On Mar 24, 2006, at 5:07 AM, Dave Land wrote:
On Mar 23, 2006, at 1:58 AM, Charlie Bell wrote:
On Mar 23, 2006, at 5:58 PM, Dave Land wrote:
As long as we're slinging lyrics around, a friend sent me the
following poem.
I wish some of the fundies I've been dealing with recently thought
that way... :-)
I've been facilitating a class on "Liberal Christianity" for the
past three months or so, and one of the gripes we've all had with
the material is its "us vs. them" stance: the fundies are bad and
we are good. That's not the language I hear in Angelou's poem,
either. I think the trick is to stop talking about how much better
the way "we" believe is than the way "they" believe (from both
sides of the fence) and simply (and beautifully, in Angelou's
voice) assert what we believe to be goodness.
Indeed that's a good thing to aspire to. But there is a serious
problem when someone believes that Catholics, Anglicans and
Methodists aren't Christian, and that atheists aren't even "people".
Or that mammals aren't animals, or that squids are not living...
Her poem is so honest and humble. It sounds like Jesus to me.
Or, it sounds like the image of Jesus that moderate Christianity
aspires to.
As Dan says, though, the way to bring some of these people in is to
show that a lot of people who disagree with them still hold the same
basic beliefs, and I'm glad that he's been able to build that bridge
in some cases. Others, unfortunately, are so close-minded that it's
too late. The most important thing that they miss often, sadly, is
the basic principle that the laws that they despise as allowing those
they hate (atheists like me, liberals, gays, environmentalists,
scientists, Catholics, Democrats...) to exist and that they'd love to
overturn are the same laws that we respect and that allow them to
follow their beliefs. *sigh*
The recent case of a Colorado music teacher hounded out for showing a
12 minute segment of Dame Joan Sutherland's classic introduction to
opera for kids (sock puppets performing part of "Faust") despite her
being Christian, as a result of the parents of six children
complaining, just makes me sad.
Charlie
_______________________________________________
http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
