PM changed his Religious Views.

"PM changed his Religious Views." That's what it says on my Facebook Timeline. It's not quite true, although I did change one view from being spelled with an initial capital to lowercase for clarity, and then back again for consistency. But perhaps some explanation is called for.

Facebook Religious Views: Evangelical Pentecostal Catholic Quaker

EVANGELICAL

I am an Evangelical Christian. Today, that's often thought to be a political term. It isn't. The term “evangelical” comes from the Greek word euangelion, meaning “the good news” or the “gospel.” Thus, the evangelical faith focuses on the “good news” of salvation brought to sinners by Jesus Christ.

PENTECOSTAL

 

I am also something of a Pentecostal Christian. According to Wikipedia,  

Pentecostalism or Classical Pentecostalism is a renewal movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, the Greek name for the Jewish Feast of Weeks. For Christians, this event commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the followers of Jesus Christ, as described in the second chapter of the Book of Acts. Pentecostals tend to see their movement as reflecting the same kind of spiritual power and teachings that were found in the Apostolic Age of the early church. For this reason, some Pentecostals also use the term Apostolic or full gospel to describe their movement.

I can agree with that. I have been "born again from above," and I know that direct contact with God through his spirit is a reality denied to no one who desires it.

CATHOLIC

I am a catholic Christian, but not a Roman Catholic (big difference). There are essentially five definitions of what being a Catholic Christian means. My self identification isn't based on any of these (although at one time, as an Anglican, it was). It's based on the meaning of the word "catholic" as representing the whole church, undivided. And what would that be, in the fractious and fractured reality of human Christendom? It would be the recognition of, and adherence to, the creedal staements of the early Church: the Apostle's Creed and the Nicene Creed. In those statements of faith you will find the catholic church.

QUAKER 

 

The central tenet of the diverse Quaker belief is The Priesthood of All Believers.

Yeah. That's central to me, too. Defining, actually. 

During my Anglo-Catholic days, I was very much opposed to the ordination of women to the priesthood, based both upon my "Catholic" views, and upon my experience with the heterodox beliefs of the ordained women I had worked with. It became something of a non-issue with me as time went by (and I removed myself from Anglo-Catholicism). 

An ordained orthodox Anglican Christian friend of mine noticed this lessening of opposition, and asked, "P.M., are you no longer opposed to Women's Ordination?" My response was (and is) that my opposition to "The Ordination of Women to the Holy Priesthood" remains in place, but that I've expanded that opposition to include men as well.

The priesthood of all believers, living the expectant presence of God. Not only quaking, but even quivering.

7th Festival Misteria Paschalia - interview with Jordi Savall

In Memoriam

Nina Hagen continues to shock and awe.

Nina Hagen, the 57 year-old Radical Left-Wing German vegetarian New Wave Punk Rock star, has been baptized a Christian. Born in East Berlin, the child of two Marxist atheists, she joined a Reformed Evangelical Church in northern Germany in 2009. As Alice Cooper said about himself after becoming a 'Born-Again' Christian, "It's the most radical thing I've ever done."

"Both of my parents were atheists, and I found the way to God all alone on my own. You have to invite him, so that he shows up... I'm a family member of Christ and I have a Lord. He marched ahead of me and showed me the way." - Nina Hagen

Three Easy Pieces: D.I.Y. Salvation

Example One: 

You are walking in the woods. Your feet get tangled in the exposed roots of a hoary old tree. You reach down to pull your boots free, but you trip over the roots and fall into a deep ravine, breaking both your ankles (because your feet got tangled in the hoary roots). You lay there, unconscious, unable even to call for help. You will die of exposure.

A burly, strong, handsome woodsman comes by and sees you. He picks you up and carries you to an aid station. You are saved.

Did you save yourself? Of course not. You had no part in your salvation. You only lay broken, at the bottom of the ravine as a result of the fall.



Example Two:

You go out sailing in a small boat on a large body of water. By yourself. You don't wear the life-vest your parents gave you (you're not even sure where it is). But you've taught yourself how to sail a boat and how to swim. You are confident in your abilities, up to a point (you don't intend to go too far out in the small, Sunfish-class sailboat).

But a squall blows in suddenly, pushing you out into the water. You struggle to get your boat back to the protection of the shoreline, but the rising waves, driving rain, and growing darkness make the struggle difficult. You fall overboard. You panic in the cold water, as you see your boat driven away from you. In your panic, you cry out for help, even though you don't think anyone can hear you.

But to your great surprise, a voice calls out. "I can save you!" You look around, and you see a large boat has appeared in the storm. A burly, strong, handsome sailor stands at the rails with a lifeline in his hands. He throws it out into water. "Grab the line, and I'll pull you onboard!"

