The Glade 4.0

More importantly, who cares. If they picketed say, a siblings funeral of mine, I'd do worse than slash their tires. The ambulance wouldn't refuse service at least.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Can Bery go back home now please?

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If you were God for 24 hours, and you were capable of witnessing all the abuse, rape, murder, and deceit that goes on in the world, I find it hard to believe you'd stop with these guys to pass judgment. If I were God, I'd likely wipe the whole earth clean. It's a good thing God is long-suffering and graceful. I sure couldn't bear up under his scrutiny.

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The Dude abides.

If it had been a muslim on this board taking a shot at a muslim group, perhaps I would have. But it was a christian taking a shot, so to speak, at another christian group.

Actually, it was a U.S. Military Reservist taking a shot at a group notorious for its disruptive activities concerning soldiers killed in the line of duty; which, I suppose, is something you'd immediately notice if you had any sort of vested interest in actually participating in this "community" or part of the forum in good faith.

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Suggestion for a better way to handle the Westboro folks: MORE SIGNS!

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Memento Vivere

I have local knowledge.
That sandbar was not there yesterday!

Point taken. Perhaps I should have asked if the vandal would have described himself as a U.S. Military Reservist. But then, is the Westboro Baptist Church a U.S. Military Reservist?

What little bit of point you might have had is getting duller by the post.

Cause Muslims would have just suicide bombed them durrrrr.

On a serious note while I've got all sorts of schadenfreude going on here over this story, I realize I'm wrong. The vandalism is self defeating. While you slash their tires, it becomes news and they get more press. Plus they end up staying in your town longer because you are keeping them from leaving.

If free speech stopped because we didn't like what the other a-hole was saying then noone would have free speech cause there is always someone who doesn't like what you are saying.

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

None of which matters ...

The vandal did what the vandal did, and none of the ancillary identifications you mention demonstrate any hypocrisy or inherent flaw in those designations. Westboro Baptist Church brings attention on itself by behaving in a rather divisive and incendiary manner; that anyone retaliated against them in any form merely demonstrates a dislike for their behavior regardless of any claimed or stated spiritual affiliation.

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I was responding to what appeared to be an appeal that only God can judge people. Which I think is incorrect. We as a people judge folks all the time, and there is a specific process that you go through to judge people. Further, people judge folks in less legally binding ways all the time, which is a natural process. If I work with someone, I'm going to judge their ability to perform their work and take the appropriate actions, etc.

What we seem to have here is a situation where people think I should be interested in something that I am not interested in. To which I reply, "too bad".

The only thing of interest to me about the original post is that it was someone who claims to follow god, taking delight in the discomfort of a group that claims to follow god, and what that says about the god they claim to be following. Maybe they have a thousand gods, and can pick which one they want to follow, but still call themselves christian. I don't know, but I wonder.

If there are other things you people are interested in, discuss them and ignore my opinion. But don't bother telling me I should be interested in "this" or "that".

Evidently you paid no attention whatsoever in the last thread. Of course it's like this. There are over 2 billion Christians in the world, and Christianity has existed for 2000+ years. That's rather the point. It isn't marching in lockstep or following rules that pleases God, it's acknowledging that people can't meet God's expectations or intentions and asking for Christ's help and forgiveness.



So what?



You, however, are not God. Does He customarily ask your opinion on such matters? If not, why should anyone be concerned with your opinoon when you clearly have only a superficial understanding of the faith and are just looking for excuses to troll?

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

What might that be? And why are you bothering to post at all if you're not interested?



Perhaps you should consider then the behavior of the group in question, and the lesson they should derive from being refused service.

The main thing of interest to me here is your view that what any of this says to you is of any concern to me whatsoever. Since A) you are quite clearly one of those people who has no interest in Christianity beyond trying to use what you perceive its tenets to be as a bludgeon against people who do believe it and B) you're evidently not God, I don't see why anyone should be concerned with what you're curious about or find interesting. Your sole contribution so far is to state your views onhow you think God ought to conduct business.



Why not?

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Farther:

No one has said what you should or shouldn't be interested in. What they've said, in so many words, is that you aren't genuinely "curious". You aren't "interested in what it says", you're interested in assuming what it says, and condemning it on the basis of your own assumptions. Only, you don't have the testicular fortitude to just state your condemnation plainly. Rather, you have to couch it as "curiosity" or "interest".

Pro tip: we're all big boys and girls here. If you have criticism to offer, just man up and say it plainly. I can't promise to care, but at least then we'll be having a direct discussion instead of playing mind games.

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

I didn't notice this earlier.

Can we please not do this? I'm not asking as a mod, just as a personal favor. Bery held (and I would assume still does hold) a number of positions I don't agree with (and a number that I probably do). But whatever else he is, he's not of Westboro's ilk.

But just more generally, taking pot-shots at the banned is getting rather annoying. I pretty much expected that for a few weeks after the incidents in question, but Bery's been gone for quite some time now, and at this point, so has Monte. I still see quite a few veiled, and not-so-veiled references to someone "acting like Monte", etc. The point may even be valid, but you know...it's getting kind of old. At least to me. Maybe I'm alone in that; I don't know.

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

You are not alone in that. It's not only old, but childish.

Fair enough. I'll call a personal moratorium on comparisons to Monty as long as others do as well.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

You guys really do not need any new blood or new thoughts on this forum.

Yes. Yes we do. Oh hell yes.

I don't like the WBC. Would I slash their tires? No. Would I refuse service if the situation arose? Probably not. Do I feel sympathy for them? Not really. When you treat people like ****, you shouldn't be surprised to be treated that way in return.

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I thought it was a reference to Coren's post.

Given; Coren has publicly asserted he wouldn't visit this site anymore; Coren was Bery's son; and Bery proved unable to discipline himself to stop visiting here. It strongly suggests Bery was using Coren's account.

But I could be wrong, and I certainly don't care one way or the other.

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In time, this too shall pass.

Can we stop with the baseless accusations please?

If you have some specific evidence that Bery is posting as Coren, then please present that to the moderators via PM, or use the report tool.

I might regret posting this but I'll take my lumps if necessary. In answer to your question Farther, perhaps those individuals who vandalized the vehicle did consider themselves christian(whether or not they were, only assumptions can be made). What you are really asking is how many christians feel it was ok to do that. How many hypocrites are there. That is what you are really asking.

I'll answer and say that we are all hypocrites in one form or another. It's part of our nature to look at the faults of others before we look at our own. Christians aren't exempt from this we are all human with human failings. Jesus said it best when he said cast the first stone ye who have not sinned. But what we have is everyone throwing stones. I'm throwing stones at you, your throwing stones at him, he's throwing stones at her, and she's throwing stones at me. So we're all throwing stones at each other and wondering why were getting hit with rocks. And instead of stopping we're reaching for that next rock. Why? Because the hardest thing to do is stop and look at our own faults. That makes us all hypocrites not just christians. Noone on this world can walk on water. Only one person has done it and none of us are him. The best we can do is strive to be better than we are. We aren't always going to do better and we are going to slide back from time to time. Some try harder than others and some don't try at all, but we are all looking at eachother instead of at ourselves. I think the truest statement that can be made is that we are all christians and that we are not all christians.

Sorry for being long winded but I hope this answers your question. One more thing I would like to say is that instead of looking just at one's faults and judging them look also at what they do right. It's easier to remember what someone did wrong than it is to remember what they did right.

P.S. I loved your post SG.

Coren and Bery post from completely different IP's.