Of the presidential candidates left standing, I’m finding myself strangely drawn to Mike Huckabee. Don’t get me wrong: no way would I vote for the man for President. He lacks any conception of the separation of church and state, plus he’s come up with some brilliant ideas like expanding the interstate highway system so people can get home faster and spend more time with their family. But he seems like a decent guy who would make a good friend, which is more than I can say for the rest of this egocentric, power hungry cast of characters. In general, I don’t think evangelical Christians deserve the bad rap George W Bush has brought down upon them.
Religion is an amplifying mirror. It can only resonate off the character within. Given a vacuous bully like Bush, there’s not a whole lot of character to work with, so his concept of religion is bound to be lacking in insight or empathy, if not downright mean. There are plenty of people who aren’t genuinely spiritually conscious at all but exploit other people’s sincere religious faith for their own greedy and violent purposes. But in a person of good character religious faith can give them the strength to summon the best of themselves, to be truly giving and forgiving, to get through hard times with strength and dignity.
You can get to that place through any religious tradition, but I think the appeal of a “born again” type of religion is that it is direct and simple. In my religious tradition, Judaism, you have to muddle through a lot of legalistic abstraction before arriving at any spiritual enlightenment. Besides, unless you’re into Kabbalah, the entire rationalist mindset of modern Judaism mitigates against transcendescence. It would be a lot easier to have the Holy Spirit envelop you and fall to the floor writhing and speaking in tongues. While in Italy we visited a holy site where in the 5th century the archangel Michael was said to have descended to earth with a heavenly sweater. Pilgrims from all over the world stood by the site of the sweater (long vanished) bringing their prayers, their sick and their crippled. My husband and I left because we felt out of place there, disrespectful somehow. We were tourists. These pilgrims believed. And who knows, maybe that belief cured some of their sick and crippled.
The icon doesn’t have power, but the faith does. I have been at mental places over the past few years where if a holy sweater shrine had appeared in the vicinity, I would have prayed at it. I can’t buy into the idea of a son of God taking human form and descending upon one human being on one little planet in the whole infinite universe to carry my personal burdens upon his shoulders, but it would be nice. I understand the desire. There is a place where reason stops and something more power and all-encompassing needs to take over.
Lots of people I otherwise feel allied with politically and culturally don’t seem–I don’t know exactly how to phrase it–humbled by the immensity and mystery of the world. Every problem has a diagnosis, an explanation, a prescription pill to make it all go away. A woman in my old book group once stated confidently, “None of our children will ever do anything really bad.”. Well, you know what? They can. And so can she. There is evil, and there is redemption.
Which brings us back to born-again Christians. I have known some very nice ones. There was Frank, one of the sweetest boys I knew in high school. There was the director of activities at my fathers home for Alzheimer’s patients who puts way more than perfunctory effort into his job. There is my brother’s friend, who despite her busy career and family, finds time to bring my father blueberry juice and chocolate and sit with him while he watches the same movie again and again. There was the lady coming back from a “Christian conference” who told her husband and two little sons to wait while she helped me and my crying baby gather our luggage. There is the building manager who opened a gallery on the first floor of the building so that my very talented daughter could get her artwork out of her apartment and out into the world.
praise the lord
February 12, 2008Of the presidential candidates left standing, I’m finding myself strangely drawn to Mike Huckabee. Don’t get me wrong: no way would I vote for the man for President. He lacks any conception of the separation of church and state, plus he’s come up with some brilliant ideas like expanding the interstate highway system so people can get home faster and spend more time with their family. But he seems like a decent guy who would make a good friend, which is more than I can say for the rest of this egocentric, power hungry cast of characters. In general, I don’t think evangelical Christians deserve the bad rap George W Bush has brought down upon them.
Religion is an amplifying mirror. It can only resonate off the character within. Given a vacuous bully like Bush, there’s not a whole lot of character to work with, so his concept of religion is bound to be lacking in insight or empathy, if not downright mean. There are plenty of people who aren’t genuinely spiritually conscious at all but exploit other people’s sincere religious faith for their own greedy and violent purposes. But in a person of good character religious faith can give them the strength to summon the best of themselves, to be truly giving and forgiving, to get through hard times with strength and dignity.
You can get to that place through any religious tradition, but I think the appeal of a “born again” type of religion is that it is direct and simple. In my religious tradition, Judaism, you have to muddle through a lot of legalistic abstraction before arriving at any spiritual enlightenment. Besides, unless you’re into Kabbalah, the entire rationalist mindset of modern Judaism mitigates against transcendescence. It would be a lot easier to have the Holy Spirit envelop you and fall to the floor writhing and speaking in tongues. While in Italy we visited a holy site where in the 5th century the archangel Michael was said to have descended to earth with a heavenly sweater. Pilgrims from all over the world stood by the site of the sweater (long vanished) bringing their prayers, their sick and their crippled. My husband and I left because we felt out of place there, disrespectful somehow. We were tourists. These pilgrims believed. And who knows, maybe that belief cured some of their sick and crippled.
The icon doesn’t have power, but the faith does. I have been at mental places over the past few years where if a holy sweater shrine had appeared in the vicinity, I would have prayed at it. I can’t buy into the idea of a son of God taking human form and descending upon one human being on one little planet in the whole infinite universe to carry my personal burdens upon his shoulders, but it would be nice. I understand the desire. There is a place where reason stops and something more power and all-encompassing needs to take over.
Lots of people I otherwise feel allied with politically and culturally don’t seem–I don’t know exactly how to phrase it–humbled by the immensity and mystery of the world. Every problem has a diagnosis, an explanation, a prescription pill to make it all go away. A woman in my old book group once stated confidently, “None of our children will ever do anything really bad.”. Well, you know what? They can. And so can she. There is evil, and there is redemption.
Which brings us back to born-again Christians. I have known some very nice ones. There was Frank, one of the sweetest boys I knew in high school. There was the director of activities at my fathers home for Alzheimer’s patients who puts way more than perfunctory effort into his job. There is my brother’s friend, who despite her busy career and family, finds time to bring my father blueberry juice and chocolate and sit with him while he watches the same movie again and again. There was the lady coming back from a “Christian conference” who told her husband and two little sons to wait while she helped me and my crying baby gather our luggage. There is the building manager who opened a gallery on the first floor of the building so that my very talented daughter could get her artwork out of her apartment and out into the world.
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