Dear Diary,
Read my email:
Wrote:
>dear rizzn,
>oh, for about forever!
>do you live in texas? i don't live in texas. thank you, texas.
>- celine.
>-
>http://celine.nodata.org
>>
>> Dear Celine,
>>
>> It is amusing that you thought I was a girl, but praytell
>exactly .how long you have thought that I was a girl?
>>
>> I don't hate you. :)
>> --
>> Rizzn.
>>>dear rizzn,
>>>
>>>it is funny (i suppose.), all this time i thought you
>>>were a girl.
>>>
>>>please don't hate me! i didn't mean it.
Crack is great.
Malkavia wrote today about the bottom of the literary foodchain.
People in the world always targeting comics as the bottom of the literary foodchain. I never get it. Comics are great! I mean look at all the great things about Batman!. Batman is from a comic. Batman can teach us great things! Why are comics so bad then? Hrmm?
But seriously, Malk's big point was that Jack Chick, this fellow behind chick.com that apparently writes Christian tracts is a liar. I must admit, I'm one of the most ardent Christians I know, but I'm not familiar with Jack Chick's great works, and this comic about halloween was the first bit of work I've seen of his.
From reading this entertaining work of fiction, I am honestly able to say that Jack Chick is not guilty of lying about witches, of which Malk acuses him of being. Let's analyze his comic for a bit.
(note: for those getting pissed off, skip to the last paragraph if you just can't stand it anymore before you send me hate mail. but read the whole thing, trust me on this, you guys know how I am. :)
What Jacky-boy says is "To satanists and witches, Halloween is no joke."
Truth. It's an actual event for both groups.
"As we get closer to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ ... Satanism will increase. So will human sacrifice."
If you believe what's in the Bible literally (specifically Revelation), yes, that's a truth. Along with a lot of other bad things for Christians.
"Halloween started with the Druids in the British Isles."
Kindof right. He obviously didn't do a whole lot of research, or he really really oversimplified his research into one sentence. There are actual accounts of the Druids in the dawn of the Roman Empire coming to the British Isles practicing human sacrifice however this was not common practice, however, but a new strain of thought among the celts. If you read through the many different accounts of the Legend of King Arthur, you'll find some of these accounts mentioned in there. Usually these human sacrifices were volunteers however, at least from the accounts I've read. (Don't try to peg me down on this, it's been a long time since I've read about this and if you try to argue me on it, I'll likely just concede the point -- it was from a reliable source where I read it, not just propaganda however).
"These guys were really spooky."
An opinion. Hey man, maybe they were spooky to Mr. Chick.
"Halloween ... glamorizes the powers of darkness, drawing in little kids."
Truth. When else do you see kids dressed up as what would usually be considered things of evil (i.e. undead, satan, etc).
"Satanic sacrifices are a slap in God's face."
Umm... to say the least.
Mr. Chickacola talks about some facts about getting to heaven which are generally theologically correct -- they are straight from the bible and really can't be disputed by any real theologan.
Note: this is the paragraph I was talking about to read if you skipped any of the above part that you need to read before sending hate mail.
NOW, the problem in Mr. Chick's logic is that he groups witches and satanists into the same camp.
The logic that Mr. Chick tries to use to put human sacrificers, ancient and current, is flawed. He puts true facts about both groups together to indicate that what society today considers a witch still practices human sacrifice to play on societal fears. And he also falls in to a common theological trap that many blind Christians follow into, and that is fear of the unknown. Read on.
Granted, in Leviticus, there is the verse where it is mentioned in Hebrew law "..suffer not a witch to live."
From this verse alone, a God-fearing Christian might think that we are to stone or not talk to our pagan friends because it might keep us from going to heaven. Christian friends, I say to you, please don't think this and let me tell you why! (hee hee, I shoulda been a preacher).
Something that is essential to know as a Christian and that many people don't bother to learn is that many of the things written in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible don't apply to us a Christians. Granted, most of the general principals do, but in the Old Testament, there are a number of laws and regulations that were broken upon God's gift of the Christian covenant.
In this case, the law God gave to the Hebrews by way of Moses saying "suffer not a witch to live" no longer applies in the same way the commandment "Honor the Sabbath and keep it holy" no longer applies to Christians.
"Huh?!?" I collectively hear. Yes it's true. Think about it. Jews, the Hebrew, were commanded on a stone tablet actually written by God to keep the seventh day holy in remembrance of God's original rest on the seventh day in the creation story. That's Saturday. Do we go to church traditionally on Saturday? Hrmm? No, I bet if you go to church, you go on Sunday. That's a tradition brought about by the original 12 deciples and Jesus himself.
What does that mean? It means nothing except to demonstrate that we as Christians are no longer bound by all the rules and regulations set forth originally by God. Instead, God gave us the most important commandment, "Love the Lord God with all your body, spirit, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself." If you follow that law, that pretty much keeps you in line with all the important stuff. (i.e. stealing, killing, etc.)
So, keeping that law in mind, does it make sense to shun, kill, maim, persecute, run out of town, either by hand, proxy or assistance witches or other non-believers? No, people, that is not the way to win friends and influence people.
That's more or less why I get sick when I read stuff like this, because any chance I have of making intelligent friends and them not thinking I'm an idiot for being a Christian is pretty much gone because they think I believe like this Jack Chick guy or many Christians who will actually force pagans and witches and stuff out of their town altogether! And think about it, if you really are a Christian, don't you want to save everyone's soul that you can? That includes witches and pagans, and if you treat them like sh!t, they ain't gonna like what you have to say.
For those of you who were totally bored by what I had to say, please just humor me and don't tell me I'm boring. I went to seminary after I left highschool for a while and I get into talking about this sort of thing. Plus, education isn't a totally bad thing. The less stupid people in the world the better, right?
Keep that in mind and happy halloween.
Love, Rizzn
Quote of the Entry: "I don't want the cat as my sacrifice! I want Carrie!
- the Great Pumpkin played by the Debil himself!
