"We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is.''
In other words, if there is no God who says, "Do not murder" ("Do not kill" is a mistranslation of the Hebrew which, like English, has two words for homicide), murder is not wrong. Many people may think it is wrong, but that is their opinion, not objective moral fact. There are no moral "facts" if there is no God; there are only moral opinions.
In other words, if there is no God who says, "Do not murder", murder is not wrong.
how exactly does that work out? i'm sure there are a whole lot of atheists out there who'd disagree with that statement.
Then where does the idea that murder is wrong come from? It comes from somewhere as do all moral standards. If you want a good answer read the first part of C.S.Lewis' Mere Christianity.
Because of His love God had already decided that through Jesus Christ He would make us His children*this was His pleasure and purpose. (Ephesians 1:5 NEV)
We will never get to the bottom of this: that God made us for His pleasure. We are much more likely to think of God as someone to obey, revere, and not offend. Our natural tendency is to think that God is out to get us. We walk on eggshells around Him. We imagine Him at best disinterested in our lives, and at worst, as one waiting to pounce on us over our next misdeed. But to gain pleasure from us? To have created us for His own joy is beyond us. That, by the way, is one reason why I know this is true. Something this wonderful could only be something God revealed to us; we could never have come up with this on our own.
Just what is it about us that brings Him pleasure? First off, we are like Him. He looks at us and sees Himself because He made us to reflect His image. We have a heart, a will, emotions, and a moral conscience. Because of this God can relate to us and communicate with us. God can have fellowship with us, in other words, and this is one of the main reasons we were created. Plus, we know from examples of men and women in the Old Testament that this fellowship can take on all the typical characteristics of human relationships*arguing, bargaining, cajoling, forgiving, even wrestling (God and Jacob * Genesis 32:22-32) appears to be a part of the human/divine relationship and something in which God takes pleasure or He wouldn’t indulge in it.
This is why we receive so much pleasure when we worship God outright through prayer, meditation, or music. We are doing the most important part of what we were meant to do. David’s greatest joy was to meditate on the law of God day and night.
But don’t leave out the rest of our lives that can be lived out as an act of worship. Paul encourages us to do everything we do to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). He wouldn’t have suggested this if it weren’t possible. That would mean that a host of activities and interests commonly thought of as “secular” could take on the quality and function of worship in our daily lives. And in all of this, God takes pleasure.
Try and live today within the reality that you are bringing God pleasure. We started out that way without doing anything, so consider how living with that consciousness can affect your choices, thoughts and actions.
Those who do not believe that moral values must come from the Bible or be based upon God's moral instruction argue that they have a better source for values: human reason.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
There are four primary problems with reason divorced from God as a guide to morality.
There are over six billion people living on our planet. Of that six billion, almost two billion are Muslims. That's roughly a third of the total population of the earth.
 The earthquake that triggered the killer tsunami was centered just off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country. It was also the most severely devastated by the wave. Nearly 100,000 of the victims of the December 26 catastrophe were Indonesian Muslims.
 The vast majority of the victims were either Muslims, Buddhists or Hindu. Got all that? Good.
 Now, to the United Nations. The United Nations consists of 186 countries. The most powerful voting bloc is the fifty-seven Islamic countries that generally vote with one voice, especially when the United States or Israel are voting the other way.
 The United Nations' head of humanitarian relief, Jan Egeland, criticized the West for being stingy. He didn't specifically mention America, but he cited the exact percentage of the US GDP that is budgeted for foreign aid, so there is little doubt of who the 'stingy West' was, at least in Egeland's mind.
 Egeland slammed the United States for not raising taxes so that America could give a greater percentage of its GDP to the UN to distribute as part of the UN's foreign aid package.
 Editorials in the Washington Post, the New York Times and other liberal newspapers echoed Egeland's charge, with the New York Times calling America's $350 million in direct government aid 'miserly'.
 The United States makes up some six percent of the world's total population, but we pay a quarter of the United Nation's total budget. The United States pays forty percent of the world's total disaster relief aid,
 and sixty percent of the world's total food donations.
 The $2.4 billion (that's BILLION) dollars Washington spent in emergency aid in 2003 represented 40 percent of the total amount of emergency assistance from all bilateral donors provided that year. Evidently, that isn't enough.
 It didn't take long for these same liberal elitists to turn Mother Nature into an American right-wing hater of Islam.
