another lying p.o.s. preacher
For the last year or so, the world has seen a growing fleet of atheist advertising: the bus ads, billboards, etc. There is not a single such ad that has been attacking or hateful. They’ve been positive affirmations that those who don’t believe in a god or gods are not alone, and are free to live their lives.
And yet certain Christian factions have been consistently whining about “the atheist threat” and “atheists are attacking our way of life” and all sorts of other messages of victimhood.
These atheist ads don’t even mention any specific religion, yet many Christians believe it is only about them and they take it highly personally.
This:
“Jesus died and rose and lives for you.”
is a merely affirmative message of belief. It is a lie on its face, of course, but many people believe it. I don’t care one way or another, because even though it is not a true statement, the mythic message simply comforts superstitious people the way a shot of whiskey comforts a drunk. If I saw that message on a church sign or even a billboard, I would merely laugh at the childish folly of silly superstition and not give it much thought.
But this:
“Jesus died and rose and lives for you. What did Allah do.”
is NOT ‘just’ an affirming message relevant to Christian superstition. It is a blatant and direct aggressive challenge to Muslims. While whining about being attacked when there is no attack, Christians apparently have no reservations about initiating an obvious attack on others. Rather hypocritical.
Sounds far-fetched, but it’s not. From the Bible Baptist Church:
Pastor Bob Parker told the Tribune-Star of Terre Haute the sign wasn’t meant to be derogatory toward Islam. He says its message simply meant that “the founder of Christianity still lives.”
No. It is not “simply” a statement of belief that Jesus lives. It is a statement of belief that Jesus lived, and did something, and continues to live … and that Allah hasn’t done diddly-squat. How does Parker NOT grasp that this is a clear nose-thumbing at Muslims? Bob Parker is a lying piece of shit. If he’s not lying, but truly believes the sign on his church is completely innocent, he is too stupid to be leading a congregation of people who have entrusted their spiritual care into his hands. But really, he’s not that stupid. He’s just another Christian who doesn’t understand the meaning (or application) of the term “boundaries”.
And then there’s the whole “Thou shalt not lie” thing. But who cares, obviously?
November 20th, 2009 at 10:21 pmHe says its message simply meant that “the founder of Christianity still lives.”
That message would have been effectively conveyed by the first sentence alone. If that was really the intended message, then there would have been no need for the second sentence at all. The inclusion of the second sentence is strong evidence that either (1) Parker is being dishonest about the intended message or (2) he’s a completely incompetent communicator. Given that his chosen vocation requires excellent communication skills in order to be effective, I’m terribly skeptical that possibility #2 would ever be likely.
Of course, I’m also amused that any Christian church would couch religion in terms of “what God does for you.” Given the fact that most Christians tend to criticize other religions (especially NeoPagan and New Age religions) for being nothing more than an attempt to serve one’s own selfish desires, that sign should’ve overloaded every hypocrisy detector in a 1,000 mile radius.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:30 pmIt’s also a very stupid message since Allah is just arabic for god.
November 21st, 2009 at 1:27 pmOf course it’s aggressive. It’s the ultimate Christian pissing contest: “My god’s better than your god!”
Classy, huh? I am not impressed.
November 21st, 2009 at 1:58 pm