September 8, 2006--Fanaticism XLIX--Help Wanted. . . Messiah For New Religion
A few years back, Rona and I found ourselves in Memphis and, with a couple of hours to kill, drove over to Graceland. As we were pulling into the parking lot, the rear door of the car ahead of us swung open and a middle-aged woman started to get out. The only problem was that the car was still moving, and as a result she was dragged along into the lot while hanging on to the door handle. By her eagerness to get to Elvis’ home, we in an instant knew we were in a very special place.
We parked, got out of the car safely, crossed the road, and stood before the entrance to the mansion. It is surrounded by an imposing stone fence, and we could not help but notice that dozens of visitors were stuffing rolled up pieces of paper into the spaces between the stones. This looked familiar. We had been in Jerusalem recently and had seen similar behavior at the Wailing Wall—orthodox Jews leaving messages in the cracks, we supposed, to God.
So at Graceland, as it began to rain and the people scattered, I must confess that I extracted a few of those messages and sure enough they all asked for the King’s intervention in love affairs, illnesses, and even businesses. One not to tempt fate, I rerolled them and placed them back in the wall, thinking that maybe, just maybe I was witnessing the beginning of a new religion.
So when I saw an article in the NY Times a few days ago titled, “Seeking Entry-Level Prophet” (linked below), I was intrigued to learn that it was about a filmmaker seeking a neo-prophet who was attempting to launch a new religion. He wanted to make a documentary about him or her. So he placed an ad on Craig’s List and received 300 applications. He winnowed it down to 40 and invited them to interviews, wondering how do I interview a potential messiah. Do I ask, “Have you ever caused any miracles?” or “Have you ever raised anyone from the dead?”
Though to me this line of questioning seems entirely too Western, he did find someone, one Remedy Aquino, who was promoting a religion based around the worship of water. His selection, though, was Joshua (excellent first name) Boden who was struggling to establish the Church of Now which, among other things, has 14 (not 10) precepts (decidedly not commandments), including “The only sin is not living well” and “This life is the one that counts; this IS your eternal reward.”
Needless to say, Mr. Bowden is having trouble attracting followers since, as he reports, people much prefer to be told what to believe. They do not seem interested is his notion of “figuring it out together.”
Though all of this may sound strange and even cynical, recall that all of our major religions were at some point invented. True, the three major Western religions share common roots in Zoroastrianism, for example, but before they existed they did not exist.
And new religious groups have been cropping up in increasing numbers in recent years. Perhaps as many as 40 to 45 a year in the US alone. Hare Krishna is relatively new as is the Unification Church, and who could forget—Scientology.
We parked, got out of the car safely, crossed the road, and stood before the entrance to the mansion. It is surrounded by an imposing stone fence, and we could not help but notice that dozens of visitors were stuffing rolled up pieces of paper into the spaces between the stones. This looked familiar. We had been in Jerusalem recently and had seen similar behavior at the Wailing Wall—orthodox Jews leaving messages in the cracks, we supposed, to God.
So at Graceland, as it began to rain and the people scattered, I must confess that I extracted a few of those messages and sure enough they all asked for the King’s intervention in love affairs, illnesses, and even businesses. One not to tempt fate, I rerolled them and placed them back in the wall, thinking that maybe, just maybe I was witnessing the beginning of a new religion.
So when I saw an article in the NY Times a few days ago titled, “Seeking Entry-Level Prophet” (linked below), I was intrigued to learn that it was about a filmmaker seeking a neo-prophet who was attempting to launch a new religion. He wanted to make a documentary about him or her. So he placed an ad on Craig’s List and received 300 applications. He winnowed it down to 40 and invited them to interviews, wondering how do I interview a potential messiah. Do I ask, “Have you ever caused any miracles?” or “Have you ever raised anyone from the dead?”
Though to me this line of questioning seems entirely too Western, he did find someone, one Remedy Aquino, who was promoting a religion based around the worship of water. His selection, though, was Joshua (excellent first name) Boden who was struggling to establish the Church of Now which, among other things, has 14 (not 10) precepts (decidedly not commandments), including “The only sin is not living well” and “This life is the one that counts; this IS your eternal reward.”
Needless to say, Mr. Bowden is having trouble attracting followers since, as he reports, people much prefer to be told what to believe. They do not seem interested is his notion of “figuring it out together.”
Though all of this may sound strange and even cynical, recall that all of our major religions were at some point invented. True, the three major Western religions share common roots in Zoroastrianism, for example, but before they existed they did not exist.
And new religious groups have been cropping up in increasing numbers in recent years. Perhaps as many as 40 to 45 a year in the US alone. Hare Krishna is relatively new as is the Unification Church, and who could forget—Scientology.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
11:40 AM
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