Insta-Christian, Just add Email!!!
I'm about to share something completely unexpected with the world. Actually, there's two confessions I'll need to start out with. The first is that I'm a Catholic. Really and truly, communed, confirmed, full fledged Catholic. The second is that while I use them consistently as the punchline of my humor, or punching bag of my ire, I'm actually very good friends with quite a few conservative Christians, no matter how bugfuck nuts I think they are.
[Hey wouldn't it be funny if I tagged all of them in this note?]
Based on my email inbox, I'm surrounded by more Neo-Cons than I care to admit to. Every week I get an email tell me how "Andy Rooney had a racist, sexist, xenophobic rant on 60 minutes and got away with it!" In an effort to save time, I get every email that is cataloged on Snopes.com as a complete fabrication of civil rights coming from the liberal media. I'm not sure when my friends became the United Personalities of Ann Coulter, but they are. Genuinely. They consistently send mis-information, mis-directed and even with gentle guidance from me about the validity of their emails, they still will resend it anytime they find it back in their inbox. At least I hope they get the same email more than once to forward and they aren't just marking it favorite and resending it to those they find Heathenous on a regular basis.
With this consistent stupidity, I'm rarely moved by the genuis of "Home" worshipers who sit around and email made up propganda to each other to raise the hackles of good "God-Fearin'" folks everywhere.
As a Catholic, I like to think I'm above all of that. I like to the that since we are the original church we had the years of dissemination of propaganda in the dark ages and have moved past it. I don't get a lot of "Catholic" emails. I also don't get a lot of Devotional emails. I never open a message to be told how God is working in someone's life. I don't get personal anecdotes or family stories or bible verse's with inquiries into how they make the sender feel and ask for my opinion. [Granted, asking for my opinion on any subject is dangerous at best, I'd still like to have a good discussion about the big GOD.]
So today, like any other day I open my email to find the latest influx of moronic titles:
They're stealing our rights!
Andy Rooney Got it Right!
Muslim's are out breeding Christians! Make babies for Jesus!
and on and on until I start to wonder how I made friends with these people in the first place.
I delete my way through, now too tired to point out just how insane this shit it. And it is really shit. But today I'm reminded of an experiment I did a while back with these people and just how illuminating the results are...
As it is, I'm an avid reader of anything I can get my hands on. Really, I'll read the instructions on a package of Ramen if nothing else is near me. With that predilection, I've also been known to read a lot of "Inspirational" Fiction. Doing gift shopping for Jon's mom at the Family Christian Store is my great excuse to wander around a Christian bookstore and pick up new and blockbuster books with an emphasis on Jesus. I read them with the same attention I give to anything else. Many stories are moving, invigorating and uplifting and some occasionally suck like anything in secular fiction.
I'd begun noticing that occasional emails and most conversations were dominated by my Christian friends talking about the latest "Theory" in New God worship. Many of these theories come straight from Christian fiction and literature and in all reality, I'm pretty familiar with them as I've read all the books people draw their experiences from. I start to notice that a lot of the theories broadcast from these friends are a bit off from the information I've gained in the books. Now, keep in mind, I've read the books I'm discussing.
So, I decide to begin an experiment. As my friends call and we chat, I allow them to flow into discussions on religion, spirituality and Nu-worship [it's alot like nu-metal in my opinion, way too much talking and not enough talent]. When they finish talking about the theories clogging up their bible studies and coffee devotionals, I ask one simple question.
"Have you actually read the book?"
Not one of my friends have read the books. Not one. Not one friend and not one book. They've read the discussion guides about the movies and books. They've read the "cliff notes" study aids that pastors hand out in preparation for lecture but they have not at all picked up the books themselves and read them. They may know the gist of the story, but while knowing the story none has actually taken the time to put eyes to paper and read the book in its entirety. They don't even OWN the books. They have listened to other people talk about the book, and they have developed their own theories according to what other people say about the meaning of the book but, and I know I'm being redundant, THEY HAVE NEVER READ THE BOOK!
