Exactly. Having grown up Christian, I've found a lot of the actions of many to be very unattractive and it used to make any sort of desire I had to go back to church disappear. However, I think I'm finally able to look past that and going to start actively looking for a church to attend.
That sensitive person, would it be the HBU student or DonnyMost? I'm surprised, DM, that the letter would bother you enough that you'd bother to respond. His letter seems more informational than accusatory. I'd have read it, said, "why is he writing to me?" and then never thought about it again.
I'm a junior, I've got about one year left til graduation (I could end up speeding things along if I take summer courses this year though). Are you serious? You'd do that for me? Wow, that's really nice of you. I'm a political science major, I write a weekly opinion column in the Daily Cougar, but it's pretty much a hobby. I do like working in publication/press though. But if you know of any internships or entry level jobs, please do tell!
Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had -- but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way.
The "Xmas" thing bothered me when I was young... but I know that it is a symbol for Christ. Looks like the person writing that letter was trying to do some good for a good cause, full of missionary enthusiasm, and jumped on something a little too eagerly that wasn't a big deal. Good intentions, misplaced energy. Agree that I hate it when Christians argue with each other... my husband is a Catholic (diehard, old-school) and gets a lot of magazines that promote that point of view. I respect it, but it seems that they're not willing to believe that other Christians can do much of anything right. Then there's the "Mary-worshipper" stuff, on the other hand. (as I understand, it's not quite Mary worship - often gets a little too close to that for comfort - but the way the name is thrown around, it just sounds like some Christians are insulting other Christians, which is never good)
What part of is informational? I interpreted it as "I know what youdid and it is not working". Did what? There was no attempt to X out Christ.
I would think he would be more offended by this line: "All I want for Christmas is a Cougar bowl win, and maybe a lei or two." Or show him this artivle from the Ayn Rand Institue: Why Christmas Should Be More Commercial http://www.aynrand.org/medialink/christmas2002.shtml
It bothered me in particular because, by the hands of fate, I ran into a christian on campus that today. He was sitting behind a tree on a bench, and as I walked past him he said "Excuse me sir, do you have a minute to sit and answer some questions about philosophy for me? It's for a project I'm working on" Being a student myself, I decided sure, I'd help the guy out. He turned an innocent survey into his own personal sounding board for why I should believe in Christ and subcribe to Christianity. I was doing my best to be polite and ease my way out of his little tirade, and he was making me late for a final exam. I finally weaseled my way out of it, but that put me in mood to deal with religious fanatics. Then I got home and got this email and it just made me got "WTF". The HBU guy was very reactionary, and it was just mindboggling to me how he could go around doing things like this under the guise of being an advocate of Christ. The HBU guy emailed me back and said that he is not opposed to the Hawaii Bowl being on Christmas day. I assumed that he was upset about it, because by his logic, the Hawaii bowl is removing the focus of Christ from Christmas just as much, if not more than putting "X" in it's place for the of convienence.
Ya, cuz I know when they play football on Christmas it makes me forget all about that Jesus guy. What an idiot. Where the hell did he pick up a daily cougar anyway? I thought he was at HBU?
Those guys are all over campus. There's a deaf one too, which kind of complicates matters. He says "Eckscooze meh, wuud you lick to take ah soovey ahn pheelosahphee?" Don't know if you've seen him or not, but there's another guy who hangs out by PGH, dresses "like a student" (and conspicuously so, if that makes sense - he's been in a dayglo urban tracksuit each time I've been around) and accosts people. I've seen him out there at all hours - it doesn't look like he has any classes at UH, but he carries a backpack. The beginning of the conversation is usually innocuous enough ("Hey, how's it goin'?"), but after a few minutes he manages to find some clumsy segue into asking if you've been "born again." (emphasis on clumsy: "Hey, ha ha, it's funny that you mention final exams, ha ha, because did you know Jesus died for your sins?") I've managed to avoid him, but have been within earshot of his attempted conversions four different times. I don't know if he's actually succeeded in bringing anyone over to the dark side, but he has definitely been successful in making people squirm with discomfort. There's an army of 'em out there. Better keep your crucifix polished in case you need to ward one off again.
That reminds me of what happened to me a while back. About a year or two ago I'd stopped at a gas station by my house to get some gas before I headed to my friend's house for the night....... Well first I probably should describe my van at time. About a week before that night a friend and I, in a drunken stupor, at a local bar we found some duct tape. We were drunk and didn't know what to do with the tape until she started ripping it in thin, long strips and was putting them on the windows of my van. I got an idea and started writing with the strips of tape. First I wrote own my jacket "My future productivity is not my only value". Then since I had no more room on it, I naturally started using the two side back windows and the back window on my van. On the back window I wrote, "No color, no pride no power, no lies no more victims, no more abuse no more violence, there's no excuse." On one of the side windows I wrote, "Who owns the land." On the other side I wrote, "Nothing left to believe" Okay now back to the gas station. As I was pulling up to a pump I noticed a big white cargo van filled with people on the other side getting gas. (I thought nothing of it.) As I'm standing there pumping my gas they start to pull away and get maybe 5 feet before they stop. That's when I can see on the door it say church of ____(?)____. Some guy gets out, walks over to me and starts asking question. He keeps looking over at my van at the "Nothing left to believe". That when I just said real clear that it has nothing to do with religion. Which it did not. It is a quote from a friends band in Austin about music, but I can understand how someone would think that. Now I figured that would be the end of it....NOOOOOO it was the beginning. I went inside to pay and when I came out everyone that was in the van was now out and waiting for me. They all started to say some prayer while one older man would yell and preach at me. I mean right in my face and all of them kept getting closer and closer to me. I started to get a little nervous so I just quickly walked through them, got in my van and left for my friend's place. When I got to a stop light about two miles down the road at FM1960 that same van pulls up next to me and they were still praying and yelling at me. When the light turned green they are still following me and screaming out the windows. "THE DEVIL HAS YOU! RESIST SATAN!" Now I'm scared. I kept going until I found two cop cars in a grocery store parking lot just past Red Oak Dr. on 1960. I pulled up next to them (Yes the van is still behind me) and told them those people have been chasing me for the past few miles. The cops asked me a few quick question and told me, they'll take care of it and to go a head and get to where ever I was going if I wanted to. So I left and as I was getting back on 1960 the cops had them all out and sitting on the ground. The night was scary but I started to laugh at it later. I have bad luck with white vans. Maybe sometime I'll post about the "little, gay, Asian man in a white mini van" at the Menil Collection. Sorry for the long story but I haven't told anyone in a while and this thread kind of reminded me of it.
While it obviously wouldn't have helped Blatz, I have a little trick I learned from Clint Eastwood. I never stop walking. If someone comes up to me and says they want to talk, I say sure, but I keep walking. No matter what they say or do, I don't stop. And when I get to my destination, I say, "thanks" and I go inside. There's none of this hanging around talking for me. If they want to talk to me, they need to learn to pedaconference. Of course, elevators, crosswalks, etc. are the natual enemy of this strategy and can trip you up. Not to mention that some of the pushier people will attempt to enter your destination with you. So, it's not foolproof.
Dude, you wrote all that with duct tape while you were drunk? You're the master. I'd probably start trying to spell one letter, get frustrated, and then pass out.
I was on a mission to save the world that night. The night ended with some girl we met earlier (Who is now a really great friend of mine), driving us around handing out most of our blankets, a couple of my jackets, a lot of our sweaters and socks (you know, for gloves.) to the homeless.
