I actually wanted to post this awhile ago, but as I am who I am, I got distracted and so I'm posting it now. This was a response to several inquiries about my Halloween costume. (The one in the pics below.) I had a few negative responses to it, so I decided to write about why I chose the costume and what it meant to me. Eileen (my stepmom), who loves to hook me into debates and philisophical conversations, which I have to admit I love cuz they make me think, asked me about my costume as well and wanted me to talk about it. Below is the email I sent her. Further comments are added at the end.
"First and foremost, it was a Halloween costume and, therefore, a joke.
The idea of it came about when Adam, Aaron, Liv and I were all in Wakayama at an izakaya, a Japanese style pub, eating yakiniku. Knowing that Halloween was coming up and not having any ideas, we started brainstorming. Adam shared his idea for his costume (catholic priest getting a blowjob from a little boy) and the other two loved it. Then Aaron was telling me how one year he saw a costume of a pregnant Virgin Mary. I thought that was interesting and itd be cool if Adam and I could be together in a theme. Since his was pretty offensive and always got many many laughs, I thought the pregnant Virgin Mary wasn’t enough. We like to ruffle feathers. Its fun and makes people think. Anyway, we were brainstorming about how we could make my costume as offensive as possible and came up with the "white trash pregnant Virgin Mary" idea. Of course, then we just got carried away and decided to add the little baby Jesus on my belt loops and write "Virgen my Ass" (spelled incorrectly, yes) on my tummy and "Who's my Daddy?" on the baby Jesus. Anyway, we were basically just having fun and making fun of something that people take seriously. It’d be the same thing if I dressed up as George Bush in tie-dye and dreadlocks with a joint behind my ear (which is a good idea now that I think about it--maybe that’ll be next years costume!).
All this, however, doesn’t mean it didn’t have an element of opinion behind it, because it definitely did. Honestly, I’m not Christian nor any other religion and I would never want to be. In fact, I get angry with organized religions because even though I think people need to have faith in something, I see religion as a means to control the masses and it really angers me how it can be manipulated to a ruler's wishes.
No, I have not read the bible nor attended mass my whole life. BUT, I have been exposed to it sufficiently to see how it brainwashes people and is the cause of much suffering and even war across the whole world. I have many friends who have been raised Catholic. Two of whom are homosexual. They grew up with a significant amount of guilt, self-loathing and hate. Because they were raised in such a closed-minded environment, they suffered and continue to have issues to this day regarding their sexuality. Is that fair? Is that a healthy way to grow up? I don’t think so. And I must say, Im eternally grateful that my parents didn’t drag me to church.
I’ve never felt comfortable about Christianity in particular. As a child when I did actually have to go to church or Sunday school, I constantly thought it was the most ridiculous concept Id ever heard of. It NEVER made sense to me and, therefore, people who were staunchly Christian made me uncomfortable as well. I always thought, "How in the world can they possible believe this shit. Are they serious?" Unfortunately, many of them are and it really saddens me. One of the main reasons it bothers me is the issue of the Bible. Not only was it written hundreds of years after Jesus had supposedly died, but it was written in either Greek or Hebrew (don’t remember which). In either case, it has been rewritten and translated thousands of times. When Martin Luther finally translated it into German from Latin, he could have interpreted those words and written it down however the hell he wanted. He could have written that aliens impregnated the virgin and that’s where Jesus came from and the populace would have believed it because it was in the Bible. (Obviously this is a slight exaggeration, but you know what I mean.) Texts are VERY difficult to translate and are VERY open to interpretation. It’s so hard to translate the nuances of one language into another. Therefore, translations are very often incorrect or convey a slightly different meaning than intended in the original. Taking this into account, how in the world could someone take the Bible of today seriously. I’ve read genesis and when I was done I asked one of my classmates (in Ecuador) if they actually believed it. When she claimed she did, I almost laughed, but thought it more sad than anything.
