[Vision2020] Religion and morality

[Joan Opyr]

> Air-Doug asks:
>
> How many derelicts, winos, wife beaters and thieves have been changed 
> from the inside out by anything that he [Ralph Nielsen] or Nick Gier 
> ever produced, written or spoken? Give me the name of just one 
> individual that has changed from shipwrecked to saint.
>
> I won’t hold my breath.
>
> lemeno, Doug!

As far as I know, neither Ralph nor Nick have ever claimed to be 
prophets, nor do they purport to perform miracles, save souls, or cure 
leprosy.  If you went to them, Doug Farris, with a raging case of 
athlete's foot (or mouth), I expect they'd direct you not to the Bible 
but to the Tinactin.  Ralph and Nick are, respectively, biblical and 
religious scholars.  They examine truth claims and sacred texts, and 
they offer sound, reasoned, critical assessments of the shoddy theology 
and the shoddy research that passes for scholarship at schools like 
Moscow's very own New St. Andrews.  Now, I feel certain that God can 
cope with the criticism.  It's you, Lemeno Doug, and Dale Courtney, and 
Doug Jones, and the other Dougsciples who feel threatened by their 
critiques.  Why?  If God is all powerful, if we're all predestined for 
heaven or hell, then what have you got to worry about?

As for changing anyone from "shipwrecked to saint," I don't believe in 
saints, Doug Farris.  I believe in human beings -- complex, fallible, 
and imperfect human beings.  Could we all do or be better?  Should we 
all strive for improvement?  Yes.  Perhaps a fundamentalist understand 
of the Bible may help some with that task, but I would argue that it is 
far from essential.  I have learned more about the Bible from Ralph 
Nielsen than I ever learned in catechism or Sunday school.  I've 
learned more about kindness and compassion from my family and my 
friends than I have managed to glean from the collected works of Thomas 
Aquinas, Calvin, Knox, Doug Wilson, Billy Graham, Norman Vincent Peale, 
and Chicken Soup for the Soul.

You have no idea, Doug Farris, who Ralph and Nick have helped or how.  
You challenge them to name names -- why?  So you can have a soul-saving 
pissing contest?  How cheap.  How tacky.  How so very much beside the 
point.  When I was in Seattle two weeks ago, I gave a dollar and a kind 
word to every street person I met.  Are you ready to beatify me?

Let's get busy!  You can call me Saint Joan.  Just hide the gasoline 
and the matches.

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.auntie-establishment.com
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