In case you don’t check the “Recent Comments” section in the sidebars, let me inform you that David (who commented in my “Down the Hole With You” post the other day) and I are engaging in some friendly debate about Catholic doctrine. He asked in the comments of one of Miz Pink’s posts if I was Catholic, and it went off from there. It’s good clean fun…no one’s getting savaged or anything, but if you’re curious, it starts here.
Saw this on another blog today. I slightly modified the last item on the list to be a bit more accurate and all-inclusive to the overall goal.
A tiny bit foul-minded? Sure. A lot accurate? Yes.
In case you’re wondering, the original fourth point was “PLEASE don’t shove it down down my children’s throats” but aside from the icky factor that induced in my head, I also thought that most people of adult age also don’t want it shoved down their throats.
I think this little bit of semi-raunchy humor encapsulates my feelings on religion. If both sides would follow these rules and respect the practice and possession of a religion while also not foisting it on anyone else without some kind of implied consent, we’d all be better off.
And the thing is, there are times in life when we might talk about our penises with people other than our lovers or spouses…or urologists. Just as we might talk religion. As long as it’s not used as a form of religious assault, can we just agree to get along and stop all the name-calling on both sides?
If not, you may force me to whip something out that you don’t want to see. 😉
I’m not one for marking annual occasions much on this blog whether good, bad or otherwise. Or tragic. But I will today.
The terrorists actions on Sept. 11 in the United States were awful.
We should take time to remember all the victims, direct and indirect.
But for me, the real tragedy is how the event has been misused, in ways that do not honor the dead, the hurt, and their families.
The real tragedy is how the event has done far more to mire this country in debt and blood, and to further polarize an already polarized nation.
It should have brought us together, and the real tragedy is that it continues to be used to divide. To divide who is truly patriotic from who is presumably not. To divide the suspicious types from the trustworthy ones. And so little of that with any basis in reality.
We should remember. We should remember those who suffered directly, who truly bear the scars, and we should remember how much time, money and goodwill we’ve squandered over petty shit when we should have been rebuilding not just broken buildings but broken relationships.
So, a little lesson today on manners.
Yeah, I’m like Miss Manners today…call me Deac Manners.
If someone you know personally in real life and online posts something on their blog, and you take exception with it on general philosophical grounds, here’s what you do:
One, you call or e-mail that person and talk it out or arrange to have coffee and discuss things in a normal human way, face-to-face, so that no one’s meaning gets lost
or
Two, you post a comment to that person’s blog detailing your issues with the comment he or she made in their blog post, so that there can be a healthy and detailed discussion of the issue online between you two and any other readers of the blog post.
Here is what you DON’T do:
Do not, under any circumstances, make vague, outraged snarky comments about the line in question on Twitter, 140 characters at a time, then make another tweet, after your first two or three, that actually is intended to directly insult the person who wrote the line in the blog post that irked you.
Also, if you’re considering it, don’t use Facebook either for your diatribe and direct attack against that person that you know in real life and will no doubt run into face-to-face one day.
Because, you see, Twitter and Facebook are places where comments are supposed to be quick and pithy and not try to go into deep and complex issues. They do not lend themselves to detailed and in-depth discourse.
More importantly, be a damned grown up and address the person directly if you don’t like what he or she said. This isn’t fucking high school. Going around saying nasty things in other people’s ears and impugning the person is pretty nasty passive-aggressive behavior.
You live in the same town, dammit. If it bothers you that much what the person said, own your displeasure and talk it out instead of hiding behind your computer screen.
(And yes, I’m talking about a real situation. And yes, I’ve seen other people online pull this same crap, which makes me think the Internet is making people lose all their common sense in terms of human interaction. And no, I wasn’t the person affected. Just an interested bystander)
So, if the naysayers can leave out answers like “superstition” or “because they’re mindless followers” or “a 2,000 year old fairy tale tells them so,” why do people go to church?
There are a multitude of spiritual and/or religious (the two do not always overlap but of course often do) reasons why people attend Sunday services, of Mass, or Saturday night musical services or whatever else. It can be habit, it can be fear of damnation, it can be validation for their beliefs, a desire to be with like-minded people in a communal setting, or a lot of other things.
For me, it is about lifting my Spirit. Note the big “S.” It will be important later.
