The Church Sign
This content was published October 16, 2013. … Religion is very personal.. When you have a miserable experience with Jesus, it will not go away because of glib expressions of “faith”. When you put a sign by the road, you don’t know who is going to see it. You don’t know how they are going to be feeling.
I was driving to dinner one night, when I drove by Briarcliff United Methodist Church. The facility is on a busy road. They have a sign in front, with a message that changes from time to time. This night, I was in a bad mood. I was thinking about people who have humiliated me for Jesus. The sign in front of BUMC said “When was the last time you prayed?”
The concept of prayer is collateral damage in my struggle with Christians. As I became alienated from biblical religion, the idea of a person talking to God seems performative, selfish, and self aggrandizing. (Jesus might agree with me.) There is something about having an angry bully snarling “I’m going to pray for you brother” that makes the concept of prayer repulsive.
There is another thing to consider here. Pushy Christians assume that they have the right to grill you about sensitive personal issues. The idea of saying this to passing motorists is disrespectful. It is none of your business if I pray.
I looked up BUMC on the internet when I got home. They have a modern website. The top tab on the menu said “Prayer Requests.” This is for people who want someone to pray for them. Maybe you can leave a prayer non-request. Ask them to respect discomfort with their religion, and don’t put intrusive messages by the roadside.
Further down on the website is an email address (church@briarcliffumc.com.) While not expecting a miracle, I decided to send them an email. Here is the text of that message.
You have a message board in front of your church. The message when I went by was “When was the last time you prayed?” I was offended by this message.
I have had a tough time with religion. I have been humiliated many, many times because of Jesus. I have heard about your scheme for life after death thousands of times, and simply do not agree with it. An intrusive roadway sign is not going to change my mind.
My belief is that my opinions about God are none of your business. If I trust you, then we can have a discussion. Having a rude sign by the road side is not going to help me trust you.
Even though it is none of your business, I am going to answer your question. Even though I was talking to God, and not to you, I am going to repeat what I said. “God please help these people to have respect for their neighbor, and take that awful sign down”.
This content was published
October 24, 2013. … It had been a week since I drove past the Briarcliff United Methodist Church. The church sent a thoughtful email, in response to the complaining message. The traffic on Briarcliff Road was just as rude as ever. I took a look when he drove past the church. The new message this week: “In what missions did U last serve?”
Maybe BUMC didn’t have a YO to spare. Maybe they are trying to appeal to the text message crowd. Maybe a Synagogue borrowed the OY.
When the Jesus worship church talks about missions, they usually mean an effort to convert people to their brand of religion. This is a part of Christianism that many find tasteless. This product promotion frequently turns into a violation of the third commandment … the injunction against improper use of a sacred name. When you create ill will, you are speaking in vain.
When I got home, I decided to create a graphic poem. I did not feel like writing fresh text. A decision was made to use public domain content. A search of the book of Psalms located a short chapter, with a number that is popular at this blog. Hence, the current presentation of Psalm 54.
While this effort was in production, I thought about the mission I was on. The idea was to rescue this text from the improper way in which it is used. The Bible should be a source of beauty, not a weapon to bludgeon people into agreement. Psalm 54 is a text, written by a human being, not a message from God. When you make a God out of a book, you do no favor to either Yahweh, or the book.
In the end, the effort had mixed results. The text has an air of vengeance. God was supposed to get even with your enemies. The idea that your enemies might be the children of God is forgotten.
On June 10, 2018, Briarcliff United Methodist Church held its final Sunday service. The building is currently used by The Globe Academy. Traffic on Briarcliff Road only gets worse. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. John Vachon took the social media picture in February 1942. “Williston, North Dakota. Farmers’ union meeting with the county commissioners to protest the selling of land to corporation farms in Williams County and to discuss the protection of family-size farms” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Be Kind To Your Enemy
Did Jesus say to “Love your enemy?” Some believe this, and do it. Some claim to believe this, and practice the opposite. There are others who claim to love their enemies, but you have to understand what they mean by it. It can be very confusing. This is a repost.
I went to a source for documentation. Oh, the blessed conjunction of copy/paste with public domain. When I entered enemy (singular) in the search engine, 100 verses came up. When the request was made plural (enemies), 237 entries popped up. The last mention of enemies is Revelation 11:12. “And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.” Loving your enemies does not include bringing them to heaven with you.There is also the star of the show.
Matthew 5:44 “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”
There is scholarly debate about what Jesus did, or did not, say. The words available to modern man have been copied by hand, edited, translated, and interpreted. I do not know Aramaic from Alabama. Like anyone else, I can only read and listen, and think for myself.
