Take a step back and we can begin to grasp the interconnectedness of reality and our place in it. We have an active role to fill in putting together this God-Sized Puzzle and we can't do it alone because we are each other's missing piece.
God bless these kids! They do the job that most people either are too afraid to do, or simply feel is wrong to do in the first place. H/T to Vorjack from Unreasonable Faith for posting this video of PinPoint Ministries (remember them) reminding us of the wickedness of Hooters and their "prostitutes". Vorjack's post is actually an announcement of the upcoming Rock Beyond Belief event which will be held at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina (where this lovely video was shot). I'm sure Pinpoint Ministries will be there to condemn the whole event straight to the fiery pits of Hell. You gotta love these kids for taking on the one job most people avoid: sharing God's love by screaming at random strangers to repent and become as righteous, loving, and Christ-like as they are.
Every now and then I do a search for religious or spiritual videos on Youtube, although 90% of the videos on Youtube are mind-numbing rants occasionally I find a gem. This is definitely not a gem. From my research the street preacher is a member of Truth Defenders (domain owned by Luis Zepeda) and this video I believe takes place in Santa Monica, CA.
No offense to the members of the Interplanetary Church of Cosmic Chickenhood, but the emotionally stirred Christian has a point about not worshiping a chicken: why should we lower ourselves to worship an It instead of a He? I guess for the same reason we as a species stopped worshiping Goddesses, a male-dominated society doesn't want to bow down before a woman. Why should we lower ourselves, right?
The entire concept of worship is the act of acknowledging a power higher than ourselves regardless of what form that power may take, but why does the divine need to be gendered? The street preacher never explains why the divine as a person is superior to an It, he just states that He is superior, period. This is a language issue, and regardless if the divine is a Him or an It, in this line of thinking God is still superior. The argument is over the image of God, an image which is trapped by definitions and language which can not accurately represent the essence of God. The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao. Well, that is if you believe there is an eternal Tao, if you don't then this entire debate is pointless (I believe there is an eternal Tao and I still think this debate is pointless).
The issue which I found most intriguing is the need to have the divine not only bear some similarity to man (the highest form of intelligence on the planet, using the word 'intelligence' loosely) but must be a superhuman form of man. But an It can be greater than man, just look at the totality of reality. Are not various elements of the cosmos as well as the universe as a whole greater than man? Some may call the totality of all things God, but regardless if God is an It or a Him, these are still flawed descriptions trapped by language. The point the gentleman at the mic was trying to make is that there are various views, definitions, and images of the divine made by mankind throughout history. The plurality of imagery and views ascribed to the divine is only offensive to those who need a foundational constant upon which they may fix their reality. Yet the struggle to define a divine constant (i.e. God) only increases the stress and fear which drive us to grasp It in the first place. A dog chasing its own tail. Can we find and understand the eternal by ceasing our search for It? Or is God found in and as the chase itself? What always surprises me about these street preachers is their focus on proving the world wrong instead of reaching out compassionately to the world. Love will heal the world, not hatred.
The Job Most People Don't Want
