The Good
For those who might not have caught it, over on Incongruous Circumspection there was a very detailed account (in their own words) of a husband and wife pastoral/cult leader team whose position and power had, to put it mildly, gone to their heads. Here's a link to Part 1. Be sure to check out the whole series. Eye-opening. Lots of other good stuff there, too.
Libby Anne has a fairly new blog dealing with her own journey to freedom from P/QF. Many of you already know of her blog, but for those of you who don't, check it out. Very articulate writer and she'll challenge you to think.
Particularly in the south, hokey church marquees are part of the culture. I can drive 15 minutes in any direction and see a whole litany of cheese - and I live waaaay out in the woods. Lucky for us, there's a blog which is gathering photos of the cheese-fests. Check out Crummy Church Signs. My personal favorite there - "Staying in bed, shouting "Oh God!", does not constitute going to church."
A thank you to Sara for sending me a link to the following video...
I know, dude. I know. Poor guy.
The Bad
The Botkins Sisters are gearing up to write another book. How in the world would they know anything about this topic? To my knowledge, neither has dated or "courted", so all they'll be doing is parroting the ideas of others - but their followers will lap it up and treat it as holy writ.
A thank you to JR for sending a link to the following...
I loathe when people ultra-spiritualize what should be a practice of common sense.
And here we have another naive, fundamentalist teenager with no real experience (but a lot of indoctrination) giving free advice. You'll get exactly what you pay for.
The Ugly
Quite possibly the worst song I've ever heard...
I found it over at Jesus Needs New PR. Lord knows I've been called to play on records full of "home-made" songs, so for me to say it's bad, well...It ranks right up there with a demo I once received for a tune called "His First Name Is 'God', but His Last Name's Not 'Damn'". Watching this, after a while, all I could think was, "His arms have got to be getting tired."
I first saw the following video about 20 years ago - and it was probably the hardest I've ever laughed. Pretty much every Christian music artist in the country had a copy of this on their bus way back when. Some of you may find this offensive and sophomoric (and granted, it may be sophomoric - but it's funny, so lighten up). For those who don't know who this guy is...he's a well documented fraud, once having had plastic surgery on his face because he'd "spent so much time laying upon prayer requests that the ink in the paper seeped into his skin and forced him to have the surgery". Enjoy, or, if you're easily offended, avoid...
Editorial and commentary on Christian culture, religious and political fundamentalism, and more.
Crap. Now I have to finish the series. On to Act 10!
ReplyDeletehttp://becomingahopefulromantic.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteMore of the bad. "God's Daughter" is, unfortunately, in my own blog circle. I read her posts, and get sick to my stomach.
The link I posted above is even worse, however. More brainwashed "thoughts" from a girl who is only parroting her parents and "spiritual leaders," if you can even call them that.
IC really has hit the nail on the head with his blog...I love when he has a new post up, and I can't wait to read more of the saga of weirdness!
Oh my word, another Botkin book. Part of me looks forward to reading it for the laughs, but the other part of me cringes because I know that there are girls out there who will believe whatever it says. I've seen the horrible damage Debi Pearls' Created To Be His Helpmeet can cause. This is no different.
ReplyDeleteI find the entire evangelical/fundamentalist/P/QF view of relationships to be rotten inside and out. There seems to be a continuum - from I Kissed Dating Goodbye to the new Botkin book - but it's all based on the same flawed premises, glorifying virginity above all else, demonizing sex and sexual thoughts, and spreading a fear of giving away "pieces of your heart." And it's all so very wrong.
Oh, and thanks for plugging my blog!
IC: *chuckling out loud, to the annoyance of my kids*
ReplyDeleteSeeing as the Botkin girls and boys are all under the authority of their father wouldn't it be a lot more honest if the book the girls are "writing" came out under his name?
ReplyDeleteOh but it won't because no matter that they are just parroting his views, because they aren't allowed any of their own, the girls are the family money makers.
(The cynic in me says this is why neither has been married off yet, the loss of income)
2:54 is my favorite part of the Farting preacher. I remember my brother showing this to me about 12 years ago and I about bust a gut laughing. I don't remember which Farting preacher video it's on but the best one ever is where he's talking about baking a loaf of heavenly bread and can you smell it? HAHAHA!
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm with Jane. I also wonder if the reason the Botkin sisters aren't married yet is because they're the family cash cows.
Honestly, when I read the God's Daughter post you linked to, what I see is an idealistic teenager. Yes, she needs to continue to grow up; but I think she'll be able to do that best if she finds friends who are willingly to lovingly show her where she needs to mature, and walk the journey with her.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a teenager, I could have wrote a very similar blog (from a guy's perspective). God's brought me a long way since then, but it has taken growing up on my part to get here.
As someone who has always had a heart for teenagers (and will soon be a teacher!), I think we need to give all them a bit of grace - the overly idealistic ones need it as much as the rebellious ones do.
Blessings,
Ben
Oh good, I was just thinking yesterday that there really aren't enough courtship books available on the market. /sarcasm
ReplyDeleteI mean seriously, they all say the same things so, whats the point?
LOL!!!!
ReplyDelete1st video- poor guy all balled up reading a book was once upon a time my DH, and no, I did not throw myself at him like that.
I loved that the pastor got pie.
2nd Vid... sounds like some young women's life groups I've been to. All it takes is a few people burned to develop a doctrine and teach anyone naive enough to listen.
3rd Vid... my eyes! my ears! His shirt says "Aloha" - and he has teeth of a pirate!
4th Vid... with that much gas, I'm surprised he didn't have a distended beer belly to match. That's a lot of air to be holdin' in.
God's daughter is spot on with how teenagers flirt through observation. I was in a home school group, we did have girls from public school flirting with our guys - this is so true. I had girls calling me at odd hours crying because so and so boy didn't visit her when he was in town after she spent an entire YEAR flirting and wanting his attention. Without saying "I like you." Poor clueless guy didn't know the broken hearts he was leaving in his wake.
ReplyDeleteGD's idea of what to do with the information is wrong.
But dealing with teenager's ideas of how to deal with relationships and the really mismatched drives with life situation is a real thing, and something I have compassion for.
The church has tried their best to manufacturer a way for teens to "wait" until they are mature enough to marry with idealistic sounding material because teen agers are drawn to idealism it makes them hopeful. If you just feed them cynism - you get really cynical teenagers.
I agree there are other ways to address it but as of right now no one has begun the process of satisfying the need.
"Staying in bed, shouting "Oh God!", does not constitute going to church." - That would depend on what church you go to (grins). Oh, and I think the girl in the christian dating video needs to dress more modestly (sarcastic grin).
ReplyDeletehahaha, loved the "Christian dating" video.
ReplyDeleteWhat's a guy to do?
LOVE the dating video!!
ReplyDeleteAs for the Botkins....ugh......
Lolz at Pastor Gas. That face must be his "I'm hearing from the Holy Spirit" face. A former pastor of mine would also scruch his eyes shut like that AND hold up one hand. It looked like it was his spiritual antennae. Sometimes the reception must not have been good, as he had to squint harder and longer than at other times. Too funny.
ReplyDelete