Disrespectful Christian Children

Today I read a post from someone on Facebook, whose son, a Christian of the born-again variety, didn't like her Tarot cards. The cards disappeared, and my Facebook friend was unable to find them, and this morning her son finally told her that he tore them up and threw them out, on an isolated country road near their home. She's really disgusted with his behavior, and I don't blame her. I've met Christians in the past who destroy property.....the more superstitious ones often burn books on matters occult and throw any jewelry that reminds them of a pentacle away. In extreme cases, occultists or suspected occultists have been assaulted and murdered, and homes and buildings have been set on fire or otherwise destroyed.

Why would an adult young man bear his mother such disrespect? This is something else about Christians that I have never understood. Just what is it, about another person's differences, that frightens them so badly? And what is it about respect for other religions that is so difficult? Especially when we are dealing with born again types whose parents are not Christian? And why is it so easy for some of these born-again congregations to encourage children to disrespect their parents? First, to condescend to a parishioner's parents while cheering on the parishioner to do the same, followed by destruction of property, in this case, the Tarot cards. Another word for the latter is theft, but apparently "thou shalt not steal" goes out the window with "honor they father and thy mother" when keeping the ten commandments requires empathy and manners. Feel free to believe me when I state that the Christian "God's" permission to his faithful to exclude yours truly from the respect he insists must be granted other elders and parents is enraging, and does not foster any family atmosphere or relationship.

If any of my sons had destroyed a deck of my cards, or any other tool connected to the Craft or matters occult, I would probably film myself ceremoniously burning the culprit's bible and put it on YouTube. That said, I suppose it is a good thing it was only the Tarot cards that were destroyed and discarded on an isolated rural road. Born-agains do some strange things.

Christian Bullies And Those Who Support Them

Because of a couple of posts I recently made about a man named Hugh Cranford, a recently renowned and notorius liturgical personality in the Lutheran community in Kansas, I have received volumes of backlash about my protest of sexual abuse of minors within the Christian community as a whole. To those of you who wish to enable abusers, I do not retract any of my statements. The Christian Church has become a haven and an excuse for the coverup of the misdeeds of those who have the charisma and material resources required to sway public opinion within their dirty little institutions, or....churches, toward agreement with themselves and their bullying.

This is a rather long post about someone who got bullied a few months ago in Oregon by her former church. It is also a post about me, and my reaction to a church that bullied me. Here it is:

Born Again Jesus Needs To Worry About Bad Reviews

Some loony, toony born again church in Beaverton, Oregon , I think it's called Grace Bible Church, has filed suit in civil court against a former parishoner because she said bad stuff about them online! First, she gave them a bad review, in much the same way one would give a resturant or a hotel a bad review, but zealous church folk, no doubt doing the lord's work, either had the reviews removed, or posted good stuff to cancel out the bad reviews. Then, the former parishoner started her own blog in order to say bad stuff withut harassment. That's when the loony, toony born-agains decided that Jesus would certainly take a woman to court, rather than endure any public disagreement. That's also when CNN picked up the story.

I looked at the blog in question, and did not find anything that I would expect to moot court, so it will not surprise me if this frivelous lawsuit on behalf of Jesus gets dismissed. It's just a person who disagrees with a bunch of people who seem really whacked. And, the last time I checked, it was okay to go online and disagree with people who are not really whacked, as well as people who are. The blogger did not accuse the loony, toony minister of committing a crime, and he has not incurred a financial loss as a result of her comments. A church is a non-profit organization, anyway, so I do not know how a financial loss would be explained in court.......unless the born-agains want to start paying taxes on their non-profit, tax exempt, loony, toony born-again church. So..........where's the reason to sue? I'm simply not seeing it. Unless all born-agains are a bunch of crybabies, which has been my distinct and unpleasant experience.

Once upon a time, when I lived in what used to be a very small town called Damascus, Maryland, a bunch of loony-toony born-agains moved in nearby. They called themselves Damascus Christian Community, and were headed by a dude named Bill Woodrow, who had not actually gone to "pastor school", but had experienced a failed career as a teacher for deaf children. His comments about deaf children were hideous; he said that they were "stupid", and only as smart as "undomesticated animals". I can see why he did not succeed as a teacher. His sidekick was a creep named Mike Albro. Mike Albro's career was in broadcast journalism, I do not know what he thinks he knows about the bible, since he did not attend "pastor school", either. But okay.........people can do what they wish. What I hold against these people is the way they went door to door during election years and during gubernatorial elections pressuring the rest of us to only vote republican. It was also a bit shocking to hear about the death of a friend's father, and to also hear that Bill Woodrow had pressured her to go on a singles' retreat with the church while he died, instead of spending that time with her father and the rest of her family. This person was also thrown out of church for refusing to host a spaghetti dinner, asking if chili would be acceptable, instead. The fact that she would wish to serve something other than what church leadership wished was, according to Pastor Woodrow, a sign that she was a reprobate. The truth is, she suffers from celiac disease, and cannot eat anything containing wheat, such as pasta. Pastor Woodrow and Pastor Mike Albro wanted her to know that the only reason for a person to have celiac disease is a lack of spiritual faith, and that such a person is someone who "God" "detests". (Bill Woodrow's verbatim, over celiac disease) Alcoholics were generally told the same thing.....no one in Damascus Christian Community was allowed to go to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. This certainly marked the Bill Woodrow/Mike Albro bunch as very strange and very nasty. The community eventually took steps to stop them from harassing the neighborhood where their church was located. This is definately one of the dark sides of Christianity, and this church was very cultlike.

Damascus Christian Community eventually fizzled out. Some of the born-again loony-toonies in question have not changed much, and Mike Albro moved on, taking his ministerial expertise to the Rescue Mission in Frederick, Maryland, and everyone who was unhappily exposed to Damascus Christian Community either ignored them, excluded them, or got peace orders against them. To this day, I don't think anyone would feel that Damascus Christian Community is worthy of the dedication and time of a whole blog. They are all just silly-assed lunatics. Nothing else. That's why I really think the woman who started the blog about Grace Bible Church in Beaverton, Oregon should just ignore her former church and live however she wants to live. She was upset because the nice brainwashed people at church were told by their pastor to stop speaking to her, and not even say "hi" to her in the grocery store. Well; Damascus Christian Community did things like that, too, but at the time, Damascus was a very tiny town, and Pastor Woodrow was new there. He did not understand that when people have known each other for years, it is hard to make them stop talking to each other. He howled and cried and screamed at people who spoke to "evil" folks, like yours truly, but was never able to make Jesus completely happy forcing his parishoners to only talk to certain people.(Haha....I refused to stop being friends with the people Pastor Woodrow tried so hard to brainwash!) The lady in Oregon really shouldn't worry about it. This is a brainwashing/isolation tactic.

Inasmuch as blogging or public information goes, there is nothing anyone can say about Pastor Bill Woodrow that is worse than his history in civil court, which is public information. He has been sued at least twenty-five times in Maryland, not counting Natural Resources infractions, for everything from unpaid credit card debt to failing to pay federal or state taxes. In fact, he needed to be "reminded" at least five or six different years to pay his taxes. Didn't Jesus pull money from the mouths of the fish he caught so he could pay taxes? If this did not work for Pastor Woodrow, maybe he lacks faith. Anyway, there's no need to dedicate a blog to him, as anyone who really has questions about that church or it's Jesus can just do some digging and find information that is pure fact, not tinged with opinion. There's no doubt in my mind that the same will one day go for Grace Bible Church, eventually, if not already. Just give them time.