"Toxic Christianity"
My great and good friend, Jeff Duntemann, used the phrase "Toxic Christianity" the other day, and it ocurred to me that it really ain't Christianity -- it's Calvinism, which is Manicheanism, with a bit of Satan-worship thrown in.
Manicheanism was an offshoot of Zoroastrianism, and shared its parent's dualistic ideas about the world -- that Good and Evil were evenly balanced in the world (equally real), and that Evil could win. This was a problem in the late 300s, and the 400s A.D., and got re-introduced into Western Christianity by Calvin. And elaborated and made more sadistic by Calvinists.
The 5 Points of Calvinism describe a god who is a capricious sadist, picking at random who will be saved or damned, despite whatever they may try to do. the first Point -- Total Depravity -- says that you're bad, you're doomed, and you deserve it. This is unalloyed Spiritual Sadism.
The fruit of this is hate of self, hate of others, and ultimately hate of God. So who wants us to hate God?
BINGO!!!
Thus my comment about a bit of Satan-worship.
What Jeff is describing as "Toxic Christiantiy" is Fun_DUH_mentalist literalism -- the halt and the blind, holding onto their Bah-buls as an anodyne to the pain of Future Shock. Technology and the culture are changing so fast that some people are developing PTS.
Geeks, of course, have the opposite problem: "Giddyap, Nellybelle! We gotta git movin!" But we are surfing down the leading edge of the technological Bell curve, hangin' ten over new ground.
They are falling backwards down the back edge, yelling for Jesus to save them from being totally useless. They are also the ones predicting the immanence of the Eschaton -- "The End Is Coming, And Soon!" Well, they are right about that, in a way -- _THEIR_ end is clearly in view. The world and humanity will go on.
There are lies, damn lies, statistics, and opinion polls.
Lately opinion polls have been showing that some moderately large (40+/-%) of Americans believe in some form or "Intelligent Design", and about the same declare themselves "Fundamentalists"
My reading of this is that most of them are very ordinary Christians, who believe what Christians have been believing all along, who are upset with the political and moral relativism, and outright violence and libertinism that have been glorified in the media and movies over the last 50 years. They want a little stability and safety -- but not at the cost of a vicious theocracy.
The tiny minority (2-3%) who DO want a theocracy are the ones I call Fun_DUH_mentalists -- usually with Calvinist theology -- who support Creationism and anti-scientific outloooks in general. They make more noise than all of the rest of Christianity put together, and give Evangelical Atheists a wonderful target to plink at.
They are excellent at guilt-tripping, and play upon the unease of the majority of conservative and buergerlich Christians, to push them into not actively opposing the craziness and sadistic paranoia that the lunatic Fundies espouse. Americans are used to feeling vaguely guilty -- these whackos make an art of stirring up acute guilt.
The proper response to these knuckle-draggin', Bah-bul worshippin' nutjobs, of course, is a horse-laugh. Whinny them back under their rocks with the other vermin.
Manicheanism was an offshoot of Zoroastrianism, and shared its parent's dualistic ideas about the world -- that Good and Evil were evenly balanced in the world (equally real), and that Evil could win. This was a problem in the late 300s, and the 400s A.D., and got re-introduced into Western Christianity by Calvin. And elaborated and made more sadistic by Calvinists.
The 5 Points of Calvinism describe a god who is a capricious sadist, picking at random who will be saved or damned, despite whatever they may try to do. the first Point -- Total Depravity -- says that you're bad, you're doomed, and you deserve it. This is unalloyed Spiritual Sadism.
The fruit of this is hate of self, hate of others, and ultimately hate of God. So who wants us to hate God?
BINGO!!!
Thus my comment about a bit of Satan-worship.
What Jeff is describing as "Toxic Christiantiy" is Fun_DUH_mentalist literalism -- the halt and the blind, holding onto their Bah-buls as an anodyne to the pain of Future Shock. Technology and the culture are changing so fast that some people are developing PTS.
Geeks, of course, have the opposite problem: "Giddyap, Nellybelle! We gotta git movin!" But we are surfing down the leading edge of the technological Bell curve, hangin' ten over new ground.
They are falling backwards down the back edge, yelling for Jesus to save them from being totally useless. They are also the ones predicting the immanence of the Eschaton -- "The End Is Coming, And Soon!" Well, they are right about that, in a way -- _THEIR_ end is clearly in view. The world and humanity will go on.
There are lies, damn lies, statistics, and opinion polls.
Lately opinion polls have been showing that some moderately large (40+/-%) of Americans believe in some form or "Intelligent Design", and about the same declare themselves "Fundamentalists"
My reading of this is that most of them are very ordinary Christians, who believe what Christians have been believing all along, who are upset with the political and moral relativism, and outright violence and libertinism that have been glorified in the media and movies over the last 50 years. They want a little stability and safety -- but not at the cost of a vicious theocracy.
The tiny minority (2-3%) who DO want a theocracy are the ones I call Fun_DUH_mentalists -- usually with Calvinist theology -- who support Creationism and anti-scientific outloooks in general. They make more noise than all of the rest of Christianity put together, and give Evangelical Atheists a wonderful target to plink at.
They are excellent at guilt-tripping, and play upon the unease of the majority of conservative and buergerlich Christians, to push them into not actively opposing the craziness and sadistic paranoia that the lunatic Fundies espouse. Americans are used to feeling vaguely guilty -- these whackos make an art of stirring up acute guilt.
The proper response to these knuckle-draggin', Bah-bul worshippin' nutjobs, of course, is a horse-laugh. Whinny them back under their rocks with the other vermin.
posted by Sam'l B. at
12:48 PM
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