17AR22-24

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AR 22:24 – Explaining the "Christian Right's War on Reality"

In this issue:

ATHEISM - sociologist finds evangelicals' "often dangerous" and "powerful paranoia cannot be deescalated, it must be contained"

CULTURE - identity theft as "a literal possession"

SEX - "aging as a lost conversation and dynamic in the church"

Apologia Report 22:24 (1,344)

June 22, 2017

ATHEISM

Paranoid Science: The Christian Right's War on Reality, by Antony Williams Alumkal [1], Associate Professor in Sociology of Religion, Iliff Seminary, Denver -- while not specifically an atheist presentation, this material will almost certainly be fodder for their ongoing objections. "Since the 1970s, according to sociologist Alumkal (Asian American Evangelical Churches [2]), there have been four frontal assaults on science by hard-right theocrats: intelligent design over evolution, ex-gay therapy over acceptance of human sexuality, bioethics based on human exceptionalism, and climate change denial. Alumkal calls these the 'paranoid science' movements. Drawing on historian Richard Hofstadter's 1963 lecture <www.goo.gl/UWwf91> on 'the paranoid style in American politics,' Alumkal maps key features in the contemporary Christian Right, including a tendency toward conspiracies, apocalyptic parameters, dualistic thinking, an inability to compromise, and feeling 'dispossessed.' This dispossession, as Hofstadter described it, is one where 'America has been largely taken away from them and their kind, though they are determined to try to repossess it and to prevent the final destructive act of subversion.' Through extensive research, Alumkal provides a rich, nuanced, and detailed view of mid-20th-century American evangelicalism's right-wing political expression and its often dangerous impact on science in the service of the common good. His conclusions indicate that when such a powerful paranoia cannot be deescalated, it must be contained. Education and persuasion are the tools for change, and Alumkal's book succeeds in both respects." Publishers Weekly, Mar 13 '17.

This is a good example of the problem considered in last week’s issue of AR.

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CULTURE

"Identity Theft: On the internet, where information is power, we're all at risk of getting 'owned' - exposed as vulnerable, ignorant or worse" by Amanda Hess -- where "'Owned' is borrowed from hacker slang. If you got owned, that meant some hacker jimmied the lock on a virtual back door, snooped around your property and rifled through your stuff. The word speaks of a literal possession.... Owning someone isn't just about taking his things; it's about diminishing him as a person. With enough specialized technical knowledge, you can actually seize control of another human being, or at least the person's virtual presence. ...

"Recent concerns over 'filter bubbles,' 'fake news' and political memes churned out by Russian trolls lay bare the fact that our beliefs are controlled by the data we consume." The term "owned [is] an ideal code for people who believe their mastery of the internet has raised them to a higher plane of existence. ...

"The mainstreaming of 'owned' has always come with a bit of a wink, an acknowledgment that those most eager to lord their superior knowledge over others often have the biggest blind spots. ...

"All of this has set the stage for ownage's latest twist: the rise of the self-own. If an own exposes another person's ignorance, a self-own reveals your own obliviousness. ...

"[O]wnage is itself a hubristic act - it turns knowledge into a tool for exploiting another person's lack thereof. Owning someone sets you up to be owned yourself, sometimes in the same breath." New York Times Magazine, Apr 2 '17, pMM11-13. <www.goo.gl/rdsm5m>

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SEX

Divine Sex: A Compelling Vision for Christian Relationships in a Hypersexualized Age, by Jonathan Grant [3] -- this review by Brad A. Lau (George Fox University) finds that "Grant's occasional focus on aging as a lost conversation and dynamic in the church is a very important point that he makes. Intergenerational relationships are vital in any environment where formation and discipleship is the ultimate goal. Unfortunately, churches tend to divide congregants into specific niche communities within the church (often according to age) and, in so doing , lose the many advantages that these relationships can have for the church and for society. It also further exacerbates another problem in that, as Grant notes, 'Our culture's idolatry of youth has created a strange reversal within our churches: leaders tend to emulate the young rather than the other way around.' Discipleship that asks another to 'follow me as I follow Christ' can and does occur with those who have gone before us in their journey with Christ and possess the wisdom and experience that entails.

"Grant writes: 'One of the most efficient ways of teaching some young Christians moral skills and discernment is to connect the generations within the church. ... As family researchers have found, it is the 'intergenerational self' that has the most resilient foundations for personal identity and is best equipped to cope with the external pressures of life.'"

Lau adds that "throughout the book Grant creates a holistic vision for human sexuality and flourishing that is about much more than sex. He offers a glimpse into a covenant community of connected relationships that frames our own individual stories within a much larger story. It is this sense of community that is counter-culturally life-giving and points to the Gospel and to a dynamically engaging relationship with Jesus Christ as the true source of meaning and purpose. In the sexual realm, relying on willpower alone simply will not work since it relies only on the repression of desire. In fact, Grant affirms C.S. Lewis in noting 'that it is not the taming of desire that will set us free but rather the unleashing and enlarging of true desire.' And, of course, that 'true desire' is found only in the One who truly satisfies every longing of the human soul. Discipleship and formation toward that end is the ultimate vision for flourishing." Christian Scholar's Review, 46:2 - 2017, pp190-3.

(Not that the above has anything to do with me turning 65 this summer. - RP)

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - Paranoid Science: The Christian Right's War on Reality, by Antony Williams Alumkal (NYU Press, 2017, hardcover, 256 pages) <www.goo.gl/8yB3aR>

2 - Asian American Evangelical Churches: Race, Ethnicity, and Assimilation in the Second Generation, by Antony William Alumkal (LFB, 2003, hardcover, 218 pages) <www.goo.gl/wn1PZ5>

3 - Divine Sex: A Compelling Vision for Christian Relationships in a Hypersexualized Age, by Jonathan Grant (Brazos, 2015, paperback, 256 pages) <www.goo.gl/skC8H1>

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