Get ready for the US population to hit 300 Million Tuesday…

On one hand, part of the following excerpt from an article in Elle magazine is demonstrative of the ever-growing hypocrisy of modern churches:

Jessica Alba decided to leave her born-again Christian church after religious leaders accused her of being too promiscuous. The Fantastic Four star insists her multi-ethnic appearance stopped her from being accepted in the Latin community she grew up in, so she turned to the church looking for comfort. After four years as a born-again Christian, Alba backed away from religion because “older men would hit on me and my youth pastor said it was because I was wearing provocative clothing, when I wasn’t. It just made me feel like if I was in any way desirable to the opposite sex, that it was my fault, and it made me ashamed of my body and of being a woman.” Alba also vehemently disagreed with the church’s condemnation of premarital sex and homosexuality and was bothered by the lack of strong female role models in the Bible. She tells US Elle magazine, “I thought it was a nice guide, but it certainly wasn’t how I was going to live my life.”

Secondly, it’s also demonstrative of what Gandhi pointed out when he said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

Despite the pride America likes to take in being known as a nation of rugged individualists, our society has a difficult time dealing with people who fail to fit into the dominant culture’s notion of how they should live their lives. What’s even worse, though, is that the dominant religious culture has the same problem. If it’s perceived that you’re not looking, thinking, acting and worshiping in a certain way, well, then you’re probably a heathen or something. It’s that kind of thinking that has driven hordes of people from the teachings of Jesus, since the modern church and Jesus are seen as one and the same by most people. They see these church people’s bigotry and rejection of them as a rejection by this “Jesus” of them.

Either way, its demonstrative of a critical failure on both parts to understand the teachings and example of Christ.

what do you need to instigate a war and turn the world against your enemy? how about a little help from the press…

Just for fun:

Man Finds 188-Year-Old Bible in Dump Bin

In Psychology Today, writer Carlin Flora suggests that America’s fascination with celebrity is a symptom of a larger cultural obsession with the three A’s — affluence, attractiveness, and acheivement. Celebrities seem to embody all of those.

Affluence, attractiveness, and acheivement are certainly not inhrently harmful, but fixation on them can divert people from other values such as community, charity, and commitment.

Flora quotes psychologist James Houran, who says that in a secular society the “need for ritualized worship can be displaced onto celebrities.”

“Nonreligious people tend to be more interested in celebrity culture,” Houran says. “For them, celebrity fills some of the same roles the church fills for believers, like the desire to fit into a community of people with shared values.”

Consider that when you are thinking about who is your “American Idol.” Looks aren’t everything and money can’t buy happiness. And we are more than the sum of our achievements and failures.

Sure, you know that. Still, messages from the celebrity-crazed media bombard us.

Educators and psychologists say critical-thinking skills will help us analyze the mixed messages.

But critical-thinking skills are learned. Pictures and stories about Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson are everywhere. Now think about why Paris Hilton and Nichole Richie have a television show.

Because they are celebrities, and they are celebrities because they are on a TV show.

This kind of circular logic makes no sense. But often we don’t see the world through the lense of critical thinking. People sometimes don’t ask why or how a celebrity acheived that lofty status. You don’t have to be famous for doing anything. You can be famous for being famous.

Welcome to the swancher blog… let’s see where this goes…