Not a lot of whoopy- Just Straight Talk
Greetings to people reading this blog. You know if you've read my other meterial you may say to yourselves "You've expressed a lot of oppinions about Christianity but you haven't shed much light with your own relation with the Lord". Well I'd like to talk about that a little in this segment. There is a lot of misconception in the realm of the Christian Right as far as the media sees it. People say, "What we need is more religion today". Dennis Prager says that. He says religion for religion's sake is good for the moral fabric of America. And yet Dennis believes in legalized prostitution and abortion. Apparently some republican politicians have secretly done things which increased or supported the repression of the people in China, including forced abortions. Well back in the fall of 1977 I wanted to engage in some "Straight talk" with a certain pastor because I felt a wall was going up between us. If I see a comunacation problem I take steps to proactively solve it, and if it doesn't work, then I have my answer. I don't know who came up with the phrase "Straight Talk" first, myself or Gene Scott. Let's do a little "straight talk". There's a guy calling himself Jesus on the radio here in LA Sunday mornings that is doing incredible damage to Christianity. If you hated Christians and wanted to see them "vanish and shrink" as Lennon talked about, you would continue for this man to stay on the air. Then you have the Calvary Chapels. I wrote a book in the summer of 1980. You didn't imagine that. I spent two thousand dollars of my own money, which is money I could have used for other things in the future. Oddly the book was criticized for "Not being loving enough". I saw it as my duty to preach the Bible. It was a prophecy book and it got praise from both Christians and non Christians, and it was also criticized by both Christians and non Christians. I remember one Christian commented on the book, "It just isn't the way Chuck Smith would do it". I realized right then that Christianity was a religion of personalities and not ideas. I tried to to a prophecy book of "Chuck Smith Light" and it didn't work. People at the Calvary Chappels are famous for not giving any aid to a person undertaking an economic venture. Their philosophy is, "If the Lord is in it, it will succeed". They say that about so many things. Of course Chuck Smith and his Calvary minions are kind of like the Kentucky Fried Chicken of Christianity, with their unique blend of eleven herbs and spices. Someone learns to tell instantly whether it's a Calvary Chappel or a Calvary wanna-be. Gene Scott has stated that "Some fundamentalists are like a bunch of people with the same peculiarity supporting each other". Gene Scott has also said, "Christianity is just doing the same business on the other side of the street". Someone like Raul Ruis is so angry now. I can't listen to him. As a gang member they say he used to beat up people just for the fun of it. You hear that same redirected agression in his voice now. Are you getting a glimps of the way things are yet?
When I was a Christian I in philosophy debates defended the notion that there was the possability of a "Last Judgement" by some diety. I was ridiculed by the teacher. This teacher also downgraded a test because in an essay question I said that Maoism was a religion but Confucionism was not. He didn't like that. I used to state I was a Christian if asked. Only a few times did my gut tell me to keep quiet and things would go better for me. -and they did. I ran into a lot of friction from being known as a Christian. Friction I wouldn't have had otherwise. But one of the most illustritive incidents in my life occurred on Mother's Day 1994. I won't give you all the detales but the conversation was a real eye opener. This same pastor I just referred to was under attack because of something he did for which he got opposition. I happened to think the Pastor was right and loudly said so. I felt as if the group were ganging up on me and saying stuff they didn't even mean just to be against me and this pastor I was defending. Just a few months later this Pastor (no good deed goes unpunished) turned against me because of a letter I wrote where I said I felt "God" had lied to me about something. Don't ask me to explain that. Also in the year 1994 around September I read a book on the Shroud of Turen that stated after scientifically examining the cloth they conflused the pattern of the blood stains could only be made by a person who was still alive and not dead. It doesn't stop there. The Catholic Church didn't like that. So what they did was rig the carbon 14 tests in order to show that the genuine Shroud was in fact a phoney. The Catholics would rather say it's a phoney than admit that Jesus did not die on the cross.
