The Tongue Of The Wise Makes Knowledge Appealing, But The Mouth Of A Fool Belches Out Foolishness*

In 2003, a group of students at Bastrop High School in Bastrop, TX, painted a mural under the leadership of local artist Raul Valdez.  The students chose what to paint; Valdez was there to help them, not create it.  For five years this mural has not only existed unremarked by the community at large, it has been left alone; graffiti has never defaced it.

But this is America, where the Constitutionally protected right to be incalculably ignorant, fearful and possessing of a giant sense of entitlement will never be infringed upon by any Presidential administration or judge.  So we predictably find a resident exercising these rights, one Lauren Hansell.

Mrs. Hansell homeschools her children, but goes to the high school each Friday to participate in See You at the Pole, an annual event that in many locations is practiced by a smaller group of kids on a weekly basis.  It's one of those bogus activities churches come up with in order to make their teens think they're doing something important while not actually costing anything significant in terms of time, money or attitude.  When I was a youth pastor I figured I could run around town making a spectacle of myself praying in public places or I could try to figure out ways to help my students stop cutting themselves with razor blades.  Not a hard decision.

Anyway, Mrs. Hansell - who is the sole source of her children's education, remember that - is offended by the mural because it contains images of Buddha, Shiva, an Aztec sun image and King Tut.  Shiva is depicted dancing on an ignorance demon, portrayed as a baby.  In a stunning display of the kind of logic and intellectual rigor Mrs. Hansell is inflicting on her children, she was offended at what she interpreted as a "pro-abortion" reference.  Because, you see, people who are "pro-abortion" like to think about dancing on babies' bodies.

Believe it or not, Mrs. Hansell has feats of the mind that top even that!

Another reason she objects to the mural is because, and for the love of all that is good and holy this is a quote,

the mural presents a new age idea of peace and unity that could be confusing to Christian students.

Peace and unity are "new age" concepts.  Christian students can be "confused" by images of peace and unity.

I honestly don't know what to do with this.  Of course I'm angry, but I'm also profoundly sad that this is the level to which Christianity is sunk.  Jesus is supposed to be the Prince of Peace.  John 20 records a prayer that Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gesthemene shortly before Judas came for him in which he prayed that his followers would have the same unity and love for one another as that shared between God the Father and Jesus the Son.

Peace and unity, two concepts that lie at the very heart of Christianity, and this woman exists in a state of such extreme religious poverty that she thinks such concepts are alien ideals that must be hidden away to protect Christian children.  My heart breaks for this utterly ignorant woman, for her multitude of intellectual and religious peers across this nation, and especially for her children who will pay for the substandard education she is giving them, quite possibly for the rest of their lives.

This is why I believe in God, but have trouble with the idea of an actual Satan.  We need all the help we can get to be and do good, but in being and doing evil to one another we need no help at all.

*Proverbs 15:2

Comments

[litbrit]

Stephen, Stephen, Stephen. What are we going to do with you?

You know Jesus really wants for white male billionaires to continue profiting from war, and that He of course supports dividing up the planet into Us and Them, so that the US (pun intended) can bomb the living crap out of the Thems, thus enriching the aforementioned white male billionaires.

War and divisiveness, gang! That's what Jesus was about, no matter what he actually, you know, said and did during his brief time on Earth.

Of course such concepts as peace and unity would be confusing to kids who'd always known that Jesus was, in fact, on the side of warmongers and divisiveness-promoters.

*gag* (Typing all that, even with my tongue jammed into my cheek, gave me a nasty taste in my mouth.)

Sadly, I know people like that homeschoolin' Mama (neighborhood and school thing.) They use the school-provided contact info to send me (and other parents) group emails saying things like "Could you except a president who's preacher said Goddamn Americans and shouldnt you support an honest, hardworking American hero in John McCain because he isnt an litest snob and knows the value of a dollar?"

*double gag*

I really must stop, or I'll sicken myself for hours.

By the way, EXCELLENT title, sir. Just frickin' excellent.

[Stephen]

By the way, EXCELLENT title, sir. Just frickin' excellent.

Thanks. Proverbs is a greatly under-appreciated book. Maybe it's because Wisdom is anthropomorphised as a woman and is declared to be the means by which God created the universe.

Some people say that this personification of Wisdom is a precurser to the Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit. If so, that means the Holy Spirit is decidedly feminine. Maybe that's why most Christians tend to pass Proverbs & Ecclesiastes on by.

[sam k]

By far, the most amusing comment was this.

A Christian, Hansell said she wants the mural removed because of the war and slavery scenes...Hansell said she'd also like a more positive image of African Americans.

I run with enough of these folks to know that this is just a clever attempt to insulate her from accusations of close-mindedness (reaching out to blacks is the ultimate bigotry trump card), but it wouldn't be too far-fetched to assume she's accidentally speaking the truth here. Naturally, there's a strong anti-establishment impulse among homeschoolers, but it often manifests in weird forms of historical skepticism, like that the brutality of slavery was over-dramatized and that many slaves lived happy, fulfilling lives.

Also:

the mural presents a new age idea of peace and unity that could be confusing to Christian students.

That's a quote from the article, but it's an indirect quote of the woman.

[Scott K]

Ahhh, Sophia... I had a lengthy discourse with a friend of mine who is training as a Catholic priest (and, no, as far as I know, he has no interest in young children) about Gnostic Christianity and their vision of the Aeons (including Sophia) and Sophia subsequently creating Yaldabaoth (aka the Demiurge). He didn't seem to be well versed in Gnostic doctrine (perhaps they don't teach that in seminary!) but he remarked that it was quite an ingenious method of reconciling the different views of God in the Old Testament and New Testament, as well as somewhat addressing the problem of how imperfection could come from God.

But I digress...

I'm personally a Zen Buddhist, but I do see plenty to agree with in the Bible. Living in a part of the country populated by religiously conservative people, I've gotten a fair amount of practicing at expressing my fundamentally Zen worldview through discussion and interpretation of the Bible. And it is quite easy to do so. Unfortunately, much of the Bible consists of opinions and narratives written by narrow-minded people and the history of Israel, much like the rest of the world, wasn't exactly the most pacifist history. Even carrying into the Epistles, there's still a fair share of dim views upon a variety of matters. Somehow I think that the "Christian worldview" (put in quotes to make it clear that I don't consider this to be the worldview of ALL Christians) would be improved if the Biblical illumination was confined to the words that Jesus actually said...