everybody loves raymond, exhibit c

The final comment left on our FOC blog last summer by dear “Brother Raymond.”

There is really nothing to say except that he missed the point of the story — entirely — because he didn’t even finish it.

I read most of your journey through (FOC) and frankly I could not finish it. (And yet I still have tons of loving opinions about the kind of people you and your husband are.) Truly I think the dangerous people in that situation were you and your husband (Whoops — guess I shouldn’t have gone up and prayed for those two people. They may have caught my “dangerous” cooties.) and you both obviously have a lot of bitterness and need some healing. I find it incredible you both went through this big, demanding drama because you were writing mean things about people and God exposed you. (“God exposed us”? No, Joe did. He misses the whole “anonymous” angle of the thing entirely. I am literally hopeless about people with this rigid unthinking mindset.) What is spoken in darkness will be declared from the rooftops, have you read that saying from Jesus. (I wasn’t speaking in “darkness,” precious, but I was speaking, again, anonymously.) I was a little more sympathetic at firs (I myself don’t waste much sympathy on firs, but to each his own) because I have heard other..really horrible stories about (FOC) but yours was not one of them. (We never claimed it was a “horrible story.”) Actually you made me feel sorry for them having to endure your selfish, sneaky, backbiting behavior that eventually got them all demonized publicly by you. (NOT publicly! AHHHHHHH! It’s the willful ignorance I find so intolerable.) I can tell you this much…I don’t think its Christians that have the problem. I think you need to really…really..truly meet Jesus and get healed so you can love people and not be so mean and petty. I feel sorry for you. Mainly because by your writings you are apparently so blind to your own behaviors, and that you were mad at people who weren’t any worse than you two drama king and queen. I’m sorry people didn’t play patty cake with your fragile ego..but you gotta die to yourself so you can live for Christ. I really am sad for you. I am almost crying because your slander and selfishness is doing harm to others that may seek Jesus, but desire to stay away because of all your raging and bitterness. (Oh, for God’s sake. I hate this argument. So if I write about my own personal experience with Christians at a certain church and it’s not the best experience I’ve ever had, I’ve somehow ruined Jesus?? Churches are flawed. Christians are flawed. If we do nothing but hide the flaws to “protect Jesus” — who doesn’t actually need our protection — we just breed even more flaws, even deeper issues. If a husband and wife, for instance, never speak of any issues between them, the issues compound over time and become much worse. If people want to seek Jesus, they will find Jesus. And the church isn’t Jesus, actually.) I pray you repent and become a servant instead of a sulking, sneaky passive aggressive. (Yeah, it would be nice if that happened.) I am sorry if this is to harsh (Harsh? No! It’s lovely! I’m gonna have “Here lies Tracey, a sulking sneaky passive aggressive” put on my tombstone.) but your I am sorry if this is to harsh but your blog…its shameful. May the Lord forgive you and may you repent to these people.

