A Series of Unfortunate Dogma: 6 of 7

This series explores the credo behind the Seven Deadly Sins and the nearly comical manner that Christian based religion disobeys them. As a sober parallel to the Sin’s menace, all paintings are layered with the Eight Auspicious Symbols represented in teachings of the Buddha.

If religion is a stew pot, greed is like the broth, there’s just no way to make the soup without it. Greed for money, greed for power, greed for more, this is a sin that is perhaps the very reason religion still overwhelmingly relevant. Reading over the abhorrent leverage the church receives from the IRS while researching Gluttony, I had sort of a bubble around the whole problem. While, yes, a church as a whole entity can be corrupt- oh yeah, Hi sin of Lust- greed hammers down a much smaller phenomenon in the formula of religious efforts: Leaders.

There is a vast difference between an establishment and the people who run it. Enron could have gone down in history without infamy, if the collective leaders didn’t have as much handiwork with their accounting. Would anyone remember the People’s Temple if not for Jim Jones? Nazis suck, of course, but Hitler will stand as the face of hate for the rest of history.

This is when drawing the responsibility away from the establishment as a whole and focusing on the person at the head is most important. Churches are a blatant offender of this type of top-heavy wealth and fame.

Joel Osteen. There’s one. I bet anyone who lives with electricity and wifi will know that name. The famous Televangelist/pastor/millionaire is sitting pretty good on his Earthly rewards. His preaching of prosperity based on donation- contribute to the church and God will reward you- is hard to stomach when considering that his 2.9 million dollar estate wasn’t quite enough, so he added in a 10.5 million dollar mansion to his assets. The Lakewood Church he pastors is a former sports stadium in Houston, TX, holding 16,000 seats. Inherited from his father, he turned the congregation into a megachurch along with books and tours promoting his tune that God will repay those who invest in his preaching. Praise Twitter and persistent Osteen critics, who began interrogating his church after Hurricane Harvey plundered the people of Houston, and with emergency shelters filling up,  the community noticed this massive church was closed and empty. Of course he ducked and covered, claiming the church had been flooded, though pictures proved otherwise. Finally offering help after days of desperate need, his gesture seemed anything but Christ-like, most likely from pressure on social media and local reporters collecting, knocking on his gates. Even though his wealth is an obvious result of swindling his followers to buy his brand, Christians seem to grasp his word and hold it as prophecy- which is the terrifying idea that just about anyone can claim to be a chosen voice of God, and people will believe them.

Take Prophet Mboro, a charismatic South African man, with thousands of worshipers in his Johannesburg megachurch. Though he wears designer suits and has a posse of Escalades, he is self proclaimed as a telephone to God. The heavily religious and superstitious society brings their sick, disabled, last hope and of course, money, to the prophet, for the chance of an individualized, custom prayer. Unsurprisingly, this comes with stories of fatalities from not seeking medical care. Again, Twitter, that sly broad, bit him in the ass hard, when he announced that being the elite, supreme prophet he is, he was granted a visit to Heaven. If that isn’t an insult of his follower’s intelligence, he also boasted that he had custom photos of his smiling face behind the Pearly Gates. These Heavenly selfies were sold on his Church’s website for hundreds of dollars, or Rand equivalent, each. Worse, was the absurdity of what they actually looked like: his face photo-shopped into a cloud with a sparkling rainbow filter surrounding him- reminiscent of those plate photos in authentic Mexican restaurants: bright, glimmering 90’s era graphics behind a photo of a beige burrito. Once he was called out for clearly lying, he had a digital meltdown, warning doubters on Twitter, that ‘The sky is watching’ then ultimately reducing the price of the portrait on his VIP trip to God.

I try to keep my obsession with John Oliver toned down in my posts, but sometimes, he does an investigation report so fantastically sharp that I want to put a poster of his pale British face above my bed. His exposure of Televangelism is hands-down my favorite account of a corrupt practice on his show. For visibility into the world of the Televangelist ilk, he made a small donation to Robert Tilton’s Church (The star of this painting by the way). From the very first letter Oliver got back from the Tilton Ministry, he was asked to donate a dollar as a “seed” to plant his faith, the first pitch. Dozens of letters later, the instructions to send more money than the time before prove what a slippery slope Tilton’s viewers can fall down. It’s the Christian form of gambling, betting more money for the hope of a miraculous outcome eventually. Oliver also featured the story of a deceased woman, who’s family found that she had been paying the Kenneth Copeland Ministry thousands of dollars, instead of getting full treatment for her cancer, with the hopes that her “seed money” would result in a cure. To make that story so much worse, Copeland’s wife, Gloria, preaches that their church’s products, books, Holy oils- whatever, are the answer to beating serious life-threatening diseases- at one point preaching:
“They tell you that you’ve got cancer and they don’t know what to do about it, except give you some poison that will make you sicker- now which do you want to do- that, or sit here on Saturday morning, hearing the word of God? Let faith come into your heart and be the cure”.