Response A: In your panicked state, you think the lifeline is a water moccasin. "Get away from me!" you scream, and kick the lifeline away. Thrashing about, fearing there is a serpent in the water near you, you sink beneath the waves. 

Response B: You are embarrassed. The expert sailor has seen you foolishly overturn your boat ("The waves weren't really that high, and the wind not really that strong," you tell yourself). You imagine that he and his friends on the boat will laugh at you, behind your back, for needing to be saved. But you are strong, and a good swimmer. "No thanks!" you yell back. "I can swim to the shore. You go find someone who really needs help!" You begin to swim towards where you think the shoreline is, but you swim in the wrong direction. It's dark now, and the large boat is scanning the waves with a searchlight, looking for you. You keep treading water until you are too tired to keep it up any longer. With nothing to hold on to, you slip beneath the waves. 

Response C: You reach out weakly and grab the line, which lies at your fingertips. While you hold onto the line, the sailor pulls you to himself, and to safety.

In Response A, did your fear become your undoing? Yes.

In Response B, did your foolish pride become your undoing? Yes. Were you able to save yourself? No.

In Response C, did you save yourself? Of course not. You accepted the saving action of the seaman.

Example Three: (Toastmasters says to always leave them with a joke.)

The rains have been falling up river. The river is rising and will soon crest the banks. The sheriff drives up to your house and warns you to pack your belongings and leave before the flood waters arrive. "I have Faith that the Lord will save me from the flood. I will wait for Him," you respond. The sheriff drives off to warn the next family.

The waters break the levee and flood the county. The water covers the foundation of your house and laps at your front porch. The Red Cross sends a small boat to your door, asking you to leave your house. "I have Faith that the Lord will save me from the flood. I will wait for Him," you tell the Red Cross workers. They leave, looking for others stranded by the rising waters.

The waters rise into your home. You go to the roof. A National Guard helicopter comes by and spots you on the roof. The Guardsmen lower a line to you and tell you to grab hold and they'll pull you to safety. "I have Faith that the Lord will save me from the flood. I will wait for Him," you yell up to the helicopter. They try to argue with you, but you win. They move on in search of others.

The waters continue to rise. You cling to the chimney until the strength of the rushing waters overcome your own strength. You are swept away, under the waters.

You wake up in Heaven. You approach the Gates and see Peter. He welcomes you, and begins the processing work. Finally he asks you if you have any questions. You do. "I had Faith that the Lord would save me from the flood. I waited for Him, but He never came."

As he opens the Gates of Heaven, Peter looks at you and says, "The Lord sent the sheriff, the Red Cross, and the National Guard to save you, but you wouldn't come."

#

Abandon your pride (it is of no value), overcome your fear (it will not protect you), and grab the lifeline (then you will be saved). Come. Respond. Repent. Follow.

Worth revisiting.

 
Answered by a Lover of Free Grace 

by John Wesley

1. To say, "This man is an Arminian," has the same effect on many hearers, as to say, "This is a mad dog." It puts them into a fright at once: They run away from him with all speed and diligence; and will hardly stop, unless it be to throw a stone at the dreadful and mischievous animal. 

2. The more unintelligible the word is, the better it answers the purpose. Those on whom it is fixed know not what to do: Not understanding what it means, they cannot tell what defence to make, or how to clear themselves from the charge. And it is not easy to remove the prejudice which others have imbibed, who know no more of it, than that it is "something very bad," if not "all that is bad!" 

3. To clear the meaning, therefore, of this ambiguous term, may be of use to many: To those who so freely pin this name upon others, that they may not say what they do not understand; to those that hear them, that they may be no longer abused by men saying they know not what; and to those upon whom the name is fixed, that they may know how to answer for themselves. 

4. It may be necessary to observe, First, that many confound Arminians with Arians. But this is entirely a different thing; the one has no resemblance to the other. An Arian is one who denies the Godhead of Christ; we scarce need say, the supreme, eternal Godhead; because there can be no God but the supreme, eternal God, unless we will make two Gods, a great God and a little one. Now, none have ever more firmly believed, or more strongly asserted, the Godhead of Christ, than many of the (so called) Arminians have done; yea, and do at this day. Arminianism therefore (whatever it be) is totally different from Arianism.

