Monkey Butter's blog: "Sermons"

Sup Juggalos, This Sunday I talked a little bit about the Juggalo House Theory. Some of you may remember reading about how the Fellowship Of Juggalos interprets Juggaloism kind of like a House. Family is our basic building block, our foundation. Coming up out of that foundation are the pillars of Individuality, where as each one of us are Individuals and have the right to interpret the Carnival and Faith as we so choose. Bonding this Individuality together is Acceptance which acts like the walls for our proverbial house. Each one of us must Accept each others differences. Our ability to Individually Accept one another for who we are is what holds up the roof of Unity and Strength. I think every Sunday before the actual sermon I would like to share a little bit about FOJ so that Juggalos can make informed decisions on their own. Also, this Sunday I played a controversial song on the air. I played a little bit of Corporate Avenger. I wanted to make sure that ninjas understood that the purpose of that song wasn't to cast a disparaging view on one particular faith group. The purpose of playing that song was to show an extremist mentality that was very common during the 1400s and some would say still exists today. I'm going to use this example and others to discuss Segregation versus Unity. Extremism, which is the underlying overtone of Segregation, is a mind set. It is the mentality of if you are different than me or you act, dress, or worship different than me then I will seek to either separate or segregate you from the flock or I will attempt to wipe you out. Where as, Unity can also be viewed as a mind set. A mind set in which the Individual instead of attempting to segregate people who are different, or share a different ideology, try to relate with those who are different or at the very least accept their differences. With Unity a person has the attitude of welcoming another Individual where as with Segregation a barrier is drawn between one group of people and another group of people. We can see this form of Segregation when you look at the topics of Race, Gender, Lifestyles and of course Religion. Some people view their Faith in a manner of if you are not a part of that Faith then you should be cast out. In some cultures one group attempts genocide on another group in an attempt to wipe out those who are different. Rights are restricted and basic needs are withheld with the purpose of constricting one group or another. In some cases alternative demands are set forth, with one course of action being joining one group while the alternative course of action is destruction. Some people have no faith at all, the Fellowship views this acceptable in the sense that each person has the right to choose. It is not our place to judge and we will not take the role of judge, juror and/or executioner. However some people take their choice of not having faith a step further. For whatever reason, be it by choice, by logical conclusion, or perhaps by feeling disenfranchised or may be even been burned by a particular faith group, these Individuals have decided not to have faith, but where that choice becomes more of a guiding force than a choice is when those Individuals choose to segregate those who do have faith. Almost to the sense that whenever they encounter someone who has faith they seek to crush that faith or be down right disrespectful. Now it is very important to note that this form of behavior is more often than not displayed by religious zealots as well as those who choose not to have faith. It is also important to note that not everyone who either belongs to a certain faith group or chooses not belong to a faith group exhibits this behavior. Remember I am just talking about Segregation mentalities that can belong to the believer and the non-believer alike. Segregation mentalities are not limited to a particular group, it is dependent upon the Individual to hold such feelings inside them and act upon these feelings of hate. The vast majority of people in our culture as well as around the world hold the mentality of mutual understanding and respect. Where Unity of common thoughts, common views and common values binds people together instead of trying to tear humanity apart. Having a mentality of Unity involves opening one's mind to new experiences. Even when you don't agree with these experiences we try to relate to them and at the very least try to understand why an Individual does what he/she does. Knowledge drives Unity. Knowledge is power. Knowledge destroys fear and eliminates stereotypes. Juggalos, in the song that I played from Corporate Avenger we saw a prime example of Segregation and Extremism. We saw how one culture came upon another culture that was entirely different from its own. In the late 1400s, European Christian zealots came upon Native American peoples. Instead of being appreciative of the Native Americans generous culture or hoping to gain understanding and mutual respect. One side decided to Segregate and Subjugate the other side. Instead of sharing a plentiful harvest, one