Christians not only want to be humbled but broken. Our friend @CrispySea posted an interesting blog about the disgust he felt at a Christian response to a cool video about the vastness of the universe in comparison to the Earth and humanity (see reference). We should use our knowledge of the complexity of the universe and our realization how insignificant and small we are to promote the proper sort of humility before an angy god.
We can kind of understand (but not agree) how a Christian or other religionists believe that they should display a humility before a god that created the vast universe. But there's an even more sinsiter and self-deprecating mindset that especially Christians are subject, it's the doctrine of brokeness.
I monitor Christian radio broadcasts, and have been struck often by comments to the effect that before a Christian can properly relate to their god, not only must they be humble, but they must be broken. This means that they must come to a place where their will, their ego, and any outlook that gives them some reliance on their own internal strength must be shattered by their god so that they can be properly humbled before him. It's reminiscent of the sensory depravation techniques that the Soviet Union experimented with to see if communitst ideology could better be instilled in individuals if they were mentally broken first.
What's even worse than believing such nonsense is that Christians DESIRE to pummeled, shattered and put in their lowly place. They pray and beg their god for it. They think that they can't come to a place within themselves to have a proper appreciation (and fear) of god, they need his help to bring themselves into subservience. Any person in a free society should be disgusted by such brainwashing techniques, but I suppose it's good for religion.
Reference Tweet:
RT @CrispySea Humble - Why? - http://tinyurl.com/bkyh7c #Freedom #Bible #Atheism
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Abortion Foes Need to Sign Up for Adoptions
ChucKtheAtheisT's style isn't usually confrontational. But I have to admit I'm getting a little sick of Christian fundamentalism, the active, political ilk of which I call Christian Supremacy. Here is a little conversation I had with an evangelical Christian on the subject of abortion:
RT @ChucKtheAthesT Line up the bastards that feel the need to dictate women's reproductive rights and require that they adopt two crack babies each. #prolife
RT @littlebytesnews @ChucKtheAtheisT why bc you rather abort poor babies,or babies exposed to crack because you believe abortion is more humane? #prolife
Littlebytes,
No I don’t think only poor unwanted babies should be aborted, but yes I feel that abortion may be more humane in many cases. The main point is what kind of life would many of the unwanted, sick, and developmentally disabled lead? Perhaps if abortion foes were required to adopt unfortunates, that really would be a consciousness-raiser, and you would see a lot fewer protests that feature pictures of aborted babies and people that manipulate women into having babies that they don’t want or can’t raise themselves. And if a woman is brutally raped, and becomes pregnant, should she have to carry that baby? So if YOU specifically do not want her to have an abortion, YOU should sign up to adopt the baby. Anti-abortion Christians very easily and freely want to decide for people they don't know.
And if you think it’s the secular world that is having the most abortions, you may need to consider your own demographic. An interesting observation of a former Planned Parenthood site director (a radio interview I heard on a Christian radio station) was that around 70% of women that had abortions at her facility were in fact Christian. The women reported that it was often their fear of the Christian community in which they lived that made them clandestinely opt for abortion. They feared ostracism and abuse (and expected to receive both). So perhaps if women in Christian communities felt the love of their community, they wouldn’t feel the need to have abortions. The blood may really be on the hands of the twisted, hypocritical Christians in your own community.
A video was also disseminated (http://awe.sm/5GQKT) showed the response to a question posed to anti-abortion activists at a rally. The reporter asked what should happen to women who have abortions, if abortion was indeed illegal. Several people were interviewed, and none had a satisfactory answer. Most interviewed had obviously not even considered the question before. The consensus was that nothing should happen. Isn’t that something. Let’s make an unenforceable law.
My wife's cousin, a fundamentalist Christian knob, has 14 children and one on the way. He expects god to close his wife's womb. Who is really supporting these children? Not the father in any substantive way; it’s taxpayers and the children’s grandparents. Perhaps we should have a special tax assessment for Christians that don’t believe in birth control as well.
If YOU are going to insist on dictating the reproductive rights of others, YOU need to take the responsibility.
