A Christian cult of death - Part I

It's called Followers of Christ. It is located in Oregon City, Oregon. It has about 1,200 members. It is an independent church. The members believe in "faith-healing." It is a cult of death.

As you read this post, try to remember that we are living in the 21st century.

It's not easy to do. Millions, if not billions of people across the earth believe in an imaginary skygod, who lives "up" in a heaven, who made humans in his "image," but almost immediately became thoroughly pissed at them and caused all kinds of trouble for them, until one day he decided he really loved them, sinners though they be, and sent himself disguised as a Jewish baby (after impregnating a young maiden by himself as holy spirit), which people later called his son (really confusing the issue), to quickly grow up and roam the highways and byways of Palestine for either one or three years, depending upon which story you read, and then had his son/himself killed by either the Jews or the Romans, again depending upon which story you read and what your prejudices are.

After being crucified on a cross or a tree, again depending on which story you read, this skygod rose his son/himself from the dead, which is no biggie 'cause that's what skygods do. Then he took his son/himself back into the heavens where he rules in all his glory along with his son who is himself along with his holy spirit who is also himself. It is not yet clear what he rules or how he rules because he seems to have utterly no impact upon the people or events on earth.

Through various writers who wrote books authorized by the skygod, which were later called the Bible, the skygod explained that people didn't need to do what he/his son said they should do while he wandered around Palestine but rather they must believe that his/his son's death was a sacrifice for all the world. (That's rather fascinating as a few years before he descended upon the earth, the skygod made it clear to the bible people that he didn't care about sacrifices; what he wanted was ethical behavior.)

Nevertheless, the writers of what the Skygod said to call the New Testament re-introduced the concept of sacrifice for sin (a throwback to the skygod's pagan phase), and claimed the sacrifice of himself/his son is valid only if people confess their belief in the efficacy of the sacrifice. Those who refuse to believe or find the story too incredible to believe or perceive it too much like all the other skygod stories floating through time and space, will be designated as unredeemable sinners and consigned to hell where they will be subject to excruciating pain and punishment for eternity.

That's because the skygod so loved the world that he sent his son/himself so that all who believe in him/his son will obtain everlasting life in heaven sitting around the throne of the skygod and his son and his holy spirit all of which are himself.

The skygod, people believe, is omniscient as well as omnipotent. That means he is all-knowing and all-powerful. Evidently, the skygod told the bible writers to tell tall tales about how powerful he was, which they did. It's hard to believe those stories, though, especially when they report that the skygod told the bible people to kill all their neighbors except for the women which they could rape. We think the bible writers just made up a bunch of stuff. Too often it was the bible people who were beat up by their neighbors and/or were enslaved, and then their capital city and their temple to the skygod was burned to the ground. That's not even the worst of it. For the last 2,000 years the bible people have suffered constant persecution, culminating in the Holocaust during which six million were murdered. Today they continue to fight for the right to survive.

Very curious is the fact that much of the persecution of the people of the bible came at the hands of those who confessed their belief in the sacrificial death of the skygod/skygod's son. In fact they (known as Christians) thought for many years that it was their duty to kill, or at least terrorize anyone who didn't believe like they did.


Obviously we have several monumental problems here. First of all, the above scenario makes the skygod a horror and unworthy of honor. He is omniscient, so he knew from the beginning how things were going to work out and failed to made the necessary corrections. That makes the skygod/son/spirit culpable and guilty of homicide, genocide; every kind of cide!

Worse, the skygod, in spite of being all-powerful, has consistently failed to intervene to protect the people of the bible, sometimes known as his chosen people. He has also failed and continues to fail those who believe in the sacrifice of himself/his son on the cross for the remission of sins. The only conclusion that can be drawn is that the skygod is far more despicable and far worse a tyrant than any tyrant known on earth.


Consider those fools who believe in "faith-healing." When the skygod/son was on the earth, he/they talked about the importance of faith. Faith was powerful, they said. Faith can move mountains, they claimed. Many people understand this literally and even today pray hard to see a mountain move. So far it hasn't happened.

Others think the skygod/son were speaking metaphorically, and so they pray, not to move mountains, but for a better job, a better spouse, a better pastor, a better rabbi, a better house, a new car, money, an I-pod, and some pray to be healed of whatever hurt or disease is racking their body at the moment.


The other part of the faith-healing problem is that the skygod/son/spirit reportedly engaged in healing people of their ailments as they trudged through the Palestinian dust. It is only natural for people who believe in the skygod/son/spirit and their sacrifice for the remission of sins to believe that the skygod/son and now holy spirit in heaven would want to heal people today, too.

They don't. Because they're omniscient and omnipotent, they know all about diseases and they can heal anything they so desire. But they don't. Not to worry though, because all you have to do is believe in the sacrificial remission of sins (if you're Catholic, you can just eat the cracker, which after the priest says the magical words, becomes the body of the skygod/son/spirit) and you'll be saved after you die a normal death or a horrible death from a horrible type of cancer or some other unskygodly disease.

Not only do they choose not to heal, but when people pray to the skygod/son/holy spirit, they turn a deaf ear. In fact, some scientific studies have shown that if sick people know that other people are praying for them to the skygod in heaven, they get sicker!


As crazy as it sounds, and in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, there are millions (perhaps billions) of people the world over who continue to have "faith" in faith and in the healing power of the skygod/son/holy spirit.

One such group is the cult of death known as Followers of Christ in Oregon City, Oregon.

To be continued...