Oh, hey, look at that alliteration I accidentally did with my title. Anyway…
I had lunch yesterday and the day before with two really good friends whose opinions I value and respect. For the last year, I’ve been toying with the idea of two different blog posts, but have been hesitant to write them. Ultimately, this is my blog and I can write what I want, but I also want to be respectful of other people and not come off as an angry bitch.
Both of my friends believe in a god. It isn’t an issue in our friendships and I doubt it ever will be. We can sit and hold conversations on a variety of topics and come away with a better understanding of each other and the world around us. We rarely get into politics or religion, but I purposely brought up the latter this time because the issue on whether I make certain posts has caused great strife in my head.
At issue are two files I have in my writing folder. One is called “christian repugnance” and the other is called “the company you keep.”
Christian repugnance is 18 pages of links and notes about repugnant pastors and youth pastors who have been arrested and charged with possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and/or raping children. My first entry was dated July 9, 2024. I had planned on only keeping track for a month and then writing a post. My mom’s accident was six days later. I finally wrote a 5-page post called “I’m going to piss you off and I don’t care,” in December 2024. It covered this topic from July to December 2024. It listed each disgusting human being and what their crime was. I never posted it.
In today’s world, we are told that drag queens and democrats are grooming children, yet over and over and over again we see it’s the ministers and republicans who are doing the damage. Yesterday, one of the news aggregator sites I visit had three stories about ministers who were arrested. There are two subreddits, called “pastorarrested” and “NotADragQueen, that keep track of these individuals. I don’t visit either because I see 4-7 headlines each week about these repugnant people just on the one site I visit.
There is also a 55-part link of members of the republican party who have been arrested for the same thing on Daily Kos. There is also this website, which has kept a list approaching 1,500 GOP predators. I haven’t even touched on famous people, such as Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Larry Nassar, Roger Ailes, Jerry Sandusky, Sir Jimmy Savile, Gerard Depardieu, Sean Combs, R.Kelly, Gabriel Matzneff, and many others who used their power and position to abuse others while others defended them, including people I know.
I guess my point is please stop telling me I’m going to go to hell, I’m a lesser human being because I don’t believe, and that the minister was “a good man” and I should think about his future. If he was good, he wouldn’t be raping children or trading pictures and videos of children being raped. Stop excusing this behavior. Just know that if you continue to defend such repugnant human beings, I don’t want to be around you and I will be judging you by the company you keep.
The other file, “the company you keep,” saw its first entry in mid-February 2025. It’s no secret I dislike the person currently sitting in the Oval Office. He is a 34-time convicted felon and adjudicated rapist who only ran for president to stay out of prison. He’s a conman, grifter, liar, cheat, and an example of all the kinds of people I do not wish to associate with. I started my file because it was quickly evident that he was surrounding himself with “yes men” and I saw how quickly people and organizations were bending the knee to him.
I thought I could use the file to help keep me sane with the barrage of idiocy each day, but it’s only snowballed into a 40-page list of horrible things he’s done and the people who happily stand by him. Again, I had expected to write a post about this and provide examples, but all it does is enrage me. I have chosen instead to write about the company I keep. That post will be finished in a day or two.
As I sat in Wonderful House and ate my divine egg drop soup, I realized I would rather have a conversation with my friend about the Oxford comma, discuss how she is doing after the passing of a loved one, discuss how we balance mental health and being news junkies and journalist at the same time, and to just catch up. She lives halfway across the state, so I don’t get to see her often. I blathered on about other things and two hours quickly flew by. I would have loved to have had the time to chat more, but she was only out here for two days and had about a dozen people she wanted to meet up with.
The next day I was again at Wonderful House (it’s one of two restaurants I can eat at and not get sick) with my other friend. I try not to swear too much around her, especially the f-word, because I know she doesn’t like it. I usually fail. She doesn’t hold it against me.
We had a three-hour conversation. Not all of it was about this stuff. But I had to get it off my chest. I knew she would listen and provide good feedback. I had to ask the questions and try to figure out what the right course for me is. Again, it’s ultimately my blog and I can post what I want. However, I don’t want to be that angry person who screamed and raged at the AM radio on the way to the Star-Herald each morning. That’s what these two topics have been doing to me.
That’s the cool thing about friends. You can bounce stupid shit and serious shit off them and they don’t think less of you. They listen, ask questions, provide advice. Then, I go home and think about everything and what is the right thing to do. It doesn’t matter to them what I eventually post. They will support me.
So thank you Barb and Stanna. Not only did I have two wonderful lunches, I got to spend time with two wonderful people whose opinions I value and respect.
In the future, I’ll continue posting here, but also on my substack. The podcast is also chugging along.