First, thank you. It's so nice to think of those songs finding such an understanding ear, and in such a fitting environment, on such an honorable quest. My hat's off to you.
As far as "The Church Of No Religion", I confess that it was
sort of made up as we went along, and therefore wasn't particularly well thought out. I later refined the lyric to make it a little more even handed, but never got around to re-cutting it. I've always had a problem with the Church, starting in Sunday school in Japan, when as a boy of 7 I was
ambushed and raped by the teacher's aide and three of his buddies. Obviously, one can't entirely judge such a vast institution as the Church by one group of scoundrels, but as I matured, and traveled the world, and found my natural loyalties, and read my histories, I found myself more on the pagan/Gnostic team, rather than the hierarchical priesthood team.
This particular conflict was writ large and legibly for me on the scorched earth of Albigensia, when a peaceful throng of Gnostics was massacred on the orders of the Pope and the King of France. This is only one incident, but a reading of those events provides a telling object lesson
I tend to think that Christ himself was a Gnostic, and that his concepts were mutilated beyond recognition by the bureaucrats at the Council Of Nicea in 260-ish AD, for their own bureaucratic reasons, and thus irrevocably tainted for all the rest of us. Elaine Pagels wrote a wonderful book on Gnosticism called elegantly enough "The Gnostics", relying heavily on the relatively untainted "Gospels of Saint Thomas".
One could easily develop a view of history following the seemingly endless battles between the "Earth-people", who believe that Man is one of God's many miracles, but only one
of them, and the "Man-people", who believe that Man is preeminent over all else, and the devil take the hindmost.
That's the aspect of the Church that I have my real problems with. It reminds me of an old acquaintance of mine, a very righteous woman who talked endlessly about the brotherhood of Man. If you disagreed with her on any point, however, you quickly saw her other side. "All men are brothers, unless you disagree with me, in which case your heresy leaves me no option but to exterminate you", was the very quickly revealed subtext behind her Holiness. Of course, I've been guilty myself more often than I care to think of just that same kind of blind, knee-jerk reactionary behavior, but thankfully I've
never had the power to order an army to eradicate all traces of my enemies. Or an Inquisition, or a Crusade.
To my eyes, the Church has been woefully misused over the centuries as the propaganda arm of Roman materialism, operating in a tripartite tandem with a merchant army and a military force. Observe the Irish Druids, or the Albigensians, or the Hawaiians, the American Indians, or or or... the list could and does go on and on. All large bureaucracies or CorpoEntities face the danger of forgetting their true master, and that includes the Buddhist, the Muslim, the Economic, the Political, the Racial, the Police, or any other of the "One Size Fits All" forms of social ordering. One doesnt perform brain surgery with a jackhammer, if one wants the patient to survive. Dogma is not a flexible tool.
A very good friend of mine is an LAPD homicide detective, attached for 12 years to the Rampart CRASH division, of whose scandalous behavior you may have been reading of late in the newspapers. He is of the Heroic bent, and that was enough to sustain him for many years, sort of blindly running around, being Heroic in the sort of narrow sense that was encouraged
by the Brass. The fact that he was being Heroic in the service of vicious, corrupt, hypocritical criminals (the Brass) escaped him, until about 7-8 years ago, when the inherent hypocrisy of his situation became undeniable, and he started cracking up. One night he said something like "There was probably a lot of heroism in the Nazi Army too". I didnt and still don't know exactly what he was witnessing on the job, but as CRASH becomes more and more exposed, I'm starting to get a picture of what he was seeing. It's pretty bad, but not terribly surprising.
I have nothing against religion, (or law, for that matter) only ill-considered dogma, bigotry, hypocrisy, and violent authoritarianism.
I honestly didnt mean to offend you, and I'm sorry that I did. I hope I've clarified my intent a little for you, and
please feel absolutely free to argue any point.
Scott's emailed me his phone number, and hopefully he'll come
and work here on summer break. He sounds like a marvelous kid. I'll do my best not to corrupt his mind.
