Irony
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I read an essay the other day about the movie "Chocolat". The complaint was being made that the people who made this movie gave no credence whatever to the religious concepts of abstinence and self-sacrifice and in fact were making fun of it. The author found this insulting and went on to point out that this movie and it's makers are promoting a culture of hedonism by glorifying the fulfillment of desire and vilifying the idea of avoiding some form of pleasure.
I think the points in this essay are well taken. I haven't seen the movie "Chocolat" so I can't really speak to that, but I do believe it's true that the liberal and permissive attitudes prevalent in the arts in this country have a difficult time understanding and appreciating more conservative traditions and points of view. Yet at the same time I couldn't help drowning in the irony as I read this essay.
Christianity is one of the most elitist and intolerant religions on Earth. It holds as a founding principal that any view of God or way of living other than it's own is dishonest and sinful. Christians believe that anyone who does not believe as they do, and this often includes even other Christians, will burn in hell forever. Christians believe that God is on their side of everything, exclusively, they are never wrong, their bible is written by God Himself, all other holy books are heresy, and that they are mandated by God himself to convince everyone else to believe as they do.
The result of this theology is thousands of years of aggressive deceit, persecution, torture and even murder in the name of God, Christ, and the "holy mother church". Entire cultures have been erased by Christians seeking to force Christianity down the throats of others regardless of the suffering caused. Even now evangelic missionaries are clamoring to get into China, Russia, and number of other countries with the hope of "converting" the populace with no regard whatever to the beliefs, history, or traditions that already exist there.
And today in this country I shudder to think what those fine Christians in the Southern Baptist Conference would be doing to homosexuals and abortion practitioners if we did not have a democracy and a police force to protect them. And when they got done "converting" the homosexuals and abortionists, the rest of us would be next on their list.
So I can't help but see a lot of irony in the idea of a Christian being upset that Hollywood has poked a little fun at their beliefs when Christianity itself has been ripping and tearing it's way through other belief systems and whole cultures for centuries. And when it would be doing so right here and now if it weren't being held up by democratic principal and the rule of law. It's sort of like Hitler complaining that the Jews won't respect his ideology. What do we think would happen to art in this country, and the Hollywood movie industry in particular, if Christians were suddenly put in a position of power? Even now, as Christians read this, they will be unable to grasp why I would consider it important to protect personal freedoms and artistic expression when I may not agree with some of these ideas and choices personally.
I saw someone wearing a T-shirt in a gay pride parade that said, "JESUS ... PLEASE SAVE US ... FROM YOUR BELIEVERS".
Peace,
Dave