Last week someone directed me to a post on Tony Isabella's chat board at comicscommunity.com that was entitled Just Trying My Best. In it he eluded to a recent incident and told posters who felt they had been unfairly judged should contact him about it and he would open a dialog. I took the opportunity and wrote him to asked why I had been banned in April after I had left and without notice of the rules I had broken. I still have no intention of returning to that biased board but I feel I deserve an explanation of why. This is particularly important to me because he took advantage of my leaving to sully my reputation. By leaving, I am a disgruntled poster but being banned makes me a troublemaker. The actual owner of the site refuses to push the issue but supports my banning from three of the boards on the site (one of which I never posted on and the other I only posted my same farewell post as it was deleted from the board.)
I deserve an explanation Tony. Period. Not just of the banning but of your attempt to have me silenced on another board. Banning from the boards has done nothing to silence me. Instead I have learned what kind of person you really are and who my real friends were there. I have as much right to talk about my experience on the board as you do to threaten a mutual friend to keep me from discussing it on his. Just because you would stoop to such nefarious tactics doesn't mean I would. I resent the implication. You were pissed about something else and took it out on me. Most likely the comparison of your actions to a certain politician you loathe is what pissed you off. Well, you are a chat board tyrant and I pity posters that come there to talk to a has been writer only to find that he takes his inadaquecies out on his public.
Well with no further ado here is the letter I sent to him. I have received no response.
Someone pointed your post out to me of Just Trying Your Best. I left the board so there's no reason for you to ban me unless you're afraid of me, but I never received the obligatory email stating what I did wrong to get booted.
Additionally, a third party informed me you wanted me bounced from his boards as well (or at least reined in so I wouldn't turn his boards into a Tony-bashing party.) Because that is something you might do, doesn't mean it is something I stoop to. I keep it on my blog and my boards and that's it. I already exorcised that demon and moved on to better things. I held on posting it as a favor to a friend to let things die down.
But the only thing that bothers me is that you banned me, didn't tell me but told a mutual friend, and attempted to control things on another board. WTF? You don't have to tell me why you bounced me after I left the boards. That's your perogative.
But, if you are the believer in free speech you say you are, why attempt to censor me on someone else's boards? I'm banned from pop culture and the general forum (and I never posted on pop culture) in comics community. Why not go the whole nine and keep me off Ostrander's, Cho's, Duursema's, and Mandrake's as well? At least that would make more sense. But picking on a friend of mine and threatening him, that is very, very low.
I know I picked a poor subject to joke about. I do not apologize as others on your board have done the same and haven't had to justify their existence. I will not be returning to your boards as I still harbor harsh feelings and have a place to discuss politics to my heart's content and keep it separate from comics and fun stuff.
I will, however, extend an invitation to you to join our Exiles board (www.randomquoteproductions.com/exiles). We allow freedom of speech and no topic or poster is unwelcome. All we ask is that if a conversation degrades to flame wars, take it to PM, no one else wants to read the clutter. We would prefer you give an email address as well for the purposes of updating site and you need it to register. But you can use any name and don't have to show your email. There are five moderators so, should a problem arise, the squad will put it to a vote. It takes a lot to get bounced. We've had no trouble so far.
I wish you and your family well.
The Bible is a book of conflicting morals and beliefs and to follow it absolutely is to be schizophrenic. So why have religious types taken to copyrighting it?
Who would think that copyrighting the Bible is a good idea? The King James version is public domain so I can still make fun of it. It has to be money oriented. I mean, if you were really concerned about getting the word out would you care if someone used it?
WHY COPYRIGHT THE BIBLE? This has to be money motivated. L. Ron Hubbard made up his own religion and copyrighted it. The Christians and Catholics had to get the idea from there.
What next? A price chart for Salvation. No wait, that’s called tithing. For those of you unfamiliar with the practice that is where a member of the church is expected to pony up 10% of his gross annual income (excluding the collection plate) to the church. This is to help with the upkeep on the church, its programs, etc. So if you figure for a little church, say 100 people earning on average $30,000 a year and its tax exempt so the church is earning about $300,000 a year.
