*WARNING* this post is about politics & religion...if you dont want to hear it stop reading.
Third day in a row I opened up my browser to my google news page and saw ANOTHER article, the 3rd in as many days, speculating about Obama's religious preferences. I will not link to any of them because I feel it perpetuates the problem, but they were from various legit news sources & were editorial pieces, to clarify.
The first was loaded with opinion pole data about what we, as Americans, THINK his religious views are regardless of what he says they are. This made me twitch. So we are placing it to a vote now as to what church we think he attends and what religion he practices? Silly me, I thought that if the man and his family SAY they are Christian that should be enough and what a percentage of our dear population THINKS is really quite irrelevant.
The second I read was more or less an open demand for Obama to PROVE hes Christian by stopping the building of that Mosque, proving he isnt Muslim and for him to find a way to show Americans that hes Christian and not Muslim. I have a slew of issues with the whole article. 1) How does him stopping that build on PRIVATE PROPERTY prove anything outside of him caving to political/religious pressure? 2) Why does he have to prove a damn thing? I dont have to justify or prove my religious beliefs at all, why is it different for him and what business is it of anyones? Faith is a very personal thing and something that you have to choose on your own, not justify to a nation built & founded on the basis of FREEDOM, freedom of religion specifically for fucks sake, read a god damn history book. 3) What fucking difference does it make what religion he practices? He wasnt elected to the Presidency because of his religious affiliations, he was elected to do a job, and that job was not The Pope.
The one I read today wanted to know why Obama doesnt wear his religion on his sleeve. Why the hell should he? If that is how you choose to celebrate your faith more power to you, but just because he doesnt treat the Oval Office like a church pulpit doesnt negate his role as a leader or render him less effective in his job.
Honestly I dont care if you like him, if you voted for him or if you agree with what he has done thus far. As I stated in previous post, I dont think it matters who was elected last term - this was a shit sandwich of epic proportions and I feel he has handled it as admirably as possible given our polarized political climate, the complete lack of cooperation in our government and the almost total collapse of our economy. I challenge any of you to say you could do better given the hurdles that man faced the day he stepped into that office. I sure as fuck wouldnt have wanted that job and it irks the hell out of me to listen to arm-chair presidents think they can fix this. If it was possible to make it all better easily it would have been done by now. He sure as hell didnt make the mess but has been trying to clean it up and anyone who holds him totally responsible for the state of our nation is either naive or looking for a reason to hate him. Took decades to make this clusterfuck - gonna take just as long to get out and I dont think remaining open minded to change and maybe trying to support the COUNTRY is too much to ask and just may serve us better as a society instead of picking out demons and angels. All politicians suck. Period. Our local government proves this every day, and their political or religious affiliations dont change the level of suck.
That being said I think what truly bothers me, and bothers me a lot, is that the line between Church & State has become so blurred that discourse like what I have seen on Google is deemed ok. Its not. At all. I firmly believe in everyones ability and right to practice the faith of their choosing and not have to justify that faith to anyone. This country was founded by people who were run out of their homes for not agreeing with the religious mandates of their country's government, they came here so they could be free to worship as they believed and we built our governing rules on this principal. Since when are the only acceptable religious beliefs from that of Christianity? Since when did it become a crime to practice something other than Christianity? When did it become necessary to prove your Christianity in order to not be crucified on a national level if you are in a position of power? Never is the answer to all 3 of those questions. I understand that the majority of people in America do practice one form of Christianity or another...but that doesnt mean it is the ONLY acceptable option out there by any strech of the imagination.
I absolutely abhor the power of the Christian right in my government. I find it almost intolerable that laws are written to govern our society that are based on the puritanical views of a percentage of our population. It makes my skin crawl that there is enough money and power in the Christian Right to greatly effect the law making process of our country. Laws & Faith are 2 totally different things. Laws are based on morality, for sure, but there is far more to morals, right & wrong than just faith. Where did the separation of church & state go? In my opinion this is an area that needs reinforced & revisited.
Gay Marriage and abortion are the 2 hot topics off the top of my head that demonstrate this point most effectively. Opponents of both site biblical/faith reasons why neither should be allowed legally. Last time I checked we were governed by the Constitution, not the Bible, so how are these arguments relevant? God is not the president, we elect a human to do that. Laws should not be written that effect all based on the faith & beliefs of some.
