After I mingled with strangers, friends, and Two Movie Guys (Lucas says I owe him $500… I remember it the other way around), we headed on over to the Kerr Auditorium for the screening of 8: The Mormon Proposition.

The film was aptly titled. Before the film, I had not realized just how much the Latter Day Saints church had been directly involved in the passage of Proposition 8 in California, which simply added these few words to the California constitution: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” According to the film, only 2% of the population of California is Mormon, yet 71% of the monetary contributions toward the passage of Proposition 8 can be traced back to members of the LDS church and to the church’s finances directly. During the final week of the campaign to pass the Proposition, $5M in contributions came in via out-of-state sources, and specifically from Salt Lake City alone (Mormon headquarters). In order to pass a ballot issue in California, it was said, you need three things: money, volunteers, and a message. The LDS church had all three in abundance. With very minor assistance from a coalition of other (mostly religious) groups, they were successful in getting the Proposition passed.

As the film continually emphasized, the campaign for marriage equality has always been about people rather than politics and money. Laws have implications on real people who are trying to live their lives in the best way they can. The most heartbreaking part of the film were the details of numerous suicides by gay Mormons. One young gay man, feeling he had no one to turn to and was even hated by his family, even killed himself with a bullet to the head at a Mormon temple. Apparently Utah has one of the highest suicide rates in this country, and it has an even higher rate than most other countries in the world. The filmmakers used this statistic to imply that the high suicide rate is because of the alienation experienced by gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transsexual Mormons due to actions by their families and the church. I would need to see more solid research rather than anecdotal evidence before I could accept that particular hypothesis, but it is definitely the case that many young gay people have killed themselves and are continuing to do so because of the hate expressed to them by the Mormon church.

One of the Mormon apostles/prophets quoted in the film stated that, “the face of sin bears the mask of tolerance” and the preservation of the traditional (i.e. 1 man, wive/wives, children) family is “a core principle upon which the Gospel of Jesus Christ is based.” Being a Christian myself, the last time I checked, the core principles upon which the Gospel of Jesus Christ is based are forgiveness and redemption. The Gospel is about Christ’s sacrificial atonement for the sins of the world because of the deep love of God… Last time I checked there was nothing in the core principles of the Gospel about the preservation of the “traditional” family, whatever that means (a “traditional” family excludes childless married straight couples as well, as a friend has very eloquently pointed out). But what do I know, anyway?

After the Proposition 8 documentary, we headed over to the Iguana Lounge for some more drinkin’ and talkin’. As is always the case with Iguana, the food and drinks were fantastic! I’m about to head over to Iguana again right now for the Friday night Oklahoma Film & Music party. After that, it’s on to see Simmons on Vinyl and later the Midnight Shorts. Cheers!

If you do a quick inventory of my favorite movies (Dogville, Match Point, City of God, 28 Days Later, the Last Kiss, etc), you will see that they are ones in which there is no redemption and where people treat each other callously and without any remorse for the harm they inflict. They often get away completely guilt-free with murder. I would also personally act this way toward others if I truly embraced nihilism, as I am inclined to do – and I know there is real malevolent evil in my heart. That is why those films resonate so personally with me.

In a world completely devoid of any true or ultimate justice, this is truly the way things are. There is no reason at all for a rational person to not act consistently in a manner of complete and total selfishness, even to the point of murder and mean-spirited deception even for entertainment’s sake, so long as it maximizes one’s own rational self-interest. If a person can kill their mistress without getting caught and live with the guilt for the rest of their life because her death will ultimately bring them a far more pleasurable life in the long run (as happens in the plot of one of the films I mentioned above), this is completely morally acceptable. There is NO reason at ALL to condemn this action in the absence of moral values and ultimate justice.

Likewise, in the absence of any moral values or ultimate justice, there is no grounding upon which to condemn infant rape, instrumental rape during war with machetes, brutal female circumcision, animal mutilation and abuse, the torturing and murder of homosexuals going on right now in the middle east and still in our country, generations of racism and violence, or any other heinous and violent act that we consider to be a violation of justice. There is no grounding at all upon which to cry “FOUL!” The best we can do is to say that we just don’t like these acts, but we can never condemn them as truly wrong, because the very concept of ultimate, objective wrong does not even exist.

