Mindy's comments

Mindy's comments from the True North group.

Note: Mindy is no longer a member of this group.

Oh please, goosestepping was not practiced exclusively by Nazis, and aside from the literal military step formation the term can refer to any type of political mindset in which everyone falls behind the party line w/o deviation.

There's speculation that she did this to prepare for her national run in 2012, but the fact that she quit isn't gonna go well for her in a primary. (Of course, the Republicans are masters of goosestepping and propagandizing, so all of them rallying around the village idiot whom the majority of right-leaning white folks just ADORE to get themselves back in power is not all that far-fetched. See the last 8 years for example. *shudders*)

There's also speculation that she has done something that would place her in the embarrassing governor's category (aside from being a fucking idiot) and that she's trying to get out before the polar bear shit hits the fan.

Yay Ruth!!!

The problem w/taking the Bible literally and as sole authority is that so much of it is contradictory, so that was another thing I was interested in, how do fundamentalists do that whole "take what you like and leave the rest" process. 'Cause they HAVE to, even though they probably wouldn't admit it.

Re: vocalizations, I found that bird pic from a bird identification website. (I couldn't remember the name "grackle," though I see these birds outside all the time and LOVE them.) On that site, there's a button to click to hear the birds' song!

Don't forget MS in the Battle for the Bottom! I'm from there, and it just got Most Freshwater Drownings or something like that. ('Cause people get drunk and go swimming in the river and stuff, I think.)

:D

Agreed about material necessity taking precedent over philosophical debate! Montana's homeschooling rules sound like Alabama's.

And yes, birds! One of my favorites:

Nope, that's why I asked. But I didn't figure a rock & roll show had as much choreography as a pop one. Go figure!

(Actually, when I think "rock & roll show" the first thing that comes to mind if Robert Plant just wailing, moaning, and thrusting...)

:D

Good point about Mick, and he had partied like a rock star! (Except is there much dancing/choreography in a Stones show?)

Omg, did y'all know Mick has SEVEN children?! (Googled.)

Oh yeah, I guess that makes sense about it being a rehearsal. (I know nothing about performing.)

Wait, did I miss something? He was gay?

Wow, he definitely wasn't POPPIN' like he used to...

LOL @ Lori! Dino skin is cool!

Yeah, Bunny, there is the inevitable frame of reference we come with. (Though "take what you like & leave the rest" is actually from 12 Step recovery, which is another interesting belief system.) Still, I think the question is valid regardless of my own experiences. The decline in numbers as the mainlines became more flexible in their doctrines happened. As did the increase in fundie numbers. (Now, there are other factors at work, it's not ONLY the liberalization of dogma, but that's the part that fascinates me.) So we know that some folks are just "falling away" from mainline religion (if not from outright belief, though that is happening too). Why do some fall away and some not? When I was first thinking about the project it was deep in the 2nd Bush term, and here in the South everything political was steeped in religion, so if the rise in fundamentalists has some causes we can figure out, what "makes" liberal Christians ('cause more of them would be nice so that they could argue against the fundie ones)? And allowing for interpretation does increase the likelihood that one will interpret herself out of the fold b/c there are simply more options to choose from, so what directs the interpretation to remain w/in the fold instead of "falling away"?

Oh, this conversation has been going on in my head for YEARS now. I can argue the fundie side just as well as any believer b/c those are my roots. I exhaust myself!

:)

So, yeah, two Christians in my head can argue w/each other about whose version is more "real," and the fundie usually has the better argument. The thing about mainline denominations declining though has some relevance b/c at the same time, the numbers for fundamentalist denominations skyrocketed. There is appeal in fundamentalism. Certainty is comfortable, ya know? B/c I'm not from them, I find liberal Christians intriguing. Before I switched to the Applied track, I was going to do my thesis on liberal Christians, trying to determine how they go through that how interpretative, "take what you like and leave the rest" process w/the Bible and not end up on the slippery slope to disbelief. Of course, religion is about more than belief, and I suspect that when pressed there would be some who were only Christian in the nominal sense, not believers at all, b/c they liked all the other things belonging to a religion provides.

Haha, I thought it sounded familiar, Sherri!

But if you TRULY believe (thinking Christianity here) that "no man comes to the Father except through me" and that salvation through Christ is the only way to save one's soul, then how could you ever be really comfortable w/allowing your child to NOT believe, to NOT be saved? I'm sure there are plenty of monotheists who recognize the whole "higher power as I understand it" concept, but if you really believe the jist of Christianity & Islam (Judaism doesn't fit so well into this argument, b/c it isn't just about belief.) then at some level you would have to fear that a child who went against your beliefs was doomed, and who wants that for their children? As for more liberal interpretations of the monotheisms, they've kinda moved away from the "only One way" paradigm anyway. They've begun to allow for interpretation, which means the fear of damnation wouldn't be such a concern, but there's also that danger of allowing your child interpretation and alternatives and then they end up not believing at all. There's that slippery slope thing in belief as well, once you allow for interpretation, doesn't the whole thing just slide off into relativity. (Some say that allowance for interpretation, loosening of ideological boundaries, is the reason for the sharp decline in mainstreamline Protestant denominations in the last century.)

Oh, that's lovely, Amelia!

That's a lotta fists flyin'!

Picturing ants in a barfight. LMAO!

Yes, Carlie, what Bunny said. It's not about not sharing your beliefs w/your children, it's about not telling them that there are alternatives and giving them the option to choose those alternatives w/o shaming, ostracizing, even killing them. And therein lies the problem for most believers--particularly those w/very either-or models (which monotheistic "only ONE" ideas lean toward) of belief, their beliefs refute the alternatives as evil and teach that choosing an alternative IS evil, worthy of shame, ostracization, death.

But not patchouli. Yack!