©1999 by James A. Fowler.
All rights reserved.
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in its entirety with proper citation of authorship included.
The illustrator of these
parodies is Aaron Eskridge.
For contact and information about Aaron: Illustrator's
Page
Text of article below graphic
Fires burn in each settlement
across the land. The sound of tom-toms can be heard in the background.
It is the time for the perennial carving of totem-poles.
Congregating in our spired
tee-pees, each group heatedly considers the essentials of their
belief-system. After due consultation of these spirit-matters,
consensus is achieved within each tribe as to how they will stack
their totem-pole.
The meticulous
carving begins. Every detail is important because each cut has
implied meaning. Distinction must be achieved, even in the intensity
of the painted colors. Extreme effort is made to make it appear
life-like. |
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Duly
carved and erected for all to see, the winged appendages give
it the form of a cross. The totem-pole becomes our rallying-point
- a point of social and religious identification. If you are
willing to stack your totem-pole like we stack our totem-pole,
then you can be a part of our tribe. But if you insist on any
other conformity to your spiritual belief-system, then we are
obliged to separate from you and to make war with you. It is
a matter of honor for us to make every effort to cut down or
otherwise topple your totem-pole. Any divergence, regarded as
unorthodoxy, is to be condemned. Diversity cannot be condoned
in such important spirituo-religious matters. It is a warring
matter! |
Oh, we are not really a
violent people. We make every attempt to isolate ourselves in
our separated enclaves of piety. But, at the same time, there
is a sense of achievement and victory in attacking another's
totem-pole, for we thereby identify the superiority of our own.
In our contemporary sophistication, though, we have, for the
most part, modified our battles to the hurling of verbal barbs
and vituperative condemnation. Our war-dances are more vociferous
than our warring is ferocious.
Long live our totem-pole!
It is the symbol of our belief and commitment. It is worth fighting
for. We consider its integrity to be a life and death matter,
necessitated to preserve our distinctive heritage, present identity
and our hopes for the future.
Yes, we require due reverence to our totemic icon. We require
precise initiatory rites, engage in periodic oaths of allegiance,
and regularly involve ourselves in identification pow-wows surrounding
our totem-pole.
You ask if we worship our
totem-pole? Is it a deity-figure? How dare you infer that it
is an idol, or that we engage in idolatry!
___________
Do we not see an abundance
of ideological idols in fundamentalist circles today? They are
not carved of wood, but they are constructed of even harder material
molded in the "concrete" of inflexible minds.
Nevertheless, they are lifeless icons. The fundamentals have
been carefully analyzed, systematized, theologized and then fossilized
in creedal "statements of faith." Allegiance to this
ideological construct is regarded as more important than a vital
fellowship with Christ or other Christians. This is nothing less
than idolatry; worship (attributing worth-ship) to an ideological
idol. A.W. Tozer once defined idolatry as "the entertainment
of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him."
Oh, that we might recognize
our spiritual unity in Christ Jesus and return to a common worship
of God in Christ.
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