gulley@stolaf.UUCP (William T. Gulley) (03/15/84)
>When have christians been harassed in the last 1000 years? It seems >that since the roman empire they have done most of the harassing. > >Larry Kolodney ->>(The Devil's Advocate)<<- Gee, thanks. words like that coming from someone with credentials such as yours leads me to believe that we're not doing so bad after all. :-)) ((-: But, to answer your question, (which, whether it was meant so or not, I took very seriously) Christians have been harassed and harassing con- stantly for the last 1000 years. Beyond the examples which are readily available in any history book, Christians are being persecuted on a less obvious, more subtly personal level every day- in the form of subtle snubs, little cut-downs, etc.. In fact, it seems like anyone these days with a fixed and unswerving (others would call it naiive- when it's actually the farthest thing from it) faith in something, whether they're Christian, Islamic, or Republican, tend to get a tough time from a lot of other people. I guess it's just more "in vogue" to still be seeking blindly, than to admit you've actually found what you've been looking for. Christians, however, are particularly fair game because of their basic tenet, "Love your neighbor as yourself". To love your neighbor means taking chances, and opening up. And whenever you do that in this world, more often than not you open yourself up to the millions and millions of social opportunists out there that survive (in regards to their self-image) on cutting down these naiive, trusting souls that survive, on their part, on counting themselves worthy enough to love someone else in this honest, unassuming way. (And when they fail, because of their humanity, to acheive this, they're usually harassed even more by these "opportunists" for trying and failing. Sometimes these "failures" take this seriously and give up trying, and become "opportunists" themselves. When this happens, whether Christianity itself has any merit at all or not, the world grows even a little more colder.) (Christianity has at least THAT much merit, doesn't it. Has anyone else done a better job of "trying"?) If this "argument" is doomed to get out of hand, I suggest it be moved to net.religion immediately. (i.e., meet you by the swings, kid. .) FLAME ON THE WORLD!!!!! ____ UM YA YAAA!! Man, that felt great. . William Gulley - St. Olaf College - Northfield, Minnesota . .!inhp4!stolaf!gulley
jj@rabbit.UUCP (03/15/84)
Republicans aren't members of a faith. Please. Some Christians have been harrassing some other Christians for many years. Some Moslems have been... Some atheists have ... Some Bhuddists.... Some ...... There are good and bad members of any faith, religion, political party, race, color, national origin, financial status, criminal record, or whatever you WANT to pick out. Face it folks, it's just part of being human that some humans have a need for power, or for making their fellow humans more miserable than they are. I don't think that any of the above catagories have anything to do with this. <In fact, if I left yours out, please insert it.. There are certainly SUB-catagories who make it their business to harrass, kill, hurt, maim, discomfort, eliminate, genocide, what have you. These sub-catagories aren't any different whether or not they are Evangelical Christians who want to punish non-believers for having sex, Moral Mojority-ites who want to make everyone else as unhappy as they are, PLO factions that want to kill everyone who disagrees with them. They are all of the same genre, namely of the extremest genre, and are generally emotionally involved with their "ideals" or "revolution" <hear that, Fidel?> to an extent that they cannot/will not accept any compromise. The solution? I don't know. I do know that ALL such groups should be kept in positions where they cannot physically injure society. How to do this without censorship? That's really difficult. (Perhaps there is no censorship involved, since we're only concerned about things with physical or ecomomic manifestations, and not with argument. Perhaps the answer is an INFORMED populace. <After all, where is the MM most popular? The PLO? etc etc>) How about some discussion on how to solve problems, like the evangelical Christians next door, or the "pro-lifer" down the block who wants won't take responsibility for his (and it's damn near always his, in that case) actions, or the bomber in Belfast, or the mad van-driver in Beruit? How can we manage to convince people that they don't NEED to act that way? SOLUTIONS? How about some solutions? We don't need no steeeenking stereotypes! -- TEDDY BEARS ARE NICER THAN PEOPLE-- HUG YOUR OWN TODAY ! (allegra,harpo,ulysses)!rabbit!jj