Crazy Fundamentalist Relationship Letters

[sketerpot]

Perhaps later today, I'll transcribe "Bad Bob", the story of how thirty seconds of pornography at age 13 and the immodesty of women around him make a man's life living hell. In the meanwhile, the people who wrote this book are also the people who wrote Pornography: The Road to Hell. Enjoy.

The final page is the best. I love the part where it says that if you use porn, God will damn the souls of your children. Classy.

What gets me is that these guys just pulled that out of their asses. They sprinkled a few Bible quotes in, but really they're just making up idiotic bullshit and foisting it on people in the name of God. I'm amazed that anybody falls for it.

[The Spartan]

I'm amazed that anybody falls for it.

You have to remember that many Christian communities, especially the ones that tend towards fundy level, create a great deal of pressure on people to accept the word of someone like a preacher or Bible scholar at face value. The result is that if someone says something and quotes scripture the person in question will often simply accept what they say without comparing it with other portions of the Bible to get a "clearer" picture. To say nothing of actually thinking logically...

I know I did that on numerous occasions in my fundy past.

[Kanastrous]

I had a series of long, interesting conversations with a PA who belonged to some kind of awful fringey fundamentalist congregation, who told me in all seriousness that their pastor told them to avoid reading scripture for themselves because attempts to interpret the text were opportunities for Shaitan to ensnare you by appealing to your 'intellectual pride.'

Needless to say, this went triple for any text outside of the Bible itself.

[Junghalli]

I had a series of long, interesting conversations with a PA who belonged to some kind of awful fringey fundamentalist congregation, who told me in all seriousness that their pastor told them to avoid reading scripture for themselves because attempts to interpret the text were opportunities for Shaitan to ensnare you by appealing to your 'intellectual pride.'

But apparently the pastor himself was in no such danger. How interesting.

"Don't try thinking for yourself, it's an opportunity for SATAN to TEMPT YOU! Just think what I tell you to think!"

[darthdavid]

What makes it especially ironic is that it's that exact attitude that was one of the motivating factors for Protestants to split off from the Catholic church in the first place...

[Darth Wong]

What makes it especially ironic is that it's that exact attitude that was one of the motivating factors for Protestants to split off from the Catholic church in the first place...

That attitude is actually more logically consistent than the "read the Bible and draw your own conclusions" position, since Biblical authority itself was originally based on an appeal to the authority of the church hierarchy and its judgment about what was or wasn't "correct" theology. They decided which Gospels belonged in the Bible, after all. That makes them Chief Editor of the Bible, and if that's the case, then why shouldn't they be able to say how it's supposed to be interpreted? How can someone adopt the opposite opinion, which is that they were inerrant and guided by God at the moment they made those choices but their authority evaporated one second later?

[Junghalli]

That attitude is actually more logically consistent than the "read the Bible and draw your own conclusions" position, since Biblical authority itself was originally based on an appeal to the authority of the church hierarchy and its judgment about what was or wasn't "correct" theology. They decided which Gospels belonged in the Bible, after all. That makes them Chief Editor of the Bible, and if that's the case, then why shouldn't they be able to say how it's supposed to be interpreted? How can someone adopt the opposite opinion, which is that they were inerrant and guided by God at the moment they made those choices but their authority evaporated one second later?

Well, you could try to seek out all the original, pre-edited material, but that would take a lot of research and some of it is probably lost anyway. And you'll probably have a harder time with the "it's all true, even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff" problem if you decide to go that route.

[Adrian Laguna]

Well, you could try to seek out all the original, pre-edited material, but that would take a lot of research and some of it is probably lost anyway. And you'll probably have a harder time with the "it's all true, even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff" problem if you decide to go that route.

The interesting thing is that there are more Christian texts that did not make into into the Bible than there are in the Bible itself. And that is only what has survived to the present day, which means that back during early Christianity there probably was enough material for dozens and dozens of New Testaments, each with its own unique message.

My personal favourite are Gnostic texts, which were written by a sect that gave a critical look at the Old Testament and realized that the God who created the universe is one evil and petty motherfucker. The still hailed Jesus of Nazareth as a sort of saviour, but not due to being the Son or Prophet of God, but rather more as a Buddah-like character, someone who serves as guide to the truths of the universe.

It's a real pity they did not become mainstream, because their doctrines were fairly materialistic. A religion that actually encouraged inquiry into the nature of the material world would have been much better than the Christianity we actually got. Not to mention that in their texts Mary Magdalene was an Apostole rather than a prostitute, and an Apostole especially beloved by Christ at that. That would have had wide repercussions in terms of how women were treated.