THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO DIRK VANDEN

A GAY NEW TESTAMENT



























Thursday, November 18, 2010

PART SIX: HOMO-MADE HOMILIES

RELIGION:

Jesus died;
Peter Lied.
Christianity is built on that foundation.
* * *
Christianity is the result of Peter's attempt
to deal with a dead Messiah.
* * *
Jesus tried to take away sin;
Peter & Paul put it back again!
* * *
A mystery should be solved,
not worshiped.
* * *
A mystery per se is mysterious & frightening,
and usually doesn't make sense until it is over.
* * *
The end of a Mystery is always a surprise —
or should be!
* * *
Every time I solve one of
"Life's Little Mysteries,"
I find I have put together
Only a small piece
Of a much larger puzzle.
* * *
All of our Sacred Cows
Are Pure Bull!
* * *
"Faith Healing" depends upon the faith of the healee,
not the healer.
Thus may charlatans make miracles!
* * *
We all have miracle-power,
but no one has taught us
nor allowed us to learn
how to use it.
* * *
Think of the New Testament as a computer program:
Christian-DOS
* * *
If you know you are going to feel guilty about doing something,
don't do it!
If you do it, you will surely punish yourself!
* * *
If you "Sin," & "God" doesn't punish you,
that opens several frightening questions:
Is there really a God?
Is what you did truly sinful?
And if not, why not,
and if it isn't, what is it?
Is your religion mistaken about God & Sin?
Much easier just to punish yourself!
(& blame it on God!)
* * *
Prayer is basically Self-Talk.
Which is the same as Self-Programming.
Which is how prayer works:
You reward or punish yourself
Depending on how angry or pleased you are
with yourself.
* * *
If prayer is self-talk,
guess who God is!
* * *
One day I found G O D
in my alphabet soup!
* * *
We are our own accusers,
our own judges, juries & jailers,
but we can pardon ourselves,
and become our own rewards!
* * *
Most of humanity is marching resolutely
into the future — facing backward!
With their fingers stuck in their ears!
* * *
Our religions are keeping us anchored in the past.
* * *
The major cause of much, if not all the violence,
gangs, drug use, murders, suicides, etc.,
the literal, veritable falling-apart of society,
is disenchantment:
Disappointment, frustration, hopelessness & rage over unkept promises:
The Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, Santa Claus,
Virgin Mary & Little Baby Jesus Christ,
Prince Charming, Bambi & Peter Pan,
God, Jehovah, Allah, Zeus, Thor, Lucifer,
Justice, Equality, True Love, Happily-Ever-After...
& all the other myths & fables.
Lies, all lies! Prayers unanswered.
Wishes unfulfilled.
* * *
How can you ever trust again
a person, family or society
which has so consistently lied to you?
* * *
If they have lied about God & Jesus,
how can you possibly believe
anything else they've said,
or ever will say?
* * *
"Happily-Ever-After"
is the Curse of our times.
Anyone who believes in it
is doomed to unhappiness.
* * *
Turning the other cheek
usually means getting slapped twice.
* * *
Christian "Sacrament"
is symbolic cannibalism
for Christ's sake!
* * *
We are judging & condemning ourselves
according to a book of myths & fables,
which lives within the very fabric of our lives.
Virtually every aspect of our society
is based in some way or other upon "The Holy Bible!"
We must stop judging & punishing ourselves
as "failed Divine Creations"
i.e. "Sinners,"
and see ourselves instead
as the End Result of a long, understandable, natural process!
EVOLUTION.
Then we will finally realize that we have become
The best that ever has been!
And that's much more impressive than a "Divine miracle!"
* * *
They try to force me
to be less than I am
because they cannot,
or will not,
be more than they are.
* * *
Mormonism = compulsory mediocrity.
* * *
Mormonism (etc.) works for Mormons (et.al.)
If you can swallow that bullshit,
it seems to be very satisfying.
* * *
Most people absolutely refuse
to jeopardize their beliefs
by thinking about them.
* * *
During Sunday School, Mass,
or whatever your worship ritual is called,
you "get high" on the words, the images, the singing, & the music!
The colored lights & candles & incense & harmonious singing
causes your body to create "Endorphins"
which stimulate your body & brain, making you feel good,
safe & secure, loved, & immortal!
A group, feeling good, magnifies the sensations. ("Synergy")
You go back week after week to get high again on Jesus!
And you cannot understand,
however hard you try,
how any idiot could possibly get hooked on drugs!
* * *
Billions of people are hooked on Jesus!
* * *
It doesn't make a bit of difference what the loved object is —
a man or woman, dog or cat,
absent saint or incorporeal savior —
Loving makes you feel good,
no matter who or what you love!
* * *


