Existential Ennui

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Existential Ennui

Tag Archives: right-wing fundamentalists

Are You Too Good to Be True?

16 Friday Aug 2013

Posted by Sherry in Bible, Crap I Learned, Essays, Evangelism, fundamentalism, Jesus, Satire, social concerns

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

Christians, giving, religion, right-wing fundamentalists

come-on-guys-lookI find a lot of hubris among Christians. I have a right to speak on it, since I consider myself one.

I find a lot of so-called Christians who claim to know a lot about God. They tell me what God wants all the time. They tell me that the bible is “his word”, not quite in his own handwriting, but near enough.

All the while, I find that they don’t seem to have read it very carefully, although they are certainly masters of the quote. You know what I mean. You say something, and they say: “The bible says. . . . ” a quote that appears to prove their point.

So maybe if you are a real Christian, one of those born-again types, maybe on the way out of your born again experience, they give you the code book, you know, the one entitled “1001 Sayings of God: All you need to get by in a Secular world.”

I came to that conclusion because as they say, when you have eliminated all the impossibilities, what remains, no matter how improbable, must be true. And I have eliminated all the other possibilities. It is the only way you can claim to “know the bible” yet be so ignorant of so much in it. At least the Jesus parts.

That’s what I find so bizarre. It’s true you know. Among the great mass of basically unchurched or poorly churched, “I can read for myself, thank you”, you find an inordinate reliance on what Paul said, and very little about what Jesus said. Even when what Jesus said is attested sometimes by three Gospel writers, while Paul never met the living man.

It’s very true that the Gospels are not history and aren’t meant to be so. They were evangelizing documents, meant to state the case of the believing community of which they were from. They were “this is what we believe and why”. Paul is an entirely different genre. First, many of his letters were not written by him, but the writer wishes to claim Paul’s authority. So read agenda into that. Second, Paul is often writing to address problems within a local church, problems we are mostly unaware of, so therefore it’s very hard to judge the breadth of his statements.

The point is not to discuss Paul, but rather to remind folks of something Jesus talked about as regards “doing good”.

Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. (Matthew 6:1-4)

See I gave it to you in the KJV version!

If you read Jesus, you find that a good deal of his anger is directed at Pharisees, those who would be similar to the born-agains in our time. They talked God and rules of Torah all day and night. They made sure everyone saw how pious they were. They demanded strict adherence to the rules of Judaism, so much so in fact that they regularly turned their back on God’s people as being sinful and untouchable. Certainly the undesirables were denied much as being “unclean”.

Our born-agains are similar. They are always talking God, always praising God, always talking about what God hates and that if you aren’t like them you are condemned. They hate the sin, but “love the sinner” which amounts to shunning the sinner and making the sinner’s life miserable all the while lovin’ him to death in their hearts. Which feeds exactly no one, nor shelters them, nor cures  them.

But the Pharisaic failing that I find worse, and maybe Jesus did too, was the degree to which they strutted about showing off how pious they were by comparison. They would have called it “setting a good example” no doubt, but Jesus just seemed to find it prideful.

I know that atheists and agnostics are as committed to good causes as the believer. I know they give of their money and their time. They care about the earth and the poor. The see it as a human thing to do–help their neighbor. Unfortunately the right-wing evangelical often does it for less honorable reasons–it’s the way to salvation. So it gets personal with them. They do it not because they are human but because they are told that there ain’t no heaven without it.

And that’s not terrible. It still serves the cause. The rich, often from a sense of guilt, throw money around philanthropically speaking. They build wings on hospitals and show up at “events” to lend their celebrity. That too still serves the cause.

But what about that Matthew thing?

About not letting the left hand know what the right hand is doing? See that’s the part about NOT TALKING ABOUT WHAT A GENEROUS PERSON YOU ARE. Who needs to know that? God already does, I’m sure you would agree. And making me feel small by comparison is certainly no way to encourage me.

See Jesus said that that makes you no different from a Pharisee, or a criminal among other criminals. And your reward is the pats on the back you receive from each other, not what you are ostensibly working toward: salvation.

And you want to know what? If I think of the instances when somebody has told me “chapter and verse” about all the things they have done for the unfortunate, you know what? EVERY time, it was a “born again” type, a “the bible is the WORD of God” type, a “holy roller” who tells me that they read the bible every single day and praise God all day and night. And it was always in response to their saying something racist, or at least selfish in that they didn’t want to pay taxes to help some “other” group. It was their “defense”.

And how un-Christ like is that? I guess they missed Matthew 6: 1-4.

You tell me.

As Gandhi said,

“I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

I have to agree.

By the by, there is a book about losing sight of the purpose of giving called, The Spiritual Danger of Doing Good, by Peter Greer. Some may like to take a look.

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The Palinator Syndrome Strikes Again

25 Monday Jul 2011

Posted by Sherry in Budget, Congress, Economy, fundamentalism, Humor, Islamophobia, Satire, terrorism, Voting, What's Up?

