Jesus christ + energy
Why we can’t have interesting things.
A group of young men claiming to be Christians have posted a video of themselves tearing down a mysterious monolith that had appeared atop a California mountain and replacing it with a cross.
The monolith had been built near the town of Atascadero and sparked huge interest after the appearance of a similar silvery metal-faced monolith that had been discovered in the deserts of Utah.
The one in Utah was torn down by some random people.
Now the Atascadero monolith has met a similar kind of fate, according to a report in the San Luis Obispo Tribune newspaper.
In a video, which was livestreamed and posted online, the group of young men drive from southern California to tear down the structure. Under cover of darkness, they hike up to the structure and tear it down while chanting “Christ is king!”. They then erect a homemade wooden cross in its place and drag the remains of the monolith down the mountain to their car.
During the video, the men also make offensive comments and drink substantial quantities of energy drinks, while also referencing Donald Trump and the QAnon conspiracy theory and their mission is to demonstrate “how much we love Jesus Christ”.
Oh that kind of christian – the Trump-loving asshole kind.
The vandalism angered local officials.
“We are upset that these young men felt the need to drive five hours to come into our community and vandalize the monolith,” Atascadero’s mayor, Heather Moreno, said in a news release. “The monolith was something unique and fun in an otherwise stressful time.”
Energy-drinking Trump-loving young men have to ruin everything.
“…claiming to be Christian…”
Can’t have these miscreants sully the good name “Christian”, can we? I hate this stupid “no true Scotsman” quibbling.
“…young men…”
No quibbling there, no “claiming”, they are young and they are men, but we don’t mind that they sully the image of young people and men. They are obviously Americans, no “claiming to be Americans” or any such nonsense.
These young men I would say are probably inspired by some luminary Calathumpian televangelist like say, Jimmy Swaggart, preaching against anything that cannot be fitted into an approved evangelical context. Deserts, rocks and mountains all get a mention in Holy Scripture and are clearly God’s creation, but this metal monolith was just as clearly not created by God, because it is nowhere mentioned in the Bible. Never mind all the other things and kinds of things that don’t get a mention; this metal monolith was clearly placed there to be a mystery, like its counterpart in ‘2001 – A Space Odyssey.’
As it does not fit inside their worldview, they find it disturbing. It has to be disturbing, because they find their worldview to be very comforting, like the teddy bear they used to cuddle up with in their cot.
I wonder how many energy drink containers and fast food wrappers they littered the hillside with on their little mission of destruction. The obelisks are interesting, and also thought provoking, but evidently art provokes malicious thoughts in slobs.
I have seen some truly obscene crosses in my travels, both ponderously big and offensive at the same time. I think there are enough of those around.
The Utah one got taken down by weirdos yelling “not a trace” or some such, wasn’t it? Sounded like some people worried that too many people were trekking up and messing up the remote location.
I really like this construction, and I propose to use it wherever and whenever religion is mentioned.
“An old man, who calls himself ‘the pope’, and claims to be a Christian…”
“Several women, dressed in mediæval widows’ garb and claiming to be Christian…”
Let’s face it, if what Christians believe is true, then only God can tell who is actually following Christ (bloody few of them, from reading the accounts in the New Testament concerning what Christ is reported to have said) so the rest of us can only know that they are claiming to follow the religion.
If we do this routinely, no Christians can distance themselves from ‘not true Christians’, because all of them are merely ‘claiming’ to be Christians, unless they follow the rules in the bible exactly.
@BKiSA-
I belong to a wilderness group whose motto is “Leave No Trace” and we also pick up other folks’ garbage when and where we can. Maybe it was some of us. Did they ride in on horseback?
Did anyone tear down the cross? No need to drag it anywhere. You can’t drag it far enough anyway.
Tigger, I love it! Imagine the annoyance it would cause. You could mix it up with the occasional “so-called christians” or “calling themselves catholics” if you need a change. It’s funny, I’ve never heard this kind of unwillingness to call groups by their name unless they are Islamists – hence “so-called Islamic State”, but never “so-called IRA”.