Comment on Bobby won’t live long.
derfunkatron@lemmy.world 6 days agoWow, you’ might be serious.
I used to keep tabs on the weird religious stuff for fun, but most of it turns my stomach these days to the point that I can’t even laugh at it.
Definitely got super drunk and riffed on Kirk Cameron videos back when he had that Way of the Master series (e.g. the banana video).
I used to have a copy of Dianetics that you would have thoroughly enjoyed.
You should try to acquire a copy of a Mormon seminary textbooks. There should be a series of four of them: Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants/Church History (this is one is a gold mine). The Mormons apparently make them available as PDFs for the current versions, but the older ones are sure to be better.
I’ve got you tagged now as “collects weird religious stuff”. Congrats.
andros_rex@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Image
The most immediately accessible gems of the collection.
derfunkatron@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Bibleman and A History of Christian Hymnody are wildly different theological materials; what’s the criteria for your collection?
Do you study religions or is the there something else, like an aesthetic thing, that drives your collection?
Also, how much of this have you read and is there any of it that you believe?
Sorry for the barrage of questions, but I find the notion of collecting cult and religious media to be fascinating, especially if it’s for reasons other than faith.
andros_rex@lemmy.world 5 days ago
I have taken some classes in religious studies, although I don’t know if I can say I formally “study” it. But it has been a lifelong “special interest.”
I just grabbed Hymnody from the thrift store so haven’t read it yet. But yeah, I read most of them.
As far as criteria, it’s complicated. I get a lot of books by thrifting - there’s usually a lot of bulk generic Protestant stuff, which I don’t usually pick up because one probably could fill an apartment with just shit associated with the Left Behind series or the Purpose Driven Life. (Or I Kissed Dating Goodbye in that above picture, that just got pruned into an art project because I could get another one for $1 pretty easily).
I’m usually seeking ideas that I haven’t encountered yet or things that are so ridiculous and kitsch that they amuse me. (Which goes for my book collection as a whole.)
Ie, the value in that SDA textbook Light Bearers to the Remnant is comparing what SDAs claim about Ellen White and the Kelloggs to mainstream history, and it would be fascinating to write an article on. Or I grabbed a copy of modern reprint book from the 1800s that argued that the wine in the New Testament wasn’t alcoholic, and watching someone contort themselves in knots claiming that Jesus turned water into grape juice is amusing.
The really kitsch stuff I enjoy stoned. I’ll watch videos warning Muslim women of the evils of painting their nails (you can’t clean your hands properly for prayer apparently, because water can’t get to the nail) or Bibleman or those classic Mormon cartoons.
As far as personal beliefs, I’m something like a Discordian ultimately. I don’t really “believe” in her, but I have rituals I do to worship Eris. (She wants me to get stoned, pretend to be Jackson Pollock and commune with her by typing random letters in the YouTube search bar - which is what I want to do anyway. She’s an awesome Goddess like that.)
derfunkatron@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Amazing! Thanks for taking the time to share. I figured there was an aesthetic interest in addition to the morbid curiosity.
I went through a phase where I wanted to build a library of weird, bizarre, cult, occult, and outlandish books (which I why I had a copy of Dianetics among other religious texts). I abandoned the idea mostly because I didn’t want to dedicate space to books that I never wanted to read or felt repulsed by reading.
If you like kitschy and bizarre books, I recommend checking out the following (if you haven’t already encountered them before):
Telecult Power makes me laugh since it’s a how-to for developing telepathy and telekinesis. Apocalypse Culture creeps me out and reading parts of that book is like dropping into a conversation midway while no one cares to explain what’s going on.
MyFriendGodzilla@lemmy.world 5 days ago
A wild discordian appears! Eris is the best. Always keep your apples loaded my fellow pope. ＼(^-^)／