The dEǝЯDeRe-Construction of Me, Part 3

"The Abrahamic religions were originally formed upon a martial, violent god with a perceptively nasty streak and a tendency towards promoting genocide. There have been developments since and finer impulses have emerged but that nasty god is still there, hovering around like a perplexing bad sore...It's absurd to build a religion on a supernatural thug."

~ Stanley Wilkin, University of London

He's not wrong. Have you read the OT from which all of the Abrahamic faiths branch? I am of the opinion that there is something inherently patriarchal, misogynist, and bigoted rooted deeply within the faith begun by Abraham and his descendants. And the fact that it has been co-opted by ⚪ supremacists is nothing less than to be expected because the NT is built on a foundation of woman-blaming, war waged against Those Who Are Not Like Us, and literally the destruction and murder of other lands and people in the name of a thunder god of a relatively minor people group in Western Asia during a time when gods popped up like mushrooms after a rain. 

I said what I said.

When I began this trip 35-40 years ago to understand what I believed I had no idea what I was even looking for. Folks on the inside said that being a believer would lead me to salvation and joy unimagined. 

Not one of them mentioned the gaslighting...

the victim blaming...

          the requirement that I be happy all the damn time (that's mostly ev-Prot; Orthodox want you to be miserable about your sins all the time, which is just plain confusing)...

                    the triumphalism... 

                                 or the holier than thou attitudes that often accompany those who believe that, in spite of the fact that literally millions of people lived and died prior to and after the advent of their particular belief system, they are the ones destined for eternal life because they believe...

...those millions of other folks by the way are being eternally, consciously tortured for being born someplace outside of said thunder god's range...

And that last part is something I cannot wrap my brain around. Because, if you are all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving why do you go around creating folks only to torture them eternally for the crime of being born before you offered a Get Out of Jail Free Card in the form of human sacrifice or for not hearing about said Get out of Jail Free Card before you died? That strikes me as abusive as fuck.

And I know I am not the only one to ask these questions. Nor am I the only one to be told I'm not allowed to ask them because "why are you questioning the Lord!" 

But those questions never actually went away. They just got suppressed. 

Relevant Reading 

Thread on Research Gate dated 6 Feb 2018

The Abrahamic Faiths

The dEǝЯDeRe-Construction of Me, Part 2

Confluence

Things are changing. And when things change there is always backlash from those who would like nothing better than to maintain the status quo. It doesn't matter why they want to maintain it but the main reason I believe is fear. 

Fear that they will no longer be in charge.

Fear of the "other".

Fear of the unknown.

Or just plain cowardice. 

Whatever it is however produces a visceral response that flails about with whatever tool or weapon to hand screaming, NO!! NO CHANGE! NEVER!! Sometimes those weapons are literal weapons. Sometimes words. 

Sometimes laws and policies enacted by politicians so corroded with injustice they don't even know what side they're on because they can't see their own hypocrisy.

And that fear butts against the tide of those demanding justice and change and it produces conflict. 

Upheaval. 

Confluence.

In geography, a confluence occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); or where two streams meet to become the source of a river of a new name (such as the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers at Pittsburgh, forming the Ohio); or where two separated channels of a river (forming a river island) rejoin at the downstream end. ~ Wikipedia

Confluence of the Bhagirathi and Alaknanda Rivers to produce the Ganges at Devprayag, India. 

At the point of confluence you get two powerhouses crashing together to the point where one might think the waters will not mix. The surface of the rivers can literally run parallel for a while with one river color refusing to merge with the other. 

Beneath the surface though, things are riled up. Things long buried are stirred from the muck. the currents swirl and the light becomes murky and dim. As the riverbed becomes slightly shallower, the conflict underneath shows on top with swirls and waves and whitecaps. River ships must be very careful in these places because debris from the bottom rise and sink, rise and sink; currents change as the silt and sand slide and shift creating eddies and lulls and unexpected shoves. 

It's a maelstrom. 

But eventually the rivers do merge. The currents calm and the river flows on more peacefully, becoming wider, becoming deeper. Becoming something new.

And we who survive the confluence we will give that river a new name.

Relevant Reading

Wikipedia Entry

Photograph by Mark A. Wilson

The dEǝЯDeRe-Construction of Me, Part 2

 The Chief of Sinners.

