WashPost's Sally Quinn Bizarrely Compares 'Mommy Porn' Trilogy to God and Mother Teresa
Saturday’s Washington Post religion page was completely spoiled by liberal "On Faith" editor-in-chief Sally Quinn, whose column bizarrely connected the hot "mommy-porn" trilogy "Fifty Shades of Grey" to religion and even to Mother Teresa.
"I think the "Fifty Shades" phenomenon is about religion," Quinn proposed. "Not religion in the conventional sense of the word, but in how we are redefining faith practices today as more and more people -- especially women -- shun man-made traditions yet continue to yearn for religious experiences." What?
How does a set of dirty books about an emotionally disturbed man with a pile of kinks who sexually dominates a woman supposed to relate to God? And how is the submissive sexual partner Mother Teresa? Quinn tried to explain:
[Christian] Grey starts out in the books intending to dominate (beat and cause pain to) Anastasia in his famous playroom dubbed "The Red Room of Pain," and ends up loving and not wanting (or rather willing) to hurt her. One could compare him to the God of some peoples’ imagination.
Christian is at times punishing, sadistic, angry, demanding, intolerant, fickle, bewildering, withholding, omnipotent, omniscient, awesome, abusive, kind, generous, wise and -- above all -- loving and cherishing.
Just when Anastasia has had it and is about to give up on Christian for doing something absolutely appalling, just when she no longer believes in him, he redeems himself by doing something so outrageously wonderful that she cannot abandon him and is pulled back into the fold. Just when he is withholding his love from her and she is weeping and can no longer bear it, he embraces her with an overwhelming totality. Just when she is doubting herself for her submission, he turns the tables and offers himself to her.
Sound familiar? These are some of the same emotional conflicts that I believe could be attributed to Mother Teresa and her lifetime struggle in her relationship with God.
It does NOT "sound familiar" to read a porn novel about a "pain room" and think of Mother Teresa serving the poor of Calcutta. It's about as random as asking if professional football naturally reminds you of sitar music.
Quinn just kept babbling along:
I once had a very religious friend who would say, whenever she had a problem, "I’ll just give it to God. I’m just going to put myself in his hands." There always was something very appealing about that idea. Just leave it to God. In the case of Christian and Anastasia, that, with a little resistance here and there, is what she does. Once the resistance is gone, the sadism ends and the love is complete. How relaxing.
Somehow it is "relaxing" that God is a sadist until He is obeyed. That is certainly not the kind of "religion page" the average American believer expects.
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Comments
WTF is wrong with liberals!?
Submitted by Darks Shadow Show on Sat, 06/16/2012 - 11:33pm.
WTF is wrong with liberals!? Seriously!!!
Typical responses to that question...
Submitted by DumbCanuck on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 12:26am.
...range from "Seriously disordered thinking", to "Mind-numbing stupidity".
Remember that these people are on a mission to re-enginneer society, and they'll do whatever it takes, and smear whoever disagrees with them, until they achieve their ideal society.
What scares me is that I'm not sure what their utopia is going to look like. On the surface, it looks like an ideal society, but we've already seen how their ideal society works just by pealing just a few layers off of that onion.
It's enough to make any reasonably sane person cry.
"There... Are... Four... Lights!"
MyThoughts
Submitted by Lamdog on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 5:35pm.
My thought exactly followed by where the heck do the people come from? How much education do you have to have to think of drivel as this article?
Jumps the shark
Submitted by motherbelt on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 7:00am.
I've said many times here that this feature should really be called "Dumping on Faith" but now it
has now crossed the line from stupid and anti-religion to just plain sick.
I kinda see what she is
Submitted by ant on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 7:01am.
I kinda see what she is trying to say. She's saying it rather poorly, but hey, what 'journalists' these days don't have just a mediocre intellect at best? The problem with the subject that she is trying to put forth is that it has already been done, discussed, written, and pondered by people much brighter, more knowledgable, and more experienced than Quinn. Again, part of the liberal dementia, thinking their ideas are completely new, original, and better than anything that has gone before them. Their concept of 'history' goes no further than the span of their own immeasurably important lifespan. Regarding her subject, there are much better examples and books to take from than pornography-lite.
No, it's "what" she's trying
Submitted by motherbelt on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 7:41am.
No, it's "what" she's trying to say that's wrong, not the way she says it.
