A little four year old boy says so (and I’m sure he’s telling the truth), and you can buy his book on sale at your favorite Big Book Store that hasn’t gone bankrupt yet. From the blurb:
Heaven Is for Real is the true story of the four-year old son of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven. He survives and begins talking about being able to look down and see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room. The family didn’t know what to believe but soon the evidence was clear.
Colton said he met his miscarried sister, whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each. He describes the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how “reaaally big” God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit “shoots down power” from heaven to help us.
Told by the father, but often in Colton’s own words, the disarmingly simple message is heaven is a real place, Jesus really loves children, and be ready, there is a coming last battle.
I wonder where the Holy Spirit has been throwing his power shots lately? Things aren’t going too well for most of us sinners down here on poor little old earth. Maybe God only loves the 1% because they create so many jobs? In any case, get ready for that last big battle friends. I can’t wait to see Jesus on his Big Horsey, can you?
With his big blue eyes staring down at all those evildoers (yeah, the kid says Jesus has big old Blue eyes, just like Paul Newman) I’ll bet that will make for some real thrilling entertainment for our fundie Christian friends as they watch the rest of us get smited for being so unfaithful, not hating gays enough, not supporting the police defending our rights by beating with batons and pepper spraying the faces of those dirty sex-crazed, liberal humanist fascists at the Occupy Wall Street protests, and generally denying that their Lord and Savior is more powerful than whatever it is we believe in (democracy? science? fairness? health care for all?). Heck, I’m surprised they haven’t made a movie out of this book yet.
In any case, I’m sure you have some family members who would love to have this book. Am I right? Better hurry while supplies last (I’d send a copy to Michele Bachmann but I’ll bet she already owns one).
that is some sad artwork right there.
I know you like Dylan.
Here`s a great one,although quite sad as you say.
When that battle comes, remember; God is on our side, & Kilroy was there.
Naw, God only cares who wins football games.
Wow, love the orange robe. Bare-back bare-foot rodeo rider Jesus is a kung fu master, with the crown of heaven, the sword of justice, and the horn of , uh, horniness? Also, looks like some nifty bling around the neck. (S.O.G. in gold, rubies and diamonds? Nice.)
Jesus rides the old west, taking down the evil doers wherever he find them. Oh wait, David Carradine did that already. But anyway. Don’t mess with this guy.
I think I’ll wait ’til they bundle it with Mary Poppins, the Urantia Book, the Wisdom of Fred Phelps, Rick Perry’s Book of Critical Thinking, and The Handbook of Compassionate Conservatism, all for just $2.99.
I was raised to treat the mockery of other people’s religion as bad form, akin to mocking their race.
YMMV.
I agree, and he’s just a kid who faced a life and death situation. I am distressed at the ridicule in this post. Evidently adults are exploiting the kids dreams, but it shouldn’t devolve into making comments about the kid.
Personally I, like so many others before me, find mockery of idiocy (in myself as well as others) to be a very satisfying (if at times somewhat dangerous) hobby.
“[The Bible is] a mass of fables and traditions, mere mythology.”
(Mark Twain / 1835-1910 / Mark Twain and the Bible)
And, of course, any choice or practice that you, personally, don’t engage in is “idiocy.”
And yet, I don’t ever you oh-so-transgressive, free-thinking rebels delightfully skewering Buddhism, or animism, or Shintoism, or any “idiocy” that you don’t equate with mommy and daddy.
It’s all nonsense, but it’s not in your face, threatening separation of church and state, “making laws promoting sectarianism” nonsense.
Really Joe? Anything I don’t engage in is idiocy? Bit of a logical stretch there. Sorry if I touched a nerve. Anyway, thanks for the dime store psychological diagnosis, but fortunately for my siblings and I, mommy and daddy never went in for any of the idiocy represented by that painting. Where I came from, being an atheist was not that transgressive. We are all products of our upbringing, one way or the other.
And yes, that painting does represent a whole buttload of idiocy.
“Sacred cows make the best hamburger.”
(Mark Twain / 1835-1910)
ot
Hi Super, I hope all is well with you & yours.
I’m good KNUCKLEHEAD. My family is shrinking little by little as the kids head off, one by one, to rearrange the world in their way. I never figured it would be easy, turning them loose. But I didn’t expect it to tug at me as much as it has :o)
Change you know……
Hope you’re well yourself :o)
Religion? We’re talking about some puerile, derivative, kid fantasy being marketed by adults as a shot at big-time money. Nobody would be mocking if the PR machine hadn’t shoved it in front of our noses, would we? You put something out in the marketplace, you don’t get to hide behind ridicule of it as “bad form”.
Just to be clear, I’m not mocking Jesus on a horse. I’m mocking the Nicholas Cage stand-in dressed in an orange toga by a painter whose artistic inspiration is Nelson Shanks.
I also think the picture is very interesting since the influences are readily apparent – interesting how he’s interpreted Jesus in terms of current action figures (contextualization) though it’s not clear to me if the kid is responsible for the picture
The parents of this kid ought to be proud that the seeds of lunacy that they and I assume, their church, planted in his maleable mind have germinated and are now producing tangible rewards. Like book sales.
I can’t wait for the second book, How to Prepare for the Coming Final Battle While Securing your Retirement
The image is from Revelations 19 (interestingly contextualized), Word of God as Sword is referenced elsewhere
http://www.biblestudytools.com/kjv/revelation/19.html
What is this recurrent meme on the right that Jesus has blue eyes? He was Semitic, for goodness’ sake. The odds of it are pretty remote.
It’s hard to avoid the racism implicit in that subtle (OK, not very subtle) transformation.
I feel badly for the kid.
That painting is really… cloying. The only thing it’s missing is a spiral horn sticking out of the horse’s head.