The Decembrist: The Bad CEO Gets Religion
I am from the Midwest. I live now in Chicago, but I grew up on a farm in Indiana. I grew up among small churches, the kind with one oil heater and an aging rural congregation that believed in the 2nd Coming and The Rapture.
I went to a family reunion about ten years ago and a discussion sparked up around the fire about the need for home schooling so that children could be taught about Creationism and not evolution as it was apostasy. I was curious and amused by the passions involved in the discussion, but too detached to comment.
I went back a couple of years ago to sing at a church service. A lay minister gave a sermon that he had built a small reputation around, having given it in seven states to dozens of congregations. It involved the usual suspects of gays, abortion, evil elitists out to crush the old ways. And it ended with a vivid portrayal of the nature of the conflict being played out in the stark light of prophecy. The President was portrayed as using devine power that God has bestowed on our country in this hour to defeat forces of Satan to bring about the end times.
My ears were hot, my legs twitched. I was incredulous. Afterwards the lay minister came and shook my hand, since I had warmed up the crowd with a tune or two. I was too stunned to speak. And to think that people left this intellectual crime scene somehow edified was mystifying to me. I grew up with these people; I have known them all my life. My elementary school has literally been turned into a jail. The small churches are gone now, replaced by "Wal-Mart" churches. Aluminum clad industrial buildings with massive PA systems and huge lighting rigs. What happened here? Why did I not notice this event sweeping the land over the last twenty years? Where do I call home?
In my opinion, this is bigger than George Bush's unsteady reach for greatness. The forces that swept away some of what was familiar to me in Central Indiana tapped George Bush on the shoulder and told him he has an obligation; told the National Guard man who had a wife pregnant with quintuplets he had an obligation, so that when the babies were born he was laying critically injured on a battlefield.
The forces are not Satanic. They are just cruelly manipulative and breathtakingly singleminded. They seek world dominion as an historical birthright. The Global Village somehow called for a Global Village Chieftan to honor with tribute. Supply-side economics would ensure that the tribute flowed down to every capillary of the populace and they would be grateful.
Oh, but it is messy...and fascist.
I went to a family reunion about ten years ago and a discussion sparked up around the fire about the need for home schooling so that children could be taught about Creationism and not evolution as it was apostasy. I was curious and amused by the passions involved in the discussion, but too detached to comment.
I went back a couple of years ago to sing at a church service. A lay minister gave a sermon that he had built a small reputation around, having given it in seven states to dozens of congregations. It involved the usual suspects of gays, abortion, evil elitists out to crush the old ways. And it ended with a vivid portrayal of the nature of the conflict being played out in the stark light of prophecy. The President was portrayed as using devine power that God has bestowed on our country in this hour to defeat forces of Satan to bring about the end times.
My ears were hot, my legs twitched. I was incredulous. Afterwards the lay minister came and shook my hand, since I had warmed up the crowd with a tune or two. I was too stunned to speak. And to think that people left this intellectual crime scene somehow edified was mystifying to me. I grew up with these people; I have known them all my life. My elementary school has literally been turned into a jail. The small churches are gone now, replaced by "Wal-Mart" churches. Aluminum clad industrial buildings with massive PA systems and huge lighting rigs. What happened here? Why did I not notice this event sweeping the land over the last twenty years? Where do I call home?
In my opinion, this is bigger than George Bush's unsteady reach for greatness. The forces that swept away some of what was familiar to me in Central Indiana tapped George Bush on the shoulder and told him he has an obligation; told the National Guard man who had a wife pregnant with quintuplets he had an obligation, so that when the babies were born he was laying critically injured on a battlefield.
The forces are not Satanic. They are just cruelly manipulative and breathtakingly singleminded. They seek world dominion as an historical birthright. The Global Village somehow called for a Global Village Chieftan to honor with tribute. Supply-side economics would ensure that the tribute flowed down to every capillary of the populace and they would be grateful.
Oh, but it is messy...and fascist.
LINK
posted by obelus at 10/17/2004 10:38:00 PM
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