dragonlady7 | (no subject)

Everyone's taking this quiz. "I thought I took that one already," I thought. I went and looked at it. It's not the one I took before.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The Inland North
The West
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The South
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Which is interesting, as I am a lifelong resident of New York State, and could plausibly be placed either in their Northeast grouping or their Great Lakes grouping (although I haven't been in Buffalo long enough to reasonably have the accent, it does come out at times and astonish me). But no. I instead possess the no-accent of a place I've never been. How nice to hear I'd be good at radio. That's actually been said before.

Another thing: Z is nearly done with the new calendar website for his newspaper. While browsing he discovered that the coffeehouse where the NaNoWriMo writing group meets is actually a church. Did I know this? No, I had no idea, despite having been there at least half a dozen times.
I'm serious. The coffee house is a church. I am not making this up.

Z: They're a Khristian Koffee Kult!
me: ?????????????!!!!!!!!!

I don't know whether I feel better or worse for having tipped them generously.

Actually the idea of spending Friday evening at a church service wherein you can sit on a couch sipping a cappucino would be pretty compelling if they weren't, you know, fundie whackjobs. (I have trouble with the Biblical Infallibility sorts. I'm sorry, I need a little interpretation laid on that shit. It don't make sense if you're trying to be literal about it. No offense. At least the Catholics have a "don't try this at home" clause.)

Meanwhile I'm already at 14000 words and I haven't transitioned to the next act, so I'm running over on wordcount, but at least I'm progressing quickly. As long as I do a major scene every day or two the wordcount shouldn't matter too much.
But I have an assload of laundry to do. Nnnngh.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

kkatowll.livejournal.com

I am now convinced that Christians are hiding in my coffee houses, ready to jump out at me as soon as I'm comfy.

From:

dragonlady7.livejournal.com

I admit to being way the fuck creeped out. Because they don't leap out at you. In fact I am serious I would not have known.

They just don't mention anywhere that it's a church.
I didn't notice.

It's weird.

I mean, it's cool, I just... I just sort of can't trust them. But then, this is Buffalo. We're really mellow, even when we're religious freaks.
...
...
Except for the abortion clinic bomber. Yes, that was Buffalo.
You just never know with this sort of thing. Eeek!

From: (Anonymous)

Reed told me that was a fundie gathering spot, and I wasn't quite sure whether she was yanking my chain or not.

However, there's a Monkees tribute band playing on Saturday. Just goes to show ya, the Faithful are never quite safe from the works of Satan.

darius

From:

dragonlady7.livejournal.com

Well, it's an important venue. Most coffee shops with a working espresso machine don't have seating for 200.

I just had never put two and two together. I figured, you know, they put on plays or something. Why not? Real estate's cheap in Buffalo, especially when it's that far out in the suburbs of Buffalo.

They're really, really, really low-key about it, though. I have to give them that. I honestly had no idea.

From:

galadhir.livejournal.com

It doesn't make sense without interpretation, that's true, but on the other hand if they haven't tried to convert him yet or even handed him any pamphlets, it may be that they're genuine about simply providing a place where people can go and write a book or whatever. I mean, if they're not doing church services, or preaching at him, why is it a problem?

Congratulations on the roaring start on Nano!

From:

dragonlady7.livejournal.com

> why is it a problem?

Yes, that's what I'm thinking. Slowly. I'm utterly shocked to discover that they're a church, because I have been conditioned by a combination of pop culture and bad experiences to believe that churches like that are very focused on recruitment and evangelizing and what-not, and they... simply haven't...

And so I'm slowly coming around to the thought that I... might have to take them at face value. Really, truly, they're just running a coffee shop where people can get together, and their church services are just on Friday nights, and the rest of it's just about having some good coffee and a place to chill and a performance space and art gallery, because these are good things whether or not Jesus's name is continually evoked.