RT @ChucKtheAthesT Line up the bastards that feel the need to dictate women's reproductive rights and require that they adopt two crack babies each. #prolife
RT @littlebytesnews @ChucKtheAtheisT why bc you rather abort poor babies,or babies exposed to crack because you believe abortion is more humane? #prolife
Littlebytes,
No I don’t think only poor unwanted babies should be aborted, but yes I feel that abortion may be more humane in many cases. The main point is what kind of life would many of the unwanted, sick, and developmentally disabled lead? Perhaps if abortion foes were required to adopt unfortunates, that really would be a consciousness-raiser, and you would see a lot fewer protests that feature pictures of aborted babies and people that manipulate women into having babies that they don’t want or can’t raise themselves. And if a woman is brutally raped, and becomes pregnant, should she have to carry that baby? So if YOU specifically do not want her to have an abortion, YOU should sign up to adopt the baby. Anti-abortion Christians very easily and freely want to decide for people they don't know.
And if you think it’s the secular world that is having the most abortions, you may need to consider your own demographic. An interesting observation of a former Planned Parenthood site director (a radio interview I heard on a Christian radio station) was that around 70% of women that had abortions at her facility were in fact Christian. The women reported that it was often their fear of the Christian community in which they lived that made them clandestinely opt for abortion. They feared ostracism and abuse (and expected to receive both). So perhaps if women in Christian communities felt the love of their community, they wouldn’t feel the need to have abortions. The blood may really be on the hands of the twisted, hypocritical Christians in your own community.
A video was also disseminated (http://awe.sm/5GQKT) showed the response to a question posed to anti-abortion activists at a rally. The reporter asked what should happen to women who have abortions, if abortion was indeed illegal. Several people were interviewed, and none had a satisfactory answer. Most interviewed had obviously not even considered the question before. The consensus was that nothing should happen. Isn’t that something. Let’s make an unenforceable law.
My wife's cousin, a fundamentalist Christian knob, has 14 children and one on the way. He expects god to close his wife's womb. Who is really supporting these children? Not the father in any substantive way; it’s taxpayers and the children’s grandparents. Perhaps we should have a special tax assessment for Christians that don’t believe in birth control as well.
If YOU are going to insist on dictating the reproductive rights of others, YOU need to take the responsibility.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Gay Men Really Want Jesus
ChucK the AtheisT loves his friend Gregory Dickow, Evangelical pastor. Dickow comes up with some great theology on occasion. For a fundamentalist Protestant he is reasonably liberal. It’s OK to use birth control, he doesn’t kick LBTG folks out of his church, and he says that it’s pretty much anything goes in the bedroom of two consenting, married adults (man and woman, of course). That’s commendable, I suppose, but then he’ll come up with a doozie like:
“God commanded the Israelites to commit genocide on the Canaanites, because he had to protect the bloodline of Jesus.” You know how evil people are…even the kids have got to go, because they’ll just grow up and make war on God’s chosen. That just wouldn’t do for the nation that was to sire the Messiah.
So yesterday the Pastor came up with another whopper on his radio show that I’ve just got to share with you. One of his callers was despondent, because he kept on having impure thoughts about other males.
“I keep thinking about that gay stuff,” he lamented. Dickow gave his usual answer that it’s not what improper thoughts you have, but those upon which you act that are sins. Then he provided us with a far out insight. The thoughts that gay men have for one another are actually is a misplaced man-love that should be directed towards Jesus.
Well, you might ask, “Where does that leave lesbians?” Perhaps they are really looking for the Virgin Mary. That wouldn’t be quite right for Protestant theology, though. Dickow never explained this, perhaps didn’t think it through. I don’t know. But a man yearns for acceptance and warmth from men sometimes. Gay men can wean themselves from improper love of other men, if they would just yearn for Jesus instead.
(Meh...I said, “wean.”)
“God commanded the Israelites to commit genocide on the Canaanites, because he had to protect the bloodline of Jesus.” You know how evil people are…even the kids have got to go, because they’ll just grow up and make war on God’s chosen. That just wouldn’t do for the nation that was to sire the Messiah.
So yesterday the Pastor came up with another whopper on his radio show that I’ve just got to share with you. One of his callers was despondent, because he kept on having impure thoughts about other males.
“I keep thinking about that gay stuff,” he lamented. Dickow gave his usual answer that it’s not what improper thoughts you have, but those upon which you act that are sins. Then he provided us with a far out insight. The thoughts that gay men have for one another are actually is a misplaced man-love that should be directed towards Jesus.
