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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!mcnc!idis!cadre!sm
From: sm@cadre.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.flame,net.misc,net.religion,net.philosophy
Subject: Re: MHCS results
Message-ID: <153@cadre.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 11-Jan-85 20:18:02 EST
Article-I.D.: cadre.153
Posted: Fri Jan 11 20:18:02 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 15-Jan-85 00:57:38 EST
References: <367@hercules.UUCP>
Reply-To: sm@cadre.ARPA (Sean McLinden)
Organization: Decision Systems Lab., Univ. of Pgh.
Lines: 37
Xref: watmath net.politics:6829 net.flame:7675 net.misc:7270 net.religion:5279 net.philosophy:1357
Summary: 

In article <367@hercules.UUCP> franka@hercules.UUCP writes:
>
>	OK, OK, now for the results. Some of the categories overlap, but the
>major obnoxious groups according to you net people are Christians...
>
>		Falwell/Moral Majority		8
>		Fundamentalist Christians	4
>		Jews for Jesus			2
>		Moonies				2
>		Campus Crusade for Christ	1
>		Mormons				1
>		-------------------------	-
>		Total Miscelaneous Xians	18

That's the great thing about this country: any unqualified idiot like
the one above is allowed to make moronic statements like this without
risk of having himself committed. It absurd to suggest that the opinion
of these 18 people is 1) of any statistical value, whatsoever 2) an
indictment against "Christians" (well over 99% of ALL Christians are
NOT members of the above groups). But, of course, the entire study is
suggestive of kind of mentality which derives some sort of pleasure in
deriding groups of which he probably has little or no understanding.

I'm sure that the author would not be stupid enough to draw any scientific
conclusions from a survey such as this but I would caution him; this
kind of thinking, historically, spreads like a disease until it effects,
in the individual, a mistrust and even a hatred for persons who happen
to have affiliations, religious or otherwise with which he/she has
had little or no experience. 

It is one thing to express a personal opinion, and I'm willing to read
all of them. But bigotry such as this, couched in safety of a "survey"
is really disheartening.

Sean McLinden