On Sep 22, 2009, at 10:46 AM, Nick Arnett wrote:
On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 1:20 AM, Charlie Bell
<char...@culturelist.org> wrote:
That's the widely perceived view of them, yes. Doesn't totally hold
water if you actually read the New Testament, but yes - if people
tried to act a bit nicer to each other we'd be better off.
I know what you mean, I think, but I've stopped using the word
"nice" to describe it. I know churches that are perfectly "nice" to
gays, for example, but in doing so pretty much fail to accept them.
Sort of a "welcome to our church, we're glad to have you here and
we're certain that you're going to hell." Except that the last
sentence is implied, not spoken aloud.
I guess another way to say what I'm saying is that hypocrisy and
self-righteousness can be extremely nice, and I find the combination
to be not only irritating, but destructive to community. There's a
passive-aggressiveness present.
I'd rather call on people to be "real," rather than "nice," I suppose.
Nick
I suppose it comes down to a distinction between a largely superficial
pleasantness in discourse, which is what it seems like you're getting
at there, and more substantive civility which involves some form of
acceptance and a baseline level of respect, aside from philosophical
disagreements ..
"Oh yeah? Well, I speak LOOOOOOOUD, and I carry a BEEEEEEEger stick --
and I use it too!" **whop!** -- Yosemite Sam
_______________________________________________
http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
