[Vision2020] correction

[Joan Opyr]

Dear Visionaries:

Make that "fundamentalist understanding" in paragraph 2.  I'm using a 
new lap-top and haven't yet figured out how to make the screen large 
enough for my aging eyes.

When I consider how my light is spent . . .

Joan "Milton" Opyr

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Joan Opyr <joanopyr at earthlink.net>
> Date: September 28, 2005 1:27:56 PM PDT
> To: Ralph Nielsen <nielsen at uidaho.edu>
> Cc: Vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Religion and morality
>
>> 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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