Reflections on Christianity
I've been thinking about the power of the evangelical Christian movement a great deal lately. And I've been taking part in a discussion about it on a real slice-of-life list with a good number of capital C Christians on it, which is pretty enlightening.
I think there are a numbers of factors at play.
First, people are really, really starved for a meaningful, comforting mythology right now. We are all being dis-illusioned now and are going to be even more so in the next few years; it's what Saturn opposite Neptune brings (2004 -2008). Many people are already gasping for hope.
Then, I think the current Christian myth is very carefully crafted to touch the soul. It uses powerful and valid parts of the older Christian mythology, but it leaves out the parts that don't suit its goal, which in my understanding, unfortunately, is to divide us.
Take the Left Behind series (40 million sold between 1995 and 2005 - second only to the Bible!) If LaHay's intention was to bring us together, surely he wouldn't cast the UN and a man who professes to be a peacemaker as the Anti-Christ. It's frustrating and frightening to see people urged on to war, but I think that's what's happening. I really believe the Rapture myth is being perpetrated as purposefully as the Ubermensch myth was in Hitler's Germany. And so many people, good people, kind people, people who really want what's best, who truly love, and who truly walk their talk, true spiritual seekers, are being taken in by this frightening mythology. Imo, it's pure diabolos, dividing us against our neighbors and our families.
Finally, I think the people behind the promotion of this scary belief system are doing the whole ritual exactly right —particularly for the people they are trying to bring into their power. They're using time-honored and powerful spiritual techniques like surrender, baptism, faith, prayer, singing, and imagery combined with time-honored techniques of demogoguery: anti-intellectualism, an appeal to the prejudices of the audience, and a comfortable but false sense of empowerment.
So the people who buy into these sects actually do get what they're looking for. The imagery is about as primal and powerful as it gets and the experience is real and on-going. What more can you ask?
And, once you're over that line onto the Saved part of planet Earth, you get to look back and see how bad things really are and not be bothered by it. You are no longer fooled by the wiles of the material world. You're beyond it. In fact, it's such a relief to inhabit a world full of meaning after touching the place a beautiful song like "Dust in the Wind" takes you, you can be downright smug.
Part of me moans, oh, God, how can we have come to this? Didn't we learn from World War II? And the other part kind of steps back enough to see that Alice O. Howell is right, it's just the changing of the Age, not the end of the world.
But oh, boy, what a catastrophe these True Believers may be wreaking.
I think there are a numbers of factors at play.
First, people are really, really starved for a meaningful, comforting mythology right now. We are all being dis-illusioned now and are going to be even more so in the next few years; it's what Saturn opposite Neptune brings (2004 -2008). Many people are already gasping for hope.
Then, I think the current Christian myth is very carefully crafted to touch the soul. It uses powerful and valid parts of the older Christian mythology, but it leaves out the parts that don't suit its goal, which in my understanding, unfortunately, is to divide us.
Take the Left Behind series (40 million sold between 1995 and 2005 - second only to the Bible!) If LaHay's intention was to bring us together, surely he wouldn't cast the UN and a man who professes to be a peacemaker as the Anti-Christ. It's frustrating and frightening to see people urged on to war, but I think that's what's happening. I really believe the Rapture myth is being perpetrated as purposefully as the Ubermensch myth was in Hitler's Germany. And so many people, good people, kind people, people who really want what's best, who truly love, and who truly walk their talk, true spiritual seekers, are being taken in by this frightening mythology. Imo, it's pure diabolos, dividing us against our neighbors and our families.
Finally, I think the people behind the promotion of this scary belief system are doing the whole ritual exactly right —particularly for the people they are trying to bring into their power. They're using time-honored and powerful spiritual techniques like surrender, baptism, faith, prayer, singing, and imagery combined with time-honored techniques of demogoguery: anti-intellectualism, an appeal to the prejudices of the audience, and a comfortable but false sense of empowerment.
So the people who buy into these sects actually do get what they're looking for. The imagery is about as primal and powerful as it gets and the experience is real and on-going. What more can you ask?
And, once you're over that line onto the Saved part of planet Earth, you get to look back and see how bad things really are and not be bothered by it. You are no longer fooled by the wiles of the material world. You're beyond it. In fact, it's such a relief to inhabit a world full of meaning after touching the place a beautiful song like "Dust in the Wind" takes you, you can be downright smug.
Part of me moans, oh, God, how can we have come to this? Didn't we learn from World War II? And the other part kind of steps back enough to see that Alice O. Howell is right, it's just the changing of the Age, not the end of the world.
But oh, boy, what a catastrophe these True Believers may be wreaking.
posted by Eve at 11:59 AM
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