Johnny D. Symon
On hedonism and holy cows
By Johnny D. Symon
Spanish "holy week" (semana santa) is well underway, and while it's a general Christian event the visual drama is performed mostly by the Catholics. I watched last Sunday morning's trinity of TV shows (Christian, Jewish and Muslim) that begin on TV2 at 8:45 with "Buenas Noticias," an evangelical Christian show. They're the ones I wrote about twice over the past three years who tried to bring together the tower of Babel and the Twin Towers of 9/11. They regard both events as "God's judgement" against human evil; a view that I abhor. It's therefore a show I peruse once in a while with deep suspicion, and I'm rarely disappointed.
Immediately after "Buenas Noticias," sic. begins the Jewish show "Shalom." I normally find the show to be a waste of space and highly boring but once in a while they hit the jackpot, and last Sunday was a big winner because they spoke about the Jewish Passover. There are quite a few Spanish Jews still in existence who celebrate Passover and a Rabbi from Madrid explained the general deal surrounding this historic event. But one thing he said was for me the most interesting thing I've heard in a long time. He provided a background of life in ancient Egypt during the enslavement of the Hebrew people. He said that while the Jewish diet was balanced in that they ate both fruit and vegetables, fish and meat, the Egyptians were strictly vegetarian. The origin therefore, he said, of everything surrounding the sacrifice of the lamb was designed to prevent the Jewish people from adopting the religion of animal worship. He said that a strictly vegetarian society always results in animal worship, and I have to agree.
Some of you will have experienced the frustration of being forced to stop your car and sit around for what seems like an eternity in India and Sri Lanka, until one of their "holy cows" figures to set off again on it's holy journey to nowhere! I've often considered those frustrating events in location-terms; if I'd found my way blocked by a cow up around Jasper County, GA, that critter would most likely find itself heading back to the big old deep freeze, and I guess this critter's fate would be even more certain in the State of Texas. But in India a cow is more important than a person with a job to do, even the cops and the military have to play second fiddle to a hunk of beef!
Now don't get me wrong here, I love animals, in fact as animals go, cattle receive more of my love than most anything else that wriggles. I love 'em with mashed potatoes and gravy, and I love 'em in chili, but I don't love 'em enough for to let them waste my day. Everything has a purpose under the sun, and one purpose cattle are deprived of is human time-wasting. So last Sunday's rabbinical rant against vegetarianism with it's religious leanings drove home some wider points on human behavior that had me pondering on and off for several days.
If vegetarianism can lead a nation into animal worship, then I'm certain that any deviation from the Biblical norms of sexual relationships will lead to the religion and the culture of satanic hedonism. Everywhere I go in the world proves to me that heterosexuality and homosexuality are extreme opposites as regards things of the spirit. There's a bar in the Andalusian region of Benalmadena where anything goes. A late night TV show hosted by Teresa Viejo, called "Siete Días, Siete Noches," filmed this bar last year. I sat back and watched people performing sexual acts all over the bar floor as others, who sat around the bar tables, ate and drank. This was their idea of "entertainment!" Men and women, women and women, and men and men performing like monkeys all over the bar floor as the customers watched.
The evils of hedonistic idolatry and the evils of animal worship are laid open as facing pages of that age old best seller "The Fall of Mankind." It's quite a large volume, and getting larger by the minute, though unlike "War and Peace" it's far easier to read and assimilate, whereas the "Book of Life" takes a little work to comprehend because it cuts across all the false "norms" that are building up in the secular world.
It's easy to believe lies, and easier to worship men and cows, than to place your life and your trust in a Book which beckons you off in another direction. This Book requires that it's readers worship neither man nor beast, but serve That which created them both. And since it's Author fashioned them from His own designs, He knows the nature of their inner workings and the outer norms of their operation in this world.
I guess there's a moral to all of this; if you want to get (or keep) ahead don't be a hedonist! And if you have places to go, and things to do, don't get cowed down by "holy" critters!