For the record I think it is ridiculous gay marriage is even an issue that requires debate. Marriage is not a sacred covenant anymore. 50% divorce rate proves that more than anything else out there, not to mention its more of a legal issue than a religious one. If you are in a same sex relationship and your partner is lying in a hospital bed dying for whatever reason, as a partner you have no say so in the course of treatment or what happens because you are not recognized as a husband or wife or even a family member. Thats some bullshit. Me & Mister were together almost 10 years before we tied the knot. If something had happened to him and they even TRIED to keep me out of that room there would have been blood spilled, I dont care if we were married or not. So these people and groups will go out of their way to stop people who's relationships have ZERO effect on their own from getting married just because they can. Related - all those "God hates Fags" poster carriers I see pics of from their rallys - I disagree - God hates ignorant, mean and stupid people who can only communicate their points with vulgarity & offense. It amazes me that this is even a debate. Why shouldnt same sex couples have the right to get married and all the benefits that come with it and how is this anyone's business but their own? I can get married and divorced a bazillion times - doesnt that ruin the sanctity of marriage more than a gay couple getting married? I would think so.
And abortion I am absolutely Pro-Choice. I know that it isnt a decision I could ever make and one that thankfully for me (because my parents TAUGHT me about how to protect myself - thanks mom & dad) I have ever had to make...but I dont feel its right for the government to tell me that I can or cant have that as an option. There are far too many scenarios that I could see that being viable for someone else, and I feel that it should be their right to make that decision. Yes, it needs to be monitored & there has to be rules for having an abortion, it should never been deemed a method of birth control, but I feel its a personal decision that needs to be made by the people involved, not one that should be made by a politician or religious group on my behalf. Believe what you like and practice it until you die - but forcing other people to live their lives according to your beliefs is bullshit. If 50% of Americans hates broccoli are we going to outlaw it? No. So if 50% of the population hates the idea of gay marriage or abortion why do they get to stop it from happening? They shouldnt, they should just mind their own business and live their lives and leave others to do the same. Just because you have an opinion doesnt mean that the world needs to agree with it. Opinions & Laws are very very different.
It makes me sad and also worries me to see the involvement of the religious fanatics in our government. It makes me angry to hear those same people calling anyone out about extremist religions while being so blissfully unaware that they are just as bad. It makes me want to cry that they feel ok blindly passing judgment on other religious beliefs - like the Muslims - without ever bothering to learn more about their beliefs, practices or faith. It baffles me that they cant see the forest for the trees and realize that they are themselves religious terrorists on our own soil. The hipocracy makes my brain hurt. I know so many wonderful people that practice their Christianity and other faiths with a good heart, open mind and with love. I know those that get the press and make the most noise are the minority and the most vocal...but I really think they miss the point of having faith in the first place. Faith is not about forcing your beliefs on another person, its about acceptance, love, forgiveness and understanding...but I think someone must have torn that chapter out of their bibles, because that is def not what they practice regardless of what they preach.
Ok Im done. Well at least ranting about it here. I hope that in my life time I get to see this get better and get to see people start to see the light. Our system doesnt work. It needs adapted to accommodate the times, technology and cultural climate. I hope that we as a society can rise above all the petty bullshit slung across our media by a minority of jerkoffs and find the greater good. I hope we can stop being such sheep and make intelligent choices in the coming decades. I hope we can learn to respect each others opinions and learn to celebrate our differences. I hope...
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
It was a Jebus play!!!
Well I dont generally get up on my soap box about religion or politics only because its fruitless. People are going to believe whatever it is they choose to believe ad quite frankly that is none of my business. I am friends with and associate with a wide variety of different people, from different backgrounds and with different belief and faith ideals and I respect each and every one of them...I can't say that I agree with them in every situation, but I respect the fact they believe what they believe and that helps them get through the day. In all reality that's all that really matters when it comes down to it.
