avi@pegasus.UUCP (Avi E. Gross) (03/23/84)
Larry Bickford has finally done it. By attacking Andy for mentioning the "People for the United Way" (after warning people that they did not have to read on) and (laughingly) offering us Jerry Falwell and his gang of (im)moral minorities, he has CONVINCED ME to send a whopping large donation to anybody who will stand up for MY rights -- and not just fundamentalist Christian rights. My parents brought me to this country because they did not want to raise me in Romania -- where there is no real freedom to be whatever you want. We did not come from a country where the state religion is Atheism to a place where it was going to be Christianity!!! I don't believe for one moment that things like "school prayer" are designed for the good of the students or the good of the country. How would they feel if ALL the prayers were Budhist or Moslem or Jewish. They would very rapidly try to cancel all prayers in school -- rather than allow their children to be exposed to such Anti-Christian nonsense. My parents wanted me to get a religious education (which I am frankly not sure what to do with) so they sent me to a private school. This cost them plenty in money that they could not afford -- because they also had to pay taxes to support the local public schools. Anyone who feels strongly that their children MUST pray repeatedly during the school day is free to do the same. There is no need to inflict the prayers (and even real crucifixes in places like Poland!!!!) on schoolchildren whose parents don't feel the urge to have them pray in school. I am Sorry for the tone of this flame. I have had relatively civilized and enjoyable correspondences with Larry in the past. However, his description of the "Moral Majority (are they related to Nixon's Silent Majority??) was too much for me. How can any rational human being believe that Falwell "fights for decency and respect for all, to show the real meaning of freedom, and against those who twist \"freedom of speech\" and \"freedom of religion\" into saturation by their views and censorship of opposing views". My reaction to the above quote is that it was a fantastic example of double-speak (shades of 1984). The above comments would make more sense in describing the attitude of the Norman Lear group -- who really are looking for freedom to do whatever you want. Falwell only wants you to be free to be a Christian. (Of course, by his view some Christians are more Christian than others. For example, how does he feel about Catholics and Mormons?) I watched Falwell last week for about an hour. His entire sermon consisted of asking people to be his prayer partners -- for the paltry sum of $100/month. The impression I got, was that all he wanted was their money -- so he could take over the world. He btagged about how he was paying to have pregnant teenagers cared for -- and their children given up for adoption into good Christian families (for a price, I assume). Then he said that EVERY SINGLE ONE of these teenagers had embraced Christ before they left these "homes". Does that seem likely to you, when we are talking about teenagers who were obviously somewhat less than perfect Christians to start with. I suspect that either he was exagerrating, or these kids were being taken advantage of and brainwashed. In parting, if I wanted to live in a truly religious state, I would go to Iran. Thanks, Larry for convincing me to give up some of my hard earned money for a worthy cause :-) Avi Gross P.S. Hang in there Andy. P.P.S. I have unsubscribed to net.religion because the main topic recently has been the old Christians vs Atheists debate. It has finally gotten too tiring to keep typing "n". I suggest moving this debate back to net.religion, so I can stay subscribed to net.misc :-) -- -=> Avi E. Gross @ AT&T Information Systems Laboratories (201) 576-6241 suggested paths: [ihnp4, allegra, cbosg, hogpc, ...]!pegasus!avi