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| Problems with Christianity: You Don’t Get to Decide! |
| 04.13.04 (10:50 pm) [edit] |
Look, the rules are clear. Love your neighbor and all children. Put others before yourself. Honor God [including that spark of Him/Her in you] as best you can. Value life over status. And keep your eyes and hands to yourself unless you get invited to do otherwise. Not too tricky.
So STOP the hypocrisy and justification... "I can nail my babysitter, but I will not tolerate a homosexual priest in my church." "Well, I know I should help the needy, but I work hard for my money and I'm not gonna give it to some bum to spend on malt liquor!"
Don't like it, Christian? TOO BAD! God made the rules; you don't get to decide. So either play along...or go to Hell.
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| Problems with Christianity: Cast Not Your Pearls Before Swine |
| 04.13.04 (10:49 pm) [edit] |
If you look at most religions, you find that there is usually a small minority who get access to the real stuff: the Pope, the Presbyters, the imams, Buddhas and Boddhisatvas, the Brahmin.
To study the sacred mysteries of the Torah, one must be at least 30, married with children, and physically healthy. To learn the "mysteries" of Protestantism, by contrast, you have to either have a heartbeat or not.
[Rant: almost every teenage girl knows from experience the power of that which is withheld from a seeker. And almost every woman can measure the value of what is granted too easily. So someone PLEASE tell me why a 2000 year old institution has lost sight of this maxim!!! End rant.]
Back when I used to go to church often, and on those occasions when I go now on behalf of my family, I am stunned by the lowbrow format of the "sermon". There are about three types: the exhortation to good, the "challenge" comparison, and the "celebration". None is particularly effective, except in curing insomniacs.
The exhortation to good usually consists of a reminder of the "rules" of Christianity. The Ten Commandments. Faith, Hope and Love. Value Jesus over money. Obey God even when you don't understand Him. Looking around the country today, I can see that this is working well. For goodness sake, people will not follow the speed limit, dress codes, jaywalking rules or any other set of regulations that does not appear to either: a) have clear, sensible and immediate benefits and/or b) have an immediate, tangible and severe punishment for scofflaws. Why would the church think that is any different with their game?!
Apparently, some CRAFTY pastors have discovered the problem above... and developed the comparison "challenge" to stimulate their sheep. This one plays out like this here: "[Biblical figure] did/avoided [something amazing]... do you think YOU have what it takes to follow in his [or on very rare occasions, her] footsteps?" Apparently the holes in this one escape our otherwise shrewd clergyMen. Here's one: outside of Baptist churches, NO ONE REALLY BELIEVES THE BIBLE IS LITERAL HISTORY! Somehow, the challenge of a metaphor seems less exciting. Here's another: the amazing accomplishment of the Biblical figure usually involves something extremely unpleasant [eating only locusts and honey?], something generally considered impossible [David v. Goliath; the centenarian who fathered a child] or something illegal [sacrificing own child on boulder/"altar"]. Sure those are amazing things... but who cares?
Then of course there's the excitement of "Celebration" at a white, upper-class church. You just haven't partied until you've hit this one! On really wild nights, one of the repressed wives/daughters will raise a hand up WHILE SHE'S SINGING! And one or two in the congregation will get this [very disturbing] look on their faces... the same sort of straining towards pleasure that you see moments before orgasm. Oh, yes. They're feeling the love.
And then there's....
HEY, WAKE UP!!!
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| Problems with Christianity: Know your audience! |
| 04.13.04 (10:48 pm) [edit] |
To anyone with even a cursory knowledge of the Gospels, it should be crystal clear that Jesus plays for the underdog. He came to save sinners, not the righteous; hung with tax collectors and prostitutes.
So here's a great idea: let's preach this message to a bunch of fat old white guys [definitely NOT on the losing team.. they get to make up the rules and change them as they go along].
Surprise! They're not buying it. Go check the drool factor at your local Episcopal or maybe Methodist church if you don't believe me. Why doesn't the ultimate sacrifice keep them from dozing off?
Because they already HAVE all the power! Other rich white guys hire them into rich white guy jobs. They raise their daughters to genuflect to any man with a strong portfolio and Italian loafers. They sedate their unsatisfied wives with diamonds and chardonnay so they can sleep with the women in the office who want to warm their ambition at the corporate fire.
What these guys want is some Old Testament thunder! Forget "love your neighbor as yourself". Bring on the Commandments! HONOR THY [mother and] FATHER. Bring on the blood! SUFFER NOT A WITCH TO LIVE. Bring on the persecution! HOMOSEXUALITY IS AN ABOMINATION IN THE EYES OF THE LORD GOD!
They want to hear about people turned into pillars of salt, about plagues loosed on slaves who rise against masters, about Enoch slaughtering the priests of Ba'al. Why? Because these are the ways that men hold power over others. This is what keeps them rich.
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| The Beauties of Christianity |
| 04.12.04 (1:27 pm) [edit] |
"There are a great many symbols which are used as objects of meditation. These symbols are used by [some] as a means of concentrating the mind and introducing into it certain thoughts, calling up certain associated ideas, and stimulating certain feelings. The initiate, however, uses a symbol-system differently; he uses it as an algebra...as a means of guiding thought out into the Unseen and Incomprehensible.
