IvoceLandy

28/01/2022

Is temptation such a bad thing?
The Washington Post recently published a profile on Karen Pence, the “prayer-warrior wife” of Vice President Mike Pence. The piece cited information on the Pences’ marriage: specifically that Mike Pence will not dine with a woman, or be present where alcohol is served, without Karen Pence beside him.

Since the publication of the Washington Post piece, the Pence family rule has become the subject of much discussion. For the socially liberal, this practice appears “misogynistic” or even “bizarre.” But, for many conservatives, it is “wise.”

The intent behind the rule is to avoid not only tempting situations but also anything that might be interpreted as sinful behavior. In the run-up to Lent many Christians strengthen themselves against temptation as they prepare to celebrate Easter, the day of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Is temptation such a bad thing?

Temptation is an invitation to sin
Chilean Catholic priest Segundo Galilea, in his book, “Temptation and Discernment,” describes temptation as an “invitation” to violate God’s will or law: in other words, an invitation to sin.

But the idea of temptation as an “invitation” is a little more complicated: Who or what is sending the invitation and, even more basically, what is the nature of temptation itself?

The classic Christian story about temptation involves Christ’s 40 days in the wilderness, a period that the 40 days of Lent commemorates. As recounted in the Gospel of Matthew, Satan tempts Jesus as he is fasting – he invites him.

The temptation of Christ, Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucester, United Kingdom. Walwyn, CC BY-NC
The devil specifically asks him to turn stones into bread. He also dares Jesus to throw himself down from a temple while calling angels to the rescue. The most tempting offer Satan makes to Jesus is a gift of all world’s kingdoms if only the son of God will bow down to him.

Jesus rejects Satan’s temptations and shows that the power of God is not to be confused with human understandings of power. Jesus did not come to set up a worldly kingdom, but a heavenly one. From this perspective, temptation is an invitation from the devil not just to turn away from God, but to deny who and what God is.

Christians understand Jesus to be both divine and human. But the rest of us are only human. And so, along with the belief that temptation is an invitation from the devil is the understanding that temptation is an invitation that can also come from within ourselves.

Temptation comes from within
As human beings we are limited, and never feel completely whole. The rite of baptism, so central to Christianity, removes the “original sin” that all humans have. But nonetheless we experience suffering and death, along with constant daily challenges that show us that we are limited in our physical, emotional and intellectual capabilities.

As human beings, we exist in a constant state of need.

But Christians believe that God offers us eternal life. St. Maximus the Confessor, an early Christian theologian, argued that human destiny ultimately leads to becoming “like” God and an eternal life understood as unity with God.

Sin can be anything that distracts us on our journey to the final wholeness found in and with God.

But temptation is not just an invitation or a call to walk away from the path that leads toward God; temptation is also an incitement or an “invitatio” – a Latin word that can mean “invitation” as well.

What this means is that our own neediness “incites” or “invites” us to seek wholeness in ways different from what God intends: For example, the greed of individuals incites or invites them to cheat on their taxes. Similarly, feelings of inadequacy could incite or invite people to lie on their resume. And likewise, feelings of being unloved can often incite or invite people to sleep around.

In this sense, temptation comes from the inside, not the outside.

It then follows that God’s law isn’t simply a list of do’s and don’t’s for avoiding hell and getting into heaven. Instead, God’s law is a treasure map that leads to real riches: a wholeness that only God can provide.

Why be afraid of temptation?

Mike Pence and his wife Karen, listen to a singing of ‘(Back Home Again in) Indiana’ during the opening ceremonies for the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis, on Aug. 5, 2016. AP Photo/Michael Conroy
To return to Mike and Karen Pence, I have to say there is something both sweet and remarkable about two partners who are unapologetic about being a couple: It’s a message that we can never be completely whole if we go it alone.

The vice president is following what is known as the “Billy Graham rule,” a code of conduct about money, power and s*x for ministers of the Christian Gospel, developed by the well-known Christian evangelist Billy Graham and other preachers during a conference in Modesto, California in 1948.

For some of us, following the Billy Graham rule might be wise: not because we fear that someone else might be dangerous, but because all too often we are a danger to ourselves.

Nonetheless, I would offer a cautionary note about the Billy Graham rule and exercising relentless rigor in making sure that sin can’t deliver an invitation in the first place: Temptation is strongest when it comes disguised as “good.” This is a point made often by Pope Francis. While some humans actually intentionally choose evil, we are more likely to give into temptation if it comes under the appearance of doing something good. And doing good can certainly bring more temptation: the temptation to overly enjoy praise, esteem and fame.

