My Conversation with Summer M. and Tammy B.

This conversation started as either Summer or someone else posted something on Facebook about some church corruption involving political contributions or the like. I don’t recall why I felt compelled to speak up as the germ of the conversation almost completely escapes me, so it must not have made any real impact. No matter as the
conversation quickly turned. My text is in italics. Summer’s and Tammy’s are in bold. Comments are in plain.

Summer M. See it all the time here in America In different ways. Wrong priorities. God’s church is not a building it is His people.

Though I never brought this up with Summer, I find this idea interesting and perplexing. If God’s capital-C Church is His people, then why do so many of those people build so many churches? Why not just meet in parking lots or each other’s houses? I know that happens with things like Bible-study groups. I imagine one reason is space and a sound system for the pastors to preach, but couldn’t that be done in parks? Isn’t that what was done during the great 19th century revivals? It just seems a bit of a false sentiment the whole “people” part.

Summer M. The whole world is corrupt not just churches, take politicians for example… If politicians really cared about our country they would use all those funds they are good at raising to build the economy up instead of building themselves up with advertising. Imagine if Mitt Romney and Barack Obama chose to use the money they raise to help people. But that will never happen.

It really bothers me when people say shit like “politicians are corrupt.” To me, it’s the negative equivalent of saying “babies are cute.” Yes, your statement usually is true, so what’s your point?

Anton Hill This is no surprise. Churches, like governments and corporations, exist to perpetuate themselves. Not too different from organic life.

I wish I’d gone into more detail on this as I think it was actually a pretty good point, but I just let it sit there in its underdeveloped, no-examples-cited glory.

Anton Hill @Summer Political campaigns cost money. How are politicians supposed to get elected?

Summer M. Believe me if they gave their money to help people it would make the news everywhere, if they truly gave with their heart people would notice. I know I’d vote for them. Think about how drastic of a thing it would be. Instead of talking abou…

She didn’t say anything further that would knock your socks off.

Summer M. Yes I do live in a fairy tale of dreams haha lol

#Mithras, it’s your birthday! Happy birthday, #Mithras!

Mithras and Sol Invictus

Yes, it’s time for my sometimes-annual mockery of Christmas. The funny thing, though, is that I actually really like Christmas. No, I don’t do any of the Christ-based crap, but I do almost all of the Pagan-based crap. And in our family, it’s been tradition since I was 10 to read Chanukah-ish stories from an Isaac Bashevis Singer book, including the traditional reading of Chelm stories (pronounced with a hard “H”, not with a “cherry” “ch”). And no, we’re not Jewish. Why we read these stories is itself a long story.

The shitty part about the reading this year was that, unlike most previous years, we picked a previously unread story and it turned out to be a retelling of Lot. Holy shit, that’s some fucked up shit! I mean, seriously, I get that the people of Sodom aren’t the best, but for God to burn it to the ground?? And why today? Why not yesterday?? It’s not like an omniscient God didn’t know Sodom existed. Man, some of those Old Testament stories are such horseshit!

To you and yours, however you celebrate the winter season, deity-based or not, have a cheery one!

Mithras nekid

And starring @AngusTJones as @4runner777′s bitch!

I don’t give a shit that Angus Jones is a Christian. I don’t even care that he’s an Adventist. I’m a little disappointed. He’s a cute kid with a well-funded future ahead of him, and it’s always my hope that young people don’t get swept up in indoctrination, but he has and it’s his life.

There were, however, a couple of bits that stuck out to me about this:

“I like black people. I’m not afraid to say it.”

–Angus T. Jones

Uh huh. Why would you be afraid to say it? Because it’s controversial? What, is this 1955? What a fucking weird thing to say. And notice how uncomfortable The Forerunner looks. Like, “Get off the ‘black people’ thing, kid. You’re digging yourself deep.”

“And I think that day, he showed me what the Bible taught about Hell… It’s there in the Bible. It’s there. And there’s no evidence for the opposing views.”

–Angus T. Jones

What he Hell?? (Ha ha.) At first, I thought he was saying that because the Bible is clear on Hell (I disagree), and because the opposing views have no evidence, that, therefore, Hell is real. Now I’m not so sure. It’s possible he was referring to any or all opposing views to Adventism. And I can’t really comment if his statement were that general because I’m neither an expert on Christianity in general nor on Adventism in particular.

But I can comment on Hell. It’s a well-documented fact that the concept of Hell evolved over the centuries starting with the vague notion of the grave/the abode of the dead (Sheol), to closer to a place for the wicked, based on the burning garbage heap of Gehenna which lay outside Jerusalem, to finally the modern concept, heavily embellished by extra-biblical narrative such as Dante. So this whole “what the Bible teaches about Hell” is only a piece of the story.

And it’s bullshit.

Thank you, @DarkMatter2525, for your latest, “#God’s Priorities 2″

Including its own time-lapse drawing of Obama!

This one brings up the age-old question of why God lets babies suffer and die when they’re, you know, babies. As DM points out, i’ve never heard a satisfactory answer from an apologist. Usually, it’s some bullshit version of “mysterious ways” or “God has a plan.”

@leelem0n clears up #Pentecostal #glossolalia for me (and gives me a li’l shout)!

I love glossolalia, or speaking in tongues. I was first vaguely aware of it as a kid, but I didn’t then really understand that it was considered literally speaking the language of God or speaking with God. I thought, through my then-New-Age filter, that it was just some kooky, metaphoric thing people in fundamentalist churches did. You know, those crazy ones. Not at all like us crystal-helaing, aura-glow-watching, law-of-attraction-abiding God-is-love monkeys.

When I got a little older, I learned that some sects, like Pentecostals (and Mormons), took the whole thing seriously, and that the odd sounds they made were that language. Examples like this (The best part of which is when the pastor chides her flock for not doing it long enough):

I’d of course known it was all bullshit. I’d even looked up the facts of glossolalia. Like that though people use actual phonemes that exist in real languages, there’s no actual pattern or system of grammar rules or vocabulary. But I’d been fascinated by the practice.

By random chance, I happened on Lee Lemon on YouTube and asked her about it. Here’s her response:

And here’s her Tumblr post. Which I’ve of course since re-blogged on my semi-retired Tumblr account.

Thanks Lee! More questions coming!