Friends of God?
On Friday night, Karen and I watched the interesting documentary by Alexandra Pelosi (yes, Nancy's daughter) called "Friends of God" on HBO - http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/friends_of_god/index.html?ntrack_para1=leftnav_category5_show0.
That same day, Paul Krugman, in the New York Times, posited that the overwhelming partisanship we've seen in the last 16 years across the country would only be alleviated if we could return to a state of more economical balance across the wealth spectrums, and that the continuing inequality of the super rich and rich accumulating more and more wealth at the expense of the middle and underclasses is what has led to a great deal of the strident partisanship.
After watching the documentary, I'm not so sure that it's as simple as putting it in the economic terms that Krugman laid out.
The vast majority of those that call themselves evangelicals, or born-again seem to have no interest in rational discourse or debate. They have a certainty about their cause that would seem to defy any attempt at compromise on many issues. And, as long as the Republican party aligns itself with this movement as an important part of their "base", then I don't see how we will be able to move beyond the vast gulf that exists in the ways that some people think about very divisive issues at the expense of common problems.
So, that's the conundrum on the political side of the equation, but what about this whole notion of evangelizing or proselityzing for religion, or for Christ or whatever it may be.
It kind of confuses me and defies logical explanation. On the one hand, we hear that Christ or God (are they one and the same?) have a very simple message - love. So, why all the need for "Warriors for Christ", or "Champions of Christ", or wrestlers or skateboarders or whatever for Christ"? Why not "Peacemakers for Christ", or Lovers for Christ"? Why so overwhelmingly love of country and support of war and troops - as if Christ, or God, who are supposed to be all knowing and ominpotent have only a regard for this country??
And, if the message is one of love, why so much hate of gays, immigrants, other religions, anything other than those you share a common belief with?
It was a little odd (and frightening) to hear so many young people (little kids and teens) stating unequivocally that they did not believe in evolution, did believe in creationism and had somehow been convinced that dinosaurs were on the Earth at the same time as man. Apparently the debate over whether we should be allowing creationsim or "intelligent design" to be taught in schools alongside evolution or biological sciences is somewhat of a moot point as, at least, in communities that are heavily biased towards evangelism, they have already succeeded in instilling a dubious belief system into the younger generations and that just keeps getting propagated from one generation to the next - biology and science be damned.
Clearly, these folks have a vested interest in NOT educating the young and keeping a lid on the ability to think for oneself and not explore the world at large. How else to explain 40,000 plus teenagers showing up in San Francisco, of all places, for a mega evangelical experience.
I wonder if the push for more local control of schools and more school choice has not just become a coded way of controlling the agenda to the point where it's less important to educate kids to compete in a globalized world than to keep a narrow point of view that keeps us from engaging with that world in any kind of serious way.
So, if God exists and is this omnipotent, all seeing, all knowing ruler of the Universe (and I make no claims to the validity of that hypotheses), wouldn't he, she, it have a much more vested interest in the fruits of his creation being highly educated, highly motivated to preserving life on earth through peaceful means, having some vested interest in people engaging with one another regardlesss of national boundaries and ethnicities?
Instead, we seem to have a very narrow interpretation of what the message of Christ was and it seems to center more on a very narrow view of the world and not so much life as death and the after death experience.
Is that being a friend to God?
That same day, Paul Krugman, in the New York Times, posited that the overwhelming partisanship we've seen in the last 16 years across the country would only be alleviated if we could return to a state of more economical balance across the wealth spectrums, and that the continuing inequality of the super rich and rich accumulating more and more wealth at the expense of the middle and underclasses is what has led to a great deal of the strident partisanship.
After watching the documentary, I'm not so sure that it's as simple as putting it in the economic terms that Krugman laid out.
The vast majority of those that call themselves evangelicals, or born-again seem to have no interest in rational discourse or debate. They have a certainty about their cause that would seem to defy any attempt at compromise on many issues. And, as long as the Republican party aligns itself with this movement as an important part of their "base", then I don't see how we will be able to move beyond the vast gulf that exists in the ways that some people think about very divisive issues at the expense of common problems.
So, that's the conundrum on the political side of the equation, but what about this whole notion of evangelizing or proselityzing for religion, or for Christ or whatever it may be.
It kind of confuses me and defies logical explanation. On the one hand, we hear that Christ or God (are they one and the same?) have a very simple message - love. So, why all the need for "Warriors for Christ", or "Champions of Christ", or wrestlers or skateboarders or whatever for Christ"? Why not "Peacemakers for Christ", or Lovers for Christ"? Why so overwhelmingly love of country and support of war and troops - as if Christ, or God, who are supposed to be all knowing and ominpotent have only a regard for this country??
And, if the message is one of love, why so much hate of gays, immigrants, other religions, anything other than those you share a common belief with?
It was a little odd (and frightening) to hear so many young people (little kids and teens) stating unequivocally that they did not believe in evolution, did believe in creationism and had somehow been convinced that dinosaurs were on the Earth at the same time as man. Apparently the debate over whether we should be allowing creationsim or "intelligent design" to be taught in schools alongside evolution or biological sciences is somewhat of a moot point as, at least, in communities that are heavily biased towards evangelism, they have already succeeded in instilling a dubious belief system into the younger generations and that just keeps getting propagated from one generation to the next - biology and science be damned.
Clearly, these folks have a vested interest in NOT educating the young and keeping a lid on the ability to think for oneself and not explore the world at large. How else to explain 40,000 plus teenagers showing up in San Francisco, of all places, for a mega evangelical experience.
I wonder if the push for more local control of schools and more school choice has not just become a coded way of controlling the agenda to the point where it's less important to educate kids to compete in a globalized world than to keep a narrow point of view that keeps us from engaging with that world in any kind of serious way.
So, if God exists and is this omnipotent, all seeing, all knowing ruler of the Universe (and I make no claims to the validity of that hypotheses), wouldn't he, she, it have a much more vested interest in the fruits of his creation being highly educated, highly motivated to preserving life on earth through peaceful means, having some vested interest in people engaging with one another regardlesss of national boundaries and ethnicities?
Instead, we seem to have a very narrow interpretation of what the message of Christ was and it seems to center more on a very narrow view of the world and not so much life as death and the after death experience.
Is that being a friend to God?
posted by Paul Salinger at 10:33 AM
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