Operation Bipartisan Hummus

3/17

I find something some members of my family participate in morally repugnant.

… all kidding and criticism I’ve previously made against the Christian right conservative wing of America aside … (But all of those words as adjectives of a big mishmashed group of blankity blank should just not intermingle anyway. ANYWAY)

Briefly: I have an aunt who is a devout Christian zealot. She came to Jesus in her late twenties/early 30s. She believes every one should share these ideals. To give myself just as harsh judgment, I’m a control freak who thinks the world would run oh so much better if it would just succumb to all of my demands.

Well really, only sometimes. But I think that is normal.

So today I got up early on my spring break and drove a few hours to have lunch with my Auntie, because she has been asking me to come down and I do like spending time with her. Usually we end up having a good time.

We were going to go shopping (we need all kinds of new house shit—we are moving, pitching the ancient not to mention the things we’ve used and had since our first marriages—you just don’t need the same crappy spatula, frying pans, wall hangings, etc, you’ve had for ten years) but I ended up going with my parents. Kind of lame, sure, but C stayed behind and worked his ass of packing shit up. Hey, I do my share plus he has more time off, so there. Hey, isn’t it ridiculous that I feel I have to answer to why I shopped instead of helping my hub. Everything was on sale, okay? But I did get to shop where the really rich white people go, yay.

On the ride to the restaurant, Christian soft rock blared in her minivan. She honestly just likes listening to it, really; she doesn’t want to brainwash anyone. We carried on what seemed to be a normal conversation, but it did revolve around my grandparents, which is normal. My grandparents are pretty much a couple of pissed off old folks and frankly I don’t think they like my aunt for whatever reasons. For example, they haven’t been eating properly; they haven’t even kept food in the house while remaining pretty much reclusive most of the time. They do get out to gamble, however, so I’m sure they stock up then.

Out of good will, my aunt went and bought them groceries to keep in the house. She got a bunch of deli stuff, ready to eat salads and meats and stuff. I could eat like that three days out of the week I think. They were happy to get the food, but pissed that she took the money to pay for it (which was only $100) out of their account. They are probably both a little unstable and they don’t like something about her. Kind of a fucked up thing to feel for your offspring, I guess, but I couldn’t vouch for that. My mom said she never really felt loved by them, and I think she’s moved on quite nicely from that revelation, relatively speaking.

To cut to what it is I have a problem with, my aunt and her husband are missionaries. Yeesh. Their groups go and build churches (in Haiti and soon, possibly, Jamaica) that are half regular church and half outdoor covering so that they can preach to them the gospel before going into the covered church that serves as a health clinic. Yes, they indoctrinate before they medicate! Isn’t it a wonder that people get pissed off about this business and kill missionaries (I’m not saying assassins' reasons are noble, however, duh).

And this is normal, respected behavior in their clique.

I’m rusty on all my bible skills, but I’m sure that’s wrong even in their book.

Why not form some multireligious council, and if the people in an impoverished country really do need outside medical help, build a fucking hospital and set up a stand with multi denominational information. Not forced on anyone. Yeah, that won’t happen. This, the here and now, seems to be an expected result after fucking with so many of these countries. Might as well try to pseudo-heal it.

Other bubbles have started to leak recently. I hope American arch-conservatism is next; it gives me the heebie jeebies.