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Don't mention God on your deathbed statement? Careful, it might piss off a Christian
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| woscar |
As demonstrated by this blog entry, if you fail to mention people's gods when you're about to croak it might infuriate a Christian friend of yours:
| quote: | Monday, December 6, 2010
Elizabeth Edwards' Parting Statement Omits Mention of Faith in God
The story's trending at Memeorandum. And at ABC News, "Elizabeth Edwards Won't Receive Anymore Cancer Treatment: John Edwards' Joins Family at His Wife's Side." But I notice at her farewell statement an odd aspect to her "three saving graces": She doesn't list faith in God as one of them:
STATEMENT FROM THE EDWARDS FAMILY
Elizabeth has been advised by her doctors that further treatment of her cancer would be unproductive. She is resting at home with family and friends and has posted this message to friends on her Facebook page.
You all know that I have been sustained throughout my life by three saving graces—my family, my friends, and a faith in the power of resilience and hope. These graces have carried me through difficult times and they have brought more joy to the good times than I ever could have imagined. The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered. We know that. And, yes, there are certainly times when we aren’t able to muster as much strength and patience as we would like. It’s called being human. But I have found that in the simple act of living with hope, and in the daily effort to have a positive impact in the world, the days I do have are made all the more meaningful and precious. And for that I am grateful. It isn’t possible to put into words the love and gratitude I feel to everyone who has and continues to support and inspire me every day. To you I simply say: you know.
With love,
Elizabeth
She is the author of two books: Saving Graces: Finding Solace and Strength from Friends and Strangers, and Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life's Adversities. Having not read them, I can't say what it is --- spiritual or otherwise --- that animates her sense of grace, but it's not God. As noted at American Prospect in 2007, "The Original Theology of Elizabeth Edwards":
I spent the weekend in Chicago, on behalf of the National Women's Editorial Forum, at a nonpartisan conference called BlogHer. There, Elizabeth Edwards took questions from an audience of women who blog ....
Every question asked of her seemed to be answered in an unusually open manner, especially when the topic of religion came up. Asked by Beth Corbin of Americans United for Separation of Church and State to explain how her faith beliefs inform her politics, Elizabeth Edwards gave an extraordinarily radical answer: She doesn't believe in salvation, at least not in the standard Christian understanding of it, and she said as much:
I have, I think, somewhat of an odd version of God. I do not have an intervening God. I don't think I can pray to him -- or her -- to cure me of cancer.
After the words "or her," Mrs. Edwards gave a little laugh, indicating she knew she had waded into water perhaps a bit deeper than the audience had anticipated. Then she continued:
I appreciate other people's prayers for that [a cure for her cancer], but I believe that we are given a set of guidelines, and that we are obligated to live our lives with a view to those guidelines. And I don't that believe we should live our lives that way for some promise of eternal life, but because that's what's right. We should do those things because that's what's right.
Wow, I thought. That sounds awfully like, "Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try..." What's Jim Wallis gonna make of that? Haven't the campaign communications consultants schooled her in how to talk the God-talk?
This is interesting.
Clearly Elizabeth Edwards wants to put her faith in something, be it hope or strength or anything. But not God. I wonder if it's just bitterness, that's she's been forsaken by more than just her estranged husband --- that's she's been forsaken by Him. And imagine if she'd have become First Lady. Americans generally expect outward expressions of faith in our presidents, Christian faith especially, and thus in our First Ladies as well. The Democratic base obviously doesn't care, as we can see in the "wow factor" expressed by the author at the American Prospect. Being anti-religion is cool, so Edwards' non-theological theology gets props from the neo-communists. Still, at her death bed and giving what most folks are calling a final goodbye, Elizabeth Edwards couldn't find it somewhere down deep to ask for His blessings as she prepares for the hereafter? I guess that nihilism I've been discussing reaches up higher into the hard-left precincts than I thought. |
Is this really what it's boiling down to? Not mentioning gods you may or may not believe in on things like deathbed statements is offensive to those who do? |
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| EddieZilker |
THey took the CChirstt out of XXXMAS!!
THEY CAN HAVE MY CHRIST WHEN THEY PULL IT OUT OF MY COLD DEAD HANDS!!!!eleventywelve |
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| Fledz |
| What you believe is your choice, especially on your deathbed. I find it hard to believe that I would give the slightest damn what anyone thought if I was about to die. |
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| Moongoose |
| If knowing that omitting gof from my dying words would piss off a christian, i would die happy. |
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| Arbiter |
| quote: | Originally posted by Fledz
What you believe is your choice, especially on your deathbed. |
If you have the ability to choose what you believe, then you're better at self-deception than I. |
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| Fledz |
| quote: | Originally posted by Arbiter
If you have the ability to choose what you believe, then you're better at self-deception than I. |
Why is it self-deception? |
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| EddieZilker |
| quote: | Originally posted by Arbiter
If you have the ability to choose what you believe, then you're better at self-deception than I. |
But a capacity for self-deception would negate the validity of the choice...
:toothless |
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| woscar |
| quote: | Originally posted by Fledz
What you believe is your choice, especially on your deathbed. I find it hard to believe that I would give the slightest damn what anyone thought if I was about to die. |
Your abrasiveness is ruining your sarcasm detector. :p
Of course I wouldn't give a either, as a matter of fact, I wholeheartedly concur with this:
| quote: | Originally posted by Moongoose
If knowing that omitting gof from my dying words would piss off a christian, i would die happy. |
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| Arbiter |
| quote: | Originally posted by Fledz
Why is it self-deception? |
What I believe is precisely what seems to me to be most likely in view of the information I have been exposed to. There's no element of choice to it. No matter how much I might try to believe something else, I cannot.
For example, I assume that you think that this post is written in English. Could you choose to believe that it's written in Swahili? I sure couldn't, and if you managed to somehow convince yourself of it, then I would say you were deceiving yourself. |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by Arbiter
If you have the ability to choose what you believe, then you're better at self-deception than I. |
Haha, noob! I now believe you post is in Swahili, and it now makes no sense whatsoever to me because you failed to write a meaningful string of words.
Unaweza kusema tena? |
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| Arbiter |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lira
Haha, noob! I now believe you post is in Swahili, and it now makes no sense whatsoever to me because you failed to write a meaningful string of words. |
Pole sana. :( |
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