5. The rise of the word was this: JAMES HARMENS, in Latin, Jacobes Arminius, was first one of the Ministers of Amsterdam, and afterwards Professor of Divinity at Leyden. He was educated at Geneva; but in the year 1591 began to doubt of the principles which he had till then received. And being more and more convinced that they were wrong, when he was vested with the Professorship, he publicly taught what he believed the truth, till, in the year 1609, he died in peace. But a few years after his death, some zealous men with the Prince of Orange at their head, furiously assaulted all that held what were called his opinions; and having procured them to be solemnly condemned, in the famous Synod of Dort, (not so numerous or learned, but full as impartial, as the Council or Synod of Trent,) some were put to death, some banished, some imprisoned for life, all turned out of their employments, and made incapable of holding any office, either in Church or State.

6. The errors charged upon these (usually termed Arminians) by their opponents, are five: (1.) That they deny original sin; (2.) That they deny justification by faith; (3.) That they deny absolute predestination; (4.) That they deny the grace of God to be irresistible; and, (5.) That they affirm, a believer may fall from grace.

With regard to the two first of these charges, they plead, Not Guilty. They are entirely false. No man that ever lived, not John Calvin himself, ever asserted either original sin, or justification by faith, in more strong, more clear and express terms, than Arminius has done. These two points, therefore, are to be set out of the question: In these both parties agree. In this respect, there is not a hair's breadth difference between Mr. Wesley and Mr. Whitefield.

7. But there is an undeniable difference between the Calvinists and Arminians, with regard to the three other questions. Here they divide; the former believe absolute, the latter only conditional, predestination. The Calvinists hold, (1.) God has absolutely decreed, from all eternity, to save such and such persons, and no others; and that Christ died for these, and none else. The Arminians hold, God has decreed, from all eternity, touching all that have the written word, "He that believeth shall be saved: He that believeth not, shall be condemned:" And in order to this, "Christ died for all, all that were dead in trespasses and sins;" that is, for every child of Adam, since "in Adam all died."

8. The Calvinists hold, Secondly, that the saving grace of God is absolutely irresistible; that no man is any more able to resist it, than to resist the stroke of lightning. The Arminians hold, that although there may be some moments wherein the grace of God acts irresistibly, yet, in general, any man may resist, and that to his eternal ruin, the grace whereby it was the will of God he should have been eternally saved.

9. The Calvinists hold, Thirdly, that a true believer in Christ cannot possibly fall from grace. The Arminians hold, that a true believer may "make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience;" that he may fall, not only foully, but finally, so as to perish for ever.

10. Indeed, the two latter points, irresistible grace and infallible perseverance, are the natural consequence of the former, of the unconditional decree. For if God has eternally and absolutely decreed to save such and such persons, it follows, both that they cannot resist his saving grace, (else they might miss of salvation,) and that they cannot finally fall from that grace which they cannot resist. So that, in effect, the three questions come into one, "Is predestination absolute or conditional?" The Arminians believe, it is conditional; the Calvinists, that it is absolute.

11. Away, then, with all ambiguity! Away with all expressions which only puzzle the cause! Let honest men speak out, and not play with hard words which they do not understand. And how can any man know what Arminius held, who has never read one page of his writings? Let no man bawl against Arminians, till he knows what the term means; and then he will know that Arminians and Calvinists are just upon a level. And Arminians have as much right to be angry at Calvinists, as Calvinists have to be angry at Arminians. John Calvin was a pious, learned, sensible man; and so was James Harmens. Many Calvinists are pious, learned, sensible men; and so are many Arminians. Only the former hold absolute predestination; the latter, conditional.

12. One word more: Is it not the duty of every Arminian Preacher, First, never, in public or in private, to use the word Calvinist as a term of reproach; seeing it is neither better nor worse than calling names? -- a practice no more consistent with good sense or good manners, than it is with Christianity. Secondly. To do all that in him lies to prevent his hearers from doing it, by showing them the sin and folly of it? And is it not equally the duty of every Calvinist Preacher, First, never in public or in private, in preaching or in conversation, to use the word Arminian as a term of reproach? Secondly. To do all that in him lies to prevent his hearers from doing it, by showing them the sin and folly thereof; and that the more earnestly and diligently, if they have been accustomed so to do? perhaps encouraged therein by his own example!

From the Thomas Jackson edition of The Works of John Wesley, 1872.

The World Turned Upside Down.

If ponies rode men and grass ate cows,
And cats were chased into holes by the mouse . . .
If summer were spring and the other way round,
Then all the world would be upside down.

His day.

"We must not measure by natural human fatherhood what it means that God is our Father. It is from God's fatherhood that our natural human fatherhood acquires any meaning and dignity it has. God is the Father 'from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.'"

-- Karl Barth (1886-1968)

For Harry C. Summer (1918-1996). Thanks, Dad. 

Sighted List

As seen and noted on my morning walks.

