Monday, August 04, 2014



THIS BLOG POST IS DEFINITELY A RANT
…so if you prefer not to read something “devout” Christians, Muslims, Jews or fundamentalist of any religious sect will probably find offensive, skip this one.

Because I’m male, in Turkey I’d be allowed to laugh at the international news report that Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arinç gave advice to women on what he and God expect women not to do when they are in a public place and find something funny.  He began by saying, “Where are our girls, who slightly blush, lower their heads and turn their eyes away when we look at their face, becoming the symbol of chastity?”  He went on to say that a woman “will not laugh in public.  She will not be inviting in her attitudes and will protect her chasteness.”  The response of many Turkish women and the majority of women in America has been to laugh out loud. Some have sent “selfies” of themselves laughing to the Deputy Prime Minister.

I don’t have to look far to find laughable advice to women (and men) from individuals, institutions, and businesses in my own culture that offer advice which they claim to be based on beliefs as staggeringly ignorant as the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister’s notions about laughing women.  It’s not the Deputy Prime Minister’s ignorance about women that should alarm us but his ridiculous notion that there is a god somewhere who takes a personal interest in what women find amusing and cares where they laugh. I pay attention to billboards and television advertisements… can’t help myself.  That billboard with the picture of a jalapeño burger starts my salivary juices pumping.  I want one.  I’m going to get one soon and see if it’s as good as that photograph promises it will be... But if the fast food company selling the jalapeño burger tried to promote it by saying God wants me to buy it instead of a burger from another fast food chain, I’d quickly lose my appetite for it and… and I’d lose my respect for anybody who’d fall for such an ignorant idea.  Just before dinner tonight I sat down to watch the evening news on T.V. and a slick commercial slithered across the screen for a short minute with just a hint of sanctimony playing on the sound tract, and the visual message of a lovely woman and a handsome man  standing intimately close looking lovingly into each other eyes while a reverential male voice suggested that a commercial enterprise called ChristianMingle can find God’s match for me. 

You’d think a sales pitch as crass and blatantly phony as that wouldn’t be very effective, but you’d be wrong.  I learned that Spark Networks, Inc., a publicly traded company (NYSE Amex: LOV) is doing very well.  The company has been in business since 1997 when it launched the Jewish dating site, JDate. ChristianMingle was a natural.  Christians are apparently even easier to fool than Jews, and there are more of them.  1,800,000 people per month use ChristianMingle, and visit the site a total of 11,000,000 times. 


God isn’t finding a way for Palestinians and Israelites to live together in peace, or for Shites and Sunnis to settle their differences, or for Catholics and Protestants… and the list of god-related groups that can’t reconcile grows; but 1,800,000 people per month use ChristianMingle to find God’s choice of a mate for them???  Boggles the mind. 






3 comments:

Taylor Hill said...

Jerral,
Continuing the rant...in this morning's devotion I read the lengthy passage from Luke14:1-24, where Jesus was invited to the home of a Pharisee for dinner on the Sabbath and healed a needy man. The text says, "They were watching him closely"--a phrase that has been haunting me of late, but I'll come back to that in a moment.

Jesus knew they were watching him because they had been following him around, watching him, asking questions, trying to trap him and plotting his death from the beginning. In the passage Jesus asks two questions--the first before he healed the man: "Is it lawful to cure people on the Sabbath or not?" and the second after the healing Jesus answers his first question by posing a second question to them, that has an example attached to it: "Suppose your child or your ox falls into a ditch, will you not immediately pull it out on the Sabbath day?" After each question they did not answer him.

After the first question I would expect an appropriate reply like, "no, the law says not on the Sabbath," or "well, we don't know," or something, but there is silence, just watching him. Then after the example of the child and the ox one might expect some answer like, "Oh yeah, we get it, we see now, we understand," or "no, no, you don't break the Sabbath law for any reason." But none of that, just silence.

Sometime ago I read a statement by Scott Bidstrup, "A fundamentalist religion is any religion that when confronted with a conflict between love and compassion and caring, or conformity to doctrine will almost invariably choose the latter, regardless of the effect it has on its followers or on the society of which it is a part.

The motivation for the Christian and for the church is always compassion, because that is what Jesus was always about, that is the "Father's business" he said he must be about. That is Kingdom business--peace and justice, righteousness and truth, and most of all love.

But there is another issue here--this dogged suspicion, mistrust, fear, watching him, seeking to trap him, even early on trying to get rid of him. This theme that surrounded his birth, all the days of his life and up to the time they nailed him to the tree winds like a crimson chord throughout his life.

This is the reason I love your rants and encourage them and why I may just write a book on "Getting Rid of Jesus."

Peace and love,
Taylor

Jim Miles said...

Jerral
Beautiful flowers. That camera is fantastic. I especially noticed its portrait capability with the family photo at Michael's birthday dinner. I felt I was right there in the room with you.

Jerral, I've had the same reaction to this ridiculous ad. It seems plenty of lonely (and probably sexually frustrated) Christians believe God wants to use Christian Mingle to help them find a mate and with his blessing get off. Oh, sorry, God will bring them LOVE only if they pay CM a subscription fee for God's service. Can you believe this dreck? It has always seemed like a pimping service to me.
CM is like a money changer in the Temple that really pissed off Jesus. Why are so many people like sheep.

That said, Jesus and other spiritual guides have left
waypoints to sometimes help us cope and endure
destructive people and all the pollutingcircumstances they create..

You and I were indoctrinated so early in life in the hyper-evangelical Baptist traditions that allowed no criticism nor questions. We both wrestle with the residue of that portion of our upbringing. I am slowly finding my way and discovering how to sort seventy years of church bullshit into a reasonably balanced, tolerable Christian context.

Bill and I are attending the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bridgehampton. Having an educated, wise, younger, married, parented, lesbian pastor (Rev Dr Katrina Foster) seems to bea good fit for us. The congregation is small, inter-generational
and has embraced us. Our arrival along with other newbiesmay be a portent of growth. Pastor Katrina married us. We will see where this goes. With Bill's Catholic tradition, this is a stretch for him. My Baptist, Foursquare, Catholic, Unity
experiences make this much easier for me. We are enjoyingbeing in a spiritual community that affirms rather one that condemns. Sometimes I feel like a root-bound plant that has
just been repotted into a large container with new soil and just the right amount of a skilled gardner's attention.

Thank you for your rants. I love them. I may not agree withall your points of view, but I support your right to put on yourblog whatever you wish. I totally enjoy reading all your well-written, thoughtful entries on seemingly limitless topics.

You really do help me with all the sorting that I'm doing. Ican 't say enough how your love, acceptance and wisdom means to me. Thanks for being my perfect Big Brother. As
ife begins to draw down for me (for all of us), I feel like one of the luckiest guys I know. You have helped me arrive at thisplace in my journey. Keep leaving your marks, Big Brother. I'm a better person with you in my life. It's a better world with
you in it.

Damn, I feel a rant coming on myself. But, I'll not let looseon some of our family members just yet. I'm hoping theywill somehow discover the world looks and smells so much better when they take their heads out of theirasses. Youget the gist of some of the shit I'm sorting through today.God give us all strength not to go totally nuts in response to these stupid people.

Ok, enough of my rambling. Love you. Hug Margaret for me. I love
her so much, too........JIM

Carolee said...

Jerral, Your flowers and pond pictures are incredibly beautiful. I was in the park today and the water lilies are better than they have been cared for in a couple of years. Thanks for your travels that bring such beauty to us. Carolee