Thoughts on this?

[Edaarin]

This editorial appeared in my school's newspaper about a week and a half ago. I'll refrain from commenting on it for now, but what do you think?

http://www.cavalierdaily.com/CVarticle.asp?ID=18657&pid=1113

[Artha]

The pilot was stupid. An airplane is not the place to preach.

[Edaarin]

I hate going to school in the South sometimes.

http://www.cavalierdaily.com/CVarticle.asp?ID=18266&pid=1098

EDIT: I go to the University of Virginia, Ilvane :)

[Edited on 2-15-2004 by Edaarin]

[Ilvane]

heh, do you go to a religious school?

-A

[Souzy]

When did a plane become a church? Don't they have co-pilots on planes, so they can hear their partner's random talk of BS?

[i remember halloween]

god is my copilot

[HarmNone]

Ish. As far as I am concerned, the pilot was as out of line as I would have been if I stood up in front of all the passengers on that airplane and started a dissertation about the wonders of Paganism. It is simply not appropriate.

People have an intrinsic right to hold some things sacrosanct. One of those things is their spiritual belief. In my opinion, nobody should be forced to listen to a religious diatribe from the pilot of an airplane from which they cannot exit.

HarmNone

[Zeyrin]

Everyone say it with me....

People are stupid.

Remember that and you'll be a lot better off in life.

[Latrinsorm]

Don't they have headphones on these planes? People will bitch about anything. If Harmnone were to stand up and start yakking about paganism, I'd say "Hi Harmnone! It's me Latrinsorm!" and then probably go back to GBA. So the guy wants to spread the Gospel, get over it. Or better yet, counter him if you feel so offended.

Abortion is bad.

[Skirmisher]

Pilot was an idiot, yes.

[Ravenstorm]

Idiot, yes. I'd fire him. He literally had a captive audience since no one could walk away. And for the record, I don't care what religion he was preaching. It's irrelevant.

Raven

[Hulkein]

It's not the place for it, definitly not. He should be told that if he does it again he's fired, I wouldn't fire him for doing it once though.

[TheEschaton]

For Flight 34's passengers to have such an alarmist reaction to the pilot's comments, they must possess a genuine misunderstanding of the workings of the Christian faith. Since its founding 2,000 years ago, Christianity has called upon believers to actively spread its message to the world.

Maybe the passengers of flight 34 were having an "alarmist reaction" because the way Christianity has "spread the faith" usually involved blood, "convert or die" choices, and madmen. Reference the Crusades, the Inquisitions, the Colonizations of the New World, and some guy named Hitler who thought it would be a good idea to kill all the Jews so as to have a perfect, Christian state (but then again, you never hear about how religious Hitler considered himself...because that's pretty damn embarassing!)

I'm a practicing Catholic, and I believe in the quote St. James used in his letter to...Timothy, I believe...."Preach the Gospel. If necessary...use words."

Oh, and it was confirmed that the guy called all non-Christians crazy. I'm just glad all the Christians on board had the common sense to not raise their hand.

As to the abortion thing, that probably deserves a separate thread... ;)

-TheE-

[Latrinsorm]

If we want to use the Bible (we should agree on a version, first, but drive on) there's another quote that goes like this:

For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

First Colossians. I suppose you could argue that my freedom of religion ends at your ears, but the guys just living his faith. And people complain about non-practicing Christians.

Admittedly, calling non-Christians "crazy" was a bit over the top, but I can see where he's coming from.

[i remember halloween]

fire him? what if he was gay and talking about gay rights?

[Skirmisher]

Originally posted by i remember halloween
fire him? what if he was gay and talking about gay rights?

I'd fire either that abused their postiion of power in such a manner yes.

[TheEschaton]

My quote said nothing about not preaching the Gospel, Latrin.

I find it amusing a Jesuit educated man can be so....what's the word? Unworldly? I dunno.

[Edited to make "unwordly" into "unworldly"]

Besides, I don't like St. Paul. He was one fucked up dude. Thought he was all righteous, and whatnot. He should take a lesson from St. Peter. If there's anything the New Testament is about, is that man is flawed. Hell, the Church is founded on "the rock of Peter", and Peter is the one who is constantly portrayed in the gospels as a fool, traitor, and general all around bumbling idiot.

To continue our Biblical barbs, what's the line telling people to watch out for those preaching in My (Jesus Christ's) name?

-TheE-

[Edited on 2-15-2004 by TheEschaton]

[Snapp]

For someone who's in control of your lives at the moment, to be preaching about the word of God, and asking the Christians to identify themselves, I'd get scared too. He should be fired.

