Calling all mystics

[drwex]

http://harpers.org/ThroughAGlassDarkly-12838838.html

Harper's has a long and thoughtful essay on the (re)rise of American Fundamentalism - what I've called our home-grown Taliban.

[The new Christ's] followers are not anxiously awaiting his return at the Rapture; he's here right now. They're not envious of the middle class; they are the middle class. They're not looking for a hero to lead them; they're building biblical households, every man endowed with 'headship' over his own family. They don't silence sex; they promise sacred sex to those who couple properly - orgasms more intense for young Christians who wait than those experienced by secular lovers.

I invite readers' comments. Personally I find this sort of things a natural outgrowth of mysticism in general. From where I sit it's a matter of degree, not kind, linking everyone from the newageist Pagans to... well, those guys.

I'm currently failing to find the link so I can properly acknowledge it, but last year someone pointed me to an essay by a person who, when asked why he didn't believe in God said, essentially:

"I don't not-believe in God - I just believe in one fewer gods than you do. If you can explain to me why you don't believe in any of those other gods I probably explain why I don't believe in yours."

Comments

Re: To flip it around...

[dpolicar]

Which is something we do have in common, but it's something we have in common with everyone who ever lived.

And this is bad why?

Re: To flip it around...

[dpolicar]

To expand on this a little... perhaps one of the important things I ought to say out loud is that what's important to me in discussions between the faithful and the faithless and all their various permutations is to find some way for them to live and work together productively in peace and fellowship.

Finding ways to convince one group or the other that they are wrong is interesting insofar as it might achieve that goal, but frankly I find it an unpromising direction.

That might help clarify the direction of a lot of my reasoning.