My mom is an ex-Christian. I'd suspected it for years but she confirmed it to me the other day.
When I was a kid, she was super-devout. She prayed every morning. She studied the Bible more than most preachers. She was one of the most morally upright people I knew, in all senses. I was home-schooled and I remember her teaching me Bible classes. My parents used to minister to some of the more troubled teenagers in the area - I don't know if it ever stuck or not, but a lot of why I never got into drugs was that I saw the damage firsthand. Not only did she care about spreading the gospel, she also cared about holiness. I remember her criticizing my dad and me because we were listening to the ska band Madness, and Madness were a secular band, therefore they were evil. She didn't even like Christian bands that weren't Christian enough. When a large bookstore opened in town, she felt uncomfortable there. She said there was an evil spirit there because of all the New Age books. (They also had more Bible translations than anyone else.) On the other hand, she wasn't that strict on me. She didn't force me to wear a suit and tie every day. She wasn't a hardcore fundamentalist like a lot of people we knew were.
She was my moral rock as a child. Now that rock has completely weathered away. She used to hate swearing. Now she swears, especially "bitch" (which she considers a compliment and a self-description). Every time she says "my gaahd" it makes my skin crawl, because the woman who raised me would never say that. She's outright mean to some people now. And she's the worst kind of ex-Christian - the kind who ascends above the need for Jesus in her own goodness. Note the sarcasm. She can't stand most people now. She hates anyone feminine, unless it's a gay man. She gets mad when I say anything she can't comprehend. And she always has to have the upper hand. She has to mock everything. And she can't comprehend why anyone would have friends. She used to have friends. Now her brain programming lacks a subroutine for friendship.
She raised me to be a strong Christian - I don't think I'm that strong of a Christian, but I sure didn't turn out like her. If she's disappointed in me for staying tied to Organized Religion, it's her fault. I remember about ten years ago I told her about my struggles with faith after a traumatic event, and she pretty much told me to leave Christianity. I was surprised. She couldn't comprehend why I wanted to stay Christian. I no longer tell her about my problems.
If the woman who raised me was still around, she'd be appalled at how my mom acts now. As far as I know, I am the only person on earth who has to deal with this. Nobody else on earth has stayed in their religion while their parents quit. It's like the world played a sick joke on me. It hurts like hell.
She and I still get along well. I still like being around her. But I don't respect her as much as I used to. It would be better if I'd been raised secular and became a Christian later on. Then I wouldn't have to throw out the memories.
Showing posts with label christian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christian. Show all posts
Monday, January 29, 2018
Monday, December 12, 2016
Satan Man and Jesus Girl
I know it sounds blasphemous and sexist. But it's the best way I can explain two archetypes I see over and over again in the world. The basic story is:
Terms like "gay" and "cuck" are code words for "Jesus girl". That's one way the alt-right was able to hijack the right wing. They kept calling regular Republicans cucks, aka Jesus girls. And even tho most Republicans claim to be Christian, they don't want to be raped and murdered for being too good. They understand how the world works. If they really believed their faith they'd be proud to be called cucks because it means they're doing the right thing. Trump captured people's hearts because they knew he was a Satan man who can rape and murder any Jesus girl he chooses. As for calling people gay, look at most of the stereotypes actual gay men have. People think gay men are gooder than everyone else. Not better, gooder. And that's one reason gay men face so much prejudice. They don't commit the socially acceptable sins. It's not about the sins they do commit, it's about the sins they don't commit. Gay men would face less prejudice if "angelic wimp" wasn't the default stereotype. If Jesus came back tomorrow, the culture would label Him "gay" because He doesn't lust after women. Being gay has very little to do with being attracted to the same sex.
