about covid. Jacking him up and his wife also. (Seems like marriage, especially long-term marriages, are generally a patrician thing...but that's another post.) He was going on about how plans are getting axed because of covid. He and his wife (a woman - have to specify this, in these twisted times) are cancelling their trip to south east europe, and some other big shin-dig they were planning - with a buncha dinner-party friends, i guess. Well, reading this so-boomer email (the man is in his mid-60s), i was getting jealous...ya know, the couple has the disposable income to do stuff; they don't have to worry about getting snow tires - they just go get the premium ones.
Reading of this routinely prosperous lifestyle, into like the second sentence...that's when the Holy Spirit showed up. Don't covet. That's the voice of freedom. While the world thinks yer a dirtbag, because yer not running the show, nor running from one soiree to another, the Lord doesn't impose statistically impossible standards on people. Simply this: there's a bunch of us workers, and only a few big-whigs.
The freedom the Holy Spirit offers, enables us workers to not only tell the green demon to begone, the freedom also enables jane-mailclerk to think well of big boss and his wife. Hope they don't get tire trouble, that's no fun.
Sue, I found your blog from a comment you left on a blog I follow. I usually wouldn't reply on a blog with your view on life but just wanted to reach out to you because you sound so angry and understandably so sad at the loss of your husband. My condolences. I sense you are trying to use your religion to somehow understand the mess that the world is in, particularly the current situation in the US which, as I see it from here in Australia, is in complete chaos. I know that christians do find comfort in the teachings of their bible, but I sense that like many others the laws of conformed religions cause more confusion than anything else. I believe in science and I am an aethiest and you would probably call me a "new-ager" as I do yoga and believe that the universe is full of possibility :-)...You would also use the term 'Boomer' on me, however I don't relate to that tag, or any tag to be honest..... I am not challenging your faith, I believe every individual is entitled to believe whatever they want to..but it doesn't sound like your God is in anyway alleviating your suffering...you are critical of all who don't agree with your (I don't mean to offend) narrow view of life. I feel you have had a difficult life through no fault of your own, had many challenges which you have thankfully survived and all of these form who we become. Finding where we fit in is never easy. Challenging everything that you disagree with just frustrates you and alienates those you offend. By all means you are entitled to vent your feelings on your own blog.... just wanted to let you know that i belieive being a good human being doesn't require one to live by a set of outdated man made rules written, rewritten, added too and transalated over 2000 years ago. I sincerly wish you well in all that you do and hope you can open your mind up to new possiblities. Take care.
ReplyDeleteDear Suzie, the additions, deletions, the rewritings of Scripture give me the willies. The King James worked just fine for english speaking people for a good 300 years. Then along comes Westcott and Horte (not sure of the spelling...yeah, whatever) around 1870ish, who decided to make names for themselves. But still, for most of the following 100 years, most Bibles were King James. And even i have noticed striking differences between the editions - too much like confusion. The change began ramping up during the 1970s. So yeah, it only makes sense for people to believe the Bible is science-book changeable.
Deletei also believe in science, otherwise what business would i have going to the dentist, or buying those snow tires (last year)? Thing is,there's people who claim that if you don't believe that earth is some 4.6 billion years old, then you're anti-science. Nobody was around back then, and nobody has been able to determine - some 300 million years ago - the point when fins became feet. How that fish was able to not end up on the luncheon menu, or get a date, i have no clue.
Yes, i have strong opinions - which is why i have a blog. Anyway, glad you commented, because you brought to light some things for another post...namely, that people tend to have the impression that christians are supposed to be mealy-mouthed praisey-maiseys...gives me the willies. But that's for another post.
What i won't put on this blog is the precise reason why i became serious about the absolute truth of Scripture. That was 10 years ago, around Easter. People get the impression that one should give personal details. No, it's sufficient to say along the lines of "i realized the Lord's right, i'm not...am just a sinner, headed for eternal hell, and don't want to end up there...Lord Jesus, please save me."
Lost my husband in late October 2018. Of all times of the year to lose your husband. The worst of it, was the short hours of light, and the long hours of darkness. Yeah, still don't like the darkness.
