Posts
Or, why our Immigration Policy is
The Hand Of God Moving in Mysterious
Ways.
I have a new IPad app that lets me listen to British radio
stations (oh yes, the thrill of it all!) and I recently caught the tail end of
a conversation with an Anglican Bishop who was bemoaning the decline in Church
attendance. He made the following comment:
"The Evangelical movement has failed as a reform movement
within the Church."
I was amazed he had ever thought it could be one, when, to
paraphrase my youngest daughter, it could best be described as "petri-dish
mysticism" [i]. So, lest I be damned at
Christmas, let me explain: First, churches operate at two levels:
1.
The communal and religious: the human urge to
come together and sing uplifting songs, hear the word of their God expounded, and
unite in worship and that warm feeling of virtue and connectedness. Enjoying communion
- being part of a spiritual community.
2.
The individual and spiritual, or mysticism: an individual
and direct personal spiritual connection to God, the Godhead, the Universal
Soul (or whatever term works for you).
The first is the visible part of the church: the people it
includes and all the charitable, generous, open-hearted and 'inspired' works
they do. Which is the part of most Christian churches that's dwindling just as fast
as their congregations are aging and dying.
The second is the personal
spiritual connection that's always been distrusted and tightly controlled
by Christian churches. Known as mysticism,
it's about personally penetrating the 'cloud of unknowing' to reach and connect
with the ineffable mystery of God. And that's why the Evangelical movement in
Catholic and Protestant churches is a problem: it's a hybrid form of communal mysticism. All that speaking in
tongues and spiritual healing and what looks uncomfortably like mass hysteria
is the spirit of Christ, or the Holy Spirit, or whatever you want to call it,
reaching down and overwhelming the faithful with bliss and rapture. It's a
group orgasm of the spirit.
And if you think this doesn't have anything to do with you
let me remind you that our Immigration
Minister, Scott Morrison is a very senior Evangelical. His faith guides him,
and therefore his attitudes and actions. And this is where the 'petri-dish
mysticism' comes in. There are four levels or stages of transcendent experience
involved in mysticism. They are:
1.
Bliss, or rapture.
2.
Illumination - the enlightenment bit, where you
get new insights and a little humility.
3.
Exstasis, the separation of the soul from the
body, and:
4.
Merging with the infinite, the Universal Soul,
or God.
The problem is that Evangelicals aren't reaching beyond the
first level. The 12th century Christian mystic and Augustinian monk Richard of
St Victor described it thus:
"In the first degree spiritual feeling sweeter than honey
enters into her soul and inebriates her with its sweetness.."
enters into her soul and inebriates her with its sweetness.."
That inebriation, being spiritually drunk (on the Holy Spirit),
is what Evangelical services offer. Mass drunkenness, without alcohol. A
cathartic emotional release which can wash away guilt and pain and regret
without the understanding, insight or reflection of personal mediation or
prayer. When people break out into babbling and gibberish it isn't a sign of over stimulation,
mental intoxication and emotional overload it's a sign of holiness, of purity,
of God's acceptance of who you are, with all your faults. And there's the rub.
If this emotional and spiritual hot-tub washes only God's chosen vessels then
we are, by definition, absolutely worthy, upright and deserving, true and
correct in all our opinions and beliefs.
The Catholic and other traditional churches' long-held suspicion
of this 'rapturous connection' is based on a genuine spiritual concern. People
who are in this state of spiritual and emotional openness are enormously
suggestible. And there's plenty of charismatic individuals in any generation
willing to allow themselves to be first adored, then worshipped as beyond
ordinary conceptions of morality, then obeyed to the letter in any despicable
act or impulse. Cult leaders from Jim Jones to Charles Manson are notable
examples of rapture followed by bloodshed. And while the Church may debate the
degree of demonic influence involved the results here on earth are still
bloody, appalling and socially destructive.
Defensiveness, cults and reactionary politics
And it's not just religious cults that feed on this emotional
and spiritual orgasm. When historian Robert Waite described Hitler as the 'Psychopathic
God' this process is exactly what he had in mind; the cynical and systematic
manipulation of people's emotional states to prey on their religious needs and
instincts. The cult of personality around Lenin or Mao are similar extremes,
but you can see the same fervour at an Obama rally, or in the cult of
personality around Ronald Reagan among the conservative 'faithful'. People in
groups will quickly connect and hype each other up emotionally, but
intellectual processing drops to the lowest common denominator just as quickly.
There is no need, or use, or room for intellect, discernment or logic. Just the
rush, and the obedience of the herd.
That rapture, for the solitary individual praying or
meditating is a sign that you're becoming spiritually open and emotionally
responsive. It's there to motivate you to engage in the hard work of reflecting
on yourself and your place in the world. On honestly seeing yourself in a
broader context, which should produce humility.
Instead Evangelical Churches favour an anti-intellectual Biblical
literalism whose status as 'the absolute truth' is directly proportional to the
fevered fervour of their emotional and spiritual experience. Which is the
greatest, most powerful experience of their lives. So there are no questions which can't be
answered by their 2000 year old book of fables, myths, eye-for-an-eye morality,
xenophobia, selective editing and obscure metaphysics.
The head-shaking and derision this elicits from the rest of
us does not make them feel loved. It only serves to amplify their self-imposed
cultish isolation. And with all cults isolation breeds defensiveness, suspicion
and a pseudo-martyr complex. God knows, they know they're right (about
everything no matter how ridiculously uninformed they may be). They have God's
miracle of orgasmic spiritual fever to prove it.
This is the mindset that inspires reactionary politics:
suspicion of outsiders, possession of a Holy Truth that others lampoon, direct
authority from God for their opinions, no matter how small, or petty or cruel,
or selfish, or self-serving or .. well, you get the drift. And when they get
the power to punish others for their temerity in questioning God's chosen
people.. well, watch out, Buddy.
I once worked with an Evangelical Catholic and his most
prominent trait was an astonishing level of spiritual arrogance. He truly
believed he was 'chosen of God' if not chosen by God. He was, unsurprisingly, reactionary and conservative, and he
closely identified with the authority structure of the organisation, becoming progressively
more humourless and authoritarian the longer he held any organisational power
over others. He went from being regarded with amused condescension, to mockery,
to animus, to fear and eventually outright hatred for his punitive, bullying
manner and acts of spite and petty revenge.
The 'holier than thou' reactionary politics of Evangelical
Christians is consistent with history's worst religious excesses. Pogroms,
massacres, jihads and crusades all stem from religious fervour and fear. Fear
which morphs into hate, and hate which generates violence.
The cumulative weight of micro-aggressions targeted at refugees
and other outsiders makes our society uglier and more hateful. It isn't just
the 'boat people' who suffer. We all do when they arrive here damaged and in
pain, embittered by their treatment, angry and resentful. And while Scott
Morrison and Tony Abbott may keep them from staying here we will all still have
to live in a society with new norms of behaviour that are progressively more
hate-filled, mean-spirited and extreme, less tolerant of difference and
diversity, more abusive, authoritarian and violent.
And no God worth a good goddamn could be pleased with that.
And A Merry Christmas to You All.
PS: If anyone would like to engage me upon the rest of the four levels of transcendent whotsit, mine's a very large rum.
[i] An acerbic and insightful young lady, she once memorably described the idea that
pole-dancing empowered women through physical mastery as 'petri-dish feminism'.