 Not only had America's imperialistic self-enrichment policies created the natural disaster, but also cold-hearted Muslim hating President Bush wouldn't leave his ranch in Texas... which by the way, is his home -- not a vacation destination -- and only offered a 'stingy' initial monetary donation.
 While these elitist journalist were assailing President Bush and expounding the mantra that America should be giving more money to the devastated region in a token gesture that would 'show Islam that America didn't hate Muslims', UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was still on his vacation skiing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He returned to New York four days later.
 The wave struck on Sunday, and it took only until Monday before the US announced its $350 million in initial aid, sent the USS Abraham Lincoln into the region, including helicopters, and C-130 transport planes, sent hundreds of tons of pre-packaged emergency aid supplies, and deployed some 14,000 American troops to help with the recovery and cleanup.
 In Indonesia, U.S. helicopters flew at least 30 sorties, delivering 60,000 pounds of water and supplies, from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln along a 120-mile stretch of Sumatra island's ravaged coastline.
 Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the richest nations in the Islamic world, donated a paltry $10 million each. The United Arab Emirates donated some $20 million to relieve the suffering of their Islamic 'brothers'.
 Egypt's contribution at the time of this writing is $104,
 000.00. (Note: Egypt gets $2 BILLION in US foreign aid annually)
 And did anybody notice that the majority of the private donations came from those evil corporate types the left so loves to loathe?
 Pfizer donated $10 million in cash and $25 million in drugs. (That is more than oil-rich Saudi Arabia and Kuwait combined). General Motors pledged $2 million in cash, agreed to match employee donations dollar for dollar, and is sending vehicles to transport food and medical supplies to the region.
 Other corporate donors include Nike Inc., American Express, General Electric, First Data Corp., Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Exxon-Mobil, Citigroup, Marriott International and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
 On the other hand, where are all the Hollywood liberals? Activist actors such as Ben Affleck, Susan Sarandon, Al Franken, Tim Robbins, Martin Sheen, and Barbra Streisand have not been heard from.
 And where is George Soros, the world richest left wing liberal?
 Actress Sandra Bullock donated one million dollars, but Bullock is neither an activist nor a liberal. (She also donated one million following September 11.) Super-rich liberals like Bono and Bruce Springsteen are promising to hold another 'aid concert' to collect money (not theirs) for the victims.
 America, as noted at the outset, represents six percent of the global population. But in any catastrophe, it gets one hundred percent of the blame. The UN's nose is out of joint because the Bush administration refuses to funnel its aid through the UN's various aid agencies.
 Kofi Annan wants to use the catastrophe to shore up the UN's sagging image in the wake of the Oil-For-Food thefts from Iraq. The United States wants to ensure the aid doesn't end up lining the pockets of UN officials. So the US is 'too stingy' and gets another black eye.
 Where is the rest of the Islamic world? There are fifty-seven Islamic nations, and the world's biggest Islamic nation is the one that took the
 hardest hit. But it is the United States -- the world's largest donor nation -- that is grabbing all the headlines for being 'stingy'.
 To put things in perspective, I saw a news photo yesterday of one of the Indonesian victims.
 He was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the face of Osama bin Laden.
 Excerpted from the Omega Letter Daily Intelligence Digest, Volume:7, Issue:4
We also know that there is 150 billion of America's dollars that won't be helping give them relief, because se spent it on a war.
Tell me again how much the Bush family donated... the Cheney family donated... the Rumsfeld family donated... and then you can speculate how much others did or did not give or do.
BTW, several on your list of people you claim have done nothing actually DID something to raise money, maybe you saw it... it aired last Saturday.
On the other hand, where are all the Hollywood liberals? Activist actors such as Ben Affleck, Susan Sarandon, Al Franken, Tim Robbins, Martin Sheen, and Barbra Streisand have not been heard from. Â Â
If you want to know what's really been going on in the countries hit by the tsunami and who is really doing what, read the blog The Diplomad. It's some Foreign Service Officers in the State Department blogging about the day-to-day relief efforts. Check out today's postings, and also their archives since the tsunami hit December 26. The sliminess of the UN is enough to turn you off of them forever.
"a longhaired guy with a beard, make a sarcastic comment to one of our food servers."
Bit of an attitude? I encountered the same when I covered military affairs.
