Wednesday, September 19, 2012

What The Extremists Have In Common

Posted by Hannah at 11:00 AM

man holding sign that says - USA we are sorry We are sad in response to riots over anti muslim filmFrom time to time we have all seen different types of Christians, Muslims, Jews, etc.  By that I mean some are more extreme than others.  Then of course you have different grades of extreme. 

We will show you what the average Joe Believes compared to US – the FAITHFUL!


I think most Christians would point out Westboro Church as one extreme for Christianity, and we don’t need to go into how evil they portray themselves as.  I truly think they have some major screws loose.

Then of course more recently we have had our experiences of seeing what extremists over in the middle east can do over what they CLAIM was an insult to their faith due to some stupid film.  I say stupid, because even if most people actually had seen the trailer (which I had not)not FILM as they claim on Youtube?  I doubt very much they would have stayed to watch the entire thing.  Most people wouldn’t have got past the first 2 minutes without exiting the video.  It was that badly done, and they wouldn’t have bothered wasting brain cells on it.  That’s the reality of it. 

Both of these examples are extreme to the point of dangerous, and quite frankly claim they are protesting against something ‘awful and evil’.  If you look past the surface?  Westboro Church shows you a God that pretty much hates everyone, and anyone.  The militants in the middle east are playing out revenge, and using their own people under the guise of ‘lack of respect and honor’ towards their faith.

Most extreme groups like this use propaganda, and they point out some fringe group as their examples of ‘the average everyday joe’.   This of course is to be used to show how ‘evil’ most people are, and how ‘faithful’ they are in comparison. 

The extreme complementarians do this as well.   They use the most extreme models to ratchet up their ‘us against them’ game. 

Most can see how some groups are more successful at their lies and deceit than others.  I feel sorry badly for their victims, and pray for them as well.  I don’t think they realize they are being used.

The Extreme Feminist beliefs BACKFIRE!


Recently, Elizabeth Esther had an article that represents the extreme case you hear about towards feminism.  The old tired speech about how they only think of themselves, and hate children, etc.  She pointed out a poster child article of just that.  Disappearing Mothers was the title of the article, and quite frankly the author seems so out of touch with reality its not even funny. 
Mary Kassian and the rest of the extreme complementarians would love to use her article as their prime example of their message.  The problem of course would be the responses to the article itself.  They would NEVER point out the comments this author received.  It would go against the: ‘we are all in agreement’ with their descriptions of ‘feminists’.  Check out the comments!  That author was shot down BIG TIME by her readers.

Most adults that are parents to young children realize that these little miracles God has given them take up quite a bit of space in our worlds.  How many people do you know that do NOT have have buckets full of pictures of newborns, and toddlers that recently joined their immediate family after giving birth?  Especially recently with cameras in the phones! Who doesn’t have funny stories of all the innocence they have, and their wonderful way of viewing life?

My children are older now, but I still giggle about the day my daughter decided the fish looked dirty and poured liquid soap into the fish tank…told me, “Mommie your fish were dirty, and I wanted to help give them a bath!”  I look up and see my fish tank overflowing with bubbles, and the water milky white. 

Another time a vendor presenting a product line came to my home business to give me samples to use.  I was walking him out to his car, and when I returned?  My daughter had LOCKED me out of the house via the screendoor.  Here we are – neighbors, the company representative, and myself all encouraging her to learn to ‘unlock’ the door she had just locked!  (giggles) she had a hard time turning it in the opposite direction!

Then we have my son getting a lesson from his sister about how to pronounce her name!  They were both in car seats, and she is saying her name VERY slowly –  syllable by syllable as the car ride continued.  He is trying his HARDEST to say it correctly, and just couldn’t do it!   That reminded me of my own brother when we were young.  He couldn’t say my name either.  He called me HONEY instead.  This was a delight for everyone at the time….but me.  I mean WHO in their right mind would want their baby brother calling them HONEY!  My brother and I giggle about that story now, and YES it was priceless then as well.  No doubt mother would have shared it on Facebook if it was in existence then.  How that means loss of self is beyond me!

OH!  What about the time I was in the bathroom, and my son decided to help with dinner. He grabbed something I was going to warm up – that was on the kitchen counter - into our microwave oven that was on a cart at the time.  He turns it on, and my daughter screams FIRE!  Yep. It had aluminum foil on it, and sparks were flying.  I have never got off the potty so fast!