• River Cooter Turtle
• Guadalupe Spiny Soft-Shelled Turtle
• Yellow Belly Water Snake
• Eastern Yellow Racer Snake
• Cotton-tailed Rabbit
• Jack Rabbit
• Great Blue Heron
• Crane
• Sandpiper
• Crested Duck
• Mud Hen
• Egret
• Alligator Gar
• Bream
• Coyote (spoor)
• Horned Ow
• Beaver (sign) 
• Deer (tracks)
• Raccoon (tracks)
• Purple Martin
• Tilapia
• Barn Swallow
• Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
• Pill Bug
• Oriole
• Sand Piper
• Cow Bird
• Crow 
• Cardinal
• Raven
• Red Harvester Ant
• Prickly Pear
• Spanish Moss
• Bois D'Arc 
• Cat Tail
• Thistle
• Black-eyed Susan
• Texas Blue Bell
• Mockingbird
• English Sparrow
• Mourning Dove
• White-wing Dove
• Red Peppered Moth
• Dragon Fly 
• Gnat
• Mosquito 

This list is updated as things stand out.

On the road again.

 

Psalm 119:25 

English Standard Version (ESV)

  My soul clings to the dust;
  give me life according to your word!

Hot-Peppered Moth Evolution

The evolution of the peppered moth over the last two hundred years has been studied in detail. Originally, the vast majority of peppered moths had light colouration, which effectively camouflaged them against the light-coloured trees and lichens which they rested upon. However, because of widespread pollution during the Industrial Revolution in England, many of the lichens died out, and the trees that peppered moths rested on became blackened by soot, causing most of the light-coloured moths, or typica, to die off from predation. At the same time, the dark-coloured, or melanic, moths, carbonaria, flourished because of their ability to hide on the darkened trees.

-from Wikipedia

Take a walk on the wild side.

I grew up in large part along the shore of Lake Texoma on the Red River (literally, a stone throw from Oklahoma). Every day, my mother would walk down to the lake in the cool of the morning. It was about a mile-long trek down a dirt road, with a steep hill down to the lake shore. She'd then walk along the shoreline. It was not a car-friendly road (we had a couple of four-wheel-drive trucks when we were in a hurry), so it was almost always very quiet.

I would often walk with her, observing (and discussing) the flora and fauna as we strolled. That was a long time ago, but they are times I will always cherish.

I live in an exurban community now, where cattle grazed just a few short years ago. It's a planned community. 'Seaside-on-the-Prairie', I call it. There is a small lake nearby (a former gravel pit) with a jogging path around it. I've taken to walking around it in the cool of the mornings. The pictures above are from this morning's walk.

What goes around, comes around.

Choose sides.

“Oh, I may be on the side of the angels - but don't think for one second that I am one of them.”

-- Stephan Moffatt, screenwriter, as spoken by his characterization of Sherlock Holmes.

Carroll Shelby, 1923 - 2012

An opinion piece on the BBC website

Rod Dreher, senior editor of the American Conservative:

I am supposed to be heartened by North Carolina's vote this week against same-sex marriage.
After all, I am a social and religious conservative who lives in a small town in Louisiana, the deepest part of the Deep South. We Southerners have held the line for tradition and moral truth about marriage every time the issue has been put on the ballot here. Given how decisive the North Carolina vote was, and given that gay marriage proponents have lost in every state, even culturally liberal California, it is tempting to think we can stand athwart history yelling, "Stop!" If only. I think ours is a lost cause. And we Southerners know something about lost causes.

When US President Barack Obama announced on ABC News yesterday that he favours same-sex marriage, a journalist friend inside a Manhattan newsroom wrote that every one of his colleagues stood at their desks, staring at the screens "like it was the moon landing". Of course. It is impossible to overstate the depth and breadth of media support for same-sex marriage. In my newsroom experience, it is taken as given that any opposition to gay marriage can only come from rank bigotry. You would no more take a defender of traditional marriage seriously than you would take a segregationist seriously - or so the thinking goes. Trying to explain philosophically why homosexuality is not the same thing as race draws blank stares. This is simply not something to be reasoned about, especially not with my generation of journalists: too young to have seen the black civil rights movement, and who are not about to miss out on their own version. Though I firmly believe there is only a superficial connection between gay marriage and inter-racial marriage, the legacy of the civil rights movement in the South is precisely why I think marriage traditionalists are going to lose in the long run.

I recently moved back to my hometown, a Louisiana country village of 2,000 people, after living away for nearly 30 years. Though my generation was the first to attend racially integrated schools from the beginning of our education, the relative comity that exists here now between the races - half the town is black, the other half white - is, as you would expect, partly a result of familiarity. Integrating state schools would not have happened if elites (I use the term descriptively, not pejoratively) in the 50s and 60s had not held the federal judiciary and imposed their moral views over popular local will.

