Kissing Hank's Ass.

April 9, 2002 2:42 AM

Kissing Hank's Ass. My favourite parable. Not in fact about donkeys.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen (12 comments total)

Oh, dear. The devout aren't going to like this. In fact, after the Easter thread and the one about the American Atheists convention, they're probably going to run to MetaTalk.

But I like it.
posted by pracowity at 3:16 AM on April 9, 2002

a rather juvenile and shallow critique of christianity which is far too literal for my liking, although it is mildly amusing. Kissing hanks' ass is not quite the idea, christian doctrine tells us that karls' and a hell of a lot of other peoples' asses need kissing, to extend the allegory.
posted by johnnyboy at 4:43 AM on April 9, 2002

Well, that made me laugh. I thought it was a parody of scientology, but not being an expert on religions could make me easily confuse different religions. Still, I liked it for its obvious and direct goal of showing just how foolish some notions behind any and all religions can be.
posted by a3matrix at 5:31 AM on April 9, 2002

Don't miss the Hankisms.
posted by rodii at 6:02 AM on April 9, 2002

I myself saw several dif't religions represented in it. Perhaps it has Rorschack-like (sp) qualities to it as well.
posted by BentPenguin at 6:56 AM on April 9, 2002

Here's more by the same author. By the way, in his "Questions for Bible Thumpers," the author asks "Why do Christians assume that the parable "Kissing Hank's Ass" is about them?"
posted by tdismukes at 7:25 AM on April 9, 2002

it is because we are so fucking arrogant and hung up.
posted by johnnyboy at 7:50 AM on April 9, 2002

jhuger's pages are great; I'm surprised they haven't had an FPP page before (I know they've been linked to in the body of the text, as I've done that myself as recently as that AA convention thread).

And of course, there's also the IPU...

a rather juvenile and shallow critique of christianity which is far too literal for my liking

that's because it's a critique of actual "juvenile and shallow" forms of christianity - some people really do claim that you'll go to hell if you don't worship jesus christ. Some people really don't see how ridiculous a proposition it is - and this parable can help to clarify the problems with the idea.

On the other hand, this parable doesn't apply to your religion if it doesn't include the heaven v. hell depending on what you believe thingy. If you have a spiritual relationship or whatever, if you believe god is just and doesn't punish those who don't "get" him, then just laugh along with us at the silliness of fundamentalists.

I like to tell evangelicals that I have more faith in their god than they do even though I'm an atheist, as I feel pretty confident that if I happen to be wrong and somehow there is a god, s/he'll be cool with my perception and comprehension, and not attribute it to any character failing.
posted by mdn at 10:16 AM on April 9, 2002

Reading this was a complete waste of ten of my precious minutes.
posted by beejaywhy2k at 11:16 AM on April 9, 2002

Because we on Metafilter are staunch enemies of time wasting.
posted by ODiV at 2:53 PM on April 9, 2002

I think I'll go hand out the PDF pamphlets in the plaza at lunch time.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 4:28 PM on April 9, 2002

That was hilarious...thanks.
posted by BlueTrain at 4:40 PM on April 9, 2002