From: owner-eda-thoughts-digest@smoe.org (eda-thoughts-digest) To: eda-thoughts-digest@smoe.org Subject: eda-thoughts-digest V3 #128 Reply-To: eda-thoughts@smoe.org Sender: owner-eda-thoughts-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-eda-thoughts-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk eda-thoughts-digest Thursday, April 13 2000 Volume 03 : Number 128 * If you ever wish to unsubscribe, send an email to * eda-thoughts-digest-request@smoe.org with ONLY * the word unsubscribe in the body of the email * . * PLEASE :) when you reply to this digest to send a post TO the list, * change the subject to reflect what your post is about. A subject * of Re: eda-thoughts-digest V3 #xxx or the like gives readers no clue * as to what your message is about. Today's Subjects: ----------------- ET: my christian contribution ;) [shivergirl ] Re: ET:it's not just Christianity [shivergirl ] ET: kara's response [Katherine Alexandra ] ET: Re: kara's response [Nicole ] ET: emails [Nicole ] ET: poem ["Claudia" ] Re: ET:it's not just Christianity [kara garbe ] RE: ET:it's not just Christianity ["Platt, Caroline" Subject: ET: my christian contribution ;) > (since, *tech*nically, i am one, too--although more of a > boakanist-wannabe buddhist :) > > > _____ The trouble with ignorance is that it picks up confidence _ > _____ as it goes along. _________________________________________ > > YOU ARE TOO FUNDAMENTAL (or double-whammy christian) WHEN > . . . > > - You enjoy talking to people in King James English. > - You know God on a first name basis. > - You have your application in for the Trinity. > - You think dancing is a form of artificial insemination. > - You find June Cleaver attractive. > - You know the three Greek words for love. > - You called your teacher "the Beast" as a child. > - You pointed out all the errors in Jurassic Park according to > Genesis. > - You think Monopoly teaches greed. > - You think genuflect is a type of mirror. > - You can prove that unscrambling "Santa" is "Satan." > - You know that Jesus was born in April but probably would > have liked a tree anyway. > - You exchange any currency that has three 6's in a row. > - You think that bar codes are demonic. > - You take National Geographic and draw bikini's on all the > naked people. > - You think People Magazine is pornography. > - You think laughter is a tool of the devil. > - You have a chart of the hidden symbols of the dollar bill. > - You say "Darn." > - You have all of your radio buttons tuned into religious > stations. > - Your idea of a hot weekend is to attend an anti-Catholic > seminar. > - You won't wear colored underwear. > - You won't go to a museum because they have pictures of > nekked wimmin. > - You won't go in your bathroom because your wife sometimes > is nekked. > - You don't have children because it means you and your wife > would have to get nekked ... a little. > - You think Bingo was a pretty good game until them Catholics > took it over. > - You think Charlton Heston was great in the Ten Commandments... > but you repent of watching it because movies are a tool of the > devil. > - You say Amen more than once an hour. > - You pray so long your food gets cold. > - You think science is a tool of the devil. > - You sit still in your living room on Sundays so God won't get > angry at you because you are working on the Lord's day. > - Your wife puts a scripture tract in your lunch. > - You have your name stamped on all your Bibles. > - You think that Catholics actually pray to little plastic > statues. > - You think underneath the Pope's skull cap is the mark of the > beast. > - You preach against gossip but you thumb through the National > Enquirer at the check-out line. > - You rail against Catholics for statues but wear a cross > around your own neck. > > ..........Original Humor by Chris A. Faria ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 00:59:53 -0400 From: shivergirl Subject: Re: ET:it's not just Christianity Niki wrote: > >From what I've read most of you think that this sensationalism is just > within the Christian religion...and how it's becoming a 'trend'... but if > you've picked up a magazine lately (i forget where i read this at) hopefully not a christian magazine. ;) > you'll > see that the trend isn't really Christianity anymore-it's Buddism and I > forget what other religions were mentioned but there were a few more. The > article I read showed an increase in Buddism etc and used movie stars as > examples of people who are going off on this new trend... i hope you don't mean people like richard gere, who genuinely seems to me to be a real buddhist (for a long time now). i mean, there is a difference when stars use their fame to promote causes, religious or otherwise, and i don't think it always means they're necessarily following a "trend." > > Don't you think it's better to back > something like Christianity and actually BELIEVE in it and even make some > money off of it then to just follow the trend and not believe in it and > have some people make money off of it? absolutely not. i think, like jesus said in that parable about selling stuff in a church, that's it really reprehensible and awful and plain tacky to make money off religion or spirituality to such a degree. it's hard to avoid it altogether, but to say "isn't it better" kinda just justfies it too much fer me..and the underlying implied superiority of christianity, because it's seemingly been around a lot longer than some so-called trend stars just happen to have embraced lately is insulting. > I'm sorry I just think this is > really ridiculous and I can't believe that no one else sees that it isn't > just Christianity, and even if it WAS just Christianity, at least people > believe in it. yeah--but what do they believe in--the golden rule--or the god of money?they're not one in the same; or easily interchangeable, or cause-effect. do you think no one really believes in buddhism???? what ridiculous notions! (i don't mean this as a personal attack) and someone questioned why america seems to be the hotspot for bible-thumping, superiority-of-religion-spouting christianity???? funny. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 22:17:13 -0700 (PDT) From: Katherine Alexandra Subject: ET: kara's response kara i think your totally right about the puriton thing. i remember a year or so ago i was talking to someone about that. you know what i read once about the monica thing? in australia they said that they were glad their settlers were criminals and not the puritons bc they dont want to deal with being so up tight about everything....also i have read about the south, part of the culture is bc we were settled with more criminals then puritons compared to the north. look at the religions of the south, the southern culture compared to the nothern...a lot has to do with who settled where and why. a lot of the time it's not a freedom of religion, its the freedom for christianity. i think that's sad, but some see it that way. about writing...i think kara's right about that as well, it comes from intense emotion. i think its hard to write something happy and not be cheesy...when somone can skillfully write something happy, they are a brilliant writer in my mind. my thoughts :) byebye kat __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send online invitations with Yahoo! Invites. http://invites.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 00:53:50 -0700 From: Nicole Subject: ET: Re: kara's response i can skillfully write happy things...i'll send some if anyone's interested :) nik - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Katherine Alexandra" To: Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2000 10:17 PM Subject: ET: kara's response > kara i think your totally right about the puriton > thing. i remember a year or so ago i was talking to > someone about that. you know what i read once about > the monica thing? in australia they said that they > were glad their settlers were criminals and not the > puritons bc they dont want to deal with being so up > tight about everything....also i have read about the > south, part of the culture is bc we were settled with > more criminals then puritons compared to the north. > look at the religions of the south, the southern > culture compared to the nothern...a lot has to do with > who settled where and why. a lot of the time it's not > a freedom of religion, its the freedom for > christianity. i think that's sad, but some see it that > way. > > about writing...i think kara's right about that as > well, it comes from intense emotion. i think its hard > to write something happy and not be cheesy...when > somone can skillfully write something happy, they are > a brilliant writer in my mind. > > my thoughts :) > byebye > kat > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Send online invitations with Yahoo! Invites. > http://invites.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 00:59:08 -0700 From: Nicole Subject: ET: emails hey gang...i sent an email a few days ago talking about the holocaust...i don't think it got sent through...if it was filtered or whatever by the handlers of this list, can someone explain to me why? i know it has nothing to do with jewel, but neither does marketing christianity or a lot of the things that get posted (no offense to anyone, i have partaken in a lot of these discussions) i was just wondering if anyone got it and i didn't or if it just wasn't sent. can someone please explain? i won't write about it again if it won't get posted, but i thought it was a great topic to write about and that there would be a lot of good conversation. anyone? nicole ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 13:15:46 +0200 From: "Claudia" Subject: ET: poem Your soul is an extension of my freedom Your dreams are the simple things i've always cherished in my heart Your hopes are the pearls people have tried so hard to steal from my faith Your eyes are windows on life's purest essence Your nightmares are the shadows that keep haunting your thoughtlessness Your fears are reflections of the heavy chains a cruel destiny made for you But your love is stronger than you can imagine. Your courage and faith in your beliefs are your strength, Your kindness is your protection, Your altruism is your power, Your smartness is your weapon. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 08:25:54 -0400 (Eastern Daylight Time) From: kara garbe Subject: Re: ET:it's not just Christianity On Wed, 12 Apr 2000 17:05:56 -0500 Niki wrote: > From what I've read most of you think that this sensationalism is just > within the Christian religion...and how it's becoming a 'trend'... but if > you've picked up a magazine lately (i forget where i read this at) you'll > see that the trend isn't really Christianity anymore-it's Buddism I don't think you can really compare the two until you start seeing little plastic Buddhas for sale in grocery store checkout lines. Niki and others, I hope you don't take this conversation as a personal attack. Obviously there are a lot of true Christian believers out there who aren't just caught up in the trendy WWJD /plastic jesus thing. Buddhism (and other Eastern religions) may be gaining popularity in the West, but nothing like the scope of Christianity. To be fair to the other side, though, I have a Buddhist friend whose family is from China and he went off one day about how wrong he thought it was that some Americans were "calling themselves" Budhist. He did feel that Buddhism had become "trendy" in the US and he was really insulted by this. However, I would argue that Buddhism isn't widespread enough to be trendy... I don't think most people think it's "cool" to be Buddhist, it's just such a radically new idea to most white Americans that it has sort