The (mostly) unspoken battle of religion rages on in my house. I continue to appease my parents and regularly attend church services of the southern baptist kind, but it is increasingly more difficult to stay put in my pew with some of the things that the adored pastor spews from the pulpit.
I've been surprised several weeks in a row: all sermons have been somewhat centered around political views and how the church should vote in the next presidential election. A few weeks ago, the topic surrounded tolerance, and why it was a bad thing. Those of us hippies that want to hold hands, sing "Kum-by-ah" around the campfire are INSANE! How could we actually accept that others have their own view and that it might *gasp!!* be different from our own. Conclusion: we must blow them up and vote McCain.
Last Sunday, the sermon looked to be on the right foot, and then that foot slipped off a ledge and the whole sermon slipped down an icy crevasse, never again to see the light of day. The topic? Family structure. Of course, the pastor began by warning us that he was not going to be politically correct, because you can't change your beliefs in order to not hurt the feelings of "the fallen." I believe there is a difference between not being politically correct and being an asshole, but that can be argued otherwise I suppose... So, in a lavish explanation of the age-old "children should obey their parents," Pastor slips in that wives should submit to their husbands, no matter how stupid their husbands are or how incapable they are to actually run the family because that is how the Bible says we should run our families. Now, if this does not scream, "Abuse your wife- you can!" I don't know what does. Talk about empowering men and setting women back a hundred years. We may as well be fundamental LDS and let the husbands have more than one wife to do their bidding.
Oh, and last thing. Arranged marriages: still okay according to the pastor. He referenced his recent trip to India, talking to a girl who told him that she would only marry a man that her parents picked for her, and even if she did not love him, she would obey her parents. I don't know about anyone else, but if I were to only marry a person that my parents picked for me, I would be up the proverbial Shit Creek with no paddle, and a foot washing Baptist husband.
The thing that started this rant happened before I even had my morning cup of tea. I had brought home a free "enjoy the outdoors" publication, and on the back page was a quote by Aldous Huxley, "My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing." Underneath, my mother wrote, Ask what your heavenly father thinks about it. Thanks mom, I think I'll go ponder that, in the mountains.
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