Bloody Mary Candyman

Longtime readers of this blog may have noticed that illiterately literal interpretations of the Bible are one of my pet peeves.

Especially when these readings involve interpreting a passage without any regard for context.

Especially when those promoting these clumsily crypto-literal interpretations maintain a proud and determined ignorance of how the passage in question has been interpreted by others, living and dead, for two thousand years.

Especially when those promoting such readings seem to think that the word "God" refers to some kind of lesser djinni who responds with the granting of wishes or the dispensing of vengeance depending on which magic words we incant.

And most especially when those ahistoric, illiterate, countertextual, anti-intellectual readings are used to market a product or to support the kind of dishonest, hard-sell proselytization that amounts to the same thing as marketing a product.

That's one reason why I don't like Tim LaHaye. It's also why I don't like the "Blasphemy Challenge."

I do not believe that saying "Bloody Mary" or "Candyman" three times while looking into a mirror will result in my imminent death. Despite what both LaHaye and the promoters of the Blasphemy Challenge seem to think, this does not make me an atheist.