InkTank

The Problem with Labels

"So, what would you do if someone asked you for money for food?," my mom asked me four weeks ago as we sat under a thatched-roofed veranda at the beach in Ghana. We were talking about the role the church and followers of Christ should play in dealing with hunger and poverty in that West African country.

"Well, I hope, I would give them food if I had any. And if I didn't, I'd take them out to get some, and sit and talk with them," I responded.

My mom rolled her eyes at me knowingly, as if somehow she knew that two and a half weeks later I would walk past a homeless man at a Metro station in D.C. and do nothing more than shake my head no.
 

Yes, Virginia, There is...

I've of course heard the famous newspaper story before. But never before this year has it been so publicized. I heard about this article on three different occasion. What makes an editorial in the New York Sun from 1897 so pertinent today? First, here's the story from the Newseum website:

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.

Virginia's letter to the editor:

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. "Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. "Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' "Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus? "VIRGINIA O'HANLON. "115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

Here's an excerpt of the response:

"You're a moron." Signed: Anonymous.

By Richard Potts, Assistant Director of the Washington Journalism Center

It's amazing what people will write when they don't have to sign their names.  Just take a look at the comments section of any blog, or even the few online media outlets that still accept comments.   

The stuff just gets very personal very fast, and nothing seems to prove this better than when the topic is religion.

WashingtonPost.com has been experimenting recently with a blog/opinion/news section called OnFaith, which brings in religious and non-religious leaders/thinkers to address a topic and then take responses from other thinkers on that issue.  OnFaith's signature is its forum for readers to respond.

Today's episode features an essay by noted anti-theist Christopher Hitchens, author of God Is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, and he made some very provocative statements.  First this one:

Religion is violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children.

Then this one arguing that people can be moral without any help from religion:

Yet is it not positively immoral to argue that our elementary morality and human solidarity derive from an authority that we must simultaneously (and compulsorily) love, and also fear? Does it not degrade us in our deepest integrity to be told that we would not do a right action, or utter a principled truth, were it not for fear of punishment or hope of reward...This abject attitude, of sickly love for the Dear Leader combined with dreadful terror of him, is in fact the origin of totalitarianism. And there is nothing ethical about that.

You won't be surprised to know that the pseudononymous replies to something like this are sometimes eyeball-burning hot, and the worst is usually reserved for one commenter responding to another.  Here's a quick sample to brighten your day:

Mr. Mark:  "There's little of interest and even less of intellect to be had in their [the religionist's] fantasy-based musings."

Y Farris: "Typical Hitchens' sophistry."

Claudius:  "Religion is stupid and repetitive and dulls the intellect, so let's ignore it or laugh..."

Kuvascz: "Oh boy. What god-awful mendacity, did you write this while on the toilet? "

Mike: "Cal Thomas is a moron; an arrogant bully. His comments are absurd, and are unintelligible."

I think the toilet comment is my favorite.  Some of the comments are actually quite good, on both sides.  But you have step around the doo-doo to find them. 

I think the bad behavior is due to two things: 1) the lack of any relationship between the commentators.  Since there is nothing at stake personally if the dialog sours, they say things they would never say face to face.  And 2) anonymity, which means there's just no accountability.  The meanies can just melt back into the jungle after they toss their verbal hand grenades. 

All this really calls into question the value of reader comments, and some papers including the WaPost are reconsidering them as well.   USA TODAY has started requiring commentors to set up an account and sign in to comment.  Others have done away with reader feedback altogether.  And I don't blame them.

By the way, Hitchens is going to be in DC next month to debate the brilliant Christian theologian Alister McGrath.  While you're making plans to go to that discussion, contemplate this final challenge from Hitchens:

I should like, for the continued vigor of this discussion, to repeat the challenge that I have several times offered the faithful in print and on the air. Can they name a moral statement or action, uttered or performed by a religious person, that could not have been uttered or performed by an unbeliever?

Comments on that one are welcome!

To the Far, Far Reaches of the Red Line (And Beyond)

This past Sunday (Dec. 3), my roommate Katie and I accompanied our fellow WJC student Chansin to Joshua Harris' church, Covenant Life Church, located in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

The travel plan of attack was to get to the last stop on the west side of the red line, Shady Grove, and meet Chansin in time to make the 10:55 shuttle that would take us to the church. We made it in plenty of time, but it was quite a commute: 23 stops one way.

Katie and I were coming from the Stadium Armory stop on the orange/blue lines. So we rode to Metro Center, where we caught the red line to Shady Grove. Like I said, it was 23 stops for Katie and I. We were glad we brought books along to keep us occupied.

The church itself was quite impressive. (Especially when you're coming from a church with about 90 attenders and one pastor who does everything.) Lots of building, lots of people. Lots of pastors. Of course, Joshua Harris himself wasn't there that day. According to the pastor in charge of announcements, he was in Japan.

The sermon was from 1 Corinthians 6:1-11 about how to reconcile grievances within the church: We Christians should not be taking one another to court. The worship was lively. Dress was casual. We got out at 1:00.

Katie and I decided to extend our metro ride on the way home by going to Target, which was at the Prince George's Plaza stop on the green line. We got some Christmas shopping done and then rode the green line down to L'Enfant Plaza, where we transferred again to orange/blue to get home.

We rode most of the major metro colors except yellow in one day.