Thursday, May 25, 2006
Jesus loves you.... but not YOU.
I have been thinking a lot about religion lately. From a very detached perspective I suppose. I'm not interested in getting religion or participating in religion. But I'm not actively resisting religion in any way at the moment.
Recently Rob showed me a snippet from Time magazine about the XXXchurch. They are a Christian organization which targets people who want to leave the adult film industry and/or people who are addicted to porn. The blurb was about some trouble they had because they wanted this religious publishing company to create bibles with a something to the affect of "Jesus loves porn stars" printed on them. The publishing company was unhappy about that. I think the whole thing was funny. I can appreciate what they are trying to do and the irreverant lengths they are going to. I can appreciate religious people with a sense of humor.
What really gets my dander up though is the hippocracy that many religions (errr... can you tell I'm talking about Christianity here?) espouse when they get all joyful about Christ's love but support discrimination and hate. I'm also terribly creeped out by the gleeful proselytizing that many really devout Christians (errr.... BAPTISTS are the worst) tend to do. They seem drunk with this culty emotion and it really makes me uncomfortable. I'm brought to joyful tears by the birth of my son. I am not brought to joyful tears by the resurrection of Christ.
Don't get me wrong. I believe in God. Well, at least some higher power. And I think the teachings of Christ are admirable. If everyone truly lived by much of that morality, we'd live in a much better place. But so many people are liars and cheaters and only out for themselves at any costs. And some of these people call themselves Christians. I remember the Young Life group when I was in HS. The youth minister who headed it all up was a subsitute teacher as well. I think his name was Scott. I'm sure he thought of himself of hip and cool and turning kids on to the word of God and whatnot. But at the one YL meeting I went to, there were several girls giving blowjobs in the bathroom and pretty much everyone else was there to figure out the logistics of hooking up afterwards or buying drugs. The few kids that were there for the "word of God" were these saccharine sweet, holier than thou robotrons who spend their days in school tormenting anyone who was different than them. I'm the last person to pass judgement on cattiness, sluttiness or drug use but I think the failure of Christian ideals is that no one who is living in reality takes them seriously.
I've been asked many times over the course of my teenage and adult years if I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior. The answer is always no because I am in charge of being my own personal savior. It is up to me to live my life as a good person. My code of conduct tends toward that of Libertarian politics. No one should bug me about doing whatever I want provided it doesn't infringe upon the rights and freedom of anyone else. If my beliefs coincide with those of any particular organized religion, that's great but if not, oh well.
Recently Rob showed me a snippet from Time magazine about the XXXchurch. They are a Christian organization which targets people who want to leave the adult film industry and/or people who are addicted to porn. The blurb was about some trouble they had because they wanted this religious publishing company to create bibles with a something to the affect of "Jesus loves porn stars" printed on them. The publishing company was unhappy about that. I think the whole thing was funny. I can appreciate what they are trying to do and the irreverant lengths they are going to. I can appreciate religious people with a sense of humor.
What really gets my dander up though is the hippocracy that many religions (errr... can you tell I'm talking about Christianity here?) espouse when they get all joyful about Christ's love but support discrimination and hate. I'm also terribly creeped out by the gleeful proselytizing that many really devout Christians (errr.... BAPTISTS are the worst) tend to do. They seem drunk with this culty emotion and it really makes me uncomfortable. I'm brought to joyful tears by the birth of my son. I am not brought to joyful tears by the resurrection of Christ.
Don't get me wrong. I believe in God. Well, at least some higher power. And I think the teachings of Christ are admirable. If everyone truly lived by much of that morality, we'd live in a much better place. But so many people are liars and cheaters and only out for themselves at any costs. And some of these people call themselves Christians. I remember the Young Life group when I was in HS. The youth minister who headed it all up was a subsitute teacher as well. I think his name was Scott. I'm sure he thought of himself of hip and cool and turning kids on to the word of God and whatnot. But at the one YL meeting I went to, there were several girls giving blowjobs in the bathroom and pretty much everyone else was there to figure out the logistics of hooking up afterwards or buying drugs. The few kids that were there for the "word of God" were these saccharine sweet, holier than thou robotrons who spend their days in school tormenting anyone who was different than them. I'm the last person to pass judgement on cattiness, sluttiness or drug use but I think the failure of Christian ideals is that no one who is living in reality takes them seriously.
I've been asked many times over the course of my teenage and adult years if I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior. The answer is always no because I am in charge of being my own personal savior. It is up to me to live my life as a good person. My code of conduct tends toward that of Libertarian politics. No one should bug me about doing whatever I want provided it doesn't infringe upon the rights and freedom of anyone else. If my beliefs coincide with those of any particular organized religion, that's great but if not, oh well.
// posted by Stephanie Cake @ 5/25/2006 12:04:00 PM 
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