December 26, 2005

"Um, be careful, cat spit has amazing felting powers!"

The Going Jesus blog. A friend -- who I immediately have to add is a sincere, churchgoing Christian, raised as a Lutheran -- just sent me the link with the simple annotation, "You will pee your pants." It's true, figuratively at least. At first I thought it was a parody of a ditsy Christian lady's blog, complete with comments, cat photos, beautiful layout art, parody ads for "Martha Stuart" stuff, real ads that are not so different from parodies, and links to the Going Jesus/Going Bridal Store where you can buy "WTFWJD?" t-shirts, "Please Shut the Fuck Up about Your Wedding" refrigerator magnets, etc. I thought it might be written by a gay man. Then I realized it is the deliberately comic blog of a Christian woman who doesn't mind sending up Jesus's followers when it's warranted. And she finds it's often warranted. And at first I thought the comments might be parodies too, because they're all so -- you know, like -- they've got blogpseak down perfectly -- (eeuuw!) -- but it turns out they're real and written by likeminded people.

There's an archive going back to Jun 2003, all in the same vein, and the Going Bridal blog dates back to 2002. And there's no letup in inspiration from first to last. The posts about kitschy Christian tchotchkes, such as the Cavalcade of Bad Nativities, are especially hilarious.

There is deep knowledge at work here, and amazing energy fueled by some incalculable combination of love and anger. The "About Me" says the author is a 35-year-old Episcopalian church secretary/Parish Administrator married to her sexton. She adds, "I love my job. I really do. And not just because I get to sexually harass the Sexton."

An immediate blogroll.