What Color is God?

Setumo Stone's article "I refuse to pray to a 'white' God" got me thinking. I have a couple of very successful and intelligent Christian friends, and I'm not sure if we've brought this up before. When I lived in South Korea, some of the Jesus' looked Asian, and I remember then I did a bit of research, and found that many cultures 'modify' Jesus to look like, well, whatever the culture is that's worshipping him.

This says a HELLUVA lot. Jesus would be turning in his grave if he knew to what extent his ideas had been 'hijacked' by the gentiles, and he would propbably hunt down the Apostle Paul (formerly Saul), and throw him across the gulf separating heaven from hell. When Jesus said: Love your neighbor' that implicitly meant: 'Love your Jewish neighbour." Everything Jesus did he did for the Jews. Original Jewish law stated: "Thy shalt not kill." In those times it wasn't necessary to specify: "Thy shalt not kill other Jews." Obviously killing people from other tribes (heathen, infidels and gentiles) was nothing to cry about.

This same psychology continues today in fundamentalist religion. And it is easy for outsiders to point fingers and say: 'Well what happens if you throw a grenade (in the name of God of course) into a mob, killing people from your own Faith, aswell as the infidels, heathens, idolators and other filthy...er...human beings?' Well the Faithful have a clever counter-argument. If you kill someone from your own Faith (God forbid), you do him a favour because you speed him on his journey to heaven. The idea is that he will then 'thank you' when it is your turn to join him in heaven. As for those of other Faiths, you are doing everyone (including them) the seservice of cleaning up the world on God's behalf.

Great argument, but I just have one question. Since God is obviously the color of skin that yours is, and since everyone else (whose isn't) is expendable, and since you are clearly chosen...how about doing yourself a favour, and sending yourself to heaven? I mean inagine? You get to play on harpstrings like TODAY and feel no pain and sing songs all day. I mean, clearly, if you're so holier than thou you definitely don't belong here with the unclean. Get busy living on Earth. That's where we are now. But if you can't do that, if you really believe in the afterlife and that's what you're all about, what are you still doing right here with us?

Get real!

Ronge Now On Right Track In Terms of Compass' Direction

Last week I posted an article on this blog raising an eyebrow at Barry Ronge's review of The Golden Compass. I was surprised in that review because Barry Ronge had downplayed the anti-Christian statements made in this film, probably because it's the sort of delightful fantasy that seems appropriate for a Christmas flock. It's also the sort of uncomplicated populist view that is easy. Except that Pullman conceived his stories with an explicitly anti-Christian intention, employing an anti-control ethos. And knowing the Christian community, it was probably a little naive to think that this film wouldn't create a storm.

‘Why should Christians sit back and meekly accept these attacks on their faith? When Muslims think their religion has been insulted, they take to the streets, but when Christians speak out, they are called bigots’

Just so: in today's Sunday Times Mr Ronge set things right with this article: Movie sparks a virtual jihad for Jesus. This made the front page of News & Opinion.
In my review of the movie and Barry's review I said: I think Barry is trying to say that it's a flick that can be enjoyed without getting drawn into religious bickering. This is confirmed in this second article of his. Although audiences ought to enjoy the flick for its superb story, its creative exposition of courage and loyalty, and enthralling special effects, it is just too much of stretch to expect Christian audiences not to screetch foul and add poster burning to carol services all over the country.

Barry Ronge calls the brou ha ha erupting the biggest storm in a tea-cup since Harry Potter. Well, for sure Christians are going to object to the nomenclature involved: witches and demons, and the church/Magisterium itself is represented by very Dark Lords. It does demonstrate how silly and precious the Church is about itself. If I want to stir, I can write a story and call my pet dog, who is supremely loyal and good, Demon, and my dad, Lucifer, and basically subvert all the mythology. Does that make it evil? Evil stories essentially encourage malevolence, they have an anti-hero, and they often lack virtue. Most movie stories never eschew courage, and courage is a form of standing by one's beliefs. The Golden Compass is essentially about this, and this is a very encouraging and heartwarming trait in a young person. Harry Potter does the same, so does Jesus, Robin Hood, Hercules and Luke Skywalker. More important than names is intent, motivations, and actions. That's why telephone books don't inspire, but stories about virtue do.

Christians forget, when you criticise their faith, that you are not always attacking morality. You're more often than not attacking dogmatism (the same thing Pullman drives against). Blind morality isn't moral. In Christianity you are revered all the more for accepting something on the least amount of evidence. Sometimes this doesn't work. The pastor of a church I once belonged to went to Mozambique and died of malaria. He died because he refused to take anti-malarials, and made it a faith issue. He left behind a wife and four children. It's that sort of dogmatism that is dangerous and scary.

Christians and atheists ought to be able to agree that what is important is that community is preserved. We ought not to find reasons, take out licenses, to attack one another because the fine print doesn't match. Our intentions, our basic moralities ought to be enough. We ought to find those things that affirm, that we can agree upon. The rest is silliness.

Silly Nana

It's sad to see how one dimensional (some) people are. If you're a man, must you always vote within that paradigm, or can you be a human and think about other people (like women)? Same goes for everything else.

If you can't consider the ideas of others, you're not a very conscious life form.

Die Volksblad had a good article that said, according to Jaco's psychology (and the Bulls):
victory + success = God blessing you.
Thus if you lose, fail, are poor, have cancer, AIDS God must be punishing you/ignoring you etc. But it's these people who need God the most, and that's where all the miracles happen.

I think a much better reflection of the depth of one's conviction would have been if the Bulls lost, and Jaco went home, got changed, put his shirt on his bed and said, to himself, "You know what. I still believe Jesus is King."