My dad is fire chief of the all-volunteer fire department in our hometown. He gets less than $100,000 a year to train, equip, and fight fires. That is very little to do such a massive job.
Small churches make around $300,000 a year and the only requirement is to be open for Sunday service. And if you miss a payment, they badger you. Some now offer Tax help with forms so they can know what you make and can afford to give. And as we know, Income Tax forms are soooo telling about a person’s financial obligations.
Now think of how much the big churches with congregations in the thousands are pulling in. Millions of dollars a year, tax free. No wonder they are one of the strongest lobbying groups in Washington. Oil companies aren’t even close they have much higher overhead than just utilities.
I knew I went into the wrong field. I’m charismatic enough to be a preacher and can BS with the best of them. But there is a small part of me that considers it immoral to charge people to ease their state of mind. I mean, if that’s what you want to do, become a psychiatrist.
And now the Bible is copyrighted. Christians don’t consider Scientology a real religion because they charge people. Have you seen the exorbitant prices for Bibles these days? If it’s the Word of God, shouldn’t it be free? And now you copyrighted the Word of God.
Can I get an amen? Yes, for $19.95 plus tax.
Now not just for propping up the edge of the couch, books can be read as well.
Honestly, if we put as much time into reading books as we do finding out who is the next person to be voted off the island, we would be a much more pleasant society. Not that I have a problem with TV. I just think it is the center of intellectual decay of our society. And before a bunch of parents pipe in that they only watch quality programming on it, let me remind you that you just told me who is having an affair with whom on the latest reality TV catastrophe. Honestly, do you know as much about what’s going on with your kids and their friends as you do with the strangers on TV? Before it was soap operas, now this.
Quality programming, hah! You mean the Discovery Channel? While they do occasionally show a nature or historical show worth watching, they have cashed in on Reality TV in a big way. Let’s see A DATING STORY followed by a WEDDING STORY followed by a BABY STORY. What next? A DIVORCE STORY followed by a MARRIED TO ANOTHER LOSER STORY followed by A MY DAUGHTER IS ADDICTED TO CRACK AND HOOKING ON THE STREET STORY. Sorry, that last bit belongs on the A&E original INTERVENTION, because, as we know, when you have a problem in the family you want nothing more than to have millions of strangers tuning in to watch it.
A&E, there’s another channel needing to change their name. There are certainly no Arts on it anymore. When I was in college I had the great fortune to tape SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, a taped musical starring Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters. It was fabulous. I have watched it so much the tape is fuzzy. That it is almost 15 years old doesn’t help. I really hope someone will have the good sense to release it on DVD, but I doubt it. It’s too highbrow for audiences nowadays that want to see people roughing it with a film crew in tow.
Castaway – the BBC show that Survivor is based on was a celebrity camping in the wild for a week and they had to run the camera on a tripod. Still it’s light years better than the American tripe. So are a ton of the comedies from across the pond that American producers get a hold of and try to cast for a show here. Problem is, they cut out everything that made the original a success.
Take COUPLING for example. The BBC version is wonderful. The American version lasted, what, two episodes before being tanked? Why? Because they mucked about with it. It was no longer funny. Shows about single, rich, white people in the city are played out. Normal people are in. Which is what the original COUPLING was about. A show about normal looking, average, not overly attractive, people (with the exception of two or three additional characters) living their lives in London. Period.
But we get more of the REALITY TV crap. Sigh. I’m going to go read a book. At least fiction has to make sense.
The hypocrisy of Christianity is something I see every day. I see people trying to save my soul but not wanting to help their fellow man. I see people telling me not speak my mind about the evils of Christianity while at the same time they judge a woman who strips to feed her kids. Perhaps I should explain WHY I feel that Christianity, as it is practiced to day, is now more of a private political club rather than a true faith.
