Of, relating to, being, or imposing a form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed.Some denominations are decentralized in the sense that they don't have popes or bishops declaring what they should believe, but they consider The Bible their centralized authority (not necessarily God). The individual is subordinated to the cluster of beliefs they're required to believe, and woe to anybody who breaks the rules! There are some of these churches around here and it's been an eye-opener for me.
The women won't cut their hair or wear pants, the kids can't watch TV, nobody is allowed to wear jewelry, they spend hours and hours in church every Sunday and more hours on other days, they're not allowed to marry outside of their denomination.... And there are the Mormons, who wear magic underwear, can't drink coffee or booze, and forbid the women from wearing pants.
None of these silly rules can possibly make someone a better "Christian," just a more obedient one. One of my coworkers who went to a religious school pointed out that some of those "rules" are based on Paul's letters to people in cities that had very specific problems. I can't remember the particulars but it had to do with not wearing the same kind of outfits that prostitutes wear in that locality. Not dressing like a prostitute is pretty good advice for all women who don't want to be mistaken for prostitutes. Not dressing like a first-century prostitute in the Middle East, uhhhh
Indiana also has Amish & Mennonites, who are kind of the Wahabists of Christianity. They look like they stepped out of the 1850s.
What I find crazy is that they think this totalitarianism is a good thing. If Papal totalitarianism is bad, and Hitler's totalitarianism was bad, and Stalin's totalitarianism was bad, how can they justify this form?
7 comments:
Those dresses are proof that there is no God...certainly not a designer God.
K
I don't know why they dress like 19th-century Americans and not first century Palestinians (or Greeks)
Indiana also has Amish & Mennonites, who are kind of the Wahabists of Christianity. They look like they stepped out of the 1850s.
Reminds me of an observation I made in a post on my blog a couple of years ago, namely, that the clothing worn by founders of a particular religion or sect will be considered the "holiest" clothing that later fundamentalist followers of the religion or sect can wear. Thus, women in fundamentalist Mormon churches dress like they're still living in Little House on the Prairie, Salafist Muslims will dress like 8th century Arabs, Hasidic Jews like 18th century Eastern Europeans and so forth.
"None of these silly rules can possibly make someone a better "Christian," just a more obedient one."
Well, that's pretty much what they're after, LA. The more obedient, the better.
The Raelians adopted these really cool Star Trekkie white robes with padded shoulders. I wonder if they were open in the back... you know, for easier access for those alien "probes"?
Did they have pockets for their phasers?
It isn't just the clothes that stay dated- the music does too. My old church stopped learning new religious music in the 70s. The former Mennos and Hutterites that joined our church had music that went much farther back.
Antiquated dress, music, and language all make a space seem "sanctified" or set apart. Say baby Jesus lay in a manger and people have a sense of awe. Say they stuck a newborn in a feed trough and the magic is gone.
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