The Story of the Christ Child

At work, I began a discussion about having religious Christmas music playing and whether or not anyone was bothered by it. Generic secular Christmas music certainly doesn't bother me, in fact, I rather enjoy it! Even the religious music doesn't bother me as much. I grew up with it, so I sort of have nostalgic feelings towards it. Although, "Silent Night" and anything specifically referencing a virgin birth is sort of weird to me when it plays in a public place. Like a restaurant. I just think it's a little odd in a restaurant where a decent percentage of our guests are Jewish or non-religious.

Gross. That's just weird.

This led to me telling a story about my best friend in 6th grade whose father was Catholic and her mother Jewish. The family celebrated both Hanukkah and Christmas. Coming from an area with very few Jewish families, my friend and neighbor explained to me the story of Hanukkah and its traditions. However, while the family put up Christmas decorations and exchanged presents on Christmas, my friend had never been to a Catholic church and had absolutely no idea what the Biblical Christmas story was... so I explained it to her.

Now, as I told this story, a co-worker who grew up in a relatively non-religious household confessed that as an adult, he really didn't know the Biblical story either. So, I tried to explain it. And I laughed. It really sounded ridiculous.

An angel tells a teenage girl named Mary that she's going to have a baby! But Mary is a VIRGIN! Mary cons her boyfriend, Joseph, into marrying her so she will be respectable. Joseph calls Mary a lying whore and stomps off. That night, he's visited by an angel in a dream, telling him that Mary is telling the truth. This scares the crap out of Joseph, so he marries the now-pregnant-by-God Mary.

When Mary is uber-pregnant, the couple travels to Bethlehem to pay taxes (or participate in the census, depending on the version). Mary rides on a donkey. Anyway, when they get to Bethlehem, the inns are all booked up, so they end up sleeping in a stable. There, Mary gives birth to Jesus. And a whole boatload of angels show up and sing, probably freaking everybody out.

Meanwhile, a great big star shines overhead, and a bunch of shepherds travel to the stable and pay homage to Jesus. Because some angels told them to do it. OR if you read a different account, some "wise men" see the star, interpret it as a sign, and travel all the way to Bethlehem from who knows where and bring Baby Jesus some useless, but probably valuable gifts.

Wow.  As always, you can count on Wikipedia for plainly spelling out all of the wonderful contradictions that exist in the Bible even for the most simple of stories. I love it. And as an adult, I now get to enjoy the incredulity on the faces of those who grew up in a totally secular environment as I tell the traditional Christian story of Christmas.

But you know the version I like best? The short, but sweet, version told on Pee Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special, our household's favorite holiday movie tradition! It's utterly delightful.

It's the TRUE MEANING of Christmas at 1:20. Thanks for explaining it to me Pee Wee!

Virgin Mary, Mother of Wings...

A little irreverence to brighten your day. 

Source?

Not that I'm a big fan of Hooters OR eating chicken wings, but this kind of thing always makes me laugh. Thanks to the bro for sharing.

And on a similar-ish note, I just watched the first episode of "Extras" with Ricky Gervais and laughed riotously/uncomfortably throughout. Cheers to him for making atheism a major theme of a first episode. The BBC gets away with everything. I can't imagine an American show doing that. I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the series.

Christine O'Donnell is a Hack

I'm sure just about everyone has seen the video of Christine O'Donnell (R) in a debate with her opponent, Chris Coons. They're competing for Delaware's seat in the Senate.

I like the way Anderson Cooper breaks it down. She repeatedly asks, "Where in the First Amendment is the Separation of Church and State?" If one gave her the benefit of the doubt, she might have simply meant that those exact words aren't actually anywhere in the Constitution. This is true. But Article Six of the Constitution states that anyone running for office shall face "no religious test" and the First Amendment clearly states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." And the Supreme Court over the years has clearly interpreted the First Amendment to mean "separation of church and state."

During the same debate, O'Donnell also didn't remember what the 14th (dealing with citizenship) and 16th (income tax) Amendments were, despite the fact that the Tea Party has made a big deal about these this year, going as far to call for their repeal. I mean, I don't know what each Amendment is without looking it up, but O'Donnell constantly invokes the Constitution as the basis for her opinions and claims to have studied Constitutional Government. Well, she obviously didn't study it very hard. What a dingbat.

This is so disturbing, because this is a right wing, über conservative, fundamentalist Christian who doesn't believe in Evolution and thinks "intelligent design" should be taught in schools. GAH! THIS is why political involvement is so important right now!  