Whatever the road,
whoever the teacher,
the lesson of life is Love.
* * *
It finally comes down to this:
Love is the only thing
that makes life worthwhile.
* * *
Love comes in all flavors.
* * *
Love has no limits!
It can include everything!
* * *
The only way we can save the world is with Love!
Nothing else can stop us from destroying ourselves.
* * *
What you read in The Bible
are the "official' CYA' spins"
for what actually happened.
* * *
Religion is a power trip.
* * *
Religions, Laws,
Astrology, Medical Science, Psychology,
Voodoo, Shamanism, Witchcraft, etc.,
all have been attempts to deal with the human condition.
None are all true; none are all false.
All contain errors, but all contain truths —
scattered throughout like pearls in a pigpen
after a feast of oysters!
* * *
Religion is a necessary evil.
What else would control
All the crazy people
in the world?
* * *
When you closely examine a religion,
you will find a machine
churning out babies for The Church.
* * *
A closed mind is most often clenched around a religion.
* * *
"Christ-ness" is a state of mind.
* * *
"Heaven" is a state of mind.
* * *
Christians are hung-up on crosses
* * *
Crosses are the symbols of death
not life!
* * *
By contemplating only the imperfections,
we miss the miracles.
 
* * *
The very ideas of "Heaven," "Hell," "Afterlife,"
& "Final Judgment"
invite murder.
* * *
What most people call "Love" is an illusion,
often a delusion,
an expectation,
triggered by some aspect of sex —
the act itself, or the thought of it.
Nature has made it very difficult to not reproduce.
When people meet & feel an instinctive impulse to procreate,
"Endorphins" are produced,
and key the brain & body into feeling good.
It is this "good-feeling"
which is popularly known as "Falling In Love."
It is much like the LSD or psychedelic experience:
For a relatively brief period of time, while "high," or "in love,"
one feels dynamic! Healthy! Immortal!
When that good-feeling goes away,
we try to repeat whatever action
caused the feeling in the first place:
sex, drugs, religion....
Religions are designed specifically
to produce that good-feeling,
which is what people refer to when they speak of "Religious Ecstasy"
or "The Presence of God."
It is also the basis for "miracle power."
* * *
Most of my life, I've been mad at myself!
I'm not condemning myself any more.
It feels really good to forgive yourself!
(Sort of like spiritual masturbation!)
* * *
The truth is the truth!
It does not depend upon time or place,
and it does not "belong" to anyone!
For example: "Religion is the opiate of the masses,"
does not depend on the acceptability of Karl Marx for its truth.
"Treat others as you would have them treat you,"
does not depend on the divinity of the Teacher from Nazareth.
* * *
"Apocalypse" means "Uncovering;"
"Revelation" means "Uncovering."
This is the Age of Uncovering!
Just watch television:
Civilization is being exposed!
* * *
Civilization is being stripped bare.
Not much there.
Lots of people,
very little civilization.
* * *
Our "Civilization" is based upon the greatest lies ever told:
Creation, Gods, Heaven, Hell, Christ, Satan, Virgin Mary, et. al..
These were invented to explain things that seemed unexplainable.
They are comforting,
but they are all myths.
This is the end of civilization as we know it.
It is crumbling & cannot be stopped.
The "New World" must be built upon Truth, or it cannot survive.
* * *
Religion is keeping the "next evolutionary step" from happening.
* * *
Like it or not, humanity has grown out of its "childhood."
We’re "growing up," cosmically speaking,
and we have to get rid of our "childhood" myths & obsessions
and our magical notions of how things work.
* * *
You don’t know you’re asleep
Until you wake up.
* * *
There should be a time when the parents tell the child
"Okay, the whole Santa Claus thing was a shuck, a scam, a lie.
It was a control thing.
It made you behave yourself better than you would have, otherwise.
It wasn’t our idea, but we gladly bought into it,
because, hey, it worked!
As long as you believed it, it worked."
Similarly, there should be a time in a person’s life,
when an older & wiser soul says
"Okay, the whole God thing was a shuck, a scam, a lie.
Much like the Santa Claus thing.
And the Tooth Fairy thing.
And the morality fables.
& The Bible.
It’s a control thing..."
* * *
Good people are good people, with or without "God."
Bad people are bad with or without God.
* * *
Christmas goes on,
even after we discover there’s no Santa Claus!
* * *
Religion is the cause, not the cure.
Religion turns good, decent people
into bigots & hypocrites.
* * *


 
GAY REBIRTH:
 
