It is a time of freedom and fear, of Gaia and of borders, of many paths and the widening of a universal toll road, emptying country and swelling cities, of the public bought into privacy and the privacy of the public sold into invisible data banks and knowing algorithms. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.

These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread.

Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.


 
Abusing the Word... Multicultural

This morning, BlackPR.com / BlackNews.com sent us a press release for a new book written by the Reverend Sondra Lane. They called it a "unique and irresistable multicultural Hallelujah Kids book," and a "multicultural religious book".

Hmm. I’ve got to ask a question: A multi-CULTURAL book on religion would include other religions than just Christianity, wouldn’t it? I went to the book's web site, and I'll tell you, it looked downright monocultural. There were only references to Christianity, and to celebrating Christmas. How "unique is that" - a book on Christmas?

Is Reverend Sondra Lane going to write more books in this series, ones praising Islam, Buddhism, Wicca, Judaism, Hinduism or any of the other many religions that make America truly multi-CULTURAL? How about the agnostic/humanist perspective on religion? There are more non-believers than Lutherans in America, you know. If the series includes books celebrating these perspectives, then Reverend Lane can use the adjective “multicultural” proudly.

Until then, forgive us if we snore at the astonishing lack of cultural diversity in Sondra Lane's unreflective series of Christian tracts for children's religious indoctrination. A book about a bunch of kids who decide NOT to take part in Christmas - now that would be "unique and irresistable"! Write that book, Reverend Lane, and we'll gladly give it free publicity.

(Sorry, Reverend, but when you hire a public relations firm to send press releases on Christian books to a web site with a sections entitled Further Than Atheism and False Witness, you are not spending your money wisely.)

Posted by J. Clifford Cook at 7:26 AM. # (permalink)  




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