OldTimeRadio said:
wembley8 said:
You haven't spent much time with evangelical types, have you?
Anything supernatural not coming direct from The Big Guy is satanic in their view.
Maybe he hasn't but
I certainly have and the Evangelical worldview I know certainly doesn't resonate with the one you claim.
Do things differ
that much across the Pond?
Apparently....they do.
As it happens, someone very close to me is an Evangelist, and although she's calmed down a bit now, for quite a few years she was convinced that I was being led by evil forces just because I listen to rock music and my birthday happens to be 21/
6/
66, that also, by coincidence, happens to be that well known Pagan date otherwise known as Summer Solstice.
For her, that was bad enough but then I joined a Black Sabbath tribute band. That was it for her, she was convinced I was spreading the word of the Devil, I was the antichrist, and I'd come to take over the world. Believe me, there was a big scene involving a lot of tears. I even tried to get her to read a few of the lyrics I'd be singing because as any Sabbath fan can tell you, they don't actualy write songs condoning Satan or anything like that. Quite the reverse. When they do write a song about Satanism or any related subject, (and most of their songs are
not about Satanism or any related subject, contrary to popular belief) it's invariably a
warning about Satanism telling the listener
not to get involved. They've even written pro-Christian material such as 'After Forever.' (I've placed the lyrics here;
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewt ... 474#701474 if anyone's interested)
I also tried to show her photos of them all wearing crucifixes (proper ones, not inverted ones) which for quite a while, you wouldn't see any pictures of them without crucifixes. But would she look at any of it? Not a chance.
Then I found out that she'd had the entire church that she attends praying for my unclean soul, which I wasn't happy about because it meant that she'd basicaly told a lot of people who are complete strangers to me that I was some sort of evil minion, which, no matter how you look at it, is at the very least, slander.
Things are OK between us now, (but still occasionaly strained) but for a long time it was a real problem. I even considered leaving the band, but then I came to my senses and thought 'Why should I give up something I enjoy doing and does no harm to anyone else, just to suit the paranoid delusions of someone?' Especialy someone who's completely unwilling to see sense, have a look at all the evidence before making a judgment about me, or even consider looking at it from my point of view.
I realise that one 'nutter' isn't necessarily an example of an entire religious community, but it's interesting to note that not one of those people who 'prayed' for me to change my evil ways actualy took the time to find out if I was actualy doing anything 'evil' in the first place. They just took her word for it because it was jolly exciting for them to be using the power of prayers to battle the 'forces of evil'.....which was me apparently, so they just took her at her word and 'assumed' that I was some sort of degenerate, Satan worshiping, scourge upon the human race.
Well............I don't worship Satan anyway.
