Catherine Groves

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Where's the Beef?

by Catherine Groves

As television commercials go, it ranks among the unforgettable ones. The scene is a fast food restaurant. Upon peering into her hamburger bun, a feisty grandmother of a character demands, "Where's the beef?" The imposture is laid as bare as her bun.

Many ideas bandied about are delivered in that same style of neat, easy package. And as habituated as we are to thinking them solid, we tend to swallow them without checking to see if it's just hot air inside.

One contemporary truth turned truism concerns the concept of fear. I think it true that fear often lurks at the root of our harmful actions and attitudes. When we avoid or attack, fear frequently hovers somewhere in our motives. And because it can have many layers and guises, identifying and banishing the fear can be a challenge.

But is fear the panacea of explanation? Does it underlie every behavior that seems in error to us, especially when it comes to the errors of others? I, for one, do not think so.

At times our language itself weaves fear into the basis of a stance, even when fear has little to do with it. I think back to the writing of one of my editorials for Christian*New Age Quarterly¹ and a particular dilemma I faced in succinctly phrasing a certain thought. A bit after voicing that I disagree with those who believe homosexuality is sick or sinful, I wanted to neatly refer back to their position. But what word choices exist for characterizing that stand? "Anti-gay" would have been misleading in that context. Yet neither need fear be at root of their perspective. While I chose the word "homophobic" as the lesser of two evils, that's not precisely what I meant. Though I part company with those who consider homosexuality a deviance from natural, fitting sexuality, I don't believe such arguments necessarily arise from fear. And to label them as such waves away any possibility of further discussion.

It is as if I were to say: "Your position is clouded by a misleading emotion. Therefore whatever you say holds no validity. Maybe I can help you overcome your fear and we can both know you've moved past it when you see things my way."

That's the problem with characterizing a differing viewpoint as stemming from fear. The moment one does so, one cuts short one's own listening. And the criterion for evaluating if fear fills the stance becomes how closely the other's view reflects our own.

One display of dismissiveness particularly troubling to me concerns the portrayal of traditional Christianity favored by many New Agers. The institution of the church, so the story goes, boils down to a drive for power, which roots in the fear of powerlessness. So common is this depiction in some New Age circles that one might be more favorably received confessing to having that fear than to questioning the equation. If Christians disagree with New Age views, they do so out of fear. Period.

Now that's a mighty appealing wrap-up, neat and tidy, but where's the beef? And what do we, as participants in the New Age community, do to ourselves when we dismiss millennia of thought and millions of others out of hand? I'm not saying that Christians don't often themselves cut short their listening by glibly caricaturing New Agers. But what are we doing to ourselves when we do it?

I suspect we're often playing tit-for-tat. And I suppose we sometimes do it to mute a challenge to our own cherished ideas. Perhaps we subconsciously agree that Christianity is that powerful and we feel a little powerless in the face of it. But maybe that drive-thru window is just too easy and familiar — and the promise of the package means more to us than its substance.

As I see it, we just fool ourselves if we dismiss the other. Next time someone sums up the beliefs of a differing viewpoint as "fear," let's make that our cue to check for the beef — lest we find ourselves gobbling a lot of hot air.

¹Catherine Groves, "Through the Editor's Unknowing Eyes," Christian*New Age Quarterly 12:3 (July-September 2000).

"Where's the Beef?" was originally published by Christian*New Age Quarterly 13:2 (April-June 2001). For more information on Christian*New Age Quarterly, write to Catherine Groves, Editor at PO Box 276, Clifton, NJ 07015-0276 or visit christiannewage.com. (And please bookmark this page prior to adventuring off this site.)

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