If you care about SECULARISM, get out and VOTE!!!!

"Christian" Music?

I recently went to a Belle & Sebastian concert at the Hollywood Palladium. I wrote about it on my other blog. Going to the concert happened as a bit of a lark. I found out about it the night before and someone at work just happened to have tickets available. I'm only familiar with their early work in "Tigermilk," "The Boy With the Arab Strap," and "If You're Feeling Sinister." So, at the concert, I heard a lot more of their new stuff, which is decidedly more upbeat. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but I had a great time. There was one song though that caught me off guard. There was something in the lyrics that seemed... well, religious. I'd never gotten that feel in their music before, in fact, their music had always seemed rather anti-religious. I pretty much forgot about it until I heard this interview on NPR.

Belle & Sebastian's newest album is overtly religious and the group's main singer, Murdoch, openly discusses his Christian faith in the lyrics. From the NPR interview

"The Ghost of Rockschool" features these words: "I've seen God in the sun, I've seen God in the street / God before bed and the promise of sleep." It's always tricky, that line between pop music and so-called Christian rock. I'm not a fan of Christian rock, and I hope that ["The Ghost of Rockschool"] doesn't sound too much like a mawkish Christian rock song.

*Sigh*

So... I feel sort of let down? As they say in the interview, the group's lyrics used to be far more cynical of religion. Murdoch sort of writes that off, blaming his young age at the time. But I LIKE their old stuff better. I always interpreted those songs as being completely non or even anti-religious. But maybe I was interpreting them completely wrong?? This is from "If You're Feeling Sinister."

But if you are feeling sinister
Go off and see a minister
He'll try in vain to take away the pain of being a hopeless unbeliever

But if you are feeling sinister
Go off and see a minister
Chances are you'll probably feel better
If you stayed and played with yourself

The funny thing is that LP (other half of this blog) has never cared for Belle & Sebastian and pointed me in the direction of the NPR interview as a sort of vindication. Of course, LP has his own "Surprise Christian Band of the Millennium." Have you heard ICP's totally awful Miracles? 

It's so bizarre and sadly hilarious. ICP announced a couple years ago that they were secretly Evangelical Christians, but I've never bought it. LP has always liked ICP, he's from Michigan, after all, and he has his own interpretation on the matter that I'll make him post someday. 

I have to say that ICP has a few songs that I really do like. They aren't all that bad. Seriously, some of their songs are kind of catchy... you actually have to listen to it, but not take it too seriously. But "Miracles" doesn't really sound like anything from their most recent album to the point that they must be tongue in cheek. Jon Ronson interviewed them in The Guardian recently... and they don't come off looking so great. In fact, they come off looking completely stupid. So, are they actually serious Christians? Or just dumb? Or secretly brilliant hoaxers?

An ode to ignorance that will be interpreted many different ways. Some will see it as ironic, some will take it at face value, some will see it as a glorious Christian message. What do you think?

And what do you do when you find out that a band or musician or artist you like is overtly religious? Does it change how you feel about them? Lyrics are never the most important thing to me in music, so if I otherwise like a song, it doesn't bother me much. And random references here or there don't really bother me. I would hope that if a religious person found out that an artist they admired was an atheist, that it wouldn't sway their opinion much.

John Lennon

Today would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday. From both of us here at GOP, let's pay homage to a singer/song writer whose message is still incredibly relevant.

Our favorite song sums up everything we could hope to say about life, the universe... and everything.

Tithing... stupid.

When I was a little kid, I dutifully saved my pennies each week to drop in the basket that was passed around church. I had visions of poor orphan children, shivering without coats, or starving kids with swollen bellies in African villages, and I imagined that my few coins went towards feeding and clothing the poor of the world. I was proud to drop in all that I owned.

I imagined myself to be like the cute little mouse from Robin Hood, giving up her last farthing to help with the poor. Fast forward to 3:14.

Then one day, our priest gave a homily on tithing. Tithing is the practice of giving some portion of your income, usually 10% to the church. I remember the priest emphasizing that this should be 10% of your income BEFORE taxes, BEFORE any other spending. I was flabbergasted. I asked my mom where my money went that I faithfully put into the baskets each week. When she told me it went to our church, I felt lied to. My mom actually said that she chose to give some portion of her income to our church, but most of her 10% actually went to various charities she believed in. That makes sense to me.

Tithing has existed for ages, dating waaaaaay back to Jesus time. Churches have always needed a way to guilt parishioners into giving them enough money to operate. I believe that donating to valuable non-profit organizations is important, but contributing to an organized religion doesn't seem like a charitable cause to me.

