Reverend Terry may want to live in an America full of mirrors, but Mark Greene sure doesn’t.
A few nights ago in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Rev. Dennis Terry introduced Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum by saying the following:
“I don’t care what the liberals say, I don’t care what the naysayers say, this nation was founded as a Christian nation…There is only one God and his name is Jesus. I’m tired of people telling me that I can’t say those words.. Listen to me, If you don’t love America, If you don’t like the way we do things I have one thing to say – GET OUT. We don’t worship Buddha, we don’t worship Mohammad, we don’t worship Allah, we worship God, we worship God’s son Jesus Christ.”
You can see the video here:
The reverend is not a man who believes in diversity. He is not a man who accepts that others’ views are different but equally valuable. He is not a man who is willing to live among mixed ideologies. He is a strident voice representing a vocal minority in America. Let me be clear, most Americans do not agree with him. What the reverend Terry wants is an America full of mirrors. He wants an America where every person reflects back to him his world view and his values. The fact that there are people who think and live in ways that do not align with his values is unacceptable to him.
I, for one, can only pity the reverend. If I had to live in a self-imposed bubble, surrounded only by people whose cultural, sexual and social experiences mirrored mine, I would probably shoot myself. Seriously. Bang. Because a world where everyone is just like me would not be worth living in. It would be a place of stagnation and decay. A place of tedium and droning repetition. An echo chamber. A dead place.
But more importantly, human beings will never conform to any one set of ideas or values. We are the human race. We surf change. It is in our blueprint to live in a state of constant change and revision. We are designed to shift into new ways of being and seeing. Our DNA guarantees that. It is our greatest asset as a species that we are not uniform in our approach to life. It is our greatest hope that we continually reassess and revise our own view of the cosmos.
The human race is an amazing magical party. Each of us is invited. Those who choose to lock themselves away in their own insular world are missing out on the true joy of being human: that we can discover the divine in the vast range of human experience. So grab your copy of the Bible, or the Qur’an, or the Tropic of Cancer and dive in. Because we’re all in this together.
And reverend? That stuff about how everyone has to be like you? Don’t worry about all that. Cause, honey, that’s just the fear talking.
This guy doesn’t represent the majority of Christians.. in fact, Scripture doesn’t support what he’s saying at all. Ultimately, his comments are hot air meant to rile up a few
Let me see…. manifest destiny, trail of tears, slavery, roundups during WW2, I forgot how xtian we really are:(
“I, for one, can only pity the reverend. If I had to live in a self-imposed bubble, surrounded only by people whose cultural, sexual and social experiences mirrored mine, I would probably shoot myself.” He wasn’t referring to people with different “experiences.” It’s odd that you chose that particular term. He was referring to people with different beliefs. Everyone would prefer an environment with 100% homogeneity concerning important ideological principles. I would absolutely be happier in a society with no religious people whatsoever. Most people would be happier not to live around any racists. Feminist don’t want any mras around;… Read more »
I think it is a virtue. It is not a virtue if we assume the ideology is 100% correct. Short of it being a 100% correct (God Like), competing ideologies and ideas are fundamental for development. Diversity of ideas and beliefs are not desired because of an inherent essence of goodness, they are desired because we understand that our knowledge will always have blind spots and limitations, and that continuous evaluation and refinement requires (some) diversity as an input. The drawback is allowing a whole bunch of really dumb ideas to participate in the process. Diversity is both a safety… Read more »
In one way, I can certainly see your point. But I would also suggest it is the tension between opposing ideologies that gives rise to creativity, growth and new solutions. The place we should be putting our energy is how to speak into those tensions because the ideological differences are not going away any time soon. And part of the way we acquire our ideology is in how we experience the world. Hence the use of the word experiences as one lens through which we are different and sometimes in opposition to each other.
Understood Mark and I agree. Great point.
“But I would also suggest it is the tension between opposing ideologies that gives rise to creativity, growth and new solutions.” This doesn’t make any sense. The “new solutions” that would arise are specifically solutions that are meant to deal with the conflicts created by opposing ideologies sharing the same space. Those solutions would be worthless in an ideologically pure environment. I honestly would like you to answer this question: what benefit is there to having skeptics of anthropogenic global warming? “And part of the way we acquire our ideology is in how we experience the world. Hence the use… Read more »
Assuming just for the sake of argument, ignoring evidence to the contrary, that the U.S. was founded to be “a Christian nation,” this argument does not really help modern evangelicals. The many, incompatible variants of Christianity in the U.S. in the late eighteenth century were quite different from the modern-day evangelical Christianity espoused by Rev. Terry. The “Founders’” versions of Christianity may have very little resemblance to what goes on in Rev. Terry’s megachurch. Despite what he says so passionately, Terry’s kind of Christianity is just one kind, and it’s about a century old. Christianity is a set of institutions,… Read more »
It sounds as tho the coinage of the term ‘fundamentalism” was an attempt to return to the “angry, strick, no-nonsense father figure who was NOT holding a place in heaven…” Likely in response to the development of warmer and more charismatic versions of the religion.
