Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Better Homes and Heresies
For those of us who like to think we have at least one foot in the door when it comes to Christianity, we are haunted constantly by a few specters. These superstitions and paradoxes haunt us, and we have to choose whether or not to pay attention to them, or to suppress them in some manner. For non-Christians, these items serve as an interesting slice of anthropology from an already interesting people group (the religious).
One of these things I wonder about the most is what constitutes heresy. I mean, what sort of things can we think, say, read, repeat, and laugh at without offending God in some deep, meaningful way. You may be surprised that I care, but I do. If there is a personal God, than understanding heresy is key to staying in favor with Him, right?
Heresy is deeply tied to two other notions; using God’s name in vain and blasphemy. They are equally as hard to define to a satisfactory extent. I mean, is using God’s name in vain just saying “Jesus Christ!” in frustration or anger, or is it something more, like invoking his name for a worthless or frivolous cause. Or, is it as the early believers thought… that Yahweh doesn’t even want his name said at all (they went so far as to never say Jehovah or Yahweh out loud, and when it was written, they would remove letters, ala YHWH).
Blasphemy is also a scary idea to mess around with because we are taught in the New Testament that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the only unforgivable sin. Whatever blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is. Many say that it is the willful living in contempt of Christ and the Kingdom. But that isn’t explicitly spelled out anywhere.
The reason these specters haunt me is because I have a pretty liberal and edgy sense of humor. I also am not easily offended by many things. So I often wonder, is that a measure of how far I am from God, or is it a personality quirk? Should I wonder so much about being me if there is a God who made me “me” after all (a homosexual man could ask the same question)? Or is it a burden I have been given to try to overcome (again, a homosexual man…)? It’s all a lot to think about when I am supposed to be learning about what ions cross membranes in the renal system, and the difference between neoplasia and hyperplasia.
One of my favorite jokes of all time was a “bit” done by John Leguizamo on Conan O’Brien years ago. He was talking about an eccentric uncle he has. He said he was a triple threat; a Mexican, deaf, and gay. One of the things his uncle used to say was “I know things even God doesn’t know.” I thought this was hilarious because the notion of it was so absurd.
I mean, if you believed in God, there is no way you could be so brash to claim you know more than him. So you joke about it right? Its like me saying I could dunk on Shaq, or that I could knock-out Oscar De La Hoya, or I could out run, well, anyone! I mean, you know God is all knowing, and so you make an outlandish claim to make people realize that you are bragging. After all, bragging about believable exploits is lying. The problem is, I knew a couple people at my Bible college who were offended when he said this. We were all watching Conan and two of the guys got mad.
They said that what the comedian had said was heresy. I guess in some strict, medieval way it was, but in all practical, modern ways, it was a joke. I was not in the least offended by it, and to this day it remains one of my favorite comedy bits ever. Could God, if He is up there, find offense at someone saying this in jest?
Remember the furor over the Beatles and the whole “bigger than Jesus” comment being taken out of context? Because of this, towns in modern America demanded its Christian faithful to have anything with the Fab Four on it burnt. They held bonfires. And this was in the 60’s! Not the 20’s or 1800’s. Your mom was old enough to burn her Beatles shoes and 45’s because they offended the most high. Sort of a scary picture to paint of hair-trigger Christianity in America. But then again we are currently doing the same to Spongebob, but that is a topic for my brother to run with (see link to the right, under “Troy Ounce”).
Heresy to me is something much greater than outrageous claims, but it does seem hard to define. I was interested from that point on in what exactly heresy is. When Trent Reznor, media darling of the day and target for Christian fundamentalists released the song “Heresy” in the late 90’s, I thought for sure his atheistic, nihilistic self would have some insight into the definition…
“he sewed his eyes shut because he is afraid to seehe tries to tell me what I put inside of mehe’s got the answers to ease my curiosityhe dreamed a god up and called it ChristianityGod is dead and no one caresif there is a hell I'll see you there”
Okay, enough to elicit an eyebrow lift, but nothing heretical. All Trent managed to do was wrap up all of the frustration and age-old attacks against Christianity in one verse. The only heresy here is that he says that Christianity and its God were dreamed up… but as I have mentioned before, there isn’t empirical evidence that this is not so, and there never will be. So believers require faith, and if Trent and people who think like him do not experience this faith, then they/we will think the same thing. Besides, Trent even nods to the punishment Christians will no doubt assume he will get for his views.
