Mark 10:25 – “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
Some things don’t need to be said
And a jet plane can mess with your head
Oxygen deprivation
While preaching salvation
Makes camels appear to be thread.
Old Jules
Posted in 2018, Christians, limericks, Poetry, religion, Spirituality, YouTube
Tagged camels, Christians, jet planes, Kenneth Copeland, limerick, limericks, Mark 10:25, needle, Preachers, preaching
Israeli soldier and a couple of Palestinian children in the ‘occupied territories’.
Hi readers. Thanks for coming by for a read.
How in the world did we human beings come to be such violent animals?
It’s tempting to conjecture it was after we became ‘civilized’, but that can’t be it. A person would have to search deeply and far to find aboriginals who aren’t as savage as the Israeli soldier pictured above. People anywhere no matter what their level of weaponry, cultural sophistication, religious convictions, when they discover someone has something they want, become savages.
And what they want doesn’t have to be, as in the case of the Israelis, land to steal from the people who own it. Virtually anything of current value will do, and almost any quantity. Or, failing that, when it comes to killing the ambiguous and abstract can serve as well.
I suppose we’re fond of telling ourselves that unlike our savage ancestors, our own killing and stealing is necessary, patriotic if it’s done by soldiery. Or if it’s done because of some threat we can contrive the people we wish to kill or rob pose to our tribe. From down in the streets in drive-by shootings all the way up through the braided channels of finance, race, ethnicity, language and tribe in the undercurrent of our lives.
Our males, young and old, abdicate their moral and ethical choices to politicians they wouldn’t trust to sell them a used automobile. Politicians who tell them who to kill, who the enemy is.
We hate it when someone kills for reasons we can’t pin to a category that allows revenge by genre. Some insane fanatic with no ethnic, religious, or philosophical axe to grind slips into a theater, school, mall and starts shooting, sets off a bomb, kills all those people without giving us a target for our reciprocal hatred.
And we aren’t comfortable enough to even talk about the fact so many of those lone killers are veterans, or otherwise somehow connected to the military, were trained by the military to kill. Maybe because that gets entirely too close to the core of something nobody cares to think about. School kids in the US aren’t who we trained them to kill, though the training sufficed anyway.
In one of the big movies of the last century a Texas Ranger named Woodrow Call takes the gun away from a bad person we didn’t like and proceeds to beat the bad guy almost to death. After he’s pulled of the bleeding wreck by several men and a horse, he comments, “He was rude. I don’t tolerate rude behavior.” And the audience giggles with satisfaction.
What a puzzlement. Where the hell did we get so violent?
Old Jules
Growing up in a small southwestern town with a church on every corner circa 1950s leaves a lot of room for religious confusion. We had our First Baptists, our Calvary Baptists a block away,our Church of Christ, our Church of God, our Seventh Day Adventists, our Methodists, our Presbyterians, and our Mexican Church….Catholics. I’m reasonably sure there were others scattered around that I don’t remember.
I do recall something of a family crisis when my oldest sister went with a friend to a ‘holy roller’ church. Traumatized the hell out of her, and she got baptized all in one fell swoop. I’ve often thought that might have been a piece of what led her to being the goody-two-shoes tattletale teachers pet holier-than-thou hypocrite she was all the remainder of her life I knew her.
But I’ve digressed.
My mother and step-dad were married in 1948 in the Church of Christ. So as a pre-schooler I went to Vacation Bible School there. Then, for reasons I never knew, we changed to the Calvary Baptist Church a while. Then the First Baptist Church. I never felt comfortable in either of those Baptist churches. They’d pass around grape juice and crackers that made my mouth water, but I never got any. I wasn’t baptized.
Then there came a day when I was in the fourth grade when my parents decided they wanted to change again and become Presbyterians. There came a knock on the door and Brother Doyle, preacher for the Baptists asked if he could come in.
“No I don’t want to sit.” The veins were bulging out of his scarlet face. “What’s this about you leaving the church?”
My mom explained quietly, and Brother Doyle began to shout and pace around the living room. Eventually my mom asked him to leave, but he just got louder, waving his arms around. “I WON’T SEE you there! You and your family will burn in HELL!”
I was unsettled watching all this, but my mom got angry and demanded he leave. “I won’t be seeing you there!” He kept shouting.
So my mom picked up the phone and dialed my step-dad at work. Explained it all while Brother Doyle kept stomping around, pointing at me, waving is arms around, veins bulging out all over his face.
Until Charlie, my step-dad arrived and told him to get the hell out.
