Incredible thinking....

[Chris James]

I am almost struck dumb by this news item, is this real?

http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/davidbadash/christian_activist_files_ballot_measure_to_execute_all_gay_people_by_bullets_to_the_head

I occasionally rant about the Christian Right but I would think even they would be embarrassed and ashamed by this man. I could laugh it off and say "Oh well, this is California," but then the man was actually able to file this ballot request. It must be something in the water out there.

[Lugnutz]

Amusing.

[DesDownunder]

Their's a high probability, in my opinion, that it isn't real, but if it is then I fear the outcome will be less than conducive to the claim that our species is intelligent.

[Nigel Gordon]

There are times when I feel that it is our duty to assist some who claim to be Christian on the path to meet their God.

[Cole Parker]

Did Nazism begin in this way?

C

[Nigel Gordon]

Did Nazism begin in this way?

C

No, Nazism was a logical position drawn from a false premise, in this case the position is not even logical as the action suggested is totally contrary to one of the ten fundamental laws of the religion it is claiming to represent - namely 'Thou shalt not kill."

[Rutabaga]

I hate to nitpick, but it's not obvious to me that this whack job purports to be espousing a particularly Christian doctrine here. In truth this lunacy seems to me to draw almost entirely on the Old Testament.

R

[DesDownunder]

I'd be more inclined to point the finger at a psychosis, inspired by, at least in part, a distorted sense of reality that may well be derived from childhood experiences of indoctrination.

The resulting neurosis could be influenced by a number of different religions including those of Abrahamic origins.

I would certainly think that examination and institutionalisation with a view for psychiatric evaluation would not be out of place.

What disturbs me more is that treating the mental aberration of reality is seen by some, as a persecution of the right for freedom of expression.

[JamesSavik]

I love the idiots that insist on going back to Levitical law. It worse than Sharia and... the only guys that follow it look like...

So... this clean shaven, crustacean eating, poly-cotten blend wearing nimod that suggests this will end up getting just as stoned as the rest of us.

[Nick Deverill]

Our universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding

In all of the directions it can whiz

As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know

Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is

So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure

How amazingly unlikely is your birth

And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space, 'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!

Written as a comedy song (The Galaxy Song, Monty Python, the last bit) but as many things comic, alarmingly near the truth.

[Rutabaga]

It has to be remembered that Levitical (and related) laws had to do with ritual purity or cleanliness more than anything. There is nothing inherently sinful or immoral about wearing clothing made from two different fibers. But refraining from doing that was a symbolic way for the Jews of that era to signify that they were being observant. Just as ritual circumcision of Jewish males showed primarily that they had some skin in the game. (Yeah, pun intended.)

I read the New Testament as saying, overall, that we've moved beyond these ritual observances. The letters of Paul, for example, go to great lengths to explain why Gentiles did not have to be circumcised in order to participate in the new church. In Mark 7:18-19, Jesus says, " Don't you see that nothing that enters a person from outside can defile them? For it doesn't go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body." Jesus, in other words, declared all foods clean, thus overruling the Old Testament restrictions on pork, shellfish, etc. Paul, in Romans 13:9, writes, "For the commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'” In Matthew 22:36-40, after being asked by a disciple, "what is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replies: “'‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” I could cite many more examples, but I think it is undebatable that Jesus wants the world to move beyond the harsh and legalistic approach of Old Testament laws. Indeed, he points out that the Pharisees -- the most learned in Old Testament law -- had taken that law to perverse results that were in no way consistent with what God really wanted.

So while this proposed ballot initiative really doesn't have a prayer (another bad pun) of qualifying for the California ballot anyway, my main point is that I can't imagine that any educated and thoughtful Christian with an adequate knowledge of the Bible could possibly see the provisions of this initiative as comporting with genuine Christian values or principles.

R