Astonishing to watch this plastic faced suit-dressed woman stand at a podium with nothing but smiling confidence in the voracity she is comfortable with while her power exploits people in the most hopeless points of their life.

The most slimy vermin of the Earth are those who prey upon the less fortunate for gain. There are many out there: Payday Lenders, drug dealers and, without a doubt, churches. For my contrast to the lovely Titlon, painted here using his best tongues-speaking face, is Buddha’s Dharma Wheel- with 8 spokes,  symbolizing the Buddha’s Eightfold Noble Path. Here the wheel stands as token of joy in experiencing good and wholesome deeds. There seems to be no self-serving text in my research of Buddha’s teachings, which makes it that much more reliable. To harness the threats present in the Bible and fuel fear in the vulnerable or desperate is criminal. Millionaire preachers flying private jets, continuing to ask those with little, if any, extra money to give. The frightening reality of these predators, with a bright 1-800 number flashing at chest level, is that humanity is capable of such viciousness.

Pastors and megachurches thriving so shamelessly, is like watching a spider’s nest hatch. Shit! There are more of them and they will only be getting bigger and more disgusting as they grow over time. Perhaps it is a generational problem and the demographic of shopping channel style religion will soon die out- but- with ministries finding clever little ways to push their agenda online, and on social media- like selfies in Heaven, more will fall into the trap, pushing their meager amounts of money, into the un-taxed bank accounts of these suited charlatans. Maybe I’m wrong, perhaps these megachurch leaders are actually sent from God to spread His word and their riches are, indeed from their unique Holy access. I suppose that only makes it worse, for a God that shines on those with mansions and yachts by the hands of the poor, is no deity I want to believe in.

A Series of Unfortunate Dogma: 4 of 7

The venom of Envy is powerful. It can make us paranoid, behave in ways we’d regret and blind us from our own good fortune. Why do we allow it to control so much of our short lives? One of my first posts was a diatribe of Pinterest perfection and how it, along with other social media pushes the ideal of perfection onto a generation, especially of women, who are finally starting to question this whole get married and procreate thing. For religious women who haven’t toyed with the idea of pushing back our social standards, a vast majority of them must make a choice.

Times are continuing to change, millennials are breaking the mold of role play in society, and I have a strange optimism that tolerance is becoming more than just a trend. With these changes, the resistance of conservative requirements like marriage and children seem to be fading away. Women want to finish college, men aren’t ready to settle down young, and praise the Universe, birth control is easily accessible (for now). With much of our next generation, things seem liberated.

Those damn Duggars though. When they started plastering the tabloids, I noticed a strange fascination people seemed to have with the perception of the unblemished. Oddly, we gawked at this herd of a family and couldn’t seem to look away as they tried to hold up their values through controversy and sold pictures of their weddings and kids as if they were Beyonce. Though plenty of people loved to hate them, many more downright idealized them, enough so to make two TV spin-offs. What is so remarkable about a God fearing swarm of Pilgrim people? Perfection or the expectation of such is very, very seductive. 

Christianity and many similar fusion-religions have done a remarkable job at keeping their communities in-check and fruitful. By highlighting some convenient Bible passages to live by, gender roles are solid and more future Christians are born. Certainly there are more free-thinking people within the religious spectrum, but the majority of younger church-goers seem to stay conservative, like their parents before them. Of course the “dream” isn’t exclusive to Christians, but with their ideals of family life, it seems they are a pretty large group racing for the same prize.

