The Pagan Agenda

This post is an experiment -- and a risky one.  As some of you know, I take sleeping pills (among others) as part of my medical treatment.  Usually these knock me out for the entire night, but occasionally my mind races and I get up in the night and do odd things, some of which I remember.  Last night, I got up and recorded a long ramble about the thinking I've been doing on religion and values, subsequent to the election. 

As you will see/ hear, I've been thinking about these issues a great deal, questioning my own values and beliefs.  This has brought me to the conclusion that, I'll be damned (at least many people will think so) -- I'm a pagan. 

So here is the recording.  I've transcribed it below, eliminating the umm's but otherwise staying fairly close to the original.

For weeks now, I've been reading about religion and values.  I understand that Reverend Dobson Bob Jones III wrote a letter to the President, encouraging him to follow the direction of his evangelical followers, and stating further that it was essential to stop the pagan agenda.

[Note:  I have tried to find this letter on the internet, without luck -- though I remember reading it.  Do I have the wrong writer?  If anyone can provide a link, I'd appreciate it.]

Now my first response to this pagan agenda was that once again I had been left off of the memo list, although I have never really claimed that title [pagan] for myself.  But further exploration taught me a great deal.

Reading some of the evangelical literature, I come to see that they and I do in fact have extremely different --- cavernously different -- ideas about the universe, and my place in it.  The first difference, perhaps, being that I am not sure that I think they have a right to decide what my place is in the universe.

In any case, one of the most significant things that I noticed was our different conceptions of animals, and  this, of course, is part of the whole struggle around evolution.  I always understood that the fundamentalists believed that, indeed, the entire world had been made in seven days, and that science -- scientific proofs to the otherwise were irrelevant to that belief.  And I thought that was the core issue for the evolution argument; that evolution had to be wrong because it hadn't been accomplished in seven days.

But then I came to realize that there is another critical issue -- that being whether I, a human being, a homo sapien, am in fact an animal.  Everything in my experience, my experience of the world, my experience being in the world, my experience in my own body, tells me that I am an animal; and everything in science, in evolutionary biology, in biology, in human biology, tells me that I am an animal.

But this belief, this conviction, based on evidence or not, is clearly a blow to the evangelical, fundamentalist view of the world, which sees human beings as most especially not animals; that human beings are not even an animal set apart, or an animal set above, but simply and absolutely not an animal, and that to believe otherwise is blasphemous, and rebellious, and perhaps, even, evil.

So that was one shock in my reading.

I had always understood, or have for some time, anyway, that the fundamentalist Christians  believe that the only way -- they believe  that there is a heaven and a hell, and that the only way to get to heaven is to accept Jesus Christ as your savior, and that this is a very -- it's not metaphorical for them in any way -- it's a very specific requirement to enter heaven, and apparently the only one.   Behavior in life seems to be beside the point, as long as you accept Jesus Christ as your savior.

I've always known that I wasn't a Christian, even as a child, and even being raised by a beloved, kind, loving, Christian, grandmother.  It just didn't make sense to me.  I seem to be one of those who requires a certain logic and rationality in the world around me, or at least in my ability to understand the world around me.

Most of my reading about religion and faith has been about Buddhism.  I've read hundreds of books about Buddhism. I do not claim to be a Buddhist, because I recognize that Buddhism is a practice, not an idea, not a fantasy about how things work, but is a day- to- day,  moment- to- moment practice that I have not engaged in, at least not above the moment- to- moment for brief periods level.  So I can't claim that for myself, although many of the points of view that some Buddhists believe resonate with me very strongly.

In spending time on the Internet and looking for this amorphous pagan agenda, I actually found one.   It was by a writer that I recognize, Starhawk.  It was written in the mid-nineties as I recall, I don't have it in front of me at the moment.  Everything that they speak of in this agenda, this five-point agenda, are things that I agree with.

The values of family and diversity.  The value of the earth that sustains us.  The recognition and the valuing of the other animals.  The recognition that we are ourselves other animals.  The recognition of the whole, and the interconnections among us all.

Somehow I had always thought that paganism was animism or idol worship, or whatever, and it's clear that from the Christian point of view that it is idolatry --  it's idolatry to love the universe, instead of god; it's idolatry to not separate them out.  It's not acceptable to see the sacred, the divine, in a hummingbird, or a mountain, or a pet cat, or each other because that's -- blasphemous.

Only god is god, and the rest is, I don't know, a playground? a research laboratory? I really am not clear on that point .

But I am drugged, and I'm tired, and I'm probably not making a lot of sense; so I think I will turn this off now. 

***************************************************************************

UPDATE:  Jennifer (who has two blogs, both of which I read daily) tells me via email that I misremembered -- it was Bob Jones III who wrote the letter to the President.  She sent me a copy of the letter, which was previously at the URL http://www.bju.edu/letter but has been removed.  I have put the letter in the comments to this post.  Thanks, Jennifer.

ADDED 29 November 02004:  Another view, via allied -- I am a Christian, too

Comments

[Cindy]

maybe you're Tlingit!

http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/Values/tlingit.html

[SB]

This was previously at the URL http://www.bju.edu/letter but has been removed.

Congratulatory letter to President George W. Bush from Dr. Bob Jones III
November 3, 2004

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

The media tells us that you have received the largest number of popular
votes of any president in America's history. Congratulations!

In your re-election, God has graciously granted America ­though she doesn't
deserve its reprieve from the agenda of paganism. You have been given a
mandate. We the people expect your voice to be like the clear and certain
sound of a trumpet. Because you seek the Lord daily, we who know the Lord
will follow that kind of voice eagerly.

Don't equivocate. Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You
owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your
Christ. Honor the Lord, and He will honor you.

Had your opponent won, I would have still given thanks, because the Bible
says I must (I Thessalonians 5:18). It would have been hard, but because
the Lord lifts up whom He will and pulls down whom He will, I would have
done it. It is easy to rejoice today, because Christ has allowed you to be
His servant in this nation for another presidential term. Undoubtedly, you
will have opportunity to appoint many conservative judges and exercise
forceful leadership with the Congress in passing legislation that is
defined by biblical norm regarding the family, sexuality, sanctity of life,
religious freedom, freedom of speech, and limited government. You have four years ­a brief time only ­to leave an imprint for righteousness upon this
nation that brings with it the blessings of Almighty God.

Christ said, “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there
shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my father honour”
(John 12:26).

The student body, faculty, and staff at Bob Jones University commit
ourselves to pray for you ­that you would do right and honor the Savior.
Pull out all the stops and make a difference. If you have weaklings around
you who do not share your biblical values, shed yourself of them.
Conservative Americans would love to see one president who doesn't care
whether he is liked, but cares infinitely that he does right.

Best wishes.

Sincerely your friend,

Bob Jones III
President

BJIII:lw

PS: A few moments ago I read this letter to the students in Chapel. They
applauded loudly their approval.

When I told them that Tom Daschle was no longer the minority leader of the
Senate, they cheered again.

On occasion, Christians have not agreed with things you said during your
first term. Nonetheless, we could not be more thankful that God has given
you four more years to serve Him in the White House, never taking off your
Christian faith and laying it aside as a man takes off a jacket, but
living, speaking, and making decisions as one who knows the Bible to be
eternally true.

[Ken]

In his book, "The Story of B" Daniel Quinn, best known for "Ishmael," writes a brilliant description of animism. Actually, one of this things that amazes me about his description is that is fits so well within the Sermon on the Mount:

"Consider the lillies of the field and the birds of the air, if G-d cares for these, why would He no care for you" -- or words to that effect.

I suspect that any "true" relgion would have to recognize that G-d is present in all creation. When we consider the richness and beauty that is evident in creation, then G-d must reveill in all of life and the interconnectedness of life. Actually, though raised up as a protestant, I suspect that we got it wrong! The Catholics, in history, thought perhaps not currently, have a richer view of creation.

As to the fundemantialists, they are the least Christian of all of those claiming to speak for the Christ, the Prince of Peace. And, the least theological aware.

Peace to you!

[Kate S.]

Thank you for posting that letter in its entirety. I also could not find it anywhere, only in snippets, taken out of context. This letter, unfortunately for them, completely outlines the whole hidden agenda for a Righteous New America. Hopefully it will not go unnoticed that the strong statements made within that missive tip their hand to the kind of real religious persecution to which we are all about to succumb, giving the freedom fighters a chance to organize their position papers, begin making coherent arguments before a clearly lop-sided court, in our defence.

If a love and appreciation for all things, a deeply abiding respect for all creatures and the universe we find ourselves a part of -- is to become the thought of the enemy, then sign me up. Those (self)Righteous spouters are the most hypocritical Erroneous hippos who don't respect anybody ... so how can I respect them?