We are halfway through the brother-in-law visit and I am grateful that I can escape to work. I find the man to be very confusing on a good day. He expresses the love of one show and then when you ask him if he likes another one very similar to it, he loathes it with the hatred of a thousand suns. This guy loves Marvel and DC movies, yet refuses to watch Deadpool because he decided before the movie even came out that it was going to suck. It doesn't matter how much praise it is getting. And if he ever does watch it, he would never admit to liking it. It's like listening to a petulant child. Everything runs in extremes. He either loves or hates something and has an opinion about everything. He's also like those internet trolls on the comments section of an article, always turning the most benign subject into something political. One of the more interesting things he does though is a constant attempt to legitimize the things he likes by tying it to his religious beliefs. I have an aunt who does this too. What this looks like is, when he discovers an author, director, movie, etc. that he likes, he scours the internet in hopes of discovering their religious beliefs. If they are professing Christians it raises the legitimacy of the thing he likes up onto a pedestal, making it worth more in his mind since a religious person is tied to it. Take the Divergent series for example: A young adult dystopian sci-f series that has been turned into a film trilogy. Three times now *Ford has sung the praises of this series and its "Christian message". Last night I informed him that I own and have read the entire series and there is NOT a Christian message anywhere in it. It is not a Christian book. They are books written by a Christian. There is a difference. "Well, it's subtle then," he said because he has never actually read the books. "It's not there," I returned. Her values certainly played a part in what she wrote (no sex scenes for example), but none of the characters in the book are remotely religious. Of course, it goes the other way too. He openly sneers at "atheist" writers, which usually just means anyone who isn't a Christian. Even if he likes the book or the actor, by them being an atheist, they become less than in his eyes. He begrudgingly likes them as long as they keep their non-religion to themselves and out of their books. Total hypocrisy because this is the very opposite of what he wants from Christians. I mentioned this to my husband this morning and he pointed out that his brother is searching for affirmation of his likes and dislikes in a context that makes sense to him: Religion. He also pointed out that Ford has serious attachment issues and probably Asperger's and we should cut him some slack because his opinions are that of a forty-year-old man with no social skills. I think I am doing a super duper job of remaining cool and collected during these asinine conversations. This morning I kept thinking about Tim Minchin's beat poem Storm and so I thought I would share.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorThis is a personal, but secret, blog archiving my deconversion from a Christian to a non-believer. Archives
December 2020
Categories |