Thursday, March 17, 2011

Japan's Honesty: 10 Gloaters: 0

















Anyone who has seen Big Bird in Japan knows the shorthand for Japanese culture: They're so honest and disciplined! They're a collective society! They value the group over the individual! Of course they're not going to steal anything after the most devastating natural disaster of their lifetimes—unlike those undisciplined thieves in post-Katrina New Orleans and post-earthquake Haiti. Even if they're desperate for food, the Japanese will still wait in line for groceries.
                                                                                                                 - Christopher Beam, Salon


I've just posted an article on members of the Christian Right gloating over prophecies ignored by Japan. The arguments range from "God punished Japan because of atheism" to "God shook Japan because it's shaped like a dragon." Thankfully, Japan has not listened to any of these inane comments. Japan is a self-confident and self-disciplined society and despite the tragedies, it has had very few instances of looting. 


Hmmm. Wouldn't an ATHEIST, GODLESS, BUDDHIST, CONFUCIAN country like Japan be in complete chaos with looters everywhere? 


The Gloaters are going to have a tough time explaining this one.

Because Gloating For God Is Soooo Good!: Jacobs, Joyner, Pierce and TamtamPam Delight in Japan's Tragedy

Righteous Indignation Update:


 - Cindy Jacobs thinks Japan's tragedy was warranted because it's shaped like a dragon.
 - Rick Joyner thinks that demonic forces have been unleashed by Japan's downfall.
 - Chuck Pierce simply says: "I told you so!"
...And TamtamPam comes clean, possibly too late.


I can't accuse Cindy Jacobs, Rick Joyner or Chuck Pierce (all prophets) of being what I call "God's Ambulance Chasers" simply because while insulting Japan during its recent tragedies they did not ask for donations of any kind in relief for Japan. They didn't rain Bibles upon the beleaguered country either. Instead, they cut right to the core of the matter and insulted Japan directly and without mercy by ... gloating.


They gloated about Japan not heeding warnings for its evil ways, its idolatry, its demonic Hello Kitty* They said that Japan's atheism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Shintoism, brought about the events in Japan just as surely as if Japan had directly asked for them from God.


Cindy Jacobs

I have personally felt that one of the reasons Japan was such a hard group for the gospel was the fact that they have had a direct link with the Imperial family and a direct link with the sun goddess, Amaterasu... this link with Amaterasu and sun worship was reinstated in a ceremony in which the new Emperor once again participated and "spent the night with the goddess" after eating the sacred rice.
On the other hand, if you look at it another way, this island, Hokkaido, looks like the head of a dragon with the body being the rest of Japan. The people of Asia have worshipped the dragon for 5,000 years.
This from a woman who sees herself as a latter-day Oracle of Delphi, babbling in "tongues" she can't interpret (and hopes no on else can either). 

What Jacobs doesn't seem to comprehend is that the Emperor of Japan's role in government is strictly symbolic and that the dragon symbolizes many things in Asia but has seldom been actually "worshiped."

Chuck Pierce went to Japan to put the fear of God into them in 2005 and God told him that Japan would be shaken and brought to its knees because it was a "stronghold of spiritism"** Nobody told Pierce that spiritism died out in Japan about 1920 although it was more plausible than, say, Scientology. 

Rick Joyner stated that the earthquake and tsunami will eventually unleash demonic Nazism in America, because in order to shore up its collapsed economy, Japan will call in America's debt and ruin America, catapulting the country into the talons of evil.

Joyner's visions (he once met with Jesus and the saints - although he couldn't tell which ones) have entertained people for years. He has not met with approval in Japan, however. 

People like Jacobs, Pierce and Joyner are not new to the nation-insulting scene: Pat Robertson capped a terrific career as an insulter with his - now iconic - Haiti-made-a-pact-with-the-devil statement. But at least he still requested aid for Haiti! These people don't even pretend to have any semblance of compassion for Japan. After God's Ambulance Chasers do their dirty work for them, they may deign to visit the Land of the Rising Sun and haughtily declare their august presence, ready to receive adulation as "prophets." 

Yes, we should send our apologies to Japan along with disaster relief. Just don't look for them in these unholy three.

TamtamPam

The video you're about to see below is one TamtamPam (screen name) who delights in "trolling" YouTube*** This video (as intended) riled a lot of people because: a. they thought the video was for real and hated the insults heaped upon Japan and its disasters and b. they found out it was a ruse to get them to feel that way. 

Parody is for the sake of laughter and comic release of tension. It is done with broad strokes to the character or situation. Sheer imitation, no matter how good, however, is not parody and should never think of itself as such. Pam's was a virtuoso performance in that she captured a person we knew could actually be like that: a dippy teenager so filled with righteous glee at the tragedy of others. She was like the offspring of people like Joyner, Jacobs, and Pierce. 

Had she properly labeled the video parody or done it in broader strokes (although one cannot see how much broader she could get in imitating such a dip), she might now be getting offers from Hollywood or Saturday Night Live. Her performance, however, backfired because the torrent of "flaming" she unleashed became too much. I don't know whether to applaud her or scold her for the video. I'll let you decide. A rather pertinent observation from one viewer:
If people ignored trolls, the trolls wouldn't get the attention. Without the attention there's no point in being a troll. I've riled people up for fun before and it is indeed fun. Seeing people rage over someone else's opinion, regardless of what it is, is amusing to almost no end. Rather crude to use this event to do it, but it worked; she's queen of the trolls now.

*Under the category of "I'm not making this sh*t up": Hello Kitty was believed to be created by a couple who made a contract with the Devil in order to save their daughter from cancer. 
**wikipedia: The main characteristic of Spiritism is its emphasis on the study and investigation of the Spiritist Doctrine in its triple aspects, scientific, philosophical and religious (moral).
*** wikipedia: Troll:  an internet term for a person who, through willful action, attempts to disrupt a community or garner attention and controversy through provocative messages