Check out this article and watch the video:
http://www.examiner.com/x-10853-Portland-Humanist-Examiner~y2009m10d23-NC-Baptist-church-plans-Halloween-book-burning-Video
Wow. Sometimes people still amaze me even though I know in my heart that they shouldn't. I have met a lot of people with all sorts of beliefs and feelings. We are all made differently and, as the saying goes, it takes all kinds, but this really amazes me. I thought that we put these things behind us. Even the Christians should have...
1 Corinthians 13:11 - When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
Are people still this lost and confused in the world? The area where I live, Northern Nevada, is full of a lot of misinformed people who think that hoarding their dollars is more important than the health and education of their community, people who do drugs or drink are accepted as either friends that are just doing their thing or worthless trash that needs to be dealt with instead of realizing that the alcoholic and drug addict are a product, a reflection on their community, and that hate and violence is okay as long as it is against whomever they choose, but I have not met many people with the gall to stand up and say that we need to burn books.
I can see them now, a bunch of older, confused people dancing around their book pyre, speaking in tongues and hissing as if it were nothing more than an old time melodrama.
I believe in freedom of religion and I think it is one of the many brilliant sparks in the Constitution. I believe that these people, whom I wish I could just write off as crazy, but that is not productive, should be able to burn these books if they want. The right of protest is important, but I cannot understand how people are so lost and misguided. Do these people actually think that destroying books is going to change anything? It sounds to me like it is revenge for logic and reason showing how obsolete and ridiculous these people are. Through education we find that these silly acts of childishness are just that, silly and childish.
There is another thing going on here as well: The town has said that setting this bonfire is a safety hazard and that the fire department will stop it. If the church continues with the burning, the FD will put it out and charge the ringleader for the services.
I do give them a certain amount of credit for standing up for what they believe in, something that a lot of us have lost due to apathy. If we as reasonable people stood up in 2000 and protested the election, maybe the Bush/Cheney regime would not have ever happened. It shows that us reasonable people believe in the rule of law and the constitution. By the way, whatever you think about 2000, whether you thought it was fair or stolen, you have to admit that it was very fishy and not everything was on the level there...but I shall move on.
According to the website of the church, they are destroying perversions of the will of God, including many books written by other christian writers as well as various versions of the bible that they see unfit.
First of all, don't you think it rather presumptuous to assume the word of God?? I don't even believe in that great illusionist, but I cannot assume to know what he wants. Even if they go by the word of the bible, they should read the damn thing before making assumptions and learn a little about their actual history.
The very early Christians were considered a cult in ancient Rome, which in turn made them illegal. In order to fight this, they decided to add what we call the old testament to the new testament and therefore claim that this is an actual religion that goes back a long time. this gave them a certain amount of acceptance, especially after Constantine came along.
In the new testament, Jesus, the man that they claim to follow, the man they claim is their lord and savior preached a few, very simple things to live by. He also made this statement that he would tear down the church and rebuild it in three days. This was a great metaphor meaning to turn away the old practices and look forward to the new ones, those simple ideas that are quite often summed up as the Beatitudes.
Here:
Matthew 5:2-10 (New International Version)
2and he began to teach them saying:
3"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Christians today seem to forget that they have a religious obligation to the poor and to make peace, but many choose to follow the old eye for an eye saying or practice hate on others unlike themselves.
On eye for an eye for a second, Jesus specifically said in the book, and mind you this is not me assuming, this is what is says, that eye for an eye is the old way and we do not practice that anymore. Now we practice love and forgiveness, turn the other cheek. Oh how quickly we tend to forget when we are becoming desperate.
I did not mean to turn this into a christian-bashing party or anything. I actually have many christian friends and agree with a few of them, mainly the ones that follow what the book says and don't cram their religion down your throat. I have one friend that never, ever preaches to you. He is willing to speak and educate you on the bible if you would like, but truly understands that it is not his place to convince you of anything. I respect that a lot. It is refreshing in this world to see someone that has great experiences with religion and has used it as a tool to assist him in becoming a better person, not a crutch to fling hate and fear at one another.
This NC Church enjoys this book burning. To them, it is a practice of faith in some twisted way, but to evolved beings, they are nothing but silly, uneducated people. To quote Mickey Knox, "From where you're standing, you're a man, but from where I'm standing, you're an ape."
Let them burn their silly books. Let the people like Limbaugh, Savage, Robertson, and the other right-wing wackos say what they want. It will only be through education that we will evolve as society toward peace and love, not the hate that these people want to spew. It takes us not regulating or looking away, but watching and seeing the ridiculousness of it all to show how weird these people really are. You cannot argue against that which you do not understand or know about.
