| “I went to the website that sells [your Dress Up Jesus] and asked them to quit selling them.” |
Subject: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
My name is Tracy Hargett
I am a devout Catholic and have been for many years. I saw a picture of one of your “Dress Up Jesus” magnets on Facebook and was completely appalled. I went to the website that sells them and asked them to quit selling them (Free Radicals, a store in Albuquerque). I then went to your website b/c of a comment that someone else left on the photo. It turns out that you have been turning out this garbage since 1999, over 10 years. Don’t you think it’s time to give it a rest? Don’t you think it’s time to give YOURSELF a rest? You look like a fairly young guy from the photos. Turn things around for yourself NOW before it’s too late and you really ARE in Hell. You seem to think that Hell is no big deal and Heaven is overrated. I can tell you that according to several accounts of the Saints that the reverse is true, at least about Heaven. Heaven is underrated and Hell is an eternity of misery that no human being could stand for 5 minutes if they were alive. The devil is not your friend. In fact, the devil HATES you. He laughs at you as you go around telling people that God is Fake.
I’m going to level with you. Are there times that I am not happy with God? Sure, here lately, every day since I am poor and have a hard life right now. Do I trust that this suffering that I endure is for the greater good and that “my reward will be great in Heaven?” Absolutely! It seems to me that you are a good businessman. There is nothing wrong with that! Just make your money without blaspheming Our Loud and Savior in the process. Sell bicycles, Start a coffee house, Open an office supply store. The possibilities are endless! And all the while, you don’t have to insult Jesus, and in fact you will have MORE CUSTOMERS because you will win over all the Christians. (There are more of us than there are of you. Hate to break it to ya.)
I need to go. I will go to Mass tonight and pray for you.
Tracy Hargett
Wilmington, NC |
| You know, I wake up to an email like yours this morning and it reminds me how lucky I truly am. For me to be able to wake up when I want, be my own boss, draw pictures for a living while at the same time able to express myself in so many different ways, I can’t believe I actually made this happen. My plan worked!
And what was the plan? Well, first off, DO NOT listen to what other people tell me will make me happy. Especially if those people aren’t happy! People LOVE to spread around the bad ideas they’ve thoughtlessly committed their lives to. “Get married, have babies, open an office supply store, commit to something that’ll last a lifetime, worship this god and bet all your chips on eternal paradise in the grave!”
Not succumbing to the constant pokes and prods of unhappy, struggling people and instead examining myself to see what I want made all this possible. Someone like Tracy hears that and thinks this means diving into a pool of irresponsibility until I’m penniless, hooked on crack & covered in STD’s. Of course staying sane and putting real serious thought into it is key. And that’s just what I did, and I’m doing something I adore!
I get a terrific joy skipping away from someone who’s draped themselves in chains and is begging me to do the same. It’s been over ten years now and I’m free of all that. If talking to yourself during mass and counting on heaven helps you bear your life, more power to ya. Keep at it. But I’m fine, no matter how much you wish I wasn’t.
Bob |
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Well okay, if you like to draw then DRAW SOMETHING ELSE. If you want to be your own boss and get up whenever, then there is nobody telling you that you cannot do that. You don’t want a marriage and children? Then don’t do it. All I’m telling you, and all that ANYONE has ever TRIED to tell you (I saw photos of the protests.) is to LEAVE JESUS ALONE. If you don’t want anything to do with Jesus then, unfortunately, that is your perrogative, albeit a BAD one. You do not have to go around telling people what a bad person Jesus is (and He is NOT!) and telling people what a great person Satan is (which you are DEAD, **DEAD** wrong!!)
You like the dress up kits? Do something ORIGINAL and make up your own character like Labyrinth the Troll and dress HIM up. It would be funny! Think about all the money the Harry Potter movies have made and they are filled with fictional creatures. I know what you are thinking – the Harry Potter movies and LOADED with witchcraft. Fine and true, and the few times my daughter watched them I said that all those monsters were fake and that kind of thing (magic, levitation) could never happen in real life. AND — None of the Harry Potter movies make a point to insult Jesus DIRECTLY as YOU DO. If they did, my daughter would have never watched a SINGLE ONE.
You can make a living and be your own man without insulting Jesus. You have NO excuses to the contrary.
Tracy Hargett |
| Wow Tracy, you are such a perfect example of what I’m talking about. Someone who’s so committed to their fears ruling every decision that reasoning and commonsense don’t even come into consideration anymore. You’re a stranger begging me to alter my life and gear everything I do towards the rumors you’ve been told of what comes after the grave. Rumors you’ve got not a clue if they’re true or not, and admittedly written by men! Human beings who have no more knowledge of what if anything lies after the grave than you or I.
