Category Archives: Odds and Ends

The Circle of Strife

All of your criticism about my organization is invalid because…

You’re not part of my organization and therefore…

You’re not biblical because…

Only my organization (and others just like it) are biblical and so…

Only people inside my organization are qualified to judge problems in my organization and…

We all think it’s just fine.

Or to quote a young man from my Fundy U with whom I had a conversation earlier this week:

I shouldn’t be having this conversation with you. But not because of what other may think or because of my standing but because this whole thing…is unprofitable and unedifying. I honestly believe that Christ is not being honored through this. How you and the other authors are going about sending your message is through bitterness, spite, and down right unbiblical. When it comes down to it, its really a issue of the heart. So I sorry you feel this way, but again I believe your going about it the wrong way. I’ll be praying for you.

If you can’t find a way to attack the message, attack the messenger’s tone. But whatever you do, don’t actually listen.

Friday Challenge: Bless the Beasts and the Children

2009-08-16 Puppy at Duke East 1
(photo by Ildar Sagdejev)

I was thinking this morning about animals in fundyland and the way that nature is perceived. It seems that some fundies take a sort of pride in constantly pointing out that animals are not as important as human beings and that it doesn’t really matter how we treat them. From Jack Decoster’s heinous treatment of his factory farm chickens to the sadistic missionary who would routinely brutally kick his dogs just because he could. The very idea of a church service to bless animals would be unthinkable.

Today’s challenge is to remember pets or other animals from your time in fundamentalism. Has your perspective of nature changed since you left?