First of all, on a serious note, here is that Firebrand piece I mentioned yesterday—just a taste:
“Let me help you,” a fellow Anglican from East Africa—I never had a chance to catch her name—said as she pulled my slipping infant up onto my back so I could tie my wrap more firmly. She patted my arm and told me I was doing a good job. It was 2008. My husband and I were in Jerusalem, he in the conference hall listening, enthralled, to Church of Nigeria Bishop Ben Kwashi, and I, outside, bouncing my fussy baby. We had kissed our other three young children goodbye two days before, entrusting them to our friends in New York, and boarded two separate flights to the same destination. Were we mad? Perhaps, but there we were, surrounded by Anglicans from around the world for the first-ever Global Anglican Futures Conference (GAFCON). It seemed, then, an odd name. Did Anglicanism have a future?
Second of all, though there is so much to think about in the world, I did take the time to watch the whole important life update of Rachel Hollis about why she moved back to LA. I’ve cut the video in, below, in case you’d like to pause and watch it all, because I’m sure you have that kind of time. As you can already guess, I can’t help myself from making just a few oberservations.*
Like, in the montage section where they’ve cut in clips of the show she’s traveling around the country doing, she says again that she “loves Jesus and cusses a little.” This is why I keep coming back to check in, because she does occassionally appeal to the “Jesus” option of life, which would indicate an adherence to Christianity, that apparently infintely malleable “spiritual” option which lets you do whatever you want whenever you happen to want it. “Jesus,” whoever that even is, so creatively organizes her life so that she only gets richer and never suffers the slings and arrows of whatever that bad thing is that afflicts so much of the rest of the world.
Even when bad things do happen, someone—Jesus, or rather, the “Universe”—works all things together for the betterment of the Hollis corporation’s bottom line. For example, the manner in which Rachel procured her new house is practically a miracle. Several events transpired to make it perfect for her. First, she wanted a little place in LA where she could do podcast interviews in person. Second, she manifested a whole lot in persuance of that desire. She imagined herself in the kind of place she’d like. She looked online. She even “did all the things.” But the Universe did not give her the house. She couldn’t understand what was even going on. And then—and here is where the tale becomes weird and tragic—she discovered upon the death of her “children’s dad,” that’s Dave Hollis, in case you had forgotten, that she needed to move the kids as well because she needed her “support network.” That’s when she discovered, a la Gabriel Bernstien, that the Universe totally had her back, and had done all along. That’s when everything totally fell into place. She walked into the house they’re living in now, and the realator standing there was a person she had gone to “church” with four or five years ago. This was a sign—a necessary and serendipitous spiritual indication of some kind of favor that gave her peace that she should totally buy that particular house, so she did.
Now everything is awesome. She’s mostly moved in and she is able to force all the people she interviews on her podcast to come to her little backyard studio instead of doing it over Zoom. She’s done with Zoom. Everything has to be in person now.
So anyway, I guess I shouldn’t knock Manifesting so much, since apparently it works so well. But I can’t help but notice the narcissism at the base of such a spiritual “practice.” I’m using scare quotes there because Hollis doesn’t strike me as someone who is really interested in the actual unseen realm, nor the deep ethical and moral questions that lie just beyond the microphone. Why would the “Universe” care about her having the perfect house? Does the “Universe” not care about all the people who have less than ideal living conditions?
Also, why would the “Universe” worry itself about how often you workout, or whether or not you’ve mastered your anxiety, crushing it under the booted heel of your perfectly enacted wellness routine? Why, really, does the “Universe” care so much for Hollis and not at all for the other kinds of people who live poor, wretched, beleaguered, and often enslaved lives, trudging along until death sets them free from their oppression and misery? But also, there are a lot of other people who don’t have it that bad, but don’t have it that great either, from whom the Universe seems to extract amounts of cash out of their pockets in order to send it to Rachel. Didn’t the “Universe” care about Dave? Why did he have to die so young and so tragically?
Anyway, these are the sorts of questions that bother me as I lie on the beach, trying to remember how many hours ago I applied sunscreen. The grand exchange of Jesus for the “Universe” seems to have worked so conventiently for her. It’s too bad that I can’t go there, and can only be bound to a God who won’t indulge my every whim, though the one for sand and sea is certainly being filled up for another year.
I feel super sad that Hollis never got to hear about Jesus in whatever church it was she used to go to. Either no one told her about him, or they tried to and she just couldn’t hear. Either way, it’s a bleak sign of the spiritual condition of America.
Have a nice day!
*Grammarly isn’t working for some reason, so I know this is full of lots of errors, and I’m sorry about that, but also, I probably will be lying on the beach not bothering myself too too much.
Oh man! “The Universe.” That’s one of my pet peeves. I mean, it’s so ridiculous to believe in God but a sentient universe, that makes perfect sense. 🙄
I wish I hadn't clicked my way through that video. Ouch! The burden of her is intolerable! I suppose, though, that The Universe doesn't have a choice about having to put up with her, being inanimate and all.
But really, it is so very sad. Your commentary about her was spot on, of course. Thank you!