Cuatro De Mayo.
Its that time of year again when I make my political stance to what used to by my favorite holiday of all time . . . Cinco De Mayo. Last year Anna and I started celebrating Quatro De Mayo in an attempt to remind subvert the neo-colonialism and imperialistic implications of Cinco De Mayo. No need to get into the history of the holiday itself. Nor what it has balooned into. And I know it’s not the “real” Independence Day of Mexico. But still, something feels wrong about celebrating a holiday in a Mexican restaurant pounding Magaritas while those who the holiday “are for” have to work to bring the white man his fajitas and Corona. I know it’s a major pay day for the Mexican restaurant scene. But still, something feels strangely odd about the whole enterprise.
Imagine that if on the Fourth of July, every burger joint and milkshake stand all across America had to stay open and all the “Americans” had to serve a bunch of Hispanic folk who had co-opted our holiday. We would be irate to say the least. Or down here in the South we would for sure.
I guess all I’m saying is that we should think about the practices that we partake in. I love margaritas on the rock with a dash of salt just as much as the next Coach wearing, botox injected soccer mom in the suburbs of the ATL. But I for one will not be buying anything with lime on it tomorrow. Instead I will lime it up tonight.
Bottoms up kids.
My Newly Designed Wallpaper.
I was bored in the wee hours of the morning last night unable tos leep so I hacked up a Google image of one Sir Samuel Langhorne Clemens, aka Marky Mark Twain. I was up reading Twain and Thoureau’s thoughts on non-violence. It really is insane how much was built off of their thought by people who followed . . . Gandhi, MLK, etc.
While those who followed are the ones who are typically receive “credit” for these movements. I find it interesting uncovering some of the more seminal thoughts that were being laid as a foundation 50 years before. While even they did not exist in a vacuum without predecessors and influences, I have tremendous respect for those who are as close to the ground floor as you can get. This is not to discredit those who came later. Just that it takes a different kind of intelligence to form substance out of nothing. And a different kind of intelligence to take that small seed of something and turn it into a revolution. Two different thought processes at work and both coming together in perfect interplay.
It makes me wonder who is creating out of nothing right now new ideas and thoughts. And who is coming along that is going to remix and develop these seeds.
A Tale of Two Stories.
Story 1: A pastor takes his family and church on a mission trip to Bolivia. On the mission trip his 12 year old daughter is abducted. They spend the coming days, months, and years looking for her before they finally give up hope and go back to the States. Fifteen years later the pastor receives word that his daughter is alive and living with her captor. The pastor learns that from the time of her abduction until the present time she has been raped by her captor and is now pregnant. The pastor boards a plane to Bolivia to find and rescue his daughter. The pastor arrives and after much searching finds his pregnant daughter and her captor. In what can only be described as a miraculous move, the pastor begins to “witness” to the man who was raping and holding his daughter captive. The man, remorseful for his many sins, “gives his heart to Jesus” and begins to “follow Christ”. The daughter gives birth to their child and the family lives happily ever after.
This is the story that I heard a few days ago. It is a story that you would not find uncommon should you walk into any evangelical church on a Sunday morning. It is a story that would bring tears, emotions, and Amens. It is a story that would be used as a tool during an “invitation” to get people to turn from their wicked ways and turn towards God. It is a story that would be used as a tool to teach people about forgiveness, sacrifice, mercy, and ultimate love.
For me, it is a story that repulses and angers me. For a variety of reasons, the least of which would be that I’m almost 100% sure it is not true, yet was presented in such a fasion as if it were. But mainly because it is a story that most evangelicals would have no problem backing and applauding. They would say that we all need to be like the pastor. And be willing to forgive in extreme circumstances. To look past the “sin” and see the “sinner”. To forgive and love like Jesus forgave and loved us.
My problem is that while this story would be put on a pedestal and worshiped, Story 2 would not receive near so kind of a treatment.
Story 2: A pastor takes his family and church on a mission trip to Afghanistan. On the mission trip the entire group of people get abducted by Islamic extremists and taken into the foothills of northern Afghanistan. The extremists begin broadcasting their treatment of the “infidels” over the web. They are blindfolded, they are gagged, and their are cuts and bruises on their face. In the background one of the extremists burns an American flag and another warns that we will not only kill these people in our possession but we will attack again and again until there are no more infidels. Fifteen years go by without any acknowledgment to their health or whereabouts until a member of the original mission team somehow escapes and finds his way to “allies”. The “allies” immediately get him in touch with the White House and a major cable news outlet. As reporters are flown out in droves to meet him and the story blows up, the man who escaped tells the world all the awful things that the Islamic extremists did to him and his friends and how he watched them behead one of his friends and torture everyone else. But the good news is that he knows where they and that he can lead us to them.
Why is that Story 1 would evoke immense respect for the forgiver amongst evangelicals. But in Story 2 most evangelicals would fly into a bloodlust state of mind and want nothing more than to torture and kill the extremists. Why is that when taken in the context of individual forgiveness evangelicals, while not always modeling it, at least respect and applaud stories like Story 1? Yet when America gets brought into the equation in Story 2, nationalistic pride trumps civic, social, and spiritual themes of forgiveness and civility?
When I heard Story 1 this week I was troubled with the apparent divorce from the ideals of the Christian faith when America enters the equation. Forgiveness, love, charity, and mercy go out the door and a new kind of venegance hopped up on steroids and red, white, and blue takes over.
What is it inside of us that longs to forgive and believe in a grander story on a personal level? What is it inside of us that pushes back and resists the longing to forgive and believe in a grander story on communal or universal level?
Surprise, Surprise: Churchgoers More Likely To Support Torture.
So the one group of people who had their very own “hero” tortured are more likely to support torture of their enemies. Honestly, I don’t blame people with no faith background for being pro-torture. They have no turn the other cheek mantra to live by. Why not be pissed and retaliate when someone punches you in the face? But Christians . . .?
Turn the other cheek. Do not lift your sword. Beat your sword into plowshares. Love your enemies.
The very tenets of their faith and the example of the Christ is that of creative non-violence. Yet the leading propoents of torture in today’s society is Christians.
Oh what an odd upside down world we live in.