And I said this parable, "Two men sat down at their computers to post on social media, one a Remnant Christian and the other a Deconstructing Believer. The Remnant Christian posted thus to his followers and "liked" his own post: "God, I thank you that I have found the Exact Exposition of the True Faith and I am not like other men, heretics, ecumenists, modernists. I obey The Rudder, I follow the True Calendar, I reject the Ecumenical Patriarch, I'm prepping for the End Times, I say a 300 knot Prayer Rope every day. Don't audit me, but I might give tithes of all that I get. I am the chief of sinners, Lord have mercy."

But the Deconstructor, because he was no longer accepted by the Remnant Exact Expositors, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, nor condemn anyone else, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, I'm no longer sure of You, nor myself, nor my faith, nor the Church, nor it's leadership, nor where this is all going, I'm trying to stick close to you even if I don't know where You are, oh, and I gave the spare change in my cup-holder to the guy on the freeway on-ramp... but if I die before I work all this out, be merciful to me a sinner!'

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who piously humbles himself before men will be truly humbled, but he who truly humbles himself before God will be exalted." ~ Steve Robinson

Relevant Reading

Pithless Thoughts II: Postscripts on Life

Steve the Builder

Parable of the Publican & Pharisee

The dEǝЯDeRe-Construction of Me, Part 1

Note to Self...

Artwork shamelessly acquired from Pixels by Emma - Linkage below

Pepperidge Farm remembers...Go someplace and be grateful for it.

Relevant Linkage

Pixels by Emma - Website

Pixels by Emma - Instagram

Pixels by Emma - Etsy

The dEǝЯDeRe-Construction of Me, Part 1

The deconstruction of your faith is HARD. The reconstruction of your faith is HARD.

Both are work and both require thoughtful, considered, as well as emotional contemplation. Otherwise you go off half-cocked and lose yourself in the impulsivity of the moment. Leaving a place, an ideology, a belief you have ardently held because you are hurting or have been hurt or see hurt happening is painful and traumatic. Trauma requires a retreat to a safe place so that healing can take place.

Trauma requires a retreat to a safe place so that healing can take place.

Sometimes that takes a very long time.

It may take forever. It may take a couple days and a martini. Depends on the person.

Regardless, it is A Very Hard Thing.

St John of the Cross didn't call it a Long Dark Night of the Soul for nothing.

It is painful. There are stages of grief one goes through. And however many there are (5/4/12/952) they tend to fall into the same patterns:

• Denial. Dissociation. "I only want life to be as it was"
• Acceptance of the facts, but refusal / denial of the need to (re-)plan. 
• Bewilderment. 
• Anger. 
• Scapegoating. 
• Bargaining. 
• Despair/Depression
• Bewilderment (again)
• Acceptance. 
• Reconstruction -- A missing stage 

One of the biggest issues to improve on, in the 5 stage model, may be around being constructive. The 5th stage is "Acceptance", but a lot of people get stuck in a kind of Acceptance that is little different from Despair – so that accepting the fact has not led to reconstructing a worthwhile life..."Acceptance" sounds completely passive, yet reconstruction must be active. So there seem to be two quite different final stages: (1) passive acceptance, which is perhaps little different to Despair or Bewilderment; and (2) active acceptance which means moving into a new re-planned way of living, which requires the person to be active and creative: "Reconstructed". This isn't just about stages of reaction to grief, but also to other kinds of changed circumstances. ~ Draper, 2021

Acceptance, as the blurb above states, is rather passive. I "accept" that X has been painful and that I need to recover from it. But then what? What do I DO? 

I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start with faith. In general and in specific to me. I think that is a good place to begin.

Faith is such a personal thing. For most folks it is deeply held and when that faith is violated either by humans or by circumstance (or both) it strikes at your heart and soul. You break and you hurt and are angry and ride what I call the emotional spiral up and down. And while you ride it you sometimes break it apart and examine why you ever thought this was the way to eternal life in the first place. 

Please recall that I can only speak to faith as a Christian, an Eastern Orthodox convert from charismatic evangelical Protestantism. I have no idea if someone from another faith goes through this but I believe it is probably a very human thing to do. But for me, as a Christian, the last decade(give or take) has taken a toll. I have seen folks who claim the Name say, do, and cosign some disgusting stuff all in the name of <insert cause directly orthogonal to the teachings they say they believe in>. If you have not been under a rock you know what I am describing. After a while, I just gave up. And honestly the Great Prestigious Pineapple of 2020 was a godsend because seriously I could just STOP with the uncomfortable "faith -proving" things I felt like I had to do and THINK about why I was doing them in the first place.

