Manson and Slayer
Saw Slayer and Marilyn Manson in concert last night. Not a huge fan of either band particularly but I enjoy Slayer and figure this way I can at least say I've seen Manson.
Besides I wanted to play with the religious protesters. I was geared up for the screaming, yelling, religious bigots with microphones that came out when Ratt, Cinderella and some other 80's band was in town. Nope, there was the cross guy who is outside of the downtown movie theater (yes just one) every weekend, and his buddy with the sandwich board and one other that seemed to try to blend in with the crowd. I think there were a couple of flunkies with them who were handing out "lyrics sheets". (They decided to attack "Eat Me Drink Me".... please it would have been much better to take anything else to twist into their religious propaganda.) Probably the most entertaining thing was the guy who was much louder than cross guy pointing out the religious fanatics and telling people to come "view the species" and booming over everything cross guy said.
I've never understood why these people show up. Ok, fine they show up for Manson and Slayer... no one was shocked, they might as well call the the "most protested bands" tour or something. But these protesters, yell at people going into the venue they scream how they should turn away now and not go in. Do they honestly think that will work at all? Who's going to pay the kind of money tickets are these days and then decide not to go in to see the bands because of someone screaming religious dogma at them? If they really did intend to bring people to their god, then they should try getting people to think. Fine go into the show but think about what the message the musicians are portraying and how that fits in with the life you'd like to lead. Or something. Stop using fear. Stop using hatred. Stop expecting all or nothing. Stop damning damning those who have a different point of view and different beliefs, pray for them if you must but stop damning them. Fear only leads people to be like sheep to a slaughter. Hatred only breeds more hatred. The world is not black and white, there isn't all or nothing. You can't always get two people of the same religion to agree so how can you demand all or nothing from someone from a completely different background or belief system? To damn someone is no better in most ways as hating them. These particular people were preaching about a loving God, but don't see a hypocracy in preaching about a loving god while condemning the people who do not fall down around them and beg forgiveness. I remember the saying being condemn the sin not the sinner, they seem to have missed that point.
I have no issue with Christians in general, nor Budists, Wiccans, Mormons, Muslims, ect... It's specific people and what they do in the name of Christianity or the name of God or the name of Mormonism or the name of Wicca or the Goddess. (Yep, found some Wiccans who can pervert their belief system to be just as bad as the fanatical christians.)
My position is that I did quite a bit of research and have experienced enough to make the decisions I have regarding religion and my own personal belief system. If you'd like to talk to me intelligently about it then I'll discuss whatever you'd like. But if you feel the best way to relay your religion to me is to yell and shout at me, I will either ignore you, laugh at you or attempt to engage you on my level. Yelling matches do nothing.
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Ok, now that I've been distracted and lost my train of thought... this went not where I was expecting.
Anyways, show was pretty good. Pretty interesting mix of people were there after putting those two bands together. And ran into a lot of people we knew.
Now just a packed weekend with the station to get through and life will be all good.
Hope everyone has a good weekend.
Besides I wanted to play with the religious protesters. I was geared up for the screaming, yelling, religious bigots with microphones that came out when Ratt, Cinderella and some other 80's band was in town. Nope, there was the cross guy who is outside of the downtown movie theater (yes just one) every weekend, and his buddy with the sandwich board and one other that seemed to try to blend in with the crowd. I think there were a couple of flunkies with them who were handing out "lyrics sheets". (They decided to attack "Eat Me Drink Me".... please it would have been much better to take anything else to twist into their religious propaganda.) Probably the most entertaining thing was the guy who was much louder than cross guy pointing out the religious fanatics and telling people to come "view the species" and booming over everything cross guy said.
I've never understood why these people show up. Ok, fine they show up for Manson and Slayer... no one was shocked, they might as well call the the "most protested bands" tour or something. But these protesters, yell at people going into the venue they scream how they should turn away now and not go in. Do they honestly think that will work at all? Who's going to pay the kind of money tickets are these days and then decide not to go in to see the bands because of someone screaming religious dogma at them? If they really did intend to bring people to their god, then they should try getting people to think. Fine go into the show but think about what the message the musicians are portraying and how that fits in with the life you'd like to lead. Or something. Stop using fear. Stop using hatred. Stop expecting all or nothing. Stop damning damning those who have a different point of view and different beliefs, pray for them if you must but stop damning them. Fear only leads people to be like sheep to a slaughter. Hatred only breeds more hatred. The world is not black and white, there isn't all or nothing. You can't always get two people of the same religion to agree so how can you demand all or nothing from someone from a completely different background or belief system? To damn someone is no better in most ways as hating them. These particular people were preaching about a loving God, but don't see a hypocracy in preaching about a loving god while condemning the people who do not fall down around them and beg forgiveness. I remember the saying being condemn the sin not the sinner, they seem to have missed that point.
I have no issue with Christians in general, nor Budists, Wiccans, Mormons, Muslims, ect... It's specific people and what they do in the name of Christianity or the name of God or the name of Mormonism or the name of Wicca or the Goddess. (Yep, found some Wiccans who can pervert their belief system to be just as bad as the fanatical christians.)
My position is that I did quite a bit of research and have experienced enough to make the decisions I have regarding religion and my own personal belief system. If you'd like to talk to me intelligently about it then I'll discuss whatever you'd like. But if you feel the best way to relay your religion to me is to yell and shout at me, I will either ignore you, laugh at you or attempt to engage you on my level. Yelling matches do nothing.
**************************************************************************************************
Ok, now that I've been distracted and lost my train of thought... this went not where I was expecting.
Anyways, show was pretty good. Pretty interesting mix of people were there after putting those two bands together. And ran into a lot of people we knew.
Now just a packed weekend with the station to get through and life will be all good.
Hope everyone has a good weekend.