Donald Miller: Christian Rationalism

Following my stinging attack on American Christianity I am going to follow it up with something very odd. Praise for it. A close friend of mine bought me a copy of a book called ‘Blue Like Jazz’ by Donald Miller who is an American Christian writer. Rather than calling for the assassination of another nations democratically elected sovereign leader – he actually wishes to do some good with the idea of religion.

The book is amazing. It is short enough to read in the space of a few hours and absorbing enough to finish in even less. I have actually come away from it rather liking this man and the faith he proposes to uphold. This is big news. I do not like Christian doctrine or Christian writers that champion it. Yet this book is the answer to my prayers. It is a book that looks at how we can make Christianity safe for the rest of the world and dare I say it – it even looks at the prospect of Christianity having a ‘positive’ effect on society. A novelty to say the least.

I love this book so much I have even written a review of it in my own holy text. Dialectic. The review can be found here I beg you all to begin reading it (the book that is). You can even borrow my copy.

Hope you enjoy it! and thank you to Nellie for guiding the way.

Mission Accomplished!

So then. America. Been there, far from done all that but I do have many t-shirts. I had the time of my life over in the States. I strongly advise any and all people to actually venture over there (or anywhere for that matter) just to escape your mundane Monday.
I made some fantastic friends and hope to see them all again soon. I can’t wait in fact.

The United States of America. What did I learn? People are very friendly. Americans love British people just as Europeans despise us. They are very organised at the civil society level and it is fun to be a part of a community that ‘feels’ active, as if it has things to do and places to be. The emphasis is on great men’s generosity not on state enforced charity. People are truly free to be as diverse as they want. Churches preach their doctrines of suspicion and intolerance just as people nearby get high on pot and down the road homosexuals drink cocktails. Supposedly secular Universities will ban alcohol from campus and provide cupcakes and films for students just as many more smuggle crates of beer through bottom floor windows. A diverse land.

Yet I got the suspicion that something was amiss. The balance was out of line. America was tipping to the Religious right. With terrifying consequences for themselves and especially the world. The word ‘atheist’ in America is not the unspoken norm. It is a swear word. Rivalled only by 'Democrat'. Practicing or not most of them do believe in some sort of God. This is a God that they have been taught, from infant school – that favours them. America is on a divine mission to save the world from imaginary evils. George Bush isn’t a very popular president yet only because he is getting the sons and daughters of Christian families killed. No one sheds a tear when that underclass otherwise known as ‘African Americans’ suffers a fatality. They don’t count.
The same with taxes. It is essential to American freedom that no over mighty state take a white mans pay check away and give it to a flood victim. Flood victims, once again, are the wrong colour to receive aid. The separation of church and state in America has failed. States are redefining the term ‘Science’ and State Universities promote abstinence from woman, alcohol and drugs. Meanwhile American television really is scarier than in Britain and makes you want to own a semi-automatic in case that underclass you helped create wanted some pay back. (In a spooky verification of Southern favourite, Michael Moore). America has a very scary perception of patriotism. Stalinist Russia couldn’t have perfected the ‘cult of self’ anymore fine than America has. Dancing flag bearers, fight songs, military marching bands and tear inducing talk of the fatherland prevail on an all to daily basis.

I went to Arkansas in part to test my own beliefs. I knew the south was a hotbed of religious hatred, Republicans and rifle owning rednecks still planning the confederate come back. And on the whole, with some exceptions. It is. Far from opening my eyes to the beauty of the ‘American Way’ I have recoiled in horror at a nation that takes the notion of freedom in a different direction. It takes it towards religion, a religion that loves only its own freedom.

I can, in a bizarre twist – say that America has made me more liberal.