Comments on: Shorter Don Surber

By: Patkin

Patkin — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:08:53 +0000

Scientologists are bad about med care for everybody.

By: Candy

Candy — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:32:53 +0000

Yeah, Shell, that blood thing is BAD. It’s one thing if you’re an adult, but to deny your kids is flat out murder in my opinion.
I think though that other than blood transfusions, they don’t fight other methods of treatment. That’s where the Christian Scientists come in high on the batshit crazy scale. I think Scientologists are bad about med care for the kids too.

Witnesses aren’t real big on forgiveness either. That shunning thing is ugly.

By: Sadly, No! » Pocarithmetic: 2 + 2 = 6,267,453,000

Sadly, No! » Pocarithmetic: 2 + 2 = 6,267,453,000 — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:40:46 +0000

[...] know that Gavin M. has already been on this truly ridiculous post from the Pythagoras of the Pocatilico, Don Surber, but more really needs [...]

By: Shell Goddamnit

Shell Goddamnit — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 06:12:02 +0000

Whups…sorry, aunt did not convert him during the illness, but was his legal guardian and supported his decision.

Parents were still beside themselves, though no indication why they weren’t the ones in charge.

By: Shell Goddamnit

Shell Goddamnit — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 05:53:56 +0000

Unfortunate but true: Jehovah’s Witnesses, due to some bible passage about blood, reject blood transfusions. They reject blood transfusions for their minor children. Even lifesaving blood transfusions. Various courts have found their arguments compelling and allowed them to withhold medical care; others haven’t, I believe, leaving the law in flux and the decisions case-by-case.

Heard a heartbreaking story about a kid whose aunt talked him into Witnesshood during his illness and convinced him to reject the lifesaving therapy. The parents were beside themselves, but the kid was allowed to reject medical care.

That is close to murder if you ask me.

By: sxwarren

sxwarren — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:33:36 +0000

Back in the mid-80s, we had a friend who was JW. Really likable, actually frequently snarky. Never proselytized, really, although she performed regular “witnessings” (or something like that) with folks she knew on a sort of monthly rotation. When it was “our turn”, she’d check with us a couple days in advance, then come over for coffee and talk about the environment for an hour or two. She was a serious, dedicated conservationist and environmentalist. Of course, she always tied it back to “God’s Will for us to be good stewards of the planet”, etc. OTOH, she was the first person to sit and explain to us the Theory of Global Warming, back in 1985 or thereabouts.

By: pedestrian

pedestrian — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:30:10 +0000

My first boss, the manager of a coffee shop, was JW. She was living with her boyfriend, who was not a “saint”, so her parents did the whole Bible bit where you are given three warnings, the last one before the church as a whole, and then you are dead to them. After her last warning her parents said their goodbyes and that was that. She told me that she still believed in most of the theology, she just realized that she wasn’t a saint.

I’m sure not all Jehovah’s Witnesses are like that. People of any faith or no faith can be like that. My parents are like that. Still, it always tears me up a little when people choose water over blood.

By: Candy

Candy — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:18:34 +0000

lobbey, I’d so love to go live in the Old World, for this and many other reasons.

I’ll bet that lady’s expression was an essay in shock. I love that expression.

My ex was raised JW, and her extended family still practices. Meh, I never had any issue with them. They never once tried to proselytize me. They answered questions when I asked them, and generally had a good sense of humor about pretty much everything, including *being* JWs. That’s my only experience with the folks. Certainly, nothing I learned about their sect seemed any goofier than any other faith.

That’s been my experience too. My partner’s dad loves a beer and is pretty laid back. Give him a Negra Modelo or three and he can tell stories about his wild youth that will even curl my hair.

Witnesses are kind of interesting. They are opposed to school prayer and saying the pledge of allegiance, which is all good in my book. They don’t celebrate any holidays so they don’t bug you with that Merry Xmas crap. They don’t believe in going to war.They don’t believe in hell. They’re an end times cult but they aren’t fundamentalist. They were persecuted by Hitler and some died in the camps. They don’t really believe in heaven, exactly, or at least not for everyone. Some are apparently gonna go and others are just gonna die. I don’t get the point of the faith in that regard. But I may just not be understanding the fine points of the theology. Anyway, no, they are no goofier than any other bunch.

That being said, one very amusing memoy is of two fine young Witnesses – now that I think about it though, they might have been Mormons (Mormen?) – coming around my fenced patio when I was sunbathing topless. That was really funny. They backed away slowly. For some reason, they didn’t stick around to discuss.

By: lobbey

lobbey — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:37:21 +0000

Candy, they tend not to ask your religion, or if you celebrate Xmas back in the Old World. However, when I was working in Calgary, I was flying down to Texas for a meeting, and the cheery X-tain sitting next to me asked me what church I went to. It was early and i was hungover, so replied ‘None, I’m a pagan’, boy that didn’t go down well, but at least she didn’t try to convert me.

By: ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®©

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:20:58 +0000

HH, THEY even tried to pull the plugs.

By: Righteous Bubba

Righteous Bubba — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:09:17 +0000

So does The Decameron, at least for its time. A repository of filthy jokes.

By: mikey

mikey — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:00:52 +0000

Henry.

Ever read Robbins’ “Fierce Invalids”?

It’s got some gorgeously outrageous nun-fucking…

mikey

By: Henry Holland

Henry Holland — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 02:40:47 +0000

However, there is also a strong positive correlation between the percentage of time an adolescent spends in church and the liklihood that said adolescent will be having sex in church

Joe Strummer knew this in 1980:

I believe in this
And it’s been tested by research
He who fucks nuns
Will later join the church

I believe that garnered The Clash a warning sticker, way before Tipper Gore and her censorious crew.

By: Arky The Islahomobamaist

Arky The Islahomobamaist — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:39:09 +0000

There’s one illustration I’ll never forget involving the representation of heaven. It had a log cabin in the mountains and pandas.

Let’s hope there weren’t any Republicans in that Log Cabin.

Hmmm. Pandas … panda bears. Bears …

And that is central to my point.

By: Auguste

Auguste — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:16:09 +0000

Don Surber’s got nothin’ on the residents of Fort McMurray, Alberta. They actually chose to live next to this continent’s biggest environmental travesty.

I won’t have you maligning Natasha Henstridge that way.

By: SamFromUtah

SamFromUtah — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:33:42 +0000

I’ll bet Bob Ross knew some good weed.

I’ve always thought “happy little tree” wasn’t meant to be taken literally.

By: pedestrian

pedestrian — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:30:56 +0000

I’ll bet Bob Ross knew some good weed.

By: SamFromUtah

SamFromUtah — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:25:34 +0000

Yikes! I hadn’t seen Lisa Frank’s stuff before. It does look like what you’d get if you mixed LSD and Skittles and threw in some Element X for that Powerpuff Girls touch.

I could give that heaven a miss too. I’ll stick with Bob Ross.

By: pedestrian

pedestrian — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:10:47 +0000

My idea of heaven looks like the Lisa Frank universe and involves tripping on acid and eating rainbow sherbert until you vomit.

I really don’t want to go to heaven.

By: Batocchio

Batocchio — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 23:20:59 +0000

What a sad, dumb little man.