Love America. And Get Over It.
Sunday, December 5, 2010 at 6:41PM | by Otter The hardest paradox of all in human existence might well be believing enough in our communal existence to get things done while acknowledging that, really, nothing is all THAT important.
One of my own most difficult issues growing up was that Christian scripture demanded that I give up everything for the Kingdom on the one hand, but I was encouraged to defend the culture, the economy, and the nation on the other.
I'm always happy, even now years later, to get email attempting to explain away this paradox.
I remain so far unpersuaded that Christians in America know how to resolve this paradox persuasively, but I sure do remain open.
Until that happy persuasion, here's a graph I find interesting from this article in the Washington Post about American exceptionalism... that is, the belief that God has chosen America to be so exceptional that we could regard America as actually an extension of The Kingdom of God as described in the New Testament.
I'd rather not comment too deeply.
But seriously? More than half of U.S. whites think God granted us special privileges to torture those who oppose us...?
Well.
Fuck that.
Reader Comments (5)
Amen. I thought this was the most striking part of the article.
Amazing how those that feel they have a special role in God's plan also feel that they can carry out that role in the most unchristian ways possible. I'm not sure exactly who they worship.
If someone approached me on the street and asked, “Has God granted America a special role in human history?” I might, in an unguarded moment, answer, “Um . . . sure, I guess,” while thinking silently, “and probably China, too, and certainly Germany did.” And then the pollster would be totally justified in ticking off the “yes” box for both questions, going home to analyze his poll results, and then informing the world that I am one of 58% of white Americans who affirm American exceptionalism.
And I’d be totally justified in concluding that the guy’s an idiot and doesn’t know what he’s doing, because I emphatically do not.
Once you leave the hard sciences (chemistry, physics, etc.) and start trying to do statistical analysis on something as notoriously “soft” as human opinion, you are going to have a hard time getting me to take your results seriously unless you explain, in some detail, what questions you were asking and how you arrived at your conclusions. Then I can decide for myself whether I think your methods are sound.
In my opinion, upwards of 90% of the graphs, charts, and statistics presented in at a popular level are there mainly, if not exclusively, to elicit a particular emotional response from the reader.
It is just barely possible that the little graph from the Public Religion Research Institute survey actually means what it sounds like it means. And if it does, then I’m inclined to feel alarmed--things are even screwier than I thought they were. But absent some meaningful context, which the Washington Post article does not provide, my default is to assume it’s a rhetorical device and nothing more.
From the post: "But seriously? More than half of U.S. whites think God granted us special privileges to torture those who oppose us...?"
It looks to me as if you are overstating the number who believe torture is justified, at least as outlined in the story and in the chart above. (Actually, the chart above does not speak ot overall population at all.)
The story says that 58% of white Americans are buying into exceptionalism. Of THAT 58% (not of all, just of that 58%), over half (55%) believe torture can be justified. That works out to less than half of the total--off the top of my head, about a third of the total.
The chart above shows the relative number who believe the excuse for torture in the two different exceptionalism groups (pro and con) but does not show anything about what percent of the total population those groups are.
The story says that 58% of white Americans are buying into exceptionalism. Of THAT 58% (not of all, just of that 58%), over half (55%) believe torture can be justified. That works out to less than half of the total--off the top of my head, about a third of the total.
Okay. My bad on the numbers. So what's an acceptable number of white Americans who think that God justifies torture to save American lives?
And just to answer a few objections from the mailbag: no, I'm not against saving American lives. I just object to using the divine letterhead as a moral blank check, which this clearly amounts to.