In a sense it does not matter what Jesus “really” said. Christians are going to believe what they want to believe. More important, they are going to do what they want to do. As far as the difference between what Jesus “really” said, and what his believers say and do … they can explain.
What follows is a humble suggestion. Did the translators and scribes get it wrong? Maybe Jesus did not say to love your enemy. Maybe what Jesus said was to show kindness to everyone. This is a practice thing, rather than a belief thing.
It is not as much fun to be nice to someone, as it is to scream about life after death. Kindness does not need to be justified by a quote from a magic book. You just need to do it. Pictures today are from Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken December 6, 1967. Artistic Beauty Institute (5 1/2 Auburn Avenue, NE) ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Jesus Said To Them, ‘My Wife’
This content was posted September 18, 2012. … Many of you have heard about the video. It was made at a fund raiser, and Willard Mitt Romney said things that got him in trouble. This is not surprising. Many of us already know that WMR is a jerk. … What goes around comes around. Four years ago, BHO was secretly taped at a fundraiser. He said that bitter people were clinging to their guns and bibles. A few said that it was tacky to secretly record a fundraising party like that.
Georgia is so red that it glows. WMR will probably win the electoral votes. Lets take a look at the math. … Lets make a few assumptions. Lets say one million votes will be cast in Georgia. Thirty percent, or 300k, of those voters are black. Lets go a step further and guess that ninety percent of the black votes will go to BHO. That means that BHO has 270k votes. To get to 500k and win, BHO needs 230k out of the remaining 700k. This is 32 percent of the non-black vote. He probably won’t get it.
This content was posted September 19, 2012. … I found an amusing post Wednesday morning. “Yesterday I posted a link to the New York Times article about what is being called “the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife,” and several friends commented on it. This morning my post has disappeared. I did not remove it, nor did I delete any of the comments, which I found interesting. When I tried to repost the article, I got this message from Facebook: “The content you’re trying to share includes a link that’s been blocked for being spammy or unsafe.” The New York Times is spammy or unsafe??? … As a theology geek, I find this new discovery fascinating. But as a Christian, my faith does not depend on Jesus’ celibacy. So if it were to be proven somehow that he was indeed married, it would not retroactively affect the relationship I’ve had with Jesus throughout my life. If anything, it would support the belief that Jesus was fully human as well as fully divine.”
Smithsonian magazine has a feature on this artifact. It is too long for a slack blogger. The NYT article is less than a page, and says enough to base this post on. … Here is the money quote. “A historian of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School has identified a scrap of papyrus that she says was written in Coptic in the fourth century and contains a phrase never seen in any piece of Scripture: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …’ ” The faded papyrus fragment is smaller than a business card, with eight lines on one side, in black ink legible under a magnifying glass. Just below the line about Jesus having a wife, the papyrus includes a second provocative clause that purportedly says, “she will be able to be my disciple.”
The word prove is used several times in the article. Perhaps indicate would be a more accurate verb. It is tough to “prove” anything using a 1700 year old papyrus fragment. The last paragraph in the NYT says “The notion that Jesus had a wife was the central conceit of the best seller and movie “The Da Vinci Code.” But Dr. King said she wants nothing to do with the code or its author: “At least, don’t say this proves Dan Brown was right.”
Of course, none of this means anything to most contemporary Christians. They think the Bible is the word of God. This text is inerrant, sufficient, spam free, and safe. Recent discoveries about Revelations are ignored. Like the bumper sticker says, “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” … A person’s religion is a one of a kind experience. How you are introduced to a spiritual discipline is much more important than the mechanics of the church. The facebook commenter says that it won’t matter to him if Jesus has a wife. To me, any new information would not block the memory of humiliation at the hands of aggressive Christians.
There was another commentary published recently about the separation of God and spam. It was in New Yorker magazine, written by Hendrik Hertzberg. There was a post about Mr. Hertzberg at Chamblee54 once. I sent an email to Mr. Hertzberg about the post, and got a very nice reply. … The feature in question is about the way politicians think it will help them get elected to talk about God. Some think this is a grotesque violation of the third commandment. The New Yorker feature doesn’t really cover much ground, but has a bangup last paragraph. … “It was not hard to guess what idol, and what institution, the Cardinal had in mind. On the other hand, his reference to “nature and nature’s God” was not so clear. The phrase was there to echo the Declaration of Independence.
But Dolan must know that it is pure Deism—Jeffersonian code words for a non-supernatural God, a God who creates the universe and its laws and leaves the rest up to us. Could it be that we were witnessing an unheard-of political phenomenon, a dog whistle to voters who, whether or not they believe in a rights-endowing Creator, have their doubts about the sort of deity who begets sons, writes books, performs miracles, and determines the outcome of football games? Probably not. That God won’t hunt. “ … This was written like Dan Brown. Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken November 22, 1967. Home show on WAII-TV ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Was Jesus Really A Carpenter?
