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http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/05/the-anti-anti-rapture-position.html
Ah, hand-wringing apologists urging us not to taunt the marginally sane believers that last Saturday was the due date for the Trump and the Call. It vaguely reminds me of the letter that a group of GOP Congressmen sent to President Obama asking him not to politicize their support of the Ryan plan, which would eliminate Medicare. Essentially, it boils down to the same thing:
"We believe in and wholeheartedly support something that means the mass suffering of a huge number of people in order to revel in our own narrow interpretation of reality and moral superiority, but it's unfair to use it against us when our ideas prove disasteriously unpopular and/or wholly false."
I'm told that people quit their jobs, sold their possessions and homes, in some cases, put their pets to sleep, and otherwise acted like brainwashed cultists (which, let us be honest, they are) in the face of their belief to be one of God's special children ready for an eternity of sitting on his lap. Maybe this would be worth some level of sympathy if it wasn't for the sheer odiousness of their beliefs.
It is a toxic stew of self-righteous ignorance and the gleeful anticipation of punishment on every person who ever listened to their twaddle and said 'that doesn't sound right'. In my experience, devout people fall in one of two camps - those who believe, and want you to believe, but in the face of refusal will quietly offer to be there if questioned - and the others, who threaten you will destruction if you fail to fall into line. The former represent the experiences that have taught me that faith and belief can be a positive force. The latter are simply intolerant kooks who have found a more socially acceptable format to wrap their hate up in.
Which is why I won't shed a lot of tears for people who believe with every fibre that the vast portion of humanity deserves to be ended in pain and suffering and fire which they get to observe from the bosum of Heaven like some grisly reality show. If they believe in their vengeful God, I guess the naked contempt for their happiness is fitting; an eye for an eye after all.
Ah, hand-wringing apologists urging us not to taunt the marginally sane believers that last Saturday was the due date for the Trump and the Call. It vaguely reminds me of the letter that a group of GOP Congressmen sent to President Obama asking him not to politicize their support of the Ryan plan, which would eliminate Medicare. Essentially, it boils down to the same thing:
"We believe in and wholeheartedly support something that means the mass suffering of a huge number of people in order to revel in our own narrow interpretation of reality and moral superiority, but it's unfair to use it against us when our ideas prove disasteriously unpopular and/or wholly false."
I'm told that people quit their jobs, sold their possessions and homes, in some cases, put their pets to sleep, and otherwise acted like brainwashed cultists (which, let us be honest, they are) in the face of their belief to be one of God's special children ready for an eternity of sitting on his lap. Maybe this would be worth some level of sympathy if it wasn't for the sheer odiousness of their beliefs.
It is a toxic stew of self-righteous ignorance and the gleeful anticipation of punishment on every person who ever listened to their twaddle and said 'that doesn't sound right'. In my experience, devout people fall in one of two camps - those who believe, and want you to believe, but in the face of refusal will quietly offer to be there if questioned - and the others, who threaten you will destruction if you fail to fall into line. The former represent the experiences that have taught me that faith and belief can be a positive force. The latter are simply intolerant kooks who have found a more socially acceptable format to wrap their hate up in.
Which is why I won't shed a lot of tears for people who believe with every fibre that the vast portion of humanity deserves to be ended in pain and suffering and fire which they get to observe from the bosum of Heaven like some grisly reality show. If they believe in their vengeful God, I guess the naked contempt for their happiness is fitting; an eye for an eye after all.
