reckshow's ruminations

Superstitions

One of today’s Mass readings is from Leviticus, and in the tradition of Leviticus, it’s a list of do’s and don’ts.

I suspect that nearly every Christian remembers a time when someone first pointed out the series of verses in Leviticus 18 in which a series of sexual prohibitions is issued, including “Do not have sexual intercourse with an animal”, which at age 11 is way, way more shocking to even think about than the idea of persons of the same sex lying together. I was in sixth grade, and it really freaked me out.

I just finished reading Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult, a pretty amazing novel that takes on our notions of what is right and wrong about sexuality from genetic predisposition to nuture to manipulated morality. In one scene, a lawyer and a pastor trade off verses from Leviticus, one trying to show that whatever the Bible says is Truth, the other trying to prove that we essentially pick and choose which verses we think are important.

Chances are, we’re probably OK with whatever someone tells you is in the Bible and therefore True until it means that you or someone you love is directly affected by the interpretation of that verse. Although someone pointed out verses to me in Leviticus about sexuality in sixth grade, it didn’t directly affect me until I was in college and my best friend was gay, and someone tried to convince me by hanging out with him, my own morality was in jeopardy. In other words, if I was sinning, it was because I was always around sin.

To my shame, I actually considered the possibility. Like many Christians faced with this discernment, I prayed and read and soon realized that there’s a ton of stuff in the Bible that is superstitious crap. It’s about nation-building, not about morality. It’s about taking a tiny little group of refugees and making them into a coherent group. It’s about creating and perpetuating power structures, delineating who is in, and who is out, who is clean and who is unclean, and setting this culture apart from the cultures surrounding it.

It’s probably ironic that I now consider myself (at least locally) as a member of the Christian organization that is most concerned with perpetuating power structures, which is least likely to overcome those sins. Yet, when I read over Leviticus and I look at what we’ve done away with in the name of grace (who isn’t grateful for being able to wear mixed textiles? thank you, Jesus!), I still have hope. I might never see it in my lifetime. It might take another thousand years. But I believe that the Spirit is stronger than the Law. It’s only because we refuse to be led by the Spirit that we cling to the Law.

Me and NPR

It occurred to me this morning while reading reports about the impending nuclear disaster in Japan that if NPR and PBS in the United States were “state-sponsored” - in that they were the propoganda tool of the State, that we wouldn’t be in the situation that we’re in, facing the loss of Federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In other words, if NPR and PBS were broadcasting the ilk of Fox News, opposition in Congress would probably be minimal.

I’m a public broadcasting fan. I get the majority of my news from NPR. I listen to arts programming on WQXR. I watch arts, history and nature programs on PBS. Why? Because they produce programming I’m interested in. It’s really very, very simple.

In the morning before I leave for work, my mom is usually watching Good Morning America. I usually get downstairs in time for the morning headlines. It takes them about ten minutes to run through the headlines and top stories, which includes a celebrity tidbit, of course. And a clip of an “exclusive” interview to tie-in to the evening news report and their newsmagazine programs. I continually marvel at what they consider “news” and in-depth reporting. 

But when it comes to news reporting, the producers have less in determining what they cover than the audience does. The producers show news that they know the audience wants to watch or listen to. So, if you’re watching GMA, chances are you like the endless reports on the Royal Wedding, from analysis of the invitation paper to the invitation list, including a spot about the local pub owner who was invited, but needs to get back from London in order to throw a party at the pub, and no, Kate has never ordered toffee pudding from the quiet little table by the fire that the young couple prefers. (Chances are if you like this, you probably don’t change the channel when LIVE! with Regis and Kelly come on, which is the creepiest damn show on TV.)

It’s called a demographic. And if you like THOSE things, then the producers and advertisers extrapolate that you might also like products and therefore commercials for orange juice, diapers and medication for depression.

Over at NPR, the demographic information is translated to sponsorships. So on WNYC I’ll hear a spot about TekServe, an Apple service provider in NYC. Why? Because a) TekServe supports the mission of WNYC and b) those of us listening probably fit a certain demo TekServe wants to meet. We like analyis. We like gadgets. That sort of thing.

People claim that NPR is chock-full of liberal-bias. Maybe that’s true; I’ve always thought it had a libertarian-bias, in that in supplied information for you to consider and make a decision for yourself. In the 10 minutes that commercial news races through headlines, NPR provides in-depth interviews and background information on just ONE story. How can you be a truly productive citizen if you’re relying on soundbites? I’ll say it again: you might think NPR is liberal, but in the 15 years I’ve been listening to it, it’s just reinforced my libertarian leanings. 

That said, the question is, should citizens pay for it?

The short answer, for me, is no. I believe in the mission of NPR, but I do not (and I’ve written this before) believe it should be federally-funded. NPR provides a service, and like any other services, if I want it, I should pay for it. And I do. I am a Sustaining Member of WNYC and WQXR in New York. 

Put another way, when I watch True Blood on HBO, I pay for it through my subscription with my TV service provider. It should be the same with NPR.

What I’d really like is for my taxes to go down in general so that I can increase my support of institutions I believe in, like NPR and charities that are making a difference.