"And how does he do this?....There are some [aspects of the symbol] of which he knows something; there are others of which he can intuit something, or more crudely, make a guess, reasoning from first principles. The mind leaps from one known to another known and in so doing traverses certain distances, metaphorically speaking; it is like a traveler in the desert who knows the situation of two oases and makes a forced march between them. He would never have dared to push out into the desert from the first oasis if he had not known the location of the second; but at the end of his journey he not only knows much more about the characteristics of the second oasis, but he has also observed the country lying in between them. Thus, making forced marches from oasis to oasis, backwards and forwards across the desert, he gradually explores it; nevertheless, the desert is incapable of supporting life."
Now what better symbol can one ask than that of Jesus? If we seek to know the Unseen and Incomprehensible--hencefo rth referred to as God--then we need merely work our algebra as instructed by the inimitable Dion Fortune. Let Z=God. Since Jesus said, "I am the Way and the Light; none shall come to the Father but through me", let Jesus=Y, such that Y=less than Z.
But that is not much to go on, and we require more information about Y. Fortunately, we have many symbols that may help us arrive at a better understanding of Y: the Cross (U), the Fisher of Men (V), the Sacrificial Lamb (W), and the Bridegroom (X) among others. Let us suppose, then, that Jesus is that second oasis mentioned above. We now have many different local oases (or starting points) to choose from, each of which offers a path towards Jesus; walking each path will show us more and more territory until at last our familiarity changes the Unseen and Incomprehensible into, at the very least, the Briefly Glimpsed and Somewhat Familiar. U+V+W+X=less than Y; Y=less than Z.
Of course, the veil can never be torn from the face of God while we remain in the flesh; the desert cannot support life. But the devotion and love and sacrifice required to force our marches between the oases mentioned above will birth and nurture the baby Jesus in our own hearts. And so, if the end result of Christianity is to unite our heart, mind and spirit with God, then those who would be Christians should rejoice in the salvational possibilities of the symbolism of Jesus.
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| the ground is slipping away |
| 04.06.04 (7:06 pm) [edit] |
so here's the thing... at least tonight's thing.
According to Geometry, 3 points in space are the minimum number required to create a plane. A plane is a flat, 2-dimensional figure which can form the base (or side, or top) of more complex, 3-dimensional figures (like a pyramid, for instance).
Stick with me while I switch this up...
I recall reading once that three sources for the same information are enough for many people to accept that information as truth. Consider truth as a plane for the moment... a flat, 2-dimensional figure which can form the basis for more complex figures (like opinions, interpretations, or courses of action, for instance). I decided to test this out with the most absurd thing that came to me.
One day I went in to work and told a friendly co-worker, "John", that the moon had cracked in half overnight. "Can you believe this moon shit?" I asked him.
"Moon shit? What the hell are you talking about?!" he replied.
"You didn't see the paper? Watch the news this morning?" I inquired. "
No. I was hung over." he said.
"Dude, [i]the moon cracked in half[/i]. NASA is going crazy... they have no idea what happened! I can't believe you didn't hear about it!" I said.
"That's crazy, man." John said. But he wasn't certain.
"Go ask Steve. Or Jenny. We were just talking about it before you came in!" I told him. [b]POINT ONE[/b].
Of course, I had already conferred with Steve [[b]POINT TWO[/b]] and Jenny [[b]POINT THREE[/b]] to play along. They backed me all the way. Great performances! We'd like to thank the Academy...
At the end of this little experiment, John, as rational human being as any, began to believe that the moon had actually cracked in half. Three apparently independent sources = a flimsy base of truth to stand on.
Almost done, now. Lemme flip up over and reverse it...
If I, an underachieving yokel, can convince John of a lunar absurdity by using three "points" of information that he knows personally are not authorities on astrophysics...
how much more vulnerable are we to the "points" of information given to us by, for instance, "CNN, the most trusted name in news"?
Ten years ago, I never would have worried about this issue at all. Of course, that was before the drugs... But it was also before the entry of unacknowledged editorializing and bias into the world of news reporting.
Slowly but surely, each snide comment; each story covered unfairly; each nuance of preference I catch on the news chips away at the thin plane of "truth" I rest on.
How much more before we have nowhere safe left to stand?
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| Belgian Ale, anyone? |
| 04.01.04 (4:09 pm) [edit] |
I'm fairly excited because I just got paid and I picked up a few beers I've never had before. All of them are Belgian Ales.
"What's that?!" you ask. "Belgian Ales? I thought you liked the dark stuff?"
You daaaaamn right! That's why I'm drinking the Belgians.
See, here's my theory: I really prefer dark, hoppy, intense flavored beers. On the other hand, I know the Belgians have been making beer pretty much as long as anyone still in business today. And my friends at the USBTC say that the real class lies in malts, not the explosive hoppiness that brings me such explosive happiness (yes, I have been drinking :oops: ). And they have great beer judgement. So i'm going to drink this Belgian Ale to see what all the noise is about!
Here are my choices:
Chimay Cinq Cents Trippel Ale (750ml@ 7.5%) $8.00
Crobbendonk Abbey Pale Ale 12 oz $3.50
Affligem Dubbel Ale (750 ml@ 7% alc.) $8.95
If you've tried these before, I'd love to hear your comments. If you've got other favorite beers, let me know! I've tried an enormous variety, but I'm always on the lookout for something new!
'Til then, Prost!
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