Secret Christian Stuff

I'm not supposed to tell anyone this stuff:

Q. Why are Christians all split up in an almost infinite number of separate groups, most of which make no effort to become aware of each other's existance, let alone connect on a personal human (or Christian) level, or work together?

A. They prefer it that way.

Q. In many human systems, including dysfunctional homes, churches and businesses, the most important rules are never written down or spoken.  You find this everywhere.  How do people even learn the nature of the unwritten, unspoken, stuff, if talking about it is against an unspoken rule?

A. By noting that people around them seem to get punished when they act a certain way.  This teaches a lesson, even if the unspoken rule is never mentioned (even during the punishing of the offending party. Quite often exactly what the person did is misrepresented, or becomes something "we don't talk about.")

Q. In the stricter corners of Judaism, Islam and Christianity alike, there are men (with a few women also benefiting from not practicing what they preach at ALL) whose favourite topic of conversation and concern is how to further limit the influence and participation of women in their religious endeavors.  Why?

A. Women will change things.  (Even the women who are traveling the country seeing to their entrepreneurial enterprises of promoting books they've written about how women should fight the changes of the twentieth century by staying home and looking after their families and not going out in the world and worrying overmuch about money.)

Q. People are hurt by churches every day.  Pedophiles, bigots, sexists, homophobes and haters of all kinds inevitably get shelter from churches of various stripes.  Wherever you find someone spouting hatred, whether it's burning crosses on someone's lawn, shooting doctors who perform abortions, picketing a soldier's funeral or what have you, there is always bible quoting and some church or other supporting, aiding, funding and facilitating it.  Question is: people are being hurt, and harm is being done, but who actually is benefiting from it?

A. The bible refers to them as "principalities and powers."  Never mind the red-skinned, prancing satyr of a devil figure; Christian belief involves the idea that, wherever there is the potential to do good, there is some kind of system set up to ensure potential is wasted (usually on meetings of various kinds, crafting pretty words about who we claim to be and do, and doling out official-sounding titles, with no lack of backroom backstabbing going on over the whole thing).  Human systems are extremely effective at wasting all the resources available, not the least of which being time.  Eventually, people are inevitably punished for matters of conscience, and people are rewarded for being bad people.  All human systems routinely reward misbehaviour.  We tend to like to think this is all by accident, that people screwing up while doing the best they can just kinda looks like that.  Christian belief is that it's inevitable rather than accidental, and that it's all by design.  The good is being wasted, mislabeled and punished, and the theory is that any human system which more than maybe two or three people in it gets there eventually, and is serving, not the people (clearly), but some kind of faceless, bureaucratic evil.  Now, some would argue that the system is serving the people on top, who clearly benefit from it.  It must be noted, though, that there is usually a fair bit of changing which bastard's on the top of the heap, as being top of the heap doesn't seem healthy.  And, in the words of The Who "Meet the new boss.  Same as the old boss."

Think of a bad thing that was done to someone by someone else who knew better.  Then ask if a human system or organization that was supposed to prevent this from happening (and deal if it happened anyway) "got it right" in preventing the problem, or in helping the victim and not in any way helping the person at fault.  And if a random good Samaritan wanted to help, would the system officially "in charge" of helping have helped the Samaritan, or questioned his/her credentials and intentions?  Then ask yourself "Who benefited from this harmful action?"

You can explain away anything overly dark or mysterious by simply chalking the whole thing up to people being weak and misguidedly and selfishly serving their short-term interests.  Thing is, it isn't just the one person, it isn't just random, an overall effect is achieved; the whole thing DOES serve a long term interest in ensuring good is wasted, corrupted, mislabeled or blocked.

Every time you say "they," as in "they don't deal well with this" or "they charge tax on this" or "they are trying to stop this," you aren't talking about a person, you're talking about a system.  And who is in charge, let alone in control?  Who is "they" and what are they achieving?  Well, it's been decided who is responsible for what, but the actual power, wielded daily, doesn't ever quite follow what's on paper.  There are always things happening and people doing things, which the organizational charts do not adequately represent.  Aptitudes have something to say about things, and we all know that there are incompetent bosses, and we know what happens when the boss is incompetent.  And what gets rewarded?  The competence shown in filling in for the boss?  Not usually.  We serve The System.  Them.  Stuff is achieved.  Stuff is blocked.  Stuff becomes inevitable or impossible and no one's really in charge of it.

Many people sense that there is a pattern to the power, and they construct elaborate conspiracy theories.  I have never been able to take them very seriously, because I lack the necessary faith in this mythic human ability to work together effectively in groups, or keep secrets.  But as a Christian, I believe in good and I believe in evil.  And I believe evil's achieving specific, predictable outcomes we are not ignorant of.  Look for decay, corruption, harm and exploitation (drug cartels, human trafficking, various types of fraud), and try to think of it as random.  Then look at all the unconnected individuals acting similarly, and their actions adding up to an Effect of which they are ignorant.  Then imagine a personality which intended that.

Some people don't like to think of God as having a personality, agenda or plan.  Many don't like to think of evil as having those either.  The Christian belief is that evil has a plan, and it doesn't involve "winning souls."  It involves a parasitic, toxic infestation; a gutting of life, excellence, potential, love and grace, a negating of good or value which should be inherent and inevitable.

A lot of atheists still believe in good, but try to deny there is such a thing as evil.  I think that's just adorable.