side decided to commit acts of atrocity towards the other side with the purpose of forcing their will upon what the extremists viewed a barbaric and weaker society. Sometimes might does not make right. It is better to learn from another culture then it is to fear them and in an essence annihilate them. It is also important to understand that in most cases the destructive segregate viewpoints are not always shared by an entire culture. It may just be a few select elite Individuals who instead of embracing new ideas, they feel threatened and try to drive a wedge in between what they view as sacred and what could be gained by learning of another viewpoint. We must be better than our ancestors. We must learn from their mistakes and evaluate what is a better course of action for future generations. What kind of Juggalos would we be if we allowed Segregation, Bigotry and Hatred to infect our culture? What would we be teaching our children? How would the future of our Family turn out if instead of showing Love and mutual respect with the values of Unity, we choose instead to be the thrower of stones. MCL

Sup Juggalos, We live hectic lives, especially if you are a member of the American work force. This day and age we want everything...NOW. We want our email now. We want our Big Mac's now. We want our money now. If we trying to get with a person in a personal relationship or intimacy sense, we want it now. Life is fast and thus our needs and our wants come faster too. The "I want it NOW" concept is imbedded in our society. Even in the military the NOW concept controls us. In the Navy, we have a phrase called "Hurry up and wait". This means that whatever supervisor you work is going to want a tasking done NOW, but the problem is that a whole bunch of people want the same thing NOW, so you are going to hurry up and get in line and wait for the thing that was so important that you had to have it NOW. We see the NOW concept even in our children. Have you ever tried to get a Sippie cup or dinner ready for you child and instead of waiting patiently for it, they're screaming their head off? They're screaming cuz they want it and they want it now. They don't understand that it's going to take awhile to get that Sippie cup ready or that dinner is almost done and Daddy or Mommy are still cooking it. We are impatient like children. Some of us try to have everything planned out and instead of waiting for an opportunity to present itself we want to jump on the first thing that comes along. GIMME, MINE, I WANT IT NOW. Oh how difficult it is to just slow done and look at everything going on in our lives in a critical and logical manner. And when the stars and moon don't align the way we want them to, well then the whole world is gonna come to an end and come crashing down around us. We look up into the heavens and say "Please God, I want this and I want it now" or "Why won't you answer me?" Sometimes the answer has already been given and like the child who is waiting for the Sippie cup our eyes are so filled with tears that we don't even see the Sippie being held out before us. Christ tell us that "This too shall pass", the same can be said with our lives. Whenever life throws you some stones and your sitting there impatiently waiting for something to change, relax, take care, have faith, for something will change. I know that for some it's not the change that's irritating it's the waiting. But you see you have convince yourself that if you look at each day as an adventure or a stepping stone to the next level then something will go your way. There will be days out there that just feel like no matter what you do as soon as you step outside the house someone is going to hit you with a truck. Juggalos, we ask that the Carnival is patient with us as we are like impatient children. We know that the answer will be revealed to us in good time. We know that for each door closed there shall be one open. We need only to be patient and try to make the right decisions so that we can see that door more clearly. MCL

Sup Juggalos, I know that I am backed up on sermons. I've been running around frantically trying to get everything done for my Family and archiving sermons and writing them hasn't been achievable until now. I preached this sermon two weeks ago, live on MyJuggalospace and I really encourage you that if you have the opportunity and you are online to tune in and listen to MJSR on Sunday's to hear the service. Ninjas who've been hearing me preach for years will tell you that there is a big contrast between a sermon that has been preached and a sermon that has been written. But I hope that for which ever way that this sermon receives you that you take from it something positive. My daughter, Lillian Lotus Faanes was born March 5th, 2009. Not only did my Family pull through to help out, but my Juggalo Family really pulled through in our time of need. Rev. Dave, Rabbi Ponix, Deacon Jester and Joker drove 5 hours from Va Beach just to be there for her birth and be there for my wife and I. That brothers and sisters is what true Family can do for