I was seen as a heathen (which is wrong, I'm a heretic, actually) most of my life. I received pity from Christians while at the same time being held to a higher standard than their own little, darling, bullying children. If a Christian child stepped out of line they were told not to do it again (and usually it involved insulting or hurting me in some way). If I retaliated or told, I got to write essays until my hand hurt, got recesses taken away, and was removed from class until I could behave. Whatever these Christian people were teaching their children about me at home was coming out at school as pure spite and the parochial school I attended did little to dissuade it as I was seen as a poor, ignorant child in need of salvation.
If I complained, I got punished. If I fought back, I got punished. While a member of the basketball team, I sat the bench even though I was no worse than the rest of the Catholic brats on the team. If there was a play, I was the understudy for the lead (only because I had a great memory and could act.) When we did the nativity, I was the reader (again, supposedly for my memory but also because the roles were for parishioners’ children.) When the Mexican Fiesta rolled around, my parents and I were good enough to stand out in the sun to hock goods and games but I was never included in the stage performances (which my Catholic schoolmates were along with the CCD kids. CCD kids were those Catholic kids whose parents couldn’t afford tuition (and since one other girl and I were the only non-Catholics attending, our tuition hikes didn’t pay for adequate scholarships. These kids also rifled our desks and took anything of interest or value which included homework, books, library books, pencils, you name it. If the missing item was valuable and belonged to the school, we had to pay for it.) Even parties thrown by the other parents for the kids where everyone was invited, I was not included. Yet my mother, every year until high school, bought a cake for all the kids in my class to share and sent me to school with candy bars for them. (Yes, we’re hobbits – giving presents away on our own birthdays.) Every year until high school I gave everyone in my class a valentine even though there was a year I only got three in return. Yet we were the non-Christian heathens.
Additionally, when it came time for the school fundraisers, the school expected me to out perform myself every year. I held the record for highest sales in school for s few years, always getting the crappy prize that would have cost less to buy. Every year, my mother worked her tail off to hock that crap. I did the same going door to door in my neighborhood. Finally, my last (eighth grade) year, my mom and I had had enough. As instructed, at the end of the presentation and speech, I trotted back up to the front and turned in my sales sheet, empty, explaining I was not participating this year. We had already paid more than parishioners to go to that school and, frankly, got little in return. I was there to learn not generate funds. I also told the principal she could talk to my mother about it. She declined and instead, lectured me. This good Christian woman who acted like they had done so much for me treated me as ungrateful.
Me, ungrateful. Ungrateful for what? For the Christian behavior of your students? For the Christian behavior of your niece who couldn’t pass her teaching exams and had to begged a job from you where the policies of the Catholic schools are somewhat lax? For the fact that said niece did everything in her power to not only not include me in activities but also tried to fail me in English (even though my work was better than anyone else’s) because I was smarter than her? Ungrateful for Mr. Silverthorn who was mad because I could do long division and he couldn’t? Ungrateful for a classmate who hit me in the face with a soccer ball when I wasn’t even picked to play the game? I notice I got punished for kicking her fake apologies and her ass away from me, but she never got punished for launching that ball at me.
Ungrateful. Yeah right. I get treated differently and when I don’t roll over on cue, you get mad at me. Instead of talking to my mother, a REAL Christian.
That’s right, the self avowed deist before you (atheist to those of you whose religions I don’t follow) had both parents and both sets of grandparents who were Christian. This discrimination, however, occurred not only in the Catholic school that I attended but the Baptist and Christian bible schools and Sunday Schools I attended as well. Being unbaptized was the same as being slow with these people so a heavier hand was needed than was needed with their own kids. When I was ready to be baptized, I was informed I was too young and didn't understand the Bible well enough for the privilege. Never mind that I could argue finer points of the Bible with adults from age 8 or that the deacon’s daughter, who was two years younger than I was, was baptized the previous year.
The problem, most likely, stemmed from my parents not being avidly active in the church and not being rich enough to buy themselves a position. I don’t blame my parents. Instead, I blame the mandates of the church. The Catholic Church was willing to baptize me but, unless I got my parents to convert too, we would still be charged a non-parishioner’s tuition and I would still be subjected to the stigma.
