GR 'Streets' (death and/or afterlife)

[Terrance]

jbor wrote:
> 
> on 19/4/03 1:59 PM, Terrance at lycidas2 at earthlink.net wrote:
> 
> >>>>>> I think we can mostly agree that
> >>>>>> organised religion cops a bad rap in Pynchon's work, irrespective of
> >>>>>> personal beliefs.
> >>>>
> >>>> on 19/4/03 9:35 AM, Terrance at lycidas2 at earthlink.net wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> An example?
> >>>>
> >>>> Sure. Christian chaplains, "working for the army", preaching about
> >>>> salvation
> >>>> and redemption and sending soldiers out to their deaths. It's grotesque.
> >>>
> >>> And he works for the army. So is the army the organized religion is this
> >>> example?
> >>
> >> Of course not. These "army chaplains" (not "he", it's an *organisation*) are
> >> "working for the army".
> >
> > What is the organized religion in this example?
> 
> The religion is Christianity. The organisation is in the way that Christian
> "preaching" is being carried out on a systematic basis inside
> "garrison-churches" by "clergymen" who are "working for the army" during
> wartime.

Not convinced that this is an example of organized religion or that
organized religion is denounced in GR. I've read all your posts on this
passage and I simply disagree with your reading of it. 


> 
> I think "the Cross" (694.5) is commonly used to refer to the cross on which
> Jesus Christ was crucified. I don't think it's ever used in this way to
> refer to a swastika, an ankh, or anything else really.

Yeah, I think you're right.