What will those wacky atheists think up next?

Posted on June 21, 2007 by me

You gotta love ’em for trying. PZ Myers, who is for all practical purposes Richard Dawkins without the cute British accent, is now picking up Dawkins’ argument that raising children in religious environments is child abuse. I have to admit, there are times when I’ve had similar thoughts when running into families who lived under a heavy form of legalism. But, I’ve seen worse in families raised without any rules at all. It might be interesting to poll some juvenile detention facilities to see how many were raised religious as opposed to being simply ignored.

Jesus said (this appears in 3 of the 4 Gospels):

But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. – Matthew 18:6

Obviously, Christians can make a similar claim about parents who raise their children as atheists, which appears to brings us back to Pascal’s Wager. So, you can place your bets on Jesus, or on Richard Dawkins. The “pot odds,” however, are clearly in favor of following Jesus (not Chris Ferguson, btw).

At some point in the hopefully near future, I want to explore a bit how I think the current aggressive wave of “New Atheism” could be one the signs of the collapse of modernism. Post-modernism (generically speaking, “that which comes after modernism”) has been seen and feared by some Christians as a challenge to Christianity, but I think it’s even more feared by a segment of atheists who are staunch materialists. While they attack Christianity as the most vocal challenge to materialism, the issue is much larger. As polls tend to show, people are becoming less willing to put all of their eggs into a materialistic basket, and are more and more open to some reality which can’t be experienced merely by our five physical senses.

If I’m right, Myers, like Dawkins, may simply be a “voice ‘dying’ in the wilderness.”

Posted in Faith, Science & Doubt | 2 Comments

My Letter to a Christian Nation 3: Building the Christian Ghetto

Posted on June 20, 2007 by me

Dear Christian Nation,

So we’ve come to the conclusion that we don’t have a Christian nation, at least at the present. Not as we’d like it to be, anyway. We can’t seem to force everyone to say “under God” or pray every day, and we’re resigned to the fact that the Blue Laws are probably gone for good. So, what do we do? Obviously, we create a Christian Ghetto!

The term “Christian Ghetto” refers to a pseudo-Christian pop subculture that has been constructed for two main purposes, that I can see. One such purpose (I’m not sure if this is the primary or secondary purpose) is to be able to market “Christian” books, music, clothing and other kitsch to the middle-class western evangelical Christian population. The other reason is to both insulate and isolate Christians from the contamination of “the world.” This latter reason probably comes from a mis-translation of the John chapter 17 where Jesus prays that the church be “in the world but not impacting the world.” (Yes, that’s sarcasm.) The evidence of this Christian Ghetto includes Christian bookstores, Christian radio and TV networks, “Christian” music, “Christian” movies, “Christian” novels, and the list goes on. Much of this isn’t for evangelism or education (which I don’t have a problem with). I’m guessing that most of it in terms of dollars is simply “safe” entertainment for Christians.

But now we have a new frontier, one which has frightened the Christian Ghetto for a few years now: the internet. It’s wild, it’s woolly, and we’re not sure how to deal with it. We’ve got online communities growing like fungi in places like MySpace and YouTube, and blogs off all kinds. What’s the Christian going to do with the Net? Why, create an online Christian Ghetto, of course!

My friend Mike pointed out on his blog a couple of months ago the obvious and embarrassing habit conservative Christians have (it is, really, only the conservatives…) of copying the cool worldly trends that they don’t approve of. I don’t spend much time in the “ghetto” (it creeps me out, to be honest) so I wasn’t aware of these things. Leave it to an atheist to discover embarrassing things about Christians. So, here, for your further embarrassment, are some cheap Christian-ghetto rip-offs:

GodTube: Here, your family can watch safe videos, some even with a Christian message (caution: not all Christian videos are theologically sound). There actually are some that are hilarious, including the series parodying the Mac man vs the PC man. This series is very well-done. Note that I’m not against the videos, per se. I’m just grossed out by the “ghetto” mentality of the whole GodTube thing.