The Tao teaches us that when you create more laws, you create more criminals. It is with patience and teaching that we will move forward.
I guess this post went a few different directions there, but oh well. Say what you will because I will not shut you up. I will not burn your books. I may call you a moron and laugh at your antiquated superstitions and rituals, but feel free to do them as long as you need to.
That is one of the great things about the internet: People can't burn it. Also, really check out that website of the church. It is almost as funny as the all-powerful TIMECUBE!!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
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Wow, that was/is quiet a reflection on the book burning thing. I think the motivation for burning books, CDs, or other sources of media is twofold. I think the first motivatin is kind of honorable if they think they are honoring God by turning away from what they believe is sinful media. However, what I think is the second motivation--to keep suggestive media from polluting their minds--is futile. If people are going to try and put an end to what they think is false teaching, there will be no end to burnings or isolationist or excommunication types of programs (or future pograms against?). However, the only way any of us are going to come to the truth is to communicate with one another, and many times that will mean reading and viewing different kinds of media. The thing is is that we know sometimes really smart people and really thoughtful people are considered either crazy or possessed in some way. We need to stay open to what others have to say--whether in books or face to face--or we will be lost isolationist. Anyway, I don't think we can keep ourselves pure (if there is such a thing) by controlling the media or other people's ideas; we do that by purifying ourselves with what we know is pure. So, if you want a cool drink of water, you gotta dig a little deeper in the well boys. . .and girls.
ReplyDeleteGood thoughts on this. I agree to some extent as well. I was more just ranting. I get so frustrated and tired of hearing that some people in this world are so behind the times. It is like the intelligent design people that attempt to use their theories to bring down scientific rigor, but consistently fail (...and don't worry, there will be a blog about that some time soon.) When that was happening here in the US, the cases in Kansas and Pennsylvania, I was so blown away with the junk science that they were trying to force teachers to teach. I talked to a friend from Japan and they were amazed also. They said that this is the only country where this argument exist. It is a product of our freedom of religion. I am not saying that is not a great thing, but it gets annoying to put up with the bad sides of each of our freedoms.
ReplyDeleteIt is just that ignorance from knowledge, as in book burning, is not a way to get sympathy for your cause, nor is it a productive way to educate anyone about it either. It seems to me like it is more out of fear that they do these things. They cannot handle that people disagree or that some of their ideas may possibly be wrong. Their argument is full of holes, so they want to destroy anything that could undermine them. The only way we can all evolve and become a better society and better people is through truth, social evolution, and learning from our mistakes. Book Burning is the fascist way out. There were numerous dictators in history, most of whom Christians claim to hate, that used book burning and/or banning as one of their main tools to keep their underlings stupid.
Even if it is for a good cause (Although I do not know of one), history has shown us over and over that destroying media is not the way and even if it was, people are prone to turn away from it because of all of the negative connotations. I was pleased to learn that this congregation was only like 14 people. This example is brilliant because it shows a great reason why their congregation is only 14 people.
Right on FP. Yeh, nah, it wasn't a good cause, but the light blinds people sometimes to think that when they are thinking they're doing God a favor they're really undermining some good. I think you hit the nail on the head when you wrote, "They cannot handle that people disagree or that some of their ideas may possibly be wrong." The thing is that they cannot handle the arguement or debate; if they can't win by authentic dialogue, they'll put an end to the dialogue anyway they can. I'd like to talk to them, but to disagree with them is too insulting to their nature. That's when it comes down to "their idea" that anyone who disagrees with their opnion must be of the devil! With that in mind, the question is, "How can we dialogue in a relationship like that?"
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in college, one of my classes was logic and reasoning. We were studying Russell's "Science and Ethics". This lead to a discussion about the nature of God in everything. This women said that Russell was wrong because he says that oysters are better than people. I had to get on her and remind her that he did not say that, he said that in turns of life, what makes man greater than an oyster, implying that we are all on the same level. She did not understand that at all.
ReplyDeleteThen a bit later talking about God, she tried to argue that she does not understand any of what we were talking about because we were not taking into account that her God exists. She even got angry and demanded that we acknowlege that her God might exist, but when I argued back that in order for anyone to say that, she will need to acknowlege and her God may not exist. She refused and walked out of class.
That was a perfect example of why a lot of them will not debate. In order for us to udnerstand their side, they need to understand mine and usually they refuse to.