(I actually used to think that Trent said “He’s got more answers than he has curiosity” and I thought that line alone summed up the major flaw in many religious folks, but I digress.)
So where does that leave me? I kept searching, in classic literature, in some of the literature of the saints, and some of the works of the skeptics and agnostics alike… and I kept building a base to build on, but never a definition of heresy and its cousins. However, I am here to blog to you today that I have a good example of heresy in action…
Watch Desperate Housewives. Okay, are you done laughing? I am not joking. Let me try it again. Desperate Housewives. In the context of Christianity and all that comes with it, that show is most definitely heretical. Why? Because every action, every character, and every motivation on that show is built on the premise of Godlessness.
I think that it is a very interesting slice of sociology to see how popular that show has become. It takes all of the worst aspects of a soap opera, and pairs them with better production values, sexier actresses, and a better time slot. People tune in to see the women of Wisteria Lane live as if there is no eternal implications for their actions on this world. Pretty heretical by Christian standards. They sleep with who they wish, try to kill people, lie, cheat, covet, and on and on and on. There isn’t even an attempt at drawing a moral from the show, or to introduce a conscious. It is pure guilty pleasure. I mean, the impossibly hot Eva Longorius (I bet I butchered that name!) is even sleeping with a high school kid on the show!
Not that I am the type to lead the charge against a TV show. Just don’t watch it if it bothers you. I personally haven’t the interest to watch it. And I am the last person to be offended by it. Matter of fact, I was more offended by Supernanny Monday night; a woman had no idea that her toddler had left the house as was darting in and out of the street in her neighborhood, and wandered about all alone while cars drove by. Her parenting was offensive to me! But I think Desperate Housewives serves to illustrate, if not define, heresy for me. Hedonism without the slightest nod to a God or moral code.
(And I don’t mean to bash Desperate Housewives here, because I really don’t care. It is the new kid on the block, the new national fad, so it will be a lightning rod of both good and bad press… no offense to the show or ABC. But seriously, it is trashy.)
We saw the same attitude in many things before it, and we’ll see it displayed in things after it. Studio 54 was a great example. In the 70’s it was the center for heresy because it was a place for people to anonymously indulge in absolutely any vice. In the 80’s, it was any number of things. Its anywhere where the “don’t judge me,” “what happens here stays here,” and “you only live once” ideals come into play. If there is a God, and he is the Christian God, then you have to believe that nothing offends Him more than people living like the “I Am” is not. So to me, questioning the validity of the Bible and its God is less heretical than, say, porn.
Now that I have a working definition of heresy, I may have to do some stock taking. How close to that line do I want to toe? Or do I care at all? Hard questions to answer, and what I decide to do with this definition will ultimately speak volumes about Carl.
I do know one thing: I still think that a deaf, gay, Mexican claiming to know more than God is funny.
Oh, and I also know that you were out-heresied by beautiful actresses, Trent. : ) Well, unless we compare Desperate Housewives to that snuff/horror film you made to tie your videos together… that was just sick.
Horns up!
PS – lest my blog seem like what I intended it to be, a site for essays, I will add a late personal touch here. I am happy that my friend Phuong is back home and safe after her trip. Welcome back, now get to work! I can’t imagine trying to pick up after a week off of classes… and I want to tell Cojo to quit being a fat lard and to eat some ham.
102.5 FM KARL was playing these while I blogged and spell checked:
1. Unchained – Van Halen
2. Thorn – Unida
3. Winter – Tori Amos
4. He feels bad – Helmet
5. Automatic Blues – The Cult
6. Bad Dream Mama – Eagles of Death Metal
7. New Tsar and Catapult – Burn Witch Burn
8. You’re Pretty Good Looking for a Girl – White Stripes
9. Christian Brothers – Elliot Smith
10. Slay – McLusky
11. Electioneering – Radiohead
12. Chainsaw - Ramones
13. Valentine and Garuda – Frank Black
14. Your Imagination – Hall and Oates
15. Feels So Good – Jamiroquai
16. Friends of P. – The Rentals
17. The New Face of Zero and One – The New Pornographers
18. Aeris’ Theme – Nobuo Uematsu
19. Perfect Day – Lou Reed
20. Bigmouth Strikes Again – The Smiths
21. Shake Your Rump – Beastie Boys
22. Rocker – AC/DC
23. Easy Skanking – Bob Marley
24. Last Dinosaur – The Pillows
25. Unravel – Bjork
26. Bananas and Blow – Ween
27. Trampled Under Foot – Led Zepplin
28. Freddie’s Dead – Curtis Mayfield
One of these things I wonder about the most is what constitutes heresy. I mean, what sort of things can we think, say, read, repeat, and laugh at without offending God in some deep, meaningful way. You may be surprised that I care, but I do. If there is a personal God, than understanding heresy is key to staying in favor with Him, right?
