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I had a phone conversation Thanksgiving morning with my fundagelical brother that was deeply disturbing to me. This brother is #2 of 4 boys (#1 is no longer living, I am #4) and he has always been a little bit given to gullibility ... the sort of person who would listen to Art Bell's "Coast to Coast AM" radio broadcast about aliens among us, etc., half for entertainment and half believing it. So I am not putting this entirely at the feet of the cultish side of the religion I escaped from some thirty years ago, but ... yeah mostly I am.
Because in his dotage (and no he's not demented) it's becoming impossible to have a normal conversation with him, without it turning into some "us vs them" diatribe or other.
This time I made the "mistake" of mentioning in passing that my stepdaughter had attended America's most expensive private university, NYU (her biological father has more money than sense) and my brother launched on a fulminating rant about how he hates NYU and Columbia because the students are protesting the war in Gaza ... it is all a dark conspiracy and they don't even know what's REALLY going on. He, of course does, but it is not informed, let us just say, by reputable or verified sources, but rather by the propaganda of various religious factions stoking the flames.
Setting aside the politics or debating the truth of things of which we must not speak -- my point isn't the specific topic but rather this need to turn everything into a drama with himself on-stage as the avatar and arbiter of capital-T Truth, and it always is hiding behind God, this imaginary friend who always agrees with his views on everything and so to be skeptical of him is to question the Almighty Himself.
It's an odd way to lose a family member in slow stages ... sort of like cancer but even less dignified.
Whatever happened to the brilliant electrical engineer who I assume is still in there somewhere, I don't pretend to know. This guy was never the world's most pleasant individual -- my mother always used to shake her head and speak of "my little black sheep" - but he was our posterior orifice and we loved him. But things are turning quite dark now, and invariably in the name of God. He seems to have no working moral judgment anymore, and he doesn't see a problem with that.
I suppose this is why I have been pushing back elsewhere around here so much lately against Christians making excuses for slavery (and why not, because the Bible leads from behind on that topic) or otherwise equivocating on reasonably simple moral issues when it serves them to defend some pet dogma or other. Always on about their superior morality even while demonstrating a lack of rudimentary moral judgment. Also, quite often seeking black and white "clarity" where nuance is required.
[sigh] well this is just screaming into the void I suppose, I don't expect anyone to offer up a deus ex machina for my brother or something ... just wanted to get it off my chest. The world seems to be descending into madness and Jesus seems to be leading the way far too much of the time.
My brother is about to turn 80 and lives a thousand miles away so it's not like there's going to be a family intervention at this point. It's just an unfortunate note to end things on.
More usefully though I think that people who seem oblivious to the harms of authoritarian religion might understand how it impacts families on the ground, plus how it harms society at large: promoting intolerance, bigotry, etc. Also I think there's a very profound need to polarize society around various lines of demarcation that are important to the belief system. This usually takes an (un-discussable for us) political form but it also is social and cultural, for example, the shaming and dehumanization and moral panic they deploy around "fornication" generally or pre-marital sex specifically. Various other forms of pearl-clutching designed to shut down actual discussion or understanding and simply react in negative, controlling, and counterproductive ways.
All this is in my view a significant contribution to the problems and increasing cruelty and indifference in the world. And they don't see it in themselves. At. All.
All of my siblings have drunk the kool aid. It originated in my father who died years ago. He was a conservative repuglican but lamented the involvment of evangelical religion in the party.
I had a phone conversation Thanksgiving morning with my fundagelical brother that was deeply disturbing to me. This brother is #2 of 4 boys (#1 is no longer living, I am #4) and he has always been a little bit given to gullibility ... the sort of person who would listen to Art Bell's "Coast to Coast AM" radio broadcast about aliens among us, etc., half for entertainment and half believing it. So I am not putting this entirely at the feet of the cultish side of the religion I escaped from some thirty years ago, but ... yeah mostly I am.
Because in his dotage (and no he's not demented) it's becoming impossible to have a normal conversation with him, without it turning into some "us vs them" diatribe or other.
This time I made the "mistake" of mentioning in passing that my stepdaughter had attended America's most expensive private university, NYU (her biological father has more money than sense) and my brother launched on a fulminating rant about how he hates NYU and Columbia because the students are protesting the war in Gaza ... it is all a dark conspiracy and they don't even know what's REALLY going on. He, of course does, but it is not informed, let us just say, by reputable or verified sources, but rather by the propaganda of various religious factions stoking the flames.
Setting aside the politics or debating the truth of things of which we must not speak -- my point isn't the specific topic but rather this need to turn everything into a drama with himself on-stage as the avatar and arbiter of capital-T Truth, and it always is hiding behind God, this imaginary friend who always agrees with his views on everything and so to be skeptical of him is to question the Almighty Himself.
It's an odd way to lose a family member in slow stages ... sort of like cancer but even less dignified.
Whatever happened to the brilliant electrical engineer who I assume is still in there somewhere, I don't pretend to know. This guy was never the world's most pleasant individual -- my mother always used to shake her head and speak of "my little black sheep" - but he was our posterior orifice and we loved him. But things are turning quite dark now, and invariably in the name of God. He seems to have no working moral judgment anymore, and he doesn't see a problem with that.