The officers treated me like a bug. It was kinda funny. They had no reason to dislike me. My hair might hae been a bit long. But I wore a tie and showed up on time.
[Edited 3 times. Most recently by on Jan 21, 2005 at 08:06am.]
"I'd say it was the long-haired guy who had the attitude."
He probably did, too. They're stuck in a bad place with a hard mission. That produces a bit of stress. I don't think it's an issue of who's "right" and who's "slimy,"
The man is everywhere these days. This time he's picked what the New York Times called a "soft target."
"A music video promoting tolerance of others and featuring cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants is under fire from several U.S. religious groups, who charge that the "pro-homosexual video" is an attempt to "brainwash" kids. Dr. James C. Dobson, founder of religious group Focus on the Family, spoke of the video Tuesday evening at a black-tie dinner in Washington, criticizing what he called a "pro-homosexual video."'
[Edited 3 times. Most recently by on Jan 22, 2005 at 05:51am.]
This is the stupidest tempest-in-a-teapot since the flap over the Teletubbies.
As soon as the election was over, politicians and the press started trying to keep it simple (or simplistic) by saying it was about moral values. Nobody tried to DEFINE those moral values, it just became a catch-phrase. Now everybody's making assumptions about what it means and how they should react to it. It's clearly getting ridiculous. What concerns me is that it may become dangerous.
Some of the Dems are clearly trying to make nice with the church-going crowd (see Hillary's latest statements). Others are being defiant and saying that they won't give in to a bunch of holier-than-thou preachers. Some Repubs are assuming that the people want more God in their government. Idiots like Dobson are acting like they now have a mandate to inject prudery into public life.
The vast majority of people hold values that they try to live by and would like to see the government uphold. We obviously disagree on some of those values and that's why we have different parties and different qualities we look for in our elected officials. It's what makes and keeps the country strong. Those values are not necessarily religious values and that's where so many are making a big mistake.
I'm afraid that people on BOTH sides are going to be missing the point for the next who knows how long. I don't think this election was about God. If there is one main discussion going on here, it's about what America should do to protect our liberty and be a force for good in the world. Descending into petty squabbles over minutiae just wastes time and energy.
Been to Irelend.
They're not so tough.
They're not so tough.
Hell no! Not compared to "The Rat".
I think your average Swede could drink your average Irish under the table.
[Edited 2 times. Most recently by on Jan 5, 2005 at 05:58am.]
I think you're average Swede could drink your average Irish under the table.
That's not a good thing.
Not something you should brag about.
:-)
Scandinavians, on average, carry a heavy load of misery. It's dark half the year, the food is bad, and the theology looms over the bleak landscape.
Look at the art. Munch, Ibsen and Strindberg. Tormented people.
[Edited 2 times. Most recently by on Jan 5, 2005 at 06:33am.]
bodine doesn't seem to think so...
bodine doesn't seem to think what?
One too many words in that phrase.
heh. i was thinking it. wasn't gonna post it. but i was definitely thinking it.
idiots would have that feeling. it certainly couldn't be called a thought since they don't have thinking capabilities.
Precisely my point.
no that was not your point. but I wouldn't expect an idiot to understand that.Â
"We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is.''
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/georgewill/gw20050106.shtml
Theology in Scandinavia, Rick? I think their percentage of church-goers is one of the lowest in Europe.
I think you made my point.
In other words, if there is no God who says, "Do not murder" ("Do not kill" is a mistranslation of the Hebrew which, like English, has two words for homicide), murder is not wrong. Many people may think it is wrong, but that is their opinion, not objective moral fact. There are no moral "facts" if there is no God; there are only moral opinions.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/dp20050111.shtml
God is not a fact.
There is as much evidence of "factual morality" as there is evidence of "factual God", if not more.
In other words, if there is no God who says, "Do not murder", murder is not wrong.
how exactly does that work out? i'm sure there are a whole lot of atheists out there who'd disagree with that statement.
it's the divine command theory of morality
even for those that believe in god, that theory has been proven invalid
Clutching a cigarette and a drink and wearing a swastika armband
These days, it's hard to tell which a bigger sin, dressing like a Nazi or smoking.
Smoking
They had a news report last night about one of our legislature wanting to legalize gambling in bars, as long as the bar doesn't take a cut.
Anyway, I found it funny that it's ok to drink and gamble, but God forbid you light up a cigarette.
