tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-261488431860109218.post5804068822970222827..comments2023-04-29T03:51:39.633-04:00Comments on Ankle Deep in the Silver Sea: Belief Beyond BordersStanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02744611628375476156noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-261488431860109218.post-57489489509171547152010-05-06T07:19:57.789-04:002010-05-06T07:19:57.789-04:00I would love to address those points you've br...I would love to address those points you've brought up (in my own circuitous way) in a future post, hopefully a near-future post. <br /><br />But until I do that, I also want to say that the Church Kristoff mentions in his column also exists in America. Given the many tirades I launch, and as deserved as they are, times and things are changing and I'm always worried that I'm writing for an era recently gone. But it's not fully gone. So I think I'll keep writing.<br /><br />Check out Jim Wallis and his Sojourners organization. They present a model of Christianity that would be a tremendous improvement over the prevailing approaches. I would love to write an entry about them, but honestly, I don't know how to say nice things outside of athletics. That's really a big fault of mine, but I'll do better.Stanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02744611628375476156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-261488431860109218.post-45217251947573214222010-05-05T14:16:57.726-04:002010-05-05T14:16:57.726-04:00In alot of ways, American Christianity has become ...In alot of ways, American Christianity has become its own entity, its own brand of the religion, if you will. The focus is on the master narrative of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant people and yet, again as you pointed out, they do not even represent the truest type of Christian! If you look at the core tenets and desires of Christianity and of Christ, much of it is not present in churches throughout the United States. Sure, there are plenty of Christians who tossed in a ten-spot at church when the collection for Haiti came around. I'll bet they felt really good about themselves--because they DID SOMETHING MAGNANIMOUS! And yet, how many of those same Christians decided to venture down to Haiti to lend a hand? Or to do something more active instead passively offering a donation?<br /><br />You and I can attest to the benefit of being exposed to a multitude of voices and viewpoints. At Baruch, we need to look no further than the first English class we had together. We were a motley bunch and yet there we were, each offering his and her own unique voice and thoughts, creating discourse about a common topic. Why can't religion (and specifically Christianity) be the same? Is the white "majority" THAT afraid of losing this perceived power by opening up to other cultures, other ideas, and other ways of life?<br /><br />The core of the issue is what I believe is at the core of all prejudice: fear as a result of a lack of understanding. We will never be a truly Christian nation because we afraid in ways that Christ never COULD be. Until we accept the fact that we live in a different time, with different values, and with different spiritual and social needs, we are going to find only more volatile resistance to the change that is ultimately necessary for our nation to live in religious harmony.The Stay At Home Scholarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13136325477506837723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-261488431860109218.post-87638797365333682952010-05-05T14:16:40.229-04:002010-05-05T14:16:40.229-04:00"True faith has no geography. It realizes tha..."True faith has no geography. It realizes that Christianity doesn't end with the reach of the bayonet and border patrol but that the line separating the heathen from heaven is drawn through every heart of every person."<br /><br />I think the above quotation from your piece really strikes at the core of what faith is and what it means to be a follower of Christ. Too often, in the Bible-belt, football, rural-suburbia Christianity, it isn't about branching out beyond personal borders but rather clutching tightly to "tradition." Many people are more concerned with going to church to keep up appearances than they are with actually taking something from the experience. These are the same people who likely clutch their purses or put their hands in their pockets when someone of a different color approaches them on the street.<br /><br />Many Americans fear that their Christian beliefs are going to be persecuted by the prevalence of foreign voices and foreign faiths in our country. Now, when people are told that they cannot display some sort of Christian decoration or ornamentation because they might offend someone (or purportedly ARE offending someone), I take issue with that. However...aren't those same Americans doing the exact same thing to people of OTHER faiths? Take the turban for example. It has become a symbol of fear and distrust for us (or rather it IS something that WE fear and distrust). So they take the "We don't want your kind here" stance, which, as you pointed out, would seem to go directly against Christ's teachings. How many times in the Bible did Jesus turn people away because they were different, or because he didn't like them? It's something to keep in mind.<br /><br />As for the whole "we need to take our America back" or "we need to get Christianity back" things, I can offer only my perspective from my experience. My father (and many men and women of his generation) takes a fairly hard stance when it comes to this issue. Much like those of his generation, though, he served in the military and feels like he has fought for "his" country. I think that the soldier's experience offers a unique problem. These men and women have fought to keep certain ideals afloat in the United States. When those ideas seem to be changing (or threatened, if you believe the media) I believe that they in turn rebel against what is perceived as the threat.<br /><br />Personally, I think that going BACK to ANY era in American history would be a huge mistake; I believe that our best days are ahead of us, if we will create them. As you said, America wasn't founded only on God but on the sacrifices, both corporeal, emotional, and spiritual, of many people, a good deal of whom did NOT mirror the ethnicity of the founding fathers. Too many Americans seem to forget that.The Stay At Home Scholarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13136325477506837723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-261488431860109218.post-86503147660997069082010-05-05T10:18:33.992-04:002010-05-05T10:18:33.992-04:00*standing ovation**standing ovation*Mariah MacCarthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02002795665284532498noreply@blogger.com