Writing about tithing seems like it should be a non-issue to me. After all, I don't belong to a religion. Why should I care? Well, I care about poor people being guilted into giving away their hard earned money to an organization that doesn't actually do any good for people. Why not take that 10% and give it to your local school or homeless shelter or Doctors Without Borders?

Plus, I thought I should write about tithing because it represents the very first crack in my faith as a small child. What was the first crack in your faith/belief in god or religion?

Thank you Tim Gunn

Since I already touched on the subject of homophobia and gay bashing recently, I won't talk much more about it except to highlight a couple things that I've seen recently that at least make me feel more positive about America's attitude toward the LGBTQ community. Even though Congress messed up big time on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," at least a new CNN poll show that at least half of America now supports gay marriage. Here's my favorite part of the article I read...

This trend will continue. Nationally, a majority of people under age 30 support same-sex marriage. And this is not because of overwhelming majorities found in more liberal states that skew the national picture: our research shows that a majority of young people in almost every state support it. As new voters come of age, and as their older counterparts exit the voting pool, it’s likely that support will increase, pushing more states over the halfway mark.

That's great news. Everybody just needs to ignore what is the very LOUD, but minority voice on this issue. The other thing I'd like to share is this wonderful and very touching video from Tim Gunn. In it, he has a message for LGBTQ teens..."it gets better." He urges them to seek help if they are in despair, and shares a very personal story of his own experience. I loved Tim Gunn anyway, but this just secured him a place in my heart forever.

It's not totally on topic for this blog, but it was so uplifting, I just thought I'd share.

MORE video to cheer you up...

I was just writing about Eric Idle in my other blog... and I thought that this video was most appropriate.

Plus it's 2:00 AM and I can't sleep.

I could put a million Eric Idle/Monty Python videos up on this blog and ALL of them would be great for topic starters. When I think that I'm getting to narrow-minded and self-centered, I don't necessarily think of the ever expanding Universe, but how privileged I am to not be starving in a hut somewhere without clean water... Heck, I don't even have to go that far. There are plenty of people loitering outside the Ralph's by my house who have problems I can't even imagine.

When my belief in a god first started to crack, I clung to the belief of Kurt Vonnegut's "God, the Utterly Indifferent." That's the concept of a creator who did its job and then walked away. A non-personal god that has no influence on daily life. Because how could I believe in any god that allowed millions of people to starve or be exploited or abused? I think that to believe in a god that interferes on your behalf, just because you're a lucky or privileged person is selfish, narcissistic, or at least utterly deluded and naive. But then, I let go of the idea of that kind of god, as well. 

Obviously, that was just a safety blanket. 

Something to Cheer You Up

Life Partner and I were just commenting on how this clip brings us comfort and joy...



Thanks for existing, Douglas Adams.

Jesus Loves the Little Children

This is one of those Bible Summer Camp songs that everybody hated to sing because they were so damn repetitive. Anyone ever hear that one about Noah and the ark? Ohhhhh, did I hate that song. It was SO obnoxious. What are these songs supposed to teach anyway? Jesus loves all the little children. Red, yellow, black, and white... OK. Well... plenty of Christian churches teach that most of those children are going to Hell since they're heathens, so...maybe Jesus DOESN'T love those little children since they don't worship HIM.  I mean, how can Jesus love them unless they're born again? Or maybe Jesus just loves them until they are no longer children. When they become adult heathens, then it's time for the smiting.

This is one of those well-meaning religious things that just goes horribly, horribly wrong. It is a true example of God Obscures Perception. How could anyone ever think that this was OK? Granted, it looks pretty old...but seriously?




A friend of mine did this song for an elementary school pageant when he was very young. They put him in black face and an afro wig and tattered jeans. Apparently, everyone thought the performance was just precious. This was in Alabama. Surprise, surprise. Supposedly, the performance was captured on VHS. I can't wait for him to go home and retrieve it. 

Future Website

The ultimate goal of God Obscures Perception is to have a community website where like-minded people can have a public forum. We'd like to feature guest essays and posts, share news, and post videos and other media content. It wouldn't have to be entirely serious, either. Life Partner created an animation for the site that I hope to share ASAP... But for now... check out how beautiful our page looks! There's no content, but it sure does look nice. I love the logo that LP created.

A few friends of ours put together this video that's the kind of stuff we're hoping to do!

An Empire of Faith - watch more funny videos

I think the video is a little too long, but overall it's hilarious.