Rough Draft, Part 3, "Theolotics."

In light of the Founding Fathers’ being influenced by Deism, and the views of the Puritans, it is easy for us to assume that the separation of church and state was asserted to prevent religious institutions from running the government. Yet the exact opposite is true. We see the Religious Right and many of us despair if they ever gain the support of the majority of the people and the politicians. We don’t want anyone’s religion “rammed down our throat.” Our movies reveal our bias in this matter quite clearly. In “Kingdom of Heaven,” the Bishop of Jerusalem is a cowardly, interfering irritant. In “Troy,” the Chief Priest of Troy is always meddling in the affairs of the King and his court. And it is the priest’s insistence upon taking in the Trojan Horse that dispels doom for the city. The religious officials are, by and large, represented as boisterous loud-mouthed and insistent fools who, when listened to, bring about disaster.

We often take it for granted that many ideas we have today that we consider good, such as compassion and humanitarianism, are and have always been common and are just good “common sense.” To believe such would be to make the same mistake as the Deists. That mistake is in assuming those things which seem to permeate our culture are merely common sense. Loving one’s neighbor as one’s self is not something that comes naturally to humankind, nor is it often demonstrated in our history. With the dawn of Christianity we begin to see it spread with the message of its founder, Jesus Christ, and become more common than it was. We see it demonstrated in such people as Telemachus, a monk whose death crystallized the opposition that led to the end of the Roman gladiatorial combats. We see it demonstrated in Saint Patrick, who was a slave in Ireland and, after having been freed, returns to the land of his slavery to bring them the light of the Gospel. We see it in Saint Francis, with his simple life and ready acceptance of poverty to reach the people. We see it in Billy Graham and Mother Theresa. We see it, in its fullness, only in those people in whom the Gospel is lived out.

However much the past has influenced us as a culture and as a nation, we can also look at the present day to discern our values. I have heard from several people that the USA is far more religious than Europe despite the rising trend of secularization (CITATION NEEDED). Therefore, at least some of us view us as a very religious nation – perhaps too religious. At the same time there are those who hate America and who decry us as the “Great Satan.” The truth, as is often the case, lies somewhere in the middle.

No other country gives as much money in foreign aid than the United States of America (CITATION NEEDED). We are, on the whole, a generous people who are willing to help out those in need. We are, of course, not perfect in our generosity given how many of our own struggle to make ends meet or who live in abject squalor.

It takes no great stretch of the imagination to see that we spend the vast majority of our money on entertainment. Movies, music and video games are big business. The movies and television we watch also reveal a great deal about what we are: hit reality shows such as Survivor and Fear Factor let us revel in the misery and backstabbing of our fellow human beings. Big Brother takes this to a whole new level by adding casual romantic flings into the mix, as did Temptation Island. Jerry Springer was around long before the others, however, and brought us to new lows by parading rather perverse people with even more perverse problems on a stage for our entertainment. Mr. Springer gave us some hope with his show, too: no matter how bad our lives seemed, we could always point to those unfortunate souls and say to ourselves “at least I am better then they are.”

The bottom line is rather simple. We would rather be entertained then help somebody out, and we like to be entertained largely by betrayal, illicit romances and sexual imagery. The programs we watch with an uplifting message we watch in order to feel justified for watching everything else and we quietly tell ourselves that we are not bad people. Or, if anything, we tell ourselves that because we work hard we deserve a little relaxation and entertainment. Let me be very plain: I’m not against entertainment. . The problem arises when we enjoy life in ways that it ought not to be enjoyed. Good fun with friends and family can be a tremendous blessing in our lives, and the laughter we experience can be the best medicine. However, if that laughter comes at someone else’s expense, our laughter is no longer medicine but poison.

(Look up “In God We Trust”, religious beliefs of America)

There is, however, a possible problem with how I have portrayed the current cultural climate of America so far. That problem is that just because a person or a country is Christian does not also mean that the person or country is sinless. Can it be possible that we are, in fact, a Christian nation and that we simply struggle with certain excesses as any culture does? When we think of the people who live in the United States of America, what comes to mind first and foremost?

In a word I think it would be safe to say: individualism. Fast food chains advertise with “have it your way” and other such slogans to appeal to that distinctly American sense of individualism that says “I want what I want, and in the way I want it.” The famous American dream is the freedom to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. America may be a young country compared to the other nations of the world but we, too, have our myths that strongly contribute to our personal outlook on life. These myths are those of individualism and relativism.[1]

The first American myth that helps define us as a people is that of rugged individualism. America is thought of as the land of opportunity where a poor person can “make it big” and, in so doing, somehow “succeed” in life. In Fitzgerald’s work “The Great Gatsby,” the main character Gatsby throws lavish parties on a weekly basis. Some think it is to flaunt his wealth which he came to by mysterious means that hint at involvement with bootlegging. However, the aim of these parties is to try and find a woman he used to love named Daisy who has since gone on to become married. After they meet up again, this does not stop them from striking up an affair. It is important to remember that it is Gatsby’s lavish parties to which he invites hundreds of people that enable him to meet Daisy again and that these parties are only made possible through his money. Gatsby falls into the category of nouveau riche, someone who does not come from wealth, like many of his guests, but rather has made his own fortune. However in the end Gatsby’s frivolous lifestyle, and that of his friends, leaves two people dead (one of them being Gatsby himself) and his murderer having committed suicide. When Nick attempts to arrange a funeral for Gatsby only three people show up, including Nick.

Although a work of fiction we see echoes of these stories quite often in the U.S. The media is never afraid to inform us of who has had an affair with whom among the rich and famous. Indeed, we have an entire channel that is dedicated to keeping us informed on this subject. We blame tabloids for endlessly asking if one actor is having an affair with another actor’s wife but do not blame ourselves for keeping the tabloids in business.

