Letters to the Editor
timbuktom
Published Letters: 2445 Editor's Choice: 141
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Christians versus Fundamentalists
[Read the article: "I'm guilty of sexual immorality," Haggard tells his flock]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The fundamentalists have hijacked the word "Christian." Salon Posters, please do not fall for that ploy. Fundamentalist "Christianity" is a barbaric, simple-minded distortion, focused on heaven and hell, sunk in superstition, cut off from reality and life, even from Christ.
Pastor Ted has created his own hell, and he is wailing and gnashing his own giant, scary teeth now. He and his ilk are trying to create a national American hell. It is their pride, hypocrisy, greed, stupitity, bullying, lack of imagination, cruelty, ignorance that cause the problem... Not Christianity.
The Good News, from a political standpoint, is that there are not enough of them to take over. Rational people, including real Christians, can vote them down and leave them in the dust.
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Finding Tolerant Churches...
[Read the article: "I'm guilty of sexual immorality," Haggard tells his flock]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]1. Protestant congregations have latitude to make up their own minds and hearts. You need to check out individual churches.
You are more likely to find a tolerant Protestant congregation if you look among the so-called Mainline denominations: Presbyterian, Congregational, Episcopal, Methodist, Lutheran, Reformed, and some others. Every one of these denominations has tolerant congregations, but they also have creepy congregations, and even creepy sub-denominations that steal the Mainline names. But even the Baptists have some tolerant congregations.
2. The term Evangelical is ambiguous. Most "Evangelical" congregations are independent fundamentalists, but some churches with "Evangelical" in their names are great. (I am thinking of some of the Lutheran Evangelical churches here.)
3. Roman Catholic congregations have less room to make up their own minds, but there is a huge range in tolerance. The people in any given parish will talk straight to you, and they do not always agree with the Pope.
4. Salon Posters: You probably have better hints than this. Please post if you have anything to add.
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Pastor Ted Helped Lead Us...
[Read the article: "I'm guilty of sexual immorality," Haggard tells his flock]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]1. Into Iraq, 2. Into Torture, 3. Into National Bankruptcy, 4. Away from Gender Equality, 5. Away from Reason and Science, 6. Astray, 7. Backward...
His personal sins do not matter, compared to these public sins. His hypocrisy is important only if it causes his followers to question his leadership, his goals, our direction. Please re-evaluate, make up your own minds, chart your own courses.
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Another Bad Thing About Fundamentalists and Bushistas:
[Read the article: "I'm guilty of sexual immorality," Haggard tells his flock]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]They have terrible grammar! (Thanks to Another David for bringing this up.) Good riddance to Pastor Ted's awful way of speaking. And let's work to elect for a President in who is smart enough to speak reasonable well.
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Fundamentalists are the new Gays...
[Read the article: "This gay stuff has gotta stop"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Reasonable people have come to hate the "Christian" fundamentalists as much as the fundamentalists hate Gays. Fundaphobia is sweeping the nation. Anybody with a bit of intelligence is susceptible. The good news is that the disease is terminal for the fundamentalists, rather than for the rest of us. Jesus wept!
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It IS a Chinese custom...
[Read the article: Matthews on Hillary: Good point, then a weird point]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Clapping back when you get applause: That is a Chinese custom. Americans learned about it when Richard Nixon went to China, way back in the 1960's. Since then, American celebrities do it sometimes.
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Mr. Lieberman's Fanny
[Read the article: Where things stand]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Senator Lieberman (I-CT) will be a very important guy when the US Senate reconvenes. Butt kisses on both cheeks from both sides.
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Accents and Hairstyles
[Read the article: Answered prayers?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The Colorado fundamentalists are an alien species to coastal liberals, in the same way that openly Gay people seem extra-planetary to mid-continental right-wingers. The USA's Tribes are not comfortable with each other. But their mutual demonization is based more on styles and customs and accents than on anything else.
Fundamentalists: American Gays are overwhelmingly ordinary, decent people. If you get to know some of them, you will not want to condemn them anymore. The same applies to Muslims and Latin Americans and Vermonters.
Liberals: American Christians are simple, humble people. And Jesus is okay. Please just ignore the fundamentalist preachers and leaders. Spend time with some rank-and-file Christians, and get used to the way they talk. You will find friends and allies.
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Maybe Not So Bad
[Read the article: "A different face on an old policy"?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Gates appears to be one of George H.W.'s people. And maybe he will bring some reality into George W.'s world. I just WISH we only had a crummy little scandal such as Iran-Contra now, rather than Geo. W.'s World Quagmire III. I do not care about Gates's Iran-Contra history. H.W. was in Iran-Contra up to his eyeballs as well, but H.W. was much better for the USA and for the world than W.
We need to see whether Gates takes his cues from H.W., or from W. and Cheney. I know this whole argument could fall apart if some clever poster points out that Cheney himself was one of H.W.'s guys. But Gates could not possibly be worse than Rummie. We need to see what Gates does.
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Salon Gets Some Credit
[Read the article: Allen's last gasps]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You Salon Editors went a little cuckoo about Geo. Allen after the Maccacca Incident. You followed the story daily for weeks. And I was tired of reading it over and over. BUT! Now that Allen has lost, and we see how close the vote was, I commend you. Your focus on Allen probably helped Webb win. If you had run one less story, maybe Allen would have squeaked by.
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Right On! Awesome! But...
[Read the article: Fall of the house of kitsch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The right-wingers will not understand it. Sidney Blumenthal should apotheosise faux using all them big words
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Enough abot Paglia!
[Read the article: What now?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Read Kuo! Fewer words, more wisdom.
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Cool it with the Mullet/Only-In-Town-For-Ten-Minutes Stuff!
[Read the article: Answered prayers?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]1. Nothing says, "Clueless!" as loudly as a mullet. (Maybe guys who wear baseball caps while they eat in fancy restaurants are tied with mullet-sporters.) It's a legitimate detail.
2. Lauren Sandler has been writing from Colorado Springs for a week, and she has been there before. Plus, she knows what she is writing about.
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The "Drapes" thing was not really sexist:
[Read the article: Curtains for Pelosi?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Before the election, Bush made a joke that some of the Democrats already were measuring for drapes in the new offices they expected to get after they won. It was a counting-chickens-before-they-hatch joke, now moot. Bush was refering back to that when he said the thing about getting a decorator.
No big deal. It was not a great joke, but we all see that Mr. Bush actually can tell a joke, unlike Mr. Kerry.