Gary Larson Depicted IT So Well...

Gary Larson Depicted IT So Well...

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Monday, October 27, 2008

It's "Fundamental..."

Religious Fundamentalists —*
Would You Force Your Beliefs On ALL – if it were in your power to do so? How many times through History has this been done by the ruling class? Did our forefathers leave their countries because the ruling class forced their beliefs on ALL? That's what you're attempting to do NOW. (ELM)*
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…fundamentalism may be applied to any group marked by rigid adherence to given doctrines. Whether propelled by an uncritical belief in a leader's infallibility, or by an inflexible and selective interpretation of 'divinely revealed' scriptures, fundamentalists perpetually pursue their own agenda, meddling in the lives of whoever does not share their beliefs.

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How Can those Whose Ancestors Left Their Country -- Cuz They Wanted Out -- NOT GET THIS?
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…self-righteous bullies hell-bent on dehumanizing…while CLAIMING THAT THEY ARE IN POSSESSION OF THE ONE AND ONLY TRUTH.
(Jack Nichols ~ "the gay agenda")**
AND THE DIFFERENCE IS --
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A Christian lives his life in the presence of God, in active submission to Him, and in entire dependence on Him. No one can live the Sermon on the Mount in and of himself, and unaided. We are not told in the Sermon on the Mount, "live like this and you will become Christian"; rather we are told, "because you are Christian live like this". The man who has seen himself as a guilty, vile sinner before God knows his only hope of heaven is that God has forgiven him freely. The man who does not forgive another does not know forgiveness himself. The Christian is truly forgiven and knows it, and is one who forgives.
*The Christian knows he is always in the presence of God. Therefore, the Christian is a man who is always concerned about living in keeping the law of God. The world does not live in this way; that is the big difference. He is not a free agent. Everything he does, he does from this standpoint of being well pleasing in His sight. That is why the Christian views everything that happens to him entirely different from everybody else. The Christian is not worried about food, drink, housing and clothing. It is not that he says these things do not matter, but they are not his main concern, they are not the things from which he lives. The Christian sits loosely to this world and its affaires. Why? Because he belongs to another kingdom. The Christian is a man who always walks in the fear of God – not craven fear. The Christian lives always in this sense of judgment. God tells him his building is going to be judged, the test of life is going to come. God tells him not to rely upon his "spiritual" activities as being of necessity sufficient, because judgment is coming, and judgment by One who sees the heart.
*The Christian views the Bible as a collection of moral maxims. When in fact, any particular injunction in the Bible must be taken to the whole life of the soul. Take, for example, the realm of music. A man may play a piece of great music quite accurately; he may make no mistakes at all. And yet it may be true to say of him that he did not really play Beethoven's Moon Light Sonata. He played the notes correctly, but not the Sonata. What was he doing? He was mechanically striking the right notes, but missing the soul and real interpretation. He wasn't doing what Beethoven intended and meant. That, is the relationship between the whole and the parts. The artist, the true artist, is always correct. Even the greatest artist can not afford to neglect the rules and regulations. But that is not what makes him the great artist. It is this something extra, the expression; it is the spirit, it is the life, it is the "whole" that he is able to convey. There, it seems to me is the relationship of the particular to the general in the Bible. You cannot divorce, you can not separate them. The Christian while he puts his emphasis upon the spirit of the law, is also concerned about the letter of the law. But he is not concerned only about the letter, and he must never consider the letter apart from the spirit. (excerpts from STUDIES IN THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones copyright 1959, published by Inter-Varsity Press)
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Most people don't question the status quo; especially people who are not by nature revolutionaries. Certainly, the 1,500 people who died on the Titanic didn't do a lot of questioning. The men put the women in lifeboats and stayed behind. The steerage passengers allowed the crew to lock them away while the first-class passengers made their escape. People followed custom – all the way to the bottom of the Atlantic. Who would have guessed that as far back as that cold April night in 1912, SILENCE EQUALED DEATH? (Why gays have stepped out of the status quo -–- "Keep silent and it's tolerable that you're gay.")
(From Bruce Vilanch'es "Bruce")
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Because of the . . .fundamentalist emphasis, the movement for gay and lesbian equality arose. Fundamentalist culture can thus credit itself, because of its bigotry, for making necessary the very liberation movement it now so vocally opposes. (Jack Nichols ~ "the gay agenda")
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The Judgemental Eye
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Surprisingly, after decades of having a judgemental eye toward others -- how they dressed, what they weighed, their actions . . . and now that I've learned not to
(at least, much much less), I have a much more relaxed attitude toward myself and how I look/act. The message: being more accepting/ Loving of others translates to self acceptance/Love.

** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * **In the past, upon meeting someone new, I would immediately ask a number of questions to "get to know what was important to them." Now, I see others do the same and I see what I was really doing: sizing them up for judgement against my values and beliefs. Somehow I thought I was "serving" their needs -- assessing where they lacked: if they needed God as I saw Him (the only 'true' way) and other judgements based on differences that needed to be "righted"; always missing the real truth in: "Judge not and you shall not be judged." Judging is misjudging because its only purpose is to determine superiority and cause divisiveness . . . in that none of us are in any position to judge anyone. (ELM)
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Ultimate-Right-Truth
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We take for granted that from a child's perspective, his mother IS the most beautiful woman alive, his father IS NOT afraid of anything AND IS the strongest man alive. Why is it we forget that everything we hear/see thereafter is suspect -- as viewed from one perspective over another's? All perceptions ARE INTERPRETED by the one who experiences and again by the one to whom the experience is relayed. How is it we can convince ourselves, OR anyone else, THAT OUR PERSPECTIVE is the Ultimate-Right-Truth ("as we see it" -- must obviously be added -- always).

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