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| the pressure to be Christian |
| 03.28.04 (8:55 am) [edit] |
It's been my experience that if you ask most people in the US (and especially in the South) if they are "Christian", they will answer "yes, of course!". Even if they don't attend church, have never actually read the Bible, and/or don't model their behavior in any way after the example of Jesus. Even if they participate in activities on a daily basis that contradict their professed religious beliefs.
There seems to be a great deal of pressure to be Christian. From little old ladies to career criminals. Why are people so afraid to say "I just don't believe in all that" if they really don't?
If I say, for example, that I believe that drinking, smoking, cheating, and having unmarried sex are sinful, yet I continue to do these things without remorse or attempts to stop, how strongly do I really believe that they are sinful? Are these really my personal beliefs or just what I know I'm supposed to say as a "Christian"? Am I really so weak that I cannot make changes in my behavior or do I simply not really believe in it? I think more people should ask themselves this question. Coming from a conservative Baptist family, I know that one problem with doing this is that some claim having "faith" means belief without question, even if it doesn't make sense.
I just don't understand the point in having religious beliefs that don't translate into everyday life. Of course, we're only human and we all use bad judgement on occasion, but I'm talking about something deeper than that. I think it's a problem that most people don't question what they are told by their parents or religious leaders or even politicians. And I'm not trying to say that Christians are hypocrites or anything like that. I'm just saying that often I find that people cannot have a serious discussion or debate about religion or morality or defend their personal stance on issues, and it's often because they have never questioned what they were taught and have never come to terms with why they believe what they believe and how these beliefs affect their lives.
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| She |
| 03.23.04 (8:43 pm) [edit] |
Patsy:
She was the kind of woman who made you look twice. Masculine at first glance, tall and slim and angular; but after a closer look, unmistakably feminine, soft and warm and completely irresistible.
Charity:
She was like Nature herself--complex, colorful, and powerful. At her discretion, she could warm you, soak you, strike you down, or blow you away.
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| the outsider |
| 03.12.04 (3:04 pm) [edit] |
Sitting in a metal folding chair in the gymnasium, she slowly scanned the room. She had a habit of watching people. They fascinated her. She always wondered what they were really thinking. She remembers doing this in church as a young girl. Looking around and wondering if everyone else was as bored as she was, if everyone else was only pretending to pay attention, if everyone else occasionally did hear something the preacher said and was as appauled by it as she was.
The teacher who was apparently in charge of this meeting began, "Okay, ladies, we're here to go over the rules for the field trip.......". She pretty much stopped listening at that point. They passed around a four page hand-out, for Christ's sake, why do they have to go over all this again like we can't read it ourselves?
She had noticed a sort of pattern in the room. Lots of seasonal sweaters, perpetual smiles, and Ralph Lauren hair. Maybe it's an age thing, she thought. She guessed she was about ten years younger than most of them. She glanced down at the cargo pants and black t-shirt she was wearing. She was glad her tattoo wasn't showing right now. She was conspicuous enough without that. The other mothers seemed to know each other by name, as well as the teachers. They felt free to interrupt the speaker with a humorous comment now and then. She wondered if they socialized together after hours.
A woman in the back was talking about going shopping at the mall like it was the ultimate in pleasure. She found this amusing, as she thought shopping all day at the mall sounded like an effective form of torture. She was thinking that these events would be much more pleasant if they served cocktails....or pot brownies. She laughed to herself and resolved to put this in the suggestion box. She wondered for a minute how she got here. Not [u]here[/u] in this room but here at this point in her life. You'd think she would be used to the feeling by now. Being the outsider. She'd felt this way as long as she could remember.
Her daughter came over, climbed in her lap, and hugged her. She squeezed back. With the exception of the blond hair, the girl looked just like her mother. The child was bright. Well behaved. Pretty, too. Seemed to make friends easily. Maybe she hadn't completely screwed this up, even if she didn't really know what she was doing. And maybe fitting in wasn't always a good thing. Did she really want to wear knit pants, defer to a husband, sing in the choir at church, have her hair set at the salon, forget how to listen to music? What misery! She knew she wouldn't trade her life, her self, for any of theirs.
