I can’t stand your trivial religious games:
Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—
meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more!
Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!
You’ve worn me out!
I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion,
while you go right on sinning.
When you put on your next prayer-performance,
I’ll be looking the other way.
No matter how long or loud or often you pray,
I’ll not be listening.
And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing
people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.
Go home and wash up.
Clean up your act.
Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings
so I don’t have to look at them any longer.
Say no to wrong.
Learn to do good.
Work for justice.
Help the down-and-out.
Stand up for the homeless.
Go to bat for the defenseless. ~Isaiah 1:13-17
...
Hess: So what shall we toast to, boys? I can blather on about “To health” or “To success,” but I’d like to do somethin’ a little less rote. Where you from, Brown Eyes?
Migs Mayfield: How ’bout a toast to Operation Cinder?
Hess: Now there’s a man who knows his history.
Mayfield: No, I don’t just know it. I lived it. I was in Burnin Konn.
Hess: Burnin Konn?
Mayfield: Mmm.
Hess: That was a hard day. I had to make many unpleasant decisions.
Mayfield: Yes, you did. Entire city gone in moments, along with everybody in it. We lost our whole division that day. Man, that was like 5-10,000 people.
Hess: Yep. All heroes of the Empire.
Mayfield: Yeah. And all dead.
Hess: Well, it’s a small sacrifice for the greater good, son.
Mayfield: Depends on who you ask, don’t you think?
Hess: [irritated] What you gettin’ at, trooper?
Hess: But we’ve outlasted them, son. They’re eating themselves alive. The New Republic is in complete disarray, and we grow stronger. You see, with the rhydonium you’ve delivered, we can create havoc that’s gonna make Burnin Konn pale by comparison. And then they’re gonna turn to us once again. You see, boys, everybody thinks they want freedom, but what they really want is order. And when they realize that, they’re gonna welcome us back with open arms. Ah. To the Empire.
[Mayfield chuckles, then fires a blaster at Hess' chest, killing him instantly. He and Mando then shoot their way out of the mess hall] ~From The Mandalorian, Season 2, Ep. 7 "The Believer"
...
And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. ~Revelation 6:9-11
I saw this the other day.
Stonekettle, going off on how a whole bunch of the people who came here before America was America and for the first couple centuries after that were basically just a bunch of pinch-faced, tight-assed religious fanatic ass-clowns that sucked so goddamn bad they mostly managed to get themselves thrown out of then-extremely-Christian Europe.
He's not wrong.
But, you see, I didn't get much of a chance to write about that, because my girlfriend moved in with me a couple days ago and I've been (once we got the truck unloaded anyway) if not exactly busy, at least distracted since.
An article by somebody that I follow on Threads about how she belonged to the cult run by that Pastor, Doug Wilson, that's been in the news lately. According to the article dudes that are in this shit basically believe in abusing their wives to the point of literally making them get on all fours and beating them with a belt, and watching BDSM porn.
First of all, that's sick, what the fuck is wrong with these people?
Second, since I have a little bit of familiarity with actual BDSM from my younger years...none of that stuff is about or sanctions abuse of any kind and for anybody who's ever actually done anything that way, consent and safety are very important. If you're trying to break someone's will, you're not doing it right. Insofar as it's about control or power or torture at all, you have to want to participate and nobody's gonna take away your basic rights, humanity or personhood for doing it.
It's not about domination for the sake of it, or fueling one's narcissism or vicious and petty Men having power and control over women. And yes, a lot of the people I knew who were into kinky stuff were Republicans but it's a safe bet, I think, that 22 years ago the word "Republican" didn't mean what it apparently does now.
Christian Nationalism was a thing yes, but it sure as hell wasn't like this.
Yes, there's also always been a lot of crossover between "Guys who spank the monkey to weird porn" and "Guys who want to inflict their debased, weird urges on their wives."
But those fucking guys were, at one time, not especially welcome in most churches, and certainly not in any that I ever heard of when I was either a churchgoing Christian or a member of a house church.
Mind you, my membership in that house church actually outlasted my Christianity itself by about seven years. I was a Christian from roughly 1979 to about 2006-2007 although I was always pretty mainstream, if relatively politically conservative. My girlfriend still is a Christian, but mostly is in the same boat as I am.
Yeah, I've been pretty deep into this stuff, and whipping a woman with a belt never would have ever occurred to me. But then again, treating a woman as a box to check or an ornament to possess wouldn't be something I'd do or tolerate, either. I was taught better than that.I've known my girlfriend for 20 years, we were coworkers, friends, roommates, and we dated before. She's been abused. If I'd have found out about it at the time, the guy who did it would not still be walking around. Considering my own life experience and the friends I had back then no, nobody would ever have found Bubba The Hutt.
The thought of ever hurting my partner sickens me. If somebody even suggested I do the type of shit I saw in that article...to her? They'd find out the hard way that I still remember Basic Military Training and for bonus points throw in that FAFO is a principle I strongly believe in and I'm in good shape again.
Some bearded butterball of a preacher would probably not like what happened.
Look, I don't give a damn how much cultic or political power you think you have. Some things are just wrong and I was taught Man is not going to be the Judge of Man when we go into the Afterlife, it's a safe bet, I think, to assume that God is probably gonna call you out on your made-up bullshit and not take any dumbass excuses for why you did it.
Because yes, I was taught that if you're a Christian you're supposed to believe in and follow a Living God that'll judge you for your actions in this life and the next.
These fucking people don't want that, they want a Dead Savior On A Stick to "Justify" their atrocities and evils and greed and misogyny and racism and shitty politics and every other goddamned thing.
They don't want to be Saved, they want to have their Sins sacralized.
Fuck all that.
How Long, O Lord, are you going to tolerate this horseshit?!?!
As for the rest of us?
We can't afford to wait for Him to get off His ass.
You either believe in freedom or you don't, and you're either willing to fight for it or you're not.
And don't you dare forget that.
Слава Україна!
The wind whispers of fear and hate. The war has killed love. And those that confess to the Angkar are punished, and no one dare ask where they go. Here, only the silent survive. ~Dith Pran, The Killing Fields
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