A Christian angle on Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Ar! Shiver me timbers and blow me down. Today be, of course, Talk Like a Pirate Day. Sadly, we have little on our site about pirates. I had high hopes for the recent Christian book Samson and the Pirate Monks: Calling Men to Authentic Brotherhood by Nate Larkin. But beware: the book has nothing in it about pirates.
So I turned instead to Colin Woodard, author of the new and highly acclaimed book that's actually about pirates, The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down.
"The pirates themselves demonstrated little in the way of religion," he told me, unsurprisingly. "But Woodes Rogers [the "Man Who Brought Them Down" of Woodard's title] appears to have been at least partially inspired by his faith, having repeatedly ordered stocks of tracts from the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. Seems he thought part of the way of reforming pirates would be through their spiritual redemption. He arranged for SPCK materials for both an abortive project to reform the pirates of Madagascar and, later, for his mission to the Bahamas."
Woodard talks a bit about this in his book, but that's not what attracted Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Al Mohler, who recently recommended the book to his blog readers.
"Like the pirates themselves, this book will take your imagination captive," Mohler wrote. "I was taken with the book from its introduction to the end, and I really appreciate Woodard's careful explanation of why the pirates were such important characters on the world scene."
That's about it on Christianity and pirates, at least for this year's TLAPD celebrations. In the meantime, ChristianBook.com sells Pirate Gold Sea Monkeys.
(Oh, and spare me any comments below about I've just spent more time on Talk Like a Pirate Day than on most days of the Christian calendar. I'm well aware of that. Pirates are just much more fun to blog about today than, say, Theodore of Tarsus or Januarius.)
Posted by Ted Olsen on September 19, 2007 7:06AM
Comments
After reading your blog, I felt lead to share this video with you.
jk
Pirate talk instructional video link:
http://www.loadingreadyrun.com/videos/view/49/How+to+Talk+like+a+Pirate
Posted by: Joe Kramarz at September 19, 2007
Arrrr!
Posted by: PaddyO at September 19, 2007
I once read a list of the SPCK's categories of target readerships in the C19. It included "self-educated persons of average ability...semi-educated persons,...imperfectly educated persons, ...infidels, ...deists,...very plain people,...untidy wives" (William Kemp Lowther Clarke, A History of the SPCK, p. 173)
Posted by: Richard Bartholomew at September 20, 2007
Let's see...
Pirates raped, pillaged, engaged in rampant homosexuality/pedophilia, had a culture of death manifested by their Skull and Bones flag.
Prostitutes virtually never rape, engage in heteroseuxal sex with consenting adults, believe in capitalism over theft, try to survive from one day to the next.
So, which do we think are cute?
So, how would we feel if the Pittsburgh Pirates became the Pittsburgh Prostitutes? Probably that we were losing the culture?
So, Mark Noll, when was it exactly that we lost our evangelical minds? Or is it just mysogyny?
Posted by: Paul at September 20, 2007
This was my favorite blog ever (which may not say anything good about me). I especially love the fact that we can order Pirate Gold Sea Monkeys (which probably also says nothing good about me).Thanks for the fun.
Posted by: JoHannah at September 20, 2007
Paul,
Pirates were on the wide open ocean, in grand sailing ships, in exotic locations.
Prostitutes are in run down motels in seedy parts of mundane cities.
It's not the reality of the thing. It's the romance of the setting.
Same reason why Old West desperadoes are more romanticized than Wall Street inside traders.
Clothes and setting add a odd romance.
Posted by: PaddyO at September 20, 2007
First, I want to agree with JoHannah--that this is an awesome blog. That's why I come so often--no one blogs like Ted. I love what he writes 99% of the time.
PaddyO, I guess I fail to grasp the Biblical worldview in your post. Not only would I posit that what you've shared doesn't have a scintilla of relevance to a thinking Christian, but I would submit that the bunks in pirate ships were seedier than any motel has ever been.
Romance is your defense--I guess we don't need the Bible, since Brittany Spears is so much more interesting than Amos. And forget reality, like liberals argue, it doesn't really matter if Jesus actually physically rose from the dead--it's the romance of the story that captures us.
Our worldview is adrift with no Biblical anchor. How romantic. Arghhhhhhhhh!
BTW, I apologize for misspelling misogyny in my haste.
Posted by: Paul at September 21, 2007
Dear Everybody Above Me,
First off, I am an avid pirate fan, FYI. We may like to throw around the idea that everyone else is misinformed, but the truth is, most pirates did NOT rape and participate in homosexuality and go around burning down villages. In a weird way, that idea is the romanticized image of pirates. Most 'pirates' were originally privateers hired by countries to sabotage rival nations shipping or navies. When the law stopped protecting them at the turn of the century, many continued collecting 'booty' from highly traveled shipping lanes. And yes, this was stealing, and yes, that isn't very nice. But it just goes to prove that it was a small percentsge, say 20% that did the murder/rape scene. Many even allowed the captain and crew to leave in jolly boats after they had captured the ship. So shiver me timbers and stop being uptight-enjoy the nautical, if somewhat romanticized, Talk like a PIrate Day ye scurvy dogs!
Posted by: Annastacia Hughes at September 28, 2007
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Posted by: wgmsh phawq at December 3, 2007
What I find laughable is how all these hiptards who think pirates are cool are blisfully UNAWARE that Pirates are anything BUT a thing of the past! They're STILL out there doin what pirates
have always done, but with machineguns, Rocket Launchers, and speedboats instead of muskets, flintlocks, and cutlasses.
Posted by: Anton at February 8, 2009
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