I have no statistics here, absolutely no fact based data to help me out, so I’ll discuss this in the spirit of religion itself. Most of the research I sought sprung up from scouring dozens of those identical, cookie cutter Mom blogs, which, surprise-surprise, happen to be primarily faith-based. The patterns I noticed in these blogs were regular. A menu at the top of each one with a list similar to:

- My Family- Marriage- Homeschooling- DIY Crafts- Prayer-

with a few extras from Crocpot Meals to Couponing, then always, a cheery picture of the typical white, blonde woman, dripping with annoying innocence. Reading blog after blog, I was getting tired, so much talk about God; oddly, bargain hunting and the Lord are somehow related items, but indignation turned to concern when I found a string of articles with titles like: Submitting to your Husband- How to be a Godly Wife- Following God’s path and your Husband’s Lead- the list goes painfully on. Advice to women of faith in many of these articles pushes a dependence on prayer, trusting your husband’s choices as leader of the household and that ‘we tear down the opportunity of God’s intention of marriage when we fail to submit’. Yikes. If all religious women reading these postings are in healthy, fair relationships I would not be so uneasy. Envy can push people into believing their cruelest insecurities, and to a Christian woman, being a good wife is a critical portion of existence, so it would not be difficult to exploit by a controlling penis. What happens when a woman reads these articles while coping with an abusive partner? Submit? Blame herself for his behavior- I’m not joking, one post noted that since she had gotten too tied-up taking care of the house, kids and cooking, her husband was unsatisfied and it led to an affair with a co-worker. No, just fucking no. The entire dialogue plants women as some menial servant, unworthy of leadership in any capacity, and the root of marital problems. 

Then we have to examine the male side of these Christian groups, are they exempt from the same nagging perfection as women? There aren’t many, but I found some Male authored Christian blogs out there, but they were usually written as part of profession, like pastors and theology experts. One article described counseling married couples, wherein, if the husband stayed home with the kids or made less money than his wife, “It never turns out well for the family”.

Clearly, the push for perfection is almost italicized in religious homes. Again focusing on women, the nesting genre is a huge attraction. Food, home, lifestyle and beauty can be sated through the said pile of ‘Mom blogs’. Reality in many of these clearly wealthy stay at home mloggers, as I will now call them, ™, is considerably different than their reader’s who adore them. I was able to see into this world by pulling up some articles questioning the health of these blogs and reader’s expectations to keep pace. A large majority of the mlogs are Mormon, due to the fact that they are indeed made for the religious wife, mom, homemaker type. That being said, some their content is outrageously extravagant. Scrolling through a ‘most popular’ list of Mormon Mom Blogs, many were clearly privileged white women, in the height of their childbearing years, with a budget that allows for boujee home decor, organic baby food and catalog worthy family photos (my eyes can only roll so far). Without a doubt, they had opportunity in their lives to meet this level of perceived happiness. Funds to help pay professional photographers for their different daily rituals, you know, normal stuff like Mom in full hair and make-up baking cookies with her Aryan children while fresh cut flowers sprout from crystal vases on every level surface. Many of their reader’s do not have this level of time or money, yet this is the standard they believe they are held to. So instead of pursuing individual identity and nurturing self-love, accomplishment means looking perfect, and that is it. Envy need not be bitter and resentful, sometimes it can have the best of intentions, while ruining our purest integrity.

Envy is represented simply in this painting. I consider it the Trinity of all religious based life goals: marriage, a home, children. Go forth and multiply, and according to these blogs, God brings success, but you must look damn good doing it.

Buddha’s two golden fish are represented as the paradoxical representation of envy. Their meaning is of freedom and happiness as they move unrestrained through the water. Since this comparison looks at the institution of marriage within religion, it makes sense that the two fish also symbolize the lunar and solar channels, ebbing and flowing against different balances, much like traditional marriage, opposite strengths and weaknesses of gender, trying to form a singular bond.

This was one of the hardest Seven Sins to portray, mainly because it is so universal. I felt a bit guilty as I dwelled on the religious community, since anyone, of any belief or non-belief is susceptible to coveting what others seem to perform perfectly, especially with social media hemorrhaging our brains on photos and blogs of that family life we always wish we had or could make for ourselves. Like the Golden Fish, we should swim on though. Swim past the urge to look like a Mormon blogger, and float freely knowing our personal identity does not belong to a husband, kids, home nor a God. Our identity is the one unique component of life, something we can share with the ones we love, but never have to apologize for possessing.

Celebrate it, don’t replace it. 

A Series of Unfortunate Dogma: 3 of 7

This series explores the credo behind the Seven Deadly Sins and the nearly comical manner that Christian based religion disobeys them. As a sober parallel to the Sin’s menace, all paintings are layered with the Eight Auspicious Symbols represented in teachings of the Buddha.

