Just to let you know, I'm not actually going to waste an entire post on Peter Popoff (believe me, the guy ain't worth it), but moreso to address the spirit in which people like Peter Popoff are operating.
Its funny how much applicable truth you can find in the Bible if you look just a little bit. Some of you who know me may have noticed that I can get a little bit caught up in being frustrated over all of the irrationally blind things that people do because they are deceived to the truth that a lot of Christians (including myself, apparently) take for granted.
The latest big thing, of course, was my pseudo-political rant about the whole Danish/Moslem cartoon thing (the violence continues to escalate, I might add), which, though I still find it entirely unbelievable, I am well aware that the existance of religious double-standards should come as no surprise - the spirits run deep in this kind of thing, and the world can't help but be deceived. I guess that is sort of the definition of "the world" in a lot of ways. And it doesn't come as a surprise, but like many things, it irks me. Yes it does, and its not alone.
Something that has mystified, infuriated and frustrated me in equal parts since time immemorial is the existance and apparent power of the charlatan: the psychics, the mediums and the phony faith healers. All are operating under the same premise and power, namely the devil. All depend upon the fragile emotions of hurting people to add digits to their bank accounts and worst yet, all of these pervert and twist the character of God, preventing their victims from ever knowing the REAL father, and from knowing true freedom. For those who see through these sheisters, they are often lumped together with real believers and thus the gap is widened between the skeptics and the truth.
I think the worst of these, in my mind, are the phony faith healers (ala Peter Popoff). Deceitful men (and women - Peter Popoff's wife is a key player in his deceptions) who call upon the name of Jesus to "heal" people, while gluing their hands firmly into the pockets of their followers. And yet there are circumstances in which they demonstrate the power to produce the signs, wonders and in some cases miracles to back up their lies. Why? How can these deceivers have the power to do such things? This is a question that has always bothered me. I was always under the impression that only Christ could empower people to do things like that, and it bugged me.
Funny how, after reading a mere 7 chapters into the gospels that this, like a great many of the irksome things that go on in the world, that this very thing is so directly addressed by Jesus. Check this out (I love the way the NLT puts this):
21"Not all people who sound religious are really godly. They may refer to me as `Lord,' but they still won't enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The decisive issue is whether they obey my Father in heaven. 22On judgment day many will tell me, `Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.' 23But I will reply, `I never knew you. Go away; the things you did were unauthorized.' " Matt 7:21-23
I love that - "the things you did were unauthorized". That just sums it up so perfectly for me. So, to sum it up - Peter Popoff, Reverend Moon, Miss Chloe, Ramtha and all the rest of the devil-powered miracle workers in the world may be able to do some genuinely amazing things, but without the authorization that comes from Christ for such things, all they really have is a lot of smoke and mirrors.
Monday, February 27, 2006
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Babbling in Tongues?
Okay, this is MEANT to be a shorty, in my mind. We'll see how it actually plays out.
So, I feel as though I have often been criticised (perhaps not vocally, and perhaps it is mostly myself that is to blame) for being less visual about my faith, or not as emotively engaged in worship.
Admittedly, I'm not that comfortable with overt signs of outward emotion in this regard, and I can't pin down exactly why that is. It comes out in my relationships - most people who know me can probably tell you that I tend not to react to things a lot of the time, whether they be negative or positive things. If a close friend tells me about something great they have accomplished, I am not the person who is going to jump up and down and scream with excitement, though I am likely doing so inside for them. The same could be said about tragedy - if somebody close to me were to die, I probably wouldn't cry or be outwardly distressed about it, whatever I feel on the inside. Again, not sure why - I think part of it may be the result of me having been damaged at some point in my life.
What I am learning though, is that a lot of this simply is because this is the way that I am. I do things and process things differently than a lot of people - I prefer quiet, inward (and usually slow) contemplation over outward manifestations of joy. I derive greater satisfaction from really chewing something over and appreciating it in my mind than I do in blowing off steam. If this sometimes gives off the impression that I am being disingenuous, well that bothers me, because I'm really not!
