Thursday, June 11, 2009

Straw Man Dichotomies

My friend Brad pointed me to this article at NPR.

It's enough to make one a crabby blogger with nothing positive to say. Well, here goes. This is what I responded with:
Can you say Straw-man Dichotomy?

Stream-of-consciousness follows...

"The man who believes in a god, in a Christ coming again in glory to judge and to punish the quick and the dead," wrote Tolstoy, "cannot believe in the Christ who bade us turn the left cheek, judge not, forgive those that wrong us, and love our enemies."

Okay, so Tolstoy (and Erik Reece) pit the Sermon on the Mount against the Nicene Creed. Well, to be consistent he should also pit the Bible against the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, the same Guy Who said turn the other cheek also said to carry a sword. Hmm...

"The man who believes in salvation through faith in the redemption or the sacraments cannot devote all his powers to realizing Christ's moral teaching in his life."

Forget the sacraments for a second. What is this guy talking about?? It’s not about devoting all my powers to realizing Christ’s moral teaching. But I preach to the choir...

Having a ticket to heaven should be one of the greatest blessings and motivators in this life.

This guy sounds like a Tony Campolo / Jim Wallis Red Letter Christian (TM).

Oy, the Gospel of Thomas. Which said that all women need to become male.

Now he brings up John Dewey. He ruined American education. Gene Scott (TM) said Dewey’s responsible for the Hippie Generation.

Thanks, Brad. This was a fun rant.

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