you. I know that when my daughter was still growing in my wife's belly that her and I used to speculate about what kind of woman she would grow to be. What kinds of things would she say and do based on the influence of her mother and father? My wife, who is incredibly gorgeous, never truly thought that she was pretty. Women tend to underrate themselves especially as they are constantly comparing themselves to other women and the falseness of the media's interpretation of what is beauty. I told my wife that I hoped our daughter grew up to look and feel as she does. Not in the sense that she doesn't feel that she is beautiful (enough), but in the sense of being humble and willing to judge people off their character and trustworthiness vice their physical attributes. I remember that when I was growing up I was never the "cool" kid. I wasn't adorn with friends and popularity. I wasn't part of the "in crowd". Growing up I was programmed that I wasn't good looking and I wasn't going to be good at anything and the cruel chiding of other children and society only served to reinforce that opinion. My father was the one who taught me that other people's opinion didn't matter. I didn't truly grasp that meaning until I was awakened by the Carnival. I remember the cruelness of those other kids and as a parent reflecting back on my youth, I fear that my children will undergo the same cruelness. I joked with my wife and said that when Demitri is old enough he will take up weight lifting like his father and take kung fu classes so that even if he wasn't part of the "in crowd" he could still kick a muthafacko's ass. The reality of the situation is this. We are who we make ourselves to be. We must break free of the programming and not allow someone else's preconceived notions to control us. Each one of us has the ability to overcome our fears and misgivings and achieve what we want to achieve. If YOU believe that you are NOTHING, then a nothing you shall be. If YOU believe that you are UGLY then ugly is what you shall become. Nary a Juggalo that I have met has there ever been one's of pure crud and disfigurement. Even the scrubbiness of ninja has held a light inside them. It is when we turn away from this light and choose to live in our own dungeon of discontentment that we become that which is ugly and that which is wicked to the eye of the beholder. Even the fattest of fat kids has been known to have a bright smile and beauty that shines within that just makes people want to love them that much more. Juggalos, we need not to impress the mainstream or to succumb to the cruelness of children. In the Eyes of the Carnival we are who we have made ourselves out to be. We have no one to blame for this. Not the school kids, not our parents, not any other living creature. We choose to shine within, we choose whether to survive or wallow in our self-pity, we choose to bring forth beauty or to live in ugliness. I will tell you that I have yet to see a female Juggalo who is ugly in my sight. We are all beautiful until we open our mouths and perform our deeds, then our true beauty is decided. You can look like Angelina all you want, but if your heart is cold, you might as well be Medusa. MCL

We Juggalos have received our calling through music. The relation to a reality that we all feel in common together. We gather in large Masses to proclaim good news and to share in fellowship and Clown Luv. Whenever a new cd or a concert comes about we rush out to listen. To discover a new meaning or to feel something moving. Psychopathic and the Hatchet has been around for over 10 years. And we know it ain't ever gonna quit. New talent always emerges from the shadows. From Zug Izland to Missing Children to Warp Minded Killas, we will always hear of new talent to give us their interpretation of the Carnival's Message. And if that isn't enough you have sermons like the ones my fellow ministers and I write to turn to for whatever spiritual needs you may have. ...But what I want to talk about is what happens when the music stops? What happens when the concert is over? Does that mean that the companionship stops? Does that mean that the Clown Luv stops? It shouldn't, a Juggalo is a Juggalo regardless of whether his/her cd player is on or not. ...But what if the music ceases all together and the seats are left barren. Does that mean that the Dark Carnival ceases. Some people look at me and they say "Rev, how can you have Faith in a band." I say friend, my Faith isn't based on a band or music. That's merely an interpretation of a message to my Family... my people, the scrubs, the sinners, the down trodden. I celebrate that message. I am loyal to the band for the word and the message and world that they have shown me. However, the music is an expression of the message of the Dark Carnival. It's already produced we need only to pass it down from one generation to the next. The lyrics, the sermons, the prayers the conversations, the stories they all are heirlooms and tools for teaching. ...But the Dark Carnival is eternal. The concept of god is eternal. The Dark Carnival