thing going on at YouTube apparently, where you upload a video of yourself denying the Holy Spirit.
So I am moved here to state my own position: I DO beleive in the Holy Spirit, and the divinity of Jesus Christ. I also believe in His literal death and resurrection as the way to salvation for our sins AND ultimately, from all manner of pain, injustice, and evil.
And since there seem to be a growing number of atheists who think (or pretend to think) that the only variety of Christian who exists is of the fundamentalist variety, let me declare a few things I DO NOT believe:
I DO NOT believe that only Christians are saved.
I DO NOT believe the world is only 5,000 years old.
I DO NOT believe that homosexuality is a sin (read my porn). God made gayness.
I DO NOT believe in the infallibility of scripture, important as scripture is.
I VERY STRONGLY SUSPECT and am coming to believe in the truth of Universalism: that is, the doctrine that all people, one way or another, if not in this life then in a later one, shall be eternally reunited with God.
I am more than a little fed up with the threat of hell hanging over my head; I think it rots one's love of God.
And I am more than a little fed up with the fuck-the-dog patriotism of the fundamentalists, who seem to think that love of Jesus must entail a hearty approval American Imperialism.
A caution to the deniers of the Holy Spirit: do not let the viciousness and willful stupidity of fundamentalists drive you to close your mind or your heart to God in whatever fashion He/She presents Herself.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
THE COCK WHISPERER
Ach du lieber! Can it be I forgot to publicize this latest little hot story of mine? It's called "The Cock Whisperer" and you can find it at Sway Lingerie. Just scroll down a little, and it's there: a little phallogyne and equestrienne porn to lighten up your day!
Saturday, September 17, 2011
EVER NOTICE HOW
those "support the troops" yahoos with their cowardly pro-war rhetoric never actually pay attention to those soldiers who have turned against the war they are fighting? Check out this excellent YouTube video.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
HELL AGAIN
It has often occurred to me that what keeps the doctrines of hell going in the Christian church has less to do with scripture than hell's proponents would have us believe.
It may be a matter of simple hate, of a desire to see some people unforgiven and roiling in the gulf of fire forevermore.
But perhaps even more significantly than the hate, belief in hell comes from a lack of faith in God. Under the guise of saying that God has such authority that he must somehow have the right to torture certain people forever, the hell-believer actually has inadequate trust in God's power.
The hell-believer, with his lack of faith in God's power and God's realm, projects this world into the beyond, convinced that the limitations we know in this earthly existence are binding everywhere else and for eternity. In this world, for example, there seems so often to be a downside to everything. So much of what is good must be paid for. In fact, this is so much the case that we can't even IMAGINE paradise. Any writer who has tried to portray a perfect world knows that what she comes up with is boring and insipid. Some kind of evil or difficult conflict must be introduced.
Therefor, if we make the mistake of assuming that the world beyond this one must be limited by this one or limited by the imaginations of people in this world, we have a hard time believing EVERYONE shall know forever the bliss of God. Surely there must be losers for winning to mean anything!
The hell-believer is loyal to a particular interpretation of scripture, but becomes so at the price of putting this interpretation above faith and God. It seems to me that those fundamentalists who think themselves particularly pious are actually idolatrous.
It may be a matter of simple hate, of a desire to see some people unforgiven and roiling in the gulf of fire forevermore.
But perhaps even more significantly than the hate, belief in hell comes from a lack of faith in God. Under the guise of saying that God has such authority that he must somehow have the right to torture certain people forever, the hell-believer actually has inadequate trust in God's power.
The hell-believer, with his lack of faith in God's power and God's realm, projects this world into the beyond, convinced that the limitations we know in this earthly existence are binding everywhere else and for eternity. In this world, for example, there seems so often to be a downside to everything. So much of what is good must be paid for. In fact, this is so much the case that we can't even IMAGINE paradise. Any writer who has tried to portray a perfect world knows that what she comes up with is boring and insipid. Some kind of evil or difficult conflict must be introduced.
Therefor, if we make the mistake of assuming that the world beyond this one must be limited by this one or limited by the imaginations of people in this world, we have a hard time believing EVERYONE shall know forever the bliss of God. Surely there must be losers for winning to mean anything!
The hell-believer is loyal to a particular interpretation of scripture, but becomes so at the price of putting this interpretation above faith and God. It seems to me that those fundamentalists who think themselves particularly pious are actually idolatrous.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
OUCH! DID I SPEAK TOO SOON?
Recently I spoke pretty positively about Ralph Harris's GOD'S ASTOUNDING OPINION OF YOU. And I still stand behind those comments. But then on page 153 I encounter this:
"Our public school system is not set up to accurately equip our children to know who they are. I don't mean to lay blame, but I do mean to illuminate. Public schools lump saved and unsaved children together . . ."