If Facebook was around when they were little?  No doubt those stories would have been shared, along with all kinds of pictures.  We will always love our children to death, but the ‘firsts’ and the drama they cause are priceless at the beginning.  My children love hearing these stories to this day, and I love giggling about them as I relive them.  SURE I’m not as stressed now over soap in my fish tank, and maybe that was NOT quite as funny at the time – that’s a given!  Those memories – like many others – are forever ingrained in our lives.

The profile pictures?  Most of the time they follow up that crazy happening in the families life.  That doesn’t mean you loss your existence, because after all YOU are part of the family!  Most people that I know change their picture many times anyway. Sometimes pets, kids, spouse, group, and YES themselves!  Do humans also LOSE themselves when they have pictures of family on their desks at work?  What about family vacation videos we have all sat and watched?

WHY wouldn’t you share pictures with friends on facebook?  The author claims women LOSE themselves when they post profile pics of the family – and not herself.  How women have gone back to days past.  That opinion is just as extreme as we hear from Mary Kassian and complementarians, and how their way of life is also the ONLY way.

Okay.  I will share a paragraph within the article that shows the stereotype that so many have heard about.
The mystery here is that the woman with the baby on her Facebook page has surely read The Feminine Mystique, or The Second Sex, or The Beauty Myth, or the websites DoubleX or Jezebel. She is no stranger to the smart talk of whatever wave of feminism we are on, and yet this style of effacement, this voluntary loss of self, comes naturally to her. Here is my pretty family, she seems to be saying, I don’t matter any more.
All I can say is I hope this woman is NOT a mother, and if she is?  I hope she loves her child more than she is showing within this article.  What tends to go against the complementarian propaganda is the author is complaining about a professional woman.  You know the one that can’t do both?  Who can’t love both her professional life AND her family?   How men are the only ones capable of doing this!
Part of what is disturbing about this substitution is how clearly and deliberately it subverts that purpose: this generation leaches itself of sexuality by putting the innocent face of a child in the place of an attractive mother. It telegraphs a discomfort with even a minimal level of vanity. Like wearing sneakers every day or forgetting to cut your hair, it is a way of being dowdy and invisible, and it mirrors a certain mummy culture in which it’s almost a point of pride how little remains of the healthy, worldly, engaged and preening self.
What if Facebook pages are only the beginning? What if passports and driver’s licenses are next? What if suddenly the faces of a generation were to disappear, and in their places were beaming toddlers? Who will mourn these vanished ladies, and when will Betty Friedan rest in peace?
I have to tell you her opinion makes me want to vomit just as much as Mary Kassian’s articles against ‘those’ women.
 

Major Details the Extremists leave out


The backlash she received showed Mary Kassian’s theory  on feminism doesn’t hold up as much as you would think it would.  That part of the story the propagandist will leave out.  They won’t want you to know that part.  It wouldn’t line up with their theories they claim are truth!

Westboro Church doesn’t want you to see the God that loves you, and cares for you just the way you are.  They preach hate and intolerance.  They raise their children with fear, and brainwashing.  When reality slapped some the children grown to adulthood?  They ran away from home and church – and sadly from the faith.  Westboro church uses them now as propaganda, and what will happen to you if you leave.  ie: going to hell.  In truth those  followers do not stay out of faith, but out of fear.  God does not wish that.

thugs and killers don't represent benghazi nor IslamThe extremists in the middle east don’t want the people that are revolting to realize it wasn’t a ‘film’, but a trailer.  It was a awful trailer at that – preschoolers could have done better as far as quality if it was needed to be done at all.   They don’t know that the people within the film were lied to, and their voices were dubbed over compared to the script they were given at the time.  I don’t think they were told that 99% of the globe didn’t even know it existed prior to the riots either.  THEN the fact they waited MONTHS before they felt it was a good time to bring it up at all?  The day they mentioned this to the faithful (9/11 of course) – after knowing about the existence of this trailer for months – makes their views suspect to any rational being.  I mean seriously.  If they were so gun ho faithful WHY wait MONTHS while knowing the existence before calling the faithful to protest?  They also used propaganda, and history will show in the end how it turns out.  Most Muslims know their reactions were unwarranted, and they do not represent the whole.

The Study by the Barna group about Christian women within the complementarian groups, and their how their propaganda backfired when they learned they have indeed been teaching husband and children comes first prior to anything.   Yep.  The study showed they worship the role before they worship their God. 

No doubt they will twist this reality to their advantage some how.  That is what extremists do when their propaganda backfires.  You have to wonder how many were horrified after reading the study, and stopped to question their beliefs and teachings. 