In other words, if there is no God who says, "Do not murder", murder is not wrong.
how exactly does that work out? i'm sure there are a whole lot of atheists out there who'd disagree with that statement.
Then where does the idea that murder is wrong come from? It comes from somewhere as do all moral standards. If you want a good answer read the first part of C.S.Lewis' Mere Christianity.
http://wcco.com/siteSearch/local_story_011231556.html
You mean this story THX?
[Edited by on Jan 13, 2005 at 10:26am.]
I can see Damon the jackass is back. I am sure he wrote something utterly stupid.
I wrote your little Divine Command Theory of Morality is fallacious in nature.
Â
Made for His Pleasure
by John Fischer
Because of His love God had already decided that through Jesus Christ He would
make us His children*this was His pleasure and purpose. (Ephesians 1:5 NEV)
We will never get to the bottom of this: that God made us for His pleasure. We
are much more likely to think of God as someone to obey, revere, and not offend.
Our natural tendency is to think that God is out to get us. We walk on eggshells
around Him. We imagine Him at best disinterested in our lives, and at worst, as
one waiting to pounce on us over our next misdeed. But to gain pleasure from us?
To have created us for His own joy is beyond us. That, by the way, is one reason
why I know this is true. Something this wonderful could only be something God
revealed to us; we could never have come up with this on our own.
Just what is it about us that brings Him pleasure? First off, we are like Him.
He looks at us and sees Himself because He made us to reflect His image. We have
a heart, a will, emotions, and a moral conscience. Because of this God can
relate to us and communicate with us. God can have fellowship with us, in other
words, and this is one of the main reasons we were created. Plus, we know from
examples of men and women in the Old Testament that this fellowship can take on
all the typical characteristics of human relationships*arguing, bargaining,
cajoling, forgiving, even wrestling (God and Jacob * Genesis 32:22-32) appears
to be a part of the human/divine relationship and something in which God takes
pleasure or He wouldn’t indulge in it.
This is why we receive so much pleasure when we worship God outright through
prayer, meditation, or music. We are doing the most important part of what we
were meant to do. David’s greatest joy was to meditate on the law of God day and
night.
But don’t leave out the rest of our lives that can be lived out as an act of
worship. Paul encourages us to do everything we do to the glory of God (1
Corinthians 10:31). He wouldn’t have suggested this if it weren’t possible. That
would mean that a host of activities and interests commonly thought of as
“secular” could take on the quality and function of worship in our daily lives.
And in all of this, God takes pleasure.
Try and live today within the reality that you are bringing God pleasure. We
started out that way without doing anything, so consider how living with that
consciousness can affect your choices, thoughts and actions.
wow, Jethro is so owned
[Edited by on Jan 14, 2005 at 05:19pm.]
Those who do not believe that moral values must come from the Bible or be based upon God's moral instruction argue that they have a better source for values: human reason.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
There are four primary problems with reason divorced from God as a guide to morality.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/dp20050118.shtml
you don't even know that God exists and you want to base things on it?
There are over six billion people living on our planet. Of that six
Âbillion, almost two billion are Muslims. That's roughly a third of the total
population of the earth.
 The earthquake that triggered the killer tsunami was centered just off the
coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Indonesia is the world's most
populous Muslim country. It was also the most severely devastated by the
wave. Nearly 100,000 of the victims of the December 26 catastrophe were
Indonesian Muslims.
 The vast majority of the victims were either Muslims, Buddhists or Hindu.
Got all that? Good.
 Now, to the United Nations. The United Nations consists of 186 countries.
The most powerful voting bloc is the fifty-seven Islamic countries that
generally vote with one voice, especially when the United States or Israel
are voting the other way.
 The United Nations' head of humanitarian relief, Jan Egeland, criticized
the West for being stingy. He didn't specifically mention America, but he
cited the exact percentage of the US GDP that is budgeted for foreign aid,
so there is little doubt of who the 'stingy West' was, at least in Egeland's
mind.
 Egeland slammed the United States for not raising taxes so that America
could give a greater percentage of its GDP to the UN to distribute as part
of the UN's foreign aid package.
 Editorials in the Washington Post, the New York Times and other liberal
newspapers echoed Egeland's charge, with the New York Times calling
America's $350 million in direct government aid 'miserly'.
