Burning Man festival a focus for parties, religious yearning

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 8/29/03 | Don Thompson

[MikalM]

Rising from the desert in one of the flattest, most remote places on earth is an 80-foot temple topped by the stylized figure of a man.

It wasn't here last week and it won't be here after Saturday night, except for a pile of ashes where it is to be ritually burned to the ground.

[madprof98]

"There's really nothing else in the United States that lets people memorialize their loved ones and then burn it," he said.

Nope, really not.

OK, enough of the spiritual stuff. Let's all get naked and roll in the mud!

[MikalM]

[Licensed-To-Carry]

Actually, the name Burning Man, aptly describes their eternal destiny if they don't get a Bible, read John 14:6, and be born again.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

I wonder if the participants realize how futile they are?

[Gringo1]

Kinda looks like all of the extras from all the 'Mad Max" movies.

[mhking]

Actually, the name Burning Man, aptly describes their eternal destiny if they don't get a Bible, read John 14:6, and be born again.

And of course, you know that they haven't already.

Feh...

[Russell Scott]

If they don't put on some serious sun screen, they won't have to wait until Saturday to see the burning man.

Sodom and Gomorrah had a lot of burning men, both before and after God destroyed it.

[MikalM]

My experience with the Burners and the neo-Pagan types is that at least half of them come from hardcore Fundamentalist or Catholic backgrounds, and are rebelling against what they see as grossly oppressive, dysfunctional and hypocritical upbringings. So it's more a case of them actively rejecting their Christian identity than being outside of the Kingdom altogether.

[Loyalist]

"I find Burning Man is spirituality without the church, without all the religious practices," he said. "It doesn't come with any of the traditional strings attached."

Whenever I hear people say that they are spiritual but reject organized religion, I wonder if they can hear their own cognitive dissonance.

Spirituality needs to be expressed in some fashion--words, actions, rituals--in order for it to exist. Its expression must also relate to something other than the person expressing it--God, gods, nature, the universe, mankind, abstract principles, etc.

A spirituality which relates to nothing other than the person who expresses it is solipsism--the worship of self.

The people at the Burning Man festival claim to reject organized religion and ritual in favour of an amorphous spirituality, yet their actions belie their claim.

They erect a giant wooden model of a man, offer prayers and leave messages for the deceased, sing songs of praise, and do all of this as part of a community. Then they set fire to the model.

Why the Burning Man as the focus of this event, if they reject the sharing of a common symbolism?

Why all of this ritual, if they reject ritual?

Why all of these organized efforts in community, if they reject the community of organized religion?

The Burning Man people have made for themselves, at least in rough outline, a model of the very organized religion they claim to reject.

[org.whodat]

Sure are a bunch of people without sin posted here, cause they sure are throwing a lot of stone's.

[Russell Scott]

Many of them are waiting for the Kingdom, they just don't know it yet. The beauty of Christ is that it doesn't matter if you come in early or late, we all get the same reward.

Matthew 20
1 For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.
2 And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
3 And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
4 And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way.
5 Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.
6 And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?
7 They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.
8 So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.
9 And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny.
10 But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny.
11 And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house,
12 Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.
13 But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?
14 Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.
15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

[Russell Scott]

Sodom and Gomorrah had a lot of burning men, both before and after God destroyed it. </joke, not in the spirit of judgemental Christian who wants God to burn up the burning man people, pagan or not.>

[tet68]

We need to send these pictures to the Taliban
Drive them over the edge!


Church of the Future tm.
Wasting the present,
expanding on the past,
into the FUTURE!

You too can learn the secret teachings that will allow YOU
to keep the same tank of gas in your car for MONTHS at a time, just like the "Exempt".

Learn the TRUE meaning of, "A hand shake and a piece of the PIE!"

Arm yourself with wrist rockets and vegetable ammo and be prepared to take on the Swiss Guard!

Learn Hydromeditation,and explosive demolition in your spare time.

Receive "Holy wafers" that will let YOU travel in time and space.

Become immune to cyberflames, libertarian slurs, and idiotic posts from DU.Trolls.

YOU tooo can have it ALL.

Worthy applicants are urged to send any time travel components to Tet68 care of this station.

[MikalM]

Absolutely spot-on analysis.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, so you can imagine how often I encounter precisely the mentality you've described. Obviously BM as an event, a focus of worship, and (increasingly, since its auxiliary events last all year) a way of life, requires immense amounts of organization.

I think what your average Burner, Neo-Pagan or "spiritual" person means when they oppose "organized religion," is revealed religion of law -- the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Pagan types are disproportionately artists, musicians, writers and other "creative" types, and they tend to see any faith with a Holy Book and hard-and-fast rules and strictures as inherently oppressive. So they naturally prefer non-written, non-ethical, non-monotheistic paths which allow them to make up rituals, beliefs, etc. as they go along.

[GOP_1900AD]

Those who fail to recognize the innate coupling of discipline and sprituality are at best going through the motions and at worst living the lie of hedonism hiding behind a "spiritual" mantle. The fallen flesh culture which dominates the world today is all about chaos, rebellion and Jacobinism. Nietzsche, as much as he was himself fallen from the Church, nonetheless fortold the men who were part of no society, and were in essence last men.

[Licensed-To-Carry]

And of course, you know that they haven't already

I know that I know, by their actions they confirm.

Psalms 106:39 They defiled themselves by what they did; by their deeds they prostituted themselves.

Hosea 5:4 "Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. A spirit of prostitution is in their heart; they do not acknowledge the LORD"

[mhking]

Dancing naked in the desert is prostituting one's self?

Sorry. That won't wash.

[Licensed-To-Carry]

They have harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD ,no respect for the work of his hands.

[randog]

Rising from the desert in one of the flattest, most remote places on earth...

Most remote places on Earth? Jeez, I used to go chukar hunting with my dad and brother up there. I guess I'm ready to tackle Everest.