Matter of fact I wonder if you went public with this stuff just to get attention for yourselves. I saw you created this a month ago..right in the middle of a public FOC meltdown. (Nope. The “FOC meltdown” last summer happened, oh, about 6-7 weeks AFTER our little story went online. But thanks for that unfounded accusation.) I hope that s not why you have done this and I pray it backfires in your face if that’s what you are doing. Crawling on the backs of others to get recognition for yourself is not an attribute of Jesus. (This sentence just strikes me as so funny. Like you’d put that on your dating profile: “I crawl on the backs of others to get recognition, much like Jesus Christ himself.”) If you have issues with what I have said you can freely print them and I will explain to anyone who disagrees with me why your blog is so infuriating and wrong, from a biblical perspective. I know many will accuse me of being a secret (FOC) agent but that’s why I gave you my website. I live in Colorado..married with six kids…and going to Seminary in Denver. (Oh, I have more to tell you about our Brother Raymond, pippa.) I go to a stranger church than (FOC) and work with addicts. I am saying these things not because I have any sympathy for (FOC) but because you call yourself Christians while you try to drag people who attempted to love you through the mud. (Again, it would be super duper helpful to your basic comprehension of events if you’d actually finished reading about said events.) I even have pictures on my website because I have no issues with walking in the light. (Yes, I did get a gander at those.) I do not fear men and I do not take potshots at Then right after, a post later, I saw you got busted and I literally laughed out loud. (This is what’s so interesting to me. I got “busted.” That’s how he sees it. I wrote anonymously about my own experience at a (still) unnamed church, someone outed that, and I deserved to be “busted.” I just can’t understand this mindset. I hope I never do, to be honest.) Yet still you made an insight about people whispering, and you marching over to confront them with their eyes bulging out, and how someone looks when they have been caught. Somehow you made no connection to yourself. You were mad because you got caught and were running around church with your own paranoid eyes bugging out thinking everyone was focused on you. (Hm. I didn’t think “everyone was focused on me” but clearly a few people were for a certain amount of time, based on the empirical evidence.) How arrogant is that, as if you are the center of everyone’s universe. (What? I’m NOT???) It never occurred to you that maybe they didn’t even care and felt sorry for you. You projected all these evil intentions from yourself dear woman. The wicked flee when no one pursues them. (I get it already. You think I’m wicked.) I knew you would deal with it in a petty and mean way by your previous postings. Its sad you cannot see that. (MB and I tried over and over and over to get Joe to talk to us — you know, like it says to do in the Bible. Again, reading the entire story before passing judgment might be a good idea.) I hope you at least have the courage and integrity to post my comments so we can dialog in the light. (Nope. We didn’t post his comments since MB and I decided our Brother Raymond was a tad …… unstable. Someone can disagree with me or take me to task, but if they can’t do it rationally or even coherently, well, I don’t want to engage that. It’s a waste of valuable mental resources.) So far, I feel you are a glory seeker and will not because you are afraid of confrontation (Hahahaha, you clearly do NOT know me) and like to bash people in private. But we’ll see. If you say you know God and hate your brother…your a liar. That’s what John said. (Yes, I know. Thank you. Perhaps you could think on that verse a bit? Just a thought. Not once did I say I hated anyone in this scenario. Not once did I bash anyone’s character in this scenario. I don’t hate anyone in this scenario. I had a huge problem with people’s actions/behaviors/institutional mindsets. I have a huge problem, too, with minds who can’t/won’t make those kinds of distinctions.) I pray you examine your own treatment of believers before you continue to bash them publicly. (Uh, ditto?) I actually thought it was awesome when God outed you. (So you’ve said.) I was so upset with your arrogance and belittling behavior I sent you a comment.

And Brother Raymond exits, pursued by a bear.

Here’s the thing about Ray:

Brother Raymond is, essentially, a street preacher. A few years ago, he believed he’d heard the call of God to walk across the country all the way to New York City, preaching the word of God along the way, standing on street corners, lovingly yelling at people to repent, come to Jesus, etc., because 911 was just God’s warning to us, a harbinger of worse to come. All of this is very effective stuff, modeled on how most churches and pastors share the gospel, of course, which is why the streets in New York City are always so crowded. Just too many street preachers reaching the lost.

His wife and 6 children did not accompany him on this task. No. He left them at home while he trudged across America, straightening out his priorities with every step. I mean, one assumes.

Brother Raymond and his friend Brother Elliott even made a series of fascinating videos about their quest and how 911 inspired all their work for the Lord.

You can start the viewing here.

Break out the popcorn, pippa.

everybody loves raymond, exhibit b

Comment 2 from Brother Raymond. This was on one of the “Perky Bob” posts.

He is wery wery disappointed with me.

