This is the afterlife I’m supposed to have my name put down for. Sailed as a fisherman, vouched for by fishings elder statesmen in two countries and with added years and miles on deep sea trade too. It’s probably been cancelled or privatised by British Govt’ malice and by Brexit cutting us off from the traditional fishing grounds.
Fiddlers Green.
As I walked by the dockside one evening so fair
To view the salt waters and take in the salt air
I heard an old fisherman singing a song
Oh, take me away boys me time is not long
(Chorus)
Wrap me up in me oilskin and jumper
No more on the docks I’ll be seen
Just tell me old shipmates, I’m taking a trip mates
And I’ll see you someday on Fiddlers Green
Now Fiddler’s Green is a place I’ve heard tell
Where the fishermen go if they don’t go to hell
Where the sky is all clear and the dolphins do play
And the cold coast of Greenland is far, far away
(chorus)
Where the skies are all clear and there’s never a gale
And the fish jump on board with one swish on their tail
Where you lie at your leisure, there’s no work to do
And the skipper’s below making tea for the crew
(Chorus)
When you get by on dock and the long trip is through
There’s pubs and there’s clubs and there’s lassies there too
Oh where the girls are all pretty and the beer is all free
And there’s bottles of rum growing on every tree
(Chorus)
Now I don’t want a harp nor a halo, not me
Just give me a breeze and a good rolling sea
I’ll play me old squeeze-box as we sail along
With the wind in the riggin to sing me a song
Wrap me up in me oilskin and jumper
No more on the docks I’ll be seen
Just tell me old shipmates, I’m taking a trip mates
And I’ll see you someday on Fiddlers Green
Many years ago, working in South-East Asia, I had a conversation with a Thai colleague.
Him: Do you know much about Christianity?
Me: Not much. But it’s the background to my culture, so I’ve absorbed a bit that way. What do you want to know?
Him: Is it true that Christians believe that if you’re bad, after you die you’ll go to a bad place and … just stay there? And if you’re good, you’ll go to a good place and … just stay there?
Me: That’s about right.
Him: That’s just weird.
After he asked that question, I started noticing the idea as the backbone of a lot of the thinking around me. I felt like a fish who’d been asked about water, and began noticing water for a change. “Huh. Now that you mention it…”
that’s not all christianity tho. it’s a particular understanding of christianity. purgatory for instance is a middle ground; but not often invoked by the apocalypse set
here in america i think the dominant beliefs are an interplay between religion, capitalism, white supremacy ( eta: especially enslavement ) and a bunch of other things.
these days white evangelicals want to claim their beliefs are the root of it all; but it’s a lie. it’s more like white evangelicalism been brought into existence by the dominant beliefs
basically i think all of the various christianities that still exist ( sorry gnostics! ) have been shaped by culture at least as much as shaping it. they’d all be happy to be labeled the backbone of culture, but it’s way more complicated than that
I think that’s the dominant belief of some American Christians. They just happen to be a vocal minority who have somehow managed to convince the rest of the world that they are the “real” Christians, despite how little they follow Christ.
I think I saw someone post links on the BBS that explained how white evangelicalism is a reaction to earlier Christian socialist ideas, but I can’t find them now.
I know it’s fun to make fun of people with ideas different to your own, but this has all the earmarks of manufactured outrage. The only evidence that any of this happened came originally from an anonymous poster on Reddit by someone who also claims other odd things (like being a super-genius who graduated at 13 and speaks seven languages), Social media is, of course, repeating the claims with no fact-checking. I fondly remember the days when people at least heard of urban legends.