This reminds me a bit of an episode of the Cosby show I saw as a kid. Theo has used Cliff Notes to pass a test and his father, also named Cliff, is teaching him a lesson about short cutting the learning process. Cliff says, "I'm glad I didn't graduate from the Cliff Notes school of medicine!" That has stuck with me since my child hood. That simple lesson of, if you really want to learn, you go to the source. Otherwise, you're taking someone elses view of the material and learning from that. I liken it to making a copy from a copy and anyone who's read fight club will know how detrimental that is.
So, here's my question: If you spend your time in study of material, but do not actually injest the material do you have a grasp of the knowledge at all?
Since college, I'd say no, as there is utterly no way I'd have graduated without actually having an experience with the original material. I wouldn't be a thinker. I'd be someone inflated with ideas other people have developed regarding information I am supposed to know.
That is the difference. While there were occasions I took some short cuts with my studies, I was entirely responsible for learning everything I was assigned. I was the person responsible for knowing the basic root idea before discussions started. I had to have my own ideas formed before I was barraged with other ideas that had formed in the minds of my classmates and professors. I had the original nugget of information at hand to judge the discussions at my disposal. I was not educated with other people's opinions, though occasionally I was swayed by them.
Plainly put, I knew them, I didn't just know of them.
I'm not sitting her hoping for an agreement to my intellectual superiority as anyone who knows me at all knows I'm well afloat on the ocean of my perceived mental abilities, real or imagined. I'm sitting here wondering when hearing about became the same as knowing about.
I suppose my sense of superiority comes from being a Catholic. We seem to have a blue-blooded arrogance about our religion. We haven't tossed books out of our bible for the sake of placating the masses. We are required to attend an age of majority and pass some form of academic study before we progress into our religion. We don't simply take a swim, say a prayer and become Catholic. We study and in my case, study a lot. See, I'm a different sort of Catholic. I made my decision as an adult. I chose to become a catholic, not because my parents were forcing me or shoving church down my throat as an impressionable youth. I went through and adult education program, I studied, I learned about other religions and spiritual paths and I chose mind, wide awake, aware of all the short comings in the Catholic church and it's history. Does this make me a "better" Christian? Maybe. I know it makes me a more informed Catholic and that's all I care about. My ideas about spirituality are vastly different and strangely in tune with others and I'm at peace with that. But I have to wonder, when someone is in a Seminary, studying to be a preacher or minister, and giving talks and discussions about theories arising in his church shouldn't he be bound by some sort of internal or external shame in never having read the information about which he's lecturing? Is there an academic integrity amongst clergy?
I think university students would rise up en masse if we discovered our principles had never read the books or philosophies about which they taught! I'd be horrified. Can you claim to teach the nuances of Impressionistic art without seeing the paintings? Can you listen to a description, no matter how thorough and use that as your only point of reference to teach others about the paintings? And if you do, doesn't that put your students at a MARKED disadvantage over those of us who have laid bare eyes on the artwork?
I don't suppose I should be all worked up. These aren't men who teach me, nor are they men I study with. My experience isn't muddled by too many interpretations too far removed from the original. I just found it astonishing. And the more I go on the more guilty I feel for not reading the Bible enough, though I don't mind bitching about those who do and "get it wrong."
Finally, in anecdote, I had a fellow Catholic tell me that I was "telling lies" recently. She was responding to the fact I had shoved the corner of a sheet of paper down the back of the neck of my shirt and was pretending to be a superhero to a few little kids who were giggling. She reprimanded me non-stop badgering me about it becoming more upset as I continued to ignore her and her salacious determinations. She must have gone on for half an hour until I questioned her sanity.
In reality, if playing make believe with kids is "telling lies" then I am a massive and UNREPENTANT liar, and had their not been kids around I'd have told something quite different. Something to the affect of,
Go fuck yourself and stay the hell away from me in the future. I'm well aware you don't have a personality, but maybe you could have tried to get one for your kids? I'm just saying, a little laughter and play and less praying and bullshit and maybe they'd be less socially retarded.