Our three groups above?  No doubt all of them would cry out against the extremist that calls herself representative of feminists, and of feminist thought.

Most are out of touch with most of the world


Sadly, they all have something in common.  They are all out of touch with most of humanity.

Westboro Church thankfully is just small group, but I hope more of them will see the light of truth.  It would seem the extremists are as well in the middle east, especially when you see people risking their lifes to hold up signs to tell the world THESE people do not represent us!  Then you have the complementarians complaining that most people are living to much of egalitarian lifestyle.  The extreme feminist that say women are losing their way?  WELL!  Notice how all of these groups play the ‘us against them’ card.

They all will tell you that they live, act, and teach to represent their faith or beliefs.  How their way is right.  Will they ever realize their extreme views, and propaganda may work short term…but will never last long term?

Its already starting!  Church members leaving Westboro, signs telling the world WE don’t stand with the terrorists in the Muslim world, the faithful learning to live more balanced lifes without hierarchy, and yes of course that silly feminist being told its okay to love your children…we do!

It gives me so much hope for the future. 

The Issue Is Authority: Reasons Why Complementarianism and Feminism Are Fungi Harming the Kingdom

Muslims, Coptic Christians Denounce Mideast Riots


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4 comments:

rach.h.davis on 2:40 PM said...

Very thoughtful comments! Thanks! I was interested in the debate over the FB article. On the one hand, I agreed that it was super over-blown. We're not a hairs breadth from the 17th century just because a lot of moms use FB to post pictures of their kids. Etc. On the other hand, as overblown as that article was, I don't think you even need to look to the angry "reactions" against it to disprove what Kassian says about feminism. The article was paranoid and weird, but at it's heart, it wasn't actually advocating for women to stop caring about their kids (which is what Kassian and others say it advocated). It was asking whether FB is a sign that women have given up a healthy balance of thinking of themselves as well as their kids, which is something that most feminists do agree on.

The problem was, the article got so overblown and paranoid that it sounded crazy and extreme.

I see this as even further proof that complementarians want to spin things their way. Even though I thought the article was mostly silly, I never thought that it was calling for women to selfishly quit caring about their kids. The fact that comps desperately want it to say that, so they have something to point to, reinforces exactly what you're trying to say in this article.

Kristen on 1:06 AM said...

Thank you for this. It needs to be said that viewing all Muslims in light of the attack on the Embassy is the same as viewing all Christians in light of Westboro's antics.

With regards to pictures of kids as a Facebook profile pic-- I've seen dads do this too. Why is no one saying they have lost their identities in their children?

Some people post their pets' pics too. Just goes to show how out-of-proportion the whole idea was.

Hannah on 12:49 PM said...

Thank you for your comment Rach.

The feminist to me came across as very preachy, and arrogant. You are correct it didn't say to quit caring about their kids. That is what the Comp's will claim she said in the article, and what she wrote they will use as evidence. They will spin it to their advantage to make it so. Sad but True.

I won't say that there are not some parents that tend to get 'obsessed' to much towards their children's existence in their lifes. We have all seen them, and their children pay the price for it. I don't think that consists of most, because the overbearing ones -to me anyway - stand out like a sore thumb.

lol its similar to the theory of a bad review in business! If your customer isn't happy? The will tell everyone they know, and go out of their way to do so. If they are thrilled with you? The same energy doesn't seem to be used, although 'word of mouth' is also very important.

I grew up with more freedoms in some areas compared to my children's generation. Although we didn't speak of the evils that do exist - even in my childhood - that my folks generation liked to pretend it wasn't there. I guess you can call it a naive carefree existence! (giggles)

I read the feminist's opinion, and I could just picture Kassian slavating with glee that she found such an excellent article to prove her point. Major Bleck! lol I have to admit I feel the author was a bit out there as well.

Feminist isn't a dirty word. Its just popular to think so in many circles. The problem is they have trouble being truthful in proving why its dirty.

Hannah on 12:58 PM said...

I agree Kristen.

My personal opinion? Those attacks had nothing to do with the video in question. They just used it because they knew it would work where they lived. It did - to a point. People there even saw through that excuse.

Why the administration went along with it? Sorry. I think they felt it was the easy route, because no one being rational would truly buy that. No doubt the extremists LOVED the fact they had their agreement. I was wondering where they heck was his advisors? (sarcasm here) were they out golfing?

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