Brief Analysis: “Touchdown Jesus: The Mixing of Scared and Secular in American History” by Robert Laurence Moore
Introduction
This book is a thought-provoking and belief-breaking yet highly informative and interesting. Based on his writings, Moore deals with the attitudes, behaviour and perception of the Americans regarding their respective individual sacred and secular lives. He reveals the pattern of American spirituality and the revolution of religion from the 19th to 20th centuries. The author also examined the role of popular culture and religion about shifts in boundaries between sacredness and secularism and its overlapping practices in shaping the American religion.
Analysis
Moore narrates the direct and indirect effect of ‘public display of religion’ for both the sacreds and the seculars. The people were influenced in terms of history, lifestyle, work, education, governmental procedures/politics, sporting events, music, marketplace, literature and womanhood. How religion can serve the initiative for racial militancy and terrorism was also scrutinized. As mentioned, such can threaten the equality, domestic security and national identity.
From different values and worldviews, religion and prayers can adapt different meanings for self-confessed sacreds and seculars. Though, the Americans always tend to relate those perceptions to self-discipline and sense of self-worth. In connection, the author presented the limitations and perils of being religious from Protestants’ and Catholics’, moralists’ and churches’ view.
Specifically, Moore observed religion’s involvement regarding women’s right of suffrage, immigration and acculturation and scientific neutrality. Arguably, Moore touches the political and social struggle of women and then impliedly expresses that women are settled with domesticity. Yes, even without a vote women always attempt to participate in politics.
However, women knew that the ultimate expression of freedom and independence is the right to vote. If women, regardless of religion, are settled to take the mothers and wives roles, then, we can never witness a woman casting her ballot or holding an electoral position.
The author and I are of the same mind when he related that immigration has encouraged diversity and blurred the American identity. The Immigration Act of 1965 repelled the immigration quotas and favored an overflowing migration of new citizens. He even specified that acculturation is difficult. Indeed.
The American experience of repetitive immigration witnessed the unfolding of culture reinvention. And since religion is protected by the Constitution, Palestinians, Jews, Catholics and Muslims freely expressed their beliefs and practices which subsequently blended to American spirituality and culture.
Still, Moore and I share the same opinion that scientific neutrality is astute. If it teaches something that somebody’s religion hold untrue, is science neutral? As a fact, the law has no intentions to harm religion but abiding the law puts a significant burden to religious practices, e.g. parents believed that teaching Darwinian evolution destroys faith.
Reasonably, the conflict is placed on the principles: parents’ right to instill to their children moral values founded on a strong religious faith and state’s responsibility to provide the best possible education in all subjects. Perhaps, a clear distinction between science as a science and religion or spirituality or faith must be settled. It’s best to make the students understand that believing such subject is a personal decision.
I have realized that a person can make a difference like that of Robert Laurence Moore along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Louis Farrakhan. These outstanding persons echoed the voice of the majority, take pride of their beliefs and elevate their status.
Certainly, I would like to reveal more of the author regarding his works and his thoughts such as: a) Do you pray? What are you praying for? b) Are you different? Or special? In what way? c) How real is ‘therapeutic culture”? Do you feel it? to fully understand his work and his reasons for publishing such book.
Conclusion
Touchdown Jesus reveals the religion when it is about something else and the right to be different. A variety of religious experiences resides everywhere even on a political assembly or at the heart of a terrorism attack.
Generally, the entire book calls for another culture – a culture of respect. If Charles Darwin believed in man’s evolution from apes, then so be it. If Robert Moore believed that the sacred and the secular overlapped in practices, then so be it. If George W. Bush believed that religious faith could change the lives of social delinquent, then so be it.
God made us completely different and unique from each other. Even science believes that there is no same person in the world. The least we could do is recognize such differences, value them and then start from there.
0 comments:
Post a Comment