As I started off saying, this translates largely into my spiritual life - I'm not the throwing-my-hands-up-in-the-air-halleluiah! kind of person. I've tried, and it doesn't feel natural - it just isn't me. I don't particularly like getting in front of a group of people and spiritualizing, or blubbing or falling over or whatever it is that people apparently are supposed to do when they are being "spiritual".
Me, I think about things a lot. I have often wondered if something was wrong with me (as, I am aware, have others), however it brings me great pleasure and contentment to read these words of Jesus and know that he knew where I am coming from.
"And now, about prayer. When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I assure you, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father secretly. Then your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.
"When you pray, don't babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered only by repeating their words again and again. Don't be like them, because your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!" Matt 6:5-8
So, I feel as though I have often been criticised (perhaps not vocally, and perhaps it is mostly myself that is to blame) for being less visual about my faith, or not as emotively engaged in worship.
Admittedly, I'm not that comfortable with overt signs of outward emotion in this regard, and I can't pin down exactly why that is. It comes out in my relationships - most people who know me can probably tell you that I tend not to react to things a lot of the time, whether they be negative or positive things. If a close friend tells me about something great they have accomplished, I am not the person who is going to jump up and down and scream with excitement, though I am likely doing so inside for them. The same could be said about tragedy - if somebody close to me were to die, I probably wouldn't cry or be outwardly distressed about it, whatever I feel on the inside. Again, not sure why - I think part of it may be the result of me having been damaged at some point in my life.
What I am learning though, is that a lot of this simply is because this is the way that I am. I do things and process things differently than a lot of people - I prefer quiet, inward (and usually slow) contemplation over outward manifestations of joy. I derive greater satisfaction from really chewing something over and appreciating it in my mind than I do in blowing off steam. If this sometimes gives off the impression that I am being disingenuous, well that bothers me, because I'm really not!
As I started off saying, this translates largely into my spiritual life - I'm not the throwing-my-hands-up-in-the-air-halleluiah! kind of person. I've tried, and it doesn't feel natural - it just isn't me. I don't particularly like getting in front of a group of people and spiritualizing, or blubbing or falling over or whatever it is that people apparently are supposed to do when they are being "spiritual".
Me, I think about things a lot. I have often wondered if something was wrong with me (as, I am aware, have others), however it brings me great pleasure and contentment to read these words of Jesus and know that he knew where I am coming from.
"And now, about prayer. When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I assure you, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father secretly. Then your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.
"When you pray, don't babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered only by repeating their words again and again. Don't be like them, because your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!" Matt 6:5-8
Friday, February 10, 2006
/rant off
I feel compelled to offer apologies for the level of vitriol that came out of my previous little rant there.. what started out as a simple venting of frustrations quickly turned into a monster of the kind of scale previously only achieved by Godzilla, or perhaps Mothra.
In any case, I am loathe to continue feeding the rant monster with the bloody carcasses of my dearest friends, so I am turning him off. That's right, off. Thanks to the incredible technology contained in my monster control collar I can deactivate the beast within with a few simple keystrokes. So in the name of Peace, Democracy and Friendly Banter --
/rant off
In any case, I am loathe to continue feeding the rant monster with the bloody carcasses of my dearest friends, so I am turning him off. That's right, off. Thanks to the incredible technology contained in my monster control collar I can deactivate the beast within with a few simple keystrokes. So in the name of Peace, Democracy and Friendly Banter --
/rant off
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
I don't mean to be an alarmist, but..
.. what in the hell is wrong with people??!
I am so bloody sick and tired of how much ridicule Christianity garners around the world - what is it that we ever did to make so many people so badly deride us? Yes, I can understand that some people like to think they don't believe in God, or maybe they believe in a different god, or maybe they think that people who believe in God are doing so as a mean of allaying our fear of death or fate.