I suppose this is why I have been pushing back elsewhere around here so much lately against Christians making excuses for slavery (and why not, because the Bible leads from behind on that topic) or otherwise equivocating on reasonably simple moral issues when it serves them to defend some pet dogma or other. Always on about their superior morality even while demonstrating a lack of rudimentary moral judgment. Also, quite often seeking black and white "clarity" where nuance is required.
[sigh] well this is just screaming into the void I suppose, I don't expect anyone to offer up a deus ex machina for my brother or something ... just wanted to get it off my chest. The world seems to be descending into madness and Jesus seems to be leading the way far too much of the time.
Two thoughts come to my mind:
1. On a serious note -- For most of my life I have looked at relatives and thought that I don't have to like or respect them just because they are relatives. I see no reason not to follow Buddha's advice, even with relatives -- https://buddhasadvice.wordpress.com/...20dispositions.
2. On a lighter note, I saw something on Facebook the day before Thanksgiving, and although it was about politics, I think in some cases you could substitute religion. It said: "Be sure to bring up politics at Thanksgiving dinner. It’s going to save you money on Christmas gifts."
All of my siblings have drunk the kool aid. It originated in my father who died years ago. He was a conservative repuglican but lamented the involvment of evangelical religion in the party.
As both religious and political conservatism have become more and more fascistic, it is hard to be sure exactly how much of that is independent co-evolution and how much is intertwined.
One can step back and examine earlier, more fundamental attitudes that enabled this intertwining. Authoritarian religion has always functioned in a reactionary / exclusionary mode. If for example you don't want your people fornicating, you would not look at the reasons people actually do it and look for rational responses that would tend to actually counter it; you just become horrified, enter a state of absolutism and moral panic, and emphasize the "yuck factor", shame and gaslight those who fail to toe the line as much as possible, deploy various forms of shunning to make them miserable, etc. This doesn't help people be sexually responsible; it helps them to be sexually repressed. Ironically, it produces more, rather than less, fornication (although it's driven even deeper underground so that they can tell themselves that they accomplished something).
The willingness to use such self-defeating, unsustainable and ultimately arrogant, dishonest and hypocritical tactics, sets the groundwork for the morally bereft religio-political posturing of today.
1. On a serious note -- For most of my life I have looked at relatives and thought that I don't have to like or respect them just because they are relatives. I see no reason not to follow Buddha's advice, even with relatives -- https://buddhasadvice.wordpress.com/...20dispositions.
2. On a lighter note, I saw something on Facebook the day before Thanksgiving, and although it was about politics, I think in some cases you could substitute religion. It said: "Be sure to bring up politics at Thanksgiving dinner. It’s going to save you money on Christmas gifts."
Lol ... well I love my brother. He's my brother. That doesn't mean I have to agree with him or never push back. I am just beginning to say, look, Dick (because that's his actual given name, lol) this is a topic we had best not discuss so that we can not upset each other. And his wife, who is somewhat more reasonable and a LOT more emotionally intelligent, supports this. I always get a relieved "thank you" from her when I do that (they are joined at the hip and she is usually at least in the background on speaker phone when I call him).
My brother is about to turn 80 and lives a thousand miles away so it's not like there's going to be a family intervention at this point. It's just an unfortunate note to end things on.
More usefully though I think that people who seem oblivious to the harms of authoritarian religion might understand how it impacts families on the ground, plus how it harms society at large: promoting intolerance, bigotry, etc. Also I think there's a very profound need to polarize society around various lines of demarcation that are important to the belief system. This usually takes an (un-discussable for us) political form but it also is social and cultural, for example, the shaming and dehumanization and moral panic they deploy around "fornication" generally or pre-marital sex specifically. Various other forms of pearl-clutching designed to shut down actual discussion or understanding and simply react in negative, controlling, and counterproductive ways.
All this is in my view a significant contribution to the problems and increasing cruelty and indifference in the world. And they don't see it in themselves. At. All.
For your own understanding. These patterns repeat themselves over and over. You can't free him anyway.
History shows that religion and politics have always been two sides of the same coin. From the heresy of Akhenaten and the Jewish war through the crusades, 30 years war (including the British civil war) and the Balkan conflicts caused mainly by the Turks having annexed much of that land in spreading Islam, and let nobody tell you that Islam is about anything else, and right up to now where the odd bedfellows of Chinese communist party, Russian orthodox Imperialism and Islamic Fundamentalism are in bed together because they are all the same - the Dogma of one party authoritarianism, and religion or Political Dogma where they have none, is used to push it with some war, real or threatened.
The only hope, apart from containing these dictators ("It's what he is") which seems to be catching on like a disease, from Peru to Hungary, is to understand and explain what is going on and if the old crazy dudes who see it all as prophecy coming true and the antechrist son to appear are closed to reason, there are some signs that the demographic worldwide is amenable to reason, and the more states that are run by rational rulers elected by rational voters, the more easily we can contain crazy dictators allowed to impose themselves on a confused populace, never mind those who know where they are with one clod raving about rooting out enemies of the state rather than doing anything useful.
For your own understanding. These patterns repeat themselves over and over. You can't free him anyway.
Thanks, L8.
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