• One know-it-all all too quickly dismisses another person's post. Film at 11.
• This is abject.
• Yeah. I can't stop reading it.
• Linky no worky.
• The new planet's name should (obviously) be Chyren.
• D'oh! /points and laughs
• Relatedly, if you want to see what a society built upon the purest form of Christian fundamentalism is like, go read up on the Puritans. I mean what they were REALLY like, not the cutesy vesion crammed down our throats in High School. They'd be absolutely abhorrent, except once you understand their psychology, they just turn out to be staggeringly pathetic. They were like something out of a bad Star Trek episode - a culture whose entire societal status ladder was based almost solely upon how much one hates himself. (and by extension, they only thing they hated more than themselves were people who DIDN'T hate themselves.)
• goofyfoot....You are correct that I didn't read the link. I read the "Fundamentalism explained by an ex-fundamentalist" part and that was enough for me to make my snarky comment. I apologise for not reading the link...now I read the link and I'm still of the opnion that preaching to the choir, which happens here to some extent, is without the intellectual rigor or the accepting nature we profess and that set me off. mea culpa
• Oddly enough, iTunes selected a June Carter Cash album for me to hear while I read it. The Lord works in mysterious ways?
• The Lord works in mysterious ways? He does, I believe. But mysterious != absolutely inane, as many fundamentalists seem to think. People who really love other people don't think at the same time that they're lower than pond scum, and I don't think God thinks that way either.
• I'm reminded of Candide and the inclination people have to feel as if they're held hostage by mysterious forces. But this belief is not unique to religious experience, nor is it unique to religious people. At any rate, I've known a lot of evangelical Christians because, like mct, I was raised in that sort of environment, and while this writer makes many good observations, I don't believe that all evangelicals can be described with the same general profile. Yes, some of them are heavy on the condemnation and light on the love and forgiveness, but not all of them are. Nor are they all unthinking fools. It's hard, I think, to admit that our political opposites might be as smart and sophisticated as we believe ourselves to be, but many of them are.