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Old 12-05-2003, 01:38 AM   #19
Yorick
Very Mad Bird
 

Join Date: January 7, 2001
Location: Breukelen (over the river from New Amsterdam)
Age: 53
Posts: 9,246
I don't know mate.... dare I suggest a thicker skin might be an option? One just has to have a look at India (seeing as you've lumped Hinduism into Paganism, even though I wouldn't regard Hindus as "Pagan" and I don't believe they were being referred to in the quote).

Anyhow, one merely has to look at Hindu dominated India and to see the dearth of charities for the poor and opressed.

http://www.friesian.com/caste.htm

http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/india/

Why would they? Why would a Hindu Spiritual leader seek to assist the plight of the poor? Help a person that may "pollute" them?

It's a simple fact that what motivates a Christian Church and what motivates a Hindu Temple are two very different agendas. It's like comparing apples and oranges. It's not casting a slurr on individuals. There are arseholes who become christians, who end up rsimply being christian arseholes. Just as there are compassionate Hindus who IN SPITE of the caste system perpetuated by Hinduism work to ease the plight of the oppressed.

But the central assertions of the collective remain unchanged by the individuals contrary actions.

For futher thought, say there is a religion that preaches you must feed a certain number of homeless people each year to reach paradise at the end of your life.

Whether the person in that religion has a careing heart or not is irrelevent. Any actions they do for the homeless have nothing to do with their heart. They are following the teachings of their church so they reach paradise. However, it would be fair to say, that such a church would be remarkably effective at feeding the homeless, wouldn't it?

In Australia, it is PROVEN that christian church groups provide better counselling services than any other agency. Proven. The Very secular Australian government has, for a number of years, outsourced it's entire government social and counselling programs to the Catholic, Anglican, Baptist and Uniting Churches exclusively. Each of the four cis responsible for a quarter of Sydney each. One takes the north, another the south, another the east and the fourth the west.

I was amazed when I read it all. Australia doesn't have the religious traditions of America Chewbacca. Only recently we became a "Christian Coutry" with 51% declaring themselves Christian. For many years Christians were a minority. The "religious right" or whatever you want to call it, had nothing to do with the decision. (As I said in another post, I and others would regard Christianity as left wing)

The effectiveness of Christian Churches in providing these are PROVEN.

So... whatever mate. Sorry you got offended.
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