Quick update

[briarwood]

I had fun at Mardi Gras on Saturday. It's becoming a very young event, which is good in a lot of ways. I saw a lot of straight kids accompanying their gay friends. They'll be the generation, I hope, who will finally give us complete equality, because it won't make sense to them that it was every any other way.

On the downside, I was asked four times on Saturday whether I'd accepted Jesus. What is it about these events that's a brainwashed-berk-magnet? Do these people really believe slinging verbal abuse in the streets is going to convert anyone to their way of thinking? Oh, sorry. Of never, ever thinking. I walk through Cardiff city centre most weekends and I've never been God-squadded like that. I'm afraid I rather lost my temper with the fourth woman. I shouldn't have said anything but, fuck, I was tired and wanted to go home and was bloody sick of those idiots.

Religious evangelism should be banned. I really fucking mean that. These jerks spread hate everywhere and justify it in the name of religion.

I wish I was the kind of witch you see on TV: I'd turn 'em all into the sheep they are. And throw in some mint sauce. Grr.

In brighter news, I've almost finished the fic I'm working on. Almost... One scene and a hell of a lot of editing to go.

Saturday's movie was Hallum Foe and I will post a review of it, just as soon as I figure out what I think of it. It's...um...a strange film about a very strange kid.

Comments

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

Do these people really believe slinging verbal abuse in the streets is going to convert anyone to their way of thinking?

IIRC there was a great discussion of this on Slacktivist a year or two ago, including many recovering fundamentalists.

The upshot is no, they're not really doing it to convert you, though that's what they tell themselves. They're doing it because status in their group requires that they spend a certain amount of time "witnessing" and "spreading the Word". They get "points" for trying, even if their methods are actively repelling people from Christianity. That repulsion even helps their group cohesion, because then they can feel all special and misunderstood, scorned by the World/Flesh/Devil.

[gardendoor.livejournal.com]

They get "points" for trying, even if their methods are actively repelling people from Christianity. That repulsion even helps their group cohesion, because then they can feel all special and misunderstood, scorned by the World/Flesh/Devil.

That's a very valid point. I think you've hit the nail on the head.

[gardendoor.livejournal.com]

I never know what to do with evangelicals. They don't listen when you tell them that the phrasing in the bible at Mount Sinai suggests that the Creator spoke to everyone in the voice they could hear, and I'm listening to my voice as deeply as they're listening to theirs. I feel bad about using logic or their own source texts to cut them down to size, but they just won't let you say, "We'll have to agree to disagree" and walk away. I generally tell them that I respect Jesus's teachings as much as I respect Martin Luther King's, or Ghandi's, but I don't feel compelled to worship any of them. If they keep pushing, I point out that between them, Moses and Elijah did all the same miracles attributed to Jesus, and we don't worship them.

Sometimes I'm very tempted to be a real ass and tell them that as a fellow Jew, Jesus is basically my cousin, and I don't worship my cousins.