But I... I'm still deciding how I feel about that. See, I myself am Catholic, and while not exactly lapsed, am somewhat inactive. (Rollergirls practice conflicts with church, and rollerskating makes me feel even better than church does. I figure it's a sign.) But there are so many people around calling themselves Christians and doing awful things that I'm really reluctant to call myself one. And I know how horrible that is, but especially right now in this country there is a lot of throwing around of the word God to justify horrible things, and a lot of my friends are very leery of it.
And so I'm a little Christianity-gunshy. It makes me nervous when it pops up somewhere unexpected.

Which is so horrible, and so entirely contrary to what the Church is supposed to be, and what I was raised to believe of my faith, but there it is.
So it makes me really, really, really nervous when someone is really really excited about Jesus but doesn't jump around and yell about it. Cuz I just don't know what they're up to. I have known so many, so so many hypocrites, that it is very difficult to believe that not everyone is one.

I think I'm recovering from the shock. I certainly will go back. But... honestly... I had no idea it was a church, but the website is so so so very unambiguous. The sarcastic baristas are all volunteer staff!! OMGWTFBBQ my head a splode.

Mostly it's probably because the obnoxious hypocritical ones get in your way and keep you from noticing the quiet, sincere believers. I'm sure that's what it is.
But what a shock!
A pleasant shock, upon reflection.

From:

galadhir.livejournal.com

I know what you mean! Part of the reason why I'm not freaked out is that my own church runs a coffee shop during the week (in the church hall, not the actual church), essentially as a community service, so that people who have nowhere else to go can go there, read a few magazines, have a very cheap scone and while away an afternoon - maybe meet people and find friends etc. It's not seen as anything more than just doing something for the community because that's what we're supposed to do. (And I quickly add that I'm far from being a fundementalist - my church is Church of England, the famously wishy washy liberal one.)

But on the other hand, when I wrote my essay on why slash was not anti-Christian, and began to get involved with various GBLT Christian groups, I encountered some of America's rabid fundementalists myself, and I had had no idea before this of what scary people they were! One of them (while calling me 'my dear friend' went so far as to claim I must be possessed - simply because she could not wrap her mind around the idea that passages in the Bible ought to be interpreted in the light of the culture they came from and preferably in context and in their original language, oh, and that human reason could also be involved in the process.)

Since I got involved with the fight for gay Christians to be affirmed in Church, I've had my eyes opened to the level of religious hatred and hypocracy out there. We fortunately do not have that level of fundementalism over here as yet, but yes, my God! It is terrifying, and it's very very worrying that there are signs that our churches might be moving that way.

But of course, as you say, it doesn't mean that they're *all* completely barmy. Some of them must surely be actually listening to the call to love ones neighbours and not to judge them. It's just unfortunate that they're not standing up and opposing the others.

From:

dragonlady7.livejournal.com

And I apologize if I come across as attacking Christians at any point-- I know you are one, but I also know you are a true, genuine one, and I have been deeply moved by your explorations of the meaning of love, which as far as I was raised is what the faith is meant to be about. I certainly am not saying this is true of Christians-- only a certain, painfully loud subsection of people who call themselves such and yet instead of love preach only hate.

From:

galadhir.livejournal.com

Thank you! That's such a nice thing to say! Now if only I could manage to practice what I write, I'd be doing OK :) *g* But no, I know. Up until a couple of years ago, I'd never really encountered the scary, condemnatory, rabid h8er side of the church before. I very naively assumed it was full of people who were doing their best to live up to Christ. Little did I know! Since then, though, I've been following the debate about homosexuality, and seen the lying and the sheer bigotry that some so called Christians engage in, and I would not hesitate to apply the word 'evil' to that kind of fundementalist religion. Which is a sad thing to say.

So I know exactly where you're coming from - it's just that although they may think they represent the purest form of Christianity, there are pockets of the real thing still going on. (Interestingly enough, often brightest and most incredibly moving in the GBLT churches. I sometimes think that one day the MCC will be the only genuine church left.)

Sorry, I'm waffling now, when 'no offense taken' would have done just as well :)