Be Here Now

I left out one talented artist and his paintings from my write up of The Artists Hand Gallery.

Why?

I can’t separate what he does for a living from his art -- not enough to enjoy or applaud it.

He’s the pastor of one of those rural, Evangelical, big box churches. You know, the sort whose teachings have far more in common with Rush Limbaugh and his ilk’s vile spewings than they do with anything Jesus purportedly taught.

From Religion Dispatches

Writing about “disciplining” children who disobey multiple times in a day, Tomczak winkingly describes beatings as “posterior protoplasmic stimulation,” assuring parents that any resulting marks or redness are “nothing to get upset about.” He also recounts giving his 18-month-old son “a series of repeated spankings (with explanation and abundant display of affection between each one)” in a motel parking lot, until the boy “realized that Daddy always wins and wins decisively!” [emphasis his] Tomczak denies physically abusing anyone, but his defense that the current lawsuit’s allegations concern a “disciplinary parental issue” over a “troubled family member” only raises more concerns.

The larger context for corporal punishment is the belief that Christians must cultivate a lifelong attitude of submission to God-given authority. Parents are one such authority; male leadership over women in the family, church, and society is another.
Both women and children are taught that submission is part of a divine plan that should be embraced joyfully, and that even submitting to abusive men is noble and Christ-like. CLC pastor Joshua Harris quotes 1 Peter on this score, praising slaves who obeyed the masters who beat them as following Jesus’ example. Harris interprets this to mean that all Christians are called to submit, even when “suffering” under “unjust” leadership. Therefore wives are called to resist the “sinful” impulse to “fight back” against or even criticize husbands who misuse their “authority.”

WHAT a bunch of crazily insecure, minisculely limp dicked, bully boy asswipes (not to diss asswipes, mind you)! What outrageous and dangerous, utter snot twaddle!

I actually know a few people who go to this breeding ground for utter fucked upedness. Not only are women and children considered to be no more valuable than livestock you can  beat up and/or fuck, apparently, according to these poor, sad, insane people, ‘blacks were better off under slavery.’

No. Seriously. They believe that.

And this too -- if a business wants to discriminate against you, if they want to lobby their congress critter (*cough PAY OFF *cough) for you to have less rights in our society, within our Democracy because you happen to be gay -- well, boyhowdy, Sovereign Grace Church is TOTALLY down with that! AND they don't pay taxes to boot.

More on the pastor painter’s church from Religion Dispatches:

Perhaps the biggest thorn in SGM’s side has been the spate of former members’ blogs that have cropped up since 2007, starting with SGM Survivors—a site where ex-members have shared numerous accounts of SGM’s cult-like atmosphere, including cover-ups of spousal abuse and sexual abuse of children as young as two. 


It’s no accident that so many allegations of serious abuse have arisen across SGM’s churches. The combination of patriarchal gender roles, purity culture, and authoritarian clergy that characterizes Sovereign Grace’s teachings on parenting, marriage, and sexuality creates an environment where women and children—especially girls—are uniquely vulnerable to abuse.

Critics of evangelical sexual mores have noted the connections between demands for female modesty and chastity and a culture where these same bodies are constantly exposed to sexual violence and abuse.

So much for Luke, Matthew, The Sermon on The Mount and all that yummy Beatitude-y stuff, huh?

You’re just all shocked and shit, aren’t cha? Go read the Religion Dispatches column at that link. It’s worth it.

These people give Christianity a bad name and a black eye. So yeah, I just couldn’t post the pastor’s paintings and I won’t post his name either. He MAY be fine. He MIGHT be nothing like the rest of those weak brained, looking-for-someone-to-be-the-boss-of, rabidly insecure American Taliban types. That could well be.

I’m not inclined to get to know him though. Understatement City!

Am I Christian? Eh, not so much...necessarily. I’m, if anything, a solid state agnostic. My beliefs are best summed up in this Linus Pauling quote:

I have something that I call my Golden Rule. It goes something like this: "Do unto others twenty-five percent better than you expect them to do unto you." … The twenty-five percent is for error.
-- Pauling's reply to an audience question about his ethical system, following his lecture circa 1961 at Monterey Peninsula College, in Monterey, California.

Mind you, Jesus had quite a few good teachings as did Ghandi, Alan Watts, Martin Luther King Jr., Bodhidharma, Albert Einstein, and Kurt Vonnegut.

Who can unequivocally, unmistakably, unquestionably know who is god or even IF god is?

"There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind." -- -- Kurt Vonnegut

LET’S JUST ALL BE HERE NOW!


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