Dammit Jim, That’s Not Biblical!

Facundus Beatus, f. 191v: The Dragon gives his power to the Beast. Commentaria In Apocalypsin, 8th Century. Click for giant size.

It’s Jim Bakker, again. The title of this post is a bit unfair; I couldn’t resist. You can’t honestly say something is or isn’t biblical, given the sheer amount of different versions and interpretations. It’s just a god mash hash. This recent tearful plea by Jim has to do with The Great Tribulation, upon which, there are many versions and interpretations, and a number of different beliefs.

“If they kill our president or they destroy him or whatever, if we elect the other side,” Bakker said, “this is it. I think maybe Trump is here to give us time to get ready because all hell is going to break loose. We’re not going to have the Antichrist show up to get the sign of the Mark of the Beast on our forehead or hand, it won’t happen without hunger. Hunger is going to be the main thing. Most people don’t get it, they don’t want to get it, but that is why I am so obsessed with you all being prepared.”

Horrendous Hyperbole, Jim! Electing democrats is not the same as murder. Really truly. It is fun to see how much you change your narrative from one appeal to the next. So now the Tiny Tyrant isn’t the Jehovah blessed saviour, he’s just a little sort of hourglass? How the mighty fall. I hate to break into this melodrama, but people who have enough money to buy your yuck inna bucket are in no danger of going hungry. There are people in this world who are going hungry. A great many people have already been displaced by climate change, and can no longer sustain themselves in their homelands. There are plenty of people living in poverty right here in Ustates, who not only can’t afford nutritious food, they’re stuck in food deserts. All manner of children cannot concentrate in school because they are consumed by hunger. And here you are, hawking your absurdly expensive crap inna bucket. There isn’t a shred of decency in you, Jim. There certainly isn’t so much as a tattered remnant of shame anywhere to be seen.

Bakker’s wife, Lori, warned that Christians who don’t think they would ever accept the Mark of the Beast will inevitably do so when they see that their children or grandchildren are starving, which prompted Bakker to bring out his newborn grandson, whom he cradled as he wept, saying, “I hear them crying, I’ve heard them crying for years and God says, ‘What will you do if these babies are starving?’”

There are babies starving right fucking now, you evil piece of shit! Do you care? No. Your answer to ‘god’s’ question: oooh, sell the rubes nasty shit inna bucket!

What happened to the rapture? Aren’t you among those who believe the rapture will happen prior to the tribulation? You seem awful certain your ‘flock’ won’t make the cut. From what I recall about what I was taught, if you fuck up and get stuck in the tribulation, those who go nobly to their deaths right away will get to do the ghostly happy dance up to Jesus. So, no need to buy your stuff, no need to starve. Just die. Should be a cakewalk for you christians, you’re always going on and on and on and on about being persecuted, and being wannabe martyrs, and there’s your chance!

The program then immediately cut away to a pre-filmed segment promoting Bakker’s $1,500 “Complete Grocery Store” survival package.

One thousand, five hundred dollars. Right. I have no words for just how gosh-darn godly and righteous that one happens to be. You are the naked face of hypocritical greed, complete with crocodile tears, and a willingness to use your infant grandchild. Evil, thy name is Jim Bakker, and you fit the new beatitude to a T.

You can see the oh so tearful Jim at RWW, if you so wish. One good thing about this nasty nonsense, I get an excuse to indulge in some fabulous art. One more from Beatus below the fold, Osma Beatus, f. 139: The Frogs:

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Kronos Day Mood.

A Perfect Circle – The Doomed. This should be the new anthem of America. They’re on tour, click the link for dates and tickets.

Behold the new Christ
Behold the same old horde
Gather at the altering
New beginning, new word
And the word was death
And the word was without light
The new beatitude:
“Good luck, you’re on your own!”

Blessed are the fornicates
May we bend down to be their whores
Blessed are the rich
May we labor, deliver them more
Blessed are the envious
Bless the slothful, the wrathful, the vain
Blessed are the gluttonous
May they feast us to famine and war

What of the pious, the pure of heart, the peaceful?
What of the meek, the mourning, and the merciful?
All doomed
All doomed

Behold the new Christ
Behold the same old horde
Gather at the altering
New beginning, new word
And the word was death
And the word was without light
The new beatitude:
“Good luck!”

