I have my own, largely conflicted, thoughts regarding the man and his life's work -- I may yet get around to telling of my single encounter with him. But this is not about that. This is about the nature of public opinion.
Funerals are enlightening experiences, for those who pay attention. When my friend's pious father passed away the kids jumped at the opportunity to get in the last word. In their eulogy they noted how, in his later years, he slowly transformed from being reflexively judgemental to being a man of consideration and compassion.
I thought, Jesus -- here's hoping the kids can manage the same trick.
The eulogy struck my daughters as a bit strange, but they couldn't quite put their finger on why. Ever the helpful blowhard, I took a stab at explanation and said, "If you truly believe in Hell -- truly believe in Hell -- you will do everything in your power to steer your precious little children away from its gates."
There isn't a parent alive who doesn't believe in a Hell of one sort or another. The bulk of my childhood Sunday School class grew up to believe the worst Hell imaginable occurs when Fundamentalist Dogma gains a stranglehold on human imagination. They're only half-right (doesn't anybody read Nietzsche anymore?), but the limited scope of appraisal and perspicacity that brought them to this conclusion is an understandable self-hobbling.
It is even forgivable.
Luther's corpse takes a whipping from me on this blog, but I am grateful to him for the following exhortation: "Be a sinner, and sin boldly -- (etc.)"
If you're having trouble with that, watch Archie and Meathead trapped in a storeroom -- again.
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| Was it Archie Bunker or Jean-Paul Sartre who said...? |
7 comments:
Good for me to come back to this after a few busy days being a woke social-media post-Protestant.
Haha! I'd not seen the Twittering (I don't go there very often), but had indeed caught you hitching a ride off Robinson. I'd thought of throwing in my 2c, but second-thought, "What if I'm the only guy who's read her?"
Hrmm yeah, wisely considered.
(Strictly speaking, I should say, it was sharp young Ms. McClay whose bumper I meant to ride there. I thought her notes stood on their own pretty self-evidently whether one knew Robinson (as I don’t) or not. Might’ve been a mistake!)
No, I got that -- Ms. McClay speaks well, I think (I am a much bigger fan of Robinson's fiction than I am of her essays). But if we are speaking strictly, you will also note my gender-biased personal noun. ;)
Oh yeah, loud & clear.
Possibly it was just sort of a hat-tip to my posting an article about Robinson without really meaning to discuss her, on friend’s part, to go one further himself and make her his opportunity for a general objection to evils attributable to Calvinism in America. (Apart from a certain sympathy with his view, it’s hard to be too upset with him when I think of all the times I’ve done the same.)
No need to 'splain, my friend. Watching others hunt demons can be entertaining.
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