Leftists, as a general rule, want to be Jesus girls. They disagree with the narrative I mentioned at the top of the page, despite the mountains of evidence in favor of it. Yet most of them want nothing to do with Christianity or any other religion that believes that good triumphs in the end. Which is insane bullshit of course. With rare exceptions, the bad guys win in real life. Look at the 2016 election - I wouldn't call any of the candidates good, but there was one overarching villain, who won because he's so evil. That's why I prefer fiction to reality. Good people can defeat bad people in fiction. In reality, the biggest, baddest, most Satan man person wins almost every time. Human nature is evil. Most of the right understands that, most of the left doesn't.
I'm a Christian but I struggle with my faith. The only reason I want to be good at all is my belief that Jesus will defeat evil in the end. It's illogical and not intuitive. Without faith there is no reason for me to be good. I'd be a lot further along in life if I put myself first and cared about others after that. I can't comprehend someone not believing anything supernatural but still acting like a pure good Jesus girl. Based on the world I see, I should do bad things just because they're wrong so I can accumulate "reverse karma" and become powerful like Donald Trump. Or for someone far more evil, Fidel Castro.
This sounds insane but it's the only way I know how to put this into words. Comments disabled because I know how crazy this sounds.
Satan man rapes and murders Jesus girl.This is the law of nature. The bad guy always wins. Satan man will always win.
Terms like "gay" and "cuck" are code words for "Jesus girl". That's one way the alt-right was able to hijack the right wing. They kept calling regular Republicans cucks, aka Jesus girls. And even tho most Republicans claim to be Christian, they don't want to be raped and murdered for being too good. They understand how the world works. If they really believed their faith they'd be proud to be called cucks because it means they're doing the right thing. Trump captured people's hearts because they knew he was a Satan man who can rape and murder any Jesus girl he chooses. As for calling people gay, look at most of the stereotypes actual gay men have. People think gay men are gooder than everyone else. Not better, gooder. And that's one reason gay men face so much prejudice. They don't commit the socially acceptable sins. It's not about the sins they do commit, it's about the sins they don't commit. Gay men would face less prejudice if "angelic wimp" wasn't the default stereotype. If Jesus came back tomorrow, the culture would label Him "gay" because He doesn't lust after women. Being gay has very little to do with being attracted to the same sex.
Leftists, as a general rule, want to be Jesus girls. They disagree with the narrative I mentioned at the top of the page, despite the mountains of evidence in favor of it. Yet most of them want nothing to do with Christianity or any other religion that believes that good triumphs in the end. Which is insane bullshit of course. With rare exceptions, the bad guys win in real life. Look at the 2016 election - I wouldn't call any of the candidates good, but there was one overarching villain, who won because he's so evil. That's why I prefer fiction to reality. Good people can defeat bad people in fiction. In reality, the biggest, baddest, most Satan man person wins almost every time. Human nature is evil. Most of the right understands that, most of the left doesn't.
I'm a Christian but I struggle with my faith. The only reason I want to be good at all is my belief that Jesus will defeat evil in the end. It's illogical and not intuitive. Without faith there is no reason for me to be good. I'd be a lot further along in life if I put myself first and cared about others after that. I can't comprehend someone not believing anything supernatural but still acting like a pure good Jesus girl. Based on the world I see, I should do bad things just because they're wrong so I can accumulate "reverse karma" and become powerful like Donald Trump. Or for someone far more evil, Fidel Castro.
This sounds insane but it's the only way I know how to put this into words. Comments disabled because I know how crazy this sounds.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Another long rant on politics, religion, personality, and forgiveness
I told some of my friends a few days ago that I feel like I get more conservative every day. It's not based on the beliefs, it's based on the lifestyles and the arguments. I explained that I understand conservatives even when I disagree with them, but I don't understand liberals when I disagree with them. So I have more sympathy for conservatives who say stupid stuff than for liberals who say stupid stuff. My conservative and libertarian friends were happy and my liberal friends were not. One of my liberal friends, who I respect a lot, accused me of confirmation bias. Which is probably true. Everyone's more likely to believe something they already agree with. I also said I like to fit in with people who are like me. Most people are like this. No matter how good liberal arguments are, they won't win me over because I like small towns and I don't drink. Stereotypical, but more true than it should be. And as I've said before, religious liberals have more in common with secular liberals than they do with religious conservatives. I may have liberal opinions on some things, but I have a conservative brain. So conservative arguments make more sense.