I can understand those attitudes, I really can. But why, oh why, do so many people put so much effort into mocking and ridiculing Christianity? Why is it that anytime a muslim imam, or a hindu priest, or a buddhist monk is depicted on TV or the movies, they are played by talented dramatic actors and portrayed as wise, deeply spiritual and sagely, with unshakeable faith and hearts of gold, while the vast majority of Christians one sees are all played for laughs by some moronic, barely-even-qualifies-as-comedic character actor and portrayed as hyper-spastic, time-forgotten, patriarchal, domineering, under-handed and closed-minded familial dictators who subscribe to extreme forms of corporal punish administered to the entire family, all accompanied by the most red-neck inspired southern accent imaginable??!!
Even better is when the character actor in question is an outspoken atheist, anti-Christian, gay activist(the kind that believe that all people are really gay inside and that all church related notions are complete garbage), etc, etc, and the Christian or Minister character is a closet homosexual/pedophile/mysogynist/all of the above. And people eat it up - they think its absolutely hilarious! "How dare those dang Christians act all sacred about their beliefs?!" one might ask.
I suppose it should be no surprise when I heard that Britney Spears was slated to appear on Will & Grace as the ridiculous host of a "Christian" cooking show called "Cruci-fixin's", in an episode in which a Christian broadcaster takes over a gay-themed TV Network and starts making changes to the roster. http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/01/people.spears.ap/
And surprise, surprise a group described as a "Conservative Christian Organization" lodged a complaint, for which they were, subsequently derided by the public. Hell, if I was in a position to lodge a complaint, I would too - its ridiculous that they can get away with that, and even more-so that Christians come off looking like the closed-minded bad guy in the scenario. But did we stage a riot, or burn the American flag, or attacked the U.S. embassy in protest?! No - we lodged a complaint. What a bunch of jerks we are.
Seriously though, I don't even want to imagine the kind of religio-political backlash that might occur if, for instance, some independant newspaper published a funny cartoon about the prophet Muhammed - after all, while Muhammed may be no more sacred to his respective followers than Christ is to his, Muhammed, being a muslim prophet, must be taken seriously at all times, unlike anything related to Christianity.
Just imagine the chaos - my conservative (not really, but you see my point) Christian mind can conceive of unimaginable numbers of angry letters written to that newspaper, and maybe even peaceful protests by Danish muslims outside the doors of their office. This is a serious issue. Heck, I might even write a letter to the government of Denmark just to make sure that my opinions were heard.
Apparently, though, when you are a muslim and your beliefs have been mocked, you have a lot more in your arsenal than words to fling against those who have insulted you with words or cartoons. It is apparently somehow justified for muslims to burn Danish flags and attack / set fire to Danish embassies (apparently any European embassy is fair game, now) with molotov cocktails and rocks and who knows what else. For some reason it is okay for them to stage massive riots and kill people as well. http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/02/07/cartoon.protests/index.html
Please don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to colour all muslims as violent and insane - I've been friends with muslim people who I greatly respected and respect to this day, but I have to honestly wonder why the world is so caught up in making fun of Christians.
We may well be stuck up and religious and prideful and all of those other things, but no Christian I've ever heard of has ever flown an airliner into the side of a building, or organized suicide bombings for no other reason than to kill as many of the heathens as we can. People may call the United States under President Bush a theocracy, but hey, unlike some Islamic states (Saudi Arabia, for on), they haven't started imprisoning, torturing and publicly beheading people of other religions quite yet.
And so I remain, baffled by the idiocy that is public opinion. In all honesty, I do not believe that Christians are better people than people of other religions, or that we are somehow less capable of doing horrible things, but the fact is that we AREN'T doing those horrible things, and yet the world still delights in hating us. I suppose Jesus warned us, but when I see things like this Will & Grace fiasco side-by-side with this Danish Cartoon thing on the news, and the Christians are still made to look like the bigger idiots, I just can't help but be a little bit confused.
Thank you for tolerating my incoherent rantings and ravings. I promise I'll get better :)
I am so bloody sick and tired of how much ridicule Christianity garners around the world - what is it that we ever did to make so many people so badly deride us? Yes, I can understand that some people like to think they don't believe in God, or maybe they believe in a different god, or maybe they think that people who believe in God are doing so as a mean of allaying our fear of death or fate.
