More and then more
Perhaps I've just embarked on my very own personal journey. While previously sensitivities such as the issue of religion, and how I dislike the efforts of evangelists trying to force their doctrine of love upon me has frustrated me to the point of 'pulling hairs' (THINK: minishorts grabbing a palm load of hair and pulling outwards), this journey has led me to a marathon-like reading of related articles, websites, blogs.
Didn't I reiterate already that I was am not the first to be offended by your efforts that do nothing, of course, but mean good. Like many others, I'm merely being ungrateful, and in the process of trying to justify my sinful rejection of God, I'm always delighted to find others who think alike.
My father's Protestant, my mother's a Taoist, as for me, I'm an agnostic believer who slants more to the Taoist sect, but have been going to church since a kid. For the past five years, I've rejected the Word in favour of offering unclean incense before the table of 'false idols', and yet recently, I've grown up and decided that God is manifest in every living thing (read this as the very basis of Taoism) and have been divinely told (I meditate, go figure) that God understands and God loves me for me regardless, and that being the reason why I've started attending Sunday service again.
So Caleb, Catholic by birth and more insightful and prolific than me, has posted about the fight club he chooses to root for. Which led on to that significant post by Tym, which again led me to Scalzi's My Jesus forgives Your Jesus carsticker site, which led on to a fantastically new term (coined in 2004, though) for those which we all know as evangelists, who tell people that they're spreading the Word as God's servants.
Excerpts from this post:
What makes a Levitican, in my book at least, is the willingness to transmute one's beliefs into hate and intolerance, to deprive others of rights they ought to enjoy. Leviticans have ever been with us. They quoted the Bible to justify slavery. They quoted the Bible to try to keep women in the home. They quoted the Bible to keep the races pure. They quote the Bible to try to keep gays and lesbians from the benefits of marriage. And each time, after they've quoted the Bible to their satisfaction, they go out and use that justification for their hate to do terrible things.
The next time you, whether you're Catholic, Buddhist, Taoist, Christian-who-is-not-Christian enough, gets approached by a Levitican, ask him if he eats pork, or if he's already circumsized.
I will adore God in my very own ways, thank you very much, and you know, you can't really teach someone what is the right way to love another.
May 18th, 2005 at 9:32 am
Forget Leviticus. Leviathan is da bomb.
May 18th, 2005 at 9:35 am
anyway… they say if you’re damn good at meditation, levitating one metre above the ground shouldn’t be much of a problem.
How apt, all of this, especially since Star Wars fever is high. The Force is strong in us, I see.
May 18th, 2005 at 9:38 am
They have another name; you could call them modern day Pharisees too. Judging was and is never human’s forte, but well, would they listen?
I doubt there’s any rite way to love another. We love in our own special unique ways. That also makes each and every one of us so different.
Minishorts rawk!:razz:
May 22nd, 2005 at 12:46 pm
I have never heard of meditators being able to truly levitate. All recorded efforts have been a sort of hopping from a squating position, which even non-meditators can do. But magicians seem to be able to do it easily on TV. Does God favour magic over religion? Meaning that no group has a monopoly on God.