Gideon response II

I was going to post about Deborah Butterfield, and wildness and time and order. And also about Bruce Droppings, since has elected to quit this ethereal blogosphere and concentrate on his real life and will be sorely missed, by me at least. However, Gideon came back, and I am most certain my response here will be too long for a comment.

Let that be a lesson to you lurkers! :) If your comments are lengthy and impassioned, I will respond, no matter the nature of said passion!



Your French is a tad disjointed, girl, but, I got the message... same to you.

XD Aye, disjointed it is; serves me right for trying to use a language I only learned in high school. And trying to quote The Truman Show at the same time.

Would you mind letting me know how to find your current blog, or is that not part of the purpose for which you created it?

And I see there that you chose to continue telling me your opinion of Lorena after I'd requested you not do so. Certainly, the choice of what to type or not type is yours to make.

I lose no sleep over anything that I say, or, is said to me. It's just text... period.

Your comma usage is a little disjointed, but I think I get your meaning. Words are just words, yes? Sticks and stones may break Gideon's bones, but words will never hurt him. And if other people get hurt by words you say, you don't worry about it either. Gideon is not his brother's keeper, eh?

You are a fence-sitter, Lex. You imagine your neutrality as something superior. Sooner or later, you will be called upon to take a stand.

And you, Gideon, are on the biggest high-horse I've seen in many a year. This is twice now that I've seen you make broad sweeping assertions about an individual's character, thoughts, imaginings etc. based solely on a few thousand words of text and your own personal biases.

Are you sure you're not a secret Discordian? Your troll persona invites comparison with that of The Good Reverend Roger for its potential to generate sheer flame. Dear dog, you are wasted, simply wasted among the Christians!

At any rate, it is not the case that I am neutral, nor is it the case that I imagine my stance to be something superior. I will explain both of these statements.

Firstly, I am in favor of Christianity properly carried out, and at the same time I am a fuming, foaming, irascible opponent of Christianity twisted to evil, selfish purposes, such as you have done. You, sir, are the classic example of the "Christian" who, from what I observe:

--talks himself into believing his own personal biases are the Will of God Almighty
--uses those personal biases to bully and demean others into attacking or fleeing from him
--rests replete on a cushion of self-righteousness, believing that he has forced wicked sinners into revealing their own wickedness.

You reveal nothing except that people scream when they are stabbed. And then you congratulate yourself on your cleverness in wearing stab-proof armor to something that was supposed to be a bareknuckle boxing match rather than a knife fight. Congratulations! That's exactly what Jesus would have done!

I digress, however. Christianity properly carried out is a very different thing. Many good-hearted people strive to live up to Christ's example every day. Sometimes they fail, other times they succeed with heartbreaking brilliance. I admire them either way!

Atheism is not a prefabricated system of moral rules couched in a story; thus each atheist develops his or her own moral code based on a personal interpretation of life. Thus, there are some athiests whom I feel are shallow, selfish dolts, and others whom I admire. Some of the ones I admire also try to live up to the moral standards they themselves have developed in ways which are, on occasion, heartbreakingly brilliant.

The thing I am for is something which is neither Christianity nor atheism, and which you would laugh at if I explained it to you. So I won't. For the above reason and because I assume you're not terribly interested. Since, I again assume, anything which is not your pet version of Christianity is a laughable excrescence not worthy of much thought.

I don't believe what I believe because it I think it is Absolute Truth, but rather because the effects of having placed my belief as I have are more healthful and conducive to positive personal growth than anything else I have yet tried. Provisional, diversified belief is something foreign to both Christians and atheists, I think. I am certainly not saying it's better--in a lot of ways it's cumbersome and inefficient!--but it works best for what I'm trying to do. And I don't mind the inefficiency of a work in progress.

I've spent my whole stupid life having people think that I think I'm superior because of the way I use language. I don't think that. I spend a lot of effort trying not to be unfairly prejudiced against others in any direction, whether it's elitism or classist distrust of the powerful and comfortable. (Sometimes I even succeed!) I'm saner and more understanding and more helpful than I was five years ago, ten years ago, or when I was a child. You consider me to still be a child. (And perhaps a drunkard to boot! Truly, though, novels are the vice that threatens to take over my life--alcohol I use judiciously for muscle relaxation and to promote increased volubility at appropriate times. I have four rules. Don't drink if you think you might need to: 1. drive, 2. work, 3. care for small children or the infirm, or 4. be in the close presence of people you don't trust.) Certainly I don't know your perspective well enough to understand all that these perceptions imply, but I am interested to find out.

I don't care if gays bugger themselves silly, then get sick and die. (Just don't do it around me!) I don't care if 10,000 children in Ethiopia croak from starvation. We have our own problems.

See, this is one of those statements which makes me think that if the alleged Holy Spirit really is influencing your mind, you must be resisting it pretty fiercely at every turn.

Christ, the Christ described in the Gospels, cared deeply about every person who ever lived and ever will. He cared enough about any individual gay person at risk for a horrible, slow death from AIDS, about every child in Ethiopia whose family was killed by war or disease, to die for them. This Christ cared so much that if any person were in need of salvation, he still would have incarnated on Earth, suffered and died on the cross, and risen to life again so that person would have a chance at eternal life.

You, as you say, don't give a fuck. All you want to do is "kick some ass" when the prompting within you tells you that there's some ass available for easy kicking. And you seem to think that's Christ talking. Which is why I think you're a bully, and one of those who takes on the name of your supposed Lord in vain, for the sole apparent purpose of your own gratification.