Dave | unobtrusive lucidity

Fantasizing

This has been percolating in my head for a little while, and some of the more conservative members of our family have made it an issue lately. Karen recently decided that, having never read the Harry Potter series but having seen the movies, that she wanted to read what everyone is talking about. She discovered everything I’ve ever heard about the books to be true: they are beautifully written, and Rowling is gifted at her craft.

Being a fantasy lover, Karen moved on to other modern fantasy greats, such as the Seeker series (good movie, but I understand they took painful liberties with the novel, as Hollywood is wont to do). Fantasy, is, after all, one of the great genres of literature. I admit I don’t read much in the lines of fantasy (the last true fantasy I read, I think, was the Dragon Riders of Pern series…did I just date myself?), being more of a sc-fi fan, but I think I may be in the mood to read some soon.

The problem? Well, apparently, the problem is that we’re Believers, and Believers shouldn’t do that fantasy stuff.

Or at least that’s what we hear a lot. The aforementioned conservative factions of our family are very much up in arms about how Harry Potter is horribly evil because it contains witches and magic. Yet, most Believers love Tolkien‘s and Lewis‘ work, both of which frequently contain magic. A double standard, perhaps? If so, it is one born of ignorance. Somehow it is okay for The Chronicles of Narnia to use magic as a literary device to communicate Christ’s story, or even for the Lord of the Rings to communicate the epic struggle between good and evil. But magic in the sense of witches? Apparently that crosses some invisible Christian line (even though the final book of the Potter series has some amazing metaphors for our faith, as I understand it).

Modern religion seems to consistently rob us of the beauty of artistic expression, which, if left well enough alone, would only grow our faith. What’s worse, it typically is began by some hyper-conservative, uneducated fundamentalist somewhere who decided something was wrong for some bizarre and obscure reason, and made a video or wrote a book about it because they knew it would sell to Christian pop culture. Once again, “Christian bookstores” contribute to our illiterate society.

Here’s my issue: if you have read this stuff and don’t like it, fine. If you can contribute an educated perspective on it, then by all means, open dialogue about it. Everyone could grow from that. But don’t go around thumping some podium somewhere preaching that some series of books or movies are evil because they utilize magic as a literary device, or aren’t specifically about God. Jeffery Overstreet, on a recent episode of The Kindlings Muse, said that he wasn’t allowed to watch Star Wars as a child because his parents felt that Yoda was a Buddhist and that he might convert from Christianity to Buddhism if he watched it. I don’t think anyone ever did that…or began practicing witchcraft because they watched or read Harry Potter. My favorite is when Believers decry movies or books because the author is (if there really is such a thing) and atheist.

Wasn’t Lewis a proclaimed atheist when he wrote Narnia?

Perhaps all truth really is God’s truth. We might see that better if we would just get ourselves out of the way, look past our precious Evangelical culture (which is remarkably un-cultured), and just enjoy the story.

Missing the Basics

When I read about hatred like this, it is no wonder to me that Believers have a bad name.

Regardless of your feelings on the issue, Scripture teaches love, never hate. If you find yourself disagreeing with a lifestyle choice, then disagree, but articulate why you disagree. Discuss it. Seek to understand, then to be understood. But we must never, never hate.

What’s more, we cannot confuse the people with the action. Every person has priceless value, because we are created in His image. We can all find things that someone else does that we see as bad, but that doesn’t mean that the person is bad. What we do is not who we are. The father of this family, I imagine, wants nothing to do with God, because he’s been presented with an image of God that is a hateful bigot. Nothing could be further from the truth.

If Believers are to be intolerant of something, then let us be intolerant of hate. And let’s do so before we all have to answer for the bigotry of a few.

Be Afraid…Very Afraid

I’m an American. I like being an American. I’m even (though I actively attempt to avoid cliches) proud to be. As an American, I believe passionately that one should never be afraid of their government. And that, for all of my patriotism, is where I become disillusioned.

As we approach an important election, I’m sick of the fact that I must assume a politician is lying every time his/her mouth opens. I’m sick of the fact that one’s primacy in a given political party is gauged by how much money they have raised instead of the issues upon which they stand (once again, the grand experiment of capitalism has failed). I’m sick of politicians forgetting that their job is one of public service (meaning they should be paid the same as other public servants…say, the equivalent of a teacher or police officer, perhaps…that would weed out those who are there to serve instead of become wealthy). But moreover, I’ve grown to be afraid of the antisocial bullies that are currently lording their power over us in the Bush administration, robbing us of freedoms while simultaneously pursuing their personal vendettas against other nations.

I’m afraid because that is the reason we have no clue as to the whereabouts of Bin Laden. I’m more afraid because it was the beginning of the Iraqi smokescreen that caused America to forget about Bin Laden in the first place, focusing (by force of media manipulation) instead upon Hussein.

A couple of days ago I stumbled onto this interesting article about the U.S. perspective (and, some would say, vendetta) against Iran. While I disagree with some of the political perspective (I shudder at the thought of our ever failing to support Israel), this is not the first time political commentators have flown the flag of caution about Bush’s burning desire to start a war with Iran.

I’ll shut up so you can read it. It is compelling.

And conducive of fear.

Nearly as great as the fear of America’s complacency and comfort causing us to let the warnings fall upon deaf ears.

Life Minus Feeling Squared

Karen and I were watching Numb3rs a few nights ago. We don’t do much television: most of it is incredibly mediocre, and inspires no thought whatsoever. For some reason, though, this show always gets my curiosity flowing, even though there isn’t much original to it after you get past the premise.

See, I’m the guy who had horrible grades in math. I begged for passing grades in high school, and successfully avoided it through college and grad school. If it weren’t for Quicken, I couldn’t balance my checkbook. I cringe at people who use mathematical formulae to express the human condition. It’s blasphemous and insulting to me, because I don’t think the human soul can be reduced to numerical values. For that matter, I barely believe that the actions we take can be. So, since we’re both thinkers, that led Karen and I to a debate: did we create numbers and math, or did God?

I think mathematics is our invention, an attempt to measure the things in the universe. When I have occasion to hear someone discussing math, though…especially higher math (who came up with the idea of mixing numbers and letters, anyway?)…I find it laughable that there are all these rules and laws which are “inviolable.” Sort of reminds me of the excuse for a legal system we’ve created.

I read Tillich’s definition of idolatry today, coincidentally, and I can’t help but think that we’ve idolized math, turned what we’ve created into something it isn’t and can’t be. That explains why so many in our culture are deprived of being well-read or artistically well-rounded, and are trapped in a confining linear thought process. As we’ve industrialized our culture, we’ve emphasized math and science, and all but ignored the humanities, the arts, literature, and faith. Life for our students is about the objective, and the subjective is minimalized.

And when I look around during my average day, I can’t help but to see the results.

What do you think?

How Could He?

I overheard a question this week; well, I suppose it was more of a statement, really. In any case, it went something like this:

“I don’t believe in God. If there was a God, why would He let us live like this?”

As usual, things that I see and hear tend to meld together with other things I’ve seen and heard. I say that because I also read a quote this week; I can’t remember it exactly (or find it with a cursory internet search), but it spoke to the effect of our being our brother’s brother, and that what effects one of us directly effects the rest of us indirectly.

One seemed to be the answer to the other to me. I think the reason that God would allow us to live like this is because we choose to live like this. The artist understands perhaps better than anyone else the creative impulse of our freedom to choose, freedom to move in the direction we choose, freedom to do and say what we want. I suppose that any parent (I’m not one, so I can’t relate, but I’m guessing) can understand all too well the pain of raising a child in the best wisdom and values they can, knowing that the child has the freedom ultimately to make poor decisions as an adult, and to see them make those feared poor decisions years later. I think it is like that with God: He designed us with the bittersweet creative knowledge that we were endowed with the same freedom that He is; that we can choose to see Him or remain blind to Him, to accept Him or to trick ourselves into believing that He is a product of our imaginations, to follow Him or say “no, thanks.”

Unrequited love is the most painful. We are all vulnerable to it, because when you love someone, there’s never a guarantee that they will love you back. Worse, one’s decision to hate instead of love has a “butterfly” effect. Our decisions do not, cannot, exist in a vacuum; they have repercussions, good or bad, for both ourselves and others. So we can’t control others’ actions any more than we can make them love us. And, often, if we do love someone, it leads us to not control their actions. I think both apply to that ultimate question.

He won’t force us to love Him back.

That’s why He can allow us to live like this.

I’m wondering how it is that we can continue to do so?