God Hates Weapons Manufacturers

The City Of Cool

2006-09-14T17:52:00.000-07:00

Ah, San Fransisco. The city of cool, the home of the hip, progressive culture. Another way to say it would be the home of the fake, the dwelling place of people devoting their lives to winning the adoration of their peers, and dropping everything that means anything to them in pursuit of all that is hip. My normal dress code more or less consists of my all-stars, a pair of dickies, and a worn out band shirt. No, this attire is not a new concept for me, it has been going on for close to a decade now I suppose, and I see no reason why I should change it. Apparently the city of San Fransisco thinks otherwise.

I have been informed by a few people recently that in order for me to hang out in the city,
I need to dress myself according to the culture of the city. What a crock of shit. I refuse to conform and be influenced by their retro 70's influenced trends, because in their efforts to be hip and different they fail to realize that by buying into this look that some people call progressive, they have become just as trendy as every other my space teenie bopper out there. So what do I think? I think the city represents the people in the world trying just a little hard to
impress others, putting on a mask every morning in the name of social acceptance. It's a shame.

More Church/Money Stuff

2006-08-10T17:54:00.000-07:00

I received an e-mail not to long ago from an organization that I am involved in. The e-mail basically asked for a monthly financial commitment of a relatively insignificant amount. I immediately deleted the e-mail, chalking it up to another request for money from a Christian organization and tried to forget about the whole thing.

My wife received the same e-mail, and asked me about it later, "Did you get the e-mail about the communal funds?"

"Yes, I deleted it. I'm not giving anything to them," I said in a manner that revealed my anger to her, surprising myself with my own bitterness. This, of course, led to a long conversation in an attempt to discover the source of my anger over a seemingly small thing.

Now, some time later, I believe I have discovered the source of my frustration. The bottom line is this: I'm not ready to part with my money for a need that is not urgent, or even necessary. Paying for retreats is one thing - I have no problem whatsoever with paying my own way, but asking for money that will go into a fund and end up somewhere far from where it started bothers me. I simply don't trust religious organizations with my money anymore. It is especially difficult to give money to an organization without a detailed budget (I know a little bit about budgets, I grew up in a Southern-Baptist church).

For all I know the $40 a month could end up paying a Professional Christian's salary (though I'm sure that the men in this organization would object to the term "pastor" I'll use it anyway - for lack of a better term). Why should I help a pastor pay his inflated Bay Area mortgage while I'm still renting? And what do pastor's really do? Is it the sermon? - I'd preach a sermon for free. Hell, I might even pay for the privilege of a captive audience. The notion that I'm sweating my ass off for $15 an hour while I give a cut to a teacher that sits in a coffee shop all day pretending like he understands God more than the rest of us really bothers me.

Professional Christians in the Bay Area have higher living standards than the people they serve. Most all of the pastors I know own a home and two cars, as well as having banker's hours and incredible benefits. Most are in a tax bracket higher than my own, and most everyone else being asked to contribute is in a situation similar to my own. This constitutes an abuse of (perceived) power: I believe that Professional Christians should live in standards similar to those they serve, if not in outright poverty - which is still a requirement for service in many Christian organizations.

I don't trust anyone who doesn't have to work for a living. They can never relate to the situations that we encounter on a daily basis. Leadership is defined by the sacrifices that one is willing to make for her/his family and friends, and in the end Professional Christians are asking us to sacrifice our income to support her/his lifestyle.

I firmly resolve to give my money to real charities from now on: friends/family in need, OXFAM, UNICEF, World Vision, et cetera. I would like to know that my charity is going to meet the needs of hungry people, sick people and naked people the world around, not to some pastor's $4-a-day coffee habit. From now on they will have to find some other chump to screw.

10%

2006-07-26T22:01:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks, I have been encouraged by many people to start tithing again. When I say again, these people falsely assumed that I had ever tithed in the first place. We all know what happens when you assume. I can honestly say that I have never tithed, and I'm not saying that like it something to be proud of, but try to consider the fact that for most of my life I was forced to attend church services. Essentially you're telling me that not only am I being dragged to this place against my will, but I have to pay to hang out here? No wonder I have never tithed. I guess I thought if God wanted my money bad enough, he would give me a job where I made a little more of it.