And I think I felt a cold draft from Hell. "Saved and unsaved children"?
I can see how many of us Christians totally creep out the rest of the world. Some of us seem so nice, rational, well-intentioned, and then that Us and Them stuff comes up, right in the middle of the most patient and forgiving talk. Yes, it's not that we hate or judge the non-Christians, it's just that in our own gentle, mild-mannered way, we assert that they are all going to be damned.
Man. I think the Devil got a hold of God's revolution in Christ and has seriously corrupted it. The "Good News" seems to have a great many qualifications to it, doesn't it?
"Our public school system is not set up to accurately equip our children to know who they are. I don't mean to lay blame, but I do mean to illuminate. Public schools lump saved and unsaved children together . . ."
And I think I felt a cold draft from Hell. "Saved and unsaved children"?
I can see how many of us Christians totally creep out the rest of the world. Some of us seem so nice, rational, well-intentioned, and then that Us and Them stuff comes up, right in the middle of the most patient and forgiving talk. Yes, it's not that we hate or judge the non-Christians, it's just that in our own gentle, mild-mannered way, we assert that they are all going to be damned.
Man. I think the Devil got a hold of God's revolution in Christ and has seriously corrupted it. The "Good News" seems to have a great many qualifications to it, doesn't it?
Saturday, September 3, 2011
ROB BELL AGAIN
I've been thinking some more about Rob Bell, and since my last post on him I have read his LOVE WINS, which I highly recommend, by the way. As for those of my fellow Christians with pinched hearts, a need to control the gates of heaven, and who say Rob Bell is a universalist, they may wish to consider these words of his from page 115:
"Will every body be saved,
or will some perish apart from God forever because of
their choices?
"Those are questions, or more accurately, those are
tensions we are free to leave fully intact. We don't need
to resolve them or answer them because we can't, and so
we simply respect them, creating space for the freedom
that love requires."
Is this universalism? It seems to me that it leaves open the possibility that universalism is true, but clearly Bell is not committing himself to universalism here, and is not pretending to. Frankly, I wish he had. So why are the pharisees after him? And why are they so upset at the mere possibility that no one is damned?
It is interesting that they claim scripture on their side. Let me leave aside the scriptural argument for the time being and instead ponder this: why do they WANT to believe in hell? Why are they people who would clearly be bitterly disappointed if it could be proven to them that scripture does not support a doctrine of eternal torture for some people?
Could it be that pride says there is no point in being one of the sheep if there are no goats?
"Will every body be saved,
or will some perish apart from God forever because of
their choices?
"Those are questions, or more accurately, those are
tensions we are free to leave fully intact. We don't need
to resolve them or answer them because we can't, and so
we simply respect them, creating space for the freedom
that love requires."
Is this universalism? It seems to me that it leaves open the possibility that universalism is true, but clearly Bell is not committing himself to universalism here, and is not pretending to. Frankly, I wish he had. So why are the pharisees after him? And why are they so upset at the mere possibility that no one is damned?
It is interesting that they claim scripture on their side. Let me leave aside the scriptural argument for the time being and instead ponder this: why do they WANT to believe in hell? Why are they people who would clearly be bitterly disappointed if it could be proven to them that scripture does not support a doctrine of eternal torture for some people?
Could it be that pride says there is no point in being one of the sheep if there are no goats?
WHAT HAVE I BEEN READING LATELY?
The book to your right here. Now this may sound odd
for a pornographer, but in some ways I seem to have a
highly Puritan temperment. For example, I have experienced for years nagging self-doubt about various personal failures, and live constantly with a sense of God's judgement and disapproval upon me. I bought this book hoping it would be a well needed antidote to my usual God-as-Judge approach.
for a pornographer, but in some ways I seem to have a
highly Puritan temperment. For example, I have experienced for years nagging self-doubt about various personal failures, and live constantly with a sense of God's judgement and disapproval upon me. I bought this book hoping it would be a well needed antidote to my usual God-as-Judge approach.
I have not been disappointed. And this is not a fatuous sermon that tells us that we are all perfect little doobies who don't need to change anything. Much of what Harris does here is to stress that Christ's sacrifice makes us alright with God.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Resistance is Futile
Did I ever post a pic of Jeri Ryan as 7 of 9 before? Well if I didn't, shame on me. Here she is. There are several versions of her suit, and I think this one is the hottest. Looks distinctly like she's got some kind of corset action going on under there. I like to think that thick seam running along the front of her left shoulder is actually a hidden zipper.
She looks mighty pleased with herself, and well she should be!
She looks mighty pleased with herself, and well she should be!
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