I was raised as an atheist, and was raised firm in the belief that there is no God, my sole exposure to anything remotely related to the Bible being learning about secular Jewish culture.

I was an agnostic in my 20s and early 30s, still a rational materialist with a man-centered view of the Bible (that the Bible was an ad hoc collection of works written and put together by various power interests to rationalize and maintain their positions of status).

Now, in my mid 30s, I’m a born-again Christian, firm in my belief that the Bible in its current form was assembled together by authors and collators guided in their activities by the Holy Spirit.

I’ve heard all the criticisms and canards, because I used to agree with most of them myself. I despised Christians, most of all the evangelical kind. Write what you want, but miracles do happen.

And don’t even be tempted to go there with any argument about the historical relationship between Christians and Jews. It’s a long, sordid history, and it’s what held me back for 20 years to confessing faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. What we have is 2000 years of certain Gentile Christians not reading Romans 11:13-24 and considering the clear admonition it has regarding them.

As for this story, alas, Christians are still sinners, even though many behave as if they think they are perfect and non-Christians are not. That is an erroneous dichotomy. Their sins have been paid for, but they are still sinners. This is a clear example of just how much a whole church can be led astray by sin.

Aye, yet another example that there’s more than one variety of ipsation that takes place in front of computer screens the world over.

. .

Oh, no joke. I believe the SUC cemetery hosts the remains of a number of prominent missionary families, including the Underwoods. A departed acquaintance of mine, Gail Clarke, is buried there. Her husband Peter Underwood is still in Korea, I believe. His father was laid to rest a few years ago in rites befitting a former president of Yonsei University.

Looks like the cat has found another ball of yarn to play with.

the same can’t be said of religion or a faction of a religion. someone bashes Catholicism when it’s uncalled for. rude? absolutely. wrong in itself, in a general sense? nope. it’s just a religion, just like any culture, any set of beliefs, superstitions and such that pretend to have truth value. they are debatable, bashable species of meme.

So we agree, you are eating Christ’s body and not something that merely stands in for it or appears like it, as you had said in your earlier post.

With you right up to “as you had said in your earlier post.” I said no such thing. I said we eat the Body and Blood of the Lord under the appearances of bread and wine. The substance of bread and wine is changed to that of the Body and Blood of Christ—hence the term transubstantiation—while the accidents of bread and wine remain. At least, that’s the best framework that theologians have been able to come up with to help understand this great mystery.

I take a bemused anthropological interest in you people.

Ah, anti-Catholicism, the last acceptable prejudice. If you used these same words in a conversation about African-American culture, you’d be crucified. Incidentally, it’s precisely this type of snarky, insincere, condescending arrogance from you that merited my tone.

Where’s this turn the other cheek attitude you praise yourselves for?

First, I don’t praise myself for anything. I’m not in the business of smarmy self-congratulation—in marked contrast to you, from the looks of things. Second, even the devil can quote Scripture—always and exclusively out of context, of course—to suit his own purposes. Smartass atheists are no different. You kids love to heap derision upon believers and then toss out “turn the other cheek” when and if they respond in kind. Yes, Jesus said “turn the other cheek.” He also called the Pharisees “whitewashed tombs,” and fashioned a whip of cords and drove the moneychangers out of the temple. He’s not the pushover you’d like Him to be, nor should His followers be.