What of the pious, the pure of heart, the peaceful?
What of the meek, the mourning, and the merciful?
What of the righteous, what of the charitable?
What of the truthful, the dutiful, the decent?

Doomed are the poor
Doomed are the peaceful
Doomed are the meek
Doomed are the merciful
For the word is now death
And the word is now without light
The new beatitude:
(Fuck!)
“Fuck the doomed
You’re on your own!”

Books.

Scythe, Neal Shusterman.

I recently read Neal Shusterman’s Scythe. It’s a fast, easy read, with an interesting premise and engaging characters. We humans certainly spend a great deal of time striving for the ideal; we never quite give up on the idea of an utopia. That’s delivered in Scythe. AI broke through in a big way, it was not the monster doom people always thought, and now, society is perfect. There’s no poverty, no hunger, no inequality, no disease, and almost unlimited healing. All the things which routinely killed people before? No more. A person can launch themselves off a tall building, go splat, and wake up in perfect condition a few days later. There’s rejuv tech, so people can decide to ‘turn a corner’ as they age. As many times as they like. One thing which is not perfectly ruled: breeding. No laws, no restrictions, and people can breed for hundreds of years. So, a very small percentage of the world population is randomly selected to die now and then. The people who perform this duty are known as Scythes. You get the picture.

This is not a deep philosophical treatise on achieving eden; nonetheless, Mr. Shusterman does not shy away from many of the questions which would surface in such a world. The book makes for an excellent launch point into serious discussions. Probably what bothered me the most was the compleat inability of anyone to decide they wanted to die and to carry that out successfully. (Scythes are the only people allowed to suicide. Scythes are also prohibited from taking the life of anyone who wishes to die.) I don’t like the idea that a perfect society would consist of one in which my final act of autonomy was removed. But then, I’m not overly keen at not being in control.

Part of the book reminded me of Terry Pratchett’s Reaper Man, and the duel between Deaths, and why that duel took place. There’s a similar theme in Scythe.

It’s a good read, recommended.

Women and Demons in Medieval Finland.

The aim of the article is primarily to examine late medieval wall paintings in the church of Espoo that include women with some form of diabolical entity. The paintings under examination include five different motifs: the milking and churning, the Journey to Blåkulla, Skoella and Tutivillus.

The milking scene in Espoo shows a woman with a cow and a man-size demon with horns, hoofs and a tail observing the task (Fig. 1). Immediately above the woman milking a cow
another woman is seen riding on a broom, holding a pouch-like object in her left hand and a horn in her right (Figs. 1, 3).

On the south side of the church, the milking scene continues with a scene representing a demon assisting women in churning the butter (Fig. 2). Skoella scene represents a demon passing a pair of shoes to a woman on the west wall above the entrance (Fig. 7), and above, three demons are seen twiddling with a parchment (Fig. 9). This motif is referred to as Tutivillus. The analysis of the motifs begins with the examination of the images at their visual level in which the content of the images is explained. The analysis then proceeds to the examination of the motifs in their cultural and historical context. The article discusses the origin of the different motifs and compares them to similar ones found among other early
sixteenth-century wall paintings in Finland. The methodological approach combines art historical analysis and cultural-historical contextualisation.

A fascinating look at the pairing of women and demons, where a woman-centered activity is involved. Demons, always so much more interesting than saints and gods, even in churches. The paper may be read here.

The Migrant Quilt Project.

TUCSON SECTOR 2004-2005, 282 deaths.
Made by Carol Hood, Sunny Klapp, Phyllis Sager, & Virginia Wenzel, of Prescott, Arizona.

Picked from the desert, I’m gazing at the tiny pieces of Jeans. These are what’s left of real lives. They had hopes and dreams of better and safer futures. (Virginia Wenzel)

There is a wealth of heartbreak at The Migrant Quilt Project, but it’s heartbreak all should feel. No one should be able to turn a cold heart and hateful mind to the mute witness of so much death.

The Migrant Quilt Project.

What We Deserve…

Dante and Virgil in Hell, William-Adolphe Bouguereau.

