Ganked from goth4god

[zephyrofgod]

Foreword: I have ganked this from goth4god because it VERY accurately describes how I feel in my world. I am an Echo Boomer with deep X-er leanings. My mother and step-father are Boomers. I was taught how to think for myself. This also explains how and why I believe what I do. Thank you, goth4god. I have done very little editing to this, only where people that goth4god knows and I don't. His full entry is here.

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It's just who I am. This is my world view. It probably marks me as a heretic, a communist, a Buddhist. Who cares.


I believe in the new learning paradigm. The old one said LEARNING shapes BELIEF which shapes BEHAVIOR which causes EXPERIENCE. That never worked for me. The new one says EXPERIENCE shapes BELIEF which causes BEHAVIOR which determines how I LEARN. I love Jesus and know he loves me because I have experienced it, not because I read it in a book or someone taught me.

I am a postmodernist. I do not blindly accept what comes out of the classroom, the pulpit, off tv, or out of the mouths of government agents. There are too many voices, all saying different things about the same verses for me to understand what they are all saying. But there's truth in all of them. All I know is what God told me and what I read in my own Bible.

I am a relativist. Meaning, all truth is relative. Oh sure, I believe in abolutes and absolute truth, but I've made a decision -- a choice -- to believe it, and that choice makes the absolutes relative. What is truth to you isn't truth to me. What is truth to me isn't truth to you. A 5 foot 9 man isn't going to have the same problem trying on pants that I do. It is a TRUTH to me that Walmart shoppers are midgets because their pants are too short.

I believe in situational ethics. To a point I believe in absolutes, but there are exceptions. If something happened to Trish, and it won't, it is possible that I would remain celebate the rest of my life. But not probable. And if anyone threatened Trish, right there I'd ignore "Thou shalt not kill" for I wouldst not only killeth but mutilateth as welleth.

I believe in being, not doing. While I love doing good deeds for people and changing their lives for the better, I could care less about personal achievement, accomplishment and success. I just don't give a damn about my bank account and trophies. I have never been career motivated. I'd much rather read Marlowe than the Wall Street Journal. I don't identify myself by how I pay my bills. I'm comfortable with it, and I'm not hurting anybody.

I admit that God gave me talents and gifts. No false modesty here. I am a darn good writer, a getting better artist and I'd be a good musician if I'd go buy a violin or guitar or sax and start playing again. Call it pride if you want to, but I can live with that. I can also live with knowing that my heavenly Dad likes it when I play with the toys he gave me, and his opinion is the only one that counts.

I hate authority. Okay, get used to that! Don't tell me what to do. Allow me the opportunity to fail, but give me the benefit of the doubt that I won't. Say that authority is there for my good all you want to, but it's still a heel on my neck.

I believe that not all rules are good. There are three types of rules: 1) the rules set down so you know how to play the game, 2) the rules set down to protect you from harm, and 3)the rules set down to control you and keep you under someone else's will. Most rules fall into this last category. They aren't good.

I am not blindly loyal to my government. I do what God asks -- I pray for it, don't slander it (try not to) and give it what I owe it. But I will fight it if it does something tyrannical. Treason in the name of justice is patriotism (ask Patrick Henry and George Washington).

I am an anti-capitalist. Capitalism is not Free Market. In a free market society, the market is open to everyone to buy and sell and you succeed based on the quality of your product and your ability to balance your costs with the customer's ability to pay. Capitalism is legitimized greed and avarice. People get hurt.

Communism sucks, too.

I am opposed to anything that hurts other people.

All sins are created equal. Homosexuality and abortion are not the greatest things threatening the church or America. How about greed and gossip and lying and lust and ...

Jesus loves homosexuals and girls who get abortions, too. So do I.

I just don't dig materialism. Sorry. I don't care if it's packaged as stimulating the economy, prosperity teaching or just plain greed. You like a Lexus? Go for it. But please don't be angry if I prefer Honda or Ford.

I'm sorry if I disappoint you. I've tried to live and think and be like who the preachers and teachers and parents and cops and presidents say I'm supposed to live and think and be like. I just don't believe like that and can't live that way. Is this unwise self-disclosure? Possibly. I run the risk of alientating a lot of people. But it's who I am. If I can't be honest with myself about who I am, then how can I be honest with anyone else? A lot of younger readers will probably say "what's the big deal? We all think like this." I was raised by Builders (my Dad is a WWII vet) and my teachers were Baby Boomers. This kind of thinking is alien to them. I am making a formal break from the Builder-Boomer way I was taught to think, act, do, and be. It just isn't me.

I used to wonder how I could be a Christian and think like this. Or how someone who thinks like this could be a Christian. But there is a world of difference between what the Bible says and what preachers say the Bible says. And I can live with myself, in light of what the Bible says to me. I can reconcile this difference. And be content.

Comments

[mr-messy.livejournal.com]

Thomas Merton (a well known monk who wrote books) was probably a buddhist. There is nothing contradictory between buddhism and Christianity. One is a philosphy, the other a religion/faith.

Mr.M.

[zephyrofgod.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know. Actually, I know I've got some Buddhist philosophy mixed into my worldview...freaks my parents out, but at the same time, they know what I believe in, and don't question much after that.

[kyaraelf.livejournal.com]

Walmart makes short pants?! I may have to do some clothes shopping at Walmart.

As for thinking like you do and being Christian I think you said it best when you talked about your talent and gifts. God gave you that brain of yours and you should use it to think. Being Christian is a belief in Jesus as savior. There is room for a lot of different philosophies under that umbrella. I have a slightly tougher time reconciling Catholicism with some similar beliefs. I don't remember if you ever told me what your specific denomination is. That is where you will get debates when the leaders of your church disagree with you. But you have to believe in what your conscience leads you to believe not in some dogma given to you by rote.

