Isn't it cheery? Very friendly. This is the church of "Cake or Death." (See below; RATED R for more than one use of "the f word," sorry. And you will have to wait through "Do you have a flag?" but that should be easy!!!)
This might be the best lesson in English history you'll ever have:
If that was not the best lesson in English history you've ever had, please leave a comment below telling what was better. Fill it on up with great lessons in English history.
Contrast the humor and sweetness with all of the above to this evidence of the way I myself grew up. This pamphlet was sent to me by Kelli Lovejoy this week. Someone handed it to Cameron at a park recently. click to embiggen
Why would I call this Church of England vs. Crazed Baptists—is that even fair!? Do they both have flags!?
Yes, they do.
To be fair, other churches than Baptists use that flag, but none with as much gleeful separatism as Baptists, as far as I know. And it's not only used in the U.S.; missionaries have infected other places with it. I guess they're pledging to that flag on three continents (but not Europe, so good for them).
6 comments:
If my World History Teacher had been open about his "professional transvestite-ism" he'da been this entertaining :) Isn't everything better when it comes with pumps and nail polish on Eddie Izzard??
That was fantastic.
We were given E.H. Gombrich's book, A Little History of the World. It's less than 300 pages and it covers pre-history to post WWII. It is a first-person narrative with a story-telling quality to it. There are illustrations and maps. Very, very good.
DISCLOSURE:
This was sent to another homeschooler 11/15/94
My parents were raised in West Texas and Southern New Mexico in Baptist and Nazarene churches. When I was little, they tried going to church so they could take me, but they didn't like it and made lame excuses not to go, so I would ride with neighbors. We moved to northern New Mexico, a VERY Catholic town, and I went a few years without going. In fourth grade I went with a friend, and found out about six kids in my 4th grade class went to that church, so I was very motivated to keep going.
I became a fixture there--going sometimes five times a week (Sunday morning, evening, Wednesday night prayer meeting, Girl's Auxiliary, and choir practice), until I was about fourteen, and I slowed down to twice a week or so through high school, and when I went to college my choices were Hardin Simmons (had pretty much decided against a Baptist school by then), St. John's (decided against it because my parents' marriage looked kind of shakey, and I needed to go where I could get a job afterward (not rich enough to get a St. John's degree and not have anywhere to go with it), so I went to the University of New Mexico, in the fall of 1970, which was the height of Buddhism/Hinduism come to the U.S. I had a boyfriend from India for four years, a very bright and funny guy. I read lots, talked to lots of people, took comparative religion, the Bible as Literature, lots of anthropology classes, and tried to remove my membership from the Baptist church (another friend went with me and tried to "drop out" too) but they wouldn't let me. I said it was just going to bad for their statistics, but they said if I wanted to transfer to another church they would take me off their rolls, but they had no precedent for someone to bother to come in to say "Drop me off your membership list." (I was highly aware of how important their attendance statistics were to them!)
Nowadays I still read spiritual inspirational stuff sometimes ("Wherever you go, there you are" kind of Buddhist stuff), and I go and sing Sacred Harp hymns, and occasionally a friend has a party where former Baptists get together and sing out of the Broadman Hymnal as loud as we can (and those who want to drink beer drink lots of it). I go to mass occasionally because a friend is the priest of a congregation of the Church of Antioch (a Catholic splinter group). I don't believe in God, but I believe in religion. :-)
When my kids ask about God or religion, I just give them straight answers and say "A lot of people believe that," or "in the Bible it says..." without any attempt to suggest by tone of voice whether it's true or not. I'm just as neutral as I am when I talk to them about multiplication or mixing colors.
[That's what I wrote in 1994, to another homeschooler online, when we were on *Prodigy or early AOL. The last paragraph's still true. The first few are still true (naturally), but I don't sing hymns regularly anymore and my friend isn't doing masses anymore. So say I, April 10, 2008.]
Enticing review of European history. I have friends in a band called "Cake or Death". I had a grandmother who was Baptist who didn't drink, dance, play cards, or tolerate much. Later she became Methodist and had a much better time. She was also tone deaf, so when I had to stand next to her in church, I didn't even get to appreciate the hymns. It was all bad. But the black Baptist church in another section of her south Georgia town - the singing that I heard coming out of that church made me believe in something. I just didn't know what. I do (as well as I can) the neutral talking about God with my kids too. I am fascinated by/fearful of different religions (depending on the religion) and do believe in God but have no interest in convincing them to believe or not. I don't know why I decided to treat your comment area as my confessional.
-=- I don't know why I decided to treat your comment area as my confessional. -=-
I think every story helps someone else connect something to their own lives, so I'm glad you spilled. :-)
People confess stuff to me all the time. I don't know why. I don't mind. (This is a little public, though... just sayin'... **bwg**)
I always say that I was educated by the Jesuits and therefore I am, of course, an atheist.
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