Jesus Saves! Cthulhu Raves!

So Jesus wanted to RAVE not SAVE!?! Ohhh I get it now...someone pass me a glowstick I'm about to have a religious experience! Christianity seems to me sometimes to be little more than a 2,000 year old game of Telephone.

Listen if Jesus were a super skilled ripped lifeguard that could swim in a triathlon and still knock out a shark at the end of the day and I happened to also be drowning in the deep end of the pool because I didn’t wait 30 minutes after my massive meatball sub and a swarm of piranhas that someone released was about to turn me into a nice biology class prop then yes, oh please yes I would need to be saved! However since that doesn’t usually happen, perhaps because most of those details were based on myth, fiction and outright lies I think it is safe to say I’m not in constant danger or need of “saving.” That question has always bothered the hell out of me, which is actually an ironic statement when you think about it since its hell that I am trying to be “saved” from. 

Hey Mr. Christian apologetic have you read that handy dandy book you have in your hand? Can you tell me why you pick and choose what to believe in and how hard? Perhaps animal sacrifice isn’t so cool anymore, but why do you still get a hard-on when talking about the end of the world complete with oceans of blood and mountains of (human) dead? Oh its cool you say, that if I believe then God will save me from that awful fate? Well Mr. Christian apologist I have two words for you…fuck off! Ok not really, I won’t actually say that to you. I’ll probably say something more like “good to know, thanks!” Make no doubt I’m thinking “fuck off!” If God is like the one you describe in your book, especially with all that apocalypse shit all I can say is: What. A. Dick! I’d rather play cards with the devil even if he is a bastard and a cheater. At least he wouldn’t be as cold-blooded a douche as THAT God that decides on a whim to end the world in a tidal wave of blood, fire, and destruction.

Cthulhu-Jesus reigns, saves AND raves.

Now here I seem like a crazy atheist that condemns hate as he himself hates. Au contraire mon ami, you see I believe in God with all my heart and soul. I believe He is real and He is the creator of the universe. The entire universe mind you, not just this tiny planet. He is so much more than I can ever even attempt to quantify. So I don’t. He is. I am not He. That’s all I need to know. Morality comes from the heart and love which I also believe is a manifestation of the divine will. Why else do we universally believe it is wrong to murder?

Love to me is the underpinning of Christianity and indeed any religion. Yes there is also a need and desire to understand the world, but love is the binding and driving force. Which is why one of the things that most angers me in this world is the use of love as a justification for doing the exact opposite.

“I love you therefore I hate.”

Today a friend of mine was unfriended on Facebook by someone saying that though they loved him they did not agree with his lifestyle. He is a gay man in a relationship healthier than perhaps 95% of any straight couple I know. Many of us were angered and a good deal of us laughed when we heard. It made me think. What God of love and wisdom would condemn love? I came to the conclusion that the exclusionary message of condemnation and hate is not only contrary to the spirit of the gospels, but also incompatible with a just and loving God. If the Deity is so far above me in wisdom, knowledge, and capacity to love, why then am I able to grasp that two people in love is to be lauded and not shunned? If this poor uneducated monkey understands this why not then the master of the universe?

So of course the problem is not with God but rather with how some people view God. When the Lord of Hosts is on your side you can justify anything, right? Well I tell you what, I’d like to believe in a God that chooses right and is not as petty and homophobic as others make him out to be. Think about that for a moment. It as if God made a purple polka dot elephant and then proceeded to hate it simply because it was not like the other elephants. Really? That God is not only petty; he’s also stupid and retarded. I like to give the big guy just a wee bit more credit.

There are those that tell me to read the Bible, that the word of God is eternal and binding. Perhaps I love circular logic as much as the next guy, but to them I ask, where in that Bible will I find dinosaurs? More on THAT later…

(Originally posted March 8 , 2011)

The Artist's Captor

By: Gus Victoria

Unseen lyrics and unheard melodies

Skitter across the shattered expanse

Of a bewildered mind

Wild with emotion

Lost in thoughts

Crowded with devotions

To ideal and art

Beyond the eye it cannot see

Beyond its own it cannot be

For the mind is decayed

Drunk on its own imagination

The ink yet flows from the pen

And the paint from the brush.

