A fascinating analysis of the election -- "farm desert theology"

[scarletwoman]

http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2004-11-11/cover_story5.php

The gods must be crazy -- Bush won because desert farming always creates wrathful religions

excerpt:

Capital-intensive agriculture relies on cheap oil to supply the fertilizer and pesticides, run the farm machines and fuel the haul of cheap food to long-distance markets. This may explain the otherwise seemingly biblical interest in the crusade to conquer Babylon, the motherlode of cheap oil.

Of course, agriculture was born in that region of the world, as was god-fearing monotheism. Farm belts threatened by desertification as a result of poor agricultural practices (the Middle East and American Midwest both exemplify the trend) have common ways of understanding God.

The American heartland is dominated by what were always called drylands – remember Death Valley Days? – considered inhabitable until the rise of cheap energy and irrigation. Its residents are no strangers to desert-bred worldviews based on conquering the wilderness and corralling its free spirits.

In the desert, God is a man and a father, not a woman, as was Mother Nature. God is as harsh and unforgiving as the blazing sun, and lives in the sky, unlike forest gods like those of aboriginals, which dwell in the world, rustle in the leaves, show themselves in the world's beauty. Hell is hot, just like the desert. God is judgmental, wrathful, punishing and untouchable, drawing a line in the sand, just like the Bush family dads – not loving, maternal, sensual and all-embracing like the forest gods of polytheists and Hindus or Jesus' mother, Mary.

Do go to the link and read the whole piece!

sw

[villager]

1. already agree with it...

...though there needs to be a balance between the idea of "local gods" and the larger concept of a single "Great Mystery" uniting everything in creation....

[DemBones DemBones]

2. Interesting. . . Did you know that

in the Catholic Bible, there is a book of Wisdom, and Wisdom aka Sophia is a female spirit present with God at the creation? And of course Catholic theology teaches that when Jesus, on the cross, told John that Mary was now his mother, and told his mother that John was now her son, this meant that Mary was to be the mother of the church and all of us. So Catholicism includes the feminine more than most of Christianity, and, being the oldest Christian faith, that suggests that is how it was supposed to be.

[sweetheart]

3. contrasted to the native desert peoples like the hopi

I find the deserts to be incredibily spiritual places of rich
life and beauty. As well, the native peoples who are "from" those
deserts are bountiful, funny and profound, hardly this monotheistic
trailer trash.

I appreciate the article's economic theory, but i think they should
just leave the desert out of it. Most of that sort of thinking is
coming from the midwestern states that are not really deserts but
irrigated praries. Imperial valley desert, and San Joaquin desert
farming have proven an ugly endeavour, salt problems and what not
in the soil.

Similarly then, people living in concrete cities with no hint of
natural land around anymore, like los angeles, come to know a
harsh god in heavy traffic on the 405 at rush hour. I could spin
the same topic a million ways as a writer to come to the same
conclusions.

Just that the native desert peoples, uncorrupted, are peaceful and
in harmony with the earth. This, common with land peoples the world
over, who have not been wiped out by the flag-cult zealots.

[Desertrose]

4. hey scarletwoman....

:hi: :hug: how ya doing? been awhile!!

quite an interesting article...thanks!

Come visit the new group Astrology, Spitiualty & Alternative healing when you get the chance

nice to see ya:loveya:
DR