Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 14:40:39 -0400 
From: Peter Yung Chang <pc20+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: The Rapture ** SPOILER **

I apologize to all for getting into a religious argument here, but I
would like to clarify my previous post about The Rapture and my views
(as understood by others) on Christianity:

Excerpts from netnews.rec.arts.movies: 29-Jul-92 Re: The Rapture **
SPOILER ** by brnt@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu 
>         My point is exactly this: Hollywood, like yourself, seems to
inerrantly
> portray Protestants in a wholly unrealistic way (Catholics take it on
the nose
> even more frequently, and often in a much more vicious manner).
 
There's a very good reason why Catholics really "get it" from those of
us who are "anti-religious".  Just look at all the
unforgivable/hypocritical acts they have committed in the past, in the
name of their religion.  And to our knowledge, very little has changed
in terms of their belief/philosophy.

> "The Rapture" also said, that Christian's believe:  
>         1. You can murder someone and then just "believe" in God and go to
> heaven.  This is simply untrue, no conservative Christian group, to my
> knowledge, has ever held such a ridiculous belief.  Rather, they
believe that a
> person must repent, or turn away from a former actions, fully intending never
> to do them again, and actually be sorry for them.  A full conversion is
> necessary, and it must truly be sincere.  "The Rapture" implied (and I think
> even showed) that this must not be any of the above, simply a lip
service to belief.

Do the words "sale of indulgences" ring a bell?  This is just one of
many notorious hypocritical acts the Catholics have done in the past. 
To have people's sins forgiven simply by donating money to the church is
SOOOOO hypocritically wrong that it really pisses me off...!!!  And
forgive me if I don't possess better knowledge about this subject, but
what about the Mafia in Italy?  As I understand it, many (if not all)
are very Catholic, because they all want to be absolved of all sin
before they die.  If this is true (which it may not be), then isn't it
analogous to the situation in the movie? Isn't it the same hypocrisy?

>  
>         2. Killing the daughter was justified because she went to heaven.  
> There are serious questions about whether the daughter would have gone to 
> heaven at all.  She did not seek to be with God, she sought, instead, to be

I understand all the arguments...about suicide and all.  Of course, in
the movie it was implied that she was with "God".

>         In essence, you and the film maker have made the same, unreasonable
> deduction: since this is the way I perceive Christianity, that is the way it
> is.  You have that right, of course, but it really isn't very convincing.

I don't perceive Christianity as an "evil".  I'm not really anti-"God"
per se.  However, I am very, very much against what man on earth has
made religion into, particularly those religions which center around the
one Judao-Christian/Islamic "God".  It is quite amusing to me that
whereas "God"/Jesus always teaches us to "love our neighbors", many
times in history the most violent conflicts have arisen over the same
religions who cannot tolerate others.  In Catholic school, I was taught
that we were all equal in the eyes of "God", that "God" love us all,
regardless of our religious beliefs.  But why don't people practice what
they preach? 

Anyway.  I'll stop babbling about religion now.  Sorry...just had to get
it out.

 
					
					peech

Peter Chang
Economics/Industrial Management
Carnegie Mellon University
<pc20+@andrew.cmu.edu>