The New Evangelicals - Who knew?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lay interpretations of Christian theology should be trusted as much as one would trust a plumber to do heart surgery.

The Christian message is almost incomprehensible to those immersed in our secular world. It takes time to appreciate the radical concept that we are all members of one body. But it is only with that depth of understanding that teachings such as “one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” make sense.

That's just, like, your opinion, man.

[takoma]

Anonymous wrote:Lay interpretations of Christian theology should be trusted as much as one would trust a plumber to do heart surgery. ...

However, both the plumber and the surgeon can be evaluated on the results of their work. There is no objective measure of a theologian's work; in fact, there is probably an equally "qualified" theologian who comes to opposite conclusions. To paraphrase G. B. Shaw: If all the theologians were laid end to end they still woudn't reach God.

[Anonymous]

OP here

I think what I was most taken by in the article was the concept that social conscience and economic justice (kinda what the Occupy group is fighting for) can be fought for by Evangelicals, Liberals and everybody in-between.

I guess there's always the lunatic fringe that throws in the abortion argument but I hope the rest of this theological/social discussion can continue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

takoma wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jesus wouldn't support killing babies. Hitler would. Blake your pick.

May I try to give some helpful feedback? Although I am pro-choice, there are arguments against abortion that I think have merit. But what you wrote above bears the same relation to such arguments as masturbation does to sex, all you are doing is trying to convince yourself, and nobody else is affected by it.

Not helpful.

First, you speak only for yourself. While SOME surely agree with you - you can't make such half assed statements as "nobody else is affected by it"

Second, I get that you don't think abortion kills babies. If you don't think abortion kills babies, then pro-choice is the only logical position. So, without discussion of whether abortion kills babies, there is no room for debate. I'm sure that it is more comfortable to ignore what abortion involves. When I was pro-choice I did just that. Then I learned the details of abortion and could no longer ignore the reality that abortion kills babies. It's not a comfortable discussion, but I refuse to be like those in the U.S. who knew what was going on in Germany and chose to ignore it.

Conservative position as regards birth control and sex education is responsible for more abortions than Roe v Wade. You fuckers basically ensure that there will be many unwanted pregancies, and regardless of whether abortion is illegal or not, women are going to get abortions. So the intelligent thing is to stop those abortions before conception. Of course, conservatives are about punishing women for having sex, over everything else, which is why they fight so hard to make getting birth control so difficult, and fight so hard to keep young women and men as ignorant as possible about their bodies. You can see the obvious effects of these policies in conservative Red State America, where women's reproductive health is in utter shambles.