Has anyone seen a painting of Jesus holding a saw? The idea the Jesus was a carpenter is seldom questioned. People are taught this, and accept it in sheep-like fashion. Even though the gospels were written many years after the cucifixion, they are accepted as “inerrant” historic documents. Here is what US Catholic says: “Was Joseph of Nazareth really a carpenter? … Only twice is the word carpenter used in the Christian scriptures: when Jesus is identified as “the carpenter’s son” (Matthew 13:55) and “the carpenter” (Mark 6:3.)…”
The passages that say “carpenter” are not complimentary to Jesus. This man appears out of nowhere, and starts to teach at the synagogue. Who is he? Why is a mere carpenter telling educated men how to live? Who does he think he is?
The two texts are similar. Here is Mark 6:2-4
2 And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?
3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.
4 But Jesus, said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.
Matthew 13: 54-57 54 And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works?
55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?
56 And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?
57 And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.
“In the Hebrew scriptures, the word carpenters appears 11 times, mostly in tandem with the words masons or stonecutters. The Hebrew word used means “carver,” so when building projects were underway, both carvers of wood and of stone were needed. … In the references from the Christian scriptures to Jesus as a carpenter or the son of one, the Greek word used both times is more correctly translated as “craftsman” or “artisan.” Such a person might carve stone or wood as the job required. … What’s evident to scholars of biblical lands is that trees were always in short supply around Nazareth, whereas stone quarries were plentiful. Most structures dating back to the time of Jesus around Galilee are composed of stone—those that survive, anyway. Chances are both Joseph and Jesus did more masonry than carpentry, that is, if they didn’t work exclusively in stone.”
Mark 6:4 is a favorite Jesusism for many people. It is more true today than ever. You do not want to be correct before everyone else. In the McCarthy era, the term “premature anti-fascist” … a person that was opposed to Nazi Germany before 1941 … meant you were a communist. The little boy who criticized the emperor’s fashion statement was severely punished.
“Was Jesus really a carpenter” is an example of asking too many questions. The way “carpenter” is used in Mark and Matthew seems like a generic insult for a common working man. Who is this peasant, who has the audacity to “teach” exalted church elders? We don’t know why the Council of Nicea chose these texts to tell the Jesus story, and why these words were translated as “carpenter.” There is also the attitude of just-shut-up-and-believe-your-elders.
US Catholic says: “Did Jesus have a real job? This is the question behind the question, which sounds a bit dismissive: as if teaching, preaching, and healing—not to mention redeeming the world—weren’t occupation enough!” In either scenario, it boils down to faith and belief … in an ancient text of uncertain origin, which has been translated many times. “God says it, I believe it, and that settles it.”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Marjory Collins took the social media picture in August 1942. “New York, New York. Italian-Americans on [Thompson] Street relaxing on Sunday” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Ten Different Religions
This content was published September 15, 2009. … Those fun lovers at Listverse recently published a feature about “10 extremely weird religions”. This goes along with Hunter S. Thompson’s observation that “when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro”. Back when Chamblee54 was on blogspot, that was the motto. One day, there was a comment that weird was not spelled wierd. What do you expect from someone quoting Hunter S. Thompson? … Back to the “matter” at hand, people have some strange ways of talking to/about/with God. The miracle is that things are not worse.
Number Ten is Scientology. If you want a link to them, you can find it yourself, and might also want to look for professional help. Scientology is only included because commenters would be offended. As it is, the comments that I saw asked about rastafarianism, the flying spaghetti monster, Islam, atheism, and Jesus Worship. The title clearly said that this was a top ten list, and not an encyclopedia. If you want an encyclopedia of religions, try Hinduism.
Nine through Five is pretty boring, as nine to five usually is. There is white supremacy, black supremacy, ufo admirers, burned out hippies, and people who take “Stranger in a Strange Land” too seriously. I thought that “My Favorite Martian” was the best commentary on SIASL. Number four is the Church of the Subgenius. While I have never officially participated in COTS, I admires the consecration of slack. If I can ever get motivated to attend a devival, the world will be a better place.
