Pastor Perfect and his Poison Pen

What is it about judgmental Christians that really gets to me! Their ridiculous habit of quoting Bible verses at you combined with their self-righteous criticism seep under my skin to the point where I find myself doing or saying things I would never normally do. I'm not saying they push me to do more naughty things... teehee! But they certainly push me to do things like stick up for total strangers that I don't even know!

Yesterday I wrote about the new trend I've literally become obsessed with! For the last 3 days I have completely immersed myself in the Naija blogosphere. I've stumbled across a really rather tight-knit community in which total strangers have formed enviable, and what look to be long-lasting, friendships. The funny thing is they have different opinions about things and they all approach issues from completely different starting points. Some are married, others are... ehem... sexually liberated (teehee!), others are just plain hilarious to the extent that they border on ridiculous... whilst others are puritanical and judgmental and everything that makes people sigh, hiss and point fingers at the Christian message or faith or religion or whatever you feel most comfortable calling it.

Today I left a comment on a blog by this girl called ONB. I put a link up to her blog on the sidebar yesterday when I came across her blog, cuz some of the stuff she writes is truly hilarious! She's also one of those brave people who opens themselves and their lives up to the scrutiny of others because she wants to get things off her chest, and like me, loooves to write! She's great at what she does but then she's also extremely honest about who she is and how she lives her life. A post she put up a couple of days ago (could be a week ago now.. forgive me, I know I'm stale okay?!) has probably made her blog the numero uno on blogger's counter in terms of the number of hits per day. In what I presume is her usual light-hearted manner, she revealed a little too much... ehem... personal info if you catch my drift. This info sparked a wave of comments, and the last time I checked, she'd received about 110.. all about this one post. Oops I think Bitchy's getting her facts wrong. The 110 comments she received were about the second post she put up in response to all the criticism on, and reactions, to her earlier scandalous post - that post itself only received about 60 or 70 comments I believe.

Anyheeuuw she was reeeally angry when she wrote the post that received the 110 comments... and rightly so! I can't say I agree with her mode of expressing herself, as I'm always just a little of weary of being foul-mouthed on the net (... you all know I'm a chicken!), and I definitely don't condone the stuff she wrote about that brought on the onslaught, but I definitely do agree with how angry she was.

You should've seen some of the shit people said in their comments... telling her she was a slut, that she had no decency, that they were "grieving" for her lost soul etc etc. It was just so patronising, and to me, the exact representation of everything that Jesus stood up against when dealing with the Pharisees and all those other hypocritical people.

It also reminded me of this guy at Law School who came up to me randomly once. First, he called me "Sister Taminika" (In my stylish getup, trust me I looked nothing like someone called Tamanika!... Anyway I forgave the monkey, my name is just a tad difficult if you're a first-timer). Next, he started trying to force me to come to some weekly Bibly Study being run by himself at college. There was one happening that day, in like 2 hours' time or something, and I told him I'd arranged to do other things as I hadn't known about the Bible Study, but that I'd try and come the next week. Do you know what the monkey said next? "Ah... well... seek ye first the kingdom of God!" whilst sighing and shaking his stupid little {... insert the race that I habitually insult.. PS I am not a bigot!!...} head. I thought... "Uh... wait a minute, is this total stranger who I've been seeing for weeks now and who never once bothered to talk to me, or learn my name, even though I've been in his class all this time, and who is only talking to me now because he's heard through the grapevine that I'm a Christian, trying to give me a guilt-trip?!" The little {...} mugu didn't know he was pissing me off. He kept on.... He followed me down the stairs to the cafeteria talking at the top of his voice about "The Master" (his really rather scary pet-name for Jesus) and how he was coming back to send all the ignorant folk around us into "The Lake of Fire".

The final straw was when our little {...} evangelist asked me, "So if you were knocking at the gates of our eternal home and The Master said to you - 'Why should I let you into my kingdom Tamanika? What have you done for me?', What would you say?" I was so shocked at this point that I just looked at him and said "Well first of all he wouldn't ask me that question. If you understood the concept of grace you would know that nothing we do on this earth can buy us a place in 'our eternal home'... that's not the point of living a Christian life." I felt a little pleased with myself because the monkey was silent for a while and then muttered some crap about how I did have a point. I started to look for ways to untangle myself from the very awkward conversation when he started to probe me about the church I go to. As soon as I said what it was, he started to go on about how much better his church is, and how "their good shepherd" is really gifted at caring for "his flock"! If I could've, I would've thumped him on the head, but I couldn't. I simply made it clear the conversation was over, and then called my friend, FT1, to rant and rage about the audacity of the stupid guy. I also swore that I would never go to his "stinking" Bible Study if that's what everyone there was going to be like... I was reeeally mad.

Reliving that experience I now understand even more why ONB was so angry about the stuff that was said to her by similarly judgmental Christians like my little {...} friend. To think that even though he didn't see me as someone who needed "saving" (because I made it very clear to him that I was a Christian and not someone he could evangelise), he could still be so insensitive and condescending in his dealings with me, that in the end, even though I had been hunting for a Bible Study of sorts to drag my lazy sinful arse to, I became so angry that I swore and resolved never to give the idiot the satisfaction of seeing me at his Bible Study!

I left a comment on ONB's page saying that Christians need to be very careful about their approach. What you say to someone, and how you say it can be so detrimental to the message that you're trying to get across. In the end, you rile people up to such an extent that even other Christians, who would ordinarily be open to what you have to say, end up blocking their ears like little kids, screaming "blalalalabla-I can't hear you-blalalalabla" just so they can cut out your annoying and condescending voice... and obviously you get nowhere.

Gosh guys.... my first serious post! Wahey! Hehe... its rather amusing that the first time I decide to be serious I end up talking about religion, even though we all know I'm not exactly the most... ehem... qualified person. Teehee! Maybe its because its Sunday? I actually came on here determined to talk about Reality TV... but... emm... I still haven't done any work, and E-weezy, Dabs et al will be here any minute, so the Bitchy one must depart. Toodeloooooo