{"id":45,"date":"2011-02-21T10:51:40","date_gmt":"2011-02-21T10:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godscomic\/2011\/02\/silicone-valley-1.html"},"modified":"2011-02-21T10:51:40","modified_gmt":"2011-02-21T10:51:40","slug":"silicone-valley-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2011\/02\/silicone-valley-1.html","title":{"rendered":"Silicone valley!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--StartFragment--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman'\">I just spent some time in southern CA because if<br \/>\nthere is one thing I can&#8217;t get enough of its pretentiousness. No matter how<br \/>\nworldly and self-indulgent I am at times (as in I can&#8217;t count that high) I have<br \/>\nreconciled the fact that I am after all a sinner saved by grace. The good news<br \/>\nis I can always count on CA to help assuage some of my self-debasement at<br \/>\nfailing Gods desire for my conformity to His will.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>How? Because in So Cal when it comes to pride<br \/>\nand narcissism even I can suddenly find myself bordering on sainthood. The flesh<br \/>\ndriven conformity to the So Cal sub-culture is so absolute that it borders on<br \/>\ncultish.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>To be fair it isn&#8217;t everyone. There are some<br \/>\namazingly committed followers fighting the good fight in a town that is virtually<br \/>\noblivious to Jesus but for the sake of an article let&#8217;s move on?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>First lets start with the fake boobs shall we.<br \/>\nWhat in the name of everything holy ever convinced a woman that filling plastic<br \/>\nballoons with salt water and having them surgically implanted inside her God-given<br \/>\nbreasts was a good idea? <span>&nbsp;<\/span>How<br \/>\ncreepy does it get? We&#8217;re talking body augmentation that borders on butchery.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>Just the plain fact that this is purely a vanity<br \/>\ncall as opposed to reparative surgery correcting disfigurement due to disease<br \/>\nor a really bad day at the sawmill should be enough to give a secure woman<br \/>\npause. Are your breasts truly how you gauge your self worth? This is one of the<br \/>\nmany areas where the feminist movement that is so ingrained in the psyche of<br \/>\nthe 21st century American woman constantly drops the ball in my opinion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>They instigated the concept of a women being<br \/>\nindependent and in no need of a man yet they aren&#8217;t outraged by the fact that<br \/>\nmost of what women buy or &#8220;buy into&#8221; is based on impressing a man. I guess try<br \/>\nas they might the relativist still doesn&#8217;t realize they cannot escape our<br \/>\nnatural proclivity to desire and seek being desired by the opposite sex. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>But if there is any concept most humans would<br \/>\nsay is tantamount to healthy relationship its honesty. Body augmentation is<br \/>\ndishonest in that it tries to recreate the natural. Or in most cases pretend<br \/>\nthe unnatural is real. It also teaches us that who we really are and what we<br \/>\nwill become naturally must be manipulated to maintain not the dignity and<br \/>\nrespect of maturity but instead the worship of bodily youth. There&#8217;s a<br \/>\nguaranteed losing proposition for you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>Again there is a difference between exercise and<br \/>\nhealthy lifestyle to help our aging become potentially less debilitating and<br \/>\nrefusing to allow ourselves to outwardly reveal what we have inwardly learned,<br \/>\ngetting older is not only natural, it&#8217;s beautiful. Well internally anyway, the<br \/>\nbody&#8230;not so much. But so what? It&#8217;s called maturity for crying out loud.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>Of course boobs are only a beginning. We have<br \/>\npoison serum hypodermically injected as a wrinkle eraser, inflatable lips and<br \/>\nof course the classic face lift because nothing looks more natural then the<br \/>\nappearance of shoving your face through a doggie door and getting stuck half<br \/>\nway out the other side.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>I&#8217;m not saying men don&#8217;t have their own<br \/>\nalteration fixation. Hair plugs, calf implants and manicures are very real<br \/>\nneeds to the So Cal man but being a man they aren&#8217;t nearly as crucial as a<br \/>\nPorsche, American Express Platinum, and a skybox. Men have learned that cash<br \/>\nand power makes any man a model and gets you all the babes you want. Look at<br \/>\nMarilyn Manson<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>So next time you start getting down on yourself<br \/>\nfor feeling less holy or too self centered do yourself a favor. Pray that God<br \/>\nwould help you in your quest to be less flesh driven and more conformed to His<br \/>\nlikeness. If that seems too laborious you can always head to Southern<br \/>\nCalifornia where shallowness is an art form while the rest of America is still<br \/>\npainting by numbers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I just spent some time in southern CA because if there is one thing I can&#8217;t get enough of its pretentiousness. No matter how worldly and self-indulgent I am at times (as in I can&#8217;t count that high) I have reconciled the fact that I am after all a sinner saved by grace. The