Number Three is the Prince Philip movement. It seems like the residents of an island somewhere think the Queen’s hubby is a pretty cool dude. It is safe to assume the Princess Diana was not a believer. Number Two…in more ways than one… is the Church of Euthanasia. COE is popular with young people in Korea, aka youth in Asia. Given the popularity of war and capital punishment in the Jesus worship community, the COE may become very popular. They are based in Boston, MA. According to the COE website, the one commandment is “Thou shalt not procreate”. The COE further asserts four principal pillars: suicide, abortion, cannibalism (”strictly limited to consumption of the already dead”), and sodomy (”any sexual act not intended for procreation”).
The number one spot on this list is sometimes called Nuwaubianism. The travelers on this path do not use that term, preferring “factology”, and numerous other terms. The founder is Dwight York, who is currently in prison. The Nuwaubs had a facility in Putnam County, Georgia at one time. The afrocentric beliefs of this group are difficult for outsiders to appreciate. The original post listed eight beliefs, among the man teachings of Mr. York. These three caught my eye.
2. Furthermore, some aborted fetuses survive their abortion to live in the sewers, where they are being gathered and organized to take over the world 5. Women existed for many generations before they invented men through genetic manipulation 8. The Illuminati have nurtured a child, Satan’s son, who was born on 6 June 1966 at the Dakota House on 72nd Street in New York to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis of the Rothschild/Kennedy families. The Pope was present at the birth and performed necromantic ceremonies. The child was raised by former U.S. president Richard Nixon and now lives in Belgium, where it is hooked up bodily to a computer called “The Beast 3M” or “3666.” … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. John Vachon took the social media picture in July 1942. “Hoffman Island, merchant marine training center off Staten Island, New York. Trainees aboard the training ship New York working in the boiler room.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Brian Eno Rick Rubin
I had ran out of podcasts, and went into the archive. I found an interview Rick Rubin did with Brian Peter George Eno, released June 8, 2021. I had heard it before, but might enjoy a repeat listening. … I found a youtube copy, which had a transcript, the lazy bloggers friend. Later, while trying to find the release date, I stumbled onto an Extended Cut, with an extra half hour of content . I am going to listen to the longer version, take notes, write about it, and then absolutely never listen to this again. …
“Yes, and incidentally, I think that’s the power of religion as well. The power of religion is not the connection with God, but the connection with the rest of the congregation. I think the connection with all of the people who also believe in that particular story. I’m not really religious myself, but I really respond to that idea.”
A few years ago, Christopher Isherwood gave an interview with a magazine. (I have never found the source online.) Mr. Isherwood said that it was not the content of the religion that converted a person, but the person who introduces you to that religion. Mr. Isherwood said that if a Catholic had been the right person at the right time, then he might have become a Catholic.
In 1939, after living as an exuberant skeptic, Mr. Isherwood was converted. “Forty-five years ago, on a sultry July afternoon, 35-year old Christopher Isherwood met and embraced Ramakrishna Vedanta in downtown Hollywood, California. Aldous Huxley, writer extraordinaire and ardent explorer of Hindu interior consciousness, had just introduced Isherwood to his guru, Swami Prabhavananda, founder of the Hollywood Ramakrishna Mission Vedanta Society.” … The linked article is worth reading. …
There was a quote that I remembered. “I like being in unfamiliar surroundings. I always used to say that artists are either cowboys or farmers, and they’re both both ways of being an artist are fine. The farmer wants to find a piece of territory and fully explore it and exploit it.” … A talk like this can inspire you to further thinking. You can go paddling up the river, and spend all day exploring the tributary creeks. This is the cowboy side … to follow the thought wherever it goes. OTOH, you can stick to the quotes that capture your attention, let them speak for themselves, and FINISH WRITING YOUR PIECE. This is the farmer side, and is mostly what is going to happen here. …
BPGE was absolutely devastated by hearing It’s Gonna Rain, by Steve Reich. By amazing coincidence, I heard IGR twice on WREK, the Georgia Tech student station. This was many years ago. Both times I heard IGR, large amounts of rain fell the next day. …
I listened to the Extended Cut, and did not suffer any epiphanies. There was one quote. “During the war, when lots of GIs were coming over to England, somebody interviewed an old farmer from Devon and said, so, how do you feel about the Americans coming over here? And the farmer said, well, they’re all right, aren’t they, except for the white ones.” …
One day in the Köln airport, ambient music was born. It was a beautiful day and the airport was nearly empty, and I was sitting there bathing in light, and it was one of those cases like we were talking about earlier, where you think I wish there was another kind of music for this situation, and I started thinking, so what would that be? Like? You know, it’s an airport, so you can’t be too loud. Obviously, people have to hear announcements. It has to be interruptible for the same reason it shouldn’t dominate the vocal register, because people need to communicate. So I just was sort of thinking this out, and quite soon I thought, right, I think I know what I could make that music. I know how I could do that. And that’s how that first ambient record came about. I mean, it wasn’t unprecedented. I had been working on music a little bit like that before, but I suddenly realized what its role in life could be. If you like, what the place of this music could be. I knew it wasn’t dance music. I knew it wasn’t radio music. It was functional, but I hadn’t yet discovered the function. It was then that I thought, I know what this music could be for.” …
