Recovering The Sacred.
This reading was an interesting turn in the direction that this class has been heading. All of the sudden we shifted from the fear Americans have of one another and the different religions to the “termination” (the term the author used in the reading referring to, in simple terms, the ridding out of Native peoples in certain areas) of entire groups of Native peoples. In a way this shifts fits appropriately. It seems that before the fear and exclusion of the different religions that is taking place today, as evident in ‘A New Religious America’, that Americans (white anglo Christian males to be exact) felt a sense of entitlement and that the Unites States was for them and therefore they had the right to do as they please with it, even if it meant wiping out entire populations of people who had been here way before the white male arrived. In another strange relation to past topics of class, perhaps this is the precise history, that the people who have been committing hate crimes in the direction of the different religions affiliations, cling to and see as an absolute truth and therefore as white American men they have to maintain the tradition of superiority, a tradition that is perhaps a legend of dominance in their minds now.
The reading opened up with the University of Arizona/Christians/white males vs the Apache tribe. The University was purposing building a multi-million dollar telescope on the top of Mt Graham, a sacred place for the Apache. From an outsider perspective this sounds like a logical argument that both sides could be heard and finally come to some sort of agreement or what not. The interesting part that I found was the issue of the Catholic Church stepping in with this project. What do Catholics have to do with space exploration and education? Everything. There was a quote on page 27 that states (spoken by a Vatican astronomer) “should intelligent life be found, the church would be obliged to address the question of whether extraterrestrials might be brought within the fold and baptized”. Am I the only one who found this quote to be borderline humerous? Is this astronomer suggestion that even aliens can be Catholic? Beyond the absurdity of this statement lies something else. The Catholic Church HAS to be the first one to know about extraterrestrials and other life forms that space exploration exposes, for if something was found elsewhere, not on THIS planet that was created FOR man, would their religious beliefs be undermined and questioned? Would the Catholic Church lose their authority within the religious world? In a religion that is often too quick to judge others and exclude people from their religious affiliation, this seems like an awful quick jump to acceptance of all. Is this making assumption that Catholics do not support homosexuality but yet be the first to baptize an alien? I hope that I am not the only one who noticed the misplacement of this quote and the confusion that it raised. I felt that there could have/should have been a lot more exploration and explanation around this idea presented by saying that Catholics would baptize aliens. Perhaps the Catholics feel threatened by this technologically advanced space exploration and feel that they need to appear to be for it and a part of it so that the Catholic Church followers could be told what to believe about alien life forms if they were to be found.
The next few chapters illustrated a few instances where the Native peoples were losing their land, basically they were being screwed out of their land, by the modernization that the white man was involved in. The amount of water that was/is being used to push coal through the transport system should be of concern for all citizens of the United States. Why is this issue not being raised and why do we not hear people talking about this more? The country has been aware of the water shortage that is going to effect us all in the near future, yet why is this transport system still in place? It reminds me of Mulholland’ aqua duct that was built through central California and fed water to Los Angeles county. Muholland has been accused of being greedy and not caring about what he was doing. Once his source for water was used up and there was none left, he just built and robbed another lake until that one was dry and this cycle continued. Mono Lake was destroyed by the greed of this man and Muholland never considered the harm he was doing to the earth or the Native peoples who relied on these stolen lakes for their survival.Its all about greed and people have lacked respect for the earth itself.
This lack of respect is the main theme throughout this reading. Native people have in them the ability to see the earth for its beauty and respect its natural resources. The white man believes that it is his way that is best and his religion that is superior and therefore these Natives customs and traditions are being lost. This is the way I see most organized religions in America behaving. As if their religion is superior and the correct way to live and anyone who does not believe what they believe or have the same morals are considered heathens and not living in the correct way under the eyes of God. Their god. Which in their eyes is the right god.
Overall I have to add that out of all the readings we have done so far this semester, this is the one in which I see them most accurate description and illustration of the greed within the white mans Christianity. The past readings have touched upon this, but before this reading it was all circled around fear, but this reading illustrated more of the greed then fear. Although everyone should be fearful of a religion waiting to baptize aliens.
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4 comments:
Hello Liz,
Hope you had a good weekend.
