I've got a Revelation for you [a rant with foootnotes]

[pat]

[First, go read this speech by Bill Moyers, here.]

Hey, you, I'm talking to you.

That's right, you with the Left Behind books and the pro-Zionist agenda and the "End of the World is Near" signs. You.

Have you ever thought of, ever considered, that maybe, just maybe, you should actually read that Good Book of ours? (I say ours as a fellow believer in Jesus Christ, although not in that crap you're professing.) Rather than having someone tell you what's there? All of it, not just a few pages at the end and selected verses from Genesis, Leviticus, and Romans chosen to bolster your own prejudices. ALL OF IT.

You might find some pretty amazing things in there. Like Jesus saying "Keep awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour." ¹ Get that? No one knows when the Day of Judgment is at hand. Not you, not Tim La Haye, not Jerry Falwell. It could be tomorrow, it could be ten years from now, it could be 200, or 2,000 or 20,000 years from now. No one knows. Even assuming that the Revelation to John could be read as some sort of road map to Armageddon (and many if not most intelligent Christians I know don't think it can) it means nothing. Similar things have happened in the past, and similar fervent believers have held the last days were at hand, yet here we are. We may one day see clearly, as Paul says, but right now we see only as through a glass darkly.²

Or try this on for size: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, Says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts." ³ So you think you know what God is going to do? You think that by facilitating global destruction and unrest that you can hasten the coming end of days? What damned (and I mean that quite literally) presumption.

Remember what God said? How he gave us dominion over creation, to be good stewards?⁴ Sorry, Bub, but raping and pillaging the environment is not good stewardship. Trashing the planet to benefit the few (elect as you may see them, greedy as I do) while so many people suffer from poverty, despair, and hunger is the antithesis of what that man you claim to view as your Savior preached. Jesus came to give sight to the blind and release to the captive⁵ (and food to the hungry --- or have you forgotten that little loaves and fishes incident?⁶) not to help people who arguably already have too much in their lives get more. And I don't know about you, but I sure would not want to stand before my Maker and say, "Well, I thought it was okay to turn your garden of creation into a midden, and leave not just my children and grandchildren but all of yours a world ravaged by my excesses, because I thought you'd be coming by soon and lifting me up."

And finally, you might just want to consider what the prophet Micah (who, it is a sure bet, had God's word in his mouth more than you do) said: "And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?" <sup>7



1</sup> Matthew 25:13
² 1 Corinthians 13:12
³ Isaiah 55:9
⁴ Genesis 1:27-30
⁵ Luke 14:18-22
⁶ John 6:1-14
⁷ Micah 6:8

Comments

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

*applause* I'd marry you, except that wouldn't work given both of our previous commitments. :-D That was wonderfully eloquent.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

We're not even geographically compatible, soo we can't even hang oout and have coffee : (

[hopeforyou.livejournal.com]

*applauds*

Brava.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

As Real Live Preacher once put it: Sit down CHRIStian. Give me that bible you’re waving before you hurt yourself. I’m going to resist the temptation to snatch it from your hands and beat you with it. I am your worst nightmare, a Texas preacher who knows The Book better than you do.

You cannot wave your unread bible and scare me. I know its larger story and I will tear you a new biblical asshole. (http://blogs.salon.com/0001772/stories/2003/02/18/iHaveNoTitleForThis.html)

Have at 'em Pat. You're in good company.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

I love RLP. He's wonderful.

I keep hoping that someday I will be faced with a fundie who proclaims that women should be in the home, weak and helpless, so I can jump up and down on them with Proverbs 31. Hasn't happened yet, though.

[griffen.livejournal.com]

You so rock, madame. *bows* Thank you for writing this.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. : )

[deedeebythebay.livejournal.com]

AMEN. That is all that needs to be said.

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

you know, if there were more christians like you in the world, i'd consider converting. but right now, i can't. i'm too spiteful of those fuckers.

personally, i think jesus would be absolutely *apalled* by the whatnot that's been going on in His name.

and i heard, you DON'T want to get Him mad....

n.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

It's a shame that the name of Christ has been hijacked by the sort of people he kept denouncing.

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed.

[calebbullen.livejournal.com]

Nice!

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

That was on my politics filter, so it's only visible to those of my friends on that filter. Might be handy just to copy and paste it for yourself.

As far as the rest? Richard Pombo, the Assemblyguy from Tracy, says that we're wasting what God has given us if we don't harvest the timber and run the cattle and harvest the land until we've used it up.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Thanks -- I've changed it to link directly to the story.

Also, while I have hear Pombo's position espoused by others (most notably James Watt), it's not supported by the text. Yes, Genesis has God giving humans every plant for food (although, interestingly enough, not animals -- the requirement of vegetarianism was relaxed with Noah) and saying that people were to be have dominion over the natural world, but to take that and make it an argument for destroying nature is rather akin to saying that the proverb "Spare the rod and spoil the child" requires one to beat the child until senseless or even dead. In other places in the OT, such as Isaiah, there are clear indications that man's dominion should be benevolent. The Bible as a whole calls for responsiblity to the world and to posterity, ranging from requirements that every seventh year fields should lay fallow to language that glorifies the natural world as being God's creation.

I think it sad that people like Pumbo are clear examples of another Biblical admonition: the sins of the fathers shall be visited upon the children, even unto the third generation. (This passage is descriptive, rather than prescriptive: it does not mean that children should be punished for the misdeeds of their parents, but that our actions have consequences which flow to our children. As the grandchild of an alcoholic, I can attest that that can occur.) The generations after us will be dealing with the results of our sins against God and nature for a long time.

[sergeant3.livejournal.com]

Tell it to em!

I don't know who you are or what the hell you stand for

[killslowly.livejournal.com]

But I friend linked your posting and I loved it.

This is the Xtianity I like. The one in the new testament. The one about loving thy neighbor and being humble and a servant to God.

Thank you very much for a nice written piece that put a smile on my face.

Jerry

Re: I don't know who you are or what the hell you stand for

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked it. As far as what I stand for... I am that seemingly mythical beast, the liberal Christian. (And actually, taken as a whole and in context, the Old Testament is not what the fundies claim it is.) There are more of us out there than you might know from reading the media.