God Is a Boob Man - SNL - Parady

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Don’t call me a “Christian” anymore!

Beards for the Military Industrial Complex

This blog has evolved.  I have evolved.

I am told and I am witnessing the fact that my old label “This Cultural Christian” does not market well.  People under 40 are turned off by all things labeled “Christian” these days.

The Christian Brand has lost most of its luster. 

Rather than turn off potential readers I am going for the mystery of “X”.  My descriptive is above.  I state what I am.  I am an agnostic, areligionist, X-tian.

Please do not confuse me with that knuckle dragging Christian Political Party Shit. (GOP)

It has been a forty year process to officially merge the Republicans with all things hypocritical and hiding under the label “Christian”.

Jesus is one thing.  I like Jesus.

I believe in G*d.  Not madison avenue toothpaste sold as G*d.

 

But this Christ cult thing worshiping Constantine’s army god is not what I believe in.

I think my turning point came this week when the Pagan majority Supreme Court said it was okay to hate blacks and gays and women and others, especially the disabled as in this particular court case, if you are a tax free church and you don’t want to hire them or you just want to fire ‘em.
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What would Jesus do in a situation like the above  Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison of the LCMS? 
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Tell the gimp to go fuck off? I don't think so!

If you look at those dumb Marines pissing on some dumb slob Muslims in Afghanistan, those Marines are nothing more than a beard for the MIC – Military Industrial Complex.  Are they Christian? You betcha.

Death and Profits are all that Christianity seems to represent these days on the worlds' markets.

There is more God in my pet rock than these political hacks masquerading as religions these days.

If Stephen Colbert can run for President, I want tax free status for my pet rock religion and the right to diss anybody I want scot-free.

MY PET ROCK is the ONE TRUE PET ROCK!  

Contributions greatly accepted for your Pet Rock Salvation. Guaranteed. Etc. LOL

I have some hope for some of those mainstream “Christians” that still operate in intelligence like the Lutheran, Anglicans etc.  Some – not much.

Christianity is a dying religion.  It is perhaps already a corpse in some places (like Italy) and merely being propped up by some dusty empty buildings.

But the ignorant Pagans, Roman Church and the Literalists, Fundamentalists, those who worship the words in a book and do not know how to think or consider those words, well, what the world sees is the insane American Government as it stands to the nations, a “Christian” country. It is of late just a waste of any real people’s time, the Christian part that is, to that world.

I want my America.  I want my country back from these religious fanatics and Christians.

I humbly remain This Cultural Xtian.

Have a nice day.

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Islam is as American as Apple Pie!

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A “Christian” who hates is not a Christian!


Separation of Church, Synagogue, Mosque, Temple and State forever!


God Bless the United States Constitution!


God Bless all the People of America - living here now!


Don't let the fundamentalist Haters over there or sadly here too, as well, divide us! 

ATHEIST - AGNOSTIC - ARELIGIONIST

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A T H E I S T

A G N O S T I C

A R E L I G I O N I S T

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(ar-e-lig-ion-ist)

The term Cultural Christian means a lot of things these days. Looking through a search of the subject on the Internet, I believe the fundamentalists have out blogged the day and anybody or anything that calls themselves a Cultural Christian is going to Hell with Richard Dawkins, the Brit, famous first for being an Atheist and second for being a scientist.

Anyway I have a fall back plan. Since I have written a lot about my quest for a new definition of God in this emerging Global culture that is increasingly less theistic and more materialistic or even humanistic, a new term for me is in order.

The title shows three terms, two of which already have definitions and are in the lexicon on the language.

Atheist is broken down into A and Theist, meaning without theism or denial of the traditional concept of God.

Agnosticism is broken down into A and Gnostic, meaning without knowledge and implies a doubt about the concept of God. Also means that there is no proof of God as in a modern scientific approach to any theory.

Areligionist is broken down into A and Religionist, meaning without religion. A religionist is one addicted to a need to have a rulebook on the side of the Theist issue.

