On the train today an offensive odor was filling my senses. Taking a sideways glance at the person next to me in order to determine if he were the source of the odor, I notice that he is holding a well worn copy of the Bible and is frantically underlining passages. Now I have no issues with those who are very religious and take the Bible very seriously as long as they keep their beliefs to themselfs and don't try to impose them on everyone around them. I'm used to older people being religious, they certainly grew up in a different, stricter kind of church (I can only speak for Catholicsm, which is what I was raised with). The church was a far larger part of my grandparents and parents life than it is mine. But to be honest, when I see a normal looking, young person - maybe in his 20's, with a little case of BO, underlinging passages in the Bible, I start looking around for suspicious packages. Does he have a large bag? What's under that big overcoat? (especially because here in MA with the SJC ruling on gay marriage last week and tomorrow at the MA constitutional convention there will be a vote on adding an amendment to ban gay marriage from the MA state constitution). It's such a sad statement on our society - a society supossedly based on freedom of beliefs that people have to impose their beliefs on others in such forceful ways.
Some of this has been swirling around my head since Sunday when I was writing my entry on Bush & Tim's Meet the Untruth, with the tv on in the background. 60 Minutes was on and they had a story on evengelical christians in which I heard about:
an event that evangelicals call the Rapture, where every true-believing Christian, and every child under the age of 12, vanishes in an instant to a better place. All others will face the Tribulation.
...
That's what the Bible teaches. There are gonna be many Southern Baptists, for example, or many Presbyterians, or many Catholics, or people who are a part of Christendom, says Ice. But if they haven't personally trusted Jesus Christ as their savior, even if they
a lifelong member of a church, you know, then they will be damned.
...
Its not a minority view, it's not a group of folks that are niched somewhere over there. It's a very mainstream view,
It's not a minority view, but I have to say as a life long Christian, I've never heard of it. Never heard anyone talk about it, never heard of the books about it (40 million sold?). Obviously, I'm am one of those bad Catholics who will be remaining on earth to relive revelation. Excellent.-----
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