Harsh, perhaps?
Some days the things that appear in my feed reader seem so oddly symbolic that I wonder if they aren’t works of fiction. Take for example the Oshkosh Salvation Army leader facing suspension for marrying a woman who isn’t part of the Salvation Army. Doug Zellmer of the Northwestern explains:
Capt. Johnny Harsh, who has led the Oshkosh Salvation Army for more than three years, has been suspended for disobeying orders and could soon be terminated from the agency.
Harsh, whose wife, Capt. Yalanda “Yoley” Harsh, died unexpectedly in June, said he violated a Salvation Army rule that an officer in the agency may only marry another officer of the organization. Harsh is engaged to a woman who is not affiliated with the Salvation Army. He said they plan to marry in June.
Marrying outside of ranks (or social class, or ethnicity) is still deeply problematic in a lot of places. But what impresses me most about this story is the gentleman’s name. Johnny Harsh. What does it mean when your surname doubles as commentary on your current predictament?
I recently listened to Julia Sweeney’s Letting Go Of God. I had heard the first 15 or so minutes of this performance via TEDTalks and was really impressed. I was happy to find it on the iTunes store and downloaded it to my iPod shuffle to accompany me on the three hour (each way) trip to Sydney.
Julia Sweeney: Letting Go Of God
It wasn’t exactly what I expected. Infact it was so much more. It seems such a tired cliche – though in this instance it is completely true; I laughed, I cried. It was such a powerful thing. I was impressed by how much was contained within two hours. While obstensibly an actor and comedian, she is first a lapsed Catholic dedicated to reconnecting with her faith and practising it in a more authentic way. I cannot find words to convey how deeply anguished Sweeney becomes as she digs deeper and deeper into her faith.
I found her consideration of substitutionary atonement particularly interesting. She asks:
And what’s so psychologically true about atonement? We were taught that Jesus died for our sins based on this idea of atonement or that someone else can pay for the sins of other people. For the first time, after going to church basically my entire life, I considered the idea that God sent his son to Earth to suffer and die for our sins… Why? I mean first of all you can say that Jesus suffered but you know he didn’t really suffer any more than a lot of people have suffered. I mean I can think of examples in my own family. My brother Mike who had cancer – he suffered unspeakably for a very long time. Eyelids freezing open and his eyes drying up. Canker sores all over his throat and he couldn’t swallow. Weeks and then months of gut-wrenching vomitting and nausea before he then died.
So, okay, Jesus suffered. I mean, he apparently suffered terribly. For one, maybe even two days. I heard someone say once, ‘Jesus had a really bad weekend for our sins.’ I thought why would a god create people so imperfect then blame them for their own imperfections, then send his son to be tortured and executed by those imperfect people to make up for how imperfect people were… and how imperfect they inevitably were going to be? I mean what a crazy idea!
Happy Sunday!
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