good&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1,5,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-living","category-comedy","category-movies","category-news-and-current-events"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Silicone valley! - God&#039;s Comic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2011\/02\/silicone-valley-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Silicone valley! - God&#039;s Comic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I just spent some time in southern CA because if there is one thing I can&#8217;t get enough of its pretentiousness. No matter how worldly and self-indulgent I am at times (as in I can&#8217;t count that high) I have reconciled the fact that I am after all a sinner saved by grace. The good&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2011\/02\/silicone-valley-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"God&#039;s Comic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-21T10:51:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brad Stine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Silicone valley! - God&#039;s Comic","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2011\/02\/silicone-valley-1.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Silicone valley! - God&#039;s Comic","og_description":"I just spent some time in southern CA because if there is one thing I can&#8217;t get enough of its pretentiousness. No matter how worldly and self-indulgent I am at times (as in I can&#8217;t count that high) I have reconciled the fact that I am after all a sinner saved by grace. The good&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2011\/02\/silicone-valley-1.html","og_site_name":"God&#039;s Comic","article_published_time":"2011-02-21T10:51:40+00:00","author":"Brad Stine","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2011\/02\/silicone-valley-1.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2011\/02\/silicone-valley-1.html","name":"Silicone valley! - God&#039;s Comic","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-02-21T10:51:40+00:00","dateModified":"2011-02-21T10:51:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/243d86fd9261f0ca95264b80e71e80e9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2011\/02\/silicone-valley-1.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2011\/02\/silicone-valley-1.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2011\/02\/silicone-valley-1.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Silicone valley!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/","name":"God&#039;s Comic","description":"God&#039;s Comic - Brad Stine","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/243d86fd9261f0ca95264b80e71e80e9","name":"Brad Stine","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/870\/870f4e7ff5414a60daaefcce61009a6cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/870\/870f4e7ff5414a60daaefcce61009a6cx96.jpg","caption":"Brad Stine"},"description":"\"Brad Stine is on a mission \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a mission to free us all from the chains of political correctness and prevent our eventual \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwussification.' From his Nashville stronghold, Stine is mounting his crusade against these hypocrisies, all of which are explored in his highly anticipated 4th album\/DVD, aptly titled \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWUSSIFICATION!' \"You know what offends me?... Offended people,\" says Stine. A staunch supporter of first amendment rights and foe of political correctness, Stine asserts that rights should be universally applied. \"In a country with guaranteed rights to freedom of religion, its citizens are constantly trying to make faith in public spheres illegal, I am offended by that contradiction and want to talk about it as a comic.\" The strength of his conviction about our freedoms can be found in many places on WUSSIFICATION \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from \"Merry Christmas Too!\" (the right to celebrate religion) to \"At Least We're Not France!\" (the responsibility to take action as a country) to \"Spank\" (the ability to discipline our children the way we see fit). What would cause the wussification of Brad Stine? \"I hope that nothing ever wussifies me to deny my own personal beliefs,\" he says. \"Brainwashed wussies have been taught that standing up for yourself and defending your personal point of view makes you a close-minded hate monger.\" Stine stops short of defending his point of view as the ONLY one, adding \"...one must also be respectful of dissenting belief while supporting their own.\" He is, after all, an inclusive figure who trains his comedy to attack ideas, not the people who embrace them. Stine's faith forces him to acknowledge the respect and dignity of all\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 even the wussies with whom he disagrees! Stine models his approach to comedy after legendary practitioners that he has known and loved over the years. Despite George Carlin's disdain for theistic beliefs, he has been a big influence on Stine. \"I always enjoyed Carlin for turning the tables on culture. He is an excellent writer that has endured for decades.\" More current comedic touchstones are Brian Reagan, Paula Poundstone, Jim Gaffigan and Monty Python, among others. Fear not, true believers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with his brand new album, Brad Stine is here to save the world from WUSSIFICATION \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one politically-correct, offended person at a time!\"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/author\/bstine"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}