That is only part of the story, though, and not the most important part. Yes, I went to school with black children. But despite this it was not as hard as you might think to maintain one's prejudices. Nothing in the local culture actively challenged racist beliefs. Churches avoided controversy by ignoring the issue. So, we Southern children of the 70s and beyond were catechised on the wrongness of racism primarily by television and media culture. It was impossible to watch TV back then and not notice that the conventional racial opinions held by local whites were treated as backward and immoral. They were, in fact, precisely that, but my point here has to do with media ecology. Mass media framed the debate over race in America in a way that stigmatised white racism, and made old-fashioned views obsolete and even embarrassing. The rigid old way of thinking, happily, did not survive a single generation.

In my town we have not achieved a Valhalla of tolerance, but social progress on the race question has been breathtaking. Whatever views people may hold privately, only the most truculent racists - the sort one rarely sees in public life these days - would favour laws and policies that were commonplace here as late as the mid-60s. Racism is seen as trashy - as vulgar - even here in a former segregationist stronghold. This tells us something about the future of gay marriage, given the dominance of the "civil rights" narrative in the public square. As is commonly known, polling data show a stark generational divide among Americans on same-sex marriage. The younger the voter, the greater the support. The demographic tidal wave on this issue is undeniable.

Gay marriage opponents like to tell themselves that people get more conservative as they age - true, in general, but unlikely in this case. As long as the traditionalist position on same-sex marriage, almost universally held only 25 years ago, is treated as irrational hatred and nothing but by the media, business, and social elites, there will be powerful social and psychological pressure to shun it. American business culture is increasingly pro-gay. If the US Supreme Court constitutionalises same-sex marriage the cultural, legal and financial pressure (through the tax code) against conservative churches to abandon orthodox Christian teaching will be enormous.

Leaving aside the role of elites in forming mass opinion, it is not sufficiently appreciated why so many younger Americans support same-sex marriage. It fits easily with what they already believe about the nature of marriage, of sex, of liberty, and of human nature. The high level of religiosity shown in US polls is deceiving. More recent, comprehensive research by political scientists Robert Putnam and David Campbell, and sociologist Christian Smith, indicates that young Americans are not only abandoning formal religious observance in large numbers (while still claiming to be "spiritual"), but they see religion primarily in therapeutic terms. That is, they believe that God wants us to be nice, happy and self-fulfilled - and that's about it. As the late sociologist Philip Rieff observed in his great 60s work of cultural analysis, The Triumph of the Therapeutic, Western culture had by then abandoned the Christian moral matrix, especially on sexual matters.

Given the haplessness of the churches as a counter-cultural force to the hedonism and individualism celebrated by popular culture, it should surprise no-one that arguments, Christian and otherwise, for traditional marriage are hard for young people to conceptualise. Traditionalists keep winning battles, but we have lost the war at the level of ideas. Our moral and religious claims strike many as illiberal (therefore incorrect) and sociological contentions about the integral importance of traditional family structure to society's health are cold-hearted abstractions. The collapse of Christianity's cultural authority has been profound. Prejudice - either in the bad sense of mindless bigotry, or the good, Burkean sense - is the only thing keeping gay marriage at bay. This will not last, especially as the social, legal, and commercial price for holding fast to tradition increases, as it certainly will, now that same-sex marriage commands the high ground in the US social and cultural hierarchy.

Gay marriage completes the institutionalisation of the sexual revolution, against which the forces of social conservatism and religious tradition have been impotent. As pleasing as ballot box victories are, I see no reason for the long defeat to reverse, at least not in my lifetime. Like it or not, this is what it means to live after the passing of the Christian era.

Email: rod.dreher@gmail.com

From the BBC.

Me too.

Found photograph

Put On the New Self 

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:1-17

English Standard Version (ESV)

The joke is on Satan.

Unattributed on the web.

The empty chair.

It is done.

Unattributed on the web.

Suspended between Earth and Heaven... descended to the place of the dead.

The Revelation to John

P.M. Summer, 2012

"Don't fear: I am First, I am Last, I'm Alive. I died, but I came to life, and my life is now forever. See these keys in my hand? They open and lock Death's doors, they open and lock Hell's gates."

Revelation 1:17-18, The Message

Forgive us, for we just don't know.

Unattributed on the web.

That's me on the far right.