I still stayed a Christian after this, but heard a searies of really bad sermons- - this time from a different church. Also I began going to a third church because there was a woman I liked who had two snall girls (girls are better than boys because if they don't look like you when you get married you can say it's because they're girls) and this woman showed every indication of being attracted to me. However is there was a small glitch. By this time I had another friend, a friend in a bottle. I would go out regularly in the evenings to the liquor and buy a two or three 22 oz. bottles of Mickeys. The woman had just left her husband because she was on drugs. Had I prayed and turned to God with my whole heart perhaps I could have found the will to give up the booze for her so she wouldn't have doubts about me. But then she finally moved out of the building, and all the women I knew moved out of the building. By 1997 I was thinking about this, and I got depressed. A number of new events came along in the first half of 1997. By now I had openly turned my back on Christianity so I knew I didn't have a right to pray. Some might say, "The Lord had turned me over to Satan that I might see the error of my ways", or something. It didn't work like that and I continued to drink more and more and by early 1999 lots of people knew that I had a problem. I'm not really at "War" with God. But you've read the abbridged version of everything that let up by no "No more Jesus" decision in 1996.
Some Christians wring their hands and moan, "Look at all the gay programming on television these days. Even That Seventies Show had gays in it last night. What's this world coming to?" It bothers me too. All I know is that the Devil is in the drivers seat and sometimes so they don't go nuts Christians just say "Thy Will Be Done". I don't believe "God" deserves a choice in some metters. I believe the issues are too clear. This is the lazyest Republican Congress we have had in the past sixty years. What are you going to do? Ignore it?
I didn't see the Lakers last night but I'm told they lost to the Suns in overtime. That does not make me happy. I couldn't even find the Lakers on the radio.
There is continued good news on the medical front because it seems that every day they are coming up with some new break-through. I kind of feel for the young people these days because they're having to grow up in a world full of old people. When my generation was young, they were the center of the world. Now that we are getting older, we are still the center of the advertizer's bid for dollars on the media.
Greetings to people reading this blog. You know if you've read my other meterial you may say to yourselves "You've expressed a lot of oppinions about Christianity but you haven't shed much light with your own relation with the Lord". Well I'd like to talk about that a little in this segment. There is a lot of misconception in the realm of the Christian Right as far as the media sees it. People say, "What we need is more religion today". Dennis Prager says that. He says religion for religion's sake is good for the moral fabric of America. And yet Dennis believes in legalized prostitution and abortion. Apparently some republican politicians have secretly done things which increased or supported the repression of the people in China, including forced abortions. Well back in the fall of 1977 I wanted to engage in some "Straight talk" with a certain pastor because I felt a wall was going up between us. If I see a comunacation problem I take steps to proactively solve it, and if it doesn't work, then I have my answer. I don't know who came up with the phrase "Straight Talk" first, myself or Gene Scott. Let's do a little "straight talk". There's a guy calling himself Jesus on the radio here in LA Sunday mornings that is doing incredible damage to Christianity. If you hated Christians and wanted to see them "vanish and shrink" as Lennon talked about, you would continue for this man to stay on the air. Then you have the Calvary Chapels. I wrote a book in the summer of 1980. You didn't imagine that. I spent two thousand dollars of my own money, which is money I could have used for other things in the future. Oddly the book was criticized for "Not being loving enough". I saw it as my duty to preach the Bible. It was a prophecy book and it got praise from both Christians and non Christians, and it was also criticized by both Christians and non Christians. I remember one Christian commented on the book, "It just isn't the way Chuck Smith would do it". I realized right then that Christianity was a religion of personalities and not ideas. I tried to to a prophecy book of "Chuck Smith Light" and it didn't work. People at the Calvary Chappels are famous for not giving any aid to a person undertaking an economic venture. Their philosophy is, "If the Lord is in it, it will succeed". They say that about so many things. Of course Chuck Smith and his Calvary minions are kind of like the Kentucky Fried Chicken of Christianity, with their unique blend of eleven herbs and spices. Someone learns to tell instantly whether it's a Calvary Chappel or a Calvary wanna-be. Gene Scott has stated that "Some fundamentalists are like a bunch of people with the same peculiarity supporting each other". Gene Scott has also said, "Christianity is just doing the same business on the other side of the street". Someone like Raul Ruis is so angry now. I can't listen to him. As a gang member they say he used to beat up people just for the fun of it. You hear that same redirected agression in his voice now. Are you getting a glimps of the way things are yet?
