18AR23-15

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AR 23:15 - Astrology: Between the skepticism and belief borderlands

In this issue:

EVANGELICALISM - "lesser of two evils" vs. "principle rather than expediency"

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES - yet more survivors of childhood sexual abuse cry out: "See you in court!"

OCCULTISM - the "renaissance of the zodiac" among Millennials

Apologia Report 23:15 (1,381)

April 26, 2018

EVANGELICALISM

"Justified revulsion over politics is no reason to renounce a religious identity." So reads the subtitle of David Skeel's op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal (Feb 2 '18). He asks: "Is modern evangelicalism morally bankrupt? While it's too soon to know how widespread the trend is, many are beginning to renounce the 'evangelical' label. ...

"Evangelicals' support for candidates of questionable character is often exaggerated. It also ignores important context: Many voters strongly preferred other candidates but felt forced to choose the lesser of two evils." Nevertheless, Skeel is stymied by "a prominent constitutional law professor [who] was surprised by recent voting patterns, because he had thought that evangelicals might be the one group in American society who would vote based on principle rather than expediency."

Before expressing the above conundrum, Skeel writes: "Evangelicals have a storied history in American public life. They figured prominently in the movement to end slavery, and institutions such as Wheaton College in Illinois were established on Abolitionist grounds. Jonathan Blanchard, who later became Wheaton's first president, serving from 1860–82, insisted during a debate that opposition to slavery 'blazes from every page of God's Book which is a wall of fire around the rights of the poor.'

"A century ago, the nation's best-known evangelical was William Jennings Bryan, who ... was often ridiculed by the intellectual elites of his era [and] did contribute to a strain of anti-intellectualism that has not yet fully disappeared from American evangelicalism. But many of his positions, such as opposition to imperialism, tariffs and gambling, have aged well. The common theme of Bryan's politics, which came straight from his evangelicalism, was that every person is made in the image of God and is therefore precious.

"In the current era, evangelicals' insistence that sexual intimacy is appropriate only in the context of marriage has often been greeted with derision similar to what Bryan faced. Yet in the light of the #MeToo movement, as rampant sexual misbehavior is revealed from Hollywood and Washington, the biblical view might soon start to seem a little less crazy. ...

"On the bright side, evangelicals are now an increasingly familiar presence in American intellectual life, having shed the anti-intellectualism of the early 20th century. Evangelicals also are much less anti-Catholic than in the past - so much so that even a few Catholics now call themselves evangelical. I believe that Christianity is self-correcting. And because evangelicalism is a faithful understanding of Christianity's essence, I believe it is self-correcting, too.

"Rarely have evangelicals been so divided and uncertain of the way forward. But the problem is with us, not with evangelicalism or the Christian principles it represents. The label and the history are important. For those who have recently renounced evangelicalism, I have a simple plea: Please reconsider." <www.goo.gl/QzjWkW>

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JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES

"Cover-Up" by Kristy Woudstra -- "Canadian survivors of childhood sexual abuse are coming forward to reveal how their church [sic] failed them - and protected their predators. Besides her Canadian emphasis, Woudstra reviews the Watchtower's related legal battles on a global scale.

"Around the world, lawmakers are starting to pay attention to this insular religious organization. The British government, via its Charity Commission, is conducting an investigation into how Jehovah's Witnesses handle cases of child mistreatment. In the United States, judges have ordered the organization to release files on childhood sexual assault incidents.... [A court] inquiry in Australia determined that the denomination's policies are inadequate when it comes to keeping children safe from sexual abuse."

Mixed in are wrenching testimonies. Much of the text discusses the progress of these efforts to bring "God's organization" to justice. United Church Observer, Jan '18 <www.goo.gl/hU9wgM>

The battle is growing in the UK, where "Scores of alleged victims [have] come forward and describe a culture of cover-up" in the Watchtower Society. See Sarah Marsh, "Jehovah's Witnesses accused of silencing victims of child abuse," in The Guardian, Mar 25 '18 <www.bit.ly/2Hqn9tT>

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OCCULTISM

When truth is forsaken, contradiction fills the void. Julie Beck's article for The Atlantic (Jan 16 '18), "The New Age of Astrology," begins: "In a stressful, data-driven era, many young people find comfort and insight in the zodiac - even if they don't exactly believe in it."

Beck reports that astrology's moment has arrived, and we suspect many of us evangelicals are unaware of it. "Chani Nicholas, an astrologer based in Los Angeles [explains] 'there's something that's happened in the last five years that's given [astrology] an edginess, a relevance for this time and place, that it hasn't had for a good 35 years. Millennials have taken it and run with it.'

"Many people I spoke to for this piece said they had a sense that the stigma attached to astrology, while it still exists, had receded as the practice has grabbed a foothold in online culture, especially for young people.

"'Over the past two years, we've really seen a reframing of New Age practices, very much geared toward a Millennial and young Gen X quotient,' says Lucie Greene, the worldwide director of J. Walter Thompson's innovation <www.bit.ly/2qYXRc5> group, which tracks and predicts cultural trends." For example: "Stella Bugbee, the president and editor-in-chief of The Cut, says a typical horoscope post on the site got 150 percent more traffic in 2017 than the year before. ...

