SO MANY CHRISTIANS, SO FEW LIONS (do not read if you are a Jesus Freak!)

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I like this saying a lot. Maybe the Romans had the right idea about how to treat the Jesus Freaks after all!

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

This is either the most poorly disguised attempt to start an argument ever. But don't let that stop you.

― Ronan, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

This is either the most poorly disguised attempt to start an argument ever. But don't let that stop you.

That is the most poorly constructed question-begging post ever. But I won't let that stop me. (deep breath)

Or....?

― Tom, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(Tad do you like PIM FORTUYN???)

― Tom, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I was going to record a version of Candle in the Wind for PIM FORTUYN, you know, " . . . goodbye Holland's shit . . "

― Lynskey, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Tad do you like PIM FORTUYN???

Uh, no. I thought that he didn't like Muslim immigrants, not Xtians?

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

As someone who is discovering (to his complete shock) that despite years of bitter cynicism and atheism/agnosticism he might be more Christian than he thought he was, I'd like to point out that there is a palpable difference between Christians and Jesus Freaks.

Other than that, bring on the lions! (Hmm, guess I'm not as Christian as I thought I was...)

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Or else some kind of joke, I got distracted by an email about the flicking eye.

― Ronan, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Emperor Nero instituted the public execution of Christians in Roman areans. A flamboyant public figure who made no secret of his sexual hedonism, he also held hardline views on the spread of this belief system, imported from the Middle East. Christianity threatened the syncretic culture and higher civilisation Romans held dear, and Christians made no secret of their hatred for Roman law and customs. Tolerance, Nero concluded, was not an option. His opinions won him a significant level of support, but he was also seen as a dangerous demagogue and was eventually assassinated!

― Tom, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I played Nero in 10th grade as part of a "Meeting Of The Minds" assignment for English and World History. I got to wear a toga and be lecherous on public access cable. Black Nero = CLASSIC.

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Did you fiddle while Rome burned Dan?

― Ronan, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

THAT IS A MYTH! I was too busy diddling to do any fiddling.

― Nero the Mack, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hey, Dan does = Ned

(flanders)

― Graham, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

TAKING SIDES:

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Den/9118/toga2.jpg

VS.

http://www.blaxploitation.com/images/movie_gifs/movie_black_caesa r_1.gif

― jess, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

fucking hell, do you know how long it took me to find a picture of a black guy in a toga?

― jess, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You can never have too many Black Caesar clips.

As someone who is discovering (to his complete shock)

Hm! If you don't mind my asking, what prompted it? And is it more a question of general ethics or larger belief?

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Our friend Jim has one of those Darwin fish on his cars. At a stop light this guy came through his window attacking him b/c he said it offended his beliefs. After rolling the window up on him and escaping the guy chased him in and out of a residential area for about 10 minutes. Freaky indeed.

― S., Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

If you don't mind my asking, what prompted it?

This is a wild guess, but I think that 10 years of singing in church choirs might have something to do with it. ;) I don't feel comfortable calling myself a Christian because I'm not, at least not in the accepted sense (even though I was baptized as a Presbyterian and I do believe that someone named Jesus Christ became a martyr for the Christian cause, I don't believe in the resurrection AT ALL and the entire idea of communion strikes me as morbid and wrong), but a lot of the general teachings about how one should conduct their relationships with other people (which boil down to "Be nice to other people" in my world-view) make sense to me. *shrug* Do not fear though; I'm still up for making fun of everything in the crudest, most asinine way possible. Really, it's more of an internal adjustment of how I view myself than anything else; I'm the same person and I don't think I act or think any differently beyond being more honest with myself about where my values come from and recognizing that it isn't necessarily a bad thing to let go of some of the stress incumbent in thinking you have control of every aspect of your life. I could never give sarcasm or juevnalia, because then I wouldn't be me, and you all WUV me! ;)

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think that 10 years of singing in church choirs might have something to do with it. ;)

You don't SAY! ;-)

a lot of the general teachings about how one should conduct their relationships with other people (which boil down to "Be nice to other people" in my world-view) make sense to me. *shrug*

I'm with you there. I think it's a case of the ethics being worthy as separate from the religious superstructure attached to it.

it isn't necessarily a bad thing to let go of some of the stress incumbent in thinking you have control of every aspect of your life.

No indeed. :-)

I could never give sarcasm or juevnalia, because then I wouldn't be me, and you all WUV me! ;)

YOU ASSUME TOO MUCH. *releases the hounds*

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm a Taoist.

― Chris, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

CURSE YOU, JESS, for making me look at a site with MIDI "Saving All My Love For You" on it! Also, I think that on a meta-level I should smite Graham for calling me Ned Flanders. Ick.

*releases the hounds*

Aw, look at the cute widdle puppies! *snuggles with dogs, since all creatures are one in the eyes of The Lord* Now we shall sing Old One Hundred. "All creatures that on Earth do dwell..."

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ned I think ethics, however worthy, are probably useless without ritual.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Taking sides: Jesus Freaks vs Freaking Jesus? (This is where I would link the Baby Jesus Butt-Plug if I was at home...)

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

now there's a ritual i can get 'behind'

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Of course, Big Baby Jesus Freaks won't get thrown to the lions under Emperor Tadeusz!

http://a95.g.akamaitech.net/f/95/5787/6h/content.rollingstone.com /content/6512/images/64742.jpg

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ned I think ethics, however worthy, are probably useless without ritual.

