Bugnut Part Two

Ginter Botanical Garden, Richmond, VA

The disciples were first called Christians

at Antioch.

Acts 11:26b

Mr. Jillette’s main concern with the word “Christian” appears to be when it is mixed with politics.  The current overtly Christian candidates in national politics are Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry.  Sarah Palin, who is not running for president, would be in this grouping, and Mitt Romney as well (although there are questions everywhere regarding calling him a Christian because he is Mormon). There are other would-be presidential candidates who are Christians, but they do not trumpet their faith with their politics, preferring to quietly live it.

Jillette has great difficulty with a statement recently attributed to Bachmann that the human suffering and casualties of the latest natural disasters (hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, etc.) was God’s message to wayward politicians to shape up.  If she did indeed state that, I have great difficulty with that concept as well.  God calls us to live our lives in service to mankind, loving Him and our fellow human beings, but He leaves the decision up to us.  Religion cannot be dictated from the bully pulpit of public politics.  It is a personal choice.  Mr. Jillette has as much right to choose not to believe as I have to choose to believe.

In my book, true Christians are those who live like Christ.  Political ambition is not humble service.  Mother Theresa lived her faith quietly, in ways that most of us would never dream of serving.  She did so, not as a stepping stone to her next political objective, but because of her love for God - and she allowed that love to flow through her in extraordinary ways. 

Bugnutty?

Pitcher Plant - Ginter Botanical Gardens, Richmond, VA

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed,

Do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus,

Giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Colossians3:17

Penn Jillette, half of the comedy/magic team of Penn & Teller and an avowed atheist, wrote an Op/Ed piece a few days ago in the Los Angeles Times, entitled Politics and the bugnut Christians.   He did not define the term “bugnut,” but it was obvious that it was not a term of endearment.  Prior to all the fuss about Jillette’s article, I had never heard the term “bugnut.”  Apparently in one slang context, a bug nut is a twist-on wire connector used to complete a circuit.  I don’t think that was Jillette’s idea, however, when he applied it to Christians, particularly to Christian “talk” by politicians.

Jillette (and author Susan Jacoby) believes that the term “Christian” wasn’t used very much in the larger world of language until it was applied to anti-abortionists in the Roe vs. Wade controversy in order to bring together Protestants and Catholics.  He further explains that its use expanded under the presidency of Jimmy Carter, a “born-again” Christian, and to some degree under the presidency of Bill Clinton, whom Jillette called a “church slut” because his worship attendance did not conform to one denomination.

I’m sure that the “nutty” portion of Jillette’s label for people of faith meant exactly what it always has – over-enthusiastic, weird, foolish, crazy, etc.  It is a sad truth that the newspaper would have never printed the article as written if it had referred to “bugnut Muslims” or the “bugnut Buddhists.”  Why the editors agreed that the term could appropriately be applied to Christians is beyond my imagination.

Bugnutty or not, I proudly call myself a Christian because it is not a “term,” but my name.  I am a follower of Christ – a believer in His life, His message, and His gift of salvation.  I am neither a weirdo nor a nutcase.  I am proud of the fact that I am His child, and He is my Father, mentor, and Redeemer.

Bullying

Stella Del'Oro - Ginter Botanical Garden, Richmond, VA

I led them with cords of human kindness

and ties of love.

Hosea 11:4

I have taught for the last three years at a local high school’s specialty center for music and art.  I love teaching voice and I love teaching kids, so it is in many ways the perfect job for me.  I teach a very tiny segment of the 2500 students who attend this high school, yet two years ago, I had to deal with a bullying situation in my very small classroom.  Halfway through the year, a boy and a girl from vastly different cultural and economic backgrounds decided to go after each other, and the results were astounding.  He became swaggering and sullen.  She turned inward and shut down completely.  Intervention from me, the leaders of the specialty center, and finally the principal eased the situation somewhat.  In my classroom?  The boy finally relented, relaxed, and became a productive student once more.  The girl came into class, put her head down at her computer station, and never raised it except to come up to sing when I called her name. 

Anderson Cooper of CNN recently did a program on schoolyard bullying.  A study was conducted at a top-ranked high school on Long Island, NY.  One girl, ranked highly as both a victim and an aggressor, said, “No matter what high school you go to, what age you are, what social group you’re in, you’ve been bullied and you’ve been a bully.  Once you start realizing that you can have… higher social power by putting other people down… that’s, like, how people are moving up and that’s how they’re gaining respect.”  Unfortunately, the research also discovered that 81% percent of aggressive incidents occur below the radar of adults and are never reported.

Kindness has become an irrelevant concept in our modern society.  In the corporate world, kindness is seen as a sign of weakness and aggression as an indication of strength. No one is willing to be walked on, and so we one-up the other guy to keep ahead of the game.  The emotional results can be devastating.  God calls upon us to show kindness to those around us through unconditional love.  How do we accomplish this when it is so foreign to our nature?  By standing strong in the Lord – passing on to others the awesome gift of love that has been showered down on us from above.