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| Top: Mother Teresa Middle: Marilyn Manson Bottom: Robert Tilton |
It occurred to me while rereading my post on Richard Kiel (>) that those who cling tightest to Jesus are also often marginalized, and suffer some nonconformity.
It's an old theme in literature and popular culture of course, and recognized since antiquity in such as Don Quixote, Victor Hugo's truands, the Island of Lost Toys, Marilyn Manson, even entire ethnic groups - Samaritans, Jews, Kurds, Yazidis - just to name a handful that come to mind.
I intentionally didn't say "cling tightest to religion" or faith or something broader, because I think those closest to Jesus are a different sort than those closest to other religious personalities. I have no empirical basis for that, just an informed speculation.
And I have an idea on who might serve as good examples and good counterexamples, but no need to cite the obvious; just set a couple reference points at the extremes (like Mother Theresa and Robert Tilton) and work your way to the middle, where most religiously minded folks live every day, aspiring to one side, shaking their heads at the other, but never nudged from comfortable equilibrium between the two.
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Incidentally, this coalescence into a community of like-imperfected nonconformists isn't always a withdrawal (though it's easiest described that way - sewers and catacombs, islands, asylums), but rather an acceptance of an internal beauty that the world cannot see.
[2014-09-23]
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