podpolia

despite my better judgement, i found myself attached to some greek letters today. inducted into pi sigma alpha, the poli sci honor society. woo.

further confirmation of my analysis of various people's views on christianity (as discussed in my last entry). finished a book today (the lucifer principle, which i'd reccommend except that it's completely opposed to just about everything i believe in, despite being very good) and read several articles online recently about how depraved christians are and how we're out to rule the world and brainwash everybody. society in this nation has become sufficiently secularized that people regard christians as an aberration.
i'm wondering if there is a whirring noise in graveyards along the east coast caused by founding fathers and revolutionary war veterans spinning in their graves.
in other news, i haven't written in a while. except for this.

i was reading an article today (http://www.beliefnet.com/story/127/story_12764_1.html) that inspired something in me. it's about paul and his endurance through suffering, and how that was based on and reflected in his religious beliefs. this combined with my recent thoughts on how a secular world views christianity and with 'the passion' still relatively fresh in my mind really made me think.

“Again, it’s not his affliction we admire, but how he handled it. That’s the greatness we appreciate.”

this line hit right between the eyes. after reading a review of 'the passion' that described it as an exercise in sadistic fantasy and detailing how various scenes reflected the essential sadistic-sexual nature of mel gibson and christianity more broadly, this line really acted as a refutation. so much of christianity is involved with pain and suffering – job, Jesus on the cross, paul's tortures – that a world that doesn't see things from a christian worldview sees christian beliefs as glorifying violence and pain.
the world today views reality by what it makes them feel. people viewing christianity see a story that makes them feel uncomfortable, sad, guilty. the ultimate reality today is “what i feel,” instead of “what is real.” the refusal of increasing numbers of people today to accept that war can be justified, that personal sacrifice is noble, and that the individual should be willing to subject their own whims and desires to the greater good simply indicate the extent to which the individual feeling has gained precedent over all else. if my feelings are the most important thing there is, why do i need to care about others or deny myself anything?
this placement of the individual will over everything is the polar opposite of christian theology. christians don't revel in suffering or enjoy contemplating the pain of others – but they are willing to accept that this suffering can be for a good purpose and that the individual's reaction to the suffering can be noble. the passion of Jesus was brutal, ugly, and immensely painful. why would christians want to inflict such intense agony on the one man they revere above all else in the universe? the answer is: they don't. we as christians recognize the pain and suffering, and glorify not it in itself, but for the voluntary subjection of Jesus to such an enormous and hideous fate when He could just as easily have refused. it isn't the pain that one appreciates in the story, but the courage and fortitude of the One upon whom it was afflicted.
the teachings of Jesus and of paul are incomprehensible to a world that idolizes the self above all else. in a world where individual aptitude and abilities defines one's life, the idea that all humanity, no matter how rich, poor, able, unable, good, or bad are truly loved equally is something that is beyond comprehension. the teaching of Jesus that the rich (not necessarily in wealth, but also in intellect or talents or abilities) have a harder time reaching Heaven than those who the world seems to have favored is entirely foreign to those of us who live in the world. paul agrees with this and goes on to elaborate that we can do nothing unless we allow God to do it through us.
in a society where we are expected to hack our own way through the jungle, this seems almost insulting, and very very flawed. “what do you mean?” someone may say, “i've done plenty by myself!”
while we may do things in the world through our own willpower and abilities, God gave us the abilities and the world in which we act. not only this, but as flawed humanity, all of our own works are for naught in God's eyes. we are unable to do God's will without His guidance and the abilities that He gives us. in a world where the strong survive, the claim that to be strong one must become weak is folly. to endure pain and suffering for something we believe in is silly, and perhaps even bordering on deranged. but it is in suffering and in weakness that we can truly let go, stop trying on our own, and let God work through us.