psychobabble

We've had some pretty bad dudes, but this one is waaaay over the top. Almost enough to make me believe in the Bobble stories about demons and gods. Almost.

But I grew up with Calvary Baptists, Jehovahas, and Pentecostals ("Rollers&quot . "It is of the world, the flesh, and the devil!". Not a lot of fun then, the ones I run into these days seem pretty miserable.

Because they are in there.

but it never really became part of the culture

Not to the extent that they have sex with you in your dreams and such. Typically, the church accepts science, however, they do believe that there are dark spirits that attempt to lead you away from God. It is typically through worldly interests that they tempt you, not through direct actions. There are accounts of exorcism within the Church, in which full fledged demonic possession is alleged, and there were/are? priests that have been trained to perform the ritual of exorcism.

It is particularly rampant in fundamentalist Protestant denominations however. A lot of belief in actual demonic forces active in people's daily lives. You hear it a lot in Christian converts in other countries too because churches evangelizing tend to use the religions of the people in the country to help with the conversion process. That is why you get off shoots like Santeria, which is a mix of Yoruba and Catholic practices.

Republicans, which have aligned themselves with more and more extreme versions of fundamentalist Christian religions, have become a lot more vocal about introducing what used to be more fringe elements of the religions into the mainstream and into their political identities. There have always been Christians in government and God, has always been invoked, by tradition. I remember studying that people were very worried about a Kennedy Presidency because they thought he would be "taking his orders" from the Pope. Now, you have people talking about demons and endorsing people who have those crazy views, from the highest offices in our country.

I should add that I stopped paying attention to everything they said from 12.

Like I said, it wasn't a prime or pervasive topic but I can't say that I never heard about them.

The Exorcist

i considered to be benevolent angels ...


✌🏼

over doubting Thomas...So many fantastical stories of miracles and raising the dead...I questioned the nuns about Thomas and got this...Thomas walked with Christ in his final years and witnessed miracles. After his crucifixion and death (from which he told the apostles he would rise) Thomas met him, did not believe it was him and was allowed to stick his hands into Christ's wounds to verify his identity. This struck me as strange since he became a saint, and yet I was told if I questioned a word of this tripe I was a sinner condemned to hell....I mean he lived and worked with Christ and could doubt and two millennia later a schoolboy with doubts was vile beyond saving. At 12 I walked away. I might believe in a supreme being or karma or just morality...But demons sperm is no more excessive than witches or black magic or necromancy or Catholic dogma.

Looks like we both had our clashes with the nuns

As a whiteboy I've often thought we might resonate at the same frequency. The nuns taught me that wanting to believe doesn't work.

My mom was Catholic on steroids but she eventually accepted that I simply had no faith in any gods and ridiculed their BS.

We always went to church with Mom...In the early 60's it changed and Dad drove us to church and Mom never attended...as a kid it was easy to accept is was about the Kennedy assassination which shook our faith...years later I learned my Mom was excommunicated for admitting to using birth control. I now realize how sad it was to have a woman in her early 30's driven from her religion. For the rest of her life it was marryin' and buryin' ceremonies only. I still attended sporadically but only for others...The local priest turned out to be an indiscriminate pedophile, but I guess I was never cute enough to learn it...

Funny on a visit home I told my mom that one of my close friends was pregnant. She told me she hoped I wasn't doing what my friend was doing and my response was of course but I'm on the pill. She coughed and said nothing, but I did crack up later that evening when she suggested that I speak with my younger sister about the pill. She did compartmentalize on birth control when it came to her daughters.

an old acquaintance was an advisor to an explorer post of mostly young girls...the nearest planned parenthood was in a BAD neighborhood in an adjacent city...I'll bet I took more than 15 young girls (14-16) over for birth control...First declaration is the friend convinced me how important this work was...second is, yeah, just once, and we married 4 years later...

and it did end well

Momma might have but she passed young. Lest you shed needless tears we had divorced. I do miss her though.
Edited to Add...Don't feel to involved-it's just life. I've enjoyed the chat but have no need to tie you up. Take Care.

are both complicated - sometimes they get in each others way.

It was nice to talk to you.

And many a priest will tell you they have had their own times if agnostic thoughts.