Well, you might ask, “Where does that leave lesbians?” Perhaps they are really looking for the Virgin Mary. That wouldn’t be quite right for Protestant theology, though. Dickow never explained this, perhaps didn’t think it through. I don’t know. But a man yearns for acceptance and warmth from men sometimes. Gay men can wean themselves from improper love of other men, if they would just yearn for Jesus instead.
(Meh...I said, “wean.”)
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Filtering Software for Christian Accountability
“Why would religious folks need accountability and filtering software? Doesn't their god know their very thoughts?”
I've spent quite a lot of my time listening to Christian broadcasting. I find most interesting the advice call-in shows. Of the few I monitor regularly, I must have heard a couple of hundred calls. I’m a scientist, so as I judge my experience, I try to make myself aware of what kind of sample I must be getting. I recognize that the folks who call may be of the troubled variety. But also there are many that wish to simply voice their opinions without having a discernable difficulty in their lives that I can detect. And I have to say that, after listening closely for quite a long time now to these people, I’m not convinced that their faith has done them all that much good.
These people are just as nasty to each other as you might expect humans to be that aren’t allegedly guided by a higher power, or who are purported to have the very spirit of their god, just as prone to have sex outside of marriage, just as likely to shack up with their girlfriends, just as prone to physically and mentally abuse their wives and families. There’s no observable difference that I can tell between the religious and the secular. Their religion has not saved them in this lifetime as far as I can tell, let alone the possibility in the next. You have to wonder why they would think that any secular person would want to have anything to do with their religion after observing their example.
On Chris Fabree Live on WMBI FM Chicago (Moody Bible Institute) a former Planned Parenthood site director Abby Johnson tells us the that 78% of the abortions performed at her facility were on Christians. It’s often reported by these women that it is the fear of the judgmental Christian community in which they live that lead them to make the decision to abort their fetuses. Overtly their community gives lip service to their anti-abortion remedies, that women should allow their developing “children” to come to term, and either keep their babies or give them up for adoption. But the message that these troubled women receive subliminally is that to avoid the severe judgment, to avoid being shunned and castigated, it might be better to quietly go have an abortion without telling anyone and live in fear of being discovered as well as with the guilt that they believe that they have murdered their babies.
On Gregory Dickow’s show, Ask the Pastor (WYLL AM Chicago), many callers can’t get over the fact that many of their fellow Christians cannot obey the law of the Sabbath, and worship on Sunday instead of properly on Saturday. As much as Dickow tries to steer them back to the main message of the Gospel, it’s more important to stick to their legalistic observance rather than embrace the alleged ideal of the atonement of Christ. Jewish readers could inform me whether or not the faithful even go to temple on the Sabbath; it’s my understanding that they are suppose to do practically nothing other than think of their god. At any rate the legalists simply want to subject everyone else to their self-imposed and unnecessary ritualistic slavery.
But now I hear about religious companies that offer filtering software for Christians that have a problem with pornography or trolling for relationships with those other than their spouses. Now doesn’t that beat all? Steve Aterburn’s New Life Ministries has an advice broadcast that features Christian psychologists, New Life Live (WYLL AM Chicago). Arterburn’s org has seminars for men that have “integrity” issues. This is how it works: usually the wife catches her reprobate husband in some sexual infraction; the councelors then encourage wives to give their husbands the ultimatum of going to the seminar, then follow a regimen in which they become accountable to their wives through monitoring software and AA-type religious men’s groups. But why would religious folks need accountability and filtering software? Doesn't their god know their very thoughts? Don’t they fear or respect or really believe in the transformational properties of their own religion? I doubt it. It’s a sham.
I'm not saying that all religious folks are hypocrites, although I can imagine that there are plenty of these. And I suppose that a standard apologetic answer might be that Christians or other religionists have the same failures as anyone else. But that is exactly my point. The more I spend time listening to Christians, the more I realize that the vast majority seem to behave as if there really isn’t a god, or that it really doesn’t matter to them. Just like anyone else. Perhaps to their credit Christian broadcasters try to steer their screwy followers toward a better understanding of what their religion should be, toward a more balanced subservience to their god (or at least to keep them from torturing each other). This perhaps might result in an authentic religious observance. More likely what is lacking is the very existence of their god; what is apparent is that their self-deprecating ideals do them no good. For those who can’t help themselves, I suppose they think that they can get it right some day, or lay it at the feet of Christ or something. But in the mean time they perhaps should think about what sort of example they are setting, what kind of witness they are giving for their wonderful way of life with the King of the Universe instead of behaving like everyone else.
