Poop Shute

Wowee!

I'm not quite sure how I managed to attract so much attention, but this sure is fun!

My previous post is the second instance of late that a Christian has expressed the idea that they are being persecuted. I'd like to address that now.

I do not know an exact number, but I do know that David's estimate of 80+% was reasonable. That number represents people in this country who believe in Jesus Christ as their savior. And before you people flame me again, understand that I am not saying that 80+% of the country is just like you. I understand that there are many different sects of Christianity, and various levels of commitment to the faith, but they all count. That 80% of the country isn't just say Catholic, but 80% of the country falls into a group that includes Catholics, and Baptists and Methodists etc etc. Even though all those groups disagree on many issues, they all agree on the basics, such as The Bible, Jesus Christ dying for our sins, and Mary and Joseph and The Apostles, etc etc. Right? We can all agree that this, so far, is absolutely true, yes?

Okay, now from my experience with the word persecution it necessarily involves oppression and/or serious harassment and/or abuse. In this country of ours if my voice, and the voices in my comments system, fall into a category that is roughly 20% of the population then how can we be oppressing anybody? And how are some bad jokes serious harassment or abuse?

You guys are the establishment, not us. We are just a handful of dissenting voices. Why does that threaten you so much? I have asked that question here before, and nobody from the other side of the discussion has dared to address it yet. Why do we frighten and anger you so much?

To paraphrase a metaphor from COUPLING, you people are Darth Vader and the Empire, whereas I am merely Princess Leia of the fledgeling Rebel Alliance, desperately feeding my words of dissent into R2D2, who I have cleverly disguised as a MegaMan-style robot up on the top left of this page.

Help me Charlie Darwin-obi, you're my only hope.

COMMENTS:

Now Princess Leia is a deity I can get behind! *wink wink nudge nudge*
Josh 04.26.06 - 5:22 pm

ERRRR, PUT ON THE BRAKES!!!
Who said I was Christian? I sure didn't. This is about me, right? Awesome. I'm famous. Woot.
"I do not know an exact number, but I do know that David's estimate of 80+% was reasonable."
First off, WTF!!!
Haha, just kidding, I learned that from this site.
"Why does that threaten you so much?"
It shouldn't threaten them, and if so, then they need to do some more soul searching. If anything, I would only see it annoying them or making them really sad. Sad for you and not them.
"...you people are Darth Vader and the Empire, whereas I am merely Princess Leia of the fledgeling Rebel Alliance, desperately feeding my words of dissent into R2D2, who I have cleverly disguised as a MegaMan-style robot up on the top left of this page."
Charles is here, baby! You called? Christians are the Empire, huh? Then who are the Jedi, that they tried to whipe out? Oh, you are probably going to mention the Christian Crusaders...clever, one Joey . But that's all Catholic stuff isn't it? Would that make the pope Vader? What's with all the Star wars hype? I saw it in the thearte, but really. I was thinking, why did the bluey Obiwan tell yoda that he was similiar to Luke when he trained him? Didn't Qwigon train Obiwan and not yoda? That story has some holes in it, but its entertaining. Does that mean Christianity has holes in it to? In my opinion, Christianity doesn't have holes, except for the ones that Christians poke into it. Is that Clear? I don't care. In closing, all I have to say is, "FIRST POST!! BAM. SHIZAM!"
Charles 04.26.06 - 5:57 pm

Josh! You beat my post?
*pulls out saber*
Charles 04.26.06 - 5:58 pm

this person is quite insane, or has too much time on their hands.
therealdavid 04.26.06 - 6:31 pm

Gravatar I have lightening quick reflexes.
Josh 04.26.06 - 6:45 pm

FYI
Largest Religious Groups in the United States of America. (NOTE: in the comments that first sentence was a link to a site that listed poll results of 100,000 people across the USA. It backed up David's 80% figure) The counting is done by self-identification. That is, if someone calls you up and asks what religion you are, and you say "Christian," then you'd be counted as a Christian. They have separate categories for non-religious, atheist, etc.
Edward Carter 04.26.06 - 8:41 pm

To Charles: Well, to be totally accurate, you didn't say that you were a Christian, but you did say a lot of things that made it easy to think you were.
And this latest comment is... ummm...
to be generous it is nonsense. My Star Wars reference was a joke based on the idea that Christians represent the majority voice while we agnostics and atheists represent the much smaller voice. You see the parallel there?
...And did you just sort of call yourself Charles DARWIN?!
Joey 04.26.06 - 10:18 pm

And thank you Ed for going the extra mile and backing up David's estimated statistic very nicely.
Joey 04.26.06 - 10:20 pm