BPGE worked with Harold Budd, and created some of the prettiest music ever recorded. This fits in with the ambient music concept. … “I didn’t want drama. I just wanted something like nature, subtle variations. Subtle variations, yes, and variations that stay within a kind of range of possibilities and explore that range rather randomly. I just wanted the thing to be what Harold Budd used to call eternally pretty. That was his way of putting it. Dear Harold. He died about two months ago from COVID, very sad. So I dedicate this thought to Harold. So. Yes, So when Harold and I met, we were both pretty much on this groove of thinking, what about making music that isn’t designed to upset anybody? Now, of course that sounds pretty uncontroversial now, but in the mid to late seventies that was considered to be the biggest sell out of all time. You know, music was supposed to shake the world and create revolutions and upset your parents and all sorts of things like that. And we thought, what about making music that is just really comfortable? Comfortable was probably the most controversial word you could use.” …
I have one last question to ask, just because I’m really curious, what’s your relationship to spirituality? … Well, as you can tell from the way I talk too much, I think about this kind of thing quite a lot. What I always want to do is to cut away as much of the shit as possible and see what’s left. So I don’t want to be a believer. I want to be somebody who, as far as possible, understands and knows things. Believing things leaves me a little bit unsatisfied. If I find myself believing something, I want to test the belief. I want to say, how do I find out how valid this is? How true this is? How? In real belief, in proper faith, you’re not supposed to do that. Faith is supposed to be, by definition, the acceptance of something that you cannot find evidence for. If you can find evidence for, it’s not faith anymore. It’s called knowledge. Then. So this is a long way round of saying that I’m not anti spiritual, I’m not anti religion. Actually, in fact, I can see how religion really cements some communities together and really helps people in their lives. But I’m not by nature a believer, So it’s difficult for me to use that kind of cement. My cement has to come from trying to understand things and to see how they work, and to share those ideas with other people. Yeah so, I think one one of the other things that surrendering prepares you for is the experience of uncertainty, the experience of not knowing the answer but still having to do something. You know, the fact that you don’t know the answer can’t cripple you. And of course a lot of people are crippled by not knowing the answer, and so they just choose an inappropriate answer just for the want of an answer.”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Jack Delano took the social media picture in August 1942. “Nashville, Tennessee. Welding parts for fuel pumps. Vultee Aircraft Corporation plant” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Talk About The Shroud Of Turin
“Jeremiah Johnston: Shroud of Turin, Dead Sea Scrolls, & Attempts to Hide Historical Proof of Jesus” was featured on the The Tucker Carlson Show recently. I have long been interested in SOT. It is a mystery with no obvious solution. Is SOT the literal burial garment of Jesus, or is it a medieval creation? SOT is fascinating either way.
Unfortunately, this show turned out to be heavy on the polemics. Much of the problem is the guest. Google says this: Google says this: “Dr. Jeremiah J. Johnston (PhD, MA, MDiv, BA) is a New Testament scholar, pastor, author, nationally syndicated radio host, Bible teacher, and apologist, and he ministers internationally as president of Christian Thinkers Society.” JJJ is a television preacher with blow dry hair. His agenda driven presentation made the show impossible to listen to.
I read an article in Rolling Stone once about SOT, which made many of the same points as JJJ. “The Shroud of Turin: Who is this man and why does he have no navel?” by Michael Thomas in the December 28, 1978, issue of Rolling Stone may be the best piece … ever published in the mainstream media.” I seem to remember seeing an online version of this article years ago, but cannot find it today. One way to see the actual article is to subscribe to RS, and go through their archive.
The RS article goes through the documented facts about SOT. It was displayed in France in 1354. SOT was in a fire, which would have destroyed any pigments that could have been used to create the image. RS came to the conclusion that SOT was likely the literal burial garment of Jesus.
The next question: how did the image on SOT get there? The image is a holographic, negative image of an anotomically correct man, who had recently been executed in a gruesome manner. We cannot create an image like this today. The RS article hypothesized that there was a burst of energy, coming out of the body. The supernatural implications of this were mentioned.
JJJ subscribes to this hypothesis. Here is another view: “The Vertically Collimated Radiation Burst (VCRB) hypothesis exemplifies retroductive reasoning—working backward from effects to posit causes. Researchers identified 27 distinct pieces of evidence related to the Shroud’s image formation and followed this evidence to a hypothesis: that radiation emanating from a body created high-frequency alternating current in the linen fibers, causing the distinctive discoloration pattern.”