As I read this my emotions flicker through me like a power point slideshow. Click, sadness, click anger, click frustration. I am trying to hold myself together because the way you view these people is so unreal, so unloving. Your degrading nicknames and scorn (“Perky Bob”?? Aren’t there a lot worse things a person could be called?) , what were you expecting here? You see people that are weak and smash them emotionally. Proverbs say the wicked find no good in their neighbor. (Okay. This is what scares me. This mindset that makes such HUGE leaps in thought. Calling Perky Bob “Perky Bob” is in NO way the same as finding “no good” in him. He was actually a nice man, just too perky and too ….. much for us at the time. And it’s nice to see that he’s finding so much good in me, no?) So you go to church running on emotional fumes, obviously full of gall and bitterness, expecting…what? Other broken people to give you the answers to the reason why some Christians seem so out of touch with reality? (Hm. Why DO some Christians seem so out of touch with reality, Brother Raymond?) A hug, some hot coco, a foot rub? (Don’t mean to be wicked, but it’s actually cocoA, and my answers are: no, yes, and yes.) What irritates me most is you wrote this stuff BEFORE you had your bad experience. (Yes, because some stuff happened before other stuff. Damn you, time!) So you were already slandering these people in your heart (There it is again. That weird, off-kilter definition of slander. How is something anonymous “slander”? Are you sure you don’t go to an FOC church, Ray?? Some Christians view slander as any questioning of anything church and /or Christian related), and on your blog way before they disappointed you. If I was Bob and I read this post I would be heartbroke. (Because I am, naturally, using his real name, posting his face and mine and sending him the link to this FOC blog so he knows I’m referring to him) You just don’t seem to get it. Maybe the reason you have had so many horrible experiences with others is because you draw spirits that are like yourself. It is God showing you yourself manifest in another person and you loath yourself so much you loath them. (WOW. Also: I cannot keep correcting your spelling. It’s a full-time job.) Honestly, if you truly loved Christ you should dump this blog..re write your experience with a little more grace toward others if you need to tell the world how mistreated you have been, and let it go. You are doing, by these writings, exactly what you claim to burn with righteous hatred against. (I know for a fact that I have never said I “burn with righteous hatred” against anything, although my crankypants are frequently tight) Its like passive aggressive full assault because you couldn’t just be real (???) with these people. I pray you repent of this evil. (Again, WOW.) I don’t know if I can even finish this blog. I am trying to learn about the movement but its hard to see through all the self-aggrandizement, false humility, and put downs. All from a person who is to cowardly to show her own face on her blog case someone gave you a nice nickname that was degrading based on your appearance. (What are you even TALKING about?? You know, I love those nice but also degrading nicknames. What?) Please stop this. It is an affront to Christ and shameful. I hope someone doesn’t put all your dirt of front street because by the sounds of it you might totally break down. (Where is Front Street?) Or maybe someone did and that’s why your so bitter but why return the evil and do it here. I don’t even know these people and it angers me to see you savage them (“Perky” is savage? Saying that I didn’t want to go to lunch with a total stranger is savage??) …maybe just because I know they may be Christians in need of more grace than you are willing to give.

Yowza, yamahama, and amen.

More to come. Soon, his head explodes.

everybody loves raymond, exhibit a

During the time we had our FOC blog up and running — all of about 3 months last summer — we became acquainted with a fellow who called himself Brother Raymond. He found our story and began commenting, or more accurately, ranting and lambasting me.

Oh, he hated me.

HARD.

But he also apparently hated the written word since he seemed to butcher it with callous regularity. His ire towards me had a snowball effect. He became angrier and more babbling and incoherent with each successive comment.

I’m posting his comments here and not password protecting them. If you didn’t read the saga, you may be at a bit of a loss, but not much of one.

Here is his first comment, from early on in our story. This is Brother Raymond at his calmest and most rational.

(More comments to follow. My comments in italics.)