As for angry, uh that label is often (conveniently) attached to people who have the annoying habit of calling bull patties for what it is. Ya know, weirdo things that people are absolutely gushing over, these days.
Sue, i looked to see if you would respond to my comment, which I knew you would as you rarely get any comments. I think that like most people of religion who were not born into it, you reached a crisis in your life where you felt the only way to save yourself and "not end up in eternal hell" (whatever that means for you) was to find your Jesus, a last resort so to speak, which seems to be a bit of a common theme with many born again Americans. You say you call "bull patties" (which i assume are what we call 'cow pats' ie: manure) on whatever you think "weirdo" things people gush over, however I sense there is limited education (absolutely no offence intended) and wordly experience that allows you to have a less expansive view of what is going on around you. You say you believe in science because you see a dentist and snow tires??? not sure what that means, but you dispute the theory of evolution, so you don't actually believe in science. Christians can never explain dinosaurs, extinction and the ice age, but I have no problem with blind faith if that is what an individual chooses to believe. In reference to your comment that Christians are "mealy mouthed praisey maiseys"..I have no idea what that means but imagine it isn't good. I have no issues or impression of anyone of any faith, Christian, Catholic, Jew, Muslim,Scientologist, Baptist etc. but do take umbrage at people who use their "religion" as a platform to put down and criticise others. In your Gods eyes we are all supposedly sinners, I just don't see how that makes you able to sit in judgement and contempt of different views than your own. I understand that our views are worlds apart and i really do hope that whatever you needed to be saved from has happened for you.
DeleteSuzie, are you for-real??? Seriously ;/
DeleteI think religion does cause suffering, I am a deconverted Christian fundamentalist. Even this stuff with envy. LOL sometimes I wonder about the bible being elite controlled, keep the poor down, and in poverty and that they must be accepting of their poverty and losses while some live in luxury because of the "sin" of envy. What's wrong with wanting better? I do think materialism is a problem but there's a little bit too much condemnation for the poor here.
DeleteSuzie you are correct. I reached a crisis and the fundies got their claws into me. I was reaching out to an old classmate the fundies got their claws into warning what happened to me. People who feel desperate are sad or traumatized are told God will help and rescue you, and I got sucked into the whole mess, and I even had been a UU from age 17-32!
Deletehttp://fivehundredpoundpeeps.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-regret-of-religion.html
So I got sucked in for the same reasons, I am deconverted now but that is a precious 16 years now gone under the lies of religion, years spent in condmenation and being told I was never good enough and trying to reach out desperately to a God of silent treatments and inactions, and all it did was bring me pain.
I have a bachelors and had some education thought there was major holes I had to fill, with science. I am glad I learned and woke up. Reading library books on the evolution of birds and other naturalism, doesn't go along with Christian fundamentalism too long; I knew better when I was young and joined the UUs, and had my uber Catholic family condemn me, and indoctrinate me because I had "turned against God" thats why my life went so hard so I ran back to religion and a more severe form after I almost died and experienced poverty and trauma.
I feel for anyone now sucked into Christian that gives pat answers and makes claims that simply aren't real. I couldn't do it anymore so I am done. if God had answered back, the story would have been very different.
I also have my major regrets that the fundies taught me to see other people as LOST and only worthy of hell. I know see this outlook as evil and the God who created hell, would be the biggest sociopath of them all.
Luv your comment about the green demon which i must confess rears its ugly head in my life much too often ... but then my wife and I both admit that we have the seven deadly sins well covered.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe in sin anymore, yes good and evil exist, but one thing I think about with Christianity is the constant inner built in "THOUGHT CONTROL" so just merely having the wrong thought, "I wish I had a nice house too, or I wish I had a nice vacation" is deemed sinful and making a person worthy of condemnation, it is messed up.
DeleteOne thing too I discovered about Christianity or it's conservative forms is how it serves the powerful in society. Ever heard the saying "Religion is opium of the people". Well in religions that teach that it is wrong to envy wealth or their betters or that the rich deserve their blessings from God while the poor are condemned, there is some messed up thinking there that is advanced. I got tired of being told my poop sandwich and poverty was God's plan for my life, and other nonsense. I may be poor for life now, at least have some kind friends, but life as a poor person is a lot easier without the Christian oppression added to it.
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