we suck, scripture demons, circus clowns & such

Okay, it's time for a reality check here.

Criticism notwithstanding, for some time now this blog has been screaming "body of Christ, you don't get it!!!!"

I've talked ad nauseum about the shallow, hollow bullshit that churches call "Christianity".

Thinking band-aids will "fix" where open-heart surgery is needed.

Having no clue how to live/exist/talk with someone going through real-life shit.

Not really being about Jesus.


Well looky here, what happens this week?

A church-going man in Pennsylvania goes postal and shoots 12 kids (four to death) before blowing his own brains out.

The word is he was distraught over he and his wife's infant death nine years ago, as well as some molesting he did twenty years ago when he was 12.

In one of the suicide notes it's said he had been having dreams lately of wanting to molest again.

I'm sorry the man's dead. Yet I'd rather he's taken his own life than go on a molesting rampage.

There's a whole lot more to it than that, but that's another post for another time.


A friend of mine mentioned to me yesterday that the reason they go to church is so that people like that man can have someone to talk to trasnparently, without getting uppity, down the nose treatment.

I think that's great.

Sadly this is the exception in churches today.

Churches are largely not about transparency. There is little freedom of expression going on, in terms of talking about what is really going on in the heart.

Some churches have a time of prayer during (or toward the end of) the service, where people can go up front, kneel at a velvet-padded altar, and pray.

When these "invititations" are made, churches stay very safe about the topics they mention.

They will say things like "If you need prayer regarding a relationship, or a job, or finances, or a marriage, come on up, we'd like to pray with you."

Typical shallow, hollow, surface Christianity.

Churches are not interested in going deep with people. Don't want to talk in-depth about real things that people are really struggling with or that are living past or present nightmares in their mind: anger, lust, hatred, rape, molestation, abuse, the list goes on...

It's stay safe on the surface, and anyone who tries to go deeper is given silent or curbing treatment so these extracurricular topics, attitudes, words and behaviors will cease at best or become a murmuring topic for other people at worst.

In some (many?) churches this silent treatment for going beneath the surface is followed up by a phone call or a meeting in the pastor's office, where the pastor in a round-about way talks about acceptable topics and behavior, and does so with a false-love tone in their voice and a plastered, shit-eating grin on their face.

And this is how we can smell religious spirits a mile away.

Anytime it's come under my thumb, come under my authority, come under the authority of this church, you shouldn't say x, you shouldn't do y, you must or must not z (and when you DON'T you get 'the business--scolding, silent treatment, 'the look', censorship, chastistement, cold shoulder, lecture, pastor meeting, etc), ding a ling a ling!!!

Warning! Religious spirit alert! Religious spirit alert!

Anyway, I've drifted, as usual...

Churches have no clue what to do with anger, nor other horrors past or present that rape people of any of a variety of dignities and dreams.

All they know to do is kneejerk and try and get the straining behavior to stop asap. Most don't give a flying flip about (gasp) digging in with someone or jumping into their shithole with them. Some will ask about what's going on, but ruin the possibility of healing or going deep by blowing the fuse with Christianese speak.

Last fall a lot of people at the church I went to at the time knew generally that I had some rancid shit going on. Two people in particular indicated to me, separately, they wanted to talk about it with me.

I knew the minute they asked they would absolutely NOT be up for it. I politely declined each of them privately.

Both of them, thinking they were ten foot tall and bulletproof in Jesus, or something, persisted.

(side bar: there are lots of demons out there. My experiences in the last twenty months have brought to light a whole new subset of demons that hop on otherwise good-hearted Jesus people. I believe there are ministering demons, positive demons, nosey demons, love demons, care & concern demons, counsel demons, advice demons, encouragement demons, inspiration demons, scripture demons, blabbermouth demons, get you to talk demons, the more words are said the better counsel it is demons, I'm God's gift to ministry demons, hope demons, let me tell you about someone who was in a similar situation whose life is now happy & blessed demons, the list goes on....)

Anyway, so even after this polite decline, I was up at the church during the day on a weekday sometime thereafter, and one of these two people comes in. I didn't recognize it then but I'd recognize it now, an I'm-God's-gift-to-ministry demon (or maybe it was a care & concern demon or a nosey demon) hopped on this person.

I should have known the demon hopped on them, cause they looked at me with a sweetmilk, buttercup, innocent, I'm your good friend, I care about you, plaster-baked half-smile and quaintly said "So how has your week been?"

Me, deciding not to placate the demon and having recently at that point decided to be raw honest and transparent and no longer play the game, opened my mouth and said...

