'War Stories'
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
I horrified a religious friend by saying "While we're in Greece, I've got to visit Corinth, where everything that's wrong with Christianity started!"
I've only heard "Have a blessed day" in DC, and only at work. And only on government jobs. And there, esp. at the State Dept, I hear it constantly. It bugs me a little because of the church/state separation thing, but it's far preferable to the State employees who won't look at me, talk to me, or even attempt to work with me, because I'm white.
It bugs me a little because of the church/state separation thing, but it's far preferable to the State employees who won't look at me, talk to me, or even attempt to work with me, because I'm white.
argh! so stupid. And it does seem that people of color tend to wear their religion on their sleeve a little more. I mean, the only white person who's ever said God bless you was either after a sneeze or in/around a church.
I'm saying this is why my sister thinks there shouldn't be female ministers in her church. And, back when I was a practicing Christian, I would have disagreed with her.Gotcha. I'd forgotten the larger context of your sister.
I horrified a religious friend by saying "While we're in Greece, I've got to visit Corinth, where everything that's wrong with Christianity started!"
Hee!
That verse couldn't have meant "A woman can't speak in the church" because back in chapter 11, he's talking about women needing to have their heads covered when prophesying.
I often wonder why Biblical literalists aren't surprised that the book is so confusing and contradictory. I mean, would a supreme being really have such a limited grasp of rhetoric? If the Bible was written by God, then we can all be grateful that God never took a job writing technical manuals or instructions for programing VCRs.
If the Bible was written by God, then we can all be grateful that God never took a job writing technical manuals or instructions for programing VCRs.
On the other hand, it would explain why VCR programming instrutions all seem to have been written in Greek.
If the Bible was written by God
I thought the gospels were written by their namesakes. No?
I thought the gospels were written by their namesakes. No?
They are just conduits of God's word, in the literalist tradition. Anyway, I think it would be hard to find a legitimate scholar who still believes they were written by their namesakes.
I thought the gospels were written by their namesakes. No?
Depends on who you talk to. Lots of debate on authorship.
I believe Moses dies before the end of the 5th book he is supposed to have written, so authorship is kind of iffy.
Then again, there's a whole novel about "Well, God told Somebody, who told Somebody Else, who is actually the person who wrote it down, and who knows what kinds of wacky shit he introduced into divine word??" That novel is The Satanic Verses. (Muhammad is described as illiterate in the Quran, so he clearly had a scribe. In Rushdie's novel, the scribe puts in some random crap, and also "corrects" a lot of the stuff Muhammad is dictating to him. And also there's this whole thing with one character growing goat horns, and another leading her whole village into the sea. Complicated.)
She blinked and said, "No, it means 'Lamb of God.' Let me hug your neck!"
This is when jiu jitsu and tragedy happen. The antipathy I feel for proselytizing is as a hill of beans compared to the Denali of Violent Distaste I bear for being touched by strangers. If a stranger wanted to touch me for a religious reason? I would introduce that stranger to her maker.
People! Personal Bubbles!
I often wonder why Biblical literalists aren't surprised that the book is so confusing and contradictory. I mean, would a supreme being really have such a limited grasp of rhetoric? If the Bible was written by God, then we can all be grateful that God never took a job writing technical manuals or instructions for programing VCRs.Heh. I am always surprised that I've never known a believer to take scripture as literally as the non-believers I know.
Inspiration (which scripture claims of itself) doesn't mean dictation. The Bible is made up of separate books. This particular one is a letter to one of the early churches to address problems within. A good part of the confusion comes when people (regardless of world view) insist on quoting things out of context with the whole. There are sincere, honest arguments about a lot of scripture, but by far, most of what I see is people cherrypicking, regardless of their beliefs. One of the basics of hermeneutics is to use exegesis rather than eisegesis.