Ray Comfort Preaching - Your Thoughts?

Rhys Cordelle · Dec 12, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVBjSNHdoRA&feature=channel

I'm not sure where in the bible it says "thou shalt not dress like a woman if thou is a man". I felt quite sorry for Victoria when I watched this. I know that Ray is doing what he thinks is right, but he doesn't offer justification for his beliefs. His way of preaching to people is scare tactics. He just makes people realise that they aren't adhering to the laws laid out in the bible, but doesn't offer any reason to think that the bible is true.

fullbookjacket · Dec 13, 2009

Comfort and Company love to quote scripture "literally." What they don't admit is that their literal truth is several times removed from the original texts, and that whole chunks were willfully discarded. You've got original Hebrew scrolls (written with multiple agendas)...translated into Latin by guys with another agenda...translated into English by guys with another agenda.

I'd ask Comfort if he enjoys a nice lobster dinner now and then, because shellfish are an "abomination" according to his bible. If he says no, for that reason, I'd ask him why he's not up in Maine browbeating hardworking lobstermen about promoting such an abomination.

flutecrafter · Jan 9, 2010

fullbookjacket said:
I'd ask Comfort if he enjoys a nice lobster dinner now and then, because shellfish are an "abomination" according to his bible. If he says no, for that reason, I'd ask him why he's not up in Maine browbeating hardworking lobstermen about promoting such an abomination.

9On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour:
10And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance,
11And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending upon him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth:
12Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
13And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.
14But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.
15And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
16This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven.

fullbookjacket · Jan 10, 2010

flutecrafter · Jan 10, 2010

fullbookjacket said:
???

you were asking about Lobsters..

fullbookjacket · Jan 11, 2010

flutecrafter said:
you were asking about Lobsters.. [/QUOTE

Are you suggesting that that passage erases the other?

Ruv Draba · Jan 12, 2010

I only got to 4:58 before I needed a walk to make a cup of tea. I noted a few things about that 'interview':

The interviewer believes that his faith ought to be above reproach
Somehow he equated reproach to offending community standards
Somehow he equated community offence to adultery, theft and homosexuality

I couldn't see the links between 1,2 and 3 and by the time I needed to make tea he hadn't explained them. I suspect though that he assumed that conservative Christian community standards were the standards by which all people should be measured. That's an opinion and it's unclear to me why he should think it's authoritative.

I saw the interview not as merely judgement, but as vilification through rhetorical artifice under a mask of civility.

I felt sympathy for a calm, dignified and clearly devout transvestite man having his character vilified and that published world-wide. But that aside, I also think that this sort of discussion (including its more extreme ends) is one that the Christian faith needs to have with itself. The question most at issue for me is not what grace the God of Abraham might grant to transvestites, but what dignity and respect conservative Christians will allow to others.

fullbookjacket · Jan 12, 2010

It's almost as annoying as the Ray Comfort / Kirk Cameron video where they claim the existence of the banana as proof of intelligent design.

To summarize that one:
A banana is obviously "designed" because it's easy for humans to eat, it's easily peeled, and it's very nutritious. No mention of its ridiculously short shelf-life, its native culture in environments unfriendly to nearly all of the human population, and its obvious phallic benefits. No mention either of the obvious retort...that there are a gazillion fruits toxic to humans.

pink lily · Jan 26, 2010

My thoughts on Ray Comfort Preaching are "lol" and "omg hahaha."

ChristineR · Jan 26, 2010

Comfort pretends to be ministering to atheists and anyone who doesn't fit his definitions of Christian (e.g., transvestites) but actually he's just trying to impress other Christians, especially the kind with money. He loves to go places where he knows he'll get swarmed by people who disagree with him, and while he mostly gets called bad names, he's rude and condescending to anyone who tries to engage him intelligently.

fullbookjacket, have you ever seen a wild banana? They have none of the useful traits that Ray thinks God put for us in the banana. Weirdly enough, the banana is proof positive that you can make extreme changes via (artificial, in this case) selection.

And yes, that passage supposedly gives Christians the right to eat lobsters. The whole question of Christian's cross dressing and having gay sex is too thorny to get into, but let's just say that the New Testament Greek doesn't say homosexuality in the places where Ray Comfort's English Bible does.

fullbookjacket · Jan 27, 2010

ChristineR said:
fullbookjacket, have you ever seen a wild banana? They have none of the useful traits that Ray thinks God put for us in the banana. Weirdly enough, the banana is proof positive that you can make extreme changes via (artificial, in this case) selection.

And yes, that passage supposedly gives Christians the right to eat lobsters. The whole question of Christian's cross dressing and having gay sex is too thorny to get into, but let's just say that the New Testament Greek doesn't say homosexuality in the places where Ray Comfort's English Bible does.

I wasn't aware of the wild banana's characteristics, although it should have occurred to me to look into it because I deal with plants professionally. Good to know!

I can see how that passage could be construed to say "eat anything you want", but it's a very obtuse way of saying it. I would argue that that meaning is not clear at all, whereas the earlier prohibition against shellfish is quite direct and clear. Anyway, if that's the true meaning behind that passage I would say that it effectively rules out the notion of infallibility. An infallible god would not make mistakes and would not have to correct itself.

ChristineR · Jan 27, 2010

The passage comes right after a story where Peter and Paul are arguing about eating non-kosher food with non-Jewish Christians. Peter thought you had to be a Jew to be a Christian; Paul disagreed, arguing that Jesus made everything clean. (I know, the phrase "Jewish Christian" is a oxymoron, but there was briefly such a thing.)

Peter conveniently has a dream, in which God tells him that Paul was right. The reasoning is that Jesus' death makes people and food clean, hence there's no longer a need to kosher your food or obey Jewish law generally. Which is funny, because Peter actually knew Jesus and would have had the chance to talk about this important issue with him directly. Peter is even supposed to have been one of the people who talked to Jesus after his death and resurrection. But anyhow, whoever wrote that passage bought into it, and that's why Christians eat lobster.

fullbookjacket · Jan 28, 2010

Interesting...

I wonder why no one points out the obvious, simpler and highly more likely explanation of why there was ever a stricture against shellfish. It seems clear that economics and politics were behind it. If your economy based on, say, fishing, is suffering because of competition from harvesters of clams, how do you fight it? If you're the guy writing the religious tracts, it's quite simple. You simply say god has ruled it straight out. Not only have you eliminated the end-users, you've demonized the producers.

Ray Comfort Preaching - Your Thoughts?

Rhys Cordelle

fullbookjacket

flutecrafter

fullbookjacket

flutecrafter

fullbookjacket

Ruv Draba

fullbookjacket

pink lily

I regret everything

ChristineR

What happened?

fullbookjacket

ChristineR

What happened?

fullbookjacket