Do you believe that Satan exists? Not just as a concept, but as a creature with ontological–albeit contigent–reality?

Mmmm… me neither for a long time. It was M. Scott Peck’s book People of the Lie that convinced me of the existence of evil. That is an excellent book on the topic that I highly recommend that religious folk read. Peck writes as a psychiatrist and athough he had journeyed from Buddhism, agnosticism to Christianity, it is not written as a ‘Christian’ book as such, but rather presents the phenomenon of evil as it presented to him in his psychiatric practice.

It opens with some startling case histories of very ordinary people doing very evil things, the most striking of which is the account of a depressed lad whose parents gifted him with a Christmas present of the very same rifle with which his older brother had committed suicide. The startling thing, is that these were not Hitlers, Usama bin Ladens or Pol Pots. They were by all accounts, seemingly ordinary parents. Because of this, Peck argues that evil is much more common than we are usually comfortable admitting.

At the back of that book, however, there is a chapter which is different from all the preceding chapters. In it, Peck talks about exorcism. It feels like it doesn’t belong in the book, and in a way it doesn’t, because exorcism brings us into the particular realm of Christian theology, whilst the rest of the book is more generalised. But this post isn’t a review of People of the Lie.

Read the rest of this entry »

Rodney Olsen has a post up about the Golden Compass on his blog, which reminds me Abu Yasmin and I went and saw it last week.  The first I knew of it, was reading a Christian blog in the States ranting about it being worse than Harry Potter (or sentiments to that effect).  Abu Yasmin and I were not sure if we would see it, only because it didn’t do well at the box-office in the US and Kidman’s performance was said to be rather stilted.  But with not much on offer at the cinema for our highly treasured and extremely rare chance to go to the movies by ourselves, the Golden Compass it was.

The premise was interesting enough, an alternate Earth in which there were groups of sentient beings: humans whose souls accompanied them outside their bodies in the form of animals called daemons, witches who flew around on broomsticks, and bears who could talk and wore armour.  There is an authoritarian evil hierarchy ruining everyone’s lives (in the movie called the Magisterium but apparently in the book it’s the Church, leaving quite a few Christian critics with their knickers rather understandably in knots) and the main character is a precocious girl called Lyra who seems to be the second-coming for all the free-thinking scientists who are trying desperately to keep truth alive.  I’m not going to say much more than that, in case you do want to see the movie. 

It left me flat, however.  Especially the ending, which clearly anticipated there would be lots of sequels to come (I don’t think so, somehow).  As I left the movie theatre feeling a bit unfulfilled I tried to pinpoint what I didn’t like about it.  After some discussion with Abu Yasmin, we hit on its polytheism.

In his excellent book Why Religion Matters, Huston Smith outlines a spiritual hierarchy using the analogy of one-way mirrors.  At the bottom is materialistic atheism, which sees material existence but nothing more. The next level is polytheism, which can look through the mirror and see the world of the materialist atheist but adds to it the capricious world of demons, sprites, angels, gods and every kind of superstition.  Nevertheless polytheists see no further.  The third level, which can see down into the other worlds is monotheism in which it is possible to understand God as a benevolent Creator, but goes no further.  Lastly, the top level is that of mysticism which can see down into the other levels, but experiences the immanence and transcendence of the Divine Reality. 

Smith argues that this spiritual hierarchy is found in any religion or ideology, and even though the author of the Golden Compass is apparently an atheist, the movie came across as very polytheistic. There was no ultimate Goodness that exists despite the evil inclinations of some (such as exists in Star Wars, which admittedly is more dualistic than it is monotheistic - maybe Smith needs another level between polytheism and monotheism).

Lyra irritated me too.  She seemed a bit rude and bratty for a child, even if she was the ‘chosen one’ of sorts.  You’d never get Harry Potter being as snarky as she came across.  (Lovely actress though, who did a brilliant job!)

Maybe the book is better, I am not sure.

I just finished reading Tanya Levin’s biographical expose on Hillsong (Australia’s largest prosperity-preaching Pentecostal church) called People in Glass Houses.  Ouch!

Having lived with a flatmate who was a conflicted member of Assembly of God, I wasn’t entirely shocked by Levin’s book - it could have been my flatmate’s.  We also get the Christian channel with our cable television package, so I’m quite familiar with Hillsong and its cousins.

To be honest, religion-junkie that I am, I always found Hillsong etc. on the Christian channel quite boring, and I could never put a finger on why.  I mean as a teenager (and a non-Christian one at that) I used to watch televangelist shows with some interest, sort of like as a bemused spectator.   But Hillsong never does it for me.  Now I know why.  I’m just not interested in the Amway-cult: lots of muzak, a few feel-good words with no substance behind them and that’s about it. Hillsong sells you religion-lite.  Apparently, they don’t even take communion anymore (surely that puts them outside the definition of a mainstream church???)

I love religion, with its deep rituals and fascinating theologies.  I don’t want a Mills and Boon version of faith, I want Tolstoy or Shakespeare.  Hillsong is cheesy passion without any real substance. It’s the McDonalds, instead of Le Cordon Bleu. Part of the reason I am loving The Abbey on Compass is because it is giving me a rare glimpse and insight into deep Christian faith.

Having watched shows of the American versions that inspired or are like Hillsong (most of them are regularly aired on ACC) I really cannot see what they have in common with Jesus’ actual teachings or mainstream Christianity. It seems to me, to be an entirely new religion that has co-opted some of the terminology and symbols of Christianity, but is based around American materialism - Mammon instead of God. So, it’s very scary when I see our politicians getting in bed with them.

.

Abu Yasmin and I went and saw Fast Food Nation on the weekend. The book is better than the movie, I have to say. I’d read the book a year or so ago, and became horrified at the business practices of these mega-corporations. The movie, however, was a bit too preachy for my liking.

It tells the story of fictional unethical fast-food chain “Mickeys” that has found a cash-cow (no pun intended) in its popular burger “The Big One”. The meat is sourced, however, from a meat-packing company that uses Mexicans who have crossed the border illegally in search of a better life (but who have instead found exploitation), and is not too fussy if faeces flavours the food.

Some big names are in this movie, but I felt like I was watching the Christian channel on cable, being constantly preached at. I don’t think the movie works as ‘fiction’. Having seen Eric Schlosser interviewed, he can make the point in a half-hour interview much better.

Having said that, the final scene in particular is particularly good (although not for the faint-hearted) and is enough to make the most hardened carnivore into a veggie.

[tags]Fast Food Nation, movie review, McDonalds, capitalism, exploitation, slave labour[/tags]

A couple of years ago I picked up a second hand copy of Manuel J. Smith’s When I Say No, I Feel Guilty. Looking for something not related to my PhD, I finally took it off my “must get around to reading one day” shelf and began reading. If you ignore the 1970s mores about sexual liberation, it is a very good book.

I have to confess, I am a terrible disease-to-pleaser, and this book addresses people who are easy to manipulate (wittingly or unwittingly) and who have difficulty saying “no” or asserting themselves.

In a funny sort of way it seemed to me to be a very Islamic message. The book begins with the central thesis that you (the reader) are the only judge of your own actions, nobody else is your judge unless you let them be. If you transfer that to Allah (and I mean Allah and NOT mullahs, imams, mufassirun etc. who are still only human beings themselves) it makes incredible sense. Read the rest of this entry »