neurological dryer lint

so i saw saved! last night... absolutely brilliant. almost painful at times. the portrayal of the Christians in that movie is slightly exaggerated but completely honest. if you've seen the trailer, it's pretty evident the direction they're going with it. and it's a good thing - there are a lot of people who act like the people in the movie, and those people should see the movie and hopefully the way they appear to the general public will seep in. it spotlights a lot of the things that the Christian subculture has shown society and are deserving of mockery... the Jesus-ified shirts, the trying-to-be-hip youth pastor (if that's ever me, please kill me)... most of all the people who try on the outside to be holy and righteous and in the process miss the entire point, and distance themselves from the rest of humanity. i have seen so much of that in my life - probably one of the single reasons i was turned off by the whole idea of God. it wasn't until i met some people who were different, who really cared about me and my needs and not simply my answers to questions about Jesus. those were the people that attracted me.

now granted, there are a lot of people who are going to be offended by the movie. rightfully so. it hits close to home to a lot of people whose hearts are buried in the subculture, in the finger-pointing and holier-than-thou attitude, in the judgemental and vengeful, simply following the party line. they should be shaken up by the movie. then, they should consider how people in the world see them - the Jesus that they reflect. let me clear something up - NO ONE likes that Jesus. no one likes your religion. your system of rules turns people off, distances them from God and, guess what, GOD DOESN'T LIKE IT EITHER. there is a significant distinction between religion and following Jesus. people don't see that distinction, and i want so badly for them to. religion is evil, damaging to humanity, misleading. more guilt-inducing codes of morality. following Jesus is different. there is SO MUCH difference between the two. seeing it in the midst of the cloud of the Christian subculture is hard, almost impossible, but i feel like i can look at my community, my friends, and see people that avoid religion like the plague, but love Jesus and follow him.

okay i can rant about that for hours. :) in other news, check out oakhillsyl.org. i've been waiting for someone *ahem* to give me a redesigned front page for the ylcincy.org site for almost a year now, so that i can take it and add content and adapt it, because i'm a terrible web designer. i can steal other people's designs and modify them fine. and i wanted an easier-to-manage site for oak hills... so i built it yesterday. let me know what you think.

listening to: jack johnson - cookie jar