Personally faith doesn't mean much to me. I was raised Catholic. I went to church every week, I read for mass, I helped out at the nunnery (no idea what its really called, that what Ive always called it anywho), was christened, communioned, confirmed and all that jazz...I am VERY familiar with Catholic doctrine. I will also preface with this - I know when I launch off about this that it isnt EVERY single solitary Christian & Catholic that I am referencing, its just the ones that make the most noise and cause the most bullshit, so no, I am not making broad generalizations about all churchgoers...so chill out. And also remember - I respect your right to believe in God, you really should respect my right to think hes an amazingly powerful work of fiction...I dont think thats too much to ask for...and if it is, stop reading now, you're just going get all pissed off here soon.
So I get a call at 8:30am Saturday from my 9 year old nephew telling me he has a play Saturday night and he wants me & Mister to be there to see it. Ok now realistically one of the last places on Earth I want to be on a Saturday night is sitting in a Nazarene church the South Hills, but I dont come around real often, he asked me himself and this will not kill me so I tell him we will be there. Just showing up is going to make this kids month and hes had a rough time of late with my sister & her husband separating...so if all I have to do is carve a couple hours out of my weekend to make this kid so happy he will explode then so be it, I will adventure to the South Hills to watch this play. My sister never really has said much about this acting group he's a part of outside of the fact that nephew absolutely loves it and it has done amazing things for his self esteem & confidence to be a part of it - so win all over the place for the kid. He's shy and quite sensitive so getting him out of his shell is hard and being a part of this group has really helped him in alot of ways. I tell Mister we are going, he says he will in his best "I am only doing this because you want me to and I will sit and behave myself for the duration but realize you are testing the limits of my patience and if you even THINK about making me spend the rest of our night with the kids I will be a total asshole" tone. Message received loud and clear...we've done this once or twice before ;-)
So we go. And for the record in the 2 hours before all hell had broken loose at 2 of the 4 restaurants by way of power outage followed by gylcol pump explosion at one and a sewer backing up and causing mayhem and closed bathrooms at another...you know - the Murphy's Law bullshit that occurs EVERY time the Wizard goes out of town for a couple days, that had me on the phone and texting about 4 different people as I finished getting ready and we drove there. It was ridiculous to be honest, and if I hadn't promised that kid that I would be there and I didn't know that he would be so upset if I didnt show up I would have gone back into work. But I did promise, and he would be hurt, so i walked in late due to pacing on the phone in the lot, but I got there.
We sit down and I listen to the lyrics...it's a jesus play. And not like a little bit of jesus thrown in for good measure, but full on jesus play, like with scripture quotes and shit. I was kind of stunned. My sister isnt particularly religious, neither is her hubby and I just wasnt expecting it. Yes yes yes it took place at a church...but that didnt mean it was going to be all churchy - they do have multipurpose rooms and shit in churches. I texted my sister since we werent sitting with them "you coulda warned me this was a jebus play", she responds "I wasnt sure youd come..." and I kind of chuckled and thought yeah I would have come, but I definitely would have left Mister at home. I have some pretty harsh opinions on organized religion but he has a pure hatred of it...and to his credit he sat and tolerated all of it, remained pleasant and did what he had to do to support the kid. He was rewarded with Danny's hoagies & pizza on the way home. LOL
So I listen to this for the better part of an hour, I watch these kids who all seem genuinely into what they are doing, I hear the message they are trying to convey...and I grew more and more annoyed as I sat there. So to sum up the play - a boy has to join a new baseball team of ultra goody goody teammates that all work in perfect harmony and hes this loose cannon with an attitude problem. They meet a gigantic grasshopper & "praying" mantis that introduce them to a giant talking lily and tweaking out huge bird that who in turn introduce them to 3 historic biblical characters - David from David & Goliath and 2 other stories that I am far less familiar with. Either way the moral of this hour was that if you just put your faith in god and except jesus into your home and heart that you will always be loved, accepted and will never fail. That no matter what as long as you have this blind faith in jesus you will never be lead astray and you will always have whatever it is you need or desire. That jesus and your faith is all you need to succeed in life.
