rhinoceros

Behind me two women talk about their “awesome” pastor. In front of me another woman reads with the Life Application Bible and a Josh McDowell apologetics text called “A Ready Defense” stacked next to her. The parking lot is full of ichthyomobiles.

The groupthink is dreary. I feel like the last one in Orange County who’s not an evangelical Protestant Konservative Kristian Klone.

BUILDING A PLATFORM TO HERCULES

My favorite insane cult from the 1980s is the CHURCH UNIVERSAL AND TRIUMPHANT, led by Elizabeth Clare Prophet. Her books were in the weirdo section and I was always fascinated. There was something about St. Germain, and new Christian prophecies, and aliens, and everything.

Like everyone else they had a compound. Theirs was by Yellowstone and they stockpiled weapons waiting for the inevitable pseudo-Christian apocalyptic disaster.

Ms. Prophet had a unique preaching style, and fortunately a recording of one service at least survives. This is from my 20th birthday! Many of you will have heard one of these tracks (“invocation for Judgement”) because it’s an attack on rock music that lists a long series of popular bands in 1984 that must be destroyed, and are comically mispronounced (Cindy Looper, etc.).

Decree 12.10 is only for completists, as it’s basically 27:57 of deranged cattle auctioneer/martian hoedown/speaking in tongues. The others are great though. If you just get one, get #4, the Great Divine Rector’s Call. Please download rather than streaming, and mirror if you want to share.

The Sounds of American Doomsday Cults: The Church Universal and Triumphant

  1. Dedication To The Tackling Of The Beast And The Dragon — The Momentum Of Rock’n’roll
  2. Call For Protection
  3. Video Shorts With Two Announcements (Excerpt)
  4. Preamble — Great Divine Rector’s Call
  5. Invocation For Judgement Against And Destruction Of Rock Music
  6. Decree 12.10
  7. Decree 10.05

THE GOAT IS ON THE POLE

goat

Goatonapole is the philosophy of being that holds that there is a Goat and a Pole and that the Goat is on the Pole. In the relation of Goat and Pole we Goatonapolists find an eternal thread of unfathomable cosmic significance, a point of reference in which all opposites dissolve into a unity of infinite breadth, a universal truth underlying the very fabric of existence. Upon contemplation of the Goat, the Pole, and their relative positions, one cannot help but realize that we’ve always been talking about Goatonapole. Whether we accept, reject, or live in ignorance of Goatonapole, we are all Goatonapolists.

http://www.goatonapole.com/

From the Christian Aquarium: Games

Cactus Game Design specializes in board games for the churchy. Following the rule that everything in the secular world must have a Christian knock-off, they’ve been proud to bring us Redemption: The Gathering®, which takes the nerdy card collector game a step further into evangelically sound nerdiness.

prominent women are evilA quote from the rules:

Special abilities on sites are not affected by character or enhancement cards. New Jerusalem (Site Card), Dragon Raid, and Promised Land are mainly used offensively as “access sites” and therefore their special abilities are written to take effect when they enter battle and at no other time. All the single color sites are mainly used defensively as “lost soul sites”. The special abilities on single color sites like Nero’s Realm and Leper Colony are written to take effect when they are holding a lost soul. Therefore, if you are using an “access site” defensively or a “lost soul site” offensively the special abilities don’t activate.

From a sample game:

Kurt
Draw 3: (Servant Angel, Lewd Men, Lost Soul). Lost Soul in Land of Bondage, draw
replacement (Angel of the Lord).
Prep: Lost Soul in Tree of Knowledge site.
Battle: Rescue attempt with Angel of Revelation (8/8 silver hero). Bryon blocks with
Oppressive Women (7/7 gray evil character). The evil character is losing, so Bryon has initiative.
Bryon plays Deluge of Rain (Gray enhancement “Discard all cards in battle, including yours.”).
Kurt has no silver enhancement that can negate that effect, so all cards in battle are discarded.
This is mutual destruction by mutual removal, so no Lost Soul is rescued. The score is still tied
2 to 2.
Discard to 8: Kurt places Servant Angel, Servant Girl, and Guiding Angel in his territory.

Card image courtesy of this Flickr set from Chris Noessel.

The Love Van

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The Love Van, originally uploaded by conradh.

This vehicle loves you. In the Borders parking lot on 19th in Costa Mesa. Unfortunately the other stuff on the van was just conventional religious ranting.