(Before I say it, here's the tricky thing about those damn demons. They will hop on Jesus people, the demon will ask the question through the Jesus person's mouth, and just immediately before a transparent person gives the answer, the demon will hop off, leaving the Jesus person helpless and wide open to the poignant words of someone not into bullshit-Churchianity. The answer is intended for the demon, but since they've hopped off it is the innocent, good-hearted Jesus person who catches the flat side of the reply and gets whacked upside the fucking head by their brother or sister in Christ. This is how a lot of dissention is stirred up in churches by demons.)

So anyway, the demon hopped on this person at church and they daintily asked me "So how's your week been?"

I opened my mouth and (demon jumps off, leaving this person wide open) said: "Fucking rotten."

Every milliliter of blood in their face disappeared in about two-tenths of a microsecond. As did their smile.

They stared at me blankly for a second, then just turned and walked away. They did not utter a sound.

No "I'm sorry." No "oh."

Nothing. Their face said "holy shit" but they wouldn't even say that.

They purposely avoided me at church for nine months.

You know what, don't ask the question if you don't want the honest answer.

This is one of the bullshittiest things about church. Everybody's to be a robot and be "fine" or "blessed".

There is NO answer to transparency. No dialogue. No intercourse.

Raw honesty does nothing but make most Christians' ass pucker.

Contrast this with Jesus, who hung out at the homes of the most prominent sinners in town.

You think there wasn't some coarse language and topics flying around in those places?

You think Jesus gave any regulatory, squelching or acceptability stares at them?

Catch a clue, you blind fools!

Why, then, is it any surprise that a church-going man in PA went postal, and no one at his church had any clue?

Did he see through the superficiality of church, and knew it was pointless to even bring up?

Did he try to bring it up at church and all he got in reply were pat answers?

Did the people at church blow smoke up his ass, and tell him to plainly "focus on Christ"? Was it "God cares for you"?

• "Give it to God, brother"
• "You need to get past this"
• "God bless you"
• "Don't focus on your circumstances"
• "I know you've been hurt, but"
• "Jesus loves you"
• "bless your heart"
• "did you know that Jesus Christ died for your sins?"
• "God has a wonderful plan for your life"
• "read your Bible"
• "become a prayer warrior!"
• "find a good church home" (oops! He had one!)
• "join a men's group"
• "we've got a life-changing conference coming up"
• "start giving 10% of your income to God"
• "go change a widow's oil or rake her yard"
• "there's a book I think you'll like"


Maybe it was instead the self-help junk spoken by Christians everywhere:

• bite the bullet
• find strength
• be strong (which is easily spiritualized by adding "in the Lord". Ever ask anyone "how?" or "what does that mean?" when they said this?)
• when the going gets tough...
• it's not the size of the dog in the fight...
• keep your chin up
• things will get better
• things can only get better from here
• you're going to get through this
• look on the bright side (then add some cutesy phrase like "you've got a beautiful wife", family, daughter, good job, etc)
• "you should start exercising"
• "you need to find a hobby"

Just as worse as these is also people who use scripture from the bible:

• "whatever is good, whatever is pure...think on these things"
• "all things work together for good for those who love the Lord"
• "nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus"

Here's the grand fallacy about the bible.

Some think that ANY bible verse is ALWAYS appropriate and will do some kind of fairy-dust-Jesus-magic to set someone "on high" (spiritually speaking) in EVERY situation they quote the bible.

Not true.

There are times where bible verses are not "on the mark" for the situation.

This thought is fanatically opposed (yawn) by those who think (1) every situation warrants a verse, and (2) if a verse is quoted then God will "do something" with it. (There's even another bible verse they misquote to "justify" doing this.)

This is where scripture demons come around and run amuck.

This is where people think they're licensed, obligated and approved to pitch in their biblical two cents.

These verses are NOT always appropriate. They are NOT for every single situation a Christian comes across. (If they'd read the justification verse they're always quoting, they would know this.)

This ties back to one of the worst things going on in the Body today, which I wrote about at length long ago but have not talked about in awhile: the Christian Flesh.

In a nutshell, it's a term used to describe Followers making Matthew 7 come to life:

"Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"

WAY too many Followers are going out and doing their own thing in the name of Jesus, unbridled on one hand and not nudged by God on the other.

They think that because they are slinging Jesus' name around (in all the verses and stories and analogies and all manner of Christian-speak they are doing of their own accord) that they are doing what God wants them to do: being a "witness", being "an encouragement", "walking in the anointing of God", "being a blessing to others".

Got news for you, buttwipes. You're not.

There's a lot of holes in the ship, folks. We suck.

Unfortunately, Churchianity is on a headstrong course that has NO interest in going beyond skin deep.

That's why church is dead.

That's why God has moved beyond church.

That's why His echo is in hardly any of them anymore...and fading fast.

We need to get on the same page with God.

We need to go where He has moved on to and (gasp) start living as He would have us, instead of this our-own-thing-in-His-name three ring circus.