Go to the Source

The blue jean travesty at Sawyer wasn't a general election of all the students, it was a voice vote of the student council. The teacher called for the "aye" votes, but she didn't call for the "no" votes. When I called this to her attention, she reluctantly agreed to call for the "no" votes, but told us that she didn't want to hear any because she wanted the motion to pass unanimously. I know there were other council members who opposed the motion, but I was the only one who loudly expressed my "no" vote. The teacher then proclaimed that my vote didn't count because I had been out of order all through the meeting, and she instructed the secretary to record in the minutes that the motion passed unanimously. Democracy in action!

One difference between the Catholics and the Methodists was that the Catholics said the Methodists were going to Hell, but the Methodists did not say that the Catholics were going to Hell. The folks at Elsdon told me that it was not our job to judge people, that was God's job. When we did Holy Communion at Elsdon, all baptized Christians were invited to participate, while the Catholics reserved theirs only for Catholics. Another difference was that the Methodists encouraged their members to read the Bible, while the Catholics did not. They had allowed the Bible to be translated into English by then but, for centuries, they had insisted that it only be printed in Latin. John Wycliffe, the first guy to attempt to translate the Bible into English, was burned at the stake for his trouble. Over a hundred years later, Martin Luther finally had it translated into German, but he had to get himself excommunicated and start his own church before he could do it. I don't know when the Catholics allowed an English translation but, by the 1950s, they still weren't encouraging their people to read it for themselves.

The reason I keep referring to the Bible is that you keep asking me religious questions, and that's where the answers are. I am not asking you to believe any of it but, if you want to know what Christianity has to say about something, that's where you have to look. I specified "Biblical Christianity" last time because what the Bible says is sometimes different than what you are likely to hear from the average church goer. Some religions believe that every single word in the Bible is literally true, while others allow that many of the stories are probably allegorical. You can argue about interpretation until the cows come home, but it seems to me that you should read something yourself before you try to interpret it. Of course you don't have to read it, or interpret it, or believe it but, if you don't want me to reference it in these discussions, don't ask me any more religious questions.