Why Evangelizers Are Not Qualified To Evangelize

 ​ @RyanPauly I had this same conversation with a Jehovah's Witness friend about 14 years ago.

First, ... Let's consider the premise for a moment. 1. There is a GOD with multiple personalities 2. With omni-properties that cannot be demonstrated, 3. including omni-properties which contradict other omni-properties; 4. and which contradict the existence of extreme tragedies in our world. 5. "He" sent YOU to commit literal extortion (against literally everyone in the world) on his behalf, 6. While you offer us "protection" from the very same mysterious Boss-man/God-Father you claim sent you. 7. That protection is conditional, based on how we respond to a rumor that 8. A habitually homeless, wine-loving, unemployed, mood-swinging, Jewish carpenter 5. Who (per the official rumors) always identified as a member of the Judaic religion, 6. But actually joined an obscure Judaic mystery cult, 7. Which is PART of the reason why nobody knows what their secret beliefs were, 8. Except that (according to the rumors) they believed the literal end of the world was prophesied (by that cult) to happen in that generation's lifetime [#ProphecyFailed] 9. When only proper JEWS would survive, 10. because the "gospel" writers were all 100% certain that Jesus * "came only for the Jews", * preached as a Jew, * only to and about the Jews, * to help them unite and become fit and ready to inherit a coming kingdom on Earth, 11. While Jesus (per those rumors) always spoke as a member of a mystery cult that branched off of (and yet, presumed to speak for): 12. **Judaism**, [which you're hoping we won't realize is a proven-false religion] 13. thousands of years ago, in a remote part of the world, 14. as a "promised messiah", 15. Who didn't fulfill ANY of those messianic prophecies ... Until we go back and make the Hebrew texts mean stuff they didn't mean at the time; - which then requires an entirely other (later-created) religion (yours) to gaslight us about it. 16. Now, according to your "totally not a cult", he did a seemingly impossible thing (for which there is no evidence except for later-developed rumors, and a whole lot of wishful thinking), 17. which, if we read it through a Trinitarian lens, means: a.) your God's Daddy-Dom personality b.) sent his Submissive-Son personality (while his voyeur personality just watched) c.) to animate a Kosher Meatpuppet, d.) pretend that counts as a "human", e.) intentionally got it nailed to a pole (probably not a cross) (but still took the time to posture as a victim who accepted no responsibility for getting it "killed", when he "forgave" the people he intentionally manipulated into "killing" it) f.) so that he could call that a "sacrifice", g.) even though it would mean he didn't actually give up anything. h. It would be like writing a check TO himself I. for a debt He unfairly saddled us with in the first place. j. And then canceling that check two days later. 17. So he could free anyone in the entire world (who joins your totally-not-a-cult) ... from the curse of a Covenant we were never actually under in the first place, 18. To satisfy an arbitrary and post hoc moral-law requirement [a requirement nobody ever heard a word about, until days after (possibly even decades after) Jesus died] 19. To appease the wrath (and disgust) of a somewhat-specific deity, [propped up as "real" based [only] on really desperate arguments for DEISM, and a litany of fallacious reasoning] 20. Who is a "God" who needs to be PAID not to commit eternal discard and then torture us forever, 21. Because that hypothetical-God is upset about the personal debt [you say] we all owe him, 22. because we have all wronged him ... for ever thinking, feeling, or behaving imperfectly, 23. Even though it's the same Super-Person who intentionally made us imperfect in the first place [just so he'd have something to "save" us from; just so he could end up maximally glorified] 24. Which "just totally by coincidence" requires that every human on this entire planet submit to your subset of a religious faction, 25. making your church (operating with you as an authorized agent) a "moral authority" over every meaningful facet of our lives, 26. which (again, just totally by coincidence) will directly translate into funneling * social power, * political power, * free labor, * and free money ... into the hands of the people who run "God's church" and "God's missionary work". So why are we hearing about all of this from YOU and not "HIM"? 27. because an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-wise, completely responsible, perfect communicator, ... 28. needs your help crossing the road, 29. to reach people on the other side,

