but god

[Can I Help Your A$$?]

You want tolerance and appreciation for the "different religions" (Catholic and Protestant, sigh) of her customers and co-workers, every day? Ask the atheist squatting on the floor in the Easter section, putting out "choco-crosses" next to the Easter bunnies, rolling her eyes and laughing (inside, never out loud, always keep stuff in), making sure NEVER to put the crosses in upside-down on the shelf. Swear to Reason.

I enjoy holidays a lot. Sure, I get preached to. A Co-worker told me that people only get sick because God either willed it, or they did something bad. Sounds a bit like New-Age belief (Law of Attraction,) but I manage to say merely, "meh." (You don't want to look like you're agreeing.) She says that it's a "christian belief." I don't think so, exactly, but I'm too busy with styrofoam on plaques that have some kind of "God, Home and Family" thing on them. I'm an atheist, I'm a professional atheist, it offends me, but I'm also realistic. That's the world, and I'm the oddball. Not the coworker. She's nice, just like me.

You want tolerance? I'm the Queen of Tolerance. I also have a large collection of Jack Chick tracts that I received at work. What I do with them once they belong to me is my own business. And if I think an upside-down cross may be an homage to St Peter, I do it in my own home. Because I guess my lack of religion doesn't sell as well as the ones in the Easter Bunny section. That's life. Don't tell anyone.

[toomanycalls1]

My story

I've been told that going to Bears games or Cubs games on Sundays is against God's will.

1. I usually go to church before leaving for the game (there's a cool church in Wrigleyville for example) or on Monday night where I prefer the young priest that handles the Monday night mass at my usual church.

2. Ironically many Bears go to my church. And I've seen Cubs at the one in Wrigleyville (if you played for the Cubs wouldn't you pray?)

3. I've been told as a catholic I am not a true christian. I say "I thought believing Jesus is the son of God is the basic tenent of the christian faith. I didn't know certain denomoinations weren't christian"

Then there's the nasty scumbag who called the Score a few months ago and complained about players taking a moment to pray before batting or pitching saying it offends them.

1. They have the right to do that. It doesn't hurt anyone.

2. If you know who does it turn your head away for a moment when they come up to bat or pitch.

3. Again if you played for the Cubs wouldn't you pray?

4. He also singled out the minority players. Well Kerry Wood, Mark Prior and Michael Barrett are all as white bread as they come.

5. Some of the best Cubs players happen to be the most religious ones. They could hokey pokey naked before each bat or pitch and I wouldn't care.

A friend of mine had a site for a short time making fun of people who believed anything they read on the internet "Markpriorisreallyjesus.com"

It was all in fun. Most of the people that laughed the loudest were some of the most religious people I know.

(the site had pictures of his major league debut where because of timing the sun was setting at an angle where there appeared to be a bright beam of light directed right at him. It was actually pretty cool).

Now Prior has a bad shoulder/elbow/back/oblique/butt and I always thought "Jesus has a sore shoulder" would be a good song.

[ForestDragon]

Oh, thanks. Now I've got Olde Tyme Religion (filk version) running through my head.

We'll all see Aphrodite
She'll be out there in her nightie
She's kinda wild and flighty
But she's good enough for me!

There'll be lotsa lovin'
When we're meetin' in our coven
Stop your pushin' and your shovin'
So there's room enough for me!


About the upside-down cross being a reference to St. Peter - is that the guy whose statue you're supposed to bury in the yard upside down if you're trying to sell a house? I thought it was some saint whose name began with J.

[Dreamstalker]

Ask the atheist squatting on the floor in the Easter section, putting out "choco-crosses" next to the Easter bunnies,

O_o Do they really make chocolate crosses? Weird...

[Noelegy]

I had a boss back in high school who was kind of a holy roller. He and his wife owned a Mexican restaurant and they were members of a local charismatic Baptist congregation. Before he was my boss, he was my neighbor, which is how I got an early scoop on the restaurant opening and was able to get a job.

When he found out that I liked to draw, he asked me to bring in my sketchbook sometime. When he asked me where I got my inspiration, I answered that I read a lot of fantasy and sci-fi, and did some writing of my own, and that I'd played Dungeons and Dragons in the past. Oh-oh, Spaghetti-O. "You know that's Satanic, right?" he said. I dropped the subject pretty quickly.

This boss was also known to keep us at the restaurant long past closing (on the clock) for prayer meetings. They played a local Christian rock station over the restaurant's stereo system right up until the week of Christmas, until customers finally asked why we weren't playing Christmas music.

And after I'd gone to Scarborough Faire, the big Renaissance festival in North Texas, I wore a T-shirt I'd bought at the fair to an employee meeting one day. It featured a very G-rated drawing of a cartoon faun playing a Panpipe. I was told that that, too, was Satanic.

