Reykjavík Grapevine - 03.12.2004, Blaðsíða 5

EDITORIAL
by Valur Gunnarsson
If Christians read the Bible…
I was lucky enough to not to be baptised
in infancy. My parents felt that this was
a decision I had to make myself later in life.
Perhaps it was inevitable then that questions
of religion would weigh heavily on me. From
time to time, at least. The best way to make
your child believe in God (although this
was certainly not their intention, they being
convinced atheists at the time) is to let it come
to its own conclusion regarding faith. If you´re
baptised as a baby, you never need to ask
yourself the question. Hence, you never really
need to believe. If Christianity were to take
its inspiration from the Bible, for a change,
this should be obvious. Jesus himself wasn´t
baptised until he was in his early 30´s. None
of the disciples were babies when they were
baptised.
I took the decision seriously. Although I
wanted a new stereo as much as the next guy,
and I needed to be baptised in order to get my
confirmation, I did not feel I could prom-
ise myself to an all powerful deity for purely
financial reasons. And so I took to reading the
Bible. I was living in Norway and Bibles were
widely available. If they wanted you to believe,
at least they wanted you to know what you
believed in. And I liked much of what I read.
Jesus appealed to me. The rebel with a cause
who stood up to his elders, believing in his own
code rather than the rules of society.
This was my kinda guy. And so, at the age of
13, I asked to be baptised.
Thirteen is not a good age to find God.
You’re just discovering sex (or trying to) and
the rest of it. It´s not the best time to make
up our mind about eternity, there being more
pressing concerns. You should do like Jesus
did, and wait a while. But 13 is still prefer-
able to three months. At least you have some
conception as to what is going on.
I’ve had my crisis of faith several times
since. As I learnt more about the world, it
increasingly seemed to me that all was not as
God had intended. Then why did he not do
anything about it? I still haven’t found a satis-
factory answer to that question. In this issues´
feature, you can find better minds than mine
attempt to, but I´m increasingly beginning to
suspect it´s up to you and me to do something
about things.
Although I still haven´t renounced faith
entirely, I´m still uncomfortable around people
who claim to be Believers. This usually displays
a lack of tolerance and a narrow mindedness I
find very unappealing. Conversely, if someone
proclaims himself an atheist, I usually find that
person to be both open minded and compas-
sionate.
I don´t know why religion always strays
so far away from the love of your fellow man
which is at least an aspect of all religions. But I
do know that God should be firmly separated
from politics. If you seek faith you should try
to establish some sort of personal relationship
with your deity of choice. But people should
refrain from speaking publicly in the name of
God which can at best be nonsensical, and at
worst genocidal.
In any case, I do feel that people should
spend more time during Christmas thinking
about God and less time shopping. While win-
ter might be even longer and darker without it,
as the pagans who first came up with the idea
of having a celebration at this time realised, I
have long been uncomfortable with the idea of
merging Jesus, who renounced material posses-
sions, for the gross consumerism that are the
Christmas celebrations today.
Combating Christmas
And Icelanders are more hardcore in their
consumerism than most. Whereas in most
countries the major studios premiere their
Christmas blockbusters in mid-November or
early December, here, rightly realising that at
that point people will be busy spree shopping,
distributors wait until the 26th of December,
when the shopping mania has subsided.
Everyone, from Skífan’s latest manufactured
bubbleband to some sailor up north who’s
saved all his money to record an album about
his daughter which will at most be listened to
by his wife to the latest from the underground
who would be media darlings were it not for
everyone else from the underground vying for
attention at exactly the same time, everyone is
out with a new album.
While it is true that more albums are sold
in December than the rest of the year put to-
gether, you still wonder whether this is indeed
the best time of year for new bands to release
their albums. The fact is that people don’t buy
albums for themselves before Christmas. They
buy albums as presents. And for presents, you
don’t buy something that looks interesting,
you buy something you know. And that goes
double for the grannies and the aunties that
make up a substantial amount of the Christmas
buyers.
