Cults.

January 30, 2008 at 8:39 pm (Uncategorized)

After some recent religious conversations, I wanted to note something interesting that perplexes me:

Why is it that some religions are called cults by many (most?) Christians, and others aren’t?  For example, mormonism.  It’s legally recognized as a religion in the US, it also has a decent set of family values (ignoring the small sect that marries multiple women/girls).  What makes your religion not a cult, and everything else one?

There was a great quote from someone tonight that paraphrased was “[something] is a cult because it’s not what I believe.”….

So, she alone apparently decides what’s a cult, and what’s not? And it’s basically everything but what she follows/believes.

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LMAO!

January 18, 2008 at 8:38 pm (Uncategorized)

Hahahaha, God hates me or something:

http://www.godhatessweden.com/

And:

http://www.godhatesireland.com/

Damn. I’m screwed!  These sites have been brought to you by none other than Fred Phelps and and his inbred church of “Westboro Baptist.”  I find so much irony in the statement on the first site of: “Sweden is land of sodomy, bestiality, and incest.”  Considering the source it really amuses me to read that.

I actually have a hard time believing this guy is for real.  Unfortunately, I do know he is not kidding about any of this and this is the group that defames military funerals or whatever high profile funeral might be going on.   The protesting the funerals particularly the military funerals…well, there are no words to truly describe how deeply I feel about that.  I hope to never see these people at a funeral or memorial service.

I just didn’t realize until a random search brought me upon his site and how he hates the Swedes and Irish!  Well. I’m half Swedish and the other half is mostly Irish.  If “God” hates my people, does that make me spawn of satan or something? ;)

While I know he is an extremist and not the norm as far as “Christians” and tolerance goes…the idea of “being saved” and spending eternity in the same place as this guy….well, sounds like hell to me.

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And just in case I need a reminder…

January 14, 2008 at 8:30 pm (Uncategorized)

…of why I dislike the church, christians, and christianity:

100 Greatest Quotes from fundamentalist christian chat rooms

That is just…wow.  Some of it’s just hysterical.  The rest is just sad.  So very sad.

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Church…

January 14, 2008 at 8:27 pm (Uncategorized)

So, I’ve been exchanging emails off and on with a pastor of a church in South Riding.  I’m not sure why I’d emailed him initially to begin with, but our email correspondence goes back to August.  I think I was mostly just bored when I did.

But, I have to admit, he managed to impress me with his attitude, geniuneness and honesty.  He took my somewhat confrontational and caustic questions in stride and came up with original answers.  Not something that looked like it’d been cut and pasted straight from the bible or something.  His answers were unique enough that I was actually intrigued and curious about his actual church.

So, for some reason, I actually went to his church this morning.  I’d intended on going a couple of times previously; however, sleep got in the way of this.  Well, after a friend called me to torment me with Neil Diamond music at 0930 hours….I was awake and so, I went. (Oddly enough, this is the same friend that called at 0730 in the morning to talk about God and try to save me again)

It was very weird to be in “church” again, but thankfully not as weird as it could have been had they had their own building.  They have church in a high school auditorium, so it was pretty secular as far as the “decor” goes.  Most of the attending group were in jeans, so it was fairly casual as well.  I have to say that both of these factors made it MUCH easier to be there.  I definitely felt odd and uncomfortable during the times of “prayer” though.  I’m not the type to bow my head and “fake it” so as to not stick out.  I’d rather be honest and real even if it’s not what everyone else around me is doing.

I didn’t really meet anyone other than making sure to introduce myself to the pastor I’d emailed previously.  But I was hoping to not meet anyone honestly, and had strategically made it difficult for people to introduce themselves to me (came in after worship had already started, positioned myself so that I was in an area where no one else was sitting close to me, and just, during the meet & greet, not make eye contact with anyone).  I don’t trust myself to not be brutally honest in a way that some Christians just can’t handle, and I just didn’t feel like being that antagonistic this morning.