Heresy is deeply tied to two other notions; using God’s name in vain and blasphemy. They are equally as hard to define to a satisfactory extent. I mean, is using God’s name in vain just saying “Jesus Christ!” in frustration or anger, or is it something more, like invoking his name for a worthless or frivolous cause. Or, is it as the early believers thought… that Yahweh doesn’t even want his name said at all (they went so far as to never say Jehovah or Yahweh out loud, and when it was written, they would remove letters, ala YHWH).
Blasphemy is also a scary idea to mess around with because we are taught in the New Testament that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the only unforgivable sin. Whatever blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is. Many say that it is the willful living in contempt of Christ and the Kingdom. But that isn’t explicitly spelled out anywhere.
The reason these specters haunt me is because I have a pretty liberal and edgy sense of humor. I also am not easily offended by many things. So I often wonder, is that a measure of how far I am from God, or is it a personality quirk? Should I wonder so much about being me if there is a God who made me “me” after all (a homosexual man could ask the same question)? Or is it a burden I have been given to try to overcome (again, a homosexual man…)? It’s all a lot to think about when I am supposed to be learning about what ions cross membranes in the renal system, and the difference between neoplasia and hyperplasia.
One of my favorite jokes of all time was a “bit” done by John Leguizamo on Conan O’Brien years ago. He was talking about an eccentric uncle he has. He said he was a triple threat; a Mexican, deaf, and gay. One of the things his uncle used to say was “I know things even God doesn’t know.” I thought this was hilarious because the notion of it was so absurd.
I mean, if you believed in God, there is no way you could be so brash to claim you know more than him. So you joke about it right? Its like me saying I could dunk on Shaq, or that I could knock-out Oscar De La Hoya, or I could out run, well, anyone! I mean, you know God is all knowing, and so you make an outlandish claim to make people realize that you are bragging. After all, bragging about believable exploits is lying. The problem is, I knew a couple people at my Bible college who were offended when he said this. We were all watching Conan and two of the guys got mad.
They said that what the comedian had said was heresy. I guess in some strict, medieval way it was, but in all practical, modern ways, it was a joke. I was not in the least offended by it, and to this day it remains one of my favorite comedy bits ever. Could God, if He is up there, find offense at someone saying this in jest?
Remember the furor over the Beatles and the whole “bigger than Jesus” comment being taken out of context? Because of this, towns in modern America demanded its Christian faithful to have anything with the Fab Four on it burnt. They held bonfires. And this was in the 60’s! Not the 20’s or 1800’s. Your mom was old enough to burn her Beatles shoes and 45’s because they offended the most high. Sort of a scary picture to paint of hair-trigger Christianity in America. But then again we are currently doing the same to Spongebob, but that is a topic for my brother to run with (see link to the right, under “Troy Ounce”).
Heresy to me is something much greater than outrageous claims, but it does seem hard to define. I was interested from that point on in what exactly heresy is. When Trent Reznor, media darling of the day and target for Christian fundamentalists released the song “Heresy” in the late 90’s, I thought for sure his atheistic, nihilistic self would have some insight into the definition…
“he sewed his eyes shut because he is afraid to seehe tries to tell me what I put inside of mehe’s got the answers to ease my curiosityhe dreamed a god up and called it ChristianityGod is dead and no one caresif there is a hell I'll see you there”
Okay, enough to elicit an eyebrow lift, but nothing heretical. All Trent managed to do was wrap up all of the frustration and age-old attacks against Christianity in one verse. The only heresy here is that he says that Christianity and its God were dreamed up… but as I have mentioned before, there isn’t empirical evidence that this is not so, and there never will be. So believers require faith, and if Trent and people who think like him do not experience this faith, then they/we will think the same thing. Besides, Trent even nods to the punishment Christians will no doubt assume he will get for his views.
(I actually used to think that Trent said “He’s got more answers than he has curiosity” and I thought that line alone summed up the major flaw in many religious folks, but I digress.)
