[Dialogue] reaction to Obama

[KroegerD at aol.com]

But what if I think 'people of faith' are  a little crazy?
By Jan Frel
Posted on June 28, 2006,  Printed on June 29,  2006
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/frel/38280/

I have two people in my close family who are long-time members of some  very 
weird Christian splinter groups. One of them, who I won't identify,  is a 
Jehovah's Witness. This relative -- an adherent for more than 20  years -- walks 
around, knocks on doors, passes out literature with some of  the most laughable 
illustrations I've ever seen in my life. The most  common pastiche is one 
composed of what look like off-duty prozac-popping  bank tellers walking around 
in mocked-up nature scenes that most resemble  a Hawaiian golf course in the 
adoring company of fuzzy mammals -- such as  smiling tigers and koala bears. In 
the Jehovah Witness' world, this is  supposed to be a depiction of paradise on 
Earth, when in fact it's litmus  proof that 9th-rate minds are cooking up a 
weak broth of religious fantasy  that makes the Left Behind series look as real 
as the pile of  parking tickets in my glove compartment. Luckily for them, 
poor suckers  like this relative of mine are satisfied with this Motel 6 version 
of  Christianity. 
My half-brother however, went for the most ornate and elaborate  Christian 
sect I know of -- Eastern Orthodox. He worships five-star style,  in an ancient 
church that hits, as he told me, "all the senses." Beautiful  chanting, 
endless sticks of incense, gorgeous depictions of Jesus and his  friends in mosaics 
and gold carvings, real relics that Jesus slept on that  have healing powers, 
and endless cycles of feasting and fasting. Like a  crazed Cubs fan who 
relocates to be able to sleep within sight of Wrigley  Field, my half-brother moved 
to the old city of Jerusalem, just to be  closer to the action. He truly 
believes that icons of saints and the  Virgin Mary shed real tears, and that tombs 
of saints ooze myrrh and holy  oils. He's been in Jerusalem for six years. 
Praying night and day,  sometimes for me. 
And I think he's completely out of his mind. If you are a believer,  come and 
jump in my shoes for a second: if the prayers and chants he  performs aren't 
in fact ordained by God, then what the hell is going on?  What the hell is my 
brother doing? If God didn't write -- or inspire --  these prayers, some of 
which take hours to recite, then who did?  
It makes me feel like these relatives are a bunch of suckers who pour  their 
time in an energy sink, are stuck in an obsolete way of thinking,  and make 
some very stupid choices in life based on these beliefs,  involving everything 
from diet to seeing doctors. 
And it seems to me that there's a very easy tool you can use to sniff  out 
that something is very strange about religious faith: cold, literal  comparison. 
Look at one church and its claims and compare it to another  one. Like 
Jehovah's Witnesses vs. Eastern Orthodox Christians. Can my  relative and my 
half-brother both be right? Their ways don't mesh,  and make each other look pretty 
ridiculous when they're side by side. My  brother’s fervent passion for kissing 
the icons of saints is matched by my  other relative’s passion for converting 
Chinese immigrants with childish  propaganda. They both have told me they 
think other sects of Christianity  have it wrong... “if you go back look at the 
true words in the Bible,”  they say, “why then you’ll see that what I’m doing 
makes perfect sense --  it’s what Jesus would have wanted me to do.” 
But both can’t be true -- and because of the bizarre absolutist nature  of 
the religious argument, they are both absolutely wrong. So what exactly  are 
they doing if they aren’t serving God? Uggh, it makes me feel sick to  my stomach 
to think about it. I try not to. 
There’s the argument that religion gets more acceptable as it becomes  less 
marginal; that a tolerant, pro-science outfit like the United Church  of Christ 
is a reasonable vehicle for the worship of the Christian God.  But 
ultimately, the insane component -- the God-worshipping component,  orchestrated by 
priests and higher-ups who enjoy playing games of mind  control -- is still there. 
Why cling on to this BS in desperation, I ask?   
Sure, the Jehovah's Witnesses have an environmental bent, but it  doesn’t 
make the religious component any less crazy. Or, to go to slightly  saner 
grounds, just because Jim Wallis talks about economic justice  doesn’t make his 
Christianity any less crazy to me. And, if I remember  correctly, he’s out in the 
public sphere because he’s a Christian; his  positions on various issues are 
there to burnish his Christian creds.  
And that’s where we get to an evangelical suck-up like _Barack  Obama_ 
(http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/38280/”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/28/”) , who recently attacked Democrats and 
lefties failing to  “acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American 
people.” I  think most of us acknowledge it, but why the hell bow to it? A long 
chunk  of Kevin Phillips’ _most  recent book_ 
(http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/38280/”http://www.alternet.org/story/34572/”)  is one long “Oh 
my God, this country is filled with  religious nutcases -- what the hell are we 
going to do?!!” Folks like  Phillips have acceded to the fact that fanatics 
are there in abundance,  but that doesn’t mean in the slightest that the 
Godless and misotheistic  wing in America should stand quietly in the face of that 
truth.  
While Rabbi Michael Lerner has been right to point out that liberals  need to 
offer a language and lifestyle that appeals to the same grievances  that 
attract evangelicals and other believers to megachurches, the  long-term right 
thing to do is politely, but stiffly refuse to accept any  religious recourses to 
explain reality, even when they would appear to  help our cause. And that 
means for me that the starting place is to  challenge him on the grounds of what 
he has in mind when he calls himself  Rabbi. 
Taking that logic to lefty journalism, it means it’s not OK to say that  God 
is a liberal, that God supports the minimum wage, or that George W.  Bush and 
his cronies have broken all _10 Commandments_ 
(http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060710/allen) .  This is especially true because I know for a fact that most 
of the  purveyors of these arguments are not believers themselves. And that 
makes  them just as cynical and manipulative as the guys on the other side who  
wield Jesus in their eternal and holy battle to cut corporate taxes. 
Jan Frel is an AlterNet staff writer.  
© 2006 Independent Media Institute. All  rights reserved.
View this story online at:  http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/frel/38280/

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20060629/7cbf5b94/attachment.html