Thursday, October 14, 2010

Jesus in the Supermarket

We went grocery shopping to a local chain. When we came back, we discovered in our shopping bags two sheets of paper (for each person doing the shopping) containing some weird story about a Chinese person who "found the Savior" and the words "Thank you, Jesus!" written on top of the sheet.

I thought I've seen every weird permutation of showy, ignorant religious fanaticism in the years I've lived in the Midwest but, apparently, I still have a lot to learn about the lengths to which some people would go to impose their insanity on others. The condescension of these proselytizers who have the gall to impose their superstitious and racist idiocy about magical pictures that convert Chinese people to Christianity is scary. It's also offensive that I come to their store to make a purchase, which helps them to make money, and they insult my intelligence and invade my personal space with this vile rubbish. If their need to persecute people with this idiocy is so strong that they can't help themselves, they could at least have asked me whether I want them to put these silly leaflets into my shopping bags. But apparently, their fundamentalist preachers don't teach them to have respect for other people's space and property.

This supermarket chain has been forced to close down several of its stores in our area because Walmart proved to be the kind of competition they can't beat. I'm not a fan of Walmart, to put it mildly, but at least nobody there ever tried to convert me.

5 comments:

Pagan Topologist said...

Did you deliberately blur the image to make it unreadable? I am a bit curious what it said. As I have said before, the fundamentalist tradition was what I grew up in, and I had a very difficult and escape which took years. I still have lingering harmful aftereffects.

Clarissa said...

I took the picture with my cell phone, that's why it's blurry. The story is about a Chinese person who was given a magical picture where the face of Jesus is supposedly seen. The picture is provided on the other side of the leaflet and looks like one from a Rorschach test. So the Chinese person saw the face of Jesus in the picture and got converted. As hard as I tried, I didn't manage to see anything in those ink stains where the face of Jesus is supposed to reveal itself. But there is always hope. Maybe I'll try looking at it after a couple of drinks. I know Jesus would approve of that strategy. :-)

Pagan Topologist said...

I don't know...the image is obviously dangerous. With any luck, though, you will be immune and will not be harmed by it!

Clarissa said...

Well, as they say, if you are talking to Jesus, it means you are religious. But if Jesus strats talking bakc, you are schizophrenic. :-)

The Chinese person in the leaflet heard a voice one day telling him to look at the weird picture to see the face of God. I'll see if I start hearing voices.

NancyP said...

Don't assume that the business owner or manager is providing the inserts. The bagger or cashier or random shopper could be dumping inserts into any bag in sight.