Friday. *yawn*

[kyburg]

For being_homeless - The ultimate in justifying making your journal 'friends only'. Niffy spiffy.

I know this one is going to make the rounds like a bad case of food poisoning, but if you haven't heard, the Daily Kos is reporting on a case of a church in North Carolina 'purging' its congregation of Democratic members.

Please don't ask me to be shocked. washuotaku is on my friends list, and I'm well versed in the current political climate in his state, thanks to him.

It's a very pretty place, he's very happy there and I think Jim also has a great-aunt living there. I also grew up in Hemet, and this was old home week when I was growing up. "If two shall gather in His name, they shall fight." Yessir, they shall. (And you wonder why I'm so picky on choosing my church home.)

What concerns me most about this? The backlash. And it will come.

You want to know how most of the religious 'intolerance' came about in this country? Why we can't have prayer in the schools? This crap, my friends. It's all due to stuff like this.

They don't play well with others.

And public spaces are for everyone.

Last time I checked, a Christian church was supposed to be even better than that. Holy ground and all. God's house.

These guys mess it up for everyone.

If your goal is education, enlightenment and salvation; this ain't it, folks.

I can't imagine a case where losing non-profit status by the IRS was more legitimate. This isn't a church anymore.

And that's where I stop. I haven't been given the authority to judge anyone. I've been given the warning not to - or I'll be judged in turn.

I think we'll see that in action here, whaddya think?

(And I'd like to see a case of a Democratic, or whatever, action to have done the same elsewhere. I may not agree with the whole lack of any kind of faith in our public spaces, but at least the efforts have been to make room in some fashion for wider acceptance. If you don't define, you don't exclude. Hasn't been successful, admittedly, for a lot of people. But you don't have to wonder how they got to this point, do you?)

The beat goes on.

Comments

[legolastn.livejournal.com]

Or is it the ultimate in justifying making all your entries public?

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

From cynthiarose:

All of us have the same inherent worth and value simply by virtue of being here and alive.

Argh. She was doing well until she said that.

You are endowed with a certain basic level of respect. You can change that... up, or down. And you do change that, with every choice you make.

And I don't deal well with her last sentence, either. Sometimes you just need a vacation.

Which is what I'm about to go do.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

*facesmacks*

This being the lynchpin of cognitive therapy, I have to jump in.

You and I occupy space for the same reason. Neither of us asked to be here; neither of us has the right to decide if either of us needs to leave.

Estimate that inherent worth as a zero, if you will. (I tend to make it a little more positive, say a 1 or so, but still - minimal.)

Nobody, where the rubber meets the road, walking around - is in the negative.

People can perform heinous acts, oh very yes, but just walking around, doing what most people do every day - just the same.

(We take actions to protect ourselves when we perceive someone's behavior falling towards the negative. We take action to try to bring someone back to the neutral, don't we? We like to see people in the neutral. It's where we're all comfortable.)

*chuckles* I think this is a good indication why you're a libertarian and I'm not, BTW. *winks*

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

We like to see people in the neutral.

Ahhh, no. I am drawn to excellence. Average is insulting to me. Normal... isn't.

And I think that's a necessity. There is so much in the world that tends towards entropy that we must strive for excellence just to keep our heads above water.

Although there is a difference in self-interest and enlightened (which term's simple meaning is, thinking long-term) self-interest.

Alas, I haven't the time to expound on this... but, no, neutral is not good, because if you aim for neutral, gravity and entropy will inevitably have you miss to the low side. That way lies madness.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Negating positives because they aren't "good" enough is one of the classic cognitive dissonances that you find in clinically depressed patients. Really really.

Perfectionism is a curse; it rarely produces better results, and the person stuck with this issue often ceases creative work when they can never be "good" enough. Name it - not the lead dog? You suck.

We aren't talking about when effort is expended. I'm talking about where you begin - what you believe you start with. And the world largely runs on auto-pilot, you know that - largely with a neutral charge, so to speak.

Hold onto the thought that you don't begin in the red; that you aren't fighting an entirely uphill battle (because you're not) - and if it's good enough - well - good enough is good - and because it's not *cue bells and whistles* EXCELLENT - it's not crap.

Great things are built on solid foundations of small things, added up.

And I swear, this is the last conversation I expected to have today. Go take care of business, we can pick this up again later.

[pagawne.livejournal.com]

Lo, it is very old and true saying "Baptists multiply by dividing."
It seems that nine were expelled from the church and 40 left
in protest.

Most of my family being Baptist, I do have a reasonably good
handle on the subject, and I was always taught that no *decent* person
would mix religion and politics.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Kind of on the order of not washing your hands after using the toliet. Yup.