Beware the Patronage of Unbelievers

Carl Truman has some fitting comments and a link to the only British rag I read: The Spectator. The article Truman links is written by an agnostic, but he has some good things to say to people of faith. The gist of the article is that the point of religion is - is it true? If it is, all the mushy-feely approaches to civic "religion" for the sake of social normalcy are blinding and foolish. Its worth a read, here.

Lent Begins

Jim Denison has a good article on why Baptists should celebrate Lent. There are three reasons why I observe Lent, and why I urge my Baptist brothers to join me. First, it is a kind of typology - the symbolism of acting out the 40 days of Jesus fasting and the 40 years Israel wandered in the wilderness has didactic value and follows the pedagogy of Scripture. Second, it is good to discipline the body regularly. Finally, it is a great reminder that we are not of this world - and we are going to die.

Worth a Listen

Pagan Roots

Yesterday marked St. Valentines Day (unless, of course, you actually celebrate saints, in which case, Feb. 14th marked the Feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Apostles to the Slavs), and with it came a torrent of abuse from various fundamentalists on the evil pagan roots of Valentine's Day. My own personal contribution to the commodification and commoditization of love consisted in buying my love a dozen red roses (for which I payed through the nose - one wonders if the Medicis or perhaps DeBeers owns the roses industry, but I digress).

However fascinating this conversation is in terms of intellectual suicide, the "pagan roots" patina has been liberally slathered all over traditionally Christian celebrations, from Christmas and Easter to Lent and even Sunday (and all the other days of the week, seeing as how they are named after pagan deities). Perhaps the only truly Christian tradition we can lay claim to is triskaidekaphobia, as the Knights Templar were burned at the stake by a Christian king on October 13, 1307. The pagans get St. Valentine; we get Jason Voorhees.

But all humor aside, there is a fundamental flaw in the "pagan roots" argument. This flaw lies in the presumed gap between individual and culture. You see, holidays (holy days) do not spring whole and living from the forehead of Zeus, but rather emerge from the surrounding culture as different ideas coalesce into meaningful forms. We cannot ever be separated from our context and, well, roots. Humans are social creatures. We have history books. We recognize the story of life. But sometimes, when the desire to score rhetorical points supplants the desire for intellectual integrity and virtue, we lay aside this inalienable fact and pretend that we have the power of self inventive prerogative. To our great detriment, I might add.

The "pagan roots" argument presumes that pagans came first - but Christians have never believed this. In the beginning God. And shortly thereafter, Cain, and since then there has been a continuous struggle between culture making and death. We bring all this baggage with us. We share the collective post-traumatic stress of a specie suddenly thrust out of paradise and into a blood-soaked wilderness, one that was shortly consumed in a great flood of waters and death. We are hiding behind all the fig leaves our grubby hands can paw together at a moments notice. We drown out God's footsteps in the garden with the noisy destruction of our habitat; there are never enough leaves.

For this reason, our endeavors are always a curious mix of pagan death-making and righteous life-seeking. I type on a computer, courtesy of Boem and Jacopini and Turing and Babbitt and a host of others...pagans and Christians and modernists and hedonists and desperately confused. I wear modest clothing - manufactured by labor that I would rather remain ignorant of and labelled by those who blatantly champion pagan ideas against the laws of our supreme God.

Can we separate ourselves from the pagan? If we change the names of the weekdays, eschew Valentines day, and reject Christmas, can we purify ourselves? With all the gentleness I can muster: don't be silly. Pagan is not outside of us threatening to come in. It is within us, threatening to get out. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. These defile a man.