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THEY'RE ALL GOING TO LAUGH AT YOU
Nov. 5th, 2004 12:27 ammy latest match on Yahoo!
Nov. 5th, 2004
New Michael Chabon!
Nov. 5th, 2004 12:47 amI just preordered The Final Solution, his next book. Looks great; an aging, retired Sherlock Holmes investigates the mystery of a nine year old boy, an African Grey Parrot, and the Nazis.
Releasing November 9. Woohoo! Hop hop happy hop.
Releasing November 9. Woohoo! Hop hop happy hop.
I love Sylvia
Overweight passengers cause airlines problems.
I think my ironic metaphor lobe just seized.
Let’s get this straight. We import petroleum at ruinous cost and involve ourselves in wars and alliances to ensure supply. We use this oil for, among other things, producing fertilizers so that we can have cheap food. The oil is then burned to produce and deliver a combination of snack foods and electronic entertainment which increases our bulk to the point of diabetic epidemic.
It is then discovered that in order to carry the new porcine citizens around in the air more fuel must be used...
I have a headache now.
I think my ironic metaphor lobe just seized.
Let’s get this straight. We import petroleum at ruinous cost and involve ourselves in wars and alliances to ensure supply. We use this oil for, among other things, producing fertilizers so that we can have cheap food. The oil is then burned to produce and deliver a combination of snack foods and electronic entertainment which increases our bulk to the point of diabetic epidemic.
It is then discovered that in order to carry the new porcine citizens around in the air more fuel must be used...
I have a headache now.
Why I am no longer a Christian.
Nov. 5th, 2004 04:01 pmIn 1991 I underwent a religious conversion during a time of great personal stress. Since then I have been a Christian, but I’ve only gone to church for the first two years and very intermittently since. My particular faith is most easily described as “evangelical”.
The reason I haven’t had much to do with churches is that nothing about the culture of American evangelical Christianity is tolerable to me except the Gospel itself. This is a big problem, because you’re not just supposed to pray and learn, you’re supposed to interact with others. I’m instructed to be a member of a spiritual group and also to share the faith with others. At first it was just the problem of everyone being sort of corn-pone and not culturally aware, which is a lot more important when you’re in your 20s. Increasingly I ran into disagreements about science and politics that were a bit worse, and I stopped spending a lot of time with churchy people. After this election, though, I’m through. I’m walking out.
It’s time I stopped describing myself as Christian. I can’t do it. I look at the people who claim an evangelical faith and they make me physically ill. I can’t break bread with them.
The first thing that happens after a fellow believer discovers my spirituality is congratulation and a big smile.The second thing that happens is some political or theological litmus test. We are all supposed to support the war, support the current government, love capitalism, despise “liberals”, hate homosexuals, and deny the last 300 years of Western civilization. I am not to agree with the theory of evolution. I must support not only my own government’s wars but all those of the state of Israel. I am supposed to care very deeply about unborn children but let them starve or be bombed once they’re born. I’m supposed to reject the last 200 years of biology and embrace crackpot pseudo-science.
I look at the people around me that I love and you want me to hate all of them. I refuse. Hate me too, instead.
You people physically disgust me. All of you. I can’t be in fellowship with a nation of murderous ignorant hypocrites. Go back and read Amos and Isaiah, and think on this: are you the prophet, or the faithless nation?
You can call me a “liberal”, and I’ll thank you. You can call me a “humanist”, and I’ll smile. You can even tell me, as you have been lately, that I’m un-American and unwanted in your country, and I’ll respectfully disagree. But don’t call me Christian. My conscience won’t allow it.
The reason I haven’t had much to do with churches is that nothing about the culture of American evangelical Christianity is tolerable to me except the Gospel itself. This is a big problem, because you’re not just supposed to pray and learn, you’re supposed to interact with others. I’m instructed to be a member of a spiritual group and also to share the faith with others. At first it was just the problem of everyone being sort of corn-pone and not culturally aware, which is a lot more important when you’re in your 20s. Increasingly I ran into disagreements about science and politics that were a bit worse, and I stopped spending a lot of time with churchy people. After this election, though, I’m through. I’m walking out.
It’s time I stopped describing myself as Christian. I can’t do it. I look at the people who claim an evangelical faith and they make me physically ill. I can’t break bread with them.
The first thing that happens after a fellow believer discovers my spirituality is congratulation and a big smile.The second thing that happens is some political or theological litmus test. We are all supposed to support the war, support the current government, love capitalism, despise “liberals”, hate homosexuals, and deny the last 300 years of Western civilization. I am not to agree with the theory of evolution. I must support not only my own government’s wars but all those of the state of Israel. I am supposed to care very deeply about unborn children but let them starve or be bombed once they’re born. I’m supposed to reject the last 200 years of biology and embrace crackpot pseudo-science.
I look at the people around me that I love and you want me to hate all of them. I refuse. Hate me too, instead.
You people physically disgust me. All of you. I can’t be in fellowship with a nation of murderous ignorant hypocrites. Go back and read Amos and Isaiah, and think on this: are you the prophet, or the faithless nation?
You can call me a “liberal”, and I’ll thank you. You can call me a “humanist”, and I’ll smile. You can even tell me, as you have been lately, that I’m un-American and unwanted in your country, and I’ll respectfully disagree. But don’t call me Christian. My conscience won’t allow it.