I watched The Battle of Algiers tonight. It’s one of those synchronistic things. I recently read several works by Sartre and Camus who had an infamous relationship that ended over a political difference regarding Algiers. Camus was for continued French colonization and Sartre was against it. Sartre was for terrorism, Camus was against any killing whatsoever. (Sartre, of course, saw Camus’s idealism as naive.)

I’ve been reading Not On Our Watch about the Darfur genocide and it was mentioned that on the trip to Sudan, the airlines showed The Battle of Algiers which was totally relevant to what was going on in Darfur. I hadn’t consciously connected the two, but isn’t that how things always work? One thing leads to another even when you don’t realize that is what is happening. So of course, I put The Battle of Algiers on my Netflix queue and moved it to the top. I have since added every film on the Sudan, Darfur, and related conflicts Netflix has.

The Battle of Algiers was filmed in 1966 on the streets of Algier and is based on events that occurred in 1954-1962. Algeria had been a French colony from 1830-1962. It was one of France’s longest-held overseas territories and later became the home of thousands of European immigrant who later became known as pieds-noirs. (Camus’s family was among these immigrants.) After Algeirian independence, over 1 million pied-noirs returned to France and were ostracized by the French because it was thought that they had brought about the violence of the Algerian War which was directly associated with the collapse of the French Fourth Republic. The pied-noirs blamed the French for not being able to return to Algiers because it had become so violent.

There was increasing dissatisfaction among the Muslims in Algiers because they were being treated as second rate citizens and lacked political and economic status. The Algerian War began in 1954 and Algeria gained complete independence in 1962. The film focuses on 1954 - 1960 with the beginning of the organization of Muslim cells in the Casbah. This lead to a confrontation with the pied-noirs which further lead to French paratroopers who came to weed out the Muslim National Liberation Front (FLN). They attempt to assassinate or neutralize all of the FLN leaders and in this attempt they could be said to have “won”, but there is further rioting of native Algerians which shows that they merely won the battle but lost the war.

The film is based on Saadi Yacef who was one of the leaders of the FLN. Today he is a Senator in Algeria’s People’s National Assembly. He was captured by French troops on Sept. 24, 1957 and was sentenced to death. But because he told the French army where Ali la Pointe was hiding (with whom the film both begins and ends), he was pardoned by the French government.

The film was banned for five years in France and scenes of torture were cut from both the American and British versions.

It is said that this film continues to be absolutely contemporary in terms of U.S occupation of Iraq and continued troubles in Africa. If you’ve seen it, what do you think?

Just a side note: Sartre is mentioned in the film by Colonel Bigeard. He says he doesn’t like Sartre, but that the Satrean’s are not those you want as foes. (Sartre wrote in favor of terrorism among the native Algierians to free themselves from French Colonial rule.)

Irish in America is definitely not the sort of music I’d just sit around a listen to, but I found it really interesting after having watched Out of Ireland and learning about the long-standing oral tradition that still remains in Ireland since Celtic times.

Dan Milner says he has been involved in Irish traditional song all of his life. He and Bob Conroy lecture on Irish American themes at the International Folksong & Ballad Seminar in Co. Donegal. They say that the Irish recorded their experiences in folk songs and this CD is a musical record of the Irish People in the U.S. from 1780-1980.

Interesting way to experience history.

Out of Ireland

by Paul Wagner (II)

I watched Out of Ireland about a week ago. I was inspired to watch this video after having watched two films on the Celts. It’s about the Irish Emigration to America.

A good portion of my heritage is Irish. On my mother’s side, my aunt has done a lot of research which links us right back to Ireland. My father’s family comes out of Ireland in part, too, although he had always considered himself to be Scottish. Both sides of the family had claimed they were Scotch Irish and I think my mother had always thought of this as being Scottish, too, until my aunt’s research.

What I learned from the film was that the Scotch-Irish were Irish protestants who were persecuted by the Irish Catholics so immigrated to Scotland. Ethnically, they are Irish, but many who came to the U.S. preferred to think of themselves as Scottish. The Scotch-Irish had made their way to the U.S. prior to the large Irish Emigration that came after the Potato Famine and they made a deliberate distinction of themselves as Scottish to separate themselves from the poor Irish that were viewed by the American culture in an extremely negative light.

