Humiliation has been on my mind and as one of the significant metaphors for 2006 ---right up there with comeuppance and truthiness.

Nothing best describes 2006 like the story of, yet again, another christian extremist pastor having to step down after accusations of sexual abuse of minors.

PageOneQ | Huge Southern Baptist Church rocked by sexual abuse charges:
Pastor Paul Williams, who directs prayer programs and special projects at the Bellevue Baptist Church outside of Memphis, has been forced to take a leave while a church committee investigates charges that Williams sexually molested a family member 17 years ago. Williams has been at Bellevue for 34 years, reports Agape Press, a news service run by the American Family Association.

This after yet another minister stepping for sexual (read: homosexual) misconduct. His name? James Beard.

Which brings me to the idea of humiliation as defining of American culture:

humiliate |(h)yoōˈmilēˌāt| verb [ trans. ] make (someone) feel ashamed and foolish by injuring their dignity and self-respect, esp. publicly : you'll humiliate me in front of the whole school! | [as adj. ] ( humiliating) a humiliating election defeat. See note at humble .

Christicphilia, not Christianity, leads to the culture of humiliation that has given us the Ted Haggards, Mark Foleys, casts of Flavor of Love and Abu Ghraib.

Christicphilia, not Christianity, makes it possible to regard fashion as a mystic experience and equate anorexia with the price to pay to reach the sublime.

Christicphilia, not Christianity, turns a pornographically sadist eye on the last hours of Jesus Christ.

Christicphilia, not Christianity, creates torture into profitable franchises with movies like Saw, Hostel and now Black Christmas.

Taoists would consider the fanatical obsession with the Christ's pain, suffering, humiliation, ascetism, torture and death as the cause for all our countries suffering.

I do too.