And it was the same with every church my grandmother paid to send me to Vacation Bible School during the summer. The insistence of bringing my parents to church, otherwise there was something wrong with me. Talk about pressure, the pastors are telling me I have to save my parents’ souls when I know they are both Christian and baptized.
When I was a child, I had very strong religious beliefs. No adult, I don’t care how pious, could compete with me. In theological studies, not only could I quote passages of the Bible, I understood them and could discuss them on an adult level. I loved God, Jesus, and the Bible. So when people claiming to be good Christians left me out of Church activities and claimed me ignorant, I started to wonder. I got straight As in religion class, always knew my verses for Bible School, and tried to follow the edicts of the faith. Yet always, I was the sinner doomed to Hell (or so a well meaning priest told me when I was nine.) Well, at least the people I like will be there with me.
One particular thing I never understood: When I am supposed to be the slow heathen, why do I have to be forgiving and understanding? Shouldn’t the Christians and their children act so toward me since it is their mandate? Instead, I get treated like crap and, when I try to defend myself, I get a lecture on how I need to be more tolerant? WTF?
I was lucky, I only spent one depressing year in a Catholic High School before mom yanked me. Aside from a couple of run ins with Bible Thumpers, my high school years were largely good (at least from a religious standpoint) and mainly conversing with those individuals whose parents yanked them from Catholic School as well.
However, when I got to college, my first roommate was a charismatic Christian. She was a sweet, nice girl who never forced her beliefs on me or tried to save me. She just was what a good roommate should be – never there. I really felt sorry for her. She joined a sorority (one of three at our school as compared to 28 fraternities) and had a boyfriend. She felt guilty for the activities she enjoyed with her sisters and boyfriend and was constantly on herself about them. I really felt sorry for her. She had been baptized in high school after she lost her virginity at 14. Additionally her father had sexually abused her (and was still living in the house), so her turning to Christianity, I believe, was out of desperation and the person she turned to screwed her up even more.
I tried directing her to the counselors we had at school. Good ones too, I went to them myself, but she preferred to give it to God. Now, I understand that, but I don’t see where additionally talking to a licensed professional could hurt. I think she called her pastor and he told her not to, but I don’t know. I just tried to be as nice as I could and didn’t judge her – yeah, a Christian mandate practiced by a heretic. You can go blow a goat if you feel the need to comment here.
But I came through the rest of my college years, admittedly filled with stress and angst, unmolested by any more Christian propagandists.
As an adult, the story has taken a strange turn. It isn’t so much about saving my soul (although some still use the phrase) but more about cultivating my vote and my wallet. I still get invitations from Christians claiming that I will just LOVE their church if I just brought my husband to. Well, I decline the offer. Honestly, I don’t want to have that conversation, the one where I tell you your church sucks. Because, while for you it may fit, for me, it doesn’t work.
But people don’t understand that. It is no longer about being Christian, it’s about the churches struggling to have the most: the most votes, the most money, the most people, and the best clientele. Christianity no longer worries about charity (a few do but on the whole, I have never seen it except with Mother Theresa) but about politics. And when the pulpit is turned into soapbox, the tax-exempt status is no longer valid.
Despite my own experiences with Christianity, I don’t hold it against someone that they are Christian unless they start to annoy me with it. I respect (and I still do) that what you believe is sacred to you. Just don’t expect me to feel the same. Follow the Christian edicts when you feel the need to save my soul. “Love your Neighbor as yourself. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Bless those that curse you.”
Odd, I remember seeing that in a book on pagans. Is it possible that when the Gospels were translated in the 9th century by a misogynistic monk, that some of the pagan beliefs may have been stolen? Kinda like Winter Solstice, no?
My problem with people calling themselves Christian is that, in my opinion, a vast majority of them don't act like it. They are not tolerant, forgiving, or loving. Instead they are bigoted (race, other beliefs, whatever), harping, and hateful.
