ugh…the shit families give you hell about is mind-boggling. truly mind-boggling!
i grew up going to church – sunday school and all that. i remember being upset when i was about 3 or 4 because i learned that the Jews were G-d’s “chosen people” and i wanted to know what i had done before i was even born that pissed him off enough to not “choose” me.
when i was older i was actually involved in a church. it felt real, but you start paying attention to the world around you and discover that the world sucks. it seriously sucks ass. and the more you know the worse it is! the world is full of civil wars, genocide, slavery, child abuse, animal abuse, domestic abuse, child neglect, cheating, stealing, beating, road rage, sports rage, and it just keeps going! we never run out of ideas when it comes to causing pain and destruction but we sure seem to be at a loss as to how to fix things. so sitting in church on sunday morning lost it’s appeal. it wasn’t the typical where is G-d in all this, why isn’t he doing anything to fix it. the problem was, if christians are supposed to be the “caretakers” of this earth, why the hell are they not the ones out there doing anything?
so what does this have to do with exhausting families you ask? well, in all honesty, it’s not fair to single my mother out for this, she’s just the most recent example. i got the “you are starting to scare me” talk. it was short and relatively painless this time – just smile and nod. and as i said, this was from my mother, but i’ve heard it elsewhere in the past. here’s the gist of it:
it’s not that there is anything wrong with your interests or pursuits. it’s fine to be concerned with animal rights or politics. but not at the cost of your soul. if you have time for volunteering or being involved in these causes, you should make time to go to church too. surely there is one around here that you would feel comfortable with, why don’t you try this one, or that one, or we go here, maybe you’d like it.
and here’s my jumbled response (be patient, my mind wanders):
Whatthefuckever. i believe in gosh now, people who follow gosh actually do stuff. stuff like cleaning up the mess everyone else makes, taking care of the animals no one else wants, trying to get the rest of you fools to give a rat’s ass that people are starving, dying of diseases that should have been wiped out forever ago.
i mean, who the fuck wants to go spend their time with a bunch of self-righteous hypocritical do-nothing bastards? you sit in your church or your bible studies and you pray. you pray for people to “see G-d” in your life. you study the bible and you pray to have an impact on the world around you. i have an idea, let’s discuss how YOU impact things today!
first – “G-d gave us dominion over the earth” – doesn’t that mean you should take care of it? if i go stay at a friends house, i clean up after myself and help out with things while i’m there. i don’t use every dish in their kitchen and then just throw them all away because they can always get more. that’s fucking crazy! so why do you? if you are supposed to be watching over the earth for him, why are our rivers, lakes and oceans so polluted? why are there so many forests being chopped down to make room for more malls to buy more stuff to replace the shit that you just threw in that landfill when you could have recycled or reused it?
second – “it says in genesis that the animals are there for us to eat.” let’s just say for argument’s sake that i accept that. do you honestly think that he meant “it’s totally cool if you just wanna cram all those animals i made into that tiny little cage, and if there isn’t room for them all, just chop off body parts until there is. while you are at it, if you just can’t wait long enough for them to grow on their own, how about just pumping them full of hormones and steroids and stuff to make them grow faster. and even though i intended for them to be vegetarian, it makes them even bigger if you turn them into cannibals and grind up the diseased ones and feed them to the others.” (i’m gonna have to go with “NO” on that one – i just don’t think that’s what he meant)
you seriously cannot imagine how many people have told me that they just don’t want to know how animals are treated because they don’t want to give up meat. i don’t try to convert people, i may have even mentioned that before. it’s something you have to decide for yourself. but don’t make the decision based on ignorance. if you won’t give up meat – fight the USDA to try to get better treatment of the animals, more humane slaughter, whatever. (and just so you know, the disgusting conditions of factory farms and slaughterhouses, and the deplorable treatment of animals contributes to the spread of diseases like swine flu, avian flu, salmonella, e-coli, etc. – i like to think of it as animals’ revenge) but don’t do nothing and call me an extremist because i don’t want to have a part in the torture of animals.
they also remind me that these are only animals – animals are great but they aren’t as important as people. ok, first, real quick, aren’t they more important than your lunch though? here’s my real point – if a man (or woman) goes to work at a slaughterhouse or factory farm or whatever, and they spend 8 hours slitting the throats of living animals that are crying, squealing, screeching, etc as they writhe in agony until they finally lose consciousness and die, can that honestly NOT have an impact on their dealings with humans? and the man who beats a living pig with a metal pipe, kicks it, calls it a motherfucker, all while laughing with his coworkers, do you truly believe he’s a real swell guy outside the work place? there is something seriously wrong with any human being that can perform these cruel acts and feel nothing!!! would you trust these people to watch your children??? gosh save us if you answered yes to any of those.
animals aren’t the only thing i get called an extremist about. i write letters – lots of letters. i don’t really have as much to say as i think i do – but i say it anyway. i have a few friends (hi favorite Chicago hooker!) that i discuss politics, ethics, and philosophy with. we have our own views, our own primary issues and focus points. we don’t know everything (yet), and we don’t have everything right. but we follow the news, read the experts, seek out other points of view, send each other links to the new things we find, discuss it all, and then we go preach our philosophies to the masses. for some reason, no one wants to hear. at first i thought they just didn’t believe me. and while that may be true, it turns out they just don’t really care. they don’t want to know how political issues will affect their lives, or how economic policies will directly change their financial stability, or that our rights and liberties are being stripped away daily. if they know, they might feel obligated to act. gosh only knows how they’d fit caring into their lives.
so i could “pray” (aka – wait for someone else to do the work or just bury my head in the sand) or i can “do.” but apparently if i “do”, my soul is in jeopardy. hmmm…i wonder where you’d be if Jesus had decided not to “do”
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pictures from Farm Sanctuary
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pics from Farm Sanctuary
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Pics from Farm Sanctuary
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where your wool sweater comes from
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