News to piss you off. :-D

[emmagrant01]

• School drops slavery booklet: "Southern Slavery, As It Was" is a 43-page booklet published in 1996 that attempts to provide a biblical justification for slavery. It asserts that slaves weren't treated as badly as people believe. This is exactly why I don't accept Biblical claims against homosexuality. People have historically used the Bible to justify slavery, racial segregation, and treating women as second class citizens. I don't really give a shit if the Bible says that you should treat certain people as less than fully equal; I don't think it's right. I thought Jesus had a slightly different message anyway.

• Feds Use 'Secret Laws' to Justify Harassment of Americans. Don't get me started! :-P

• U.S. Admits Torture Used to Obtain Evidence Against Terrorists. Geneva Conevention? What Geneva Convention?

• Less than seven months after same-sex couples began tying the knot in Massachusetts, the state is seeing its first gay divorces. A quote: Opponents of gay marriage said the divorces, occurring so soon after the weddings, confirm that gay couples are not equipped for marriage. "We're not surprised," said Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, which is fighting for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. "Particularly among male homosexuals, the promiscuity is just phenomenal." *rolls eyes and gives Ms. Mineau a one-finger salute*

• Jesus is on our side here, and secular liberals should not be afraid to invoke him. Policies of pre-emptive war and the upward redistribution of wealth are inversions of the Judeo-Christian ethic, which is for the most part silent, or mysteriously cryptic, on gays and abortion. Okay, so that one wasn't intended to piss you off! ;-)

Comments

[ravenfrog.livejournal.com]

I'm really sorry about that, I wasn't meaning for you to take my comments that way. Let me try again. I meant to say that I thought some people could or would take your comments that way, not that what you said was actually derogatory. Okay, now I'm confusing myself. *sheepish grin* Let me try again.

It has long been a part of Jewish tradition to not actually write down the name of God, based on the idea that God was so sacred that it shouldn't be written or said. So they wrote down the title, YWH, from which we later got the term "Yehovah," a title for God that is popular in Christianity, as well.

I read your LJ, at least in part, because it educates me politically, but I doubt I am your typical reader, because I am far from a declared liberal. Rather, I am slowly self-educating independent who was raised in a very traditional and conservative home. So I when I find myself agreeing entirely with one of your opinions, I often forward them on to several who remain much more traditional than I.

And I am aware that, at least in this case, people were a bit bothered, and I thought I'd pass that on to you. After reading your reponse to me, I called said audiences, and the consensus on their parts was while was you said was not in and of itself incorrect, it intruded on the space that they give around things that are sacred.

I absolutely understand that this is your LJ, to vent and to rant and use how you see fit,but I thought you might want to know that you are reaching people, and sometimes changing opinions or touching lives. I respect what you said, and your right to say it any way you want to, but I've often thought that some of the reasons things like election '04 happen is because the left doesn't understand the (religious) middle, and loses them to bigots on the far right. I'm just trying to do my part to play go between, because I think everyone would benefit.

This is totally an opinion, and not meant to be intrusive or condemnatory, and I'm incredibly sorry if I offended you.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

at least in this case, people were a bit bothered, and I thought I'd pass that on to you.

That's interesting to know. On LJ, most people are reluctant to post comments disagreeing with the view of the poster, I think because it's the poster's "turf". If you disagree, the poster's friends might all gang up on you; after all, people who disagree with the post usually don't bother to comment and you're likely to be a lone voice of dissent. People do occasionally post a dissenting comment here, and I admire their courage in doing so.

I also recognize that people are going to disagree with me on many issues. Hell, I'd bet the vast majority of Americans disagrees with me on most issues. I'm about as liberal as a person can get, and in this forum, I feel like I can express my views.

As far as "sacred things" go, I was raised by conservative Southern Baptists. My personal experiences with religion are overwhelmingly negative, as I detailed in an earlier post. (http://www.livejournal.com/users/emmagrant01/93757.html) My comments about religion are always criticisms of those folks who are evangelical fundamentalist Christians, the sort who point tp the Bible when explaining why it's "right" to discriminate against entire groups of people.

I don't actively mock religion or religious people as a whole (though I could point you to some communities where Christianity (for example) is routinely skewered). I have friends who are religious, and it's part of who they are - I truly respoect that. I also respect the fact that people view certain texts, places, and people as sacred, but I am entitled to my own opinion that those things are not sacred to me. If people are offended by that, they and I will have to agree to disagree, I'm afraid.

Thanks for responding, by the way.