Ecce Homo
Andrew Hudgins

Christ bends, protects his groin. Thorns gouge his forehead, and his legs are stippled with dried blood. The part of us that's Pilate says, Behold the man. We glare at that bound, lashed, and bloody part of us that's Christ. We laugh, we howl, we shout. Give us Barabbas, not knowing who Barabbas is, not caring. A thief? We'll take him anyway. A drunk? A murderer? Who cares? It's better him than this pale ravaged thing, this god. Bosch knows. His humans waver, laugh, then change to demons as if they're seized by epilepsy. It spreads from eye to eye, from laugh to laugh until, incited by the ease of going mad, they go. How easy evil is! Dark voices sing, You can be evil or you can be good, but good is dull, my darling, good is dull. And we're convinced: How lovely evil is! How lovely hell must be! Give us Barabbas!

Lord Pilate clears his throat and tries again: I find no fault in this just man. It's more than we can bear. In gothic script our answer floats above our upturned eyes. O crucify, we sing. O crucify him!

The Hairiness of Sin.

"Original sin is in us, like the beard--we are shaved today and look clean, and have a smooth chin; tomorrow our beard has grown again, nor does it cease growing while we remain on earth. In like manner original sin cannot be extirpated from us as long as we exist. Nevertheless, we are bound to resist it to our utmost strength, and to cut it down unceasingly."

- Martin Luther (1483-1546) 

CQOD

The life unbalanced.

I watched Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance, for the first time in almost 29 years last night (second time overall). This is a 1982 film directed by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by Philip Glass (his best work, IMHO) and cinematography by Ron Fricke. Still powerful-good stuff. Highly recommended. But... perhaps Reggio (and certainly most reviewers) missed the point of his own complaint.

While the focus is on man's quest for technology and its abuses and misuses, mankind gets let off the hook a bit. Reggio was a novitiate for over a decade at a Roman Catholic monastery in northern New Mexico for over a decade prior to making this movie.  It shows in the film's almost Benedictine rhythms of life. And yet, what the film doesn't show is where life is truly unbalanced. Sin against God. Sin is perhaps left out of the film's equation (except sin against Mother Earth), while at the same time being that equation, because sin ultimately comes back on each of us in a way that damning impersonal technology never does.

This is a powerful film about sin, about rebellion against the Creator. But perhaps it focuses on the symptoms, not the disease. Perhaps that is an area we don't want to look into.

Nothing more.

"Our faith begins at the point where atheists suppose it must be at an end. Our faith begins with the bleakness and power which is one night of the cross, abandonment, temptation and doubt about everything that exists! Our faith must be born where it is abandoned by all tangible reality; it must be born of nothingness, taste this nothingness and be given it to taste in a way that no philosophy of nihilism can imagine."

-- Hans Joachim Iwand

Société d'art

A Vowel Movement

Name: We R Mutts

Alternate Names: Mutts R Us, We B Mutts, B. A. Mutt

Action: On July 28 of each year, members of the society will deliver and/or deposit (personally, via courier, or in the dark of night) a ceramic urinal to an exhibiting-collecting art museum/institution, preferably in their town of residence, or beyond, in total anonymity. The museum/institution shall be of their own choosing. The delivered ceramic urinal must be clean, and shall in no way be altered or personalized, although a delivery ticket may be attached.

Purpose: To commemorate the birth of Marcel Duchamp.

Disclaimer: No responsibility is implied or to be assumed.

As found on the internet, and reproduced here. 


For reference only:

The barn swallows have returned to Campverano!

Last year was the first one in our new home, alternately described (depending upon my mood) as Casa Verano, Fort Summer, or St. Helena on the Prairie.  Today I add a new name: Campverano, referencing my surname and California's Mission San Juan de Capistrano, of returning swallow fame.

As our first winter here in Hays County drew to a close in 2011, our house became home to a colony of Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica). These wonderful, chatty birds have remarkable aerial-acrobatic skills (90º turns at high speed... inside the front porch!), and a voracious appetite for mosquitoes (perhaps 10X the appetite of the more popular Purple Martins).

Our colony began its migration back to South America at the height of the drought (a little early, according to what I've read). Migratory patterns would have them return in early February (which is when they arrived last year), but there was no sign of them in February or early March. I have worried they might not return as a result of that near-historic drought. In vain, I have looked every day for their return.

I spotted two today, swirling around the eaves my house. The swallows have returned to San Miguel de Campverano!

"Murder," she says.

Travlin' home.

So long.  It was great while it lasted, and it will be missed. 

Repent!

There's no escape.

Death notice

"Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your own independence."

-- Oswald Chambers

The Tomb of the Unknown God

 

I went to hear Sequentia, one of the world's premiere Early Music ensembles (well, duo for this performance), perform in Houston last Sunday. The program was of musical fragments of German, Old English, and Nordic 9th-11th Century End of Time texts. The setting was the Rothko Chapel in the Menil compound area.

