Do you want your plumber telling you that you’re going to hell?
If you don’t have Chaos Theory blogrolled, you should. It’s one of the most entertaining and eclectic current events /gossip /political /humor blogs out there. In fact, I’ve never seen one quite like it.
This blog entry about a Salon.com letter frightened me more than any of the Al Qaeda nuclear bomb threats going around lately.
I’ll post the letter in a minute, but may I just say first…
Using Jesus, the Bible, or any facet of Christianity to bully or belittle people is MORE ANTI-CHRISTIAN THAN BEING AN ATHEIST!
Jesus was about love and forgiveness. Hell, one of his closest confidants Mary Magdalen was a prostitute. Even as He died on the cross, he asked his Father to forgive those killing him. With His dying breath He did NOT say, “All of society, shun, ridicule, belittle, judge, and harass those who do not believe in me!”
With Bin Laden and other terrorists, they say they are doing what they do because of their faith, but really it’s because they are using their faith to boost their self-esteem and justify their quest for all-encompassing power. Few would argue that their “live the way I tell you to or die” viewpoints are a detriment to mankind, and purely evil (for those who believe in evil). Are fundamental Christians in this country really that far off from this line of thinking?
After reading this letter, I believe they’re closer than I thought. (I added the bolding to some of the text)
“Five years ago I moved with my husband from a blue state to a red state to be closer to his family. The cultural differences are enormous, and I still have not adjusted. One of the things I have noticed are crosses and fish symbols next to businesses in the phone book.
My two experiences with overtly Christian businesses have been as follows: A kitchen remodeling company initially refused to work with us because they thought my husband and I were “living in sin” since I didn’t take my husband’s last name when we got married (which is a sin in and of itself out here, but that’s another article). We also got a lecture on Jesus and were asked if we were Christians, with the implication being that they wouldn’t work with us if we weren’t (they were an astronomically good deal, so we did the non-Christian thing and lied our asses off; I’m a lapsed Christian and my husband is non-Christian).
The second business was a tiling company. As the worker was tiling a wall he proceeded to berate me for not having children, implying that my decision was an “affront to God.” I chose not to have children for medical reasons, none of which are his business.
Why did I put up with this? Well, besides good pricing, I’d be hard pressed not to find a business around here that proselytizes in one form or another. After reading Lynn Harris’ article, I’m now more concerned that the “Christian business model” is becoming widespread. Make no mistake, the businesses that I’ve come into contact with have obviously had no problems with harassment and discrimination. These so-called Christians seem intent on driving non-Christians to second-class citizenry, if they’re allowed to be citizens at all. I’m so fearful of the direction this country is headed in, I can hardly stand it. On the bright side though, my husband and I have become excellent do-it-yourselfers over the past few years.”
Most of us who don’t live in the South think, “If some fucking bastard that I’m paying to tile my kitchen starts talking about my lack of children, I’d kick him out of my house!” But we don’t have to live in that town. The repercussions would not be worth standing up for your principles.
Scary, scary, scary.
When I was a kid (maybe 11?) I was home alone when the TV repair man came over. First, Ummmm… gee Mom, that was a great idea.
Back to the story. The TV repairman decided that he should fill my head with lots of scary things. He told me all about looking for people with 666 birthmarks and other VERY SCARY (to a 10 year old) things. I had nightmares for weeks.
People are freaks.
Comment by RisibleGirl — Monday, August 8, 2005 @ 1:43 pm
That might be the scariest thing I’ve ever heard of.
Comment by mac — Monday, August 8, 2005 @ 2:28 pm
We got a fair amount of that in Colorado though. More Hawk (at work) than me (at home) but it was there.
Comment by eden — Monday, August 8, 2005 @ 5:14 pm
I moved to a very religious state (UTAH) and have been told several times I am going to hell for various reasons. Once I told someone that my husband and I, before we were married, gave our birth daughter up for adoption. I was told how very wrong it was in the eyes of God for a mother to “abandon” her child. My response was that I think God favors adoption since HIS SON was raised by ANOTHER MAN. Or was Joseph there just so Mary didn’t look like a whore to the rest of the world?
Yeah…I get why you are scared.
Comment by Unnamed Source — Tuesday, August 9, 2005 @ 9:01 am
Holy crap! First the religious zealots don’t want us taking birth control. Then they don’t want us having an abortion. But I have to tell you that this is the first I’ve ever heard of someone saying that giving a baby up for adoption was a sin.
If I had given a baby up for adoption and someone said that to me, I’d probably still be serving time on assault charges!
Your response was kickass though.
In my experience, people who judge and say things like that are the type who go home and beat their spouses or molest their children or something horrible. They have the worst skeletons in their closet.
Comment by drunkenlagomorph — Tuesday, August 9, 2005 @ 9:38 am
Amen, sister! I am a Christian, but as a bells-and-smells gay-friendly Episcopalian, I’m not “the right kind” *rolls eyes*.
The Livejournal Dark_Christian community is a good place to keep an eye on News of the (Domininist) Weird.
And spouse/child abuse is scarily common in hard shell denominations like that … all justified through proof texting, of course.
Comment by Charlotte — Tuesday, August 9, 2005 @ 8:33 pm
I think that’s REALLY SCARY.
Comment by Brian — Wednesday, August 10, 2005 @ 11:19 am
Not even family would convince me to move to such a back-asswards place like that. I’d crucify the damn plumber with a cross made pipes.
Comment by Heliologue — Thursday, August 18, 2005 @ 12:34 pm