And once again, you’re a perfect example of someone I’m elated I get to walk away from not having to bow to anything you’re trying to terrorize me into. This may come as a shock to you, Tracy, but I do not fall victim to each and every panic stricken fundie waving a god over their head. You can shake your chains all you want but to me this is clearly your problem. Not mine. Leave me out of your complete submission to fear. Jesus is make-believe. And worshipping make-believe is bad, not good. A perfectly reasonable excuse to the contrary.
You’re contacting stores trying to destroy my business based on myths you believe about a dead guy rising from the grave and flying into the sky without wings. Doing away with such unreason is another perfect excuse to the contrary.
Bob |
| “I wash my hands of you.” |
Bob,
I wash my hands of you. Whatever penalty you receive is all yours. I will bother you no more.
Tracy Hargett |
| As well as whatever rewards I receive are also mine. While your penalties are yours. Not Jesus’. Yours!
Lambasting scapegoats is yet another constructive excuse to the contrary. Plus it sounds delicious!
Bob |
| “Seeing as how Jesus, Mary, Joseph, St. Peter, My Guardian Angel, Pope Benedict the 16th, Father Burke, Sr. Isaac, St. Lucy, St. Michael the Archangel, St. Augustine, Sr. Faustina, my daughter and I are ALL ON THE SAME PAGE…” |
Seeing as how Jesus, Mary, Joseph, St. Peter, My Guardian Angel, Pope Benedict the 16th, my good friend Father Burke, Sr. Isaac, St. Lucy (my confirmation saint), St. Michael the Archangel, St. Augustine, Sr. Faustina, my daughter, and I are ALL ON THE SAME PAGE in terms of spirituality and what is right and what is wrong, I’m going to guess that my penalties are going to be A LOT FEWER than yours. The rewards in this life are nice, but THIS LIFE WILL END. And then what? Hell? I think not, if Jesus my Savior and I have anything to do with it.
My goal while here is to serve as many people as I can (and God, of course) hoping that in doing so I will spend an minimal amount of time in Purgatory and then an Eternity with all the Angels and Saints in Heaven singing hymns of praise and praying for those who still struggle to get by on Earth. I think this is a little bit better goal than making all the money you possibly can and offending every Christian who crosses your path.
Yeah, Bob – enjoy what you got here. Unless you change, I have a feeling that it is the only JOY you will ever have. And you know what? That’s really sad.
Tracy Hargett |
| You said “an minimal.” I believe before a word beginning with a consonant it’s supposed to be “a”. So it’s “hoping that in doing so I will spend a minimal amount of time in Purgatory.”
“An” is strictly before words that begin with a vowel.
I used to mess that up all the time too, but now when I see it it stands out like a sore thumb.
Just trying to help.
Bob |
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I swear to god, I believe Tracy’s got a point there Bob, why not open up a christian website and store and sell religious items, there’s got to be more demand for christian relics, effigies, crosses, scents. oils, prayer cloths, bibles, gospel tracts, candles, wax figures, hymnals, statues of angels and Jebus, key rings, coloring books, Jesus soaps, incense, pens, pen sets, pencils, erasers, jewelery, t-shirts, choir robes, baptismal pools, stained glass items, pictures of jebus, book holders, book markers, flashlights, toys, refrigerator magnets, collection plates, Nativity scenes, Noah’s Ark items, candies, it’s almost fucking endless and you can create most of those things yourself and with your connections. You could soon be filthy rich riding on the back of ole JC himself. Thank you jebus!!! And you don’t even have to be there to run it, get a devoted “true extian” like Tracy (there’s millions just like her or worse, well maybe not as insanely worse?) and they’ll run it for you almost for free because they are doing the lords work instead of you. Hell, I might just do that myself. It’s time to cash in on Jebus and his make-believe dad. God that’s sick I know, but money is god…lol
Oh yeah, but please keep this site going too, of course.
Oh I do love the bit at the end where, having complete failed to convince you that you’re unhappy, she spins on a dime and decides it is “really sad” that this fleeting glimpse of happiness is all you’ll have!
Of course as far as anyone knows a fleeting glimpse is the only opportunity Tracy will get too, and she’s spent a fair part of it begging God to only minimally penalise her in the afterlife and eschewing anything that might conceivably increase her imaginary punishments, or worse damn her to an eternity of them.
Poor girl, the only way she could entertain some feeling of superiority over Bob was to make herself believe her imaginary friend won’t beat her up as much as he will Bob. Now that is sad!
Also, Nan & John Morningstar rock!
From which part of her puckered sphincter is she pulling the notions that you think that “Hell is no big deal and Heaven is overrated” or that you “go around telling people what a bad person Jesus is and telling people what a great person Satan is?” Haven’t you maintained from the very beginning that you thank all of the above are imaginary?
I don’t get it. Even this idiot thinks that she will be punished by god. Even though she is trying her best to appease him, she is ok with being punished for her efforts? Sad. I hope people with this level of delusion are a dying breed.
