How can someone say this?

[Larry Gude]

I think it would be...

A few of them are, but it's tough for them to get an audience with the chicken#### media. They speak out, and the nutties declare fatwa on them and the network/paper that gave them some airtime - who needs that stress?

But you're right - they need to buck up and change the negative image of their religion.

...cutting edge, courageous and visionary if Hollywood did a life and times movie of Mohamed.

 

[vraiblonde]

...you can go to any Islamic country and discuss these things...and get stoned.

 

[residentofcre]

10 bucks says if Jesus showed up today, we'd kill him or incarcerate him again.

Apparently you haven't read the whole book.... He's not going to show up with so much love and adoration for humanity the next time.....

Oh and for those of you who haven't read it...we win at the end of the Book....

 

[Tonio]

Now that I think about it... It's probably not the Christians that have upset the Muslims and Islamists so much as the people who claim to be christians who really aren't... you know the pew warmers..... They are the infadels who cloak themselves in religion and say that you can go to heaven for "being a good person"... competition to the Muslim and Islamic point system....

Interesting point. Religion aside, terrorists are typically people who lack direction in life, easy pickings for cult-like leaders like Bin Laden. Terrorist organizations are very similar to cults.

 

[Tonio]

We do nothing but waste time crying about this or that slight, real or imagined, in the land of the free. All while the enemy is at our gate, seeking to kill freedom before it washes them, yet one more real tyrant, away.

In a way, I find evangelism to be more threatening than terrorism. If I was to die in a terrorist attack tomorrow, I would die undefeated. I would go to my grave still having my own thoughts and own will. Like the old tragic heroes in Norse mythology who laugh as their enemies cut their hearts out.

The same isn't true of evangelism. (I use this word in the general sense, where it includes secular evangelism like PETA.) The evangelist wants to change me to be what he or she wants. Even when this comes from the absolute best of intentions, it still feels threatening to me. It reminds me of the controlling spouses you read about in the advice columns. I wouldn't be Tonio anymore, I would be someone else's puppet. It doesn't matter if the evangelist only wants what's best for me. Only the individual knows what's best for him or her.

 

[harleygirl]

Here is a great example of radical christianity.......

Sept. 17, 2006 — An in-your-face documentary out this weekend is raising eyebrows, raising hackles and raising questions about evangelizing to young people.

"I want to see them as radically laying down their lives for the gospel as they are in Palestine, Pakistan and all those different places," Fisher said. "Because, excuse me, we have the truth."

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2455343&page=1

 

[residentofcre]

Alexander the Great had the right idea.... conquer people, show them your culture, then leave them to decide what part of your culture they choose to embrace....

I believe [personally] that is what the true Christian is supposed to be doing...

 

[vraiblonde]

In a way, I find evangelism to be more threatening than terrorism.

That is crazy. I would consider being killed a pretty major defeat.

 

[vraiblonde]

Here is a great example of radical christianity.......

How horrifying.

Then they're going to...what? Have these kids strap bombs on themselves and go shopping?

Comparisons between "radical" Christianity and RADICAL Islam drive me crazy. It makes a moral equivalency between verbally denouncing another religion and actually killing people. And THAT, as O'Reilly would say, is ridiculous.

 

[Toxick]

In a way, I find evangelism to be more threatening than terrorism.

Let's see...

Dying in a fiery explosion of a major landmark or listening to a preachy jackass.

Dying in a roadside bomb, or having someone trying to "save" me.

Dying from shrapnel flying off of imploding skyscrapers or someone beaning me in the head with a bible.


Yeah... I can see where you're coming from. Being turned into kibbles and bits is way less threatening than being forced to listen to some evangelist dogma in one of those EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL fundie xtian detention centers where they round up the non-beleivers, and behead anyone who doesn't convert.

If I was to die in a terrorist attack tomorrow, I would die undefeated.

I guess that really depends on your definition of defeat.

 

[Larry Gude]

I think this might be a good time to...

In a way, I find evangelism to be more threatening than terrorism. If I was to die in a terrorist attack tomorrow, I would die undefeated. I would go to my grave still having my own thoughts and own will. Like the old tragic heroes in Norse mythology who laugh as their enemies cut their hearts out.

The same isn't true of evangelism. (I use this word in the general sense, where it includes secular evangelism like PETA.) The evangelist wants to change me to be what he or she wants. Even when this comes from the absolute best of intentions, it still feels threatening to me. It reminds me of the controlling spouses you read about in the advice columns. I wouldn't be Tonio anymore, I would be someone else's puppet. It doesn't matter if the evangelist only wants what's best for me. Only the individual knows what's best for him or her.

...clarify a few things.

"The evangelist wants to change me to be what he or she wants."

So does the terrorist.


As far as individuals knowing what is best for them, the ONLY way to get there, to knowing what is best for them, is by living, listening, learning and then deciding; in other words, 'being' what others want them to be, even if only for the time it takes to think about it, in a process of becoming whom and doing what that person decides is best for them. Of course, that's just my opinion and you can do as you see fit with it.

You can't do that in Islamic places, unless of course, it's just a coincidence that they all seem to come to the same conclusions about life and their lives.

 

[ylexot]

being forced to listen to some evangelist dogma in one of those EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL fundie xtian detention centers where they round up the non-beleivers, and behead anyone who doesn't convert.

Where is that happening? I'll be sure to stay out of that country.

 

[bdh802]

In a way, I find evangelism to be more threatening than terrorism. If I was to die in a terrorist attack tomorrow, I would die undefeated. I would go to my grave still having my own thoughts and own will. Like the old tragic heroes in Norse mythology who laugh as their enemies cut their hearts out.

The same isn't true of evangelism. (I use this word in the general sense, where it includes secular evangelism like PETA.) The evangelist wants to change me to be what he or she wants. Even when this comes from the absolute best of intentions, it still feels threatening to me. It reminds me of the controlling spouses you read about in the advice columns. I wouldn't be Tonio anymore, I would be someone else's puppet. It doesn't matter if the evangelist only wants what's best for me. Only the individual knows what's best for him or her.

Tonio! Are you taking any medication? If so, have you been skipping doses?

 

[Bustem' Down]

Apparently you haven't read the whole book.... He's not going to show up with so much love and adoration for humanity the next time.....

Oh and for those of you who haven't read it...we win at the end of the Book....

I've read it, I know how it ends. It was rather uninspiring.

 

[Tonio]

As far as individuals knowing what is best for them, the ONLY way to get there, to knowing what is best for them, is by living, listening, learning and then deciding; in other words, 'being' what others want them to be, even if only for the time it takes to think about it, in a process of becoming whom and doing what that person decides is best for them. Of course, that's just my opinion and you can do as you see fit with it.

Of course it's admirable to look to others as role models, or to accept their advice. I have a strong issue with advice that's offered in the "You should" mode, because I feel like the person is treating me like a 3-year-old. I've had it up to here with "You should."

I think I understand what my issue is with religious and secular evangelism - many (not all) evangelists tell unbelievers that they're evil and worthless and deserving of death and/or hell. If people tell that to me enough times, I will believe it, I will internalize their beliefs about me.