Re: Acceptance and growth

On Jun 28, 8:38=A0am, Matthew Johnson <matthew_mem...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
> In article <34X8k.117$8c.57@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, jjsarg...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 says...
> >So martyrdom proves NOTHING.
>
> Correction: martyrdom per se proves little, but Christian martyrdom
prove=
s much
> more.

Only to those who believe _a priori_ that Christian
martyrdom is special.  If one does not do that,
it proves nothing.  You seem to be falling into
the fallacy of assuming your conclusion.

You, being Orthodox, probably know about the
Old Believers in Czarist Russia.  In the 17th Century
the Church made some reforms (I gather they were
at the behest of the government); those who did not
go along with the changes were willing to suffer
imprisonment and even death over the question
of whether to cross oneself with two fingers (the
old way) or three (the new).  That is Christian
martyrdom that to a sensible outsider looks
absolutely silly.

[snip]

> > The Bible is full
> >of bad analogies.
>
> No, it has the =A0best analogies. You just don't like what they say, so
y=
ou search
> desperately for ways to criticize them.

Another one is the potter analogy.  Just as
the gold and silver don't feel, neither does
the clay; but humans do, so again it's a bad
analogy.  You just don't dare see that.  Your
faith is apparently not in God, but in words.
That is called idolatry.

I think I ought to repost that article of mine
of mine addressed principally to you which
you seem to have missed.  You'll probably
find it offensive instead of the way you ought
to find it (thought-provoking), since I, among
other things, "dis" some of your favorite authors.
If you're interested, and with the moderator's
permission, I'll repost it.

-- Jeffrey J. Sargent