Thoughts on Christianity

[kimberlysteele]

I grew up in a US that was a great deal more Christian than it is now.  I was born in 1973.  Everyone in my then-aspiring upper middle class neighborhood went to church on Sundays with the exception of one Jewish family in the neighborhood.  Believing in the Christian God was the Old Normal.  When I began looking to the occult for answers as I desperately fought night terrors at age fifteen, it was still considered an edgy thing to do.  Nowadays, a Christian student would probably face more trouble in the local high school if he or she discriminated against a Wiccan.  It's almost a guarantee the Christian would be punished or potentially expelled if he or she discriminated against a Muslim or a Hindu.  In Naperville, the Muslim mosque gets its own police presence every Friday during services. That's not something that would have happened in 1987.

Christianity's Coda?

I don't see Christianity going extinct, but it does seem well on its way to becoming a minority religion, much like what Greco-Roman polytheism is today.  Coronavirus may be one of the least pandemics in history if you don't take into account iatrogenic injuries, suicides caused by economic mayhem, and mysterious car accidents, but when it came to the Christian faith, Corona turned out to be extremely lethal.  Nine gestational months after the debut of the plague maiden Coronachan on the scene in March 2020, many Christians reneged on their own savior's birthday.  Two full years passed before half of Christians dared enter their churches mask free, and some to this day have no idea what the mask stands for.  Hint: it does not stand for allegiance with God.

I was not surprised to see the Catholic Pope lining up in compliance with vaccine mandates.  Catholic Christianity, despite having the power and beauty of ancient tradition behind it, has become terminally corrupt.  I tend not to subscribe to New World Order lizard people Illuminati conspiracies, but if anyone embodies them, it is the slithering creatures that occupy the Vatican.  I was more upset to see Protestant Christians have lining up their children like lambs for the slaughter, robotically cladding them in masks and subjecting them to dangerous "vaccines" while claiming to believe in the power of God to protect them.   What were they trying to protect themselves from? From a disease that has no more ability to kill than the common cold?  Or are they being protected from falling out of favor with the upper middle class that seemingly holds the keys to the prosperity they enjoy?  Are they afraid of being poor, outcast, and deplorable?  I wonder who else is poor, outcast, and deplorable?  Who is it they are afraid to resemble?

Televangelism Becomes McMansion Christianity

If I had to name the number one force that took down Christianity in a single word, it would be televangelism. 

There are few things more at odds with the ways of Jesus than television.  TV, like the internet, is an advertising medium.  This makes it prone to cacomagic.  That said, it's not like TV is inherently evil and that good cannot be done via the TV.  The problem is that televangelism has never been about doing good in the world.  From its inception, televangelism was synonymous with monetary grift.  You don't defeat materialist evil by running a grift game.  If there's anyone destined to spend a long sojourn in hell, it is Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, and Kenny Copeland.  Jesus would not fly around in a private jet.  He would not own a mansion, let alone several million dollar ones like the aforementioned televangelists.  

The televangelist lifestyle became the pinnacle of Christianity in the 1980s.  Unfortunately it did not die along with Headbanger's Ball and VHS tapes (or Headbanger's Ball recorded on VHS tapes).  It morphed into McMansion Christianity.  McMansion Christianity is the type of Protestantism that doesn't outright say it glorifies materialism, however if "by their fruits we shall know them" is a wholly materialist way of life.  McMansion Christianity is inherently salary class and suburban.  Unfortunately, it often takes two salary class incomes, though ideally the responsibility lies with the patriarch.  McMansion Christians are typically the nicest of people: sweet and kind, at least to your face.  I know a rare few who have been at the forefront of fighting vaccine mandates with the same kind of lionhearted fearlessness Christians used to be known for.  Sadly this is not most of them. 

McMansion Christianity or Joel Osteen lite is inherently in conflict with itself.  Jesus was a homeless hippie.  Just as there is no platform for a rich Buddhist to peer down her nose at those who cannot afford luxury vacations and rooms full of orchids, there is no way for an ostensible follower of Jesus to lead the way to spiritual truth while living in six bedroom house with an in-ground pool and a Tesla and a Range Rover in the three car garage.  You're either like Buddha or you're not.  You're either like Jesus or you're not.  

Can Christians Embrace Seasonality?  

To reject seasonality is to reject the processes and laws of Nature itself.  Christianity is at war with seasonality primarily via its rejection of reincarnation.  If there is only a single incarnation as a human being for each human soul, it follows that one lifetime is both of ultimate importance to the single soul living it and of near complete insignificance to the world the soul dwells upon for a tiny fraction of time.  No wonder so many Christians choose to wallow in materialism!  If the price is eternity either way, the idea of heaven and hell become abstract and inconceivable.  Living another human life after this one with a chunk of heaven and hell in-between is boring in comparison, but I would argue it makes a lot more sense.  Christian occultists tend to believe in the Christian God and reincarnation at the same time.  As much as the two beliefs may be at odds if you're a Biblical dogmatist, the fierce Christianity of Dion Fortune could very well be the reason we're not speaking German right now.  Plus it is estimated that a quarter of Christians believe in reincarnation.  Though many Christians will find the idea repugnant that a quarter of their population suspects humans reincarnate, I think that's reason to hope.

How to Work Against a Revival

Ironically the worst way to effect a Christian revival is to try hard to effect a Christian revival.  The goal of Christians is to spread the word of one god across the globe.  This was novel at some point in the 1600s when Spaniards were looking for the Man of Gold in the Americas perhaps but nowadays the bloom is off the rose.  If Christianity is interested in its own survival, it must end the practice of sending missionaries out to preach the gospel.  The televised pleas of Sally Struthers to help feed the starving children became the iconic South Park episode Starvin' Marvin.  John Allen Chau found out the hard way what happens when a young intrepid attempts to preach Evangelism to an unwilling island of hermits at age 26.  His unfortunate end has not stopped other Christian missionaries from "helping" where they are not wanted or worse, trading favors for conversion.

Show Not Tell

Christians who do the Tell part of Show and Tell without Showing are not like Jesus.  Jesus would not preach without practice. 

The desperation of preaching Christians is off-putting.  When I was in junior high, I wanted intensely to be liked and admired.  My desperation to be liked is what made me repulsive.  The second I stopped caring what others thought of me and got comfortable with myself, I began to earn friends and allies.  Christians could focus upon what made their religion great in the first place: selflessness, forgiveness, serenity based in God's love.  There cannot be any other agenda, because nobody is fooled by a false face.  If Christianity is powerful and great, there will never be a need to dangle carrots or to resort to bribery to get someone to listen to the supposed word of God.  

By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them

Just as I don't consult allopathic doctors who don't possess a decent level of physical health for my health needs, I don't feel I should go to a spiritual novice when I need help in a spiritual matter.  Most Christians, including the clergy, are ignorant in matters of spiritual health.  If I had a dollar for every Christian who either had no idea what the astral plane is or who dismiss all forms of esoteric knowledge as demonolatry, I would be a very rich woman.  They know zilcho zero about matters of demonic possession or obsession, and a person afflicted with a routine poltergeist haunting would do much better at their local paranormal society than any given church, including the Catholic church which ostensibly has access to the Rites of Exorcism.  When the average Christian begins to have a cleaner astral state than I do because the power of Jesus is flowing through them, make no mistake, I will happily be near them and at least stop by their church once every few months.  I have a feeling that such Christians would not be living in a suburban luxury house with an in-ground pool or anything in the ballpark.