Straight-shooting Christianity :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Straight-shooting Christianity The March 11, 2003 edition of USA Today reports on a new approach to religious faith in certain churches: worship based in the values and mores of the American West. â€Å"Straight-shooting emphasis on Christianity spurs a growing trend,† reads the headline (Grossman D1). A church named, with no needed irony, â€Å"Cross Trails† is reported to baptize new believers â€Å"in an 8-foot circular, blue plastic horse trough† (Grossman D1). This is a trail to belief that is stripped-down, back-to-basics, a religious attitude that reflects the lives of the ranchers and farmers it appeals to. Cathy Lynn Grossman writes: This is cowboy church - straight-shooter, sinner-saved-by-grace theology throwing a rope out to the lost, the lonely and those who long for an unvarnished faith. No fancy duds. No politicized preaching. No denominational hair-splitting. It’s come as you are in spirit, spurs and Stetsons. It’s bucking bulls and plumbing Bibles in a dusty arena or dropping a hard-won dollar in a boot on the back table after a punchy sermon. (D1) The notion Grossman sculpts in her article is part Frederick Remington, part Sea of Galilee. Indeed, â€Å"[f]undamentally, it’s an attitude, whether you ride a bronc or a computer keyboardâ€Å" (Grossman 1D). The cowboy church movement seems to cut in on a growing herd of believers in America who seem to think that the values of the church as it should be are undermined by the very urbanity, the very sophistication that has come to characterize modern life and popular culture. They seek their solace in The West, in a picture - however mythological it may be - of a simpler way of life. This is a phenomenon, after all, that exists simultaneously with ranchers who hang cell phones where their six-shooter used to be, who use multi-tools to mend fences and all-terrain vehicles to run down stray livestock. It is an attitude more than anything else. But that attitude is not without some provenance. Grossman quotes pastor Perry Smith, the leader of Living for the Brand, a cowboy church next to the fairground arena in Athens, Texas: †The cowboy walk in life is parallel with the lifestyle of Jesus - doing right and living by your word† (D2). Likewise, cowboy churches themselves seem to be fulfilling the same roles that Jesus did to his followers. The cowboy church movement, for instance, packages its message especially for its audience, much in the same way Jesus used parables because â€Å"they seeing see not; and hearing they know not, neither do they understand† (Matt.

Loss of Freedom Through Apathy

We do have freedom in this country but we simply choose to ignore it. We live in a democracy, the most just kind of government, where we the people hold supreme power. It is an institution that is a culmination of revolutions, wars, philosophies and heroes. It is the greatest and proudest government in the world. One reason for this is that Americans have a right citizens of Iraq and China and North Korea only dreamed they could have. It took one of the greatest military epics in history for our Founding Fathers to receive this right. It took the marching of thousands for women to achieve this right. It took 400 years of abuse for blacks to finally to win this right. It is the highest and purest form of freedom of speech and as Americans it is our single most powerful instrument of self government. It is the American vote and in this Presidential election it is a right 250 million chose to ignore. This year I had the great opportunity to volunteer my services to the Democratic party. I was excited to work for the Democrats because it was my first ever experience involved with the election. For 17 years I stood as a common bystander to this great American tradition. Volunteering my hours made me feel ike I was part of something important. Mostly my work consisted of random polling. I would call people up between the hours of 7 and 9 P. M. and ask them a few questions about the election. With every call I hoped for the best, but it seemed that I was calling people at the time they were most irritable. Most would simply hang up, leaving with a polite â€Å"Oh, I’m not interested. † Others acted militantly to my calling, slamming the phone in disgust. It startled and in a way disheartened me, the way many of the people I polled seemed totally apathetic to the political world around us. To me, spending a minute answering questions about the future of politics did not seem like too much to ask at all. Yet it continued. â€Å"Hello I’m calling on behalf of your congressman Bob Toricelli. I’d like to ask a few questions. † â€Å"I’m sorry I’m really busy right now. I can’t talk. † *click â€Å"Hello I’m calling on behalf of your congressman Bob Toricelli. I’d like to ask a few questions. † â€Å"Not interested† *click â€Å"Hello I’m calling on behalf of your congressman Bob Toricelli. I’d like to ask a few questions. † â€Å"I’m tired of hearing about this election. † *click If I was calling from a telephone company or some other corporate monster disturbing people with their propaganda, I could understand how their sheer rudeness could be justified. But I am not calling on behalf of some annoying telemarketing scheme. I am an eager high school student with a fresh infatuation with politics. I am polling people about the leader of tomorrow, who will directly affect the taxes they spend, the wars they go into, and the moral values that they seem to hold so dear. To take a minute did not seem like a lot. In this past election over 52% of the population eligible to vote did not. Many don’t find anything particularly wrong with this. Their logic being that half of the nation voting would be just as effective as the entire nation. The problem with this reasoning is that some groups in America vote in larger numbers than other groups. Take for example the elderly in this country. It has been well documented that senior citizens above 60 have the highest voter turn-out of any age group in this country. Both Presidential candidates this year have appealed strongly for medical reforms with this group especially in mind. For Politicians this is the roup that can make or break their election hopes. They will do whatever it takes to please this group, even if it means stepping all over another group to please them. In contrast the age bracket with the lowest voter turn-out are new voters between 20 and 29. This â€Å"X† generation of voters will have their rap music censored for being too explicit and their action films for being too violent. The Internet that this generation seems to embrace so dearly will be censored by the telecommunications bill and its television programming will include little ratings on the top left of their screens. Politicians will have no problem abusing the rights of this Generation X because simply put, they don’t go our and vote. In this way the government pays more attention to the elderly as compared to the young. They will care more about the trials and tribulations of the rich and middle-class rather than the suffering of the poor. They will support the N. R. A. with it s sinful operations because yes, each and every one of their 2. 5 million members vote. The vote determines who has the power in this country. It is not necessarily the majority. It is those who are dedicated. America is the land of the free. Too many Americans take this for granted. We are not a monarchy. We are not a communism. We are not a dictatorship. We are a democracy and the people have the control. We are different from all the other types of government because the voices that govern us are our own. But when 250 million do not vote, who has the right to say that we control ourselves? When half chooses to hold their mouths, who is to say that we are not a nation of special interests who do not hold their mouths? We have freedom, but it is apathy that is taking it away from us. We have that control we simply don’t use it.

