Sunday, October 30, 2005

Happy Hallowe'en all!


I'll be scaring a few students tomorrow - more than usual and deliberately this time!

According to the Landover Baptists, I might be in big trouble for enjoying Hallowe'en. Oh, don't click on the link if you are "unsaved".
"If you are unsaved, you are not allowed at our church, or
our website."

3 comments:

skindleshanks said...

The link you provided to the "Landover Church" is really a rather offensive caricature of Christians, IMO. While I'm sure one could find a (very) few people who claim to be Christians and carry the narrow-minded and dangerous (spritually and otherwise) views parodied on that page, it is really is not representative of the Christian (including many of those who call themselves "fundamentalist") faith.

You might imagine a similar site that implied that all (or most) Germans are Nazis. Probably would tick a few people off, right?

For all their historical failings, Christians have and must continue to be at the forefront of all efforts to extend mercy and grace in practical ways to those in need of it.

I'm not sure what event or events caused the author of that page to target Christians in such a way and not, say, Tibetan Buddhists or Secular Humanists, or any of the other religions out there. It amazes me how many people don't understand that tolerance must flow both ways.

I'm sure you posted the link just in fun, but you do seem to have a bit of underlying hostility towards Christianity in particular on this blog. Perhaps you might explain why?

Anyway have a Happy Halloween. Unfortuntely, I have a visitor from the higher echelons of the Educational System observing my class, so my pirate costume will stay at home and I will be dressing up as a chaebol director in a suit and tie. Come to think of it, is there really that much difference between the two?

Anonymous said...

Just to be real clear; it's a paraody site, not a real church:

"... If you send an e-mail submission to this site... and you are granting The Landover Baptist Parody Website a..."

http://www.landoverbaptist.org/email.html

kwandongbrian said...

Skindleshanks,

you may be right about the hostility and it is a flaw I should work on.

Your remark that "Christians have ...extend[ed] mercy and grace in practical ways to those in need of it" is probably true for most Christians. On the other hand, any group can lose its way if it can't see its own problems. Religious leader Pat Robertson suggested the US kill a foreign national leader. If a parody site can reduce his credibility, good!

I have been following the Kitzmiller Vs Dover court case (a school board is trying to put Intelligent Design into its school curriculum) and the board members involved are not being exemplars of Chirstian virtue.

When I read articles, factual or satirical about bad ESL teachers in Korea, I am offended but I also see the grain of truth in them and remind myself not to coast at work.

Anyway, I may have had motives less obvious even to me, but I mostly wanted a funny Hallowe'en greeting. My mother just sent me a funny Halmark Hallowe'en card and I enjoyed it but I don't want my blog to have a Halmark feel.

Good luck teaching with the boss watching.