All the Spiritual Takes
The Spirits of Gloria, Ahab, Elijah, Depression, Futility, Blind Curves, Minimum Viable Truth and so much More!
It Is Friday. Isn’t that fantastic?
One
I had a pretty great week. I worked on my book review of The Exvangelicals. I gently disordered my house through absent-mindedness and confusion. I pulled some weeds in my garden. And I found my foolish cat on my porch, after half an hour of panicked searching, curled up waiting for me to let her in. If we’re going to have spirits of things, I decree and declare the Spirit of Gloria, the best cat that ever was, whose head tilts to one side, who always looks like she’s angry, but that’s just her resting face. Like me, she is the sweetest, most friendly, most forgiving creature you can possibly imagine. Also repentant, for she is not supposed to go outside by herself, but must be patient and wait so that we can take a walk around the garden together.
Anyway, I’ve just let you know what I really care about—my cat.
Two
I guess we should trundle off to more prosaic matters. I think Mark Driscoll has been reading my Tweets. I said this:
If there’s a Jezebel Spirit, can there be an Ahab Spirit? And can it be the evangelical industrial complex? Can the Naboth’s Vineyard Spirit be columns in the Atlantic and New York Times?
which, upon reflection, doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Not being too eager to actually pin down who is possessed by any of these supposed spirits, I wouldn’t want to say that the New York Times has been taken by force and delivered up to anyone for their own gain... No wait, I think it is Monsieur Français who is selling away embarrassing Christian nationalism for more chichi progressive nationalism. Or, it’s possible that I am too tired to work it out.
But then Driscoll tweeted this:
The passive Ahab spirit has wrecked a whole generation of young men. They're out of the workforce, the church, and are cratering in the current mental health crisis. We need more assertive Elijahs.
Again—I think we’re all just making stuff up now. Besides it being awfully convenient to blame the passive spirit of Ahab, I don’t think one can conjure up “more assertive Elijahs,” like so many journalists and exvangelicals out of a hat. But I do love the idea of the spirits of bad Bible characters coming back and wrecking everything. If Saul can require Samuel to come back just the once, maybe we can have a go at more assertive Elijahs. We can pretend that John the Baptist and Jesus just didn’t come. That makes all the sense in the world. In the spirit of futility, I apologize for using the word “spirit” in so many senses, and without being careful to figure out what I mean.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Demotivations With Anne to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.