Conservapedia: This one goes over the edge, in my opinion. They even have a patriotic flag-thingy at the top. Obviously they found wikipedia too liberal for Christian use. According to the site, they feature “over 11,950 educational, clean, and concise entries” Now, the question is, can you trust anything with such an ultra-right spin? Well, according to their front page today, “The LA Times praised our entries on the tuba, Claude Monet, the nation of Latvia, Robin Hood, polygons, and The Renaissance.” Whoa!

Today I received an e-mail plug for a WordPress plug-in at a site called MyChurch. Well, I started poking around MyChurch (never did get around to checking out the plugin) and guess what? You guessed it, it’s a “Christian” MySpace! Granted this site may have some cool features, as it allows churches to set up their own networks; it’s probably nice for churches who don’t have a tech team to build and support a stand-alone website. But, the thing is just to myspacey for my taste, and it does plug itself as “a Christian social network” and says “Join MyChurch to stay connected with your church and friends!” As much as I like the internet, I think if you need something like MyChurch to stay connected with your church, there are some problems.

Again, I don’t have a problem with Christians making little video things and I don’t have a problem with social networking. What I see as problems are the rather obvious ripoffs of non-Christian (and oft-criticized) ideas, and the fact that they exist to propagate the Christian Ghetto mentality. This can be likened to the concept of “parallel play” in toddlers: children 2 or 3 years old will sit and play blocks, and appear to be playing together. But, they are not necessarily interacting, they are just playing by themselves next to someone else. It’s not the same thing.

As Christians, we are supposed to be “in the world” not “alongside and not interacting with the world.” The Christian Ghetto fails to accomplish the mission of the church by establishing at best a parallel culture (and often an Amish-like encapsulated culture) rather than being present to impact the world. You see, it’s possible to be a Christian on YouTube, or MySpace, and I tend to like Wikipedia a lot…

So, once again, my challenge to the Christians in this nation is be find out what it really means to be a Christian in this nation.

Posted in Letter to a Christian Nation | 1 Comment

The New McCarthyism

Posted on June 19, 2007 by me

I am seeing a trend which appears to be a new McCarthyism, which is not just taking hold in American but is also spreading across Europe. The New McCarthyism is not the fear of Communism or of any political system. Rather, it is the largely irrational, but intense, fear of religion. We’ve seen it take root in public schools, with it’s fear of Creationism and school prayer. We’ve seen it in the court system with the fear of the Ten Commandments (what’s that called, decaphobia?). It’s prompted responses like The [ridiculous] Blasphemy Challenge. Lately, we’ve seen it’s popularity in people like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens and the success of their books. The belief is that religion in some or all of it’s forms is dangerous, and should be marginalized if not totally eradicated.

In the past couple of days I’ve run into a few articles on the web (some new, some not) that I’ve found particularly interesting. Take the two brave librarians who refused to put two donated ID books on the school shelves, though they denied it was censorship. However, this is how the ACLU defines censorship:

Censorship is the suppression of ideas and information that certain persons—individuals, groups or government officials—find objectionable or dangerous. It is no more complicated than someone saying, “Don’t let anyone read this book, or buy that magazine, or view that film, because I object to it! ” Censors try to use the power of the state to impose their view of what is truthful and appropriate, or offensive and objectionable, on everyone else. Censors pressure public institutions, like libraries, to suppress and remove from public access information they judge inappropriate or dangerous, so that no one else has the chance to read or view the material and make up their own minds about it. The censor wants to prejudge materials for everyone.

The American Library Association says “Some examples of censorship may include … not purchasing conservative religious materials.” Apparently this is not a philosophy shared by all librarians.

According to what’s been happening lately, I’m thinking that the definition of censorship should be amended so that the term only applies when it doesn’t refer to religion or ID (which is not necessarily religious). This sounds awfully Orwellian to me, but such is the nature of any fear-based control methodology.

Now, if you want a look at what the New McCarthyism really looks like, take a look at the recent report by the incredibly paranoid Council of Europe titled The dangers of creationism in education:

The Parliamentary Assembly is worried about the possible ill-effects of the spread of creationist theories within our education systems and about the consequences for our democracies. If we are not careful, creationism could become a threat to human rights, which are a key concern of the Council of Europe.

