Fuck All Religions

[Welcome to visitors from Mustang Bobby's Bark Bark, Woof Woof.  Make yourselves at home.  Join the conversation if the spirit moves you.] 

Muslims on the left of me, Christians to the right.  Both groups worshiping old, dead gods.

Around the world, Muslims are acting like assholes because a magazine they don't read in a language they don't speak published an artist's caricature of Mohamed, the last known person in their experience who talked to God.  Not that anyone asked my opinion, but I do have one.  Ready or not, here I come.

I think Islam is about as retarded a cult that exists in the world today.  I'm sorry if the truth is offensive to some, but if it isn't the truth, it's at least my opinion, and I claim an absolute right to my own opinion.  Don't like it?  Fuck you.  Go start your own blog.  Anything that wishes death to me for being who I am is my sworn enemy.  Islam sucks and anyone who believes it without question is an idiot.  They want us to show respect for their fucking retarded religion?  Show some respect for mine.  Mine says that I am a child of the living god with all the blessings entitled therefrom.

One of the problems of organized religion is that the moment any particular group is dominant, they think they need to set the standards for the rest of us.  Like fuck they do.  The reason California works as well as it does, in this regard, is that everyone knows there are so many other groups, it pays to get along with them.  I promise you, Muslim store owners in San Francisco have no problem interacting with Gays.  None.  Zip.  Nada.  In San Francisco, I see Pakistanis and Indians hanging out in the same restaurants without hostility.  I see Jewish lawyers helping Palestinian clients.  I see Muslims from a dozen countries interacting daily with Gays and Lesbians.  We get along.  So pay attention you stupid fuckers out there.  It can be done.

Now let's deal with yin's yang:  Christian fundamentalists are a bunch of crazy, evil mother-fuckers.  I have no use for them.  They are responsible for everything from the crusades to shit like this.  That dodo-bird from Focus on the Family, James Dobson,  attacked a Will & Grace episode which was supposed to have Brittany Spears doing a take-off on some Christian tv show.  The imagined offense?  the use of the word "crucifixins."  Dobson claimed the phrase mocked the crucifixion of his lord and savior, Jesus, also called the Christ.  Fuck, I've got as much right to an opinion about what is funny as Dobson does.  He don't own Christianity.  That's funny:  crucifixins.  Fuck 'em if he can't take a joke.

Fuck Dobson.  Not that I could, personally, because he's like, such a creep.  I could never keep the necessary hard-on.  I could fuck him with a dildo, I suppose, but the problem is, I just don't like those people who mix-up sex and violence.  I think that sort of shit is yucky.  I have a few sexual fantasies around authority (that would explain my romanticizing uniforms), but none around violence.   And with that I've told you more than you wanted to know and much more than I needed to tell.  Next!

Most of the Muslims I know personally feel exactly the same way about this that I do.  I live in an area with a lot of Muslims:  Gay, straight, Pakistani, Indian, Iranian, Palestinian, Lebanese, you name 'em, we got 'em.  They live around me, play with me, teach me, learn from me, and make up my community.  They do not call me every time Pat Robertson opens his mouth and says something creepy, demanding that I explain why Christians are so stupid.  Nor do I call them demanding that they explain why the Muslims of the world are behaving stupidly.  We all simply understand that we are living in California and California is a gazillion fucking light years ahead of the rest of the world in understanding cultural fusion.

God help the rest of you, so to speak.

Comments

[ellen]

Maybe California should become another Canadian province....

[sal]

what happened to, "he's not stupid, he's my brother"? were you just in a good mood yestereday?

[Natalia]

This post owns. Ripped the words right out of my mouth.

[Dennis]

Houston, you need to visit Leon

[Houston]

Sal, this time I was talking about religions, not individuals. I can muster more sympathy for the individual units of humankind more than I can for humankind itself.

[Jack]

The response to this incident bothers me on so many levels. Not your response, but the idea that people are willing to kowtow to threats of terror and violence.

Not a good precedent to start. What happens if they decide that they hate McDonalds and insist that all evidence of it be removed or that they cannot stand Coke.

Do we have to bend the knee or wear a sweater every time they feel a cool breeze.

[wanda]

"the idea that people are willing to kowtow to threats of terror and violence..."

Therein lies the heart of this post and the product of all that is wrong in our world today. At the very root is greed, and the lust for power.

Muslim reactionaries and Christian fundamentalist have taken two beautiful faiths and turned them into a nightmare for all humanity.

Talk about rocking, Houston, honey this post RAWKS!

[Kathy]

OK, I think I get this, but could you tell us what you really think about all this?

And I'm not so sure that the Christians were responsible for Mr. Robida's actions, but without knowing him, if I had to hazard a guess, I think I'd have to say that he might have a few sexual issues of his own.

Just a few.