STFU, therealdavid. Say that to my face and not like I'm not here. assh*le. Like this, "YOU are either a 'know it all' dumb guy, or YOU are a jackass who reads other forums and cut/paste what someone else says. Sadly you have no opinion to call your own, just an amulgam of other peoples.
Joey, i like how you take some information and form your own facts. Like, example one, Charlie is a Christian. She is not butt munch.
"...majority voice while we agnostics and atheists represent the much smaller voice."
How can you group ags, and aths toghether? They are two different groups. If I were Jess, or if I were you, I would go on to say that your point is invalid and you should do some actual research before you form a statement. Blah, blah, your dumb but I'm going to say it in a way that makes me sound more intelligent. blah, blah, signed Joey/Jess
And this concludes how to post a counterpoint to an argument that never exsisted. Therefore, my opinion is truth (just like evolution). If you would like to subscribe to futher ramblings on how to come off as better than someone in the blog community, then please buy 'wasting my time for dummies' by Joey and coauthor Jess. Otherwise, don't talk to me cause I don't take my time and read entire posts for their contents. I just critique them in my counter. Yay, I'm mean.
Charles 04.27.06 - 2:37 am

I would like to appologize to therealdavid, Jess, and Joey. Please find it in your hearts to forgive me. May God watch over you all. Much love. Bye, bye..forever.
Charles 04.27.06 - 2:43 am

I think Charles will be back.
Edward Carter 04.27.06 - 3:33 am

Hey Joey,
Just thought I'd bring in another perspective (not argument, because I haven't been paying enough attention to the progression of what this is all about here.) Just a little thinking out loud that might help to complicate the situation, you know and to say, hey, I started reading your blog.
There often seems to be a tendency for groups of people with particular ideas to pit themselves against other groups of people with particular ideas to create and "us vs. them" strategy of sorting out and solidifying their great ideas, thus giving themselves relevance to and voice in, I guess you'd say, our "cultural landscape" for lack of a less pretentious phrase.
Secular groups do this as much as religious groups do.
This 80% business is kind of misleading.
Catholics, and Baptists and Methodists as you say all fall under "Christian" but they don't necessarily identify with each other. Also, Mormons believe that Jesus is their savior but most Christians don't include them in the, shall we say, Christian Club. Also Quakers may be Christian, but their beliefs differ dramatically, from say Catholics or Baptists, with all this "inner light" and "no war" business. You also have the couple thousand or so Handsome Lake followers who merged a native religion with Christianity by the proclimation, as the story goes, of a drunk chief who saw angels come out of some lake in Pennsylvania. Even Rastafarianism as I understand it, grew out of Christianity, but it would be hard to find a Calvinist willing to take a toke (and admit it later). Then there's Gnostics who think all these things about having stars, and seem to think learning is a good idea. (Have you read the recent Gospel of Judas. Some Gnostic sounding ideas in there, if you ask me.) Then there's Jews for Jesus which confuses everyone. Chances are good that I got something wrong in there.
My point is, it's all in how you look at it. If you're a Menonite and someone takes the time to visit you on the homestead (because you're behind on your cell bill) and asks you if you think Christ is your savior, you'll probably say yes. But I think it's a little rich to call a Menonite the "oppressor." In this sense they're a tiny minority in a society, which in their view is completely lost (i.e. society), which in a way, I can see what they mean. Personally, I'd vote for a Menonite if he ran for office becasue the Menonites are a pretty alright crew.
"Even though all those groups disagree on many issues, they all agree on the basics, such as The Bible, Jesus Christ dying for our sins, and Mary and Joseph and The Apostles, etc etc. Right? We can all agree that this, so far, is absolutely true, yes?"
Well, no. They disagree on all those issues too. It's always complicated.
These differences between sects and denominations may seem small to any of us who aren't participating in the tradition, but when you're really absorbed in the cul
Hagler 04.27.06 - 4:22 am

Charlie, dude, you're just giving us too much material to work with here, and proving most of our points at the same time. Sigh... Aww, for a moment there, I felt sad for you.
Jess 04.27.06 - 4:25 am

To Charlie: If you think I say what I say just to sound better than you, then that is a problem of perception. I say what I say because it makes sense to me, and what you said didn't. Period. And the comment about "write something worth reading" was not sarcastic or mean, it was an honest invitation to stop writing emotionally charged stuff about individual commenters and return to a debate about the topic we started on. You had veered from it.
Joey 04.27.06 - 1:31 pm

To Hagler: Thanks for the input. It's good to see you here.
I think I wasn't clear enough in my oppressor thing. Certain Christians out there have accused me, and people like me of persecuting them. I was just trying to illustrate that there are many more Jesus fans in his country than there are people like me, so that MY voice can hardly be called the oppressor. In fact, take my blog as a microcosm. Charles became the minority voice of dissent on here and he got tag-teamed for his efforts. On this blog atheists and agnostics are the majority voice, and therefore are not persecuted or oppressed by the minority Christian voice. BUT in the real world, the numbers are flipped around. Make sense?
And yes, I know they all agree on very little. How about just Jesus then? They all agree on Jesus, or they aren't Christian.
And, yeah, those Jews for Jesus DO confuse everyone.
And, yes, Charles, I am very aware that agnostics and atheists are very different, but they tend to agree on certain specifics when arguing with Christians. In this case, we did.
Joey 04.27.06 - 1:38 pm

Kaaaaaaahn!
Guillermo 04.29.06 - 8:01 am