There are times I idly wish some form of underworld existed; when it comes to mouthy, obnoxious, immoral christians, I could get on board with the notion of hell. At least for a time. I can’t ever get past that ‘tortured for all eternity’ business, it’s just too much. No matter which particular underworld, any treatment would pall after a sufficient time. Anyroad, Liz ‘Red Shoes!‘ Crokin had something of a pity party the other day.

Liz Crokin declared recently that she is not worried about her career suffering due to her obsessive efforts to prove that countless government, business and entertainment leaders are involved in a massive satanic pedophile ring because she knows that she will be rewarded by God for her work.

I wonder, does it ever dawn that there has been no reward? It has to occur at some point. No wonder theists then take refuge in ‘the afterlife!’.

In an interview with the America First Media Group last week, Crokin said that while she has suffered personally and professionally because of her crusade to expose supposed rampant pedophilia and child sacrifice, she would “rather be poor and getting the truth out there and being on the right side of God and history.”

That’s nice. It’s easy to be on the right side of a ‘god’, when said ‘god’ is a figment of your imagination, and of course believes everything you do, and shares all your hatreds. As for history, ah, that one is not quite so easy to deceive. It is remarkably arrogant of Ms. Crokin to think she’ll make the history tomes of the future. I’m afraid the majority of humanity never gets close to being recorded for all posterity.

“Judgment Day is coming and not only is God going to unleash His wrath on the pedophiles, He’s also going to unleash his wrath on the people that knew about it and covered for it,” Crokin said. “People like us will be rewarded by God … People like us who have been censored and punished for having politically conservative viewpoints, supporting Trump and especially the people that have hurt us for trying to help children and save children from predators, there will be a day where we will not have to worry about our bills and we will get lifestyle that we deserve.”

Oh my. There’s a lot of material there, but I’m going to focus on this one small part:

we will get lifestyle that we deserve.

This is about lifestyle? This is about your desire to have the power which comes with obscene amounts of money? I’m pretty sure christianity throughout the ages has had plenty to say about rich people and filthy lucre, not that it has ever stopped christianity at large from amassing filthy amounts of wealth and power. Gosh, I thought you’d be all happy to be poverty ridden in the cause of your god. I rather doubt you’re all that poor, either. I expect you might be exceeding the framework of your current lifestyle. People do that one all the time. So, Jehovah is going to look upon you one of these days, say Good work, Red Shoes, have a pile of money! ? Hmmm. From what I remember of my christian days, it doesn’t work like that.

As for Jehovah unleashing his wrath on those who sexually abuse children, he’s had one hell of a long time to do just that. People have been abusing children in a variety of ways since always. That god of yours didn’t care when the church was using children as convenient fodder for the crusades, which also allowed the church to pile up on all that filthy lucre. Your god didn’t care when children were routinely worked and fucked to death by all those holy servants. And so on. There are children around the world suffering at the hands of adults, every single moment of every single day. Haven’t noticed a great swath of punishment happening. And it won’t happen. Trying to narrow it down to non-existent cults in Hollywood won’t help at all, because your god doesn’t exist. It’s on us to change things; it’s on us to help all those in untenable situations. I note you aren’t doing that, Ms. Crokin. Well, keep hollering. I’m sure if you pander to the willfully ignorant and gullible, you’ll get your hands on that filthy lucre one of these days.

Oh, and if you’re being censored, I expect silence. That would be blissful. Unfortunately, no bliss for us. Apparently, Ms. Crokin jumped all over the Tiny Tyrant’s recent fumble with a water bottle to turn it into something mysterious and cooooool:

President Trump’s Fiji water stunt today was no question strategic! He does not usually have a special table with water on it! They put the water on the table front and center on purpose because it’s a clue. The clue is Fiji! Plus, Trump was so dramatic about the water, it’s obvious he was sending a message. Also, he knew the brain dead MSM reporters would mock him for this leading people like me to take note and research the significance of Fiji.

There are lots of working theories on what Fiji symbolizes. The CEO of Fiji is corrupt as hell and a huge Clinton backer. Obama is a fan of Fiji water too, travels there and allegedly has a bunker there. I’ll post more theories in the comments.

If you can’t see that this was a strategic move, you don’t understand Trump. Literally everything he does has significance, meaning, symbolism, etc. Plus, he’s a master troll! Let’s not forget his epic photo op in front of the kids right after he got into the White House in front of Hillary Clinton’s portrait, lol!

Via RWW.