WARNING: This post contains sarcasm, satire, blunt irony, a few digs, some rather feigned foot-stomping, and carefully nuanced witticism; it may be unsuitable for those of fragile emotional constitution.
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So I was unFriended by someone on Facebook a while back. Before pulling the plug on our short, but stormy, cyber friendship, they made sure I knew why I was being un-graced with their presence:
After reading your FB updates, I usually feel deeply sad. Your brand of Christianity is exactly the kind that has wounded me so profoundly. I really think you must have no idea how hurtful your words are and how hard people like myself have fought to escape the harsh, casual cruelty of your worldview.
The last time I was unFriended on FB (at least, that I know of) was for daring to publicly challenge another Christian author who believed Christians can / should become sinlessly perfect… in this life. Perhaps it was my “imperfections” that emboldened me to protest such a notion. The rest of the commenters seemed too busy fawning to call the author on it. Or maybe they too were already “perfect.” However, the subsequent unFriending by this author seemed to expose a gaping hole in their theory. It was like
I believe Christians should be sinless and will unFriend anyone who challenges me!
No wonder I have such a problem becoming sinless — I’m not unFriending enough folks.
So when I received the above message, I wasn’t entirely shocked. I consider myself a lover not a fighter. But in my world, those two are dance partners. Anyway. I wasn’t quite sure what the writer meant by “[my] brand of Christianity” and “the harsh, casual cruelty of [my] worldview.” Nevertheless, I apologized for any offense and agreed that we probably were of different stripes.
And accepted my exile.
Perhaps I wouldn’t have taken it so hard if, a few days later, this person hadn’t Tweeted something snide about another professed Christian group. So let me get this straight: Harsh, critical, snarky, hurtful words are wrong… unless they’re employed for a righteous cause???
Well, then, I feel a whole lot better.
What tore the scab off this thing was reading HuffPo’s Why We’re Unfollowing Bret Easton Ellis yesterday. Until that post, BEE was not on my cultural radar or Following list. It was Andrew Losowski, HuffPo Books editor’s indignation, that changed that.
After listing some of the stuff Ellis Tweets, much of which is snide, politically incorrect, bombastic, offensive, and clearly inflammatory, Losowski concludes:
These are charged statements that deserve exploration and discussion. But Easton Ellis doesn’t respond to people on his feed, nor does he build on any of these ideas elsewhere.
Of course that’s his right. It’s his Twitter feed. But it’s also anti-social behavior, and though following it does generate a certain morbid fascination, we’ve now grown a little tired of how he uses the platform (and we’re not the only ones). Among his one-way conversations, he throws out these lines, people get briefly upset, and we pick it up, thereby amplifying his most hurtful remarks. Well, not any more.
We say: go follow him on Twitter if you’re looking for his latest provocation, because we on the Books section of The Huffington Post aren’t going to cover his micro invectives any more.
I took his advice and Followed Bret Easton Ellis.
Really, there were two words that did it for me: “Hurtful remarks.” Have these become Trigger Words yet? Because I just, like, snapped.
Apparently, the internet is breeding a new type of person, one who gets hurt very, very easily. But as Nature is wont to do, that genetic swamp is also producing a more Enlightened Being, defender of the weak, the Homo Sapien of our digital Stone Age: The Hurt Police.
And I’ve been cited.
In the hopes of staving off further citations, here come the qualifiers. Being rude and crude and scandalous is not a good thing. Intentionally hurting people’s feelings and/or disregarding their feelings is wrong. Constructing a platform entirely upon controversy and provocation is kinda stupid. Just because you have a social network following is not a license to broadcast everything that’s on your mind with reckless abandon.
Having said that…
I don’t Follow people because they don’t hurt my feelings. And I don’t unFollow them if they do.
Of course if someone’s a blasphemous, blithering idiot, I’ll probably give them the boot. But it’s not because they hurt my feelings. It’s because they’re a waste of my time. For the record, some of my favorite blog watering holes are atheist sites. And, oh, Leftist sites. Even though I’m neither. Nothing like anti-Christian and liberal rants to get the old blood pumping. I like to follow people whom I disagree with, who get my goat, provoke, challenge me to think, and rankle me to no end.
Why else would I keep following Anne Rice?
Which is why I followed with interest the controversy surrounding Jared Wilson’s now infamous, now removed, post, “The Polluted Waters of 50 Shades of Grey, Etc.” Multiple firestorms erupted between feminists and defenders of biblical patriarchy, eventually cauterizing in the stand-off between these two blogger / authors. It was a fascinating affair!
I found myself somewhere in the middle of that argument — which is why I never publicly commented — and followed the ensuing posts and counter-posts with great interest. Until the debate spiraled into polarization, party lines, snipiness, and self-righteous indignation, eventually running aground when one of the parties urged their Followers to stop engaging the other and promised to do so themselves.
