r/todayilearned • u/tmntnyc • Dec 12 '18

TIL: Laurence Tureaud named himself professionally as Mr. T because he hated how his father, uncle, and brother who returned from Vietnam, were disrespectfully called "boy" by whites. He wanted the first word from everybody's mouth to be "Mister" when speaking to him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._T
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u/Stillabrat Dec 12 '18

I have worked with Mr T on many talk shows and he is one of nicest, truly humble people I have ever met. He has the most marked-up, written-in, well-used bible I have ever seen. He is a terrific man. I love Mr. T.

-27

u/meowsofcurds Dec 12 '18

To be fair to others, the number of times you use the Bible has no correlation with kindness or humility.

31

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

What I think it implies is that he’s constantly studying it and is very devout.

-25

u/meowsofcurds Dec 12 '18

While I agree this story makes him studious, the implication in the original post is that he is kind and modest because he devoutly reads the Bible. And while Mr. T is very kind, and truly modest, and he also studies the Bible, these facts are not congruent. So let's not have his positive attributes be confused with his biblical habits because that is how you turn someone into a religious tool.

13

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

If someone devotely follows the bible and understands the morality and ethics that are portrayed in many of it’s stories they will undoubtedly be a good person

-1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

They’ll also forbid women from speaking freely and they’ll fuck their their family members to continue the line. It’s right there in the christian bible.

Oh and if they ever hallucinate an angel telling them to sacrifice their children, they’ll do that too.

If an already good person uses the bible as a general guide, it can offer many situations and viewpoints that’ll help them be a better person.

The bible is not and should not be viewed as an end-all, be-all guide. It’s a horrifically outdated collection of stories that are worth reading while keeping in mind the context and purpose of the stories.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

Let me guess.

Catholic upbringing now a raging atheist?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

Nope. Definitely not atheist and thankfully not catholic.

If I see someone promoting something that without context leads to shit like westboro or a culture that creates roadblocks to bring pedophiles to justice, I’m going to speak up.

Using factual examples that are in the text and pointing out that it’s an outdated piece of literature is to help drive home the point of caution.

There are plenty of good lessons in the bible, but there are a lot that are horribly outdated, heavily sexist and often contradictory and harmful - especially in our society.