About a Boy
And some other people.
Disclaimer: Jeff and Camilla, the heroes of this tale, belong to themselves, their God and the world, in whatever order you like. I belong, I suppose, to me; various artists mentioned all retain copyright on their own work, as noted within the text. God is on His own. Furthermore, I certainly can't speak for "Christians." I offer this in the spirit of an alternative. The people in my story do exist, but I have occasionally taken some liberties in reporting -- using statements from e-mails as dialogue, combining conversations that took place over several meetings, removing certain irrelevant and personal tangents. There's an Arabic word, Anglicized as "niyah," which measures intention as part of an act. My intention is to present a true representation of a different side of Christianity, based on my experiences. One of Camilla's favorite song lyrics is a two-line snippet from Harry Chapin's "Basic Protest Song," If we don't push for Paradise, we're settling for hell. I'd like to think this story is a little bit about that, and people who believe that, and who not only believe that, but live it.
Prologue
Flipping through this section, looking for something to amuse my friends, I came across two pieces which greatly bothered me, and was somewhat gratified to see reviewers act in the same way. I won't quote them (that seems a bit unfair), but they included, most noteably, a number of slurs on Muslims and other non-Christians, a horrifying lack of historical comprehension, and condescension towards people who "just don't get it," which is hardly an effective way of preaching.
I also find it offensive and self-serving in the extreme for someone to state so objectively that they "know" the cause of the September 11th attacks, particularly someone who is obviously uneducated about other religions, and that the rest of us are deluded fools for not agreeing with them. America is indeed a culturally Christian nation, if a politically secular one -- we are also heavily consumeristic (particularly in comparison to our productivity), isolationist, arrogant and prejudiced. We refuse to cooperate with the rest of the world unless they play by our rules only -- Kyoto, the International Criminal Court, paying our UN dues, etc. Perhaps we learned this from fundamentalist Christianity, infamous for enforcing limits and negating those on the margins. When I and many people think of Christianity, our experience has typically been what Christianity says not to do -- not to kiss boys if you're a boy, not to have premarital sex no matter who you are, but especially if you're a girl, if you do and get pregnant, you should marry the father even if you don't love him or think he's prepared to be a parent, and should not even consider terminating the pregnancy. Love thy neighbor as thyself when they ARE like yourself, not when they are a different race or religion or sexual orientation. Christianity is simultaneously the inspiration of some of the world's greatest art and atrocities. The Sistine Chapel and the Ku Klux Klan. Mozart, Beethoven and Bach as well as inquisitions and pogroms. And yet neither America nor conservative Christianity is willing to deal with both sides of the equation. In our "noble" fight to destroy communism, we unseated elected officials and assisted in bloody military coups (and added "under God" to the pledge of allegiance). September 11 is also the anniversary of the American-aided installation of Pinochet in Chile. Over 3000 people died that day, too. And we helped. Nor was this an isolated event. Likewise, Christianity (as evidenced on this board) conveniently claims that the Spanish Inquistion, the Crusades and any other moment that might indict Christianity was the "work of Satan." Never mind that the Inquisition was carried out by the best and brightest of the Church's scions. Never mind that in 2001, there were still voices (including Ann Coulter) calling for us to take back the Holy Land. Never mind the total destruction of culture in the Americas. Much as I hate to fall back on quoting "Spider-Man," it is true that with great power comes great responsibility, and both America and fundamentalist Christians seem to want to shirk this, whether out of true isolationist ignorance or merely a fundamental lack of compassion.
And how do I know some of these authors are uneducated about their faith and others? Well, it's simply not polite to get the name of the adherents of a faith wrong; it shows you haven't bothered to learn the most rudimentary facts about them. "Islam's" and "Muslims" is a bit beyond a typo, too. It's offensive in the same sense as archaic spelling is offensive. Nor do all Christians agree with what any given person might write here.
Not to mention I find this a bit hard to take seriously when someone said "Hey, you're experiencing persecution! That means you're blessed...lucky duck" and in another piece stated, "Christians are persecuted, but they don't mind." I suppose if you consider someone disagreeing with you to be persecution, than you really must learn not to mind. And that, if anything, is why people might accuse the author of a persecution complex.
These are some striking quotes, taken from articles at www.religioustolerance.org.
Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue (implicated in the murder of health care workers): "I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good...Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a Biblical duty; we are called by God, to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism."
Pat Robertson: "It is interesting, that termites don't build things, and the great builders of our nation almost to a man have been Christians, because Christians have the desire to build something. He is motivated by love of man and God, so he builds. The people who have come into [our] institutions [today] are primarily termites. They are into destroying institutions that have been built by Christians, whether it is universities, governments, our own traditions, that we have.... The termites are in charge now, and that is not the way it ought to be, and the time has arrived for a godly fumigation."
A former SBC president and founding father of the Christian Coalition, The Rev. Bailey Smith, said, at the 1987 Southern Baptist Convention general meeting, "God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew." He was given a standing ovation. In 1994-JUN-24, during a talk before 15,000 people at a Religious Roundtable meeting in Dallas TX, he said: "With all due respect to those dear people, my friend, God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew."
These men represent the public face of Christianity in America, and I am trying to learn around them. However, I cannot summon up much sympathy for those who feel "persecuted" by pluralism.
This is not to imply that I enjoy the idea of anyone being persecuted, only that I refuse to grant Christians any exclusive rights to such, particularly when many of them haven't had much sympathy for me and my "kind," -- and some have gone so far as to promote such. Not 1500 or 500 or 50 years ago, but now, in contemporary America, there are Christians who want me dead, figuratively (see www.tencommandments.org, if you like) and literally, as I will explain anon.
And some other people.
Disclaimer: Jeff and Camilla, the heroes of this tale, belong to themselves, their God and the world, in whatever order you like. I belong, I suppose, to me; various artists mentioned all retain copyright on their own work, as noted within the text. God is on His own. Furthermore, I certainly can't speak for "Christians." I offer this in the spirit of an alternative. The people in my story do exist, but I have occasionally taken some liberties in reporting -- using statements from e-mails as dialogue, combining conversations that took place over several meetings, removing certain irrelevant and personal tangents. There's an Arabic word, Anglicized as "niyah," which measures intention as part of an act. My intention is to present a true representation of a different side of Christianity, based on my experiences. One of Camilla's favorite song lyrics is a two-line snippet from Harry Chapin's "Basic Protest Song," If we don't push for Paradise, we're settling for hell. I'd like to think this story is a little bit about that, and people who believe that, and who not only believe that, but live it.
Prologue
Flipping through this section, looking for something to amuse my friends, I came across two pieces which greatly bothered me, and was somewhat gratified to see reviewers act in the same way. I won't quote them (that seems a bit unfair), but they included, most noteably, a number of slurs on Muslims and other non-Christians, a horrifying lack of historical comprehension, and condescension towards people who "just don't get it," which is hardly an effective way of preaching.
I also find it offensive and self-serving in the extreme for someone to state so objectively that they "know" the cause of the September 11th attacks, particularly someone who is obviously uneducated about other religions, and that the rest of us are deluded fools for not agreeing with them. America is indeed a culturally Christian nation, if a politically secular one -- we are also heavily consumeristic (particularly in comparison to our productivity), isolationist, arrogant and prejudiced. We refuse to cooperate with the rest of the world unless they play by our rules only -- Kyoto, the International Criminal Court, paying our UN dues, etc. Perhaps we learned this from fundamentalist Christianity, infamous for enforcing limits and negating those on the margins. When I and many people think of Christianity, our experience has typically been what Christianity says not to do -- not to kiss boys if you're a boy, not to have premarital sex no matter who you are, but especially if you're a girl, if you do and get pregnant, you should marry the father even if you don't love him or think he's prepared to be a parent, and should not even consider terminating the pregnancy. Love thy neighbor as thyself when they ARE like yourself, not when they are a different race or religion or sexual orientation. Christianity is simultaneously the inspiration of some of the world's greatest art and atrocities. The Sistine Chapel and the Ku Klux Klan. Mozart, Beethoven and Bach as well as inquisitions and pogroms. And yet neither America nor conservative Christianity is willing to deal with both sides of the equation. In our "noble" fight to destroy communism, we unseated elected officials and assisted in bloody military coups (and added "under God" to the pledge of allegiance). September 11 is also the anniversary of the American-aided installation of Pinochet in Chile. Over 3000 people died that day, too. And we helped. Nor was this an isolated event. Likewise, Christianity (as evidenced on this board) conveniently claims that the Spanish Inquistion, the Crusades and any other moment that might indict Christianity was the "work of Satan." Never mind that the Inquisition was carried out by the best and brightest of the Church's scions. Never mind that in 2001, there were still voices (including Ann Coulter) calling for us to take back the Holy Land. Never mind the total destruction of culture in the Americas. Much as I hate to fall back on quoting "Spider-Man," it is true that with great power comes great responsibility, and both America and fundamentalist Christians seem to want to shirk this, whether out of true isolationist ignorance or merely a fundamental lack of compassion.
And how do I know some of these authors are uneducated about their faith and others? Well, it's simply not polite to get the name of the adherents of a faith wrong; it shows you haven't bothered to learn the most rudimentary facts about them. "Islam's" and "Muslims" is a bit beyond a typo, too. It's offensive in the same sense as archaic spelling is offensive. Nor do all Christians agree with what any given person might write here.
Not to mention I find this a bit hard to take seriously when someone said "Hey, you're experiencing persecution! That means you're blessed...lucky duck" and in another piece stated, "Christians are persecuted, but they don't mind." I suppose if you consider someone disagreeing with you to be persecution, than you really must learn not to mind. And that, if anything, is why people might accuse the author of a persecution complex.
These are some striking quotes, taken from articles at www.religioustolerance.org.
Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue (implicated in the murder of health care workers): "I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good...Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a Biblical duty; we are called by God, to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism."
Pat Robertson: "It is interesting, that termites don't build things, and the great builders of our nation almost to a man have been Christians, because Christians have the desire to build something. He is motivated by love of man and God, so he builds. The people who have come into [our] institutions [today] are primarily termites. They are into destroying institutions that have been built by Christians, whether it is universities, governments, our own traditions, that we have.... The termites are in charge now, and that is not the way it ought to be, and the time has arrived for a godly fumigation."
A former SBC president and founding father of the Christian Coalition, The Rev. Bailey Smith, said, at the 1987 Southern Baptist Convention general meeting, "God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew." He was given a standing ovation. In 1994-JUN-24, during a talk before 15,000 people at a Religious Roundtable meeting in Dallas TX, he said: "With all due respect to those dear people, my friend, God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew."
These men represent the public face of Christianity in America, and I am trying to learn around them. However, I cannot summon up much sympathy for those who feel "persecuted" by pluralism.
This is not to imply that I enjoy the idea of anyone being persecuted, only that I refuse to grant Christians any exclusive rights to such, particularly when many of them haven't had much sympathy for me and my "kind," -- and some have gone so far as to promote such. Not 1500 or 500 or 50 years ago, but now, in contemporary America, there are Christians who want me dead, figuratively (see www.tencommandments.org, if you like) and literally, as I will explain anon.