People have preached to me about Armageddon, yet I do not explain my own faith. I find the idea of Armageddon repulsive and demonstrates a lack of faith in God. My grandmother would often say, when I lacked any faith: “Ye of little faith!” Presumably this derives from a book in the library called, “Bible.” My grandmother also would repeat, “judge not lest ye be judged.”
The book of Revelation, where Armageddon is discussed, was hotly disputed as to whether it should be part of the “Christian” canon. Yet, there it is with all it’s nastiness and hate.
The idea of Armageddon, “dooms day,” and day of wrath is about our OWN judgment day. In the faith I gained while growing up, we were told to be responsible for our own actions, lest that day would be upon us. My mother would often say, “you have enough to worry about with your own stuff, so don’t worry about what others are doing.” Mothers are correct. “God helps those who help themselves,” was another quotation floated around me while growing up.
My grandfather was a friend of [Dr.] Norman Vincent Peale during Peale’s undergraduate years in college. My family believed in the power of “positive thinking.” “The glass is half full, not half empty.” There are times it is difficult to be positive. There are times it is difficult to remain positive without appearing to have “wishful thinking.” Positive thinking is NOT about “wishful thinking.” Those who attack ideas of “positive thinking” attack it with false attacks of “wishful thinking.” They don’t understand, nor do they attempt to understand.
My ideas are written here for people to freely choose to read. I do not force these ideas upon others, unless asked. I do not give these ideas unsolicited.
But many judgmental people will force their ideas about “dooms day” upon me. I find this to be irritating, annoying, downright nasty, and most of all – harassment. The USA Prohibition era was a time of nastiness, forcing judgment upon the entire population, in a fascist manner. My grandmother, in her younger college-age years was part of the movement to prohibit alcohol. So why, in later years, did she tell me to “judge not lest you be judged?” Because my grandmother learned something which Diana Butler Bass reminds us about in her book, Christianity for the Rest of Us: “seek wisdom, not certainty.” Others who knew of her aversion to alcohol and her days as a “prohibitionist” might find her to be a hypocrite while repeating, “judge not lest you be judged.” But they fail to realize there was a huge crisis and event in her life which taught her wisdom. Why does it take such catastrophic events to teach wisdom? Why can we not learn wisdom from what others do to teach about it? Good questions. The ones who are loudmouths harass me with their negative vibes of “dooms day,” but fail to pursue ideas and LEARN from others who might have more wisdom.
The point of Diana Butler Bass’s book is about spirituality. The notion of spirituality is lost upon those who embrace “dooms day” theology. “Dooms day” theology promotes negative “spirituality” based on fear and intimidation. Therefore, one can say this is an evil spirituality. But go ahead, point the finger at me and say the same thing about positive thinking. The day of judgment is upon you, as two fingers point back at you, too. Precisely the reason a wise old woman said to me, “judge not lest you be judged!”
Douglas Cornwell
Tioga Herald
Tioga Herald 
TV Land in America
“God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy.” – Lyrics of a popular country song.
Choices. People believe those in the GLBT community have a choice NOT to be GLB or T. The only choice such people have is to determine whether we wish to condemn ourselves to the conformity of the majority of people who are straight or live a life according to our own beings. Perhaps if we live life according to what we are, there is also the choice to be promiscuous or monogamous. There are those who wish to force all of us to make the choice of being straight, thus condemning us to a hell for which morons have no right to condemn one another.
Choices. TV Land today. Another conundrum established by the “majority” who are shallow people in America today, thanks to the education rug which has been pulled out from beneath Americans. If we to watching the drivel of entertainment, religion, sports, and politics delivered by the – what we are told to believe – huge multi-channel “wonders of the modern world” called cable and satellite television, we are personified as fools who don’t recognize “life is good” and we should appreciate these “choices.”