The questions and thoughts were...disturbing.

Does faith matter? Does it change people for the better? If so, then why are there some really decent atheists? Is it all about getting stuff from the Great Vending Machine in the Sky? Why is it in the sky? Why are people such assholes? Do they even believe this? If they do why are they being so hateful? Why am I being so hateful? What is the point anyway? Is eternal life even a thing? Does it matter? Salvation from what exactly? Is there a God? Is the God I know about the right one? If God exists, why are They such douchebags? Like, Jesus was chill and all but His Dad has major jealousy and anger issues. And so do His followers, really, and that book (pick a version) and institutions they came up after He took off for parts unknown are seriously in need of some executive reworking. And what about science and the things we have learned? Do not get me started on quantum physics, string theory, and the expansion of spacetime. No one took those things into account when my faith tradition was formed. Heck no one KNEW about those things when my faith tradition was formed!!! Church folks even today outright fight against SCIENCE and it's 2022 and they are still burning books about things they don't like and calling it "Christian". What the everlovin' fuck, man????

(By the way...if you plan to say something like "Well church is about God and if you were truly a Christian what other people do wouldn't matter blah blah blah." Just don't okay? That is not helpful. It's patronizing and condescending. Yes, people can be dumpster fires and do some icky things in the Name of Jesus, but they don't have to. They could decide to NOT be a dumpster fire. So don't try to say it's MY fault when I hear blatantly racist crap coming out of people's mouths (or posted on their Fb walls) and believe those people should be taken to task by those in charge. AND that those in charge should not be the ones I have issues with in the first place. Thanks just all to pieces)

But I digress...

When I started actually thinking about what I was thinking about I was broken. Like "Man oh man, some of this stuff is just plain TOXIC as all hell," I started reading and doing some research (always dangerous) and noticed that what I was experiencing (within my faith tradition) was not all that uncommon. I was just floored.

It had a name.

It's deconstruction. And I have always liked taking things apart.

It's taking what I know and believe to be true apart and looking at it again. Closely. And with different, less, rosy eyes. When I started this journey, this Christian journey, I wanted to believe. I wanted to have that faith like a mustard seed that could move mountains...I wanted to be worthy of it. I never did. I am however, stubborn and I stuck to it even when I saw its feet of clay. 

I used to love the story of the man in Mark chapter 9 with the child who had seizures. He brought his child to the Lord's disciples for a cure and they were unable to cure the child. Christ, who had gone to pray, came back and they told Him what happened. He told them, "Bring me to being the child and his father." When they got to him, Christ said to the father, "Do you want him healed?" And the father said, "Yes! Please! If you are able!" And Jesus said to him, “If you are able! —All things can be done for the one who believes.” The father of the child says, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:14-24)

I used to identify with that man. I wanted help with my unbelief. But...why do I have to believe first? Like, why is belief necessary? If this thing is true it should be true whether or not I believe it. The sun burns whether or not I believe it burns. Vaccines work. The Earth is warming. The galaxy has a black hole at it's center. And I don't have to "believe" those things.  My belief should not matter. Besides, if didn't believe I wouldn't be here in the first place. If my belief is what makes me worthy then I've been there, done that and bought a dresser drawer full of t-shirts.

It's time for that faith to prove itself worthy of me. 

Relevant Reading

5/4/12 Stages/Steps of Grief/Addiction/Accepting New Ideas, Steven Draper

Orthogonal

The Dark Night of the Soul, St John of the Cross

Mark 9:14-29

Deconstruction Self Care

Celebrate With Me!

won't you celebrate with me

what i have shaped into

a kind of life? 

i had no model.

born in babylon

both nonwhite and woman

what did i see to be except myself?

i made it up

here on this bridge between

starshine and clay,

my one hand holding tight

my other hand; come celebrate

with me that everyday

something has tried to kill me

and has failed.

"And. Has. Failed." 

That's the important part. 

Lord have mercy on me, a sinner, but not a failure. 

