Posts by Heather Gaye
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: Bishop Brian: It's worse than…, in reply to andin,
Meet them, talk to them, walk in their shoes, and then decide whether or not you can pass judgement.
So where in that rosy little scenario, can I question their belief in a personal god without them getting biblical on me?
FWIW there’s very little space for a debate with anyone in Destiny Church. Generally these are people that are relatively new to Christianity, and only know what Tamaki propagates. I’ve heard a few of his sermons and it’s mainly oratory – all show and charisma with very little analysis, which exacerbates the problem.
The upshot is that if you get into *any* conversation with a Destiny member, first of all they’ll likely have a policy of not talking to anyone without having another, more senior member present (which has the convenient bonus of immediately outnumbering you), and secondly, the moment you challenge them beyond the limits of their knowledge or experience – which generally isn’t particularly broad – they’ll disengage, and refer to you back to Tamaki. Destiny isn’t the only church that does this – in my experience, evangelicals tend to have an underlying culture of fear when it comes to actually hitting the streets. The premise is that once they’re spreading their faith in the wild, they’re open to persecution. The moment someone disagrees with them, and *especially* if they start feeling uncomfortable or unsure how to respond, that’s a form of spiritual attack. That in itself immediately affirms their actions – “I’m being persecuted, therefore I’m doing God’s work” – which means that most of their effort goes into learning convenient ways to rebut challenging questions, rather than considering whether those questions have any merit.
ETA: regarding “Meet them, talk to them, walk in their shoes” – I wasn’t part of Destiny, but I’ve been part of very similar churches. Good, well-meaning congregations, occasional nutbars, but more experienced christians - even in other pentecostal churches - learn to be very wary of cults of personality. Granted, there are intelligent, thoughtful people in Destiny as well, but apparently that then leads to a pastor walking out and taking a third of his congregation with him.
-
Up Front: Respectably-Dressed Sensible…, in reply to Russell Brown,
What stays with me is how passive I was about the whole thing. You’d think I’d have shouted, or jumped out of the chair – dude touched my cock! – but I didn’t. And I thought that was instructive.
This is a BIG deal to me, with regard to perceptions of “expected behaviour” from people that haven’t been assaulted/raped, and the extremely low rate of conviction. A friend described a case for which she’d done jury duty (a 14-year-old girl assaulted by a friend of her mother’s, while the mother was in the shower), and the often horrifying perceptions of her fellow jurors. In particular “if she was really assaulted, why didn’t she do x / why did she do y?” was bandied about a lot. The kind of chaos you “expect” to wreak on a potential attacker, and what you actually do in that situation can be entirely diametrically opposed, and those wrong perceptions always work against the prosecution.
-
Up Front: Respectably-Dressed Sensible…, in reply to Isabel Hitchings,
Awesome link, but oh god, I followed the "a rebuttal" link from the comments & started smacking my head against a desk. The poor innocent men are now apparently required to police themselves *and* their friends, while crazy females are allowed to run irresponsibly rampant. OH THE WHITE MALE PRIVILEGE
-
Hard News: The Political Lie, in reply to Baruch ter Wal,
They didn’t really believe it, but it was a badge of their tribe.
This really fascinates me. I read something by Brendan Nyhan referring to “symbolic beliefs” (mostly wrt contemporary US right-wing propaganda such as Obama’s religion, & death-panels). Do you have some other suggestions of where I can read more?
I’m especially interested in how this impacts the left/right split in political stances that are otherwise unrelated – for example, in Bush’s presidency, the people that believed climate change was real & man-made were pretty consistently against the iraq war, and vice versa.
-
Speaking of Home Brew, their video release party featured Esther Stephens, who is my NEW HERO. It’s (broadly) soul, with a little bit extra ooh-that’s-interesting.
Here’s a vid of her and Tom Broome (who also drums for Home Brew) doing some cool stuff.
-
OnPoint: Budget 2011: Radioactive Space Donut, in reply to recordari,
Right. Budget. Sorry. Mmm, yes, anyone?
The space doughnut is interesting, but I’ve been refreshing PA front page every two minutes in anticipation of Keith’s analysis. Until then I won't know what I think of it.
-
Re: Chrome privacy, seriously?? Is there some major scandal I’m missing?
There are a stack of privacy options in the preferences that basically say “if you’re concerned about privacy, then you’re welcome to disable this extremely convenient (and in one case protective) feature”.
My biggest concern isn’t that my internet history will be pulled out of a pot from amid the other 160,000,000 – it’s that an embarrassing url will pop up on autocomplete when someone else uses my computer. Two words: incognito mode.
..and my incognito window has a list of “warning: just because you’re incognito doesn’t mean you’re safe from the internet” possible threats, including tracking by ISPs & employers, secret agent surveillance, and people standing behind you. As far as privacy is concerned, I don’t really count google among major threats to my embarrassing internet habits.
-
Hard News: Asking for a Contribution, in reply to HORansome,
What is this "digital" you speak of?
It means that you have to operate the book with your fingers.
-
Hard News: Asking for a Contribution, in reply to Islander,
BUT – Oamaru is the other side of the hill, where I have a huge number of whanau-
Sure, but the circuitous route down the west coast incorporates less Timaru and more Islander.
Re: drunk Aucklanders? Dunno. How many rilly drunk West Coasters -OR Southerners! – does it take to drive everyone away!
Touché! I reckon we'll all get along just fine.
-
Hard News: Asking for a Contribution, in reply to Islander,
Research trip to the South! How many PASers can you fit on your couch?
(AKA How many drunk Aucklanders does it take to drive someone out of their own home…)