Excellent cheesy high school debate tricks, Dwight.
She has the same distrust as you for anyone with religious beliefs.
Where did I say I distrust anyone with religious beliefs? I distrust you, of course, but does "Clinton is Caligula" have something to do with your religious beliefs? Are you somehow representative of "anyone with religious beliefs"?
Perhaps you would like to give us your thoughts on certain Biblical versus which somehow seem inconsistent with your particularly judgmental variety of Christianity:
Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. Matthew 7:1-5
And, seeing you've cast more than a few stones in the President's direction:
..And the scribes and the Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. John 8:3-11
Although I attended parochial school for 12 years, I wouldn't claim to know much about religion in general. The people I knew who took Western Civ in college seemed to come away with a much better appreciation of the range of beliefs than I had, and even at times a deeper understanding of the Catholic faith. I don't profess to be a Christian at this point, but I find these verses fairly central to the power of Christ's message. How do you rationalize them? Or are you working with a redacted version of the Bible? There's also the golden rule thing, and this one we used to sing:
Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers/ That you do unto me.
I've been labeled a partisan hater here, which I find a bit amusing as I don't even particularly like Clinton. I wouldn't judge his religious convictions, but his political convictions are pretty hard to judge too. All I'd argue is that Starr report doesn't sound like impeachable offenses to me, as in "Treason and other high crimes and misdemeanors. Of course, the argument there slips back and forth, between Clinton the perjurer and Clinton the moral reprobate. Pin somebody down, like Doug, on the technicalities of perjury, there's always "Clinton the lying SOB" to fall back on. All part of the cheesy high school debate tricks thing, I'd say.
Perhaps you could strike up a friendship with her, with the opener being a challenge of the validity of her moral views.
I'm glad to see you enjoyed your own joke, Dwight. Having been through the "feelings and emotions" versus "objective facts" thing before, I'd have to question who, exactly argues from "feelings and emotions". Or do you perhaps find "Clinton as Caligula" an objective, factual argument? |
