Dear visionaries,
It really is good to hear from Susannah from time to time, because it inspires me to write. But she might want to remember the comment of P. G. Wodehouse concerning folks like me. Some minds are like the soup in a poor restaurant — better left unstirred.
She says, for example, that there is no need for anyone to lie about Christ Church, when our “religious ideology” requires sexist things like the bride’s use of words like obey in her vows, etc. News flash. Orthodox Trinitarian Christianity is not egalitarian, and has not been for quite some millennia now. Susannah’s plea is yet another call for diverse acceptance of all views that are just like hers.
She then moves on to our “pro-slavery belief that God sanctioned slavery.” I had admitted (under what they apparently thought was duress) that under “certain conditions,” slavery was “acceptable.” Yeah, like when I am taxed to pay for a school system that imposes state-mandated agnosticism. I am enslaved, and Susannah thinks it acceptable. Glad we could come to agreement on one point at least.
Then she objects to the “homophobic and homicidal idea” that the stoning of homosexuals fulfills God’s requirement to punish “sinful” sexual acts. She is grateful that this appears to be a biblical commandment that we are ignoring (for now). However, despite our inexplicable lethargy on this point, she is deeply worried about the future. However, lowering the life expectancy of homosexuals appears to be much higher on their list of priorities than it is on mine.
To complete her argument, she takes a shot at “an inerrant Bible and, hence the impossibility of evolution.” Ah, evolution. Whenever I gets to feeling a little down and blue, I think about June bugs turning into sea lions, and it cheers me right up. Rigorous science, that’s the ticket!
Cordially,
Douglas
“Apologetics in the Void” are repostings from an on-going electronic discussion and debate I had some time ago with members of our local community, whose names I have changed. The list serve is called Vision 20/20, and hence the name “visionaries.” Reading just these posts probably feels like listening to one half of a phone conversation, but I don’t feel at liberty to publish what others have written. But I have been editing these posts (lightly) with intelligibility in mind.