Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Episode V: The Moonies Strike Back

For strike, read e-mail. At the start of this month I contacted the Moonies to ask a few questions around the logistics of their Messiah's prophecy of a God-mandated purge, ridding the world of homosexuals. I wrote in the style of someone concerned for staffing levels, and wondering if the proposed burnings would affect those in close proximity, or those who had merely experimented. You can read it here.

Their response was underwhelming. Despite their Messiah proclaiming that gays are dung eating dogs Patricia was unable to help me with a proposed tax refund claim for canine employees, or suggest dung recipes.

I'll reproduce it in full:
Geoff

Thanks for the time you invested in your mail. I presume you read hundreds of speeches to find your quote.

Pat
Interesting to note the absence of explanation or repudiation.

Anyway, I enjoyed writing the parody. As you've probably gathered I think there are those of faith who offer valid intellectual arguments - not ones I've found wholly convincing, but ones advanced by smart, rational folk that I feel need to be taken seriously and engaged with through conversation and proper research. That said there are some that are obvious farces, offensive to both reason and humanity, and those are deserving of ridicule.

As an added bonus I can knock out a spoof mail in under an hour, as opposed to the more serious pieces which need a fair bit of background work.

So, what do you think? Would you like to see more of these? Anything come across as offensive, dull, or poorly thought out? Should I have a go at the Hare Krishnas? The Moonie leaflet has contact details printed on it - should I put up a scan in case anyone wants to give them a call or an e-mail?

Do drop me a comment.

Thanks!

Geoff

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

still waiting patiently for that piece you promised a while back, comparing AA to rational recovery...
cheers
David George Taylor

Geoff said...

Hi David,

Did I promise? Drat, I do apologise. Also as I recall I just mentioned AA - I don't know much about rational recovery (or secular sobriety for that matter). I thought it would be something of a slam-dunk post, I read an article with some figures on AA's success rate which put them at about 5%, which is below the success rate of not seeking treatment.

There's also the fact that they're largely independent and autonomous groups which means individual chapters can develop some worrying behaviours.

Then, later research cast some doubt on the figures I'd found. Much more significantly I met a chap who'd been sober for 20 years, still attends meetings twice a week, and made a fairly convincing if anecdotal case that, while it didn't convince me entirely of AA's efficacy, definitely robbed me of my certainty to the contrary. Not that it hugely matters, but he's an atheist (raging antitheist, really) and considers the God reference to refer to Group of Orderly Drunks.

Personally, if my drinking worried me, my first port of call would be my doctor.

I'm afraid I'm not going to go ahead with that piece.

Unknown said...

There's nothing like a good, well thought out and reasoned response to get you thinking.

and that's nothing like a . . .

Fergal Breen said...

I love the Gay apocalypse! More please

Fergal Breen said...

I love the Gay apocalypse! More please