 The United States makes up some six percent of the world's total
population, but we pay a quarter of the United Nation's total budget. The
United States pays forty percent of the world's total disaster relief aid,
and sixty percent of the world's total food donations.
 The $2.4 billion (that's BILLION) dollars Washington spent in emergency
aid in 2003 represented 40 percent of the total amount of emergency
assistance from all bilateral donors provided that year. Evidently, that
isn't enough.
 It didn't take long for these same liberal elitists to turn Mother Nature
into an American right-wing hater of Islam.
 Not only had America's imperialistic self-enrichment policies created the
natural disaster, but also cold-hearted Muslim hating President Bush
wouldn't leave his ranch in Texas... which by the way, is his home -- not a
vacation destination -- and only offered a 'stingy' initial monetary
donation.
 While these elitist journalist were assailing President Bush and
expounding the mantra that America should be giving more money to the
devastated region in a token gesture that would 'show Islam that America
didn't hate Muslims', UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was still on his
vacation skiing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He returned to New York four days
later.
 The wave struck on Sunday, and it took only until Monday before the US
announced its $350 million in initial aid, sent the USS Abraham Lincoln into
the region, including helicopters, and C-130 transport planes, sent hundreds
of tons of pre-packaged emergency aid supplies, and deployed some 14,000
American troops to help with the recovery and cleanup.
 In Indonesia, U.S. helicopters flew at least 30 sorties, delivering 60,000
pounds of water and supplies, from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln
along a 120-mile stretch of Sumatra island's ravaged coastline.
 Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the richest nations in the Islamic world, donated
a paltry $10 million each. The United Arab Emirates donated some $20 million
to relieve the suffering of their Islamic 'brothers'.
 Egypt's contribution at the time of this writing is $104,
 000.00. (Note:
Egypt gets $2 BILLION in US foreign aid annually)
 And did anybody notice that the majority of the private donations came
from those evil corporate types the left so loves to loathe?
 Pfizer donated $10 million in cash and $25 million in drugs. (That is more
than oil-rich Saudi Arabia and Kuwait combined). General Motors pledged $2
million in cash, agreed to match employee donations dollar for dollar, and
is sending vehicles to transport food and medical supplies to the region.
 Other corporate donors include Nike Inc., American Express, General
Electric, First Data Corp., Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Exxon-Mobil, Citigroup,
Marriott International and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
 On the other hand, where are all the Hollywood liberals? Activist actors
such as Ben Affleck, Susan Sarandon, Al Franken, Tim Robbins, Martin Sheen,
and Barbra Streisand have not been heard from.
 And where is George Soros, the world richest left wing liberal?
 Actress Sandra Bullock donated one million dollars, but Bullock is neither
an activist nor a liberal. (She also donated one million following September
11.) Super-rich liberals like Bono and Bruce Springsteen are promising to
hold another 'aid concert' to collect money (not theirs) for the victims.
 America, as noted at the outset, represents six percent of the global
population. But in any catastrophe, it gets one hundred percent of the
blame. The UN's nose is out of joint because the Bush administration refuses
to funnel its aid through the UN's various aid agencies.
 Kofi Annan wants to use the catastrophe to shore up the UN's sagging image
in the wake of the Oil-For-Food thefts from Iraq. The United States wants to
ensure the aid doesn't end up lining the pockets of UN officials. So the US
is 'too stingy' and gets another black eye.
 Where is the rest of the Islamic world? There are fifty-seven Islamic
nations, and the world's biggest Islamic nation is the one that took the
Â
hardest hit. But it is the United States -- the world's largest donor
nation -- that is grabbing all the headlines for being 'stingy'.
 To put things in perspective, I saw a news photo yesterday of one of the
Indonesian victims.
 He was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the face of Osama bin Laden.
 Excerpted from the Omega Letter Daily Intelligence Digest, Volume:7,
Issue:4
Actually, if they are performing, it's theirs.
People are paying to see them perform.
and how much of the world's resources does it consume? How much of the world's pollution does it create?
We also know that there is 150 billion of America's dollars that won't be helping give them relief, because se spent it on a war.
Tell me again how much the Bush family donated... the Cheney family donated... the Rumsfeld family donated... and then you can speculate how much others did or did not give or do.
BTW, several on your list of people you claim have done nothing actually DID something to raise money, maybe you saw it... it aired last Saturday.