Wha–?
What upset me most about that debate was not that it turned terse, that tempers got heated, and rhetoric flew, but how it ended.
When all else fails, Unfriend them.
I loved the response of Sarah Pulliam Baily at Her.menuetics, the Christianity Today blog for women. In Sex! Outrage! The Internet! Doug Wilson, Rachel Held Evans, and The Gospel Coalition she summarized what she considered a better approach to boycotts and blog post removals and mass unFriending:
Shutting each other down or shutting each other up should never be the goal among Christians. If we are going to love one other, we need to challenge and sharpen one another with a spirit above the Internet rage, a spirit of mercy that assumes the best intentions of even those who offend or outrage us.
Amen, sister!
So I continue to Follow all of the parties in that debate. As I do the person who unFriended me in the aforementioned message. And, for the life of me, I can’t think of a single thing they’d say to make me call the Hurt Police.
We have a lot of people who got life not in Jesus Christ but in the rightness of their beliefs. If you don’t agree with them, they feel that you suck life out of them.
It seems to me that People are just very emotional and they like to drag you in their emotional state!
This is my remark take it or leave it speak your mind. I am a Christian let’s stop sugar coating things. Many people I know are so fake even in church or online they ignore you when they see you because your not good enough to them so Why keep someone on facebook who ignores you for the whole year long. I am not ashamed to unfriend them. Like I say leave all the drama for your mama! We put up with so much nonsense even with friends and family members!
Men Believe They Are Allowed to Dominate Women?!?
I have become alarmed and sickened at modern male “Christians”, and worse yet “preachers”, who teach that Yahweh allows and even instructs men to dominate women in every area and aspect of life, up to and including sexual intercourse in the marriage bedroom (or wherever their unrestrained proclivities may demand it).
This selfish, childish, disobedient, and even satanic theory appears to have become epidemic throughout the “young turk” preacher set who all seem to fancy themselves the next great reformist, or enlightener, or televangelist con-man, or (fill-in-the-blank). I can only attribute this pandemic to one or more of the following:
1. No attendance of a reputable Bible training institute that actually understands Hebrew
2. Attendance of a reputable Bible institute and sleeping through Hebrew class
3. Overactive testosterone levels that cause willful ignorance of Hebrew
4. Quenching and Ignoring the Holy Spirit / Hagios Pneuma / Ruwach of Yahweh
5. No conversion of mind or choice to obey Jesus, the Messiah of Yahweh
6. Actually being an agent of the deceiver / destroyer who has taken the form of an “angel of light” and is really a demon in disguise, bent on destroying Christianity from the inside
Yes, you read that correctly. I am accusing many of the new-preachers-on-the-block of really being servants of the devil and not being anything remotely close to a Christian servant/slave of Jesus, the living Words of Yahweh. If you believe I am hiding behind the safety of the internet and would not accuse you to your face you are very, very, VERY wrong. In May of 2008, I was in Iraq during Operation Charge of the Knights and walked through Basra, Iraq, with the 1st ANGLICO Marines as we liberated the city from Taliban, Al Qaeda, Hamas and Iran Army insurgents who were burning people alive. I think accusing a preacher-boy to his face would be a whole lot easier than that little “vacation.”
Actually, you should be grateful I am not accusing you to your face. I have stepped up to quite a number of “preachers” after I heard them teaching lies and pretending it was the words of Yahweh. The last liar I confronted was in August, 2012, when he taught; and I quote:
“If Rahab the lying whore” [he repeated that so many times I swear it gave him an erotic pleasure] “was not in the lineage of Jesus then Jesus never would have been born because it takes the DNA from both parents to create the child.”
If that statement caused no alarm in your head you need to read it again since the Holy Spirit, who interprets scripture for His servants, is not active in your life. To explain: If Jesus had the DNA from both parents it means Jesus did not have a virgin birth. This man who pastors a huge, uber-mega-sized church in Porter Ranch, California, does not believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. I was nose-to-nose with that lying satanist immediately following the message. He dismissed me and continues to teach the lie. I was obviously not “persuasive” enough in my argument. Perhaps I need to study the argumentation methods of Paul-of-Tarsus vs. Peter / Barnabas a bit more. The real crime is that the satanic preacher of Porter Ranch is allowed to continue teaching that lie, that the people believe the lie, and he undermines the faith, and subsequently the salvation, of the entire congregation.
Domination of Women is a Satanic Lie
Whatever the reason is that caused this modern misogyny of dominating women must stop! If I MUST get nose-to-nose with you then I will, believe me. “Christians” in this country are becoming more and more Muslim by the hour. I truly fear that the illustration found in Romans 11:21 might actually be happening to the Gentile church. If so, count me among the Jews.
