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a new way of looking at... religion >> spiritual masturbation - 1 |
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christianity and i have been strange bedfellows. while everyone is crying for more contemporary versions of religion, i argue for the traditional. while everyone is begging for more 'wwjd' jewelry and other paraphenalia, i simply keep to myself. and if i see even one more book about how the end times are approaching (especially since they seem straight out of weekly world news), i'm going to puke. i'm not angry with religion per se, just with many of those people that practice it. especially christianity. sometimes it's taken to extremes that i don't care to discuss, but now is the time and this is the place for it.
begin rant. how many times have you been forced to listen to a street preacher speak? i don't mean physically restrained and forced to listen to their drivel, but been so compelled to get angry about what they are saying and how they are saying it that you just stand transfixed by their speech. i have too many times. people keep saying just ignore them, but i can't. how can i sit and listen to someone who should be teaching the compassion of christ and his saving grace and turn right around and immediately proclaim that so and so is a whore, and so and so is going to hell for being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transexual? (note: the sin according to the bible is having homosexual sex between two men, which means that simply being gay and having those feelings are not a sin, and that lesbians are basically off the hook) it sickens me. but what does it have to do with the topic at hand? enter spiritual masturbation. this is a phenomenon that i have observed by many of the neo-christians (or born again) that permeate through campuses around the world. i won't commit the fallacy of decomposition, so when i refer to the group, i am not referring to the individuals of that group. if you feel you fit the mold, then i can't help that. spiritual masturbation refers to when someone "discovers christ" (and if god is in all things since god permeates creation, then this discovery is finding someone we already posses) and suddenly turn away the rest of the world. i mean removing anything that is secular from their lives - music, books, clothes, foods, and jewelry. they totally purge themselves of everything non-christian so that they can feel pure. however, we all know that christianity rides on the tide of western capitalism, and the consumerist drive. what needs to replace it? music, books, clothes, foods, and jewelry that are 'christian', by which i mean the 'wwjd' paraphenalia, the left behind series, books on cults (which for some reason includes zen buddhism in most cases???), etc. they purge themselves, and fill the void with material things. it's almost the grossest thing on the planet, really. what's the point? where do they get off by doing such a thing? what are they accomplishing? invariably, it would appear to be not just a follower of christ (there are plenty of those with less stuff), but to be a better follower of christ. 1 | 2 |