You know, i've just about had it. It gets really annoying being 'required' to tiptoe around a FACT because not everyone will look at what OCCURS and see things for what they are, but THIS FACT is now undeniable for ME. I think it's time that the moderators modify the logo posted at the top of the page and add an explicit disclaimer under all the symbols. The disclaimer should say: "The Monastery is NOT a Christian Sunday school." Why? Because FAR TOO MANY people can look RIGHT AT those symbols, and fail to see any of them except the Christian Cross.
I have many friends here who are Christians. I have them in my personal life as well. See that lady in the picture with me? That's Melissa, my beloved wife of over a decade. This morning i sat in a pew with her while she and the congregation at the Christian church she enjoys attending all asked their imaginary friend to forgive them for being worthless sinners, over and over and over again :-).
I don't believe in Christian doctrine, i don't believe there's anything at the other end of prayers but the imagination and wishful thinking of the people who say them, but since i support my wife's practice of it enough to get up on Sunday mornings when she wants me to do so and be bored for an hour, nobody here is going to get very far telling me i'm intolerant of Christians or their right to believe whatever they choose to believe. In turn, *i* have every right to see it as foolish, unnecessary, and counter-productive... and to say so with the exact same conviction and freedom of expression that i have always defended for the Christians here who want to express their views without trying to deny me the right to mine.
There's NOTHING in this blog entry which is intended to be disrespectful to the Christians faith as a WHOLE, or to demean its sincere practitioners. Melissa has chosen to work at far below her earning potential because her faith tells her that she should use her talents to serve the poor and less fortunate, so she works at a Chritian charity that serves the homeless, and i support and respect her for LIVING her faith. We could have more STUFF if she worked at a higher paying job, but both of our lives would be poorer if we traded away her spiritual fullfillment just for that stuff, and we are sure we have made the right choice in that regard.
I know people here who are Christians who have AWED me with how much they are willing to do to live the message they believe they see in the Bible, and i have never hesitated to honor them for the places to which their faith drives them. But not every practitioner of that faith can muster up the respect... or possibly even see past their own blinders... to REALLY grok that the ULC Monastery is an ecumenical site, and explicitly not a place for them to win souls for Jesus, teach us all about the cleansing power of blood (Now with more hemoglobin!), or any other form of proselytization. And i've lost any interest in treating those narrow-minded, arrogant/pompous asses with anything but the contempt they have earned.
We've ALSO got athesists, pagans, wiccans, metaphysicists, astrologers, and who knows what else here. Some of them happen to be people that just make me want to scream, but EVERY ONE of them, those i like and those i don't, at least manage to recognize that this site is NOT their personal pulpit and that other people can disagree with them and are ENTITLED to do so. While many of the Christians here recognize that fact ALSO, and show full courtesy and respect for the rights of others to practice their own beliefs, it's a FACT that EVERY time ... EVERY TIME... that we get some bozo preaching or explicitly treating others here with blatant disrespect on the posts here, that person IS a Christian. I'm tired of it, and i'm tired of the fact that ***i*** get accused of some personal vendetta against Christians just because i let the FACTS of this matter speak for themselves, and ECHO what they show. It's NOT my assertion that every Christian here is an ass, just the opposite as i have sung the praises for the spiritual consistency of more than one Christian here. But is IS my assertion that every ass here IS a Christian... with one GLARING exception which should probably count too since she appears to think she has a REALLY special relationship with jesus in spite of not calling herself a Christian.
I understand that there's a subset of Christians who sincerely believe that they are REQUIRED to go forth and preach to everyone as if nobody on earth can think for themselves and everyone is just sitting around waiting to be 'saved', but THIS IS NOT THE PLACE for that, and i for one would like to see this crap nipped far earlier than it gets done. We are ALL ministers here, we are MOSTLY adults, though - this is a tangent - there are some major exceptions to that as well, and again i think it's time that we send the children to sit at the children's table and leave the adults to have adult conversations without the inane blatherings, attentions seeking displays, and temper tantrums which are all the children can produce.
There's a ULC site which - as far as i can tell - pretty much requires a blood oath from its members that they will promote only the most fundamentalist form of Christianity, and no gays, pagans, atheists, etc. need apply for membership. That's fine with me, as i prefer to associate with people who have something worth saying, not a bunch of book worshipping parrots... but the ULC Monastery is NOT that site and those of us HERE should not be dealing with the REGULARLY REPEATED crap that... again... ONLY COMES FROM CHRISTIANS.
The Christian Cross is listed above, as it should be. Christianity is the religion of over a billion people on this planet, and it inspires greatness in many of its practitioners. But, while i have my theories about WHY this behavior i am objecting to is the case that i won't bother to produce as i can't *prove them*, it's an undeniable fact that regardless of WHY it is so, it IS so that it ALSO inspires narrow minded, self-righteous thinking among some of its members in a form i have NOT seen on this site from any atheist, pagan, wiccan, what have you.
The Christian Bible tells its readers that when they want to pray, they should do so IN PRIVATE, so that they not appear to be prideful, or some similar message. I'm NOT suggesting that any of them be required to follow the clear instructions in their book, though i do note the irony/hypocrisy that it is those very same people who think that *I* should follow what they *THINK* the book says, but i AM suggesting that those who practice this specific mind set from among them sit down and take stock of what THIS site is about and show the REST of us some respect for OUR right and COMMITMENT to OUR beliefs, or lack of beliefs.
Have all the 'Bible Studies' you want in groups set up for that. Exchange messages amongst yourselves and post the same verses over and over as if they are some major revelation. I have no desire nor need to stop that stuff, though IMO it's childish and tediously repetitive. Knock yourselves out. But the main boards are NOT the place for Sunday School lessons that should be directed at 12 year old children, and i'm tired of needing to correct the people who post their modern spin on bronze age superstitions as if it was universal truth that applies to everyone.
WWJD? IMO he would tell quite a few of you to STFU, because you are embarrassing him.