It has gotten to the point in this society that it isn't enough to be a Christian (you know love thy neighbor and believe that Jesus is the way), you have to PROVE you are one to these people. Or they won't leave you alone. The way they have decided you prove it is to accompany them to their church and then switch to their sect and tithe a load of money. I have heard of some that want to see your tax forms.
If I related to you my experiences in churches and religious schools and organizations - all Christian - as a Christian raised (both parents), unbaptized child - from the priest that told me I was going to Hell because I wasn't baptized irregardless of living a good and giving life to my fundamentalist uncle who said to me at Christmas, "I know where I'm going and I know where you're going, and I don't want to see that happen," it would take a month and make your hair stand on end.
I would like to know from the Christians on the board though, what makes these "Save Your Soul" people think I hold my beliefs so cheap I'm going to change them in an IHOP parking lot at 2 am? I am a well-fed, well-groomed person, friendly looking, not smelling of liquor (as I rarely imbibe it), and the only track marks I have are the ones I got giving blood. I am not face down in the gutter where I may be weak enough to give into temptation. So why approach my friends and I, then REFUSE to leave when we've said no thank you three times (I get the telemarketing tactic)? Why stand there and force yourself into the conversation when you have been asked, politely, to leave us alone? Why let your fourteen-year-old son stand there at 2 in the morning, running at the mouth, infuriating strangers about lying? In my opinion you and your faith are liars. But I'm trying to be nice. Now leave me alone.
I would like an answer because, while I don't feel the same disgust Bob feels toward all Christians, I do feel it toward the ones who won't shut up about saving my soul. This has led to problems in the workplace and at school. Because, when you complain about someone desperately trying to "save" you, people make you out to be a horse's ass. Well, try sitting in the desk (no cubicles) with a person behind telling you she and her church are praying for your soul. (This is after she rants about the teacher picking on her son because he made a list of his classmates' names and started crossing them out because they squealed on him. Her boy is a serial rapist and murderer in the making you all. And she thinks the teacher is being unreasonable about therapy.)
But if I complain to my superiors, the Christian counters I'm trying to take her faith away from her. Look, I didn't say word one about all the Christian paraphernalia she had on her desk. The ceramic angels and signs proclaiming Jesus loves me did not offend me other than my decorator’s eye saying a little goes a long way. What offends me is that she won't leave me alone once she finds out I'm an atheist. She emphasizes how great her church is and how Joe and I are welcome there, but instead of leaving it at one (or a dozen) invitations she adds it in after every cute incident she tells me about her family or church because she is so wrapped up in both. But the church takes precedent and her son and work suffer for it. In my opinion, that is an addict. It's just a socially acceptable one.
I don't think faith should be used as crutch to get you through everyday (and she had something to do at the church everyday). Rather it should be a part of your life that guides you in decision making and raising your kids but a kind of silent partner. How you act is more important than how you spout you believe. Mother Theresa is an excellent example. She didn't proselytize instead she helped. She did, put her money where her mouth was, so to speak.
For people like this former employee the doing wasn't as important as the preaching and the preaching took precedence over every aspect of life. She could not be objective (when her brother who was her pastor told her to back off, she couldn't understand.) Finally she took another job on campus in the library that paid more money (no I did not run her off.)
And here's another thing. Why is it Christians tell me to pray, it won't hurt me? No, it may not hurt as much as the other rituals you engage in but I see it as a waste of time. Leave the curmudgeon alone, kids.
But it is people like this and the murderers in prison on death row who claim to have found God (and get the press to have their sentence commuted unlike those that found Allah or Buddha) and still would rape and kill should they get out because they hold the same opinion, just now Jesus is telling them to, that sully the name of Christian. I think it is wonderful to have faith in something, doesn’t matter what it is. I have faith, just not in what you believe. Condemning for believing something different (or not at all) is not going to sway mine or any other reasonable, addiction-free person to your side. It is the downtrodden that used to be the focus of the Christian fanatics but, of course, they don’t have the money to buy the church a larger steeple (and when I see some of the monstrosities here built with money that could go to help the poor and destitute – talk about a rant.)
