From: noye@midway.uchicago.edu (vera shanti noyes)
Subject: Re: tuff to be a Christian?
Reply-To: noye@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago
Lines: 75

In article <Apr.17.01.10.58.1993.2246@geneva.rutgers.edu> mdbs@ms.uky.edu (no name) writes:
>bissda@saturn.wwc.edu (DAN LAWRENCE BISSELL) writes:

>>same.  Hey we can't do it, God himself inspires us to turn our lives 
>>over to him.  That's tuff and most people don't want to do it, to be a 
>				^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>real Christian would be something for the strong to persevere at.  But 
>
>	So you think it is easy to be a Muslim? Or be a Buddhist?
[good points on buddhism, etc. deleted]

just because one says christianity -- true christianity -- is hard to
follow faithfully does NOT mean that one discounts the validity and
difficulty of other religions.  i admire those of any religion who are
willing to make the kind of sacrifices and dedicate themselves
spiritually in the way you are talking about. 

[more deleted]
>And perhaps some more. But leave the crap in it out ("woman was created
>after man, to be his helper" etc).

do you think this is what christianity is all about?  not all
christians believe in this particular story literally.  it sounds
above like you are supporting a policy of "to each his own" -- here is
another example of that.  if it helps someone's faith to take every
word of the bible literally, i support and respect that, too.

>>time.  We don't rush it in one day, Christianity is your whole life.  
>>It is not going to church once a week, or helping poor people once in 
>>a while.  We box everything into time units.  Such as work at this 
>>time, sports, Tv, social life.  God is above these boxes and should be 
>
>	When ever I turn on my TV there is this Pat Robertson and
>other brain washers (Oh boy, what an act they put on!) with an
>1-800 number to turn in your pledges.
>God it seems is alive and well inside these boxes.

please don't judge all of christianity by one man.  the only man one
can truly judge all of christianity by is jesus (makes sense, right?).

i think his point about how we put our lives into little boxes is very
true -- what does your comment about robertson have to do with that?

>>carried with us into all these boxes that we have created for 
>>ourselves.  	  

>	Parting Question:
>		Would you have become a Christian if you had not
>been indoctrinated by your parents? You probably never learned about
>any other religion to make a comparative study. And therefore I claim
>you are brain washed.

i was raised agnostic -- my father was never baptised and was raised
atheist.  he is not an atheist because he found a close-mindedness
present in the viewpoint of his parents equal to the close-mindedness
he found in the viewpoint of the christians he came in contact with.
thus i was _free_ to choose how to live my life, and he supported the
decision i made to join the episcopal church, although he emphasized
to me that his respect for my beliefs should result in my not
intruding on his beliefs, ie, i should not try to convert him, as that
is his decision.  (please, no flames or advice on how to convert him!)
one of my good friends is hindi and i greatly respect her
beliefs and the culture surrounding her religion.  my best friend is
jewish and i have always held a profound resepct for the jewish
religion (chaim potok and isaac bashevis singer are two of my favorite
authors).  i really do not think you can make that kind of
generalization about how christians choose -- and i do mean CHOOSE--
their faith.  if they have not consciously accepted the faith in their
adult lives (which is what confirmation represents), THEN you can talk
about their being brainwashed.

vera
"if you choose not to decide,
you still have made a choice!"
	- rush, "freewill"
