Their Anger Strategies
If there is one thing about Brokeback Mountain, even before it's in wide release, this movie has revealed a lot about people, and where they stand. Apparently, "Christians" are being warned to keep their "charity" in check:
It's important to let people know the truth about this film, according to Dick Rolfe of the Dove Foundation, but evangelicals shouldn't overreact. Hollywood would love to see Christians object to "Brokeback Mountain" the same way they did to The Last Temptation of Christ...Any success that that movie had at the box office," Rolfe said, "has been attributed to the amount of attention and protesting that Christians did exhibit toward the film. So we have to be very careful not use our anger strategies to a point where they boomerang on us."
Could someone, anyone, please explain to be what exactly is Christian about having an "anger strategy"? How is anger Christian? There is exactly one instance in all the New Testament when Christ shows his temper. It's when he clears the moneychangers from the temple. That's right, the only thing that ever made Jesus visibly mad was people using religion to make money. The long-term effect of the rise of the religious right may very well be the enormous damage they do to the Christian message. "Anger strategies" do not an attractive theology make. Maybe Christianity is actually dying, and all we are left with is these bitter enders. I don't know any other real explanations for how such a powerful and wealthy group of people as American Christians can suffer from such an enormous persecution complex. It makes no sense. Or if you accept radical critiques like those of Sam Harris, it makes perfect sense.
It's important to let people know the truth about this film, according to Dick Rolfe of the Dove Foundation, but evangelicals shouldn't overreact. Hollywood would love to see Christians object to "Brokeback Mountain" the same way they did to The Last Temptation of Christ...Any success that that movie had at the box office," Rolfe said, "has been attributed to the amount of attention and protesting that Christians did exhibit toward the film. So we have to be very careful not use our anger strategies to a point where they boomerang on us."
Could someone, anyone, please explain to be what exactly is Christian about having an "anger strategy"? How is anger Christian? There is exactly one instance in all the New Testament when Christ shows his temper. It's when he clears the moneychangers from the temple. That's right, the only thing that ever made Jesus visibly mad was people using religion to make money. The long-term effect of the rise of the religious right may very well be the enormous damage they do to the Christian message. "Anger strategies" do not an attractive theology make. Maybe Christianity is actually dying, and all we are left with is these bitter enders. I don't know any other real explanations for how such a powerful and wealthy group of people as American Christians can suffer from such an enormous persecution complex. It makes no sense. Or if you accept radical critiques like those of Sam Harris, it makes perfect sense.
posted by leftcoastbreakdown.com at 4:16 PM
1 Comments:
A few comments rolled into one:
1. OK, even if Jesus you include the story about Jesus getting ticked off at a fig tree and cursing it to death, that's only TWO anger moments. A pretty good record.
2. Most American Christians don't feel persecuted. Most American Christians don't have anything against gay people, or people saying "Happy Holidays", or whatever. You just hear a lot about the ones who do, because they are using their anger as a political strategy.
3. In fact, one might go so far as to say that many of these people simply dress up a nasty and hostile political agenda in Christian clothing because they know it works...if by "works" you mean hurting the fabric of both American culture and the Christian church.
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