Easter Service

I went to Easter service with my family. In part because my father and his cancer, of which we still know very little, and because my family asked me to come. Part of the reason they asked me was because my family is either in the choir or part of a skit and that would leave my grandfather by himself. He is recovering from a stroke and at times gets very disoriented so having someone with him helps. I agreed to go. I have no problem helping my family.

My sister was in the skit. She is a creationist and moving towards fundamentalism. The skit is what I had the most trouble with. It was supposed to be the story of two individuals and a family and the struggles that we all face underneath our cheerful exterior. One of the characters was a single female. She was upset because she was sad and made the comment, "No wonder no one wants to marry me. No one will ever love me." That little comment made me upset. Basically it says that a woman can only ever be happy when she is married. Also only through marriage can a woman be assured she is loved. Sick, sick, sick. I love my girlfriend and all but I know she was happy before she met me. If we ever split up, I am sure she will still be happy. I do not make up the entirety of her happiness. This is a good thing. Being so dependent on another person for your own happiness is not healthy.

The main reason for this is we are all human and at some point will let our partner down. No one can keep their partner happy all the time. This all just emotional dependency, but I think I understand partly where it is coming from. The church itself requires the believers to be emotionally dependent on it. They require the person to give themselves to God and be dependent on him. So really how much of stretch is it for the woman (not the man, he has to be tough and resolved no matter what) to also be dependent on her spouse. This does not make it any better, in fact I think being dependent on the church is even worse.

The other thing that bothered me was a little story the pastor gave. He talked about when George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin met for the first time and Putin told this fanciful tale about his grandmother's cross. The fact that Putin told this story and Bush (and apparently the evangelical world) bought this story is all true. The story itself, probably not. Putin was in the KGB and this just reeks of manipulation. Apparently I was not the only one that thought that.

http://www.reason.com/news/show/121305.html
http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/1752