A Christian sends this video to a reincarnation discussion

[kristy1111]

There's a fine line between respecting them and denying our own truth.

Exactly!! I tried to be careful around other people for a short time, or if I was just too lazy or stressed to "get into it" with them. But...I have found that they feel they have the right to blazingly and blaringly tout their truths to me with no holds barred, so I just "tell it like it is" according to my truth in the simplest way I can (and I'm not known for being 'simple'...hehe). One mormon lady tried to blow me out of the water a couple of weeks ago, and was blasting her truths to me with the air of "I'm right no matter what so deal with it."

She then ended her screams with "When it comes to truth, I am not one to mince words!"

I then expressed my own feelings on the subject at hand, and ended with "I don't mince words, either." heheh...! ;o)

This reminds me of cussing.

Monica: ??

OOOPS! Didn't quite elaborate on that one, did I! ;o) What I mean is, it reminds me of cussing because cussing can be viewed according to one's conditioning. I was brought up around cussing, but told they were "naughty words". My parents cussed all the time, but if I repeated their words, I got slapped.

As a mormon, I was told that those who cuss are following evil, and don't have enough good things in their head to occupy their time, etc. I would go into insane repentance if I even said "damn". guilt guilt guilt.

BUT, my point is, viewing cuss words is like viewing the elephant. I could be the queen on a little island of 100 inhabitants. I could create a language all my own. Perhaps one word I make up is "oobawibby". I could tell my people that this word was wicked and evil, and was the lowest form of insult known to our community and mankind at large. From then on, "oobawibby" would be strongly avoided, and only used in rebellion or by accident, followed by repentance I am sure.

Anybody outside my island wouldn't think twice if they heard "oobawibby", other than the fact that it's a really odd word. No offense would be taken and none implied.

Okay, so let's say I stub my toe and it hurts like @#$!. I may scream out "F*CK!!" It was a release of painful emotion for me. As an ex sweetheart of mine said recently, "I only use the "F bomb" occasionally, especially to help me find my keys". hehehe... ;o)

But what if I say to someone, "You are a stupid f*ck head!!". There was intent behind that word. It was calculated to cause pain.

I think words are just sound waves, but it's the intent, and the intent only that give them power. But it seems that religious people don't understand that. (I certainly didn't when I was religious - I was too scared of offending god).

My husband is full blood German, and he's occasionally said some choice cuss words in his native tongue. I didn't understand him nor was I offended nor did I feel any "evil". But if he said those words in Germany, around religious folks especially, the air would have been markedly thicker.

Ya know, I can't help but wonder how much of this indoctrination is responsible for a lot of the discord in the world, and even violence. It's the same way of thinking that results in the violence in the Middle East. The difference is only in degree.

I believe that it is responsible with all of my heart and soul.

I once read, on another forum a few years ago, a post by a non-Christian who told the Christians he could never be a Christian, because he wasn't willing to sacrifice his morals to do so.

I laughed SO hard after I read this! BELLY laugh!!

This person went on to say that he could never be a Christian, because he wasn't willing to worship a being that was clearly a wrathful, violent, vengeful tyrant!

No lie, eh? I said that to Christian's before, too, and they said that it's "tough love" and then they said that God never changes, and he is the boss. Holy cow, if he never changes, that's even scarier. I often wonder what peoples' "pull" to "heaven" is if it involves being with a "father" like this. {{shaking head}} Many new-ager friends have told me that if they're going to hell, they're excited about it because they'll all be with their friends. ;o)

That's so ironic...everything you just described is exactly what I experienced with evangelical Christianity, and a Mormon friend told me how much the evangelicals shunned her, her friends and their children.

Evangelical Christians hate mormons because they believe that mormons don't worship the same Jesus as they do. They have different views of the Godhead, and the christians view the mormon diety as evil and created by the devil to deceive many people. So they are on a quest to 'save' the mormons.

I have no idea what you are referring to by documents, lies, etc. but I think it's safe to say that such can be found in any organized religion.

Well, it has to be understood that mormons claim that their church is THE only true church on the face of the earth, as created by Jesus during his life ministry, and all other churches are "an abomination" and that they "draw near to God with their lips but far from him in their hearts". The church's foundation is based upon a "vision" by Joseph Smith, Jr., the truth and veracity of the Book of Mormon, other visions, polygamy, etc., etc., and also believing in the people that supposedly exists that were mentioned strongly in the Book of Mormon. The mormons also believe that Native Americans are THE descendants of a Book of Mormon prophet named Lehi who came to the Americas a long time ago. Joseph Smith swore that they were. Well, the science of DNA was non-existent back then, but now that it's available, it has been found after studying thousands and thousands of Indians that there is ZERO Israelite DNA in them. Not one teeny bit. And all of the places where huge battles supposedly took place (in the Book of Mormon) have ZERO evidence of such battles - and these battles supposedly had *millions* dying. No swords, no shields, no armour, no pottery, no bones, no...nothing. ouch. I guess the god of the Bible let the remants of past wars and peoples be evident, but mormons have to live on faith alone. Just stuff like that...nothing in the mormon church stood the test of intense study. Nothing.