I had no idea how ill-treated the Irish had been in America!! They came to America downtrodden, starving, and impoverished hoping to find a better life. But many felt that life in the U.S. was even worse than what they came from (which had been absolutely horrific – many were enslaved in Ireland and some had even been sent to the U.S. as slaves!!)

I am so glad I watched this DVD.

I recently watched two documentaries on the Conquistadors. One was an excellent documentary from PBS entitled The Conquistadors and the other an informative documentary entitled The Roads to El Dorado (from The Secrets of Archaeology series).

It’s such an incredibly sad history. Hernan Cortes was the first of the conquistadors. He managed to get a slave girl who knew both the Mayan and Aztec languages to help betray her people. I can’t help but wonder if you are a slave to your people if it is your people you are betraying? But the Mexican people to this day consider her a traitor and a whore.

It was said that the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II believed that Cortes was the god Quetzalcoatl who had been expelled from Mexico and said he would come back and regain his Kingdom in the same year as Cortes conquered. The film doesn’t say this, but I have read (and it seems likely to me), that this was a Spanish fabrication. (It’s not unlike claiming that the Bible predicts the falling of the temple in Jerusalem and then later discovering the texts referring to the fall of the temple were written after it’s fall and not before. It’s an effective means to cement “believers”.)

Cortes made alliances with enemies of the Aztecs and it was through their help that he was able to destroy a civilization virtually singlehandedly. This is almost unheard of. But the Aztecs didn’t have guns or horses. And the starvation of women and children was not a part of the Aztec idea of warfare. Unfortunately, the Spaniards had horses, guns and the starvation of women and children was part of their warfare. Cortes starved women and children in every village and this was a big part of how he was able to bring the civilization down. It’s no wonder the Aztecs viewed the Spaniards as contemptible people. They were contemptible.

Francisco Pizarro (around 1527) is another famous conquistador whose conquest was the Incas. The Incas worshiped the Sun as their God and were obedient to their rulers. They revered their ancestors and the mountain spirits which gave the Spanish Catholics justification for war - they claimed it was in order to save the souls of the Incas.

The way the Incas saw it - if the Spanish rule Spain and the Incas rule Inca civilization, all is right with the world. But, if Spain tries to rule land that is not their own, it will create disorder and the world will be upside down. The plundering of the lands of the Incas is the greatest plundering raid in history. It is a wonder that the leader of the Incas, Atahualpa, allowed the Spanish to travel freely.

A deal was made between Pizarro and Atahualpa that Atahualpa provide a large amount of gold and the Spanish would leave. Atahuala kept his word and delivered the gold, but Pizarro put Atahualpa on a mock trial - mock because the jury was Pizarro’s brothers. Not surprisingly, they found him guilty of failing to uphold his end of the deal and killed him. These events were beyond belief to the Inca people and the world had indeed been turned upside down for them. For the Incas, this was the end of sacred time and the beginning of profane time.

It is thought that the Incas came from Asia 18,000 years ago. Their territory covered Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Columbia. For the Incas, everything belonged to the state. There was no monetary taxation, but people had to pay a tax in the form of work which is likely how they built their incredible walls and buildings. Yet another great civilization came to an end through the Spaniards.

After the Spanish conquered, Spaniards flooded into Peru in search of gold. The Incas called this the “more syndrome”. “You have enough, why do you want more?” Many were in search of El Dorado which was an Inca myth the Spaniards believed was literally true.

In search of El Dorado, Pizarro took off on an expedition with Francisco de Orellana but Orellana’s ship was separated at the Napo River and Orellana ended up travelling the full extent of the Amazon.

In the sixteenth century, before Orellana arrived from Spain, the Amazon had big, well-organized towns all along it. There were well over 6 million people who lived in an elaborate series of ancient kingdoms united by the Amazon River itself. So what happened to all of these people? Today, there are only 250,000!

Of course, El Dorado was never discovered.

