Lost in Transubstantiation

Title: “Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics”

Author: Ross Douthat

Rank: 51

Blurb: “Writing for an era dominated by recession, gridlock, and fears of American decline, Douthat exposes the spiritual roots of the nation’s political and economic crises. He argues that America’s problem isn’t too much religion, as a growing chorus of atheists have argued; nor is it an intolerant secularism, as many on the Christian right believe. Rather, it’s bad religion: the slow-motion collapse of traditional faith and the rise of a variety of pseudo-Christianities that stroke our egos, indulge our follies, and encourage our worst impulses.”

Review: “Douthat has gone from Episcopal to Pentecostal to Roman Catholic so he has run the gamit of Christian faith in American. It is fascinating to read how faith has gone wrong in this book.”

Customers Also Bought: “40 Questions About the End Times” by Eckhard Schnabel

Footnote: If only we all followed a hierarchical male-dominated foreign-led boy-raping cult, America would be a lot better off.

Bad Religion [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon Kickback Link]

45 Comments

Who or what killed more people? Stalin, Hitler, or organized religion?

Game, set, match.

Jeebus Christ!

All one really has to do is look at the Bible Belt and how it overlaps:
1) The poor education belt
2) The poor belt
3) The obesity belt
4) The heart disease belt
5) The tends to vote against their own interests aka GOP belt
6) The against any sort of public healthcare belt
7) The Diabeetus 2 belt
8) Against science belt
9) Denial of Global Warming/Climate Change belt
etc.

I’m not saying everyone in those Belts are all of those things, but this isn’t a small sample size so it’s not that much of a coincidence that they overlap.

What’s the story with these uppity nuns that Herr Pope doesn’t like?

Thing is, I would probably agree with half of what Douthat has to say in that book. Ever been to a church that preaches the “prosperity Gospel?” Holy fuck, it’s the most depressing thing you’ve ever witnessed. It resembles a multi-level-marketing seminar more than a spiritual journey. And that crap is spreading around the country like a fungus in a cool, damp bathroom. On the other hand, these churches probably evangelize for what is America’s One True Religion: selfish, avaricous, hyper-pious, fuck-thy-neighbor then fuck his wife, God bless the market Hallelujah fundamentalism.

@Serolf Divad: People always vote for the gods they want. Started with the Greeks.

@Serolf Divad:
Was it a Korean church? I know prosperity gospel is huge in Korea (prosperity shamanism originally) and it carried over to immigrants to North America. It’s something I avoid like the plague.

@nojo: How on Earth do you find these? Are you raiding my mother’s bookcase?

@I’m passing for white: Amazon Top 100, as always. It’s not like I work at it.

@ManchuCandidate:

No, it was an evangelical church of some sort. My wife’s attends a Korean church, which gives me an excuse not to attend church (since the service is in Korean). But every so often she tires of the bickering and infighting in her church and goes out in search of another church to attend (and drags me along with her) and this was one of those occasions.

My childhood Groovy Lutheran Church is now a gay-friendly Groovy Lutheran Church. Our God is a Hip God.

Wasn’t it a Lutheran church that fired the woman with narcolepsy and subsequently backed by the Supremes?

@karen marie has her eyes tight shut: There are Groovy Lutheran Churches, and Wingnut Lutheran Churches.

I’m not sure when the schism happened, or whether it was just a recent political evolution from earlier divisions. My church was Missouri Synod growing up, and then that merged with other groovy synods during the Eighties to create a Super Groovy Synod. The Lutherans who make the news are from the Dark Side.

@nojo: There have been right-wing takeovers of certain parts of certain churches. My own Methodist church had seen the eastern conference taken over by righties who weren’t even Methodist to begin with.

@nojo: And there are Evangelical Lutheran churches. Not so groovy. Ours was African American, so it was a little more like a mix of Anglican and Baptist. I was never confirmed, so, yeah.

@Tommmcatt Wears A Hoodie Daily: Every time we pass a Methodist church, my kid says the Methodist flaming cross symbol reminds him of the KKK. I keep telling him I don’t think it’s the same thing.

@I’m passing for white: Yeah, the Evangelical Lutherans are the wingnuts. I don’t follow it closely, but I felt compelled to track it all down a month or two back. Couldn’t figure out why there were Groovy Lutherans who weren’t so groovy.

