Fundamentalism

[poliphilo]

Religious fundamentalism thrives in deserts. The Middle East (obviously) and (less obviously) rural Texas- where George W Bush grew up.

I've just been reading an article about W's home town of Midland. Nothing there but grit and oil and everyone believes in the Rapture.

Why? Well I guess that kind of landscape isn't conducive to the kind of romantic nature worship that has softened European Christianity. The bushes (no word-play intended) either grow spikes or they burn. No leaves, no flowers, no green pastures for the sheep to lie down beside.

A simple landscape gives birth to a simple faith.

A violent landscape gives birth to a violent faith.

Jihad, crusade, apocalypse. In a place where life struggles against the environment it's easier to believe, and even love, a doctrine of the imminent End of the World.

Comments

[catvalente.livejournal.com]

"God created the desert to train the faithful." --Frank Herbert

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly!

[beentothemoon.livejournal.com]

...and we all ride horses to work, lasso or shoot our food (dependant on the particular form of varmint Maw and Paw want for supper), have trained armadillos and dig for oil in our backyard. On weekends we handle serpents.

That's a beautiful entry, as usual, but I feel that I have to defend my state.

First of all, he's from Connecticut, which to it's great misfortune isn't even IN Texas. Secondly Midland isn't a small town, it's a twin-city, with Odessa being it's sister...between the two of them there's a quarter million people. Thirdly, he spent nearly as much time in Houston which is semi-tropical as he did in West Texas, which is semi-arid.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

No disrespect intended, but some people do dig for oil in the back yard, don't they? I saw a film about a small town in Texas- and there were all these little houses with pumps - or whatever they're called- out back. How does that work exactly- do the oil companies rent the land from the householders or do the householders sell the oil to the companies or what?

Of course I'm aware that Texas is a huge state- several times bigger than this poky little island- and that Midland is not necessarily typical.

[isoldout.livejournal.com]

I, being from South Texas, have traveled past Midland quite a few times in my day, and that place is quite scary. Let me tell you that that place isn't very friendly to outsiders. Especially if they're brown like me.


fafafaf

[tamnonlinear.livejournal.com]

An English teacher in college was of the opinion that deserts bred religions focused on the infinite, the abstract, the hereafter, all because there was so much room to look around and not a lot else to do. Rainforests, he said, bred religions with lots of little warring gods that encouraged a sense of paranoia, as it was a more reasonable result of the tendancy to have tigers jump out and eat you.

A fascinating idea but I've never looked into it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. The photos accompanying the article showed nothing but white faces.

Apparently they've planted the lawn outside the abortion clinic with lots of little white crosses- and a big portrait of a sorrowing Jesus. Brrr!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, fascinating, but it's not just rain forests. European paganism has lots of warring gods too- look at the Iliad. It makes sense to me- at an emotional level anyway- that the more varied the landscape the more gods you need to do it justice.

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

if you want an interesting look at odessa and midland tx, check out friday night lights

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I see it's a book AND a movie. Which would you recommend?

the book

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

also, this from the new yorker:
That George W. grew up in Midland, Texas, and not Greenwich, Connecticut, shouldn’t deceive anyone, Phillips argues. He and Unger both remind us that Midland, in the fifties, was an affluent village populated by the oil-prospecting sons of Northeastern businessmen. City leaders named roads after Ivy League schools. Although George W. has boasted, in touting his common origins, of having attended San Jacinto Junior High School, his one year there was followed by stints at Houston’s tony Kinkaid School and at Andover.
and:
it’s easy to wonder whether his born-again faith might not represent a decision to break with his father, to escape from the culture of Wasp reserve and austerity. George W. came to his new creed at a time when his life seemed to have fallen short of family expectations. His younger brother Jeb was outperforming him in business and seemed more likely to excel in politics. George W. was, his brother Marvin has said, “the family clown.” Indeed, George and Barbara found their son’s conversion “a stretching experience,” the Schweizers report. “You might say it was almost exaggerated. . . . But George W. seemed to want to be defined differently from the beginning.”

Re: the book

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

So he got religion as a way of rebelling. Quaint. Someone, someday will write a very interesting book about that father-son relationship.