> From: Gilbert Lawrence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > My reaction to an atheist is "benign neglect" and I have expressed > this before. It is no different as towards someone who smokes, divorced, > lives a homosexual life style, or cheats on their spouse.
It is impossible for sensible people to make it through any of Gilbert's posts. I think he should assume a nom de plume to save the embarrassment to his name due to his usual ideas - most can be ignored, assuming one is even able to understand the illogic. But the bigoted statement above deserves a response. As Cornel pointed out, Gilbert is a troubled man. I think he still lives in the catechism class world of the 1950's and has not adjusted to the reality of modern society. His bigotry towards atheists, smokers (!), homosexuals, stems from that era when the church and priest gave a fixed morality (which he confuses with rock solid). It was easy then, good and evil were black and white. "We" were the good guys and "they" (anyone who disagreed and was different) were the bad guys. The world of pluralism, progress, including our understanding of morality has come a long way since then. Even the Catholic Church has made subtle changes in how it projects morality (condemn the sin but love the sinner), when at one point in history both sin and sinner were condemned. Whether Gilbert chooses to leave the secure confines of catechism class of the 1950's and enter the modern world is up to him. What is not up to him is to make bigoted statements to good people like Elizabeth, Kevin, and others simply because they view the world differently. Regards, George _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
