dios mio (literally...)
sooo. i now have jesus in my heart.
well, not really. but a couple of ticas and one SHADY SHADY youth pastor from alajuela think so. only I could manage to go to san jose for a weekend and end up the victim of an attempted-converting by a tican christian group. i'm not sure how i feel about this. i guess releived that i escaped when i did. before they managed to bring me on stage and have my "new found faith" broadcast to all of alajuela. um. so. yeah. those of you that know (or perhaps share) my opinion on organized religion can truely appreciate this.
pretext: this week is "la semana santa," which is a huge deal in costa rica. almost everyone takes off to spend the week with their families and go to the beach. and although I am working for most of it, i decided to go to san jose this weekend in order to get some essentials and get off-station with a friend from la selva. essentials being una hamaca. oh, and to eat chicken. saturday nite there was also a free outdoor concert with a bunch latin american/tican groups at Laguna Fraijones in a nearby province, Alajuela. about 15k past the TOWN Alajuela. and after congratulating myself on making phone calls, getting directions and finding the bus stop for Alajuela city ALL in SPANISH; i figured "how much harder could it really be to get the last little bit of information i needed?" unfortunatley a vital little bit of information on how to get from the Alajuela bus to the concert bus. its a pretty small town and a pretty big concert--the bus driver ought to know. and he did. i think. and agreed to point me in the right direction once we got to the stop in Alajuela.
soo...after getting the shady shady man next to me to stop asking me if i had or wanted drugs and if i would be taking drugs at the concert, i settled in for the 30 min ride to alajuela (in traffic). as we arrived near the city center, a woman who had heard me talking to the driver offered to show me where to go. i ASSUMED she was going to show me where the buses were. until she started talking about her church. and saying how she was going to the concert too. hmmm... highly suspect. she didnt really seem like she would be going to the type of concert i was... and then i started hearing jesus-singing. and preaching. and she led me to her church's jesus-christ-alive-concert. that was in full swing with lots of praising and jesus love for everyone. but, since she was really nice. and had decided to watch out for me (theft is a HUGE problem in costa rica and its not safe to walk anywhere after dark if you are a woman. even in a group. and it WAS afterdark...). so i felt obligated to thank her and endure a few minutes of religion to be polite.
until she ran off to find her friend from the congregation. and tell her how she had found an american here who wanted to love jesus. so her friend ran off to bring the youth pastor who immediately commenced trying to pet and hug my friend (who speaks less spanish than i). and there was lots of talk about the "el unico camino" and "en el mano de dios" and "jesus christo en nuestros corazones." and at this point i was afraid they were going to take us on to the stage to be converted. (which had just happened to someone else). so we took off, but not after getting religious fliers shoved on us.
by now it was getting a little late and even shadier outside and we STILL had not found the buses we wanted. so we decided to grab food and just head back to san jose. and never did make the concert. it was an interesting weekend in the least. oh. and on the bus ride home, there was a police barrier set up. we stopped for 20 min while la policia boarded the bus to check everyone's ids, then for reasons i didnt understand, escorted a man off our bus.
----
i hope that i haven't offended any of you. religion is something that i dont really do, but if thats your thing, bully for you. do whatever you want, as long as you're are tollerant of other beliefs and not trying to force things on other people. just keep in mind the number of deaths/wars that organised religion (esp. western religions) have been responsible for... ok, i will not preach more at any of you, cuz i dont appreciate being preached at myself. oh, and primas y primo, lets keep this hush hush from mis padres (por favor, primas!) seeing as how we had that whole phase where mom liked to tell me over and over that she had failed as a mother because i did not believe in god.
well, not really. but a couple of ticas and one SHADY SHADY youth pastor from alajuela think so. only I could manage to go to san jose for a weekend and end up the victim of an attempted-converting by a tican christian group. i'm not sure how i feel about this. i guess releived that i escaped when i did. before they managed to bring me on stage and have my "new found faith" broadcast to all of alajuela. um. so. yeah. those of you that know (or perhaps share) my opinion on organized religion can truely appreciate this.
