American Gods

So the BBC reported today on the Presidential candidate's appearance at a very cotton wool religious "question and answer" session.

Apparently the millionaire pastor asked a bunch of none too scary questions and basically gave them the forum they need to state their Christian credentials. Of course, John McCain is the favoured candidate of this particular audience, he's the republican after all, and this was a largely white republican audience.

In the article the writer describes how "According to one estimate 1 in 4 Americans describe themselves as born again Christians". Crikey! No wonder the religious angle is so important. That's not even including the "born and stayed Christians" or the "pretending to be Christians".

Why is this a bad thing? Well, it takes time away from real issues - from my point of view that is.

The election of the next US president will have consequences far beyond whether white Christians feel they're represented or not, and from my Euro/Anglocentric POV this whole shebang is a colossal waste of time and may actually be dangerously affecting the already fragile religion/politics balance.

IMHO, Religion and politics should never be allowed to mix anyway, since I don't want anyone with supreme authority over our armed forces who thinks the Earth is only 6000 years old, or that Israel has sole rights to the entire West Bank and Gaza strip simply because that's what their faith says.

Conversely, I also don't want someone in charge of the biggest army in the world who is prepared to pretend he does in order to win votes, either.

Terry Pratchett, in Small Gods, desribes the rise of church doctrine over pure faith very, very well.

In Small Gods, the great god OM is reduced to the form of a tortoise because no-one believed in him any more. The catch being that there's a country called Omnia, run by Om's priests and an inquisition whose sole tasks are to reinforce belief in OM. SO what went wrong? Simple really - people stop believing in the God and start believing in the Church. There is a wonderfully pithy explanation of this in an exchange between OM and his last remaining believer that goes something like this.

OM: You believe I am your god, correct?
Brutha: Yes.
OM: And you will do whatever I say, correct?
Brutha: Yes.
OM: Then go next door and kill (head of the inquisition) Vorbis.
Brutha: Er...
OM: Why aren't you doing it? I'm your God!
Brutha: Yes, but... he's VORBIS!

You follow the analogy, I hope. The religious experience now is one of conforming to church ritual and common belief, instead of focussing on worship of God. I used to work with several people who said they believed in the Bible, despite NEVER HAVING READ IT. They had never heard, for example, the story of the man who hands over his wife and daughter to be raped, so that a mob wouldn't rape a man, because that would be sodomy and much worse (!) Their response was along the lines of "that sounds very old testament, I don't follow the old testament". Actually folks, it's in BOTH! Look it up! These folks also didn;t know that Seven of each animal went onto the ark with Noah, not two (though that's understandable, given all the teachers saying the opposite). Actually, some did go Two by Two, but only the "unclean" ones.

And there's another issue. At some point, believing in the Christian God and Messiah became secondary to believing in the book about them. And the thing about book is, if you refute any one of its claims, then, for me at least the book as a whole is very very questionable. And who really believes in

Also, it is my opinion that you can't pick and choose bits of the bible and call yourself a Christian. Either the book is right or it isn't - you don't get do-overs! It's like people claiming to be Catholic but also being Pro Birth Control. You just can't do it.

Sorry to harp on at this subject but it's crucial to the future of our society that we see these methods of self deception for what they are!

That is chiefly, vehicles for validating our own opinions. There's nothing like other people agreeing with you to make you feel special and loved.

So you're a sexist? The bible can back that up.
You're homophobic? Yup!
You're a racist? Yeah it's all here.

You're none of the above? Well, you just ignore the bits you don't like...

I guess the only thing missing as far as the American right are concerned, is a commandment about being allowed to carry guns. Sigh...

I forsee a bleak future for the religion/politics divide in America at least, GWB has almost destroyed it, and if the 12% of undecided voters in America are swung by the religion card then we may have a new holy war on our hands. The Christians against the Muslims again. And it went so well last time, didn't it?

Here's hoping I am totally wrong.

A