A Tale of Two Faiths

Over on Facebook, I sparked a rather lively debate over this story of a teacher who recently lost her job at a Christian school for the unconscionable crime of PWS: pregnancy while single.  As the Bible prescribes, this sinful adulteress should be dragged into the streets and stoned to death.


Admittedly, we don't know all the details.  On its face, it appears the school's administrators fired her as a matter of policy for violating their allegedly Biblical, moral code -- which she knew full well when she took the job.  My contention is that the school's wiser choice would have been to keep her on as an example to the children not only of genuine, Christian love, but of how to deal with life's inevitable failures.  Instead, they have virtually branded her with the proverbial, scarlet A -- and cast her out to likely be a burden on society.


Compare this case with another recent one.  An avowed atheist, protesting over a Nativity scene displayed on a courthouse lawn, threatened to file a lawsuit.  Now before you read the article, which action do you think the local Baptist church took in response?



    a) marched in a circle around his house while playing loud praise music and binding the demons of atheism in the spiritual realm during a mid-week prayer meeting
    b) organized a boycott of the man's business, and forced his boss to fire him
    c) stood on the courthouse lawn and prophesied in tongues - with proper interpretation, of course - that he would burn in hell for all eternity because of his wickedness
    d) hid their children from him in Wal-Mart while they stared at him judgmentally
    e) picketed the man's house with slogans of loving Christianity
    f) none of the above


According to the article, "...when the Christians in a town that had reason to be angry with him showed him a gesture of love, he began reconsidering his beliefs altogether. He eventually began to realize that evolution would never have the answer to his questions, he says, and it was at that time he began to believe in God."


Imagine that!  Instead of getting angry with the man, they showed him actual Christian love and -- wonder of wonders -- they won him over.

[Side note:  as silly as those hypothetical actions sound - and they are - I spent some 25 years in those kinds of circles and believe me, they are very real things that very religious people do.]

Back to the strumpet -- er, lady who lost her job because of PWS.  The school and its supporters surely believe they did the right thing.  One person noted that if a teacher gets fired over a DUI, then it's equally acceptable for this one to lose her livelihood.  This fallacious logic assumes that drunk driving -- which kills many thousands annually in our country -- is equally as criminal as being pregnant, which kills no one.  Or that apples compare to train wrecks.  (Or, for that matter, Obama compares to Hitler/Antichrist.  See what I did there?)  That comparison doesn't make sense on any level - but then again, I've been accused of drunken heresy for less.

If the teacher had had sex with a student - which happens daily - then she would deserve to be let go.  I would even say that if she had an affair with a married co-worker, then that might deserve the same.  I agree that adults who are in charge of kids should be held to a high standard in order to protect the kids -- don't put them in danger, don't have sex with them.  This man, for example, is someone who should never have been in front of kids (and someone I once knew).  


I certainly wouldn't throw stones at this woman, and some of you know why.

But let's keep it realistic here: criminal behavior such as DUI does not equal "pregnant while single" in any universe. Let's review Jesus' example of forgiving the harlot: not only did he not allow her to be punished under the law, he set her free. That is Christian love -- not what these morons did, who apparently decided to just skip over that part of the Bible. Yes, a teacher who gets a DUI obviously deserves to be fired, because DUI is and should be a crime. Pregnancy is not.  How many teachers get fired from public schools for the egregious crime of being pregnant while single?  At the absolute worst, the woman made a poor moral choice. The school's policy of firing her for it is patently retarded, even if they have (probable) legal standing because they are a private institution.  Just because the school might have legal grounds to fire her doesn't make it right.

In fact, a statistically significant number of those girls will have sex before marriage, and many of them will get pregnant...and the school will kick them to the curb as well. Wishing those problems away by firing the teacher doesn't work on any level, spiritual or otherwise -- it only creates more unnecessary strife, and that is the only message they have sent to those kids. If my kids were in that school, I would immediately move them  just out of protest if it was feasible -- or else ensure they understand why the school's administrators are wrong. 

Besides that, how many more of their teachers should be fired for other non-criminal activity, such as consuming alcoholic beverages, watching R-rated movies, or (gasp!) reading a Kurt Vonnegut novel? Those non-criminal activities, besides being enjoyable, are much more akin to sex outside of marriage (especially the Vonnegut) than DUI.  

