I have this fancy-schmancy wireless CD player hooked up in my truck. When you turn it off the radio plays FM 89.1 which is a low frequency religious station. Periodically I will listen for a while until my stomach starts to churn. This happened one early November morning recently and I couldn't turn it off this time. It was like watching a horrifying car wreck you just can't quite seem to turn your eyes from.
The nice preacher man was talking about Thanksgiving and that other more dark holiday which had just passed. He thought this was an excellent opportunity for the faithful to give thanks that they had made it through another "season of evil". The example he gave was that of those Gawd-fearing puritans who so bravely fought the forces of evil and the occult.
They weren't so bad, the nice preacher man explained. After all, the Salem witch trials only lasted a year or so. Most secular people, and even some religious folks, don't realize what enormous good those righteous pilgrims did for humanity. They actually STOPPED witchcraft and occult activities from becoming all pervasive in American culture. Even though the mainstream liberal media has made it seem that the puritans were bad people because they were supposedly intolerant it does not mean that what they did all those years ago was without a good cause. Witchcraft had indeed become all too prevalent in their society. The whole thing has been blown out of proportion by liberal historians. Really very few people were executed. There was even a small town just outside of Salem where only two people were tried and they were BOTH found innocent! With this the nice preacher man, with a smile in his voice, concluded his sermon.
Perhaps today's Christians can take a cue from their more holy ancestors. Once again witchcraft and the occult have risen up and put a stranglehold on AmeriKa. It will only worsen if the faithful fail to act to stem the flow of evil.
Uh, yeah, that's what we need - another witch hunt. Oh my God!
18 comments:
I find it absolutely fascinating that Christianity is still fighting violently against the beliefs of the first people the tried to convert--the pagans. most of stereotypical concepts of the devil are not biblical at all. the devil of the bible never had horns but many pagan gods did, for example.
we all know that christianity scorns all other religions and calls them demonic. tragically, paganism is the most directly affected, though most christian holydays are actually pagan--especially x-mas (which is the birthday of Mithras not Christ who was born in the spring).
to this day the US recognizes most religions and gives them taxfree status. pagans do not receive this privilege.
I've always wondered what the Christian penchant for paranoia towards any other religion stems from.
the ten commandments
Its been a while. Let's see. I believe there was something in there about Thou shalt not have any other gods before me and something about worshiping false idols. I think. That led to the attitude that everyone else is going to hell? Damn.
oh, and there are also some uncanonized hebrew writings that take about fallen angels sleeping with women and teaching them magic.
bible scholars consider those texts, though, just simply the explaining of certain inconsistences in the tanak. some of these being who the sons of adam and eve married if not their sisters.
in regards to the hebrew view of other religions as opposed to the christian one, Judaism was set up as a state religion--and a racial one. its laws were implied for only the jews. when Paul began his conversion of the pagans (a conversion the Peter was not completely sold on) things became complicated, because in a sense the pagans were forced to become somewhat liberal jews (no clippity, clippity, no sader, etc).
does any of this make sense?
I have only a superficial grasp of the Jewish religion, but yes, your explanation definitely made sense. You must read a hell of a lot about this stuff.
My understanding of the Christian faith comes from first hand experience and being force-fed Bible teachings in Catholic school.
I find it interesting that even different Christian sects view their own particular rituals to be the only path to heaven while the other Christians are going to hell right along with the rest of us.
yeah, isn't that just a natural progression from the mishmash that Paul created.
dig this, Paul was once Saul and he was a christian killer (until he was struck blind on the way to Damascus). seems that his corruption of Judaic tradition leads to the christians killing each other--or at least damning each other.
where's the love?
I used to think I was heading for Buddhism. Still can't wrap my mind around that whole need to completely give up the ego. I wouldnt mind being a ball of energy floating around the universe, I just want to be a self-aware ball of energy. My dad says he thinks I'm more of a Hindu or Taoist. Crap, I hardly know anything about them.
Yah, the Jesus we met in grade school was kind, gentle, loving,forgiving, and was just a generally really good guy. Funny how the adult version carries a fiery sword instead.
what's interesting about paganism to me right now is how if you look at all religions through the pagan glass they really are the same. it is kinda spooky.
did you know that before Judaism became the state religion Yahwah had a wife?
Mrs. Yaweh? What was her role? Was she relagated to keeping His heavenly house clean and orderly, or did she have power?
I'll have to reexamine my source, but I believe she was a fertility/earth goddess while Yahweh was the war/sky god. and yeah, she had quite a sway over the people, but the patriarchs had some trouble with this as you can imagine. I do know that Yahweh refers to her as a whore (also a rather common term that most prophets used for strong women), isn't that nice?
but, anyways, I brought this up because Judeo-Christian seems to be the only religion that doesn't have a goddess along with a god. maybe it did after all.
Even Buddhism has this pairing, consider Avaloliteshira (spelling incorrect) and his consort. Yeah, technically, he is a bodhissatva and not a god but he is an important deity nonetheless.
anyways, if you bring all religions down to their mythologies their gods and goddesses all appear the same. this occurs in cultures all over the world who historically had no contact with each other. only the names are truly different. now it is true that these gods are most likely personifications of elements of nature, but it is still fascinating overall. and, christianity is not exempt from the rationalization.
(bbbblllhh, too many words)
Hm. Yah, I've heard of hundreds of examples of disparate cultures creating the same societies, from archetecture to art, and apparently to their gods. I didn't realize that so many cultures have had nearly duplicate diety pairings (besides the obvious ones such as the Romans and Greeks which of course were closely linked anyway)
Ha. Yah, its like "How dare you call God FRED when we all know his real name is GEORGE! That's it. This means war!"
precisely!
now, with all this in mind, on Saturday the moon turns to blood. It will be a total eclipse and they say the moon will turn bright orange or red. should we be concerned?
depends which wacko religion we want to align ourselves with. I'm sure the Christian preacher I quoted in this post will see it as a sign from gawd to start the killin'. Of course in Oregon we are shielded somewhat from the evil moon rays by the incessant rain.
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