(Ir)religiosity

I’m sure everyone has seen the Chevy Silverado commercial with John Mellencamp’s song “Our Country.” It’s a typical blue-collar/southern oriented truck commercial and I must say it is very compelling, conjuring up a lot of uneeded emotion and imagery concerning “the American way,” individual freedom–and to be frank nationalism–all for the sake of selling a new gas guzzling truck. If you haven’t seen it you should or this post won’t make a lot of sense. You can watch it here:

Anyway, I haven’t ever been a huge fan of John “Cougar” Mellencamp. I’ve liked some of his songs, but have never been a diehard fan or anything like that. Honestly, after seeing the Chevy commercial for the first time I decided that I hated Mellencamp, but my hate, much like the commercial’s appeal, was completely unwarranted and downright wrong.

Mellencamp was the guest on one of my favorite TV shows, The Colbert Report the other night. I’ve never known much about Mellencamp’s politics, all I knew was he “was born in small town” and sang diddys about Jack and Diane. Needless to say I was surprised to hear this man from rural Indiana that had been the symbol of all that was “A-mer-can” talk about peace and justice. I was even more surprised to hear Mellencamp sing the song I had only heard on the truck commercial. It was very interesting to hear all the lyrics. Chevy omitted most important part. Of course they only had 30 seconds, but they deliberated took lyrics that catered to every American’s patriotic emotions out of context and used them to promote a product that contradicted the message of the song itself.

I know this happens all the time, but it seemed more visceral to witness it. Interpretation and context are so very important; it is very troubling, indeed it is arrogant and unjust when the powerful (i.e. Chevy CEO’s) choose, limit and dictate not only the context, but how one can interpret a particular text (in this case a song). I don’t know how Mellencamp feels about it, obviously he hasn’t made too much of a fuss—money and fame are very tempting I’m sure. As a listener, a reader, and an interpreter I am indignant. The powerful must not be allowed to limit understanding, context or interpretation.

As I wrote the previous sentence it occurred to me that maybe this accusation needs to be aimed not only at all authority, but at church authority in particular. This type of authoritarianism leads most certainly to blind dogmaticism, especially in the area of biblical hermeneutics.

Just for fun, here are the lyrics to the entire song, the one’s Chevy erroneously omitted are in CAPS:

Well I can stand beside ideals I think are right
And I can stand beside
The idea to stand and fight
I do believe there’s a dream for everyone
This is our country

THERE’S ROOM ENOUGH HERE
FOR SCIENCE TO LIVE
AND THERE’S ROOM ENOUGH HERE
FOR RELIGION TO FORGIVE
AND TRY TO UNDERSTAND
ALL THE PEOPLE OF THIS LAND
THIS IS OUR COUNTRY

From the east coast to the west coast
Down the dixie highway back home
This is our country

AND POVERTY COULD BE JUST ANOTHER UGLY THING
AND BIGOTRY WOULD BE SEEN ONLY AS OBSCENE
AND THE ONES WHO RUN THIS LAND
HELP THE POOR AND COMMON MAN
THIS IS OUR COUNTRY

From the east coast to the west coast
Down the dixie highway back home
This is our country

The dream is still alive
Someday it will come true
And this country
It belongs to folks like me and you
So let the voice of freedom
Sing out through this land
This is our country

From the east coast to the west coast
Down the dixie highway back home
This is our country
From the east coast to the west coast
Down the dixie highway back home
This is our country

Honestly, the lyrics that Chevy kept in are true—but only part of the truth. Sure we have a dream of freedom, sure this is our country, but the dream won’t be realized until we act on the words in CAPS. If Chevy really wanted to be honest about America and what most Americans think of the words they used in their commercial they would’ve made a commercial much like the first link listed below–but then again it wouldn’t have sold a rugged individualist product. I think the whole song embodies more of an idea portrayed by the commercial in the second link, but that’s just me.

Getting back to the point I made earlier, I’m all for different interpretations of different texts, songs, ect. But interpreters and readers should be given all the information available in order to interpret. The powerful cannot be allowed to construe and fabricate a false narrative. When they do the interpretation has already been made.

Let people make up their own mind—with all the information made available.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it—Chevy.

~bh ><>

Today is the day we celebrate American Independence. It seems ironic. Perhaps we should be celebrating the comfortable illusion of American independence, or maybe, we should just call it what it is—American Dependence. Because the truth of situation is we can’t function without the rest of the world. We need foreign resources like oil, we need cheap outsourced labor, we need European and Asian countries to buy our exports, and frankly, we need unstable parts of the world to hate us so we can arrogantly flex our muscles. We thrive on it. And, even more sickening, we’ve shown that we’ll fight—killing innocent people—to ensure and secure it.

Roughly 200 years ago, we fought to secure our independence from tyranny and oppression. Today, we fight to secure our dependence on the rest of the world, our addiction to power and dominance, and exploitation of resources, all of which ultimately turn us into the very thing we fought to destroy. This country was formed in the name of liberty, diversity, and freedom of expression, all good causes—that is until someone is too diverse, too different, or too expressive. Then those rights are stripped from them in the name of justice. We should just call in what it is—maintaining the status quo.

The line distinguishing the difference between status quo and the truth has become so blurred that we don’t know the difference anymore. Truth telling is rarity and the prophetic voice is being traded in for a different commodity, complacency and greed. This can be seen everywhere, the government, the media and yes, even the church—the one place where truth should be cultivated. Perhaps we’ve become more interested in the dangerous arrogance of over-zealous nationalism and imperialism than the kingdom of God. This time of the year we are oh so quick to throw around “patriotic” buzz words and catch phrases like, “freedom,” “independence,” and most disgusting “God Bless America.”

It would be nice to be truly free and truly independent, to resist the temptation to destroy another country’s infrastructure to feed our addiction, but we shown that we can’t. Worse yet, we can’t even admit when we’re wrong, but we sure can point at the speck in everyone else’s eye while chanting our mantra, “God Bless America.” First and foremost our allegiance isn’t to democracy, the United States, or even the American church. Our allegiance is to justice, humanity, and the kingdom of God. Not a pie-in-the-sky dream, but a present, tangible, reality and is a working force in the world. This should be the essence of our patriotism. It’s time we start taking the catch phrase “Jesus is Lord” seriously and start acting like we mean it not using it as some short secret qualifier for church membership and pseudo-evangelism.

So, it is with bittersweet emotion that I celebrate the founding of our country. Bitter because I know we can do better, but lack the motivation and leadership; and sweet because I believe we will change in time as long as the disciples of Jesus Christ remain diligent, truthful and committed, to the task of transformation that has been given us. Most of all, I believe it because as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “the moral arch of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” The hour is late and the time has come; let us not forget it.

Happy 4th of July and God Bless Everyone.

~bh ><>