Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site ssc-vax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!think!harvard!seismo!umcp-cs!gymble!lll-crg!dual!qantel!intelca!hplabs!pesnta!phri!timeinc!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!fluke!ssc-vax!savage From: savage@ssc-vax.UUCP (Lowell Savage) Newsgroups: net.religion.christian Subject: Assumed evil in non-christians and assumed good in christians Message-ID: <20@ssc-vax.UUCP> Date: Thu, 27-Jun-85 22:27:53 EDT Article-I.D.: ssc-vax.20 Posted: Thu Jun 27 22:27:53 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 5-Jul-85 04:32:45 EDT Distribution: net Organization: Boeing Aerospace Co., Seattle, WA Lines: 66 *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MICRO, PLEASE *** Some time ago (I don't always have time to do this sort of thing), I posted an article responding to "AP bias..." (I don't recall the exact title) where someone was complaining that the press was biased against Christians and why not, since a poll showed that 75% of the members of the press were non-christian. I responded by rhetorically wondering if perhaps this article, or the facts it pointed to, were related to an attitude among christians that they shouldn't (morally) "dirty" them- selves in "certain" occupations (including the press). I then proceeded to state my reasoning for Christians to get involved in those which basically boiled down to 1) improving the state of the occupations, and 2) converting members of those occupations to christianity. Now the guts of this article. I got a couple of polite, but firmly worded letters about what I can only trace to one sentence in my res- ponse. The sentence was "At the very least, perhaps a Christian will displace a non-christian and prevent the evil that that non- christian might otherwise have caused." The mail asked me to clarify my position since I seemed to take the position that all christians are "good" and all non-christians are "evil". This is two lines in an article of 33 lines which if read in full, I believe has a different thrust. Also, I assumed (there's that nasty word again), that given the title of the newsgroup, most, if not all articles would be addressed to a christian audience. By that assumption, I do not mean that non- christians wouldn't read the articles, but that if they did, they would understand that the intended reader would be christian. Then, I will note that I did not say ALL non-christians are evil nor that ALL christians are good. Finally, I did make the proviso that the christian that decided to go into one of "those" occupations should still hold his/her moral standards above those around her/him. In other words, I remained consistent with my belief that christians are merely evil people who are different from the rest of society because their evil has been forgiven and they have some help in doing the good that they should do and refraining from the evil that they should not do. But in spite of all that, I have to admit, upon rereading the article, I seem to have a slight tendency toward stereotype which needed correction. I apoligize to those who were offended (whether it bothered them enough to mail to me or not) and hereby state that my arguments in that article should be slightly changed so that the group I denoted as "christians" would be "people that are attempting to do what is morally just", and "non-christians" would be everyone else. (Yes, even those who are not actively attempting to do evil will be in the "non-christian" group; as much evil is ALLOWED as is CAUSED.) But I think that a large majority of the first group will be Christian and a large majority of the second will be non-christian simply because, of the people that I know, the generous, loving, friendly, helping people tend to be Christian, while those who are more self-centered, mean, unfriendly tend to be non-christian. I know some non-christians that are more loving, generous... than most christians I know, and Christians that are so concerned with how good they are that they forget that they are only good because Christ forgave them and they become insufferably snobbish. But there are general tendencies that I percieve as quite pronounced. This might be a clarification of my original article, Christians who are capable in certain occupations that have a great deal of affect on my life (particularly those who are afraid that the dealings that are common in that occupation are immoral or unjust) are just the people that are most likely to be trust-worthy in those occupations. Thus, they are just the people that I want to have working in those occupations. Now, if a non-christian is going to do as morally good and just a job as a Christian, then I guess that my original posting (and this one) is directed to him/her. There's more than one way to be savage Lowell Savage