Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts

Friday, October 8, 2010

This religion quiz thing...

Insomnia lead me to take this strange belief quiz (use adblock to be safe) since I don't really have anything else to do, I got this:

1. Liberal Quakers (100%), 2. Unitarian Universalism (96%), 3. Mahayana Buddhism (85%), 4. Neo-Pagan (81%), 5. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (80%), 6. New Age (78%), 7. Theravada Buddhism (75%), 8. Taoism (72%), 9. Orthodox Quaker (72%), 10. Secular Humanism (72%), 11. Baha'i Faith (68%), 12. New Thought (66%), 13. Jainism (64%), 14. Reform Judaism (61%), 15. Hinduism (61%), 16. Scientology (57%), 17. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (52%), 18. Nontheist (50%), 19. Sikhism (48%), 20. Orthodox Judaism (41%), 21. Seventh Day Adventist (38%), 22. Islam (34%), 23. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (33%), 24. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (30%), 25. Jehovah's Witness (22%), 26. Eastern Orthodox (19%), 27. Roman Catholic (19%).

Obviously, I'm not putting any stock into an online quiz for a rather big lifestyle decision, but the results are some what interesting. I've always admired the role that more liberal members of the Society of Friends played in abolition of slavery in America, their Dovish views on conflict are appealing, too.

Jainism has always been interesting to me, though I'm way too mental to ever be a Jain. It requires an incredible amount of discipline and work. Originally I was shocked to see Neo-Paganism so high, but after I thought about it I really wasn't.

The religion I was raised in -- Southern Baptism -- wound up finishing in the relegation places...err, toward the bottom of the pile. Not really shocked by that, there are reasons I left the Church to begin with.

I've been looking at religions for around a year and a half now and I still haven't found one that fits, usually that only happens with clothes.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

So that's where Mark Sanford was, but why are we surprised?

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford cheated on his wife. Hardcore. He didn't cheat on her in South Carolina, he didn't even pop up to North Carolina for a bit of afternoon delight, no, Mark left the freaking continent.

Sanford, who looks like what would happen if you spliced the DNA of Bert with that of a carrot, went AWOL last week but everyone's suspicions were raised when his wife said she "didn't know where he was" but wasn't the least bit worried. Republicans rushed to defend one of their rising stars - Sanford has been listed as a potential Presidential candidate in 2012 - but even they had to know something was amiss. Some spoke of how Sanford was supposedly out hiking, and "being a man, something lubrals (liberals) wouldn't understand". Well, if being a man means leaving the your wife and four children behind while you desecrate your marriage thousands of miles away, I don't know if that's what I want to be.

Now their defense is that Sanford "made a mistake" and that it's "no worse than what Clinton or Edwards did" (ah, the old Slick Willy chestnut), but they're wrong. They're very wrong. The actions of Bill Clinton and John Edwards were nothing short of despicable, no one is doubting that, but Clinton and Edwards never ran on a platform of family values, Christian morals, and never pushed sexual minorities to the fringes of society with their rhetoric. Sanford has made no secret of his distaste for homosexuals, bisexuals, or even sexually active heterosexuals who may not be married. He is going to get a lot of stick for this incident, and he deserves every bit of it. There is no room to defend this hypocritical lying sack of crap, there isn't.

Soon we will hear them climb atop their towers and cry foul of the "liberal media", the same liberal media that includes The State newspaper, Columbia's daily, which received the erotic emails exchanged between Sanford and his lover as early as last December and elected to withhold them, in essence, protecting a conservative official from public scorn. All the outlets are blocked off, Sanford is impossible to defend. You can't blame this one on Obama, who, I may add, is a dedicated husband and father. He's also a Christian. He is what Sanford claimed to be.

Furthermore Sanford was a harsh critic of Bill Clinton and voted for the President's impeachment following his affair in the 1990s. Sanford actually resorted to name calling, though he was never as bad as Lindsay Graham. Sanford may not have lied under court oath, but he did lie. He lied under religious oath to his wife (you know, something about a Preacher, an alter, a Church, lots of people watching), he lied to his family, he lied to his staff, and he lied to South Carolina. By his own standards, he is unfit for leadership.

No, this isn't a good time to jump on Mark Sanford, that happened a long time ago.

One person in the Observer editorial forum asked if we could send NC Gov. Bev Perdue for a hike and transfer Sanford here, you still want that? Bev might be stupid, but she has nothing on Sanford.

I'm not a Democrat, in fact I'm not very fond of them, but thanks to people like Mark Sanford, John Ensign, Larry Craig, and Mark Foley (all supposedly Christian men who ran on a platform of morals only to prove themselves hypocrites) this country is going to become a one party state with the Democrats in charge.

Well, at least the Democrats try. The SC Libertarian party is probably loving this, and they have every right to be. Every right to be.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Finding meaning

In regards to faith, I've always been a bit of a lost sheep. I don't know why, I just never felt like I fit in.

I don't like how my Church (I consider myself a lapsed Baptist, but I'm still Christian) kicks people out often for simply being different, it bothers me. I understand why they do it, but it always seems like they're going after the wrong people. I don't think homosexuals are bad people by birth, they shouldn't be scorned for being the way they are, again, I understand the reasons behind it, but I don't really see how it's rational considering that much worse acts are perpetrated under the banner of the Church. Maybe it's because I'm so liberal about everything.

I've always been a very spiritual person, but I've never been able to understand why I am. Until one day, by chance, Jane spoke to me about her spirituality. She's incredibly admirable in her faith, she attends Church three times a week and is active in other areas as well. I don't think she ever intended to help me, but she ended up doing so. I asked her if I could ask any questions about it when I felt the need to, she said I could, and I have. It's been very helpful to me, I appreciate all she's done with it. It's impossible not to love her once you get to know her well, she's pretty and that helps at first, but it doesn't matter once you find out how genuinely good she is inside.

It's nice that I found someone with similar spiritual beliefs to my own, we disagree on one major point but I look passed it because I know she wants to help me.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Bobby + Caffeine = Very Strange

Today I had a cinnamon dolce iced coffee from Starbucks at the suggestion of "Jam Jam". I'm pretty much naturally wired as is, but caffeine (obviously) takes me to another level. I think everyone at Food Lion thought I was on crack because my eyes were opened so wide and I was really, really jumpy. It was so worth it though, it tasted like I was drinking a cinnamon bun. It even tasted good with soy milk (I'm lactose intolerant). I am so getting another one. I have to call the comment line tomorrow and tell them Janeybean suggested it, hopefully she gets some credit for being such a good ambassador for her employer.

I didn't go to Church today, despite it being Easter Sunday. I don't really think I'm welcome at my Grandparents' Church anyway as I get a lot of strange looks there. From my understanding one of the cornerstones of Christianity has always been acceptance, but it seems that's really drifted away from modern Churches. Technically I'm Southern Baptist, but I guess I have to go with what Jane told me today, just because the rest of my blood is one doesn't mean I am. It doesn't really go along with my Egalitarian beliefs anyway. I am Christian, I just don't like how a lot of Churches are becoming 527 groups.