Presbyterians seemed fairly low-key by comparison. No fire in their bellies. When they baptized people they just sprinkled a little water on their heads quietly. But of course, deep down, I knew those Presbyterians weren’t ever getting into heaven with that sort of wimpy foolishness going on.
So you can see, I had a lot of exposure to religion in my life. But I never got Baptized, and eventually I came to know I was sure as hell not a Christian.
I’d rather spend eternity in hell than in heaven with Brother Doyle and his ilk.
But of course, I don’t happen to believe in hell. Though I count myself a spiritual and to the extent I’m able, a righteous man.
Maybe I’ll write some more about this sometime.
Old Jules
Posted in 1950's, 2018, Christians, Human Behavior, religion, Spirituality
Tagged baptist, Christian, church, heaven, holy roller, religion, righteous
This was a follow-up to the post about the old guy wearing a Vietnam Veteran cap so’s to try to get people to listen to him talk about his Satanist religion. This was posted October 1, 2013.
Hi readers.
The old Satanist wearing the Vietnam Veteran cap I wrote about a couple of weeks ago was at the coin laundry again. He was telling me the difference between Satanists and devil worshipers, which he isn’t one of, he says.
“Even the devil worshipers,” he explained, “Just aren’t all that evil. They try, but it’s mostly just waving a bloody shirt at it.”
“Devil worshipers try but can’t pull it off?” Me, thinking this over.
“That’s right. You’d think there’d be plenty of evil for them to get into, but the really evil people don’t want anything to do with them. Not even the somewhat evil people, Catholics, Jews, Baptists and Muslims. They find out a person’s a devil worshiper they think poorly of him. Even when they’re jumping the hurdles for award-winning evil.”
Shaking my head. “I never knew that. You’d think especially Catholics and Zionists and Muslims would open their arms and their hearts to honest-to-goodness no-shit devil worshipers. Why is that, do you think?”
He shook his head, too. “I don’t know why it is. I’m not a devil worshiper and I’m not any of those others. I’m just a Satanist trying to get through life as best I can. But if I wanted to be really evil I’d have one hell of a time managing to do it. I wouldn’t know where to start.”
Old Jules
Posted in 2013, 2018, Christians, Human Behavior, humor, Kerrville, muslims, religion, Senior Citizens, Spirituality, Veterans
Tagged Christians, devil worshipers, evil, Jews, Muslims, Satanist, veterans
Hi readers.
The old Satanist wearing the Vietnam Veteran cap I wrote about a couple of weeks ago was at the coin laundry again. He was telling me the difference between Satanists and devil worshipers, which he isn’t one of, he says.
“Even the devil worshipers,” he explained, “Just aren’t all that evil. They try, but it’s mostly just waving a bloody shirt at it.”
“Devil worshipers try but can’t pull it off?” Me, thinking this over.
“That’s right. You’d think there’d be plenty of evil for them to get into, but the really evil people don’t want anything to do with them. Not even the somewhat evil people, Catholics, Jews, Baptists and Muslims. They find out a person’s a devil worshiper they think poorly of him. Even when they’re jumping the hurdles for award-winning evil.”
Shaking my head. “I never knew that. You’d think especially Catholics and Zionists and Muslims would open their arms and their hearts to honest-to-goodness no-shit devil worshipers. Why is that, do you think?”
He shook his head, too. “I don’t know why it is. I’m not a devil worshiper and I’m not any of those others. I’m just a Satanist trying to get through life as best I can. But if I wanted to be really evil I’d have one hell of a time managing to do it. I wouldn’t know where to start.”
Old Jules
Posted in 2013, America, Spirituality
Tagged Christian, culture, devil worshipers, evil, Human Behavior, humor, Jews, Life, lifestyle, Muslim, religion, Satanist, senior citizens, society, sociology, zionist
Doesn’t seem to matter whether they’re Shiite or Sunni Muslims, or Israeli Zionists, Northern Ireland Catholics, or US troops and mercenaries.
Some big name somebody-or-other observed, “There are no atheists in the foxholes.”
My guess is that the reason there are no atheists in the foxholes is that the atheists are the ones actually giving the orders to blow things all to hell somewhere. Or at least atheists giving lip service to one religion or another.
And they need simple, God-fearing folk to get the job done.
Just a guess, though.
Old Jules
Posted in 2013, America, Government, Politics, Spirituality
Tagged atheists, Catholics, Muslims, religion, terrorists, US troops, Zionists
The sun’s magnetic field is about to flip
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/05aug_fieldflip/
Hi readers. Thanks for coming by for a read.
