Posted on 01/03/2002 11:19:13 AM PST by ArGee
A very rich man decided that he wanted to show kindness to the people of the fair city where he lived. Since he was very rich indeed, he decided to throw a banquet for the entire city. He rented the largest sports arena in the city and began his plans. He planned for huge amounts of the best food possible, making allowances for every religious and medical diet. He advertised the banquet in every possible manner - television, radio, billboard, door-to-door canvassing. Considering that there might be some who could not travel, he arranged for free bus transportation to and from the event, and some special-needs vehicles for all who could not ride busses. He even scheduled the banquet to run for 24 hours a day for several days so that everyone could be sure of being served.
He planned long and hard and finally the big day came. The rich man ate quickly and then went about wishing all his guests well and personally making sure that all had every need met. After a while he went outside to tour the grounds and talk with those who had not yet gone in, and those who had already left. Everyone was happy. Many were profusely thankful. It was a glorious occasion.
At one point the rich man noticed a group of people sitting outside a locked door with most unpleasant looks on their faces. Sensing they were not happy, he went over to them. He did not introduce himself but simply asked them if he could be of service.
"We want to go in through this door," one of them replied.
The rich man explained to them that the hall was arranged to feed a large number of people as quickly and effortlessly as possible. This required order inside, and the entrances and exits had been carefully planned to be as efficient as possible. He then offered to go call one of the golf carts that were avaialbe to help people who could not walk far to take them to the entrance. But the man replied, "We do not want to go in the entrance. We want to go in this door. We don't understand why we can't go in any door we wish. We think the man who set this banquet up is mean and hateful for insisting we go in through the entrance. He has tried to bill himself as a very kind man by offering this banquet, but he is not kind at all if he will not indulge us and let us go through this door.
The rich man was distressed at these words, but still attempted to please these people. He tried once more to explain to them what was behind this particular door, and how if they went in this door they would disrupt the meal service being offered inside. He offered to drive them himself, not only to the door, but inside the hall to their tables if they would only go through the entrance to enjoy the meal. Again the man said, "No, but only a hateful man would keep us from going through the door of our choosing. And we will sit here and tell anyone who will listen to us what an awful man he is until he lets us in."
At that the rich man was enraged and he shouted, "Enough." Then he called a police officer to have them thrown off of the property and ordered that they not be allowed to return until the banquet was over and all the scraps had been hauled away. Then, mourning for their loss, he turned to visit with other guests.
If we redefine hell to be simply "the inavailability of the presence of God", my comments would likely have been different.
As for what it stems from that just shrink talk, threw that in for background (basically it aknowledges that the people in charge or figuring out how we think say it's possible). To me a bigot is a bigot and I really don't care who they're bigoted against or why.
If someone points a gun to your head and tells you to accompany him into the liquor store, makes you hold the bag into which the terrified cashier puts the money, are you guilty of aiding him in robbing the liquor store? Do you feel that you had just as much choice in the matter as someone who does not have a gun to their head?
Since you asked about the Northern Tribes (Norsemen) I'll give you theirs. They had Hel (ruled by Hela, daughter of Loki) which was kid of like Hades only without the reward section, and Valhalla where the warriors that were true and good got rewarded (the reward being fighting in battle every day, to be resurrected at sunset and spend the night feasting and carousing with the gods), but at the price of being the soldiers for the gods in the big final at the end of time (interesting thing in the Norse myths, the world AFTER the big battle is supposed to be really nice because all good and evil will be destroyed in the battle thus leaving a world without conflict, it's the only religion I know where the good guy gods are actively working to prevent paradise). Interestingly the Norse religion (which probably has the closest approximation to Christian Heaven and Hell of any other) actually post dates (as near as we can tell) Christianity but predates the Northmen's exposure to Christianity.
The struggle for comprehension is the duty of any rational individual. Those who've given up the struggle aren't worth my time.
"A lot" of just about any sizable subsection of humanity are intolerant snobs, that's just how it is. That applies to Christians, Jews, Hindus, Moonies and Atheists. It applies to fans of NFL football and fans of World Cup Soccer. That's just how it is. We're people, one of the great quests of the human mind is to be better than as many people as possible. Within your own mind most everything that sets you apart makes you better, even criminals will often talk about how "regular citizens" could never handle what they go through in prison. The well adjusted person knows that while they probably are better than those around them in some ways, they are also worse and in the end things even out. But not everybody is well adjusted, and these are the people who take that thing that sets them apart and make it HUGE and constantly assault you with it. These are the people we call snobs.
One of the things we need to understand is that the loud members of a group are the ones that define it to those outside the group. And more often than not the loud ones are the bad ones. You say "Christian" to most people that aren't and the first thing they think of is Jim Baker cheating on his wife and ripping people off. They think of fire and brimstone pulpit preachers promising eternal torture to the non-believer. They think of annoying people intruding on their home to give them pamphlets and try to make them change religion (sorry to anyone who is a JW or Mormon but to the rest of the world the door knockers are the most vile form of salesman). They think of yahoos burning book that supposedly portray witchcraft in a positive light. Even though these people represent a small percentage of the Christian population, there are a lot of them and they're all over the place.
Dictionary.com defines "bigot" as:
One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.
Consider the alternative....
I read a book called Hach Winik on Central American Mayans who've had very little European contact, and they have a concept of afterlife that is comparable to hell.
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