posted September 26, 2025 06:30 PM            

First, I no longer automatically dismiss fundamentalists. I AM cautious, and sources of why I was so distrustful earned that distrust, but I see a lot more to it all now, a lot more nuance. There's bad, but it's not all bad.

I want to say to hell with Westboro Baptists, but even some members were turned away from their hateful ways by people reaching out to them with compassion. Westboro is an evil place, but its members can be freed from it by a loving energy stronger than their hate, and that gives me hope for humanity.

I helped homeless Christians while a volunteer, some of whom were conservative about it, but not hateful. My extended family goes to a fundamentalist Baptist church, yet my uncle still helped me against the dishonest lawyer (pretending to be Christian and compassionate while trying to exploit my grief over my grandmother's passing) who tried to steal a house left to me (and very glad I came to him when I found the legal papers odd and disturbing), and he went to the same church. They can call each other out. And though I can tell some disturbing tales of my uncle (just as he can about me), I think he is overall a good man.

I could go on. Again, this doesn't mean I now give a break to the toxic ones, but I'm not as distrustful (or hostile) to religious fundamentalists as I was when I first posted this.

On a side note, the Satanists talked about have also changed a lot. I saw a documentary on them years after I posted this. It really does sound like those who founded it were ultimately pranksters and culture jammers. They still sound cool to me. But they lost control of it with some very hateful factions taking over (who took their Satanism too seriously--becoming fundamentalists in their own way--rather than as a prank). I'm now as equally cautious of them as I am of fundamentalists in other religions (which likewise means I ultimately judge on the individual rather than the affiliation).

I'm also more skeptical of Dianic Wiccans than I used to be (which would include Merlin Stone, an author I mentioned in an earlier post), though I feel neutral toward them overall.

'Course I posted this thinking of LK and Faith, and that, I think, was good of me. I still cringe a little looking back on it.

My apologies to Shura. I think I was too distrustful and closed minded than I should've been.

I'm still supportive of the Thelemites (at least a sect like them, that is I'm not sure how "orthodox" they are in terms of Thelema, but they have certainly drawn from that tradition) that I mentioned (but I haven't talked to any of them in several years and haven't spoken of their beliefs with any of them in over 20 years). They did believe that Jehovah was an enslaving archon that is a false god. I forget the details, but their goal was to transcend the illusion of this world that they see as a prison. Ultimately, I think it's about energies rather than the name given to the energies, the rule of a rose by any other name applying. That is, they still follow God, they just reject the religious trappings (particularly Christian). This is ironic, not moronic. And they'd probably see the Satanists I posted about as pranksters as I did rather than serious occultists seeking to escape the spiritual illusions and enslavement.

posted October 02, 2025 09:09 AM            

Damn... even reading my own posts from so long ago (not just in here), its like I don't even know who that person is... super weird.

Maybe that's a good thing, I'd hope I'm a lot more chill these days.