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handofdave wrote: drewbhoy wrote: handofdave wrote:
As I've said many times, it's more a tribal phenomenon than a religious one. And in America, of course, it's all tied in with nationalism, too.
And that would be nationalism spelt with a capital N, very scary and divisive. I know most Americans aren't like that but they do get an extraordinary amount of TV time. Is there any way of shutting them up without going to far down the censorship road because most of what they say is obnoxious tripe? They certainly don't practice what they preach, or the other way round. Gobshites the lot of them!
The 'end timers' are really out of their minds. I can't think of another sect anywhere on this rock that openly pines for the world to be destroyed (of course, they believe that they will be bodily lifted up into the sky and granted a seat in Jesus presence where they'll get their jollies watching all the rest of us be tormented and cast into hell).
Unfortunately, in a free society you can't 'shut them up' unless you're willing to discard all one's most sacred beliefs in free speech and become a fascist. So the weapon of choice tends to be to ridicule them, which of course only makes them more sure of their own exclusivity.
Indeed. Happy are those who suffer persecution and ridicule because they do what God requires.
Incidentally, all this evokes uncomfortable reminders of the Christian right's initial response to the AIDS epidemic (i.e. it's God's punishment for actos of gay sex). In fact I'm sure the likes of Limbaugh and Robertson still harbour such beliefs even now.
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