Yrs,
David Baerwald
Church of No Religion
B
Baerwald
(view)
First, thank you. It's so nice to think of those songs finding such an understanding ear, and in such a fitting environment, on such an honorable quest. My hat's off to you.
As far as "The Church Of No Religion", I confess that it was
sort of made up as we went along, and therefore wasn't particularly well thought out. I later refined the lyric to make it a little more even handed, but never got around to re-cutting it. I've always had a problem with the Church, starting in Sunday school in Japan, when as a boy of 7 I was
ambushed and raped by the teacher's aide and three of his buddies. Obviously, one can't entirely judge such a vast institution as the Church by one group of scoundrels, but as I matured, and traveled the world, and found my natural loyalties, and read my histories, I found myself more on the pagan/Gnostic team, rather than the hierarchical priesthood team.
This particular conflict was writ large and legibly for me on the scorched earth of Albigensia, when a peaceful throng of Gnostics was massacred on the orders of the Pope and the King of France. This is only one incident, but a reading of those events provides a telling object lesson
I tend to think that Christ himself was a Gnostic, and that his concepts were mutilated beyond recognition by the bureaucrats at the Council Of Nicea in 260-ish AD, for their own bureaucratic reasons, and thus irrevocably tainted for all the rest of us. Elaine Pagels wrote a wonderful book on Gnosticism called elegantly enough "The Gnostics", relying heavily on the relatively untainted "Gospels of Saint Thomas".
One could easily develop a view of history following the seemingly endless battles between the "Earth-people", who believe that Man is one of God's many miracles, but only one
of them, and the "Man-people", who believe that Man is preeminent over all else, and the devil take the hindmost.
That's the aspect of the Church that I have my real problems with. It reminds me of an old acquaintance of mine, a very righteous woman who talked endlessly about the brotherhood of Man. If you disagreed with her on any point, however, you quickly saw her other side. "All men are brothers, unless you disagree with me, in which case your heresy leaves me no option but to exterminate you", was the very quickly revealed subtext behind her Holiness. Of course, I've been guilty myself more often than I care to think of just that same kind of blind, knee-jerk reactionary behavior, but thankfully I've
never had the power to order an army to eradicate all traces of my enemies. Or an Inquisition, or a Crusade.
To my eyes, the Church has been woefully misused over the centuries as the propaganda arm of Roman materialism, operating in a tripartite tandem with a merchant army and a military force. Observe the Irish Druids, or the Albigensians, or the Hawaiians, the American Indians, or or or... the list could and does go on and on. All large bureaucracies or CorpoEntities face the danger of forgetting their true master, and that includes the Buddhist, the Muslim, the Economic, the Political, the Racial, the Police, or any other of the "One Size Fits All" forms of social ordering. One doesnt perform brain surgery with a jackhammer, if one wants the patient to survive. Dogma is not a flexible tool.
A very good friend of mine is an LAPD homicide detective, attached for 12 years to the Rampart CRASH division, of whose scandalous behavior you may have been reading of late in the newspapers. He is of the Heroic bent, and that was enough to sustain him for many years, sort of blindly running around, being Heroic in the sort of narrow sense that was encouraged
by the Brass. The fact that he was being Heroic in the service of vicious, corrupt, hypocritical criminals (the Brass) escaped him, until about 7-8 years ago, when the inherent hypocrisy of his situation became undeniable, and he started cracking up. One night he said something like "There was probably a lot of heroism in the Nazi Army too". I didnt and still don't know exactly what he was witnessing on the job, but as CRASH becomes more and more exposed, I'm starting to get a picture of what he was seeing. It's pretty bad, but not terribly surprising.
I have nothing against religion, (or law, for that matter) only ill-considered dogma, bigotry, hypocrisy, and violent authoritarianism.
I honestly didnt mean to offend you, and I'm sorry that I did. I hope I've clarified my intent a little for you, and
please feel absolutely free to argue any point.
Scott's emailed me his phone number, and hopefully he'll come
and work here on summer break. He sounds like a marvelous kid. I'll do my best not to corrupt his mind.
