More Travel and Dining Expenses for "Bowdlerizing Brigham"?

[Everybody Wang Chung]

There is something very obsessive and bizarre about a Mopologist allegedly dedicated to his own faith’s exclusive truth, yet reduced to treating an apostate Anglican pew like a holy relic in the desperate hope that some secondhand theological greatness might rub off on his trousers by osmosis.

Folks, you really can't make this stuff up.

[Gadianton]

It's crazy when you think about the level of "Trek" frenzy in play here while still requiring a gob of artificial colors and flavors to make it worth it. It really does reveal the core of what being a Mormon is apparently all about. I remember the formula from the time I was a kid. Family home evening starts with scripture reading and lessons, then moves into games, and finally, desert! And it was the same with doing baptisms or going to priesthood session -- Mormon activities always end with desert, or sometimes a meal and then desert.

The conclusion one is forced to draw is that most of what counts as "spiritual" activity for Mormons is so thoroughly depressing and soul-sucking that it takes bribery to ensure that it gets done. What's surprising is how far some have taken this broken psychology, imagine this:

going to go to the same church (from an "apostate" sect, I might add) that Lewis used to attend, and he's going to sit in the exact same pew that Lewis used to occupy--right near the so-called "Narnia window."

Right, totally extreme. I get it. I mean, who is this much of a fan boy for anything? Not even Will has saved his pennies for a trip to Red Square. But imagine how dangerous it would have been to have been standing in the isle of that church when somebody calls from an open door at the back, "we're going for ice cream, better hurry! The clotted cream and blackcurrant goes fast!"

Holy crap! If you'd been in the isle at that point you'd have been screwed!

But it shouldn't add up so easily. At the level of sycophancy we're talking about, wouldn't you expect a response like, "hey, you guys go on, who knows if I'll have this chance again and I want to make the most of it." But no, it's like, did somebody say ICE CREAM! . The Russian neurologist Ivan Pavlov explained this behavior very well. The activity is packaged to take the place of a "bell" such as to secure the treat. And the crazy thing is this is exactly the kind of thing CS Lewis had issues with in the quotes the Afore supplies constantly about blind materialism. It's all the worse that the ice cream we're talking about sounds like a geriatric health condition.

If you want to make a damning case against CS Lewis and his belief that people are something more than blind globs of molecules satisfying their innate urges, then exhibit A is the life of his number one fan.