From Musket (26 Mar 14 - 04:22 AM):

Respect is a two way street Joe. When the. "Vast majority " of religious people tell their fundamentalists to shut the fuck up, I reckon I could go along with your comments. They are either members of your club, in which case control them, or they aren't. In which case stop accepting their coins when you pass the plate round.
However, whilst ever religion lite sides with their fundamentalists by attacking others for being rational, and deriding us for pointing out how dangerous and deluded fundamentalism is, I'm afraid I don't see much respect.
Makes it kind of difficult to show respect back. Even when you put words in my mouth, it still doesn't quite hack it for me.

I'm a pacifist, Musket, and I really don't see much value in doing battle. A while back, you said that as a Christian, I have some sort of responsibility for controlling anti-gay Rev Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church. Let me remind you that I am a Christian of the Roman Catholic variety. Wikipedia tells us Westboro Baptist refers to Catholic priests as "vampires" and "Draculas" and talks of Catholic priests sucking semen out of male children's genitals like vampires suck blood from their victims. In addition, WBC called Pope Benedict XVI such epithets as "The Godfather of Pedophiles" and "Pervert Pope". In April 2008 the WBC protested Pope Benedict XVI during a papal visit in New York City. Other fundamentalists still refer to my church as the Whore of Babylon, although some have formed a strange alliance with ultra-conservative Catholics.

In other words, Westboro Baptist and I are not really on very good terms, and I don't think I'm have much luck talking sense into them. In fact, I don't think I'd have much luck talking sense into the heads of any fundamentalists, because their brains aren't wired to be able to understand any kind of thinking other than their own. That being the case, I try to be polite but to keep my distance.

The born-again churches in my area have been generally reluctant to join in any of the "faith-based" social justice activities. I think that's partly because some fundamentalists have a disdain for the poor because poverty may be an indication that the poor are not favored by God. But I think also that the fundamentalists question the morality of the "mainline" churches. Musket refers to progressive Christianity as "religion lite," which seems to indicate that fundamentalism is the only real religion. I think Musket has it wrong, and I think that's because he perceives religion as ideology. Since the early days of Christianity, the faith was called the Way, because it was a way of life, not an ideology. In my view of Christianity (and of life, for that matter), service and good will and compassion are far more important than correct ideology.

So, no, I'm not going to go tell the fundamentalists to shut the fuck up. It wouldn't do any good. I will, however, continue to invite the fundamentalists to join in our social justice activities - and some are beginning to join. And while I'm not going to attack fundamentalism, I will continue to promote tolerance and respect for the homeless, for gays, and for immigrants - those are my main areas of activity.

Did I mention that two of the people I work with are the pastors of the local Unitarian church? They're a lesbian couple, by the way. I suppose their presence might make it difficult for the fundamentalists to join us. That's too bad - the pastors are wonderful people.

-Joe Offer-