@nojo: As far as Af-Am churches are concerned, they were started because we couldn’t attend white churches. I have relatives who are Black Episcopalian, but the service and sermon seem to be pretty much the same as the white counterpart. I only go for funerals now, so I could be wrong.

Black churches in the 70s and 80s were more about social justice, hope and inclusion that stemmed from a long history of exclusion and racism. Something happened in the 90s, and things took a dramatic turn to the right. I’m really not sure what it was. All I miss is black Baptist music.

The Presbyterians at 10th Presby were cool until they had C. Everett Koop come talk some crazy shit when I was 13 or so. The youth group took me skiing for the first time. I stayed up all night playing Risk, both for the first time, but listening to Koop turned me off, even from the cool traditional music and free ski trips.

ADD: I still like Risk and totally suck. Last time I played, I knocked all the pieces off the board in frustration.

I. Hate. To. Lose.

TJ/ WFT#8352; Word spellcheck crapped out on me. It doesn’t matter which version I use–it’s not working. I CAN’T SPELL!!! Argh.

ADD: Fucking ‽

ADDD: What’s this German shit? I’m certain “wudder” isn’t German. Or is it…

ADDDD: Google is a beautiful thing

@ passing
Babelfish translates “wudder” German-to-English as “more wudder”. Hope this helps.

@ passing
Ooh, more! Urbandictionary.com contributes:
Wudder is what people from Philadelphia drink, swim in, wash dishes with and cleanse themselves with. Wudder is a word unique to Philadelphia and can only be used by those with roots in Philadelphia.
On a hot day, nothing beats an ice cold glass of wudder !

@RevZafod: It’s the Wudder.

This reference brought to you by the Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Northwest: Come for the rain — stay for the overcast!

Oooooooh, a Horny Episode Alert!

Note to Roger: Lasts about 29 years.

I have never hallucinated. Huge disappointment.

And hey, Laurie Anderson’s selling out!

God, that orange sherbet would be great if I was tripping.

I have never laughed so hard at a boner-pill commercial.

Seriously, there’s only 3 maybe HoJos left in US America. How did they get all that?

Final scene: Travolta steps out of a bathroom and gets shot.

@ManchuCandidate: HoJo’s never made it West, that I know of. And a midrange motel would have been squeezed out of the market like midrange department stores.

Siri, how do you pronounce “Zooey”?

As my TiVo decided to record the wrong channel AGAIN, and as Project Free TV does NOT have the new ep ripped streaming yet, I will skip the spoilers and address the wudder issue. And the flaming cross.

@Tommmcatt Wears A Hoodie Daily: What came first: the flaming cross or the klan?

@RevZafod: Haha! Thanks, Rev. I believe “wudder” can be heard from DE to NYC, and from NJ to Philly. Wudder runs outta da fawwsit when youse turn da spig-ut. I think they call it “pop” in Pitt.

@nojo: When I came back from The West, I had trained myself to say, “wah-Tur.” My mother said, “Wah-Tur? Who do you think you are?”

@I’m passing for white: On the other hand, I’ve never understood the Northwest preference for “warsh”, as in “warsh your hands”. I think it’s just an affectation to prove we have an accent.

@nojo: Oh, you’re not alone with warsh. My father says it.

Okay–ep started great and then was very dumb.

@nojo: Really?? You didn’t, as they say, do it right.

19 mins in, and just the sight of a sugar cube has set my teeth on their metallic edge.

@But what do you expect from a commenter called “promnightdumpsterbaby”?: Oh, I did it very right. Three or four times. Intense clarity and self-awareness. But no hallucinations. They promised me hallucinations.

@nojo: I remember seeing seagulls running alongside the car with side 2 of Zepellin IV in the tape deck. Plausible, except we were doing 60 mph in the dark.

Oh and I also drank tequila with Tim Leary. Short version: asshole. In 82, his “favorite band” was Quarterflash. He refused to let me interview him on the radio, so my buddy interviewed me about Drinking With Dr Leary.

@I’m passing for white: I stopped paying attention to Project Free TV because episodes were being torn down faster than they were going up for Downton Abbey. I’ve been catching up on the last seven years of Dr. Who on Netflix while I await the second season of Downton Abbey becoming available through Netflix streaming.

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