I can understand those attitudes, I really can. But why, oh why, do so many people put so much effort into mocking and ridiculing Christianity? Why is it that anytime a muslim imam, or a hindu priest, or a buddhist monk is depicted on TV or the movies, they are played by talented dramatic actors and portrayed as wise, deeply spiritual and sagely, with unshakeable faith and hearts of gold, while the vast majority of Christians one sees are all played for laughs by some moronic, barely-even-qualifies-as-comedic character actor and portrayed as hyper-spastic, time-forgotten, patriarchal, domineering, under-handed and closed-minded familial dictators who subscribe to extreme forms of corporal punish administered to the entire family, all accompanied by the most red-neck inspired southern accent imaginable??!!
Even better is when the character actor in question is an outspoken atheist, anti-Christian, gay activist(the kind that believe that all people are really gay inside and that all church related notions are complete garbage), etc, etc, and the Christian or Minister character is a closet homosexual/pedophile/mysogynist/all of the above. And people eat it up - they think its absolutely hilarious! "How dare those dang Christians act all sacred about their beliefs?!" one might ask.
I suppose it should be no surprise when I heard that Britney Spears was slated to appear on Will & Grace as the ridiculous host of a "Christian" cooking show called "Cruci-fixin's", in an episode in which a Christian broadcaster takes over a gay-themed TV Network and starts making changes to the roster. http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/01/people.spears.ap/
And surprise, surprise a group described as a "Conservative Christian Organization" lodged a complaint, for which they were, subsequently derided by the public. Hell, if I was in a position to lodge a complaint, I would too - its ridiculous that they can get away with that, and even more-so that Christians come off looking like the closed-minded bad guy in the scenario. But did we stage a riot, or burn the American flag, or attacked the U.S. embassy in protest?! No - we lodged a complaint. What a bunch of jerks we are.
Seriously though, I don't even want to imagine the kind of religio-political backlash that might occur if, for instance, some independant newspaper published a funny cartoon about the prophet Muhammed - after all, while Muhammed may be no more sacred to his respective followers than Christ is to his, Muhammed, being a muslim prophet, must be taken seriously at all times, unlike anything related to Christianity.
Just imagine the chaos - my conservative (not really, but you see my point) Christian mind can conceive of unimaginable numbers of angry letters written to that newspaper, and maybe even peaceful protests by Danish muslims outside the doors of their office. This is a serious issue. Heck, I might even write a letter to the government of Denmark just to make sure that my opinions were heard.
Apparently, though, when you are a muslim and your beliefs have been mocked, you have a lot more in your arsenal than words to fling against those who have insulted you with words or cartoons. It is apparently somehow justified for muslims to burn Danish flags and attack / set fire to Danish embassies (apparently any European embassy is fair game, now) with molotov cocktails and rocks and who knows what else. For some reason it is okay for them to stage massive riots and kill people as well. http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/02/07/cartoon.protests/index.html
Please don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to colour all muslims as violent and insane - I've been friends with muslim people who I greatly respected and respect to this day, but I have to honestly wonder why the world is so caught up in making fun of Christians.
We may well be stuck up and religious and prideful and all of those other things, but no Christian I've ever heard of has ever flown an airliner into the side of a building, or organized suicide bombings for no other reason than to kill as many of the heathens as we can. People may call the United States under President Bush a theocracy, but hey, unlike some Islamic states (Saudi Arabia, for on), they haven't started imprisoning, torturing and publicly beheading people of other religions quite yet.
And so I remain, baffled by the idiocy that is public opinion. In all honesty, I do not believe that Christians are better people than people of other religions, or that we are somehow less capable of doing horrible things, but the fact is that we AREN'T doing those horrible things, and yet the world still delights in hating us. I suppose Jesus warned us, but when I see things like this Will & Grace fiasco side-by-side with this Danish Cartoon thing on the news, and the Christians are still made to look like the bigger idiots, I just can't help but be a little bit confused.
Thank you for tolerating my incoherent rantings and ravings. I promise I'll get better :)
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