The RS article was published in 1978, and mentioned the need for C-14 carbon dating. On April 21, 1988, samples were removed from SOT. The conclusion: “The results of radiocarbon measurements at Arizona, Oxford and Zurich yield a calibrated calendar age range with at least 95% confidence for the linen of the Shroud of Turin of AD 1260-1390 … These results therefore provide conclusive evidence that the linen of the Shroud of Turin is mediaeval.” JJJ loudly disputes this finding.
The RS article was skeptical, and came to the conclusion that SOT might be real, with amazing supernatural implications. JJJ performatively BELIEVES that SOT is real. As for those who disagree: “They’re liars and they hate truth and they hate God.”
I listened to as much of the Tucker Carlson interview as I could. Finally, JJJ said … “the liberal scientists want us to believe and the liberal Bible scholars” … Anyone who uses “liberal” as an insult loses my confidence. JJJ is an insufferable jerk. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the social media picture in April 1942. “Los Angeles, California. The evacuation of Japanese-Americans from West coast areas under United States Army war emergency order. Leaving for Owens Valley”.· ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Religion And Perfume
Religion and perfume have several things in common. They are both fun to smell, but dangerous to swallow. A tasteful drop behind the ear is pleasant. Too much, and you will run from the room gasping for breath. Both are cheap products, sold in a fancy bottle, at a steep markup.
Before easy access to water, people did not bathe every day. To cover up the aroma of human existence, many used fragrances. This too is similar to the function of religion.
Perfume has been considered a feminine product. In a clever marketing move, a masculine scent was called cologne, and sold to men. Religion is gross to many people, so it is sold as faith.
Smell is a driving force in animal behavior. Ants use smell to communicate. They perform feats in numbers, which would be impossible as individuals. Smells go directly to the brain, without filtering and processing like sounds, sights, and tastes. Religion is the emotional equivalent of odors. This is a repost. Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken March 19, 1966. “APT Academe School of Fashion runway show”
As The World Turns
This content was originally published August 25, 2008. … I saw an earth changing event at my grandmother’s house one day. Gran lived in a little apartment on Virginia Avenue. This was a few years before Virginia Highlands was trendy. I was staying with her one summer day, when I was ten years old. We walked down to the granite house, next to the golf course in Piedmont Park. Gran’s friend worked there. This was the summer of Beatlemania, and Gran’s friend made a point of telling me that she DID NOT LIKE THE BEATLES. ”If the Beatles were playing for free across the street, I would not waste the energy to walk across the street to see them”. …
… Gran and I walked back to her apartment to see “As the World Turns”. The show was interrupted for a news bulletin. Walter Cronkite came on the say that a North Vietnamese boat had fired on an American boat in the Gulf of Tonkin.We did not know, at the time, that this was a world changing event. I doubt Gran ever thought much about it. But our Congress used that incident … which turned out to be fabricated … to justify sending many more troops to fight in Vietnam. That war was a world changing event. We are still dealing with the effects of that conflict.
This content was originally published August 20, 2008. … I have heard about the Rasmussen Report. Recently, the reports show JSM pulling ahead of BHO. While it is a bit early, the candidates are fighting for momentum to carry them into November. America loves a winner. If a candidate is perceived to be winning, then more people will jump on the bandwagon. This applies to the war in babylon as well. Happy talk in the press is part of the surge strategy. …
… In my unpaid role as resident non Jesus Worshiper, I left the following comment at 22 Words yesterday. “I sometimes feel that I am the only non believer that comments here. You might consider that not everyone is impressed by your religion. Many shortcomings…selfishness, meanness, lack of respect for others…can be found in thoughtless, inappropriate preaching. Just because you are doing it for Jesus does not make it any less offensive. It also reflects poorly on Jesus” … To which another reader replied: “@Chamblee: You’re right, preachers can taint their own message. Can you expand on what you mean by thoughtless, inappropriate preaching?” …
