Crabby or Just Dangerous?
November 2nd, 2008Let’s Call Things What They Are
I have a reader named Carl. Today Carl announced in a comment that he is a pagan, and he explained the pagan significance of Halloween.
Take a look at what Carl said in my comments, back in August, without mentioning his religion:
I am not going to comment anymore on your blog because you have become way too crabby and intolerant since you found religion.
You have lost your sense of humor. I wish the old Steve would return!
You tell me. Is it ethical for a person who believes in a religion which is inherently hostile to Christianity to complain about a Christian’s turn to God, without identifying his own religion? I’ll give you my opinion. It is not. To a cynical person, it would appear that Carl was trying to discourage me from telling about my faith and experiences, for the benefit of his own religion. And that he didn’t want me to know why he was doing it. Of course, that’s just a possibility. Maybe he just didn’t think it was important to tell me his beliefs.
I have lost my sense of humor; in other words, I no longer write R-rated posts or write in an approving way about things like lust or drunkenness. In the old days, I was harmless. Now I am a problem. That is true of any Christian, but it’s especially true of a happy Christian who sees the power of God working in his life. People like that can make nonbelievers jealous and cause them to consider accepting salvation.
If you’re a Christian and people are giving you a hard time about it, think about their motives. Thanks to Carl, I’ll be a lot more wary for the rest of my life. It’s hard to believe there are Americans out there who seem normal, yet who worship demons or trees or other strange “deities.” But they’re among us. Might as well keep it in mind.
I hope some of you will pray for Carl. He probably means well; I doubt he became a pagan in order to ruin his life. Funny thing; I was much crabbier before I turned around, and it’s very obvious in my writing. Life seems brighter every day, and I say so, over and over. What is it that causes Carl to perceive things differently?
I have to wonder what kind of kooky, evil rites and prayers I have inspired by blogging about God. For all I know, there are lost people out there trying to cast spells on me or praying that various spirits will thwart me or help me see how “wrong” I am.
This morning I was thinking about the rotten things that have happened to me all my life. Some people can slide through life without too many obvious problems, regardless of whether they worship God. My life has never been like that. My family has been under constant attack since before I was born, and I have always felt that I was especially hated. When I was a kid, my life was completely miserable. Until I was maybe eight years old, I had nightmares nearly every night. Many times, I dreamed of a white, hairless demon who came out of a sort of manhole under my bed and tormented me. The manhole was the mouth of a long tube that led down to hell, and there were other demons like him there. Once I dreamed I was outdoors at night, and I looked up at a star, and it was actually a hole, and I could see his eye through the hole, watching me. When I didn’t dream of him, I dreamed I was in Kentucky (my favorite place at that time), and that relatives I loved were approaching me to greet me; as soon as they got close, they began to twist and deform and melt into grotesque shapes, and I couldn’t stop it. It happened over and over. Many times I would wake up, and I would see giant lizards and insects and centipedes crawling all over the walls and ceiling, and even over the bed.
The days weren’t much better; my family was a mess. My father always made good money, but other than that, nothing went right for us.
Christians take prayer seriously, and I know that those who oppose Christianity take their faith seriously, too. They use supernatural means to try to harm and distract Christians. I’m sure I’m on their radar; I wonder how long that has been the case. Two of my great-grandmothers were heavy-duty Christians. Who knows whose attention they attracted back in Kentucky?
For a long time, I think my family has been punished for growing cigarette tobacco; we killed a lot of people that way. We might as well have sold crack. Apart from that, my great-great-grandfather was supposedly a witch. That’s just about the worst thing you can do to yourself and your family and descendants.
I guess none of this matters; God is God, and compared to him, all other spirits are powerless and insignificant. The Bible shows this over and over. In Egypt, God humiliated the gods of the Egyptians by attacking the things they supposedly ruled over, and showing his complete and effortless control over them. He turned the Nile to blood, he darkened Ra’s sun, and so on. He gave the Hebrews victory after victory over the heathens and drove them out of Israel. He continues to help a few million Jews defeat over a billion furious Muslims. I am on the right team. The team that has already won.
Here’s something crazy. I have been up for four hours. Am I the only one who forgot the time change?
