I Suck Immeasurably
I don't care what the blog time says, it's exactly 3:21 a.m. here. Woke up about 2a.m., poured coffee into my being, 3 cups, then had a meal of oat as I watched the anime series Full Metal Panic, which has been my guilty pleasure viewing off and on for the past few months. In fact, most of my viewing is guilty pleasure viewing. The popular media here has been analyzing the exit polls from the election and they have concluded (correctly) that Bush won because he was more effective in "getting out the base". The majority of people who voted for him did so because of his strong stance on "moral values". The problem that I have with this is that the media and everyone else is using the phrase "moral" in a misleading way, as if it were a broad, comprehensive category. It isn't. When a Bush voter says the word "moral" they mean one of two things: 1. Anti-gay or 2. Anti-abortion....and that's it. Morality for most Christians is a form of biggotry, they no longer cherish the ideals that Christ himself actually taught. Helping the poor, for example, or rejecting greed. Turning the other cheek. Like democracy, morality ought to be a lifestyle, one that includes the full spectrum of a religious teaching, not merely a handful of selectively chosen beliefs. So, Bush won because he's effectively signaled that he's a member of the hate club we now call Christianity. He too ignores most of what Christ stood for, thus he won.
To clarify, I do know that there are many Christians who are appalled by this narrow interpretation of the bible and feel that Bush is simply exploiting his religion for political gain, I'm just referring to the fools who say 'morality' but mean 'homophobia'. "Lowlifes" I call them. Living in the deep South I rarely encounter an actual Christian, I'm curious to know where they are. The North? The coastal region? Come out, come out, wherever you are. Hi.
To clarify, I do know that there are many Christians who are appalled by this narrow interpretation of the bible and feel that Bush is simply exploiting his religion for political gain, I'm just referring to the fools who say 'morality' but mean 'homophobia'. "Lowlifes" I call them. Living in the deep South I rarely encounter an actual Christian, I'm curious to know where they are. The North? The coastal region? Come out, come out, wherever you are. Hi.
posted by Samwick @ 3:21 AM
8 Comments:
At 9:14 AM,
Samwick said…
Hey gdawgg, thanks for your comment. I actually thought Kerry was amazingly lame, I's probably agree with your thoughts on him. Bush, on the other hand, is as much Christian as I am...and I'm an atheist. He uses religion to divide people and score political points. I have a hard time believing that the same guy who executed retarded people while governor in Texas is anything other than a manipulative opportunist. But, my loathing of his foreign policy is so great that it has undoubtedly made me biased, I'm sure I'm not seeing the full picture. Anyway, feel free to disagree anytime, I love discussion on these things...take care.
At 4:24 PM,
Anonymous said…
Matt, hi and thanks for another great posting to your blog. Blogger never shows the correct time when I post, either, despite my settings being Greenwich Mean Time. Maybe the programmers got lazy and we're all actually posting on Icelandic Time or something...
I agree that a very specific brand of evangelical Christian seems very easy to manipulate by the Bush administration because many political commentators are saying as he's in his second term now, he's likely to want to leave a legacy as a uniting President rather than continuing to be a divisive one and that, in short, he will now abandon the extremist Jesus crowd because he doesn't need them to get him back into office. We'll see, all of us, I guess.
Thing is, the US political climate is such that every politician has to say he or she loves God (Christian flavour, no LM - liberally-modified - ingredients) and so, when they all do the same thing, how can the voter for whom a Christian stance would appeal, rightly or wrongly, truly tell that what they're voting for is what they'll get? Sure, there's prayer but any one of us who has any spirituality prays, or meditates, for answers and I think while most of us would say we do hear our prayers answered, we would be less inclined to say Jesus/Buddha/Brigid, whatever, actually told us explicitly where to put our vote. Even the most fundamentalist and extreme religious advocate would state, perhaps with absolute disbelief, that some of their ilk happily voted Democrat in good conscience in the last US election. They weren't all duped as I - and you - believe they were. Some of them undoubtedly did see Bush as a whore for their votes. Some of them looked beyond their personal agendas to what was good for the US and the world. At least, I like to comfort myself with that idea because I'd hate to think we could be completely blanket in condemning all Christians as right-wing, vicious and unloving. I know for a fact that, over this side of the pond, we have a diverse range of people who call themselves Christian. None carry guns and none have their own TV channels but those things aside, we have everything from the 100% pure bigot to the more contemporary, pragmatic believer. I have to be certain America has more Christians than just one specific type; indeed, I know it's a melting pot of cultures and spiritual beliefs so when I think about that, I know the born-agains can never see themselves enshrined across the whole of the law because the majority in the US aren't Christian and hold widely divergent views. In short, if the born-agains took over as they'd like, in every area, you'd end up with another civil war. That simply won't happen and I for one am pleased about that.
At 4:34 PM,
Anonymous said…
And where they go wrong with morality is simple. There's personal morality and then there's judgementalism leading to hate and, eventually, violence.
Judgementalism is when what should remain personal morality is extended to cover other people's lives and beliefs. It's nobody else's darn business what I or you do, or think, or feel. If more people focussed on their personal relationships with friends, with family, with their gods, with their own self-development, we'd see less banner-waving and more compassion and love and tolerance and - love this word - respect.
For example, I have no problem with people thinking 'homosexuality is wrong' - whatever that wide and somewhat floppy statement truly means. Who would I think I was, the thought police? It's a personal moral viewpoint. But when they start changing constitutions, changing laws, beating the crap out of gay people and murdering them, it runs contrary to reason, to common sense. You can't force people to the Cross or any other religious iconography. You can only live by example, whatever your beliefs, and the best example to give is to love and to be kind and to be fair. That means building a pluralistic society wherein we all have freedom of religious, sexual and philosophical expression. Let's keep the Burning Times in the past.
At 4:39 PM,
Anonymous said…
You know, that first paragraph of my last post? I'm thinking Yoda. Definitely Yoda. Also, Xander in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Xander misquoted Yoda rather than echoed him but if it's in the mediascape, it's spreading like the clap and the coke at a Republican convention after-party. Only it's a good thing. Coke and the clap are not. *ahem*
At 3:34 AM,
Samwick said…
Hi Andy! You're absolutely right, here in the states we do have a broad range of folks who call themselves Christian, there is a lot of diversity within it. The problem is that a certain faction has been seeking political power for some time, the Judgementalists as you call them (I prefer the term 'Facist'). White, evangelical hate-mongers have put on this mask of "morality" and fooled a lot of people. They're extrmely well organized and they've done a brilliant job of seizing the power centers in this country. In terms of their actual beliefs they only represent a small minority of the people in this country, but by exploiting fear and hatred they've won the ability to control the direction that the country is going. I'm telling you stuff that you already know, but to me it's just disturbing to see how fragile our contry is, how open it is to manipulation. We should've been stronger and smarter than this, you know? Now, as it stands, people are rabidly supporting policies that they have no understanding of. Anyway, I'm now busy trying to create a giddy Utopia which I've named: Andyland. It'll be a country where the values of the US constitution are actually practiced and not merely paid lip service to. For example, there will be no religious opression in Andyland. People will be allowed to marry when they love one another, not only when they have an opposing set of genitals....invisible deities written about in two thousand year old texts won't have any say in the matter. Sorry Jesus.
At 1:22 AM,
Anonymous said…
I'd say creating a wonderful place to live starts in your own heart and kind of moves out from there to take other people along for the lovely ride. :-)
At 9:54 AM,
Samwick said…
Unfortunately, due to a recent spate of pessimism and negative thinking, Mattworld has had to close its doors for repairs. Yellow tape reading "caution" encircles the park, as heavy machinery digs and claws. However, the gift shop has remained open, where one can purchase snow-globes of delight.
At 12:41 PM,
Anonymous said…
Matt, is it appropriate to talk about your own snow globes in a public forum? And surely it's not *that* cold this time of year? >;-)
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