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A while ago now, I came across a YouTube video, “Betty Bowers Explains Traditional Marriage to Everyone Else". It was put out there as being really, really funny by a non-Christian friend of mine.
Naturally, I wanted to avoid it like the plague. Why? Because I could only imagine it was a vid of some uber-right wing-y, ultra-conservative Southern Baptist Christian Fundamentalist behaving badly—or perhaps not badly, but oddly.
Admit it, there are some of things about your group—whether it’s religious, ethnic, cultural, fannish, etc.—that just doesn’t make sense to outsiders, and/or confuses the newbies. Worse, once exposed to the harsh light of viral videos, it makes you look silly in the eyes of the ever-judging world.
I thought the Betty Bowers vid was one of these. Either she was a genuine Christian doing things that non-Christians don’t understand (and that even we realize look strange to non-Christians) or she was cultural-Christian making genuine Christians look bad with her poor theology.
That’s what I thought. I was wrong.
My curiosity is never-failing, and I often click on things that I, at first, tell myself I won’t or shouldn’t. You guessed it. I clicked on the Betty Bowers link, even though I didn’t want to. I steeled myself to be embarrassed. I steeled myself to laugh in spite of myself, and frown immediately thereafter. I had steeled myself for the wrong things.
If you haven’t already watched the video, it’s a satire that's basically poking fun (and that’s stretching the idea of what “poking fun” is) at Christians and the idea of Christian marriage. The actress, since I’m presuming her real name isn’t “Betty Bowers,” starts the video by telling us that not only do the “heathens” not know what a Biblical marriage is, but clearly the Christians don’t either. Then she proceeds to give examples of what a “Biblical” marriage is.
Except, for the most part, they aren’t Biblical marriage.( Read more... )
Naturally, I wanted to avoid it like the plague. Why? Because I could only imagine it was a vid of some uber-right wing-y, ultra-conservative Southern Baptist Christian Fundamentalist behaving badly—or perhaps not badly, but oddly.
Admit it, there are some of things about your group—whether it’s religious, ethnic, cultural, fannish, etc.—that just doesn’t make sense to outsiders, and/or confuses the newbies. Worse, once exposed to the harsh light of viral videos, it makes you look silly in the eyes of the ever-judging world.
I thought the Betty Bowers vid was one of these. Either she was a genuine Christian doing things that non-Christians don’t understand (and that even we realize look strange to non-Christians) or she was cultural-Christian making genuine Christians look bad with her poor theology.
That’s what I thought. I was wrong.
My curiosity is never-failing, and I often click on things that I, at first, tell myself I won’t or shouldn’t. You guessed it. I clicked on the Betty Bowers link, even though I didn’t want to. I steeled myself to be embarrassed. I steeled myself to laugh in spite of myself, and frown immediately thereafter. I had steeled myself for the wrong things.
If you haven’t already watched the video, it’s a satire that's basically poking fun (and that’s stretching the idea of what “poking fun” is) at Christians and the idea of Christian marriage. The actress, since I’m presuming her real name isn’t “Betty Bowers,” starts the video by telling us that not only do the “heathens” not know what a Biblical marriage is, but clearly the Christians don’t either. Then she proceeds to give examples of what a “Biblical” marriage is.
Except, for the most part, they aren’t Biblical marriage.( Read more... )