No humans will ever agree on exactly what actions should be defined as “right” and “wrong” in a moral sense – that has been culturally, religiously, and sociologically dependent even person by person for as long as humans have lived in society together. Even in a marriage no two people are ever going to completely agree on every moral and ethical issue. But if we can’t even agree that the concept of objective, transcendent moral values actually exist (meaning outside of our own collective human consciousness – in other words, outside of our own heads), then we’re really screwed.

I’m not arguing that we should go put up the 10 Commandments at any Capitol buildings. That’s just stupid. My point is much more philosophical and is far broader than any issue that encompasses any religion.

I would be a nihilist if were not a Christian and if I did not believe that objective moral values exist external to the human mind. I do not pass judgment at all on anyone else who believes otherwise, but if I did not believe what I do, I would personally lie, cheat, steal, manipulate, and live my life to fully maximize my own rational self-interest (in other words, completely selfishly). Yes, I might even murder if I thought it would benefit me in some way – and I highly doubt that I would feel a shred of guilt about it. The “guilt gene” seems to have skipped a generation with me. That is why I absolutely love this Aldous Huxley quote (and I also adore Brave New World, incidentally):

I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; and consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics. He is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do. For myself, as no doubt for most of my friends, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom. The supporters of this system claimed that it embodied the meaning–the Christian meaning, they insisted–of the world. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and justifying ourselves in our erotic revolt: we would deny that the world had any meaning whatever.”
[Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means, 1937]

Huxley admits that he had reasons (namely his unrestrained sexual freedom) for believing that the world has no meaning. It seems that the Christians are not the only ones who start from a conclusion and then work backward to their premises. They just happen to get accused of it far more often. Hmmm…

The reason I am a Christian is not merely because I am convinced that objective moral values do exist, but also because of what I find to be an encyclopedic body of evidence in support of the basic claims of the faith‡, and because of the absolute lack of coherence and rationality I find in all alternate worldviews that I have explored. I was a sincere agnostic/atheist from about the time I was around 10 yrs old, through my entire teenage years, and into the beginning of my adult life. Not to mention that the horrors of the flipside of the ‘problem of evil’ are almost too much for me to handle. All of this hit me as a 14 year old atheist when I was writing death poetry in my own blood about how we will all ultimately be turned to dust, with no hope and no redemption.

The ‘problem of evil’ in this world is simply not a problem for me and it never was. However, the problem of no ultimate justice for the Holocaust is a HUGE problem for me, and it’s a huge problem for atheists as well. I guess their only answer is, “it sucks to be Jews.” At least believers in some semblance of a justice-fulfilled afterlife have a kind of response.

Additionally, personal experience is not at all why I believe (especially since it all happened after my conversion), but there have been some very odd coincidences in my life since summer 2001 when I officially “converted” or whatever you want to call it. Yes, granted, it is entirely possible that they are all just coincidences, but the statistical improbability of some of the things that have happened (on specific dates, etc) has been very strange.

Anyway, to sum it all up, I’m a Christian who struggles with nihilism. I still struggle with the evil in my own heart and mind and with the idea that I should care about anything in the world at all. Also I know that I am personally capable of truly heinous acts. People are NOT basically good. That statement is complete and total bullshit. I love the MGMT song Time To Pretend because it is sublimely true. The band has managed to write the ultimate anthem to nihilism. Here are the lyrics. Enjoy.

I’m feeling rough, I’m feeling raw, I’m in the prime of my life.
Let’s make some music, make some money, find some models for wives.
I’ll move to Paris, shoot some heroin, and fuck with the stars.
You man the island and the cocaine and the elegant cars.

This is our decision, to live fast and die young.
We’ve got the vision, now let’s have some fun.
Yeah, it’s overwhelming, but what else can we do.
Get jobs in offices, and wake up for the morning commute.

Forget about our mothers and our friends
We’re fated to pretend
To pretend
We’re fated to pretend
To pretend

I’ll miss the playgrounds and the animals and digging up worms.
I’ll miss the comfort of my mother and the weight of the world.
I’ll miss my sister, miss my father, miss my dog and my home.
Yeah, I’ll miss the boredom and the freedom and the time spent alone.

But there’s really nothing, nothing we can do.
Love must be forgotten, life can always start up anew.
The models will have children, we’ll get a divorce.
We’ll find some more models, everything must run its course.

