What A Father! (part 2)

I was thinking about the logic (?) behind an ex-classmate thanking a god for putting her husband through months of a painful, debilitating illness before killing him in his 40's.  Since the bible is fond of parables and allegories, maybe I should try one....

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A 2-year old child, Joanie, is abducted by a kindly, graying man.  This child is taken to the man's house, where there are many other residents, some of whom were also abducted, others joined the household willingly.  As time goes on, the Joanie comes to accept this man as Father.  Father provides as well as he can for all in the household, making the effort that all have enough to eat.  He does not succeed all the time, but the family members all thank Father whenever they get anything.

As this 2-year old grows up, other youngsters are brought into the family.  All are instructed to worship Father, just like Joanie was.  One day, seemingly for no reason, Father comes along and takes one of the young girl's "sisters" by the hand, stating that they are going for a walk out back.  Neither little girl questions why Father is carrying a shotgun and a shovel.  The little sister walks away with Father.  A short while later, a bang is heard, and Father comes back alone.  When one of Joanie's little "brothers" asks Mary why Father took their "sister" away, never to be seen again, all Joanie can answer is "nobody can know what is behind Father's great plan."

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As I think about Joanie in the story above, some words come to mind.... "brainwashed", "insane", maybe even "confused".  When I think of Father, "INSANE", "megalomaniac", "murderer" come to mind.  How is that different from the god my ex-classmate worships?

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.