My Christian faith makes me more moderate or liberal than I would be otherwise. A lot of my liberal opinions go against what logic tells me. For me, logic supports conservatives more often than not. When I was in college I was both a hardcore Christian and a hardcore liberal, and I was every bit as obnoxious as the Religious Right. I disagreed with the left on a few things but I liked the way they talked. As I explained in a ha-ha-only-serious post on religion and politics last year, liberal arguments are similar to religious arguments. And both groups can slip into self righteousness real easily.
It really bugs me when some secular people, usually secular liberals, try to claim Jesus agreed with them. It bugs me when people claim Jesus was a socialist, a capitalist, a Republican, a Democrat, a Libertarian, a monarchist, etc. I also don't know why someone who rejects Jesus's supernatural claims would follow Jesus's morals. They're not practical at all. There are other moral teachers. It's a lousy attempt to try and win over Christians. I respect other religions and philosophies too much to cozy up to their followers. Too bad not everyone's that way.
For example, I don't understand why so many secular people are so pro-forgiveness. If I left Christianity that's the first thing I'd throw out. I honestly don't understand forgiveness. I never have. I think it perpetrates evil. It prevents evil from being punished. It keeps the forgivers subordinate to the forgiven. I guess I should be glad most people aren't as vindictive as me, but I don't understand it. Non-Christians usually tell me I'm a horrible person. Christians either do the same or admit they have no answer to my questions. I want to be more forgiving, but forgiveness makes no sense!
But once again I have a conservative brain. There's a lot of liberal arguments against Christianity, but very few conservative arguments, and the conservative arguments are the only ones that make sense to me. They reflect the way I see the world, which makes sense to me. And in the US nearly all conservatives are Christian. Whether they follow Christian morals or not is another matter, but they call themselves Christians, so they claim Christian teachings and morals as their own.
There's a book I want to read called The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics And Religion by Jonathan Haidt. I've read the first few chapters and I like it so far. It covers a lot of the same ground as some of my blog posts, only more positive and from a very different perspective. Haidt is a psychologist. He's also a former liberal turned moderate by his research into morality. Maybe he can help me make sense out of the world. The world looks absurd to me. My own half-baked theories make more sense than most of what I see out there. And when things seem to make sense, they always exclude me and say I can't exist.
My Christian faith makes me more moderate or liberal than I would be otherwise. A lot of my liberal opinions go against what logic tells me. For me, logic supports conservatives more often than not. When I was in college I was both a hardcore Christian and a hardcore liberal, and I was every bit as obnoxious as the Religious Right. I disagreed with the left on a few things but I liked the way they talked. As I explained in a ha-ha-only-serious post on religion and politics last year, liberal arguments are similar to religious arguments. And both groups can slip into self righteousness real easily.
It really bugs me when some secular people, usually secular liberals, try to claim Jesus agreed with them. It bugs me when people claim Jesus was a socialist, a capitalist, a Republican, a Democrat, a Libertarian, a monarchist, etc. I also don't know why someone who rejects Jesus's supernatural claims would follow Jesus's morals. They're not practical at all. There are other moral teachers. It's a lousy attempt to try and win over Christians. I respect other religions and philosophies too much to cozy up to their followers. Too bad not everyone's that way.
For example, I don't understand why so many secular people are so pro-forgiveness. If I left Christianity that's the first thing I'd throw out. I honestly don't understand forgiveness. I never have. I think it perpetrates evil. It prevents evil from being punished. It keeps the forgivers subordinate to the forgiven. I guess I should be glad most people aren't as vindictive as me, but I don't understand it. Non-Christians usually tell me I'm a horrible person. Christians either do the same or admit they have no answer to my questions. I want to be more forgiving, but forgiveness makes no sense!
