I got another one of “those” forwards this morning. I keep telling people that I neither agree with, nor appreciate, them. What are “those” forwards? They usually take three forms:
- Fear-mongering racism
- Idolatrous confusion of the USA with Christianity.
- All of the above.
The one I got this morning was particularly painful to read, and I sent back my immediate reaction to the sender (“this was actually rather offensive to me”). Every time I get one, being cherry-picked by the Mennonites (who seem to really want me) seems more and more agreeable to me. Let me summarize the on I got this morning:
- It did a “welcome to America” help-line spoof, saying, “Welcome to America, for English press one. Press 2 to disconnect until you learn how to speak English.” Such wonderful hospitality on the part of Christians.
- The second part stated, “And remember only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you…” The first was Jesus Christ, the second was the American soldier (American was underlined). Folks, Christians are defined by one “defining force.” Anything else, is an idol. My Mennonite tendencies aside, I have a great many friends who are not part of “peace-church” traditions, but who do not confuse the United States of America, and our Armed Forces, with anything that Jesus did. This is a great struggle for me on days like Memorial Day, when it seems that a good many Protestant Churches honor Jesus and our Armed forces equally.
So, if you ever want to send me an e-mail like this, please understand that I don’t find them particularly humorous, they cause me to grieve and regret that I’m even tangentially bound to a Christian tradition that sees such thoughts as helpful and “right.”
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The second one makes no sense to me. I’ve been reading Homer, Plato and Thucydides too much to live in the illusion that such sacrificial deaths are new to our culture. Please. Most of my students see Socrates as a Christ figure and like him better than Jesus (though, I’ve got ways of disillusioning them of that overly cheery view).
I agree that it make no sense, but if you think that the “real world” ends at the borders of the US you can get away with that type of thinking.
These make me twitchy. Especially the you aren’t a real christian if you don’t love the US. Or for that matter you aren’t a real christian/ really love Jesus unless you forward this message to 10 people right this instant. (And either message type with cute pictures generally makes them that much more offensive)
Oh the forwarding to 10 people thing drives me batty. Hey folks, some of us don’t work on guilt complexes!
I get frustrated with both of those. I am still your friend even if I don’t send it back. I haven’t had anything wonderful happen or I haven’t had anything bad happen when I don’t send it back. I am also annoyed and frustrated with those emails and people who try to make me feel guilty if i don’t agree with super patriotism
Yah. I have been thinking about the patriotism (more broadly, nationalism) thing a lot recently. I think it comes from a misplaced desire for worship. At its root, it looks to me like a modern form of idolatry. I think Protestants may be more vulnerable to this due to their tendency toward radical religious iconoclasm.
We were made for intimate relationship with God, and the desire to walk with Him in the cool of the day is imprinted in us. We have an ingrained need for it. In the absence of a relationship with God, that desire can manifest in a variety of false ways, including the ancient ways (idol-making & worship) or more modern ways (worship-of-state=nationalism). Both errors kinda-sorta kid us into thinking we are filling the God-shaped hole in our nature.