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Metaphorically, my dear, not literally. You know, like some of the bible stories.
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Originally Posted by DewDropInn
Trout's from hearty Ukranian stock. Eastern European women don't mess around.
True. And my sis-in-laws are formidable. One is 6' tall, Dutch Reformed and the curator of an art gallery. The other was a school teacher for 30 years. Both smart as whips.
Persecuted? the latest trick with local Christians, when I am walking though Walmart with my cane, is to send elementary children up to me, to pray for me to be healed. They are required to do it until someone lets them pray. They know that most of us won't get rude with children.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Floorist
I have no idea which church. I haven't seen adults with them. I just let them do it, thank them and move on. Not their fault. One of them told me that they were expected to find someone to pray for.
You just let them do it then you move on? And they don't have guardian adults with them, so they are unattended children? That is the neglectful parents' equivalent of shepherds sending lambs out amongst wolves and hoping that the wolves don't abuse, corrupt or devour the lambs. It is child abuse.
I wonder if you realize what a great opportunity you're passing up to let those kids know they are being brainwashed about their religion and that they're being used and abused and their lives are being put at grave risks by their own parents. You could be sending a message to those children and thus to the children's parents and guardians about their own neglect and the potential abuse or even the permanent loss of their own children to strangers.
The parents need to understand that if you were a corrupt opportunist you could be using your own powers of persuasion to tell them about other perspectives or belief systems. If you have some belief system of your own that is different and perhaps more desireable sounding from their own beliefs you could be trying to convert those children to your own beliefs. You could be informing those children that their parents are wrong and that they are using their children to do their own dirty work. At the very worst, those children could be approaching evil and cunning strangers who would take advantage and corrupt those children, or do great physical harm and even murder.
I think that you, if you are a responsible adult who cares about the wellbeing of children, should be warning those children about their parents' neglect and the risks they're being exposed to. I also think that you should be reporting to your community's local authorities about the parents' neglect and the risks of grave danger that they are subjecting their children to every time they expect the kids to seek and confront strangers.
Well, we have another troll like poster, makes an outrageous statement and then disappears when challenged. Typical.
Often I think they post thinking they have had some kind of clever "gotcha" thought and then when no one is impressed with it they just slink away, either in shame, or, more often, just using the pushback as more confirmation bias for their persecution complex.
Those evil, blasphemous, idolaters ... twisting the poster's words and making him feel bad and grieving the Lord Jesus. How awful. The world is just going to hell in a handbasket! Tsk tsk!
1. I don't get upset, just irritated. You're certainly "allowed" to tell people whatever you want. But it's courteous not to be ramming your boring thoughts down other people's throats, just like it's courteous for pet owners not to be boring people with endless stories about their pets. Also, I wonder if you would be so welcoming of someone insisting on your listening to them telling you at length how much better Islam and Allah is. I suspect your wish to be heard is a one-way street.
2. Personally, I consider it a sign of insecurity when a person is driven to try to convince others of the rightness of his idea, when it pertains to an individual matter.
By the way apropos of your urging people to pray, are you aware of the study that indicated that sick people who were prayed for got worse?
Also, I wonder if you would be so welcoming of someone insisting on your listening to them telling you at length how much better Islam and Allah is. I suspect your wish to be heard is a one-way street.
Of course. Faith-based belief engenders the notion that if people simply heard the same message / arguments that you did, well of course they will see the light like you did -- they would have the same reaction. When they do it confirms that you were right to be impressed -- when they don't it is pretty strong evidence that you were either wrong or at the least, don't have airtight justifications for your belief that no sane person could possibly disagree with.
Since doubt is a sin, you then conclude that anyone disagreeing with you is some combination of evil, rude, cruel, stupid, stubborn or hateful. Really when you are proselytized, it is a needy request from the proselytizer that you completely agree with the beliefs of the proselytizer, so naturally when you don't cooperate, you must be otherized and demonized into irrelevance. And what more deniable way to do that, then to claim you are being persecuted when all that's happening is that someone has failed to agree with you and be in shock and awe at what you are in shock and awe about.
Even in denominations that don't do much proselytizing, there is the otherizing of "the unchurched" and "unbelievers" and "the backslidden" and the drawing the wagons around the campfire of the in-group. It feeds off the same dynamic.
Metaphorically, my dear, not literally. You know, like some of the bible stories.
True. And my sis-in-laws are formidable. One is 6' tall, Dutch Reformed and the curator of an art gallery. The other was a school teacher for 30 years. Both smart as whips.
how about the person that believes sex is very important and should be practiced like a religion? you want them coming around to tell you all about it?
I do!
How come I never her THOSE witnesses at my door?
P.s. I'm willing to at least explore the faith, provided the witness has one of those cute little goatees. OMG I just love those goatees.
Okay, so, carry on.
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