This offended me. This offended me alot. Pardon my french here but what a crock of shit. Especially coming from the fucking church! Maybe if they were even close to telling the truth - you know the part where all of this applies as long as your aren't different than their ideal - I might have felt less offended. They were lying. Out and out blatantly lying. They stood up on that goddamn alter and proceeded to have a group of about 50 7-12 year olds spout that as long as you believe is jesus you will get everything you want. And I talked to my nephews about it after, both the 8 & 9 year old, and they believed it. Granted we didn't get all into a deep conversation about it, they are kids, but they still bought the basic premise. And its a freaking lie. Faith may help, faith may provide strength in times of weakness, faith can give you a place to turn if you want or need it, but faith will never solely give you success. For some people its an integral puzzle piece that allows them to accomplish things...and good for them, but its a PIECE of a whole thing that makes the success. Its not like you can pray for money and get it, or pray for groceries and they appear, or pray to have a better job and you'll be magically made smarter and more employable. Faith can help you gather the tools needed to be successful, but its not going to just make anything magically appear. They almost made god sound like Santa Claus - if you just believe in his existence you will be magically given a life worth living just like a big pile of presents under the tree at Christmas. Faith in a jolly man dressed in red did not make that pile appear - but our hard working parents did.
And I think my main issue with the whole thing wasn't the message...I know they are kids and maybe that level of realism isnt really appropriate - I just happen to think the average kid is much smarter than we give them credit for and bullshit like that can be damaging. But when it was all over the Director gets up and thanks everyone blah blah blah then launches into this diatribe about money money money and how all this costs money and they only ask the parents to contribute very little so its an affordable program but they were going to send around the ushers with the collection plate and ask everyone to donate what they could afford to help the children ram more overly conservative tea-party-esque messages down our throat to a snappy beat. This grated on me. Just charge for tickets then, seriously, dont stand up there and in your best condescending tone try to make me feel guilty. No one sitting in those pews was a fucking idiot. We know shit costs money, tell us what you want and we will pay it, no need for all the mellow dramatics. So while they round up the collection plates she keeps talking about how this program helps kids get to know god and how this faith will make them powerful and how good it is to be accepted with the church it is support forever. Then a soloist stands up and sings a song about how even if youre not perfect you are loved by god as individuals with flaws and imperfections as part of the deal. And I got even more annoyed. That may be the crap you are spewing at plays, but its bullshit. If that was what any of the larger organized religions believed there would be so much less judgment and alot more acceptance of individuals and that isnt what happens.
I hadn't been to church in awhile. I highly doubt Ill be going back any time soon. The whole thing just rubbed me the wrong way. Youre telling these kids it ok to be an imperfect individual, its ok to have flaws, just accept jesus and have faith and no matter what everything will be ok. And yet every day you hear about people hurting, killing, abusing other people over different beliefs about religion, politics, sexuality all stemming from their faith and the rules of their faith. If the god they talk about in plays like that was REALLY the god they believed in it might not be such a hypocritical load of bullshit...but all evidence says it IS a load of hypocritical bullshit that is enforced by religious nutballs the world over every day. Thats sad to me. It would be better if that was what it really was all about, love and acceptance...but it isnt, and thats going to be a harsh dose of reality if this is the smoke being blown up their asses through their formative years. I know it was to a very small degree for me. Nothing notable ever really happened that made me turn from any faith, it was just the realization that there was no way in hell there was some great deity sitting above the clouds who judged my existence based on how much of the "cover charge" I paid every week at church. I decided many many moons ago that church, for alot of people, is just a way to make them feel better about being assholes all week long. If your faith is genuine, I applaud you and hope it does for you whatever it is you need it to...but overall I think those of genuine belief are far outnumbered by those that are there for far more self serving reasons. Going to church every Sunday does not make you a good person, living a good life, doing what you can to make the most of what you are given, working hard and abiding the golden rule...those things make you a good person. And I dont need to give a church $20 a week to do any of those things, I just have to be aware of how I effect those around me...that's free.
I will go to another play if I am invited. I will cheer that kid on until I'm hoarse because he deserves it. I wont care that any of it is religiously themed, thats not why he does it. But it will bother me....I just wont feel the need to post about it again.
On a non-religious rant note I am going to bake up some snickerdoodles today. Its shit cold out, so if the weather is gonna be all sucky I will make my house smell delicious!!!