She is saying that God is a sadist, who takes pleasure in making us suffer until He gets His way.
That's as far from an all-loving God as one can get.
I agree, what she is saying
Submitted by ant on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 8:00am.
I agree, what she is saying is off-base, imagining God as a sadist that ignores us and puts us through pain. What I'm saying is the subject of 'why do people suffer if God is so loving?' is a subject already attacked by people like CS Lewis and another author, whose name escapes me, that wrote a book titled 'The Return of The Prodigal Son'. To be clear, her clever-in-her-own-mind comparison to God as a sadist who can only be re-deemed through our eyes when He does something nice to us doesn't even come close to the thought and diligence presented years ago by others greater than her on the subject of what CS Lewis called 'The Problem of Pain'. As I say, or tried to say, is her analogy pretty much stinks....but then, so do all of her articles.
oooooo-kay....now I see what
Submitted by motherbelt on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 8:14am.
oooooo-kay....now I see what you mean.
Thanks for clarifying.
I'm pretty sure
Submitted by agingcynic on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 9:54am.
that the talents that attracted Ben Bradlee to Sally were neither analytical nor intellectual. Just sayin'.........
Her analogy isn't only bad
Submitted by redfish on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 5:25pm.
Her analogy isn't only bad because its wrong and distasteful but it someone looking at spirituality the way she suggests they should would be completely lost. You aren't supposed to give in to being good because its "relaxing". It makes it into a narcissistic thing. Trusting in God may give you peace in the end, but you're supposed to do it even if it doesn't. Its like someone who does good just so they can go to heaven, expecting a selfish reward for their do-gooding.
In her version of things, God is the one who is emotional and temperamental, and people are the ones who are rational and don't want to be hurt; and they have to give up this side of themselves to be submissive and loved and enter an emotional peace. In actual religious teaching, you are the one who is emotional and temperamental, and God is the one who is supremely rational. The Old Testament may show sometimes he gets angry but this is always supposed to be "righteous anger -- anger with reason. Everything God does has a reason. When you are trusting of God what you're trusting is the rational order of the world -- the idea that everything in life has rhyme and reason.
I know a lot of religious people focus on the idea of spirituality as an act of faith, rather than reason, and so has an emotional dimension, but faith itself is meant to be a rational act. And if its not, you become a fool and follow the sort of most extreme fundamentalism and strap bombs on to yourself or abuse women.
Christian?
Submitted by CO2Maker on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 7:43am.
The protagonist's given name is "Christian." Her surname is "Steele." Nuance, anyone? The author is Ericka James, a British novelist. The story is set in Seattle.
Here's another review that oddly doesn't see the Christianity-based similarities.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-05-03/entertainment/ct-ent-0502-...
Look at any random array—stars in the night sky, raindrops on a sidewalk, rocks at the beach. You can arbitrarily select a number of each item and describe connections among them. The constellations are just that, arbitrary connections among distant and randomly distributed objects.
Sounds like a review of a BDSM novel with similarities or analogues in religious behavior. Hmmmm.
What if the main character's name was Mahmoud Grey or Abraham or Gautama Grey? Naahhhh, who'd ever believe that?
So Ben Bradlee's mistress is a lesbian pedophile atheist?
Submitted by drsamherman on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 12:00pm.
My, her qualities just keep getting more sickening.
I think Sally may have written...
Submitted by Anon150 on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 4:53pm.
...This review of "Yertle the Turtle" by Dr. Seuss.
"The book contains many handy hints on how to subject your prey to the whims of your superior mind, with a keen emphasis on total glory. The tone is instructive and informative, making it the perfect companion to both the experienced ninjutsu practitioner and the complete novice.
The many colourful diagrams illustrate well the application of these time-honoured death secrets, hitherto guarded for centuries by an elite band of Renaissance-themed turtle-esque humanoids, but available now for under twenty dollars.
My one criticism is that, whilst there were detailed instructions on how to crush the skull of your enemy into a fine, flammable dust and blow it into the grave you made them dig, there was little information on how to make it combust. I had to search for those details amongst my reflection in a quiet, lilied pond.
Not a huge complaint, but I just think it should have been included."
If it isn't her work... it should be. "Fake but accurate", and all that.
(Credit where it's due, link follows)
http://somethingson.com/reviews/speaking-as-a-ninja/