The Post-Christian Blog

 It took me most of my life to learn that it's not evil, rebellious or even bad to get out of a bad situation. If you and or your family is being minipulated, insulted, abused, publically humiliated or shunned, don't be afraid to walk out. If you're in a service and the speaker is talking nonsense or worse, stand up and leave... you're not evil for that. If your private life is being made public by people who are supposed to be counseling you, leave... they aren't there to help you. If your friends are only your friends when you agree with them, find new friends... those folks aren't your friends. If you are being told that your salvation is dependent, in any way upon another man (e.i. obedience, tithes, respect, subordination), that is manipulation. If you are struggling financially and your spiritual leader says that you should be paying him, your church, the organization, god(through the org) before you feed your family, THAT leader is evil. If you are counse...

 I laughed typing that title, I'm certain the conspiratorial types are going to jump to some wild conclusions... well, I guess I do have six children so maybe not that wild. Take a breath, there's no progeny associated with the title. The last post as far as I can tell, was in January. A lot has changed since then, and yet not really that much about my mind. I bought out a competitor company in March and spent the next serveral months merging the two. I made a very thought-out investment of 2 years at 7-12s to get everything stable and working correctly, I'm 7 months into that process and have pretty much worked every day since. The company is stable, and we're cutting through the aquisition financing at a steady clip. I do not attend any sort of church, I have no desire to. I do not hold to any sort of religious tradition, and quite frankly am not impressed much by any specific tradition. I used to think it was so sad that certain folks who 'left the faith' bec...

 Last night I recieved an email from an online friend asking where I've been. I have not been blogging these last few months, and besides this post have no definite plans to do so again regularly. If you're curious why, here's the deal. If you start back at my earliest posts and work forward, (I don't suggest it, even to me it'd be a tedious read) you would see the character arc of a protagonist that transitions from an acolyte zealous for tradition and eager to fix a non-functioning system, to a agnostic skeptic, to a resigned separatist, to an emboldened religious reformer to finally radio silence.  The radio silence is not, you might like to know, represented in the real world, only the online sudo-world. Here in the real world I am still around, still moving, still engaging albeit with a different crowd. I have become dissapointed with the stereotypical 'religious' mind. I have found that of all demographics that I interact with, the 'deeply religiou...

 Recorded at Church of God International - Tyler Texas December 10 2022

Sermon - Such a Time as This We had some friends over a few weeks ago, and we were playing a Reverse-Q-and-A game. In response to one particular statement, nearly all of my friends stood on the Strongly-Disagree side and all of their reasons really struck me. The statement was ‘Political Issues should be talked about at church’.  I, as a skeptic and part-time contrarian was on the Strongly Agree side, all alone. As you can imagine by my mentioning the story at all, I’m still of the same opinion, but I also COMPLETELY agree with all of my friend’s reasons for taking the opposite position. While playing this game, I was the only person on that side, so I had the first round of explanation. I said that I believe political issues should be talked about even more at church because ALL things that pertain to life have a way of becoming political. In response my friends said a few variations of, ‘if you want to define political things that broadly, you’re muddying the idea’.  When th...

 I was having a conversation a few weeks ago with a close friend. The two of us sit and talk for hours any chance we get because we both find immense value in dialogue. Sometimes the best way to learn something is to just talk about it for hours in detail from every perspective you can think of. Just hearing the words as you speak them can also help clean up the mess in your head by highlighting how dumb some of your own thoughts are. (That's probably the most practically helpful thing I've ever learned to do) During this particular conversation, we were discussing belief systems, and this concept occurred to me; People, especially people who subscribe to corporate religious institutions, do not actually believe Jesus can physically lead His physical people. (pardon the HWA-esque Italics and emphasis, they were intended to serve a function) I believe I can say this accurately because I too have had my doubts.  I have heard for my whole life around Passover time about the s...

 I started thinking about faith again today while talking to a friend who is still, like a great many of my old friends, unknowingly deep in the muck of institutionalized religion. Earlier this week I was contact by another person who was concerned about my salvation in light of my not keeping the Levitical Holy Days. Together these two conversations really did a number to my mood. I'm 98th percentile Neurotic according to the 'big 5' personality test system, and these kinds of conversations really bring me down. In the majority of these types of conversations I find myself in a corner, not a corner with no answer to questions of faith mind you, but a corner with no chance of explaining myself. In talking to someone who is unknowingly trapped in darkness there is no way to 'explain' what light looks like.  Faith came to mind because in most cases, at least in most of the times I have heard it preached, faith is seen as the method by which you continue to do what yo...

 

 CGI, on their Armor of God program today, attempted to defend the word 'cult' while also deflecting its use from themselves. The host of the show used the basic and benign definition of the word, which is just a group with a shared ideology, to defend against its use as a pejorative. Interestingly, he also felt the need to claim that HWA wasn't a cult leader and the hatred expressed against him (HWA) and by extension Armstrongism only exists because he challenged the religious status quo with the actual teachings of the Bible.  There are a few problems with this sentiment that spring to mind;  1. The benign definition of Cult is not the 'correct' definition to explore in this context. Words change and have meaning regardless of what 50 year old dictionaries say. When people use the word cult today, almost never do they mean the benign version. The street definition of a cult is a group with a shared ideology, enforced mental or social boundaries and the curtailing...