So are Catholics, Aboriginal Canadians and Pagans but most emphatically Christians.Or more accurately, the November and December mailbags of Landover Baptist show us that stupidity in human society is at record levels and amongst those demonstrating their stupidity were people who identified themselves as members of these groups). Perhaps it is because we live in a society which is rapidly inventing things for us to be confused by. The internet in particular is a fantastic source of the stupid.
And if I may stand on my professional soapbox for a moment, this is why society still needs librarians. Otherwise people are setting out to do their science homework and discovering the dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide or they are searching for faith and finding the above mentioned Landover Baptist Church. A quick look at their page will show you that there should be no doubt that this is parody. Yet their letters page is full of people railing against the teachings of the fictional Pastor Fred. I can understand the complaints of the pagans, jews, catholics and minority groups whose faiths are derided wholesale by this fictional congregation, but the Christians once again take the cake. Because you see on a site which calls for Christians to assault Father Christmas and the Easter Bunny and tells us that vegans are modern day witches (and should therefore be killed). Or any one of a million other appalling (if they were true) similar things. On this site we have Christians writing in because they are offended that the site sells Christian underwear.
... you are infact discracing the church by the rediculous things that you have on it. Thongs for christ?? are you kidding me?? How is it that you think that thats ok?? i mean is this a joke?? if not then i feel very sad for you.. and not just sad for you but for everyone that you are sending the WRONG message to!!!
I will pray for you and I hope that you will take down that web site!!
~Tristen Kent
Yes Tristen you are correct, thong underwear is of the Devil. I'm glad you spotted that obvious failing in this pages' theology. Does this mean you are with them in their hatred of Catholics or did that seem less important than underwear?
but she isn't alone
...Then to sell Jesus underwear, what is wrong with you people. There are other ways to rememeber him then on underwear. The Devils got you working wonders for him but you need pray, lots of pray and guidance of what the holy spirit actually wants and what you actually want. Tonight we have a pray meeting and i will ask my church to pray for your website - or the horrific excuse for one. You give American Christians a bad name, yet you should be seting and example for all Christians.
Bedford, UK
Samantha Braich
The site is worth a visit, and while you're there try some of the bible quizzes. Or better yet (for any Christians reading) print them off and offend your friends. I used the sex quizzes as the topic for a Bible study, lots of fun as people's faces hit the floor.
I am often not surprised by the fact that few Christians can quote Ezekiel 23.
11 comments:
John,
Some traffic must be coming via signposts. And I agree the Landover Church site is a scream especially the comments section. The first time I read it I did a double take and thought what the hell then I got it. A bit slow on the uptake this one but not as slow as some of their commentators.
thanks for your post Tristen, it is always fun when someone reads something I wrote three years ago, especially when I was mocking them. I have corrected your gender in the post now I hope that helps.
As for the rest of my overzealous ignorance, well I stand by it as much as I stand by anything I ever write.
Quoting someone is an interesting thing. Because while you seem to think I misrepresented you, I contend that the quotes I used do a credible job of making my case. Plus, anyone who wishes to can pop along to Landover and read your full letter in context. Did you use the words "thongs are o the devil" no, you did not. But you implied it and I responded to your implication.
I appreciate that you did feel that Landover was a terrible reflection on all Christians. the beautiful thing is, that was the joke because. You see, Landover Baptist is what we in the real world call parody.
So it is not in fact Landover which makes Christians look bad but rather the fact that even you as a Christian are willing to believe this is real. And why do you believe that? Because like all great parody there is enough truth in their to make it painful.
Ohh,
Well done Tristen. First you write a comment in which you call me a coward, then you delete it.
Well, let me resurrect it for you because otherwise my reply to you looks very silly sitting there by itself.
"tristen has left a new comment on your post "Jews are stupid":
Who the heck are you?!?!?! I am the person that you stole PART of a quote from!!! My name is Tristen and I am a FEMALE for one thing.. you called me a He.. which only shows ONE of your ignorant qualities... you have no idea who I am or what I was writing there site about obviously!
were you born overzealous and ignorant or did you just acquire these wonderful qualities while growing up? Thongs are of the Devil? are you stupid? I never said that... U are obviously just trying to take PART of a quote someone wrote and trying to spin it so further your ridiculous rantings on your soap box!! i just HAPPENED to see this stupid blog and realized that you used a quote of mine... please actually look into what someone is saying before you try to belittle them in you ridiculousness. I never said that thongs were of the devil. If you would have read this FULL comment I wrote to THAT SITE (not you), you would see that I felt that the site was a disgrace to all Christians and made us all look bad.
