Who Goes to Church?

[Bullypulpit]

...Going to church, synagogue, mosque,temple, etc. once a week doesn't make one a devout believer anymore than going to a garage once a week makes one a mechanic.

Ya gotta walk the walk.

 

[Dan]

That doesn't go on just in the South. I remember back when JFK was running for president - we were told (from the pulpit) to vote for him, to get the first Catholic into the White House. And I'm quite sure Gore got a large percentage of the Jewish vote strictly for his running mate. Also, go into any black area - they are all democrat - ask the candidate's name, they don't know - but he supports welfare!!

True, true. I think maybe half of the voters of this country won't be swayed by stuff like what Dean's doing here, last-ditch efforts at identification.

...Going to church, synagogue, mosque,temple, etc. once a week doesn't make one a devout believer anymore than going to a garage once a week makes one a mechanic.

God, this is so true. I know many regular churchgoers who I would cross the street to avoid, and I know plenty of nonchurchgoers who are some of the most moral, greatest people I know.

 

[Bullypulpit]

Originally posted by gop_jeff
Bush's conversion to evangelical Christianity came long before his political aspirations. Hardly the same.

Yeah, but it didn't take very well, and it didn't predate his political career by very long at all. It was a conversion of political convenience, not true conviction.

Some of the hard-shell Baptists I grew up with in West Virginia believe that the louder one proclaims their piety, the greater the sins they're trying to hide. Dubbyuh, Herr Ashcroft and others in the administration are loudly braying their virtue and have some mighty big sins to try and hide...but their slips are showing.

 

[Moi]

Originally posted by Bullypulpit

Originally posted by gop_jeff
Bush's conversion to evangelical Christianity came long before his political aspirations. Hardly the same.

Yeah, but it didn't take very well, and it didn't predate his political career by very long at all. It was a conversion of political convenience, not true conviction.

Some of the hard-shell Baptists I grew up with in West Virginia believe that the louder one proclaims their piety, the greater the sins they're trying to hide. Dubbyuh, Herr Ashcroft and others in the administration are loudly braying their virtue and have some mighty big sins to try and hide...but their slips are showing.

You don't know that any more than I know about your dedication to religion. If memory serves, most religions clearly state that judgment is reserved for the deity. True religion is between the person and their divine other.

So, this is a pretty stupid argument for anyone to use either for or against someone's professional aspirations.

 

[5stringJeff]

Originally posted by Bullypulpit
Yeah, but it didn't take very well, and it didn't predate his political career by very long at all. It was a conversion of political convenience, not true conviction.

Some of the hard-shell Baptists I grew up with in West Virginia believe that the louder one proclaims their piety, the greater the sins they're trying to hide. Dubbyuh, Herr Ashcroft and others in the administration are loudly braying their virtue and have some mighty big sins to try and hide...but their slips are showing.

I don't think you have any idea how true his conviction is, just as I said I have no idea how true Dean's convictions may be. And while your West Va. friends may think that public piety = sinning in secret, I don't think that is necessarily true. Now it is true that none of us live up to the standard of purity and/or holiness that God has set. But, for most Christians that I know, their proclamation of faith is not a cover-up of any kind of wrongdoing; it's an admission that their behaviors of the past were wrong, and a willingness to submit their lives to God's will.