It appears from the various blogs and other website based forums I have stumbled upon, that this new oppression of women by those pretending to be “Christian” men is based on the Genesis account of Yahweh’s curse on women after Adam’s disobedience against Yahweh’s command. I do write “Adam’s disobedience” since it was Adam who was given the command and was totally responsible to relay that command to Eve, thereby fulfilling Yahweh’s designed hierarchy of His created order.
Those who disagree must read Genesis 1:28-30 closely. Yahweh tells both Adam and Eve, obviously at separate times, the following only:
1. Be fruitful and multiply
2. Replenish the earth
3. Subdue it and have dominion over the fish, birds and land animals
4. Eat any herb and fruit of fruit trees you wish (no denial – only permission)
Absolutely no mention was given by Yahweh to Eve about NOT eating the tree of knowledge. Yahweh gave that order to Adam and only Adam. Read Genesis 2:16-17 where Yahweh told Adam, before Eve was created, that Adam was not to eat the tree of knowledge. Yahweh never told Eve about the tree of knowledge but she knew about it since she is the one who answered the serpent and not Adam. Modern “man” will still let the woman take charge and answer the accuser instead of stepping-up and taking the lead, which is their created duty.
After Adam acts like a punk-chump-jerk, he allows Eve to take the lead, fails to protect her from disobeying Yahweh, and then joins Eve in the disobedience Adam allowed her to commit in the first place. Wow, what a man. Yahweh has no choice but to punish these disobedient children. The form of that punishment is grossly abused by men since it is so horribly misunderstood. Yahweh told Eve:
‘ishshah, ‘amar, “rabah rabah `itstsabown herown `etseb yalad ben, teshuwqah ‘iysh mashal” (phonetically transliterated Hebrew – Gen. 3:16)
The mechanical translation of that Hebrew statement into English says:
“Mortal woman, I say, ‘increase, increase your worry in pregnancy to painfully create and birth a son, and you will desirously stretch out after a man to rule.”
Nowhere does Yahweh say that a man will “rule over the woman”, which is to say “dominate” her. The very concept that male will rule over female in some dominant fashion cannot be supported anywhere in the Bible. Those who believe they are ordered to dominate women cannot point to Yahweh for those orders. Only the adversary of Yahweh desires to dominate.
Those who claim Genesis 1:28 orders men to dominate women forget one very simple and glaring fact. Eve was told the exact same thing. Therefore, according to the screwed-up male translation of Genesis 1:28, women are ordered to dominate men. And this order happened while creation was perfect and before the failure of Adam to obey Yahweh. Does that mean Yahweh created Adam and Eve to each fight for domination over the other in the perfect earth He just finished? That is neither “good”, “very good”, nor perfection.
The simple answer is “No.” Yahweh did not create strife, contention, argument, anger, bitterness or chaos. Those attributes come from the satanic Adversary, not Yahweh. To claim Genesis 1:28 orders men to dominate women is to call Yahweh a liar and agree with satan.
Men Are Designed To Be Proactive and Lead Courageously
Yahweh says that women will desire a man who will actually rule by taking the lead he was created for instead of letting Eve take the fault and even blaming her. Man will not dominate the woman since man is supposed to love the woman in the exact same way he loves himself and cares for himself. And even more importantly, man is supposed to love the woman in the same way Jesus loves her and is willing to die for her. If you will not take a bullet for her, you do not love her. In Iraq I was willing to take a bullet for people I never knew here in the U.S. How much more willing for someone I love?
The way I read it, Yahweh’s curse to all women is what every woman cries over today and has cried over for centuries. That cry is, “Where are all the good men?!” This is the number one cry of women because men are so stupid. And they prove they are stupid by screwing up the words of Yahweh so they can abuse women on purpose. Even so-called “Christian” men want to abuse women and so they blame Yahweh for giving them the order to do it.
Just like Adam, men still blame Yahweh for giving them the reason that causes disobedience instead of obeying out of love. In Adam, everyone dies. In Jesus, everyone can be made alive.
Woman Was Designed To Help Man
Does any man reading this even know what “help” means? I will tell you what it does NOT mean. “Help” does not mean that you tell the woman to “Get yo’ butt in that kitchen and make me a sammich!” That is called slavery you idiot. A woman is not your slave. She is not an automatic dish washer or sammich-maker. A woman is a child of Jesus, the Words of Yahweh. She will inherit heaven and is 100% equal with all men. All men who believe they are allowed to dominate women will be accused and convicted of abuse.
In order for someone to help someone else, the person needing help has to be doing something. NO ONE can help someone who is doing nothing. If a man is doing nothing and demands the woman “help” him by doing dishes, clean house, or any other task, that man is an idiot. He is stupid. He is an abusive jerk who needs to be punched into reality.
Yo! Man. If you want the woman to help you, then you must be doing something. If you want the woman to help cook then YOU must be cooking first. If you want the woman to help wash dishes, YOU must be washing dishes first. If you want the woman to help do laundry, YOU must be doing laundry first. Do you get the idea yet??