Hmm, why so? Not being flippant here, but honestly curious. Is it that ritual serves as a reminder for the self?

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think beliefs about the world arise from material practices, not the other way around. So instead of just being a steady hand on the plow, ritual CREATES the plow, or the concept of it, in the first place. It's not necessarily privileging some mythical first-person experience as an irreplacable requirement for ethics or belief (though I think it's the major part); Christians create their beliefs and sustain them through a) reading b) praying c) various sacraments but also through sympathies with others. Bearing witness maybe. A preacher has his own ritual—his weekly sermon—that can be so powerful as to be like a physical ritual you perform yourself. I watched four women sing in the subway yesterday, so loud you could hear it many stairwells and hallways away even over the rumbling of the trains and the clatter of New York rush hour I mean they were frickin LOUD, singing "any other love would walk away from me" and I was just shaken to my boots. I haven't attended a church service in a long time and it was like all those years inbetween coming down on me at once. Their message—of abandonment, basically, of being lost and then found—was so painful and true, and their ritual so cathartic and free (and LOUD) that their own ritual resonated almost as if it were my own. And I realized how ineffectual my token glances towards Christianity were compared with the type of feeling produced by physical repetition.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sorry if the story about the singers sounds silly and I'm kind of a big crybaby about stuff like that sometimes but it seemed like it fit right in with Dan's joking/not-joking about his singing building a concept of Xtianity he'd never have created just willy-nilly in pieced-together moments of idle reflection.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

and btw posting to this board is DEFINITELY a physical ritual if my aching back is to be believed

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

No, that's more than fair, and indeed quite a gripping way to look at it. As I'm not making 'token glances' myself, to use yer term, my reaction would likely have been different -- not negative, but not revelatory either.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The (other) funny thing about all of this is that I would never have thought of all the singing I've been doing as being "token glances" into Christianity until a couple of weeks ago. In some ways I think I worship the musical portions of Christianity more than the dogma itself (hence my visceral attraction to the Greek Orthodox church). When I'm feeling more self-reflective, I may sit down and try to figure out what I'm actually thinking spiritually and if I am a Christian or just Christian-inclined. Or, I might just make more filthy jokes. Time will tell.

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm not Christian, but relating to religion in general primarily on a musical level makes me feel a tiny bit uncomfortable. On one hand, I'm a musician and so it is what I relate to in a lot of situations. On the other, I've sort of rejected religion on my own, but still I've been quite moved at a few African-American chuch services that I've gone to (and played at). However, it kind of felt like I was using the experience for the musical fulfillment while not having much interest in all the other stuff that comes with it.

― Jordan, Tuesday, 14 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Tracer and Dan - I really like what both of you wrote - thanks

― charles, Wednesday, 15 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

One man's martyrdom is another man's matinee (in the Circus Maximus, anyway).

― Momus, Wednesday, 15 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Dan the upshot of your singing is up to you to determine, of course, but I guess I'm saying it's not a "token glance". Because it's an act of physical repetition, a ritual, it's part of the family of essential building blocks of faith/belief/whatever that are necessary in order to reach the ethics implied by the religion you're singing for. It's like God is the audience, the "influence", and you don't understand what He wants if you don't step on stage, if you don't perform for him, whether it's the private performance of prayer or those women in the subway, testifying before everyone. Though Momus, believe me, they would have been just fine without ANY but "His" eyez on them..... it was a privilege just to see them that way—they were singing out loud, but it was so obviously such an intimate moment for all of them.

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 15 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

btw capitalizing the third-person pronoun creeps me the fuck out

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 15 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

REVIVE (now more than evah!!!)

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Saturday, 6 November 2004 23:56 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

Jesus came first!

― Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 5 December 2007 01:21 (seventeen years ago)

jesus

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 5 December 2007 01:33 (seventeen years ago)

hurhur hur "came". 'sploshel' and shit.

― Abbott, Wednesday, 5 December 2007 01:34 (seventeen years ago)

Your search - sploshel - did not match any documents.

Suggestions:
Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
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― Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 5 December 2007 01:39 (seventeen years ago)

http://www.joshreads.com/images/07/12/glom.jpg

― Abbott, Wednesday, 5 December 2007 01:40 (seventeen years ago)

And thus the Lord splosheled unto them: "Glom."

― Abbott, Wednesday, 5 December 2007 01:41 (seventeen years ago)

Jesus shot first

― Curt1s Stephens, Wednesday, 5 December 2007 01:54 (seventeen years ago)

Somebody is just begging to be lion chow in that clip.

― Oilyrags, Wednesday, 5 December 2007 02:00 (seventeen years ago)

selfish jesus waht else new

― jhøshea, Wednesday, 5 December 2007 02:14 (seventeen years ago)

aw...I thought it was sorta sweet

― Heave Ho, Wednesday, 5 December 2007 02:45 (seventeen years ago)

she's right...theologically.

― Frogman Henry, Wednesday, 5 December 2007 15:47 (seventeen years ago)

ha that reminds me of when i was in middle school--i think it was history or social studies or whatever that class was called--and the subject of evolution came up and this girl yelled out, "I didn't come from no ape I come from Jeeeeeeezus Christ!"

― latebloomer, Wednesday, 5 December 2007 17:04 (seventeen years ago)

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