“There is only one God and his name is Jesus.”
Theologically dubious to boot…
Yeah, and historically, and sociologically…
As a matter of fact, nothing the reverend said makes any sense at all. 😕
It’s just fear and ignorance shouting.
It seems a typical case of “the dumbest the man, the loudest his talking”. 🙄
Both Santorum and his bigot friend the pastor, are the ones who should leave the country! We do not need people like this! They are an embarassment to the human race.!
Mark. As I say, visualize transparency. Santorum supporters getting kittens out of trees, metaphorically speaking, is so common as to not be newsworthy.
Do you really think you’ve made a point?
Other than about your partisanship, I mean.
Richard,
Do you know what I like about your post? I like the fact you can think of no way to defend the reverend (Hence the awkward transparency counter.) As for partisanship. You’ll have to find another angle. I freely admit to being COMPLETELY partisan in regards to the good reverend Dennis Terry. What’s of interest to me though, is my sense that you agree with the reverend, or clearly, you would be stating otherwise.
If this Southern white Baptist preacher had been preaching, say, 60 years ago, would he have been just as opposed to the Ku Klux Klan? Would he have been opposed to the KKK at all? I doubt it. Very likely he would have been perverting a certain passage in Genesis 9 for the purpose of trying to provide a “biblical” justification for Jim Crow. And I speak as a white Texan who’s also a Christian! Politics, politics …
“santorum supporter” I don’t suppose somebody doing actually wonderful things who supported Santorum would be described by Greene as a Santorum supporter.
Visualize transparency.
In this case, were not dealing with anyone doing wonderful things. If any Santorum supporters are getting kittens out of trees, feel free to write an article.
I just think scenarios like this call for all kinds of great puns:
“Reverend Brings Santorum Onstage”
“Evangelicals Want Santorum Everywhere”
“Santorum’s Popularity: A Trickle Becomes a Torrent”
“Santorum Shows What Made America Great”
“Santorum Surges from Behind”
“Republicans Produce Santorum to Fight the Democrats”
“Preacher Smears while Santorum Runs”
“Conservatives Stand Up Despite Leak in Santorum Camp”
Oh C’mon! At least acknowledge Dan Savage for making those comments possible. Santorum, as you’re using it, would be nothing without Mr. Savage. Dan’s the Man. Kudos to Dan!
The Wet One
Absolutely, this is Savage’s crusade. How about this:
“Dan Savage Smears Santorum All Over the Web”
Although, I would also point out that this was the result of a nationwide write-in contest in which Savage picked the winner and thousands of people got the word out.
“If you don’t love America, If you don’t like the way we do things I have one thing to say – GET OUT.” That’s odd. That’s essentially what the British Empire told people like George Washington: if you don’t like living in the British Empire, you can take your whining somewhere else. Either love your country the way that it is because of how it was founded, or find yourself somewhere else to live. That’s the way that the colonial government saw things. What if the American “patriots” had followed that advice back in the 1770’s? His statements are not… Read more »
“There is only one God and his name is Jesus. I’m tired of people telling me that I can’t say those words.” I really wish that speakers would stop attacking that particular straw man. No one is trying to tell them that they can’t say those words. However, the Establishment Clause means that there should be a certain degree of separation between church and state. The point being that the government and its agents should not publicly support any given religion over another while performing their duties for the state. Most people who support church & state separation would vehemently… Read more »
THANK you. Christians can not only say those words, they can wear them on t-shirts, put them on bumper stickers, make signs for their yards, tattoo them on their bodies, and it’s all fine. And you’re right, I will vehemently defend Terry’s right to say these things, not that he seems to need that sort of defense. If I wear t-shirts, or use bumper stickers, put up signs or holy symbols on my lawn for my religion, I seriously risk damage to my property or even violence to my self. We do not truly have freedom of religion in the… Read more »
Rev. Dennis Terry should ask native Americans what they believed before making the claiming that the U.S. was founded as Christian nation.
Rapses! Yes! Awesome point!
“The nearer the Church, the further from God”
I am really amazed that a person considers himself at the service of God can make such a statement. What happened to the rule of “Loving thy neighbor as thyself.” That is why I have strong dislike of clergy. Most of them are narcissists and hypocrites.
Nice one!
In case you did no brother, the Indians of America and its surrounding territories and Africans of JUDAH tribe, are the true Jewish Hebrews of YAHHSUA. They are the true Americans of our GOD.
The one True Christian American Nation that became and are the Two Witnesses of revelations, both Jew and Gentile.
I’m more amazed everyday at how simple minded some people are. Diversity is what made this country great. Wonderful article.