Probably straight into a wall but it's never stopped me before so why start now right? If you want to know what the hell I'm talking about go look at the comment from Susie in the last blog entry, you know, that long ass one I was waxing rhapsodic in. OK it was long I know but you don't have to actually read the post if you can't take that kind of novel right now, just read her comment and you'll be good.
She mentioned that the comments on P Dub's Compassion trip for her daughters and MM were all religious and about Jesus and boy am I glad I didn't even bother looking. No, I am being good and staying the hell out of that boat. I know where the angry people come from that I have to comment moderate, they follow me over from commenting on her blog. Oh that's right, I'm not a bible thumper, that's my problem! You'd think she was writing a newsletter to the Christian right wings of America the way some of those people go on and so help mo God if I'm ever linked on her blog and people follow it over en masse. I'd have to shut down my blog from the persecution. BTW, I'm not saying that they shouldn't be going to different third world countries and doing their Compassionate thing, last blog was about how we have issues in America, not about where the Drummond's spend their donated time. It was just where one of the ideas for the rant came from. See the connection? No? Stop reading now and pick a different blog, no really, you'll be better off with the pink fuzzy bunnies on someone else's blog. Fair warning cause you're not going to like the rest of this one either.
Why you ask? Well I know I've never told ya'll this and since many of you are not from the good old 7th ring of hell, otherwise known as So Cal, you wouldn't know but we don't really practice religion down there. Now I know this may come as a shock to some of you but I don't know anyone out there who went to church on Sunday or was raised in any type of religion. Well that's not totally true, there were these homeschooled twins I knew of in high school and they were Jehovahs Witnesses. Does that count? Now compare that with out here in Texas. I think we are the only parents who don't take their kid to church. The. Only. Ones. Why? Because we never had religion in our lives. It was never ever a part of our lives. I know, to you out there that it's and integral part of your lives that's probably just horrifying but stick with me for a moment here. We have managed to grow up and become adults, not get thrown in jail, not become addicted to drugs, not have a child in our teen years, and have a successful marriage. All without religion in our daily lives. OMG! The horror!
My DH, I didn't even know he believed in God until this past year, no lie. He is so vehemently against organized religion you'd think he was one of those people that was molested by the church growing up (he wasn't, again, no religion whatsoever growing up). What does he have against it you ask? Oh now here's where the debates start, remember children, this is just a view point and I'm not even saying it's my viewpoint, just thowing it out there. He thinks it's a crutch, people use it as an excuse for not being able to do something on their own. You know the type "God will take care of it." or "It's all God's will" Statements like that drive him nuts. There are a lot of people out there that don't take what God gave them (like their brain) and do it for themselves, instead they hide behind their religion and expect it all to come out in the wash because God will take care of it. They call it God's will, I call it Darwinism. PotAto potahto, whatever, get off your ass and do it yourself. Help yourself first and then leave what you can't actually take care of up to fate, God's will, whatever you want to call it cause I don't give a rat's ass just don't push your religious beliefs down my throat. Why? Because they're your beliefs, not mine. Get your own blog, this one's mine.
Consider yourself lucky that I don't stomp all over ya'lls religious beliefs here on a regular basis because let me tell you, as non church go-ers we have our beliefs/lack thereof stomped on all the time. All the emails we get all the pamphlets even the trick or treating stuff. How many of you got little sheets of religious garbage in your child's trick or treat candy bag? Can I tell you how much that pissed us off? The local fun place for kids, Incredible Pizza, all of their prizes have a Christian icon on them. WTF? The family we went there with was from Egypt so I'm pretty sure they were not Christian. Obviously the company doesn't care and figures that if they give our children their religious paraphernalia that's great and they can better convert. So what if we opened a business geared towards kids and started pushing prizes that had religious icons on them that were not Christian? How long until we were shut down? One, two weeks? Less? Ya think? Yeah I think too, this is, after all, Texas. Places of all kindsa tolerance. As long as you are a big fat white male God fearing Christian. OH and only believe in 1 grocery store brand with the last name of Butts. No I kid you not, it's the only one we have in San Antonio. A blog rant for another day, I hate that grocery store. Friggin good ol boy monopoly.