The Executive Director of the Rothko Chapel came out before the performance and briefly discussed the meaning and purpose of the Rothko Chapel (with its giant black and dark grey canvasses). She described it as "sacred space designed for spiritual contemplation," and as part of Mark Rothko's vision and intent. It has holy books from all the World's major (and not so major) religions, suitable for the quiet contemplation/worship of the god(s) of one's own choice (or of Mark Rothko). 

Rothko himself saw the chapel to be a Roman Catholic institution, based upon an Eastern Orthodox chapel. His monochrome paintings were meant to be references to the crucifixion of Christ. Dominique de Menil had other, more ecumenical, thoughts.

Mark Rothko committed suicide before the chapel was completed.

The Universe as a game of chance.

Imagine the universe's creation as a game of chance, like craps. Or like Russian Roulette perhaps. 

Spin.

Click. Click. Click. 

(Really, imagine 480,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 clicks.)

 

Click. BANG!

A whale of a story, but that's not the point.

Jakob Steinhardt

There are times I really just want to leave people to their own devices. Wash my hands of them. Shake the dust off my feet and turn.

But it's not an option open to me. Therefore I must continue to say to them (and to myself), "Repent! The Kingdom of God is near!"

Jonah 3:1-10

Common English Bible (CEB)

Nineveh hears God’s word

 The LORD’s word came to Jonah a second time: “Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city, and declare against it the proclamation that I am commanding you.” And Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD’s word. (Now Nineveh was indeed an enormous city, a three days’ walk across.) 

 Jonah started into the city, walking one day, and he cried out, “Just forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and put on mourning clothes, from the greatest of them to the least significant.

 When word of it reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, stripped himself of his robe, covered himself with mourning clothes, and sat in ashes. Then he announced, “In Nineveh, by decree of the king and his officials: Neither human nor animal, cattle nor flock, will taste anything! No grazing and no drinking water! Let humans and animals alike put on mourning clothes, and let them call upon God forcefully! And let all persons stop their evil behavior and the violence that’s under their control!” He thought, Who knows? God may see this and turn from his wrath, so that we might not perish.

 God saw what they were doing—that they had ceased their evil behavior. So God stopped planning to destroy them, and he didn’t do it.

Coincidental messaging service

Edward John Poynter, Israel in Egypt, 1867

My local classical radio station has been promoting the Texas Choral Consort's upcoming performance of George Frideric Handel's "Israel in Egypt" by breathlessly repeating lines from the oratorio regarding the Biblical plagues visited upon Egypt in the Old Testament book of Exodus. Excerpts from a recorded performance were played last night on the Classically Austin program as a way of promoting the concert. I have to admit to not ever having heard this oratorio before, and I was struck by the passages.

The Morning Prayer readings I use featured the first half Psalm 105 today (1-22). But I have been using the Evening Prayer readings since Advent, because the Psalmody is different, consisting either of different psalms than the morning readings, or of the second half of longer ones. Today's example was Psalm 105:1-22 for Morning Prayer, and Psalm 105:23-45 for Evening Prayer.

Now, in your mind's ear, hear the pleasant sounds you equate with Handel's more popular oratorio "Messiah", but insert these words from the latter half of Psalm 105 instead.

Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.

And he increased his people greatly; and made them stronger than their enemies.
He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal subtilly with his servants.
He sent Moses his servant; and Aaron whom he had chosen.
They shewed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.
He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word.
He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish.
Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, in the chambers of their kings.
He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies, and lice in all their coasts.
He gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land.
He smote their vines also and their fig trees; and brake the trees of their coasts.
He spake, and the locusts came, and caterpillers, and that without number,
And did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground.
He smote also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength.
He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.
Egypt was glad when they departed: for the fear of them fell upon them.
He spread a cloud for a covering; and fire to give light in the night.
The people asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river.
For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant.
And he brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness:
And gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labour of the people;
That they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws. Praise ye the LORD.

 

Praise ye the Lord indeed, and wonder at the synchronicity of it all.

Mainlining evangelism.

An influx of colorless vinyl

Darkness

"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell."

- C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Getting a Sense of Perspective

If Monsanto used a food additive that caused 200,000 miscarriages a year in the USA, would people be upset enough to boycott their products?

If the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill caused 210,000 women along the gulf coast to miscarry last year, would that be a shocking scandal worthy of a boycott?

If Planned Parenthood provided abortion services that destroyed 220,000 fetuses in 2011... would that be a good reason to not send them any money?

---


As a culture, we now regard the beginnings of human life in such a way that might cause Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot to blush.  With dark, cruel certainty, we destroy life.

