Self-hate.
It's the one thing religion is good at fostering.
We hate ourselves because we're not tall enough, because we're not smart enough, because we made a mistake a long time ago with life-changing consequences--and we hate ourselves because we have trouble measuring up to the dictates of our religious elites.
Yesterday I took a walking tour of Dallas, and one of my main points of interest was a place called Deep Ellum. For those of you not from Dallas, Deep Ellum is the place where most of the club scene in DFW is located (though there are quite a few clubs in Fort Worth as well). It is located some miles away from downtown Dallas, on the other side of a major Dallas County freeway in fact, and it is obvious that the community does not exactly thrive during the day. Approximately half the buildings I saw had "For Lease" or "For Rent" signs on them, and the other half looked deserted. I saw very few people around--only the occasional wandering tourist or some Dallas resident looking out of place in the environment of artistry, alternative lifestyles, and the macabre offered in what very justifiably can be said to be the heart of DFW nightlife.
There's a point to this observation . . . :)
Over the past semester or so, since I've started working at night, I've found out a lot about the DFW club scene, particularly from the cabbies I have talked to. I've heard stories of TCU students (usually women) hitching cabs home after drinking themselves into a state of complete inebriation. I've heard stories of women propositioning cab drivers, I've heard stories of cab passengers masturbating in the backseat of the car while talking to their sweethearts, and I've heard that most of this "wild" action occurs between the hours of 2 and 4am.
This is a far cry from the Fort Worth/TCU scene I'm used to seeing during the daytime. Sure, there are the usual groups of students who smoke, drink, and cuss (all of which are no-no's in the so-called "buckle of the Bible Belt"), but I've never seen so much as one nudist, or swinger, or pothead here during the day.
Most people seem very strait-laced, in fact. I've often wondered to myself what people do for fun in this town besides eat, do karaoke, and go to the movies (all of which I could do in my hometown, which is considerably smaller than Fort Worth). And go to church.
And this is my point. Fort Worth is a place where, for the most part, people do not seem to feel free to be themselves. The fact that some of them are willing to go to the extreme of escaping their city and their communities for an entire night to do so indicates the extent to which Fort Worth, and particularly its church establishment, have brutalized the general populace.
Personally, I do not see calling people to a greater level of responsibility and self-respect a bad thing, nor do I believe it is ill-advised to tell someone that his/her habits, fascinations, and obsessions are self-destructive. For example, I applaud anyone who would tell a man, upon finding out that he regularly beat his wife, that his actions are sinful, or who would confront a friend who was an alcoholic with the fact that he/she needed to get off the booze and get sober before something bad happened. These are very laudable activities, and I certainly would approve of anyone standing up not only for his/her beliefs, but also for the well-being of others.
However, as I have become well aware during the past few years, there are people out there who view doing anything outside the Christian subculture to be a sin and an offense against God--and worse, there are people who, for whatever reason, are willing to use God (and their knowledge of the Bible) to control others, either for financial gain or for other, more sinister, reasons. Even worse, there is a subculture of Christians who came out of "colorful" or "alternative" lifestyles, are ashamed of the memories they have of what they were before becoming Christians, and who, in a desperate attempt to wipe away the stain of those memories, not only repress themselves to the point of exasperation, but ask others to do the same (presumably out of loyalty to them, or to God).
Self-hate.
That's what Christianity (or the Christianity I have become so familiar with in the Bible Belt) specializes in.
And yet the Christ on whom the Christians rely so often for their strictures, their warnings, and their sermons . . . was so much kinder in his outlook toward people--and toward colorful, alternative people in particular.
I guess that's the difference a thousand years or two makes . . .
It's the one thing religion is good at fostering.
We hate ourselves because we're not tall enough, because we're not smart enough, because we made a mistake a long time ago with life-changing consequences--and we hate ourselves because we have trouble measuring up to the dictates of our religious elites.
Yesterday I took a walking tour of Dallas, and one of my main points of interest was a place called Deep Ellum. For those of you not from Dallas, Deep Ellum is the place where most of the club scene in DFW is located (though there are quite a few clubs in Fort Worth as well). It is located some miles away from downtown Dallas, on the other side of a major Dallas County freeway in fact, and it is obvious that the community does not exactly thrive during the day. Approximately half the buildings I saw had "For Lease" or "For Rent" signs on them, and the other half looked deserted. I saw very few people around--only the occasional wandering tourist or some Dallas resident looking out of place in the environment of artistry, alternative lifestyles, and the macabre offered in what very justifiably can be said to be the heart of DFW nightlife.
There's a point to this observation . . . :)
Over the past semester or so, since I've started working at night, I've found out a lot about the DFW club scene, particularly from the cabbies I have talked to. I've heard stories of TCU students (usually women) hitching cabs home after drinking themselves into a state of complete inebriation. I've heard stories of women propositioning cab drivers, I've heard stories of cab passengers masturbating in the backseat of the car while talking to their sweethearts, and I've heard that most of this "wild" action occurs between the hours of 2 and 4am.
This is a far cry from the Fort Worth/TCU scene I'm used to seeing during the daytime. Sure, there are the usual groups of students who smoke, drink, and cuss (all of which are no-no's in the so-called "buckle of the Bible Belt"), but I've never seen so much as one nudist, or swinger, or pothead here during the day.
Most people seem very strait-laced, in fact. I've often wondered to myself what people do for fun in this town besides eat, do karaoke, and go to the movies (all of which I could do in my hometown, which is considerably smaller than Fort Worth). And go to church.
And this is my point. Fort Worth is a place where, for the most part, people do not seem to feel free to be themselves. The fact that some of them are willing to go to the extreme of escaping their city and their communities for an entire night to do so indicates the extent to which Fort Worth, and particularly its church establishment, have brutalized the general populace.
Personally, I do not see calling people to a greater level of responsibility and self-respect a bad thing, nor do I believe it is ill-advised to tell someone that his/her habits, fascinations, and obsessions are self-destructive. For example, I applaud anyone who would tell a man, upon finding out that he regularly beat his wife, that his actions are sinful, or who would confront a friend who was an alcoholic with the fact that he/she needed to get off the booze and get sober before something bad happened. These are very laudable activities, and I certainly would approve of anyone standing up not only for his/her beliefs, but also for the well-being of others.
However, as I have become well aware during the past few years, there are people out there who view doing anything outside the Christian subculture to be a sin and an offense against God--and worse, there are people who, for whatever reason, are willing to use God (and their knowledge of the Bible) to control others, either for financial gain or for other, more sinister, reasons. Even worse, there is a subculture of Christians who came out of "colorful" or "alternative" lifestyles, are ashamed of the memories they have of what they were before becoming Christians, and who, in a desperate attempt to wipe away the stain of those memories, not only repress themselves to the point of exasperation, but ask others to do the same (presumably out of loyalty to them, or to God).
Self-hate.
That's what Christianity (or the Christianity I have become so familiar with in the Bible Belt) specializes in.
And yet the Christ on whom the Christians rely so often for their strictures, their warnings, and their sermons . . . was so much kinder in his outlook toward people--and toward colorful, alternative people in particular.
I guess that's the difference a thousand years or two makes . . .
posted by Brian Bly at 11:05 AM
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