gluttony at gmail
Nov 7, 2008, 12:23 AM
Post #1 of 41
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What Christianity means to me
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I was recently having an ethics debate where someone said that Christianity
was "just what the greeks taught, but dumbed down". I heartily disagreed,
and I wanted to put my reasons to text while I still remembered them.
Christianity is the ethics of the great Greek classics, for sure. It owes
almost all its ethical lineage to those boys in limbo. There's something
deeper than that. Jesus isn't just about ethics. He's about passion, love,
and most of all, he's about being a time-traveling gangster.
I grew up poor. I know what it is like to go without food, or wear the same
pair of shoes until they smell and have holes in them. When you're poor, you
make poor friends. Let's say you and I grew up in the same trailer park. We
had this friend named Chris we met through some BBS. Chris always hung out
with the shadiest people. He knew every hooker, hustler and scammer in the
tri-state area. Despite that, Chris was the most loving, most real human
being we'd ever met. He'd sometimes feed us 10 strips of acid and take us
out to the woods to set off some explosives. He'd have our backs when the
rich kids tried to beat us up. When we were hungry, he would give us food.
Most importantly, Chris gave us a sense of justice. "Man, those fuckin'
Jews, with their media and their Federal Reserve-- they have all the money
and what do they do with it? Run this country into the ground. Try to
program every man to be a slave to behaviorism and every daughter that isn't
theirs be a whore. Things ain't right."
Chris would also give us hope. "This fuckin shithole-- this fuckin' park.
You're better than that. You're a good German kid. There's kings in your
lineage. You deserve better. Fuck anyone who says otherwise. Your parents
are assholes, your teachers are assholes, and you know what? You're an
asshole too. But you deserve better. All of you." Chris made us think there
was something important in our lives beyond the shitty trailer and the
shitty family and the mac and cheese six nights a week.
One day, Chris takes too much acid. Freaks out. Starts going into banks,
knocking shit over. "You fucking morons! You're agents of the subjugation
and slavery of your neighbors! Don't you fuckin' see! Wake the fuck up, stop
fucking ruining lives!" He breaks into the vault, burns all the money. Not
interested in a cent of it.
Chris goes to prison. After he's gone, we all realize what a difference he
made in our lives. Without Chris, the walls of our trailers seem really
small. We spend our days somber and sad. Then one day, someone says, "let's
throw a party". We all eat a little acid, and tell stories about Chris. We'd
laugh, we'd remember when our lives were more complete. And through
repeating his words about justice, truth, love and hope, we found these in
ourselves.
And we'd wait. We'd count the days. Until Chris got out of jail.
And that, my friends, is the basis of all Christianity.
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