Jamie Arpin-Ricci, a member of Youth With a Mission -- and a personal friend of Path to 9/11 director David Cunningham -- has written a more-or-less non-nutty overview of the controversy.
His comparison to Michael Moore pissed me off, since Moore did nothing worthy of apology; besides, Disney refused to distribute Fahrenheit 911, yet placed PT911 on the air sans commercials. Beyond that, though, Arpin-Ricci seems like a reasonable fellow. Every so often, I read something like this: A piece that makes me believe, for a short while, that dialogue with our fundamentalist fellow-citizens is possible.
Then I turn on one of those TV channels...then I glance at a Left Behind book...then I learn how many Americans disbelieve Darwin...
...and suddenly, talking to fundamentalist "Christians" seems about as useless as talking to members of Al Qaeda.
5 comments:
Ya know, Joe, I used to regard those criticisms of all fundamentalist Christians as at least a little unfair until...I tried to have conversations with a couple of the true Jesus Zombies in 2004/5. You know, the ones who don't vote, don't recognize anything other than their interpretation of God as a valid authority and don't and/or won't seek medical treatment for anything for themselves or their children which is anything other than prayer. SCARY. And not possible to communicate with. Especially the ones who were born into that culture. My conversations with those individuals weren't so much like talking to people who had been brainwashed into believing a warped, twisted version of faith and how to promote it ala Al Qaeda, as an attempt to try to communicate with indivduals who had simply never possessed the intellectual, emotional or rational context to even begin to grasp what I was saying. Anything that deviated from their religion=everything/everything else (except money needed to eat, pay mortgage, clothe children) irrelevant was lost on them. They didn't become angry, belligerant or uncomfortable when I tried to get them to at least consider registering to vote, as they got a really confused, vaguely frightened look in their eyes and became quiet...
Those kinds of encounters with fundamentalists are probably nothing new for most of you, but despite growing up in the suburbs, I was raised amid civilization. I didn't meet an adult who willingly didn't vote until high school and still have a hard time wrapping my brain around the idea that the numbers of Americans who don't vote for purely religious reasons number in the millions, or that most of them, if confronted about their stunted or non-existent personal development would likely develop that scary, blank stare...
Thanks, Jen, for saying it for me, and saying it well. This kind of Christian began to appear in the late Sixties, and I'm convinced it was a reaction to the political and psychological radicalization of the rest of us.
If anyone else has memory of this phenomena before about 1968-9, please weigh in on the subject.
Well, not sure how to respond to this one, but here goes. First, I am surprised that you think Michael Moore did nothing worthy of an apology. I am not a Moore-hater, as you might suspect, owning most of his films and appreciate much of his perspective. However, he clearly (and admittedly) gave exagerrated and biased perspectives on certain issues. My comparison was not in quality of the works, but to reference that people of all stripes do this very thing. (i.e. Moore's example of a Canadian "slum", for example, was pure fiction).
I would also agree, to a degree, that Disney has sold its soul over the few decades. You may be surprised to know that MANY people in YWAM would think so too. I can assure you that YWAM has no relationship to YWAM. YWAM could never afford to give a fraction of the money some "theorists" claim we have to the film.
I also feel as strongly as you do about such books as the "Left Behind" series. As far as YWAM in concerned, our publically published values would also clearly indicate that YWAM would reject such perspective, especially its narrow, prejiduce views (i.e. anti-Catholic, Pro-American domination, etc.).
Are there fundamentalists in YWAM? Probably, but I am not one of them, nor are the majority of YWAM staff people all over the world. Here is the irony: the people who most strongly oppose YWAM and believe it to be a cult are fundamentalist, right-wing Christians. I have yet to find an intelligent person who, after very basic research, has seen that YWAM is CLEARLY not a "mind control cult". Claiming this, is like claiming, oh I don't know, the Sun resolves around the earth. (wink)
Listen, I don't expect you or others to embrace YWAM, but I would hope that you would be fair & well researched in your criticism of this group. So many people are attacking "The Path To 9/11" for its lack of credible representation of the facts, then go misrepresent YWAM.
If you do your research you will find that YWAM has made some mistakes in its 46 years (some bigs ones), and that you will still disagree with much of its intentions (as do I at times), but will see that it is a group of people around the world who give up comfort and a secure living to feed the poor, care for AIDS patients, rebuild disaster ridden communities, offer job rehabilitation for exploit prostitutes, run orphanages, etc
Many YWAM people are right-wing Evangelicals, many (like myself) are not. In the end, after watching the first half of PT911, I was disappointed by the right-wing bent of the film, but it didn't go as far as many critics suggest.
However, to call YWAM people all fundamentalist cultists who are akin to Al Qaeda undermines the legitimate elements of your views.
Peace,
Jamie
Oops! That should read "I can assure you that YWAM has no relationship to Disney".
To compare YWAM people or other such Evangelical conservatives to Al Qaeda exposes yourself as a fundamentalist. And I am a strong liberal! Your extremist views are no different to those you criticize.
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