Were that true, envirnoment then is the major factor in ideology. But then we need only look at palestinian children dressed up like Jihadis to see the truth in that.
Wha-? Environment is where we all *start* with ideology, but how meaningful is that? When I was a teenager, some looked at the cross and saw a reason to burn them and hate blacks; I looked at the cross and saw reasons to become an increasingly bleeding-heart liberal. *That's* where my liberal leanings actually began: In ninth grade, with the Klan making noise and in the news, and Klan literature showing up at my school -- anjd none of it jibing with the Gospel I was also hearing at the church a mile or so down the road.
Reagan's saber-rattling pushed me farther to the left. Clinton's triangulation's shifted me to the right -- until SHAFTA knocked me back, and the impeachment slammed me hard left; 9/11 shoved me hard right, but still only to the slim conservative wing of the Democratic Party; the war in Iraq slowly, then with increasing velocity, has pushed me to the left -- even as y'all drag the country farther and farther to the right.
So, environment, yes, but its influence is not static, not for thinking and feeling people.
Correct Grasshopper! But how does a Palestinian child, reared and instructed to hate Israelis, choose to love Israelis? Environment is a colossal force for influence.
Well, I'd say the same way some Southern rednecks raised to hate blacks and laugh at the lynchings of the past manage to experience the grace and love of God and decide to strive to love their neighbors, including their gay ones, as themselves: By encounters with peopel who not only spout, but live, the Gospel, which is to say, by encountering Christ. The Gospel. No amount of warring will do it.
On the other hand, the Quakers didn't have much luck with Grant's Peace Policy vis-a-vis the Plains Indians. Theoir efforts were at least more or less true to the Gospel, though.
I was Lincoln.
Results?
Same as before. Sadaam!
LOL!
Reagan's saber-rattling pushed me farther to the left. Clinton's triangulation's shifted me to the right -- until SHAFTA knocked me back, and the impeachment slammed me hard left; 9/11 shoved me hard right, but still only to the slim conservative wing of the Democratic Party; the war in Iraq slowly, then with increasing velocity, has pushed me to the left -- even as y'all drag the country farther and farther to the right.
So, environment, yes, but its influence is not static, not for thinking and feeling people.
Ahhh, at last you begin to understand. There is hope for you yet.
Correct Grasshopper! But how does a Palestinian child, reared and instructed to hate Israelis, choose to love Israelis? Environment is a colossal force for influence.
The Gospel. No amount of warring will do it.
On the other hand, the Quakers didn't have much luck with Grant's Peace Policy vis-a-vis the Plains Indians. Theoir efforts were at least more or less true to the Gospel, though.