As usual, Cory makes coherent arguments and marshalls quotes and evidence. One can disagree with him through debate.
But then I started reading the comments (again, let me stress, NOT Cory's) and encountered:
American patriotism and christianity is code for the guns, rape, mayhem, genocide, and slavery that brought form to this country...
[responding to an oppossing point of view] I loathe the murder of truth by pigs like you.
Religion is a result of mental illness...
So that's the rational, secular approach that's going to bring us intergalactic peace and justice. Dismiss others as animals and lesser beings (hmmm, isn't it always the so called humanists who insist we not use language to "dehumanize"?) and throw up simplistic, scattergun assertions in such great volume that there's no way to answer them all.
Now,outrageous comments are common to all blogs. I get them here, even from folks agreeing with me. Snarkasm lives in the blogosphere.
But on this 4th of July, I will truly give thanks for freedom, including the political system that protects us (so far) from self-admiring uebermenschen who might build a system in which we are defined as animals, medical conditions, perpetrators of crimes against humanity or whatever else their "reason" decides. 'Cuz if their "reason" runs the world, those of us who are pigs get the slaughter house, those of us who are mentally ill get institutionalized and "treated," and those of us blamed for crimes against humanity get the gallows.
4 comments:
I am reminded of what Benjamin Franklin, one of the least religious of the founders said: "If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it?"
Thank God for our Christian foundation here in America, and may His people once again step up for it.
Keep up the good work, Tim! Have a blessed Independence Day weekend.
Thanks, and you too, Bob. Just because some don't view it as "blessed" (which is their absolute right as Americans!) doesn't mean that the rest of us can't savor it that way.
For Anglicans, all Books of Common Prayer until the most recent included prayer for the nation in the Daily Offices - which is odd because the most recent was produced by the most politicized, ideological cohort of church people. Go figure.
Yes, that is ironic...but also, sadly understandable in a way, given the way that mindset works.
I give thanks to God for Anglicans like yourself. It's an honor to try to serve God with you!
I am disappointed that the main message of the original post, that Christians need to think hard about the boundary between religiona nd patriotism, has been derailed in subsequent anti-religion comments. Thank you, Tim, for at least recognizing the latter is not my intent.
And Bob, stop mingling the sacred and the profane. Enjoy the Fourth nonetheless, but with due spiritual caution.
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