Okay, I know I'm tempermental, but seriously

[wendykh]

there's something effed up about all my fundie xian friends on FB "liking" the group:

DEAR LORD, THIS YEAR YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTOR, PATRICK SWAYZIE. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTRESS, FARAH FAWCETT. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE SINGER, MICHAEL JACKSON. I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW, MY FAVORITE PRESIDENT IS BARACK OBAMA. AMEN.

There's not a total stick up my butt: I laughed when I read it- and I voted for the guy! But there's something about people calling themselves Xian and "liking" that which rubs me the wrong way, especially how because this week I've been wrestling with how it's truly wrong to pray for someone's death.

And yes this is a public entry.

Comments

[alohamelly.livejournal.com]

That is really messed up.

[primaflora.livejournal.com]

::shakes head:: that is so fucked up.

[sourdick.livejournal.com]

How is that funny?

[carrier.livejournal.com]

As a Christian, I am RIGHT THERE with you. I was flabbergasted the first time one of my FB connections posted this "joke" to her wall. Somebody else had already called her out on it, and she responded, "It's just a funny joke!" Well, no, it's not. People who aren't Christian who see those who self-identify as such thinking this is funny are going to respond just as you are...and they should.

My mom is a fundie (fun times growing up!), and every so often, I have to get a reality check by running this kind of stuff by her to get her reaction. When I did, she was appalled, too, so I know it's not everybody on that particular platform who have lost every last trace of sense, at least.

[70schild.livejournal.com]

what she said.

Praying honestly...

[cloudkucooland.livejournal.com]

There is some biblical precedent for being honest in our prayers. Ps 137 ends on a pretty graphic note--bashing the heads of the little children of the captors against the rocks. That said, I read the psalms as our prayers to God, not as God's word to us. We do pray for evil, that's who we are. If we allow these prayers to read us as we read them, we see into our own hearts the evil that really is there and we can challenge it.

I urge people, when they ask, to pray what they really want to pray and to listen carefully to themselves as they do it. When people are finally honest with themselves--when they see that they want to bash baby's heads against rocks--then, and only then, can they begin to understand "the other." As long as we lie to ourselves about who we are ("I'm righteous, good, etc...") we never have that moment of compassion on others that makes wholeness possible.

When people come around to praying for the death of a president, or lying to God about who their favorite president is, hopefully that can be the moment when the prayer reads the pray-er; the text criticizes the critic, so to speak. Now that you've prayed it, is that honestly what you think God wants? Do you see your own unrighteousness in it?

Of course, there are the sociopaths who never see the evil in their own prayers. I don't know what to do with them yet.

Re: Praying honestly...

[wendykh.livejournal.com]

see this is weird because to me I was always told to pray for God to show you the right way, no matter what this was. KWIM? So clearly since BHO is in office "we should accept God's will."

Re: Praying honestly...

[wendykh.livejournal.com]

that said I like your argument. It intrigues me.

[the-tricker.livejournal.com]

That is seriously fucked up.

Anyway, I saw you on dzuunmod's journal. I'm Elliott and I'm 24. Will you add me?

[wendykh.livejournal.com]

m'kay