XPost: uk.media.tv.sf.babylon5   
   From: john@acornusers.org   
      
   In article <2imel11v8ro6jm3p6evrvror0ggd0v3d6c@4ax.com>,   
      Paul Harper  wrote:   
   > On Thu, 20 Oct 2005 08:48:33 GMT, John M Ward    
   > wrote:   
   > >In article ,   
   > >   Paul Harper  wrote:   
   > >> On Thu, 20 Oct 2005 08:18:33 GMT, John M Ward   
   > >>  wrote:   
   > >   
   > >> >In article ,   
   > >> >   Matthew Sprange  wrote:   
   > >> >> May next year. . .   
   > >> >   
   > >> >...be a good year, one free from all the in-fighting among B5 fans   
   > >> >for a start!   
   > >   
   > >> They closing the Church of Joe, then?  :-)   
   > >   
   > >Hopefully so: worshipping false idols is so often the cause of   
   > >conflict, such as skewed versions of Islam, which the Devil uses (a)   
   > >to further his ends of creating suffering, and (b) to attempt to   
   > >discredit God.   
      
   >  Okay. I now have a rather worrying image of you in long white   
   > robes with matching beard and hair, fire and brimstone streaming from   
   > your outstretched hands as you put straight the misguided masses with   
   > an impressive pyrotechnical display of wrath-flinging!   
      
   Nah, you silly boy!  He doesn't work like that (which is where JMS and   
   others tend to get it all wrong).  We have freedom of choice and action,   
   and we also have the Son of God to intercede for us when we muck it up   
   (and we *all* do that, don't we?) because he knows what it is like to   
   /be/ human, and therefore understands.   
      
   > Or as they know it in this family: "Dad's throwing a hissyfit again   
   > because he can't find the remote control..."  :-)   
      
   Ah!  One of the trickiest and nastiest situations in which to find   
   oneself in the modern age...   
      
   > >There are so many gullible people that this still works -- rather   
   > >like dodgy politicians who can also get away with it because the   
   > >mass of the people aren't sharp enough to realise what's really   
   > >going on.   
   > >   
   > >I suppose, in the final analysis, the Church of Joe will be judged far   
   > >less of an issue than, say, the Jehovah's Witnesses and beyond them   
   > >"Islamic" extremists, but the principle is the same.   
      
   > Agreed. The problem arises when the false idols a) can't exist without   
   > the worship, and b) start to believe what their worshipers tell them.   
      
   I wonder whom you could possibly mean by that...?   ;->   
      
   > Still. There's always the thing about tall pedestals and the   
   > inevitability of gravity...   
      
     "Got it in one, Mister Harper-baldy!"     
      
   (Now I *know* I'm going to get slapped -- by a "slap-head!)   
      
   --   
   John M Ward, who nearly gave his first-ever solo performance of   
   ~~~~~~~~~~~|  the B5 Season 4 opening sequence (with actions!) at   
   "VirCotto" |  the Sparkler Point 2001 -- but narrowly escaped  <*>   
     on IRC   |  also see www.john-ward.org.uk/personal/john/television   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)