A doctrine of alienation

[TheRocketSurgeon]

I don't really like strip clubs. I don't judge those who work there, nor pity them, except for those who took on that career out of the desperation of poverty (but then, what job can't be described that way?) or who are drug addicts getting sucked deeper into that world. The reason I don't like them is I see them for what they are: we have made sex and especially female nudity a taboo thing, in this Christian-influenced culture, and as such it produces a tantalizing effect on those who see it as the untouchable thing just out of reach. Me, I don't see the subject as taboo, and I don't get excited by women I am not actually intimate with; also, I see the women in the job as they really are, I know a few women who do that job, I've listened to what they told me, and so I don't fall for the fantasy. Therefore it is not a "temptation" to me.

Perhaps it is the fact that I don't see it as a "sin" that makes it neither appealing nor a threat to me. Likewise, the only thing about Christianity that bothers me is the threat that it represents to me, both in terms of attempts to legislate their beliefs into law and/or a position of dominance (see e.g. 1954, with the Pledge and the Motto, or the National Day of Prayer ceremonies), and in terms of their "doctrine of alienation", in which they teach their followers to turn off their brains to any outside influence (cult, much?) and to separate from anyone, even family and loved ones, who might tell them they're in that cult religion for poor reasons.

[Neo-Scholastic]

How does something like revelations square away with your attempts to avoid violent entertainment for fear of becoming callous or jaded, btw?  

Nit-pick, it's Revelation (singluar), not Revelations (plural). 1) There is a difference between the glorification of senseless violence and the actions of justice. 2) The end result of the Apocalypse starts in Chapter 21, with the birth of a new heaven and a new earth in which He will wipe the tears from our eyes and there will be no more mourning or death for those things will have passed away. It is a book of hope and joy.

[The Grand Nudger]

A book of joy and hope.....filled with violence and degradation.  Sounds like a war movie, or a mob movie... Personally, I see no justice there, I see glorification of senseless acts of violence - even more..deification of senseless acts of violence (and not just there, throughout the entirety of the OT and NT).

Mind you, I love stories, I think that the biblical narrative would be utter garbage if it weren;t for all the blood and gore and sex, all the boot stomping, popcorn munching human drama...............I don't begrudge it that device, lol. I just wonder what it is that twists your panties when Dolph Lundgren strings villagers ears together, but somehow when David makes a belt of phillistine foreskin.....it's different, why one is to be avoided and the other is the exact opposite, to be poured over and studied and reread to no end - that one is unacceptable -even as entertainment-...while the other forms the foundational fabric of an acceptable religion. Seems like you're making special exceptions for a pet narrative. Seems hypocritical, even sanctimonious.....to me.

No one will be wiping any tears from my eyes, btw. I'll be crushed beneath the cruel boot of King Jesus and/or left to whither being tormented by the denziens of hell...or failing all of that - shuffled off into eternal solitary confinement.... all "justice" for the "crime" of not bending the knee and daring to be so uppity as to not believe that there's any -actual- justice (let alone hope or joy) in that narrative. This is something that wouldn't change if I saw the heavenly host descend and the narrative begin to unfold in the real world. That would only serve to calcify my opinion completely.

I'm not part of your in-group, or hadn't you heard?

[Neo-Scholastic]

No one will be wiping any tears from my eyes, btw.  I'll be crushed beneath the cruel boot of King Jesus and/or left to whither being tormented by the denziens of hell...or failing all of that - shuffled off into eternal solitary confinement....

Neither. You will be left outside the walls of the New Jerusalem with the rest of your kind.

[TheRocketSurgeon]

Neither. You will be left outside the walls of the New Jerusalem with the rest of your kind.

Sweet!

Announcement to the rest of youz guyz: I'll be throwing an eternal infidels party at the South Gate, with these guys.

[The Grand Nudger]

Neither. You will be left outside the walls of the New Jerusalem with the rest of your kind.

Oh...I see... "Hope and Joy"..Hallellujah!...lol?  Outside those walls....anything I ought to know before that happens....or is it gonna be another one of my thursdays?

In any case...regarding strings of ears and foreskins.....and which is to be avoided whilst the other worshipped, and why..again? I seem to have missed any actual discussion on that count.

[Mystical]

Seems your brother has traded one vice for another.  Sucks, but that's how the SA makes their nut.  Who dropped him off with those ghouls in the first place, or did he just float down the drain into their clutches?

My brother has been reliant upon living with one family member or another since he turned 18. He dropped out of diesel mechanic school merely months away from completion. Hasn't been able to hold jobs down for the same reason he quit school; he rage quits. Once his truck got repossessed he resorted to buying beer for underage kids where he lived and doing acid. My uncle gave him a second, third try (being unabl to afford mortgage on his own for each of those times), but he ended up just sleeping away his troubles till he ended up on the street. My mom and step mom got him in there, which is a feat considering Colorados overpopulation issues. My step mom used to work with the people there as a drug counselor. I don't quite expect my brother to do anything to improve from here--but maybe, maybe he will. I know it sounds pessimistic but I've spent years hoping and praying for my father. Without medical intervention they just keep goin down the drain despite my offers of support and resolution. To my father the only way I could help him in his eyes was to live in his fantasy world which I literally could no longer do with sound conscience for his and others well being.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

No one will be wiping any tears from my eyes, btw.  I'll be crushed beneath the cruel boot of King Jesus and/or left to whither being tormented by the denziens of hell...or failing all of that - shuffled off into eternal solitary confinement....

Neither. You will be left outside the walls of the New Jerusalem with the rest of your kind.

Unless you are a Jew how do you expect to get in when there's no gate for you to enter the golden cube called New Jerusalem?  Hint:  the name means that it's only for Jews.    So if you're a Gentile it's the lake of fire for you.

[Mystical]

[Mystical]

Neither. You will be left outside the walls of the New Jerusalem with the rest of your kind.

Oh...I see... "Hope and Joy"..Hallellujah!...lol?  Outside those walls....anything I ought to know before that happens....or is it gonna be another one of my thursdays?

In any case...regarding strings of ears and foreskins.....and which is to be avoided whilst the other worshipped, and why..again?  I seem to have missed any actual discussion on that count.

Not surprisingly, Chad doesn't want to talk about foreskin necklaces, Rhythm. Might stick with the strippers instead, at least they know what a Gstring is.