Praying up Old Sol this morning He brought up a sensitive issue we’re all going to have to try to work with. Hurting the feelings of Old Sol might not be wise at this stage of the game.
Old Sol: Now that you’re finally recognizing that the United States is My Chosen People instead of that bunch of imposters over in the Middle East there are a couple of things we ought to get straight.
Me: I’m pretty much up for anything. Is this a good time for you?
Old Sol: It’s okay. I’ve got a little time right now. Later on I’ll have My people call your people to hammer out the details.
Me: So what’s on your mind?
Old Sol: Well, it’s about this Old Sol thing, and about He. That’s been okay for the past eleven years, but it’s about to change. It won’t be long before I’m a She instead of a He.
Me: Hmmmm. It’s going to take some getting used to. I suppose we can work it in somehow. We’ve changed all kinds of other things during the past generation.
Old Sol: Actually it’s not just the He and She thing. There’s more to it. A male doesn’t mind being called old. But I’m about to be female gender, and having My Chosen People throwing around the word ‘Old’ probably won’t be the best way of keeping things straight and level.
Me: Wow. I hadn’t thought about that.
Old Sol: That’s the reason I’m bringing it up. Old Lady Sun, Mama Sun, Mama Sol, none of those would be prudent under the circumstances. Allowances can be made for slips using He because human habits are just not easy to change. But flippancy could cause some anger.
Me: Sheeze. Okay. I’ll have my people call your people.
Old Jules
Posted in 2013, America, Astronomy, Science, Spirituality
Tagged culture, environment, Events, Human Behavior, humor, Life, lifestyle, NASA, philosophy, polar reversal, psychology, science, society, sociology, solar magnetic field
Hi Readers. Thanks for coming by for a read.
After we prayed Old Sol up this morning I was explaining to the cats about how and why God picked the Jews for his Chosen People and didn’t give a hoot in hell for any of the rest of humanity.
He did it out of hunger, I explained patiently. God looked around and, while nobody down there was any great shakes, there were a lot of them. Trying to make human beings as a species Chosen instead of a single pocket of them was just not worth the effort. The Jews would do okay for a while until something else came along.
Things began to look up after 1492, and after 1776, God could see he finally had some worthwhile raw material to work with down there on earth. And the more He looked at the situation the better He liked it.
Today God couldn’t care less about any Jews besides the ones living in America. He’s completely indifferent about Roman Catholics living all over the place except America. Same with Zen Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims. Same with Latter Day Saints, and the various Native American religions. Americans are Gods Chosen People today. All of them. God cares more about an American atheist than He does about a Roman Pope, because at least that atheist is an American. Chosen.
Just like before, when it was only Jews, God doesn’t give a hoot in hell about anyone else on the planet.
God loves American Jews, Muslims, Mormons, Christians, Taoists, you name it. And He has perfectly good reasons for doing it, same as he had originally when he made regular Jews His Chosen People, and they blew it.
The competition back then was just no great shakes. It still isn’t.
If you don’t believe me look at all those shale oil deposits they’re suddenly finding under the United States every time they poke a hole in the ground. If that doesn’t convince you look around a bit more. Americans have Chinamen working three shifts to build their toasters. They’ve got Japanese designing and manufacturing their cars instead of worrying about having two-headed offspring. They’ve got Middle Easterners giving them excuses to keep a military establishment big enough to fight the USSR in the golden days of the Cold War. They’ve got Israel keeping things stirred up so’s there’s no danger anyone much will survive what’s going to happen there.
If Americans aren’t God’s Chosen People why are they building that big fence on the US Border with Mexico? Do you think all that starving and killing going on everywhere, say in South America and Africa happened by accident? Hell no it didn’t. You don’t see that kind of crap happening to God’s Chosen People.
God bless America.
Old Jules
Posted in 2013, America, History, Human Behavior, Spirituality
Tagged chosen people, Christians, culture, Education, God, History, Human Behavior, humor, Jews, Life, Mormons, Muslims, Native Americans, Nature, philosophy, religion, society, sociology
Niaid: Why aren’t we trying to get some help on it? Sometimes we might want to sleep late or we might be busy at sunset.
Me: Proselytising and zeal are consequences of an erosion of faith. Nobody needs to shout from the rooftops, “Hey everyone! The sun’s going down this evening. The sun’s about to come up!” Nobody on earth does that because they have faith it’s going to happen.
Niaid: So why do we do it then?
Me: Of respect. A demonstration of our faith, tipping the figurative hat to Truth. We don’t need to recruit anyone to the cause because we know it’s already taken care of.
