Lying for God
Ok, I fail. I simply do not understand people.
I was tooling around today looking at people's posts, and I noticed someone had reposted one of those nice bible-thumper stories. Now, usually I just write them off as the useless chain-letters they are. But I decided to read this one.
Ok, it's about a kid who writes his mom this wonderful letter about the fact that he's dying. Keeping in mind that the mother was sitting in the waiting room during the kid's last 3hrs - the level of time needed to write this letter - and no doctor let her in to allow her to spend the time with her son directly.
Must be a southern hospital.
At any rate, the story was nice and it wasn't as horrific a JesusFest as usual. Actually, it met all my criteria for reposting. Then I reconsidered. I did not, in the end, repost it. The why is simple.
Did I miss the fucking boat? Did it leave while I wasn't on board? I can not understand how a person can blatantly lie in the name of their God. Is it pride? Arrogance? Is God leaning over their shoulder saying "Because thou helpest me raise and rally my followers, I shall be merciful about the lies thou tellest in my name"?
Ok, so it's a cute story. And if it were truthfully marketted as a work of fiction to help people see their God in a different light, that would be one thing. But bald-faced fucking lying about this kid and the mother and the traumatic situation? Now, before I get drawn and quartered by the "freedom of expression" nuts, I would humbly ask why it's never MY freedom of expression that's protected. We have fucking Congressmen telling us what we can and can't have access to by way of movies, books, music, and games like we're back in 1930's "Third Reich" Germany - but no one will ever question the validity of a piece of dogmatic fiction masquerading as emotional and spiritual fact!
Last time I checked, God was Moral, Just, and Honorable. Of course, he's also reformed. If you believe the Old Testament, he was once Angry, Jealous, Vengeful, Merciless, and Genocidal. Seeing as the second set of values seems to coincide with Modern America more accurately, I suppose we could call actions like these - which in the deluded minds of the writers are probably sanctioned by God Himself - a "lapse". Oops, sorry. God's having a bad week. We found him in the rectory drunk on ceremonial wine with a Nun under each arm lying to Peter again.
Of course, why I'm even ranting about this is a mystery. Because those of you who believe it's right to lie for your God will continue to do so, regardless of my viewpoint. But mark my words. You reap what you sew.
On the converse end, for those of you who believe, like me, that our higher beings see into our hearts and know our deciet, well... I'm just preaching to the choir. Which means probably no one takes anything useful away from this. Ah, well. It was worth a try.
I was tooling around today looking at people's posts, and I noticed someone had reposted one of those nice bible-thumper stories. Now, usually I just write them off as the useless chain-letters they are. But I decided to read this one.
Ok, it's about a kid who writes his mom this wonderful letter about the fact that he's dying. Keeping in mind that the mother was sitting in the waiting room during the kid's last 3hrs - the level of time needed to write this letter - and no doctor let her in to allow her to spend the time with her son directly.
Must be a southern hospital.
At any rate, the story was nice and it wasn't as horrific a JesusFest as usual. Actually, it met all my criteria for reposting. Then I reconsidered. I did not, in the end, repost it. The why is simple.
Did I miss the fucking boat? Did it leave while I wasn't on board? I can not understand how a person can blatantly lie in the name of their God. Is it pride? Arrogance? Is God leaning over their shoulder saying "Because thou helpest me raise and rally my followers, I shall be merciful about the lies thou tellest in my name"?
Ok, so it's a cute story. And if it were truthfully marketted as a work of fiction to help people see their God in a different light, that would be one thing. But bald-faced fucking lying about this kid and the mother and the traumatic situation? Now, before I get drawn and quartered by the "freedom of expression" nuts, I would humbly ask why it's never MY freedom of expression that's protected. We have fucking Congressmen telling us what we can and can't have access to by way of movies, books, music, and games like we're back in 1930's "Third Reich" Germany - but no one will ever question the validity of a piece of dogmatic fiction masquerading as emotional and spiritual fact!
Last time I checked, God was Moral, Just, and Honorable. Of course, he's also reformed. If you believe the Old Testament, he was once Angry, Jealous, Vengeful, Merciless, and Genocidal. Seeing as the second set of values seems to coincide with Modern America more accurately, I suppose we could call actions like these - which in the deluded minds of the writers are probably sanctioned by God Himself - a "lapse". Oops, sorry. God's having a bad week. We found him in the rectory drunk on ceremonial wine with a Nun under each arm lying to Peter again.
Of course, why I'm even ranting about this is a mystery. Because those of you who believe it's right to lie for your God will continue to do so, regardless of my viewpoint. But mark my words. You reap what you sew.
On the converse end, for those of you who believe, like me, that our higher beings see into our hearts and know our deciet, well... I'm just preaching to the choir. Which means probably no one takes anything useful away from this. Ah, well. It was worth a try.