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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: neolib who wrote (182275)	2/22/2006 1:29:28 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

The point is that there are a great number of "born-again" Baptists who are gay. Neo.. that's like claiming you're a Republican, yet you don't believe in the Republican platform and constantly vote democratic. You can assert that you were "born Baptist", but if you no longer hold all of the foundational beliefs that Baptists swear by (such as biblical admonitions against homosexuality), then it seems to me that maybe your something OTHER than a Baptist. Believe me.. My Ex-wife was a Baptist and attempted to get me to become an official member. But since I've not been baptized, I couldn't join, only attend services as a non-member. I have a personal bias against Baptism in swimming pools or creeks because Baptism is a personal decision that has to have personal significance and I would prefer to be baptized in the Jordan River. I also don't have a problem with having an alcoholic libation (or two) from time to time, but Baptists claim to be tee-totalers. So I didn't join.. But they have a right to hold their beliefs and I have a right to accept the terms of membership, or seek my spiritual fulfillment elsewhere. But that doesn't make me a "second class citizen" on a national sense, anymore than being a deacon, sunday school teacher, or usher provide me any "first class" status over the rest of the congregation. Whats going on now in Iraq is a change of who is 2'nd class. As I stated previously, democracy has to be more than an exchange of oppressors for the average Iraqi. Sure, the Shi'te extremists/militants would like to put the screws to the Sunnis. The Kurds would as well. But that's no democracy. It's one group of Iraqis attempting to assert their parochial tribal/religious/ethnic interests over their shared common interests as Iraqi citizens. And that's going to take time to resolve itself, hopefully NOT as a result of a civil war. Sorry if we talking past one another, but I can't accept some of your analogies because they don't reflect my view of what we SHOULD be trying to achieve in Iraq, or anywhere else on this planet. Hawk