The Reverend Cannot Be Stopped!

I'm back. I decided to come here to do my blogging because quite simply, I don't have the patience to create another Myspace profile, and the last few blogs I posted on Myspace kind of got me in a heap of shit. So, here I am, as anonymous as I want to be - ready to say whatever the fuck I want.

If I told you about this blog site, congratulations! You're one of about 12 people that I've decided to share with. This means that I respect your opinion, and I don't feel like I'm going to offend you (not that I'm really afraid of offending anyone - I just don't don't like to argue with idiots because they drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience).

If you're just surfing the web and you don't know me, here's what you need to know. I call myself The Reverend because I am an Ordained Clergy Person with the Church of Spiritual Humanism. Now, it is true that the Church of Spiritual Humanism will let ANYONE become ordained, but it's something that I actually take seriously. I take it seriously because I believe in the foundations of Spiritual Humanism. If you've never heard of Spiritual Humanism, you can read all about it at www.spiritualhumanism.org, or I can just tell you the basics right here. The basic dogma consists of the belief that Humans are spiritual beings, with an innate need to be in touch with a sense of spirituality. However, we stand firmly behind the Humanistic ideals of logic and reason, and will not ever preach any spiritual idea as "absolute truth" unless it can be empirically verified. It's a lot like a church for agnostics - though I myself am a little more on the atheistic side than the agnostic side. We support any religious activity that promotes peace, love, and the betterment of Humanity - and I for one vehemently oppose any religious activity that works against those things. I could go on, but this is not a blog about Spiritual Humanism. I just thought it might be important for you to know a little bit about where I am coming from.

So, continuing in that direction, it is also going to be important to understand the rest of my religious background. I grew up as a Christian. When I was about 18 I started getting very serious about it. I began faithfully attending church and bible studies, and then gradually I began getting heavily involved in ministry. I was a youth group leader for about four years, and served on various praise & worship (that's "music" for all of you non-church people) ministries for about seven years. During that time, I played guitar for a pretty popular local Christian rock band here in the inland-northwest. We recorded a couple of CDs and toured the Northwest twice. While I was in that band, I played at literally scores of different churches - from all denominational walks of life. I say all of this to let you know that I feel like I've had the opportunity to get a pretty well-rounded view of the American Christian faith - and I've moved far, far away from it. There was no traumatic incident, no light bulb. I just started to really investigate my own faith, and discovered that when I am honest with myself, I can't really believe any of the things that I learned while I was a part of the church. I also say all of this to let you know that when I bash the Christian church - which I will probably do quite often on this blog - I am not just talking out of my ass. The point is, I've lived it - probably more purely than most of the church people out there - and I've come to the conclusion that I just don't buy it anymore.

In the wake of my self-imposed excommunication, I've started to look into Buddhism a bit, and I have to say that so far, I really like what I am reading. I should say, though, that even though the United States Air Force has me officially listed as a Buddhist, I've never had any formal training in it.

My role as an Ordained Clergy Person is simple: Officiate ceremonies and provide spiritual counseling. That's the part that I take very seriously. I have officiated weddings and am always up to do more. I have a lot of experience with spiritual counseling, and so I'm up for doing that as well. However, if you're looking for a pious holy-roller to meet your spiritual needs, I'm not your guy. I swear. I drink. I smoke cigars. I sin - and I don't preach against sin. The things I preach against are hatred, bigotry, injustice, intolerance, stupidity, narrow-mindedness, and absolutism.

So those are the essential elements of me, The Reverend Humpy. This blog will a lot of times read like a fiery sermon, but not the types of fiery sermons you're probably used to. I just like to rant and rave about the injustice and ugliness I see in the world. But don't worry, every once in a while I find some nice things to write about as well. Overall, I hope that you are enlightened, provoked, and most of all entertained by this blog. Feel free to chime in with your comments if you want, but I warn you - I have little tolerance for those who can't back up their arguments.

Finally, I would just like to send out a big FUCK YOU to my former employer, and The Man in general. I will not be silenced - especially by the likes of your imbecilic ass!

I am the Reverend Humpy and I have approved this message.