So yeah if there are some real bible thumpers out there going on a debate rampage in the comments section of someone else's blog I won't touch it, I know better. Sooo not worth my time plus I really don't care what your religious beliefs are. I just wish people would leave us out of them. Too much to ask for though isn't it? If it makes any of you uber religious feel better our kid sometimes goes to church. We'd take her if she asked too, not like we give a crap what she prefers religious wise, we'll take her to a new one every week if she wants. She is by far the most religious one in the household and we make sure she gets whatever support she wants with some steering when it comes to freakish other beliefs. And yes, that's our definition of freakish, not anyone elses. We don't believe in persecuting gays and we are pro choice. We are not happy about Prop 8 but it just goes to prove to everyone out there that California is conservative, just like we've been saying all along. The nation just doesn't see it as much because the other parts of Cali are more obnoxiously obvious. Hippie communes, surfers, topless lesbian car washes (had to be shut down due to traffic issues, yes, totally serious) you name it Cali has it and you hear about it more often that all the conservative retirees there combined. Until something like Prop 8 comes up. More will come up about that one though, mark my words. Those liberals, the are LOUD and just a wee bit miffed about that prop.
Oh and if anyone out there is worried about our immortal souls don't bother your pretty little heads, we're going to parent hell anyway, remember? Plus we lost our ticket into the pretty shiny happy place a looong time ago, we traded them in for some metal concert back in the 90's.
5 comments:
Oh girl we are going to hell right along with you. We have only been to church as a family what twice in the past ummm I dont know how many years. See my mom went to church, my dad didnt. We were exposed but not pushed. I figured hey my dad is one of the nicest guys you ever want to meet and if he goes to hell than I will already be there for a multiude of other sins. then my mother died and I went through this whole hate with god thing-didnt step foot in a church for at least 10 years. Also didnt like how the preacher could preach right and do wrong but we were not supposed to. Fast forward to parenting and I start thinking am I going to go to hell for not giving my kids some intro into church? I dont know but you are right about many going to church around here and then making those (me included) feel bad for not going. I guess not bad enough because we still dont go. I do find myself very conflicted though.
this would be one reason I go to bible study-a way to learn more without actually going to a church
Ah well at least you feel conflicted. I don't have the guilt. I did do a bible study once as an adult for like 3 years. It was just like a book club only we didn't switch books and the women didn't complain about their husbands. The woman who led the bible study has since left the church, I stay in contact with her. Lovely woman, glad she left he 'fold'.
the guilt probably comes from that little stint at a Catholic HS. they were quick to tell you that it was fine you werent Catholic but of course I still had to take theology and attend mass (oh the ass wasnt required-yeah right!)
The Butts thing reminds me, when I was in 5th grade (in SA actually), we had a cafeteria monitor named Ms. Butts. For real. And she volunteered at an elementary school!! And she was really mean and if you snickered or anything she would bust your ass. Can you imagine how hard that was as a kid?? And um, well, uh, um, well, I kinda sorta like HEB... (she whispers tentatively)
Anyway, the thing that gets my blood boiling more than anything else about organized religion is the hypocrisy. It makes me physically shake in anger and frustration sometimes. I didn't go to church regularly till HS, and then once I moved out of the house, pretty much never went again. It's hard for me not to be contemptous, I do struggle with that, b/c no matter how much I recoil from it, I truly do believe that we should all be able to practice whatever religion or non-religion we like. But the extremist viewpoints (and most of the time it is the extremists that really piss me off) disgust me. Compounded by the fact that they are always pushing their insane beliefs on the rest of us. Which is a huge part of why the past 8 years under Shrub have been so disheartening and enraging to me. (And apparently the majority of people thank god or the universe or the force or whatever.)
I am shocked that the pizza place gives out Christian labeled tokens! Wow. You're right, I'm sure if they had Stars of David or pentacles or anything else that would never in a billion years fly. Gross. I don't know if it's b/c I'm in Austin or b/c I don't go to kid parties or what, but I've never noticed that sort of thing. I'm going to look out for it though. We do have plenty of the fish - on cars, ads, signs. I avoid those companies, but again, I struggle a bit with that, b/c that's their right and I am being just as judgmental back to them so how do I rectify that since I can't stand their judgmentalism?
PS - the word verification on this comment is "hellate", seriously. ahahahaaa
Excellent post, hun.
(note to readers, that's secret house-rules code for something I ACTUALLY approve of. On the other hand, if I had said, "nice post" it would mean something quite different).
;)
Some of our best friends out here (TX) are people of faith. And you know what? They are amazing, upstanding, warm, and benevolent human beings.
That said, I still have more use for a used car salesman than I do for your average mega-church preacher. At least you can turn around and resell the used car.
There's a reason why we have the expression/truism "death by committee". There is a reason why marches lead to mobs, which lead to riots. There's a reason why patriotism can lead to nationalism, which can lead to all kinds of problems. It's the same reason that I'm so distrustful of mega-churches. Simply put, the greater the number of people gathered to a single purpose, the lower their effective IQs/powers of reasoning becomes.
In closing, my problem is not with God, nor with the Bible (a nice enough book taken within context), it's with the masses and their opium-fiend need for a dose of righteous confirmation their slice of the worldview pie is somehow the only one that matters.
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