Yes, exactly. Calvinism was the term I was reaching for, thank you. Now was he the tiger or the spikey haired lad? I kid, I kid.
Like so much about American Christianity I find it to be such a bizarre inversion of the dynamics of more traditional religiosity. Rather than living a moral (and largely uncomplaining, obidient) life for the promise of eternal happiness in the next life, the American religious or quasi-religious seems to basically say ‘Live whatever hedonistic, selfish, piece of shit life you want! You’re still going to heaven so long as your monthly subscription doesn’t lapse!’
Maybe it just seems particularly bizarre to me as someone who partially grew up in a modern Quaker tradition (with guardians finding that after basically fleeing / drifting from other Christian faiths), which also has a loose, almost anarchist, interpretist approach to faith but does so in a way where the focus is upon thoughfulness, solidarity, and communication. The Calvinst streak seems like a bizarre inversion that screams, No requirements. Don’t think about it. Money down.
Yes, exactly. Calvinism was the term I was reaching for, thank you. Now was he the tiger or the spikey haired lad? I kid, I kid.
Like so much about American Christianity I find it to be such a bizarre inversion of the dynamics of more traditional religiosity. Rather than living a moral (and largely uncomplaining, obidient) life for the promise of eternal happiness in the next life, the American religious or quasi-religious seems to basically say ‘Live whatever hedonistic, selfish, piece of shit life you want! You’re still going to heaven so long as your monthly subscription doesn’t lapse!’
Maybe it just seems particularly bizarre to me as someone who partially grew up in a modern Quaker tradition (with guardians finding that after basically fleeing / drifting from other Christian faiths), which also has a loose, almost anarchist, interpretist approach to faith but does so in a way where the focus is upon thoughfulness, solidarity, and communication. The Calvinst streak seems like a bizarre inversion that screams, No requirements. Don’t think about it. Money down.