Earworm

Brighter Than Gold, by The Cat Empire

No deep thoughts here - just a song I don't at all mind having stuck in my head...

Identification

[G]roups define themselves and even hold themselves together largely negatively—by who they are not, what they are against, and what they do not do. We need a problem or an enemy to gather our energies. We usually define ourselves through various “purity codes” to separate ourselves from the “impure” and the presumably unworthy. Simple worship (“what we are for,” or in support of, and what we love) is much harder to sustain.

-Richard Rohr

(hat tip: Wendy Gritter)

Commonality

They say it's what you make
I say it's up to fate
-Imagine Dragons, "Demons"

Growing up in a fundamentalist environment, one is conditioned to view the world in stark "us vs. them" terms.  Outsiders are recognized as human beings (united primarily by our "sin natures"), but they're still viewed as fundamentally different.  "Our" beliefs not only set us apart but make us superior - wiser, more virtuous, favored by God - even if it's not stated so explicitly.

As such it's an adjustment for those of us who break free from our sheltered upbringings to adapt to the fact that "the world," far from being the shadowland of murky grays and inky blackness that we were scared into avoiding, is a diverse and colorful realm populated by people who, while admittedly flawed, are far more complex and three-dimensional and alive than we ever dared imagine.

Corollary to that is the eventual realization that the fundamentalist community one came from is far less unique than its members think themselves.  This is most evident in comparison to the many other religious groups (Christian, Muslim, Jewish and otherwise) throughout history that have seen themselves as uniquely favored by God (or the gods, or whatever), but the ways in which we are alike aren't limited to religious belief.

Take the New Atheists, whose adherents seek to convert others to atheism with a zeal to match that of any Christian evangelist.  While their enthusiasm for making new disciples cannot be accurately described as "religious" (for obvious reasons), that is the only sense that sets them apart from their religious counterparts.  Underneath, we're not really all that different.

Or take the many forms of determinism that have appeared in philosophy and theology throughout history.  Fatalistic thought is not limited to the religious realm by any means.  But while a Calvinist, a Sunni Muslim and a materialist might all object violently to the notion that they have anything in common (and would no doubt bristle at being described as "fatalistic"), to the extent that they believe that individuals cannot meaningfully alter their own destinies, they do have something significant in common with each other (and with millions of others throughout history).

The adage "history repeats itself" has become so overused that it's often little more than a political talking point anymore.  To the fundamentalist (religious, atheist or political), failure to heed the superior wisdom of the chosen few is the primary reason that history's mistakes occur over and over.  To the determinist, it's God's will, or our DNA, or the workings of Fate that prevent us from breaking those cycles.

But if history's negative cycles can be broken (a goal worth striving for, even if it turns out to be nothing more than our DNA programming us to try), perhaps our best starting point lies in acknowledging just how much we have in common, rather than in trying to set ourselves apart from the rest of the world.

Space Janitors

And now for something completely different - a quick plug for a very funny web series...

Not Bad Advice

Diversity

A friend pointed me toward this article about evangelical homeschoolers who want to teach evolutionary theory to their children.  It's easy to forget, when the media focus on the loudest voices (typically the strident, anti-science fundamentalists), that the evangelical realm is a diverse one (and I have forgotten that on occasion).  Even at my strongly conservative Christian college there was (and is) no uniformity of opinion on this issue, though those who accept evolutionary theory were (and likely still are) a small minority compared to young- and old-earth creationists.

And, as this letter writer pointed out to John Shore, not all young-earth creationists are narrow-minded fundamentalists, and not all of them have an extreme political agenda.  Just as LGBT individuals can be found scattered across nearly every demographic spectrum, so too we need to allow every individual we encounter to be just that - an individual.

Links

First up, a call for bridge building between Christians and non-Christians.  It will take a lot of work from both sides of the aisle, but respectful dialogue is not impossible.

Second, a tale of the sad reality of the way many evangelicals still treat those who fail to conform.  While it's not that bad everywhere, the legacy of fundamentalism still taints many churches and organizations.

Finally, an interesting observation about the positive side effects of LGBT equality.  Justice is not a zero-sum game; it has a positive impact on everybody.

Icons

Margaret Thatcher's recent passing provided a stark reminder of the highly polarized nature of our political culture.  To those on the right she was (and is) a patron saint, one of the great heroes of the late twentieth century.  To those on the left she was (and is) a demon, a villain who callously trampled the working class and the poor.  Love or hate her, the Iron Lady evoked strong emotions in just about everyone.

Granted, the same could be said about many politicians present and past, a fact that helps underscore the peril of entangling the church as a body in the political process.  In politics, anyone who votes against us is an opponent to be fought.  We are continually trained to view our neighbors in simplistic terms as allies or enemies.  Politicians who take the "right" stances are our heroes, whether they really deserve our respect or not.  Politicians on the "wrong" side are the embodiment of evil, again regardless of what they are really like.  A politicized pulpit can quickly become a forum that dehumanizes friend and foe alike by reducing them to two-dimensional caricatures.

Lost in the melee is the fact that we are all human beings who bear the image of (and are equally loved by) God, that we are all complex, gloriously messy three-dimensional persons whose lives cannot be reduced to a label.  Forgotten is Jesus' instruction that the Republican is my neighbor as well as the Democrat, and the Apostle Paul's reminder that even the most righteous among us is not superior to anyone else.

That's not to say that Christians living in a democratic society can (or should) avoid politics entirely, but if ever there was a time for followers of Christ to remember the command to be "in the world but not of it," the political process provides it.  Whenever we find ourselves claiming that we are "loving" our neighbors by passing laws that force them to do what we believe to be the right thing, it is perhaps time to release our death-grip on the reins of power and remind ourselves what our real mission is supposed to be.

And whenever we begin to see our political leaders as larger-than-life icons (good or bad), it couldn't hurt to pause and refocus until we can once again see them as human beings.