I have been getting up at 6 a.m. lately, and I’ve been enjoying it tremendously, because it cuts the crummy part (the nights) out of my day, and it lets me get a head start on my relationship with God. Over the last week, though, my TV (which I use as an alarm) has been failing to turn on; I’ve had to use a clock radio as a backup. And because I got to bed late the other day and re-set the TV and radio to compensate, the clock radio was set for 6:20 this morning. I forgot to change it back. And the TV did not go off.
I woke up and saw the clock radio, and I was angry, because I thought I had blown it. I have been trying to arrange my evenings so I could get to bed at nine and get up at 5:30, and when I thought I had gotten up twenty minutes late, it seemed like a setback. Later in the morning, I turned on the Weather Channel for a couple of minutes, and I saw “6:20” on the bottom of the screen. Suddenly I realized two things. Not only had I not failed to get up on time; I had managed to succeed in getting up earlier than usual. Fantastic. Maybe tomorrow I’ll manage 5:30.
Enjoy your Sunday.
November 2nd, 2008 at 10:56 AM
I totally forgot the time change, probably because I haven’t been watching much tv all week and for some reason there weren’t ten thousand reminders on blogs like there usually are. Anyway, I woke up late, but thanks to the time change not as late as I could have, so yay.
Re the “you’re grumpy” charge — that’s funny, I’ve been thinking you’ve been less grumpy than you used to be. Carl’s rant sounds a lot like how a former friend used to treat me (which is why she’s a former friend). She was always complaining, usually in a bad mood, and very jealous — she couldn’t stand it if I went to do something with other people and didn’t invite her, etc. My attitude at the time was to be patient, listen, be a shoulder to cry on — which only got me accused of being a constantly complaning, cross, rude, jealous person. Finally it dawned on me that I was a punching bag for someone else’s unhappiness with her life, and I moved on.
November 2nd, 2008 at 10:58 AM
I wouldn’t call it a rant, but it sure seems like he is seeing something that isn’t there.
November 2nd, 2008 at 11:35 AM
1. Many years ago, my best friend’s college roomate was a member of the Church of God, an extremely fundamental outfit.
2. The two of us held up the logical fallacies in the Bible and in Christian practices and worked him over, pretty much unmercifully.
3. A couple years later, dropped by the college. Was back from some hard military service: older, sadder, little wiser.
4. Keith had prospered, was just shy of graduation. Asked him if he thought the devil had been working on him through us. Nice guy, didn’t want to hurt my feelings. Looked in my beady eye, looked away and said yes, he knew that was happening.
5. Also told me he had gotten the call to the ministry in his church; had always told him someone as smart and well spoken as he was should be up in the pulpit.
6. Am no convinced Christian. As an empiricist, have plenty of evidence that there is more to the world than what we see.
7. These signposts haven’t convinced me of anything beyond that basic fact.
8. Am interested in observing your spiritual journey. Have watched several others.
9. Wish you well.
V/R JW
November 2nd, 2008 at 1:36 PM
Well Steve, I’m a catholic who has had a personal revelation of christ; and I’d say he’s at least partially right.
Shortly after the release of the caveman book, your humor level started trending way down; and your public religious expression way up.
Recently, your humor level is nearly non-existent. Your religion level on the other hand is pretty much constant now. In fact, I’d say that they’d just about inverted in proportion.
I believe that this reduction in humor, is because you have an inherently cruel sense of humor (nothing wrong with that; some of the best humor is cruel humor), and you have made both conscious and unconscious decisions to be less cruel.
Where you would write something scathingly funny about anything that irritated you before your rededication to god; now you make a mere mention of it, perhaps a quip, and let it pass.
Also, where instead you would have made some sarcastic comment in past; you have started to invoke god, charity, and Christianity in the midst of seemingly unrelated subjects, like tools or food.
Perhaps you are a better person today, perhaps not; that’s between you and god. It seems however that you are happier, and healthier; and as at least in small part your friend, I think that’s a great thing…
…You’re just less funny.
November 2nd, 2008 at 1:38 PM
I am an agnostic, raised a Catholic. I miss the old Steve, but am fascinated with the new one. Better/worse? Does not matter, still worth reading. I can only think better, certainly more interesting to watch growth, rather than the stagnation you see with a lot of blogs.
