Wednesday, October 15, 2008
God's Penis
Dr. Arnold Conrad, who made the invocational prayer at a McCain rally in Davenport Iowa a couple of days ago, evidently believes that he is greater than his God, and can instruct Him on the finer points of how to use His power. Imagine the arrogance of a believer who informs his God that His "reputation is involved" in the outcome of the American election in November! Who tells Him that "there are millions of people around this world praying to their god--whether it's Hindu, Buddha, Allah..." (Dr. Conrad seems unaware that neither "Hindu," a religion, nor Buddha, a teacher, are gods!) "that [McCain's] opponent wins." "Lord," he continues, "I pray that you would guard your own reputation, because they're going to think that their god is bigger than you... So I pray that you would step forward and honor your own name in all that happens" between now and the election. This sounds a lot like telling God what's right, to my ears, and to tell God what's right is surely the absolute height of arrogance. Can't He make His own Mind up? It sounds a lot like a threat. It sounds to me like Dr. Conrad is a little bit worried that his God's penis might be smaller than other gods' penises, which would be a bit of a disgrace, no?
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4 comments:
My friend (a Hindu) and I laughed at that.
"Hindu is a god? Wow. I wonder what the Hindus will think? :P "
I particularly loved the title of the post. It sums him up quite nicely.
If he thinks there is a god with a penis, that is frightening, primitive stuff indeed.
I'm currently researching God and gender roles for a paper I'm going to submit to a conference in December. My hypothesis is that if God is your model of masculinity, you're going to hyper-emasculate your society and your self to try and emulate the God you worship.
Looking at the war-mongering evangelicals who spout off prayers to God the Father and their views on women shows me that this problem, which I'm researching in the context of Ancient Israel, has a firm grip on modern religion.
By the way, I hate it when people hijack religion, particularly the one that I consider myself a part of, for self-serving purposes. It's like graffiti on a priceless work of art. It does remarkable damage to something very beautiful.
Thank you for the "heads-up", if you will. Gawd did have a thing or two to say to Conrad here: http://deusexeverriculum.wordpress.com/2008/10/14/dear-arnold-conrad/
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