In the end, tolerance, love, and forgiveness are no longer mandates followed by the Christian religion (at least those that are noisiest about it.) Instead it’s about getting votes, getting money, and getting a better clientele. Christianity is no longer a faith but dogma turned business practice. Businesses, spammers, and politicians flout the Christian symbol as a means to an end and nothing more. In the end, it is going to be the atheists in the Astrodome being eaten by lions and the voracious Christians cheering the lion on. Since that’s how the Christians got their start, us atheists have something to look forward to.
I know, I would be better off asking why are Christians offended by most of what I think.
Seriously, why is it so difficult, when so many of them claim they want Intelligent Design taught in schools, to forward the thought of aliens starting this planet instead of a God. (I see it as a blatant attempt to recruit the young into their service since they've had no luck with the parents.)
Let's think about the requirements for God:
1) All powerful
2) all knowing
3) creator of the universe (at least to Christians).
Well, that translates to someone with years of experience in dogma to understand it as - someone more powerful than humans. Remember, Egyptians believed their pharaohs to be gods on earth because they were so powerful and Romans defied those they felt most worthy. In history, it is humans that decide who God is, not vice versa as evident by God creating man in his own image - most good Gods are, historically, in the human image. It makes it more comfortable for the humans in question.
So, based on that understanding, couldn't an alien race, millions of years old, have made the earth? (Lets leave out the universe or I'll launch into my creatures of darkness that existed before creatures of light tirade and how, since the creatures of light insist on encroaching on the creatures of darkness land, we're left in the middle of a battle that has existed since the beginning.) I mean going on what Bible Thumpers choose to believe, the Earth is only 6,000 years old (or about as old as the first writing, cuneiform, became widely used.) So, by that belief, it is possible that aliens mucked about and made the earth and all the things on it since the only requirement for God is that s/he be able to do things that fall outside of human understanding and seem more powerful. I'm sure when westerners come across lost tribes in the Amazon, they seem very much like gods with their guns and aspirin and speaking a language the natives don't understand on walkie talkies. If I didn't know better, I'd start trippin'.
So why is the alien angel theory so hard to grasp? I suppose, like most scientific explanations it's an attempt to explain the world around us and that, in and of itself, is an affront to religion. But then so was practical medicine(you know, the non-leech kind), astronomy, meteorology, and most sciences at one time or another. I guess anytime anyone has a theory that encroaches on the territory the Christians feel belong to the Almighty, people get scared.
After all, when you are the only animal on the planet with the capability to wonder and reason (not that the latter has been used much recently), you tend flee to the safety of belief, no matter how misguided it is. I don't think other members of the Great Ape family have these kinds of discussion as they are probably too worried about extinction to give a crap.
My idea that if Intelligent Design is to be taught along side Evolution in classrooms, then the alien angel theory is just as valid as the Christian Creation Myth (and every culture has a creation myth, the Christian one is just most popular to the people with the guns at this point) and the alien angel theory should be the one taught. That or ALL creation myths should be taught, then the kids will have a great selection to choose from.
After all, isn’t that what the Intelligent Design argument is about, to give the kids the right to choose what they will accept as scientific fact? Next year, I think that we should discuss the possibility of whether it is gravity holding us in place or Big Rubber Bands.
And before the three Christians that read this blog waylay me with the typical Christian BS questions that are just as rhetorical for their faith as they are for my science, I will say it is no more ludicrous to believe aliens interfered with our supposed creation than it is for one all-powerful being. Faith belongs in church, science in school. When I am invited to teach evolution to a Sunday school class (and I mean TEACH it, not be invited for a Christian Inquisition questioning my faith) then Intelligent Design can be allowed in school. As it is, having substitute taught in a rural school I can tell you I had to defend myself to many students and teachers in it just by being a scientist. Just by having the degree.
