Oh, boy. So, for the most part, the visit went exactly as one might have expected. We had a pretty good time playing basketball. We ate & imbibed (though only a single drink each, per night). We watched a Mystery Science Theater episode Friday night; and Saturday, in one of the all time promising acts of compromise, watched a Woody Allen movie staring Will Ferrell.
But, unplanned by either of us, a topic (THE topic) emerged-originally just in passing-that would grind the weekend to a near-complete halt. I will attempt to recreate the discussion, which began in the video rental store:
me: You ever watch horror movies...
him: That depends.
me: On what?
him: On whether it's based on Evil.
(pause on topic, until we get outside-me, with my own sense of "horror" creeping up)
me: What, like, Satanic influence?
him: Yup.
(pause, while I consider how to diplomatically put my next statement)
me: Let me see if I get this straight...Is it your belief that the Devil is alive and well, and actively involved in pulling strings and trying influence Man on a daily basis?
him: Yes, I'm a Christian.
me: Yeah, but not all Christians see it quite like that.
him: Yeah, they do. The real ones do.
(pause...no good can come of this discussion going any further, I realize)
me: But surely you realize that there's lots of clergy & scholars and so on, who don't see things quite so literally. A lot of Biblical study is about interpreting the various conflicting messages & so on and trying make sense of it all. I mean there's the whole thing about how, if we took everything literally, we couldn't eat pork...
him: Ok, stop. Just stop. That's blasphemy.
me: OK, wait...hold on. Not trying to cause trouble here, I'm just trying to understand. What about Bible study? Isn't that about figuring out what the Bible is trying to say?
him: No, the Bible is very clear on what it says.
me: What? Then what's Bible study all about?
him: How to be more Godlike.
OK. There are not words in this language or any other to convey the extent to which this blows my mind. Keep in mind, we're talking about a man who quite freely admits he's never, in his life, read a book for personal reasons. I'm pretty sure he has not cracked open The Good Book outside of an actual Church Service or put much thought or effort into any of this any time along the way. So...consider: It's one thing to be zealous when you read scripture and get the wrong idea. But it's an entire other thing to be zelous based on some general idea of what you assume the Bible probably says.
Good Fucking Grief! At another point during the weekend he made it known that he & his wife were severing their relationship with another couple who had seen, then discussed, the DaVinci Code movie while driving my nephew home from seeing a different show. More resolute, confident lessons in family values from a man whose pre-teen kids can quote the latest Adam Sandler sex-joke-filled movie from beginning to end, and play violent Playstation 2 games from dawn till dusk. Again, mind blowing.
This is all from a guy of privelege in America who may well be not mentally retarded. What hope do we have for the future in a world where 90% of the people don't have the same kind of time & resources to sort it out on religion, and a lot more reason to turn their crazy ideas into hate?
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- Dan
- Father, musician, trail runner, reader, geographer, craft beer aficionado, meditator.
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17 comments:
Your brother isn't aware of your blog, is he?
It's a chance I'll have to take. I made the decision some time ago, not to do name-dropping with people who don't ask to have their names published up here. In this instance, it was a subject (especially following my intro to the weekend) that could simply not be ignored.
Anyway, I avoided using his name.
Holy crap, and I mean that in its most literal sense.
Blasphemy? Saying the Bible says 'don't eat pork' is blasphemy? Wow. That's not even one of the weirder ones.
Next time ask him whether Eve was made from Adam's rib, or essentially made from the clay just as Adam was. They're both in Genesis, one right after the other. I pointed this out to a very Christian friend of mine, one who quotes scripture occasionally and he said, 'it does?'.
Damn Andy!
Not sure if I'll have the opportunity to see your brother again, but if I do, it'll be very hard not to taunt him.
Fess up.
You avoided using his name because writing it out is a curse in an of itself, one that sets into motion a sequence of world changing events whose end result no one can forsee.
Not even Agnes Nutter.
He's a nutter, all right.
It was as I had most feared, and then some. It's quite disheartening.
Of course, the Da Vinci Code has already paved that way for us.
What's ironic about your brother's objection to the Da Vinci code is that he'd never have blinked at this potboiler from 2003 if it hadn't sold so may copies. Novels that include flat-out fantasy (if not an undertone of magical realism) are so prevelant, who has the time to bleep them all from a child's eyes and ears?
Let me throw in that my relationship with my brother is also cordial at best. I think there's a mutual agreement with both parties that we don't resemble the chummy "best buds" other brothers appear to be. I'd hoped for something different, but there it is.
It's a remarkable abdication of a trait that you need in pretty much every aspect of your life, namely the need to question.
Luckily for the rest of us such blind fealty isn't quite so common or else we'd be sitting in caves making sharp rocks. And of course at that point Jesus hadn't been discovered yet. What was God thinking? Definitely building into a rant.
We talked,Dan and I that is, so I won't add much, just that - wow! what a conversation, and like so many CC for C - impossible to break the deafness of the cult.
Believe what you want, except for absolutes, that's what I say.
Skeptical of everything, dismissing nothing. That's what I say.
Stephen: Interesting to hear what you say about you & your brother. Now I don't feel so alone.
It's a tepid relationship (my brother's and mine) that has been cultivated over the years. I see the natural rapport of other brothers, and I've always thought, how'd they do that? I think we've been on different planes of philisophical or social construct. Example: He fought to obtain a Country Club membership and attends proudly. I dislike golf and country club (elitisism) by extension. That sort of thing.
I hear you, "brother."
I've actually got the whole sort of dilemma going, throughout my family. There's basically a lot of sitting around wtih a benign expression on my face at family get-togethers. Part of the weird part is-nobody seems to care that I reveal very little about what's really going on in my life. Not sure if all their other relationships are so empty, or if they are trying to avoid what are surely some unpleasantries, should they be revealed, in how I view the world.
They know that curiosity can only lead to trouble. If your life was like theirs, asking questions would yield answers that they're prepared to deal with. Outside those simple confines is the danger zone.
You are the 'highway to the danger zone' beeeeuuuuuuuuuwwwwwww
Either that or they think you're a dick.
I think he's a dick, but I still converse with him...
Now it all makes sense, you pussy.
See what I mean?
I am sad to hear of this weekend and the lost opportunity to bond because of religion views. Dan you are great for trying to plant that small relationship seed with your brother. Keep trying to plant it and nurish it so that one day it may grow.
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