pretext: this week is "la semana santa," which is a huge deal in costa rica. almost everyone takes off to spend the week with their families and go to the beach. and although I am working for most of it, i decided to go to san jose this weekend in order to get some essentials and get off-station with a friend from la selva. essentials being una hamaca. oh, and to eat chicken. saturday nite there was also a free outdoor concert with a bunch latin american/tican groups at Laguna Fraijones in a nearby province, Alajuela. about 15k past the TOWN Alajuela. and after congratulating myself on making phone calls, getting directions and finding the bus stop for Alajuela city ALL in SPANISH; i figured "how much harder could it really be to get the last little bit of information i needed?" unfortunatley a vital little bit of information on how to get from the Alajuela bus to the concert bus. its a pretty small town and a pretty big concert--the bus driver ought to know. and he did. i think. and agreed to point me in the right direction once we got to the stop in Alajuela.
soo...after getting the shady shady man next to me to stop asking me if i had or wanted drugs and if i would be taking drugs at the concert, i settled in for the 30 min ride to alajuela (in traffic). as we arrived near the city center, a woman who had heard me talking to the driver offered to show me where to go. i ASSUMED she was going to show me where the buses were. until she started talking about her church. and saying how she was going to the concert too. hmmm... highly suspect. she didnt really seem like she would be going to the type of concert i was... and then i started hearing jesus-singing. and preaching. and she led me to her church's jesus-christ-alive-concert. that was in full swing with lots of praising and jesus love for everyone. but, since she was really nice. and had decided to watch out for me (theft is a HUGE problem in costa rica and its not safe to walk anywhere after dark if you are a woman. even in a group. and it WAS afterdark...). so i felt obligated to thank her and endure a few minutes of religion to be polite.
until she ran off to find her friend from the congregation. and tell her how she had found an american here who wanted to love jesus. so her friend ran off to bring the youth pastor who immediately commenced trying to pet and hug my friend (who speaks less spanish than i). and there was lots of talk about the "el unico camino" and "en el mano de dios" and "jesus christo en nuestros corazones." and at this point i was afraid they were going to take us on to the stage to be converted. (which had just happened to someone else). so we took off, but not after getting religious fliers shoved on us.
by now it was getting a little late and even shadier outside and we STILL had not found the buses we wanted. so we decided to grab food and just head back to san jose. and never did make the concert. it was an interesting weekend in the least. oh. and on the bus ride home, there was a police barrier set up. we stopped for 20 min while la policia boarded the bus to check everyone's ids, then for reasons i didnt understand, escorted a man off our bus.
----
i hope that i haven't offended any of you. religion is something that i dont really do, but if thats your thing, bully for you. do whatever you want, as long as you're are tollerant of other beliefs and not trying to force things on other people. just keep in mind the number of deaths/wars that organised religion (esp. western religions) have been responsible for... ok, i will not preach more at any of you, cuz i dont appreciate being preached at myself. oh, and primas y primo, lets keep this hush hush from mis padres (por favor, primas!) seeing as how we had that whole phase where mom liked to tell me over and over that she had failed as a mother because i did not believe in god.
posted by erin at 12:51 PM
1 Comments:
I'm not the biggest zealot by any means, but it bugs the hell out of me when 'western religions' get the brunt of criticism for the past failings of western culture.
Helping to ending slavery? Never mentioned.
Helping to end (organized) communism? Only brought up by conservatives.
The fact that a lack of faith was a leading characteristic of the abominations of the twentieth century? Forget about it!
Most of the ‘evils’ ever mentioned are either misunderstood, or fail to mention the tribal aspect of the conflict (i.e., religion was but one context of a conflict which would have happened anyway, like the crusades, the conflict in Ireland, and issues in the middle east).
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