That’s the other thing too. So many Christians really don’t understand what atheism means. Many of them seem to think that we atheists actually DO believe god exists, yet we choose to stray from him. Infact, some of them even think that we worship Satan. When are they really going to get this whole concept of atheim? We don’t believe in Supernatual bullshit which includes religion. Show me evidence and I will hop on board. There is no god, there is no Satan. Ray Comfort has difficulty understanding the fact that people don’t believe god exists too.
The definition of atheism in most dictionaries is what hurts the position of atheists.
atheism. The denial or the disbelief in the existence of God.
It exclaims as if the existence of a God has already been established and a proven fact, therefore the atheist willingly refuses to believe in God because of his/her own stubbornness and don’t want to be subservient under god’s rule and wants to be his/her own god.
Which really has nothing to do with why an atheist does not believe in a god or any gods, it’s mainly because all gods and invisible beings and demons and angels and myths all look identically the same, you can’t tell them apart, therefore they do not exist.
Steven is right about that definition being an obstacle, but I find it so for a different reason. I actually had a friend (?) dismiss my opinion on a subject (completely unrelated to atheism) by saying “well, you don’t believe in ANYTHING…….). What I have to point out is that I believe that there is no god as strongly as they believe in one. Furthermore, I’ve had no doubts about my belief for the last third of a century, something most Christians cannot claim, so my I consider my belief as stronger than most of theirs.
If monotheism is the belief in one god, and polytheism is the belief in multiple gods, then atheism should be defined as the belief in no god.
How’d you get her to dress like a granny?
Interesting point Mikey. However, to add to the misconception, most atheists , as well as religious people, in addition to their ‘traditional’ beliefs or lack of beliefs, also have a personal theory on what the real story is. That’s why no two christians seem to fully agree on what the bible says. It’s more personal than anything. Each individual interprets their own bible or religion the way they WANT to, conveniently ignoring parts they don’t like, and accepting the parts they do like.
Atheists are the same in that sense. Sure, the atheist perspective only means one thing and that is the lack of belief in god. BUT, since I don’t have an answer as to what this existence is, or if it has a purpose at all, I find that making claims about ANYTHING beyond the limits of our lives is always speculatory. Even to say “When we die, there is nothing else.” I find that to make that claim, I still would need evidence to guide me to that conclusion. So, instead, we (or I do anyway) try to imagine what the answer is. There are so many possibilities as to what this existence is, it’s pretty easy to fantasize and come up with something that atleast ‘fits’.
Hee hee. Our “Loud and Savior.” That’s a treasure of a typo.
And now, to demonstrate that Tracy Hargett belongs in a mental institution, let’s just replace a few words in her simultaneously hilarious and depressing little rant:
Seeing as how Lord Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy (my confirmation saint, in the Cult of Snoopy), My Snoopy-Authorized Magical Ghost protector, the Leader of the Cult of Snoopy, my good friend Snoopy-Reverent Tidwilly, St. Woodstock the Archangel, my daughter, and I are ALL ON THE SAME COMIC BOOK PAGE in terms of spirituality and what is right and what is wrong, I’m going to guess that my penalties are going to be A LOT FEWER than yours. The rewards in this life are nice, but THIS LIFE WILL END. And then what? Hell? I think not, if Snoopy and I have anything to do with it.
My goal while here is to serve as many people as I can (and Snoopy, of course) hoping that in doing so I will spend an minimal amount of time in the dog house and then an Eternity with all the Peanuts Gang and Snoopy in Heaven singing hymns of praise and praying for those who still struggle to get by on Earth. I think this is a little bit better goal than making all the money you possibly can and offending every Snoopyist who crosses your path.
“Seeing as how Jesus, Mary, Joseph, St. Peter, My Guardian Angel, Pope Benedict the 16th, my good friend Father Burke, Sr. Isaac, St. Lucy (my confirmation saint), St. Michael the Archangel, St. Augustine, Sr. Faustina, my daughter, and I are ALL ON THE SAME PAGE …”
Most of those people are imaginary! Poor Tracy, all she has in this life are her imaginary friends and some deluded humans. She has never even met the Pope, probably never will, and if she does, he will not remember her from a wad of spit on the ground.
And then there’s her notion that she is going to spend time in some awful, terrifying place for awhile before going to heaven, even though she tried her best to please God. This is like beating your child for an hour because he got all A’s on his report card, but there was that one B that he got in the last grading period, and he has to be punished for that. Tracy worships a dickhead.
atheism. The denial or the disbelief in the existence of God.
Which dictionary seriously printed this? This isn’t even an accurate definition; “God” (with a capital G) is the name of the character in the collection of fairy-tales known as “The Bible.” So if this is the “de-facto” definition, that would be a pretty narrow definition of atheism (e.g. Hindus are atheists?). Atheists philosophically debate the concept of ‘god’ (or ‘gods’), not ‘God’.