There once was a time I went to church to be edified and to learn more about faith and service in God’s name. Not so much anymore. I still get bits of new information here and there, particularly when the reverend knows ancient Greek and/or Hebrew and can actually put the passages into their real meaning and context instead of what they’ve been twisted into via a multitude of translations (and dulled meanings often lead leaders of congregations astray or allow them to lead congregants astray, but I’m getting off track).
Anyway, education isn’t my primary reason for church and hasn’t been for a long time. I’ve moved on to spiritual exploration and contemplation of the divine nature more than worrying about Bible specifics.
And so the reason I go to church, and I know many faithful have the same goal, is to lift up my Spirit.
There are many ways I can lift my spirits, but there are very few ways I can lift up and nourish my Spirit.
My Spirit, that divinely attuned part of me (or any of us, if we choose to nourish and listen to it) needs stimulation. Church services are the best way to do that in a community setting, so that I can connect with people, have group companionship and celebration, and lift my Spirit.
Certainly, other things can lift my Spirit (or my little “S” spirits for that matter): being out in nature, listening to good music, meditation/prayer, or viewing art.
(And I can’t help but note that such things are those that most closely align to unique human characteristics like abstract creativity and/or things that put one closer to the treasures of the Earth.)
These things don’t always move me to the point where they will lift my Spirit. Frankly, going to church doesn’t always do the job either. But it’s the best place to do so among other people in an atmosphere of celebration.
And yes, I know that many churches are more interested in pointing fingers, or finding scapegoats, or preaching the damnation of heathen, or fleecing people to get their money. But many churches are interested in lifting the Spirit, and I go to one of them.
It is, I think, one of the best reasons to go to church, and it would be my hope that fewer of the faithful will deal in legalisms of the Bible, or judgments of others, and find that path that leads toward encouraging people’s nourishment of their Spirit.
You know, maybe if I go away officially for a week or so and tell Miz Pink that she can make my top banner pink and take over for a while, I wouldn’t feel so guilty. Seems like I need to bribe her with a power trip to get her to fill in the gaps around here….LOL
But I do have stuff to say, I admit, just not as much time as I’d like to say it.
This blog began as a place where I could wax somewhat foul-mouthedly about various things (sex, politics, etc.) while bringing in some biblical and spiritual angles, as well as to actually explore specific religious and spiritual issues.
It’s become more of a random rant, and I sometimes cover those “original” topics as well (though the sex stuff less so…guess I don’t have a sex advice column in my future). But spiritual matters, while I haven’t discussed them in depth much lately…and while I don’t hit the Bible all that terribly often these days…are still very important to me.
God is still important to me. Jesus is still important to me. My relationship to and acceptance of the Holy Spirit is important to me. Reading the Bible is less important, but still not unimportant.
The thing is, I’ve found that I’m much more passionate about exploring my place in God’s plans and His place in the larger universe. Contemplation and even speculation are serving me better these days in finding my spiritual path and trying to align myself better with God.
It is a lonely portion of the spiritual path, because it doesn’t lend itself as much to sharing, or community. Some of my thoughts and considerations go in strange places. Places that I don’t want to share, or don’t feel I can give justice.
I find myself contemplating other religions more; not in the sense of practicing them but in trying to tie the disparate spiritual world together and figure out how God fits into most things quite nicely, even if He doesn’t always take the Judeo-Christo-Muslim kind of face that is so prevalent.
I remain unmoved by Hawking or anyone else who feels they can explain away God and remove Him. They cannot unprove God any more than I can prove him. I would rather that such folks stick to the science and stop trying to bring God into it. In turn, I would like for religious folks to stop trying to reinterpret science (evolution, etc.) in biblical terms.
In the end, it wouldn’t matter if God came first or the universe did. Science and religion can coexist. Different religions can coexist, even in the context of eternal salvation vs. eternal separation. Christianity remains my core, but finding what it means to me and how to employ my faith better is still a journey.
At times, it’s been a journey with many companions, but lately, it’s just been a solo stroll most days. I hope top invite you on a walk with me soon, though, and we’ll see what I might be able to share with you.
Even if many of you won’t agree with me. 😉
I have some spiritual and other musings I’ll get to soon-ish, but first, a rant.
Little Girl Blue loves Scooby-Doo (she also loves Spongebob Squarepants, Arthur [and his friends], Teen Titans and many others)…and this is good. I, too, am a big fan of Scooby and the gang. I’m mostly a fan of the original couple of series back in the 1970s, and the more recent animated movies and the series “What’s New Scooby-Doo?”
