Howdy,
On Fri, 29 Sep 2000, Matthew Carson wrote:
> >Religion and prayer should be voluntary, not forced. Its certainly not
> >the biggest problem Solo2 has (like, say La... :-), but its inappropriate
> >for the banquet.
>
> Of course this begs a question of me. As someone who doesn't autocross as
> often as he would like because I do feel it is important to go to church (I
> wish more events were on Saturdays), I have to wonder why people's
> Christian beliefs are considered offensive and people just assume that
> non-Christian beliefs are "inoffensive?"
I don't believe I, or anyone else, has expressed this. We were talking
about a Christian prayer. I don't believe that a prayer at the start of
the banquet is appropriate. A moment of silence is appropriate, as people
can do what they want with it.
If it had been a Jewish, satanic, or athestic prayer, my opinion wouldn't
change.
> I am not saying I am offended by
> it but I have to wonder why others are offended by my beliefs. For
> instance, I don't agree with using the Lord's name in vain. I don't do
> it. To me it's something that I don't believe is right and I don't
> particularly like to hear. But I don't go around telling people it offends
> me and they should quit doing it. I understand that not everyone believes
> in Jesus. I would agree that a moment of silence to honor everyone's
> beliefs would be appropriate. I just find it extremely hard to believe
> that using the name of Jesus in a prayer would be considered more offensive
> to non-Christians than non-Christians using the name of Jesus in their
> curses is to Christians. No one here seems to be advocating an end to
> that. I just don't see any forcing everywhere. Just as I choose not to
> participate when others around me are invoking Jesus' name in vain, those
> around me can choose not to participate when I invoke it in a prayer.
Its funny you should use that example. I'm attached to a woman who is
bothered when someone takes the lord's name in vain. At first I couldn't
understand why that was such a big deal, but eventually it ocurred to me
that it didn't matter and I started watching what I said. My modifying my
_behavior_ didn't affect my beliefs, and helped her. I contend that a
modification to the banquet to have a moment of silence rather than a
Christen prayer would be similar.
> Flame me if you want, I won't reply, that's what I believe and it's not
> going to change.
As long as you're keeping an open mind about it. :-)
Seriously, nobody's asking you to change your beliefs. Some folks have
pointed out that an autox banquet isn't necessarily the best place for a
particular religion's prayer to be "state sponsored".
Mark
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