Anna Diehl #fundie

Anna Diehl #fundie 924jeremiah.wordpress.com

God is love, but He’s also wrath. He’s justice, but He’s also grace. How does that work? How can God love human beings so intensely and at the same time not be bothered by throwing so many of us into hell? How can He be so invested and indifferent at the same time? Because none of us have ever seen the entire picture of God, we often struggle to comprehend how all of our glimpses of Him can fit together. God teaches us all in a different order. When He gives you a glimpse of His love, then He follows that with a glimpse of His mercy and grace, these three things seem to fit together nicely. But then when He gives you a glimpse of His wrath or His fierce jealousy or His delight in revenge, the positive pattern you were getting used to is suddenly proven to be invalid and you feel like you’re starting back at square one with a bunch of confusion. Feeling in doubt about knowing God at all is a common response to Christians getting exposed to some new, shocking insight about Him. Yet if we are willing to be patient and trust our Teacher, we will experience Him neatly weaving all of our insights about Him together into some new, tantalizing shape.

11 comments

old comment by the_ignored

The irony? She actually has some good advice on how do deal with bullies.

Remember this critical point: bullies cannot afford to lose a fight. They can’t afford to have you appear to triumph over them verbally or physically. One triumph could cost them their entire alpha status, and all of those fans who seem so loyal to them now would immediately turn against them. People only follow bullies because they’re impressed by that phony act of confidence. That act makes the bully’s approval seem worth something. But once that act is exposed and the tough bully is proven to not be as invincible as everyone thought, suddenly no one wants his approval anymore. Suddenly everyone gets mad at the bully for lying to them and using them. Bullies can go from being kings to underdogs in a matter of seconds

There are postures that say “confidence” and postures that say “cowering.” Cowering postures give power to the bully, but confident postures give you the power in these moments. This is psychological warfare, and with the right approach, you will be surprised at how much ground you can gain. Don’t fall for the trap that if you don’t fight back, you will look weak. There are other ways to look strong. Silence paired with direct eye contact sends out a very noticeable message of strength. When people are afraid, they instinctively break eye contact, often by looking down at the ground. This is cowering posture, and when you cower in front of a bully, all of his fans say, “Wow, look at how powerful he is,” and they are afraid to cross him. But when you maintain eye contact, you look shockingly confident and everyone thinks, “Wow, look at how he’s daring to defy the bully. What happened to all of that great power?”

old comment by Glandu

@the_ignored

The only thing she misses is to notice her God as a bully. In her position, it's really not possible. If one day she does, she will be sooooo much better.

And thanks for the link. Very useful. I wish my parents had taught me that when I was a kid.

EDIT : now I did read your link fully. It's a f****ng masterpiece! If you bypass the occasional attack on atheists & evolution, it's one of the most major texts I've ever read.

Now, thanks to You, I understand many things better, and not only bullying. Anna Diehl is an expert in fighting bullying because she is constantly bullied by the perfect bully : God.

God is perfect because he does not exist. God is perfect bzcause his self-confidence can't be beaten. God is perfect because you cannot stand against him, and look him in the eyes. God is perfect, because there is no way you can't stop having him bullying you - besides fleeing him entirely.

And to flee something that does not exist? By daring thinking the unthinkable. Daring thinking he does not exist. That's much tougher than it looks.

Now that I know What Anna is capable of, I understand that genius, like every big achievement, can only come with a lot of work - and pain. Anna is completely victim of her imaginary bully. She is in great pain. And it helps her writing such masterpieces. She is impressive.

While the other common guys here, DoD, DJS, Ray, and so on, are just inferiors with no real interest, Anna Diehl is really suffering, but other than her fundie side, she's kicking ass. Worse, without her fundie side, she would probably not kick that much ass.

EDIT2 :

Her advice about "Don’t quote Bible verses and get all religiousbullies don’t understand this kind of language and it sounds phony. Just be nice without sounding like you’re trying to convert him." should be read by all fundies of the planet.