"How unfortunate that today much religion seems to be a force for making people unexceptional, for making them part of a rather unimaginative and uneducated crowd. Spiritually and theologically we are being 'dumbed down' in our outlook and perspective. Jesus took exception with those who were judgmental, but today faith seems to have become the means for exercising a severe judgmentalism. Jesus took exception with those who were violent, but how many times have we heard our nation's war-making justified on religious grounds?"
June 14, 2011
On exceptionalism
A thoughtful post from Smitty on exceptionalism:
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1 comment:
Thanks Streak. I found it provocative and moving. My personal favorite passage, besides for At least this is the scenario being laid out for us by some fellow Christians whose discomfort with life's messiness generates anxiety, and whose anxiety couples with resentment, which in turn produces a spirit of vengeance upon those with whom they disagree or dislike. This they project as God's agenda to wreak a violent justice upon a world that is so profoundly out of joint is this:
"instead of the rare Christian virtues, today we are encouraged to think in terms of American Exceptionalism, the idolatrous notion that America bears a destiny, that its people are imbued with extraordinary virtue, that its manifold gifts and wealth and skill have been bestowed so that it may thrive and achieve and dominate and lead. We hear this articulated in religious terms, of course, so that this becomes a Devine destiny, a God-mandated supremacy."
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