Political Glossary

I got the impression from some of the things you've written on your blog that you have a fairly dim view of evangelical Christians. I just wanted you to know that not all of us (Yes, I am one! I am picturing you shuddering as you read that! :) Sorry!) are incapable of rational thought and debate. Some of us can actually understand and respect other views and appreciate it when people like you express them in an articulate, thoughtful and respectful way. Also, I agree with you on keeping prayer out of schools. My husband actually convinced me on that point. If we don't want our children to have to pray to Allah, then we can't force other kids to pray to Jesus. It would probably surprise you to know that I grew up with one of the most conservative people in this country as a mom, a homeschooling mom at that, who still taught us to think for ourselves. Both of my sisters are big environmentalists (one of them uses cloth diapers- now that is true commitment, I'd like to see Gore do that!) and in the last election we voted for three different candidates. (I'll bet you can guess who I voted for!) Anyway, I love it that our family doesn't fit the typical view of the right wing fundamentalist Christian family, but the most important thing to us truly is our faith. And that is something that isn't at all rational, and can't really be debated, it is just something that has to be experienced. Anyway, I wish you all the best, and I am not trying to convert you, although of course I am willing to share more about my faith if you are interested. I just wanted you to know that believing in Jesus does not neccesarily mean that you have to check your brains or ability to think for yourself at the door.
By the way, I think what I like about your blog and the way you think is that your views don't fit into the neat little "liberal" or "conservative" boxes either. It is nice to see that you think through the issues instead of just buying the party line. Don't you wish more politicians (and people in general) did that?

Very well said, EC, as usual. Yes, I am guilty of some generalizations in my Political Glossary, including those relating to Evangelicals. And as I've expressed in our other blog conversation, I definitely acknowledge and appreciate your open-mindedness and willingness to engage in real discussion of an issue (somethating that, unfortunately, seems to be a rarity on TownHall based on my experience thus far). And thanks for your compliments.

Regarding sharing more about your faith, I would be interested in philisophical principles or other ideas that you have drawn from scripture/religion (assuming that these principles could also be meaningful from a secular perspective), but I wouldn't suggest that you spend any time sharing religious doctrine for its own sake. I'm simply not inclined to accept on faith any book's description of a diety and what that diety wants. I have to have a reason to believe something; just having a feeling is insufficient for me, because I don't know how "faith" can be distinguished from fantasy. I hope that doesn't come across as offensive, but that's my perspective.

As I suggested in our previous conversation, you should start a blog and share more of your thoughts. It's easy to set up on TownHall. Let me know if you do.

Hey, no problem, I truly do understand where you are coming from. I wasn't sure what your religious background was or if you were searching or had pretty much made your mind up about it. I feel like "Evangelical Christian" is a term that automatically makes people think about total nuts with no ability to think through issues and I just wanted you to know we are not all like that. It is so sad to me when I read posts by other conservative Christians who demean or condemn others or turn nasty. That is not what our faith is about.

I would love to start a blog, but my husband and kids say I spend too much time on the computer as it is! My husband has taught our 21 month old to point at me and say, "Geek". Guess that is a hint, huh? Anyway, I have really enjoyed our conversation and best of luck with your blog. I'll bookmark it.

LOL re: your 21 month old calling you "Geek". Very funny. Well, if you change your mind and start a blog, let me know.

Nice graph. You obviously put alot of work into it. While I'm a Catholic and don't agree with everthing you say, I do appreciate the time you spent puting that together.

Thanks for visiting, and thanks for your comment.

Couldn't resist this one, I stopped back by the abortion blog we were writing on and there are three back to back epistles by Len. I didn't want to insult him by saying this there, but I love your last call analogy. Please, somebody call Len a cab! (Esp. on the abort the poor point?! I can't even muster the energy to try to explain to someone why it is not a good idea to kill poor people...)

LOL! That's so funny. I just saw Len's comments and I've been wrestling with my conscience because, on the one hand, he makes a lot of points I'll have to spend the time to refute if I continue with him, and it's far from certain I'll get anywhere with him in terms of real discussion and rational argumentation (and he exhibits an irritating, ironic condescension), but on the other hand, I told him previously that I'm willing to give it another shot and he has at least made some small effort to address my points, and he describes himself as "very old", so I would feel bad renegging on my offer to try again. If I had no indication of his age I would probably just retract my offer to continue (based on his last few comments) or just ignore his comment, but I don't want to be disrespectful given that he's probably much older than I. What a dilemma! I think what I'll do is test the waters with a couple of quick questions and see if he's any more inclined this time to answer directly.

One humorous observation. Len seems to think for some reason that I'm a pure pro-lifer just because I'm challenging his arguments -- didn't he read any of my challenges to your position? And Len is not alone in this reaction. It's kind of funny and annoying when, on the same page I'm challenging the arguments of some "pro-choice" people and some "pro-life" people, and each accuses me of being an extremist in the other direction just because I'm raising questions that challenge their assumptions, principles and/or logic. Needless to say, that observation does not apply to you.

...if you do engage Len again. He did insult me in a very nice way, even though I think he got me confused with Ken. I notice he didn't touch the Siamese twin example...I really love that one!