quote:
Originally posted by Cerek the Barbaric:
Hey fable - It's good to see you here.
Why thank you, Cerek. I appreciate your welcome, and the atmosphere that's been maintained, here. [img]smile.gif[/img]
Hmmmm.....I don't really know what to say about your Post, though. Speaking as a Southern Baptist, I can tell you that my political affiliation has NEVER even come up in ANY church I've ever gone to.
You're obviously in a better way to know about the SBs than I am, then. But I know that my wife's aunt and uncle do canvas for church-selected candidates, and they've spoken about "national slates" of candidates in our presence for which the SBC as a group was going to "get out the vote." Perhaps their own views of this are skewed, or maybe I misheard. On the other hand, while your views are those of a member of the SBC, your attitude in dealing with heinous demons like myself
are clearly other than standard.
I DID take issue with my current church the very first night I went there. It was on Wednesday night (small service) and a deacon's wife got up to inform the crowd about "the evils of AD&D". Since I was an avid gamer at the time, I went up to her after the service to find out just what she really knew about the game....the answer was "Not Much". But I digress.
Yes, but an interesting digression, nonetheless. [img]smile.gif[/img] It's a shame how quickly people are willing to condemn that which they do not understand. And that's as true among pagans, I might add, as it is among Christians, Jews, etc, because when you get right down to it, we all suffer from a common affliction, humanity--which, under other circumstances, can be quite a boon.
While a lot of people do seem to be bothered by the Religious Right supporting a particular candidate, I personally don't see a problem with it. Why shouldn't they be allowed to support the candidate that they feel represents their values? Other organizations and corporations do it and there is rarely any mention of it being wrong (except for cases like Enron - but even that won't change the practice). Corporations are expecting political favors down the road and organizations are hoping for favorable legislation.
Like Garnet, I must disagree on this point. I have spoken to too many people who have felt that their God, speaking through their minister/priest/rabbi/whatever definitely wanted them and the congregation to support a particular candidate or vote against another one: never mind the candidate's opinions on a range of issues, or their ability to deal with representing a much broader constituency. The important thing was to unite with discipline and fight for laws that would favor a certain religious viewpoint, and work against other, dissimilar viewpoints.
I'm a strict constitutionalist: even some of the most devout members of the original US Constitutional Congress, like James Madison, worked hard and spoke out against the mix of church and state. Freedom, as he and others saw it, could not stand the restrictions put upon it by such potentially powerful but fringe groups as those representing any religious denomination.