[Edited by molegrass on Jan 20, 2005 at 03:59pm.]
How much did you donate, Crabby?
uh... here's a great big bunch of them...
Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, Drew Barrymore, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Nicolas Cage, Diana Ross, Elton John, Norah Jones, Madonna, George Clooney, Gloria Estefan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Robert De Niro, Tim Robbins, Rene Zellweger, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Halle Berry, John Mayer, Meg Ryan and Hugh Grant
Time or money?
And why don't you go first?
Even though I asked you first...
I donated $200.
I haven't donated any time.
I wish I had more time to donate. It's tough with three kids and a wife in school full time.
Someday.
[Edited by on Jan 20, 2005 at 04:16pm.]
I have. Of course we had plenty to do right at home dealing with natural disasters. Ice storm, flooding... lots to do to help.
Of course donating isn't about being able to say you donated.
[Edited by molegrass on Jan 20, 2005 at 04:28pm.]
THIS IS NOT SOMETHING I WROTE....just something I'm passing on!!!
Â
Actually, if they are performing, it's theirs.
Turning capitalist are you, Crabby?
LOL
Theirs? What about "Us"? Where's my share?
Those selfish bastards!
If you want to know what's really been going on in the countries hit by the tsunami and who is really doing what, read the blog The Diplomad. It's some Foreign Service Officers in the State Department blogging about the day-to-day relief efforts. Check out today's postings, and also their archives since the tsunami hit December 26. The sliminess of the UN is enough to turn you off of them forever.
Also, read this post
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=DefenseWatch.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=762&rnd=573.4574367016919
from an officer on board the USS Abraham Lincoln.
"a longhaired guy with a beard, make a sarcastic comment to one of our food servers."
Bit of an attitude? I encountered the same when I covered military affairs.
The officers treated me like a bug. It was kinda funny. They had no reason to dislike me. My hair might hae been a bit long. But I wore a tie and showed up on time.
[Edited 3 times. Most recently by on Jan 21, 2005 at 08:06am.]
Think about that.
No, you think about it.
I did. It says that you can't think of anyone but yourself. You can't think in terms of "us" without the "or them" attached.
You don't have a clue about me, Crabby.
Bit of an attitude?
I'd say it was the long-haired guy who had the attitude.
I have at least as much of a clue about you as you do of me, and you sure like to claim that you know me.
"I'd say it was the long-haired guy who had the attitude."
He probably did, too. They're stuck in a bad place with a hard mission. That produces a bit of stress. I don't think it's an issue of who's "right" and who's "slimy,"
Make sense?
Watch out if you're standing between James Dobson and a microphone
The man is everywhere these days. This time he's picked what the New York Times called a "soft target."
"A music video promoting tolerance of others and featuring cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants is under fire from several U.S. religious groups, who charge that the "pro-homosexual video" is an attempt to "brainwash" kids.
Dr. James C. Dobson, founder of religious group Focus on the Family, spoke of the video Tuesday evening at a black-tie dinner in Washington, criticizing what he called a "pro-homosexual video."'
[Edited 3 times. Most recently by on Jan 22, 2005 at 05:51am.]
This is the stupidest tempest-in-a-teapot since the flap over the Teletubbies.
As soon as the election was over, politicians and the press started trying to keep it simple (or simplistic) by saying it was about moral values. Nobody tried to DEFINE those moral values, it just became a catch-phrase. Now everybody's making assumptions about what it means and how they should react to it. It's clearly getting ridiculous. What concerns me is that it may become dangerous.
Some of the Dems are clearly trying to make nice with the church-going crowd (see Hillary's latest statements). Others are being defiant and saying that they won't give in to a bunch of holier-than-thou preachers. Some Repubs are assuming that the people want more God in their government. Idiots like Dobson are acting like they now have a mandate to inject prudery into public life.
The vast majority of people hold values that they try to live by and would like to see the government uphold. We obviously disagree on some of those values and that's why we have different parties and different qualities we look for in our elected officials. It's what makes and keeps the country strong. Those values are not necessarily religious values and that's where so many are making a big mistake.
I'm afraid that people on BOTH sides are going to be missing the point for the next who knows how long. I don't think this election was about God. If there is one main discussion going on here, it's about what America should do to protect our liberty and be a force for good in the world. Descending into petty squabbles over minutiae just wastes time and energy.