With that, I'm done!
[anyone else feel like I've created a blog genre called, "OH and ANOTHER THING!!!"?]
[Hey wouldn't it be funny if I tagged all of them in this note?]
Based on my email inbox, I'm surrounded by more Neo-Cons than I care to admit to. Every week I get an email tell me how "Andy Rooney had a racist, sexist, xenophobic rant on 60 minutes and got away with it!" In an effort to save time, I get every email that is cataloged on Snopes.com as a complete fabrication of civil rights coming from the liberal media. I'm not sure when my friends became the United Personalities of Ann Coulter, but they are. Genuinely. They consistently send mis-information, mis-directed and even with gentle guidance from me about the validity of their emails, they still will resend it anytime they find it back in their inbox. At least I hope they get the same email more than once to forward and they aren't just marking it favorite and resending it to those they find Heathenous on a regular basis.
With this consistent stupidity, I'm rarely moved by the genuis of "Home" worshipers who sit around and email made up propganda to each other to raise the hackles of good "God-Fearin'" folks everywhere.
As a Catholic, I like to think I'm above all of that. I like to the that since we are the original church we had the years of dissemination of propaganda in the dark ages and have moved past it. I don't get a lot of "Catholic" emails. I also don't get a lot of Devotional emails. I never open a message to be told how God is working in someone's life. I don't get personal anecdotes or family stories or bible verse's with inquiries into how they make the sender feel and ask for my opinion. [Granted, asking for my opinion on any subject is dangerous at best, I'd still like to have a good discussion about the big GOD.]
So today, like any other day I open my email to find the latest influx of moronic titles:
They're stealing our rights!
Andy Rooney Got it Right!
Muslim's are out breeding Christians! Make babies for Jesus!
and on and on until I start to wonder how I made friends with these people in the first place.
I delete my way through, now too tired to point out just how insane this shit it. And it is really shit. But today I'm reminded of an experiment I did a while back with these people and just how illuminating the results are...
As it is, I'm an avid reader of anything I can get my hands on. Really, I'll read the instructions on a package of Ramen if nothing else is near me. With that predilection, I've also been known to read a lot of "Inspirational" Fiction. Doing gift shopping for Jon's mom at the Family Christian Store is my great excuse to wander around a Christian bookstore and pick up new and blockbuster books with an emphasis on Jesus. I read them with the same attention I give to anything else. Many stories are moving, invigorating and uplifting and some occasionally suck like anything in secular fiction.
I'd begun noticing that occasional emails and most conversations were dominated by my Christian friends talking about the latest "Theory" in New God worship. Many of these theories come straight from Christian fiction and literature and in all reality, I'm pretty familiar with them as I've read all the books people draw their experiences from. I start to notice that a lot of the theories broadcast from these friends are a bit off from the information I've gained in the books. Now, keep in mind, I've read the books I'm discussing.
So, I decide to begin an experiment. As my friends call and we chat, I allow them to flow into discussions on religion, spirituality and Nu-worship [it's alot like nu-metal in my opinion, way too much talking and not enough talent]. When they finish talking about the theories clogging up their bible studies and coffee devotionals, I ask one simple question.
"Have you actually read the book?"
Not one of my friends have read the books. Not one. Not one friend and not one book. They've read the discussion guides about the movies and books. They've read the "cliff notes" study aids that pastors hand out in preparation for lecture but they have not at all picked up the books themselves and read them. They may know the gist of the story, but while knowing the story none has actually taken the time to put eyes to paper and read the book in its entirety. They don't even OWN the books. They have listened to other people talk about the book, and they have developed their own theories according to what other people say about the meaning of the book but, and I know I'm being redundant, THEY HAVE NEVER READ THE BOOK!
