This Shows Why I am Afraid of Fundy, Meglomanical, Retail, For Profit Churches and Pastors.
From the point of view of someone who as default has a live and let live view of religion, until that religion or its adherents dare get in my face with their particular brand of goofy thinking, I do, generally, have a healthy distrust of the institutions of religions. And more specifically, I have a range of views on religions/sects/practices that is a scale from on the one end, watchful guardedness and jaundiced suspicion, all the way to the other end of the scale, which would be unashamed disparagement and for lack of a better word, demonization. I am particularly unsympathetic to any sort of fundy religion. Don't care for them at all. Wish they all would drop off the face of the planet, no matter what religious group they belong to, I would consider it global Happy Happy Joy Joy Day, if all the fundamentalist religious traditions and practices ended on Planet E. on the same day (or if it worked out this way, on the day the last fundy sect became defunct.) And just to be clear, as I know there is a non-judgmental definition of Christian Fundamentalist, but that is the insider' strict definition, and there are outsider's definitions. And since there are many variants of the outsider's definition, here is my nuanced take (so it will be clear what I mean when I say fundy.)
If you believe your religion is right for you, I have no problem with you. You are a deep believer but not a threat to my free will or conscience. However, if you think your religion is right for me, and at minimum think you have a right to pester me to try to convert me, or force me to respect or follow your religious dogma or practices? Then you are the kind of person I call a fundy and really think of as not only a personal threat to my well being, but a threat to all of humanity. Good. I hope that clears things up for you.
But my title line, above, was hinting at something more particular that generalized fundy religions. Hell, I am getting more specific than fundy christianity. I was getting specifically on the case of what I call megalomaniacal, Retail, For Profit Churches and Pastors. Now I call a lot of these "Evangelical" churches and pastors that way, as that vein of christianity seems most prone to the sickening practices of meglomanical pastors; pastors who operate in the market place very much like athletes. The more folk they pack in the pews, the better their rep, the more they get paid. And more so than some athlete, the bigger these pastors get, the more actual power they accumulate. And even if they start off humble and sincere, the megalomania sort of just comes as standard equipment with a Premier Popular Pastor Professional Package.
Now as low on the list I am, as far as being considered a religious person (I am not into faith, or any of that stuff), I still think I understand enough of what the nuns and other Sunday School teachers tried to teach me. I will say the following, and anyone who disagrees with me is perfectly allowed to have their own and different opinions, but here is the way I see it. And I will put it in the form of a question. Now do you honestly think The Lord Jesus Christ, who famously chased out the money lenders from the temple, people who's only sin was to conduct ordinary business at that convenient location, would approve of the way modern Evangelical pastors not only get rich from their work in the pulpit, but get stinking rich?
Hmm . . . . . that is easy for me to say, hell no, Jesus would not be down with that. But I admit I am biased against the idea of preaching your way to be a millionaire, just on principle.
But that is sort of a digression, as the real thrust of this post is to criticize the meglomanical, power mad, cult of personality, narcissistic, if not more seriously pathological way some of these pastors talk and act. And the trigger for this post is the horrid yet real example of what I consider to be the worst and the scariest part of any fundy philosophy; that conquer the world and rule it in the name of Our God thing? In this case it is Pastor Rick Warren, indulging in an orgy of a meglomanical global theocratic domination fantasy. If it only stopped there, I would have been thoroughly repulsed. Seriously. But it gets worse. Now Pastor Rick. Even if I find the very idea of any religion having a powerful, radical, global reach, remaking the planet under their own small minded, bigoted bigotry as hell on earth, and a sin against all humanity, did you have to call on the example of the world's worst, meaning most actually successful, meglomanical and totalitarian brutalizers and crushers of humanity, butchers of free will, killers of souls, for the example of what you wish your Army of God's Warriors to emulate?
Again, I am not ashamed to say this, and judge me if you must.
The very idea of any religion achieving global theocratic, or if you prefer the disingenuous softened up term, spiritual, domination, is something I find revolting.
Going a step beyond that, and wanting your spiritual warriors to show the level of devotion of Nazis, and Communist murders? That is devil talk. That is bloodless evil, I say.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRctKSeyQ-s
Well, that is my thought for the day. Just say NO to Global Theocratic/Spiritual Domination Movements.
Hell, say no to any Global Domination Movements. Ya. That covers all the bases.
If you believe your religion is right for you, I have no problem with you. You are a deep believer but not a threat to my free will or conscience. However, if you think your religion is right for me, and at minimum think you have a right to pester me to try to convert me, or force me to respect or follow your religious dogma or practices? Then you are the kind of person I call a fundy and really think of as not only a personal threat to my well being, but a threat to all of humanity. Good. I hope that clears things up for you.
But my title line, above, was hinting at something more particular that generalized fundy religions. Hell, I am getting more specific than fundy christianity. I was getting specifically on the case of what I call megalomaniacal, Retail, For Profit Churches and Pastors. Now I call a lot of these "Evangelical" churches and pastors that way, as that vein of christianity seems most prone to the sickening practices of meglomanical pastors; pastors who operate in the market place very much like athletes. The more folk they pack in the pews, the better their rep, the more they get paid. And more so than some athlete, the bigger these pastors get, the more actual power they accumulate. And even if they start off humble and sincere, the megalomania sort of just comes as standard equipment with a Premier Popular Pastor Professional Package.
Now as low on the list I am, as far as being considered a religious person (I am not into faith, or any of that stuff), I still think I understand enough of what the nuns and other Sunday School teachers tried to teach me. I will say the following, and anyone who disagrees with me is perfectly allowed to have their own and different opinions, but here is the way I see it. And I will put it in the form of a question. Now do you honestly think The Lord Jesus Christ, who famously chased out the money lenders from the temple, people who's only sin was to conduct ordinary business at that convenient location, would approve of the way modern Evangelical pastors not only get rich from their work in the pulpit, but get stinking rich?
Hmm . . . . . that is easy for me to say, hell no, Jesus would not be down with that. But I admit I am biased against the idea of preaching your way to be a millionaire, just on principle.
But that is sort of a digression, as the real thrust of this post is to criticize the meglomanical, power mad, cult of personality, narcissistic, if not more seriously pathological way some of these pastors talk and act. And the trigger for this post is the horrid yet real example of what I consider to be the worst and the scariest part of any fundy philosophy; that conquer the world and rule it in the name of Our God thing? In this case it is Pastor Rick Warren, indulging in an orgy of a meglomanical global theocratic domination fantasy. If it only stopped there, I would have been thoroughly repulsed. Seriously. But it gets worse. Now Pastor Rick. Even if I find the very idea of any religion having a powerful, radical, global reach, remaking the planet under their own small minded, bigoted bigotry as hell on earth, and a sin against all humanity, did you have to call on the example of the world's worst, meaning most actually successful, meglomanical and totalitarian brutalizers and crushers of humanity, butchers of free will, killers of souls, for the example of what you wish your Army of God's Warriors to emulate?
Again, I am not ashamed to say this, and judge me if you must.
The very idea of any religion achieving global theocratic, or if you prefer the disingenuous softened up term, spiritual, domination, is something I find revolting.
Going a step beyond that, and wanting your spiritual warriors to show the level of devotion of Nazis, and Communist murders? That is devil talk. That is bloodless evil, I say.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRctKSeyQ-s
Well, that is my thought for the day. Just say NO to Global Theocratic/Spiritual Domination Movements.
Hell, say no to any Global Domination Movements. Ya. That covers all the bases.
posted by Abstentus at 12:11 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home