Young Life comes to the Barrio(and Amfortas goes apoplexic)

Great Googly Moogly!
What used to be the Headstart building has been handed over, rent free for a year, to Young Life Incorporated.
In the past, at least since I moved to town, I’ve told the various missionaries that showed up in my yard that we were Catholic.
My wife is, of course…my boys, in my opinion, are too young to make a decision on the matter(even though my 10 yr old has been “Confirmed”, etc)…
I am, decidedly, NOT Christian.
More of a Secular Humanist, Militant Agnostic(I don’t know, and neither do you), Mystic.(more on this, in near future)

When the Jehovah’s Witnesses, or Mormons or whomever comes by, this feels like too much to get in to…and I fear becoming a Special Case for their “Witnessing”…better to just give them the Catholic Answer, and let them go away.

Now, an Evangelical Cult(see the Links) is moving in, an arrow shot away…(does that make any drug purchases made in the Barrio all that much more illegal? 1000 feet from a “Church’, and all>)

As I’ve tried to make absolutely Clear…I honestly don’t care what another person chooses to believe in (Goose Doctrine)….it’s the “Witnessing”…the “Proselytizing” ….and the potential connections to Dominionism and Christian Nationalism…the Targeting of my Kids(see links)…then, it becomes “My Business”…gets included in my Threat Matrix.

I know full well that if these types knew what I believe, what’s in my Library…well…lets just say that I am the quintessential anathema to these people, judging by their own statements.

The Evangelical, and worse, the Fundamentalist, strains in Xianity have little Tolerance for folks like me.

I have studied these belief systems for quite a while…and I find them creepy. Again, good for you, if you’re a Cult Member…I’m genuinely Happy that you’ve found Meaning, etc.
But, please…Leave Me, and my Kids, alone.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Leaving the Heathen alone is, apparently, unacceptable….

(http://younglifewatch.wordpress.com/)

(http://forum.rickross.com/read.php?14,15330)

Mission Statement:” Our Mission
Introducing adolescents to Jesus Christ and helping them grow in their faith. We accomplish our mission by ...
Praying for young people.
Going where kids are.
Building personal relationships with them.
Winning the right to be heard.
Providing experiences that are fun, adventurous and life-changing.
Sharing our lives and the Good News of Jesus Christ with adolescents.
Inviting them to personally respond to this Good News.
Loving them regardless of their response.
Nurturing kids so they might grow in their love for Christ and the knowledge of God's Word and become people who can share their faith with others.
Helping young people develop the skills, assets and attitudes to reach their full God-given potential.
Encouraging kids to live connected to the Body of Christ by being an active member of a local congregation.
Working with a team of like-minded individuals -- volunteer leaders, committee members, donors and staff.”

(http://www.younglife.org/us)

(http://www.younglife.org/NR/rdonlyres/D18C97E8-2C71-41C7-B2EE-1B393AD62171/0/ProclamationDocument9182008.pdf)

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelical_Christian)