The report goes on to state that “the advent of an ‘all things are equal’ attitude, which may seem appealing and tolerant but is actually disastrous. So, in Europe, apparently tolerance is out the window. They are, after all, a few years ahead of us in Orwellian terms. You’d think they’d learn.

As is evidenced in the recent wave of New Atheist publications, the issue is moving past a simple fear of religion’s influence on science and education to the fear of any religious influence. And, perhaps they have a point. We know of the obvious political dangers of radical Islam. However, we must recognize that true Christianity is also a terribly dangerous religion. True Christianity, after all, turns all human systems topsy-turvy. This is made most clear, in my opinion, in Jesus’ discourse with Pilate:

Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

“What is truth?” Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.” John 18:36-38

Jesus made it clear, and Pilate understood, that Jesus was not challenging any Earthly kingdom on Earthly terms. The Jewish leaders of his day, on the other hand, knew that the teachings of Jesus were more dangerous than some Earthly revolutionary. True Christianity should challenge systems of thought, systems of belief and systems of action. True Christianity may be more dangerous than even Christopher Hitchens thinks.

To some extent, possibly more than I think, Joe McCarthy was correct. Likewise, the New McCarthyism may not be irrational after all; perhaps it is recognizing something that even most Christians have forgotten.

Posted in Faith, Science & Doubt, Politics/Current Events | 1 Comment

My Letter to a Christian Nation – page 2

Posted on June 18, 2007 by me

Dear Christian Nation (continued):

The other day I pulled up one of the large, mainstream news sites (probably to check on how Paris Hilton is doing) and was greeted with the headline of the moment, something about the economy being healthy because American spending is strong. Now, I’ve probably seen a hundred similar headlines over the years, but this time it really struck me what it was they were saying: we judge the health of our country by how much we spend.

Wow.

Now, I took economics in one of the handful of colleges I passed through, and I understand the basics. I know about GNPs and Trade Deficits and why it’s occasionally necessary to help overthrow a government or two if it helps our economic stability. I understand the Fed (actually, as my Econ Prof told us, “no one understands the Fed”) and interest rates and how in a free market system, it is the movement of cash that is the foundation of our economy.

And, it’s not just the basics. It’s not just about buying essentials, like affordable housing, food and clothing. No, it’s about buying bigger homes, SUVs, 40 pairs of shoes and gluttonous amounts of junk food. It’s large screen TVs, Xbox 360s and thousand-gig iPods. It’s crap, most of it. Seriously. Does it really add to the quality of your life? Well, yes, perhaps it does; but that’s really beside the point.

Now, tell me this: What does buying stuff have to do with being a Christian nation? What fruit of the Spirit does spending come under? Or is being able to buy cool stuff the real point of Jesus’ parable of the Talents? How did “give us this day our daily bread” grow into, “and a really hot stock portfolio?”

If America was really a Christian nation, wouldn’t we measure the strength of our economy on how much we were able to give to third-world countries? (By the way, that’s “give” as in assistance, not by building up a military presence.) Wouldn’t that, in fact, be one of our primary goala?

I think I’ve already established that we’re not a Christian nation. The real issue, however, is this: as Christians living in this so-called great nation, what are we called to do? If we believe in the Sermon on the Mount, if we believe in having “the mind of Christ” and reflecting the glory of God to the world, what should we do? Voting Republican is not enough; for that matter, it may not even be relevant.

We’ve got to stop imagining that America is the Promised Land and that the Kingdom of God starts here. As I’ve mentioned, America isn’t mentioned in the Bible. American can be a blessing to the world; we all know we can afford it, and that there are places that need (as opposed to want) it. And, it’s not just about evangelism; we’ve got to remember the words of Jesus:

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. … I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:35, 36, 40

Let’s stop pretending to be a Christian nation, and just start trying to be Christians.

Posted in Letter to a Christian Nation | 1 Comment