Personally faith doesn't mean much to me. I was raised Catholic. I went to church every week, I read for mass, I helped out at the nunnery (no idea what its really called, that what Ive always called it anywho), was christened, communioned, confirmed and all that jazz...I am VERY familiar with Catholic doctrine. I will also preface with this - I know when I launch off about this that it isnt EVERY single solitary Christian & Catholic that I am referencing, its just the ones that make the most noise and cause the most bullshit, so no, I am not making broad generalizations about all churchgoers...so chill out. And also remember - I respect your right to believe in God, you really should respect my right to think hes an amazingly powerful work of fiction...I dont think thats too much to ask for...and if it is, stop reading now, you're just going get all pissed off here soon.
So I get a call at 8:30am Saturday from my 9 year old nephew telling me he has a play Saturday night and he wants me & Mister to be there to see it. Ok now realistically one of the last places on Earth I want to be on a Saturday night is sitting in a Nazarene church the South Hills, but I dont come around real often, he asked me himself and this will not kill me so I tell him we will be there. Just showing up is going to make this kids month and hes had a rough time of late with my sister & her husband separating...so if all I have to do is carve a couple hours out of my weekend to make this kid so happy he will explode then so be it, I will adventure to the South Hills to watch this play. My sister never really has said much about this acting group he's a part of outside of the fact that nephew absolutely loves it and it has done amazing things for his self esteem & confidence to be a part of it - so win all over the place for the kid. He's shy and quite sensitive so getting him out of his shell is hard and being a part of this group has really helped him in alot of ways. I tell Mister we are going, he says he will in his best "I am only doing this because you want me to and I will sit and behave myself for the duration but realize you are testing the limits of my patience and if you even THINK about making me spend the rest of our night with the kids I will be a total asshole" tone. Message received loud and clear...we've done this once or twice before ;-)
So we go. And for the record in the 2 hours before all hell had broken loose at 2 of the 4 restaurants by way of power outage followed by gylcol pump explosion at one and a sewer backing up and causing mayhem and closed bathrooms at another...you know - the Murphy's Law bullshit that occurs EVERY time the Wizard goes out of town for a couple days, that had me on the phone and texting about 4 different people as I finished getting ready and we drove there. It was ridiculous to be honest, and if I hadn't promised that kid that I would be there and I didn't know that he would be so upset if I didnt show up I would have gone back into work. But I did promise, and he would be hurt, so i walked in late due to pacing on the phone in the lot, but I got there.
We sit down and I listen to the lyrics...it's a jesus play. And not like a little bit of jesus thrown in for good measure, but full on jesus play, like with scripture quotes and shit. I was kind of stunned. My sister isnt particularly religious, neither is her hubby and I just wasnt expecting it. Yes yes yes it took place at a church...but that didnt mean it was going to be all churchy - they do have multipurpose rooms and shit in churches. I texted my sister since we werent sitting with them "you coulda warned me this was a jebus play", she responds "I wasnt sure youd come..." and I kind of chuckled and thought yeah I would have come, but I definitely would have left Mister at home. I have some pretty harsh opinions on organized religion but he has a pure hatred of it...and to his credit he sat and tolerated all of it, remained pleasant and did what he had to do to support the kid. He was rewarded with Danny's hoagies & pizza on the way home. LOL
So I listen to this for the better part of an hour, I watch these kids who all seem genuinely into what they are doing, I hear the message they are trying to convey...and I grew more and more annoyed as I sat there. So to sum up the play - a boy has to join a new baseball team of ultra goody goody teammates that all work in perfect harmony and hes this loose cannon with an attitude problem. They meet a gigantic grasshopper & "praying" mantis that introduce them to a giant talking lily and tweaking out huge bird that who in turn introduce them to 3 historic biblical characters - David from David & Goliath and 2 other stories that I am far less familiar with. Either way the moral of this hour was that if you just put your faith in god and except jesus into your home and heart that you will always be loved, accepted and will never fail. That no matter what as long as you have this blind faith in jesus you will never be lead astray and you will always have whatever it is you need or desire. That jesus and your faith is all you need to succeed in life.
