Something that saddens me about many active members of the Chuch

[TripletDaddy]

Originally Posted by Adam

I admit it was personal.

FMCoug really is a bankrupt overweight person who supports the right to bear arms and lives in a McMansion in Texas, the land of the deep fried twinkie and baked brisket. And he really believes God's hand micromanages this deficit spending overindulgent life of his.

I find the idea that God endorses and directs the details of this unexamined life disgusting and demeaning to God. Citing Grant Von Harrison and claiming God as IM chat pal is a way to abrogate responsibility for the historically grotesque life FMCoug leads. I wanted to point this out clearly.

No, it isn't kind to point out so bluntly the ridiculousness of FMCoug's immature narcissistic view of God (God as bass fishing buddy). I'll probably feel sorry in the morning.

Good night and sweet dreams.

Wow. No wonder nobody voted for you.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by TripletDaddy

Wow. No wonder nobody voted for you.

Come now. That's way to personal.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

Creekster, do you really believe that a belief that you are one of Jesus' elect such that he intervenes in your life is the essense of Christian charity? I don't believe it. That would be a pretty offensive belief. Such a belief is not only obnoxious, provincial, borderline narcissistic, and ethically immature. It is infantile. Seriously, grow up any of you who feel that way.

You are not reading very closely and are imputing to me and others far too much (perhaps to try to make a point). I refuse to discuss my view of the nature of God in this thread as it has devolved into a school boy shouting match masquerading as a debate. You contributed to the atmosphere with your use of aggressively pejorative terms rather than intelligent discussion, which is what prompted my rather uncharitable response in this same thread. At the time I debated in my own mind if I should post it, and I now regret doing so. As Yohio suggests, attempting to discuss religion from any viewpoint doesn't work very well if you act like an ass.

Adam's post, however, goes so far beyond reasonable that it truly makes me wonder if particiapting here is worthwhile. Once we were driving by Lake Merritt in Oakland, CA on a beautiful day and decided to buy some sandwiches for an impromptu picnic. We purshcased the food and parked our car looking forward to a relaxing lunch on the shore of this urban oasis. As we walked onto the lakeside grass, we realized it was covered everywhere with duck and goose feces. Despite how tempting the idea of the picnic was, the reality was you had to deal with so much crap that it just wasn't worth it. We got back in the car and drove home.

[TripletDaddy]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

Come now. That's way to personal.

Apologies. I didn't mean it to be.

I'm basically pretty guileless I guess.

[Tex]

Originally Posted by Adam

SeattleUte nailed it.

If God is actively engaged in the lives of his children, why does he allow the horrible things to happen?

FMCoug, are you saying the victims of the horrors are at fault because they don't supplicate Him and ask him to change the horror befalling them?

Are you saying that the horrors are his will for them?

It is very easy to be a chubby bankrupt living in a McMansion in wasteland suburbia Texas sucking the BBQ off your stubby fingers as you turn the pages of your Grant Von Harrison psycho-babble missionary brainwashing text and tell the world God is actively involved in their lives because you see his hand daily direct you to the best cheese fries in the lone star state or inspire you to add another worthless square foot of foyer or another foot of roof-line height to your conspicuous consumption cushion-couch existence.

You think God is active in your life because you remember you left the deep fryer on after enjoying your second breakfast of deep-fried Texas twinkies and turn around half way to the Heston Memorial gun show and brisket bake where you are hoping to pick up a .50 caliber sniper rifle. You cite this incident as proof that God is active in your life tearfully in your testimony after the travelogue of enduring the single hotel room at Corpus Christi beach with your sleep apnea mother-in-law who forced you to eat at IHOP every morning and watch her slop down a double order of the cream cheese stuffed french toast and a tall stack smothered with syrup AND strawberries.

God isn't actively intervening in the life of the 13 year old Ukrainian girl kidnapped into Turkish prostitution or the Namibian AIDS baby who dies at three years old because the local clinic ran out of medicine this month.

You think because you live a fat life of deficit spending emotional bliss God's hand is patting your ample behind as you walk down the primrose path. Maybe that patting is just your diaper full and sloshing around and God's hand isn't anywhere near your ample arse.

But I could be wrong and maybe God doesn't value agency as much as the scriptures say he does. Maybe he really is just cruel and capricious and discriminating in his love and blessings. Maybe he does resemble Genghis Khan more than Gandhi and you are right. If so, I do not long to be in his heaven.

You guys don't realize what a gem this is from Adam. This is gold. Anytime I get a lecture from Adam about my unChristlike-ness, all I need to do is refer back.

Thank you, Adam. God bless.

Originally Posted by Adam

And that is the difference between the Tex's and Indy's of the world and me--how we view Christ. Is he the angry Israelite God throwing down fire from heaven to fry the wicked? Or is he the compassionate Jesus who embraced the adulterous woman and condemned her not.

Ahem.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Originally Posted by UtahDan

I'm with creekster here. I don't think I've ever seen any of us treat each other this way before and that is a fairly high hurdle. Adam has contributed a lot I have valued in the past. I hope upon reflection he will offer FM an apology. I think one is owed.

Agreed.

We need Rocky to weigh in. He has a way of gently defusing situations like this.

[SoonerCoug]

I don't have time or energy to read this thread. FMCoug is a very good guy--met him at the Tulsa game. I can't really take sides in this discussion since I have a temporary case of ADHD and don't want to read a lot, but I don't understand FMCoug's "being saddened by what people believe" statement.

SeattleUte could worship Satan himself and I wouldn't be sad.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Originally Posted by creekster

Adam's post, however, goes so far beyond reasonable that it truly makes me wonder if particiapting here is worthwhile. Once we were driving by Lake Merritt in Oakland, CA on a beautiful day and decided to buy some sandwiches for an impromptu picnic. We purshcased the food and parked our car looking forward to a relaxing lunch on the shore of this urban oasis. As we walked onto the lakeside grass, we realized it was covered everywhere with duck and goose feces. Despite how tempting the idea of the picnic was, the reality was you had to deal with so much crap that it just wasn't worth it. We got back in the car and drove home.

Don't let the terrorists win, buddy.

[CJF]

Originally Posted by Adam

I admit it was personal.

FMCoug really is a bankrupt overweight person who supports the right to bear arms and lives in a McMansion in Texas, the land of the deep fried twinkie and baked brisket. And he really believes God's hand micromanages this deficit spending overindulgent life of his.

I find the idea that God endorses and directs the details of this unexamined life disgusting and demeaning to God. Citing Grant Von Harrison and claiming God as IM chat pal is a way to abrogate responsibility for the historically grotesque life FMCoug leads. I wanted to point this out clearly.

No, it isn't kind to point out so bluntly the ridiculousness of FMCoug's immature narcissistic view of God (God as bass fishing buddy). I'll probably feel sorry in the morning.

Good night and sweet dreams.

I'm starting to believe you are the bastard love child of Seattle and Archaea. Seriously, WTF?

Hard to believe you're the same person who once invited me to stay in your apartment in NYC as long as I presented you with a current temple recommend. The pure love of Christ must be rushing through your veins.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Wow. I missed all the action.