He and his wife constantly tried to get employees to attend church with them. It was almost coercive. Fortunately, I only worked there a year, but during that time I developed a taste for fresh-made salsa that can't be appeased with the store-bought kind.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

"Then there's the nasty scumbag who called the Score a few months ago and complained about players taking a moment to pray before batting or pitching saying it offends them."

See, that's what I don't get. Why would anyone be offended about that? Are these people offended at any and all things or ways of thinking that are different from their own? If so, why? If not, then how do they decide what is offensive and what isn't?

I mean, my husband likes gin. I don't. The sight of a bottle of Tanqueray in my freezer does not offend me. I don't have to drink it. I just don't get the whole "I'm offended by the sight of someone believing/thinking/feeling differently than me" thing.

But I'm just stupid that way, I guess.

[Noelegy]

"Remember that the innkeeper was working on Christmas Eve."
Turned out the Methodist churches in town got together and gave cards to all kinds of folks working that holiday, nurses, cops, clerks etc.
If you ask me this speaks to the positive aspects of religion far more than some sanctimonious prick with a television studio and operators standing by to take your Visa, MasterCard, or Discover.

See, I always thought the Methodists were cool. This rocks! I wish more churchgoers would spread their faith in a positive manner like this.

[Gurndigarn]

O_o Do they really make chocolate crosses? Weird...

Oh, yeah. Either some soulless corporation decided to diversify their easter offerings, or some overly soulful person complained that bunnies and ducks aren't a true christian symbol. Either way, I think it's tacky, but what the hell, if it floats your boat...

(I'm one of the few people I know that doesn't do easter baskets or egg hunts. Not for any religious reason, but just because the thought of hopping my kids up on sugar before church isn't the most practical thing to do, plus I don't want to drop the kind of cash it takes to get really good baskets. Instead, our family makes cinnamon rolls on easter afternoon. Better than chocolate!)

[Delphae]

In the Dunkin' Donuts I worked in in High school we would get tracts left behind all the time there. We were right accross from a born again church. I didn't care it gave me something to read in the bathroom. As a Catholic, I've gotten non-Christian friends to come to church with me by being nonjugemental and open minded. I enjoy TALKING about religion. I hate prothlitizing. It turns people away, not draws them in.

[Argabarga]

O_o Do they really make chocolate crosses? Weird...

Both white and milk chocolate, we have em' in our Easter display, but they don't seem to be selling

Then again, the one ordering dude is a big time religious guy, who always waits until corporate threatens him to order the Haloween stuff because he's convinced it's satanism.

[counterjockey]

Dork.

<_<
>_>


(I listen too it as well if I happen to be driving around on a saturday)

You're welcome.

I was an above-average child, I'm a good looking man, all I need now is a strong woman and I'll be living in Lake Wobegon.

/not that good looking
//too many Powdermilk biscuits
///too much time on Fark

[Mr B Rabbit]

I always loved it when people used to complain about me working on a Saturday. The standard comments: "Don't you know this is the day of rest?" etc. Now I read into various religions a lot and tend to answer these comments with a fairly simple response. The Sabbath is Saturday, not Sunday.

For more religious fun I used to work in a Catholic girl's boarding school. The staff were 'requested' to go to chapel with the students each morning. Me and four other teachers were the only ones who refused to go. Instead we used to go swimming in the school's swimming pool. Only problem was that apparently one morning the priest they had in told the students that those 'filthy pagans who swim instead of coming to chapel are going to burn in hell'.

Oh the laughs we had.

[Sailornight6]

The standard comments: "Don't you know this is the day of rest?" .

o i love this, my reply should be to them, i am here because you ppl insist on shopping today, if the store didn't make money staying open on this day then they would be closed.

[BookstoreEscapee]

See, I always thought the Methodists were cool. This rocks! I wish more churchgoers would spread their faith in a positive manner like this.

We are, TYVM!

/lapsed Methodist

[Noelegy]

That reminds me of a shirt that I saw some jock-type wearing once - showed Jesus nailed to the cross (he had it on his back, anyway), wearing the crown of thorns and all that, bleeding all over the place, down in some sort of push-up position. Caption said "His Pain - Your Gain." Now I'm not religious in any sense of the word, but doesn't that strike anyone else as kinda sacriligious? Certainly tasteless, at least.

A former coworker, quite religious, had a catalog at work one day which featured T-shirts, mousepads, and other paraphernalia, all featuring well-known commercial logos (of movies, soft drinks, and other iconic products) reworded or reworked to reflect a Christian message. This was around the time the first "Lord of the Rings" movie came out, and there was one design in a similar font that said something like "The Lord and the King."

I flipped through it and commented that I didn't think you could mimic copyrighted logos that way (and even worse, this company had the gall to say that the designs were their protected property). Her response was to the effect of that it was okay because anything with a Christian message answered to a higher authority than man's.

I just regret that I didn't come back with, "Yeah, but render unto Caesar..."