This offended me. This offended me alot. Pardon my french here but what a crock of shit. Especially coming from the fucking church! Maybe if they were even close to telling the truth - you know the part where all of this applies as long as your aren't different than their ideal - I might have felt less offended. They were lying. Out and out blatantly lying. They stood up on that goddamn alter and proceeded to have a group of about 50 7-12 year olds spout that as long as you believe is jesus you will get everything you want. And I talked to my nephews about it after, both the 8 & 9 year old, and they believed it. Granted we didn't get all into a deep conversation about it, they are kids, but they still bought the basic premise. And its a freaking lie. Faith may help, faith may provide strength in times of weakness, faith can give you a place to turn if you want or need it, but faith will never solely give you success. For some people its an integral puzzle piece that allows them to accomplish things...and good for them, but its a PIECE of a whole thing that makes the success. Its not like you can pray for money and get it, or pray for groceries and they appear, or pray to have a better job and you'll be magically made smarter and more employable. Faith can help you gather the tools needed to be successful, but its not going to just make anything magically appear. They almost made god sound like Santa Claus - if you just believe in his existence you will be magically given a life worth living just like a big pile of presents under the tree at Christmas. Faith in a jolly man dressed in red did not make that pile appear - but our hard working parents did.
And I think my main issue with the whole thing wasn't the message...I know they are kids and maybe that level of realism isnt really appropriate - I just happen to think the average kid is much smarter than we give them credit for and bullshit like that can be damaging. But when it was all over the Director gets up and thanks everyone blah blah blah then launches into this diatribe about money money money and how all this costs money and they only ask the parents to contribute very little so its an affordable program but they were going to send around the ushers with the collection plate and ask everyone to donate what they could afford to help the children ram more overly conservative tea-party-esque messages down our throat to a snappy beat. This grated on me. Just charge for tickets then, seriously, dont stand up there and in your best condescending tone try to make me feel guilty. No one sitting in those pews was a fucking idiot. We know shit costs money, tell us what you want and we will pay it, no need for all the mellow dramatics. So while they round up the collection plates she keeps talking about how this program helps kids get to know god and how this faith will make them powerful and how good it is to be accepted with the church it is support forever. Then a soloist stands up and sings a song about how even if youre not perfect you are loved by god as individuals with flaws and imperfections as part of the deal. And I got even more annoyed. That may be the crap you are spewing at plays, but its bullshit. If that was what any of the larger organized religions believed there would be so much less judgment and alot more acceptance of individuals and that isnt what happens.
I hadn't been to church in awhile. I highly doubt Ill be going back any time soon. The whole thing just rubbed me the wrong way. Youre telling these kids it ok to be an imperfect individual, its ok to have flaws, just accept jesus and have faith and no matter what everything will be ok. And yet every day you hear about people hurting, killing, abusing other people over different beliefs about religion, politics, sexuality all stemming from their faith and the rules of their faith. If the god they talk about in plays like that was REALLY the god they believed in it might not be such a hypocritical load of bullshit...but all evidence says it IS a load of hypocritical bullshit that is enforced by religious nutballs the world over every day. Thats sad to me. It would be better if that was what it really was all about, love and acceptance...but it isnt, and thats going to be a harsh dose of reality if this is the smoke being blown up their asses through their formative years. I know it was to a very small degree for me. Nothing notable ever really happened that made me turn from any faith, it was just the realization that there was no way in hell there was some great deity sitting above the clouds who judged my existence based on how much of the "cover charge" I paid every week at church. I decided many many moons ago that church, for alot of people, is just a way to make them feel better about being assholes all week long. If your faith is genuine, I applaud you and hope it does for you whatever it is you need it to...but overall I think those of genuine belief are far outnumbered by those that are there for far more self serving reasons. Going to church every Sunday does not make you a good person, living a good life, doing what you can to make the most of what you are given, working hard and abiding the golden rule...those things make you a good person. And I dont need to give a church $20 a week to do any of those things, I just have to be aware of how I effect those around me...that's free.
I will go to another play if I am invited. I will cheer that kid on until I'm hoarse because he deserves it. I wont care that any of it is religiously themed, thats not why he does it. But it will bother me....I just wont feel the need to post about it again.
On a non-religious rant note I am going to bake up some snickerdoodles today. Its shit cold out, so if the weather is gonna be all sucky I will make my house smell delicious!!!
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