ZeeGeezer

Why does the Rev. Phelps do it?

I don't understand. The Westboro Baptist Church claims to adhere strictly to the tenets of Calvinism, in particular to the 5 principles of TULIP: mankind is in a condition of depravity because of the original Fall; God chooses who will be saved; those whom God chooses to be saved cannot resist their salvation.

So I take it that, if you are a sinner, then God has chosen not to save you. Or not chosen you yet (but see below--God doesn't operate in real time). If and when God does choose you to be saved, then you will, whether you want to or not, cease to be a sinner. And there's nothing that you or anybody else can do about that.

So what does the Reverend Phelps and his flock think they are accomplishing by picketing funerals? Do they want us to change our ways? Why should they? Our behavior just shows that we haven't been chosen to be saved. And there is nothing that either we or they can do about that. They can't bring any sinners to redemption; only God can do that. So what is the point? Why spew hatred on us? You would have thought that they, as the chosen ones, would have pity and compassion for the rest of us sinners who are condemned to eternal damnation. And condemned, not because of anything we did or didn't do. No we are condemned just because God didn't choose us.

And there's nothing I can do to change God's mind. Because God has known from the beginning of time that he wasn't going to choose me. Makes you wonder why God bothered to create me in the first place. Guess he just decided to be mean to me.

Picked last for 5th grade baseball; picked last for eternity. Pretty much sucks, eh?

The pie plant that grows in the spring

There is this weird peculiarity in American cook-speak, in the culinary lexicon. For some reason that I can't fathom, meat is "roast", but vegetables are "roasted". Roast beef with roasted potatoes. Odd.

For Easter fertility-god-rebirth dinner I bought [bought, Ack!] rhubarb. Made a quite delicious rhubarb crisp with old-fashioned English custard sauce. Preceded with pan-roast chicken breast, potatoes au gratin and wonderful baby green beans.

And it suddenly occurs to me that rhubarb is nicely representative of the rebirth of the resurrection god. Osiris, Dionysus, Adonis, Baldur, Jesus, etc. It dies away every winter (in a quite nasty, rotting way, too) and without fail returns every spring, sending up it's phallic red stems to welcome the return of warmth and life to the soil.

And I suppose that's one of the reasons I am so uncomfortable with the thought of buying rhubarb. It just seems wrong.

But it was on special.

So is Gravity a Mosaic Law?

Speaking of God, this dialogue between God and Moses is brilliiant.

Thanks, Andy.

Way to Make Me Feel Ignorant

So Library Thing has published its list of the "50 top-rated authors". Aack! There's only one there that I've even heard of. A cookbook writer.

Oh and God is in there. Another one I've heard of. Yes, that God. The one who wrote the Bible. Also known, apparently, as "The Lord God Almighty". Would that be a double-barrelled surname? But it would seem that God didn't write the Book of Mormon or the Koran. Nobody wrote those. Well, some people think Anonymous wrote the Koran.

Unfortunately for God, he she umm comes in at no. 40 of the top 50. No Booker Prize in store for him her umm I guess. Mind you, it could be worse. God could be in the "50 lowest-rated authors", along with Immanuel Kant.

A question

Here's what I really don't understand. How is it that millions of people who profess to be Christians, who claim that the Bible is literally the word of God, who presumably believe that Christ's teachings should guide their personal lives and their interactions with others, can possibly ally themselves with the ideology of power and greed and fear advanced by the Republican party? That's what I don't understand.

Jimmy Swaggart Gets an F in Theology

Jimmy Swaggart says he's going to kill gay guys and lie to God about it. Or at least guys who look at him funny. Hmmm. Do the words omniscient and omnipresent not mean anything to Jimmy? Guess he didn't do too well in his theology courses. If I believed in God I might almost be offended by the man's ignorance. via Greg and Pete .