Observation 1:
Politics, religion, and life are NOT co-extensive!
I maintain friendships with folks whose politics I despise, and who view me as a hell-bound heathen.
These accidents somehow don't prevent us from valuing one another as people.
Observation 2:
Major League Baseball Interleague play sucks! - I'm NOT a fan of the recent tradition of AL & NL playing against each other in mid-season.
Let's keep the game pure!
Election Results Open Thread: LFG!
1 hour ago
On Observation #1 and your helpful comment on my blog; I responded there:
ReplyDelete"Swordfish, you clever fellow! I've read Bart Ehrman with relish. Got him all over my iPod, got him on my bookshelves. I signed on this morning to put God's Problem in my Goodreads list to post in a sidebar. My retirement goal, back when I could afford it, was to go back to my grad alma mater, UNC-Chapel Hill, and enroll in his department. Please send donations."
And, I agree, I can continue to value folks who don't agree with me--a few I really love. It's in the liberal mindset to be inclusive.
And it is in the conservative mindset to be exclusive. Not sure how that lack of parity will hold up for you over time. And then there is the problem that politics, religion, and life can easiliy become co-extensive for those who see you as a hell-bound heathen. It is not hard to justify killing you to ensure you are hell-bound (which they will have no compunction doing, friendship notwithstanding, since it is the will of whatever deity has bound you to hell).
ReplyDeleteRudy Oppenheim still gets Christmas cards from the neighbor who tried to murder him.
"We grew up together and we played together," recalled Oppenheim, now 81, of the childhood friend who showed up at the 10-year-old's door in Elmshorn, a small town outside Hamburg, Germany. It was the day after Kristallnacht and Oppenheim's father had just been ... See Morearrested. Handsomely clad in the crisp brown shirt and black shorts of the Hitler Youth, Oppenheim's young playmate arrived and announced that he intended to receive a medal. He was going to kill a Jew.
"Who?" Oppenheim asked.
"You," replied his friend, producing a knife.
In the resulting struggle, Oppenheim suffered a cut on the hand, some of his blood staining the other boy's clothing. His attacker began to cry.
"It was a demerit to soil your uniform, you see," Oppenheim said.