Buy some Q-tips.

["Joan Opyr" <auntiestablishment@hotmail.com>]

Mike wrote:
>So, I guess I'm joining in with the rest of the disciples and adding my
>voice to the chorus, "by what standard?"

This question is nearly as tired as that backgammon/checkers metaphor.  
Several people on this list have already answered it in several different 
ways, but clearly, as far as the asker is concerned, the only correct answer 
is "The Bible," or rather, the asker's interpretation of those bits of "The 
Bible" he likes best.  The implication, of course, is that the asker judges 
by God's standard, while the rest of us have to make do with secular 
humanism, MTV, and old bits of string and paperclips.

By what standard do we judge?  By our own lights.  And--here's the part that 
will require some ear-cleaning--this is the same standard everyone uses, 
including disciples of Jesus Christ.  How can I say such a thing?  Easy: you 
choose your sect, your minister, and your preferred translation of your 
preferred sacred text.  No doubt you believe that you take your orders 
directly from on high.  Oddly enough, that's where I get my orders, too, but 
I get them via The Tanakh, not the Christian bible.  Others get theirs from 
the Koran, from the Tao Ti Ching, from the Upanishads, from the Rig Veda, or 
from time spent meditating in Joshua Tree State Park.  And that's okay with 
me.  In fact, it's better than okay--I think it's great.  I don't need the 
world to follow a single monolithic standard anymore than I need it to be in 
one time zone.  There are as many roads to heaven as there are to 
Washington, DC.  Let's just hope it's less humid.

In God We Trust--everyone else has to show ID,
Auntie Establishment




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