Sunday, September 05, 2010

Orthograph #100 - Politics and Religion


Don't know Barney Fife? Poor baby... Go HERE

14 comments:

margaret said...

Barney Fife Syndrome gave me a good laugh while trying to get my power-hungry, prelest-ridden kitties in from the garden where they know they (a) control me and (b) are the biggest,fiercest things out there. I needed a laugh.

Tim said...

Congratulations on your 100th Orthograph!

Anonymous said...

In the last post I started to question this theory. According to stats, Americans change churches, political parties, migrate around the country and change their careers... we're surprisingly malleable.

I can state for myself 5 or 6 stubborn political opinions I once fought heaven and earth for which I no longer hold. And well, I (like our host) came from a religious movement which is about as far from Orthodoxy as you can stand and still be Christian.

Maybe we're all so hard because we know underneath we are very soft.

Steve Robinson said...

NH, My experience has been that many people may change dogmas but are still the same "person" just holding/defending a different dogma and playing out these issues among a new set of aquaintences and a new arena. And yes, I agree that human beings often set hard boundaries because we are indeed soft and easily injured. It is safer to keep everyone at bay than to risk letting a potential disrupter into our life.

Anonymous said...

I cannot say if I am a different person (apart from whatever the Church means by a "new man in Christ"). My wife says I am, but that is probably due more to prayer than any collection of positions I currently hold.

I was speaking to the generally accepted idea that people don't change their positions, or aren't persuaded by internet or other rhetoric when properly engaged. And I, an ugly fighter in my time, have. So I don't think it's fruitless to discuss, even debate things.

If you are saying that our positions are not us and that holding different ones doesn't alter who we are, we have very different ideas about what identity is. Perhaps I'm not Orthodox enough to not identify with my logismoi.

I like them. I keep them about the house as pets. :)

James the Thickheaded said...

Over in my corner I'm giving thanks you haven't discovered bubble charts... yet.

Bill M said...

Heh... took me awhile to puzzle this one out. And I had to look up "prelest". And "Barney Fife".

NH: "Maybe we're all so hard because we know underneath we are very soft." Truer than we care to admit.

Steve Robinson said...

NH, In "absolute" terms people do change ideas and do change personally otherwise there'd be no point to religion or politics. In "general" terms from what I see and hear on political talk radio, blogs,internet sites and coffee hour for the most part they are places that preach to the choir and because they blur the lines between religious belief and political policy etc. it attracts and engenders "endless debate, wrangling over words and fruitless discussion". In general. A change of ideas CAN change a person, but they also can just become a change of brand of baseball bat to beat people up with. Unfortunately that's more my experience personally. :/

Steve Robinson said...

Bill, Dang, I'm old. I forget there are now two generations that knoweth not Barney Fife, only Barney the Purple Thing.... sigh.

Adam Sheehan said...

After having to look up the word "Prelest" (wow, what a word), your Orthograph became clear to me.

I prefer to think of myself as completely deluded and not guilty of the other stuff.

Anonymous said...

Barney Fife needs a revival. One of the best characters in television history.

"Now Andy..."

If I didn't think it would get me in trouble, I'd carry around a single bullet in my shirt pocket.

Apophatically Speaking said...

Very perceptive uncle Steve.

Steve Robinson said...

AS, OK, I've known you live "in town" for quite a while, I've wracked my brain wondering if I've met you and didn't know it. Care to reveal your secret identity to me off the blog? I promise I won't tell Lex Luthor..., Cuz. :)

Bill M said...

I'm too young for Barney Fife, but too old (whew) for the Purple One. The Barney of my childhood was Rubble, of Bedrock.