Important 50th Anniversary

Today, my Uncle George e-mailed me to let me know that today is the 50th anniversary of my maternal grandfather's announcement of his intentions to run for Governor of Alabama. His name was George Hawkins and the year was 1958. John Patterson won a race which included my grandfather and a young judge from Barbour County named George Wallace.

I have seen the inner workings of campaigns and the toll it takes on families. This is true especially for statewide campaigns. I am proud of my grandfather because he was a progressive in a state that was in crisis due to race issues and a practical oligarchy. He gave his all to the state he loved and was an instrument of change who helped transition Alabama into the New South.

One of the things I'll remember most about him may be what he did not do. 1958 was an important year because Wallace lost the election. It was then, for the sake of personal ambition, that he threw away his progressive stance and adopted the positions of a segregationalist populist. By doing this, he stirred up racial tensions and fanned the flames of an atmosphere that would propel him to power for years to come. My grandfather did not do this. He remained a friend to the black people of Alabama and the disenfranchised for his entire career. He was not perfect but he played the hand he was dealt with principle and compassion.

I am also proud of my grandmother, mother, Uncle George, Uncle David, Uncle John, and Aunt Carol for being able to endure the limelight, hardships, absences, rigors, and excitements of such an intense cauldron. In great leadership in pivotal times, there has always been great cost.

Today, my love and admiration goes out to the Hawkins side of my family. It also endures for my grandfather who was a great man. I will always remember the impact he had on me as a boy and a young adult. His nimble intellect and gentle nature are missed. I will be proud of him and love him until my dying day.

Below is the campaign theme song he used in the 1958 election:

Hank Snow's I'm Movin' On

The Father Wound

Rudolf Bultmann and Martin Heidegger

This is a subject that I find to be fascinating. The following is an exerpt from one of my papers and it is somewhat scholarly (in a podunk MDiv sort of way) so some may want to skip over it. It involves integrating Christian theology with a certain form of Existentialism (in this case, Martin Heidegger is the influence on Rudolf Bultmann's theology). Christianity is ultimately existential (Rom. 7, Phil. 3, Matt. 26-27, Psalm 51, etc.) but existentialism can be both a wax nose and a boogeyman. There have been many theologians who have strained Christianity through the zeitgeist (Thomas Aquinas being one) and some come out closer than others.- DOB

The second aspect of [Martin] Heidegger’s philosophy that influenced [Rudolf] Bultmann is the “Transcendence of Being.” Macquarrie expounds on this notion:

Being is the incomparable that is wholly other to every particular being and comes before them. Being is the transcendens that is nevertheless nothing apart from the beings in which it is manifest. Being is not static but includes becoming and perhaps even has a history. Being takes the initiative in addressing man, in giving him speech, in setting him in the light and openness. Being is gracious toward man and constitutes him its guardian.

In the Heideggerian sense, Being functions as a parallel to divinity. That which transcends human existence in the mind of the pre-modern is divine. That which transcends human existence in the modern is Being. Being or “existence” occurs in every moment rather than being limited to a linear development. According to Heidegger, there is a difference between an “authentic” and an “unauthentic” existence. Authentic existence is developed when they “accept the challenge of being thrown into the world.” Unauthentic being occurs when the individual loses the “distinction between self and the world.” This always happens at the individual level which makes it existential. It is this view which drove Heidegger to throw his support to the Nazi program (one assumes that he was ignorant of the atrocities toward the Jews at that point). There is an almost Kierkegaardian idea of “defining commitment” here.

Bultmann took this idea of Being and applied it biblically. According to his understanding, the unauthentic existence is searching for security in the world and attempting to seek solace in one’s own achievements. It is seeing oneself in terms of self without God. This is “sin”. Authentic existence, however, does not attempt to meld into the world. It is renouncing self-centered life and making a personal commitment to God. This is “faith” and it allows a new self-understanding to take place. In faith, one finds himself. This “faith” is the response of the Christian Kerygma or Gospel which is proclaimed by the Christian church. Thus, in Heidegger, there is the Transcendence of Being available to an unaided individual. In Bultmann, the Transcendence of Being is made possible by the Transcendence of the Kerygma, or Gospel. It is the preaching of the cross and resurrection as a salvation event. This salvation event becomes the experience of the hearer. Proclamation gives rise to faith which is unfettered by the crippling historical-criticism of the day. Bultmann writes;

As true obedience, “faith” is freed from the suspicion of being an accomplishment, a “work”… As an accomplishment it would not be obedience, since in an accomplishment the will does not surrender but asserts itself; in it, a merely formal renunciation takes place in that the will lets the content of its accomplishment be dictated by an authority lying outside of itself, but precisely in so doing thinks it has a right to be proud of its accomplishment. “Faith” – the radical renunciation of accomplishment, the obedient submission to the God-determined way of salvation, the taking over of the cross of Christ… - is the free deed of obedience in which the new self constitutes itself in the place of the old.

Shostakovich

"When a man is in despair, it means that he still believes in something."
- Dmitri Shostakovich

This man was a composer during the Stalinist years in the old Soviet Union. - DOB

More Townes Van Zandt

Jesus was an only son
And love his only concept
Strangers cry in foreign tongues
And dirty up the doorstep
And I for one, and you for two
Ai'nt got the time for outside
Just keep your injured looks to you
We'll tell the world we tried

From "Lungs"

I'm beginning to believe that Townes Van Zandt is the greatest songwriter ever. - DOB

Crime and Punishment

"And when He has done with all of them, then He will summon us. 'You too come forth,' He will say, 'Come forth ye drunkards, come forth, ye weak ones, come forth, ye children of shame!' And we shall all come forth, without shame and shall stand before him. And He will say unto us, 'Ye are swine, made in the Image of the Beast and with his mark; but come ye also!' And the wise ones and those of understanding will say, 'Oh Lord, why dost Thou receive these men?' And He will say, 'This is why I receive them, oh ye wise, this is why I receive them, oh ye of understanding, that not one of them believed himself to be worthy of this.' And He will hold out His hands to us and we shall fall down before him… and we shall weep…and we shall understand all things!"
- from Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment