But doesn't God live at CHURCH?

I've been reading Carl Jung's essay "Achetypes of the Collective Unconscious," which has got me thinking: do we keep the "Divine" in church (where it can be properly revered, censed and what have you) or do we welcome it in to the rest of our lives (where it can see that we pick our nose and how long it takes us to go to the bathroom)? The question is simply to we pray best when in front of the altar or while on the throne?

I don't really know. I struggle with both, actually. But maybe because I grew up Protestant, it is easier for me to see my failure to comply with bringing God everywhere than with properly observing his divinity while at church (again, though, not great at either).

Why the point about being a Protestant? We were the image breakers, after all, the iconoclasts, who would have no mere objects of wood, dye or metal to which we would bow or pray. Instead, we'd rather go to church all the time. Two times on Sunday, then small-groups on Monday, Bible study on Wednesday, revival Friday night (at which you re-dedicate your life) and Saturday drama practice or Men's Group. You think I'm joking? I am not.

Instead of integrating our faith into the rest of our life, we simply made faith (and a very particularized expression of it) into our lives.

I recall a neighbor who lived on the first floor of the apartment I rented while in college. Every time I left out the side door, I would go past her front door and could hear her singing loudly to praise music that was coming (loudly) from the radio or TV. Then, I would find her little boy outside, either bored or hungry, and usually just hanging around on the stoop.

OK, extreme example. But it seemed to me that she wanted to be in church so bad that she neglected all else.

I've never been like that. I'll leave church all pumped up, excited to read some more of the Bible, which I started doing either because of the sermon or despite it. I'll get home, have lunch, yell at the kids, play with the kids, do some work, clean up my office, and that unstruck iron of my religious fervor is cold to the touch. It is replaced by a sense of guilt that hangs around and gets progressively stronger until it, like a turkey timer, is about to pop on Sunday morning (We have GOT to go to church "for the kids' sake"). By the time the sermon is over, my guilt has been replaced by zeal. I'm on fire again. And so it goes.

Still, I never wanted to be one of those people that said "Praise the Lord" instead of "that's great" upon hearing about the Bears going into the SuperBowl or that Whole Foods had that feta we liked in stock. It also sounded a little fakey, a little too churched for my taste.

But who am I? No one's making me say things. Yes, but I felt bad not saying that as well.

Or "Good luck?" What a can of worms. See, Christians don't believe in luck because all things are ordained by God, not by chance. So, don't ever say "good luck" to someone, say "God bless you," just like George Bush: "God Bless America." And, you can't be lucky or unlucky for the same reason. So . . . we are blessed to have enough money for Thai tonight or we are not blessed and so must put it on the credit card. That doesn't really fit with orthodoxy, either. You see the dilemma.

more on this . . .

Conspiracy of Christianity (part 1)

In the freshly minted earth (imagine steam or mist rising off it as it cools or heats up in the predawn light), God says "Let us make man in our image," the first conspiracy.

We could say that the act of creating the Earth itself is a kind of conspiracy, but consider the root: "conspirare, 'to breath together,' and so 'to combine or unit in some purpose.'" Another meaning used today is "to plot in secret," even as one person.

Still, if God's first conspiracy was to create Man, then conspiracies in themselves are not all bad. Indeed, the way Christians see it, God's own conspiracies, usually involving people of faith, thwart the evil intent of those plotted by Satan. It is a great war between foes with humans as the co-conspirators.

Granted, not all Christians see themselves in this way, but in 2004 I was made aware that a rumor on the Christian internet (a part of the Web with bible quotes cross-stitched and hanging on the walls) that Barack Obama may be the anti-Christ. If he was conspiring to take over government and lead this country into Satan's open arms, plunging the world into Armeggedon, then Christians were going to do something about it. (Of course, given the predominate interpretation Revelation by evangelical Christians, we should have welcomed the anti-Christ, as that would have put the Rapture on the fast-track, right?)

In fact, some folks see satan in every whisp of smoke just as others see angels in every cloud break. But if we stick to the "conspiracy as planning together" model, that doesn't necessarily mean that they are participants in a conspiracy. But you can bet that they think themselves the victims of one.

It is not unlike Thomas Friedman's analysis of the Arab world from The World is Flat: "They have been raised to believe that Islam is the perfect and cmplete expression of God's monthestic mesaage and that the Prophet Muhammed is God's last and most perfect messenger." But "[they] can and do look around and see that the Arab-Muslim world, in too many cases, has fallen behind the rest of the planet."

The reason: conspiracy, one in which the West is trying to keep down the Muslims. So al-Qaeda and its revolutionary kin flourish and conspire to take down the West.

Here in the West, we have our own disaffected groups, namely the working class. More than any other group, they have been the grassroots of the religious right's power, even if some of the green has come from business interests. The working class tends to be more religious and to see their religion has affecting their material circumstance. How do I know this? Well, I've lived it, and continue to live it, so I suppose it's personal and anecdotal, but I'm sure that the folks at the Pew Research Center would probably back me up on this.

The working class in the West has seen its real wages fall over three decades. And we wonder why Christians feel left out of mainstream? Just like those jaded Arab youths who see the West corrupting and controlling the world and flaunting it with the likes of Madonna and Bush, the Christian working class have watched their own power contract while culture goes to hell all around them. It must be some kind of conspiracy. That's the only explanation. God wouldn't let this happen, right?

Christians have consiracy written into their spiritual DNA. It's impossible to extract without killing the subject. But it may not be a bad thing. It helps us see meaning where it may not be apparent. It may provide a filter through which to understand the overload of information coming in from all quarters. It may provide us with a place to stand "as ignorant armies clash by night." But it is exploitable. That's a weakness. And it has been used against us.

Like some Muslims and the caliphate, certain Christians are driven to act in an almost pavlovian response to the description of the US as a "Christian nation." Is there something in the Bible I missed? The only nation with which I remember God having a relationship was Israel, to whom he had made promises, covenants that are referred to specifically in the Bible.

Still, there is nothing inherently wrong with wanting a nation whose leaders and people are dedicated to God's purposes. What is wrong is that we think we can get there by making gay marriage illegal, setting up a monument to the ten commandments or bringing prayer to schools. In these ways, and so many others, Christians have conspired to influence government, and, by extension, the people governed, in order to bring about a more perfect union with God.

Remember "the gay agenda?" As a kid, I heard the reason they try to convert straight people is that they can't breed. CONSPIRACY. And now they want to adopt, so that they can start inculcating them with "gayness" as children? CONSPIRACY. And who will fight our war in the Middle-East if every good-looking boy in America fails the don't ask-don't tell test? OK, sorry. Little over the top there, but you get the picture.

Christians feel that they have somehow been conspired against and are looking for people with whom to conspire in their own favor. It's quite natural, quite human, but probably less Godly than we'd like to think ourselves. It is more about retribution than compassion, more revenge than righteousness.

From the realpolitik, it is hurting us. We often act against our own interests, just because it will get a little of our dignity back. Consider working class people and their falling in with the GOP, often against their own economic interests.

(I know that there's more on this in me, but I'm not sure where yet. I'll get back to you on this.)