Position Filled
…those who suffer most
and are poorest in life would need above all
mildness, peacefulness, and goodness in thought
as well as deed
–if possible, also a god
who would be truly a god for the sick,
a healer and savior;
The Gay Science by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. Walter Kaufmann, aphorism 370
The thought occurred to me if the years of active membership in evangelical Christian circles might recede sufficiently in the ‘rear view mirror’ of life, that I’d no longer feel a ‘tug,’ positive or negative in response to anything those communities believe or say or do. The quiet voice in my inner core knows such a expectation is unlikely. How could it be otherwise? By concatenation of circumstance, born into an evangelical-fundamentalist household, cared for by parents who gave me what they thought to be best they knew, I was raised to be a “man of the book.” If you are or have been an evangelical Christian you will understand. The holy bible, inspired, God-given-manual for life permits those who believe a psychological, spiritual, pragmatic advantage, and a privilege — that transcends their unbelieving fellows…
What simple fantasy, the imagined unrealism — that anything which we have experienced could fail to imprint mind and body no matter the passage of time, or any subsequent overlay of education, of disconfirming experience.
I do pay attention. I care about the thinking and behavior of evangelicals because I am involved with them in a political system, and I am involved indirectly, at a remove, as a consequence of my history.
From the remove which the passage of time affords me, and the perspective granted to me by a liberal education I understand evangelical’s desire for a healer. A mender with magical power to assuage their sense of shame, to soothe, to tranquilize their many grievances, outrages. A savior able to assure with an imperious word that their imagined life-of-a-bygone-simpler-time is what God wills for everyone.
I am dismayed that the job has been granted to this ex-President.
One thought on “Position Filled”
Yes!