Faith is just an interpretation. Just like Catholicism, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Morman, Judaism, Islam, Wicca, Paganism, they are all different interpretations of the same message. And the concept on how to get on the divine or the "powers that be" good graces are all the same. Love thy neighbor as thyself, Do what ye will harm no one, Whatever you do to someone is gonna come back and bite you in the ass, it all says the same thing just said differently. Practiced differently. Ritualized differently. So if the music stops do Juggalos stop, does the Dark Carnival stop? No, the values of the Hatchet will be passed to our children and our children's children as tradition. We've been around for a long time unnamed and in the shadows. We shall be around just as long with our found name... Juggalo. ....And we shall never die alone.... and Juggalos will always carry on..... I hope to be on this spiritual journey for a long time ...and I hope that you will walk with me the whole time ...and even though some will stay and some will go ...There will always be a Juggalo. MCL

Sup Juggalos, As we near the end of the year, I am noticing an increase in the loss of precious Juggalo lives. Virginia Beach recently lost a couple young ninjas to an unfortunate automobile accident. True Crime Report. com talks about a Lette who was tragically murdered. During the holiday season is a most difficult time to cope with the loss of a loved one. Difficult in the sense that these holidays are a time for family to gather around the dinner table to feast and share memories of the ending year. It is especially hard to cope with these festive occasions when you look across the table and the place that was set for your loved one is no longer being filled. I was recently asked by one parish member how does one deal with such things. It seems that towards the end of this particular year the time of the Harvest is at hand. Harvest meaning the harvesting of souls. We do not know why this occurs or how the great wheels are spun into motion which determine fate for one individual or another. Perhaps this harvesting is a result of our own actions. Maybe we should of went right instead of left. Maybe we should have stayed instead of gone. The answer seems very blurry at best. Perhaps the losses of life are based on things that we do not have control of. I think that is the most difficult to comprehend for us humans...the result of situations in which we had no control. Man since the dawn of time has tried to be the master of his/her environment. We have tried to master even our own fates. Imagine the trouble in trying to fathom, rationalize and control things that cannot be fathomed, rationalized or controlled. Hindsight is 20/20. We always try to look back and analyze a situation that has already occurred. What would the outcome be if I only had done this? How would things be different if I had only done that? The unfortunates is we cannot change things that have already happen. We can only deal with what is happening now, cope with what happened in the past and look forward to the future. I have described death as a full circle. A circle that cannot be broken. Our time and when it comes and how it comes is something that cannot be planned or expected to happen. We only know that we are born, we live and we die. The choices that we make in life may or may not effect the result of our death. If one puts a gun to their head and pulls the trigger we know that it is highly likely that death will occur, but not even that is certain. I have met a man who has put a gun to his head and now lives with the consequences of his actions. Robbed of his sight by his own hand in an attempt to control a destiny that could not be controlled. We cannot foretell the future, nor can we undo the past. What is certain is that the choices that we make in this life greatly effect the outcome of what happens after life and in new life. For those who have felt loss I say this. Do not fear death, embrace it. Pray that when it comes it is glorious. Know that it may be the end of what you have known, but it is also the beginning of what you have not known. Life is a circle and in the end of the circle comes death, but yet another circle begins, that of a new life...one full of promise and adventure. Grieve and grieve fully fore it is healthy and the right thing to do. But know that the grief is only temporary. Fill the emptiness in your heart with memories that are filled with laughter. Hold tight to your memories, but more importantly cherish and hold tighter to the ones who are left behind, fore it is the strength of the collective love that will help you through the loss of the individual. Know that the memories that you have with your loss loved one are not coming to an end. You have more memories to go you need only to wait until your circle is complete. Honor their memory, Love them and keep them, always remember them. I hope this sermon finds you well. I hope that it will help. I hope that your grief will be short. Never be afraid to say I love you. MCL