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Church of Cthulhu offered grant opportunities
By John Gorenfeld Sat Apr 05, 2008 at 08:34:06 PM EST printable version print story
Review it on NewsTrust
Yesterday Rolling Stone's Jeff Sharlet dropped an amazing tidbit. Seems that the Faith-Based Initiative--the Bush plan to send billions of tax dollars hurtling to religious groups--was dreamed up by the geniuses at The Family, the District of Columbia's spiritual mafia and no fans of the Establishment Clause.

Which reminds me. Way back in 2002, below the radar, a bunch of God-oriented offices sprang up within the Department of Labor and other secular agencies. The idea was to grease the path of dollar bills from the U.S. government to social programs inspired by one deity or another...

topic: All Topics
So I decided to get in touch on behalf of a controversial faith--the fictitious congregation from H.P. Lovecraft's classic horror stories, about a terrifying fiend from the deep. I was just cleaning out my closet and found this:

I also received this pamphlet: "Not everyone has a burning bush..." Can you believe this is a federal government document?

"I think it's light-hearted enough," said Brent Orrell, U.S. Department of Labor Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, around that time, "that I haven't received any negative response to it." Har, har.

Says a friend: "I can't fucking believe that. It looks like something the Jehovah's Witnesses are handing out at the Jay Street Borough Hall subway stop."

I still can't find my other DOL mail, which was addressed to my fictitious Church of the Robot.

Below: Potential federal grant recipient Cthulhu, a.k.a. "the thing that cannot be described."

(Cross-posted at Daily Kos)




Display:
a) Re the "burning bush" comment--I myself find that amazing that federal documents are allowed to use religious imagery that explicit (and I personally am not so much reminded of Jehovah's Witness lit as literature from neopentecostal sources--not surprising, honestly, because more than a few of the folks linked to the Office of Faith-Based Issues have had links to the Assemblies in past).

b) I am extremely amused that the Church of Cthulhu and the Church of the Robot did get info on grants.  (It is, alas, a pity that Gundam 00 likely started its season after you did this stuff--otherwise I'd have seen if they would have sent info to the Saint Setsuna F. Seiei Temple of the Celestial Being. :D)

by dogemperor on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 03:26:52 AM EST

Does the phrase "Burning Bush" have to be religious? It could be something completely legitimate, like pubic lice awareness, or dissatisfaction with our president.


by This Burden Shall Pass on Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 12:16:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]


Not to mention squamous, blasphemous, monstrous, gelatinous, pulsating, slimy, and a host of other overwrought adjectives.
As a long time reader of Lovecraft and other Cthulhu Mythos writers, I gotta tell you that your post made my day. Just one point though, shouldn't that be "The Esoteric Order of Dagon" rather than the Church of Cthulhu?

by Frank Frey on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 09:24:28 AM EST

of what goes wrong when open season is declared at the public trough; with the trough staffed by proselytizers who abuse their position to advance their faith.

by Frederick Clarkson on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 10:47:20 AM EST
Fred,

You put your finger on it exactly and so has ArchaeoBob. In the early 80's, I was the president of the USF Gaming Club. We played a lot of different Role Playing Games.(one of which was "Call of Cthulhu") One principle that we stuck to was that we were not going to ask for any money although we were entitled to it. We figured that we were just better off keeping clear of Student Government and the attendant political BS.
Anyway, this policy proved a smart one as we came under the scrutiny of the Campus Crusade for Christ who were convinced that people that played Dungeons and Dragons were all devil worshippers. They were considering trying to get our funding pulled. This is highly ironic considering that:
A.) We recieved no funding in the first place.
B.) The Campus Crusade did and were using it not only to prosletize their religion but also to try and shut down what they regarded as an "evil faith".
It didn't work but it left me with a profound dislike/distrust of evangelical organizations that liked to sup at the public trough.

by Frank Frey on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 01:28:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]



I wonder if they would have a similar reaction if someone sent in something with "Native American Church" on it.  Or something associated with Wicca or Voodun (or any other group not generally associated with a mainstream religion).

I'd never heard of "Cthulu" before this, and I wonder how many of the DOL staffers had  (until I'd read this, I would have assumed that it was a non-English language word).  Maybe that's why you can't find any "Church of the Robot" responses.

by ArchaeoBob on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 11:08:58 AM EST

All these years that we have been friends and I haven't preached to you the glories of Great Cthulhu...Oh man, the slathering lord of the Corpse City of R'Lyeh is gonna kick my butt!

by Frank Frey on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 01:15:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]




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(image: detail from Francoise Dubois' rendition of the Bartholomew's Day Massacre reveals the actual nature of religious warfare)