its 1:54 am, easter sunday. madeline has fallen asleep on the couch watching tv. i just saw an ad for a church. something about the integration of religion with modern technology and advertising seems very very wrong. i suppose if you buy into the "saving" aspect of it it makes sense, but for those of us who like christianity for the connection it gives with something thousands of years old, tv preachers and christian rock pyrotechnics really really take away from what makes it pleasant.
i guess i'm just easily ticked off. things shouldn't bother me so much. its why i'm not much of a socializer. if i don't like being around some one, then i can't stand being around them. any one who i spend time with should feel comfortable that i really really enjoy their company, because otherwise i wouldn't bother. i don't try to branch out. i don't flirt. i don't expand my horizons. i just am comfortable with a painfully slowly growing small circle of friends.
of all the irritating aspects of religion, teen christianity bothers me the most. not the real kind. this girl i know, amy, is one of the few "very christian" christian young people i know who don't seem to be treating it like a social club or another fad either. my catholic friends are pretty low-key about the whole issue as well. but thats about it. when our local on-campus religious group (we're a private school) gets together, are they really looking for a spiritual outlet, or is it, at a sub-concious level, just another popular club. like interact, the service orginization that most people are in because it looks good to colleges and their friends are in it. i've talked to these people. they don't really care enough about the poor to give up that many hours of their lives. teen christianity is at something like a sixty year high. but so are drug use and pregnancy and all of that. on the average, id say the people i know who say "jesus" a lot drink more than the average.
im tired and i have to wake up early tomorrow, i don't know why i'm writing this. someones going to get angy, and its just so painfully angry outsider teen-ish. but i'm not. because, i don't dislike the people i don't enjoy socializing with. i don't hate anybody. even the one person who i thaught i did, theres even positives in him. i'm not anti religios. i don't even think i'm an athiest anymore. i'm not christian, but i certainly don't have anything against christianity. when used correctly, it gives a lot of people a lot of hope and a lot of assurance, and can help with charity and brotherly spirit. but this 90's type of teen group-bonding religion, as well as the really psycho evangelical kind bothers me. its quite obviosly the insincerity of the first that puts me off, and the second gets me because its so... wrong. not morally, but historically. my grandmother grew up in an extremely religion family, in an extremely religious small town. nobody ever went around asking "have you been saved" "have you found jesus" they celebrated halloween. it seems that in an effort to restore society to what it once was, certain churches have turned christianity into a social code that would be unrecognizable to their parents.
and the whole anti-homosexual and anti-abortion uses of christianity. i don't understand the christians who are really angry about them. one of the best parts of the whole deal is how any sinner, any human being, can be saved by jesus despite the sins. yes the bible says these things are sinful, but then again so are adultary and lieing. do you see angry crouds building outside of motels and legal offices? if all sins are equal in the eyes of god, shouldn't the petty theft of your son anger you as much as his classmate's homosexual feelings? in one of the truly crazy chick tracts, this minister goes into prison and makes this mass murderer convert to jesus. couldn't an abortion doctor get saved too then?
well... it's late.
i guess i'm just easily ticked off. things shouldn't bother me so much. its why i'm not much of a socializer. if i don't like being around some one, then i can't stand being around them. any one who i spend time with should feel comfortable that i really really enjoy their company, because otherwise i wouldn't bother. i don't try to branch out. i don't flirt. i don't expand my horizons. i just am comfortable with a painfully slowly growing small circle of friends.
of all the irritating aspects of religion, teen christianity bothers me the most. not the real kind. this girl i know, amy, is one of the few "very christian" christian young people i know who don't seem to be treating it like a social club or another fad either. my catholic friends are pretty low-key about the whole issue as well. but thats about it. when our local on-campus religious group (we're a private school) gets together, are they really looking for a spiritual outlet, or is it, at a sub-concious level, just another popular club. like interact, the service orginization that most people are in because it looks good to colleges and their friends are in it. i've talked to these people. they don't really care enough about the poor to give up that many hours of their lives. teen christianity is at something like a sixty year high. but so are drug use and pregnancy and all of that. on the average, id say the people i know who say "jesus" a lot drink more than the average.
im tired and i have to wake up early tomorrow, i don't know why i'm writing this. someones going to get angy, and its just so painfully angry outsider teen-ish. but i'm not. because, i don't dislike the people i don't enjoy socializing with. i don't hate anybody. even the one person who i thaught i did, theres even positives in him. i'm not anti religios. i don't even think i'm an athiest anymore. i'm not christian, but i certainly don't have anything against christianity. when used correctly, it gives a lot of people a lot of hope and a lot of assurance, and can help with charity and brotherly spirit. but this 90's type of teen group-bonding religion, as well as the really psycho evangelical kind bothers me. its quite obviosly the insincerity of the first that puts me off, and the second gets me because its so... wrong. not morally, but historically. my grandmother grew up in an extremely religion family, in an extremely religious small town. nobody ever went around asking "have you been saved" "have you found jesus" they celebrated halloween. it seems that in an effort to restore society to what it once was, certain churches have turned christianity into a social code that would be unrecognizable to their parents.
and the whole anti-homosexual and anti-abortion uses of christianity. i don't understand the christians who are really angry about them. one of the best parts of the whole deal is how any sinner, any human being, can be saved by jesus despite the sins. yes the bible says these things are sinful, but then again so are adultary and lieing. do you see angry crouds building outside of motels and legal offices? if all sins are equal in the eyes of god, shouldn't the petty theft of your son anger you as much as his classmate's homosexual feelings? in one of the truly crazy chick tracts, this minister goes into prison and makes this mass murderer convert to jesus. couldn't an abortion doctor get saved too then?
well... it's late.