Guns & Churches: A Look at Fundamentalist Ideology & Paranoia
[ The Rapture; The Environment; Theocracy; Uncle Sam; Masons ]
I
want to remind the Christian of
Thomas Merton’s book entitled,
“No man is an island”. What
you, the Christian believes,
often affects the lives of
others. If Christian’s were an
island, some of these twisted
ideas that I will proceed to
highlight would be limited to
your own community. But since we
share this planet together, we
would like for you to conduct
yourselves properly and to be a
good neighbor before your great
escape (the rapture) comes!
(The
Rapture)…Escape from Reality
Fundamentalists
live with the expectation that
Jesus could suddenly return for
the church. This glorious future
event is termed “the blessed
hope or the rapture” by Christians.
Think of the motion of a yo-yo
(if you are not familiar with
this aspect of the Bible). Jesus
comes down alone from the
clouds, gathering all believers
of the earth (even awakening the
dead resting in their graves),
and then makes a U-turn back up
towards the Heavens taking all
of the Christians with him! This
rapture ideology caters to
adapting short-range plans,
while forsaking long-term
strategic planning. I recall
several students dropping out of
Bible school stating that Jesus
is coming soon. They said they
needed to quickly “win people
to Christ” before it was too
late!
Personally, I thought
that they were just lazy and
undisciplined.
This
rapture expectation provokes
impulsive and irresponsible
living. To illustrate the
damaging effects of this
ideology just look at our
environment! The environment
isn’t such a big priority to
many Christians because they
think that this short-term
problem becomes a moot point
when Jesus returns. Everyone
knows that owners will generally
take better care of their
residences than renters do.
Christians are just passing
through this world. They remind
me of pigeons, they strut their
fat carcasses around selfishly
fighting for their desires while
seeking to adapt in places that
weren’t meant for them to
dwell. They take what they can
get only to fly away, leaving an
unsightly mess for another to
clean.
What
is important to Christians is to
praise God, proclaim “the
truth”, and bring the heathen
to Jesus!
They count on everyone
else to disregard their social
annoyances while crying when
they are denied an indulgence.
Recently, a coalition of
ministers became bold enough to
openly defy the IRS by
delivering political sermons and
endorsing candidates. Being
aggressive doesn’t faze many
Christians today and sadly
peacemaking has given way to
making war! Why is this? It is
due to an inner view that they
“hold the truth”!
Christian’s subjective truth
needs to evade objective truth
for it’s survival, while
ignoring the threat of reason.
Whatever happened to “Come let
us reason together”?
Disingenuous
“truth” proclaimed
Those
that can comprehend simple
statements clearly see that some
Christians today are being
disingenuous when they proclaim
“the truths of Jesus”. This
is especially true when the
scriptures deny them of
something that they personally
want to do. They won’t let the
scriptures block their wishes,
so they just manipulate the
Bible to fit their desires. What
is so Christian about churches
when they are defiant to their
own master’s instructions?
I will give you a clear
example of one such manipulation
concerning the subject of a
theocracy. John
18:36 plainly
states “Jesus
answered, My kingdom is not of
this world: if my kingdom were
of this world, then would my
servants fight”. You might
ask, where is the location of
this kingdom that Jesus spoke
of? The kingdom isn’t of this
world and never will be! Luke
17:20 states “The kingdom of
God cometh not with observation:
21 Neither shall they say, Lo
Here! Or lo there! For, behold the
kingdom of God is within you. Christ
taught that the kingdom of God
was within the hearts of men.
This kingdom is/was to be
peaceful!
Romans 14:17 states
“For the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink; but
righteousness, and peace”.
This is what an honest minister
would espouse, not a version of
Dominion theology that would be
used as a “springboard” to
usher mankind into some type of
theocracy!
Christians
as sheep follow Biblically
illiterate men that are either
damn stupid or wickedly immoral!
With just these few verses, I
have Biblically documented the
ignorance of those that seek to
establish an earthly theocracy
and proven that no physical
kingdom was ever intended or
implied by Jesus according to
the scriptures!
Who
will come first: Jesus or Uncle
Sam?
On
one hand you have those that
seek to establish a theocracy,
on the other hand you have those
who fear that the government is
out to get Christians. Can you imagine
the government (Uncle Sam)
rounding up Christians?
