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Fictianity
At approximately 8:20am ET on a nationally syndicated Christian radio network, I heard a regular host and guest, a woman and a man, commiserating over photo ID voting laws (supporting them); the woman ended the segment by saying she would go one step further and make the ability to speak English a requirement to vote.
Is this an aberration or truly the depth to which fundamentalist Christianity has sunk?
I can only imagine she was pulling an Ann Coulter and being hyperbolic to make a point (so over-the-top that you know she's not drinking her own Kool-Aid but she won't step out of character because that would end the illusion).
I don't need to mention names. Tune around the dial and drop in on some fundamentalist Christian programming. It'll only take a few hours over the course of a week to get earful of thinly veiled racist and homophobic and sometimes just plain mean-spirited Christianity.[1]
Which is IMHO not Christianity at all.
What to call it?
Howabout Fictianity
(Although I just invented it, I Googled it and it's not new with me; it appeared in 2008 on a blog called "A Single Denarius"; I have no connection with that blog and only read that posting.)
I also like Simtianity, sim-chee-anity (as in Sim City, simulation, etc).
At any rate, when I hear hateful speech, though I cannot tell what's truly in the heart of the speaker, I can say for certain I do not hear the love of Christ.
c0
[1]
I don't believe this is always conscious. Certainly it often is, but I can't believe a Christian would say something like this and mean it. How could you on the one hand support bible translations, missionaries to foreign lands, etc, and on the other deny the same folks, if they happen to be American citizens, the right to vote?
It makes no sense to me. I understand the English-only sentiment; the threat to homogeneity is frightening, but we all live with it every day. Every person and culture does and always will. The Apostles faced it immediately with the influx of Gentiles into a new Jewish cult called "Christianity."
[2012-10-03]
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The best weather forecast I've seen in months...
c0
Hey Bro -
ReplyDeleteI've heard lots of people say that same thing (speak English to vote) or express sentiments that lined up very nicely with it. I don't think they were trying to be over-the-top at all. Rather, they likely believed they were expressing the sort of home spun -grassroots wisdom that any decent person has. If others don't get it - it's because they've read too many books and had all the common sense trained out of 'em.
Good comment. I suppose they might be thinking that, but I would also suppose they've not seriously examined themselves, and if they do, and if they still can't see the forest for the trees, they shouldn't be allowed to represent the rest of us by calling themselves Christians and speaking to millions as if the rest of us that use the same title share their views.
ReplyDelete--c0