[TheEschaton]

You don't see gay people stand on soapboxes in hetero places, condemning them to an eternity of suffering and immolation.

But I've seen many an Evangelical doing so. They remind me so much of Wahhabism.

Pat Robertson said God told him George Bush is gonna win the election.....you wanna call Osama an insane, off his rocker fundamentalist, but not Robertson? I don't think even Osama claims Allah talks to him, except through the Quran.

-TheE-

[HarmNone]

I have no objection to Christians living their faith and preaching the gospel, if that is what they choose to do. I do have a problem with Christians who choose to preach the gospel to people who are trapped and cannot walk away if they so choose. All of us, regardless of belief, owe each other at least that much consideration.

HarmNone

[Ravenstorm]

Originally posted by i remember halloween
fire him? what if he was gay and talking about gay rights?

I'd say the same. Fire him. The cockpit of an airplane is not a pulpit to preach one's persona beliefs or agenda to a trapped audience.

Raven

[Tsa`ah]

The pilot claimed to not have called the non-Christian passengers crazy. The irony in this is that radio stations have been playing the flight recording at regular intervals throughout the day.

I'm not sure how often most of you use the airlines, but I use them no less than 8-10 times a month. Not all of these flights, if even a quarter of them, have headphone jacks. Those that do are generally broken or there aren't enough headsets for everyone.

For entertainment purposes, let's assume that on this particular flight everyone had access to headphone jacks and headsets. A big fat help that does when the pilot's inter-com is broadcast through the headsets as well.

The man should be fired plain and simple. He had no right to preach his beliefs and cast his judgments on the passengers that pay his salary.

If I wanted to hear that crap I would go to church or tune into some random broadcast on cable or radio.

[i remember halloween]

ok good enough for me.

[Latrinsorm]

Originally posted by TheEschaton
My quote said nothing about not preaching the Gospel, Latrin.No, but several other people have said he should have not preached. I probably should have made that more clear.

Yeah I went to Jesuit school... in the suburbs. ;) Blame it on the secular teachers, I guess, we only had like 4 Jesuits in the whole school.
Pat Robertson said God told him George Bush is gonna win the election.....you wanna call Osama an insane, off his rocker fundamentalist, but not Robertson? Well first I'd have to know who he is, then I can start calling him names.:D

I dunno, I guess I'm just sensitive to Christian-bashing. I'll wager if the guy was spouting off atheistic stuff, the fundamentalists would get (even more) uptight (like that's a big change) but the rest of them (the passengers) wouldn't care.

[Mint]

A bus driver for a sister transit agency in Snohomish county had a couple of passengers that were having a heated religious discussion on the merits of their religion versus all others. They were using extremely inflammatory language and the driver asked them to tone it down because of the 'captive audience' aspect. The two passengers started to yell at the driver about freedom of speech, etc while the bus was in motion. The driver pulled over and asked the people to desist or exit the bus as they were causing him to become distracted. They chose to leave the bus but later called customer service to complain. The driver almost lost his job over this. So should he have let them continue do you think?

[Soulpieced]

He asked them politely to get off because in fact they were detrimental to the driver's concentration. If I were said driver and fired over the action, I would definitely file some sort of law suit.

[Mint]

Originally posted by Soulpieced
He asked them politely to get off because in fact they were detrimental to the driver's concentration. If I were said driver and fired over the action, I would definitely file some sort of law suit.

Actually that was the only reason he was able to retain his job. Do you think he was wrong in the first place to get involved though?

[Soulpieced]

If they were yelling profanities on the bus and causing other passengers to complain, yes.

[Mint]

Originally posted by Soulpieced
If they were yelling profanities on the bus and causing other passengers to complain, yes.

It was not so much that they were yelling profanities but that they were preaching the merits of their religion versus all others. They did use some derogatory language but if they had not and were simply making the other passengers uncomfortable should he have gotten involved? I dont think I would have simply because putting someone off the bus involves radioing it in and filling out paperwork but I can see wanting to make the trip comfortable for everyone. There is the whole issue of freedom of speech however. Where do you draw the line though.

[Trinitis]

as a private or public bus system, your first call is to the paying people who use your system. If one group of paying people is upsetting another, larger group of paying people, it is quite natural to remove the smaller, trouble causing group.

-Adredrin

[Mint]

Oh and we had a driver that preached to his passengers. He did get warned repeatedly and then fired because he said his religion required that he preach the word of God and he refused to cease. I guess I admire someone with firm enough beliefs that he lets nothing stop him from carrying them out. Hope that warms him on the unemployment line though.