Yes, it's true.

Like a thief in the night......

I think THAT'S a little weird. Sorry, but I don't get the point.

I wanted to understand the mindset behind the Rapturists and also figure out what the Rapture was all about. As I said in my earlier post, I found it strange that these folks were both pleased and excited about the possible mass destruction of the Middle East. It seems that this accords with a prophecy that signifies the second coming and the end of the world as we know it.

Of course when one's eyes are so firmly focussed on the end of the world there is likely to be little interest in the state of this one. I suspect that few of these individuals are environmentalists....

If anyone wants to explain why those who believe in the rapture are not considered delusional by today's mental health standards, I'd be very interested.

If anyone wants to explain why those who believe in the rapture are not considered delusional by today's mental health standards, I'd be very interested.

Just my wild ass guess here, but I'm thinking that most of the Rapture Ready people do not hold today's mental health standards in very high esteem...and tha the twain would seldom meet.

Leatha,

As soon as Christians are in the same kind of minority as the other groups you listed, it might make sense to get our panties in a bunch about their rights being endangered. And as soon as Christians--the majority, remember...the group with all the power in this culture--set the example as to how to treat others who believe differently, it might be easier to tell the good guys from the bad guys in this drama.

But, if you want to feel the wrath of a Christian or two, try to not say the words "under God," in the Pledge of Allegiance. Or ask that the school stop having Halloween parties on school property during the educational day because Halloween is a holiday based on religious beliefs that conflict with yours (not to mention that the school's test scores indicate that they could USE another day of study, not parties.) Try being the non-Christian parent when your kid is in a classroom full of religious motifs this time of year. If you want you kid to keep her solo in the school choir "Winter Holidays" performance, do you even MENTION that every song they are performing is a freakin' CHRISTIAN HYMN!?

In terms of day-to-day hegemony, the Christians are millenia ahead of the other groups mentioned. Funny how most people can see only how Islam has taken over the lives of the citizens of Middle Easten countries, without seeing how Christianity has dictated a good part of how our lives are conducted here. There ARE parallels.

I don't think that raising sincere questions is equal to mockery and ridicule. Just questioning Christian ideas does not mean I am mocking them. My question about the rapture is sincere. I really don't know, and don't understand, why people who believe in it are not considered to be delusional and mentally ill by today's mental health standards. I'm not being sarcastic or mean, but that is a real question.

I saw this woman on tv last night "pastor Melissa Scott." Wow. This woman was ranting on and on about "numbers" and "symbols" in the bible and how they all tie in together and relate to each other. And she was going on and on about the number 7 and the number 3 and crazily drawing on a blackboard and circling greek letters and drawing arrows all over like in football. She was making sentence diagrams and relating them to numbers and words in Greek, and running all over the stage and I could not make one bit of sense out of anything she was saying. Her thoughts were rambling all over the place. She even looked crazy and she had on this bizarre outfit from "The Matrix". My mom used to work at a hotline for mentally ill people, and let me tell you, alot of these people would call and talk about the same things! This woman Melissa Scott is doing nothing but reinfocing my stance that some of these folks have severe mental health issues.

lethea g: I hope your first paragraph is sarcasm.

Further down, what you seem to be saying is that because you are a Christian, you are quietly asking God's forgiveness for the world (?) or us specifically on this thread (?) for having gotten "off track". I'm not sure of the track that you believe we should all be on. All Christians? All born again? Because all Christian faiths do not believe that one must be "born again" to be worthy of heaven. So is it just your Christian faith that is the right track? Or is it because we aren't "born again" and therefore going to hell?

That is so much the point of this discussion, I believe, and I respect the fact that you have your beliefs but you are willing to pray for those who do not believe as you, rather than beating your breasts and screaming in our faces that we are wrong and that we are going to hell. There is a passage in the New Testament that says that (and I'm certainly paraphrasing here) believers in God should quietly worship and pray and if someone should ask about their faith, then they should quietly share their faith with the non-believer.