This can become a slippery slope that leads to pride: believing that we are good because people perceive us as good. The Bible tells us that such pride comes before “fall,” meaning that we can easily let down our guard if think that we have become immune to temptation in its hidden forms.

The problem comes when we become so afraid of being tempted, or receiving an invitation to violate God’s law, that we lose opportunities to experience a taste of wholeness in our everyday lives.

And while temptation can be an invitation to sin, experiencing temptation can be an invitation of a different kind: a “challenge” to consider more deeply our need to be made whole.

28/01/2022

What do protests about Harry Potter books teach us?
On Monday, June 26, 2017, Harry James Potter – the world’s most famous wizard – will celebrate his 20th birthday. His many fans will likely mark the occasion by rereading a favorite Harry Potter novel or rewatching one of the blockbuster films. Some may even raise a butterbeer toast in Harry’s honor at one of three Harry Potter-themed amusement parks.

But not everyone will be celebrating Harry’s big day. In fact, a vocal group of Christians – usually identified as “Bible-believing” or fundamentalist Christians – has been resistant to Harry’s charms from the start. Members of this community, who believe the Bible to be literal truth, campaigned vigorously to keep J.K. Rowling’s best-selling novels out of classrooms and libraries. They even staged public book burnings across the country, at which children and parents were invited to cast Rowling’s books into the flames. These fiery spectacles garnered widespread media coverage, sparking reactions ranging from bemusement to outrage.

Harry Potter turns 20 on June 26. Lesley Choa, CC BY-NC-ND
What could justify the use of such drastic measures to keep these books out of the hands of young readers?

The different views on Harry Potter
Book burnings may be relatively rare in modern America, but efforts to protect young readers from “dangerous” texts are not. Such texts, and the efforts to limit their readership, are the subject of a class I teach at the University of Southern California.

In this class, students survey a collection of books that have been challenged on moral, political and religious grounds. These include classics such as “1984” and “To Kill a Mockingbird,” as well as newer texts like “Persepolis” and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” The point is not to determine which challenges are “good” and which are “bad.” Instead, we seek to understand how differing beliefs about reading and subjectivity make certain texts seem dangerous and others seem safe to particular populations of readers.

Harry Potter is one of the first books we discuss.

Most readers of Rowling’s novel – including many Christian readers – interpret the characters’ tutelage in spells and potions as harmless fantasy, or as metaphors for the development of wisdom and knowledge. Similarly, they read incidents in which Harry and his friends disobey adults or make questionable choices as opportunities for characters and readers alike to learn important lessons and begin to develop their own moral and ethical codes.

What makes some literary texts appear ‘dangerous?’ kayepants, CC BY-NC-SA
For some fundamentalist Christians, however, Harry’s magical exploits pose an active danger. According to them, Hogwarts teaches the kinds of witchcraft explicitly condemned as punishable by death and damnation in the biblical books of Deuteronomy and Exodus. They believe the books must be banned – even burned – because their positive portrayal of magic is likely to attract unsuspecting children to real-world witchcraft.

Similarly, they think that when Harry disobeys his cruel Muggle guardians or flouts Dumbledore’s rules to save his friends, he actively encourages child readers to engage in lying and disobedience, which are explicitly forbidden by the Bible. As Evangelical writer Richard Abanes puts it,

“The morals and ethics in Rowling’s fantasy tales are at best unclear, and at worst, patently unbiblical.”

Making assumptions
Why don’t Bible-believing Christians trust young readers to discern the difference between fantasy and reality? And why don’t they think children can learn positive lessons from Harry’s adventures – like the importance of standing up to injustice?

According to scholar Christine Jenkins, people who try to censor texts often hold a set of false assumptions about how reading works.

One of those assumptions is that particular literary content (like positive portrayals of witchcraft) will invariably produce particular effects (more witches in real life). Another is that reactions to a particular text are likely to be consistent across readers. In other words, if one reader finds a passage scary, funny or offensive, the assumption is that other readers invariably will do so as well.

As Jenkins points out, however, research has shown that readers’ responses are highly variable and contextual. In fact, psychologists Amie Senland and Elizabeth Vozzola have demonstrated this about readers of Harry Potter.