But once again I have a conservative brain. There's a lot of liberal arguments against Christianity, but very few conservative arguments, and the conservative arguments are the only ones that make sense to me. They reflect the way I see the world, which makes sense to me. And in the US nearly all conservatives are Christian. Whether they follow Christian morals or not is another matter, but they call themselves Christians, so they claim Christian teachings and morals as their own.
There's a book I want to read called The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics And Religion by Jonathan Haidt. I've read the first few chapters and I like it so far. It covers a lot of the same ground as some of my blog posts, only more positive and from a very different perspective. Haidt is a psychologist. He's also a former liberal turned moderate by his research into morality. Maybe he can help me make sense out of the world. The world looks absurd to me. My own half-baked theories make more sense than most of what I see out there. And when things seem to make sense, they always exclude me and say I can't exist.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
The Christian music industry is dead
The Christian music industry is dead. Cornerstone Festival announced this is its last year. (link) When I was younger I wanted to go to Cornerstone. I never did and I have no desire to go now, but I'm still sad to see it go.
I grew up in the 90s in the evangelical Christian sub-culture. Back then, a lot of Christians wouldn't listen to secular music, but they listened to Christian music. The Christian music industry thrived thanks to this. There were lots of charts listing Christian bands as “Christian alternatives” to secular bands. The bands themselves hated this, except for the few who saw themselves as the “safe” versions of secular musicians. The charts were pretty far off base too.
As a result, Christian artists gained a reputation as cheap knockoffs of secular artists. Sometimes this was true, but it often wasn't. There were a lot of bad bands from my childhood, but there were some good ones too. I still listen to some of them. And it ruined my musical taste forever.
Why did this happen? In the late 80s, popular music was very dirty. Your average rock album from 1989 is way dirtier than your average rock album from 1969 or 2009. This was the era of the Parents Music Research Council, the Parental Advisory sticker, etc. Parents want to protect their children. So we got an entire music industry designed as an alternative to one that some people think went off the deep end.
The Christian music industry did convert a lot of the more fundamentalist Christians who believed all popular music was evil. They had music with evil drum beats and guitars, but they're singing about Jesus! Nice things too. What do they do now? Some people bashed the Christian bands, but I think it made a lot of them more tolerant.
What killed it? One thing was commercial acceptance of Christian bands in the mainstream market. A few had big hits before, but not like the breakthru in the mid-00s. Another was that mainstream rock music got a lot less dirty after Marilyn Manson took shock rock as far as the mainstream would let him. By the way, Marilyn Manson was a marketing genius. All the parents complained about him, so he was one of the few secular artists I knew of when I was a kid. All the church kids knew: If you want to rebel, listen to Marilyn Manson. Back to the main topic...
Also, Christian music stopped being “safe” sometime in the past few years. Musicians start ed swearing and singing about controversial topics, e. g. Derek Webb. Christian music wasn't all G-rated any more. It wasn't all Focus on the Family approved any more. You couldn't be sure you'd agree with everything the music said.
Christian musicians will survive. We'll have new Christian musicians in all styles, but they won't be part of a separate market. I hope some of them better ones, such as House of Heroes, get the attention they deserve. I'll miss having Cornerstone around, but there's no need for a separate music market any more.
What I want to know is why almost all “heavy” Christian bands do hardcore or metalcore. There are so many styles of heavy music but Christian bands always go for -core music. Maybe they want to fight the image that Christian music is always mellow and pretty, so they scream over everything. Maybe there's less bias against Christianity in the -core world than in power metal or thrash metal. Maybe none of them can play guitar solos. Maybe it's like how third wave ska was huge in the Christian world for way longer than the secular world. The Christian music industry was usually a few years behind the secular music industry, but they were right on the ball with ska.