So why do grassroots band keep on releas-
ing albums before Christmas? Unless you have
a large following already, or have the backing
of a major label, it’s almost certain that will be
drowned in the flood, as everyone frantically
books their release concerts on the same night
as everyone else and those otherwise interested
in underground music are out buying some-
thing bland for the relatives. Events such as
Culture Night, as much as they support the
arts, are starting to do the same thing to the
visual arts. All manner of aspiring artists and
art students plan months in advance events for
culture night, which then drown each other out
as drunken out of towners aimlessly wonder
from one crowd to another. Iceland Airwaves
still serves its purpose, but before too long
everyone will start focusing all their creative
energies on that one event, only for everyone
to then fall in the shadow of Mugison. Please,
people, start thinking about other times of
year. Combat the Christmas tide. We’re here
to help.
Grapevine will be back on the streets on
January 14th.
True Hijacking
Setting the Record Straight on Faith
“With the might of God on our side we
will triumph over Iraq. God will watch
over our troops and grant us a victory over the
threat of Saddam’s army. God will bless us and
keep us safe in the coming battle.”
- George W Bush, January 28, 2003.
“We are continuing this policy in bleeding
America to the point of bankruptcy. God
willing, and nothing is too great for God . . .
God is our Guardian and Helper, while you
have no Guardian or Helper. “
- Osama bin Laden, October 29, 2004.
When violent men, who have the attention
of the world, use God’s name like this, it’s no
wonder so many people come to the conclusion
that religion sanctions violence, or even
encourages it. Believe me, I’ve heard the same
arguments again and again: religion causes
division between people, it causes an “I’m right;
you’re wrong” mentality, and of course there’s
the obligatory mentioning of wars fought in
God’s name. While I don’t have enough space
or knowledge to cover what all religions really
have to say about violence and bigotry, I’d like
to address Christianity, a faith close to my
heart and one that often finds itself hijacked by
those in power in my home country.
Does God hate gays?
Evangelicals love to quote Scripture. Yet when
justifying their own prejudice, these people
can be very selective. Take homosexuality for
example. Evangelicals cite Leviticus to back
up the claim that God hates fags. Yet they
conveniently overlook that in this same book of
the Old Testament, believers are also told not
to shave, go near menstruating women, or eat
shellfish, pork or unripe fruit. So where’s the
clamor among Republican Senators to ban the
outrageous practice of eating crabs?
In fact, Christians are not actually required
to follow the Old Testament at all. The
Sermon on the Mount makes this clear,
when Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to
destroy the Law or the Prophets [of the Old
Testament]. I did not come to destroy but
to fulfill.” (Matthew 5:17) The word “fulfill”
is important here, as in this case it means to
bring something to a close - the way the word
is used consistently throughout Matthew
- the fulfillment in this case being Jesus’
death and resurrection. Since Christians are
supposed to believe that this fulfillment has
been accomplished, evangelicals really have no
business quoting from the Old Testament in
trying to make a Christian argument.
Jesus was a bleeding heart liberal
Why might they ignore the words of their own
spiritual founder? Just take a look at the kinds
of things Jesus said:
“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be
called the children of God.” (Matthew 5:9)
“Love one another” ( John 15:12)
“If you would be perfect, go, sell what you
possess and give to the poor, and you will have
treasure in heaven.” (Matthew 19:21)
And He goes on and on like this. Talk about
bleeding heart liberals! This is the sort of guy
Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell would lambast
on national television. If you were to take Jesus’
ideas out of context, draft them into a legal
document, and try to put them on Bush’s desk,
he’d be reaching for the veto stamp faster than
you can say “Amen.”
Christianity is just one example of a faith’s
beliefs twisted to serve the interests of those in
power, often making the faith itself seem like
the cause of their violence. Yet the prophets
didn’t just preach to the wealthy and powerful;
they spoke to the masses. The believers who
go to church, mosque, synagogue, the beach,
or wherever else they feel close to God all
have one thing in common: they are all people
seeking to bring some peace and happiness
into their lives. This same desire inspired
men of peace like Martin Luther King Jr.
and Mohandas Ghandi – who also frequently
invoked God – to change history for the better.
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by Paul F Nikolov
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