Christians / Atheists

[Alf'Omega]

A friend of mine from work (hard core Bible literalist) that I've had the occasional philosophical discussion with forwarded this email to me:

Christians - By Maya Angelou

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not shouting "I'm clean living'."
I'm whispering "I was lost,
Now I'm found and forgiven."

When I say.. "I am a Christian"
I don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble
And need Christ to be my guide.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not trying to be strong.
I'm professing that I'm weak
And need His strength to carry on.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed
And need God to clean my mess.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not claiming to be perfect,
My flaws are far too visible
But, God believes I am worth it.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I still feel the sting of pain.
I have my share of heartaches
So I call upon His name.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not holier than thou,
I'm just a simple sinner
Who received God's good grace, somehow!

Share this with somebody who already has this understanding, as reinforcement. But more importantly, share this with those who do not have a clear understanding of what it means to be a Christian, so that the myth that Christians think they are "perfect" or "better than others" can be dispelled.


Enjoy~

I can't stand it when people forward me emails that say we should forward the email on. Don't they realize this is exactly how spam lives and grows? And of course, I was especially annoyed by the email's content, so I wrote this back to her (and everyone else on the CC list):

Atheists – By (Some Schmo)

When I say… “I’m an Atheist”
I’m not saying, “There is no god”
All I’m really getting at
Is faith is just a fraud

When I say… “I’m an Atheist”
I’m not criticizing you
I’m critical of bad beliefs
The things that can’t be true

When I say… “I’m an Atheist”
I sigh and shake my head
I’m the one responsible
For things I did and said

When I say… “I’m an Atheist”
I like what can be proven
My feelings do not dictate me
Emotions aren’t that movin’

When I say… “I’m an Atheist”
I believe in evolution
To chalk this up to one great dude
Is not a good solution

When I say… “I’m an Atheist”
I must treasure every day
This life is all we’ve really got
Can’t let it waste away

When I say… “I’m an Atheist”
I’m not saying that I’m bad
The fact that many think we are
Is really very sad


Share this with somebody who already has this understanding, as reinforcement. But more importantly, share this with those who do not have a clear understanding of what it means to be an Atheist, so that the myth that Atheists are morally bankrupt can be dispelled.

[_Belial]

An admirable sentiment except for that crap about having morals. Those should be eroded. I recommend a campaign of mail-bombing Churches or better yet hiring Lesbian Nazi Assassins to eradicate everyone in your city whose middle name starts with 'L'.

[_Blixa]

You should also write back to your "friend," Schmo and tell her that Maya Angelou did not write that icky piece of crap.

Apparently when your friend says "I'm a Christian" that means, "I'm a liar, who spreads lies," or "I never check sources when I read spurious faith-promoting spam," or "I'm so ill-read I don't have a clue who Maya Angelou is and thus didn't immediately smell a rat when some drippy rhymed quatrains attributed to her showed up in my inbox."

The good, hard working, truth telling and probably not Christian folk at Snopes.com can fill you in on where that "poem" came from:

http://www.snopes.com/glurge/christian.asp

There you'll find that the real author, kind hearted and caring Christian Carol Wimmer, is pissed off that some people have not only been sending her wonderful poem around the internet misattributed or unattributed, but some of them have had the gall to actually change her precious words and rewrite the damn thing thus violating copyright (oh the horror!):

"In spite of the fact that the poem is protected under copyright law in the United States Library of Congress—TX-5-064-953, someone recently changed the title of the poem to“I am a Christian” and took the liberty to alter the words of each verse. Therefore, a copyright infringement has occurred on the Internet which is circulating once again as ‘author unknown.’ More recently, someone attached Dr.Maya Angelou’s name to the infringed version. Sadly, this has caused undue confusion for those who take the time to honor copyrights and seek permission to publish the works of others."

Copyright law and outraged Christians---now that's marriage made in Heaven...

[_Zoidberg]

Very nice poem, Schmo.

P.S. If those who received it forward it, it will make a much better reading than the usual faith-promoting spam.

[_barrelomonkeys]

When I say... "I am an Agnostic"
I'm not whispering "I'm confused'."
I'm shouting "What the hell?,
I just blame my neurons and stay amused."

When I say.. "I am an Agnostic"
I don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I am a wacko
and I try to stop caring if I'm going to be saved or fried.

When I say... "I am an Agnostic"
I'm not trying to explain what I think.
I'm professing that I have no freaking clue.
And always am in desperate need of a drink.

When I say... "I am an Agnostic"
I'm not bragging that I don't believe in Noah's ark.
Well yah, maybe I am.
But I try to hide the giggles and grimaces in the dark.

When I say... "I am an Agnostic"
I'm not claiming to be perfect,
My flaws are far too visible
But, no one gives a rat's ass if I am worth "it".

When I say... "I am an Agnostic"
I still feel the sting of pain.
I have my share of heartaches.
So I blog about it and go play in the rain.

When I say... "I am an Agnostic"
I'm not saying I have it figured out.
I'm just someone trying to have a good time
My new book just came so I'll no longer pout!