Search This Blog

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Who Speaks For God?

Everyone...and no one.
I have been taken to task by Henry Jakubowski for my writing about God and religion, he having said that I was "full of it." Actually, he said something more like "full a id!" but he meant full of it. At this point I could have been wilfully obtuse and considered this as approbation and a linguistic "thumbs up", the words indicating that I was indeed full of something like "knowledge" or "wisdom" or the spirit of God or something else equally meaningless. I did not. I knew what he meant. So I wondered, maybe I am full of it.
Taking my cue from the great H.W.Fowler's "Modern English Usage", I turned to the daily broadhseets...or, more correctly these days, the daily broadbands, and took a gander about at the seasonal discussion about Xmas: why can't we have a creche on City Hall steps at high noon on Boxing Day? what is a Hannukah? let's put Christ back into Christmas! ( this assumes He was ever there upon a time.) let's get the three kings right up there next to the 10 commandments at the court house! the USA is founded on religion!! YAH! ...and so on. What I really read about is Mike Huckabee and his televised message in front of a couple of cross beams of a background bookshelf, giving his old rugged face sort of an old rugged cross halo as the camera pans around. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robbie-baitz/mike-huckabee-and-the-evo_b_77357.html  

The Huffington Post
Jon Robin Baitz  
Mike Huckabee and the Evolving Blood-Sport of Pious One- Upmanship
 
"... watching Huckabee I thought of Aaron Altman, the great, perspiring fictional conscience of Broadcast News, when he proposed that the bland and warm and home spun-newscaster Bill Hurt was the devil. Altman, played gorgeously by Albert Brooks says, " What do you think the Devil is going to look like if he's around? Nobody is going to be taken in if he has a long, red, pointy tail. No. I'm semi-serious here. He will look attractive and he will be nice and helpful and he will get a job where he influences a great God-fearing nation and he will never do an evil thing... he will just bit by little bit lower standards where they are important... ...He might also prevaricate on evolution, winking at creationists, thereby willingly aiding and abetting the witch-hunts being conducted against educators to this day..."

and I believe Ron Paul likened this commercial to a fascist appeal such as that envisioned by Sinclair Lewis. I think the book was "It Can't Happen Here" or something like that. SOS. Same old stuff. So, I asked Jake who is responsible for the distrust of religion? Among those who talk about God, who has besmirched the name of religion? Was it a genial old guy who called for international assassination? Was it a recently departed jolly pastor who sermonized about how wonderful a good war could be for the soul. Who was it that has create an atmosphere of mutual distrust and loathing in the presence of God? It wasn't me.

No comments: