extremism at it's worst...

there is a new terrorist in town. okay, not so new, but certainly more vocal of late. thine religious folk are creating quite the stir these days. it's scary enough that religious extremists in other parts of the world are trying to blow us all up but now there are even scarier religious extremists living in our own back yards. no, I'm not talking dogs. that's another post.

I don't understand it. okay...gonna flashback now. you were warned.

in my late high school through college days I became a very active person in my local Lutheran church. I worked my way quickly through the ranks and became the chairman of the most influential committee - the worship and music committee. I was the minister's right-hand man. in many cases if someone wanted to discuss business with him, they had to get by me first. yes, I did let it go to my head a bit. the choir, the organist and all things worship and music were under my charge. when pastor was on vacation I substituted - even gave about a dozen sermons over the years.

one of the more fun things I got to do during this time was participate in several church business retreats. all the churches of our synod (so much region) sent representatives. I was easily elected to represent and off I went to a semi-local backwoods college. of course, this was back in the days before I allowed myself the realization that I was gay. however, the fantasies that came from the event flowed through my head like nobody's business. I digress. as part of this event I sat through several sessions where the church officials would debate on the diminishing congregations and the flocks of parishoners that were flooding out the front doors never to be seen again. one would naturally think that their main concern would be the damnation that these flocks were certain to face, but the gist of the discussions generally centered around cash flow - or more importantly the lack thereof.

the point of this little dity - other than to provide further insight into my rather unusual background - is that I don't understand how religious extremism is taking foothold in our country. the flocks were all headed out the door - much like I after the congregation approved a term limits measure. homo don't play that. again, I digress. who are these extremists and why haven't the obvious majority of the rest of us said "now you just sit down and shut the fuck up!"??? I even read some kind of headline the other day saying something to the effect that NASCAR events were taking on a religious nature.

oh for the love of god and half of humanity!!!