Christianity with a Dominance/Submission Fetish

I have been interacting on the 'net (and throughout my life) with people who look at the bible, their spirituality and their relationship with God purely in terms of obeying, in terms of submitting.  They go on Facebook and make their status something like Tom Jeffrey just wants so very much to truly just submit to and really, really obey his dear Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ in absolutely every part of his worthless, wretched life.  Let me lie at his beautiful feet and never forget the dog that I am.  Hallelujah!  Praise Him!

There are countless hymns about lying at the Lord's feet forever, about us being worms, or dogs, or filthy beggars and on and on, submission, submission, submission.  It sure looks holy...  (And these are some of the most arrogant people I've ever met, the most high-handed and closed-minded in dealing with all others, particularly nonChristians, so that 'submission' sure must be a sacrifice!  Goodness knows they go on and on about it...)  I'm all like "There are clubs that cater to that fetish.  God, on the other hand, does not."  Just as, pointed out once on The West Wing, being a Star Trek fan doesn't mean you have to write stories about Kirk and Spock having sex, being a Christian absolutely does not mean you are supposed to be putting on 24/7 public displays of supposedly grovelling before God, and then getting your hands on whatever church/committee/political status you can get, all so you can "humbly make a difference.  For Him."

Let me put it like this: When I talk to these guys, they view the bible entirely in terms of things to obey.  They've read the bible, some of them, but their mental highlighters were only turning yellow things that sounded like structure. Things which set limits.  Things which were worded as or could be misconstrued as directives.  Things you could look down on others for not adhering to, in essence.  Much of the bible is about liberty.  Some of it's about sex.  These guys, though?  They tend to ignore or throw out or generally not be able to discuss any part of the bible that isn't giving them points because they're "obeying" it.  They talk of somehow "obeying" parts of the bible that are worded as neutral statements, open rhetorical questions and general comments. (also other people's prayers, lyrics, poetry and personal reflection) I tend to point out that this distorts the quotes themselves, and hijacks them to an "obedience!" agenda.  One properly merely thinks about and responds to statements, questions and comments, while one obeys or disobeys only things that are worded as orders/directives/instructions.  It is pretty easy to look in the bible or any piece of writing and see if you're being told to do (or not do) something, or if the writing is not worded that way.

Here's how easy it is.  Here are three bible quotations.  Imagine trying to obey or submit to them:

Ecclesiastes 12:5-8 they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets-- before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity. 

Song of Solomon 4:5 Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that graze among the lilies.

Matthew 12:34-35 (Jesus telling religious hypocrites what he thought of them) You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.  The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.  

 And here are some which are worded as instructions:

Proverbs 5:18-19 rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love. 

Matthew 6:1-4 (Jesus instructing his followers how charity work and acts of good were to be done) Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.  Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. 

Galatians 5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.  

So what I'm dealing with is people concocting some rule from their own interpretation and application of the bible, and then bothering other people with it, claiming the disobedient wretches are not submitting to the bible or obeying God. What's really going on is that they're taking statements, comments, stories, poetry and prayers and making them into rules, and mentally tossing out the rest of the bible if it can't be converted into Things To Do. Then, to make things match, if any instruction in the bible doesn't suit them (the Matthew 6 one, for instance, about not advertising to the world that you've read the bible, or prayed, or given money to charity or whatever, because that cheapens the act and makes it about you looking good) then they argue their way out of it using cobbled-together, patchwork quilts made of scripture scraps torn from any original context and missing the bits that come before and after.

Bono does more charity work than anyone knows.  That's good.  Many celebrities have t-shirts, bumper stickers, ads and things on their web sites, ostensibly to "raise awareness" of charity organizations.  Just by being a celebrity and making it known that they are doing good works, they instantly distract people from the problem they're trying to help, get credit as a charity worker, and raise awareness of themselves more than the thing they're doing.  People say "Oh!  Beyonce!  She does charity work."  And later people say "What do you know about Beyonce?"  "Well, she does charity work."  "What charity work?"  "I dunno.  I forget.  But it's cool that she does charity work, right?  I mean, that proves she's not just in it for the fame and popularity.  I like Beyonce."

There's something... fishy... about how public Christians (well, the annoying, bad example ones) want to make what should be (what most people desperately wish was) private Christian stuff.  They say "I'm obeying God and ANNOUNCING the good news!  Don't be a prayah h8ah!"  My response has been of late: "Can you tell good news without mentioning yourself?"