Religious ranting. Read at your own risk.
Bad, bad, bad gig. Gotta remember to be getting my hair done next time Jeff calls.
Bad enough it was a 4:30 call for a 6 p.m. downbeat. Bad enough that the sanctuary had dry ice smoke in there. Bad enough that they crammed one more person into the string section, which left me bowing into a potted plant. Bad enough they had a PowerPoint show of the destruction of the WTC and Pentagon going on while we played something from "Saving Private Ryan."
But oh, when the minister started to talk, I was just plain embarrassed to be American. Maybe even embarrassed to be a human.
He invoked God and Jesus, which is to be expected in the Baptodome. I got squeamish when he talked about their mission of spreading Christianity, naturally, but the corker was when he went on and on about the virtues of Dubbya being "a practicing Christian who will bring the truth of Jesus' teaching to the United States in these troubled times." Then, as the coup de grace, he asked the congregants to pray for the sufferers in the US and other lands, "especially the ones who pray to a God who is not the true God."
Where...where does he get off doing that?
Where does he get off showing his ignorance? Hey, buddy, I do pray to the same God YOU do, only I get to dial direct instead of using an operator. And guess what - so do the Muslims you're so freakin' scared of, and they're more humane than you by a long shot.
I know that evangelizing is part of Christianity, and, if I'm not mistaken, Islam as well. I know that I was in THEIR church and subject to THEIR worldview. But shouldn't they be questioning whether they have any right to supplant what seems to have been God's plan - to present Him/Her/Itself in whatever form will help people to be the best they can be - even if that form is something internal and not a "God" at all?
It made me sick to see a thousand people all crying out "Amen! Amen!" to this man's self-righteous bigotry. I can't work there anymore. I'm sorry, Eddie and Jeff, I like you guys a lot, but your church represents everything that the Muslims and Jews have been rolling their eyes about for centuries.
Get. A. Clue.
And get a new 'cellist.
Bad enough it was a 4:30 call for a 6 p.m. downbeat. Bad enough that the sanctuary had dry ice smoke in there. Bad enough that they crammed one more person into the string section, which left me bowing into a potted plant. Bad enough they had a PowerPoint show of the destruction of the WTC and Pentagon going on while we played something from "Saving Private Ryan."
But oh, when the minister started to talk, I was just plain embarrassed to be American. Maybe even embarrassed to be a human.
He invoked God and Jesus, which is to be expected in the Baptodome. I got squeamish when he talked about their mission of spreading Christianity, naturally, but the corker was when he went on and on about the virtues of Dubbya being "a practicing Christian who will bring the truth of Jesus' teaching to the United States in these troubled times." Then, as the coup de grace, he asked the congregants to pray for the sufferers in the US and other lands, "especially the ones who pray to a God who is not the true God."
Where...where does he get off doing that?
Where does he get off showing his ignorance? Hey, buddy, I do pray to the same God YOU do, only I get to dial direct instead of using an operator. And guess what - so do the Muslims you're so freakin' scared of, and they're more humane than you by a long shot.
I know that evangelizing is part of Christianity, and, if I'm not mistaken, Islam as well. I know that I was in THEIR church and subject to THEIR worldview. But shouldn't they be questioning whether they have any right to supplant what seems to have been God's plan - to present Him/Her/Itself in whatever form will help people to be the best they can be - even if that form is something internal and not a "God" at all?
It made me sick to see a thousand people all crying out "Amen! Amen!" to this man's self-righteous bigotry. I can't work there anymore. I'm sorry, Eddie and Jeff, I like you guys a lot, but your church represents everything that the Muslims and Jews have been rolling their eyes about for centuries.
Get. A. Clue.
And get a new 'cellist.