Chamblee54

This is a repost. There will be fresh text soon, but this is good stuff. Pictures for this adventure are from The Library of Congress.
The earth has gone around the sun one time since the first post. TwentyTwoWords is going strong, and helping Abraham feed his two new babies. The blog has abandoned the concept of expressing your thoughts in 22 words. PG hates to see this, but that is the blog owner’s right.
The post was written in response to “Non-Christian readers, what (non)religion are you?”. The question got 19 comments , compared to 943 comments to the question “where do you go to church?”.
PG’s 22 word “statement of faith” was one of those comments. Here is how it went.
chamblee54 says: September 1, 2009 at 7:50 pm 1.My beliefs are my business. 2. Practice outweighs belief 3. G-d does not write books. 4. Jesus has nothing to do with Life after death.// Kris says: September 1, 2009 at 8:01 pm chamblee, Sounds like you’re pretty confident in the truth claims that you make in #’s 3 and 4. I was wondering how you reached those conclusions. Also, #’s 3 and 4 seem to contract #1 in my opinion. Thoughts?// chamblee54 says: September 1, 2009 at 8:54 pm Kris, I don’t know. Hypocrisy is in the eye of the beholder. I wrote 541 words about this at my blog.

Abraham at twentytwowords wrote… “When I asked about churches last week, some of you reminded me you’re not Christian.So…Non-Christian readers, what (non)religion are you?” That is 23 words.
PG answered the original post “home churched”. He decided to answer the follow up question. Unlike most of the others to answer, PG wanted to keep this under 22 words.
PG was raised in the Southern Baptist Church. There is a tradition in the Baptist Church to make a “profession of faith”, usually when the kid is around 10. For various reasons, PG never did this, and was never baptized. PG decided when he was 17 to quit attending. He has been to Briarcliff Baptist one time since then…he worked for a blueprint company, and delivered a set of plans to the church office.
PG went back and forth on religion. In 1979, there was a week in Camp K, a moonie facility. There was a bit of reading, thinking, and prayer, and PG chose to live in harmony with Jesus Worshipers.
In 1998, PG went to work for Redo blue. There were seven hellish years working closely with a Professional Jesus Worshiper. By the end of that experience, PG was alienated from Jesus. He wished to never hear the J-name mentioned again. Living in the Jesus happy United States, PG could seldom go 24 hours without having Jesus shoved in his face.
After a temper tantrum from the PJW, PG wrote down two sentences. “I am not interested in your opinions about G-d, The Bible, Jesus, or life after death. My opinions about G-d, The Bible, Jesus, or life after death are none of your business.”
There probably is not a religion that PG could fit into without a lot of shoehorning. Atheist is out, because PG suspects that there is a G-d. What form she takes is a matter of dispute. As for belief, PG questions that belief is the proper approach to G-d.
Agnostic sounds like something you would blow out of your nose. Judaism is a party that PG is not invited to. Buddhism makes some good points, but PG is awfully occidental. As for christianism, PG sees Jesus in the words and deeds of his believers. In his seven years at redo blue, PG saw an estimated 1400 hours of loud, hateful ministry. I am not talking to you!
As for the obsession with life after death that infects Jesus worship, PG feels pity and disgust. This is not a good focus for a religious practice, nor does it excuse verbal abuse. PG has ideas about life after death, but this post is waaay over 22 words.
PG decided that this label thing was not going to work. Labels belong on jars, and PG’s hair is a half inch over jarhead level. The best solution was to write a list of beliefs. The good news here is that numbers do not count against the total of 22 words.
1. My beliefs are my business. 2. Practice outweighs belief. 3. G-d probably exists. 4. G-d does not write books. 5. Jesus has nothing to do with Life after death.
This is 25 words. Three words need to go. Line 4 states that G-d does not write books. This implies that G-d does, indeed, exist. Line 3 can be eliminated, and the answer reduced to 22 words.