LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY raven_moon)

In following up an article posted here recently, I ended up browsing the IRD website. The section titles “Outrageous Quotes” caught my eye, since I could see nothing outrageous at all in the one that appeared in the sidebar on the home page.

What follows is some of the quotes that were listed as Outrageous. The fact that I agree whole-heartedly with several of them, is both funny, and really sad....

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“Before the tsunami, many Buddhists thought that Christians were trying to convert the Buddhists by our social service. But our tsunami relief work has started removing that fear.”

- The Rev. Lesley Weerasinghe, Methodist pastor in the southern port city of Galle, Sri Lanka, where more than 4,000 people perished during the tsunami of December 2004.

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“All atonement theories root in a sense of human alienation and with it a sense of human powerlessness. “Without Thee we can do nothing good!” So we develop legends about the God who does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. . . . As we Christians tell the story of Jesus’ dying for our sins in doctrine, hymns and liturgy, we quite unknowingly turn God into an ogre, a deity who practices child sacrifice and a guilt-producing figure, who tells us that our sinfulness is the cause of the death of Jesus. God did it to him instead of to us who deserved it. Somehow that is supposed to make it both antiseptic and worthwhile. It doesn’t. I think we can and must break the power of these images.”

- The Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong, Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Newark (Ret.).

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“When a novelist plays fast and loose with the facts it’s called entertainment.  When religion plays fast and loose with the facts it’s called doctrine.”

- Vince Isner, director of faithfulamerica.org, a program of the National Council of Churches dedicated to promoting a liberal political agenda.  The remarks are a response to the controversy surrounding the release of the movie, The Da Vinci Code.

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“Buddhists are amazing because they are so humble. They are an example of a non-judgmental religion. There is no concept of sin. They accept people as they are.”

- Dr Manoj Kurian, Coordinator of HIV and AIDS programs for the World Council of Churches, promoting Buddhism as a model for Christians in dealing with AIDS.  Dr. Kurian was speaking at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto.

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Granted, some of the items listed seem a little fringe, like the one claiming that churches are run by converted Jews for the purpose of controlling america, or the group that is claiming Jesus was gay. But the majority of these statements are reasonable, rational, compassionate sentiments... Seems like reason, rationalism and compassion are outrageous. Who knew?

HERE is the page for the quotes for 2006. LInks to other years are at the bottom.

(X-posted to my own journal)

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY greensh)

I've found the connection between Biblical fundamentalism and "big business" to both puzzling and informative. Putting aside the fundamentalist beliefs, one would think that the Christian faith would be mystical and subjective. On the other hand, one would think that business would just be about numbers, a very objective view. This seems to be too simplistic. The fundamentalist bent makes that brand of Christianity very objective. Strategies, plans, and goals trump the fuzzy business of "saving souls". The business side crosses over into the subjective via their advertising and other forms of consumer outreach. A quick glance at the advertisements today show them to be glib and inspiring, or so the advertising firms would like them to be. This is the approach that evangelical guys should be taking if they want to increase their own "market share" of converts. Instead, biblical fundamentalism seems more focused on subjugating the world, more so than any business enterprise has dreamed of doing.

So, we have big business acting like a religion and religion acting like big business. No wonder they get along with each other. The cynical side of me says that it's really about the people and money behind the two. IMO there is a LOT of back-scratching going on. That's material for another post.

Are there other ways to look at this? Your thoughts please!