General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEvery organized religion is weird in its own way...
Some stand and pray. Some require you kneel and pray. Many just do weird rituals.
Hell, I grew up with the Pentecostal Holiness religion. My Grandpa did not like the the two Baptist churches a mile from his home. So he decided to have church at his house.
He cleaned out all the furniture in the front room, everything except the pot-belly stove, and placed benches around the wall and invited everyone to "church".
I was only about 10 years old but I remember it well. People starting coming to his house in the early evening. One lady was washing the feet of a man named Mathy (Matthew) on the front steps of the porch. There was a buzz about the place. Some men came in with a couple of long caged boxes that looked like rabbit traps that we would make in the winter time. But they had rattlesnakes in them.
Once the "service" began, and a few words were read from the Bible, especially the ones about "if you have the faith, ye shall pick up serpents", there was shouting and speaking in tongues as old women jumped up and down with their heads thrown back in a frenetic fashion.
Then the rattlesnakes came out and they held them above their heads as they spoke in tongues and passed them from one to another with their arms outstretched to receive the poisonous rattlers. I stood back against the wall as all of this was taking place and the floor was shaking.
Now we are talking about the weird nature of the Mormon religion in the presidential race. From my experience, I think all religions are weird.
d_r
(6,907 posts)There is a new "reality" show on animal planet called "snake man of appalachia." I tivod it the other night to check it out. It is like most of those reality shows, but it is pretty interesting. Worth a look. I was really impressed with the man's faith and devotion.
dawg
(10,610 posts)Down in Georgia, the snake handling thing is almost entirely used as a joke people make whenever they visit a small, charismatic country church.
"I just knew the snakes were fixin' to come out any minute."
It's funny how some people take that symbolic language from the Bible about taking up serpents so very literally, yet the same people are probably 100% sure that the multi-headed beast that rises from the ocean in Revelation is actually the EU.
Morning Dew
(6,539 posts)sarcasmo
(23,968 posts)Wise Child
(180 posts)You experienced the superlative oddity of Fundamentalist Christianity; snake handling churches.
The Mormons have got you beat on looking normal to the outside world. Even though their esoteric beliefs are strange.
My Baptist upbringing was somewhat drab. With the occasional traveling Evangelist who felt that screaming without taking a breath as his preaching style was righteous. My family didn't bother to go to those nightly revival meetings when the youth pastor's fire and brimstone father held a revival.
I guess it's all relative. It was a bit uneasy trying to convince my Lutheran cousins that my church was (relatively) normal.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,276 posts)of Christianity, and therefore maybe we don't really think of it as "weird" because we're so used to it, even if we don't necessarily believe in it. Because other religions are less familiar, we think they are weird. Hinduism, for example: they've got all these gods and one of them has an elephant head and another one has a whole bunch of arms! Or Buddhism, which is weird because you can't exactly figure out what they believe in, except that it's basically nothing, which makes them happy. Islam? Weird, because believers have to go to some city in Saudi Arabia and walk around and around this big square building for no apparent reason. Judaism is weird, too, especially the kind where you have to wear long curly sideburns and a big black hat. But Christianity? Not weird at all.
Nope. Christians just believe there was this guy who went from town to town, preaching good stuff like loving your neighbor and taking care of the poor and the sick, which got him in trouble with the PTB, who eventually got him executed for sedition. So far, so good. Well, turns out the guy was the son of God, and the deal is that God got this girl pregnant, causing her to give birth to himself. So after he got executed, which basically God arranged because that was the only way everybody else could avoid going to hell, since you had to believe in this guy who was actually the son of God or God himself, or else you'd go to hell, except that God had to let his son, or himself actually, be executed so everybody who believed he was God wouldn't go to hell. Then three days later he came back to life and went to heaven, where he still hangs out. And when you go to church to worship him you eat his flesh and drink his blood. Or maybe you pick up rattlesnakes. See, Christianity isn't weird at all, but all those other religions are.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)Tell him we still love him.
rusty fender
(3,428 posts)for "modern" times. The Greek author of "Mark," "Matthew," "Luke," and "John" based the new Jesus god on a Greek myth. Very clever. I would never have thought it would work, but lo and behold, it did!
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,276 posts)Pericles was the big general during the Peloponnesian wars. Heracles was the guy who became a god after his death. There were a lot of mythological influences on early Christianity; that could have been one of them.
rusty fender
(3,428 posts)Perseus? I should have double-checked my copy of Grave's "The Greek Myths." Thanks for correcting me--
pnorman
(8,155 posts)Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)that so many "mainstream" Christians will accept the "logic" of what you laid out in your second paragraph, but think that golden tablets and magic undies are just wacky.
immoderate
(20,885 posts)It's just magic...
--imm
DeadEyeDyck
(1,504 posts)They don't want to be accused of dancing.
dawg
(10,610 posts)I'm a Baptist.
Speck Tater
(10,618 posts)Just Google "religious headgear" and you'll see everything from the Pope's glittery golden crown to the Pastafarian's plastic colander.
Yes, my friends, it's true: God only loves you if you wear a funny hat.
hunter
(38,264 posts)... Nothing.
Trusting God or the Emperor or the Party to turn debt, numbers, bits of paper, metal, stones, etc. into some magical substance called money? That is freaking bizarre, a cruel religion and a leap of faith beyond all reason.
Talk about making weird shit up... Banks are the weirdest churches and temples mankind has ever built.
NCarolinawoman
(2,825 posts)SwampG8r
(10,287 posts)weaselian religion is not silly and i am offended
nay greatly and mortally offended
if we were not approaching the Feast of The Badger God i would take steps to have you smitten
i will set this aside to discuss with the High Holy Repo Man at the next Celebration of the Sausages
we will have you ferretted out for this sir i can assure you
and we use real ferretts
spin
(17,493 posts)18They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
Mark 16:17-18 (King James Version)
Unfortunately many Biblical scholars believe that that Mark chapter 16 actually ends at verse 8 and verses 9-20 were added later.
Many versions of the Bible have a disclaimer prior to the last verses of chapter 16.
For example:
6 Dont be alarmed, he said. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.
8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.[a]
(The earliest manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have verses 920.)
9 When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. 11 When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.
Mark 16 (New International Version)
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2016&version=NIV
dawg
(10,610 posts)some people take it as as hyperbole while others get a shovel and head for the hills.
superpatriotman
(6,232 posts)Noone was bitten.
Maybe the mind is more powerful than we think.
kentuck
(110,950 posts)the preacher at the service was bitten at a gathering at another place a few months later and gangrene "set up" in his hand and he waited too long to go to the hospital and they had to amputate his hand. When they asked what happened, he never said that the snake was to blame, only that the gangrene was the problem...
superpatriotman
(6,232 posts)He should have prayed for an antivenin kit.
dawg
(10,610 posts)Even when they strike, they don't inject venom every time.
It's still a terrible idea to pick them up.
DevonRex
(22,541 posts)And I'm a person of faith even tho I'm not sure exactly which kind. But one religion calling another one strange is a little silly.
treestar
(82,383 posts)It's extreme and strange.
More like the Mormans who still practice polygamy vs. the modern ones, who don't.
Each religion has its moderates and its extremists.
cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)(Reference to the opening line of Anna Karinina)