My, How Things Change

A friend of mine sent me a link to the website for Chick Publications, specifically their tract about rock music. I read it to my students. They got really mad. It was funny. It sort of showed me how funny I must seem to others when I get upset about things that people think.

What's funny is that he's got a multitude of other tracts that deal with everything from straight up salvation messages to how the King James Version is the only "inspired" Bible. The latter has a litany of specious historical references about how there is a "satanic" version of the Bible that people throughout the ages have conspired to perpetuate in order to lead people astray, while the few committed followers have stuck religiously to the true translation.

I used to think in these terms.

I remember when the knowledge that things like druids, masons, and atheist university professors existed scared me. Satans little puppets. What's more, I had this sense that everyone who wasn't "one of us" was actively engaging in a conspiracy to take our Bibles away, water down our truth, and get us hooked on drugs and sex.

If only the enemy were so blatant... we should be so lucky.

I'm a history buff, so studying "pagan" religion has become par for the course. Needless to say, it doesn't scare me the way it did when I was younger. For better or for worse, I've come to see people's religions (especially ancient religions) almost sympathetically. Most of them are doing the best they can with what they've got. We can debate whether or not that's enough... that's not the point of my post (and I'm not one of those wimps who say "It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere about it," so no need to blast me for being a relativist). The point is, I don't see that all these people are evil, conniving conspirators engaged in a plot to ruin Christianity as it exists in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Christians can be a paranoid bunch. We get so defensive so quickly. Is this a human thing or a conservative Christian subculture thing? I haven't thought about that long enough to have anything worthwhile to say.

The point is this. We spend a lot of time guarding the perimeter... making sure that the lines are plainly drawn between "us" and "them". I wonder what is more of a threat: forces on the outside or forces on the inside?
posted by Stephen at 10:54 PM | |