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From: orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Re: Replies to Ken (morality and religion)
Message-ID: <334@whuxl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 9-Nov-84 11:04:14 EST
Article-I.D.: whuxl.334
Posted: Fri Nov  9 11:04:14 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Nov-84 09:53:05 EST
References: <1376@pucc-h> <1731@nsc.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs
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> Face it. God doesn't want us all to be Christians, or Catholics, or Jews,
> or Zen Buddists. God wants us to be people. The political beauracracies of
> the organized religions all want us to be members of their organized
> religions because they can then control and modify our behavior to fit
> their uses. They want us to conform, because they want us to do it their
> way, not God's way. My biggest complaint with the Bible is that it is a
> work that has been modified through time by those in power to assist them
> in keeping power and augmenting it. It has been mis-quoted, taken out of
> context, used, defiled, and ignored all in the name of power. I don't need
> someone telling me what my God wants of me or how to run my life, my God
> tells me directly.
> From the Department of Bistromatics:                   Chuq Von Rospach
> {cbosgd,decwrl,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui  nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA
Unfortunately it is true that the political bureaucracies of the Churches
often are put to bad purposes.  A book has just been published about
Cardinal Spellman and his blatant interference into politics, his support
for allout bombing in Vietnam and various nasty things. We saw the same thing
in the last election with Archbishop O'Connor and other Catholic bishops
urging Catholics to consider abortion before all other moral issues in the
election.  Moreover 79% of Fundamentalists voted for Reagan based upon the
use of religion for political ends. 
An argument I have heard again and again is that anyone who worries about
Nuclear War cannot believe in God because God would not allow such a thing
to happen.  This attitude scares me because I think we are drifting towards
a possible Nuclear War but nobody seems to care.  The same argument could have
been used to argue that there was no use worrying about the "Final Solution"
to the Jewish Problem because God wouldn't allow millions of people to be 
brutally murdered.  One also notices a two-faced attitude towards God's
beneficence and our duty to do something about moral issues. On the one hand
Fundamentalists were roused to do something about the fetuses being aborted
every day in a political way by voting for Reagan.  On the other hand movement
towards a Nuclear War is not opposed because God will somehow prevent it.
It is perfectly obvious that God is not acting to prevent the abortion of
thousand of fetuses--then why is it not just as obvious that she will do nothing
to prevent nuclear weapons from exploding if they are launched ?
I don't see any miraculous disappearance of nuclear weapons from either sides
stockpiles............
Will the Christians on this Net support a war in Central America if it comes?
tim sevener whuxl!orb