Essay on The Moral Codes of Comitatus and Chivalry

The Moral Codes of Comitatus and Chivalry Throughout history, there have been different codes of ethics that are often more important to a society that the governing laws of the land. While laws are written standards that people are compelled to abide by for fear of punishment, these codes serve as guideline for how people should live their lives. Two such codes are comitatus as demonstrated in Beowulf and chivalry as depicted in Morte D’Arthur. When the characters in these stories live by the constructs of these social systems, the society flourishes. When characters stray from each social code, however, the entire society falls victim. Comitatus is a social system under which people serve their courageous leader no†¦show more content†¦Beowulf’s men, recognizing him as the chief also conform to the rules of comitatus when Beowulf is engaged in his battle with Grendel. While engaged in a struggle with Grendel in Heorot, Hrothgar’s great gathering hall, Beowulf’s men wake up. They immedia tely draw their swords and begin hacking at Grendel and persist in doing so despite the fact that Grendel is impervious to the blows of their swords. Despite the ineffectiveness of their attacks and the fear of a gruesome death, the soldiers, bound by comitatus, do not stop fighting until Beowulf kills Grendel. It is the failure to honor this code that nearly costs Beowulf his life however. After Grendel’s mother attacks Heorot, Beowulf once again sets out on a mission of vengeance for Hrothgar. Hrothgar promises Beowulf great treasure if he can kill Grendel’s mother. This in itself is a departure from comitatus, because having pledged allegiance to Hrothgar, Beowulf should not need the incentive of treasure. Fighting nobly is treasure enough. Beowulf then swims to the troll’s cave alone and engages in a massive one-on-one battle with Grendel’s mother. Although he eventually emerges victorious, society deems that he was weaker because he was fighting alon e. This departure from comitatus finally does result in the death of Beowulf in the finalShow MoreRelatedThe Truth Behind the Knight: the Presence of Archetypes in Sir Gawain the Green Knight2908 Words   |  12 Pagesinto knighthood. Needless to say, Gawain may have more questions than answers. Some of these questions can’t be answered unless he lived through the experience of a knight. Some of the characteristics of a Seeker lie in his faithfulness to the code of chivalry. An example would be when the Lady is vying for the attention of Sir Gawain. The Lady persists in her desires, perpetually being spurned by Sir Gawain. His passiveness is so lost on her that she is almost convinced that this is not the famed