I grew up in the 90s in the evangelical Christian sub-culture. Back then, a lot of Christians wouldn't listen to secular music, but they listened to Christian music. The Christian music industry thrived thanks to this. There were lots of charts listing Christian bands as “Christian alternatives” to secular bands. The bands themselves hated this, except for the few who saw themselves as the “safe” versions of secular musicians. The charts were pretty far off base too.
As a result, Christian artists gained a reputation as cheap knockoffs of secular artists. Sometimes this was true, but it often wasn't. There were a lot of bad bands from my childhood, but there were some good ones too. I still listen to some of them. And it ruined my musical taste forever.
Why did this happen? In the late 80s, popular music was very dirty. Your average rock album from 1989 is way dirtier than your average rock album from 1969 or 2009. This was the era of the Parents Music Research Council, the Parental Advisory sticker, etc. Parents want to protect their children. So we got an entire music industry designed as an alternative to one that some people think went off the deep end.
The Christian music industry did convert a lot of the more fundamentalist Christians who believed all popular music was evil. They had music with evil drum beats and guitars, but they're singing about Jesus! Nice things too. What do they do now? Some people bashed the Christian bands, but I think it made a lot of them more tolerant.
What killed it? One thing was commercial acceptance of Christian bands in the mainstream market. A few had big hits before, but not like the breakthru in the mid-00s. Another was that mainstream rock music got a lot less dirty after Marilyn Manson took shock rock as far as the mainstream would let him. By the way, Marilyn Manson was a marketing genius. All the parents complained about him, so he was one of the few secular artists I knew of when I was a kid. All the church kids knew: If you want to rebel, listen to Marilyn Manson. Back to the main topic...
Also, Christian music stopped being “safe” sometime in the past few years. Musicians start ed swearing and singing about controversial topics, e. g. Derek Webb. Christian music wasn't all G-rated any more. It wasn't all Focus on the Family approved any more. You couldn't be sure you'd agree with everything the music said.
Christian musicians will survive. We'll have new Christian musicians in all styles, but they won't be part of a separate market. I hope some of them better ones, such as House of Heroes, get the attention they deserve. I'll miss having Cornerstone around, but there's no need for a separate music market any more.
What I want to know is why almost all “heavy” Christian bands do hardcore or metalcore. There are so many styles of heavy music but Christian bands always go for -core music. Maybe they want to fight the image that Christian music is always mellow and pretty, so they scream over everything. Maybe there's less bias against Christianity in the -core world than in power metal or thrash metal. Maybe none of them can play guitar solos. Maybe it's like how third wave ska was huge in the Christian world for way longer than the secular world. The Christian music industry was usually a few years behind the secular music industry, but they were right on the ball with ska.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Christianity Is a Religion and Jesus Is a Religious Figure
I'm sick of Christians saying Christianity's not a religion. Only Protestant Christians do this. Catholics and Orthodox don't. Here's why Protestants say it:
1. They want to distance themselves from formal liturgical churches. I like formal liturgical churches so this doesn't hold water with me.
2. They want to agree with people who bash religion. I don't know any anti-religious people who joined Christianity because it's "not a religion". Most secular people get pissed off when Christians say Christianity is not a religion.
3. They want to set themselves apart from the bad things done in the name of religion. In reality they sound like they're shrugging off any blame for the sins of the past. Like it or not, some Christians did evil things.
4. They want to be "cool" and "edgy" and "shocking". They fail. Saying Christianity is a religion is way more shocking than saying it's not.
5. They want to emphasize that it's about a relationship with Jesus. Which it is. I don't see how this conflicts with Christianity being a religion. It makes Christianity a distinctive religion but it doesn't make it any less of a religion.
The web site adherents.com has two interesting things on this here and here. The first link says other religions do this. I can believe this. A lot of Buddhists claim they're a philosophy, not a religion. But every Muslim I've met uses the word religion. The second link quotes James 1:27: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." (ESV) This is from the Bible. It doesn't say "relationship", it says "religion".