… There are many, many examples of inappropriate preaching. There are two quotes that help. One is from a motivational speaker: “You need to sell yourself first, your company second, and your product third.” The second is the third commandment: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in Vain”. … Anyone can read to you from the Bible. Not everyone that does this has worthy motives. Some are crooks and thieves. For a person to preach to another, there needs to be TRUST. If you do not trust the person who is preaching to you, then that person is speaking in vain. …
… Trust has a brother named RESPECT. When you preach to a person who does not care for your message, you are showing disrespect to that person. When you preach without mutual respect you are speaking in vain. … This is not just the person you are talking to. It is everyone who comes in contact with your message. This is not just the words you speak, but your actions, the chrome fish on your car, the catchy phrase on your t shirt, and the Bible you make a show of carrying around. When you preach without trust and respect, you are speaking in vain. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress Paul Carter took the social media picture in September 1936. “Untitled photo, possibly related to: Negroes on a picnic, Newport News, Virginia” … selah ©Luther Mckinnon 2025
Anne Rice
This content was originally published July 29, 2010. … Anne Rice made a highly public statement about her religious opinions. … “For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten …years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.” wed 07-29-1:36 pm …
“As I said below, I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of …Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.” 07-29-1:41 pm … “My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn’t understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me. But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been, or might become.” 07-29-5:30 pm …
… I added a few thoughts. 1 – Who cares? A part of Jesus worship that is disgusting is the assumption that anyone else cares whether or not you are a true believer. This co exists with the idea that the you are entitled to know about the beliefs of other people. There are people who think that their beliefs are their business. Just because you are a famous writer, that knows the value of publicity, does not mean your opinions about God are more valuable than mine. …
… 2 – Does Ms. Rice have a new book coming out soon? She does have a talent for publicity and marketing. The woods are full of talented authors. It takes work to hone this talent into marketable product. She then persuaded a publisher to take a chance selling her product, and got the public to buy truckloads of her books. This does not make her opinions about God more valuable than mine. …
… 3 – Jesus has mutated over time into the poster boy of this obscene religion. Maybe the “real Jesus” was anti gay, pro war, and anti thought. Maybe 2000 years ago the living person named Jesus had these highfalutin ideas about love thy neighbor. That is what the Bible says. For all we know, the historic Jesus was just as nasty as his worshipers are today. … The way to know Jesus is through his believers. The putrid spectacle of modern Christianity is what the spirit of Jesus has morphed into. …
… To say that you are pro Christ and Anti Christian is double talk, like hate the sin/love the sinner. Why not dispute the belief, and be kind to the believer? … I do not know what led Anne Rice to this impasse. I do not care. Anne Rice is a talented writer, that is enjoyed by millions of people. The only Anne Rice book that I read was “Interview With The Vampire”. I got 150 pages into it, and found it very powerful. It was taking me places I did not want to go. I did not finish IWTV. …
… Jesus has not been kind to me. His worshipers have heaped abuse on me. After a while, it does not make sense to find excuses for Jesus. If Jesus truly pays the price for the sins of his believers, then he should take the blame for this loud, hateful flock. And Anne Rice should quit talking about Jesus, and get back to writing books. … Anne Rice died December 11, 2021. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Marion Wolcott Post took the social media picture in November 1939. “Untitled photo, possibly related to: Itinerant preacher spreading “religion” to farmers outside warehouse while tobacco auction sales are going on. Durham, North Carolina” · selah ©Luther Mckinnon 2025
Prophet Not Without Honor
This content was originally published June 28, 2010. … This diavlog was between two proponents of the Catholic path. As a recovering Baptist living in the south, this is not the viewpoint I am familiar with. The type of Jesus that gets shoved in your face in Georgia, on a daily basis, is more emotional, less intellectual, and with even less appreciation of silence. The modern church is in dire need of silence. Many of these people are afraid of silence. They keep shouting, as if they were afraid of what will happen when they no longer have the floor.