of an aura of excitement. True Buddhism conversion is, I think, not very widespread, and has mainly received attention because of the celebrities who have embraced it. Also, the "new age" movement takes a lot from easter religions, I believe. I had this conversation with my friend, for example, because I was taking a college course on Buddhism and learning about Buddhist beliefs, which I found fascinating and, in many cases, in line with my own personal views as well. So I went to talk to this friend about some of the things that I had learned, and he had no clue what I was talking about. He'd been raised in the religion, but never truly *studied* it, and I knew more about Buddhist theory than he did. So then, when he went off about Americans who "superficially" embrace Buddhism, I got pretty offended. It seems to me like somebody who learns about Buddhism on her own and embraces the religion simply through love of its doctrine should be considered *at least* as much of a "believer" as someone who was simply raised in the faith and knows relatively little about it. sorry, just had to get that off my chest. ~kara ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 08:12:59 -0700 From: "Platt, Caroline" Subject: RE: ET:it's not just Christianity kara wrote: "To be fair to the other side, though, I have a Buddhist friend whose family is from China and he went off one day about how wrong he thought it was that some Americans were "calling themselves" Budhist. He did feel that Buddhism had become "trendy" in the US and he was really insulted by this. However, I would argue that Buddhism isn't widespread enough to be trendy... I don't think most people think it's "cool" to be Buddhist, it's just such a radically new idea to most white Americans that it has sort of an aura of excitement. True Buddhism conversion is, I think, not very widespread, and has mainly received attention because of the celebrities who have embraced it. Also, the "new age" movement takes a lot from easter religions, I believe." I think that Kara is absolutely right here. It brings up another point though too. While I can understand and respect someone from an Asian culture being disturbed by the beginnings of a Buddhist trend here, (especially because it is the USA, which is SO despised the rest of the world over), I think that if they were to study Asian history, they would find that Buddhism spread over Asia from region/country/nation to another over time, and that in each culture, changed accordingly. That it will do so in its migration to the west seems inevitable. I mean, a Theravada Buddhist from Vietnam and a Japanese Zen Buddhist have VERY much seperating them, belief and tradition wise, as a CHinese and American Buddhist will too. "I had this conversation with my friend, for example, because I was taking a college course on Buddhism and learning about Buddhist beliefs, which I found fascinating and, in many cases, in line with my own personal views as well. So I went to talk to this friend about some of the things that I had learned, and he had no clue what I was talking about. He'd been raised in the religion, but never truly *studied* it, and I knew more about Buddhist theory than he did. So then, when he went off about Americans who "superficially" embrace Buddhism, I got pretty offended. It seems to me like somebody who learns about Buddhism on her own and embraces the religion simply through love of its doctrine should be considered *at least* as much of a "believer" as someone who was simply raised in the faith and knows relatively little about it." This is actually very common, from what I understand. Buddhist theory has always been reserved, in Asia, for the monks, while normal people simply live in its traditions. I had a similar conversationwith a Hindu ex-boyfriend. One other thought: this thread started out on Christianity, and I was disturbed when someone (I dont remember who and this isnt meant as an attack) equated Christianity with spirituality. While many Christians are spiritual, many are not, and there are many non-Christians who are spiritual as well. The two terms should not be equated. :) Caroline ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 13:10:58 EDT From: DPS8315@aol.com Subject: ET: still going-intense emotion&writing In a message dated 4/13/00 12:20:26 AM US Eastern Standard Time, jackies_strength20@yahoo.com writes: > about writing...i think kara's right about that as > well, it comes from intense emotion. i think its hard > to write something happy and not be cheesy...when > somone can skillfully write something happy, they are > a brilliant writer in my mind. never been happy babe? I honestly can say that when I-and a lot of people, write..or at least try to write about "sad" things, it just turns out as "oh my life sucks/pity me" just like you think that "happy" things turn out as "oh pretty pretty pretty love me" so I suppose that poetry is really diverse- it can be taken however, and written a completely different way. moreover, it is important to recall that everything in life, especially poetry, is dependent on what.you.know I've never really known any "hardship" so it's hard for me to understand where people are coming from (and vice versa of course) Kara, this little part for you now: *this is culture* i'm so proud of the whole list! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 13:15:11 EDT From: DPS8315@aol.com Subject: Re: ET:it's not just Christianity this, i'm sure, will come off terribly, but it's one of the most genuine questions I've ever had about religion in general, esp christianity.. if you take all of the muslims, hindus, islams, buddhist, zaos...whoever wherever, they dwindle the number of "christian" believers out there, and I just wanted to know if they all get saved too.. ------------------------------ End of eda-thoughts-digest V3 #128 **********************************