We’ll choke on our vomit and that will be the end.
We were fated to pretend
To pretend
We’re fated to pretend
To pretend

Yeah, yeah, yeah

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‡ Note that I said BASIC claims of the faith – if you get to know me you will find that I will only try to defend solidly 2 or 3 main issues. The rest of the doctrinal concerns are entirely debatable as far as I’m concerned. I’ll just be over here trying to feed the poor, care for the sick, and fight for those who don’t have a voice. Even if I’m doing a bad job at it, which I admit that I am most of the time.

As a believer, as a human being, and as an American, I am horribly offended and repulsed by some of the claims made by Mrs. Kern in this proclamation. I do not agree with the ACLU on a great many things, but I do agree with the ACLU of Oklahoma wholeheartedly on the following:

The proclamation blames the economic downturn we are currently experiencing on abortion, pornography, divorce, and same sex marriage, among other things. Kern does not mention the greed of Wall Street elitists or the inability of our government to effectively regulate questionable financial practices that might be the true cause of our nation’s economic difficulties. Her proclamation is silent to meaningful solutions to address the very issues she blames for the “downturn of morality.” Kern’s proclamation, which amounts to a hate-filled diatribe, is full of inaccuracies. This proclamation alienates thousands of Oklahomans who are adherents to minority faiths or who practice no faith. It is unfortunate that she and others would promote such a divisive manifesto at a time when Oklahomans need to pull together to weather this current crisis.

Well said. I would have been at the state capitol myself protesting the signing of the proclamation, if I had not had to work yesterday afternoon.

For other eloquent refutations of Mrs. Kern’s vile proclamation for “morality,” see Rep. Al McAffrey’s blog entry and Rep. Ryan Kiesel’s speech. Mr. McAffrey and Mr. Kiesel are both Christians, too, by the way (I added this point not because I think it adds to their credibility – their points would stand as solid and well-reasoned regardless of religious belief – but only to illustrate that not all “Christians” are of the extreme right-wing Kern/Coulter/Limbaugh variety).

One other “God and Country” tidbit. The ridiculous GET MOTIVATED seminar was held in Oklahoma City a few days ago. I did not attend this event and have nothing to say about it… but I highly recommend Two-Headed Blog’s wonderful commentary regarding said event. One of their authors had the “honor” of attending. It’s a great read: Motivate This

On a personal note, the 4th of July is tomorrow and I’m off to a much needed vacation in Florida with my extended family. Fortunately these are people with whom I usually can avoid political and religious related conflict (because I agree with most of them on the most sensitive issues and can just use avoidance tactics with the others). I’ll be sipping on frosty beverages and watching the fireworks on the beach tomorrow night. This trip is much needed. I have become so upset by close-to-home political goings on in the past few weeks (and by political discussions I have had with people I know), that getting 1500 miles away from Oklahoma should do me a lot of good.

My laptop is coming on vacation with me, but it’s very unlikely that I will post anything for the next week or so. I also may not be able to moderate comments or reply to comments while I’m gone. Suburban Kitsch will likely be silent for a little while. Being a loudmouth is taking its toll on me – not that I post anything too terribly contentious on this blog (the worst of my soapbox speeches are usually displayed on other people’s blogs and comment pages).

Have a wonderful 4th.

I officially have a new favorite picture IN THE WORLD (see below). This news story about a church in Louisville would be really disturbing, except that I would like to believe that people (who would dare to call themselves Christians no less) who would do this are so few and far between as to not really matter at all… this is what I would like to believe. The article did also mention that there was a rival gun-free event held simultaneously across town by other religious groups. I should hope so!!! If I lived in L-ville and was aware of this craziness ahead of time, I would certainly be at that rival event waving a banner high.

(On a personal note, my entire extended family hails from Louisville and I am very familiar with the city… so ha!).

Jesus died to protect your 2nd Amendment rights

I find this article to be hilarious… it’s not trying to be satirical or funny, it’s just accurately reporting a list of things Christian hipsters are into. A few of my favorite quotes:

“…we all know that hipsters hate labels.”

“Christian hipsters love thinking and acting Catholic, even if they are thoroughly Protestant/evangelical.”

“They love poetry readings, worshipping with candles, and smoking pipes while talking about God. Some of them like smoking a lot of different things.”

