Originally posted by twhitehead
When I try to convince others of my beliefs (or lack thereof) I do not try to coerce them.
Do you see coercion as the only way to convince others of your beliefs?
Do you only ever change your belief under pressure?
When you do 'change' your beliefs, is it really pretence in order to avoid getting mentally slapped?

At the County Fair, 1956


For a nickel, a machine

called An Expression of Faith

would take your dime

and squash it.

All tubes and gears and lights,

the thing would groan, squeak,

fart, smoke, and finally drop

a little silver oval in your hands,

hot as a pistol,

with Jesus’ face on one side

and the Lord's Prayer on the other.

I took my medallion

home for Grandma,

but she wouldn't keep it

because it was Catholic

and had "trespasses"

instead of "debts"

and left out the part

about the kingdom

and the power and the glory.

She gave it back

and I went downtown

and set it on the railroad track.

And after the train went by

I had a piece of silver

smooth as glass and that

says something about

power and glory, by God.



-Charles Darling

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
[b]At the County Fair, 1956


For a nickel, a machine

called An Expression of Faith

would take your dime

and squash it.

All tubes and gears and lights,

the thing would groan, squeak,

fart, smoke, and finally drop

a little silver oval in your hands,

hot as a pistol,

with Jesus’ face on one side

and the Lord' ...[text shortened]... s and that

says something about

power and glory, by God.



-Charles Darling[/b]

Originally posted by Taoman
As a well known footballer here yelled triumphantly on winning the Aussie Rules Grand Final, "That's what I am talkin about."

Good stuff. Thank you. Good Christians are really good Christians.

Perspective from a cross.

Originally posted by rwingett
But the grandmother only rejected it because it was 'Catholic.' It's a petty, doctrinal dispute, and not a broader point about the impropriety of expressing ones faith through base and petty means. If the trinket had been properly 'Protestant', then the grandmother would have cherished it.

Originally posted by rwingett
But the grandmother only rejected it because it was 'Catholic.' It's a petty, doctrinal dispute, and not a broader point about the impropriety of expressing ones faith through base and petty means. If the trinket had been properly 'Protestant', then the grandmother would have cherished it.

Originally posted by Taoman

The pointing out of the pettiness got me. And the shiny silver now with nothing on it to argue about, pettiness squashed out of sight.
Pettiness is like wood termites to wider vision.
To me, there is wider vision in the poem, contrasting with the too often seen small view. That is good. Bit by bit, opening eyes see more.

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
One more quote (on point with respect to viewpoint) from the venerable New England Poet, Robert Frost:

"I never dared to be radical when young
For fear it would make me conservative when old."

Originally posted by Taoman
Pure crystal.

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Pure_Crystal

😉

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
One more quote (on point with respect to viewpoint) from the venerable New England Poet, Robert Frost:

"I never dared to be radical when young
For fear it would make me conservative when old."

So what was Frost really? Old Testament Christian or atheist?

Elinor Frost, his wife, thought he was, like her, an atheist. In 1920 (the couple had then been married twenty-five years) Frost confided to Louis Untermeyer:


Elinor has just come out flat-footed against God conceived either as the fourth person seen with Shadrack, Meshack, and Tobedwego [sic] in the fiery furnace or without help by the Virgin Mary. How about as a Shelleyan principal or spirit coeternal with the rock part of creation, I ask. Nonsense and you know it's nonsense Rob Frost, only you're afraid you'll have bad luck or lose your standing in the community if you speak your mind.

Frost neither confirmed nor denied the accusation. A part of him, the rational part, must have known his wife was right. But in the subterranean recesses of his mind, the ancient fear continued to lurk.

Toward the end, his piety hardened. In his last letter, written a few days before he died, he insisted we cannot save ourselves unaided. "Salvation," he said, "we will never have from anyone but God."

http://www.eclectica.org/v7n2/sloan.html

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
[b]A Confirmed Atheist, Charlie, Cynthia and Jan

Why do many confirmed atheists A) Vibrate over the mere mention of God (The Father); B) Christ (The Son, the God-Man in Hypostatic Union during the Church Age); C) The Holy Spirit (Third Person of The Trinity, who though invisible reveals the accurate and absolute truth contained in the inspired Wo ...[text shortened]... s just move on. How about seeing a recently released movie tonight with Cynthia and Jan" ?[/b]

Originally posted by RJHinds
Does that mean Robert Frost was a confirmed atheist and not inspired by God?
Sounds like it to me. However, I do not know the man, even though I have heard his name before.

Originally posted by sonhouse
My problem is Christianity is not the religion of peace, neither is Islam. They have been at loggerheads for a thousand years and continues to this day. That all screams to me, besides the suppression of women, as religions totally 100% made by men to control other men and suppress women and to start religious wars. Christians have in the past been just as ...[text shortened]... in forcing their religion on people of other cultures who would never convert without coercion.