I thought it only fair though since we had been emailing to introduce myself to the pastor, and I’d went up after and talked with him for a bit.  It was a refreshing change to not have a pastor trying to push answers/religion/bible onto me, there are so very few that don’t do that.  I’m thankful that I now know 2 who are not like that.  I don’t mind religious discussion with people that I respect their views on faith and religion, I actually really enjoy that.

What struck me most was he made sure to make me feel welcome again, without trying to pressure me into coming again.  It didn’t seem like he had that second agenda that many pastors often seem to have of “okay, what can I do to get this person saved in the next 10 minutes!”  He also seems to have the same views on the church (in America), the path it’s taken, and how pharisaical it has become.

So, as much as I hate the church, christians and christianity, I can completely respect this church (well, so far).  I have no idea if or when I’ll go back though.

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Religion Sucks.

January 10, 2008 at 8:20 pm (Uncategorized)
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After a discussion with a friend recently as well as a blog post of his, I thought I’d post a bit regarding my experience/thoughts on religion (well, mostly Christianity).

So, to this day, when I hear someone exclaim “I’m a Christian!”…I cringe.  I want to run the hell away. Quickly. Not out of fear of anything that they might say to me, but honestly out of fear I will laugh in their face and make fun of them.  That phrase just makes me crawl out of my skin and make me want to say something very disrespectful.  I’ve been trying to figure out why this is…

Honestly, I think it’s because I think most of them are just sheep blindly following.  Which many of them would gladly say they are.  And I just don’t get that, following something without ever questioning.  Let me make it clear, that there are Christians out there that know what they believe, and can actually intelligently defend what they believe…and I respect that tremendously.

But unfortunately, I think the mass of Christianity preys on the weak.  This would explain a lot of what I experienced with people being very kind and “loving” to the new person in the church until they know they are actually a Christian, and then the claws come out.  I had gone through the “sinners prayer” in 1990, while in a little room with 3 people from the youth group leading me through a tract that detailed the “spiritual laws” and how to be ’saved’.  3 against 1.  2 of which were adults, one was the “friend” that had originally invited me to youth group.  I was a very insecure teenager, and of course, I’d have probably done anything asked of me when it was 3 against 1, especially if it meant I thought I’d be accepted.   I don’t think it was done maliciously, but I don’t really agree with this practice at all.  I don’t know if that means it wasn’t true “salvation” by most Christian’s standards…but I do know that later, I had true faith and followed earnestly with my heart.

Maybe this is why during the years after that that I tried to follow Christianity, there were times that it just didn’t seem real?  I tried hard to believe for probably 15 years before I finally gave up after “God” let me down.  But here is the weird part, I know I uhh, had led people to saying that same prayer that supposedly ’saved’ me.  The 3 times I did that though, the OTHER person sought me out to ask questions and to go forward with it.  It wasn’t me pushing them into anything, at least, I don’t believe so.  If it was, then I owe them a tremendous apology.

I can honestly say that I am indeed more content and at peace now, not living as a Christian, than I ever experienced trying to “live my life for Christ”.  I think I still believe there is a god up there somewhere, there’s too much in this universe for me to be an atheist.

I still have some christian friends that I respect tremendously, and some, well, I don’t know if they realize how much things have changed for me (they might by reading this!).   And I will never laugh at them, nor fault them for their beliefs, as they seem to have substance for one, and aren’t pushing it on me.

One such person, is a medic that I like riding with as he is just a really good medic, and easy to learn from.  He’s very much a Christian and been apparently praying for me for a while.  He even called me at 7:30am one morning to discuss his concern for me as his wife had just lost a friend that they couldn’t reach…and he thought of me.  Well, I respect him enough that I later thanked him for caring, and explained I wasn’t upset, but it did seem kind of odd and slightly amusing at 7:30 in the morning. ;) I do enjoy getting into religious and political conversations with him as well.  These conversations have made me realize that many of my political beliefs/roots stemmed from religion and not what *I* actually believed.  I’m still fairly conservative, but not nearly where I was 3 years ago.

(And I’m sure I have a friend in Ohio where much of this is news…sorry for you to find out this way, but there wasn’t really a way to bring it up at dinner at your house…I do thank you for the time you had helped me find questions to answers, and I’m prepared for the email that this post might result)

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