Syncretism

We've been studying the prophets in VLI, and syncretism is a recurrent theme. The funny thing about syncretism is that the farther away you are the easier it is to see. But seeing it in our own culture is much harder, and seeing it in ourselves is the hardest yet.

I avoid horoscopes, but enjoy opening up Chinese fortune cookies and reading what is inside. In fact, for a long while I had a fortune taped to my computer monitor. It simply stated "someone is speaking well of you", and I had neatly written on it "speak louder". But if someone were to challenge me on why the cookies are OK and the horoscopes are not, I wouldn't have a good answer.

I heard an amusing line on the news this morning. The context was the brouhaha over the dress code for fire-fighters marching in today's St Patrick's Day parade. The particular issue was over the prohibition of wearing green beanies with their uniforms, apparently because the department is trying to regain respect after some scandals where fire-fighters engaged in various alcohol and sex escapades while on duty. Therefore the green beanie ban. I'm not clear on why they thought that would help, but maybe I'm naive. Anyway, the punchline was a heartfelt quote by a gentleman who publically proclaimed that the green beanie ban was "an offense to the faith". While I think the ban is silly, I don't quite see how it will tear down Christianity.

And then there was a friend who was upset at the behavior of fellow believers and who emotionally announced: "I'm just looking for the gospel. The gospel of Johnny Cash and Elvis".