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Date:         Sat, 19 Dec 1992 08:05:46 -0400
From:         "DOUGL, APPARENTLY." <STCHRI@SSCVAX.CIS.MCMASTER.CA>
Subject:      Re: Revisit the mission of Xcult but first...

Adam:

You are right in noting this discussion of conservative Christianity has
gone beyond heated and well beyond a multicultural discussion of religion.

That is a shame precisely because there are sincere and loving Christians
living the paradox of dogmatic closure [only the God fearing can go to
heaven, the rest are doomed] and the other message that the Christian God
is about love and tolerance.]

The kindly tolerant God whose whereabouts you query is often nowhere to be
found, I think in part because Christianity marks a fundamental break with
the early Judeo God who is neither kindly nor tolerant.

What always interests me about the religious right is their penchant for
quoting the Old Testament rather than the New. The God of the old testament
is vengeful and vindictive in contrast to the image of God as love which
the New testament authors seek to propose. For Christians there is always
this paradox of punishment and tolerance and the confusion this paradox
produces gives the religious extremists room to manipulate - in Oregon
or Colorado or Sakatchewan or wherever they might be found.


When I think of the Falwells and Buchanans and the rest I am reminded
of something a United church minister once said to me:

        Fundamentalists are to Christianity what McDonalds is to
        gourmet cuisine.

Listening to the socalled arguments from the Christian right, I can only
comment that it is dangerous to argue the merits of an absurdity since
to do so gives it more credibility t|han it deserves.

Ruth is a long time companion here in e-space and I posted the two
passages from Corinthians to tweek her conscience a little  and to
give you something to chew on as well....the principle of Christianity, that
God is a tolerant and loving God, has been lost in the screaming
rhetoric of the religious right's grab for power over the last twenty
years. It is a principle I admire, even I am personally an atheist.

But like most principles, it is honoured more in the breach than the
observance.

A Canadian singer songwriter calls the preachings of the RR 'the gospel of
bondage', a sort of fifth gospel which, for many Christians, has led them
to forget the message of the gospels they claim to honour so dearly.

Time for a new subject indeed.

However, thanks for your anger. At the end of the day, perhaps your anger
was the only honest emotion in this exchange.

Remember:

        Fighting for peace means fighting for real power.


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