[pct-l] How the apocalypse can benefit PCT hikers

[Dan Welch]

I sure hope my PCT-L file folder isn't going to fill up with religious point/counter-point over the next few days.  I thought this was s'pose to be about hiking & riding the PCT.  No offense intended...

Timberline


 

-----Original Message-----
From: pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net [mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net] On Behalf Of Melanie Clarke
Sent: Friday, November 15, 2013 11:29 AM
To: Tortoise
Cc: PCT-L
Subject: Re: [pct-l] How the apocalypse can benefit PCT hikers

I was a Mormon growing up but I'm an Atheist now so I feel qualified to answer these questions.  Please don't be so harsh on the Mormons!

Mormons are some of the nicest, friendly, most caring people I've ever met.
 I had a wonderful childhood as a Mormon and their main concern is how to function as decent people.  My happy childhood feel apart when my mother began to follow New Age Religions, cults etc.  I had an Atheist friend who moved to Salt Lake, Utah after college.  He told me that neighborhood teenage boys would knock on his door and ask him if they could mow his lawn as they have to do a good deed for their Boy Scouts.  I have absolutely no contact with the Mormon church here in godless California.  However, when my son was born with a severe heart defect and had to get airlifted to Stanford, a random neighborhood Mormon lady picked up my kindergartner from school while I was tied up at the hospital and recruited other ladies to bring over dinners.  She accepted the fact that I was Atheist and gave me nothing but support.

Boy Scouts have accepted gay scouts and in time, I feel will accept gay scout leaders.  Almost all religions are slow to accept the LGBT community so don't just pick on the Mormons.  Our entire society is slowly changing.
 I feel in time, historians will accept that the Son of their God was born into a Gay man.  Read John 13:21-23 and 21:20-23  Here when Jesus predicts his betrayal, Simon asks "The man reclining on Jesus's bosom"...  He is also described as "The ONE who Jesus loved"  hmmm.  Jesus is lounging around a room with all of his apostles and there happens to be ONE cuddling up to Jesus that "HE" loves?  Also John 20:1-10 and 19:26-27 describes the ONE that Jesus loved!  The fact that Jesus was a gay man does NOT impact his message in any way of Peace, Goodwill towards men!  If I were God and saw how my gay people were persecuted, I would send my "Son of God" into a Gay vessel to help enlighten mankind.

My favorite comedic passage is, Mark 14:51-52  Where the "young man whom Jesus loved" escapes from Romans when they grab the sheet off his body and he runs away naked.  This is so funny to me!  It's like, "oh crap the cops"
and he is able to get away.  Maybe as a Mormon child, I didn't have as many sources of amusement but you have to admit, it's funny!

Yes, they were a little slow to accept African American men into the Priesthood but their religion was formed when this issue was front and center.  In the end, they did the right thing.  They changed!!!  Thomas Jefferson, who stated "All men are created equal" had slaves and refused to accept them as human beings!  I was furious when I went to visit Monticello.  It seemed to me that he refused to do the right thing, because he couldn't afford his lavish lifestyle if he didn't have slaves and his ready concubine was the Halle Berry of her day.  For a nerdy geek to get so lucky any other way, he would have to import someone from a Russian mail order bride, again at high expense.  Don't get me started.

I am Atheist so I can make all the RIGHT decisions quickly without dogma slowing me down!

Toga

As for Biblical slavery:  I am not qualified but in the Old Testament, slavery was forced upon the Jews and other people and it was the reality of the day and color had nothing to do with it.  As humanity began to evolve, the New Testament began to put parameters and restrictions on slavery.  I no longer remember the passages but the capture of slaves was criticized.
 Since there were no safety nets in that time, people who could not afford to eat and take care of their families contracted themselves into slavery.
 This form of slavery was over-looked up to the time the Bible ends.




On Fri, Nov 15, 2013 at 6:52 AM, Tortoise <tortoise73 at charter.net> wrote:

> I wonder, will they sell to us atheist? 
>
> Tortoise
>
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