[Vision2020] Evangelism as second-hand smoke (was: Freeze ...)

[Kenneth Marcy]

On Friday, November 04, 2011 09:22:57 PM Paul Rumelhart wrote:
> Help me here, I'm trying to follow.  Sending out a DVD isn't a criminal
> act, right?

Its legality depends on the contents of the DVD. If the DVD contains an open 
source Linux distribution, it's legal. If it contains kiddie porn, it's not.

<[snip]>
> I'd also like to point out that I don't actually find the postcard
> threatening.  It's more akin to a sign in the forest saying that if you
> continue to walk along this path, you will likely be eaten by a grue.
> That's scary, sure, but it's not threatening.  Besides, I don't believe
> that grues exist and are freely roaming the forests nearby, anyway.
> Actually, you could look at the sign as a misguided warning trying to
> help you, albeit from a species of animal only found in an old video
> game as far as I know.  The same reasoning applies to the postcard, at
> least in my opinion.

The sign in the forest, like religious evangelism, have detrimental effects in 
the same way that second-hand cigarette smoke does. They cause detrimental 
changes in the body with which the body must deal as it progresses onward.

> I know I'm going to get a shit-ton of crap foisted upon me because I'm
> going against the agreed-upon group-think here, but if we really were a
> community that was proud of it's culturally diverse citizens as your web
> page claims then we would accept that others have vastly different
> opinions about religion than our own and not make it into such a big
> deal when they go on a rant.

Tolerant acceptance of cultural diversity is distinct from a preference for 
well-reasoned arguments over unsupported opinion or bloviated blather.

"... personal faith and public religion are two completely different things. 
When religion goes public it stops being spritual and becomes political, 
usually running on the moral hypocrisy ticket." -- Pat Condell, 2 Oct 2009.
 
> I could agree with taking away their tax-exempt status because of this
> if it were proven that the church leadership sent the postcard out.  I
> haven't watched the DVD yet, so I don't know if they are using it to
> endorse a candidate or not.  If they want to be political, then they
> shouldn't receive tax exemptions since they are predicated upon their
> not getting involved in politics.

On this last statement, we agree.


Ken