I have been wounded by many Churches myself, as has my wife, and I have come to realize that Paul warned us that the last days would be perilous times, Jesus wondered if when he came he would find faith on the earth, and hypocrisy has been rampant through Christian history hence Jesus warning us about the tares and the goats. I also wondered how you would have reacted if some of the members walked up to you in sunglasses, (I would have thought nothing of the sunglasses, actually) refused your invitations to lunch, (I would have figured they had reasons they preferred not to go) quizzed you intensely on your spiritual beliefs as soon as they met you etc. (Where he finds in the story that either of us did this, I do not know. I asked the pastor some questions related to the church, not about his personal beliefs. If a pastor can’t handle those questions, he shouldn’t be a pastor.) It seems you think that the body of Christ should be able to read your mind and tip toe around your many issues. I stopped being surprised a long time ago when Christians don’t act according to their profession. (Uh, this is where we hugely differ, Ray. Christianity is not a profession, nor should it be.) As I have journeyed through Seminary I have wept over the reality that I don’t fit in and will probably have a hard time pastoring a church (ah, I see, it is a profession for you) because of the many things I resist within Christendom that I feel is unchristian (Like rampant militarism and patriotism). I do not give up though and whenever I walk into a new church I watch, I pray, I ask God how I can serve the people around me no matter if they are strong, hypocritical, loving or weak. I seek Jesus to lead me and expect to be slandered, misrepresented and possibly kicked out eventually. I know, its sad, but I love people and I am determined never to separate from others but walk in the light I have been given and let them separate from me while giving as much mercy and grace as I can. (Here’s what I do, Ray: I steer clear of TELLING people the ways in which I am a good Christian. That’s not for ME to say. I think that’s for others to say of us — or not.) I don’t know where you are at in your spiritual life now but there was great healing needed in your life. I am sorry you have been hurt by Christians. Cursed is the man who trust in man Jeremiah said. We are to lay down our lives for others and let Jesus be our guide. How do yo think Jesus felt in a corrupt religious system, rejected by the people he helped CREATE? Everyone forsook Him. You seem very self centered in your writing, judgmental, and looking for a reason to reject people who are trying to love you the best way they know how. (This one knocked me flat for a long time because there is truth in this. I AM self-centered and judgmental. I don’t think I look for reasons to reject people, so I won’t own that one.) We are to fellowship with others, bear the scruples of the weak, be slow to wrath, great in mercy, and desiring to be least among men and servants of all. When you are truly born again you die with Christ. It seems there is alot of flesh that needs to die, according to your writing, where you can see people as Jesus sees them. I always tell my wife we have to extend the same grace we desire others to extend to us. Yet, in none of your writings does it seem you desire to give people mercy, love and service you just pick apart their character flaws while wondering when people are going to serve you. (I thought about this one a long time, too. I need more mercy and love, that’s true; however, I don’t think the story picks apart people’s “character flaws.” I steer clear of making proclamations about people’s character in our saga. Even Joe. I talk about people’s BEHAVIOR/ACTIONS and my reactions to them. I did that deliberately because I think it’s important to make a distinction between character and actions. I even said that IN the story — the two are not always synonymous. Very good people are capable of behaving very badly in a given moment or given period of time.) It saddens me that so many people jump from church to church, looking to get their needs met or entertained (hm, I wish I HAD been entertained) rather than being led by God to serve a group. When I ask people why they go to their church its hardly ever that Jesus led them there but “I like the music”, “The preaching is great”, “Our pastor is a superstar”. If Jesus leads you to a place you just jump in and start serving without all the neurotic mental gymnastics you seem to be performing trying to protect yourself and pick people apart. (not to pick apart your character or anything) Sister, I pray you get healed, I pray Jesus becomes you center, and I pray you find a place where you can serve others without caring about self, reputation or what your going to get out of it. Don’t go to church be the church. In Christ, In Love, (yes, I do feel loved) Brother Raymond.

