Religions like Mormonism and right wing Evangelical "Christianity" have a list of do's and don'ts you are supposed to follow, and if you do not, your place in a supposed afterlife is threatened.


What is even more curious is just how many of these "rules" are meant to reinforce racism, sexism, exclusion, anti-intellectualism, intolerance, hatred, the rejection of fact-based reality, and white male patriarchal dominance in general -- even if they are nowhere to be found in the Bible or in the actual teachings of Jesus of Nazareth -- which might lead someone to think they are entirely arbitrary and made up.


You might not be feeding off of the blood of living humans to continue to exist as one of the living dead, but hating people because you think that you will burn in hell or won't have eternal life if you don't is the same thing.

People seem to want to delegate authority for things that they are perfectly capable of believing and claiming all by themselves -- whether there is an afterlife, that they are going to same, who they will hang out with or be family with there, and so on. They let fallible human beings decide all kinds of things on their behalf. Why is that?

There is no particular reason to trust someone else's opinions or beliefs over your own.

Heck -- thought vampires were mythological creatures.
Okay -- off to fetch some garlic and a massive cross pendant.

And a Starbucks cup.

Actually, white male patriarchy is built into the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments. And Jesus' disciples are not picked from the ranks of intellectuals.

That said, I agree with the rest of the rant.

The moderate to liberal Christian denominations think that they can modernize, and they may be right about that. But I have my doubts. The patriarchy is simply baked too deeply into Christianity.

Agree with you on the patriarchy part.

What I meant was something more like this:

Preacher: Now I'm tellin ya, y'all gone burn...

But I don't want to burn! Preacher, tell me what I must do!

Preacher: You better get right with God! You better stop this gay marriage and the homo-sex-ual agenda! You better start having kids pray in school! Don't you know that God put man on separate continents, and race-mixing will lead you to the Devil? God made you white for a reason! If you don't stop listening to that N-word music, you're gonna get dragged straight down to Hell! Satan's gonna get ya! You better come to the Lord and live the way He (really "me" ha ha ha evil laugh) wants you to live -- else you gone burn!!!

The reality is that within the evangelical view there is no list of do'S and don'ts. Evangelical Christianity is firmly rooted in a grace based salvation, not by works (a list of things to do or not do). There is no superiority factor in terms of what they might view as the "unsaved". " All have sinned ..." can quickly be forgotten when they lose sight of the fact that but for God's grace (unmerrited favor) they have nothing to feel superior about and nothing to be judgemental over.

I thought you were going to say that form of "Christianity" is like a vampire because it really sucks.

There's no hate quite like Christian love lately.

I still say the sincere believer is a pawn used by those in power. The powerful tell believers that supporting their religion is behind their actions. It looks like if they throw a pet issue like abortion out there to support religion, many believers will go along with wherever else comes with it, no matter how detrimental.

I have no idea how your analogy works. It is easy to reply to your sentiments though.

Your logic strikes me as Lori Vallow's with zombies.

Assuming for the sake of argument that vampires have free will, they have to prey on the living to maintain their existence -- even if they don't want to. How is this different from you being told by a religious authority that claims to have the keys to the afterlife that if you want to enter the supposed afterlife, you have to play by their rules and do as you're told -- including being racist or hating others, sacrificing your own children, etc., etc....

****************

Dr. Lowry Nelson:"I do not believe God to be a racist."

The "Brethren:"

Dear Brother Nelson:

As you have been advised, your letter of June 16 was received in due course... We have carefully considered [its] content; and are glad to advise you as follows:

We make this initial remark: the social side of the Restored Gospel is only an incident of it; it is not the end thereof.

The basic element of your ideas and concepts seems to be that all God’s children stand in equal positions before Him in all things. Your knowledge of the Gospel will indicate to you that this is contrary to the very fundamentals of God’s dealings with Israel dating from the time of His promise to Abraham regarding Abraham’s seed and their position vis-à-vis God Himself. Indeed, some of God’s children were assigned to superior positions before the world was formed.

We are aware that some Higher Critics do not accept this, but the Church does. Your position seems to lose sight of the revelations of the Lord touching the pre-existence of our spirits, the rebellion in heaven, and the doctrines that our birth into this life and the advantages under which we may be born, have a relationship in the life heretofore.

From the days of the Prophet Joseph Smith even until now, it is has been the doctrine of the Church, never questioned by any of the Church leaders, that the Negroes are not entitled to the full blessings of the Gospel.

Furthermore, your ideas, as we understand them, appear to contemplate the intermarriage of the Negro and White races, a concept which has heretofore been most repugnant to most normal-minded people from the ancient patriarchs till now. God’s rule for Israel, His Chosen People, has been endogamous. Modern Israel has been similarly directed.

We are not unmindful of the fact that there is a growing tendency, particularly among some educators, as it manifests itself in this are, toward the breaking down of race barriers in the matter of intermarriage between whites and blacks, but it does not have the sanction of the Church and is contrary to Church doctrine.

Faithfully yours,

[signed]

George Albert Smith J. Reuben Clark, Jr. David O. McKay

The First Presidency

At first I thought this was a joke.

We're not racist, God is racist.

I'm trying to compare for the sake of argument but I don't get your analogy other than in the Vallow sense that some people are alive and some people are living dead and the dead ones are a burden, curse and abomination on the living.

And this slope leads nowhere I want to go.

and threaten you with "eternal consequences" if you don't.


You have a choice -- you don't have to -- but you get scared and do it anyway.


Another Example:

Brigham Young, the Land Pirate, "orders" you to kill members of wagon train party on the way to California.

"Gentlemen, do you duty!"

Do vampires give you a choice? Seriously not a good analogy.

I would say there hasn't been more interracial marriage because it was hard to travel in the old days. But association patterns were based more on tribe than color. I'm old enough to remember people who were born in a time when the Scots hated the English and would shun those who intermarried, my great grandmothers clan, all Scots, living in cache valley and in 1915 she recieved lots of bad looks and dirty remarks for getting in with a family from Manchestor, Back in great britan these people seemed similar to me But still this was a big deal in 1915. Imagine if her fiance had been a different color... I'm not sure racism has much to do with religion but more tradition.