Dig If You Will This Scripture

by Hannah

This is going to sound a little odd and probably a little blasphemous but here we go.

It is not unusual for a public figure, whether it is a musician or a billionaire to have fans. For the most part, liking a celebrity or whomever is pretty harmless but then are times it gets completely out of hand.

My little state of Minnesota is home or at the very least the birthplace of a few notable people. Judy Garland and Bob Dylan come to mind.

And then there is Prince.

I mentioned that this post was probably a little blasphemous and the first potentially offensive opinion I will offer here is that, well, Prince is… okay.

I don’t think that ‘Purple Rain’ is the musical masterpiece that much of the world thinks it is. Obviously he is a talented musician but… he never really appealed to me. And that’s okay! Not everything is for everyone.

Prince has quite the fandom here, as you can imagine. The fans range from casual to the obsessive to the… well, kinda scary. People who have taken their love and admiration to Prince waaaay too far. I know a few of these super-fans in my boy life and it has gotten weird at times.

And it’s not (or was) Prince’s fault. People can love someone and take their passion to levels that surpass what is, well, healthy, I suppose.

Sometimes the fandom of a musician can more of less shape my opinion of the person the fandom is idolizing. And that’s not really fair to the public figure. Sometimes your fans misrepresent your message, if you have one. Sometimes fans gatekeep their idol. Sometimes fans challenge other fans for, oh, I don’t know, dominance?

Like, “oh, you like Led Zeppelin? If you’re such a fan what’s the bassist’s middle name?“.

And here’s where I get even more blasphemous.

God can have the same problem.

And I am not talking exclusively about the Christian God here. I can’t think of a single religion that doesn’t have a central deity. I’m referring to God in every and any religion.

I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school for thirteen years. Religion was a subject I took for years and years, I attended church twice a week. In high school I took even more religion classes, but at least one was focusing on religions other than Catholicism.

I am not a scholar but I feel I am somewhat educated when it coms to the main teachings of Christianity as well as the history of the Bible and its writings. There’s… a LOT that happens in the Bible. There’s a lot of things that are said in the Bible. You could find scripture to back up or contradict a lot of beliefs.

I was always taught that the commandment “Thou shalt not take His name in vain” meant not saying things like, “Oh my God”. But these days I look at God’s request as “Don’t do evil things in My name.”

It disturbs me greatly when I hear of people hurting others and them seeing it as doing Jesus’ work. That’s not what Jesus was about.

I think it goes without saying I am not a Christian. And I am not really intending to offend anyone or challenge anyone’s beliefs here.

If religion teachers and priests wanted me to learn anything it’s that Jesus loved everyone. EVERYONE. Even the sinners. Especially the sinners.

As I studied the Bible growing up I read parts of the Gospel about His other lessons and the things that He did to set an example. He took care of the sick, the poor, the stranger. He wasn’t a fan of the wealthy.

When I hear of people who call themselves Christians who, well, don’t live by His teachings I wonder if they are missing His point or if they are hypocrites. Again, Jesus’ whole THING was taking care of people. The Ten Commandments are great and all but even Jesus had His favorite:

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

-Matthew 7:12

Denying compassion and shelter and food to people who need it doesn’t really seem like it lines up with His teachings.

This post is not about who is and who isn’t a Christian. That’s between you and God.

Today is Christmas Eve. I celebrate the holiday with my family. But we are not going to church. We don’t celebrate the holiday as the birth of the savior. I suppose this makes me a hypocrite.

I hope that in the coming year, regardless of your faith, we all live more empathetically. We live with more kindness. With more love. You don’t have to go to church or to temple or a mosque to live the core values of a religion.

Whatever you celebrate this month or throughout the year, I hope you see the people that you wish to, to have amazing food, and to spend some time doing what makes you happy. I hope you are kind to others and to yourself.

Love, Hannah

*For the love of God please be respectful in your comments. I really don’t want to see anyone criticizing any religion.

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love

-Ephesians 4:2

Edit:

**To no one’s surprise, the comments here have been disabled and the most recent ones have been deleted.**

11 thoughts on “Dig If You Will This Scripture”

  1. For me, the extended holiday season from Thanksgiving through Christmas recalls and reconnects me with family present and past, along with the cultural traditions common to the long-past rural Norwegian ghetto where I grew up.

    I’m reminded of a line from an old Dan Fogelberg song: We all become forefathers by and by.

    I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

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  2. Interesting post and as a Christian I agree that Christ came to the earth to show Gods love for everyone
    This is not an exclusive club
    Jesus only request during his time on earth was to love each other as He also loved us.
    We are all diverse people with different ways about us but we are all human and we all bleed red blood
    Christ said He did not come to condemn but to save
    Merry Christmas Hannah

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  3. Very very well said. I also grew up Catholic and went to Catholic school for 9 years. I have often been confused about the same thing. Recently my biggest confusion is in regards to our southern border. Seems pretty clear what Jesus would do. And most of those refugees are even Christian (specifically Catholic).

    To add to your famous Minnesotans: Jessica Biel, Vince Vaughn, Winona Rider, Josh Hartnett, Chris Pratt…

    Happy Holidays (including Merry Christmas) to you and all of your followers.

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  4. So I am, shall we say, a die hard Prince fan. My name (Camille)was derived directly from Prince (his Camille voice). The name was added to a list, and my wife selected it for me because of my love of his music. For me, his embrace of androgeny, I think, drew me in even though at the time I did not know it. As I read your post, I admit that I was perplexed as I assumed with you growing up in MN, you would like him. I do not have a lot of friends from Minnesota, but everyone I do have loves and respects his music.

    That said, when I finally got to the point you were trying to make, I had an even stronger reaction (I still could’ve done with out negativity toward Prince – I did spend my whole life defending my love of his music because everyone thought he was gay and by extension that I might be and I am not. I brings back bad memories).

    Sorry about the digression. I too was raised Catholic, and besides being sexually molested and torturd by my half sister for 6+ years on a constant basis, I also got a couple of years of the “Spotlight” treatment brought to me by the Catholic Church. I had a really hard time with the abuse from the half sister, but it was, in fact, the abuse from the priest (i find men disgusting for the most part but i am as straight as an arrow) that nearly wrecked me 5 years ago when another trauma unlocked all of the repressed memories of abuse and multiple attempted suicides (all of which completely erased for years) that sent me into therapy and really brought me face-to-face with accepting Camille.

    Religion is just another form of politics designed by men to exert control over other men and women. I have a healthy belief in God and an even healthier belief that religion by design is evil. Not all of the people who practice it, mind you, but in its foundation. If you look at history, every horrible thing that one group of people has done to another has had some religious component to it. I’ve had this conversation with several very religious people and even some evangelicals, and I have challenged them to show me a case where this was not true, and they have yet too come up with one. No no history expert, but it only takes a little research to find it. IT IS ALWAYS THERE.

    I do not begrudge anyone their faith or beliefs until their faith or belief is used as a weapon against others. As soon as that happens, they prove to me that I am right. I fell sorry for all of the religious zealots who sow hate and division, because when and if the real Jesus Christ actually does return, or if they actually get to meet Him (or Her), I know in my heart that the rude awakening that they will get when He tells that how horribly wrong they have been will be more than they can bear at some level. But the He will forgive them which is kinda His thing. It just occurred to me that Jesus would probably be the first person to adopt the “They/Them” pronouns in support of our community. Let’s face it. Our community is mistreated by the people who are using the bible and religion as a weapon. And I literally had to back up 3 times to make bible lower case the first time because autocorrect was designed and approved by someone who thinks that it is so important that it has to be capitalized. It’s just a book.

    So there you have one girl’s opinion on all of this. You struck two nerves with one point (cheers for that).

    Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays or whatever expression fits you best.

    I sincerely hope you one day can get past your opinion on Prince and can see him the way I do. The Prince fan community has always been the most welcoming and diverse group I have ever belonged to. I never felt judged by them even when I disagreed. The LGTBQ community has been a lot tougher but to crack for me. I get to where I feel very welcomed and then run smack I to a situation where I am made to feel worse than ever. I always found that strange based on my perception of what the community claims to be and how it is always portrayed.

    Rock Hard in a Funky Place,

    Camille 💜

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    1. Oh, I don’t dislike Prince by any means. I like a few of his songs, particularly ‘The Morning Papers’, I just never was drawn to his music in a very strong fashion. HIs androgyny absolutely piqued my interest as well.
      The point of my post and my apologies if I wasn’t clear, is that there are some fans who give an artist (or a public figure of a deity) a bad name. I am sure the Prince community is overwhelming wonderful.

      Love, Hannah

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  5. I think about the movie, “Liar. liar,” ( not a fan of the star of that movie ) and I try to imagine what the world, especially the USA, would be like if politicians and everybody had to tell the truth!! We have super, duper hypocrites in our gov’t. now ( Biden, Harris, Pelosi ) who a lie like a rug on the floor and any claims to be Catholic are a laugh a minute! If only people would be honest with us, we would have a better world and less arguing and hate, because the lies just divide and anger us!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I love it when people say potiticians lie and then they single out one party or the other. If you want to talk about liars and hypocrites, you have to dish on both parties and ALL opticians equally.

      Liked by 1 person

    2. As opposed to those honest Christians like Trump and his administration?

      Camille said it best is not party specific.

      Most politicians are hypocrites. They only use Christianity in order to get elected.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. I have challenged others to name one lie that Trump told when he was president and they could not come up with any. Now Biden – almost everything he says is a lie! Democrats are better at lying since they have had so much practice over the years…

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    1. -He couldn’t release his tax returns because he was being audited.

      -He passed the biggest tax cut in history.

      -Mexico is footing the bill for the wall.

      -the economy was struggling when he took office.

      -Republicans were the strongest defenders are preexisting conditions.

      -that the 2020 election was stolen.

      If I had time I would list all 30,573 lies documented by the Washington Post

      Liked by 1 person

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