Gluttony. The mind goes to a sweaty blob scarfing down a burger, grease spilling between pudgy fingers. Perhaps food and drink are a perfectly relatable token of how damaging overindulgence can be. Look around the U.S- the phrase, too much of a good thing, must be taken critically when looking at the parallel skyrocket of fast food chains and heart disease. It’s possible that the sin of Gluttony has never been more applicable, but, I am turning the mirror onto the church here, and the reflection is clear when Gluttony is examined beyond physical consumption and broadened to simply wanting more, taking more and not giving anything in return. Aiming the scope of this sin back onto religious organizations, the error of excess is undeniable and of all things, legal.

There are more than 300,000 churches in the country that are collecting money, while lapping up tax exemptions like an new dieter on their cheat day. Why wouldn’t they? Our forefathers had good intentions in keeping churches untaxed, but now, it’s similar to the second amendment. It made a lot of sense in the 1700’s, but doesn’t really translate 200 years later.

Churches are forms of charity, keep them untaxed so that they may do good in their communities. This, along with the assurance that keeping churches from government reach allows for seamless separation of church and state, therefore, no political campaign or party can use churches for political gain, so…. yeah, naturally, that worked out perfectly.

Commonly, giving charitable establishments breaks only helps their cause and the good of people overall. So, I plugged the question into Almighty Google and I wasn’t surprised by what I saw. For instance, according to one site (linked below), a Tampa study showed that the Mormon church spends about 0.7% of their revenue annually on charitable donations and causes. Much like the mega-Mormon church, others have shown to be infuriatingly similar. According to the same study, of 271 congregations, an average of 71% of revenue is applied to ‘operating expenses’, the rest dwindling down to other costs, charity being a small slice of the money pie. Some Atheist organizations have threatened churches who ignore these laws, but, clearly, unless the IRS is wagging their finger, why would they care?

Who needs charity anyway? Those afflicted with AIDS in Africa? America’s foster children? Pshh, as long as they have the Bible and continue the lineage of generations duped by religion, they will be fine.

God on the other hand, damn it. He wants His money.

If churches can only find loose change for actual goodwill, then at the very least, their connection to politics is null?  Aaaaaaactaully, just recently, some corrupt little fingers signed Executive Orders pushing for a weakening of the Johnson Amendment, a 60 year old protection of the church’s ability to encroach into the political spectrum and influence voters with religion.

Anyone using God as a chess piece should not be allowed to promote or oppose candidates in a democracy. That’s exactly what has happened though, and we have to sit back and watch as these suited monsters stand at their podiums, regurgitating the Bible to defend separating migrant families or riling up MAGA hatters by harping that the sanctity of families is at risk because homosexuality exists.

So, given this reality, shouldn’t we be able to tax places like Westbury Baptist? A “church” that uses most of its energy making hateful signs and sending out their loudest congregants into the streets to scream at the public about how they’re going to burn? That goes for many, many other religious establishments that preach politics from the pulpit, sponsor campaigns and decree that follower’s souls are in jeopardy based upon their votes. Now, there’s a puckered tangerine running America, put there by, among others, congregations influenced by political oration from church leaders. The irony is not lost that many of these groups, who hold up and demand faith based politics, are also complaining about the freeloading welfare recipients or illegal migrants that don’t pay taxes…

Hence gluttony falls right into this reality: Religious organizations taking more, indulging in heinous tax breaks, but not willing to give back with the same fervor. As they guzzle down funds, they also grow in numbers, gaining more followers, more servants to collect tithing from, more credulous people who’ll pay when the church shoves God into the whited-out space where the real agenda lies. Gluttony is what this depiction represents; Churches are, after all, very well disguised banks. If there were to be a congregation that gathered in a columned building with dollar signs replacing Mary in the stained glass, would anyone notice? Buddha’s Endless knot flows behind the building, lacing into an infinite loop. The endless knot represents how everything in life is interlocked in a constant flow of kharma. The overlapping knot shows the twists and turns of beings on Earth, living together as one. This delicate flow is imbalanced by the insatiable hunger for power the church possesses, devouring people by feeding on their fears, then taking the lax laws and essentially stuffing the extra cash into their leader’s pockets. Imagine the abundance of available funding for things like universal healthcare, or school lunch programs, if churches were held to the same standards as every other business, bank or lemonade stand out there?

As a send off, I’ve listed below some items that are taxed in various areas of the US. Some are strange, others are downright maddening, but they are taxed nonetheless . Remember these items when you throw your own taxed dollars into that Holy collection plate or when you hear the Bible quoted by wealthy politicians. Religion is a business, and we should tax it like one.

• Nudity Sales Tax- Utah, 10% tax on any sexually explicit businesses. The Lord is watching, cover up those elbows, ladies.

