JCT: The Washington Post of 7/13/08 quoted John Dominic Crossan, a professor emeritus in the religious studies department at DePaul University in Chicago, who, in part, wrote -
“When you ritually recite the ‘Pledge of Allegiance‘ are you pledging your life to a piece of multi-colored cloth. Of course not. Are you pledging your life to the republic for which it stands? Well, yes and no. Yes, definitely yes, if you mean ‘liberty and justice for all.’ But no, definitely no, if you are merely thinking about a huge area of land between Canada and Mexico.
x x x xxx xxx xxx …..…………..…………………………………………………… .. …………..x x
Who can or should recite that pledge? Anyone who believes in it and intends to live by it. Would a non-American visitor who lived by that faith have more right to it than an American citizen who did not? My answer is: emphatically yes. Rituals have meaning and, therefore, intentional participation in them is either vital commitment or something between vacuity and hypocrisy.”
Ah, patriotism. Is it as vastly elusive as it can facilely be proclaimed, by not quite a few, as “love and devotion” to one’s country? Can it be aptly compared to one’s true love for someone, which can be best expressed in actions than in words? And patriotism, yes, like true love, can indeed be painful, at certain times in one’s life.
Patriotism is Painful, 60" x 60", combine (mixed media).
Detail of Patriotism is Painful.
1 comment:
JCT: The Washington Post of 7/13/08 quoted John Dominic Crossan, a professor emeritus in the religious studies department at DePaul University in Chicago, who, in part, wrote -
“When you ritually recite the ‘Pledge of Allegiance‘ are you pledging your life to a piece of multi-colored cloth. Of course not. Are you pledging your life to the republic for which it stands? Well, yes and no. Yes, definitely yes, if you mean ‘liberty and justice for all.’ But no, definitely no, if you are merely thinking about a huge area of land between Canada and Mexico.
x x x xxx xxx xxx …..…………..…………………………………………………… .. …………..x x
Who can or should recite that pledge? Anyone who believes in it and intends to live by it. Would a non-American visitor who lived by that faith have more right to it than an American citizen who did not? My answer is: emphatically yes. Rituals have meaning and, therefore, intentional participation in them is either vital commitment or something between vacuity and hypocrisy.”
Ah, patriotism. Is it as vastly elusive as it can facilely be proclaimed, by not quite a few, as “love and devotion” to one’s country? Can it be aptly compared to one’s true love for someone, which can be best expressed in actions than in words? And patriotism, yes, like true love, can indeed be painful, at certain times in one’s life.
JST
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/john_dominic_crossan/2008/07/whom_does_christ_exclude.html
Post a Comment