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5 months ago ::
Jan 19, 2012 - 2:16PM
#1
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www.alternet.org/belief/153803/why_is_an...A friend of mine posted this story on Facebook and it caught my eye.My question is this: Is the USA really this bad? I suppose there a more enlightened places than Cranston in the US, but I can't imagine situation like this happening anywhere in Australia or the UK.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 19, 2012 - 2:22PM
#2
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www.alternet.org/belief/153803/why_is_an...
A friend of mine posted this story on Facebook and it caught my eye.
My question is this: Is the USA really this bad?
Yes.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 19, 2012 - 2:50PM
#3
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I think Cranston is a special case. Though Roger Williams, who founded what is now Rhode Island, was an honourable Christian devoted to the separation of church and state, Cranston is, I believe, populated primarily by Catholic blue-collar Italians who are very protective of their cultural standards. And woe to him or her who challenges them.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 19, 2012 - 2:55PM
#4
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I think Cranston is a special case. Though Roger Williams, who founded what is now Rhode Island, was an honourable Christian devoted to the separation of church and state, Cranston is, I believe, populated primarily by Catholic blue-collar Italians who are very protective of their cultural standards. And woee to him or her who challenges them.
Yes, there's that. But then the entire country is full of blue-collar Christians of one sort or another.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 19, 2012 - 5:02PM
#5
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Two little anecdotes from Nov '08. Sign on a local (KY) used car lot: "We are a Christian nation. Vote smart" Bumper sticker: One half of the sticker a black background and the words "I have a dream." Other half: Picture of the US Capital Building. The flag flying at full mast - The Confederate Stars and Bars. As they say, "Hell no we ain't forgettin!'"
The World is divided into armed camps ready to commit genocide just because we can't agree on whose fairy tales to believe.
The belief in supernatural religion will kill us all if we don't outgrow it.
When I first read "End of Faith" I thought Sam went too far. The more I read and listen to these "believers" the more I wonder if maybe he wasn't right after all.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 20, 2012 - 9:33AM
#6
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Latest update: the Freedom From Religion Foundation tried to deliver some flowers to her, and every single florist in Cranston refused. They had to find one in a nearby town to get her the gift.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 20, 2012 - 10:23AM
#7
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I see this as just another example of how religion fails: every single bullying/threatening/demeaning statement made against this 16 year-old strongly demonstrates that these people don't actually live their religion at all --- it's all just lip service. Why would any god supposedly promoting "love your neighbor" allow itself to be represented by people like this? .... because that god doesn't exist in the first place, imo.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 20, 2012 - 10:51AM
#8
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Why would any god supposedly promoting "love your neighbor" allow itself to be represented by people like this? .... because that god doesn't exist in the first place, imo.
Now, there is a way for God to prove Hesh exists: Send a a storm that wiped out the entire town except the Ahlquist home. That would also serve to put the fear of God in every Christisn in the country. Maybe then they would believe that ignored "Love your neighbor" doctrine preached by Jesus.
J'Carlin
If the shoe doesn't fit, don't cram your foot in it and complain.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 20, 2012 - 1:01PM
#9
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www.alternet.org/belief/153803/why_is_an...
A friend of mine posted this story on Facebook and it caught my eye.
My question is this: Is the USA really this bad? I suppose there a more enlightened places than Cranston in the US, but I can't imagine situation like this happening anywhere in Australia or the UK.
This type of thing is why I keep my religion largely hidden. And I live in a supposedly liberal area. I still don't feel safe living openly, as to how I worship.
A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side. Aristotle
Never discourage anyone...who continually makes progress, no matter how slow. Plato..
"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives" Jackie Robinson
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5 months ago ::
Jan 20, 2012 - 4:20PM
#10
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www.alternet.org/belief/153803/why_is_an...
A friend of mine posted this story on Facebook and it caught my eye.
My question is this: Is the USA really this bad? I suppose there a more enlightened places than Cranston in the US, but I can't imagine situation like this happening anywhere in Australia or the UK.
This type of thing is why I keep my religion largely hidden. And I live in a supposedly liberal area. I still don't feel safe living openly, as to how I worship.
BTW, I got the blu-ray DVDs of the series "Spice and Wolf"(狼と香辛料 Ōkami to Kōshinryō), the Japanese animé series set in Medieval/Renaissance Europe. Apart from dealing quite extensively with commerce, it also touches up the way the Christian church attacked and drove out pagans. The main characters are Lawrence, a travelling merchant, and his travelling companion, Holo, a harvest goddess who is half human half wolf. Holo has a slightly peculiar way of speaking, modeled after that of the oiran high-class courtesans (it doesn't quite come across in the English dub).
It is a nice series and the theme of Christian conflict with the Pagans is explored more than in anything else I've seen in recent years. Maybe there is a subtext relevant to Japan? Perhaps something to do with Shinto versus other religions or the efforts of Christian missionaries? I haven't given it too much thought, though. Most of my Japanese friends in Australia and those I know living in Japan seem to have a pretty apathetic attitude towards religion - as if they're too busy to bother with belief. I think Australians are similar in some respects, only we're too lazy to bother with belief.
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