Yrs,
David Baerwald
As far as "The Church Of No Religion", I confess that it was
sort of made up as we went along, and therefore wasn't particularly well thought out. I later refined the lyric to make it a little more even handed, but never got around to re-cutting it. I've always had a problem with the Church, starting in Sunday school in Japan, when as a boy of 7 I was
ambushed and raped by the teacher's aide and three of his buddies. Obviously, one can't entirely judge such a vast institution as the Church by one group of scoundrels, but as I matured, and traveled the world, and found my natural loyalties, and read my histories, I found myself more on the pagan/Gnostic team, rather than the hierarchical priesthood team.
This particular conflict was writ large and legibly for me on the scorched earth of Albigensia, when a peaceful throng of Gnostics was massacred on the orders of the Pope and the King of France. This is only one incident, but a reading of those events provides a telling object lesson
I tend to think that Christ himself was a Gnostic, and that his concepts were mutilated beyond recognition by the bureaucrats at the Council Of Nicea in 260-ish AD, for their own bureaucratic reasons, and thus irrevocably tainted for all the rest of us. Elaine Pagels wrote a wonderful book on Gnosticism called elegantly enough "The Gnostics", relying heavily on the relatively untainted "Gospels of Saint Thomas".
One could easily develop a view of history following the seemingly endless battles between the "Earth-people", who believe that Man is one of God's many miracles, but only one
of them, and the "Man-people", who believe that Man is preeminent over all else, and the devil take the hindmost.
That's the aspect of the Church that I have my real problems with. It reminds me of an old acquaintance of mine, a very righteous woman who talked endlessly about the brotherhood of Man. If you disagreed with her on any point, however, you quickly saw her other side. "All men are brothers, unless you disagree with me, in which case your heresy leaves me no option but to exterminate you", was the very quickly revealed subtext behind her Holiness. Of course, I've been guilty myself more often than I care to think of just that same kind of blind, knee-jerk reactionary behavior, but thankfully I've
never had the power to order an army to eradicate all traces of my enemies. Or an Inquisition, or a Crusade.
To my eyes, the Church has been woefully misused over the centuries as the propaganda arm of Roman materialism, operating in a tripartite tandem with a merchant army and a military force. Observe the Irish Druids, or the Albigensians, or the Hawaiians, the American Indians, or or or... the list could and does go on and on. All large bureaucracies or CorpoEntities face the danger of forgetting their true master, and that includes the Buddhist, the Muslim, the Economic, the Political, the Racial, the Police, or any other of the "One Size Fits All" forms of social ordering. One doesnt perform brain surgery with a jackhammer, if one wants the patient to survive. Dogma is not a flexible tool.
A very good friend of mine is an LAPD homicide detective, attached for 12 years to the Rampart CRASH division, of whose scandalous behavior you may have been reading of late in the newspapers. He is of the Heroic bent, and that was enough to sustain him for many years, sort of blindly running around, being Heroic in the sort of narrow sense that was encouraged
by the Brass. The fact that he was being Heroic in the service of vicious, corrupt, hypocritical criminals (the Brass) escaped him, until about 7-8 years ago, when the inherent hypocrisy of his situation became undeniable, and he started cracking up. One night he said something like "There was probably a lot of heroism in the Nazi Army too". I didnt and still don't know exactly what he was witnessing on the job, but as CRASH becomes more and more exposed, I'm starting to get a picture of what he was seeing. It's pretty bad, but not terribly surprising.
I have nothing against religion, (or law, for that matter) only ill-considered dogma, bigotry, hypocrisy, and violent authoritarianism.
I honestly didnt mean to offend you, and I'm sorry that I did. I hope I've clarified my intent a little for you, and
please feel absolutely free to argue any point.
Scott's emailed me his phone number, and hopefully he'll come
and work here on summer break. He sounds like a marvelous kid. I'll do my best not to corrupt his mind.
Yrs,
David Baerwald