The school's policy is arcane at best, and at worst it smacks of the very backwards hypocrisy that causes people like Pat Robertson to blame sinful people for natural disasters.  No matter how you slice it, Bible-thumpers like these do little more than undermine Christianity.  Perhaps if the pedagogical community -- both private and public -- were to teach kids a little more how to deal with life and a little less how to avoid it, our country might be just a little better off.  Perhaps if the Christian community would just read their Bibles they so desperately claim to believe in, they wouldn't drive good people away so readily.

Here's the bottom line: if we fired every teacher, or for that matter every person in a position of authority over kids, because of simply poor moral choices, there would be very few teachers left.  I'm no Bible-thumper, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't say that we need to cast people aside because of poor moral choices. 

There is a faith that builds up, and a faith that tears down -- which one did the school exhibit?

How would Jesus vote?

I am often quite befuddled at how Christians view Presidents.  For the past few decades, it seems as if Republicans pretty much get an automatic pass while Democrats are demonized no matter what brand of Christianity they profess.  


I had a short, but interesting political/religious discussion about this on Facebook today.  A relative posted this article about a person who spoke before the President at a recent national prayer breakfast.  The speaker, Eric Metaxas (starting at 35:40 in the video), apparently spoke negatively about the President's professed Christianity, insinuating that Obama is a phony Christian.  The article implied that Metaxas is a "prophet," since his speech supposedly preempted many of Obama's topics -- and there was no possible way Metaxas could have had an advance copy of the President's speech.


So, Metaxas is a "prophet" because he's smart enough to call Obama's bluff before he does it?  Or is it because he's echoing the judgmental sentiments of the Christian right?

A few hours after I posted those questions, a commenter responded, "When does God hear the prayers of the wicked?  Only in a prayer of repentance.  The stiff necked, like the Pharaoh was used to do God's Will...before that there were many lessons to be learned by the unrepentant.  This prayer breakfast should have been a prayer vigil on their face behind closed doors!  Obama had no place there, period!  Unless he repents and turns from his thinking and his sin."  Sadly, another person cheered that one on.

I'm no Democrat, but just what is it that makes Obama "wicked"?  Why are Republican presidents practically canonized while Democrats are the devil incarnate?  Perhaps the first reason is that Democrats typically are "pro-choice," while their Republican counterparts are against any form of legalized abortion.  Not to debate that topic, but maybe Evangelicals have a point.  However, Dems are always in favor of social welfare programs, especially for the needy, the sick, and the elderly.  Isn't that a good thing?  I'm pretty sure Jesus said it was.  Maybe it's because since WWII, most Democratic Presidents avoid wars while Republicans do not.

Let's review a little recent history, bearing in mind that just about all of our Presidents were professing Christians.  Nixon said publicly after his fall from grace that he thought he was above the law.  Carter drove us into recession, then there was Reagan -- the "gold standard" of modern Christian Republicans.  Reagan, who spent us into the ground, compromised his principles on numerous occasions, and whose wife regularly consulted with astrologers.  And, I will remind you, that Evangelicals in his time used to say he was a candidate for Antichrist since Ronald Wilson Reagan = 666.  His successor, Bush 41, got us into Iraq the first time (a proximate cause for 9/11, mind you) and broke all his campaign promises for "no new taxes".  Clinton did some good for social welfare, but arguably some of his legislation ended up causing at least some of the fiscal mess we're in now.  He could have been a greater President if he had kept his pants zipped.  Bush 43 (professed Christian) bullied us back into Iraq, castigated everyone in the DoD who criticized how we did it -- ignoring every Clausewitzian or Sun Tzu principle along the way -- and got us even deeper in debt.  Obama has spent more than almost all previous Presidents combined, arguably with some benefit.

I watched the video of Metaxas's speech, and realized that it was not he who was insinuating anything against Obama's religion -- in truth, it was the article's author, Mark Joseph, who twisted Metaxas's words to express the chip on his own shoulder in order to demonize Obama.  If you just read the article, it would appear that Metaxas was downright disrespectful to the President -- but nothing could be more false, and any intelligent person could see from the video that it is Joseph, not Metaxas, who echoes the judgmental sentiments of the Christian right.

Metaxas's 30-minute speech was actually quite interesting.  He talked mostly about two men about whom he has written biographies: William Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, two men who had the moral courage to stand up against injustice, and changed the world because of their faith.  In fact, Metaxas makes a particularly interesting point in his thesis with this statement: "dead religion demonizes others."  (at 59:10 in the video)  He goes on to say that whether you are against abortion or homosexual marriage, those who support them are not necessarily evil.

Alas, I should know better than to try to have an intellectual discussion with an obvious Evangelical.  Here was some more pseudo-spiritual rhetoric from the Facebook discussion:  "anyone who supports the things [Obama] does cannot enter the kingdom of God...[I am] just making a comment and interested in hearing from those who may feel the same way."

Falling back on the "Obama is wicked" side of any political argument is the na-na-na-na-boo-boo way out, especially when you can't even express why you feel that way.

But again, why is Obama "wicked"?  In the eyes of Evangelicals, it's only because he's a Democrat.  Perhaps Evangelicals follow a dead religion.

Which of course is a perfect excuse to embed this loosely related video of an old 80's Christian rock song by one of my favorite artists, Steve Taylor.

Strange sounds in the sky, or crop circles of a different kind?

The internet is all abuzz lately over these "strange sounds" that people are posting all over youtube.  Some say they might be angelic trumpets heralding the beginning of some sort of Apocalypse or possibly connected to the Mayan 2012 thingie, while others speculate alien origins or even government experimentation with secret weapons.  This guy has some pretty logical explanations -- most notably that the sounds are eerily similar to sci-fi movies -- but then blames a preacher without any proof.  There is a preacher who swears this is all a sign of the Apocalypse (with attendant biblical prooftext), and there is even a preacher who warns that listening to the sounds will cause demon possession (yikes!).  Anyone remember crop circles?

There are of course detractors who provide documented evidence that this is nothing new, and this link has probably the most plausible explanation yet -- clever viral marketing, possibly for an upcoming sci-fi movie sequel.  (This link corroborates that theory.)  It contains a nearly 15-minute video compilation of many clips from around the world, most of them clearly showing some urban or pastoral setting with clearly creepy, unnatural sounds emanating from unknown sources.

Note that the video also shows the approximate dates of these clips - most of them are around the second week of January, 2012.  So, before you accept any of the other-worldly explanations for these phenomena, ask yourself one thing:  what would possibly compel seemingly unconnected people all over the world to go outside and shoot video of nothing, all at once?  And then, what would compel these people to post these clips all at the same time?  Youtube is full of many others, some of which claim there are similar sounds that are barely audible (if at all).

Disregarding my suggestion that this most recent spate of videos is too coincidentally timed, let's look at this logically.  Some of the videos have almost no sound at all, so we can pretty much throw those out.  In the ones with something audible, many of them sound exactly alike -- this is a reason for debunking these on some sites, like this one.  So, that leaves us with a handful that don't apparently sound like all the others.  But, like with just about all inflammatory video clips, there is too much room for the power of suggestion.  Where is the video being shot?  How many neighbors have their stereos blasting some sci-fi sounds just for fun?  What industrial sounds could account for this?  We, the listeners, just don't have enough information to be able to judge if these sounds are real or fake.  Seems to me that they are all either a clever hoax, explainable coincidence, or could be the audible results of some government high-tech weapons experiments.

Most overlooked, though is this:  if this is real, and really is other-worldy, then why hasn't everyone heard it?  Why hasn't the mainstream media caught on and captured audio of their own?

Whatever the reason for these strange happenings, I can tell you one thing: it is not a sign of the Apocalypse or extraterrestrials.  And -- after having watched nearly an hour of these things -- I can also honestly say it doesn't cause demon possession.

Don't forget, folks, that many, many people made Apocalyptic predictions for 1988 and 2000 -- and one particular false prophet had visions for 2011.  Remember how those turned out?  I may be going out on a limb here, but I will boldly predict that 2012 will end with a similar whimper.

One thing does disturb me, though.  I've seen some of my Christian friends post that they're not worried because "God will take care of me."  It's that sort of head-in-the-sand thinking that actually perpetuates the nonsense.  Either you believe in the Apocalyptic hype and are doing whatever it takes to prepare for the coming disaster, or you don't believe in it for obvious reasons -- make a choice already!  (My mother covered her bases in 1999 by stockpiling water and canned goods.)

One thing is for certain, though -- as I've said before, there is a funny thing about doomsday prophets.  They're always wrong.

But, maybe I've found an explanation for all the noise:

Remember you saw that here first!