This content was originally published June 25, 2010. … Those thoughtful patriots at townhalldotcom have compiled a list of 100 Americans that “the left hates”. I am not sure if I am a leftie or not, but find hating someone I have never heard of to be a bit silly. Seeing Amboy Duke (72) and Joe Buck (71) on the list was bizarre. Then again, there was the pride is seeing Macon’s Erick Erickson (96) making good. I once drove a delivery truck, and listened to talk radio. The announcers I knew then did not do well. Neal Boortz did not make the list. …
… Laura Ingraham was 17, which is a shock to anyone who has listened to her. Michael Medved, the rudest person this side of Bibi Netanyahu, was 73, and Mike Gallagher was 90. Anyway, as a public service to any leftist who has forgotten who to hate, here is the list. 01 GLENN BECK 02 SARAH PALIN 03 RUSH LIMBAUGH 04 GEORGE W. BUSH 05 ANN COULTER 06 MICHELLE MALKIN 07 THE TEA PARTY PATRIOT 08 DICK CHENEY 09 BILL O’REILLY 10 MICHELE BACHMANN 11 KARL ROVE 12 SEAN HANNITY 13 MATT DRUDGE 14 NEWT GINGRICH 15 ANDREW BREITBART 16 MARK LEVIN 17 LAURA INGRAHAM 18 ROGER AILES …
This content was originally published June 28, 2010. … Numbers two and three of the worst conservatives in america have recently made public statements about the alliterative custom of dumpster diving. This custom of recycling from a green box has enriched the lives of millions, and Oxy Contin abuser Rush Limbaugh thinks there should be more. “There’s another place if none of these options work to find food; there’s always the neighborhood dumpster. Now, you might find competition with homeless people there, but there are videos that have been produced to show you how to healthfully dine and how to dumpster dive” …
… Sarah Palin does not share this enthusiasm for green box recycling. Mrs. Palin was hired to speak at a California college recently, and some were offended by the honorarium. Students found the contract for the Palin show in a trash can, and publicized the details. In her speech, Mrs. Palin said “Students who spent their valuable, precious time diving through dumpsters before this event in order to silence someone … what a wasted resource,” She did not express her opinion of students looking for twinkies and ding dongs in the refuse facility. …
This content was originally published June 25, 2010. … In 2006, a blogger brought Juanita Bynum to my attention. The blogger said “she’s a nice lady with a nice husband who is promoting good social values under the umbrella of Christian living.” Billboards appeared downtown, advertising a show at the Georgia Dome, “The Thrashing Floor,” starring Ms Bynum. … Ms Bynum calls herself a prophet and a psalmist. I made a comment, at the post linked above: “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own land. What about a psalmist?” The blogger replied “The only people without honor around here are hit-and-run posters,chamblee..” …
… “If that woman is a prophet, then I am Ronald Reagan. Of course, I may be a psalmist myself, and just not know it.” … Miss Bynum is now selling music cds, candles, bath products, and makeup. Many people are not aware of this X-tian subculture. It thrives on anger, shouting, and verbal abuse. The audience appears to enjoy this, and seems to be “blessed”. Considering the violence of the crucifixion, and the egomania of Jesus, the hysterical shouting of Juanita Bynum might be what Jesus is all about. … Pictures today are from the The Library of Congress. Marion Wolcott Post took the social media post in February 1941. “Juke joint and bar in the Belle Glade area, vegetable section of south central Florida” · selah ©Luther Mckinnon 2025
Why The War Between The States Was Fought
This was a repost from 2017. … Recently, Mr. Trump said something stupid about the War Between the States. After his comments began to filter into the marketplace of ideas, people began to react. There was a good bit of self righteous talk about how bad the Confederacy was. Maybe it is time for another point of view. This feature will have minimal research. Mistakes will be made. The reader is encouraged to do their own research.
When the colonies declared independence in 1776, nobody knew how things would turn out. First, Great Britain needed to be defeated. After that, the Articles of Confederation went into effect. “Under these articles, the states remained sovereign and independent, with Congress serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes. Congress was also given the authority to make treaties and alliances, maintain armed forces and coin money. However, the central government lacked the ability to levy taxes and regulate commerce …”
This arrangement was not working, and the Constitutional Convention was called. Originally, the CC was going to revise the Articles of Confederation, but wound up throwing the whole thing out, and creating the Constitution. This document called for greater federal authority. The issue of what powers to give to the states, and what powers to give to the central government, was contentious. It remains controversial to this day.
Had any group of autonomous states formed a federal union before? Usually, such a union is the result of a conquest, with one of the states ruling the others. It is unclear whether such a union had been attempted before, or how successful it was. When the “founding fathers” created the constitution, they probably did not foresee how it would play out. The current system, with a massive central government cat-herding the 50 states, would have been laughed off as a dangerous fantasy.
So the states start to have disagreements. One of the things they disagreed over was slavery. Yes, this was an important factor in the unpleasantness to come. Slavery influenced a lot of the economic conflicts. The North wanted high tariffs to protect industry. The South wanted low tariffs, so they could sell cotton to Europe. There were many other ways for the states to not get along.
Finally, in 1861, the disagreements became too big to ignore. The south seceded, and the War Between The States began. The Confederate States of America was a looser union than the United States. The thought was that the states were more important than the federal union. Mr. Lincoln disagreed. (One popular name for the conflict was Mr. Lincoln’s war.) Many people say that Mr. Lincoln was not especially concerned about the slaves, but wanted to keep the union together.
How does slavery enter into this? Imagine the conflict over states rights vs federalism to be an open tank of gasoline. The lit match that was thrown into that tank was slavery. When the winners wrote the war history, it sounded better to say that the war was fought to free the slaves.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The social media picture: “Unidentified young soldier in Confederate infantry uniform” … In 1865, the national debt was $2.6 billion.
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