I politely answer the door, but if I say thanks, and I'm not interested, they should say the same and leave. When they start asking or "telling" after that, I get more firm with them leaving the porch.
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I politely answer the door, but if I say thanks, and I'm not interested, they should say the same and leave. When they start asking or "telling" after that, I get more firm with them leaving the porch.
You have one thing correct, I am STRONGLY anti-religion. Don't misconstrue what I'm saying. I DO beleive in God, but I have strong aversion to organized worship of any kind. I think it all borders on cult-like activity. I was baptized Catholic, but renounced it years ago when those hypocritical child molesters wouldn't baptize my daughter, juse because her mother and I weren't married.
I don't want people to NOT stand up for gun rights, but it's the Christian fundamentalist whack jobs that I don't want to be associated with. The likes of James Dobson or Ted Haggard. People always assume i'm some super right wing conservative jesus freak, just because I love me some guns.
The only reason I love firearms, is because they are beautiful works of art, that can end life. So much more than just the sum of their parts.
for some reason they always catch me when I'm getting home and out of my truck. They follow me up to my door. "Nice day today Sir". "It sure is" I reply as I shut the door behind me.
I remember when I believed there was an invisible man in the sky that came down as his own son to save us from all the bad things in life.
And then I started to think logically.
[ROFL1]
We live so far out,, they don't come. OK well once they did, I let em drive all the way down, get out of their car walk all the way up to the house and then told em I didn't live here and was wait'n on the owner to get here from prison.
He was paroled today....Wanna here his story???
They said have a nice day and left.
Right before you die, what are you going to say to yourself? GOT JESUS![Coffee]
Not exactly. They have changed some basic tenets of Christian beliefs to make their version their own. It isn't basic Christianity with a couple updates, there are some significant differences. I'm not saying this to bash them, and I'm not saying they're not good folks. I know a few myself.
I will say this: if you start looking into some of their history, there are some areas they really don't like outsiders to get into, like Brother Brigham's avenging angels for example. And their dispensing with the polygamy thing had more to do with better fitting into society than deciding that there was something wrong with it.
I will assume that you don't have a large amount of knowledge about Christianity from what you've said. I'm not judging, I'm just saying. The Mormon folks are certainly welcome to believe as they choose. But I'm here to tell you that Brigham Young, Joseph Smith, and company are NOT "just more recent prophets" to me. That'd be like saying that Obama is just a more recent conservative. Those may be their prophets, but they aren't mine.
You're making a good argument to be a religious "progressive". That's fine. But I'm one of those who doesn't believe that "progressive" politicians are trying to help us by re-interpreting the Second Amendment and the rest of the Constitution, and I don't believe that everyone should be constantly re-interpreting the Bible, and adding or changing whatever makes them feel good.
Lots of folks seem to think that it's OK to change things to be what they want them to be, or redefine things to be more convenient, or whatever, as long as it makes them what they want them to be or doesn't affect them. I tend to think that the Constitution means what it says, and doesn't need to be constantly re-interpreted. Same with the Bible. I think it's ironic that Federal Laws are called the "U.S. Code", because it's written in such a way that you're forced to hire interpreters (lawyers) in an effort to try to make sense of it, and what you get is, once again, someone's interpretation.
There are plenty of people who call themselves "Christians" out there who give everyone else who calls themself a Christian a bad name. Those whackjobs out in Kansas who protest at the funerals of Servicemembers who've given the ultimate sacrifice come to mind. Everyone sees what they do and immediately associates ALL people who call themselves Christian with them. But I will observe that calling yourself something does not automatically make you that thing. And I seriously doubt that Christ would condone what those folks in Kansas do.
Just my opinion.
You make strong points, and of course I haven't had the time to look too much into either religion. With that said, what do you have to say about the change in tone from the Old Testament and the New Testament? I haven't gotten to the new testament yet, so I'm not real familiar with how they are different.
More people have been killed in the name of religion than for any other reason.
My personal feeling is that religion is just a tool or empty vessel. Just because someone carries out a war in the name of religion, doesn't mean it is religion's fault. Obama is trying to ruin the country with this stupid health care crap, but I wouldn't say that health care in of itself is a bad thing.