I spent a lot of time wandering in the Cross-references, on the wiki page…Hardest thing about an Objective study of Xianity is the apparent readiness of Believers to faction off over minor differences in Dogma. This Factionalism has been operant from the very beginnings of Xianity.
Indeed, right here, in Mason…we counted 27 “churches”, at one time(2004)…half were the result of factionalism; a group at one church would have some minor doctrinal difference of opinion(often merely cloaked racism) and split off, sounding trumpets that they were the “Real” Church.(in a county of under 5000!)
This history of Fracturing and infighting, both historical and local, give me some comfort.(If they can’t keep it together, there is little threat of the worst among them being able to impose the worst-case-scenario)
During the Bush Darkness(They identified with each other, They became political, and thus, Fair Game.), I had concerns of a possible Theocracy in the making. I still have concerns, but not of an Overt Takeover…more of an Insidious, Stealthy Coup…where this loose group infiltrates all levels of Government, from the local school board, to the Federal Beaurocracy to the Brass, and Noncom levels of the US Military.
Keeping a keen eye on the news confirms that these concerns are warranted.
As I have no desire for well meaning folks to be out in front of my house, conducting “Spiritual Warfare” to rid me and mine of “Demons”…I am a little concerned with the appearance of mty new neighbors.
Similarly, since I am a Poster Child for what these groups believe is Wrong with the World,as well as their increasing Political Power, and Proliferation, I rightly worry about a near future appointment with the Stake.
<<<>>>>>>
A cynical aside: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_evangelical_seminaries_and_theological_colleges)...the political wing of Xianity in America rails constantly against what they perceive as a Giant, Tentacled Secular Humanist Conspiracy to take over America(!). I wish they’d foreword the address, as I’m having difficulty finding said Monstrosity.(I’d like to sign on…lol)
A glance at such a list as the one above, and I think about words…like “Projection”.lol
<<<<<>>>>>>>
Again, to be clear….what I have a problem with, when thinking about this whole mess….is the in yer face-ism….and the stealthily stealing into public schools…and the broader Movement behind all this…that want’s, in no uncertain terms, to Take Back America for Jesus.
I have a Big Problem with that.
(http://sites.younglife.org/sites/MasonTX/default.aspx)

Pluralism…that’s what I advocate.
This seems impossible with these folks. Theirs is an all-encompassing, militant Faith…there is no room in their World for the Other. The Other is, by definition, the Enemy of God.
It strikes me that one of the features of this, which it has in common with the whole Right Wing of American Politics, is the tendency towards what Orwell called “Doublethink”…also known as Cognitive Dissonance.
Indeed, I suspect that the Political version of this flows from the Religious version, which has, at it’s root, the Biblical Literalism so prevalent in Right Leaning Xianity.
If one actually reads the Bible, with an open, Objective Mind, one finds rampant Contradictions. Indeed, much Biblical Scholarship, of the last Century,(applying Linguistic techniques, and Critical Analysis), has led to the suspicion that there is more than One God, referenced in the “Good Book”…the God of Love,in parts of the New Testament…and the Psychopathic, Vindictive God, in the Old, as well as in the rest of the New.
To believe, without question, that this collection of texts is the Divine Word, Unerring, and Complete…well, it’s no wonder, at all, that the Literalists seem a little nuts to those of us on the Outside.
To hold in one’s Mind two completely opposing Extremes…2+2=4, and 2+2=5….at the same time…and to willfully ignore this contradiction, for fear of Hell…it explains a lot of our current Political Dysfunction.

On the Rick Ross pages, linked above, Young Lifers come on the Forum to defend their Organisation.
What jumps out, at me, is that the Moderator’s Arguments seem to go right over YL’s heads.
To wit, Mod:” parents must be notified that y’all are out to Convert these kids…to not tell the parents is wrong, neglectful and sneaky”
YL:” We are merely informing them of the Love of Jesus”.
Mod:”if a Mormon, or Muslim, approached YOUR kids, without yer knowledge, for the express purpose to Convert them…would you be ok with that?”
YL:”Of course not!”
The Contradiction is completely lost to these folks. To them, it is “Obvious”…they have the Truth…so of course it’s perfectly fine to Indoctrinate other people’s kids. Mormons, etc do not possess the Truth…so their Proselytizing is Wrong.
Sigh.
Expand this out to the broader Right Wing, Religious and Political…and here’s the reason that we keep veering into the Right Hand Ditch.
The Sky, you see, is All Blue…AND All Green, at the same time…and the True Believers possess the Only Truth…so, to contradict them, to question them, is Obviously the Work of the Devil(or the evil Liberal, Socialist Hordes…or those sneaky Imams….as the case may be)

In this world, per St Paul, to Think is Dangerous, and to be avoided.
Belief trumps an Objective assessment of the World.
Assertion=Fact.

I have very little hope that this can end well.
Eventually, folks like me will have to go underground, and wait.
How can Reason prevail….or even come to the table…with such an opponent?