While searching for myself
I found a multitude.
* * *


Inside drab and ugly outer shells
we are creatures of exquisite beauty
hiding from each other
and ourselves.
* * *
The Gay lament:
"How can I respect anyone
who wants to have anything to do
with someone like me?"
* * *
People who do not love themselves
do not allow themselves to be loved.
* * *
If you don’t believe in yourself
nobody else will either.
* * *
We are all good little boys and girls
pretending to be bad big boys and girls,
acting out roles that have been prescribed for us,
trapped inside our own pretending.
* * *
We are called "gay"
not for what we are
but for what we will be
when we discover what we are.
* * *
When they call you
"the scum of the earth"
remember:
The scum of milk is cream!
* * *
You must love yourself
before you will permit yourself
to enjoy yourself.
* * *
There are those who believe that "Gay Lib" started on Christopher Street in 1969.
That is like believing
that a flower can bloom
without having been planted.
* * *
Human population is out of control,
literally exploding!
The earth simply cannot sustain so many people.
There will continue to be wars and plagues and pestilences
until we stop reproducing ourselves so abundantly!
Might homosexuality save the planet?
Organic Birth Control?
* * *
We are pain-savers!
We collect outrages and injustices
the way other people accumulate
paper bags and rubber bands!
* * *
We are humanity blossoming.
* * *
I’m in the habit of feeling rejected.
I go through the old syndrome
whether it is valid or not.
* * *
Help!
I’m trapped in a syndrome
& can’t get out!
* * *
Some people spend entire lives
hiding from each other,
and lying to each other,
and hating themselves for it.
* * *
We are the dreamers,
those seekers after truth,
the True Believers,
who, as children,
were called "too imaginative,"
"over-sensitive!"
We are the ones who saw the hypocrisy,
the blatant insanity,
which everyone else seemed not to notice,
or used for their own benefit.
We couldn’t help noticing that the Emperor was naked!
And often made the mistake of saying so!
We are the ones who wouldn’t settle
for a piece of horse manure
in our stocking for Christmas;
we keep looking for the pony!
* * *
It is easy getting into the Enchanted Forest.
The hard part is
in getting out again.
* * *
We are headed for mass-consciousness,
at first via radio, television and computers,
and then by our brains themselves.
We’ll have to clean house in our heads
before we let anyone in!
* * *


We have been taught to disbelieve
everything we are.
* * *
There is at least one thing which unites us:
We all believe in love!
* * *
We are doomed to chase the Impossible Dream
forever and evermore.
Otherwise we could not grow.
We become that which we seek —
but the dream grows as we grow,
evolves as we evolve!
* * *
We are all Gifted Children
that someone forgot to unwrap!
* * *
We are all fervent idealists!
So full of perfectionism
we crack if we bend,
and we judge ourselves harder
than any others.
* * *
"Gay Life" is like a port in a storm.
All sorts of dinghies tie up in it!
* * *

 
HOMO-MADE HOMILIES:
All I can give you is me.
I'm all I've got.
* * *
I’m glad I am!
I celebrate myself!
* * *
Fight ugliness with beauty!
* * *
"Never in a Million Years" was day-before-yesterday.


* * *
If nobody knows where we're going,
How will we know when we get there?
* * *
Modern music:
("I can torture you and call it art!")
* * *
If music is food for the soul,
then rap is the crap!
* * *
The history of humanity
is an incessant, almost imperceptible
movement toward perfection.
* * *
I am a perfectionist continually frustrated
by the impossibility of perfection!
* * *
I now believe that every single step of my life
has been necessary,
for one valid, logical reason or another,
in order for me to become what I am supposed to be:
Me!
* * *
I must follow the path I'm on,
no matter where it may take me.
Wherever it goes is where I should go,
to give me whatever it is I should have
when I'm finished,
when the path ends
and I get where I'm going.
* * *
My memory allows me to be me.
I wouldn't know what to do without it!
* * *
One of the first tricks we learn as children
is to recreate Mommy and Daddy inside our minds.
Thus we could anticipate what they would do
under certain imaginary circumstances.
Eventually, everyone important to us takes up residence inside our heads
and are up there, at this very moment, chattering away at us,
complaining and criticizing, making us feel guilty
even though we don't know why!
* * *
I was never taught how to "control" my "imagination."
Only to put it away very quickly,
whenever I was caught playing with it!
* * *
The "pendulum of change" swings each way
from "liberal" to "conservative"
approximately every 10 - 20 years.
each set of swings
moves us ultimately forward;
we never go back all the way.
(We’ve been going backward for 8 years, but
As of January 20, 2009, we are headed back the other way!)
* * *
Suppose dogs socialized humans rather than the opposite.
After all, dogs have been around a lot longer than people!
Suppose dogs taught people how to love and take care of them -
and to live in packs.
* * *
If you’ve never experienced
the love of a dog,
You’ve never known Love
in its purest form.
* * *
Dogs and old people get on very well together
because they truly love each other,
and neither requires intellectual companionship.
* * *
I have heard Truth singing!
* * *
Perseverance makes winners out of losers.
* * *
Television is homogenizing humanity.
* * *
When you feel bad, you see the worst in people;
when you feel good, you see the best!
* * *
Even if you've got the best equipment in the world
What good is it if you never use it?
* * *
The ultimate failure is to fail at failing.
* * *
In the land of the blind,
a one-eyed man is thoroughly distrusted!
* * *
Knowledge understood becomes Wisdom.
* * *
Wisdom is a treasure which cannot be hoarded,
but must be shared to have any value.
* * *
I would rather be an enigma
than a disappointment.
* * *
I am like a hidden fountain,
bubbling forth continually,
whether anybody drinks or not.


THE END
OF THE BEGINNING
 

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