Re: Jewel and Bob Peters's Site

Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 18:44:59 -0500
Newsgroups: alt.fan.jewel
Size: 4,053 bytes

Justin Thyme wrote:
> Hi Bob,
>
> I had a browse about your, quite thoughtful, though perhaps
> a little conspiratorial website and came across this:
>
Thank you. Not sure what's so "conspiratorial" about adding a personal
soapbox to a personal website, but different people see such things
differently.
> Quote (Bob Peters)
>
> More and more these days, you see a lot of people who have become
> disillusioned with the human institution of organized religion.
> More and more of these individuals are blaming God for the evil
> committed ostensibly in His name by man. Even a certain popular
> singer whose sophomore album was filled with beautiful spiritual
> meaning included a bonus live track on her next ablum containing
> the lyric, "I'm sorry that Jesus died for my sins. And I swear
> to God it won't happen again." Ouch!
>
> End Quote
>
> Two points, Bob, if that's OK...
>
> Why didn't you mention Jewel by name instead of the reference:
> "a certain popular singer" ???
>
Because the webpage wasn't about Jewel and was meant for more people
than just her fanbase, including those people whose pop music knowledge
is such that they don't even know who she is.
I just thought I would use an example of what I'm talking about. That's
all.
> And, I thought Jewel was merely being flippant...
> do you read something more, err... sinister in those lyrics ???
>
Definitely not sinister, merely disillusioned. The religious issues
such as that page is meant to address are expressed quite eloquently in
the song "Jesus Loves You" from earlier on the same CD.
Despite the fact that she was obviously being facetious with the lyric,
it still stung, and that's why I used it as my example.
At the risk of an off-topic rant here, my religious-spiritual page is
about people blaming Jesus and the entire christian faith for the evils
of the neo-christian fundamentalists, who more closely follow a false
religion of political right-wing extremism which has displaced
christianity from an alarming number of churches.
In more hard-rock type circles, it runs a little deeper than it does
here. There you have people who upon first learning of Scott Stapp's
fundamentalist upbringing practically renounced their appreciation for
Creed's music because "their lead singer's a christian."
As a liberal christian it offends me enough to see the neo-christian
fundamentalists sign the name of my God to the sheer evil they
perpetrate. It also breaks my heart to see people driven away from Him
by the example of this same sect.
That's what that part of my website is all about.
Bob Peters
--
All email sent to my decoy box is deleted unopened. If you have a reply
to my post, please post it to this thread.
http://www.bobpeters61.com
Of course I fear terrorism, a fraction as much as I fear totalitarianism.
http://www.bobpeters61.com/political/MBA.html
Is this what "MBA" has come to mean? ;-)
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
First they come for the Arabs. I can speak out in protest safely
because I'm a white man. Next they'll come for the muslims. I can
speak out in protest safely because I'm a christian. Then they'll come
for the liberals, so I may not be left to speak out in protest when they
come for you.
Most people did not appear to notice. Since there were no literal bars
or barbed wire, since they had committed no crimes, had not been
arrested or taken to court, they did not grasp the change, the dread
transformation, of their situation. It was a classic case of a man
kidnapped while standing still. Since they had been taken nowhere, and
since they themselves had voted the new tyranny into power, they could
see nothing wrong. Anyhow, a good third of them, had they known, would
have thought it was a good idea... The Loyal Americans could breathe
freely again. Their freedom to do as they were told had been preserved.
-- Philip K. Dick, from "Radio Free Albemuth"