The Firecat

Curch
    I went to church today. (Yawn, scrach ear) Yeah, I know, after a near perfect record (as I remember it) of not going to church ANY Sunday even though I was staying at home all summer with my parents and being an ordained member of the Presbyterian church that my parents far more routinely then I go to.

    What I felt like doing was staying at home, and gluttonously consuming a couple chocolate samores poptarts, and long story made short (to protect the guilty) some stuff that would have involved pride, sloth, and envy, lets face it there’s no better way to start your Sunday morning then five out of seven deadly sins, which is about as high as I ever go since those of you who know me know, lust, and wrath just aren’t my bag baby.

    But my mom had other ideas. If I might paraphrase her explanation it was “James, we should go as a way of showing our love for a god who gave us all these wonderful things...” I ended up going and rationalizing it as a chance to write this because I’m a pussy...cat who finds who finds it easier to agree to his parent’s demands even when he’s technically a legal adult, maybe when I’m twenty one...

    Besides it did at least give me a little insight into a simple fact, being family means that you go and do things with people that you would never consider doing with random people. So yeah, I went to church, but I disagree with your reasoning Mom. First of all, giving thanks to God for the things we’ve done undermines the human sprit and sends the wrong message.

    Maybe if Dad was a country guitarist as his only career then it would make sense, since such a job would have required a lot of luck for his music to catch on and him to sell enough CDs and what not for us to make a living off of. But Dad is a chemist working for the FDA. He go that job because he got good enough grades in High School to make it into a college and grad school, that’s close to a decade of his life spent studying so he could get his... hell I don’t know if it’s PhD or MD or whatever but to get the qualifications he did for his job.

    I mean what should I be doing the night before a test? Praying to god all night that I get good grades, or actively studying my tail off to cram every last piece of information I can into my brain? Okay I know the answer should be C: grabbing a nice long and comfortable catnap because I’ve already studied everything at least two days in advanced but B is clearly a better choice then A.

    Secondly it sends the wrong message about God. It make God sound like a whiny kid screaming “PAY ATTENTION TO ME!” Even worse he’s a sadistic little whinny kid with power over our lives who’ll send a hurricane our way if we don’t pay attention to us.

    The same is true of getting ‘dressed up’ for church. Once again this sends the wrong message about God. People usually get dressed up to make a good impression it’s something we do before going in for a job interview because we’re afraid of how the situation will go wrong, and so we put on the best outfit possible.

    Even worse it’s suggesting that when we pull this trick with god, it can work! That’s right your black and white two piece suit tie and button pants combo will make God think your a better person then if your in a t-shirt in slacks! Come on, don’t tell me “God is great” if he’s judging us on what we look like when we look through the door.

    Suffice say, you know what I hope God should be like. He should be a tricked out on catnip kitten, a happy, playful, hands off God, and the only thing that seriously pisses him off is when someone does something bad and then BLAMES HIM FOR TELLING
THEM TO DO IT!

    Machiavelli pointed out that someone can not be loved and feared at the same time. It’s your choice God? Would you prefer a church full of people who are guiltted and scared into or going there, or a few people who truly believe. I think Small Gods by
Terry Pratchett makes it pretty clear on this issue, making religion a chore (take a bath Saturday night, and wash the weeks clothes, go to church on Sunday) undermines belief because it is being treated as a mundane activity rather then a true expression of
spirituality.

    It certainly happened to me. I’m more or less agnostic and I enjoy writing works in which people who take their face serriously are ussualy uptight close minded bigots who can’t see what’s right in front of their faces. Meanwhile, my heroes are frequently
atheistic or just spiritulistic people who instead of having blind faith take the time to think our their actions because being the hero (or even anti hero) is not a status your just given down from above, you have to earn it with action after action.

    You don’t like the way that I portray faith in an organized a religion as a bad thing? Talk to the paw, art imitates life and you only have to look to the Middle East to see just what a huge problem being religious can cause. There’s nothing wrong with being spiritual, I am spiritual, but if you become a sheep and allow yourself to get then you are at least half as much to blame for the shepherd for wherever you end up.

    So yeah, I ‘d just as soon not need to be guiltted into going to church because it takes me to this place, a place where I spit on organized religion because it’s whacking me over the head with messages I’ve already heard before a thousand times “be good to other people” “opportunities can arize form catastrophe” and it makes me feel scornful regarding even my own reasonable progressive religion.

    Personally I’d rather have a god who’s fine with having me come in once a year, because that one day I’d want to go to church and the Bakeneko (Legendary cat spirit) would well and truly flow through me, the Bakaneko (stupid cat).

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