My Pastor Lied to Me

[Count Zero]

Maybe the details don't matter that much but I think it's important to know that languages change/evolve. Also, that the meaning of words can and do change. Older texts are often very relevant to our lives (e.g. the Bible), so it's wise to keep that in mind.

 

[scotpens]

. . .I honestly don't think that knowing the various forms the English language have taken to be that important. If you're doing an English degree, then sure, you should know that kind of thing. If not, why does it matter?

It seems to me that anyone with a high-school education ought to be at least somewhat aware of the history and development of their own language. Just as all American citizens should know at least the basics of U.S. history, government and civics.

But maybe I'm in the minority here. Which is unfortunate.

 

[John Picard]

It's a common pastime of people with an agenda to appropriate words which sound like they fit the bill. Thus history appropriated by people with a religious or feminist agenda. Another good one is the feminist myth that woman is a short form of 'womb man'. I love this kind of silliness.

Use the word "niggardly" in the United States and watch people go completely apeshit.

 

[RoJoHen]

. . .I honestly don't think that knowing the various forms the English language have taken to be that important. If you're doing an English degree, then sure, you should know that kind of thing. If not, why does it matter?

It seems to me that anyone with a high-school education ought to be at least somewhat aware of the history and development of their own language. Just as all American citizens should know at least the basics of U.S. history, government and civics.

But maybe I'm in the minority here. Which is unfortunate.

We can't even get college students to understand the use of a comma. Let's get our kids to learn how to use modern English correctly before we even try to teach them the history of it.

It's a common pastime of people with an agenda to appropriate words which sound like they fit the bill. Thus history appropriated by people with a religious or feminist agenda. Another good one is the feminist myth that woman is a short form of 'womb man'. I love this kind of silliness.

Use the word "niggardly" in the United States and watch people go completely apeshit.

And God forbid you try to re-neg on something!

 

[MikeHolmes_CoE]

As far as I'm concerned the O.P. deserves every bit of disappointment coming to him/her.

In a day & age where everything has been debunked six ways from Sunday, & people are STILL shocked by the "cleansing your money of evil" scam pulled in Washinton State recently.

You're going to continue to deserve to be taken for a ride until you start thinking for yourself & stop taking things for granted said by some guy/girl in a black n' white frock calling themselves a spiritual leader.

 

[John Picard]

Speaking of ThankQ's references to living in Oklahoma, I thought I would share the following Letter to the Editor from earlier this week:

Letters to the Editor: Monday, February 1, 2010

That was before
In response to Elliott Doane (Your Views, Jan. 24): If you attended school before the 1960s, you might have heard Bible reading and prayer just before the Pledge of Allegiance. That was before the Supreme Court kicked God out of schools. I never understood how our history could be taught without the Bible. It was the foundation of our country. Why have we forgotten that? The Bible is the first book of law, of history, of poetry, of wisdom and of common sense. It is our heritage! Betty Parmer, Apache

​

It seems that every couple of weeks, one or more letters are sent that discuss how US law was derived from The Ten Commandment, that the Founding Fathers were devout Christians, etc. Seriously, these people are laughably ignorant in what they believe is the truth. A "concerned mother" was recently profiled in having worked with a State Representative in ensuring that the Bible being taught as an elective course is protected, because, according to her, students in Oklahoma would be missing out on a very important part of US History and need a deep knowledge of the Bible in order to understand the How's and Why's of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

I am not making this up.
​

 

[Awesome Possum]

Speaking of ThankQ's references to living in Oklahoma, I thought I would share the following Letter to the Editor from earlier this week:

Letters to the Editor: Monday, February 1, 2010

That was before
In response to Elliott Doane (Your Views, Jan. 24): If you attended school before the 1960s, you might have heard Bible reading and prayer just before the Pledge of Allegiance. That was before the Supreme Court kicked God out of schools. I never understood how our history could be taught without the Bible. It was the foundation of our country. Why have we forgotten that? The Bible is the first book of law, of history, of poetry, of wisdom and of common sense. It is our heritage! Betty Parmer, Apache

It seems that every couple of weeks, one or more letters are sent that discuss how US law was derived from The Ten Commandment, that the Founding Fathers were devout Christians, etc. Seriously, these people are laughably ignorant in what they believe is the truth. A "concerned mother" was recently profiled in having worked with a State Representative in ensuring that the Bible being taught as an elective course is protected, because, according to her, students in Oklahoma would be missing out on a very important part of US History and need a deep knowledge of the Bible in order to understand the How's and Why's of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

I am not making this up.
​

Maybe someone should introduce her to a few things Jefferson had to say about the Bible.

 

[ThankQ]

As far as I'm concerned the O.P. deserves every bit of disappointment coming to him/her.
...
You're going to continue to deserve to be taken for a ride until you start thinking for yourself & stop taking things for granted said by some guy/girl in a black n' white frock calling themselves a spiritual leader.

*giggle*

Newbie don't know ThankQ

 

[Balrog]

First time I ever heard the "history" comes from "His story" garbage, ThankQ. That's a new one for me. That fallacy wouldn't have gotten far in my house growing up. My dad's an english and history teacher and taught us the importance of words and their origins. He would have had a field day with a minister who tried to pull that bs on a congregation. LOL!