[Greg]

I am a Christian. I believe that the Bible is the perfect Word of God. I believe that Jesus the Christ is the Savior of ALL men. However, I do not believe that I have the right to force anyone to believe the way I do. If I live my beliefs correctly they should want to know more about my faith. I do reserve the right to tell others that they are wrong spiritually. I do it only on the authority of the Bible. But, I will not pressume to correct them by force. Finally, it is my right as a citizen of a free society to voice my beliefs and to vote with my dollars. If I disagree with something a business is doing I simply will not frequent their store or channel. If they choose to change that to regain my business I will be glad to shop there. That is called a FREE market not fundamentalism. Yes, I was offended by the NBC shows. Yes, I sent them e-mail explaining why. However, I did not go and throw grenades at their building or kill the person who wrote the shows. No, I simply voiced my beliefs and voted with my dollars. No sin in that as far as I can see. I would challenge you to think if you truly know Jesus as Lord and Savior and realize the depth of His love for you and hopefully your love for Him. Why in the world would you not stand up for Him in the face of ridicule. I would stand up for my wife, my children and many of my friends if a sacrifice of love on their part were made light of. I should stand up all the more for Christ not laugh along with them just to get along.

Sincerely,
Greg

[Houston]

There are a lot of products I will not buy, and there are specific companies and countries with whom I will not do business. That is not just a right, but a responsibility.

It seems to me that you can achieve your goal of not watching a television show to which you object by simply changing the channel, and not supporting the advertiser. Instead, you use economic clout to deny others the opportunity to see something and draw their own conclusions.

I don't want you, Greg, or James Dobson determining what I can or cannot watch on television, anymore than I want Muslims in the middle east determining what I can read or write. My god has never been threatened by television or cartoons.

[Tulip]

Houston and Greg, may I?

I was a missionary twice, once with YWAM and once with the Calvary Chapel churches (affiliated with Greg Laurie and Chuck Smith). I was a singer, youth group leader, street preacher and women's group teacher. I spent nearly two decades in the faith and probably know more scripture than my local area priest, and maybe even you.

Greg, prostelyzation is just distasteful, plain and simple. It is arrogant at its core as it presumes at the onset that you are right and I am wrong and that because I am wrong, you must now convert me or, as you said, "tell [me] [I am] wrong spiritually".

The problem with James Dobson and his constant need to focus on everybody else's family but his own is the fact that the thousands upon thousands of people who do his bidding vis-a-vis "letter writing campaigns" never even see the shows about which they're howling in protest. The Brittney Spears episode of Will & Grace hasn't even aired yet and already everybody's riled up. The Book of Daniel depicted the real-life struggles of an Episcopalian priest dealing with addiction---a priest who rode around in his car with a Jesus who spoke to him like a contemporary. Dobson and his Many immediately protested the light in which Jesus was cast---wanting to preserve their idea of Christ over anyone else's idea of Christ. Hey guess what? I'll take the Jesus riding around in a car being a real dude over the Jesus who allegedly tells people vis-a-vis men like Dobson to vote Republican and exclude gays, ANY DAY.

Dobson's minions send off form letters en masse in a bullying attempt to get their way---and it's not that *they* don't want to watch Brittney Spears or The Book of Daniel, it's that they don't want *me* to watch it.

As I'm sure you know, the bible speaks blaringly about free will within its first few chapters. Eat the apple if you want to die, Eve, or follow me implicitly and live. Guess what, Eve ate the apple and she didn't die. Both Adam *and* Eve refused to let free will be taken from them, even by God! Life has always been about man's free will---yours AND mine---so what gives James Dobson the right to tell me I can't eat the apple?

He's only a snake, anyway.

[Crystal]

ooops, that's Crys, not Tulip. ;)

[Houston]

Well said, sugah.

[Crystal]

i get all fired up like jesus. now i just need a car.

[Houston]

Everybody say "praise the lord."

Dear Tulip-who-likes-big-butts-Cyrstal, I learned a lot about your background from that comment. I adored you before I knew anything about you. Now I'm even more curious and excited about getting to know you. You're like an onion, sugah, layer after layer after layer.

[Crystal]

now it's official.

we're totally innernets married.

[Mustang Bobby]

Damn, Houston, you really got down with that one. Way to go. I feel the same way, but you really set it to music.

Greg, your religion is yours. You own it. As John Lennon said, "whatever gets you through the night." I, however, have seen too much evil, hatred and genocide done in the name of superstitition and idolatry to be comfortable around anyone who puts all of their life bound to a collection of fables (although I have to admit that any book that starts off with two naked people and a talking snake is pretty creative). I feel the same way about people that get all wrapped up in The Lord of the Rings and Star Trek, too. So if your faith makes you stronger, well, that's just fine. Keep it to yourself, or at the very least follow the lead of the Quakers and live your life in silence so that people will know you not by your label but by your life.

Houston,
You hit it out of the park. look at me with the sports metaphors. Anyway, I happen to believe as MB does that the wars we've fought have always been about religion and more people have been killed in the name of some deity than for any other reason. And Crys, you took what I think and said it so much better. It's always about them not wanting me to do something. Bah!!

[Redcane]

I'm sorry that was me. Redcane

[Saxophone]

I agree.