Fundametalism, Blasphemy, and Catch-Matthew 22

[arendt]

Fundametalism, Blasphemy, and Catch-Matthew 22
by arendt

"Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask, and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch22."

- Joseph Heller, "Catch 22"

Fundamentalist theologies demand prodigious amounts of self-repression and vigilance. It amounts to a state of constant war between your soul and the rest of the world, including your own body and mind. I suspect that, at one or more times in their sad lives, many fundamentalists recognize the basic insanity of their situation, and would (like Yossarian in Catch-22) prefer to trust their own judgment and the fundamental decency of their fellow human beings. But, if they actually confessed that to a fundamentalist clergyman, they would be told that this is a normal ploy of Satan and sent right back into religious combat - with an increase in peer pressure from their “loving” congregation. To a fundamentalist, religion is one big Catch-Matthew 22. That is, a no-win situation where death is the only way out.

As in the dysfunctional military of Heller’s satire, zealotry in (religious) combat is the only officially-sanctioned outlet for the backlog of violent emotions locked down by vigilance against Satan, especially Satan disguised as a sexual object. Once the initial rush of being saved wears off, the only thing that a fundie can do for “entertainment”, without violating some edict, is to proselytize the heathen and/or defend the faith. Most proselytizing is felt as smug browbeating by its recipients, leaving the missionary even more frustrated due to his supposed “calling” to make a convert. It is much more emotionally cathartic for a fundie to simply denounce non-believers as heretics, blasphemers, and people who commit sacrilege. All these are the propaganda equivalent of “the German soldiers beat the heads of Belgian babies against the wall”. Suitably motivated, the fundamentalists can get down to combat, where their suicidal and race-suicidal impulses can be worked out on an already tortured humanity and ecosphere.

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Set in this context, a UN resoultion to ban "blasphemy" can be seen to be a spectacularly bad legal initiative, right down there with declaring flag burning to be "sacrilege". In both cases, its not the action that is in dispute; its the definition of the action/offense against the law. The concept of blasphemy can easily be dealt with under the secular heading of "fighting words"; and there are laws about fighting words and shouting “fire” in crowded theatres. Blasphemy is just a religious name for “yo mama”; and every ten year old understands what he’s saying when he says “yo mama”.

The concept of sacrilege comes under the heading of "crimes against property". In the absence of damaging someone else’s property (even intangible property, such as a libel against a reputation), prosecuting sacrilege based on religious definition is accepting one particular group's religious framework as secular law. Tell me, judge, is it sacrilege to buy the cheese-sandwich-with-the-face-of-Jesus “relic” and then stomp on it? The Middle Ages had enough pieces of the true cross lying about to build a cathedral. Will we create an office for the accreditation of holy paraphernalia?

The world’s legal systems are already over-burdened trying to adjudicate claims that are supposed to be supported with evidence and crimes that are supposed to be codified by statute. By and large, those statutes cover the important stuff: murder, theft, fraud, discrimination, and extortion in all their guises and reincarnations. In the case of so-called crimes against some people’s highly-debatable religious beliefs, there are no statutes - only the conflicting interpretations of wannabe theocrats. There is no evidence - only the assertions of insane people like Pat Robertson and the Iranian mullah who issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie. There is no way to accommodate these subjective judgments about such non-falsifiable, non-secular matters into secular law. Any attempt to do so would unravel the common law of evidence, the codified law of statute, and the power of rational inquiry.

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Two thousand years of Western history informs those who bother to study it that co-mingling organized religion and politics is a recipe for legally-sanctioned slaughter and terror. And in that conveniently-forgotten history lie the reasons why secular laws aren’t good enough for the theocrats subverting secular governments around the planet.

It is part of the secular political agenda of organized religions (who constantly use the codeword "traditional" when making outrageously reactionary, racist, and misogynistic statements) to re-empower themselves by restoring the force of law to the un-falsifiable and loaded terminology of blasphemy and sacrilege. It is but a short step from blasphemy laws to legalized inquisitions and witchhunts.