November 2nd, 2008 at 2:06 PM
Wow. Those were some seriously messed up dreams you had as a child.
As for the Christian vs non Christian debates vis a vis logical fallacies: Yep, there are some big gaping logical holes in the arguments for Christianity. If you don’t have faith. That is the stumbling block.
November 2nd, 2008 at 2:27 PM
BTW, I get up at 4:20 AM M-F, best time of the day. YMMV
November 2nd, 2008 at 2:51 PM
Sounds like a crabby pagan being resentful of the peace you’ve found in the Truth.
November 2nd, 2008 at 2:52 PM
As a non-religious person I really can’t comment on those aspects of Carl’s assertions, or yours, Steve.
But as to the “you’re grumpy” charge and Andrea’s comment, my own opinion is that Andrea is right – you’re more even-tempered now. Which is probably a good thing.
However, I personally kinda liked the “grumpier version” more. Or the prose, at least. I like “bitchy sarcasm” with a lot of snap to it – in other words, Vintage Steve. Just a mild personal preference though. No biggie.
November 2nd, 2008 at 3:02 PM
Steve, if it has only now occurred to you that critics of Christianity might be adherents of hostile religions then I am more than surprised at your naivete.
Sure your older posts were frequently entertaining in a nasty, cutting sort of way; and you state above that you were more “crabbier.” Not knowing you, I would have predicted that. I don’t believe a writer can write that kind of funny/cutting stuff without being kind of negative-minded.
November 2nd, 2008 at 3:18 PM
You shouldn’t let what anyone says get to you. You only need to ask yourself is this making me happier? More productive? Is being a christian enriching your life? If any of those answers are yes, then whatever anyone else says about that has no value. While it’s true that you may lose readers since you turned your life around, but are they worth having around if they’re going to whine about the “Old Steve”? I’m not a christian, but if you are happy, then I’m happy as well. You are an awesome person and I respect you no matter if you write “R” rated posts or not.
November 2nd, 2008 at 3:32 PM
Some comfort regarding your great-grandfather the witch… Abraham’s father Terach was an idol manufacturer. Rabbinic commentary say that Terach and Abraham’s brother Haran gave Abraham over to Nimrod to be burned in the fires of Ur Kasdim.
Abraham, of course, was able to overcome his lineage. This is the main theme of Thomas Cahill’s “The Gift of the Jews”, in that Judaism was the first “ism” not to be static or circular, that it promoted the idea that people could change their status and improve or improve things for future generations. This notion, of course, and that there was a deity who had an external system of morality that wasn’t the preexisting rule of a despot, was VERY threatening to the powers that be.
Details about the midrash by a rabbi who I once worked with in Los Angeles and who now lives in Jerusalem: http://judaism.about.com/library/3_askrabbi_o/bl_simmons_abrahamidols.htm
We’re measured on our delta, what we’ve accomplished over the lifetime God gave us, not just our final deeds or beliefs. Someone born into a rotten family who rises above them can get MUCH more credit than someone born into ease where doing right or learning takes little effort. The Talmud notes that a mamzer (someone born from a prohibited union) scholar can be greater can a fool of a high priest who benefits from his lineage but isn’t particularly remarkable otherwise.
Abraham didn’t complete the mission. We know that Ishmael became a wild ass of a man and that his descendants became foes of Abraham’s mission. Abraham passed the baton to Isaac, who had Esau. But Jacob became the patriarch whose descendants became the Twelve Tribes, the complete Israelite nation.
Connecting oneself to the relay team from the first monotheist Abraham to the coming of the Messiah is precarious but it will surely be gratifying meet one’s Maker having the ability to point to one’s part(s) in that accomplishment.
November 2nd, 2008 at 3:44 PM
Read Matthew 5! I think we are supposed to be persecuted for Christ’s sake. And I think you seem much happier and less grumpy than you used to be. My sister has some very uplifting music on her myspace page, some Christian and some secular, that you might enjoy: http://www.myspace.com/juliesuttonmusic
November 2nd, 2008 at 3:45 PM
According to my grandfather, my great-great aunt was a practicing witch and would conjure up creatures for him to play with as a child. How this happened in a fevertly Catholic family I have never understood.