Niaid: Then why do they do it on other matters they have faith in?
Me: I said it before. Erosion of faith. Think about it. The ancient Jews were never evangelical. They didn’t need to be. They had complete confidence in their God. But when Christianity came along, the situation for Christians became an entirely different problem with a different solution. They were the new kids on the block. They were mostly Jews. They’d spent their entire lives being indoctrinated to the Jewish faith. They needed numbers. Groups of other people believing the same as they did to help boost their own confidence what they believed was actually true.
Niaid: All zealotry is from an erosion of faith?
Me: Every time.
Niaid: Patriotic zeal?
Me: Think about it. Before the Civil War they weren’t posturing and flag waving. They knew what they were and mistrusted the people running things, but they never doubted what they believed themselves to be. But after the Civil War the whole question about what this nation is took on new meaning. It needed bolstering. Parades. Shouting from rooftops. Fireworks.
Niaid: Needed it why?
Me: They needed it to take the minds of the defeated half of the country that they’d been forced at gunpoint to be a part of something they fought hard to separate themselves from. After the Civil War the country never again had faith in itself because everyone in it knew the premise the nation was founded on was violated. Dead.
Niaid: So the reason we pray Old Sol up and down is our way of saying we know it’s going to come up and go down?
Me: Yep. And we know damned well it doesn’t need any extra votes to force it to do it. We know it will come up the same, whatever Christians, Jews, Muslems, and anyone else might do in their praying trying to stop it. We’ve got right on our side.
Old Jules
Posted in 2013, America, Animals, Communication, Government, History, Human Behavior, Spirituality
Tagged animals, cats, culture, History, Human Behavior, humor, Life, lifestyle, Nature, pets, philosophy, science, society, sociology
Hydrox: We pray him up every morning, pray him down evenings. I hear one end of all these conversations you have with him, but I never hear Old Sol saying anything.
Me: Once again, it’s your romantic mode of viewing reality. You’re only sensing what’s immediately apparent, not seeing the underlying form.
Hydrox: I have to see the underlying form to hear what Old Sol says?
Me: Think of it this way. You look across the meadow and see trees with birds in them. And an inch in front of your eyes you see a grasshopper. You have an a priori knowledge the movement of those birds and that grasshopper jumping are happening at the same time. But they aren’t. What your eyes tell you is now is a microsecond earlier for the birds than the grasshopper because of the speed of light reflecting off both, arriving at your eye simultaneously.
Hydrox: You’ve lost me.
Me: Your mind filters what it sees with a priori knowledge. You can’t hear Old Sol talking because you have romantic, a priori knowledge Old Sol doesn’t speak. You’re not able to sense the underlying form. It’s the same reason the people who read this blog wouldn’t be able to hear you talk, can’t hear cats talk.
Hydrox: Well I’ll be damned.
Me: Think of it. People in the Bible used to hear God talk. Adam and Eve, Abraham, Job, Moses, they were hearing in the Classical mode of reality. Underlying form. They can’t hear God speak anymore because they’ve gone by necessity into the Romantic mode. Their minds filter out what God says, because in the modern world if they allowed themselves to hear the kinds of things God said they’d get themselves into a pile of trouble.
Hydrox: How do you mean that? People hear God talking all the time.
Me: Only when God says things they won’t get in trouble hearing and obeying. God might be telling people all over the place they have to sacrifice their kids, the same way he told that to Abraham. But you can’t go around hearing God telling you to kill your kids, nor anyone else the way God used to do. Telling people to smite other people hip and thigh. Stone them to death if they screw around, masturbate, don’t follow the rules. People today who hear God telling them to do things of that nature are generally believed to be insane. Especially if they go ahead and do it.
Hydrox: So if I can rid myself of this stupid, romantic way of looking at reality I’ll be able to hear what Old Sol’s saying?”
Me: Yeah, but you’ll need to keep it to yourself or people will think you’re crazy.
Old Jules
Posted in 2013, Animals, Nature, Science, Spirituality
Tagged animals, cats, culture, Education, Human Behavior, humor, Life, lifestyle, philosophy, psychology, science, thoughts
74 years old, a resident of Leavenworth, KS, in an apartment located on the VA campus. Partnered with a black shorthaired cat named Mister Midnight. (1943-2020)
Since April, 2020, this blog is maintained by Jeanne Kasten (See "About" page for further information).
https://sofarfromheaven.com/2020/04/21/au-revoir-old-jules-jack-purcell/
So Far From Heaven 