tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post8538246848601707203..comments2024-03-10T20:46:19.274-04:00Comments on In the Middle: In support of false godsCord J. Whitakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06224143153295429986noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-13186631088270695142007-07-28T18:30:00.000-04:002007-07-28T18:30:00.000-04:00Just read something else, over at Poetix, about th...Just read something else, over at Poetix, about <A HREF="http://codepoetics.com/poetix/?p=443" REL="nofollow">the politics of envy</A> that glosses Eileen's last comment, analyzes scandal, and poses a very interesting question.<BR/><BR/>And to take the envy (a love of nothing?) issue one little step further, are people who attack other peoples god(s) really just confessing disbelief in or the death of their own?Nicola Masciandarohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01279665722551517693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-49150895261123563502007-07-28T16:44:00.000-04:002007-07-28T16:44:00.000-04:00Hear hear for the maintenance and adoration of hou...Hear hear for the maintenance and adoration of household gods, and for the plurality of divinities. Maybe one day people can stop hating themselves so much that they have to deflect that negative emotion onto others.Eileen Joyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13756965845120441308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-28260268238791613572007-07-28T16:35:00.000-04:002007-07-28T16:35:00.000-04:00A sad anti-type to the standing ovation Vivekanand...A sad anti-type to the standing ovation Vivekananda got when he said "Sisters and Brothers of America" at the <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Parliament_of_Religions" REL="nofollow">Parliament of Religions</A><BR/><BR/>"false god of Hinduism" ?<BR/>"produce great things in the world" ?<BR/><BR/>The hollowness of the rhetoric recalls an older posting (which also says a couple things about Zizek and Badiou) by <A HREF="http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/004902.html" REL="nofollow">k-punk</A>.Nicola Masciandarohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01279665722551517693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-70230895168611035032007-07-28T12:49:00.000-04:002007-07-28T12:49:00.000-04:00Karl, you are ever the optimist. I fear that all t...Karl, you are ever the optimist. I fear that all the wood-knocking in the world won't get us much closer to truth in government at this moment. Anyway, news cycle missed or not, I was thinking that this is an issue about which medievalists could speak with some relevance, since religion (and the supposed universality of Christianity) are topics we have to think about all the time. Both those topics are related to your good point about this thing that gets called "Judeo-Christian" and that doesn't really exist -- at least not in the harmonious way that is supposed.<BR/><BR/>As to doing the Hindu prayer again, why not? But it would also be good for the moment of the first performance to be marked as significant, the shout-out protest against it wrong.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-80114397362777442762007-07-28T10:07:00.000-04:002007-07-28T10:07:00.000-04:00Thanks for this Jeffrey. I'll contact them, but I ...Thanks for this Jeffrey. I'll contact them, but I expect my Senators--Clinton and Schumer--to do what they normally do.<BR/><BR/>I wonder, however, if the pushback against these Xian bigots has missed its news cycle? A lot has happened since the prayer got shouted down, and a lot is about to happen (at least as I imagine it): a fuller picture of Pat Tillman's death, the (knock on wood) impending impeachment of Gonzales, contempt charges, &c. <BR/><BR/>I wonder if it would be more effective for the Senate just to try again. Would it be more pedagogically effective to begin with another Hindu prayer while calling no particular attention to it? While we'd lose some of the deliberate shaking up of notions of America's "natural" faith, we'd gain a sense that other faiths could officially work in this nation simply as a matter of course. I'm not sure. <BR/><BR/>And I'd love, even more, for various corporate media not to behave as if Hinduism is such a great departure from the way Americans normally worship whatever they worship. There's no one Christianity; there's no one faith. But there's a tendency in the corporate media to present all Xian sects, and even Xian sects and Judaism together, as more or less the same. The standard phrase on CNN &c is "people of faith," right? But I was raised in a fundamentalist sect, now quite popular, that believes that Mormons--say, Mitt Romney and Harry Reid--were all going to hell, and that Jews would either convert or be damned during the End Times (a point, by the way, that "person of faith" Joe Leiberman <A HREF="http://maxblumenthal.com/archives/176" REL="nofollow">seems okay with</A>).Could this fundamentalist freakout in the capital be an opportunity to highlight what this Xian sect believes, what Benedict believes about the particular force of Roman Catholicism, and so forth? Unlikely, but something to be hoped for.<BR/><BR/>For me, of course, while I'd like to end the <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaplain_of_the_United_States_Senate" REL="nofollow">centuries-old run</A> of Xian prayers, it would be much better to eliminate the prayer altogether. I'm not sure I trust in anything, but I trust in gods least of all.Karl Steelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03353370018006849747noreply@blogger.com