On missing church for three years

With the exception of Christmases and the occasional Easter and a couple of Messiahsings, I haven't attended a church service in about three years. 

For the first 21 years of my life, church filled me.  It consumed me.  I not only believed that the entire church message was true, I believed that it was worthwhile.  Part of this was because almost everyone I knew believed the same basic narrative - God created the earth, people were sinful, God experimented with a system of animal sacrifices to appease himself, and then became human to offer himself as a sacrifice.  But he didn't die.  He was resurrected after three days. 

If you believed that story, you would be "saved".  If not, you'd be tortured forever. 

I started having doubts about the story sometime during my college years.  After that, I briefly attended seminary.  I didn't get any answers, but learned quite a bit about church history, theology, and how to properly ask a theological question. 

Later on, I joined a "moderate" or "progressive" Baptist church.  Yeah, there are such things.

I don't believe the story any more.  Why?  Because it didn't happen.  It simply isn't true.     

Of the four ministers who have worked there in the last 25 years or so, I know that two of them don't believe in Hell, and I'm confident that the other two don't either.  It never came up in conversation. 

So why have all four of them stood up in front of their followers and danced around the issue?  I think there is some worthwhile stuff in the book we know as "Bible".  There's also a lot of tribal, harmful junk.  What is the purpose of listening to someone stand up and talk for 20 minutes when his obvious goal is to get through his speech without pissing off the old people?  (That sounds harsher than I mean it to be, but I don't know how else to say it.)

But dammit, I want there to be something worthwhile happening in a church.  I know Bible, hymns, parables, psalms, and theology.  I know that church people give more to the poor than any other segment of society.  I want to be a part of something like that. 

I have no idea where I'm going with this.  I've learned that the more honest and vocal I am about politics, people, life, morality and almost everything else, the more people confide that they share those opinions. 

So there you have it.  Jesus didn't walk on water.  Moses didn't part the Red Sea.  Helen Keller isn't in hell.  The idea of someone or something else being punished for your mistakes is repugnant to me, and I hope that it is to you. 

If you grew up a devout Baptist, this kicks the supports out from under your worldview.  What is the meaning of life, if earth isn't a proving ground to separate the sheep from the goats and the saved from the unsaved?

Hmmmm.....

Later on this afternoon The Aggie and I are going to drive down to Waco and hang out with some friends.  We're going to fill pumpkins with an explosive called Tannerite and then shoot them with with high-powered rifles.  It's going to be awesome. 

On the Sunday morning political talk shows

Here's a sampling of the Sunday morning political mess my TIVO is recording while I'm typing this, compliments of Hot Air:

NBC’s Meet the Press: David Axelrod, Obama campaign chief strategist; Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Rep. Peter King (R-NY); E.J. Dionne, Brookings and Washington Post; David Brooks, New York Times; Helene Cooper, New York Times; Chuck Todd, NBC

ABC’s This Week: Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME); Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX); Keith Olbermann; George Will, ABC; Donna Brazile, political strategist; Matthew Dowd, political strategist; Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal

CBS’ Face the Nation: Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT); Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX); Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD); Tom Comburn (R-OK); Norah O’Donnell, CBS; Stephanie Cutter, deputy Obama campaign manager; Eric Fehrnstrom, senior adviser to Romney campaign; Melinda Henneberger, Washington Post; Major Garrett, National Journal; John Dickerson, CBS; Cornel West, Princeton University; Tavis Smiley, talk show host

Fox News Sunday: Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT); Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN);

CNN’s State of the Union: David Axelrod, Obama campaign chief strategist; Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL); Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD); Dana Bash, CNN; Jeff Zeleny, New York Times

I watch this junk so you don't have to. 

I can sometimes predict what those folks are going to say long before they say it. 

Ughhhh. 

Believe it or not, Meet The Press usually includes David Brooks of the New York Holy Times because he's an economic conservative and will provide "balance". 

You might remember Brooks as the guy who called the ouster of Utah Republican Senator Bob Bennett "a damned outrage". 

Please note that the Court Eunuchs Of The ObamaMedia give Teleprompter Jesus programmer David Axelrod a slot on both CNN and Meet The Press. 

ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" is one of the most astounding examples of media bias you'll see this year.  Truly astounding. 

First of all, can you get drunk enough to imagine ABC airing a program called "This Week With Karl Rove"?  I can't either, but the two Stephanopoulos and Rove essentially had the same White House job.
George's guests this week include Susan Collins of Maine, one of only three Republicans to vote for Obama's Porkulus Bill. 
He's got Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, who once took to the podium in Congress to complain of the National Weather Service giving hurricanes nothing but "lilly white" names, and proposed giving hurricanes names like "Keisha, Jamal and Deshawn".  She has also described the Tea Party as racist. 
Keith Olbermann, so left-wing rabid and so afflicted with all the logical symptoms of that condition that even Al Gore won't give him any more money, is on board this morning. 
George Will is actually an interesting guy and is worth listening to.  Will came out in favor of weed legalization last week. 
Staphanopoulos has another Clinton Senior Advisor dropping in: Donna Brazile.
Matthew Dowd used to work for Texas Democrat Bob Bullock.  Then he worked for Texas Republican George W. Bush.  After that, he gained some notoriety by writing long pieces apologizing for the harm he did to Democrat John Kerry.  Matthew Dowd used to be a flip-flopper, but then he changed his mind. 
Rounding out the discussion with George is Reagan Speechwriter and Republican journalist Peggy Noonan.  Four years ago, Noonan endorsed Barack Obama.
Is anyone at ABC even pretending that they aren't in the tank for Obama and rank Statism of the worst sort????

Out of the entire unholy lot of Talking Heads broadcasting this Sunday morning, hosts and guests, Mitch Daniels is the only one of the bunch who comes within missile-launch distance of being a libertarian. 

Here's a modest proposal for the Fox Business channel, the closest thing we have to a libertarian-ish network (they cancelled Napolitano's show, but still air John Stossel).  It would be called "What The Hell Were You Thinking?"  Here's a sample lineup:

Fox Business "What The Hell Were You Thinking?"  John Jay Myers (Libertarian - TX); John Stossel, Fox Business; Gary Johnson (Libertarian - New Mexico); Nick Gillespie, Reason Magazine; David Axelrod, Obama campaign chief strategist;  Four libertarians strap David Axelrod into a chair and review the Obama record on the economy and civil liberties while asking "What the hell were you thinking?"  Next week's guest: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. 

I don't know about you, but I'd watch it. 

The media brainwashing picture came from here. 

A few Sunday links

Here's Sam Tanenhouse writing in The New York Times on The Perils Of Textbook Libertarianism. 

I don't always agree with our 2008 Libertarian Vice-Presidential candidate Wayne Allyn Root (although he is a fun person to drink beer with, and keeps his bathtub well-stocked).  But he NAILS it in this editorial for the Las-Vegas Review Journal. 

Here's Jeremy Lott, explaining why the minority faction of the Republicrat/Demoblican regime always tolerates the blatant gerrymandering that goes on every 10 years. 

You can go here to get tickets to hear His Holiness, The Dalai Lama, explain why he's a Marxist and not a Capitalist.  Ticket prices range from $21.50 to $360.00. 

Here's something interesting on the mainstream media's double standard on coverage of He Who Would Save Us From Our Sins.