I will relate my experience with a fundamentalist that taught science at the middle school where I taught. Isn't that a sign of the apocalypse?
My FIRST full day of teaching, she interrupted my class (and continued to do so throughout the day) to ask me my religion (I said I was raised Christian in the hopes she would go away) and my degree (Environmental Geology.) I thought that these two things would satisfy her enough to return to her class and stay there. They did not.
Instead, she kept annoying me with questions like: How do you explain the Garden of Eden? Sodom and Gomorra (sp?)? and a number of other religious "facts" she had from the Bible (she left her own class frequently to do this.) She became increasingly irritated (but stayed outwardly cheerful, a cunning disguise) when I could come up with a creative answer for each of her questions (I am, after all, a writer.)
Apparently saving my soul was more important than teaching class. When I finally asked how she managed Evolution, she snorted disgustedly and said, "Well I tell them SOME people believe it."
Well color me paranoid but I believe the inference is that the most ignorant among us believe evolution. Evolution, a proven scientific theory. You know why respected scientists don’t go on talk shows to argue the point with fundamentalists? Because talking over your rival and making snarky comments about religion is considered poor form. The scientist is considered as open to discuss as his topic including some very personal, judgmental remarks. Which result in huge ratings. In my opinion these debates only make the show and the fundamentalist look bad.
Is that a course taught in church by the way? Don’t let the opponent get a word in edgewise else you may be damned as well. For the Christians of the crowd who have trouble with this, a debate is a forum in which ideas and rivalries are discussed CIVILLY. Talking over your opponent and making horrible personal remarks about character ARE NOT part of a debate. They are the basest form of debauchery and will surely land you in Hell, next to the people that talk in movie theaters.
Of course, the day culminated into an invitation to attend her church (Blood of the Sacred Lamb or some such nonsense) and how much my husband and I would enjoy it. Now, the entirety of her conversation with me was inappropriate for the work setting and I don’t care how you define inappropriate. Additionally she left her students (which it frightens me that they see her as an authority figure) to try to save my soul. Am I the only one concerned that her religious fervor is more important than her duty to her students? I guess this is one of those fringe benefits teachers are always talking about.
Look, to anyone who is Christian and reads this blog, atheists have no mandate to convert you. It is not a personal attack on you that a person does not believe in God or, rather, your God as it seems nowadays to have faith isn’t enough. Anymore it seems that accepting Jesus Christ as your personal savior isn’t enough unless your political beliefs fall in line with theirs.
And I have a perfect example. Outside the IHOP and we had a Christian in our group and three fundamentalist assholes decided that they needed to not only press their way into our conversation but also not leave UNTIL we changed our minds. We didn’t and all they succeeded in, which is probable what they wanted in the first place, was to make us uncomfortable enough to leave. They probably think it was because we felt guilty for our sinful lives. It wasn’t that. It was merely the pacifist response as opposed to going to jail for an altercation (which in the Bible Belt South means that the non-believers would have to come up with bail despite being harassed.) Next time this happens, which probably will, I’m calling a cop and telling them I fear for my personal safety. Because, bluntly, when you’ve been told no thank you more than three times, you should go away. It crosses the harassment line. I know telemarketers that aren’t that persistent.
But I see at least in my home state of Kansas that the fundamentalists got their way with Intelligent Design. If I were a teacher, I would teach my own cooked up version of Intelligent Design with aliens. Then when the church people complained, I would be able to prove that they want creationism taught in PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Tax dollars shouldn’t pay for churches or religion. Period. And the Alien Angel theory is no more ludicrous than one based on a creator that made everything in six working days and the earth is only 6,000 years old. According to the same collection of documents, the world ended when I was in college. Look it up.
Believe whatever you the fuck want just don’t try to force your beliefs on me. Such an attempt can only end in a black eye because, frankly, I’m tired of trying to be nice about it. And it’s not a part of my belief system to be so. With the number of intolerant Christians running about, apparently it’s not a part of theirs either.