I sat for a long time with the things he said to me and he’s right on certain things. There are things in my character I will always struggle with. I will always struggle with being, well, kind of an asshole on too many levels. And this isn’t me, channeling my inner Baldy (head of the FOC) false humilityâ„¢ and saying, “I’m the worst sinner I know.” I don’t think I am, frankly, which is where that judgmental thing kicks in, I guess. But I’m not offended by his opinion of me. No, I’m actually offended at his preachiness and incoherence and broad brush of things. He writes macro. He pronounces and declares and declaims. He forms conclusions about things without being at the conclusion of things. That’s what bothers me. There’s a certain type of Christian who will form conclusions with inadequate information, without the full story, or without even personally experiencing something. Oh, like the people who refused to see The Last Temptation of Christ years ago — which we saw and had great discussions about — or the people who refused to read Harry Potter — which we both read and loved. These people will take hearsay or snippets of information culled from various “acceptable” sources and form what they think is a fully formed opinion based on half-formed ideas. I have no respect for that. GO SEE The Last Temptation of Christ THEN form an opinion. READ Harry Potter AND THEN have your say.

You know, sometimes, I start reading a book and don’t like it. Last year, I read what I now consider to be one of my favorite books of all time, Villette, by Charlotte Bronte. But honestly, at the beginning I didn’t like it, I contemplated stopping, I just wasn’t getting it. There were two choices: keep reading or stop. I kept reading and slowly and in a huge breathtaking way, my opinion changed. I went from total apathy to absolute love in the course of, oh, 300 pages, but beyond that, I’d earned the right to have an opinion because I’d finished the story.

So FINISH the story, dude.

If you hate me when it’s over, so be it.

Because then I would say you’d honestly earned that hatred of me.

easter freeze frame #2

Banshee Girl, our 4-year-old boozehound, looking vague and bombed, sipping the Easter brunch screwdriver that’s clearly being handed to her by some other older boozehound.

Witness the guilty enabling hand!

So sad. Shameful, really. I would have intervened but, eh, I was drunk and her end of the table was really far away.

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easter freeze frame

My dad took the whole family to brunch on Easter Sunday. We sat, all 14 of us, under filtered sunlight in a lovely but slightly too warm atrium. Banshee Boy, whom we now call Happy Jack, was dressed up in his Easter duds, looking almost like a little man if it weren’t for those perfectly round, perfectly smooth, perpetually flushed cheeks. He sat in the highchair the server brought for him and ate torn-off pieces of waffle or pancake or whatever he could stuff in his always smiling, 4-toothed mouth.

He was such a good little boy. Frankly, I always cringe when I’m in a restaurant and diners sitting near me have a baby or a toddler. My thriving inner curmudgeon waits for the screaming or the crying or the food throwing to begin. Once those things do happen, as my inner curmudgeon predicted and possibly even willed just so I’d have something to curmudge about, I scowl openly at the parents who don’t take the child outside or discourage wasteful pancake throwing.

But Happy Jack did none of those things.

Okay. Sure, he did — every few minutes — glance around our table, blue eyes bright with glee, and let out a short little crow of delight that was, yes, a bit loud and kind of high-pitched, but it wasn’t distress or anger or frustration. It didn’t precede a bout of waffle throwing or highchair thrashing. No, the kid would smile big enough to break his apple cheeks and just ….. crow. It was more like a little screech of joy. My brother would dutifully shush him, but the outbursts weren’t sustained enough to necessitate his removal and they weren’t tantrums either. It was just a mini eruption, done with such obvious delight that the diners around us began to smile too. They would poke each other, chuckle, and point to the roly poly little boy in his highchair, expressing his happiness in the only way he could think of:

By crowing.

He actually became quite a popular figure in that lovely but slightly too warm atrium.

And here is our Happy Jack, caught mid crow:

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i also have strong opinions about ….

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Banshee Boy and Girl experiencing his first snow a few weeks ago.

It …… was not his favorite thing so far in his 14 months of life.

(And, Banshee Girl? “Polo Princess”? Whaddup widdat?? Must have gotten that from the other side of the family.)

“liking” the bible is both good and bad

Since I was exhorted not to be “so one-sided” in my view on this, I have edited my “liking” post to temper my virulently opinionated stance. If you haven’t read that post, then this post will have NO, zip, zero context at all.

Come see the softer more Jekyll and Hyde side of me in this so much better post. I mean, it’s important to try to understand and represent opposing points of view and not be so opinionated on one’s own blog …. right?