“Christian hipsters love breaking the taboos that used to be taboo for Christians.”

Authors they like: Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, Wendell Berry, Thomas Merton, John Howard Yoder, Walter Brueggemann, N.T. Wright, Brennan Manning, Eugene Peterson, Anne Lamott, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Henri Nouwen, Soren Kierkegaard, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Annie Dillard, Marilynne Robison, Chuck Klosterman, David Sedaris, or anything ancient and/or philosophically important.

It’s funny cause it’s true…

However, here are a few wonderful excerpts that make me proud to call myself a (pseudo) Methodist:

This is the plain, unaggravated matter of fact. [speaking of brutality and violent kidnappings/people being stolen under the guise of 'prisoners of war'] Such is the manner wherein our African slaves are procured; such the manner wherein they are removed from their native land, and wherein they are treated in our plantations. I would now inquire, whether these things can be defended, on the principles of even heathen honesty; whether they can be reconciled (setting the Bible out of the question) with any degree of either justice or mercy.

The grand plea is, “They are authorized by law.” But can law, human law, change the nature of things? Can it turn darkness into light, or evil into good? By no means. Notwithstanding ten thousand laws, right is right, and wrong is wrong still. There must still remain an essential difference between justice and injustice, cruelty and mercy. So that I still ask, Who can reconcile this treatment of the Negroes, first and last, with either mercy or justice?

Where is the justice of inflicting the severest evils on those that have done us no wrong? of depriving those that never injured us in word or deed, of every comfort of life? of tearing them from their native country, and depriving them of liberty itself, to which an Angolan has the same natural right as an Englishman, and on which he sets as high a value? Yea, where is the justice of taking away the lives of innocent, inoffensive men; murdering thousands of them in their own land, by the hands of their own countrymen; many thousands, year after year, on shipboard, and then casting them like dung into the sea; and tens of thousands in that cruel slavery to which they are so unjustly reduced?

…

That slave-holding is utterly inconsistent with mercy, is almost too plain to need a proof.

…

What wonder, if they should cut your throat? And if they did, whom could you thank for it but yourself? You first acted the villain in making them slaves, whether you stole them or bought them. You kept them stupid and wicked, by cutting them off from all opportunities of improving either in knowledge or virtue: And now you assign their want of wisdom and goodness as the reason for using them worse than brute beasts!

…

May I speak plainly to you? I must. Love constrains me; love to you, as well as to those you are concerned with. Is there a God? You know there is. Is he a just God? Then there must be a state of retribution; a state wherein the just God will reward every man according to his works. Then what reward will he render to you? O think betimes! before you drop into eternity! Think now, “He shall have judgment without mercy that showed no mercy.”  Are you a man? Then you should have an human heart. But have you indeed? What is your heart made of? Is there no such principle as compassion there? Do you never feel another’s pain? Have you no sympathy, no sense of human woe, no pity for the miserable?

Wow. I truly, truly, truly loves me some John Wesley. The full text is extremely moving.

Buy the pamphlet here: http://www.wesleyschapel.org.uk/shop.htm#books

Also, give these people money… http://www.wesleyschapel.org.uk/index.htm

Body of a recent email forward going around:

According to The Book of Revelations the anti-christ is:

The anti-christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal….the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destroy everything. Is this anti-christ,………. OBAMA??

Seriously? Seriously. Real sophisticated (not to mention nonexistent) quote from the book of revelationS. It’s especially sad that I received this email from an actual purported bible-believing family member.

I do also have to credit Jared for his great commentary on this particular email:

The most intriguing part of this, aside from Caesar Nero having already been the elusive 666 figure during the 1st century, is that it claims the antichrist is prophesied to be of “Muslim descent.” Muhammad penned the Quran in the 7th century, over 500 years after the New Testament was complete. Strange that the New Testament was talking about Muslims before they existed.

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God’s grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavily by John Wesley and the Methodists.

What’s your theological worldview?
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As the 2 readers of my blog may remember, a few months ago I posted a summer reading list containing 5 books had I hoped to read in the coming months. I have managed to finish 2 of those books thus far, plus 1 more not on the list, and I am saving the other 3 books for a later date.

I am always up for suggestions of excellent novels (and non-fiction), and for book discussion, online or otherwise. Look at my favorite books list on my main page to get an idea of what I would like, and suggest some titles to me please! Read on for my short (philosophical and literary) summary of Life of Pi, my opinion of some other books, and please post a response or something.