This reminds me a bit of an episode of the Cosby show I saw as a kid. Theo has used Cliff Notes to pass a test and his father, also named Cliff, is teaching him a lesson about short cutting the learning process. Cliff says, "I'm glad I didn't graduate from the Cliff Notes school of medicine!" That has stuck with me since my child hood. That simple lesson of, if you really want to learn, you go to the source. Otherwise, you're taking someone elses view of the material and learning from that. I liken it to making a copy from a copy and anyone who's read fight club will know how detrimental that is.
So, here's my question: If you spend your time in study of material, but do not actually injest the material do you have a grasp of the knowledge at all?
Since college, I'd say no, as there is utterly no way I'd have graduated without actually having an experience with the original material. I wouldn't be a thinker. I'd be someone inflated with ideas other people have developed regarding information I am supposed to know.
That is the difference. While there were occasions I took some short cuts with my studies, I was entirely responsible for learning everything I was assigned. I was the person responsible for knowing the basic root idea before discussions started. I had to have my own ideas formed before I was barraged with other ideas that had formed in the minds of my classmates and professors. I had the original nugget of information at hand to judge the discussions at my disposal. I was not educated with other people's opinions, though occasionally I was swayed by them.
Plainly put, I knew them, I didn't just know of them.
I'm not sitting her hoping for an agreement to my intellectual superiority as anyone who knows me at all knows I'm well afloat on the ocean of my perceived mental abilities, real or imagined. I'm sitting here wondering when hearing about became the same as knowing about.
I suppose my sense of superiority comes from being a Catholic. We seem to have a blue-blooded arrogance about our religion. We haven't tossed books out of our bible for the sake of placating the masses. We are required to attend an age of majority and pass some form of academic study before we progress into our religion. We don't simply take a swim, say a prayer and become Catholic. We study and in my case, study a lot. See, I'm a different sort of Catholic. I made my decision as an adult. I chose to become a catholic, not because my parents were forcing me or shoving church down my throat as an impressionable youth. I went through and adult education program, I studied, I learned about other religions and spiritual paths and I chose mind, wide awake, aware of all the short comings in the Catholic church and it's history. Does this make me a "better" Christian? Maybe. I know it makes me a more informed Catholic and that's all I care about. My ideas about spirituality are vastly different and strangely in tune with others and I'm at peace with that. But I have to wonder, when someone is in a Seminary, studying to be a preacher or minister, and giving talks and discussions about theories arising in his church shouldn't he be bound by some sort of internal or external shame in never having read the information about which he's lecturing? Is there an academic integrity amongst clergy?
I think university students would rise up en masse if we discovered our principles had never read the books or philosophies about which they taught! I'd be horrified. Can you claim to teach the nuances of Impressionistic art without seeing the paintings? Can you listen to a description, no matter how thorough and use that as your only point of reference to teach others about the paintings? And if you do, doesn't that put your students at a MARKED disadvantage over those of us who have laid bare eyes on the artwork?
I don't suppose I should be all worked up. These aren't men who teach me, nor are they men I study with. My experience isn't muddled by too many interpretations too far removed from the original. I just found it astonishing. And the more I go on the more guilty I feel for not reading the Bible enough, though I don't mind bitching about those who do and "get it wrong."
Finally, in anecdote, I had a fellow Catholic tell me that I was "telling lies" recently. She was responding to the fact I had shoved the corner of a sheet of paper down the back of the neck of my shirt and was pretending to be a superhero to a few little kids who were giggling. She reprimanded me non-stop badgering me about it becoming more upset as I continued to ignore her and her salacious determinations. She must have gone on for half an hour until I questioned her sanity.
In reality, if playing make believe with kids is "telling lies" then I am a massive and UNREPENTANT liar, and had their not been kids around I'd have told something quite different. Something to the affect of,
Go fuck yourself and stay the hell away from me in the future. I'm well aware you don't have a personality, but maybe you could have tried to get one for your kids? I'm just saying, a little laughter and play and less praying and bullshit and maybe they'd be less socially retarded.
With that, I'm done!
[anyone else feel like I've created a blog genre called, "OH and ANOTHER THING!!!"?]