So, okay, here ya go.

_________________________________________________________

Be forewarned: Crankypants ON.

Or OFF.

I’ve started to see something disturbing but also uplifting in my alter ego wanderings on Facebook. Well, the whole thing is pretty disturbing but also uplifting; still, let’s narrow the field here.

Okay. Here I go. Unedited crank mixed with wonderment.

So. Tell me:

Why do some FB Christians need to say they “like” the Bible or that the Bible is one of their favorite books? I mean, isn’t that kind of a given? But I’m glad they do it because if they didn’t, how would I know if they like the Bible or not for sure? And don’t most of your FB friends already assume this about you, that you like the Bible? Then again, we shouldn’t assume because, as we know, it makes that bad word out of you and me. If a person is a Christian, this would imply that the Bible, the” handbook,” essentially, for Christians, is something that they like or is one of their favorite books which is awesome and precious. They go hand in hand, don’t they? A Bible and a Christian? How can you live as a Christian and not like-love-need the Bible? Did I mention that I like-love-need the Bible? Saying so is stating the obvious and stating the obvious is boring and sometimes fun. It’s like saying, “I’m a human and I like air” or “I’m a man and I like sex. But maybe I don’t if I’m too tired or dead.”

Really? Wow. I am gobsmacked. Humans like air?? Men like sex — if they’re not too tired or dead?? Christians like the Bible????

This is totally new information!! But not really, now that I think about it!!

I shall write these things down. They seem like good things to know that I did not previously know. I know!!!

Frankly, if a Christian doesn’t like the Bible, I’d have to at least put an asterisk by their personal label of “Christian” or perhaps a frowny face. 🙁

It all strikes me as something Christians do in kneejerk response to either real or perceived expectations of what constitutes godliness but expectations give you something to strive for and that’s not bad. If I “like” the Bible, I will seem godly to others and I need to seem godly to others whether or not I actually am OR If I like the Bible I might inspire other people and make them happy. It strikes me, too, as something Christians do for other Christians to avoid criticism and judgment from said other Christians. If I put the Bible as one of my favorite books, I might be spared judgment of my Christianity OR I don’t personally know any judge-y Christians so I know this won’t happen to me.

Christians are as good at judging others as non-Christians, maybe even better, but what they’re really better at is not judging. In my experience anyway.

You need to face it: Jesus isn’t impressed if you “like” the Bible on FB or list it as a favorite book, but he is impressed if you DO do it. I don’t think it earns you special points or rewards in heaven, but I don’t know for sure so it probably does. Rather like a Jesus fish on a car, which is also a good way to tell people about Jesus. Who cares? Everyone does! What eternal difference does it make? Will the Lord say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant, for taking 2 seconds to ‘like’ my book on FB”? He might and that would be awesome! How does it move anyone towards Jesus in a genuine or redemptive way? Will someone accept Jesus as Lord because you “liked” the Bible on your FB page? Not too likely. Then again, I know of 37 people who did that exact thing. It’s simply misguided but also smart to do these things thinking they make some kind of eternal difference.

And if you’re a parent feeling compelled to do it so your kids can see you do it, I’d say that if your kids can’t see from the way you live and love them that you “like” the Bible, “liking” it on FB won’t make one eensy bit of difference to them — ever, although I can’t use the word “eensy” with total certainty. I’m sure there are plenty of Bible-“liking” parents on FB who treat their kids like crap just like there might be some Bible “unliking” parents who treat their kids like kings and queens, but I doubt it. 🙁

I hate this kind of thing but I also love it. I hate it because it’s cheap virtue but I also love it because it’s expensive vice. It weighs less than a feather in the scales of eternity, then again, I haven’t ever seen the eternal scales and if they’re anything like my doctor’s scales, then everything weighs A LOT. It says Look at me! Proving my goodness by pressing a button! But it also says Don’t look at me! I haven’t pressed anything! I hate it too because it strikes me as so kneejerk and unthinking whilst simultaneously being deliberate and analytical. Christians who do this don’t think about why they’re actually doing this or what meaning (ahem, zero or infinite) it really has. They just do it. These kinds of “likings” that Christians do on FB – and I’ve railed about them before but I’m too lazy and energetic and ranting and joyful right now to make a link – strike me almost as a form of Christian OCD. Really, they do. I honestly think the Christians who “like” Christian things on FB can’t NOT do it, but there are probably also times when they can’t not NOT do it. If they’ve liked XYZ Christian thing on FB, I’d bet the recent Lotto jackpot they wouldnot/couldnot go back to that page and unlike XYZ Christian thing without feeling guilty or in serious eternal trouble.

Or they would and could, which is also valid.

It’s annoying and endearing. And kind of frightening but welcoming to me, actually.

So I’d like to offer a hypothetical to these Christians:

Let’s say, for example, that JRR Tolkien is your only FB friend. Yes, he’s dead, but for the sake of this example, he’s come back from the dead, he’s not a zombie, although he might be, he’s your friend in real life and, again, he’s your only FB friend. Given that scenario, would you then “like” his “Lord of the Rings” trilogy or list it among your favorite books on your FB page? Ol’ undead possible zombie Tolkien is the only one who would see this. Wouldn’t doing that strike you as odd and unnecessary and kinda needy, but also normal and necessary and pretty wealthy? Since you’re real life friends, wouldn’t he already know your opinion of his books? Then again, he’s probably a zombie egomaniac, like all artists, so it’s a good idea to cover your ass in this way so he doesn’t eat your brains or your ass. Don’t you think the books would have come up between you at some point? Although I wouldn’t bring them up now, what with the possible zombie thing and all. So why would “liking” them be necessary, for your sake or his, but as I’ve just mentioned if he might be a zombie and you piss him off by not doing it, that won’t go well for you, my unliking friend.

To follow my analogy, if Jesus were your only FB friend, would you “like” the Bible or put it as a favorite book? If those things are true for you – that you like the Bible, that it’s among your favorite books — Jesus already knows that, doesn’t he? Then again, couldn’t hurt to stroke the divine ego. If we can agree or disagree that that is or isn’t the case, then it would be completely unnecessary or necessary for you to do it, right? Actually, liking the Bible just for your friend Jesus’s sake strikes me as a bit of an insult or compliment to the omniscience of the Lord of the universe, depending, I guess, on his mood that day. Hm. I’m not suuure Jesus knows this, so I’d better tell him, in case that whole knowing everything dealio is starting to slip.

Or not.

Really, it shows a lack of faith but at the same time tremendous faith in his omniscience or ignorance if you feel the need to state this for his benefit.

Oh ye of little or much faith!

But if this scenario isn’t true for you, if Jesus isn’t your only FB friend, then for whom are you doing this?

NOT Jesus, who may/may not know it already. Not yourself, because, uhh, you know it already. But maybe you don’t and that’s really the rub here.

That only leaves ….. other people. Right?

Other people frankly don’t care except that they do care very much. I’m sorry, but they really don’t not care. And if you have a FB friend who actually would confront you about the fact that you haven’t “liked” the Bible yet or listed it as a favorite book, first, you probably go to an FOC church or don’t go to church at all and, second, you need to unfriend said “friend” immediately because life’s too short for that kind of friend and, besides, you have all eternity to love him ….. later, not now, unless you go to hell where there ain’t no lovin’ no how.

Come on, FB Christians. Don’t “like” the Bible for a show. Do it for MONEY.

God already knows or not whether you do or you don’t.

That’s all that matters or ultimately doesn’t matter which is what this is really all about.

out of town

Hey, pippa, I’m out of town with limited Internet access. Will post later in the week.

friday jolly

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(Banshee Boy on the trampoline with Tee Tee)

In case you haven’t noticed, I have a terrible incurable crush. He is the jolliest baby I have ever seen.