Relevant Reading

Lucille Clifton

Poems by Lucille Clifton

I Iz Vewwy Scawwy Pony

What is up, buttercups? It's been a couple years. Buuuut, in my defense, there's been fascists and nahtzee yt supremacists, insurrectionists, and a straight up panini-press* so I've been kind of busy. 

I've been doing some thinking lately. Wait, back up...I did something completely UNthinkingly that forced me to think. After, of course, I got over the sheer rage that was caused by what I had done by my own free will to myself.

....pardon me while I digress a bit, my brain is wonky from staring at too many Jira tickets....

Isn't it amazing how that works? That I can do something by choice and under no obligation or duress that makes me fly into a rage inside my own head? Like there is no one here to blame but myself for this. I worry about me sometimes...

Anyway...where was I? Oh yes...I did something to myself that made me think about how people are. So if you know me or have read my blog you know my story so I'm not going to re-hash all that. It's over out and done with and even though there are still some splinters that pop up now and then because that's the nature of the beast we call a brain.

Even if you decide to inflict said splinter on yourself. 

Moving forward.

I am a villain. The Bad Guy wearing the Black Hat and twirling my mustache, come to rain misery and despair over the blameless denizens of the land who are just trying to live their lives. I bathe in the blood of innocent kittens. I eat puppies. I am just this side of evil incarnate. I am consciously manipulative. I am a liar and a ringleader of flying liars bent on spreading lies. 

I am a hypocrite. 

I AM A MONSTER

HA! I wish I could pull all that off. But yeah, I'm the bad guy.

And, after some initial anger (read as RAGE, and cruel thoughts, and disbelief, and a whole heckuvalotta "HOW DARE YOU"s) you know what? I accepted it. I'm the Bad Guy in that story. I made decisions that affected the story of that person's life in ways they didn't like. It doesn't matter WHY I did it, what those decisions were in response to. In that person's story, I am the Bad Guy complete with  Black Hat ™. Possibly even an eye patch. I quite like the eye patch.

We are all The Bad Guy in someone's story, though. We craft for ourselves a reality centered on ourselves based on of the way we see the things we live through from day-to-day, moment-to-moment. Their memories are not mine. Their feelings are not mine. Their perspective is not mine. My perspective is not theirs. And they are no more "wrong" in their perception than I am in mine because frankly I cannot change how I am seen from someone else's point of view. In someone else's memory of an event.

And that is.

It.

Just.

Is.

Elsewhere I wrote:

This story is going to be different from whichever perspective you choose to look at it. Only by seeing all sides of a story can the truth ever be understood. This is the truth I lived with. I don't coat it with honey for anyone, least of all myself. Having more of it inflicted on me is nothing I am willing to bear any longer.

My journey is not about vengeance nor is it about seeking retribution. My journey is about me working out my salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). So look to your own salvation and I'll see to mine.

In one of my favorite books, Vigilant by James Alan Gardner, there is an organization that is dedicated to seeking out corruption in the government. Their motto is LIVE IN THE REAL AND NAME THE LIES. I aspire, however waveringly, however faultily, to live by it. I need to embroider it on a pillow.

Live in the Real - I am the Good Guy in my story. I may be the Bad Guy in the stories of those I touch.

Name the Lies - I am ALWAYS the Good Guy (or at least neutral) in the stories of those I touch.

Name the Lies - I need to change myself so that I show up as the Good Guy at all times in everyone's story.

Live in the Real - My actions are not always Divine, Generous, and Heroic. My actions are not always Demonic, Self-serving and Evil. And neither are anyone else's. 

Remember : This story is going to be different from whichever perspective you choose to look at it. 

We have all sinned. We have all played a the bad guy's role in someone's story. We have all hurt and been hurt. We have all treated each other, and ourselves, as things. And that, according to Granny Weatherwax, is where sin begins, when you treat people as things.

"In this life, many things happen in which we play a shameful part. Those of us who are strong forgive ourselves and go om. The weak wallow in they shame and allow it to devour them. There is no one of us who is without sin, child. There ought to be some comfort in that." ~ The Duchess, Through a Glass Darkly

Weirdly, it is kind of freeing to realize I am not always the Good Guy. It is equally freeing to realize I am not always the Bad Guy. 

Both truths exist. They are BOTH true.

They are both/and.

Both. And.

Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.