 

[Mark de Vries]

Speaking of ThankQ's references to living in Oklahoma, I thought I would share the following Letter to the Editor from earlier this week:

Letters to the Editor: Monday, February 1, 2010

That was before
In response to Elliott Doane (Your Views, Jan. 24): If you attended school before the 1960s, you might have heard Bible reading and prayer just before the Pledge of Allegiance. That was before the Supreme Court kicked God out of schools. I never understood how our history could be taught without the Bible. It was the foundation of our country. Why have we forgotten that? The Bible is the first book of law, of history, of poetry, of wisdom and of common sense. It is our heritage! Betty Parmer, Apache

It seems that every couple of weeks, one or more letters are sent that discuss how US law was derived from The Ten Commandment, that the Founding Fathers were devout Christians, etc. Seriously, these people are laughably ignorant in what they believe is the truth. A "concerned mother" was recently profiled in having worked with a State Representative in ensuring that the Bible being taught as an elective course is protected, because, according to her, students in Oklahoma would be missing out on a very important part of US History and need a deep knowledge of the Bible in order to understand the How's and Why's of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.​

I am not making this up.​

While I'm certain that no body of law is in any literal sense based on the Ten Commandments, the Bible and Christian traditions are integral parts of the history of western society and culture. Knowledge of these is, in my opinion, important to know and understand our own culture. That is regardless of whether or not you are Christian yourself. So in that sense I agree with the letter writer that it must be part of the curriculum when studying culture and society.

But no, it's not as if the lawmakers sat down with a big fat Bible and jotted down laws.

 

[Deckerd]

Use the word "niggardly" in the United States and watch people go completely apeshit.

And God forbid you try to re-neg on something!

Do you mean renege?

 

[lightsword]

Our pastor always says not to just take his word for anything but go home and read the scripture and facts and see if he is right or wrong and if anything differs from what he preaches then come to him and confront him. He has apologized from the pulpit on a few occasions so he is sincere. He said if you take what a pastor says from the pulpit and never read for yourself then you are opening yourself to be deceived in big ways.

 

[lightsword]

Speaking of ThankQ's references to living in Oklahoma, I thought I would share the following Letter to the Editor from earlier this week:

Letters to the Editor: Monday, February 1, 2010

That was before
In response to Elliott Doane (Your Views, Jan. 24): If you attended school before the 1960s, you might have heard Bible reading and prayer just before the Pledge of Allegiance. That was before the Supreme Court kicked God out of schools. I never understood how our history could be taught without the Bible. It was the foundation of our country. Why have we forgotten that? The Bible is the first book of law, of history, of poetry, of wisdom and of common sense. It is our heritage! Betty Parmer, Apache

It seems that every couple of weeks, one or more letters are sent that discuss how US law was derived from The Ten Commandment, that the Founding Fathers were devout Christians, etc. Seriously, these people are laughably ignorant in what they believe is the truth. A "concerned mother" was recently profiled in having worked with a State Representative in ensuring that the Bible being taught as an elective course is protected, because, according to her, students in Oklahoma would be missing out on a very important part of US History and need a deep knowledge of the Bible in order to understand the How's and Why's of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

I am not making this up.
​

Why aren't our children told to read the Mayflower Compact? It is part of our history too that I guess some people want to hide.

 

[John Picard]

Speaking of ThankQ's references to living in Oklahoma, I thought I would share the following Letter to the Editor from earlier this week:

Letters to the Editor: Monday, February 1, 2010

That was before
In response to Elliott Doane (Your Views, Jan. 24): If you attended school before the 1960s, you might have heard Bible reading and prayer just before the Pledge of Allegiance. That was before the Supreme Court kicked God out of schools. I never understood how our history could be taught without the Bible. It was the foundation of our country. Why have we forgotten that? The Bible is the first book of law, of history, of poetry, of wisdom and of common sense. It is our heritage! Betty Parmer, Apache

It seems that every couple of weeks, one or more letters are sent that discuss how US law was derived from The Ten Commandment, that the Founding Fathers were devout Christians, etc. Seriously, these people are laughably ignorant in what they believe is the truth. A "concerned mother" was recently profiled in having worked with a State Representative in ensuring that the Bible being taught as an elective course is protected, because, according to her, students in Oklahoma would be missing out on a very important part of US History and need a deep knowledge of the Bible in order to understand the How's and Why's of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.​

I am not making this up.​

While I'm certain that no body of law is in any literal sense based on the Ten Commandments, the Bible and Christian traditions are integral parts of the history of western society and culture. Knowledge of these is, in my opinion, important to know and understand our own culture. That is regardless of whether or not you are Christian yourself. So in that sense I agree with the letter writer that it must be part of the curriculum when studying culture and society.

But no, it's not as if the lawmakers sat down with a big fat Bible and jotted down laws.

Therein lies the problem. The Church influenced Western culture and ideals; however, the writer of that letter clearly implies that the Founding Fathers sat down with the Bible and formed a government. Read the last sentence of her letter, which I put in bold. She is very wrong on every one of her points.

 

[scotpens]

Use the word "niggardly" in the United States and watch people go completely apeshit.

And God forbid you try to re-neg on something!

The post about the word niggardly was John Picard's, not mine. These nested quotes-within-quotes-within-quotes can get confusing. Screw up the formatting and it can get difficult to tell who said what.

 

[scotpens]

http://www.newsok.com/letters-to-the-editor-monday-february-1-2010/article/3436071Why aren't our children told to read the Mayflower Compact? It is part of our history too that I guess some people want to hide.

That document was very much a part of American history and civics courses when I was in school. Are you saying they don't teach it anymore?

 

[RJDiogenes]

Use the word "niggardly" in the United States and watch people go completely apeshit.

And God forbid you try to re-neg on something!

The post about the word niggardly was John Picard's, not mine. These nested quotes-within-quotes-within-quotes can get confusing. Screw up the formatting and it can get difficult to tell who said what.

Fixed 'em.