I was in the end making a very strong personal statement wrapped up in a Halloween guise. It didn’t start out that way, but that’s how it ended up and I don’t regret it. I feel bad if people get offended, but hey, it’s my opinion. I’m offended quite often by hard-core Christians and their ideals and morals but I don’t let it bother me for a long time. I can’t change their minds and they can’t change mine. There are MANY wonderful and nice and loving Christians--my grandparents and family of course are a prime example--but that doesn’t mean I have to agree with it. At the party there were quite a few Catholics and they actually thought it was funny. They realized it was offensive, but they didn’t let themselves be offended by it. (Adam won the "Best Overall" costume award and I almost won the "Sexiest" award.... was beaten by John who was a playboy bunny and did a strip-tease... damn...) Like I said before, I like to ruffle feathers and Halloween is probably the best time to do it. I don’t spout my beliefs in public, nor do I shove them down people’s throats like many religious fanatics do. But, given an opportunity like Halloween, I think it’s fun and more appropriate to express such opinions. Besides, Halloween is pretty much anti-Christian anyway, being Pagan originally.
Bush also has a lot to do with my negative feelings towards Christianity. He uses it to affect the masses and it honestly pisses me off. He drives home my point of religion being used to control the populace. I would probably have a beef with other religions as well if I knew more about them. I’m just exposed to Christianity much more often and, therefore, am able to form more of a concrete opinion about it. Judaism and Islam also have many problems as well. As do Buddhism, Shinto and Confucianism.
What I don’t understand, however, is why I got so much more grief for my costume than Adam did. His was just as offensive, if not more so than mine...... why did I get all the heat?
Basically, I really don’t care if people didn’t like it. If they were offended, then maybe they need to think about why they were and try and see it from my perspective. I’ve been living in a pro-Christian society for most of my life and I’m sick of it. I’m not saying I hate Christians, though, so don’t take it that way. I’m just tired of feeling bad for my opinions and always interrogated about them. Can I not just say "I don’t like it. I don’t believe it nor want to believe it" without getting bombarded by people thinking that it’s wrong? It’s my opinion. That’s it. I’m not harming anyone by expressing it so I wish I could be left in peace about it.
I’m sorry this ended up being so long, but I just really wanted to explain where I’m coming from. It wasn’t meant to be malicious and I'm sorry if people were offended. That really wasn't my intention."
These are very strong and very "non-mainstream" beliefs, I realize that. I don't apologize for what I believe. I really just wanted to get this out there because it is something I feel very strongly about.
A good friend of the family recently sent me a book called "The End of Faith" by Sam Harris. I've only just begun and I'm in love! It's not only fascinating and makes you think (as he was a philosophy major) but it also explores many sides of faith-based issues. It asks questions like, Why do we chose to believe in a book that was written 2,000 years ago (supposedly) and still hold those words as literal when we've made such advances in almost every other field? He basically talks about how illogical religion is in our day in age and why we're having all the problems we are concerning religious conflicts and terrorism etc. Anyway, it's VERY interesting and I recommend it to everyone, religious or not!
1 comment:
Hey Erika! thanks for commenting!! Its rare that i get such a long and worthwhile response. I love what you had to say and you gave me some good things to think about. What i meant about being homosexual issue was that, obviously, you cant help it if you are or arent. its in the genes, period. but im saying that itd probably be a lot harder to grow up in a staunchly religious family (be it christian, muslim, jewish... whatever) and accept the fact that youre gay. One of my friends spent most of her life denying it and has only just recently figured it out, only to be shunned and treated differently by her (catholic) parents. Had they grown up in a non-religious and more open-minded family, maybe they wouldnt have had such a hard time accepting who they were. Im not saying i know what they went through exactly, or how hard it was, Im not them. Im just going on what they told me. I just know that had they been in my family, they would have been loved and cherished and accepted for whoever they were: straight, gay, bi, transgendered.... whatever.
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