Wow, have you read the hate mail? I still have tears of joy in my eyes from reading the lovely posts. Very Christian and full of love. Grab a cold beer, a good one like a Bells Two Hearted or a Rogue Dead Guy and read the collection. It brought a "post-belly laugh" joy to my life. And some clarity with regards to our Christian nation.
When I saw the Merry Christmas Fuck Face title alone, I shot good beer out of my nose. So perfect a title!
I finally feel like I can be comfortable in declaring that I am now an atheist. I have been "enlightened" (pun intended) by the precious writers of this year’s hate mail-a-palooza. The hate, the fear, the insanity in the name of Jesus has finally driven me to the edge of not wanting to be vaguely associated with the lot.
Their collective bad grammar is embarrassing in its own right. Where are all the educated hate speech writers hiding? (Fox news?)
I am the oldest of 5, yes cliché, Irish Catholic. I went to Catholic school from Kindergarten to a year and a half of Catholic college. I was an altar boy. I do remember only good times, messing with the rookies, burning too much incense, doing what all young wise-assish kids should do.
The guilt trips were impressive. The nuns had a way of making you feel shitty after you threw your brussel sprouts out that would have feed some starving kid in some god-forsaken land. At least they were fair and consistent in beating the shit out of everyone equally in His eyes.
I spent a good deal of time saying penance but the joke was on them; does anyone really tell the truth in confession?
I believe my loss of religion has evolved (sorry had to use that phrase) over the years starting with my college days at Syracuse. I went from a Papal induced curriculum to taking classes in Geography of Religion, Chinese Poetry, Faulkner and the like while being a Biology major. Wow, there are really other religions and views in other countries, what, there are other countries? If you grow up in a Catholic Parish, that is your insulated world in which you live and breathe. At least back in the 60's and early 70's it was for me and my contemporaries.
I went to grad school in Austin. Austin had its own cool religion of music and good food, beer gardens, barbequed prime rib, the rowing club and a good bunch of evolutionary biologists, phylogenists, developmental biologists, physiologists and neurologists on our Zoology Department softball team. Our team name was initially The Hebbian Synapses but it became increasingly difficult to explain the functioning glutaminergic nerve to our local Bubba opponent. We thought we were good enough to play City League. HA! Our name finally became Central Dogma after going 0-21.
Regardless of our win/loss record, these days in Austin greatly influenced my religious world view. The free flowing Shiner Bock helped too! I was definitely comfortable with being a deist or agnostic back then. I guess it was safer and way less scary then being a full blown atheist.
That was over 15 years ago. Over the years I have had my battles with teaching Darwinian ideas in Biology classes. Being told that I was going to hell for teaching the ideas of evolution. I have read Dawkins and Hitchens along with books like The Shack. The musings of Bill Hicks and Doug Stanhope have helped me as well in developing a very different view along with laughing my ass off.
I think that as I have aged, I have become less tolerant of the blatant Christian hypocrisy that is practiced daily by such a large swath of our country. Honestly, I think a few good bumper stickers are to blame for the change in my religious world view. For example:
As if Jesus would own a handgun and vote Republican
Science flies you to the moon; Religion flies you into buildings
Curious how your god hates all the same people you do?
Tea Party; sounds better than racist homophobic mob (I just threw that in for fun!)
My biggest question to almost all right-wing conservative Christians was how do you go to church on Sunday and worship God and Jesus then support politics and politicians that do everything in their power to destroy all of the help that real people in need should have available. It is not funny that I get irrational replies in general or better yet, just more directed hate speech. Have you ever tried to reason with someone who is insanely sure that “you are going to hell?” I do not recommend it. Sinner!
With all of that said, it was today’s collection of hate mail that sort of brought some clarity to my mind. While I do agree that there are many good Christian folks that actually follow the message of peace and love, you guys are not the problem. The writers of the vitriolic hate in the name of Jesus are the problem and I am comfortable in feeling free from their horrible grasp. Merry Christmas Fuck face has to be one of the very best introductions I have heard in quite some time and I thank the writer for giving me some clarity.
Happy New Year you bunch of nazihomolovincommunisthippie fuck faces.