When I was a Christian I in philosophy debates defended the notion that there was the possability of a "Last Judgement" by some diety. I was ridiculed by the teacher. This teacher also downgraded a test because in an essay question I said that Maoism was a religion but Confucionism was not. He didn't like that. I used to state I was a Christian if asked. Only a few times did my gut tell me to keep quiet and things would go better for me. -and they did. I ran into a lot of friction from being known as a Christian. Friction I wouldn't have had otherwise. But one of the most illustritive incidents in my life occurred on Mother's Day 1994. I won't give you all the detales but the conversation was a real eye opener. This same pastor I just referred to was under attack because of something he did for which he got opposition. I happened to think the Pastor was right and loudly said so. I felt as if the group were ganging up on me and saying stuff they didn't even mean just to be against me and this pastor I was defending. Just a few months later this Pastor (no good deed goes unpunished) turned against me because of a letter I wrote where I said I felt "God" had lied to me about something. Don't ask me to explain that. Also in the year 1994 around September I read a book on the Shroud of Turen that stated after scientifically examining the cloth they conflused the pattern of the blood stains could only be made by a person who was still alive and not dead. It doesn't stop there. The Catholic Church didn't like that. So what they did was rig the carbon 14 tests in order to show that the genuine Shroud was in fact a phoney. The Catholics would rather say it's a phoney than admit that Jesus did not die on the cross.
I still stayed a Christian after this, but heard a searies of really bad sermons- - this time from a different church. Also I began going to a third church because there was a woman I liked who had two snall girls (girls are better than boys because if they don't look like you when you get married you can say it's because they're girls) and this woman showed every indication of being attracted to me. However is there was a small glitch. By this time I had another friend, a friend in a bottle. I would go out regularly in the evenings to the liquor and buy a two or three 22 oz. bottles of Mickeys. The woman had just left her husband because she was on drugs. Had I prayed and turned to God with my whole heart perhaps I could have found the will to give up the booze for her so she wouldn't have doubts about me. But then she finally moved out of the building, and all the women I knew moved out of the building. By 1997 I was thinking about this, and I got depressed. A number of new events came along in the first half of 1997. By now I had openly turned my back on Christianity so I knew I didn't have a right to pray. Some might say, "The Lord had turned me over to Satan that I might see the error of my ways", or something. It didn't work like that and I continued to drink more and more and by early 1999 lots of people knew that I had a problem. I'm not really at "War" with God. But you've read the abbridged version of everything that let up by no "No more Jesus" decision in 1996.
Some Christians wring their hands and moan, "Look at all the gay programming on television these days. Even That Seventies Show had gays in it last night. What's this world coming to?" It bothers me too. All I know is that the Devil is in the drivers seat and sometimes so they don't go nuts Christians just say "Thy Will Be Done". I don't believe "God" deserves a choice in some metters. I believe the issues are too clear. This is the lazyest Republican Congress we have had in the past sixty years. What are you going to do? Ignore it?
I didn't see the Lakers last night but I'm told they lost to the Suns in overtime. That does not make me happy. I couldn't even find the Lakers on the radio.
There is continued good news on the medical front because it seems that every day they are coming up with some new break-through. I kind of feel for the young people these days because they're having to grow up in a world full of old people. When my generation was young, they were the center of the world. Now that we are getting older, we are still the center of the advertizer's bid for dollars on the media.
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