It was that he didn't think himself worthy to die the same way as Jesus.

Huh. I was taught that he wanted to suffer more than Jesus or something. Or maybe I'm remembering it wrong.

I'm pretty sure our Cindy functions quite nicely in a multicultural society, and she's a conservative Christian.

Kong of the Jews

Just DIES picturing Jesus on the Empire State Building.

how do people like this function in a multicultural society? It's got to be awfully difficult, going to work every day and meeting people who are, e.g., different religions or downright atheists. Do they just end every conversation with a mental "You're going to hell, you sinner"? I think probably they have to do a lot of mental gymnastics when they make friend with a Unitarian or something.

Many people like this hope to put an end to a multicultural society. They work and pray for the world to be Christianized. Many generations of missionaries have gone out with the holy goal of turning those "benighted heathens" to the True Path. One of the excuses for slavery in the South was that "all those poor African souls have now been exposed to Christianity."

Didn't he ask to be crucified that way, because he was all macho and shit?

Closer to - didn't feel worthy to be crucified in the same way as Christ.

I inevitable cross-post (started to use x-post, but it looked too close to the subject matter).

vw too. I think you're extrapolating quite a bit, both for that particular student, and then outwards to a whole lot of people.

I'm pretty sure our Cindy functions quite nicely in a multicultural society, and she's a conservative Christian.

I'm not talking about conservative Christians or Cindy. I'm talking about people who don't let their children play with dinosaurs because it contravenes their notion of creationism.

A serious question: how do people like this function in a multicultural society?

I've know people who take it all literally and do just fine. However, it isn't so much that it's a deep conviction in literalism, as a belief that it is shortcoming of faith to show doubt. Sort of, "Okay, the dinosuars are tough to explain, but if I doubt the story of Genesis where do I stop doubting?" I don't think the literalists are a big percentage though.

They work and pray for the world to be Christianized.

And for America to be returned to our "Christian heritage."

They don't make friends with Unitarians, Nutty. Though they might pray for their soul if they were feeling charitable.

Well, I ask because I had a student some years ago, who was the nicest woman ever, and a fundamentalist, literal-Bible Christian, and she pretty much befriended me. And while we never discussed the topic Nutty Is A Stone Cold Atheist, it had to be obvious from my everyday speech that I was not religious (especially not in her manner). And she befriended me right off. I guess I just wonder whether she thought about the fact that we were such different people, and whether that thought led to the idea that there is no such thing as the One True Way That Is The Same For All People.

Because those thoughts lead naturally from one to the other, in my head, but that doesn't mean they do so in everybody's head. Hence the "mental gymnastics".