Letters to the Editor
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Agreed
And Buddhism *is*, specifically, an empirical investigation that requires no belief in any dogma whatsoever.
I don't consider myself violently bent out of shape. This Salon article is the story of a person's personal conversion to a religious cult. This particular religious cult has, in my opinion, a very powerful, and negative, influence in American politics. I feel compelled to offer Buddhism as an alternative avenue to Christianity for exploring one's spirituality.
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Watch This
Mitt Romney. This is exactly what I'm talking about:
http://blip.tv/file/151254
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Vile one
Your whole argument can be boiled down to this: 'I don't like the tone of some of the people on the left when they talk about religion, so I'm going to vote for the other party just out of spite'.
That was my argument? Well, I've always thought reality is a nice escape for those who can't handle your sort of science fiction.
Now what I actually said, per se, who could blame anyone for thinking the party is hostile to Christianity to listen to some of you jackasses spew when "obnoxious" so obviously doesn't even begin to do your rantings justice.
The irony is it's fools like yourself who give political majority and empowerment to the very entity you so fear, the Christian righties (who DO vote GOP in large margins) by attacking all things Christian like hysterical furies in a predominantly Christian nation. And the USA is a Christian nation demographically whether you like it or not. Your rude tripe really does in fact in the minds of many people validate the Christian Right's argument that the secular left is hostile to Christianity and has an anti-Christian agenda.
If you can't accept the fact that the Democratic party DOES need Christian voters or otherwise exercise some good manners, or common sense than it's always one's own perogative to be foolish, I guess. But don't expect much sympathy from the rest of us who ARE grounded in reality when the GOP gets a majority and stacks the courts. You clowns are like the environmentalists that voted for Nader in 2000 and then expected sympathy to their whining when they lost all political access and watched haplessly while when Bush rolled back 25 years of work.
PS - now please don't you little Christan hating toads start telling us all about the bigotry of the Christians ever again. You've now proven even the most vocal fascisti of the Christian Right have nothing on you in intolerance, agenda or dogma. The only difference I can see between you is that they can actually learn from their political mistakes.
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No Name
The only real hater and fascist here appears to be you.
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Couldn't resist..
..I had to counter what I had read so far..
"I so longed to wrestle with the horror and sadness of the story of Jesus' crucifixion. I wanted to ask hard questions about a God that would require such violence and pain as a prerequisite to salvation."
Jesus spoke in parables. Jesus life WAS a parable. Violence and pain are not necessary to salvation. His suffering was to exhibit that pain and death have no meaning. He, and the rest of us, will transcend all earthly things, in particular, death (at least that is what I have chosen to accept). Hard to understand this as a reality when our feet are so deeply planted on the earth. It is a trial and an effort. So such is our lot of having free will.
"I wanted to confront openly and honestly the deeply ingrained misogyny, racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, etc. of the historical church, and understand how and why abuse and violence could be perpetrated in the name of a God who was supposedly a God of Love."
Again, an excellent discription of how we are grounded to the earth. We, the church, religions, governments, well, really everything on the planet has never, and will never, be able to live the goodness we imagine. How is that a fault of God's? When God is eternal, what does that tiny space just beyond our noses matter? The universe is a big place, our place in it...is so unimportant.
I read Julia Sweeney. She just seemed pissed that she had questions and no one would answer them for her. Life is rough when we have to think things for ourselves (sarcasm intended). Quit whining already. Understand your spiritual nature or don't. Ask questions, but look to yourselves for the answers. In the end, the only soul you have to care for is your own, so decide for yourself.
Lucky for Julia Sweeney. She gets a platform and the rest of us muddle through with only an inner monologue.
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Don't be hysterical
Mitt Romney. This is exactly what I'm talking about:
First of all Romney's a Mormon and I'm pressed to think of a religous group in the world that bothers people LESS than the Mormons.
But everyone knows any GOP candidate serious about winning has to lock up the hard righties who insist they be pandered to to win the GOP primary.
Much in the same way the hard lefties insist that every damned viable candidate the Democrats ever have is somehow not liberal enough if they haven't dressed up in war protests and attended gay parades.
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No Name, the Reality is...
Gore won the popular vote in 2000. In 2004, voter suppression efforts by Republicans resulted in a 65,000 vote difference in Ohio, and the election went to the Republicans.
The Democrats don't need to cow-tow to religious delusion to be on the right side of the policy issues facing this country, or to win elections.
The only "agenda" worth worrying about in this debate is the overtly aggressive Christian agenda in this nation.
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Mystical mumbo-jumbo
Christians have been extremely successful in embedding their delusional beliefs into American politics, to its detriment...
(Tiresome, stereotypical rhetoric about Christians deleted)
Buddhism is not about mystical mumbo-jumbo; it is about examining one's own consciousness.
That's interesting. I read an article a while back about how female Buddhists are taught that they weren't born male because they committed some horrible transgression in a past life.
Of course, any religion can--and does--get perverted. Eastern religions are no more foolproof than the Western ones.