Who told you that? It is wrong. Furthermore, NO Catholic priest would EVER make such a statement. It IS Catholic teaching that no one knows who is condemned. Even Hitler may have repented and not gone to Hell.

Catholic bashing is deserved, but when people make stuff up (which I honestly do believe someone incorrectly told you - and is NOT your fault), I try to correct it.

I asked exactly that question, and was told I was going to Hell. Again, I was 12.

To clarify this came from a nun.

That is NOT Catholic teaching. Catholics do not believe in Faith alone. That is strictly Protestant teaching. It was one of Luther's 95 Thesis

The question then becomes why would a Catholic church allow a nun within 9 miles of a child?

I'm telling middle aged you, you were told wrong.

Not as a possibility in real life during the last century or so.

Oh - well, there was the whole thing about how Ouija boards could release demons and cause possession, but that was less demons and more haunting type stuff.

But this was before the hardcore took over the Seminary’s and the denomination was politicized.

But when I went to the tiny rural Freewill Baptist Church with my grandparents it was walking into the twilight zone. Demons and antichrists, usually Catholics were often preached about. Every person who did not live up to their measure of behavior was demon possessed. It was like going back to the Middle Ages.

A few years ago I flew in for my Aunts Funeral in such a Church. Their young white-trash preacher, who has never darkened the hall of any seminary gave a sermon that would have him labeled a heretic by any orthodox religion or mainline Protestant denomination. I’m now a free thinker and could have corrected him on multiple theological heresies. They have become Calvinist. Even my very religious mother, after burying her first sister to pass just had one comment on the service. In a typical understated, old southern lady way she said “well, that was interesting”. I will cherish that moment. In fairness, my dad had a doctorate and moved with mother out of there after marriage.

Yeah, they live among us. They are nuts. And there are lots of them.

thanks for that

Even the Lutherans has a Church Administration.

They lead to what we have in the south. Every church picking and choosing what they believe based on their reading of the Bible. Even a town of 2000 there will be at least 8 churches allowing people to choose their preference. Too often none of them Orthodox or even mainline Protestant. They see Methodist as unsaved liberals.

But this guy took the cake. Mixed up being saved by grace alone to going right back to the predestination idea of pre-selection. And so much more that scrambled any coherent theology. I’m sure he gets his theology from google. And he was not even an effective speaker. He started out loud rather than building up to it slowly as any good speaker learns. But then, he preaches to a church of maybe 80 people. Sad really. I looked at my sister who agrees with me and we both had to squelch a laugh.

Please realize I type this as Free Thinker. It’s all theoretical to me know because it, in my opinion, is all fiction. But I when younger and still religious I studied it.

Hope you get some rain.

Religions take seriously. It's not considered nor treated lightly. Both demonic oppression and possession are serious matters.

The Evangelical whackos run around "exorcising" them on TV.

you know, er, "back in the day"

History is full of bad decisions made based upon this crap. It bubbles up like a disease. does damage, then goes underground again for a time

horror novel by Frank Peretti. He thought it was a true picture of reality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Present_Darkness


I thought it was one of the craziest things I'd ever read, bearing no resemblance to any religion I was familiar with (and I'd been raised Catholic and studied lots of other religions).

Trying to recall any details of the book, but it's been decades since I read it.

If I recall correctly, a minister who's one of the heroes can actually see the demons (who are named after sins like lust and greed) clinging to people they're controlling.

And anything to do with New Age beliefs including meditation is evil, so a New Age center of some type is actually a direct gateway to hell.

And Christians, or at least the right Christians, are prayer warriors who can help angels fight the demons, through their powerful prayers. And they HAVE to help, as I recall -- again, it's been a long time since I read the book -- because the angels can't win against the demons without the strength they're given by the prayer warriors. Or something like that. It seemed to elevate certain Christians who fancied themselves prayer warriors actually over the angels, or make them partners with angels.

It was bizarre.

was not wearing a mask and proceeded to tell us that it was our ungodliness blah blah bla that was the problem. A guy in the line outshouted her with a few choice Jamaican bad words and she eventually walked away after being laughed to scorn..

That's one way to cast out demons........out of that store, anyway!

KY........

Man, 2020's just getting warmed up!

my friend and I were Demon and Monster freaks.
Spells and all

She believed in demons. She had nightmates about them.