Christianity or Bust

I’m not really sure what to say about this article: Bible, Koran are violent, but read between the lines, say academics.

In an ultra short summary of the article, it describes how academic talked about violence in religious texts and religious violence in society. He encourages the readers of religious texts to take in the good and the bad. The article deliberately takes quotes without explaining anything or giving context. Quote: The challenge, he said, was to have people follow those parts of the scriptures that espouse non-violence.

This article is just annoying.

To the best of my understanding, I feel there is nothing wrong or at least not understandable with some of the bits used as examples.

Psalms 137:9 Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
I had no idea about this one until I read the whole psalm and remembered a sermon on Obadiah about the Edomites. The Book of Obadiah explains why there is antagonism between Edom and Jerusalem - when Jerusalem was being destroyed, their brother city not only ignored their cries for help, they abbetted in the destruction. So, actually this is one of those genuinely blood thirsty bits of the Bible… but you’d be pretty upset if your brother turned his back on you and helped your enemy.

Matthew 10: 34-36 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
OK. People don’t really understand that life isn’t always going to be peaceful for Christians. Even a basic understanding of the lives of Jesus and Paul will show examples of persecution. Even a basic understanding of real modern day Christians will show that people’s lives aren’t perfect and that persecution still exists in places like China and Afghanistan.
The second sentence deals with the reality that families will face conflict at times because someone chooses to follow Christ. A recently publicised example is Abdul Rahman who converted from Islam in Afghanistan. He also faced the death penalty in Afghanistan for that. Subsequently his wife divorced him and she was awarded full custody of their children.

Deuteronomy 7:2 And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them.
OK. This whole passage does sound pretty violent. It does actually make sense to me. This section deals with God’s desire for his people to remain faithful to him and pure. It also related to God hating false Gods. It’s also been explained to me that God-following people should not elope with non-God-following people because inevitably they’ll be corrupted.

Psalms 58:10: The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
What’s so bad about this one? One key thing that the Bible talks about is for followers of Christ not to seek their own vengeance but to let God deal with it. ie not to go around killing or harming people who did something against you. Furthermore, to me, this seems to be about justice since only God can provide perfect vengeance and perfect justice. Justice is a good thing. The only people who hate justice are the wrong-doers.

Anyway, I think people really need to understand all things and not just throw out or ignore what they don’t.

I couple of weeks ago, I finally saw End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones.

I’m not going to review this thing because I’ve got my Rock Snob blog for that.

Anyway, one of the major sources of conflict within the band was how Linda, Joey’s first major girlfriend left him, started dating and married Johnny. People believe this was the inspiration for the song The KKK Took My Babe Away.

The two guys hated each other and pretty much never spoke to each other again for 21 years despite staying in the same band. As Marky says, that’s a long time to hold a grudge. I wonder if Joey’s Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder made things worse.

There’s always three sides to every story: yours, mine and the truth. For years, Ramones fans have always stated Joey’s side and the word “stole” always comes up. I’ve never really heard any other versions of the story. In the documentary, Linda never comments on it. Johnny doesn’t seem to want to say anything about it. Others give their view from outside the triangle: Marky thinks there’s plenty of more women out there and Joey should have just got over it. Someone else thinks that maybe Joey and Linda’s relationship had just naturally cooled and that the development of a new relationship with Johnny began.

So what have I learnt from my personal conflict?

Personally, not a hell of a lot other than it takes a strong heart to hate someone, never forgive then and yet hang around with them… especially for 21 years.

There’s still a few people I have chosen to never talk to again but have chosen to forgive them. Due to the circumstances of life, I never see them anymore and I don’t miss them. Yeah, I’m talking about time vampires and inconsiderate twits.

Earlier this year, someone once tried to convince me to talk to them and just clear up what angered me. I kept putting it off even when I said I’d talk to them.

Oh well, I think the secret to holding a grudge is to see the people. Otherwise, time heals all wounds.

Do you know me well enough that you’ll recognise that the USA spelling of “apologise” has been used indicating that it’s a title?

I’ve been listening to my first Hüsker Dü album, 1985’s New Day Rising non-stop for the last two days.

This morning, I had an email slag-off with an old friend from an old church. Sometimes I don’t think she realises how rude and judgmental she is. As always, I don’t care that my cultural snobiness crosses the boundary of politeness to rudeness.

Anyway, so the song “I Apoligize” is about a guy who apologises to someone and he’s waiting for an apology back but doesn’t get it He feels really incomplete like the trash has been taken out but the dishes have been done.

I didn’t apologise. She probably doesn’t think she needs to apologise.