[Vision2020] The Nicene Creed (was Atwood letter rewritten)

Tue Apr 4 16:34:15 PDT 2006

Ms. Opyr writes:

"One more thing for you to ponder -- it is not I, nor Melynda, nor Rose who engage in imprecatory prayer. That sin belongs solely to Doug Wilson and his followers. They pray regularly for our deaths, for us to be struck down by God, to have our bones broken and our teeth smashed out, and all for defying them publicly and, dare I suggest, successfully. Imprecatory prayer is a wicked, nasty, vile thing, Donovan, and you spend far too much of your good Christian time defending its unsavory practitioners."

>From Pooh's Think:  

      Squash Pooh Like A Bug, O Lord
      Topic: Moscow  
      For those of you who have never heard the more casual kind of imprecatory prayer from Christ Church, someone just pointed me to a recently posted prayer on Mike Lawyer's Blog. Here it is:

         Oh Lord God, we beg you to not remain silent. You are the God we praise, the God of our praise. We are surrounded by enemies: without and within. They attack us with lying tongues and false lips. They return evil for good, slander for godly guidance. They invent lies hoping to entrap us with their smears and their deceit. They desire to tear us down while they somehow hope to gain respect and admiration for themselves. But seeking to destroy the Lord's anointed only ends in calamity for those who do the betraying. With this in mind we ask that you would give them the results they are working so diligently to accomplish in us. We pray that you would give them what they deserve: that you would squash them like bugs before your mighty throne.

      Posted by Michael Metzler - 3/31/2006 4:32:43 PM | Link to this post | Print this post  

Mike Lawyer is Cultmaster Wilson's chief sycophant and who knows what else.  However, given Lawyer's words above and those of Christ below, it would appear to be egregiously erroneous to conclude that Lawyer is a Christian or even a faint imitation thereof:

      Matthew 5:38 - 48  Young's Literal Translation of the Bible

      38   'Ye heard that it was said: Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth;

      39   but I-I say to you, not to resist the evil, but whoever shall slap thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other;

      40   and whoever is willing to take thee to law, and thy coat to take-suffer to him also the cloak.

      41   'And whoever shall impress thee one mile, go with him two,

      42   to him who is asking of thee be giving, and him who is willing to borrow from thee thou mayest not turn away.

      43   'Ye heard that it was said: Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and shalt hate thine enemy;

      44   but I-I say to you, Love your enemies, bless those cursing you, do good to those hating you, and pray for those accusing you falsely, and persecuting you,

      45   that ye may be sons of your Father in the heavens, because His sun He doth cause to rise on evil and good, and He doth send rain on righteous and unrighteous.

      46   'For, if ye may love those loving you, what reward have ye? do not also the tax-gatherers the same?

      47   and if ye may salute your brethren only, what do ye abundant? do not also the tax-gatherers so?

      48   ye shall therefore be perfect, as your Father who is in the heavens is perfect.

Remember:  

The Wilson & Family's Cult & Cash Machine (aka the Christ Church Cult) Motto in Practice:

You must tolerate us since we do not tolerate anyone else.

Proud to be an unbeliever after seeing the ugliness and dishonesty done in Christ's name by Christ Church Cultmaster Douglas Wilson and his doltish, ovine flock,

Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
deco at moscow.com

PS:  Here is an example of imprecatory prayer from his Would-Be Eminence, the Cultmaster himself:

"So the great application is to start praying this way. Come down, our Lord and God, and break their evil arms. We may pray that God would start with the Supreme Court, and then move on to the various circuit courts. Then on to Congress! To refuse to pray in this way is not so much to deny the evil as it is in some fashion to join it."

Posted by Douglas Wilson - 6/28/2004 11:46:32 AM | Link to this post |

PPS:  Perhaps if the Cultmaster desires to be taken seriously and to gain the respect from others which he alone affords himself, he might take a little step toward such a goal when he visits his barber:  Next time swing for something a little more upscale than the economy bowl cut.