I've spent quite a lot of my time listening to Christian broadcasting. I find most interesting the advice call-in shows. Of the few I monitor regularly, I must have heard a couple of hundred calls. I’m a scientist, so as I judge my experience, I try to make myself aware of what kind of sample I must be getting. I recognize that the folks who call may be of the troubled variety. But also there are many that wish to simply voice their opinions without having a discernable difficulty in their lives that I can detect. And I have to say that, after listening closely for quite a long time now to these people, I’m not convinced that their faith has done them all that much good.
These people are just as nasty to each other as you might expect humans to be that aren’t allegedly guided by a higher power, or who are purported to have the very spirit of their god, just as prone to have sex outside of marriage, just as likely to shack up with their girlfriends, just as prone to physically and mentally abuse their wives and families. There’s no observable difference that I can tell between the religious and the secular. Their religion has not saved them in this lifetime as far as I can tell, let alone the possibility in the next. You have to wonder why they would think that any secular person would want to have anything to do with their religion after observing their example.
On Chris Fabree Live on WMBI FM Chicago (Moody Bible Institute) a former Planned Parenthood site director Abby Johnson tells us the that 78% of the abortions performed at her facility were on Christians. It’s often reported by these women that it is the fear of the judgmental Christian community in which they live that lead them to make the decision to abort their fetuses. Overtly their community gives lip service to their anti-abortion remedies, that women should allow their developing “children” to come to term, and either keep their babies or give them up for adoption. But the message that these troubled women receive subliminally is that to avoid the severe judgment, to avoid being shunned and castigated, it might be better to quietly go have an abortion without telling anyone and live in fear of being discovered as well as with the guilt that they believe that they have murdered their babies.
On Gregory Dickow’s show, Ask the Pastor (WYLL AM Chicago), many callers can’t get over the fact that many of their fellow Christians cannot obey the law of the Sabbath, and worship on Sunday instead of properly on Saturday. As much as Dickow tries to steer them back to the main message of the Gospel, it’s more important to stick to their legalistic observance rather than embrace the alleged ideal of the atonement of Christ. Jewish readers could inform me whether or not the faithful even go to temple on the Sabbath; it’s my understanding that they are suppose to do practically nothing other than think of their god. At any rate the legalists simply want to subject everyone else to their self-imposed and unnecessary ritualistic slavery.
But now I hear about religious companies that offer filtering software for Christians that have a problem with pornography or trolling for relationships with those other than their spouses. Now doesn’t that beat all? Steve Aterburn’s New Life Ministries has an advice broadcast that features Christian psychologists, New Life Live (WYLL AM Chicago). Arterburn’s org has seminars for men that have “integrity” issues. This is how it works: usually the wife catches her reprobate husband in some sexual infraction; the councelors then encourage wives to give their husbands the ultimatum of going to the seminar, then follow a regimen in which they become accountable to their wives through monitoring software and AA-type religious men’s groups. But why would religious folks need accountability and filtering software? Doesn't their god know their very thoughts? Don’t they fear or respect or really believe in the transformational properties of their own religion? I doubt it. It’s a sham.
I'm not saying that all religious folks are hypocrites, although I can imagine that there are plenty of these. And I suppose that a standard apologetic answer might be that Christians or other religionists have the same failures as anyone else. But that is exactly my point. The more I spend time listening to Christians, the more I realize that the vast majority seem to behave as if there really isn’t a god, or that it really doesn’t matter to them. Just like anyone else. Perhaps to their credit Christian broadcasters try to steer their screwy followers toward a better understanding of what their religion should be, toward a more balanced subservience to their god (or at least to keep them from torturing each other). This perhaps might result in an authentic religious observance. More likely what is lacking is the very existence of their god; what is apparent is that their self-deprecating ideals do them no good. For those who can’t help themselves, I suppose they think that they can get it right some day, or lay it at the feet of Christ or something. But in the mean time they perhaps should think about what sort of example they are setting, what kind of witness they are giving for their wonderful way of life with the King of the Universe instead of behaving like everyone else.
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