I do not believe that we are punished for the actions of our ancestors, otherwise why have freewill? I believe that everything that happens to us in this lifetime, is a learning process to bring us closer to our understanding of the Lord and to the state of perfection to allow us to join him in Heaven.
November 2nd, 2008 at 4:42 PM
Heh. SteveH is more crabby? Only someone who hasn’t been reading HOI for years could possibly make such a goofy assertion. The “new” Steve has a crabby day; the old Steve was just a crab. BOTH are funny …and my failing is that I liked – and miss – the bitey political Steve writing (prob’ly too much) …but my wife has started reading the new Steve on a regular basis, so there is that. And I love the trucks, tools, Jews, and God stuff. Carry on, SteveH.
November 2nd, 2008 at 4:58 PM
“at least in small part your friend, I think that’s a great thing…”
Chris, when have you ever done anything in small part?
November 2nd, 2008 at 5:15 PM
Well Steve, just about never.
I consider you my friend; however, given we haven’t met out in the world (yet), I would not presume our friendship without reservation. I assume you feel the same way, but I don’t speak for you.
Some people are touchy about that sort of thing.
November 2nd, 2008 at 5:15 PM
Perhaps Carl should move along and find something else to read.
November 2nd, 2008 at 6:37 PM
I consider you a friend, Chris. Of course, a TRUE friend would send money.
November 2nd, 2008 at 8:56 PM
I actually stopped reading you for a while because of the smutty, crabby, gossipy way you wrote at times, even though I enjoyed your writing (esp. about pizza. I now make fantastic pizza, thanks to you!). I was just offended one time too many, and frankly I didn’t find you all that funny. (sorry)
Smart, useful, and interesting, but not terribly funny. I’m glad you’re cleaning it up. I don’t find myself laughing aloud at your posts very often, but I usually get a smile out of them. For every person out there who wants to tear down your faith, I’m sure there’s another who has been encouraged by it. I certainly have, and I pray for you often.
November 2nd, 2008 at 9:48 PM
Is it strange that people feel like they know you through reading your blog that they talk to you like they really know you? Don’t know about Carl or his issues. As for the funny part, truly the funniest thing you ever wrote was quite a while back about Aunt Jemima pancake syrup. Anyways, I like your blog better now and find much of what you write encouraging in my own current struggle.
November 2nd, 2008 at 10:24 PM
Hi Steve,
I’ve been heads down for a year and have not spent much time reading
blogs. Today I revisited your blog after a long hiatus and immediately realized that you had obviously gone through an enormous life change. Like others, I missed the old Steve, since I was looking for some snarky and funny comments about the state of presidential politics or at least something written about it by Not Christopher Walken.
However, if daemons were what was driving your humor, then I’m glad you’ve found that faith has given you a new outlook on life. My brother went through something similar about twenty years ago.
He too had a rakish sense of humor, which was abandoned when he found religion. He re-tooled his humor, he is now funny as a stitch, but in a way that doesn’t offend.
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:36 PM
You are not as funny as you used to be. That said, humor is not your gift……writing is your gift. A unique twist on the writing gift is your accept-nothing-at-face-value scientific point of view. Mix that with a strong, unfolding faith and you have some of the most compelling writing on the net. Bless. Speak life. Blessings are eternal.
We all receive a mixed bag of blessings and curses from our families. These are very real, and they get passed on from generation to generation. I’ve lived with the curse of witchcraft within my own family. Generational curses are not especially hard to stop. They are devastating if allowed to continue.
November 3rd, 2008 at 8:37 PM
Well, Steve I hope you are done with your diatribe against pagans. I never intended to hide my beliefs from anyone. It never entered my mind to state “I am a pagan and think you have lost your sense of humor and tolerance since you found religion.” Why would I? I was making an observation not bad mouthing you.
There are a lot of us pagans “former alter boy” btw who found the teaching of organized religions too confining and controlling.
I respect you and your beliefs. All I am asking is that you respect me and mine!
November 3rd, 2008 at 8:40 PM
You will have to show me this “diatribe.”