While everyone else boasts they're not part of a religion, I claim it with pride. It's honest. I don't claim everything done in the name of religion is good. Members of my religion did horrible things thinking it pleased God. But members of my religion also did great things thinking it pleased God. I believe organized religion has brought more good into the world than evil. I only wish I was a better follower of Jesus. If you read my blog you know I'm not.
P. S. Most secular people bash "organized religion" instead of any specific one. They always mean the group they grew up in.
1. They want to distance themselves from formal liturgical churches. I like formal liturgical churches so this doesn't hold water with me.
2. They want to agree with people who bash religion. I don't know any anti-religious people who joined Christianity because it's "not a religion". Most secular people get pissed off when Christians say Christianity is not a religion.
3. They want to set themselves apart from the bad things done in the name of religion. In reality they sound like they're shrugging off any blame for the sins of the past. Like it or not, some Christians did evil things.
4. They want to be "cool" and "edgy" and "shocking". They fail. Saying Christianity is a religion is way more shocking than saying it's not.
5. They want to emphasize that it's about a relationship with Jesus. Which it is. I don't see how this conflicts with Christianity being a religion. It makes Christianity a distinctive religion but it doesn't make it any less of a religion.
The web site adherents.com has two interesting things on this here and here. The first link says other religions do this. I can believe this. A lot of Buddhists claim they're a philosophy, not a religion. But every Muslim I've met uses the word religion. The second link quotes James 1:27: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." (ESV) This is from the Bible. It doesn't say "relationship", it says "religion".
While everyone else boasts they're not part of a religion, I claim it with pride. It's honest. I don't claim everything done in the name of religion is good. Members of my religion did horrible things thinking it pleased God. But members of my religion also did great things thinking it pleased God. I believe organized religion has brought more good into the world than evil. I only wish I was a better follower of Jesus. If you read my blog you know I'm not.
P. S. Most secular people bash "organized religion" instead of any specific one. They always mean the group they grew up in.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Summer and Winter Christians
Read this: Summer and Winter Christians by Richard Beck
It's a great essay. Richard Beck says many people see Christian faith on a one-axis model: if you're Christian, you don't complain, and if you're not, you do. Beck prefers a two-axis model where faith and complaint are different dimensions. He calls high faith with low complaint "Summer Christians", high faith with high complaint "Winter Christians", low faith with high complaint "Spiritual Critics", and low faith with low complaint "Disengaged Believers".
I'm a Winter Christian. Maybe it's me getting older and more bitter. I can't understand Summer Christians at all, but I like being around them. I can understand Spiritual Critics well altho I think some of them use their complaints as an excuse not to go to church. As for Disengaged Believers, I was one once. When I didn't go to church regularly I didn't complain about it.
I can't say anything else he didn't say better, so read his essay.
It's a great essay. Richard Beck says many people see Christian faith on a one-axis model: if you're Christian, you don't complain, and if you're not, you do. Beck prefers a two-axis model where faith and complaint are different dimensions. He calls high faith with low complaint "Summer Christians", high faith with high complaint "Winter Christians", low faith with high complaint "Spiritual Critics", and low faith with low complaint "Disengaged Believers".
I'm a Winter Christian. Maybe it's me getting older and more bitter. I can't understand Summer Christians at all, but I like being around them. I can understand Spiritual Critics well altho I think some of them use their complaints as an excuse not to go to church. As for Disengaged Believers, I was one once. When I didn't go to church regularly I didn't complain about it.
I can't say anything else he didn't say better, so read his essay.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Kill the Heretic!
It's human nature. If someone disagrees with you, they're evil and you should kill them. You should destroy their writings. You should shut them up at all costs. If you're good enough at it, nobody will know what they stood for in the first place.
One example is the medieval church. I'm a Christian and I'm fine with doctrinal purity, but the church went to extremes in the old days. We only know about a lot of heresies from books arguing against them. People destroyed heretical books. During the Protestant Reformation the church/government killed reformers. For years Christians oppressed Jews, even tho Jesus and His first disciples were all Jewish.