One of the nicer Conquistadors, Cabeza de Vaca, came to Texas (long before it was Texas, of course). He started in Florida where he met the Seminole Indians (the American tribe to never sign a peace treaty with the U.S. government). He traveled on to Galveston Island where he met the Karankawa. These were hunter gatherers and Galveston was their winter residence. The “uncivilized” men shared their food with him. And when he broke down in desparation, they cried with him which made Cabeza de Vaca recognize their common humanity.

The Karankawa saved Cabeza de Vaca to their own detriment because the Karankawa eventually vanished for good. The Spanish didn’t want human beings, they wanted slaves. But Cabeza de Vaca recognized that these people were human beings, not animals. He argued for benevolent rule but failed. He died a pauper and his only legacy is his book of travel.

The Karankawa’s compassion and Cabeza de Vaca’s efforts were not entirely in vain. Catholic Spain began questioning the Spanish conquests and a philosophical debate on the ethics of the treatment of the “New World” was organized by King Charles V. Sepulveda, a famous philosopher and theologian, argued that the conquest was a natural state of affairs. Some people are simply superior to others and so it is just and fair to make of those that are inferior, slaves: “Those whose condition is such that their function is the use of their bodies and nothing better can be expected of them, those, I say, are slaves of nature. It is better for them to be ruled thus.” He said the natives are “as children to parents, as women are to men, as cruel people are from mild people”

Bartoleme de las Casas was a priest who argued that all people of the world are human beings and all are rational and take pleasure in good. He said that the conquests in the New World must be stopped. The torture and genocide of the natives of the Americas and Caribbean (West Indies) was completely unethical and against the will of God.

After the debate, the King ordered that all conquests be stopped. But it didn’t matter, the conquests continued without his approval.

In the Name of Honor: A Memoir

by Mukhtar Mai

AAnother book I recently finished is In the Name of Honor by Mukhtar Mai (translated into French by Marie-Therese Cuny and translated from the French to English by Linda Coverdale).

Mukhtar Mai is from Marweela, a small rural village in Pakistan. She was brutally gang-raped by four men of a higher caste (the Mastoi) as an arranged punishment for some past wrong they believe had been done to them by her family.

This form of punishment is not uncommon in the rural areas of Pakistan. In order to gain revenge, men use women as a commodity. They give them as marriage in order to reconcile differences or allow them to be raped as a form of revenge. The rape shames the woman and the family.

Mukhtar’s story has been in the news for years. This is her explanation of what happened after she was raped and thrown out half naked in front of the entire village. (The entire village saw what happened and looked the other way because that is how it’s done.)

Mukhtar thought she would kill herself, which is what most women do in her situation. But her brother and mother would not let that happen. And after a few days, rage grew within her and she decided she wanted justice. Amazingly, she got it.

It wasn’t easy because she couldn’t read or write and she had been taught that women have no value. Throughout the process, she feared for her life. The Mastoi have far more money and clout than her clan. If they were released and she weren’t properly protected, they would likely kill her and hurt her family. At one point, they were found not guilty and released, but there was a huge outcry from the world.

Even though she had been taught that women have no value, something in her told her otherwise. When early on she was given a check as a small form of recompense by the government, she refused it. She didn’t want the money, she wanted justice. But it was insisted she keep it and she used it to build schools in her village so the girls could be educated.

She says the real question her country must ask itself is, if the honor of men lies in women, why do men want to rape or kill that honor?

She currently speaks out not just for all of the women who have endured what she has had to endure, but also, in these cruel times, for those who are the victims of all disaster.

Lost Civilizations [Collector's Edition] [4 Discs]

While I was looking for stuff on the Chinese Revolution, I also came across Time Life’s series on Lost Civilizations. This was another absolutely gripping series. There are 10 programs, almost 1 hour each on different civilizations that have been lost over time. They start with the most ancient and move toward the more recent: Mosopotamia - Return to Eden, Ancient Egypt - Quest for Immortality, Aegean - Legacy of Atlantis, Greece - A Moment of Excellence, China - Dynasties of Power, Rome - The Ultimate Empire, The Maya - the Blood of the Kings, The Inca - Secrets of the Ancestors, Africa - A History Denied, Tibet - The End of Time.

I took a few notes - primarily on Tibet because of my recent interests, so bare with me as I record them. (I’ll start from the end),

On Tibet:

Tibet was the very last surviving major ancient civilization and is currently a diaspora and threatens extinction. In the 7th century, the Tibetans were feared conquerors, their methods being not unlike those used by Ghengis Khan. After 1000 years of military might, Tibet decided to demilitarize. This is the only civilization ever known to voluntarily give up it’s military might so is absolutely remarkable from a historical standpoint. No other country has done this, most tend to go the other direction and strengthen their military might. By the end of the 17th century, Tibet had given up it’s fortresses for monasteries and violence was replaced with spiritual wisdom. A peaceful, self-sufficient society emerged dedicated to the pursuit of non-violence and it existed this way for 800 years.

It’s a very interesting experiment for a country to say “I do it for the other”. Tibet maintained it’s independence by trading spiritual blessings with China. But when Mao Zedong gained rule, religion came to be seen as a superstition and the Tibetan society was viewed as one that was in need of education. In 1949, China invaded Tibet. In 1959, the Dalai Lama fled to India. He was only 23 years old.

100,000 Tibetans follows the Dalai Lama to Tibet, but 1.2 million more died. This was a Holocaust, not unlike what happened to the Jews. But like it took quite a while for the details of the fate of the Jews to emerge after WWII, we don’t yet have the details of what happened to the Tibetans and don’t yet know the full extent of the carnage. Some of the survivors have horrible stories - of terrible torture: being suspended upside down, having their legs imprisoned in casts for years, being so hungry they were tempted to eat their own excrement. Many of these Tibetans have been imprisoned all of their lives, being arrested when they were young and only released when they are elderly.

The Tibetans remain in India, not having access to their land. The Dalai Lama believes that there is still hope for their survival, if they can somehow negotiate some sort of self-rule with China. But if they cannot obtain this, then their society will become extinct, leaving no surviving ancient civilizations on earth.

I have just a few notes on the other shows:

On Mesopotamia:

1. Ten Commandments: Did you know that the Ten Commandments come from Hammurabi’s Code? 1200 years before the Israelites had been taken captive, Hammurabi was a Babylonian king who had a stone inscribed with laws that bare his name. This stone emerged in the late 19th century. This Babylonian code is the precursor to the laws we find in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

2. Noah’s Ark: In 1852, Nineveh was discovered in Northern Iraq. This was an Assyrian civilization and contained the Library of Nineveh in which the Epic of Gilgamesh was discovered. This story predates the Bible by 2000 years and contains within it, a story of a man building a boat that is exactly like the story of Noah in Genesis. The major cities of Sumer were Uruk, Ur (said to be the birthplace of Abraham) and Eridu. The Sumerians invented the wheel, gardening, government and were the first civilization on earth to invent the 60 second minute. And most significantly, they wrote things down - they invented Cuneiform. They are the first civilization.

3. Garden of Eden: Part of the Epic of Gilgamesh contains a story of a Garden of paradise, complete with a serpent. Archaeologists now think the myth was based upon an actual place - the Island of Bahrain which would have seemed like paradise compared to the surrounding areas. They have found embalmed remains of people and serpents - embalmed serpents are everywhere on the island of Bahrain.

On Egypt

All I have written down is the discovery of the Rosetta Stone by Napoleon. This was a signficant discovery because there was a Greek translation under the Egyptian Cuneiform which finally allowed experts to break the code of the Egyptian writing. One of my favorite Catholic priests claimed that this proved that Moses did not actually exist - that his story was based upon an accumulation of stories that can be found in the Egyptian libraries. He said that Moses and Abraham were symbols for groups of nomadic tribes - not actual individuals. Many archaeologists concur with this, since absolutely nothing can be found on Abraham or Moses, but similar stories about other people abound.

On Greece

Athens was a boys club and women were nothing. This tends to continue to be true in most of Greece.

Socrates was accused of not believing in the gods and was said to corrupt the minds of the youth. His trial and conviction would not have happened under Pericles who ruled during the city’s Golden Age. Socrates embodies Athens at it’s best.

On the Maya

I think the most interesting thing about this show was one of the experts claiming that the decline of the Mayan civilization is not particularly mysterious or significant. What is significant is that a civilization like the Mayan civilization could be maintained for 2000 years.