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Congress, debt ceiling, deficit, economy, Islamophobia, Oslo, Reince Priebus, right-wing fundamentalists, RNC, Scott Walker, terrorism, voting, Wisconsin

We all know that Sista Sarah is the Queen of Whine, but really this does take the cake.

First we had John Bolton, Mr. Unconfirmable, tell us that this was “a classic terrorist effort” and specifically “Islamic terrorism.”

Then of course plenty of other right-wingers did the same.

What are we talking about? The Oslo massacre. Of course, it turned out that the actor was a Christian fundamentalist, steeped in a whole lot of anti-Muslim hate.

So who are the victims? The dead? The wounded? The family of those slain and injured? The nation of Norway? My heavens no.

The real victims are the right-wing anti-Muslim movement. Gracious me.

So says the right-wing rag FrontPageMag. Their cause has been harmed by the Norwegian who went on a shooting spree killing dozens. Now the Left will be using the event to point the finger at them. After all it was “perfectly reasonable” for everyone to assume that the Oslo killings were at the hands of Islamic Jihadists.

But the Left will use Breivik to divert attention from worldwide jihad, to advance their cultural Marxism, and to demonize the defenders of freedom.

Yeah, whine on you awful people.That is some serious chutzpah. . .or as Michele says Choots-pa.

♦

I was watching the Daily Rundown with Chuck Todd this morning on MSNBC. He had a couple of “expert” Washington watchers. Both agreed that this Congress may well be the most dysfunctional of all time. One of the guys went on to say something that I think explains it all quite well.

Basically he claimed that both parties now act like parliamentary parties, in other words, they are entirely ideological. There is no longer a middle. But they are not in a parliamentary system of government where the majority simply enacts its laws. Instead the GOP is now functioning as a party of NO to every and all legislation proposed by the Democrats. Their goal is not to govern and do what is right for the country, but to deny the other Party of any “wins.” Newt Gingrich authored this manner of retaliation back in the 90’s. It is in full flourish now.

The Democrats did the same basic thing between 2006-08, though we of course would argue that it was to effectively stop the horrible actions of the Bush administration. In any case, he argued, there is no courage exhibited by anyone to do the right thing–only the politically “right” thing. 

Perhaps we will see the beginnings of a new party, or just a growing number of folks running as “Independents”, beholden to neither side, who will act on behalf of us. We can but hope.

♦

Remember the lovely Reince Priebus? You know who I mean. Head of the RNC? Well I was reading a post from Brilliant at Breakfast yesterday about his call-out to the faithful to send money in the wake of the Democrats and their “insatiable hunger for ever higher taxes, greater government growth, reckless spending and massive trillion-dollar deficits”.

Jurassicpork has coined (or at least I think he/she has) a new term, that frankly left me chuckling on and off all day. Reince Priebus = Rinsed Penis.

Well, heck a laugh is a laugh…and I thought it a mighty good one.

♦

Oh, and I also read Moe’s great post on the deficit. The chart really explains it all. I just wish Obama would grab some prime time, set up the charts, and SHOW the public the real numbers.

♦

Reason 3,739 which Rethuglians are unfit to “govern.” Remember our old friend Scott Walker? Ya know who I mean, union buster and about to be recalled Walker? Well the thug is at it again. Among other awful things, his band of GOPers and he have managed to disenfranchise tons of Wisconsinites with their new voter ID law.

We all know that this is aimed at reducing the number of Democrats able to vote, and thus help them win elections when they are truly not the favored candidate. But knowing that the Democrats will do everything in their power to help seniors, students, and the poor to get those ID’s, Walker figured out another good ploy to deny the desires of the people.

At that would be? Why closing ten DMV offices statewide–all of which are in heavily Democratic locations and extending the hours to get those voter ID’s in typically Republican areas.

The GOP is upfront: they will change the rules to cheat and win. Meanwhile a  Brennan Center for Justice study shows that voter fraud nationally accounts for 44 one millionths of one percent of all votes cast.

Does Walker think that voters won’t remember?

♦

Gosh, I went and gone and done it again. Screwed up.

A week or so ago, the Contrarian and I went to the SS office to get my name changed. (Okay so I am a bit lazy, but really there was no good reason to do it until now when we are about to apply to SS in a few months.)

So anyway, I arrived with a “copy” of my marriage certificate as requested. Except they corrected that to the “original” so a trip to the Clerk of the Court ensued. Back to the SS office and I finished the paperwork. She swung the screen around and I tried to make out the information on the screen with my bifocals. And said it looked “fine.”

I got my card. Middle name wrong. I changed my middle name from Ann to my maiden name of McCameron. I just use the initial M. So I call them.

Yeah, you guessed it, I gotta go back. I failed to catch THEIR error. My bad.

A fine example of bureaucracy in action.

 

 

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