Brooke and I live in an 82 unit condominium complex that was built in 1949. Within our tenure here, which is a little under a year and a half, our home owners dues have gone up twice. The most recent increase was to cover an increase in insurance because of an apartment that was heavily detroyed by a candle catching a drape on fire and the owner was under-insured so the master insurance picked up the difference.

So one of the women in our condo complex got pretty fiesty about this whole situation and called a community meeting with the Board of Directors for our complex. This meeting was this past tuesday night — I went to it for the sheer entertainment value that such meetings tend to be. But, what I learned in the process of this meeting is that as almost 35 people showed up the Board continued to get more wide-eyed and eventually said, “In 15 years we have never had this many people come to a meeting before.”

Since this meeting the social activity at our condo has increased quite a bit. It seems as though rallying around a common cause (or enemy) unites people — at least at the surface level. I have witnessed a similar experience on other realms before and always find it interesting to observe what happens once the common enemy dissipates.

So my question is this, what is it in our pathology that brings us to movement when we have a common enemy? Or differently stated, why is connection felt when we have something to be against? The answers to these questions may just inform some of the power of propaganda that is felt everywhere in this country. May it be from the quote-unquote homosexual agenda, to George W. Bush’s foreign policy, to supporting organic food markets, to the way that Christianity ‘recruited’ (and continues to recruit) converters.

Since propaganda has power, how does one use this power with dignity and honor? I think that every Christian would admit that to scare someone into becoming a Christian goes against what is a true transformation of ones life, and yet evangelism is often crafted as talking about eternal life in Heaven instead of eternal life in Hell (the enemy). This approach seems to distort not only what I believe to be the good news that Jesus calls us to, but it also distorts the power of propaganda.

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

peace

joel

UPDATE: I just found this blog link of a friend of mine about a conversation of after-life.