The civilization was completely reliant upon a system. In order to survive, the people had to believe in the power of the King. When the people no longer had faith in the King, the civilization collapsed. As more and more people lost faith in their ruler, they left the cities.

The Mayan civilization was a bloody one. The King and Queen had to give blood in exchange for immortality. They would pierce their tongues and their genitals which caused great bleeding, and offer this blood to the gods in great ceremonies. As they kingdoms began to falter, rather than increase military might, they created even more fearful ritualistic blood sacrifices, which of course, did not save their civilization.

It was very easy for the Mayans to accept Jesus because they were already so heavily into blood sacrifice. The idea of a King sacrificing himself for the people and becoming immortal made perfect sense to them. So they embraced Christianity without a qualm.

An interesting note: the Mayan calendar is among the most accurate ever developed and it abruptly ends in 2012. The Tibetans believe we are entering an Apocalyptic age, and some scientists claim we are in for a reversal in our magnetic field. This reversal has occurred at fairly regular intervals during the history of the earth. Could it be the Mayan’s calendar ends with the estimated reversal?

China - A Century of Revolution

While reading Bill Porter’s Road to Heaven, I decided I needed to learn more about China’s Cultural Revolution.

Thankfully, my library had the DVD series - China - A Century of Revolution and it wasn’t check out. It was actually three 2 hour films: China in Revolution (beginning in 1911 with the fall of the last emperor through 1949 with the rise of Mao Zedong and Chang Kai-shek); The Mao Years (1949 to 1976 - The People’s Republic of China); Born Under the Red Flag (Mao’s death in 1976 to leadership under Deng Xiopang).

I had no problem encouraging myself to watch this documentary at all. In fact, I looked forward to it - which isn’t always the case with long series like this. I guess most of us don’t know that much about the history of China because it is so well guarded by the Chinese authorities. That was one thing I realized from Bill Porter’s book. He and his photographer were just taking pictures of temples and got arrested because the government thought he was a spy.

Anyway, I have a much better understanding of the political turmoil and changes going on in China than I did previously. The capitalistic communism is a very interesting experiment, too. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out.

According to the hermits Porter interviewed in Road to Heaven, they have more freedom now than they did during Mao’s rule. But during Mao’s rule, religion was completely outlawed, religious texts burned, sacred temples and burial sites destroyed. But hermits were always revered in China and so still maintain a certain amount of freedom that other citizens don’t have. They are the uncontrollable few because they cannot be coerced by the material lures that most citizens are lured with.

Taboo - The Complete Second Season (National Geographic)

by Morris Abraham

We don’t have cable in our home so I miss out on some of the cool television channels like Discovery and National Geographic. Last year, I discovered the First Season of National Geographic’s Taboo at Best Buy and had to get it. It’s the sort of thing that is right up my alley. Thankfully, my library had the second season and let me keep it checked out for 6 weeks. There were 13 - 1 hour episodes. I finished it tonight - just in time to get it back to the library before it was overdue.

Various traditions and practices around the world considered “normal” where they are practiced and “taboo” where they are not are presented with commentary offered by many anthropologists, psychologists, experts on religion, etc.

One of the most memorable episodes from the first season was the show on Death and Rites of Passage. They showed how cultures around the world honor the elderly who are considered to be very valuable to society as wise elders, teachers, etc. Then, they showed the U.S. custom of admitting our elderly into nursing home by their children - something considered among the most horrible of taboos in many cultures.

I think I enjoyed the second season even more than the first season. It can be really hard to watch sometimes, though. But they do such a good job of showing how some of the traditions practiced in other cultures that seem like complete and total lunacy to us actually have a very reasonable basis. And likewise, they show how some of the practices we consider normal seem like complete and total lunacy to other cultures. They also show how many of the practices we consider “normal” mirror practices we think of as taboo in other cultures.

I think the episode I found most fascinating from the second season was the episode on healing. I was reminded of the story told in Matthew of the woman who had suffered bleeding for 12 years (probably hemophelia). She touched Jesus cloak and she was healed. This was not an intentional healing on Jesus’ part. He was aware that something had happened, but didn’t know what so looks around the crowd trying to find the person who had taken energy from him. The woman came forward and Jesus told her - your faith has made you well. That always struck me because it wasn’t Jesus who made her well, it was her faith. And it doesn’t say it was her faith in something that made her well. Just plain and simply - faith has healed her.