Choices? OK. So the technological modern “wonder world” provides remote control devices which allow us to “program” out the undesirable stuff. Believe me, I am so impressed by such technological “wizardry!” I can whittle my channel selections back to about a dozen or so channels – perhaps two dozen. Maybe. I can whittle my choices back to just a handful, out of how many total I am paying for? 200? 300? Did you catch the part about, “PAYING FOR?” I have the choice, for sure. But when I inquire about also having a “choice” for what I pay, the customer service reps are well trained to twist this all around and tell me about all the wonderful “tiers” of service. “You can get a through g channels.” But this does not include channel bbb. “Oh, well, says the rep, then you go to the next tier – for $40 more.” HOW EXCITING! For channel bbb, I can pay $40 and the rep never blinks an eye (or, I suppose there is a “blinked eye,” because the person is probably in India and I cannot see he or she) when stating this. What a FOOL I am, so I order $40 more, in order to receive the ONE channel I want. The rep is like the Jedi knight in one of the first Star Wars adventures who uses mental telepathy to convince a man he did NOT want a cigarette.
And then I ask about providing a package which fits my needs and at a lower cost, then give me options to pay for any other channel on a “pay as you go” basis (Comcast calls this, “On Demand”). Response. “But we do not offer this and you can get x,y, z.” But I don’t want “x,y, z.” Rep repeats: “But we do not offer this and you can get x,y, z.” But I don’t want your damn “x, y, z” for some astronomical price per month. How about if you CHANGE and offer what I propose? “But we do not offer this and you can get x,y, and z – perhaps at a special introductory rate!” Fine! Take your introductory rate and shove it where Santa Claus put the Christmas tree.
People – consumers – are crazy to accept this sort of crap from the cable / satellite television industry who all collude on prices. Try to get a better package in a so-called “competitive capitalist” market, something the FCC and Congress like to think we are getting (does the “opiate of the masses” come to mind?). Here is a twist on this situation. The conformity forced upon us by greedy, selfish, pension-raiding, executives who de-value human labor to make slaves: TV Land today is similar to what Karl Marx proposed as the “dictatorship of the proletariat.” We have all these shallow people, many without productive jobs, who make decisions for us. These are decisions based, not on reason, responsibility, and what makes sense for our HUMAN nature, but what makes sense for lining the pockets of executives – and that’s it. End of story. No other criteria whatsoever for deciding what the “opiate-inspired” masses should view on television.
Add to this the fact that Rupert Murdock has stated his intent to put local “free” broadcast television “out of business.” So, then we don’t have MORE choices, but less choices – in a supposed capitalist economy.
One more thing. In the midst of all this, the shallow, opiate-inspired consumer is mesmerized while being raped by cable / satellite. In other words, let us accept this stuff on television and PRETEND we REALLY have choices. But many of these same people balk at the ideas of Obamacare providing healthcare from pooled resources of the people. In one case – cable / satellite – Marx’s ideas are accepted. In the other case, Obamacare is falsely attacked for taking into account all the people being served with “multiple healthcare channels” from money we pool together (as we are doing with cable / satellite) and speak loudly and falsely about Obamacare. Let me figure this out. In the one case (cable / satellite), this is a WANT for our lives, not a NECESSITY. In the other case (healthcare), this is a NECESSITY for everyone.
Silly me. But I would prefer pooling a larger sum of money for healthcare – a NEED in my life – than to pool such a large sum of money in order to provide entertainment for my neighbors – a WANT, not a NEED. I know what happens with healthcare by the individual. Those 55 to 65 pay astronomical prices at a time of layoff and no money in an individual’s life. Those in the younger generation pay far less – individually. Again, silly me for noticing there is a better way – by RESPONSIBLY WITHOUT CORRUPTION – pooling our money and making it all more equitable for a NEED in our lives – healthcare. Perhaps then, we can reduce our overall USA per capita costs for healthcare, bringing these in line with other Western CAPITALIST nations.
I repeat: “God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy.”
Douglas W. Cornwell
Tioga Herald
Category:
Political Commentary
Leave a comment
Tagged with: