Tortie Cat

According to the Christian board Rapture Ready, the Power of the Name of Jesus [http://www.rr-bb.com/showthread.php?t=159189] can rid your 13 year olds’ bedroom of demons, fix problems with your car engine, plug a leak in your power steering pump, and stop your young baby having night frights!

One even recommends a prayer that asks;

“Dear Jesus please send your holy angles of protection�? (sic)

[would love to know if those ‘angles’ are Right or Obtuse]!

These fanatics just love to believe in devils! Reports from Uganda claiming that people were possessed by demons were accepted without question and discussed in detail. Whilst cartoons apparently are REALLY evil. It is through these devilish animations that the devil, demon, or even the Big Guy himself, gains access to the Christian family home.

Of course these same credulous Christians would dismiss the recent panic in Nigeria regarding the ‘killer phone number’ as superstitious nonsense!

Maybe Fundie Christian superstition is superior to other superstitions!



TC :devil3:

ArchAngel

maybe they are acute angles?

Photon

That power steering leak that was fixed is especially interesting. Think of all of the car repairs I could save, if only I had faith in this micromanaging god! Actually, you would think that the big repair chains would be out doing some damage control, telling people not to pray - this kind of revelation could put them out of business! I wonder if it works for other repairs as well - I need my house painted, a head gasket replacement on my car, the concrete in my driveway fixed, and the hedge trimmed. If I pray hard enough, because god knows I'm too lazy to do it myself, maybe he will bless me with magically doing it all. After all, had I enough faith, I could move mountains...

Photon

Another good one was the post by maxdad:

Nothing like confusing your vampire legends with Christian theology. Did you also know that demons can't look into mirrors, are afraid of crucifixes, and really, really don't like garlic? Good ol' Beelzebub himself can't come in if you cook garlic chicken. Although, I have bought an antique Buddha statue on vacation, so maybe my immortal soul is in jeopardy!

A funny story - I have a BAC brother, who came to visit us about 6 years ago. We had a concrete statue of a wyvern, you know one of those things that people put in their gardens, and such? It was about a foot around, and about 8 inches high, but he took one look at it, and said "WHAT IS THAT?!?", and would avert his eyes from it from then on. Apparently, I later found out that he thought it was some kind of demonic altar....Needless to say, he doesn't leave us unattended with his children!

Hyndis

Do garden wyverns eat garden gnomes?

I've got a few cases full of miniatures for various D&D games, and I have this one case in particular that contains only undead and demonic figures. Everyone cowers when I bring that case out onto the table...except for the clerics and paladins, who get ready with Turn Undead.

Now, if that guy freaks out over a single figure, I wonder what he'd do over several hundred figures of wrights, skeletons, zombies, demons, wraiths, and other such cleric-friendly fun. :devil3:

WarriorPoetess

This talk of fixing car problems and plugging leaks in power steering pumps is rather amusing, as is the general idea of having to ward off religiously enhanced boogiemen, but the notion of "removing" these demons from children and their bedrooms makes me shudder. While we can all laugh and mock these peoples belief in evil imps and monsters, the people themselves are dead serious about it, and there have been a number of cases in the past where parents (usually fanatics) have believed that their son or daughter has been possessed and has-- typically with a few friends or family members-- taken an uncalled for action. The attempted excorcisms by these concerned parents have sometimes ended with either the child dying or being rushed to the emergency room. My point is that superstitions, while generally petty and harmless, can turn dangerous, and can sometimes turn those trying to excorcise demons into the very things they're trying to cast out.

Gobear

This comment floors me:
Statues of the Buddha are evil? What sad, superstitious peasants those people are. Here in DC, the Sackler Gallery has been exhibiting a collection of 6th-century Chinese Buddhist art rediscovered eight years ago in Shandong province. Those RR types wouldn't view the exhibition as a link to the past leading to a deeper understanding of Indian influences in Chinese art. They wouldn't get an aesthetic thrill from the soft, flowing lines of the sculptures and the flecks of color that adorn the statues. They wouldn't see beauty in the Qingzhou collection at all.

They would merely see it, and likely the entire contents of the Smithsonian museums, as EE-vil!

I'd pay money to watch an RR member's reaction to Tibetan Buddhist thangkas!

Rustharold

I used to believe these things growing up, the beliefs slowly weakening into my 20's. I can say that it caused me an awful lot of terror, stress and paranoia.

xxthe_leewitxx

All this talk of demons and evil spirits lurking around every corner... and these people wonder why their toddlers are waking up screaming a few times a night? I now realize why I had such problems when I was a little girl. I was also conditioned so that praying was the only thing that made the fear go away. Makes me sick to think about it, and glad that I don't plan to torture my own children with such notions.

MsChutzpah

All this type of bizaare beliefs is so common in my family. Some of the stories I overhear them talking about makes me just sit there, bug-eyed and speechless. I had a 17 yr old grandniece tell her uncle about how her Aunt Jen and Aunt Teresa had took it upon themselves to go into her bedroom late *one late night, and attempt to get rid of demons that they felt were causing her to be so "sinfull". The aunts were speaking in tongues, putting their hands on the kid, making loud commands of "Satan be gone!" and were praying, and throwing oil all over everywhere. It is one thing to read stories of such things going on , but quite another when you're sitting right there listening to a kid tell the story. I felt like I was in a psych ward somewhere.


*nothing wrong with the kid. Her "sin" is that she has a body like Brittany Spears, likes cool clothes, and hanging with friends and having fun. The religious psycho's felt that they could get rid of all that sinnin'*