Manipulating Religion

We've had emotionally provocative readings all semester, but for me the two short stories from this round of readings take the cake. Using religion to advance personal ambitions bothers me more than just about anything, and both Philip Roth's "Defender of the Faith" and Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People" involve that terrible misdeed.

Sheldon Grossbart in Roth's story is a despicable character for using his Jewish background to get special treatment, but my response to that story wasn't quite as strong as O'Connor's. I think it is probably because Grossbart's deception wasn't revealed so suddenly; it was obvious from the start. At least as far back as the synagogue service it was apparent that Grossbart and Fishbein were only interested in obtaining special privileges (though by all appearances Halpern was an honest Jew--then again, he also went along for the Chinese food, so maybe not.) On the one hand, it's slightly harder to commiserate with Marx and Barratt since it was so obvious what Grossbart was doing, though apparently not to Marx until the end. On the other, we live in an era in which people are so sensitive to racial discrimination--rightly--that people like Grossbart can get away with using religion to advance their own ambitions, and nobody can stop them for fear of being accused of religious persecution. It's a sad, sad reality, and the reason why that story was so depressing, for me.

"Good Country People," for whatever reason, was even sadder to me. It's mainly this quote that the bible salesman repeats several times that bothers me: "You can never tell when you'll need the word of God." In hindsight after reading the story in full, it's terrible to think about. That anyone could say such a thing knowing that the only reason he actually brought the valise was to stash Hulga's leg along with his other stolen goods is beyond my comprehension. It's seriously upsetting to think about. I'm glad it's only a work of fiction--but then, this sort of thing does actually happen. People do use other people's perception of religion for personal gains, as despicable as it is. O'Conner's story is a poignant reminder of that reality, a reality many of us would like to pretend isn't one. The worst aspect is it's not an easy problem to solve  by any means. I'm certainly not willing to start trying to judge whether every Christian who proclaims their faith is sincere or not. That's not a determination for me to make. And those people know that honest Christians aren't going to try to be God, but instead will accept their word at face value--and they prey on that. Religion should not be a game to see who can manipulate the most people most successfully, but that's exactly what some people have turned it into.