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If I talk about Church in most social settings these days, I am met with much hatred, bitter resentment and overall dislike. The word church has come to be associated with many forms of corruption and just plain doing it wrong. Growing up, saying you were going to church meant saying that you weren't cool enough to have some sporting practice or game on sundays. Church isn't actually so corrupt apart from ourselves though, and here for part 1 we will delve into our first real world example.
The Automotive Industry
Started out as a great thing, save on horses buy a car! Mass production meant that everyone could conceivably own a car! Salvation was here. But then, everybody started to drive - not only people who wanted to. There would be drivers who drive because they have to drive to get from A to B but they hate it and thus suck at driving -accidents. In the same respect anyone could sell cars - and they'd do so for gain and to get you in a new car. That's comparable to some evangelical or preacher trying to re-Jesus you. Nobody likes salesmen. They try to be such nice people, they really don't know much about cars and they hide the truth of the matter to get you into your car. Then there's the service side of things, the mechanics and advisors. Most people get angry at them because they tell them what's wrong and what they need to fix - the fix you Christians. But they only set out to fix car owners but the price is often high and people get angry cos the salesmen never told them about the high costs of owning a car or the high price of being a Christian. Then there's your lot boy. He knows which cars are good and which ones suck, he knows how much money is being made on certain cars and he can give you straight advice about things because it doesn't benefit him to sell or not sell you a car. So here we have this auto industry which is like a plague on our economy because it's driven by more more more cars when there really isn't that need. This more attitude of getting people in cars quickly is like quick evangelism with a testimony, bridge illustration and a few gospel tracts. It's no wonder people are opting to ride the bus or bike to work with these pushy salesmen scamming you and high hidden costs in repairs. Who would want to go to a church that says it's easy and great to become a christian and then pile on the rules and regulations enforced by social condemnation. So it's not God's fault church is F-ed. It's just people, somewhere along the lines we stopped regulating the quality of christians. Paul used to do this talking about those doing it wrong but I guess people began to focus on as long as the gospel is being preached aspect.
Well I guess I could go further into that analogy but I'll stop for now. Part 2 will be even more fun with a different real life example.
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|  I have a midterm tomorrow which affords me lots of time to be distracted by such things as xanga. Thanksgiving just passed, I don't eat turkey but I know the drill. It's a time to be thankful for what you have instead of being greedy and materialistic looking for more. But perhaps that's like telling a kid who stuffs their face with candy to brush and floss their teeth instead of stopping the stuffing of the face with the candy. Being thankful is easy when you have something, and the old cliche is that you always have something because there's someone worse off than you. This is all true but no one ever thinks like that. Thankstaking is saying, thank you for what you don't have or what you had but no longer have. Thankstaking doesn't make much sense. I guess it starts with nirvana, the nothingness of it all. Nothing is owned. I mean things are yours because they are in your house which is your house because you have the keys and somewhere it's written that you or your parents have possession over that piece of land which is part of the city because it's in it and part of the country because it's in it and marked by flags and protected by soldiers so that no one questions that that is theirs. But nothing is really owned. If an earthquake splits the earth and swallows your house, no one can do anything about it, you can't sue the earth or press for charges you can just hope you've paid someone money to insure your house's value. It's not yours, it's just given to you temporarily until you die and pass it on or someone takes it from you. Thankstaking, I have everything and nothing. It's a release, a living memento mori, a thankfulness not for what you've been given but what has been withheld from you. Because it's not all about that.
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|  I've recently been thinking, reflecting in an anecdotal way drawing from my episodic memory. Remember killer bees? They were advancing up from south america and would soon reach much of the U.S. and then Canada. I remember learning about killer bees a lot, overly aggressive african bees who wouldn't leave you alone even if you jumped into a pool. They're supposed to wait around for you to come out and then you're dead meat! But what happened to that? I was looking at this stamp box dating 1999 some fancy canada post stamp for that year. It looked so nice I was reminded of the doomsday we were all sort of afraid of. Somehow because the numbers didn't fit right that nukes might accidentally go off. But if we actually think about it, if the computer thinks that it's year 1900 instead of 2000 that doesn't mean it's time to fire a nuclear missile, it just means that some taxes might get mixed up but we probably didn't have computer records for things in 1900 anyways. Now we have the 2012 doomsday because the Mayans who went extinct know more than we do about the end of the world. Sure this could be true but maybe by 2020 we'll look back and think that was a pretty ridiculous speculation. We need that sort of SARS, Avian or H1N1 flu to keep us aware that we all die someday. So in light of that we don't really live. I know so many people who are terrified of bees now. They run hide and try to escape as an innocent bee explores his world. Bees make delicious honey and help flowers have sex - they're not evil harbingers of death. I guess fear unites us though, global warming and going green is driven by fear that the world is going to die because of pollution. There may be truth in this but people will most likely kill people before they kill the world. Heck, we might even kill each other over such a trivial matter. Cyclists getting run over by cars and retaliating with weapons doesn't seem that unlikely. War on terrorism? They're most likely not coming back to terrorize the same way - it'll probably be some techy terrorism next. Fear keeps us moving, on our feet and focussed. When we're not afraid we're too free and that can be dangerous. So I wonder if anyone ever figured out what "the fear of the Lord" that leads to wisdom is. And not just some half-rate sugar coated washed down version of "reverence". Fear - is it that old school fire and brimstone?