"A quick primer: Astrology is not a science; there's no evidence that one's zodiac sign actually correlates to personality. But the system has its own sort of logic. Astrology ascribes meaning to the placement of the sun, the moon, and the planets within 12 sections of the sky - the signs of the zodiac. You likely know your sun sign, the most famous zodiac sign, even if you're not an astrology buff. It's based on where the sun was on your birthday. But the placement of the moon and each of the other planets at the time and location of your birth adds additional shades to the picture of you painted by your 'birth chart.' ...

"'Astrologers are always trying to boil down these giant concepts into digestible pieces of knowledge,' says Nicholas. 'The kids these days and their memes are like the perfect context for astrology.' ...

"People tend to turn to astrology in times of stress. A small 1982 study by the psychologist Graham Tyson <www.bit.ly/2Hs0TA2> found that 'people who consult astrologers' did so in response to stressors in their lives - particularly stress 'linked to the individual's social roles and to his or her relationships,' Tyson wrote. 'Under conditions of high stress, the individual is prepared to use astrology as a coping device even though under low-stress conditions he does not believe in it.'

"According to American Psychological Association survey data, since 2014, Millennials <www.bit.ly/2JscImf> have been the most stressed generation, and also the generation most likely to say their stress has increased in the past year since 2010. Millennials and Gen Xers have been significantly more stressed than older generations since 2012. And Americans as a whole have seen increased stress because of the political tumult since the 2016 presidential election. The 2017 edition of the APA's survey found that 63 percent of Americans said they were significantly stressed about their country's future. Fifty-six percent of people said reading the news stresses them out, and Millennials and Gen Xers were significantly more likely than older people to say so. Lately that news often deals with political infighting, climate change, global crises, and the threat of nuclear war. If stress makes astrology look shinier, it's not surprising that more seem to be drawn to it now. ...

"A combination of stress and uncertainty about the future is an ailment for which astrology can seem like the perfect balm. ...

"J. Walter Thompson's intelligence group [JWT] released a trend report <www.bit.ly/2Fie0O5> in 2016 called 'Unreality' that says much the same thing: 'We are increasingly turning to unreality as a form of escape and a way to search for other kinds of freedom, truth and meaning,' it reads. 'What emerges is an appreciation for magic and spirituality, the knowingly unreal, and the intangible aspects of our lives that defy big data and the ultra-transparency of the web.' This sort of reactionary cultural 180 has happened before - after the Enlightenment's emphasis on rationality and the scientific method in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Romantic movement found people turning toward intuition, nature, and the supernatural. It seems we may be at a similar turning point. New York magazine even used the seminal Romantic painting Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog to illustrate Andrew Sullivan's recent <www.goo.gl/kMbgc2> anti-technology essay, 'I Used to Be a Human Being.'

"JWT and another trend-forecasting group, WGSN, in its report <behind a paywall at <www.bit.ly/2vMEbNF> 'Millennials: New Spirituality,' lump astrology in with other New Age mystical trends that have caught on with young people in recent years: healing crystals, sound baths, and tarot, among others. ...

"Bugbee, the editor-in-chief of The Cut, noticed this shift a couple years ago. 'I could just tell that people were sick of a certain kind of snarky tone,' she said. Up to that point, the site had been running slightly irreverent horoscopes with gifs meant to encapsulate the week's mood for each sign. But Bugbee realized 'that people wanted sincerity more than anything. So we just kind of went full sincere with [the horoscopes], and that's when we saw real interest happen.' ...

"While there are surely some people who blindly accept astrology as fact and view it as on par with a discipline like biology, that doesn't seem to be the case among many of the young adults who are fueling this renaissance of the zodiac. The people I spoke to for this piece often referred to astrology as a tool, or a kind of language - one that, for many, is more metaphorical than literal."

A 29-year-old chiropractic student, who has also studied astrology for 10 years, explains: "We take astrology very seriously, but we also don't necessarily believe in it. It's just a way to look at the world." Another testimonial uses these same words and adds that "'because it's a tool for self-reflection, it's not a religion or a science. It's just a way to look at the world and a way to think about things.'"

Callie Beusman, senior editor at Broadly ("a website and digital video channel devoted to representing the multiplicity of women's experiences") <www.goo.gl/MSKSL9> shares "her philosophy. 'I believe several conflicting things in all areas of my life,' she says. ...

"This attitude is exemplified by The Hairpin's 'Astrology Is Fake' <www.bit.ly/2r0WpW2> column, by Rosa Lyster, with headlines like 'Astrology Is Fake But Leos Are Famous,' and 'Astrology Is Fake But Taurus Hates Change.'

"It might be that Millennials are more comfortable living in the borderlands between skepticism and belief because they've spent so much of their lives online, in another space that is real and unreal at the same time. That so many people find astrology meaningful is a reminder that something doesn't have to be real to feel true. Don't we find truth in fiction?" [Answer: We sure thought we did with The Da Vinci Code!] Lengthy. <www.goo.gl/QK8nni>

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