At what cost creation I ask,

At what cost the destructive forces

That in a hurricane build

And in a gentle breeze demolish

The incipient sanity of the artist

That from his mind has just escaped.

And the Meme Became a Movement

By: Gus Victoria

And the meme became a movement. For weeks now I have been following the Occupy Wall Street protests with the same detached irritation that a majority in this country shares. It is not that I do not believe in the dialogue that the OWS movement attempts to start. I do not disagree that this country has indeed been taken hostage by corporate interests that outweigh and deny any possibility of effective democracy. Change is needed that is clear. However this OWS movement was a seemingly feeble effort by spoiled children of a self-centered era. Feeble in that there was no clear leadership that identified a problem and promoted a solution. Revolution in this atmosphere is dangerous because when the hearts of many are turned and ignited by the thought of injustices done, real or perceived, it creates a force that no institution can stand against indefinitely.

It seemed this professed movement was not taken seriously by a majority despite the passionate appeals of many within OWS. That is not to say that it was ignored either as the various other similar protests that OWS spawned demonstrate. As this occupation lengthened patience amongst many tired, myself included. Yes we understand there are problems; but what the hell are you solving by Occupying _____? Those that work hard, despite the understanding that those in power were overly greedy, almost saw it as an insult by those that participated in these protests; “why does so and so complain about this and that when I work hard?” People began to distance or divorce themselves completely from inclusion in the 99%. That beloved 99% slogan then became a meme. A quick internet search will yield many different takes on the slogan that incorporate humor and pop-culture and diminish the intended effect of that slogan.   

Then came the government reactions. OWS might have been confined to a meme had government not panicked. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, those in control of government. The backlash against these relatively harmless and comparatively lost groups legitimized the whole endeavor. Whether THAT is what the few architects of OWS were counting on is not yet clear, but any student of Thoreau or Gandhi would probably have been able to predict that response by the government if they felt threatened. To me the surprise was that those in power felt threatened enough to initiate physical action and reprisal against these protesters when a good portion of the country had already, without intervention, discounted them.

Revolution is carried in the blood. It lays dormant when the life we live provides for us and those we care about an existence we accept. Usually this means access to basic things that allow for a propagation of society in such a structure that all within agree to it either explicitly or implicitly. When justice is absent long enough or dramatically enough then that blood begins to churn. It moves and us with it as it heats at the view of injustice. Injustice is incompatible with compassion and I believe humanity is, despite the injustices we create, predisposed to, on its own, choose compassion. When we live within the structure of government and society that we accept then we can get caught in the cogs of its soulless machinery and eschew that compassion for a duty we must perform. We in essence become slaves to a system. Sometimes that system oppresses us as we fight for its very existence against those that would see it torn down. It is a paradox that diplomacy cannot break us from. It is a disease to which politics is no cure. The only way to rid ourselves of the cancer of oppression is by waking up to its odious effects and choosing to end it. To enact a revolution within ourselves! A revolution is no panacea though, for it is like fire. It can purge and help clear in order to create. It can temper the resolve. But to burn uncontrolled can also cause destruction far worse than if nothing had been done in the first place.

That was my main objection with OWS initially. The lack of vision and leadership made me skeptical of its aims and wary of its actions. An uncontrolled revolution is always to be feared for it is little more than a mob. Then, as I stated earlier, came the government overreactions. Fear became evident. Hope slowly was uncovered. Not in what the OWS did, but in the injustice that the government’s actions highlighted. Clearing the protesters in such a hurried and violent manner, though not the bloody reprisals we have seen in other places at other times, was such that it effectively uncovered the government for what it is; a puppet state controlled by a now fearful financial oligarchy. And this is so un-American and inhumane that no matter one’s opinion on OWS the actions taken against them MUST be condemned. That is where I stand now. More to come later…

"I am 27. The hell with details because, lets be honest, you really don't care if they don't further your opinion. Why share then?

I am NOT part of the "1%"

I am NOT part of the "99%"

I AM part of the "100%"

Do not divide humanity for that perpetuates problems.

Love ALWAYS overcomes injustice and greed!

