Not even sure where to begin with this one....

[paradisel0st]

Here's an email I received at work....


Remarks from CBS Sunday Morning - Ben Stein
 
  I Only hope we find GOD again before it is too late ! !
 
 

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday  Morning  Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish.  And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees.  I don't feel threatened.  I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me.  I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto.  In fact, I kind of like it.  It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu .  If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians.  I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period.  I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country.  I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?  I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.  But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different:  This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina)..  Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.  She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives..  And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out.  How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.  I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.  Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school.  The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself.  And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide).  We said an expert should know what he's talking about.  And we said okay.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves..

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.  I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.  Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.  Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.  Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.
 
If not, then just discard it... no one will know you did.  But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in. 



My Best Regards,  Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein



Granted I'm sure this has been floating around on the internet for some time but this is my first time coming across it.

[peewee_RotA]

So by posting a chain letter on a forum are you making an attempt to argue with it (which is funny) or perpetuating it and making it win? (which is even funnier)

Most likely all of it is false and it's full of tortured logic that I'm sick of hearing, like "kicking god out of schools made Katrina happen." I did bother to double check one thing while skimming through it which is Dr. Spock's son commiting suicide. Not true, but this unrelated blurb is quite interesting:

"Spock was the People's Party candidate in the 1972 United States presidential election with a platform that called for free medical care, the repeal of "victimless crime" laws, including the legalization of abortion, homosexuality, and marijuana, a guaranteed minimum income for families and the immediate withdrawal of all American troops from foreign countries. [8] In the 1970s and 1980s, Spock demonstrated and gave lectures against nuclear weapons and cuts in social welfare programs."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Spock

LOLOLOL

[QwazyWabbit]

Only part of the Ben Stein piece is correctly attributed to him from 2005. Much of it is something someone added in 2006.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/confessions.asp

[paradisel0st]

I was attempting to show that it was amusing, which is what I stated and nothing more. It was emailed out at a Christian University. I realize most if it was originally a joke, though they are NOT taking it as a joke and more or less forwarding it out to the whole network. 

[|iR|Focalor]

I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.  Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school.  The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself.  And we said OK.

To clarify, the motive behind her and her daughters murder was greed. They were basically robbed and murdered. She was not murdered by anyone because of her beliefs. This paragraph alone tells me that this email is complete bullshit. Ben Stein wouldn't be stupid enough to make this statement. But a Christian organization would definitely be blind and careless enough to say such a thing to convince weak minded sheep to follow along.

I guess only bad people get murdered.... the six million jews who were murdered by the Nazi regime must've done something wrong.

*cough*

Jesus was murdered by the jews. That son of a bitch had it coming, I guess.

[paradisel0st]

 

[peewee_RotA]

But a Christian organization would definitely be blind and careless enough to say such a thing

Except that this is a chain letter and that portion was added by individuals, not organizations. But focolor would never bet stupid enough to misplace blame like that based on preconceived notions. Someone else must have written that and placed your name on it.

[paradisel0st]

You'd think they'd put a little bit of thought and / or research into the message before sending it out via listserv though, wouldn't you peewee? Regardless if they themselves typed the information within it, by sending it out in such a method they ARE agreeing with it's meaning and the message it's trying to convey. I really don't see the difference in your reasoning.

[peewee_RotA]

It was emailed out at a Christian University.

You never said that an organization sent it. I read this as meaning a person attending an organization sent a chainletter and it was being forwarded around, not that the organization itself sent out the message to represent itself.

I thought I was already pretty clear on what I thought about the kind of people that forward chain letters by my original snarky comment. The fact that the person forwarded it is enough to claim that that person is stupid. Picking apart the contents is not necessary.

Now assigning the blame of a person forwarding a chain-letter to an organization trying to gain new members is a pretty big stretch and goes one further than spending the time to argue with the chain-letter itself.

[|iR|Focalor]

But a Christian organization would definitely be blind and careless enough to say such a thing

Except that this is a chain letter and that portion was added by individuals, not organizations. But focolor would never bet stupid enough to misplace blame like that based on preconceived notions. Someone else must have written that and placed your name on it.

Nevertheless, your Christian organization is the worst of all.

[[BTF] Reflex]

Quote from Ben Stein 

         "I think people who believe in God are sick"

Nice out of context blurb

[peewee_RotA]

Nevertheless, your Christian organization is the worst of all.

Which one is that? 

If you had one look at my work desk, you'd realize that I am a very unorganized christian. 

[|iR|Focalor]

Nevertheless, your Christian organization is the worst of all.

Which one is that? 

If you had one look at my work desk, you'd realize that I am a very unorganized christian. 

Judging from how you like to appear to be righteous and sinless by never using words like
FUCK
or
SHIT
and yet you still hang out here and make jokes that you probably wouldn't make in church, I'd have to say you're probably a Baptist.

By the way...
CUNT
and
PISS
and
ASS
are in the Holy Bible. Come to think of it, I think your bible has more naughty words in it than mine.

[haunted]

"Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina)..  Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.  She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives..  And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out.  How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?' "

It was an interesting read but I couldn't help but think about the amount of crack rocks anne graham has been smoking on a daily routine. Using the lack of god in government and schools as a repercussion for a catastrophe? Give me a fucking break. Religion should be out of schools, and government, period..

[peewee_RotA]

and yet you still hang out here and make jokes that you probably wouldn't make in church, I'd have to say you're probably a Baptist.

Are you taking points from the Dervish Playbook today? Seriously. You're just making things up as you go along. No I am not baptist, and if I somehow claimed that I was "sinless" or "righteous" then I wouldn't need to be a Christian. (but please don't let me preach to you, I accept the fact that you are not interested so I will not push anything on you. That's something that ticks me off about the most pious Christians. Some people are not interested, and all you're doing is a disservice to that person by pushing something on them. Gives us a bad name.)

I'm sure that I have a few off color jokes that I wouldn't tell in Church, but most of my jokes I think I do tell. I'm a big fan of Bill Cosby and I spend a good portion of my time thinking up clean puns. Not because I want to tell them at church, just because shock comedy has little affect on me. Put people like George Carlin up against Groucho Marx, and Groucho will win hands down. Well in my opinion anyway. Humor is subjective.

As for not swearing, I um have kids. So I try to avoid making it a regular practice. Sorry that the reasoning behind it is not as interesting as you imagined.