I remember a class at the University on World Religions. We studied animism and watched a shaman healing a woman. I don’t remember what was wrong with her. But it was full of animal sacrifices and doing really icky things with a goat. The woman was healed. Likely, it was also her faith that healed her.

We place our faith in Western medicine to be healed and so it works for us. But, there are cultures that have access to western medicine but still rely on their cultures traditional methods for what medicine can’t seem to heal. If you don’t have faith in western medicine, perhaps traditional methods are more effective in some cases.

Plus, western medicine is starting to discover that some of the seemingly primitive means of healing used in other cultures have scientific value. For instance, healing wounds with maggots is extremely effective and is becoming more normal in the U.S. as bacteria are becoming more and more antibiotic resistant. It sounds horrible until you understand how it works. Flies lay their eggs on rotting flesh so that their babies will have food. Maggots feast only on rotting flesh and leave the healthy flesh alone. So, if you have a nasty wound, maggots will eat the part of the wound that allows bacteria to survive without harming the surrounding tissue. Leeches will suck out toxins in the blood. Honey bee stings produce antihistimines in our body so can be used to help heal various ailments.

One of the anthropologists noted that cultural healers have been doing this for a very long time. The art is carefully passed down from generation to generation and it works. They know what they are doing. The healers say they cannot explain it scientifically, only traditionally.

Fascinating, fascinating, fascinating show. Definitely mind opening.

Southern Comfort

by Kate Davis

I am sometimes completely and totally amazed by the DVDs I find at my local library - especially since we still live in what is considered to be small-town Texas (although it is growing extremely fast). Obviously, our library tries to be diverse. What typically happens, however, is that the more liberal books and films eventually end up “lost”. Luckily, I was able to check out Southern Comfort before a fundamentalist Christian managed to “lose” it. It’s another film I likely would never have known about except through the library. Gotta love the library!

By the end of this film, I was a complete and total wreck, requiring lots and lots of kleenex.

The story is about transgendered people living in the rural south. Gay people are treated better than are transgendered folk and gay people aren’t treated particularly well in the south. Even in Austin, which is considered to be quite liberal, you hear about gays being beat up on a fairly regular basis in the high schools. Once upon a time it was all about racisim. And some ugly racial issues do still exist. But by far the ugliest prejudice today is aimed at the gay and especially the transgendered community.

Specifically, the film follows Robert Eads, a male who used to be female and is ironically dying of ovarian cancer - the one part of him that is still female is the part that is killing him. When he was first diangosed, he was turned down for treatment by two dozen doctors, several which told him in no uncertain terms that they wouldn’t treat him because he would hurt their practice - he’d be an embarrassment. So by the time he is treated, the cancer is too far advanced to do anything about it. He says what makes him the most sad is that when he dies, people will believe that how they treated him was “the right thing” based upon their Christian beliefs. He struggles to stay alive so that he can attend, and give a speech at the world’s largest transgendered conference, Southern Comfort, which takes places yearly in Atlanta, Georgia.

His girl friend, who is also transgendered, very poingantly states - “what a curious thing to be uptight about. Nature delights in diversity. Why not humanity?”

Good question. What makes people so fearful and hateful toward that which is different than themselves?

It just doesn’t make any sense to me and never has. Diversity is beautiful. Why would we want everyone to be the same?

Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus

by Andrew Douglas (IV)

Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus is an amazing documentary. I’m almost in tears after watching it. Which is strange, really, since I don’t identify with the backwoods south. But I think, without a doubt, the backwoods south is in my blood.

I live in Central Texas which is pretty far south. However, Texas is Texas and we don’t consider ourselves to be part of the South. We’re more like our own country. But really, we are closer to the south than we are to any other culture in the U.S. Most of Texas is part of the Bible Belt. But go any further south just past Austin where I live - onward to San Antonio and it is primarily Latin American Catholic.

