HELL FREEZES OVER

This is even bigger news that AOL buying Weblogs, Inc.:

Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible

The Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland are warning their five million worshippers, as well as any others drawn to the study of scripture, that they should not expect “total accuracy” from the Bible.

- "We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision."

- They go on to condemn fundamentalism for its “intransigent intolerance” and to warn of “significant dangers” involved in a fundamentalist approach.

- "We should not expect to discover in this book details about the end of the world, about how many will be saved and about when the end will come."

Holy. Crap. Did a lightning bolt of common sense and reason strike the Catholic Church? Please, forward to your wacko religious relatives.

(Oh, and that whole thing about woman coming from Adam's rib and being doomed to obey and painfuly suffer? Yeah, never mind about that...)

CALL ME MALCOLM (NOT 'FAG')

This Friday, Minnesota Film Arts begins a two-week screening of Call Me Malcolm, the story of 27 year-old transgender seminary student Malcolm Himschoot's journey to find acceptance. Himschoot made news when he became America's first openly transgendered clergy at Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis. Now the hate-mongering wackos from Westboro Baptist Church are planning to picket this "satanic film" at this Saturday's 7PM and 9PM screenings, according to this flyer (PDF) from their website: www.godhatesfags.com. Adam from MN Film Arts says, "Please tell everyone you know about this screening.
Let's show support for an issue that shouldn't even really be one."

[also posted on MNspeak.com and NewPatriot.org]

See also, this lovely/sad post on The Rake's blog.

HAPPY TOFURKEY DAY

REV. MOON DUPES CONGRESSMEN

How embarassing. I didn't know the right-wing Washington Times is owned by super-wacko Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Apparently he also duped politicans back in 2002. Fool me once...

Cult-buster Steven Alan Hassan has more scary factoids:

Moon's stated ambitions include the establishment of a one-world government run as an automatic theocracy by Moon and his leaders. "Bush's faith-based initiative seems to be ideal to help them in their quest for a one world theocratic government," Hassan says, "I am sure President Bush is not aware that Moon has repeatedly said that America (and democracy) is Satanic." Moon's vision of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth includes the absorption of all the world religions into Unificationism as well as the abolishment of all languages except Korean.

I was duped by the Moon cult once. They are masters of deception. I was reading Survival at Auschwitz for a final exam at the University of Minnesota, tired and hungry, when I was approached by two smiling young Korean girls. They said if I filled out a survey I could get a free meal. Hmm... okay! I started taking it, and gradually realized this survey was about spiritual beliefs. In fact, this survey preyed on you if you were at all uncertain of your spiritual beliefs, like many college students probably are. I was mildly annoyed but filled it out and awaited my free meal coupon. The girls said, "Oh... can you give us, a ride?" It was a cold winter night, and they were so innocent and smiley and persuasive. Well, okay. I still thought we were going to get my free meal. But we pulled up in front of U of M housing. The sign said C.A.R.P., "Collegiate Association for the Research of the Principle."

It's in there?

Yes, hot meal waiting for you!

So I went inside with them and was welcome by some nice people, and suddenly many more people appeared and we gathered around a table waiting for food from the kitchen. I made idle chit-chat, people were really interested in me. When the food arrived, we all stood up and they held hands and prayed. What the fuck? What have I gotten myself into? Okay... so I had a nice hot meal. Then some coffee, and intellectual conversation about communism and all sorts of things.

Then, it was time for "The Lecture."

Understand they make it very difficult for you to leave, especially a polite Minnesota boy like me. Adjacent to the dining room was a little chapel. I sat down with a few other college-aged people, and this guy I'd been talking to gives a lecture about Adam and Eve and the Devil. I kind of enjoyed it, because I'd largely forgotten what I'd learned in the Bible as a youngster, and it wasn't preachy - it really was a lecture.

After The Lecture, I tried to make my exit. A free meal, a weird night - more than I bargained for certainly, but an interesting experience and I never wanted to return. But they insisted on knowing when I'd be back next, and my phone number and everything. Not only that, but they strongly encouraged me to attend their CAMP. Then, rather than these little lectures, you get it all at once in one long weekend. Here's the pamphlet! See the happy people in the country at Fun Bible Camp. People from many countries are involved. You really need to go to this camp. I couldn't really leave without agreeing to seriously consider camp, and tell them when they could next expect to see me.

When I got home, I was all confused. I felt ready for some spiritual exploration, and I guess they were offering me that but... something just didn't feel right. I realized I don't like being pushed into anything. Anyone that pressures me too hard in one direction, I'm likely to jerk in the opposite direction in protest. it's my self-preservation instinct, and maybe a little Irish blood.

I did a little research and was shocked to discover C.A.R.P. = moonies. My God, I almost joined a cult!

I wouldn't join any cult that would have me as a member. Unless it involved eating babies.

GEEK PROM APPROACHES!

Geek Prom 2004 | Saturday, April 17 | Great Lakes Aquarium | Duluth, MN

I can't wait. I'm a "celebrity" judge! Urban blog posse will reprazent.
Now, what to wear? I know I'm bringing my VIC-20 secret briefcase...

Oh, you want my G33k cred?

My first computer was the Atari 400. It had a membrane keyboard. I learned BASIC programming in... 1980?

Fell in love with Apple ][s in the early 80's. Mac in 1984, email in 1991, the web in 1994, and blogs in 2002.

I tried to start a Commodore Vic-20 computer club in my neighborhood. I thought we could talk about programming and trade games and stuff. Nobody came. Fuckers. (Now my Vic20 is screwed onto a briefcase, which I'll have with me.)

For my 6th grade science fair project, I made a computer program that quizzed the user on math problems. I wrote it all out by hand in my notebook, it was 16 pages long.

I spent a great deal of time on BBSs in 6th-8th grade. Especially role-playing D&D-type BBSs.

Oh, did I mention I was heavily into D&D? Yup. Went to GenCon 17 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Bought a 30-sided die.

In 7th grade, I got a "C" in gym. I got pissed and figured out how to hack into TIES (the report card data processing company) - just like in WAR GAMES - but got too scared. I used the "War Games autodialer" to dial a bank of numbers and it's tell you which ones had a modem carrier - then you could go back and try to hack them. Fun!

I always brought my lunch and sat with other geeks, with names like "Coey."

In 12th grade, I had a Led Zeppelin sound sample my school computer. Girls would bring their friends over & ask me to play it. It was then I realized, one day, I could use the power of geek to get girls.

Which is exactly what I did in college, via the Internet, pre-Web. My first sorta-almost-girlfriend I knew only online. We'd have lengthy and sometimes steamy UNIX text chats. When I met her in person I froze up, on account of being incapable of actual live human interaction.

April 7, 2004 at 03:55 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack