In a nut shell:
A controversial Christmas card reading “O come all ye faithless” has been strongly criticized by Christians as an “ill judged and insensitive joke.” Borders book stores began giving away the card free with every copy of Richard Dawkins’ well known atheist work, The God Delusion, this Christmas.
Favorite quote:
He [Rev. Johnathan Edwards] continued, “Christians have always been used to being punch bags but I would have hoped that, in a society in which we are seeking to show respect to all people and beliefs, we might have grown out of this kind of nonsense.”
My Thoughts:
Yes, Rev. I would hope that in a society in which we are seeking to show respect to all people and beliefs, including atheist, we might have grown out of this kind of nonsense. Nonsense like getting all huffy when someone makes a lame joke about faith, in general. And why are the Christians the only ones getting mad? Why aren't we hearing more Hindu outrage? Jewish indignation! Is there a Jihad on Borders yet?
I mean, seriously...its a fucking joke that some people find funny. If you don't find it funny don't take the damn card. I would hope that in a society in which we are seeking to show respect to all people and beliefs, we could just fucking get over it. If you really believe all the stuff that makes you a Christian, is a little card going to shake your faith that much that you have to boycott a book chain? The attitude I get here is that Rev. Edwards expects everyone else to respect Christian beliefs but he can go poo poo on whomever he wants. And that's not what I call "respect to all people and all beliefs".
I can understand being upset, but basically pressuring Borders to stop giving away the card because it offends Christians is disrespectful to non-believers.
And by the way, what Christian is buying The God Delusion anyway? Sounds likes someone's feeling a little guilty.
3 Responses to "Playing the Victim"
December 21, 2007 at 12:21 AM
"if it weren't for double standards, Christians wouldn't have any standards at all."
I don't remember where I heard that, but it's fun.
December 22, 2007 at 1:40 PM
Religions were initially started by ppl who wanted peace and love to prevail instead of ppl fighting their balls off. And now when you come to think of it most wars in our so called free world, over a card or a piece of land, are mostly fought over religious differences. These ppl also need ot understand that the one of the highest religious virtues to achieve is indifference and tolerance. How the hell do these guys plan to land their asses in heaven if they just keep fostering hate against anyone who thinks differently than them. Beats me.
December 22, 2007 at 5:09 PM
Yes, beats me as well. But the problem of course is that we are actually thinking about these things on a rational level.
I don't know if I would say that religion was started to promote peace and love...I don't know if religion was even "started" or just faded into existence with our developing consciousness millennia ago. But I'm damn sure that for most of its history it has been in the business of bloodshed. Its just like any other identity, used as a tool to gain advantage over others. We are a species populated by risk takers and double crossers. Those types of people are the ones who survive to procreate and those types of people run our religions institutions. Peace and love is a nice selling point but that's like buying a house in the country for the quite and finding out a fucking werwolf lives inside and wants to eat you and your children. That's the best analogy I can think of.
Religious virtue is just candy coated bullshit that you don't need. You ever see those scams where they get you to buy say a keyboard cover for your laptop and then you never use it because who needs a keyboard cover for their laptop? Well that's what "organized" religion is, a useless formality. And that's why these theologians have to say crazy shit like this because they have to keep some semblance of importance behind their crap so people keep keeping on.
And I could go on and on...
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