I try to avoid looking too much at the video evidence of how many people, particularly among the poor and working class in various places (especially rural ones), really think that Obama is:
- A Muslim
- Will somehow try to do harm to whites if he gains the Oval Office
- Shifty
- A terrorist or terrorist sympathizer
- Against the middle class and working class
- Etc. etc. etc.
Because, if I look at this stuff too much, I get angry. Not on behalf of Barack Obama but just because I’m tired of sheeple. I’ve used that term before around here; I assume it’s obvious, but in case it ain’t: Sheeple = Sheep + People. In other words, people who can’t seem to think for themselves and just let the big shots tell them what to think.
Obama has done his share of flip-flopping and bending the truth a bit. But no more than his competitor has. Yet somehow people get it into their heads that he’s evil. The man shows more insight, thought, composure, tact and class than McCain, and thus he must be “hiding something.” As if being angry, spiteful and erratic (as McCain has been) somehow should engender our trust and show that a guy is a real stand-up feller.
Look, I come from working class stock. Despite having two degrees, I think and act mostly like a working class guy. My beers may be a little fancier, but it’s still beer I choose over wine most of the time. I can still appreciate a good fart joke in a movie. I’d rather have a comfy couch to watch TV in than to have a fancy looking one that I can’t put my feet up on. So, I’m not slamming the working class and rural folks who say this stupid shit about Obama because they’re working class and rural and in some cases poor.
I’m slamming them because they don’t bother to think.
At all.
It’s the same thing that has turned me off of most brick-and-mortar churches and many of the people who attend them. Just like the Obama-haters, they are often sheeple. Heaven forbid they should study a Bible or question anything a pastor says. Just like the ignorant folks who call for Obama’s head on a bayonet can’t be bothered to read anything that points out McCain’s or Palin’s lies or flaws, can’t be bothered to compare platforms of the candidates side-by-side, and who instead, like good sheeple, just believe whatever Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, their local police chief or nasty hateful bloggers tell them.
Like good sheeple, they go where they are told until the time comes to fleece them or slit their throats and offer them up as burnt offerings to the hungry economic gods.
Deacon Blue
Inda Pink
Holy Sh!+ from Deacon Blue 
That last line was a doozy. True and powerful.
Funny thing was that it wasn’t until the very end of writing this that I had the epiphany that sheep are either fleeced or killed (and used to be a popular item for sacrifice) and came up with that last line.
I am soooooooooo with you in this one – I think the majority of the church(es) kind of function this way – and swallow ‘hook line and sinker’ anything they are taught – problem is – what kind of teachings are they truly being expounded upon?
I found that my best church experience was in a small one. That doesn’t mean all small churches are good; had my share of bad ones there too. But if you have a pastor leading a small church and you can have a more “interactive” environment, I think that is huge for making sure the teachings work well. I know most churches have to separate services from bible study, but when the two are combined, I think it works much better.
At least in my experience. It can often help the congregation understand better and keep the pastor from going off on his own thing all the time.
Another problem is that I think too many churches get hung up on a certain party line or a few key themes, and get so focused that they lose the big picture.