Re: Pregnant Franny?

AntiUtopia@aol.com
Mon, 16 Feb 1998 20:32:53 -0500 (EST) 

In a message dated 98-02-16 20:14:31 EST, you write:

<< I didn't write any of the above, but I'm still going to try answering this.
I
 think Scottie was talking about a sort of spiritual/intellectual superiority
 to the vast majority of the human race...one which is in all likelihood
false.
 Its sort of the same feeling a devout Christian or whatever religion has
 because he/she feels that they are "above" everyone else and have "found out"
 what a lot of people haven't...supposedly.  This is all very nasty stuff.  I
 hate it.  But...I guess one should accept these people as they are if he/she
 doesn't want to be a hipocrite.  I'm treading on dangerous ground
 here...anyone can pull me out at any time.  :)
 
 Eric >>

all I can say to "pull you out" of your misconceptions is that:

1. You're treading on slippery ground if you Really think you know what's
going on in someone else's head...all we really know is how they come across
to us.

2. Every devout Christian I have met has so confronted their own failure that
they genuinely know better than to think they are better than anybody.  These
are, at one and the same time, people absolutely convinced of the truth of
Christianity.  They can hold to these two things at once by maintaining an
awareness that they aren't the source of the truth, but have only responded to
it when it came to them.

A good case in point is Jerry Falwell.  He comes across as being snide, self-
righteous, and smug--and a LOT.  But every person I have ever met, and every
interviewer I have ever read (course, I'm sure there are exceptions, I'm just
citing my experience) that describes having met him were pretty uniformly
impressed with his humility.  Honestly, hearing him speak, I don't get that
impression at all.  But I've even read Hostile interviewers describe him this
way, so I see a real unconformity between his public persona and his private. 

There's a couple of ways to interpret this data, but they are all more
reflections on the interpreter than the data itself :)

Jim