Random Thoughts On Random Things

-Around a week ago I was enjoying a dinner with old friends when the topic of cults came up. I was asked directly as to “why do people join cults”? I must confess to being caught somewhat off guard as the conversation up to that point had been mostly caught up in the kind of casual frivolity that such discourse usually entails.

Here I was having given interviews with the media and written probably a few thousand words on the subject I was caught without an easy answer. I stumbled around rhetorically for a few moments before catching myself and offering what probably was a diversionary and cliched response, the kind that I am too embarrassed to even repeat here.

It was a reminder to me that I had traveled far, but have far to go in understanding who I am and how I got to where I am now. I think it healthy to be caught out there like that. Sometimes a little humiliation can go a long way...

-Religion. In a world that seems often times ambivalent or perhaps even worse indifferent to the issue, it is one that is constantly figuring prominently in my life. People I know and care about continue to be caught up in a kind of continuous ebb and flow of theological identity crisis. It is heartbreaking in a way, but not something that I cannot expect or deal with.

As for me, I have taken the personal position of anti-theism, which I think is a step further than even atheism, but that said, I find those who seek to purge religion from the world repugnant.

The King James Bible for example, stands out in my mind as literary genius. Take the Sermon on the Mount for example...

Without understanding the Bible in particular or Christianity in general, how can we conceptualize Plato or Shakespear, or appreciate the critiques of Russell or Nietzsche?

Without knowledge of Islam and it’s origins from animism we cannot understand how the violence that pains nearly every edge of the world has taken root and spread so prodigiously...

-MOVE is boring. Someone wrote somewhere that my continuing rhetorical assaults on MOVE were boring. I couldn’t agree more. I will take it a step further and say that it is also sickening. Going back again to the aforementioned Bible, I find this quote most applicable to the situation:

“Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”

Arguing against MOVE is one of the most frustrating-sickening-yet-occasionally-worthwhile things I think one can do. I think there not exists today a more self-evidently false ideology than that which is espoused by MOVE. Yet they still have their supporters. One of whom recently shared with me the thought that 11 or 12 year girls in MOVE being married off and impregnated is perfectly fine as long as these children agreed to it.

This is the level of discourse I am confronted with. A debate with the defenders of pedophiles.

Yet, I continue onward, if only to ensure that when someone types “MOVE Organization” into a search engine that it is not just MOVE’s mind rotting propaganda that is being presented. Further than that, I have been credited with assisting people’s choice to leave the group and with preventing others from coming close to it.

Which brings me to my next point. Someone who I consider a friend complimented me on what a good job I had done in helping to usher in MOVE’s demise. While my vanity would like to accept this, the reality is that MOVE’s demise was hardwired into it’s authoritarian and backwards origins. That the group would compromise itself and fall apart internally was never really a question. What I am doing is pointing out what is largely obvious to most, but still unknown to a large enough amount of people to continue to make it worthwhile and that is the fact of MOVE's true and vile nature. The question now is only how many more John Gilbride’s will there be before MOVE is cast upon the dustbin of short term history and how long will it be before the murderers of John and the masterminds of child-rape in MOVE be brought to justice?

Finally, I must do something that I don’t do nearly enough. And that is to thank the people who encourage me and enable me to continue to do this. Without your encouragement and consistent concern and ideas, I would find this task that much more of a lonely endeavor. Thank you all...