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Have you ever noticed how dead a church and much of christianity is? If not you're probably in denial or lucky. Commonly used terms to characterize churchies have often been fake, flaky, sheltered, boring, dead or just annoying. Well we're definitely compensating for a lot that we're lacking. Joy Joy Joy, all this talk about joy. Some christians naively think that there's no other place when people sing in unison and get pumped up - they've never been to a rock concert or even the jonas brothers. We're boring but not supposed to be so we try not to be - that lasts for a little while at least. Most of us who have grown up in church or have been going for a few years have gotten bored of it all and the reason runs deep but also shallow. Of course in classic eloquent style Jesus has had the answer all along.
In Luke 7 around verse forty one Jesus says there are two guys who owe money, $500 and $50 - the debt was dropped and the question is who was happier. Well that's obvious right? So let's look at the demographics of the church - we are morally upright people who have lived quiet and proper lives. We didn't have a $500 debt dropped, we had a 10ยข debt dropped. Subconsciously I always thought that I deserved to be in Heaven - yes I've been to sunday school and I know that's obviously not the case and I wouldn't ever answer that way but if God were to kick me out I'd be shocked! Our parents want to guard us against all sorts of immorality; sex, drugs, alcohol and rock n roll (LoL) and when we obey we find ourselves inexperienced but we feel good and arrogant about it all because we're so good! Even when there's talk of "your deeds are like filthy rags" in the back of my mind at least I used to think "well there are filthier rags out there."
Then there's the whole Paul epidemic. Paul is like a christian celebrity and most churchies adore and idolize him, I mean if you can't be like Jesus cos he's too Godly then be like Paul cos he's manly. But none of them can understand Paul cos none of them have ever murdered or assisted in murdering anyone - heck they probably haven't even gotten into a fist fight. Paul didn't grow up on the Jesus side of church, we did. So they fall away, people stop going to church, the fire dies. I think back to all those conferences, they do guilt trip you and you feel great. Then I stopped, realized that and was like this is baloney. Why does it not work in the long run? Cos we're so goody goody, those conferences pick on things and emphasize that they're sinning like saying "fuck" a lot or pornography (which is there absolute favorite).
When we realize that we have no right to be in heaven and we're fucked from the get go then the hope of grace is so much more beautiful. As it is now I'm no believer of an assurance of salvation and in no way does that make my faith weak - it's even stronger than before. The Bible gives no such assurance - maybe here and there but then there are contrasting statements as well. J. Anderson put it well and plainly "If I wake up in Hell tomorrow then I'll know I deserve to be there but if I wake up in Heaven then great!"
There's a song that I've always loved and I bet most of the world finds vulgar - it's by NIN and it's Closer. Lyrical depictions of violent sex and rape that should already make the elders cringe are sung together sac religiously with "you bring me closer to God". It's like a man who cheats on his girlfriend more than once. He's a scumbag and everyone would likely agree - but she might take him back (we can call her stupid) and there relationship would be stronger. Aside from the cynics that say he'd do it again, maybe she'd take him back again. God's may be that stupid to take us back or not, we'll find out later but sin or the realization of sin brings us closer to God than any kind deed or good work.
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I stumbled upon psalm 88 today, or perhaps it opened itself to me. During which time I was already pondering the question of the crappiness of worship and christian music. It's very limited and narrow to a feel good and hopeful perspective. If worship is expression of feelings to God then if you're not giddy and gay then these songs are useless. There are lots of spoilers like that in songs because they are written after the artist has overcome his trials so he speaks of them, the suckness and then he moves to the hope he's now found or other such things. But that's an ending, that's not a story in progress so for anyone singing along in the midst of such turmoil this song of hope is a song of something that hasn't occurred and a hope they may not be able to see. Furthermore this reinforces that it's not okay to feel like crap and that God has abandoned you which doesn't make the person who feels this way very loved or accepted. It's all about fixing people, come to church and we'll fix you right up. And you know how appealing that type of marketing is. So we have this glorious psalm 88, the abbreviation FML is (if you didnt' know) short for "fuck my life" examples of such uses of this phrase can be found here for those of you unfamiliar with thar interwebs. So in summary the psalmist basically is calling out to God about how his life is sucking and how God doesn't seem to do anything about it. And that's basically how it ends too, I mean he's praying all this time but at the same time he's basically saying FML. Not in a suicidal way just in the way everyone is familiar with "life sucks". I'm a dead pig and I'm being eaten by cute puppies FML. Everyone is so much more willing to sing backstreet boys or nsync because at least "show me the meaning of being lonely" is an honest statement at more times than "your river runs with love for me". Not to say that Christian songs aren't true but not always appropriate. So I wonder when the worship song of the year (yes they have that sort of award thing) is some song that is completely emo and contains some appropriate colourful language. Honestly, "Praise you in the storm" is such a fake sugar coated way to say, "I know you're God but FML."
nom nom nom
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