So where does that leave me? I kept searching, in classic literature, in some of the literature of the saints, and some of the works of the skeptics and agnostics alike… and I kept building a base to build on, but never a definition of heresy and its cousins. However, I am here to blog to you today that I have a good example of heresy in action…
Watch Desperate Housewives. Okay, are you done laughing? I am not joking. Let me try it again. Desperate Housewives. In the context of Christianity and all that comes with it, that show is most definitely heretical. Why? Because every action, every character, and every motivation on that show is built on the premise of Godlessness.
I think that it is a very interesting slice of sociology to see how popular that show has become. It takes all of the worst aspects of a soap opera, and pairs them with better production values, sexier actresses, and a better time slot. People tune in to see the women of Wisteria Lane live as if there is no eternal implications for their actions on this world. Pretty heretical by Christian standards. They sleep with who they wish, try to kill people, lie, cheat, covet, and on and on and on. There isn’t even an attempt at drawing a moral from the show, or to introduce a conscious. It is pure guilty pleasure. I mean, the impossibly hot Eva Longorius (I bet I butchered that name!) is even sleeping with a high school kid on the show!
Not that I am the type to lead the charge against a TV show. Just don’t watch it if it bothers you. I personally haven’t the interest to watch it. And I am the last person to be offended by it. Matter of fact, I was more offended by Supernanny Monday night; a woman had no idea that her toddler had left the house as was darting in and out of the street in her neighborhood, and wandered about all alone while cars drove by. Her parenting was offensive to me! But I think Desperate Housewives serves to illustrate, if not define, heresy for me. Hedonism without the slightest nod to a God or moral code.
(And I don’t mean to bash Desperate Housewives here, because I really don’t care. It is the new kid on the block, the new national fad, so it will be a lightning rod of both good and bad press… no offense to the show or ABC. But seriously, it is trashy.)
We saw the same attitude in many things before it, and we’ll see it displayed in things after it. Studio 54 was a great example. In the 70’s it was the center for heresy because it was a place for people to anonymously indulge in absolutely any vice. In the 80’s, it was any number of things. Its anywhere where the “don’t judge me,” “what happens here stays here,” and “you only live once” ideals come into play. If there is a God, and he is the Christian God, then you have to believe that nothing offends Him more than people living like the “I Am” is not. So to me, questioning the validity of the Bible and its God is less heretical than, say, porn.
Now that I have a working definition of heresy, I may have to do some stock taking. How close to that line do I want to toe? Or do I care at all? Hard questions to answer, and what I decide to do with this definition will ultimately speak volumes about Carl.
I do know one thing: I still think that a deaf, gay, Mexican claiming to know more than God is funny.
Oh, and I also know that you were out-heresied by beautiful actresses, Trent. : ) Well, unless we compare Desperate Housewives to that snuff/horror film you made to tie your videos together… that was just sick.
Horns up!
PS – lest my blog seem like what I intended it to be, a site for essays, I will add a late personal touch here. I am happy that my friend Phuong is back home and safe after her trip. Welcome back, now get to work! I can’t imagine trying to pick up after a week off of classes… and I want to tell Cojo to quit being a fat lard and to eat some ham.
102.5 FM KARL was playing these while I blogged and spell checked:
1. Unchained – Van Halen
2. Thorn – Unida
3. Winter – Tori Amos
4. He feels bad – Helmet
5. Automatic Blues – The Cult
6. Bad Dream Mama – Eagles of Death Metal
7. New Tsar and Catapult – Burn Witch Burn
8. You’re Pretty Good Looking for a Girl – White Stripes
9. Christian Brothers – Elliot Smith
10. Slay – McLusky
11. Electioneering – Radiohead
12. Chainsaw - Ramones
13. Valentine and Garuda – Frank Black
14. Your Imagination – Hall and Oates
15. Feels So Good – Jamiroquai
16. Friends of P. – The Rentals
17. The New Face of Zero and One – The New Pornographers
18. Aeris’ Theme – Nobuo Uematsu
19. Perfect Day – Lou Reed
20. Bigmouth Strikes Again – The Smiths
21. Shake Your Rump – Beastie Boys
22. Rocker – AC/DC
23. Easy Skanking – Bob Marley
24. Last Dinosaur – The Pillows
25. Unravel – Bjork
26. Bananas and Blow – Ween
27. Trampled Under Foot – Led Zepplin
28. Freddie’s Dead – Curtis Mayfield
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