© Johnny D. Symon
Spanish "holy week" (semana santa) is well underway, and while it's a general Christian event the visual drama is performed mostly by the Catholics. I watched last Sunday morning's trinity of TV shows (Christian, Jewish and Muslim) that begin on TV2 at 8:45 with "Buenas Noticias," an evangelical Christian show. They're the ones I wrote about twice over the past three years who tried to bring together the tower of Babel and the Twin Towers of 9/11. They regard both events as "God's judgement" against human evil; a view that I abhor. It's therefore a show I peruse once in a while with deep suspicion, and I'm rarely disappointed.
Immediately after "Buenas Noticias," sic. begins the Jewish show "Shalom." I normally find the show to be a waste of space and highly boring but once in a while they hit the jackpot, and last Sunday was a big winner because they spoke about the Jewish Passover. There are quite a few Spanish Jews still in existence who celebrate Passover and a Rabbi from Madrid explained the general deal surrounding this historic event. But one thing he said was for me the most interesting thing I've heard in a long time. He provided a background of life in ancient Egypt during the enslavement of the Hebrew people. He said that while the Jewish diet was balanced in that they ate both fruit and vegetables, fish and meat, the Egyptians were strictly vegetarian. The origin therefore, he said, of everything surrounding the sacrifice of the lamb was designed to prevent the Jewish people from adopting the religion of animal worship. He said that a strictly vegetarian society always results in animal worship, and I have to agree.
Some of you will have experienced the frustration of being forced to stop your car and sit around for what seems like an eternity in India and Sri Lanka, until one of their "holy cows" figures to set off again on it's holy journey to nowhere! I've often considered those frustrating events in location-terms; if I'd found my way blocked by a cow up around Jasper County, GA, that critter would most likely find itself heading back to the big old deep freeze, and I guess this critter's fate would be even more certain in the State of Texas. But in India a cow is more important than a person with a job to do, even the cops and the military have to play second fiddle to a hunk of beef!
Now don't get me wrong here, I love animals, in fact as animals go, cattle receive more of my love than most anything else that wriggles. I love 'em with mashed potatoes and gravy, and I love 'em in chili, but I don't love 'em enough for to let them waste my day. Everything has a purpose under the sun, and one purpose cattle are deprived of is human time-wasting. So last Sunday's rabbinical rant against vegetarianism with it's religious leanings drove home some wider points on human behavior that had me pondering on and off for several days.
If vegetarianism can lead a nation into animal worship, then I'm certain that any deviation from the Biblical norms of sexual relationships will lead to the religion and the culture of satanic hedonism. Everywhere I go in the world proves to me that heterosexuality and homosexuality are extreme opposites as regards things of the spirit. There's a bar in the Andalusian region of Benalmadena where anything goes. A late night TV show hosted by Teresa Viejo, called "Siete Días, Siete Noches," filmed this bar last year. I sat back and watched people performing sexual acts all over the bar floor as others, who sat around the bar tables, ate and drank. This was their idea of "entertainment!" Men and women, women and women, and men and men performing like monkeys all over the bar floor as the customers watched.The evils of hedonistic idolatry and the evils of animal worship are laid open as facing pages of that age old best seller "The Fall of Mankind." It's quite a large volume, and getting larger by the minute, though unlike "War and Peace" it's far easier to read and assimilate, whereas the "Book of Life" takes a little work to comprehend because it cuts across all the false "norms" that are building up in the secular world.
It's easy to believe lies, and easier to worship men and cows, than to place your life and your trust in a Book which beckons you off in another direction. This Book requires that it's readers worship neither man nor beast, but serve That which created them both. And since it's Author fashioned them from His own designs, He knows the nature of their inner workings and the outer norms of their operation in this world.
I guess there's a moral to all of this; if you want to get (or keep) ahead don't be a hedonist! And if you have places to go, and things to do, don't get cowed down by "holy" critters!
© Johnny D. Symon
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