RNC: Liberals want to ban the Bible

[Prodigal Son]

http://www.steveclemons.com/GOPMailer.htm

[Tarkan]

With comments like this:

"Every bible-thumping moralist secretely wishes to be a dictator. "

the accussation seems to be pretty accurate.

[kilroy]

who said that?

[Buzzsaw]

The same guy who started this thread. But don't flame him. I'm not sure why but Prodigal has a pretty big chip on his shoulder about conservative Christians. But he's not the only person who has this opinion.

[Prodigal Son]

Because they are scary! Many believe the Bible literally -- meaning the idea the world was created only 6,000 years ago or that Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale makes sense to them.

Anyway, the Bible is a good piece of literature. Why would I want to ban it?

[Aegis]

Because they are scary! Many believe the Bible literally -- meaning the idea the world was created only 6,000 years ago or that Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale makes sense to them.

Anyway, the Bible is a good piece of literature. Why would I want to ban it?

Not all (in fact, not even most) religious people take the Bible that literally. Most people I know regard the old Testament as the oral tradition of the Hebrew people, while taking most of the new testament very seriously as the teachings of the Messiah himself. The Bible predates science, so the knowledge gleaned from within should not be taken with a scientific state of mind (not any more than one would look to the Illiad from a scientific POV).

Of course, there are the whackies. Believe it or not, they are not even a plurality of practicing christians, they are just an exceptionally well organized minority. Candidates court them because they will vote in a block, while with a less cohesive group, like Catholics (I'm a Catholic), a large number of individuals can be expected to vote according to their own criterion, regardless of the canon of the church, hence courting the church's stances may turn a few old timers (most of whom grew up pre Vatican II), but will have less effect overall than pandering to the evangelical protestants.

[Prodigal Son]

Exactly Aegis! The whacky religious right is giving christians a bad name in the same way whacky islamic fundies give muslims a bad name.

If folks believe abortion is wrong b/c it's murder that's a good argument to make because it has clear logic. You don't have to believe genesis literally to believe that. It's reasonable to hold such beliefs. I don't agree, but I think folks who do argue from principled reason and shouldn't be made fun of. If you want creationsim taught in school, sexual relationships between consenting adults regulated, or media restricted due to some biblical notion of "morality" then that's not reasonable. There is no well-thought-out logic as to why they should be restricted beyond one's interpretation of scripture.

I personally believe that so long as what you are doing doesn't hurt anybody then folks should be left alone as much as possible. How two gay men living in a long-term relationship hurts others I cannot fathom. I can fathom how folks can see abortion as hurting an unborn child, and so take their concerns far more seriously.