The Hunger Games and me

I always seem to be one step behind the rest of the world in reading whatever is popular. I attribute this problem to several factors. 

1)What I think qualifies as a good book and what the rest of the world thinks qualifies as a good book differs, sometimes vastly.  Reading the Twilight saga only confirmed this theory.

2)My reading list is already quite long. I am perfectly comfortable reading something that was written over 1000 years ago and understanding that it is extremely relevant to my life today (and I am not referring to the Bible in this particular case) Human nature hasn’t really changed a whole lot and I doubt that it ever will.

3)I don’t really get a whole lot of time to sit down and read. It is unhealthy both for me and my family if I am reading a book that is so good that I just can’t put it down, because I won’t.

These are just three reasons that I have put off reading the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. However, since I picked up a bit of a cold at our lock in last weekend and needed a sick day to recover I decided to give it a go. I don’t really know what to say other than it was one of the most disturbing things I have ever read.  To be honest I never really liked the main character, which may influence why I doubt I will ever reread the series. Most of all I found the whole concept of the society where the book takes place to be horrible, gruesome, and far too close to our own.  The basic premise of the story line is that you have the Capitol and 13 outlying districts. The 13 districts provide everything for the Capitol and in return are kept in conditions little better than slaves. This led to a revolution roughly 75 years before the first book. The revolution was put down, one district (13) was bombed off the face of the earth, and the Hunger Games were instituted. The Hunger Games are basically a giant gladiator match in huge arena that are televised throughout the whole country. Winning the Games makes you wealthy and famous and is about the only way to escape poverty. The contestants, however, are all children between the ages of 12 and 18 and there are 2 from each district, a boy and a girl. They are most commonly chosen, though you can volunteer. They are taken by the government to go and kill each other for the amusement of those in the Capitol, though everyone is required to watch. The message to the districts is clear, we can even take your children and there is nothing you can do to stop us. We will make you watch as your children kill each other, and we will make it a national holiday.   

It is disgusting beyond belief and as I read the books I could only wonder where it all began. At what point did people give up their freedoms so completely that the culture was able to be reduced to this level?  Was it when the government started telling them that they had no right to a conscience? When the government became the soul arbiter or right and wrong, good and evil. Or maybe it was the point where human life had so little value that was ok to murder children while others made huge profits off of their deaths? Maybe it was the point where keeping people in bondage little better than slavery was ok; as long as they produced cheap goods and the wealthy didn't have to see them starve? The books never say, but it is an interesting thought to ponder.

Rewriting the Bible: How to make God in our image

There is an interesting passage that one can find in the book of Genesis chapter 1 verse 27.  In the Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the Bible it reads as follows, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”  This is one of the most theologically and anthropologically  deep passages in all of Scripture, it is also one of the most debated. What does it mean for man (in this context it means mankind) to be created in the image of God?  Does it mean that God has a physical body with two legs and two arms, a head and a torso (many would say yes; what else could the word image mean)?  Does it mean that God has a soul just like ours or that God knows the difference between good and evil like we do? Maybe it means that God has freewill and is not governed merely by instinct like animals and plants (yes, I believe plants have instincts). 

Regardless of the actual meaning of this passage I think we would all be much better off if we edited it out of our Bibles and our lives. After all, if we are all created in the image of God and called to “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (MT 5:48 may also need some editing) wouldn’t that just turn us all into a bunch of mindless I love Jesus zombies without any sort of personality or will of our own?  Does this idea of Catholicism, nay Christianity in general not rob us of our freedom?  As free men and women are we not obliged to demand a rewriting of scripture and say that we the people of the United States in order to demand a more perfect union with god and each other, establish relativism, and wipe away individual consciences, do hereby declare that god is actually created in the image of man? 

If we are successful then there can be as many images of man as there are people on the face of the planet. Such gods would never be displeased with us because they are our reflection and we are the ultimate reality.  We would never have to worry about going against our consciences again because we would be able to rewrite God to always be on our side.  We would eliminate all prejudices against sinful behavior because with god created in our image we know that we will be right, no matter what we choose. Those with the political clout can make new laws determining morality for everyone and be perfectly justified in doing so. After all, god is created in their image just as much as he is created in yours. The next leaders can do the same. Right and wrong, good and evil lose all meaning and become merely synonyms for legal and illegal.  Anyone who said anything different would be locked up or sent to a re-education camp. Religions who preached against being forced to violate their consciences and participate in actions that for over 2000 years they have held to be intrinsically evil would be ignored. If they persisted they would be fined huge sums of money and their leaders would be imprisoned. Sound Orwellian? Watch your back; the government is already knocking at our doors.

I recently read a poem titled The Hangman which I personally think sums up the whole situation with the new HHS mandate requiring the Catholic Church to provide contraception (including abortifacients), sterilizations, etc. The Catholic Church is the biggest dog on the block so to speak and if the government is able to push around and force us to violate our consciences there will be no one else to stop them.  If you haven't contacted your representatives yet you should so soon.