Addendum

I posted very early this morning that Jesus said mean, fucked up things. Some of you are offended, I'm sure. Heck, I'm offended. How could I say such a thing? Well, I was reading the Westboro Baptists Church FAQ which posts much theology which is at least as logically consistent as Catholic theology and in some ways more consistent. I mean, isn't God loving everybody sort of inconsistent with the idea of hell? I love you so much I'm going to torture you for all eternity? They've got it all figured out at Westboro.

If you want to cite that FAQ in a research paper, your bibliography would look like:

"Westboro Baptist Church FAQ" God Hates Fags Assessed April 23, 2005. <http://www.godhatesfags.com/main/faq.html>

I've been thinking more about the apocalypse. Apparently, sometime around the time all the fundies get beamed into outer space, there exists years of peace under a one world government. The economy is controlled and cushioned from ups and downs. All government is secular. Ummmmm . . . so in the coming times, we have no fundies, a secular government, a universal brotherhood of man/ universal sisterhood of women, economic prosperity and a secular government. . . . and this is bad.

One the one hand, you have really easy to understand, really clear principles expressed in a straightforward way by the foremost authority on the subject: "Blessed are the peacemakers." On the other hand you have a confusing, coded account of persecution, which is difficult to decipher and written down by lesser authorities: Book of Revelations. And which do we go with now?

One interpretation is that Jesus was actually sent by Satan! And that's why Christianity is so screwed up, because we were fooled by a false prophet. This is not an avenue of thought I want to pursue. Besides, I can't imagine Satan blessing peacemakers.

The Catholic hierarchy used to try to keep bibles out of the hands of the unwashed masses. They believed that it was necessary to be in a state of grace and to have an education to understand what the bible is trying to say. Not everybody could just pick it up and understand it. You needed some context and some theology and some knowledge of the historical context in which it was recorded. Popularly, this prohibition is now seen as a terrible tyranny. But, you know, there's something to it. So, another interpretation is that Satan is misleading people by making them concentrate on, and misunderstand, a part of the bible that is weird, instead of going for the very clear, straightforward pronouncements.

Haliburton might be the Harlot of Babylon, but I can't see Bush as the antichrist, because I can't see him managing to bring about peace or a stable economy. (I know stable doesn't always mean good, but I think that gross inequality is neither stable, nor peaceful, so I'm going to rule it out.) In the future, we've got a secular, peaceful, stable government coming. Sign me up. I really can't see that as bad. Also, no fundamentalists. The apocalypse will be a coming golden age. Where do I get my mark of the beast?

I'm going to hell

No, seriously, I'm so confused by this type of religion. I see it as intrinsically disordered. fundamentalists are objectively disordered. But with help, they can change. It's best to avoid support group sort of situations because they might be overcome with temptation and fall back into fundamentalism. they should be kept separated and avoid contact with each other as much as possible.

I can't stop being sarcastic for one minute. I've done too much paper writing.

Bibliography for this post

DeMarinis, Paul, “Cincinnati.” Music as a Second Language, Lovely Music, Ltd. CD 3011, 1991

“Laughter Yoga a Break Through in Stress Management,” Laughter Yoga: Laughter Club International / Dr. Katari’s School of Laughter Yoga Assessed April 23, 2005. <http://www.laughteryoga.org/>

91Angels, Online Posting. No longer extant. <http://www.livejournal.com/users/celestehblog/66886.html?thread=15686#t15686>

O’Reilly, Bill. The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, Westwood One, April 13, 2005. “O'Reilly again warns that same-sex marriage could lead to calls for nuptials with goats” Ed. Marcia Kuntz. April 15, 2005. Media Matters for America. Assessed April 23, 2005. <http://mediamatters.org/items/200504150005>

Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, dir. and prod. Robert Greenwald, Carolina Productions. 2004. Transcript Assessed April 22, 2005. <http://www.outfoxed.org/docs/outfoxed_transcript.pdf>

“Rush Limbaugh.” April 22, 2005. Wikipedia. Assessed April 22, 2005. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_Limbaugh>

Stevens, Dana. “surfergirl: TV and Popular Culture” Slate Jan. 27, 2005. (Interview with Jeanne Hopkins half way down the page) Assessed April 23, 2005. >http://slate.msn.com/id/2112706/<

“Theory Behind BrainWave Generator.” Brain Wave Generator. October 3, 2004. Noromaa Solutions Oy. Assessed April 21, 2005. <http://www.bwgen.com/theory.htm>

Tag: Celesteh