Never when we blame others before fixing ourselves.

Enact a revolution in your heart first before taking one to the streets!

I am the 100%

Keep Your Modesty, I'll Run Naked Instead

I would dress naked or at the very least provocatively, but because I think it would be too tempting to my female friends (and a few of the male ones) I choose not to. Because I am a man that previous statement sounds absolutely ludicrous. To be fair that I went straight to naked is also silly. There are several levels before that would still revile most people. I am no Adonis, yet.

Avert your eyes men!

I do this to make light of something that in reality really makes me furious. It has always angered me and been one of the proofs in life that as I observe convince me that religion in general and people specifically are fucked. Here I would make a quip about how we are no better than animals and that we are just clever chimps oppressing slightly different chimps for no real reason. Not today, we are far worse than animals and the irony is that we have God to thank for that. Or rather it is more appropriate to say, we have a certain belief in God to thank for that.

*A disclaimer of sorts: Here we must take note that it is not just a certain belief in God that prompts some to adhere to a strict dress code, but also archaic notions of sexuality and passion that have either been disproven scientifically or fallen out of fashion in most places long ago. It would be unfair to say unequivocally that it’s God’s fault as people believe in Him, or do not, in millions of varied ways.  

Before I began this rant I thought about bringing in the big guns; the philosophers and scriptures on which these beliefs in modest dress are based. I opted against this because it doesn’t matter where the impetus comes from, the problem is the decision taken to impose the belief that women’s bodies are to be hidden because of man’s inability to control his thoughts and actions. It denigrates both women and men. Everyone loses.

I am not ashamed of the human form, nor do I think that we should be. Sexual immorality stems not from the physical, but rather from the inner reaches of the mind, soul, and heart which man or woman chooses to act upon or ignore. Sex is not wrong because it is. Sex is wrong because it is when we are not. That is to say, when we are not in possession of all our faculties and choose to cheat on others or ourselves. Sin derives from that. NOT, as others might fear, from the form. A naked female is intimidating to he that either has never seen her before or has never respected her. It is easier to cover up what we are not prepared to see than to prepare ourselves to see it.

Nor am I advocating we all walk around naked. I am saying what we wear does not matter so much as why we wear it. If you love dresses and neck high blouses then by all means dress that way! For the love of God though (huge irony, I know) don’t do it because you think that’s what’s expected. And PLEASE don’t do it because the man in your life tells you so. I have read in many places and seen firsthand that in many of these systems where dress for women is to some degree prescribed it is because the man deems its right.

That’s really what irritates me most; that a man will say “you need to dress this way because I say so,” and the woman will simply obey. We are both people; man and woman alike and there need not be, should not be a moment where one oppresses the other because in doing so we both lose what we can be if we both help each other reach our fullest potential instead of hinder.

Also it not only makes the woman weak by making her subservient to the man, but also it underscores that man himself is a weak creature. Perhaps even weaker than the woman he feels he must oppress. The entire reasoning for the modest dress in a woman, or at least the most compelling is often that to dress revealing would cause the man to think impure thoughts. This, to me is a travesty; it paints the female body as something sinister which causes man to think uncontrollable thoughts. Yes, men are humans and certain instincts are triggered when presented with a female human. This is natural and not evil. Beyond that, when that passing moment lingers and turns to objectification then that instinct becomes sin. To blame that on women though is absurd! The man is at fault for they are his thoughts. Imposing his will on her is in essence extending his weakness on her as well.

What are your thoughts? Depending on the discussion there will be follow up posts and we can discuss scripture, etc. This was a rant to promote my opinion and hopefully move you to write yours below and open a dialogue, whether we agree or not.

Chasing the Fairy #7

By: Gus Victoria

Light!

A lover’s flame lit,

Fiery comfort

Of a charred memory

Encased in glass

Glowing brightly,

The way leading

To the lost gone

Wandering in wait.

Expectation of Desperation

For a thin faith fled.

They wait alone

Crowded in their solitude,

Pitied before loved,

Keepers and jailers,

Barriers to their own happiness,

Blind to the fire

Of Passion,

Slaves to desire

They cannot posses.