What A Father! (part 1)

A few years ago, courtesy of Facebook, I was reconnected with quite a few high school classmates.  I grew up in an area in the North that, many years ago, had been a hotbed of new fanatical churches.  Interesting - if the focus of those churches had been something besides Jesus, they would have been considered cults, but because the big-J was involved, the phrase fundamental (or fanatical) church was used.  The small town I grew up in had the usual selection of religious flavors - Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, etc.

When checking out the religious affiliations listed on Facebook for my ex-classmates, I saw one atheist (me), and the rest Christian of one sort or another.  But their affiliation was generally not simply listed as Christian, or Catholic/Methodist/etc.  No, what I saw was a ton of "Friend of Christ", or "Christian - I love Jesus and believe in miracles", or "Jesus is the only Way!!!"....  While in school, though, I only knew of one evangelical.  Kids just did not preach to you, or spew quotes from the bible.

Now it is different.  On Facebook, there are daily missives from multiple ex-classmates.  Some are biblical quotes, while others are other assorted praises of their personal gods.  I read some, I skip others.  One person, though, I just had to "hide".  Hers were soooo bad, so (if I may say) godawful, that I could not take them anymore.

I joined Facebook right around the time that her husband was dying of a horrible, debilitating disease.  I don't know how long it took him to die - my guess is it was over 3-12 months, none of them comfortable.  And what was her reaction to her life-partner and children's father's death?  "Praise god, for he is good and my love is now at his side...", ".... Jesus is great and kind..", "I pray hourly to my loving god...".  Her love, her husband, her kids' father has just been ripped from her by her god, and she praises him?!?  She praises the omniscient and all-powerful being who could have healed her soulmate for the inaction her god has taken in saving her man?  Daily, she still praises that beast, that mythical being who was so heartless that he would send his own son to earth, just to have that son brutally tortured and murdered, all in a public relations move.  That is just insane.