As much as anyone can be, I am a survivor of abortion, in that my mother's obstetrician told her I was a tumor in her uterus and should be removed immediately. He told her she was mistaken about being pregnant, and that putting off the surgery would endanger her life. She was convinced she was pregnant.  

She was right, he was wrong.

Saint Helena on the Prairie

Woke up here one year ago today. Saint Helena on the Prairie.

"There were...plots to rescue Napoleon from captivity including one from Texas, where exiled soldiers from the Grande Armée wanted a resurrection of the Napoleonic Empire in America."

"The following video has been approved by Karl Barth."

Darwinian Reductionism is nothing new

 

Isaiah 44:9-20

The Message (MSG)

Lover of Emptiness

 ^9-11All those who make no-god idols don't amount to a thing, and what they work so hard at making is nothing. Their little puppet-gods see nothing and know nothing—they're total embarrassments! Who would bother making gods that can't do anything, that can't "god"? Watch all the no-god worshipers hide their faces in shame. Watch the no-god makers slink off humiliated when their idols fail them. Get them out here in the open. Make them face God-reality.  ¹²The blacksmith makes his no-god, works it over in his forge, hammering it on his anvil—such hard work! He works away, fatigued with hunger and thirst.
 ^13-17The woodworker draws up plans for his no-god, traces it on a block of wood. He shapes it with chisels and planes into human shape—a beautiful woman, a handsome man, ready to be placed in a chapel. He first cuts down a cedar, or maybe picks out a pine or oak, and lets it grow strong in the forest, nourished by the rain. Then it can serve a double purpose: Part he uses as firewood for keeping warm and baking bread; from the other part he makes a god that he worships—carves it into a god shape and prays before it. With half he makes a fire to warm himself and barbecue his supper. He eats his fill and sits back satisfied with his stomach full and his feet warmed by the fire: "Ah, this is the life." And he still has half left for a god, made to his personal design—a handy, convenient no-god to worship whenever so inclined. Whenever the need strikes him he prays to it, "Save me. You're my god."
 ^18-19Pretty stupid, wouldn't you say? Don't they have eyes in their heads? Are their brains working at all? Doesn't it occur to them to say, "Half of this tree I used for firewood: I baked bread, roasted meat, and enjoyed a good meal. And now I've used the rest to make an abominable no-god. Here I am praying to a stick of wood!"
 ²⁰This lover of emptiness, of nothing, is so out of touch with reality, so far gone, that he can't even look at what he's doing, can't even look at the no-god stick of wood in his hand and say, "This is crazy."

Photo: Popular Science magazine (issue Jan, 1964). It depicts two technicians preparing mechanically animated caveman figure for the exhibition at the 1964/1965 New York World’s Fair.

Isaiah 44:9-20

New International Version (NIV)

 ⁹ All who make idols are nothing,
   and the things they treasure are worthless.
Those who would speak up for them are blind;
   they are ignorant, to their own shame.
¹⁰ Who shapes a god and casts an idol,
   which can profit nothing?
¹¹ People who do that will be put to shame;
   such craftsmen are only human beings.
Let them all come together and take their stand;
   they will be brought down to terror and shame.
 ¹² The blacksmith takes a tool
   and works with it in the coals;
he shapes an idol with hammers,
   he forges it with the might of his arm.
He gets hungry and loses his strength;
   he drinks no water and grows faint.
¹³ The carpenter measures with a line
   and makes an outline with a marker;
he roughs it out with chisels
   and marks it with compasses.
He shapes it in human form,
   human form in all its glory,
   that it may dwell in a shrine.
¹⁴ He cut down cedars,
   or perhaps took a cypress or oak.
He let it grow among the trees of the forest,
   or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow.
¹⁵ It is used as fuel for burning;
   some of it he takes and warms himself,
   he kindles a fire and bakes bread.
But he also fashions a god and worships it;
   he makes an idol and bows down to it.
¹⁶ Half of the wood he burns in the fire;
   over it he prepares his meal,
   he roasts his meat and eats his fill.
He also warms himself and says,
   “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.”
¹⁷ From the rest he makes a god, his idol;
   he bows down to it and worships.
He prays to it and says,
   “Save me! You are my god!”
¹⁸ They know nothing, they understand nothing;
   their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see,
   and their minds closed so they cannot understand.
¹⁹ No one stops to think,
   no one has the knowledge or understanding to say,
“Half of it I used for fuel;
   I even baked bread over its coals,
   I roasted meat and I ate.
Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left?
   Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”
²⁰ Such a person feeds on ashes; a deluded heart misleads him;
   he cannot save himself, or say,
   “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”

Why is this an impossible match?

Best Santa ever.