I was born into the group the Children of God (COG) or as they are called now, the Family International -- a Christian cult that started in the late '60's made up of dropout hippies in Huntington Beach. They went 'international' after the leader was sought for kidnapping and tax evasion. I'm in denial that anyone has heard of them. I pretend like they're obscure. Many will remember the 2005 suicide of their heir apparent Ricky Rodriguez, right after he killed his childhood nanny Angela Smith. That was sensational enough to make headlines and inspire a Law and Order episode. Recently author Don Lattin released a book about the cult's history titled Jesus Freaks.
My parents left the sect when I was five, while my uncle and cousins remained members for the next 20 years. I obsessively follow any press that the group gets. While watching CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 report detailing Rodriguez's death and the group's well-known child sex practices, Anderson said, "Well, that has nothing to do with Jesus!"
This is how the public has always reacted to the COG. It's upsetting and so it's dismissed outright as not actually Christian. It's a quick effort to make sense of it.
That is how we deal with things we don't like in religion. We reject all unpleasant elements as being frauds. Calling for the death of a teacher because she agreed to name a teddy bear Muhammad? That isn't actually Muslim. The widespread molestation of boys by priests? That isn't actually Catholicism. The institutionalized and systematic abuse of lower and lowest classes? That isn't actually Hindu. We even go so far as to tout pre-Columbian religions as being peaceful and passive. If we sidestep all the human sacrificing and war-making, they were.
We spend so much time revising and rationalizing the track record of religion that we lose track of reality in the process. It's like debating the atomic structure of the Oxford English Dictionary. Yeah, sure, we're technically discussing the volumes -- but we're also completely missing the point.
Religion is a very effective way to control, manipulate and convince people to do almost anything. It's more obvious in smaller cults. But it applies to the bigger denominations as well. Consider the fact that there is nothing wrong with homosexuality outside of religious belief. The same goes for Jews. And as best I can see it -- science.
Because when everything is subjective -- well, everything is subjective. There is no need for evidence, logic or fact. That means that hysteria is on a hair trigger. Which is fine - as long as you, your friends and anyone you care about are all on the right side of the wrath when it comes.
So if the COG has "nothing to do with Jesus," then what does have to do with Jesus? The Crusades? The Inquisition? The Conquistadors? The witch hunts? The slave trade? Manifest destiny? The Holocaust? Miscegenation laws? Fred Phelps? Crimes against women of questionable virtue? The entire presidency of George W. Bush? They all have to do with Jesus because they were all justified by Christianity. Just like the COG's prostitution and child abuse was justified.
When you say you are a Christian, you become everything that is or was Christianity. Good, bad or indifferent -- it's ALL Christianity. A drop of water doesn't get to claim autonomy while swimming in the ocean -- even if that drop of water happens to be Mormon and running for president.
The alternative is a skewed and inaccurate, albeit a more comfortable, belief in one's faith. Like Sherri Shepherd on "The View," -- going one step further than regular creationists who believe that the world was created 6000 years ago and insisting that nothing existed before Jesus (2000 years ago). That's the new iTestament where you can customize your beliefs so you can stand out among your friends. And why is that so bad? What could go wrong if we forget history under the guise of glossing over what's objectionable? The first answer is that we can repeat it. We can have another preemptive invasion in the Middle East just like in the First Crusade. Shudder. If we wear rose-colored glasses and refuse to see the problems, then we will NEVER solve them.
When the faithful aren't aware of the true, unflatteringly lit, warts-and-all history of their religion, its past follies and its vulnerability to mistakes -- it leads to the insistence that America is and should be a Christian nation. Our Constitution is a product of the era of The Enlightenment where the foundation was reason. But we are told that our Constitution "rests on a foundation of faith." This type of revisionist history causes the line of church and state to be blurred, which is precisely what our Constitution tries to guard against. And there is plenty of evidence that when that happens, it isn't beneficial to the church or to the state.
So when stories of cults and abuse in the name of religion make national news, let's look at the similarities instead of dismissing them because they don't apply to us. See what they can teach us. And be open to the answers.
Follow Tina Dupuy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TinaDupuy
Why do you suppose the argument is "against"? Why not "for"?
How would all of this look if, say, I argued for Paradise Lost (with beautiful examples) while the others argued for .... what? ... what's hot in science? ... what tops your list?
The argument "against," I'll grant gets at questions missed in the argument "for," but isn't the reverse also true?
What are we missing?
Muse
My blurb wasn not intended to sway you from your faith; it was directed at your "evolution is dogma for anyone who has no direct knowledge of it".
People who have never experienced biologist's views and theories of viruses and bacteria trust vaccines and antibiotics too. Is that dogma? Is the sun really a big mass of fusing hydrogen? Dogma! Did we really send people to the moon? How do you know? Dogma!
Seems this is the crux of the whole argument: How much collective knowledge is necessary before something is considered "fact"? That seems to depend on how bad the philosophical ramifications are for your own "belief system". There's no shortage of "young earth" types in this country, eh? Accepting a 150 year old theory with such massive evidence that is the cornerstone of all biological science is NOT faith, it's REASON.
Oh, and Parsimony isn't just dogma from Ockham; (i'm not accusing you of saying that; I have faith that you know this --induction, eh?) it's a well founded principle. physical systems don't expend energy unnecessarily; the most efficient path is always chosen. (Oh, exactly how should I have punctuated and hyphened that stuff in parentheses...I have faith that you know better than I)
"When you say you are a Christian, you become everything that is or was Christianity."
In other words, all Christians are responsible for the behavior of all other Christians? If you mean that in the sense that I have a duty to acknowledge that much evil has been done (and continues to be done) in the name of C., then I agree. If you're suggesting that I'm literally responsible for the behavior of other Christians, sorry, that's frankly absurd. I call myself an American, but that doesn't mean I supported invading Iraq or that I'm personally responsibility for our poor standing in the world. I didn't vote for Bush either time.
By insisting as much, I'm neither making excuses for those who did vote for Bush, nor am I suggesting our country isn't responsible for the evil it's done. I am suggesting, however, that people are individuals. You were born into a cult and desire to make that a metaphor for the Christian experience. Just as illogically, I could do the same with my agnostic upbringing. Except that cult narratives are readily accepted as universally applicable; agnostic narratives are not.
As for the enlightenment vs. religion of the US. Both are right. Our country was founded on enlightenment principles filtered through the lens of faith. Most founding fathers, including those rascal deists Jefferson and Franklin (deism was a religious belief, not simply atheism incognito), would roll over at our current attitude that somehow religion should be barred from the public forum.
As for the crusades, yes they were reactionary. Folks forget there was a third empire involved: Byzantium. Most of the Muslim world grew out of the regions of Byzantium, and when the Muslims began to once again push north, the Byzantine Empire yelled for help. But then, we can be angry with the crusaders for fighting Muslim aggression. After all, we are angry about it now, so at least we are consistent.
Where’d you get this crazy idea? If I say I’m a Christian and then start making soap out of fat altar boys, then Christians everywhere share in the blame for this? That’s just stupid.
“The institutionalized and systematic abuse of lower and lowest classes? That isn't actually Hindu.â€
First of all, “Hindu†is a reference to culture not religion. It’s not a Sansrkt word, not found in any scripture, and indicates the people of a geographical area not any specific belief.
Second, the caste system is a perversion of the Vedic concept of “varna,†meaning “occupation.†As stated in Bhagavad-gita, “Brahmanas, ksatriyas, vaishyas, and sudras are distinguished by the qualities born of their own natures in accordance with the material modes, O chastiser of the enemy.†In other words, a person’s occupation is determined according to their individual qualities, not family heritage. That’s what scripture says.
In the verses that follow, Krishna describes the specific qualities of a person that designate him as a brahmana, ksatriya, etc. If people do not follow scripture, but instead concoct things according to their personal interest, that’s not bona fide religion. Those who actually practice the religion properly, following scripture as it is, cannot be held responsible for those who do their own thing in the name of religion. It’s hard enough working to correct such divergences, no need to pile blame on top.
“Consider the fact that there is nothing wrong with homosexuality outside of religious belief.â€
In your opinion. I’ve always been repulsed by homosexuality regardless of my religious beliefs of lack thereof. And no, I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
They will extol and preach "God's Kingdom" and this sounds attractive,what they hide from you is their Watchtower sect version that Jesus has already had his second coming in 1914 and is working "invisibly" through them.
They have won 37 of their 46 U.S. Supreme Court cases, assuring us all of freedom of speech and assembly and equal protection under the law.
The sad irony is that the Watchtower Society *daily* abuses the human rights of thousands of its members. It denies current members the right of free speech by forbidding them to speak to former members, even close family members.
And it denies former members their right of freedom of worship by refusing to allow them to leave the religion with dignity, should they come to disagree with Watchtower's practices or doctrines.
The 'religion' of Jehovah's Witnesses is a dangerous cult that controls every aspect of its members' lives.
Are they knocking on your door?
----Danny Haszard
So if the COG has "nothing to do with Jesus," then what does have to do with Jesus? Having lived inside a cult, you are wise to be circumspect about religious claims. However, to dismiss religion wholesale would be similar to someone in present day Iraq dismissing democracy. The fact that some religious movements are so obviously, demonstrably false points the way to questioning what true religion might be.
I have a friend who was burned by religion in some way (she has never spoken about it explicitly). She describes herself as an atheist and once considered a class on the Bible (Bible as lit sort of class) but ultimately found it wanting. So, now she says simply that the Bible just doesn't really interest her.
And that saddens me a bit. Quite apart from the religion of the Bible, strange as this might seem, the Bible is a remarkably beautiful and in some ways disturbing book. It is definitely not an easy read. However to eliminate such a deep, puzzling, beautiful and complex set of ideas from one's life because of the various misuses of religion strikes me as an unfortunate mistake.
How about we reserve this expression for PRODUCE. It's being a little overused.
So that's what I say.
Anybody got a problem with that? Hmm?
Also I better not find any dangling modifers or ill placed prepositions or there'll be trouble.
On your Permanent Record, too.
Christianity isn't a religion, it's a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
What you profess to believe doesn't matter, it's what your words and deeds SHOW that you believe that counts.
The fundamentals are love, forgiveness, acceptance, faith, hope.....
And especially NOT judgementalism, or "an eye for an eye," revenge, condemnation
Faith without works is dead. Your works are the evidence of your faith -- what it is you believe.
Jesus issued one single command -- "Love one another as I have loved you." What's so complex about that.
I don't give a rat's ass about Catholics, COG, born-agains, Protestants, gay Episcopals, any of them or their buildings.
I want to live among people who don't flip you off when you make a driving mistake and accidentally cut them off.
In short, I want to live among people who ACT like Christians, and not just those who spend Sunday mornings worshipping some dead carpenter.
Christianity is about how you choose to treat your neighbor. Period.
That should pretty much clear up things for the delusional.
Yea, right.
Great article filled with truth.
Speaking of "truths", when referring to the 1st Crusade, it makes sense to note that it was actually launched as a campaign of re-conquest, to take back those areas of the Holy Lands and Europe that had been taken by the Muslims.