O'Reilly and I agree...
This blog is mostly bikes, a little Green Living, a smattering of Wildcat basketball, and finally a mishmash of random thoughts.
Today's randomness arrives from doing some reading on my part in this Xmas season. My wife is a regular church-goer. She takes the boys to various programs, sings in the choir and participates on a variety of levels. I, on the other hand, am something else: agnostic, skeptic, athiest, recovering former Southern Baptist. You name it. I grew up in the Souther Baptist tradition, attending with my mom's family what would be now called an Evangelical church, with my other grandmother also attending a more moderate S.B. church. By the age of 16 or so, I had had enough of "devil music", "burning in the fiery depths", and "Satan". I left the church and didn't attend again until with my wife in our 20s. She attends the Christian Church Disciples of Christ, which was founded in KY in the mid-1800s. Of the many sects of Protestantism, I can say I like the DoC approach. It's a rational, intellectual approach to Christianity, one that could be called "progressive", less dogmatic, and more open to logic. Still, since my experiences in my youth, I just cannot give in to Christian teachings.
I find myself reading- I don't know I would call it studying per se-a fair amount of Buddhist material and literature. It seems that of the major religious theologies, Buddhism is the least laden with guilt and patriarchy. Much of it appeals although my skeptical nature doesn't allow me to fully give in to such teachings; my appreciation of it grows, but haltingly.
The reason for today's blog is more a link I found today in my readings/surfing concerning an interview between Bill O'Reilly of FoxNews fame and Albert Mohler, who is president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary located here in Louisville. I can't imagine two people with whom I agree less. O'Reilly is your run-of-the-mill media blow hard, but one that helps keep our substantially ignorant populace- red staters if you will- that much more ignorant. He's something of a "thinking man's Rush", if you can imagine such a bizarre statement actually coming from a human's brain. Mohler is worse. He's an American mullah, the worst possible kind of prejudicial religious ape. Occassionally you will see bumper stickers deriding the "American Taliban". As much as I get all hot under the collar about these people, they're usually not bombing stuff, except for abortion clinics. A term like "American Taliban" may be hyperbole, but if it has any legitimacy, then people like Mohler are bad enough to be mentioned in the same vein.
The link to which I referred was from an interview earlier this year between O'Reilly and Mohler. These foxnews types usually agree on much, hence the red-state party line that has been so effective since 1994, but in this O'Reilly calls Mohler to task quite firmly for claiming that Buddhists, Hindus and the like are possessed with Satanic powers. The quote:
This isn't the kind of thing that should take emotional and spiritual energy in this time of year, but rational and spiritually-honest people of all religious ilk should rise up and be willing to squelch this kind of comments. Worse though, I sat through a very pleasant family gathering last night, on my Mom's side, and listened to a 20 minute bitch session about "how much blacks are favored" in so many forums of jobs and economy. Are these people, my relatives, so damn retarded as to make the claim that the most profound representatives of our underclass are somehow "favored"? I've never felt more out of touch with this group of blood relatives. My cuz, A, with whom I spent lots of fun time with in '06 at baseball and softball games, is going through the KY police academy, and he's no better. He seems fixated at looking at life an society through an ugly 'racial', maybe 'racist' lens. These people are much more devoutly "religious" than I. They, family and Albert Mohler, can quote scripture right and left, but how can these teachings lead them to such ugly views? I sometimes which Christ would in fact return and rebuke these ignoramuses.
Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Bodhi Day, Happy Wesak, and Peace above all else.
Today's randomness arrives from doing some reading on my part in this Xmas season. My wife is a regular church-goer. She takes the boys to various programs, sings in the choir and participates on a variety of levels. I, on the other hand, am something else: agnostic, skeptic, athiest, recovering former Southern Baptist. You name it. I grew up in the Souther Baptist tradition, attending with my mom's family what would be now called an Evangelical church, with my other grandmother also attending a more moderate S.B. church. By the age of 16 or so, I had had enough of "devil music", "burning in the fiery depths", and "Satan". I left the church and didn't attend again until with my wife in our 20s. She attends the Christian Church Disciples of Christ, which was founded in KY in the mid-1800s. Of the many sects of Protestantism, I can say I like the DoC approach. It's a rational, intellectual approach to Christianity, one that could be called "progressive", less dogmatic, and more open to logic. Still, since my experiences in my youth, I just cannot give in to Christian teachings.
I find myself reading- I don't know I would call it studying per se-a fair amount of Buddhist material and literature. It seems that of the major religious theologies, Buddhism is the least laden with guilt and patriarchy. Much of it appeals although my skeptical nature doesn't allow me to fully give in to such teachings; my appreciation of it grows, but haltingly.
The reason for today's blog is more a link I found today in my readings/surfing concerning an interview between Bill O'Reilly of FoxNews fame and Albert Mohler, who is president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary located here in Louisville. I can't imagine two people with whom I agree less. O'Reilly is your run-of-the-mill media blow hard, but one that helps keep our substantially ignorant populace- red staters if you will- that much more ignorant. He's something of a "thinking man's Rush", if you can imagine such a bizarre statement actually coming from a human's brain. Mohler is worse. He's an American mullah, the worst possible kind of prejudicial religious ape. Occassionally you will see bumper stickers deriding the "American Taliban". As much as I get all hot under the collar about these people, they're usually not bombing stuff, except for abortion clinics. A term like "American Taliban" may be hyperbole, but if it has any legitimacy, then people like Mohler are bad enough to be mentioned in the same vein.
The link to which I referred was from an interview earlier this year between O'Reilly and Mohler. These foxnews types usually agree on much, hence the red-state party line that has been so effective since 1994, but in this O'Reilly calls Mohler to task quite firmly for claiming that Buddhists, Hindus and the like are possessed with Satanic powers. The quote:
Well, I would have to say as a Christian that I believe any belief system, any world view, whether it's Zen Buddhism or Hinduism or dialectical materialism for that matter, Marxism, that keeps persons captive and keeps them from coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, yes, is a demonstration of satanic power.Wow!! One of the leading religious figures in this country, tied so often with members of this administration of evangelicals, says that Buddhists are influenced by "satanic power". Wow!! He must be reading different texts than I, b/c everything I read makes me feel that Buddhists are the least judgmental, most peaceful people I can find. It's just blatantly irresponsible, and O'Reilly seems to say just that.
This isn't the kind of thing that should take emotional and spiritual energy in this time of year, but rational and spiritually-honest people of all religious ilk should rise up and be willing to squelch this kind of comments. Worse though, I sat through a very pleasant family gathering last night, on my Mom's side, and listened to a 20 minute bitch session about "how much blacks are favored" in so many forums of jobs and economy. Are these people, my relatives, so damn retarded as to make the claim that the most profound representatives of our underclass are somehow "favored"? I've never felt more out of touch with this group of blood relatives. My cuz, A, with whom I spent lots of fun time with in '06 at baseball and softball games, is going through the KY police academy, and he's no better. He seems fixated at looking at life an society through an ugly 'racial', maybe 'racist' lens. These people are much more devoutly "religious" than I. They, family and Albert Mohler, can quote scripture right and left, but how can these teachings lead them to such ugly views? I sometimes which Christ would in fact return and rebuke these ignoramuses.
Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Bodhi Day, Happy Wesak, and Peace above all else.
Comments