Compare such a lifestyle with what we find in the Bible. The author of Ecclesiastes tells us:

I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.[2]

David was, originally, the youngest son of a shepherd and yet he finds himself chosen by God to become the King of Israel to replace Saul.[3] From humble origins he goes on to slay Goliath and attain the crown. When King David saw Bathsheba bathing on the rooftop he did not deny himself his desires for another man’s wife and had the husband’s death on the battlefield arranged.[4] Although David took in Bathsheba after her husband’s death God was displeased with what he had done.[5] King David’s domestic problems extend to encompass his entire family. Later on, when one of his children rapes another we learn that although David was furious[6] he did nothing about it. Absalom, another of David’s children, takes the matter into his own hands. Absalom takes vengeance on Amnon, the rapist, and has the man killed.[7] David’s inaction leads to Absalom thinking that the king will not act to dispense justice where it is due and, by voicing that he will indeed see justice done for the people of Israel he wins enough support over them to threaten Israel with civil war.[8] David, in being callous enough to poison another man’s family has wrought destruction upon his own household by once again being blind to right and wrong. In Absalom’s civil war David reaps what he has sown.

In denying himself nothing his eyes desired, David reminds us of the many glamorized people who lead frivolous lives that we summarily glamorize. We often imagine the American individualist as a rugged person who cuts against the grain to find his own way to success in whatever form success happens to take. But we never stop to consider how we often identify as that even if the goal we seek is an evil one. One popular singer captured this idea very well when he sang:

Yes, there were times, I’m sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew.
But through it all, when there was doubt,
I ate it up and spit it out.
I faced it all and I stood tall;
And did it my way.[9]

We reframe individualism as some sort of noble sacrifice[10] regardless of what is being sought after and, in so doing, isolate ourselves from any sort of reproach. I am sure that often a person must fight overwhelming opinion, or even the spirit of his age, in order to make a change that actually is for the better such as the leaders of the Civil Rights movement in American history. However, we also convince ourselves that whatever we may seek is right based simply on the fact that we have to fight against cultural tides to achieve it.

This myth of individualism for individualism’s sake is certainly not a Biblical one. While Sinatra adds later in the aforementioned song that if a man “has not himself then he has naught,” this is a far different cry than Jesus’ cry: “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.[11]’” The Christian message is not one of eradication of identity but rather a willingness to sacrifice any idol, even the idol of one’s self, to God through Jesus Christ as an act of worship. Or as one Christian band has phrased it, “Are you ready to give up everything?”[12]

The second myth of relativism is merely that of individualism applied on a mass scale. We love our individuality in the United States and, when many people love their individuality we are left with often conflicting interests. Hence we often describe people as “doing their own thing,” by which we mean someone is merely pursuing his or her interests with the understanding that we all do exactly that. Doing what I want is freedom, or so goes the train of thought. Other people are merely doing the same thing, even if they think they are believers in something like objective meaning or truth. There a human being is boiled down to being understood as a collection of desires and since it is wrong to tell anyone that what they want is wrong, or to stop someone from “doing their own thing,” we accept the great differences in what people desire.

There are some fundamental problems here. First is the assumption that whatever we want cannot be wrong. To those of us who are parents, babysitters, or child care professionals – do we treat children this way? If a child wants another helping of French fries, do we let them have it? If so than this may help to explain the sudden obesity problem amongst our young people. Hopefully, however, we recognize the common sense knowledge that merely because a child wants something that we should let him have it. Do we not prevent young children from sticking their fingers into electrical sockets or from chewing on wires – and with good reason? Indeed with good reason: for the sake of the child we do not allow what the child wants despite how much the child may scream about not getting his way. This fundamental aspect of humanity does not change as we grow older, sadly enough. We may learn to better control ourselves but there is always that urge to do what we want without the thought, or even the dismissal of our conscience, that may tell us such a thing that we want may not be good. Considering David and Bathsheba once again, if David had listened to that voice in his head that, I hope, told him not to engage his fantasies in such a fashion then his household might have been a far more peaceful one and Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, need not have been murdered.

There is a great American hypocrisy here. We tell ourselves that there is no right or wrong, that morality is merely relative based upon what we like or do not like. We believe that it is wrong to judge someone else. Yet despite telling ourselves this we hold people accountable for breaking laws that they probably wanted to break to meet their own desires. How can we hold people accountable if we assert that it is not right to do so? Is there some confusion here? Absolutely. Yet this is the American state of affairs. The freedom we think of is the freedom to do what I want and when I want to do it without being stopped by someone else because we are free to want, and pursue, whatever it is that we desire. Yet none of this is Biblically justified. Biblical freedom is that which we experience in light of God’s aim to: “open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”[13] Biblical desires are to be found in God, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart,”[14] not by rabidly pursuing them ourselves and often to the detriment of ourselves and others.

I would expect that a Christian nation would have been expressly founded by Christians, or would at least have a strongly Christian culture. I will not deny that Christianity plays a significant role in our culture but it is not a defining one. Indeed it is the other way around. We Americans tend to be quite individualistic in our faith, sometimes claiming that we have been given individual words from God that may contradict the Bible but they were indeed from God and not merely us reading our own desires into God.

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[1] Ibid., 71, 81, 103.

[2] Ecclesiastes 2:10-11

[3] 1 Samuel 16:11-12

[4] 2 Samuel 11:16

[5] 2 Samuel 11:27

[6] 2 Samuel 13:21

[7] 2 Samuel 13:28-29

[8] 2 Samuel 15:1-14

[9] Frank Sinatra, “My Way”

[10] Apel, 59

[11] Matthew 16:24-25

[12] Pillar, “Everything”

[13] Isaiah 42:7

[14] Psalm 37:4