Christians can be annoying but
the only subject that is going
to attack you is the voice of
reason! I submit to those of you
that may not understand the
fundamentalist mindset that many
of these fundies are so damn
paranoid that an agent of Satan
(Uncle Sam) has diabolical plans
for the church!
A number of churches are
so prepared to meet a challenge
like this that they are “lock
and loaded” with firearms
illegally every Sunday in their
sanctuaries! This problem needs
addressing before someone with
an “itchy” finger makes a
mistake and an innocent person
gets killed!
Guns
in churches, this is a deep,
complex problem that needs
immediate attention! I’m
certain that this will be news
to many people. Personally, I
doubt that anyone is
strategically working upon this
or even realizes that such a
problem exists! Were another
Knoxville, TN type of shooting
incident to occur in a
fundamentalist church, I don’t
think that the taxpayers would
have to foot the bill for the
prosecution….just tag the toe
and save the dough (if you know
what I mean)! I don’t like the
thought of excitable, paranoid
people having guns in tax-exempt
churches.
Some
Christian will probably write
and remind me of Foxe’s Book
of Martyr’s and the fate of
those Christians. I would remind
them that often it was a
different type of church with
the bloody hands, not the
government!
To
those of you that are familiar
with Ex-minister, some may
wonder or suspect that my alma
mater, Tennessee Temple
University (TTU), wasn’t all
that radical for a
fundamentalist school. In fact
it wasn’t, I should mention
that initially I had enrolled at
the radical Trinity Baptist
College (TBC) in Jacksonville,
Florida. If
I were so inclined, there
would be so many negative things
that I could say about that
school. Suffice to say, I was
exposed to the radical roots of
fundamentalism at TBC (people
like Jerry Falwell were regular
guest speakers for those with
Pastoral majors). I became
uncomfortable realizing that
something just wasn’t right at
this school and transferred to
TTU after my sophomore year. I
mention this for clarity and to
introduce the last topic of
paranoia of this article, the
subject of Masonry.
Christian
Paranoia about Masonry
Many
Christian authors have written
negatively about the Masons. For
the record, I am not a Mason,
nor have I been approached to
join or write an article such as
this. We do have something in
common though; Christians
persist to dump their Satanic
idea upon us with hope that this
slander might stick!
Fundies
would tell you that upon
reaching the Shriner level (30th
degree), that these Masons adopt
Satan as their master. This is a
serious charge and thus you see
why I would include this subject
when I discuss Christian
paranoia. Being freed from the
tyranny of my previous Christian
dogma, I now have a few logical
questions to ask the Christian
practitioner here!
1. If this were true (Mason’s being Satanist), then why would any fundy that is so zealous for “the truth” ordain an upper level Mason into the ministry or allow them to join a church?
2. If this were true, doesn’t your scriptures teach that God will ultimately subdue Satan? What, do you think that your God’s omniscience and omnipotence is slipping and that you need to do your God’s handiwork here and now?
3.
If this
were true,
don’t you
realize that
Masons are
required to
acknowledge a
higher power
(God)?
Wouldn’t this
then put them in
higher esteem
then you would
give to an
atheist? My
point is why the
slander and who
are you to
judge?
Since
leaving the faith, I see things
much differently than before.
The secrecy surrounding Masonry
will always make people
suspicious about what they do.
One thing for sure, no one in
their right mind can ignore the
many positive contributions that
Masons have accomplished in
history and with charitable
causes like the many
children’s hospitals that they
operat
I
will close with this thought.
Christians often delight in
labeling those that don’t
share their faith in an
undesirable manner. Your labels
would be fair if they could pass
an objective test for truth and
reason. I mention this here in
this context because of the
dual, parallel concept of God
and Satan that exists within the
Christian religion. If you
believe in the Christian God
then of necessity you must admit
to the concept or personage of
Satan.
Irreligious people
realize that the fictional
Satan/God idea is utilized
somewhat like the Santa Claus
concept is towards children. The
child may think that Santa is
for real, while the adult
understands the metaphor. The
metaphor is harmless as long as
no one suffers!
The most clear-cut reason that I know the Christians are wrong about Masons is that there is NO Satan to worship or to follow! Satan is just a metaphor that Christians don’t seem to understand! Upon cross-examination, these faith-based subjects and ideology have been shown to be a detriment to society. A good man seeks to right the wrongs that he was responsible for in life. Dear Christian, think about it!
Brian
Worley Ex-Minister.org
October 26, 2008 All
rights reserved