Quix, I know you and I disagree on some stuff. Oh, WELL! Doesn’t keep me up at night.
Even when people decide to be bigots ... Okay, knock themselves out. I have to write a skit in Spanish for Girl Scouts by tomorrow at noon.
But then, they expect that *nobody will say anything*! Well, sorry. Earth to Planet Zongo! It’s like when I tell my 16-year-old to “wash, rinse, dry, and put away the dishes,” and then she’s just *astonished* that everything she put in the dishwasher is back in the sink in the morning ...
If somebody decides to be ugly, eventually it’s going to come back around.
I’m garbled, I know ... not enough sleep the last few days ... but I just don’t understand the hatred. Aren’t we all trying to be what we think the Lord wants us to be?
Hatred usually comes out of childhood junk . . . at least at its roots.
But a LOT of fierceness is taken hereon as hatred when it’s not—NOT AT ALL. It’s just a fiercely intense style of saying profoundly emotional and profoundly important RELIGIOUS/spiritual things.
I think in those cases, folks need to roll with the punche and go on. Either they believe what they believe for good reasons or not. If not . . . change. If so, what does it matter how fiercely intense someone’s communicating style is???
People have mocked, derided, been haughty and hostile and even demeaning, insulting and satirical about Pentecostalism all my life. So what. They don’t know. Many times they haven’t a clue what they are talking about. They certainly haven’t traveled my path in my shoes. They certainly weren’t there the many times God has met me and my need rather dramatically and miraculously. They weren’t there the many times God confirmed a lot of very interesting and startling things in my life. So what.
I’m not going to convince them. And I don’t need to take things overly personal.
A lot of RC folks have responded to a lot of my dramatic fierce statements as hatred, etc. etc. etc. But I haven’t felt a microgram’s worth of such feelings toward ANYONE hereon—at all.
Much of my life is fiercely intense—just the way I’m made. And, I have a very intense pointed fierce communications style—particuarly about things I care deeply about—spiritual things.
But I’m that way teaching my classes—very in-students’-faces—literally—horseshoe seating . . . walking around a lot —off the wall demonstrations and surprises—role playing—satire etc.
But the students know I’m serious, play for keeps AND PARTICULARLY THAT I LOVE EACH ONE OF THEM. Not sure how all that successfully gets across but it does.
Doesn’t so easily get across in this text medium. But surprising numbers of even lurkers have noted that it’s there.
So, I end up coming back to the conclusion that too many RC’s have too thin a skin to detach themselves from the issues and icons and rituals and whatever ENOUGH to take someone else’s intense whatevers at it with a grain of salt or whatever.
I find MarkBsnr’s hostile stuff toward Prottys ABOUT AS INSULTING, DERISIVE, . . . . whatever . . . that he and his buddy find my words about some RC stuff.
It’s just differently put . . . but about as intense and IF I HAD A CHIP ON MY SHOULDER OR THIN SKIN—I’D HAVE JUST AS MUCH CAUSE to get and stay all irate, indignent etc.
But it’s not worth it. It’s not where my heart is at. Jesus is a Big Guy. He can take care of His priorities far better than I can.
I can speak out as well as I feebly can when I feel so moved. But it’s all just noise. Some of it is hopefully noise of some use to some lurkers and maybe some others occasionally. But that’ God’s affair.
Anyway—I hope you get some rest. If you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t well take care of anyone else!
I don’t know what to do with “bigots” and “fanatics” besides conclude that they evidently believe some things more rigidly and more intensely than I do.
Blessings,