For anyone who equates fundamentalism with Christianity and religion

[dawgman]

in general....
http://afsc.org/issues/index/peaceb.asp (quaker group)
emissaryoflight.com (think this is mennonite group)
http://bpfna.org/(baptist group)
http://bpf.org/html/home.html(buddhist group)
http://episcopalpeacefellowship.org/
http://jewishpeacefellowship.org/
http://mpfweb.org/(muslim group)
http://incommunion.org (eastern/greek orthodox group)

Blessed are the peacemakers; they shall be called children of God.

[sangh0]

1. thanks for the links

kick

[dawgman]

2. My father is pretty active in the episcopal peace movement and

has been forwarding me lots of info and giving me lots of readings. INteresting to think that until about ten years ago he was a repub.

[kispoko]

3. sweet pic dawgman

i loves me some randy moss :)

[dawgman]

20. gotta love randy

[wryter2000]

4. You're so right

And thanks for the reminder. I do wish that more religious folks would speak out against the Falwell's and Robertson's. I'm not a believer, but I was raised in a fine Christian church. If I did still consider myself a Christian, there's no way I'd let them co-opt my faith for their own purposes.

[bobd]

5. I do not like religion

It causes more problems than it's worth. My stock response to people who ask me why I don't go to church is "I'm not a republican".

BTW: What's with the violent picture of the football yahoos doing in a post about peacefullness? Isn't football antithetical to relgion as well?

[Blue_Chill]

7. wow

I can see that you and I will never agree on anything.

1- Going to chruch does not make one a republican. I woul dvery much appreciate it if you did not help the fundies futher push the image that christianity = GOP.

2- I have no idea how you came about your football somehow against peace or christianity. It's a sport, that's all, nothing more nothing less. It isn't symbolic of war or any other over thought moronic view had by our resident "anti- physical competition" think tank.

[KCDem]

8. very much agree on the fundy comment.

I heard an interesting sermon in my UU church this Sunday on the Bible. The pastor stated that by all-out rejecting the Bible as a fundamentalist piece of crap, non-believers were making the Bible to be fundamental... basically, they're giving it to the fundies.

I agree. Giving the Bible to the GOP will be far more damaging to our party than giving the flag to them back during Vietnam has been.

[bobd]

12. My Family on both sides

is chock full 'o fundies, chock full 'o repubs. I am SO sick of religion. It's everywhere all the time. Bill boards, tv, the newspaper, at work, on the radio. Sports, too is full o' fundies.

Personally, I've never gotten a thing from all the bible beating directed my way. I don't begrudge people their religion nor would I ever dream of stopping people from indulging in it. For me, however, I want no part of it. I think it's a bad, bad thing that has brought more pain and suffering to the world than almost anything else.

Sorry, but that's my opinion, as onerous as it may be.

[Blue_Chill]

14. I'm not saying you can't have an opinion

all I'm saying is please do not help the fundies move all christians to the GOP.

You are free to think whatever you wish of religion. Besides your views on relegion are no worse then my views on reality tv. :D

[Selwynn]

9. You're free to follow your own path...

..and to do so with my blessing, not that my blessing is worth much. :)

But I'm a progressive liberal and a religious man, and I have to admit to getting tired to points of veiw like yours that state that for all people religion causes more poroblems than its worth or implying that anyone who goes to church is a republican...

I've never pushed you to go to church of hold views you don't hold and I never would - I don't bash you for your choice against faith - but I ask for the same courtesy when it comes to my choices for faith - an experience which has been profoundly joyful and beautiful in my own life.

[MojoKrunch]

13. It has taken me several decades to get away from feeling

just like bobd feels.

I grew up an empathetic, introverted kid in rural, Catholic Louisiana.
I went to a Catholic school until 8th grade.
By the time I was in the 2nd grade, I'd decided I didn't beleive in the god these people were trying to sell me.
("He" *loves* everyone but he flooded the earth and *KILLED* them all... even the little kids! WTF? What psychopath made up *THAT* story?)
Our town had Baptist, Episcopalian and Methodist churches as well, but being raised Catholic, I didn't really take them seriously.
They were just "heretics", afteral.

I stopped going to church in high school and started reading to put names to what I believed, namely that I was an atheist and a Skeptic.
It wasn't until college that I discovered that I was a Feminist, Humanist and an Existentialist as well.

I wasn't a huge history fan but I read enough to recognize that religion plays a huge role in motivating people when governments want to do bad things.
And then there was the Inquisition.

For me, religion, as defined by the Catholic church was barely one step removed from the Dark Ages...
Oh, I *knew* intellectually that there existed liberal religious people and that these folks had done a great deal throughout the history of America(and elsewhere, of course) to make it something to be proud of... to help embody the ideals set forth by the Founding Fathers.
But that wasn't anyone *I* knew.

Like bobd, all of *my* friends and family were mostly racists, conservatives and religious hypocrites.
(Hard to want to emulate people who willingly do "sinful" things Friday and Saturday nights and then "piously" confess and beg forgiveness the next damn day. ya know?)

At this point in my life, I don't doubt for a second that if I'd grown up in a different environment I'd have probably maintained some form of spirituality(like we don't all share the spirituality of life as it is) and could easily see myself as a UU or belonging to some ulra-liberal branch of Protestantism or even Buddhism.
Maybe.

But growing up as I did, around the people I did, I've had all of the comforting little illusions and delusions humans call religion wiped clear and I'm staring at reality as unimpeded as any one human being can.
And that's perfectly ok.

I don't ask other people to follow and I don't like when other people push me.
And I only bite when poked.

Mojo

[Selwynn]

15. I can definately understand that...

[dawgman]

10. ummm how is football intrinsically unethical?

[rucky]

16. That's about as closed-minded at the fundies n/t

[dkamin]

6. also

http://www.liberalslikechrist.org

[dawgman]

11. thanks for the addition.

I'll forward it to my father.

[dawgman]

17. afternoon self-gratification kick

[leftofthedial]

18. religion is a tool of the overlords

keeps us docile.

it also inevitably results in cycles of fundamentalism and repressession.

Otherwise,

Peace!

[dawgman]

19. religion is nothing more than a philosophy on how one

should live one's life in order to achieve a happiness that doesn't come with a Lexus or a million dollar house.

Fundamentalism is the opiate of the masses. Fundamentalism gives the lower classes a pie in the sky hope for the "afterlife." Life sucks now but it will get better when I die.

If one spent any time at all reading and learning about the teachings of men such as Christ one would find a common message "the Kingdom of God is at hand." That doesn't mean that it is coming, it means that it is here and it is our responsibility to see it to fruition. One would also find the guidelines, Blessed are the peacemakers, love your neighbor as yourself...etc. It is only by following these guidelines for living that we can be truly happy.

Don't equate the philosophy of religion with the philosophy of fundamentalism.

[leftofthedial]

21. I don't equate the two

but religion is far more than you say in your subject line.

that may be all it is for you, but it has been and is today many other things.