Readers’ responses can vary widely. Seamus McCauley, CC BY
In their study comparing the perceptions of fundamentalist and liberal Christian readers of Harry Potter, Senland and Vozzola reveal that different reading responses are possible in even relatively homogeneous groups. On the one hand, despite adults’ fears to the contrary, few children in either group believed that the magic practiced in Harry Potter could be replicated in real life. On the other, the children disagreed about a number of things, including whether or not Dumbledore’s bending of the rules for Harry made Dumbledore harder to respect.

Senland and Vozzola’s study joins a body of scholarship that indicates that children perform complex negotiations as they read. Children’s reading experiences are informed by both their unique personal histories and their cultural contexts.

In other words, there’s no “normal” way to read Harry Potter – or any other book, for that matter.

Distrusting child readers
Fundamentalist Christians aren’t the only group who have trouble trusting the capabilities of child readers.

Take the case of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

For decades, parents have argued that Harper Lee’s novel poses a danger to young readers, and have sought to remove it from classrooms for this reason. Some parents worry that the novel’s vulgar language and s*xual content will corrupt children’s morals, while others fear that the novel’s marginalization of black characters will damage the self-image of black readers.

Despite their different ideological orientations, I believe that both of these groups of protesters – like the fundamentalists who attempt to censor Harry Potter – are driven by surprisingly similar misapprehensions about reading.

In all of these cases, the protesters presume that being exposed to a phenomenon in literature (whether witchcraft, foul language or racism) naturally leads to a reproduction of that phenomenon in life. They also believe that their individual experience of a text is correct and applicable to disparate readers.

These cases of attempted censorship show a profound distrust of child readers and their imaginations. And they ignore evidence that child readers are far more sophisticated than adults tend to credit them for.

28/01/2022

A Persian festival, Yalda, celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, with pomegranates, poetry and sacred rituals
As the days become shorter and the nights become longer and darker, we are reminded that indeed winter is coming. As a child I would dread this time of the year. Not only was there was less time to play outside, but there was a string of holidays that my Iranian family didn’t celebrate, from Hanukkah to Christmas, which made me feel I didn’t belong in our new home in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

At the age of 11, I asked my parents for a Christmas tree. That’s when my grandmother, Ghamarjoon, placed two pomegranates in my hands and two in my mother’s and introduced me to Shab-e-Yalda: “shab” meaning night, and “yalda” meaning birth or light. It is a holiday celebrated by millions of people from Iran to Azerbaijan to the U.S., on Dec. 21, the winter solstice.

My path to becoming an anthropologist who studies rituals and traditions in the Middle East was, in part, a way discover the stories of my past, and Yalda was one of my first inspirations.

Celebrating light
Originating in the pre-Zoroastrian tradition of worship of Mithra, the God of Sun, but popularized by Zoroastrians, Yalda, also referred to as Chelleh, celebrates the sunrise after the longest night of the year. Ancient Persians believed that evil forces were strongest on the longest and darkest night of the year. People stayed up all night, telling stories and eating watermelon and pomegranate, in addition to dried fruit, in anticipation of the sun rising.

As the light spilled through the sky in the moment of dawn, Persians celebrated its appearance with drumming and dancing. It was thought that the day after the longest night belonged to Ahura Mazda, the Zoroastrian lord of wisdom.

Religious studies scholar Joel Wilbush argues that the early Christians loved this ancient Persian celebration. They saw the themes of light, sun and birth as interconnected with the birth of Jesus.

Triumph of light
Today my family continues the tradition by gathering every year to celebrate this ancient tradition. Like our ancestors before us, we stay up all night, curled under a korsi, a special Persian blanket lined with lumps of coal for warmth. We tell stories, read the poetry of Iranian poets like Hafez and Rumi, and speak of the good that can overcome evil.

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Foods such as pomegranate and watermelon are still eaten. A food indigenous to Iran, pomegranate is believed to be a symbol of life and resilience, for it blossoms during the harshest climate of winter. Persians also believe that eating summer foods, such as watermelon, will keep the body healthy through the winter, and that dried seeds like pumpkin and sunflower are a reminder of the cycle of life – of the rebirth and renewal to come.

While Christmas and Yalda are celebrated just a few days apart, the celebrations hold similar traditions and values. Family, love, resilience, rebirth and a triumph of light over dark.

Editor’s note: This piece has been updated to change the word equinox to the word solstice.

28/01/2022

28/01/2022