Myrtle, the Unitarian Landlord
Here's another one of those great ads I was talking about. It shows a picture of a kindly old woman and says:
"Meet your daughter's landlord, Myrtle.
She's owned this house since '62...the same year she joined the Unitarian church. Myrtle treats her college girls like grandkids, and she things it would be good for your daughter to join her at 'church.'
Make sure your daughter's faith has the depth and compassion the gently show Myrtle the truth...
And Myrtle might find what she's been missing at 'church.'"
The ads are for the "Worldview Academy - Where students become bold leaders in Truth and grace." (Why isn't 'grace' capitalized too, I wonder?)
www.worldview.org
I'd like to meet someone whose faith has the depth and compassion to help me find what I've been missing at 'church' myself. I could list what that is, but you've heard it all before. I suppose I have met some people like that, but I don't think you learned anything about it at the Worldview academy. And you're probably the only people reading this blog. :)
It's funny that they picked '62 to be the year Myrtle joined her Unitarian church. I remember Carman singing a song about taking America back for God, how "the ball got dropped in '62" when prayer was "removed" from public schools, and learning at an early age that America had fallen from grace in the early 60's. Along with it was the great song "God in America Again" (same site), in which Carman encourages public schools to hand out Bibles instead of Condoms.
Johnny the High School Sex Fiend: "Excuse me, School Nurse - Do you have any condoms?"
Nurse: "No, Johnny, but I do have this Bible for you."
Johnny: "Wow, that'd be great. Maybe I should learn about the history of God's pursuit of man instead of having sex."
They're not altogether bad songs. "God In America Again" has some pretty good lines in it - it's sometimes inspiring to hear things the Founders said, and I do think they'd be amazed at the way our country is run these days. It's just such a confrontational, Us vs. Them, "we're right and they're wrong" message that I wonder if it's really going to encourage people to live the gospel in love, or whether it's just going to motivate Christians to push for more legislation that convinces the Homosexuals that we hate them.
posted by RJ @ 12:10 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
You know, I went to something like the Worldview Academy, but at least they didn't advertise like that. They were more concerned with helping us understand other faiths and perspectives and less with evangelizing the hell of everyone we met. Still, it isn't one of my favorite memories, per se. It was just an interesting experience.
I agree that the "Us vs. Them" mentality is just maddening. It's one of the biggest turn-offs when K and I church hunt. They talk about how their trying to be "IN not OF the world," but they basically act like their "it" and everyone else better agree with them or they have every right to shun them and combat their "sinful public agenda." Oh, and using the Founding Fathers words is always great. If only a chunk of them hadn't been deists (or just plain politicians) using the acceptable sanctified rhetoric of the day, it would definitely be more convincing to cite them as authorities on where the nation should be headed.
I remember those Carmen songs well. Such fun times, being an evangelical Christian teenager and waiting in line for hours to see Carmen at some arena in Pittsburgh...
I don't know. I think that Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Patrick Henry knew how momentous and important the times they were living in might be, and sincerely meant the things they said. You didn't quite say anything to the contrary, but I think calling their language the "sanctified rhetoric of the day" might be selling them a little short.
Sure, RedHurt. But some of what they said was based more on Enlightenment philosophy and ideas than on the Bible, but because it sounds somewhat biblical, fundamentalists claim it as their own. Jefferson understood the times, but his concept of God was different than that of the people I've heard cite him in their answers to why prayer should be allowed in public schools.
I guess I most object to people assuming others' views agree with theirs because of the language they read, not because they understand the underlying philosophical perspectives at work. Semantics cannot be assumed to be universal when you use important terms like "God" and "faith" and even "liberty."
I'm nitpicking. Sorry. I'll go back to being a nuisance on my own blog. >;)
Absolutely. Your point is very well made - please nit pick as often as you like. :) I tend to think that Adams intended much of the religious quality that we ascribe to him, but you're absolutely right about the influence of enlightenment philosophy.
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