10%, where did that figure come from anyway? What algabraic formula did God use to come up with that figure, and why do I hate math so much? Being that God is a reasonable man, do you suppose he would allow the poor and the working class to operate on a sliding scale, say maybe 5%? Times are hard, and 10% just seems to be really forcing the issue.

In closing, I have decided to committ once a month to feeding the homeless people at Baldwin Park in Concord, CA. I will be spending my hard earned money on a good meal for them, and I can live with that, it feels right to me. What doesn't feel right to me, is helping some overpaid yuppie with his Cadillac Escalade payment, or with the mortgage on his 2 million dollar home.

Christmas in June?

2006-07-10T16:44:00.000-07:00

I work for a large retailer, which basically means that I work for Satan. There are many aspects of my job that are disagreeable, but overall it's not so bad. One of the fun aspects is reading customer comments, which are posted near the break room so that every employee can see them. The idea is to get employees thinking about how they can better serve customers, but the customer comments have instead turned into a joke. Most complaints are simple: dirty bathrooms, long lines, etc. Every now and then we get one that is absolutely over the top, and we laugh about it for days.

Here is one, unedited (except for the name of the store), from a recent survey:

pretty well satisified with the store..........as for Christmas season this year I really hope you put signs out stating that it is Christmas. If not I won't continue to shop here, and that would be a shame given the amount of money spent here each year.

At first I laughed quietly to myself, but the more I thought about it the more it bothered me. It's more than six months away from Christmas and this customer is already fired up about the "war on Christmas!" And Christmas, to begin with, was created hundreds of years after Jesus' death as part of a "war on Saturnalia."

Its ninety-frickin'-degrees outside and this wacko is thinking about Christmas banners on retail stores! The whole idea that Christians should exercise their consumer muscle so that every North American will know that December 25th is Christmas is ridiculous. As in the case of evolution, or any of the other battles that churchians choose, there are much better reasons to boycott companies. How about boycotting companies that profit from war? Why not boycott products made in countries that use slave labor?

And while I'm on the topic, I don't want Christmas to be linked with Jesus. Aside from the fact that Jesus was most likely born in April or May, I just don't think that the orgy of consumerism that is Christmas should in any way be confused with the person of Jesus. I'm pretty sure that He would not approve of buying your snot-nosed kid more shit he doesn't need, especially shit made by children working for sub-standard pay in some rat-hole factory in God-knows-where. I also don't think He'd approve of that diamond necklace you bought your sweetheart, you know, the one with diamonds mined by the African slaves.

This customer has inspired me to continue my own one-man boycott of Christmas. Oh, and if the author of this complaint happens to be reading this -which must be a one-in-a-ten-trillion chance- you spelled satisfied wrong, asshole.

Davinci Code

2006-07-03T22:17:00.000-07:00

I had not stepped foot in a christian bookstore in so many years, and everything was going so well. Last week I forced myself into one in order to do some much needed research. As it turns out, this particular store carries an astonishing thirty-two different books attacking The Davinci Code. A couple of the titles I came across were Breaking The Code and Die Dan Brown Die. The evangelical church is tired, it needs new tricks, and it needs to leave Dan Brown the hell alone. As the Dan Brown infomercials have arrived, we have made him a martyr, we have put him on a cross. In his line of work, to be controversial is to be successful, and as the church has made him a focus of the attention, his popularity and his booksales have skyrocketed. Did the rest of the world get the memo, he wrote a FICTIONAL novel. I don't believe that Jesus Christ was married. I don't believe that Jesus Christ fathered any children. I do believe that the concept of albino assassins is awesome.

Inaugural Post

2006-07-02T15:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome to GHWM. We're a tiny little writing co-op, and we don't stand for anything, really: this is just a whole lot cheaper than legitimate therapy. We are not a themed site: the only things we have in common are that we live in the San Francisco Bay Area and that we grew up in the evangelical church and feel worse off for it.

We are not a church-bashing site (though there will probably be a good deal of that), we're not a Bush-bashing site (though there will probably be a good deal of that, too), and we're definitely not fucking emergent.

We are just a small tribe of friends who have a lot to say about nothing in particular, and putting it out here in the blogosphere feels empowering … even if no one's reading.

So feel free to e-mail us (godhatesweaponsmanufacturers@gmail.com), there is always room for our tribe to grow, and we'd love to post your stuff - you don't even have to be an ex-evangelical from the Bay Area.