I wanted to respond to your blog from last week in an attempt to spread my responses around to as many as I can before the semester ends.
I also appreciated the shift in class subject matter with Recovering The Scared. Although, in contrast, I wonder if maybe this book might have been better before The New Religious America (TNRA) book. Maybe if we had put our American historical narrative in context, starting with the 500 year long campaign to rid the continent of its indigenous peoples, the intolerance peeking in and out of every corner of America could have been dissected in a different way. What do you think? The sense of fear and entitlement plaguing American society (as portrayed in TNRA book) does not seem so shocking when we consider the ways in which our country always has feared the others and different. Or, the ever-varying ways Whiteness seeks to either assimilate or annihilate, as you put it, their legend of dominance.
The quote about the Vatican and alien baptism borderline humorous? I laughed out loud, literally. But, I find it the “so funny, it’s not really funny” kind of humorous. I am not sure I agree with some of the ladies in our class who think that the Catholic and Vatican want the telescope “because they are interested in astrology and stars and stuff.” I think the motives of the Catholic Church and the Vatican are interwoven with greed, corporations, and a need to put a Godly spin on any and all future discoveries. I tend to be overly suspicious when it comes to the church who almost single-handedly murdered, enslaved, pillaged and irrevocably changed many of the world’s native peoples. I totally agree with you that the Church would like to be the first to know what else is out there, so they can quickly make sure it in no way undermines their teachings, authority or status as a world power. (They are right up there with the good old United States in many ways.)
Interesting that you bring up the question of the implications of finding other beings on another planet after basing an entire religious ideology on the Takers philosophy of the planet belong to and for humans. I never considered how that might affect the strong hold on much of the world.
It distresses me too that the issues surrounding water are not discussed everywhere. Someone told me, or I saw in in a movie, or in class, wherever, that the next world war will be fought, not over oil or money, but water. Water is the single most important aspect of the continued existence of humans and every other Earthly creature (plant, animal, etc). I visited Mono Lake, maybe 15 years ago, with my family and saw pictures of how the lake changed over the years due to the aqueduct. Tragic. But, just another tragic snapshot of the atrocities, driven by greed and wealth, suffocating our planet.
You have a great way of putting things, I appreciate your contributions to class discussions. You make me feel like I am not alone in class. So, thanks. And, yeah, everyone should be wary of a religion waiting to baptize aliens while they deny homosexuals marriage and heaven.
Hey Liz! I decided to respond to your blog this week because you and I had very similar feelings while reading this week. You asked the question about what Catholics have to do with space exploration, which is answered by the Vatican astronomer. I found this to be hilarious and twisted as well. The fact that they are already trying to stake claim on a new breed of “aliens” shows that we have not come far from colonization, thus assuming that Catholics are the elite when it comes to religion. I do agree with your statement, that the Catholic Church was fearful that their religion would be undermined. They do not even take it into the consideration that whatever is out there, whether it is aliens or not, may have their own beliefs and customs. There is the other assumption that you brought up that earth was created for man. As we have learned thus far in the class, this thought that the earth was created for man, is why there is such a great deal of deterioration throughout this world. You were hoping for more of an explanation of how and why the Catholic Church wanted to baptize aliens, yet in fact this is what their goal within the world is to accomplish. It is the church’s mission, as in many religions, to convert people whenever possible. It is true as well throughout any type of colonization that those that are colonizing wish to be the ones that inform the nation about who these “others” are; they want to type-cast them first and foremost, giving them the control.
You inquired why our society is not informed about events like the aqueduct, yet we have to think about many issues that the government covers up. I really don’t believe that we hear about much of this because the press has to preview stories that people will want to hear and be interested in. The general public is not interested in things that don’t occur right around their areas, this has been tested through many experiments. People care about what is going to directly affect them. I am taking a politics in the media class and we have studied why the entire population is not informed about “major” events such as these, and the motto that many journalists follows is “If it bleeds, it leads.” Native Americans do not have a great position within this country as it is, we have taken so much from them already, so when we keep taking, it is not anything new.
Your comments about the white man’s god are very much real; our society is based on this Christian god. There seems to be a need for a grand conversion throughout society to be Christian. There has been such a great deal of conversion throughout the history of the world, mainly being a Christian conversion process. Christians believe that their god is the superior god within all religions, thus devaluing all others. This mindset is what brings about so much of the deterioration throughout our world.
In response to Liz’s blog it is interesting that she noticed the turn that the class has taken with regards to the fear based aspects that we have been examining in past classes. However in retrospect the fear of the Anglos has been ever present as evidenced with the actions taken out with regards to the Native American’s right here in our country.
In reviewing the chapters and starting off with the University of Arizona’s telescope venture was astonishing. Liz’s opinion was that there was a probability of the two sides (Apache’s and University’s) coming together in some sort of agreement on how to interact. I really could not imagine that happening by any means. The history of Anglos “with religion” infiltrating and indoctrinating Natives is the narrative of this country. So to me, I could not foresee an agreement between the two polar opposites. I also was shocked to know that the Catholic Church had a stake in the telescope project. But why should we be so shocked? The question that Liz posed about the Catholic Church losing their authority was interesting. What authority specifically is being risked? How do you see this changing the religious world? Also, I’m in agreement with the fact that the Catholics are not embracing of the people that are here on this earth, how could they possibly love and embrace an alien life form? I disagree whole heartedly with the actions that have been taken with the University of Arizona to put telescopes on top of this mountain. I find it ludicrous. But the Catholics need to protect the image they portray of being leaders in the religious community. They absolutely need to save face.
While I’m unfamiliar with the Muholland Aqueduct system appears as if there is a bigger issue here with the transportation of coal via water. In California we have discussed the water shortage for many years. It is imperative that this issue be raised to the larger public. But this is a bit trickier than the other issue as jobs for the natives are being created. So to take away some of their livelihood is rather cruel. This situation really presents itself as a catch 22. As for there being a lack of respect against the Natives and their land, who could disagree with that?
But alas, fear and hatred are the key ingredients of the government and the church. “They” say that there is a separation of church and state, but isn’t it curious how they both act like the greedy, selfish pigs that they are. Both church and state are talking out of both sides of their mouth. How can they reconcile this? What can we do as little citizens to reach the larger group of people and have them stop their fighting and hatred towards “others”? Is anything possible? It is quite a conundrum that we have gotten ourselves in. I found that Liz really took to the readings and was very critical of them. I had not seen some of the slants that she had so clearly picked up on. Good Job Liz!
Hi Liz,
I decided to respond to your blog simply because I completely agree with your sentiments about the Catholic Church. You were not the only one who was humored. I was actually a little shocked when I read that about that, but now it does make sense because of who they are and what they are. The first thing that came to my mind was I bet they are thinking, “Oh yes! Another planet that we can try to over power and take over! If we have first access, maybe we can convert them before anyone else gets to them!” Oh boy...just what we need. You were absolutely right about how they would fear that their beliefs would be questioned. There again is the fear. Fear of someone, somehow will blow their theory and beliefs right out of the water. The other thing I was thinking about was along the line of what you said about being able to tell their followers first. I can’t remember anything in the Bible about aliens, space exploration etc and if it is not in the Bible, it isn’t true..right? So this, right off the bat, would go against what they believe or know. Perhaps they would be able to create another story to go along with their beliefs.
In answer to your question about the water shortage, I believe that because the government is involved in some way in all aspects of the water supply, they have their cronies in charge of these systems. Again, like you said, it’s about greed. If they have their cronies in charge, they can tell them what they want so they will get financial gain or political support. It’s an “I rub your back, and you rub my back” thing...It’s disgusting! Like you said in your second to last sentence..it’s all about greed...I think that this is the biggest fault in the white man because this leads to everything else.
The middle of your last paragraph sums it up for me about religion. This is EXACTLY the way I have been feeling about organized religion for the past few years. I just can’t agree that people HAVE to believe in a religion to be moral. I’m sure you as well as everyone in this class know many, many people who are moral, yet are not religious. And also, know people of different religions and are moral. One religion is not right or better than any other. They all have their good and bad and what is right for one may not be right for another. But also, having no organized religion is good for some and they can live their life happy, prosperous, morally and ethically. Feeling this way, it really bothers me that so many people think that if you have no religion you are a bad person. I have no religion and I am not a bad person!
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