Also... you wrote as if you were replying to me and asking me a question... If you actually WANT information.. track down the person you feel is mistaken and ask.. but it looks like you don't want information... you just want to make yourself look superior when in fact you seem to be a coward to me... "
My name is Tristen, and I am the one you stole PART of a quote from... I am a female by the way.. you called me a "he" which was just one of the ways you were mistaken...
you try to belittle other people to make yourself look Superior. Do people mistake that website for being REAL... yes... apparently I was one of MANY who did... I believed it was real because I guess its hard for me to understand how someone can waste their life creating a FAKE web site... perhaps they are just worthless losers with no life.. similar to those who sit around blogging all day about worthless crap... you may be able to relate to them.
I love how you stole PART of my quote to try to make it look like all i cared about was the fact that they were selling thongs, and stupidly over looked the theological mistakes that the site was offering up.
here's someone who has a genuine heart for people and is in fact a Christian, who saw this site and felt HORRIBLE by all that was written about others and how un-Biblical it is in bashing others and decided to write a comment to tell the author of the site how wrong it is...
and you turn things around to try to make them look stupid just to try to make yourself look or feel better. you know kids do this crap on the playground too :) The bully tries to pick on others to make himself feel better about how sad he is. Perhaps you should take some tips from them too!!
lol oh gracious! I deleted the first one because I wrote it in anger after reading your post... after I chilled out for a minute I re-wrote what I REALLY wanted to say instead of spouting out something out of being really ticked off...
and you say I make Christians look bad because I believed the site?! well.. i already explained why its hard for me to see how someone would create a whole site just for the sake of being stupid. It might be because I dont have enough time on my hands to do something that stupid or its just the fact that I dont understand the mentality behind something that stupid...
as for the fact that I 'IMPLIED' that thongs are of the devil... no.. no i didnt. lol i have no problems with thongs at all in fact i wear them... it was the fact that the site was selling them like that (i cant remember how it was all set up on there because it was a long time ago that I looked at the site).
As for there being enough TRUTH in what the site was saying that makes it seem true... no... I dont think thats true at all... theres no truth to that site what so ever from what I remember and thats why I was so upset by it. Theres REAL people out there at a soldiers funeral saying "Thank God for dead soldiers" and blaming gay people for the terrorist attacks who CLAIM to be Christians... so, because i've seen stupid things like that, its not tooooo much of a stretch for me to believe theres a nut job out there that believes everything on that site...
I love how you say I'm a coward for deleting my post... lol I deleted it simply because I replied in anger and wasnt able to say what I wanted to... also... i really didnt think that you would reply THAT FAST!!! lol i guess you are on your computer ALOT huh?!
but... i replied to you quickly after deleting it.. so dont worry :)
lets start with two quotes (from you) and move on from there?
"perhaps they are just worthless losers with no life.. similar to those who sit around blogging all day about worthless crap... you may be able to relate to them."
ouch, but then...
"how un-Biblical it is in bashing others"
Would you like to cast the first stone now?
as for "I guess its hard for me to understand how someone can waste their life creating a FAKE web site..."
You are unfamiliar with the idea of parody? It has been around at least since the ancient Greeks. But then so few people these days read the works of Hegemon of Thasos. I'm sure there are more recent examples, Shakespeare for one or the British TV show Spiting Images, the American Saturday Night Live. Have you ever read The Onion or anything by National Lampoon?
Parody is a legitimate art form and performs a valuable function in society. It questions social norms, raises issues which may be too hard to voice in other ways, it draws the incongruousness of modern life to people's attention. And when it is at its best, it sometimes fools us into thinking it is real.
Here is what I wrote on that web site....
Hello there..
someone just shared with me your web site with me and i can honestly tell you that you are in no way leading people to the cross... you are in fact disgracing the church by the ridiculous things that you have on it. Thongs for Christ?? are you kidding me?? How is it that you think that thats ok?? i mean is this a joke?? if not then i feel very sad for you.. and not just sad for you but for everyone that you are sending the WRONG message to!!!