Relevant Reading 

We are all villains in someone else's story

You Will Always be a Villain in Someone Else's Story

Vigilant

Through A Glass Darkly

Romans 3:10-26

More of Granny Weatherwax's Wisdom

*Panini Press and any other multisylabbic word beginning with the letter "P" has been used to refer to the SARS-COV2/COVID-19 pandemic that has afflicted the world and caused several million yt folks to lose their cot-danged minds but that is a soap box for elsewhere

Do Justice, Love Kindness, Walk Humbly

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to DO JUSTICE, AND TO LOVE KINDNESS, AND TO WALK HUMBLY WITH YOUR GOD? ~ Micah 6:8

I get a little unhappy with folks who think they get to dictate who deserves justice and kindness in a place where so many have been deprived of it in favor of others who meet a certain criteria.

It is not a good thing (or a God thing) to show favoritism. It is in fact a sin to do so (see James 2:9). The point is to open the table to ALL. When the Master said to His servant, “Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled," he did not tell the servant to inquire about their personal lives, pedigrees, gender, or skin color first. He said "Tell them to come in that my house may be full."

Seems to me that we should actually heed this instead of building fences, complaining about someone coming to take "muh guns," deciding certain people have mental problems because of who they choose to be, and denying basic decency to children and refugees.

Don't argue with me about it. I didn't say it.

Lord have mercy on me a sinner.

Relevant Reading
Micah 6:8
James 2:8-10
Luke 14:16-24

Can we extend forgiveness to black men?

I've been thinking about this a lot since reading about all these folks wanting to drag Michael Vick (again). I saw the articles about the petition and was like, "Didn't he go to jail for that already? What's this about?" I'm no huge football fan or anything but certain things stick out, you know?

So I totally get the disgust. Vick raised dogs to fight and encouraged others to do the same by running a dog fighting ring. That's horrible.

That was kind of a big deal. TWELVE YEARS AGO. In TWO THOUSAND AND SEVEN.

I just don't understand!

And it's not like he, oh I dunno...walked into a man's own home and blew him away or anything.

Yet for some reason the latter is granted forgiveness (and a hug, no less) before the former. Even though Vick has served time, done multiple speaking tours about the evils of dog fighting, and donated money to every animal charity under the sun. And, frankly, even though I love me some dogs and think dog fighting is horrific, I kind of think the latter is WAY worse than the former. Just my humble yet accurate opinion.

But certain folk will jump all over a bandwagon to forgive, or at least give a pass to, certain people for just about anything while at the same time holding certain others hostage to their past foibles. Never mind that they have paid for their crime, were very young, didn't know what they were doing, blah blah blah.

Now don't get me wrong. I do actually know the reason why. It's the same thing that causes folk, after a black person has been shot or assaulted by a white policeman or had the cops called on them for living theor lives, to say things like:

• what were they doing to make them shoot/call the police
• why didn't they just do as they were told/not do that
• why were they wearing that/living their life
• why were they black in a public space

It's maddening.

As the article says, no one is owed forgiveness. That is not a thing. It's the partiality I question. The blatant favoritism. Good Lord don't black men deserve the same consideration of others to rectify the situation, pay their dues, and go on? I'm not sure, but I think St. Paul said something about that and in the words of the article,

"So think of forgiveness this way-you’re able to do it with your uncle that says homophobic and racist things every Thanksgiving. You’re able to do it with the boyfriend who holds your head under the sheets and farts. You’re able to do it when a girl buries a baby alive or a woman comes into the home of a man and shoots him dead. Figure out what internally is causing you to hold back on allowing Black men to grow from their mistakes, not be caught up in their past, and live their lives."

Lord have mercy on me a sinner.

#bloginstead #3daysinthewilds

Relevant Reading
It’s Time We Talk About America’s Inability To Forgive Black Men
2 Corinthians 2:5-11
Michael Vick Petition
Bad Newz Kennels dog fighting investigation

Sing Soft Kitty To Me

I don't feel so good.

GERMS SUCK.

Runny noses SUCK. Stuffy noses SUCK. One nostril stuffy while other nostril flows like the freakin' Colorado River SUCKS. Coughing up a lung and waking up in the middle of the night SUCKS (although actually "coughing up a lung" is a thing and can be fatal, don't do it). Sore throats SUCK.

Hm. I sense a pattern of STRAIGHT UP SUCKERY.

Where's my tissue?

#bloginstead #3daysinthewilds

Relevant Reading
Soft Kitty