• Sparklers Tax- West Virginia, up to 6% sales tax during the Fourth of July.

• Tattoo Tax- Arkansas, 6% sales tax.

• Bagel Cutting Tax- New York, literally an 8 cent tax on any “altered” bagels.

• Belt Buckle Tax- Texas, since buckles are not a “form of clothing”.

• Tampon Tax- Most of the United States, classified as a non-essential good.. Clearly, a natural occurrence in our body, required to make life, is the same as a grocery bag or leftover container at a restaurant.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/nov/20/us-churches-tax-exemption-faithbased-politics

A Series of Unfortunate Dogma: 2 of 7

Per my last post, this series explores the credo behind the Seven Deadly Sins and the nearly comical manner that Christian based religion disobeys them. As a sober parallel to the Sin’s menace, all paintings are layered with the Eight Auspicious Symbols represented in teachings of the Buddha.

I have surprised myself that I am here so quickly to roll out Part 2 of this series. There’s just something about having a free space to fume about religion that keeps me invested. The order of selection in the Seven Sins is completely random here, so I’ve closed my eyes and chose whichever painting my finger landed on, so here we go, ready to discuss: Pride.

One very particular issue smearing it’s snot covered hands over society has come to light in the most non-threatening of places; bakeries. It felt like progress got tossed back decades, as headlines declared that a Colorado Baker was ruled in favor by the Supreme Court for the right to refuse service for a gay couple’s wedding, based on religious convictions.

In this situation, based on the highest court in the nation, this Christian bakery owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, had the civil right to refuse his artisan skills to a couple that admired them. I mean, if a Nazi asked to commission me for a painting, I suppose I’d have a moral obligation to say no. It’s a little ridiculous that the only way I can imagine declining my services would be an unlikely scenario in which a Nazi admires my work and approaches me, but that’s the absurdity of this topic.

Many comparable stories of the wedding cake ban seem to assemble religious freedom as a firmer case than discrimination based on sexual orientation. Great. The most backwards way of thinking has now crept into our laws, making it clear that humanity is still too daft and arrogant to evolve beyond the Bible. Moreover, these Christians very unapologetically calling LGBTQ communties “sodomites’, are gaining ground, throwing Jesus around as a queer-hating spokesperson. Oh, just to remind ourselves, not once did Jesus mention homosexuality in the New Testament. I suppose if Christians are referring the the Jewish God from the Old Testament, then sure, they’ve got a little bite. Unfortunately, per this infallible book, history went down like this:

God makes us- God gives us rules- God gets pretty tight with the Jews- God angel fucks a virgin- God’s human son becomes a long haired beatnik- God has son brutally killed for the humans who can’t follow his unrealistic rules- so, clearly, the natural conclusion here is that God hates homos.

Rounding back, for a business owner, denying any service or products is a pretty heavy stand. As a Christian, did this baker believe his eternal soul was at risk if he was a complacent participant in this gay wedding? Or, does he have a perfectly accepted, seamlessly designed doctrine to permit a hateful action toward people he doesn’t understand? My logic points immediately to the unattractive sin of Pride. Too proud to lead with love, too proud to seek knowledge of the unfamiliar, too proud to celebrate love of any kind, in a very unloving world. My piece for Pride is layered, much like a cake. Behind the sugar stack is a pair of Conch shells, the next Auspicious Symbol taught by the Buddha. The well-known shape of the conch represents a horn, calling out the sound of Dharma, far and wide, to awaken those from ignorance. Ignorance plays a pretty important role in these cake-blocker’s argument. Immediately protesting a stranger's wedding is fairly peculiar in any other circumstance and to take this fight all the way to the Supreme Court is evidence of the pragmatism of religious extremists. As a final salute to all orientations, all definitions of love and sexual identity, behind the conch shells, is a wallpaper pattern of sexual organs, dancing around in rows. If homosexuality makes Christians uncomfortable, then perhaps they should pull down their drawers, look at the instrument that provides pleasure, love and life, and realize no one is above the reality that we are simply animals with genitals. When we humble ourselves to the basic family tree of the evolution of nature, it becomes much more difficult to look at other humans as less than. On that note, I’m making a reminder note to myself for the next time I have a few free minutes:

Call Masterpiece Cakeshop and ask if I can order one of those penis shaped cakes for a hetero Bachelorette Party. Since, clearly, the importance of what/where his customer’s genitals are penetrating after their legal union is rightly his top concern.