I have not found that to be the case with many people today who find it their mission to discredit or even kill their fellow human beings, if those human beings do not share their beliefs. That's what we've been carping about here. Not about the Christians who care for and pray for their fellow human beings.

The bad people aren't the Muslims who just go about their lives and daily prayers praising Allah. The bad people aren't the Christians who are tolerant of other religions and who respect their fellow countrymen. It is the intolerant, the hateful, the mean spirited and the terrorists who I have a problem with. I hope you are praying for them.

I don't think that raising sincere questions is equal to mockery and ridicule. Just questioning Christian ideas does not mean I am mocking them. My question about the rapture is sincere. I really don't know, and don't understand, why people who believe in it are not considered to be delusional and mentally ill by today's mental health standards. I'm not being sarcastic or mean, but that is a real question.

I saw this woman on tv last night "pastor Melissa Scott." Wow. This woman was ranting on and on about "numbers" and "symbols" in the bible and how they all tie in together and relate to each other. And she was going on and on about the number 7 and the number 3 and crazily drawing on a blackboard and circling greek letters and drawing arrows all over like in football. She was making sentence diagrams and relating them to numbers and words in Greek, and running all over the stage and I could not make one bit of sense out of anything she was saying. Her thoughts were rambling all over the place. She even looked crazy and she had on this bizarre outfit from "The Matrix". My mom used to work at a hotline for mentally ill people, and let me tell you, alot of these people would call and talk about the same things! This woman Melissa Scott is doing nothing but reinfocing my stance that some of these folks have severe mental health issues.

"Pastor Melissa" is the multi-million dollar widow of the late Gene Scott, a cult leader here in L.A.

http://www.dymaxionweb.com/kulturedrome/gene%20scott.jpg

Here's an interesting website that I got from a site that I often frequent.

http://web.archive.org/web/20041113084054/www.reandev.com/taliban/

I believe that there are many wise, tolerant, and thoughtful Christians, ones who have made a point of learning about their faith and who have studied the Bible. Some of them post here and certainly Carlene, TOM, and Jack, to name a few, fall into this category. It is impossible to do other than to respect and admire such Christians as these. No one can deny that there are responsible Christians just as there are responsible Jews, Muslims, and atheists.

And then there are the fanatics: these are those individuals who do not respect the rights and beliefs of others but who only seek to judge and to impose their own beliefs. These folk are merely moral bullies and they are either ill-educated in the study of the very Book that they seek to use in order to attain control over the lives of others or they are cherrypicking their material. As I have mentioned before in these threads the Bible is a complicated, often violent, and often contradictory set of documents.

It is my opinion that the quotes expressed in the site which I have listed above are disgraceful and as hate-filled as anything issued by members of the intifada. That these individuals are, with the exception of Phelps, prominent, mainstream members of America is dismaying. It is this type of Christian and this manifestation of Christianity that I believe that we are attacking here. And why shouldn't we attack these folk?

http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm

Betsyjane: Not too surprising that Germans supported Hitler, is it? I don't know how we talk sense into Americans. Pat Robertson and others have worked on this outcome for at least 20 years. I wonder if many people who support he and Bush, understand what they're REALLY getting.

Even my own children don't really understand why I am so upset about the members of the Supreme Court who have been appointed by Bush. They will unfortunately have to watch it unfold.

Too bad we can't impeach him and get him out. We'd be left with Cheney! (sometimes my being a Houstonian is embarrassing.)

Good ole shoot 'em Dick Cheney.... LOL

Dick Cheney's motto....Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out.

Halliburton lost money big time when Cheney ran it, but he got a huge bonus severence. He was put in charge of Halliburton, not to run it well, but because of the connections he had with politicians, so in the long run, it worked. Halliburton got those choice contracts in the Middle East, and Cheney sits in Washington overseeing them. Somebody had their eye on the long term ball at Halliburton!