My encounter with a nutjob right wing "psychic" today

Sydnie

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Sun Feb-18-07 02:32 AM
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My encounter with a nutjob right wing "psychic" today

I stopped into Office max today so I could DHL out some equipment I use for work that needs to be repaired. Since it's a third party billing, it's usually a bit of a process to get the waybill completed. I checked the counter and there were no waybills out so I walked down to the far side of the counter where the employee was attending to another customer. I stood quietly, waiting to get the employees attention so I could request that she call someone else to assist me. The customer that she was helping was looking through the clip art book, attempting to select clip art to put on her new business cards for her psychic services. Now, I was probably a good 10 feet away from where she was sitting with the clip art book, looking in the direction of the employee and not paying a great deal of attention to what this woman was doing.

I hear her say "I want to ask you a question." I turned to glance at her, thinking she was speaking to the employee, but no, she was talking to me. I was a bit taken aback by her approach and her tone, as if she KNEW me and I had some obligation to respond. I'm sure my face showed my surprise as I responded "Excuse me?" Well, she didn't explain her initial request but instead went right into her question as if I had agreed to grant her my time and attention. Not that I think my time or attention are more valuable than hers, just the opposite really. I didn't attempt to interrupt her while she conducted her business and I was in a bit of a hurry, wanted to get my task done and move on. I was so caught off guard that I finally said "Ok, what is it you need from me?" She proceeded to ask me if I liked the color combination she had chosen for her clip art and her paper (I assume for some sort of letterhead). I glanced at the page of the book she was showing me, didn't find it offensive and told her that I thought she had selected an acceptable combination. Then, she continued to tell me about her "other" problem. She wanted to have business cards printed with two pieces of clip art on them. I thought, ok, and I care ... why? She picked up the clip art book and showed me a picture of two cats, nothing special but nice all the same. It seems the cats were not the part that was giving her trouble. Her issue was, she couldn't find a CROSS that she liked in the book. She proceeded to explain to me that she was a psychic, who got messages from God from angels. She explained that she wanted the cats, just because she liked cats, not because she was a witch or anything because, well, she worked through God. (Now, I found that an odd way to state it. Usually people say that "God works through them not that they work through God.) I thought for a second and well, she did ask my opinion, so I gave it to her. I told her that were I to be presented with her business card that had a cross on it, I would never seek her services, not even for entertainment purposes. So much for my quick errand. Needless to say, we were off and running!

I suggested that perhaps she might want to have two different cards printed, one with just the cats and one with just the cross and she could present the card that seemed appropriate for the perspective client. She freaked. She asked me if I believed in God or not. I told her not really. She told me that she would never take me a as client then. I said, that would be ok with me. I then tried to explain Deism to her, giving examples of our very own founding fathers and many great thinkers of that time who were also deists. She began to get more and more flustered. We eventually got around to discussing the hijacked state of Christianity in the world today and even that I thought that blivet** had hijacked the religious community. She asked me if I believed in the devil and I tried to explain that I thought we all had the ability to be "the devil" if we chose to. She said, yes, the devil can enter us for sure. I told her, no, I didn't mean that we were taken hostage to an evil spirit, but that we had the capacity to harbor an evil spirit within ourselves, should we chose that path. She still insisted that the devil could recruit you rather than you just choosing to be evil, therefore it was not your fault if "the devil makes you do something". She had just explained away free will as far as she was concerned and all deeds were either godly or that of the devil, but we had no hand in steering any of those deeds at all.

I had remembered reading a thread this week in GD about god not smiting anyone anymore. I had given that concept a good deal of thought coupled with the fact that my son had just made me watch Bruce Almighty with him last week (with some of the funniest lines about smiting included). So, I had the idea of smiting in the front of my mind. So, I ask her, why isn't God smiting those that lied and were encouraging killing in his name, who let little children drown and left so many begging for relief in NOLA, and who laughed when a prisoner in TX, who had found God and was asking for some mercy, was put to death instead.

Well, she went from blivet** to the Clenis like a brand new sports car in the hands of a teenage driver, quickly and recklessly. Well, didn't I know that her family had been paying taxes in this country for over 300 (yes, she said 300) years, and her taxes paid for that White House and she didn't think it should be used for committing adultery and that was more important than any of the issues I had brought up. She added that She was sickened by the thought that now his wife wants to run for that office and he would be back in there, renting out the REAGAN (yes REAGAN) bedroom and God only knows what else. I asked her why no one was being made an example of, why blivet** hadn't been told to sacrifice one of his daughters (in the vein of Solomon) to this holy war he had begun. She then told me that all things like that, the vengeful God, had been documented in the book of REVOLUTIONS ... yes, she said REVOLUTIONS! I told her that is one book of the bible I would like to read, as I thought we could use a little revolution in our daily life right now. I corrected her, asked her if she was speaking of the book of Revelations and she said, "Yeah, that one." The woman then said "You seem to come from a place of rage and anger, yet you want to know where the compassion is from those of us that believe in God." I explained that I wasn't bound by her beliefs, that I make my own should or shouldn't based on what I believed, but that most Christians wanted to impose their should or shouldn't on others without complying to their own standards within their own life. That stumped her a bit, but did not silence her at all. I told her I was enraged, that so many of her "faith" had been hoodwinked and they didn't even know it. That they had fallen prey to listening to false prophets like Robertson, who is amassing wealth here on earth at the cost of the well being of others and that surely Jesus would frown on that. That religion was no longer praying in a closet but rather a mega-business, where a evangelical leader could denounce his own secret and tawdry behavior in public to his flock, while making a small fortune and engaging in the very same behavior he had condemned to the faithful. That was demonic possession, that was pathological!

By this point, the employee had begun to strain so as not to laugh out loud. She told me to step over to the other end of the counter and she would assist me while the woman continued to look through the book for the "perfect art work for her purpose". Once we got to the other end of the counter, I said to the employee, "She can't be much of a psychic or have very reliable angels working for her through God, because if she was or did, she surely wouldn't have chosen ME to ask that cross question to". The employee laughed right out loud, nervously, hoping that the woman wouldn't hear her and said "Isn't that the truth". We both laughed, I finished my business and I left. I sat in the parking lot for a good 5 minutes, just contemplating the disconnect that I had just witnessed inside. I was pondering what might have transpired should I had pursued the "I'm not a witch" comment as well as wondering where I could get a copy of that little known book of the bible called REVOLUTIONS. We might be able to find out what we need to do to bring about the resurrection of our country in a book like that.