Since I do not see anything in a dictionary yet, let me add my preferred pronunciation of the word as (ar-e-lig-ion-ist) as opposes the Atheist sounding pronunciation of (A- re-lig-ion-ist) – don’t want to get swept up anymore in the Dawkins heretic burning phenomenon from the right.

Being Areligionist means not believing in any man made rule book about the God thing, the definition of which I am still plotting.

Religionist fanatics like Saul of Tarsus are part of the present failure of Christianity along with the emperor god Constantine’s hijacking of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth to help redecorate his palace, on a coffee table so to speak, in Constantinople. If he really was a Christian, which I doubt, would he not have named the greatest and newest city in his empire Jesusopolis or Christianopolis for his new found god and not for himself?

There are as many rule books and searches for spirituality and or God as there are people on the planet. We no longer have to be stuck with “sacred” writings written in tents or caves or Roman Empire army barracks.

Time for a change in the way humanity approaches the sacred as free individuals instead of as in shackled groups, tribes, clans, packs, as in the past.

Christian Newism

With elements of the Tea Party movement not interested in a moral agenda as opposed to sound fiscal responsibility, the GOP might be on the road to recovery after forty years of phony moral spouting, family value politics. Fundamentalist Christianity may no longer have a strong foothold in the GOP.

With the Vatican imploding over institutionalized criminal child abuse and a total lack of vocations to fill its ranks, where does it go except into the wilderness for another century or two and away from evil modernism and humanity sketched out and framed by Darwin.

The Medieval conservative model that John Paul II pushed for decades has failed. He was wrong. The Spirit was not in sync with his backward looking agenda.

There are voices calling in the wilderness so to speak. There is the New Christianity of Brian McLaren that looks ahead and dates us in a post-modern era of faith.

Postmodernism in architecture is taking us from the glass boxes of a post WWII era to the swirling metal clad buildings of Frank Gehry wrapped around odd shapes and spaces. I have only seen pictures of these structures. Have not been in one yet. The Jury is still out on that one.

There is of course the so called Emergent Church Movement which is trying to move away from the boilerplate theology that worked in the past few centuries and is now dead in the water as far I am concerned. My own minimalism is in some way similar and under the umbrella of such a movement name or description.

The biggest obstacle in a future Christianity is to get people out of their bibles and into the community or being in tune with needs of the community. Social justice should not be a dirty word nor should it be the sole mission on any given church body.

There is a leading voice in this new or future Christianity in Brian McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christian. Of the many voices or methods emerging, McLaren’s approach is often criticized as being light in doctrine and in favor of "generosity" and "conversation."

Someone shared their notes with me who attended a McLaren Seminar last week:

The seminar went well and he is a very good speaker as well as author. Never once ruffled my feathers but I was surrounded by pastors and student wannabe pastors of many stripes..mostly mainline prot's. The question and answer sessions were excellent and he never flinched as some were fairly critical of his post modern outlook. He is out there on the far left and that suits me to a tee. Did a half hour on how the churches/propped up and supported slavery in America using the words in the bible as law instead of the words of love of Jesus.

In other words, the bible while perhaps divinely inspired is a document that does not age well in some areas. It dates itself. The bible is outdated in terms of the concept of slavery in this modern, post-modern world.

The future Christianity needs a new softer approach to the bible as word of God, along side and sharing defintion as a truly human document. The God speaking in a dialogue may be perfect. The listeners, the writers are trapped in the prejudice of their age. Some ideas need to be judged within the context and validity of a timeline.

Rereading some of my notes on this subject and in reference to McLaren, I am impressed more on his content, consistant in the face of opposition. It is his planting of seeds and the long term plan that will win his ideas respect over time.

For myself, the Fall, original sin and hell are irrelevant. With the virgin birth and divinity you cannot throw out the myth with the bath water. In terms of a more united Christian message and other world faiths wanting to read Jesus at least in the context of him as a moral teacher as Jefferson addressed him, that is where the Christian faith will be in a few decades.