30. and to help him communicate badly, 31. while you strew a litany of fallacious nonsense. [but you'll still blame the people who aren't impressed; for your failure to impress] -- You will be his VESSEL! -Bringing the wisdom of The Divine Protection Racket to all of creation! Well, .... all the humans at least. Somehow, all the rest of the animal kingdom is either: a.) getting off easy by being allowed to un-exist eventually. or b.) getting off HARD; by being denied the opportunity to live on forever. -Depending on how you look at it. Also, let's not forget how helpful you are to potentially millions of families, by helping drive their children into either: a.) the lovingly tight and controlling grasp of your "totally not a cult", b.) a lifetime of mental illness and addictions, or (often) c.) to literal suicide; - because of you sowing confusion and self-loathing about their "sinful" thoughts, feelings, and identities. In this way, you help "separate the valuable wheat from the worthless chaff". Even more importantly, with your help and MAGAs help, we have a real fighting chance to roll back all of humanity's "totally not progress"; restoring America to our Manifest Destiny! - To a STATE OF Rigteous Power. -reclaiming the GLORY of a properly God-focused society; - from before the progressive-Christians, Deists, and secularists "led us astray" with their so-called "Civil Rights"; - which your cult simultaneously a.) denounces and yet b.) boasts credit for. Even though your "totally not a political cult" was on the ANTI side of literally every single Civil Rights Battle ever fought in America. Much like Trump, when it comes to everything he has both stood FOR and AGAINST. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks he did or didn't do; -Just as long as he's being praised for it. On the other hand, ... No human will ever be qualified to tell me what a literal "God" thinks; especially not to make moral demands about what thoughts, feelings, and choices I'm allowed to feel neutral, good, or bad about. Even worse, YOU presume the right to tell me who I am. It's how religions control people. Identity-authoring is even more effective as a means to control and exploit people ... than a.) the coercion of "Hell", b.) the addictive nature of religion, c.) the entrapping nature of orchestrated social codependence, and d.) the bribery of eternal (spiritually-hedonistic bliss) (unsigned) I.O.U's . It's too much power to place in the hands of a human (over others). Look at what the cost has been for humanity, for billions of people, over thousands of years, to have societies mentally conditioned to think "Surely God has built such a platform for humans to stand upon. And surely I'm unusually well qualified to figure out which people speak by that authority". To have societies conditioned to think in such an irrational and dangerous way means pre-dignifying every authoritarian-cult grifter and madman ever tempted to stand upon that premise. Meanwhile, I can't help but notice that your religious faction excels at victim blaming.

It's so deeply ingrained in your religious culture that it's actually essential to your theological model.

Examples: It's what your culture did for thousands of years, when your churches created the social conditions which both caused and worsened mental illness (all types; all degrees). They kept saying the symptoms of those mental illnesses were actually symptoms of "spiritual illness". Not only did they use that as a pretense for pressuring people into fantasy-based "remedies" (remedies which directly benefited the men who sat atop those social systems). It also let those people (your people) "off the hook". How so? Because it wouldn't make any sense (from their perspective) to be "overly" patient, understanding, or extend any other form of compassion ... for forms of illness which the afflicted were demonized for bringing upon themselves. Those poor people were blamed for "burdening" families, churches, and society. They were blamed for problems often caused BY your churches, including prolonged unhealthy distress caused by the preachments of "Jesus". It meant the afflicted were seen as "spiritually dangerous" to their own families. Because they were seen as spiritual lepers, carrying spiritual sickness. Granted, SOMETIMES, those churches didn't cause someone's mental illness. But even whenever that was the case, ... Your religious system was still: Blaming humans for the unavoidably manifest results of the failings they are born with. -Instead of blaming the "God" that your own lore says intentionally cursed people with those failings. This is why you already knew the only answer you'd accept when you asked me "Have you ever lied?". If I humor the idea that lying is always immoral [it's not] [In fact, in bibles, God lies on multiple occasions. He is also credited for designing deceptions inherent to nature itself] If I also humor the "enduring self"-theory that says I literally AM the same infant my journey traces back to. [I'm not] And if I also humor the idea of "whatever can be said about a part (of a person) must be said about the whole" (of a person). [It need not be] And if I also humor the idea that we are a supernatural SOUL [which is utter nonsense]. And if I also humor the claim that I'm permanently sin-stained and sin-guilty [an abusive claim meant to create self-loathing, just so your religion can offer conditional relief from the very shame you set out to cause people to feel in the first place] ... for anything imperfect I've ever thought, felt, said, did, or failed to do, ... Your deity is still upset about it. And how do YOU know what any "God" thinks about anyone's life? * Cherry-picked, and * subjectively interpreted parts, * of a subjectively chosen version, * of a subjectively chosen "holy books", that your * subjectively chosen religious faction, * of a subjectively chosen religious category, * subjectively intuits * should apply to our lives today] Current and future expressions of "James" will also be getting zero credit (whatsoever)(from your religious faction) for no longer being "a person" who: * would ever do * whatever some prior expressions of "me" * may have ever thought, felt, or done. But that's a You-Problem. Granted, I still have various failings. However, I didn't "freely choose" to have those. If a Supreme Being GAVE ME these failings, then: Those failings AND the consequences of those failings ... are that Being's debt to me. It's not my debt to them. At the same time, for many of my failings, ... I did the work. I also made myself fully available for "restorative justice" to anyone whom past-expressions of "James" may have injured. As a result, ... Those past failings (even as past expressions of a person) ... no longer EXIST to "forgive" or "not forgive". My "philosophy of self" is completely coherent. It's also completely reality-based. It's also completely conducive to: Every facet of health for any possible human, in any known human social system. Therefore, it fully satisfies all possible reasonable concerns of moral character. Your religion is high-pressure selling: "Remedy" to

