Whether It's Hindu, Buddha, Allah

Just so you know, God, uh Hindu, has been saying some pretty crazy stuff about you.
Hindu.
No, Hindu, you know... the god with the dancey arms and the elephant head.
Oh.
Really? I always thought his name was Hindu.
Okay.
Well you know he's pulling for Obama and if he wins, well, I don't know if I should repeat what he's been saying, but it's not pretty...



I had a refreshingly honest conversation with someone this past weekend. Come to think of it, I had two refreshingly honest conversations with someone in the past week. But this post will be only about one of them.

Someone was telling me that he basically couldn't stand John McCain, was beating himself up for having to vote for him, didn't look forward to it, but because he was a Republican he was going to support his guy and vote Republican. It's just what he had to do.

For him, it was a matter of commitments and loyalty. There was no special anointing on John McCain, he didn't pretend John McCain is "such a Godly man" and so deserves his vote, he didn't try to fit McCain's narrative into a consistent type of conservatism, nor did he pretend that a McCain presidency would be best for his class interests. It was all about labels and he said so. It was a kind of reluctant critical consciousness. "Ugh, I'm so attached to labels- why am I so attached to labels?"

He was willing to talk and think through his actions and commitments to the point of revealing why he did what he did- or to see what his actions said about his commitments and loyalties.

Say what you will about "I'm a Republican so I have to vote Republican" ultimately being a shallow reason then watch that video above again.

Anyway. I suppose one could say that there is a scriptural warrant for this type of conversation with God- "God, if you don't want to look bad, you'd better help out your people."

So, there you go. Here we have a latter day Moses, asking God, on our behalf, to stick with the program, do what he said he was going to do, be the better God and show those foreigners- their Gods... sorry- gods, show those foreign gods who's boss.

It's baloney, but it is nonetheless important. Maybe all the more important. I can never get that right. Whatever the case, it is an honest articulation of the faith inherent in one's presuppositions and loyalties, and as such, when starkly stated mostly laughable.

Take this one as another example:

According to this neo-liberal logic, the pursuit of self-interest of the market would be the best and most efficient way to generate the common good; and in this way the contradiction between self-interest and common good would be solved... The best way to live the love for one's neighbor, the poor, would be to overcome the temptation to do good and continue being selfish in the market, seeking one's self-interest in a more efficient way. This way, conquering the temptation to do good through economic and social policies turns out to be the main spiritual task in the social field."

Ha ha. Get it?

Anyway, back to Moses Come-Lately. I guess we could say that making John McCain president is part of the same redeeming history. In that case, bugging God in this way makes sense. An Obama presidency would be like dying in the wilderness and God shouldn't let that happen so... We could say that, and if we say that, I guess this fits.

But it sounds like this guy is saying something different. I think this guy thinks God is an idiot and is trying to talk "him" into a fight: I don't know if you realize this God, but those other Gods are trying to make you look like a chump.

It's easy to mock it (see above), but it is very revealing. What we say and do reveals underlying spiritual commitments. It doesn't get much clearer than this. Now I don't know that he speaks for anyone other than himself in this, but how many of us, when we get down to it think in these terms?

That's all. Anything more would be getting preachy.

And the Lord repented of the evil which he though to do to his people.
Go to the Mirror Boy- The Who
Rhiannon- Fleetwood mac
Uncle John's Band- Grateful Dead
Intergalactic- Beastie Boys
Watch That Man- David Bowie
Nowhere at All - Lou Reed