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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!eosp1!robison
From: robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: If you consider yourself a Christian...
Message-ID: <844@eosp1.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 3-May-84 12:43:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: eosp1.844
Posted: Thu May  3 12:43:11 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 4-May-84 03:56:16 EDT
Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton, NJ
Lines: 25

References:

On the basis of all practical experience, it seems reasonable to
consider people members of a religion if they feel they belong to it,
and if one cannot discern a rational attempt by members of that religion
to exclude them.  Otherwise we should perhaps adopt strict standards
and say that in all this world there are 7 Jews, 193 Christians, 512 hindi,
etc.

Either Dear Abby or Ann Landers put it very well in response to a complaint
from a teenager who was fed up with seeing people go to Church regularly
who obviously (!) were not truly religious in their feeling or rules
of observance.  Why were those people allowed in church?

The answer:  A church is not a museum for saints; it's a hospital for
sinners.

Most religions reflect this same point of view humbly by asking all its
recognizing, in one way or another, to acknowledge that everyone commits
or improperly considers deeds that are incorrect.

					- Toby Robison (not Robinson!)
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