Sunday, July 26, 2009

The Divine Mark Morford

His latest column for the Chron takes on the Bible-thumpers in a way that should be de rigeur reading for the Jeremiah stratum of the blogosphere. A sample below: more at the complete link above. Enjoy!
This just in: it is hugely unlikely God cares much about your sex life

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What God really loves is meddling and poking and maybe forgiving, and also psychoanalyzing and scrutinizing and prying, gossiping and complaining and moderating, sighing and punishing and condemning, all while He shakes His big, shaggy head in your general direction at your various petty sins and misbehaviors every single day regarding pretty much every single thought you have.

Did you know this about God? Of course you did.

After all, if much of organized religion and nearly every conservative/fundamentalist adherent thereof are to be believed -- and they most definitely are not -- God is essentially the most obsessed, niggling micromanager of all time. He is all about being hugely, nay downright obscenely interested in the trivial minutiae of modern life, from the food eaten on a particular day to the touchdown made during the Big Game to the brand of TV you watch it on, right on over to what book you're reading and where you live and if you have the right guns and foreign policy and facial hair, and of course whether or not you judge gay people and demean women and nonbelievers in just the right way.

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I find I am in a constant swoon of giddy amazement at this universal phenomenon, the fabulous, hubris-loaded idea that God is not actually an unfathomable river of cosmic energy to be supped from like liquid light, while you still take complete responsibility for your own life and choices. Nor is God simply the idea of universal love and compassion, coursing through all things at all times everywhere. How silly to think.

No, God is, apparently, actually far more like some sort of heavyset, hectoring grandmother who reads your email and pokes through your underwear drawer and hates your girlfriend and is, for the most part, very, very disappointed in you. Great!

7 comments:

et said...

Did you read the whole article, Count, from the link in the first line? Morford's on our side.

Anonymous said...

So he is. I read it too fast. Thank you for pointing that out ET :) I meant I need to take MY Meds. :)

Anonymous said...

Starting to call people I agree with out. That means it's time to curl up with the good book and call it a night. In This case the good book is Remember the AFL By Dave Steidel.

For those of you who aren't football fans that stands for American Football League which would become the American Football Conference after the merger.

et said...

Enjoy the read, Count. I think I may have been too provocative in my choice of Morford's clips, which I can see made it sound a little like his buy-in to the Wingnut PoV when it is anything but.

Cheers and a good night to you, Count!

Mr. Brown said...

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant read.

Anonymous said...

don't misunderstand this statement I understand the negative consequences of both actions if not dealt with with responsibility but I do not understand how Sex and Gambling are in and off themselves evil.

et said...

I don't think either is inherently bad, Count. It's the wingnut politicos who run on a platform of sanctimony, get caught in flagrante delicto demonstrating their own hypocrisy, and who then claim that "God" will make it all better for them who bring the real crap to the table...

It's "do as I say, not as I do" all dressed up in its Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes.

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