Hey Karma Girl, What's My Sign?

So here we are again, friends. I am about to get under some skins. Maybe not...I just want to share some personal experiences.

Before my conversion to Christianity I was into New Age. I didn't even know what to call myself and of course, most New Agers have a deep dislike for "organized religion" which is why you don't label yourself anything, least of all something lame like "New Ager". But I can't think of what else to call it.

Anyway, my beef now is that even though I can see where people are coming from (though they are mistaken) when they complain about the Bible being ancient and irrelevant, a lot of the same people happily gab for hours about their astrological sign and who they should be with romantically and why that Leo friend of theirs is such a drama queen ("Leo with Leo rising!") and it drives me nuts! Science has disproven astrology and yet they want to come at me with, "It's not plausible for Jonah to have lived inside a big fish for three days" or "No one can raise from the dead" or "What Great Flood?" and on and on and on even as they study their horoscopes dilligently.

And as I've said before on this blog, my intent isn't to have everyone be like me or whatever, but I do want to expose those double standards. I also don't like the way New Age stuff is easily disguised as something secular and so it can get away with things Christianity could never get away with. Like those "good karma" tip jars. If I had a tip jar with "Don't go to hell- Give a Dollar" my place would be protested against. I know good karma seems less threatening than advisories against eternal damnation but that isn't the point- it's still pushing a religious belief onto whoever is there. (It seems harmless, of course, but the thing is it's TELLING you to put in a dollar or you'll have bad karma and so it is inducing people to do something for their karma, which automatically puts them in the same spot as those who might suddenly be pushed to "praise God" with the Pledge of Alligience or school prayer, not that I am saying either of those two things should be mandatory.)

Also, Christians in the limelight are put down for putting their beliefs out there but people like Oprah Winfrey constantly tell people what to think, eat and read and they love her for it. She claims to "live in the space where God lives" and of course some might agree with her or share similar beliefs but that isn't considered the same as a Christian who might go on TV and talk about how much Jesus means to them. That's considered annoying and offensive. I know some would say that Oprah doesn't push anything on anyone but it's obvious how she feels and that she would look down her nose at someone who isn't as "enlightened" as she is. (She promotes people on her show like John Grey, whose books explicitly state that he hopes we are entering an new age where religion is done away with. ) But if I mention that according to my beliefs, someone isn't saved, that is of course horrible. Even if I go about it in the same gentle way.

Finally, another heroine of people who would obviously be at odds with Christians is Madonna. But like Oprah, she has never made any bones about stating exactly where she stands on issues, including religion. She will offend to the point of being excommunicated from her church and now that she has found something she truly finds extraordinary, she is constantly talking about it and promoting it (kabalah, for those who don't know and PS- I was into it when Madonna was still prancing around in cone bras and not yet stealing the name Esther, a TRULY great woman of God). But Christians and maybe people with "laughable" beliefs (like Tom Cruise) are thought of as idiots for doing the exact same thing.

I just think it's very unfair. People never want to admit that they feel exactly the same way as those they can't stand, only in reverse. At least I admit that I am a Christian and that while I would not disparage someone's faith, I will never say I agree with any of them or that it's okay to believe what they believe because that would go against my own beliefs and that's just silly.

**As for the title of tonight's blog, it came from my own experience as an astrology buff while I was in high school. My, how times have changed!