[jyd]

oh hes real

[Just your average movie goer]

Ah, the Easter Bunny.... Chelfelf's parents may have done the right thing. You should check out how the ladies are swooning over him at the Why do you come to Chefelf's? post...

[Just your average movie goer]

Actually that just reminded me of a great story I heard... it must have been the idea of things parents tell or don't tell their kids that prompted this little flashback.

But I knew somebody who's parents told them that when the ice-cream man was playing music, that meant that he had run out of ice-cream.

Genius, that is!

[civilian_number_two]

I know I'll catch hell from all the usual folks, but here goes;

The United States is a country wheer every newspaper has a horsocope column, where the Christian God is referenced on the money, wheer the average person will claim at least to be "spiritual" if not religious, where the President can mention God in any war speech and not be called on it, where children pledge allegiance to a flag under God every day in school, and where a general understanding of Christianity is more common than basic math skills.

It is also a country where the average Christian will tell you he feels somehow shunned for his beliefs, and where the occasional freaky nutcase will suggest dropping out of society, cholling yur children at home, and collecting guns to protect yourself from the abortion doctors.

Christians are NOT perecuted in North America. Never have been. Every now and then someone gets pissed that they don't rule absolutely everything, and he decides to interpret this as persecution, but he wouldn't know persecution if it rounded him up into a ghetto and made him sew a cross on his shirt. Or slapped him in the face, whatever the metaphor is.

[Just your average movie goer]

I fully agree with you, Civilian. I just hope you weren't having a dig at me saying I was spiritual. I know the kinds of people you're referring to and I'm not one of them, thank God (although I'm an aetheist, that's still a useful exp​ression).

Anyway, I'm an Australian - not an American.

Sorry if I seem paranoid. It's just because... I'm paranoid.

Every now and then someone gets pissed that they don't rule absolutely everything, and he decides to interpret this as persecution,

That is especially true - and it happens in Australia too.

Personally, I don't really mind what other people believe, just as long as they don't go around telling other people how to run their lives because of it.

If someone's beliefs lead them to making life unpleasant for other people, then that person's beliefs are a bit messed up.

[Heccubus]

Since I haven't added a serious reply yet, here goes:
I used to be relatively solid in spirituality. I was not religious, per se, but I did believe in God and Jesus and all that jazz. Then Grade 9 rolled around, and I entered the Catholic school system. Now I'm a bitter, bitter agnostic. It's hard to say, really, what changed me so drastically throughout my stay at St. John's College, but whatever it was, I honestly no longer have much to say about Christianity. Religion still fascinates me, but attending Christian schooling was definitely something that I wish had never happened. Throughout most of grade 9, I spent much of my time trying to politely tell a teacher that I was in no way interested in converting to Catholicism, and the same thing happened right through grade 12 when I finally just said "fuck it" and applied for college, rather than staying through to OAC (basically grade 13). I mean, I was almost suspended on several occasions, why? Because I refused to go to religious gatherings that were held at the school. My opinion was that if I was not Catholic, I shouldn't have to go, theirs was that everyone in that school had to go irregardless. I don't really think it's fair to attempt to force people of alternate faiths to attend your ceremonies. I'm not even really sure where I was going with this, aside from pointing out that a religious education is definitely not for everyone. Oh, now I remember, my point was this:
Has anybody asked the kids that will have their lives involuntarily altered for their parents' own beliefs? Who's to say that these children even share the same beliefs as their mother and father?

PS: A-N, tough break. Have people settled down about that stuff, or is it still a problem?

[K1NGWARREN]

C#2, you're my hero.

[Chefelf]

Chefelf's parents never told him that there is no Easter Bunny and look how he turned out!

What do you mean? What happened to the Easter Bunny?

[Amber-Nicole]

Stuff has settled down some. I was a Christian as well, simply because it was the way I was raised. But as I've gotten older, I've formed my own beliefs and opinions. I love my parents dearly, but I don't have to share every view with them. I still get constant offers to attend youth stuff at the churches from my friends. "There's still hope!," they tell me. And ofcourse I still have several people a day come up to me and say something along the lines of "Are you really bisexual?" ~rolls her eyes~ High school kids. Many of my closest friends became not so close. My town is very frustrating. People have a single mind set, and that just doesn't change. I'm sure it's different in many other places, where there are more people with differences. But in this area, I'm the different one. They'll just have to get over it.

[K1NGWARREN]

Don't worry, ElfMan, your mother and I will explain all to you shortly.

[Jordan]

Why do christians always get labeled as singled minded psychopathes? Does everyone think we act like the ones in the movie Chocolat?

Has anybody asked the kids that will have their lives involuntarily altered for their parents' own beliefs? Who's to say that these children even share the same beliefs as their mother and father?

I would like to think the kid has a say in the homeschooling bit. I think you all are imagining a bunch of stern, evil looking parents grabing their kids and locking them in the house till they hit of age to leave.

This is not the case, I'm sure. I've talked to a christian kid online once (I started going to a place called christian chat to make for my lack of church attendance) and I came in with the "homeschooling is 100% bad in everyway' attitude. The kid quickly rebuked me, he told me he still had a social life outside of school, he went on his on behalf and so on.

So since then I've had a different attitude. I doubt the parents are forcing the kids to stay home against their own will. Sure some do, but I doubt the majority are.

This post has been edited by Jordan: 08 May 2004 - 04:42 PM

[Ninja Duck]

Yup, this is exactly what religious nuts need: shitty home schooling that leaves them even dumber. Go God!

You wouldn't understand. If you believed in a God with all your heart, you would want your childeren to do the same. And if it meant take them out of school to help further their walk in God, you just might.

Honestly, if someone lives in an environment where all they ever see is Christianity, and they never look at or give thought to other possibilities, what good is their faith? It's more believing what you're told than faith.

Although, I guess, that's what the Bible says you should do.

Proverbs 3
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding

Now, if the Bible can say "Shut up and don't ask questions", why doesn't it work when I say it?

I guess I got a little off-topic there. Sorry.

[Amber-Nicole]

Now watch me go really off topic. Zach, doesn't the face remind you of that face that Patrick makes when he's describing something out of a video game? ~giggle~

[K1NGWARREN]

Faith is belief in the absence of verifiable fact. *yawn*.

[Jordan]

Honestly, if someone lives in an environment where all they ever see is Christianity

Then by biblical standards, that some one is lucky. Like I said, strong christians are willing to sacrifice all the splendor in this life time. Wealth, popularity, drinking, shit loads of sex with many people, power, smoking, robbing banks, etc all to help their walk with Jesus, cause they believe that it is that walk that gives them all the happiness, assurance and comfort they need.

All these things are fun. But to strong christians, they are seen as tripping blocks. And if they could live in an enviroment without them, then they would be happy folk.

I still smoke, drink (not often), like to be liked, and would like to have alot of sex. And sometimes I day dream about robbing banks. Not killing people in the robbery, but somthing like the "saint" did with his High tech and stealth methods.

(Lol, I need to rethink my life. It looks bad after reading that last paragraph.)