I will pray for you and I hope that you will take down that web site!!
~Tristen Kent
The reason I put the "thongs for Christ" thing in there was because it was making a mockery of Christ and made no sense at all! hence the reason I said "is this a joke"....
Anywho... to the Author of this ridiculous blog...
I hope your feeling really big, puffed up and proud :) You did it luv! You called out all of the big bad "stupid Christians" who actually believed that this was a REAL site and were upset by it. Wow, now that is definitely something you should put on a resume along with being a super cool librarian/blogger! :)
I find it interesting how you bash the people who believed this site and not the actual loser creator of it... hmmm...
lol first of all I love how you try to throw in your little "cast the first stone" portion... lol am I casting a stone by taking a slight jab at someone who tried making a mockery of me behind my back (since i had no idea this blog even existed). lol perhaps...
But I'm not perfect and never claimed to be... lol and what did you mean by that???... the fact that I was upset with that site for claiming to be Christian and claiming things as truth that werent... i wasnt doing that when I wrote that about you... or i mean.. bloggers... I wasn't claiming something to be Biblical that wasnt... i was just stating my opinion.. a slight difference there i think :)
and THANK YOU for your wonderful lesson on Parody... have I watched shows like "the Onion" and so on which is created as such.. yep... and I didnt see the site as the same thing..
looking at the site now from that perspective.. i suppose I can see the parody.
seeing the site around the same time that I see REAL baptist churches protesting the things I mentioned before... its hard to see the site as fiction... plus... when its on television.. its purpose is to be light hearted and make others laugh... this site (to me) is NOT funny at all...
"As for there being enough TRUTH in what the site was saying that makes it seem true... no... I dont think thats true at all... Theres REAL people out there at a soldiers[sic] funeral saying "Thank God for dead soldiers" and blaming gay people for the terrorist attacks who CLAIM to be Christians... so, because i've seen stupid things like that, its not tooooo much of a stretch for me to believe theres a nut job out there that believes everything on that site..."
That is the point Tristen, it is the fact that organisations like Westboro Baptist Church exist in real life which makes Landover Baptist Church believable.
It is the fact that too few Christians question how they are perceived or distance themselves from some of the hateful aspects of some organised Churches which makes it important that someone brings these issues to the fore. Because not everything which is hateful in our broader community is coming from fringe groups like Westboro but some of it comes in a more subtle form and we need to make sure we decry it.
In the case of your letter to Landover, I mocked it (I admit that) because I felt that by making the issue Thongs for Jesus, you were aiming your outrage at an irrelevance. Why amongst all of the appalling things which Landover says did you choose that as the one to complain about?
Oh and as for parody, I forgot one of my favourite current examples of the genre. The Daily Show and its urbane host Jon Stewart.
It is fantastic and necessary because it is making people aware of the failures of the current news media, the co-opting of news by biased interests and the lack of quality journalism even amongst outlets which retain independence.
I hope that makes some sense and that a rather less fraught analogy helps you see why I would choose to laugh at those who believed this, more than those who created it.
(and, yes being a librarian blogger is Super Cool, thanks for noticing)
Ugh... i clearly could have written a BOOK on all the false teachings and problems with that site... I, (at the time) had JUST looked at the site and was so upset by the mockery it made I didnt even know WHERE TO START! I didnt want to say a bunch of horrible things and write a book on (what I thought was an EMAIL and not a comment at the time) their site.
The LAST thing I saw on there was "thongs for Christ" which were making a Mockery of Jesus. and If you are someone who believes Jesus to be your Lord and Savior it is NOT funny and very offensive to see His name be made into a mockery. and I mentioned the fact that they were NOT leading people to the cross but infact driving them far away from it... which was how i was just trying to cover the fact that what they were teaching was wrong and offending MANY... not just with thongs but the whole site in general for the most part.
Anywho... its 2am almost and I really need to stop worrying about this mess...
so, I realize that you think its funny that people are mistaking this site to be something which is real and replying to how offended they are... I'm glad you get a good laugh out of it.. thats your right to do :) I dont, however, think it was cool for you to use me as an example especially since you mistook what I was really trying to say...
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