W.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Joan Opyr 
To: Vision2020 Moscow 
Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2006 3:02 PM
Subject: [Vision2020] The Nicene Creed (was Atwood letter rewritten)

Donovan accuses:

  I don't have to speculate it is personal. Just ask them. Joan, Rose, and her entire household & friends will just tell you flat out they are bigoted against conservative Christians and have a personal ax to grind with Wilson.

On the contrary, Donovan, you do speculate, and you speculate incorrectly. I've never actually met Doug Wilson. Melynda has; so has Rose. But not me. I sat next to him once in Applebee's, but I don't think sharing dining and drinking space with someone counts as knowing them. If it does, then I also know the Ramones -- or, rather, I knew the Ramones. All but one of them are now deceased.

My issue is not with conservative Christianity. I don't give a damned about Reformed Christian Theology, either. I think John Calvin was demonstrably an ill-tempered, narrow-minded bastard, but he's been dead for a long, long time. There's not much point in fighting with Calvin; my arms are too short to box with ghosts. As I have said time and time again, I don't give a tinker's cuss, a monkey's butt, or a plug nickel what Doug Wilson believes. I care about his political agenda and his detrimental effect on the City of Moscow -- on our secular government and on our downtown businesses. In other words, Donovan, I'm not interested in arguing theology with Doug -- that's his game, not mine. I'm interested in politics. I'm interested in Doug's willingness to shamelessly play the persecution card in order to cover up his blatant, consistent disregard for the law. This is not about Doug Wilson qua Doug Wilson; this is about a business masquerading as a church, claiming tax exemptions to which it is not legally entitled, and violating zoning law and city ordinance.

Why do you not understand this? Because you don't want to understand. This scenario doesn't fit in with your own dreams of persecution, your own belief that you are "an endangered species." Endangered species? Bah! George W. Bush long ago delisted so-called moderates. You're either with us or against us, remember? You're on your own, moderate man, along with the Spotted Owl, the Snail Darter, and the Sawtooth wolves. Better get used to it. 

Now, let me try once again (because I'm a fool) to make one thing perfectly clear: my wife, Melynda, is a conservative Christian. She is also a lesbian. There is no disconnect here, as you yourself should know full well. As Keely has explained, the term "conservative Christian" refers to theology, not politics. Melynda holds to the Nicene Creed. Rather than give it to you in Latin or Greek or even the version from the Book of Common Prayer, here's a contemporary translation:

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, light from light, true God from true God,
begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven,
by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered, died and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father (and the Son)
Who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.
Who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Melynda would, of course, use gender-neutral pronouns, and by Catholic, she means one communion within Jesus Christ. (If you understand and actually make an effort to process the preceding, then I will buy you a Shirley Temple complete with an umbrella and a swizzle stick. I'll leave a gift certificate for same at The Garden Lounge -- that is, if the bar survives the NSA parking situation.)

One more thing for you to ponder -- it is not I, nor Melynda, nor Rose who engage in imprecatory prayer. That sin belongs solely to Doug Wilson and his followers. They pray regularly for our deaths, for us to be struck down by God, to have our bones broken and our teeth smashed out, and all for defying them publicly and, dare I suggest, successfully. Imprecatory prayer is a wicked, nasty, vile thing, Donovan, and you spend far too much of your good Christian time defending its unsavory practitioners. Chew on that for awhile.

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.joanopyr.com

PS: Now if by conservative Christian what you mean is simply "Donovan J. Arnold," then you're right; I have no conservative Christian friends. I don't like you any more than you like me, and I expect we'll go on in this hostile fashion until the day we expire. I can live with that (and happily, too). But my definition of conservative Christian is considerably more expansive than yours (see the Nicene Creed again, for reference), and thus I count my conservative Christian friends by the score. I'm lucky to have them; their friendship binds and sustains me, and I am grateful to them for their wit, their wisdom, and their faith. They are fine people who deserve far better than the narrow representation given by you, Doug Wilson, and other shameless self-aggrandizers. Jesus Wept.

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