Appropriate for Easter? This is as close as I will likely get.

Well now, I manged to stumble across tell of the book titled:

"12 "Christian" Beliefs That Can Drive You Crazy."

An on-line sales page has the following to say about this book:


Drs. Cloud and Townsend identified twelve teachings that
sound plausible because they each contain a nugget of truth.
At some point, however, when Christians try to apply the
truths, a breakdown occurs. The person needlessly suffers.To
their shock, they found that Christians who had been raised
with minimal Bible training were less injured by these false
assumptions, supposedly biblical teachings, than Christians
with extensive Bible training were. In other words, Christians
who know their Bibles the best are often injured the most.


http://store.cloudtownsendstore.com/12chbethcand.html




Oh, and actually, I found that book while googling the wide open question,"Can crazy people make you crazy?" Anyway, googling the title of that book brought me to the following website:

http://www.spiritualabuse.com


Now this is not a new idea, however after a quick look over, this site seems very interesting.

Here is a sample:

Spiritual abuse occurs when someone in a position of
spiritual authority, the purpose of which is to 'come
underneath' and serve, build, equip and make God's people
MORE free, misuses that authority placing themselves
over God's people to control, coerce or manipulate them
for seemingly Godly purposes which are really their own.


(**WARNING -- SOCIO-POLITICAL OPINION TO FOLLOW**)

Now considering how much the Republican and Conservative leadership/punditry have wrapped themselves up in the mantle of RIGHTEOUS GODLINESS, could we not say they are not only abusers of the political process and democratic process, but that EACH AND EVERY DAMNED TIME they minimally project the message that they are any more Godly, Holy, or Righteous than a two-toed sloth, that they are in fact being spiritually abusive (on top of all their other shameful misdeeds)?

My opinion is YES they are, but hey that is only my opinion.

It is sorta (to me at least) like that old joke about how it is not crazy to talk to God, but only Crazy People hear God talking to them?

Welll I take it several step further, and say that it is easy to spot the people who are very very far from God, as they are the ones who claim to be close to God and or either know his will or are doing his will.

And let us not get too far into the perversion of the word "christian."

Was a time when that meant, and ONLY meant, a conscious, if not conscientious follower of Jesus Christ.

Here in America, in the 21st century it seems to mean:

(a) a member of a of socio-political movement that

favors Right Wing causes, and

(b) has more to do with the person's (who describes

themself as a christian) identification with those

Right Wing causes, and their own self image as

being that kind of person, than anything else, and

(c) Let us be honest; it has absolutely

NOT A DAMN THING to do with Jesus Christ, anymore.



I am sure many so-called christians will disagree with me there, but hey . . . I only call 'em as I see 'em.

We live in the age of Christ-less Christianity. After all, Jesus' lessons about caring for the weak/poor/sick, and treating all people as if they were HIM (I am not making this stuff up, He did say that. It is in the SCRIPTURES) sorta gets in the way and distorts the Political Message and that message is:

We are the right people, and we are the right kinda people and everything we want we should get, because we are the right people.


Ya. For the record, I want no part of that sort of Christianity. If that is the meaning of being a christian, I will gladly call myself a Heathen, a Heretic, and an Apostate.

Not that I am a perfectly selfless soul, but shee-it, I will take my chances going solo and trying as I best can to be more generous as a person, as opposed to adopting The Religion of Group Self Interest and Political Partisan Hegemony.


Take another look at my post about the difference between a person, and people.

I am going to remain a person; them christians are no more than people, seems to me.

Oh and they are scary . . .

Hmmm . . . granted, I made a bit of political overlap there, but I suprised myself by going that far on a religious theme. I don't mean to mock anyone's faith, but as far as the social and political opinions go, I affirm everyone's right to have a different opinion. I disagree, and sometimes I disagree VERY STRONGLY.

Oh and I almost forgot to say . . . Happy Easter (or what ever you choose to celebrate.)