tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375512083268389933.post484301913108088793..comments2023-09-30T10:36:23.154-05:00Comments on Accidental Historian: W@H: Appendix AGedshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15047239425466517786noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375512083268389933.post-11941745283342925962009-05-19T00:37:00.000-05:002009-05-19T00:37:00.000-05:00Wow, this brings back memories. The group I was in...Wow, this brings back memories. The group I was in probably would have considered yours, Geds, to be "too worldly", but oh yes, we had the same stuff going on. Part of what was hard for me was that I never felt like I knew what people meant when they said "God spoke" to them, so I felt like a bad person/bad Christian. The closest I came to it in my teen years was one of the darkest times in my life, where I pushed and pushed *so hard* to "hear God" that I made myself physically unhealthy. It has been a good ten or twelve years since then and I am much, much happier, but I still don't understand what people mean when they say God talks to them. The ones that don't seem to be crazy, I mean. Because there are people I know and love for whom it seems to be an easy thing, and a helpful thing. But it never worked for me, and by now I am okay with that--if God wants to talk to me, I think he's going to do it the way he always has for me, i.e. by arranging it so I read a book or speak to a friend at the moment that I need it. But listening for voices in my head--no, that just makes me neurotic. Sometimes, though, I still listen for it. It's a hard habit to break!Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09170725148888991807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375512083268389933.post-17911636819871548782009-01-12T01:42:00.000-06:002009-01-12T01:42:00.000-06:00Guin:I, uh, I think you got lucky. See, I was alw...Guin:<BR/><BR/>I, uh, I think you got lucky. See, I was always taught that, yes, it's natural to want things like sex. But the natural is deeply, deeply evil unless it's done in this one way that's pleasing to god. I don't have any statistics to back this up, but in my experience with fundamentalists, I think that I probably had the majority experience.<BR/><BR/>But, hey, more power to the people who taught you for not giving up humanity in exchange for Christianity...<BR/><BR/>Jessa:<BR/><BR/>...Yeah...<BR/><BR/>This is one of those things where I'm pretty sure that anything I say is inadequate to the task and could end up being insulting.<BR/><BR/>Speaking for myself, I was blind to it. At eighteen, nineteen, twenty, whatever, sheltered from the world and trying desperately to fit in I think we all were. There's something about that malevolent strain of Christianity that's deeply selfish, too, and it's something I keep trying to tease out, trying to understand.<BR/><BR/>And I can see those names, those faces, those people I loved who I called my friends but who I never seemed to hang out with outside of official events and who haven't bothered to keep track of me since they or I left. On some level I'm pissed at them because it feels like that friendship was all a big lie. But I can't blame them, either. Because, really, what did we know? I know I was just trying to hold on most of the time.<BR/><BR/>It's why I've used up so many electrons talking about both god and one particular girl. When she was around even though I knew it wasn't working I wanted to believe it was because I finally had "proof" that someone loved me. When god "spoke" to me, even though I knew it wasn't true, I wanted to believe it because I finally "knew" that god actually did care.<BR/><BR/>So I don't really know or understand what you've been through and I think it would be insulting to say otherwise. But I do understand holding on to something that's not real out of desperation. I guess what I'm trying to do now is figure out if that's a feature or a glitch.Gedshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15047239425466517786noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375512083268389933.post-89262206379482479222009-01-10T13:51:00.000-06:002009-01-10T13:51:00.000-06:00Just found your blog and found it interesting. I w...Just found your blog and found it interesting. I was struck by this:<BR/><BR/>"<BR/>There is a lot of bleed through from the charismatics to the more mainstream fundamentalist/evangelical strains of Christianity, even if the latter doesn’t want to admit it. The speaking in tongues/prophecy/snake handling parts may not be present, but the idea that god is able and willing to speak to each and every believer personally most definitely is."<BR/><BR/>It really made me stop and think about what I believe myself. I consider myself a sort of deist - basically, I believe that God does not intervene directly in our lives, but that prayer allows God to help us center ourselves and better solve our own problems (that sounded way more New Age-y than I meant, but whatever).<BR/><BR/>I thought your post was interesting, too, because while I've changed much from the more Fundamentalist, Evangelical Christian background I grew up with, I don't hate it. I didn't see a lot of the negative stuff you describe. For instance, I was a boy-crazy and sex-obsessed little thing from the age of 13 onwards, and while I was told to wait for marriage, I was also told my desires were normal and healthy (even by my pastor). The Christian teen magazine I read said masturbation was healthy as long as it didn't become obsessive and supplant God in your thoughts. <BR/><BR/>There were a lot of things about the type of Christianity I grew up with that I may have ultimately rejected, but I didn't think it as a negative or destructive force in my life at all. I grew up in a tight-knit community where people helped each other and helped the poor... even if they did believe some crazy things, I think I was pretty lucky to have that!Guineverehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10058786129073896210noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375512083268389933.post-61002360876447762012009-01-10T10:19:00.000-06:002009-01-10T10:19:00.000-06:00This is another one of those posts where you put y...This is another one of those posts where you put your finger on the crux of an issue, and I become envious I didn't think of it first!<BR/>Awesome work, and another classic example of a way American Christianity sucks. Teaching people that everyone can get a running commentary from God in the back of their minds is, besides being a recipe for crazy, extremely disrespectful to God.Fiat Lexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10441862977921307080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375512083268389933.post-53336830373466646032009-01-09T18:13:00.000-06:002009-01-09T18:13:00.000-06:00Upon entering a tranquil, meditative state, you he...Upon entering a tranquil, meditative state, you hear a voice in the back of your head. This is normal.<BR/><BR/>Then someone tells you it isn't your brain doing it. God put those words there. So God lives in your brain and occupies the part of it that should contain your conscience... which you don't need because God lives in your brain. OK, awesome.<BR/><BR/>Seems to me it promotes self-worship and the absence of a conscience. Those are both right up Jesus's alley, as I recall.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3375512083268389933.post-59868185955766403022009-01-09T13:49:00.000-06:002009-01-09T13:49:00.000-06:00The people I know who are prone to self-reflection...<I>The people I know who are prone to self-reflection and tried being charismatic didn’t last long.</I><BR/><BR/>Word.<BR/><BR/>A leader at a conference I attended once mentioned that he didn't bother with self-reflection, because it was a waste of time and effort. If there was anything inside him that needed attention, he reasoned, God would bring it to mind. (I'm almost certain he quoted that "search my heart, O God" psalm to back it up.)<BR/><BR/><I>I’ve taken enough psychology over the years and had enough common sense to understand that your brain generates random crap all the time.</I><BR/><BR/>Annnnnd there it is. A shining example of why education is seen as a threat to faith. Because---at least for certain values of faith---it <I>is</I>. It's also the reason why I'm going back to school.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com