Life of Pi was pretty much exactly what I expected. As literature, it is a very entertaining book (and I look forward to the upcoming movie). However, one should read it with a full understanding of the author’s worldview and knowing that he is trying to influence the reader through use of fiction. Basically the entire first 1/3 of the book is a relativist manifesto. It is this kid (Pi) telling the story of his life and explaining how he came to be a devout and practicing Christian, Muslim, and Hindu, all at the same time. No one in his family or circle of spiritual mentors understands how this is possible, but apparently Pi is more enlightened than everyone else. He keeps repeating the mantra, “but I just want to love God” to his detractors with what I envision as angelic doe eyes and pouty lips (what a sweet boy).

Oh those silly practitioners of Western logic and adherents to the logical law of non-contradiction! They just don’t understand! (Please read my sarcasm in these words).

After the first 1/3 of the book, the relativist manifesto (seemingly) ends and the survival adventure at sea begins. Pi is lost at sea for the better part of a year (and most of the book) alone on a lifeboat with a fully grown adult male Bengal tiger. The point of the entire novel is to put forth the following idea… that it doesn’t matter if what you believe is true in the sense that it corresponds to the actual physical and spiritual reality of things. It only matters that what you believe is “a good story” or that it “works for you”. Never mind the Truth (with a capital T), you can choose what to believe, and that is your reality. (In other words… dancey dance dance in the forest, as my brother has so eloquently put it). I would really like to give away the entire (twist) ending of the book right now (It turns out he was dead the whole time! Oh wait, that’s the twist ending to something else.), but I’ve never been one to spoil movies and books for people who may one day read them. Thus concludes my summary of Life of Pi.

The Kite Runner was an amazing book. Everyone should read it. It is one of the best novels I have ever read. I am greatly looking forward to this novel being made into a movie as well, which is also in the works right now. (I know how to pick em!) That’s all I have to say about that.

In the meantime, I also managed to read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Upon browsing my friends myspace pages, I noticed that about 90% of all females (in the world) had it listed as one of their favorite books. Now I know why. It was a very good book. Any other suggestions for equally good Jane Austen books, or is that her best one by far?

Right now I am reading (concurrently) The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers and various Colorado travel books in anticipation of my husband’s and my upcoming trip to Denver the week after next (yay!). Please give me your opinion of either.

Thus concludes today’s installment of Kathy’s book club.

And yes, I am currently listening to the new Dixie Chicks album. So shut up. It’s a very good album, and they have an ongoing feud with Toby Keith, which I think is quite awesome (as I, too, cannot stand Toby Keith). So don’t make fun of me or I’ll put a boot in your ass. It’s the American way.

The category Protestant encompasses, (in my expert opinion) I would say, about 90% of the non-Catholic “Christian” population of the United States (especially in Bible-belt Oklahoma)… including churches like Lifechurch. Basically, if you go to an Evangelical, Evangelial Covenant (i.e. Lifechurch), Baptist, Methodist, Anglican/Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Nazarene, Assembly of God, Holiness, or most any other non-denominational church in the United States, you’re attending a Protestant church.
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Here’s is what Wikipedia has to say about the three main branches of Christianity:

Within Christianity numerous distinct groups have developed with beliefs that vary widely by culture and place. Since the Reformation Christianity is usually represented as being divided into three main branches:

• Roman Catholicism: The Roman Catholic Church, the largest single body which includes several Eastern Catholic communities as well as certain smaller communities (e.g., the Old-Catholics), with more than 1.085 billion baptized members.

• Eastern Christianity: Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church of the East, and the Eastern Orthodox Churches (including Western Orthodox churches which preserve Latin practices while accepting Orthodox theology), with a combined membership of more than 240 million baptized members. <<< This is what I would call “Christian – other”

• Protestantism: Numerous denominations and groups such as Anglicans, Lutherans, Reformed, Evangelical, Charismatic, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Nazarenes, Anabaptists, and Pentecostals. The oldest of these separated from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th-century Protestant Reformation, followed in many cases by further divisions.

So I genuinely want to know… why are all of you identifying as “Christian – other” instead of Protestant? Post a comment on this blog or just message me directly. Thanks much!