Inhabitants of the present-day West have no personal experience of the dictatorial power wielded by Christian churchmen right up to the time of the American and French revolutions. We moderns may find today’s Catholic hierarchy to be a bunch of pederastic pooftas and the TV evangelists to be cynical crooks. But, if these people had control of state institutions, as in the past, the Western world would resemble Afghanistan under the Taliban.

As usual, the right wing is irony-challenged. The Islamic call for "blasphemy" laws is but an echo of the "Injustice Sunday" crowd's demand for a Christian nation with Christian punishments. Furthermore, liberals have been pummeled for decades for their "thin skin", "frivolous lawsuits", and demands for "politically correct" language and "respect for minority sensibilities". But now that it is the theocratic thugs themselves whining about their sensibilities, their previous statements have become, to quote Nixon's press secretary, "inoperable".

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But, the main purpose of this essay is to remind progressive forces not to get outrage fatigue on the topic of creeping theocratization of the legal system - and not to believe that what is called for is “tolerance” of this assault on rationality and the Enlightenment.

At some point, being tolerant crosses the line into being bullied. Tolerating an insane version of god adds to its power, just like overlooking the rages of a drunk allows him more leeway to act out. There are limits to the outrage and the level of retaliation that an individual or group is entitled to over individual opinions, such as cartoons, uttered without the force of state or organizational policy to turn them into actions. At some point, outrage run amuck becomes law-breaking in its own regard. At some point, insisting on enforcing unprovable propositions of theocracy is rank superstition.

"A superstition is only a superstition as long as it is not a superstition."
- Werner Erhard

To paraphrase this koan-like statement: “Blasphemy against my god is only blasphemy as long as I can make you believe in my god.” When it comes to secular laws about blasphemy, its time to say that the emperor or the mullah or Jerry Falwell has no legal clothes. Tolerance is the moral equivalent of lying.

[Jacobin]

1. Really excellent

thank you for posting this.

Thomas Jefferson must be spinning in his grave to see how much we have 'forgotten' about

I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Francis Hopkinson, March 13, 1789

In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17, 1814


and my all time favorite:

And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors.

-Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823

[Jacobin]

2. Damn. Sinking in the FuddGate mania

Kickin

[arendt]

3. Appreciate the kicks, but the mob is fickle...

and FuddGate is a real banana peel for Darth Cheney.

But it hasn't change any mind that wasn't ready to change.

And, the theocrats don't care. Cheney was never their guy. Bush is their
guy.

So, I will sporadically blog on about this topic.

Thanks for your support,

arendt

[arendt]

4. Front page kick + thanks to "secret admirer" for the heart n/t

[1932]

5. If you want to know what's blasphemous about Falwell, read Matthew 25.

Their problem is that their version of religion is overwhelmingly unchristian.

Matt.25

<1> Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
<2> And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
<3> They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
<4> But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
<5> While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
<6> And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
<7> Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
<8> And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.
<9> But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
<10> And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
<11> Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
<12> But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
<13> Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
<14> For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
<15> And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.
<16> Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.
<17> And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.
<18> But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money.
<19> After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.
<20> And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
<21> His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
<22> He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.
<23> His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
<24> Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
<25> And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.
<26> His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
<27> Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
<28> Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.
<29> For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
<30> And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
<31> When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
<32> And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
<33> And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
<34> Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
<35> For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
<36> Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
<37> Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
<38> When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
<39> Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
<40> And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
<41> Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
<42> For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
<43> I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
<44> Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
<45> Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
<46> And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

[arendt]

6. Point well-taken! It should be Catch-Matthew 25

And, props to Jacobin, the Jefferson Bible contains this.

Note to those unfamiliar: Jefferson stripped out everything but that
which he thought to be the actual words of Jesus - no OT, no centuries-
later back-annotations. This is the "bible" that is given to each
new member of Congress. And, you can buy it from, IIRC, the Beacon
Press (i.e., the Unitarians).

arendt