a.) fictional problems your predecessors invented and b.) real problems attributed to fictional causes. Adam and Eve did not literally exist. Nobody inherited a flaw-curse because of some poisoned fruit. Humans, overall, have gotten progressively more ethical and organized over time. This is the one thing I agree with Jordan Peterson about. It's also a point made brilliantly in Stephen Pinker's book "The Better Angels of Our Nature". -Although currently, your "totally not a political cult" is trying to undo ALL of humanity's hard-fought moral progress. IF they succeed, the timeline gets reset. Soon after, humanity would go extinct; taking most other creatures with us. But that still won't undo thousands of years of a moral ARROW that your "totally not a cult" imagines pointed in the opposite direction. Plot the datapoints on a timeline. Look at it. See it. Understand. We aren't devolving into less ethical and more chaotic states. We are not moving further away from the closer-to-perfect nature of distant ancestors. We are improving. We are moving closer TO the ethical and functional ideals that developed societies value. Nor did the literary figure "Jesus" introduce any new and healthy moral precepts. Love was already a thing. Being nice to neighbors was already a thing. Posturing as moral superiors over one's enemies (especially the people you're hoping to see die) by being nice to them (until the time comes for them to die) ... was already a thing. Love-bombing to groom people into cults of Narcissism was already a thing. Although Jesus might have been the first person to ever curse a fig tree to wither and die; just because he was mad at his God-Dad's inconvenient "design". The literary figure "Jesus" was not perfect by any standard we can make sense of. He advocated for slavery. He advocated for a religious system that heavily included sexism against women. He advocated for a religious system that practiced child sex trafficking and called it "marriage". He advocated for a religious system which taught it was MORALLY ALLOWED for "married" men to have concubines. He advocated for a religious system that was completely, fanatically, racist; based on * national identity, * religious identity, * and ethnicity. He advocated for indoctrinating defenseless children; violating their right to self-determination. He advocated for selective violence. "Whoever does not wish me to rule over them, bring them before and kill them in front of me". He taught that slaves should honor a system which presumes to OWN THEM, and which reserves the God-given right to give slaves "stripes". He believed children should be beaten with rods. He taught and required perpetual anxiety (which DOES cause mental illness) about WHEN the moment of judgement will arrive, and about WHO will be qualified to be spared. He was also internally conflicted about dying. Part of him wanted to. Most of him did NOT want to. The voice in his HEAD, which he believed was his GOD ... pressured him into it. They did not have the same "will". They were not of the same mind. They were not the same "Being". Jesus did not give his life freely of his own accord. Nor did he give his life AT ALL if we take Trinitarian rhetoric seriously. It's the story of a tragically mentally ill, Judaic-religious fundamentalist. He was a false prophet. He was lost in a deeply prejudiced ethnic-cleansing and revenge fantasy. He also wanted to 'stick it to the man', because he was also stuck in the mindset of economic class warfare. He was also trying to secure the lasting acceptance of a "Father" that his schizophrenia created. He was also trying to secure eternal POWER and TREASURE for himself (forms of greed), while also vindicating his own ego (by satisfying his own martyr complex) before the eyes of his friends. He lost his battle with mental illness specifically because he made friends with the perfect Daddy-monster his illness manifested. He lost that battle the day that voice pressured him into killing himself. And if you can read those stories honestly, he was also almost certainly gay.