We had a nice weekend, considering the circumstances, and are back in Austin. Today I arrived at school to discover that the teacher who had called in my job was a fool: there is no school today. Technically, the school is open because it is a parent conference day, but there are no students and, hence, no need for me. It was a long drive, too.
Yesterday we attended a service at First Baptist Church in Dallas with Rachel's family. This is one of those huge churches that gets televised every Sunday with studio-quality lighting and cameras at strategic locations. Naturally, I could go into horrific detail about the rampant intellectual dishonesty that surrounded us, but instead I will only point out that the sermon was on giving, and how we all have something to give the world. Flashed on the four plasma-screen HDTVs ringing the pews and the two large projection displays up top was a reminder that they needed $48 million for their new building and only had $27 million in cash.
Later those same screens showed Kevin Carter's Pulitzer-winning photograph of a malnourished Sudanese girl crawling to food with a vulture nearby, waiting. I'll let you draw your own conclusions.
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This should probably go under your post titled "No One Cares", but I saw that CBS or CNN or some crap is having a special where they interview this Sports Illustrated model who lost a boyfriend in the Tsunami. Months after the event, 250,000+ dead, and yet some model losing a boyfriend suddenly makes it "shocking" and "newsworthy".
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't make sense that you expected more out of a church than you would out of any other place, like a musical concert or theater performance for example. You are not a christian. Your hostility indicates you were expecting something in particular. I feel sorry for your wife and her family(and I do so without your permission) because you do not appear to share the same basic family values.
ReplyDeleteThe emotional appeal for money is no big deal in our society. The media and for profit companies do it every day. It does not mean that the need is not real. It's just the way our culture operates. Don't like it? You're a talented young guy, use your writing talents to change it over the next few years.
You say churches are just as corrupted by greed and the pursuit of material wealth as every other aspect of unrestrained capitalistic society? I am pleased that we agree.
ReplyDeleteAs to my wife's family, we share precisely the same "family values." We cherish the time we can spend together. I love them. It is only the belief in deity on which we differ, a belief that has little impact on my values, familial or otherwise.
In addition, I grant you my permission to feel sorry for whomever you wish. Not sure why you threw that nugget in.