Austin is eclectic - it’s where everything kind of merges and mixes together: a mix of the Bible Belt culture, Latin American Catholicism, Native American spirituality, intellectual atheism, and experimental Buddhism and eastern religions. Which is why I have always loved Austin so much and wanted to move back here so desperately when my husband told me he wanted to move us back to Texas. My response, “That’s fine dear, but if you are going to move me back to Texas, the only place I’ll go is Austin.”

Of course we ended up in Austin suburbia, but we almost made it. If we could have afforded to live in Austin and afford private schools at the same time, we’d be in Austin. But we couldn’t. So instead, we moved to where we could insure our children would receive a public education that would allow them to get into the top universities. Priorities. Not sure if they are right. But they are the ones we chose.

Which means, of course, we have chosen to dwell within transient corporate America. And not just transient corporate America, but transient corporate America in the south where 70% of the population attends a corporate evangelical church and very few are actually from the south. Our kids are constantly the target of massive evangelical Christian marketing. And I’m not always sure I’m OK with this choice. But as my children get older, I realize they are doing exactly what I did - befriending the few liberals in the area. So maybe where we live doesn’t matter near as much as who it is we are and what it is we stand for. That’s what the evangelicals count on. Perhaps we progressive, non-evangelical types should as well!

At the same time, however, I have a major problem with how hateful many progressive Christians are toward fundamentalism. Righteousness is righteousness. To be a scientist and believe that your truth is the only truth is really no different from an evangelical theologian who believes his truth is the only truth.

It’s all based upon utopian ideals. And these utopian ideals will never exist. Life will never be perfect because every single human being in the world views perfection differently. You can’t create a utopia unless every single human being views perfection exactly the same. Which - get a grip - is never going to happen! Every body wants what they want. Just because you think what you want is more right than what somebody else wants doesn’t mean that what you want is more important.

If you think what you want is more right - then you believe your world view will create a utopia. Put this into perspective. Hitler’s idea of society was utopian. Utopian world views are nothing more than narcissism based upon your own personal desires - believing that if everyone bought into your world view, the world would be perfect. But you aren’t looking at perfection. All you are looking at is your own reflection.

I guess that is what I loved about this documentary. Two British filmmakers who appreciate the music of the American south, are able to present it in such a way that doesn’t denigrate it.

At one point in the film, Jim White, their guide through the south, uses an ice cream cone to exemplify the south. He squeezes it down and says that most everyone in the south goes into the cone. But there is the fringe element, the part of the icecream that doesn’t fit into the cone, that is the fringe element. These are the criminal element, the extremist religious element, and the artists. They don’t fit within the cone, so they have to figure out a way to express themselves somehow.

The thing about the extremist religious element in the south is that it is nothing like corporate fundamentalism. Corporate fundamentalism is as intentional as is any major marketing endeavor. But the deep fundamentalism of the south is far more artistic than it is business like. As Jim White says, you have to check your mind at the door. It’s all heart. All spirit. And as the filmmakers noted - it’s highly sensual. It’s really not that much different from hanging out at the bar on Saturday night. Both are completely consumed with the idea of intoxiation. And you think - intoxication of what? The spirit! It’s no wonder that alcohol is also known as spirits!!! They are extremely closely related. Partying on Saturday night is not all that different from attending a Pentecostal church and speaking in tongues on sunday morning.

I don’t consider myself to be southern, but having gone to college in College Station and country western dancing in every single honky tonk between there and Dallas, I can relate to a lot of the stops made along the way of this film, including the creepy prayer rooms in truck stops, Jesus Saves signs on roofs of houses, and bizarre theological discussions about the revelation being held in bars.. My mother grew up in the Ozarks so we’d regularly make the drive from Texas to Arkansas to visit her family. We went to New Orleans and Florida regularly so travelled through southern swamplands.

My father was from outside of Chicago, but his favorite musicians were honky tonk. He loved Jerry Lee Lewis who was from one of the little southern towns this film visited. It’s probably no accident that he married a woman from the south.

I loved this movie. Especially because it was made by Brits who took such a compassionate view of the American South. They made the film as fans of the south even though none of them are Christian! Yet, they were able to find value in some of the crazy evangelical churches that they visited.

Check your mind at the door - let something else work within you when you enter here.

Watch this film. It is wonderful. Kind of funny that non-Christian British people would manage to do such justice to the American south!