Still..........sometimes it's lonely being the freak.
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| sister speaks the truth |
| 03.10.04 (6:52 am) [edit] |
Insights from Tori Amos:
"so you can make me cum
that doesn't make you Jesus"
"you don't know the power you have
with that tear in your hand"
"I've been raising up my hands,
drive another nail in.
Just what God needs-
one more victim"
"Sometimes I hear my voice
and it's been here--
silent all these years"
"I think it's that girl.......
I think there are pieces of me
you've never seen.
Maybe she's just pieces of me
that you've never seen."
"Years go by
will I still be waiting
for somebody else
to understand?"
"If you want inside her, well,
boy, you better make her raspberry swirl"
"Look I'm standing naked before you.
Don't you want more than my sex?
I can scream as loud as your last one,
but I can't claim innocence"
"I could just pretend that you love me
And I would lose all sense of fear.
But why do I need you to love me?
When you can't hold
What I hold dear?"
"When you gonna make up your mind?
When you gonna love you as much as I do?"
"Sometimes, I think you
want me to touch you.
How can I?
When you build the great wall
around you?"
"With their nine inch nails
and little fascist panties
tucked inside the heart
of every nice girl"
"He said
'You're really an ugly girl
but I like the way you play'
And I died
But I thanked him.
Can you believe that?"
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| Gays are terrorists? |
| 03.03.04 (7:16 am) [edit] |
This would be funny if it wasn't so scary. Unfortunately, it is the prevailing attitude where I live. The following is an advertisement from our local newspaper made by a Church of Christ preacher. Every week, the ad placed by this church rants about the evils of homosexuality. One wonders why the preacher is so focused on this particular "sin", but that is another story. Here it is:
"The courts and media are pushing and publicizing, not an alternative lifestyle, but a gross perversion of God's creation. God is the author of life, man, marriage, and doing the right thing. God's word says that marriage consists of a man and a woman who in turn create a new home for procreation (Gen, 1:27-28: 2:18-25; Eph. 5:21-33). The Bible says that any other sexual relationship before or instead of that between a husband and wife is a sin that God will judge (Heb. 13:4). Same-sex relationships are not marriages, but are called by God unnatural, unseemly, and an abomination to Him. It was the reason for the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as the Roman Empire. Americans, wake up. Instead of glorifying this hideous spectacle, we need to write our officials who can make laws to stop it. This would be our best and only chance for homeland security."
Apparently, the gays are responsible for the fall of the Roman Empire and are now a threat, not only to the sanctity of marriage, but also to national security. Who knew that we were so powerful?
I have to say that I don't have a problem with the idea of being judged by God. I do have a problem with being judged by the C.O.C. and every other self righteous, judgemental, unenlightened redneck in this city, especially if that judgement leads to discrimination against me and my family. How dare someone else tell me how to live my life, what is right for me, what God wants?
These Republicans/Conservatives /Christians go on and on about how gay marriage is a threat to heterosexual marriage, but no one has explained what that means. In what way are the homos a threat? How could gay marriage possibly have an effect on straight marriage? How does if affect the neighbors on my block if the lesbians down the street (my partner and I) get married? Is the old lady next door going to say "Oh, I didn't know I could marry a woman" and leave her husband and go out cruising gay bars for a big old dyke? That's ridiculous.
Would gay marriage/civil unions not increase the number of couples in a marital relationship and increase the number of children living in a household with married parents? Do they not know how many gay couples are raising children already? Don't these families deserve to be recognized and protected under the law? I mean, the whole point here is to promote the family, right?
And you know what? If we truly have seperation of church and state, religion should not be a factor in this argument anyway. "Because God says so" should not be the reasoning for enacting a law. Whatever the Bible says about homosexuality is not relevant to whether equal rights are given to tax paying citizens. These people should not be allowed to use the constitution to enforce their own morality on everyone else.
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