💾 Archived View for tilde.club › ~oldernow › 2023-12-01-11-47-26.gmi captured on 2023-12-28 at 17:16:50. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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Between here:
which contained:
I got my Bachelor of Arts in Theology at Briar Cliff, a Franciscan Catholic University. I also minored in Computer Science. I write posts here about Theology, Religion, and how these topics relate to politics, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other important modern social issues. My perspective is from a gay religious person who grew up Protestant but is no longer Christian, has experimented with various religions, went to a Catholic University, and now leans more toward Judaism in terms of beliefs. You can learn more about me in my About Me article.
and then:
First of all, some hilarity (well, from my point of view, anyway..)... I once lived in so-called "upstate New York", so I occasionally heard of the village of "Briarcliff Manor"... and so when I read "Briar Cliff" I immediately wondered if it were in that locale... but of course - per the school's website - it clearly isn't.
But, furthermore, I'd misremembered "Briarcliff Manor" as merely "Briar Cliff" (i.e. as though *that* were the name of the town/village)... so I searched on "briar cliff new york" in Google Maps, which brought me to the locale I was thinking of... but while innocently looking around the vicinity I suddenly saw the words "Trump National Golf Club Westchester"... heh... I dunno, it just seemed like yet another "there's no escaping Trump".... :-)
I, too, have some religion in my background. I was raised Roman Catholic, but one day in my senior year of high school my girlfriend brought me to a Baptist church in the outskirts of town (because one of her brother's fellowshipped there), and somehow the words and intensity of the southern preacher there had me "coming forward" (you know.. to "get saved"...), and that led to several years of tension between my family and I, especially since I chose to attend (hold on tight, reader...) "Bob Jones University" instead of the state university I'd originally planned on attending....
(Quick aside: while my parents were saying goodbye after having brought me there (from a northern, midwest state) was the only time I've ever seen my dad cry.... >_< )
And, well, I really got into the whole "fundamentalist/evangelical" thing... young, impressionable, tired of The Same Old....
But then December 8, 1980 happened.
A lifelong Beatles fan, I was on break with the rest of my work crew that was cleaning one of the campus buildings when one of the guys said, "Oh, yeah... did you hear about John Lennon?"
I'm pretty sure my ears literally bent forward....
"No. What about him?"
"He as shot tonight."
"Oh?"
"Shot and *killed*...."
<much inner no-fucking-what-the-fuck-fuck-fucking-way>
Part of what made the moment so poignant is I was astounded that it was all so matter of fact for the others, who likely had grown up in said religion, and thus probably weren't nearly as exposed to "worldliness" as I. But to me it seemed an astounding callousness.
I returned to my dorm root. I had *four* roommates, and here it was something like 2:00am, and there was no way I *couldn't* turn on the radio for details... which of course led to hearing many Beatles songs, and of course that sort of thing was basically forbidden.. and the oldest said "you really shouldn't be doing this..." several times. But, well... their/his music had just plain been way too much a part of my life to suddenly pretend it wasn't.
Anyway, I finished out that semester, then decided I was going to go to the state university anyway... but had run low on funds, so took a semester off to work, then made the scholastic transition.
And that was that.
Well, not completely, of course. I think I diddled around checking out this and/or that less-fundamentalist sorts of Christian groups/sects/whatever. And, of course, taking so stark a "life aside" as that is bound to have lasting inner effects.
Anyway, I didn't throw the baby out with the bathwater. To me there's a ton of crossover between a lot of Biblical content and that of other teachers/philosophies, so I view the Biblical stuff through a more "ah, okay, so this set of verses are basically saying the same thing as <content from another teacher/philosophy>" lens.
But I pretend I agree with other "Christians" who would have conniption fits were I to merely attempt to refine/nuance their beliefs - they would almost certainly consider such calling their beliefs into question. Let's just say I've not found arguing to ever be synonymous with elucidating.
Is that disingenuous? Well, yeah, of course to some degree. But I've found it best to wait for others to be "ready" (i.e. with similar enough "nature of reality context" to mine) before what otherwise is effectively speaking a foreign language to them.
Ugh... sorry for the rambling... I started out wanting to do more "quote and respond", but wound up remembering too many things too tempting *not* to mention. :-)