[zephyrofgod.livejournal.com]

I go to a charismatic Protestant church. I grew up Presbyterian, and I was baptised Catholic as an infant. Honestly, I don't have problems with denominations. I believe that those who believe in Jesus of Nazareth as the saviour of mankind are acceptable places for me to go worship.

And the credit goes to goth4god.

[jennet.livejournal.com]

Hmmm interesting. I'd say I agree with all of it. Not sure on the capitalist statement, but I don't know enough to argue one way or the other. :)

[zephyrofgod.livejournal.com]

The capitalist part I especially like. I'm not a big fan of make money, get rich, get lots o' stuff, make life miserable for the people around you. That's not what being a Christian's about. Yes, I know, this is biting the hand that feeds me (I work for Godiva, who's owned by Campbell's Soup), but this is my opinion. I don't like seeing people living paycheque-to-paycheque when people like Bill Gates can pay off the national debt of oh, four Third World countries.

[jennet.livejournal.com]

So we should punish Bill Gates for his success because others weren't given the same luck in business? I certainly don't agree with that.

You're not against capitalism, from what it sounds like to me. Capitalism isn't to blame for Bill Gates because as much as the government and the general population would like to believe it, we do not live in a purely capitalistic society!

We could go around blaming the Bill Gates of the world, but that's like blaming your cast for your broken arm. You're blaming those who have benefited from the society we DO have.

Don't believe it? I'll give you a perfect example.

Take Joe Farmer. Joe Farmer has a farm in California (yes, there are farms in California). Joe has, oh, say, 500 cows on his property (which, by the way, has long ago been paid for by his father's father). He has a milking machine, a bottling machine, and all the machines that he needs to make yummy bottled milk. Joe Farmer wants to sell his milk, for profit, to the local community that he lives in - there's an apricot farmer, an almond plantation, a few vineyard owners and several small homemakers who sew and cook and clean and could use that yummy bottled milk.

In a capitalist market, Joe Farmer would be free to do so. In the market we have right now, Joe is not free do to so. He has to go through the FDA, he has to work to THEIR standards and specifications, he has to have permits and permissions and "licenses" and just to get a milking business started would cost him thousands upon thousands of dollars.

This isn't a new idea. If we really lived in a capitalist society then yes, people would fail. People fail in every society, until we get to heaven anyways. But there would be so many people like Joe Farmer who would be able to market his product. As it is now (at least in the farming business) a lot of farmers have had to sell their property to the "big" companies because they can't afford to do business for themselves - so they simply "manage" the property that they once owned for the companies that now own their land and their pride. It's disgusting.

But "Capitalism" isn't to blame. Because unlike what it says, Capitalism, in the ideal form, IS free market.

But I agree with you on the communism! ;)

[zephyrofgod.livejournal.com]

I an certainly tell you that there are people with good products and great marketing, but because due to some unlucky breaks and cutthroat business practices of Big Business, they'll never get past their initial market. That's why I'm anti-capitalist.

Capitalism, as it is today, is in its less than ideal form. I agree, everything looks great on paper. But I think the system that has done the best overall, has been the barter system. JoeBob goes to RayBob with a problem. He has a few carts, but needs a horse. RayBob has several horses, but needs a cart. RayBob can't build a cart because he's too busy with the horses, but JoeBob has just enough land to keep ONE horse because of his carpentry. The cart and the horse are an even trade. So they do. And they both are able to get on with the rest of their lives. And they all live happily ever after. The End.

I think it's a better system. No one goes home with their office belongings because of upper-level reorganization of the lower levels. People get what they want/need in exchange for what they don't want/need.

[zephyrofgod.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. I'm not the biggest fan of this society. Honestly, I'd like to have a simpler society. This society is not one that I particularly like being a part of, honestly.

But that's me.

[jennet.livejournal.com]

Yeah society sucks. All we can do is fight then Man when able, and pray hard and be a good example the rest. Love people and everything eventually works out! :)

[revdrsyn.livejournal.com]

Hi. Actually, you're right. But because so many people THINK we live in a capitalist society, I redefined it. Makes it easy to draw the comparison. What you're describing is what it should be. Unfortunately, finance capitalism has taken over (different beast) and it says "money is god" (actually heard a finance capitalism prof say that).

[zephyrofgod.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Money has become this century's Baal. Oi.

[revdrsyn.livejournal.com]

There is no separation of church and state in America. It's hard to tell where Wall Street ends and Pennsylvania Avenue begins, and since money is America's god ...

[jennet.livejournal.com]

Hi.

Hi!

Actually, you're right.

*boggles* Woohoo!

Anyways, yes, finance capitalism sucks and money does as well. So do the people who let it rule their life.

Uhm, I hope you don't mind, but you seem really cool so I friended you.

Peace out!
jennet

[revdrsyn.livejournal.com]

Wow. You really honor me. I had no idea that my little rant would have this kind of effect. I don't copyright this stuff, so if you need to say that you said it, you go for it. Man. If there's any other way we can help you, let us know.

[zephyrofgod.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm too honest for my own good...and would never take something without giving the credit where it's due. (It's my craft. I have to.)

BTW, my mother is having a hard time understanding the "Goth-thing". I had made a post in christiangoth, but I'm waiting on the approval process. It's a long story, and I'm gothy, but I'm not Goth, and I don't get much of the subculture thing. I showed her your website, and she'd like to talk to someone with a balanced understanding of it all. Is it all right if I email you with the story and exactly why she needs to talk to you?

[revdrsyn.livejournal.com]

Sure. That's why we're here. If you want, email both of us, and you'll get both points of view.

[zephyrofgod.livejournal.com]

Awesome. :) Will do.