If you still disagree then you need to study what Yahweh told 130 year-old Cain (Gen. 5:3) after he killed his little brother for being obedient. Get that? A 130 year-old man got mad at someone being obedient because he, himself, disobeyed Yahweh. What a putz. Here is what Yahweh told Cain:
‘im! Yatab! se’eth yatab! chatta’ah rabats pethach teshuwqah mashal (phonetically transliterated Hebrew – Gen. 4:7)
The mechanical translation of that Hebrew phrase into English is:
Yo! Do well! Elevate and do well! The consequence of failure is to crouch at an opening and desirously stretch out after ruling.
Yahweh demands obedience, not sacrifice. He demands we “Elevate and do well.” If a man does NOT do well that man will desire to rule over and dominate women instead of loving them in the same way Jesus loves her and will die for her. The fact that men who pretend to be “Christian” choose to dominate women instead of loving them proves they are not “Elevating and doing well.” They are suffering the consequence of failing to obey Yahweh and desire to rule over and dominate women, not love them. Unfortunately, women are suffering from the domination of disobedient, sinful men and not experiencing unconditional love as Jesus wants to give them.
But Yahweh Orders Women to Submit
If you as a male-gendered idiot truly believes that Yahweh orders a women to succumb to your every whim then you have absolutely no idea what submit means. I was military. I know exactly what submit means. I spent many years submitting to authority, some good, some not-so-good, and some downright useless. When that authority became abusive I did NOT submit to it any longer. I visited the JAG office and removed the abusive authority.
If you as a male-gendered idiot want to dominate the woman in your life you have become an abusive authority. Yahweh will crush you because He loves her more than you do. The problem is that the woman may suffer undue stress while you are being crushed. So, mister man, stop being a dominating, disobedient, sinful jerk and learn what Yahweh says about how to treat the woman in your life.
By the way – she actually OWNS you, fella. You are HER property and she gets to tell YOU what to do and if SHE does not want YOU going to hang out with the guys tonight, then you do NOT go hang out with the guys – get it?? What do you mean you don’t believe that she owns you? Go read 1 Corinthians 7:3-4.
Now you tell me… who is supposed to submit to whom?
A Message to Women
Women, your only recourse for these little boys pretending to be men is to pray. Pray, pray, pray – then pray some more. Yahweh gave you Ruwach, the Holy Spirit who is here to help you. The Holy Spirit can change these little boys’ minds as easily as channeling water through a pipe. They are failing to protect you and love you just as Adam failed to protect Eve from being deceived by the serpent. Pray hard!
Adam threw Eve under the bus by allowing her to take the first bite. After she did not fall down dead, Adam must have concluded it would be alright for him to eat it. After all, Yahweh must have been lying just as the serpent said He was. Eve was deceived by the serpent but she was forsaken and abandoned by the love of her life, Adam.
Adam, however, chose to disobey the command he was given straight from the mouth of Yahweh who Adam knew was King. Adam also stood silent as he watched and allowed his wife, Eve, to be spiritually murdered by the serpent. Adam never stepped up to protect her even a little. Adam was the worst man ever and now we all pay the price.
Please, please, please pray for us. I am not immune to being so stupid but at least I know how stupid I can be. These itinerate preacher-boys have NO idea how stupid they really are. What is worse is that they are teaching all other men-boys how to be equally stupid – and worse.
A Final Note to Men
For those of you who believe my translation of Genesis is “all screwed up” and that I “don’t know what I’m talking about” I challenge you to get a Hebrew Dictionary/Lexicon and do the research for yourself. Talk to a Rabbi or two for good measure. The English Bible is not terribly accurate when it comes to information about how Adam treated Eve and the repercussions that followed. This obviously began with King Jimmy (or before – probably before, as in… Nicaea) and no “man” has had the stones to call a bluff that has been around for hundreds or thousands of years.
Why, that would mean hundreds of pastors have been teaching the wrong message for decades and would have to admit their mistake. It would mean Ph.D.’s may appear to not deserve their position or paycheck. Books and magazines would be subject to recall or revision and religious printing companies would lose money and prestige. Televangelists would face ridicule for their massive lies and network stock might fall.
Since they all worship Mammon and not Messiah, since they all teach Tradition and not Truth, it must never change (sic). The temple money-changers are alive and well and living in the pulpits of the U.S.A. I pray that Jesus do the same to them as He did in Jerusalem.
Since we all know men do NOT admit mistakes – or ask directions – change will most likely never happen. The well-established American religious system would rather teach a lie and destroy people than apologize and correct itself.
Hey… preacher-boy… you really want to make a name for yourself? I think I know how you can do just that. But first, you need to become a man.
Where are all the good men???
Adonay Yahweh Elohiym, King Eternal with Supreme Strength, help us all learn the truth.