With the Vatican imploding, and the irrelevance of worshipping the bible instead of using it as a guide to life for the fundies, the biggest problem is in local pastors able to sit down with the church next door so to speak and be tolerant of gaps in another's faith and different from the old pure boiler plate faith that stood for centuries. The street talk has to change with the times. It is not the middle ages.

A paradigm shift is necessary in local pastors to embrace humanity more openly and more clearly and show respect and get respect in return is a step toward establishing the new global town square of the future. That town square needs a minimun of heart felt faith and or religion to function. Whatever religion is, it has been with us for tens of thousands of years. It is how we use it and not let it use us - is the important part of any balanced social equation.

The state of Christianity going forward into the True Global Town Square of All Nations is one that is managed well and from the bottom up in terms of consensus instead of any hierarchy or understanding set in Roman concrete.

It is a whole new world.

Doing God's Work - I Am Not a Christian

I do not know if the chairman of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, ever gets time to pray. Time is money. He and his cadre are obsessed with money. He has coined the phrase of this new age of unchecked greed and inhumanity in that he is just “doing God’s work” atop his skyscraper with his metaphorically speaking 100 million dollar salary and 100 million dollar bonus. The "Age of Chronic Luxury" lives on for some in these hard times.

So I guess that kind of “God is in Control” rhetoric that Governor Pawlenty coined at the recent Tea Bagger convention no doubt mirrors sentiments of the “God put me on this Pedestal y'all” crowd on the blinding white far right fundamentalist side of the aisle.

You know I am not a Christian. I am only a cultural Christian because I am too lazy to shop around for a new name brand. I am quite inferior to Christians like Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky, a Roman Catholic who runs a charity scam selling his autographed baseballs out of the trunk of his limo.

I am quite inferior also to a Presbyterian like Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona who thinks that in the middle of a Depression with no jobs, it is somehow a sin to collect unemployment. You would think that the lousy stinking 240 dollars a week maximum the territory/state of Arizona doles out to unemployed "lazy" welfare cheats would somehow match all the tax cheats Kyl has represented as a lawyer and senator all his so called working life. You would think he would have heard about - don’t ask, don’t tell – regarding personal greed.

Thank God I am not a Christian such as they. I only believe in love for humanity, as a Humanist, like that other loser, Jesus of Nazareth. Though I am in no way in his true league of matters.

I along with millions of others look forward to Jim and Jon’s upcoming retirement from politics. Good riddens to bad Christian trash. They give the Christ thing usually attached to the Jesus brand a very bad name.

The first birds of Spring are chirping outside my window this morning and all the damned to hell Country Club Christians cannot ruin my day. God, the real God is in the air here.

I do not hate humanity and I am enjoying the sound of nature outside of my urban dwelling. I too Lloyd am just “doing God’s work” in my own humble unpaid way.

Have a nice day.

Dysfunctional Nature of American Culture

Going back to Franklin Graham’s photo-op trip to Russian Mission Alaska to “feed the poor”, I must say the then Gov. Palin’s remarks about Native American culture in Alaska were ignorant – they were not malicious – they were insular and insensitive. While many would try to make Sarah a monster, she is the typical stay at home mom type who has let her man rule the roost so to speak.

Running a cracker jack town like Wasilla was no doubt in the part time and President of the local PTA league of things. She was close to being a stay at home mom, refusing to stay at the Governor’s mansion in Juneau and commuting back and forth by plane to work. As such she becomes an icon or a hero to all those clinging to the once familiar dad works and mom stays at home to cook, clean and take care of the kids scenario.

Working moms as a large piece of the population has peaked during wars but the idea of two working parents became a necessity in the seventies with inflation making it impossible to live on one salary. Enough said on that.

I go back to a book on pop psychology “I’m Okay, You’re Okay” in the early seventies that said many things unpopular with the professional shrink community. I do not have an exact quote but I remember reading how a dysfunctional family might have its roots in events going back generations. When this book was written I don’t think that child abuse and such were even greatly talked about.

