From: kevin@nuchat.sccsi.com (Kevin Brown)
Subject: Re: THE MIND OF THE BIBLE BELIEVER
Organization: I can't see any in the immediate vicinity...
Distribution: world,public
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1993 21:20:24 GMT

In article <parsons.725840086@cygnus.cis.ksu.edu.cis.ksu.edu> parsons@cis.ksu.edu (Scott S Parish ) writes:
>
>mam@jcnpc.cmhnet.org (Mike A. McAngus) writes:
>
>Someone else writes:
>>: Then we come to the end of the story.  Starting
>>: in 42:7, we read that God restores Job to a position
>>: twice as great as before (42:10), and chastises
>>: Jobs "friends" for giving Job bad advice (42:7).
>
>>Since Xians like parables and metaphores so much:
>>There was a father with two boy children.  The eldest was a bully while 
>>the youngest was as obedient as could be asked.  The father kept the 
>>eldest son from harassing the youngest son and the youngest son grew in 
>>knowledge and contentment.
>>One day the eldest son appeared before the father and sad, "Yo, dude.  
>>The only reason the runt loves you is because you watch over my every 
>>move and don't let me torture him as I will.  If you give me free reign, 
>>your precious little brat will spit in your face."
>>The father said, "No, my youngest son obeys me because he loves me and
>>not because I keep you from hurting him.  Go, have your way with my 
>>youngest son and he will still love me."
>>So the eldest son beats the snot out of the youngest son while the father 
>>stands by, headless of the suffering of the little tyke.
>>When the beating is over, the youngest son asks, "Father, what did I 
>>do to deserve such a beating?"
>>To which the father replies, "How dare you question my motives?  Who 
>>brought you into the world?  Were you there when I made your mother 
>>squeal with glee?  Who supplies food on your table and a roof over 
>>your head?  Who has showered you with presents on your birthdays and 
>>who as bought your books so you could learn?"
>
>Then you ask if we would like that kind of father.  

Would you?  I wouldn't.

>First, I think
>all of our parents have responded in a similar fashion (just maybe 
>not with the same rhetorical questioning).  Who here can say that 
>when you asked your father why he did or did not do something your
>father did not respond, "Because" at least once?  That happened 
>quite often when I was young as I'm sure it happened in others 
>households.  Maybe not exact manner of response Job got, but very 
>similar.  So before you go exaggerating the audacity and "injustice" 
>of the response, take off your blinders and look around.

So are you arguing that because it *does* happen, that it *should*
happen?  I don't buy that sort of reasoning.

My suspicion is that so many parents say "because" to their children
as a result of some combination of (a) laziness (they don't want to bother
to explain to their children the reasons for things), (b) stupidity (they
don't know the reasons for things), or (c) arrogance (they feel they
"shouldn't have to" explain).

Are these *really* the characteristics you believe a good parent should
have?

Tell me, did you *like* it when your parents refused to answer your
questions, and instead simply said "because"?  Did you really learn
anything useful from it?  I doubt it.

>Scott Parish                |  The Truth is still the Truth      |  John 14:6
>parsons@cygnus.cis.ksu.edu  |  even if you choose to ignore it.  |


-- 
Kevin Brown					kevin@nuchat.sccsi.com
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