Oppressive governments do the same thing. The Nazis and Communists killed lots of people for disagreeing with the party. Not for doing anything. They killed people for other reasons too. Nazis hated Jews, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and a bunch of other groups. They didn't do anything to the Nazis apart from existing.
We don't kill people or destroy their books any more in the Western world. Now we insult people, call them names, make fun of them, etc. It may not kill people but it hurts their careers. Here's a form of oppression in the music world:
Most rock critics praise genres like rockabilly, garage rock, 70's punk, post-punk, and early alternative. They trash genres like progressive rock and metal that don't fit their narrow view of rock.
When I was younger I didn't like progressive rock apart from Pink Floyd because things I read told me not to. People said it was "pretentious" and "self-indulgent" and it "violated the spirit of rock'n'roll". Then I discovered Procol Harum, who led me to Yes, who got me hooked on other progressive rock like King Crimson, early Genesis, Dream Theater, etc. Now I know rock critics are full of crap because those bands made great music. In the standard history of rock, punk "destroyed" progressive rock, like how grunge "destroyed" glam metal. Progressive rock bands and glam metal bands didn't do anything to offend punk and grunge bands. The rock purists killed the rock heretics in a heroic act to restore standard forms of rock.
Disco had a worse backlash from rock fans in the late 70s. There was a disco record demolition in 1979. That's real oppression.
I'm not the only one who sees a connection. John McFerrin says "I like a lot of punk rock and post-punk, but the punk "revolution" was really an inquisition." Nile Rodgers from disco/funk band Chic compared the anti-disco movement to Nazi book-burning.
The worst part is most rock critics hate religion. They embrace rock music like it's an alternative to religion that lets them do whatever they want. They probably say "religion kills so avoid it" like most anti-religious people do. But they still got the "kill the heretic" instinct because it's human nature.
One example is the medieval church. I'm a Christian and I'm fine with doctrinal purity, but the church went to extremes in the old days. We only know about a lot of heresies from books arguing against them. People destroyed heretical books. During the Protestant Reformation the church/government killed reformers. For years Christians oppressed Jews, even tho Jesus and His first disciples were all Jewish.
Oppressive governments do the same thing. The Nazis and Communists killed lots of people for disagreeing with the party. Not for doing anything. They killed people for other reasons too. Nazis hated Jews, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and a bunch of other groups. They didn't do anything to the Nazis apart from existing.
We don't kill people or destroy their books any more in the Western world. Now we insult people, call them names, make fun of them, etc. It may not kill people but it hurts their careers. Here's a form of oppression in the music world:
Most rock critics praise genres like rockabilly, garage rock, 70's punk, post-punk, and early alternative. They trash genres like progressive rock and metal that don't fit their narrow view of rock.
When I was younger I didn't like progressive rock apart from Pink Floyd because things I read told me not to. People said it was "pretentious" and "self-indulgent" and it "violated the spirit of rock'n'roll". Then I discovered Procol Harum, who led me to Yes, who got me hooked on other progressive rock like King Crimson, early Genesis, Dream Theater, etc. Now I know rock critics are full of crap because those bands made great music. In the standard history of rock, punk "destroyed" progressive rock, like how grunge "destroyed" glam metal. Progressive rock bands and glam metal bands didn't do anything to offend punk and grunge bands. The rock purists killed the rock heretics in a heroic act to restore standard forms of rock.
Disco had a worse backlash from rock fans in the late 70s. There was a disco record demolition in 1979. That's real oppression.
I'm not the only one who sees a connection. John McFerrin says "I like a lot of punk rock and post-punk, but the punk "revolution" was really an inquisition." Nile Rodgers from disco/funk band Chic compared the anti-disco movement to Nazi book-burning.
The worst part is most rock critics hate religion. They embrace rock music like it's an alternative to religion that lets them do whatever they want. They probably say "religion kills so avoid it" like most anti-religious people do. But they still got the "kill the heretic" instinct because it's human nature.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
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