The Church of Green Day - Now that we are ordained...

[Verdure]

Good afternoon Brothers and Sisters,

First and foremost it is an honor and a privilege to be numbered among you.  Reflecting on the ordination certificate and what it means to me I really find this promotion to be a great opportunity to come together.  If you are not familiar with The Church of Green Day the great news is that as of right now while writing this post it is not too late to be ordained by the church.  Just click the following link and confess your favorite song from the new greatest hits album, God's Favorite Band.  

http://www.godsfavoriteband.com/

One thing I notice about the church is that there is no dogma, schedule of events, mass, or sunday school class.  What does this mean?  This means that it is up to YOU to evolve YOUR OWN worldview and spiritual opinions.  I confess I am a transplant from the American Christian church.  Guess what - many of the things I learned from my previous experiences I still hold on to today, but I absolutely do not endorse any institution who would try to dictate what one must or should believe.  Those are personal convictions or aspirations and nobody, AND I MEAN NOBODY, has the right to tell another human what to think or believe.  

So what then??  What is the point of this church??  What is the reason for this thread?  This is a topic to discuss how we can encourage one another with respect to our various views and opinions.  This is a topic where we can discuss our spiritual views in a non dogmatic fashion.  What are the bands that hold us together in unity as free individuals?

The Gospel, in my humble opinion, can be described as follows.  The Father is the source or origin who knows both good and evil yet is good.  I imagine the energies that create light... both positive and negative bringing forth illumination.  The Son is the radiance of the glory of the Father and the exact imprint of his very nature.  This is like the visible light that reaches our eyes and illuminates each one's personal path.  The Spirit can be described as the peace experienced when the light reaches us.  Without it we would be freezing cold and dead, but the warmth of the light reaches our inmost being and much of what we learn from it is what we express in our own affairs.  I can relate this to the Sun.  The Sun is its own entity; a furiously blazing star which our solar system is subject to.  Sometimes the heat can be overbearing, but the Sun is our direct source of light and energy.  The rays that radiate from the Sun actually reach us in around 9 minutes directly from the star!  The warmth... it is our life!  Yet the Sun is only one of maybe one hundred billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy and our galaxy is one of who knows how many in the universe.  Chaos and order are as one eternal mind colliding into the consciousness of the universe.  What is all that?  It is just some hippie shit in one man's head!  It isn't complete, it probably isn't accurate, and it is in everything I see down to the molecular level!

I believe in freedom, individuality, and as I grow older I believe in responsibility.  Lacking responsibility has nearly destroyed my life and I suffer from the effects of my own decisions to this day.  The best advice I can give is don't take my advice; just listen to yourself!

[Amanda]

Bless you.

The last paragraph makes a lot of sense, but everything before it just reminds me of the time I consumed some dodgy mushrooms back in the day.

[_Mace_]

This is amazing, thank you. And yes, I have already been ordained, and it's 100% better than the Catholic Church in my eyes. I always felt so trapped there, especially because I wasn't totally sold on the ideals.

Anyway, you've got a good philosophy I think. So does Green Day.

[Verdure]

19 hours ago, Amanda said:

Bless you.

The last paragraph makes a lot of sense, but everything before it just reminds me of the time I consumed some dodgy mushrooms back in the day.

Every time I read "dodgy mushrooms" these bubbling giggles manifest.  Thank you for the blessing, Amanda :-)

8 hours ago, E X H A U S T E D said:

This is amazing, thank you. And yes, I have already been ordained, and it's 100% better than the Catholic Church in my eyes. I always felt so trapped there, especially because I wasn't totally sold on the ideals.

Anyway, you've got a good philosophy I think. So does Green Day.

So does Green Day.  Yes... a punk rock band who just flew around the world bringing people together.  Hey, what song did you choose to confess?  

[_Mace_]

@aShithead, I chose Misery. You?

[Verdure]

5 hours ago, E X H A U S T E D said:

@aShithead, I chose Misery. You?

In contrast I chose Ordinary World.  I wonder how many people set out to make for themselves their own ordinary world just to find a world of misery. 


I found out that a friend of mine is an ordained Dudeist priest and their religion also has a lot of material (http://dudeism.com/).  It seems to be a great example of how ideas like this can take off.  Obviously The Church of Green Day has plenty of material that sings deeply to the soul... Over 25 years worth of rock'n'roll.

[Verdure]

Reflecting on events I put together a short meditation.

Super Mario Bros. 1 on the Nintendo Entertainment System had a unique feature that really puts reality into perspective.  You can only move forward.  The thing is... ahead of Mario are deadly obstacles.  He is being bombarded with pissed off turtles, Goombas, Hammer Bros, and even Koopas!  With all the things coming his way Mario is most likely going to die, but what choice does he have?  He is just like Wall-e... just keep moving forward!

Eventually it is victory or death... and either way you end back up at the main menu where you can play again or say, "F*ck this, I'm playing Duck Hunt."

[Beerjeezus]

^this is beautiful