Recently, our library got the two-disc set of “The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo,” a show I only vaguely remember from my youth (probably because it came out when I was in high school, and not really watching cartoons much at that time).
Now, I’ve been iffy about some of the Scooby-Doo series variations recently, like “A Pup Named Scooby-Doo” (fun, but silly, and not really in keeping with the overall Scooby-Doo canon) and “Shaggy and Scooby Get a Clue” (which was kind of surreal and trippy and felt out of place). But even those had their charms. But one thing I will say is that I have always…ALWAYS hated Scrappy-Doo, Scooby’s nephew.
That character was like the attempt in a flagging sitcom to breathe new life into the series by introducing a baby or some distant needy quirky relative. I think it killed all that was good in the Scooby-Doo franchise, pushing out not only Fred and Velma for a great many years but also signaling a drop in the fun factor, the humor and the charm of the earlier series. We wouldn’t see any of that energy or charm return until very recent years (the 1990s and 2000s).
So, one reason for me to not want to sit down and watch “The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo” for more than a few minutes at a time would be because Scrappy is in the series.
But it gets worse.
As much as I thought I’d never hate any Scooby character more than Scrappy, I got introduced to Flim-Flam.
This guy is a pre-pubescent kid who is a con-artist (and inexplicably wears a hooded sweat suit all the time, even in hot climes, that often looks more like like a cheap robe made by someone who was trying to outfit an Appalachian mountain-residing KKK member with a Gandalf fixation) and who, according to Wikepedia, is Mexican. I knew he was either Latino or Middle Eastern given his skin tone, though he has no particular accent, but despite having its flaws, Wikipedia is right more often than not, so I’ll trust them.
So, Flim-Flam becomes the one Mexican I’ve ever encountered whom I despise. Frankly, I haven’t even met too many Mexicans whom I even find irritating, which is interesting, considering how many other racial groups have routinely produced individuals who piss me off. About the only other Mexican who’s ever been on my shit list was the guy who owned the barber shop my mom once worked at when I was a young lad, and who was a chauvinist bastard who screwed her over multiple times work-wise.
In any case, I’m not even going to argue whether there is a racial or social subtext to Flim-Flam…he’s just plain frickin’ annoying, and at least as much so as Scrappy-Doo, making “The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo” hands down the most worthless series ever featuring Scooby, not even redeemable with the inclusion of a character, Vincent Von Ghoul, voiced by the incomparable Vincent Price.
Screw you, Flim-Flam.
At least Scrappy provided one redeeming legacy: Providing a somewhat funny villainous twist on the first live-action Scooby-Doo movie.
I follow Roger Ebert on Twitter (his account is ebertchicago) and he is a very prolific and often witty sort. Today, he tweeted a comment left for him (on his blog, I’m guessing), and thought I’d share it here:
Religion is to spirituality what porn is to sex.
Given my two most recent “Deacon’s Wisdom” posts in the past week, I suspect you can guess that I substantially (though not entirely) agree with that sentiment.
Strong beliefs in spiritual things are often seen as arrogance. Certainly, they can be. But the true arrogance isn’t in strong faith. The arrogance is when people hold to their faith so tightly that they fail to respect others’ beliefs; fail to ever question and explore their own; and assume they know all the answers.
Temporarily marring what had up until that point been a pretty awesome day tooling around and visiting the beach and such with the family, we are on a small and crowded pier. I have just bought a messy fried concoction from one of the many stands crowded on the narrow pier, and head for one of the few tables nearby.
These tables can sit four adults comfortably.
A man is standing at the end of one such table.
Herein ends the setup for my rant/open memo…
Dear Jerk,
When you are standing at the very end of a table, talking on your cell phone, with your drink at the very edge of the table, and I sit down on one of the bench seats with my 5-year-old girl, at the other end from where you are, giving you plenty of space, I do not want to hear the snippy words, “I was sitting here” as you walk off in a huff with your phone, your drink, and whatever conversation you were having.
Seating is at a premium.
I had messy food and a little girl.
But most importantly, and for the record, if you are standing, and using the edge of a table as your drink-rest, and you are there simply to talk on a phone and not to relax or eat something, I have news for you:
You were not sitting there.
That is all.
Don’t ruin my vibe again.