Ben Franklin: BAD!! Jonathan Edwards: GOOD!!

[Marian the Librarian]

So saith the latest gospel according to Geoff Botkin, who has been on quite a roll lately - four finger-wagging articles since Thanksgiving! His latest compares Jonathan Edwards, that cheerful Puritan probably best known for "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God:"

The God that holds you over the pit of Hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours.

Ben Franklin, OTOH, was a faker, a man of the world, whose resolutions were all for naught, and who "committed fornication in secret, for mental stimulation." Uh, really? :pearlclutch:

Have fun reading, my fellow FJ-ers, and happy New Year's Eve Eve!

westernconservatory.com

[salex]

Anybody have a good reason why an omniscient omnipotent God would create (in his own image) something that he knew would become "ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours."

What would have been the point to create and keep a creation that would be or become so repellent to the creator?

[guitar_villain]

I wasn't aware that Ben had been all that secret about his fornication. I thought pretty much everyone knew. His advice on why you should have a relationship with an older mistress was quite explicit about why they were a better option.

[PrairieGirl]

That is one of the most terrifying descriptions of God I have ever heard. And I have heard a lot of them.

Hey Geoff, your jealousy for the much-admired Ben Franklin is showing.

ETA: I do not wish this idiotic blowhard any harm, but can you imagine if something were to happen to Fake Dick Biologist Botkin? His obituary would be positively EPIC!

[mirele]

Jonathan Edwards was a slaveholder.

http://www.yaleslavery.org/WhoYaleHonors/je.html

His son, Jonathan Edwards Jr., was an abolitionist back when abolitionism was considered to be just a bit weird, even in the North.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_E ... he_younger)

Yeah, J.E. the Elder is really someone I wanna follow. NOPE.

[ViolaSebastian]

I wasn't aware that Ben had been all that secret about his fornication. I thought pretty much everyone knew. His advice on why you should have a relationship with an older mistress was quite explicit about why they were a better option.

In the dark all cats are grey... :wink-kitty:

[MissBitters]

Ugh, Jonathan Edwards is the worst. I remember a couple of the SAHD used to idolize his perfect Christian marriage. Personally, I would've jumped out of a window if I was married to such a dour man.

[starfish]

Maybe ole Geoffrey has been watching the great movie "The Waterboy". As I recall, the Waterboy's Mama (the incomparable Kathy Bates) pronounced that Benjamin Franklin is "the devil" and that she, the Waterboy's Mama, invented electricity.

I wish I could somehow send Geoffrey the link to that clip from that movie.

I think Geoff needs his medication readjusted,

[starfish]

OK, I could not resist. Here is the link where Geoff Botkin, I mean Kathy Bates, calls Ben Franklin The Devil.