Using that pop psychology idea as a model I look at United States history differently. Outsiders see one United States. There are fifty states and maybe a dozen commonly functioning regions. The original idea of putting a name on a map, of dividing a land in a distant capital is part of the present day dysfunction of America in places.

One of the things on U.S. maps is how in a past function setting, mountains and rivers became logical lines on maps in that surveying was an impossible or costly matter.

In modern times you see a vibrant city like New York, Philadelphia or St. Louis and because of a waterway, a line on a map, the regional potential of these cities shifts in other directions. As a result you have Newark, Camden or East St. Louis disconnected from a sister city’s prosperity and progressive function. Some cities and areas of the U.S. do prosper in a regional functional setting. Each must be taken on a situation by situation basis.

The outsider if they see the United States they will say that the U.S. was spared the direct horrors of war and destruction in WWII. True. But if one looks at the history of the U.S. you begin to see hot spots where battles between states in the Civil War has left it mark on the psyche of a state or a region. In fact Americans in the Civil War were guinea pigs for European munitions’ manufacturers' observations and design. The horrors of WWI and its anti-human technology scales got its initial designs tested in the American Civil War.

What we may be seeing in these lean economic times are some dysfunctional aspects of America Culture that gets sidelined by mainstream historians in prosperous times but become blatantly evident now.

Since this is a blog and not a history book I will mention a few things I have observed of late about guns, race and religion.

One, that the obsession of guns with Americans may have started with the Indians. The original settlers from Europe pushed the native population further and further back not so much by killing the enemy so to speak, as much as over populating a region. The overflow of the European culture pushed the natives back who were not assimilated into the greater white culture.

With guns, Americans fought the British and threw them out. History will say that the loyalists or royalists went out on ships from New York city in 1781. No. Only the well to do or the lucky got shipped out. The rest lost their lands in the east coast and walked to Canada or walked out west. I cannot talk about Canadians here but I believe that paranoid obsessions of Americans in the present day has to do with Loyalists on the run and with only guns to protect themselves. What I see when I observe a fanatical NRA member is somebody still looking over their shoulders centuries after their ancestors lost in the Revolutionary war.

When Jackson made it official federal government policy to forcibly transport Indians out west, he did so with a racist bent. Jefferson wanted Indians to live in peaceful land ghettos (apartheid) trading with the white culture. Jackson saw Jefferson’s assimilation working too well in that assimilation meant racial mixing. What’s next after you have a sizable population of mixed Indians with Europeans? Next step is mixing with Africans which were slaves. America on all levels and in all regions of the country is still dealing with the side effects of the abolition of slavery one hundred and forty four years later.

Jackson’s idea to send Indians out west was obsolete from day one – the “Trail of Tears”, in hindsight, was unnecessary. The federal government did not get all the Indians in the east and shipping them out west would not solve anything with the railroad only a generation away from shrinking the world.

The same way that descendents of loyalists gone out west are looking over their shoulders, you have fundamentalists that are still locked mentally into 16th and 17th century European religious warfare. The push out west was in a way, in some cases, having one past disfunctionality overlapping with another. One of the things I see most in the hotspots of American fundamentalism are places with tons of violence associated with them in American history with territorial wars, the Indians, Civil War and land grabs.

Surely, the bible belt across the south is a place where Jesus is a code word for Robert E. Lee, the coming messiah, and such. The south along with the loyalists lost - and got lost - along the way in history.

Kansas and Oklahoma, diamonds on the fundamentalist tiara, have extreme histories of violence before, during and after the Civil War. And within the context of a population always moving on. In a way a lot of people in Oklahoma, were put there by Jackson and the invisible prison bars are still keeping them there.

Look at history differently. When I hear these hack southern politicians, GOP and blue dogs, their thinly veiled rhetoric is something out of Gone with the Wind – which of course is code talk for the good old days of majority white rule. Majority white rule is obsolete. It goes the way of all dysfunctional matters in the next few years.

The good future for all of us - will be for those of us who do not look back on the present dysfunctional state of the American Political, Economic and Belief establishments.