Symbols Are Only Skin Deep
The Spiritual Crocodile Hunter's very first post says that when Mormons take sacrament, or when Christians take communion, it's "bizarre" because it's essentially cannibalism that is taking place symbolically. He further develops this idea in another post, pointing out that we pretend to be cannibals every week in church and don't think twice about it. Jason S. attributes this to a tribal mentality that permeates Mormonism.
That ain't right. As I stated when we debated this idea previously, it is possible to look too deeply into a symbol. For example, sometimes when I have bombed a quiz that is handed back in class, I will convey the fact to my friend across the room by rolling the paper into a tube, and performing hari-kari on myself as if it were a sword. Does my friend freak out and say, "Oh no, don't pretend to kill yourslef --it's only one quiz." No, he laughs. But it's only funny as long as you don't look too deeply into the symbol.
When Mormons (or any Christians who take communion for that matter) take the sacrament, they don't picture themselves in their mind's eye chowing down a hunk of man-meat and then washing it down with some blood. To do so would be too look too deeply into symbol. Or in other words, "looking beyond the mark."
That ain't right. As I stated when we debated this idea previously, it is possible to look too deeply into a symbol. For example, sometimes when I have bombed a quiz that is handed back in class, I will convey the fact to my friend across the room by rolling the paper into a tube, and performing hari-kari on myself as if it were a sword. Does my friend freak out and say, "Oh no, don't pretend to kill yourslef --it's only one quiz." No, he laughs. But it's only funny as long as you don't look too deeply into the symbol.
When Mormons (or any Christians who take communion for that matter) take the sacrament, they don't picture themselves in their mind's eye chowing down a hunk of man-meat and then washing it down with some blood. To do so would be too look too deeply into symbol. Or in other words, "looking beyond the mark."
posted by The Silent Observer at 5:40 PM
5 Comments:
So why would Jesus Christ Himself institute a symbol that could be interpreted to have such weird cannibalistic overtones? And furthermore, why would so many Christians just go along with it? I think it's because the sacrament works so well as a symbol on so many other levels.
Jesus Christ is taking something as ordinary and neccessary for life as food and drink and saying "I am like that." We depend as much upon Christ for our spiritual welfare as we do on food for our physical welfare. Food and drink is something we need everyday, so is Christ.
Taking the sacrament is essentially signing a contract saying that you're willing to keep your covenants. But not everyone can read or write, so through the sacrament the illiterate can covenant.
I could go on and on. You can mine symbols out of the sacrament. I, for one, cannot think of a more efficient symbol, scary cannibalistic overtones notwithstanding. Can you?
i think some interesting parallels could be made about a tribe's sacrificial eating of thier totem and the eucharist, but that is hardly cannibalism. even transubstantiation (properly understood) is difficult to call cannibalism.
I agree. When we debated the issue before, I admitted that I could understand someone interpreting the symbol that way; the act of eating and drinking, or internalizing Christ's goodness, if you swing that way, since symbols can work on a number of levels. But you can't pigeonhole it and say it means that and nothing else.
"When Mormons (or any Christians who take communion for that matter) take the sacrament, they don't picture themselves in their mind's eye chowing down a hunk of man-meat and then washing it down with some blood."
Maybe this is the norm (for Mos not to think of the sacrmanet as cannibalistic), but for me, I've had some problems choking down the sacrament when I think too deeply about the symbolism. It actually works better for me to remember that it's just bread and water, and not to focus on it as symbolically the blood and flesh of Christ. I'm a vegetarian because I can't stomach eating anything animal-ish. The sacrament can gag me in the same way that meat does if I listen to the prayers. Weird, eh?
Weird indeed.
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