Ontological Goo

Time To Go

2009-05-12T14:06:00.007-05:00

I originally created this blog to grapple with what I was learning in seminary. Since then, I have become a contributor to www.mockingbirdnyc.blogspot.com. Presently, that is where I am posting most of my thoughts and the action over there is hot, hot, hot.

With that in mind, I think it is time to say goodbye to Ontological Goo. And a sad goodbye it is. There have been many wonderful discussions and debates. That, and I have been able to read back and see how much I have learned through the years.

Hopefully, you will join me over at the Mockingbird blog.

The Fruits of Justice

2009-04-22T10:02:00.000-05:00

April 22 (Bloomberg) -- Freddie Mac Acting Chief Financial Officer David Kellermann, 41, was found dead early today in his home in the Washington suburbs, police said.
There were no signs of foul play, and the death is under investigation, Fairfax County, Virginia, Police Officer Shelley Broderick said. Broderick said early reports from others in the department indicated Kellermann’s wife reported a suicide, though the cause of death hasn’t been determined.

Read the article here.

The Theology of the Cross, Sovereignty, and Crimson Tide Basketball

2009-03-13T16:34:00.005-05:00

This is an article from sports Illustrated:

THE CLOCK STARTS WHEN THE SHOOTER CATCHES the ball, on the left wing, 24 feet from the basket. Two seconds left. He has run off a screen from the baseline, so his momentum carries him toward midcourt. He pushes hard off his right foot and pivots back to the left. One-point-four seconds. When he rises off the floor, the force of this hard cut is still carrying him left. One second. He believes Jesus will guide this shot.

The shooter flicks his right wrist at the peak of his jump, and if you photographed him now, you could put it in a textbook. Eight tenths of a second. The ball is still airborne when time expires and the horn sounds. The shot is almost perfect. But the shooter was drifting left, as you recall, and the ball lands just left of the target. It hits the back of the rim, the boxy part with the springs, and the springs rattle. The ball caroms from back rim to front, seeming to gain speed as it goes, and it suddenly leaps out of the cylinder.

The secret things belong unto the Lord our God. The shooter believes this because his King James Bible says so, and because of what he has seen, and soon he will believe it more deeply than ever. The ball sails toward the backboard, hits the center of the white square, and falls through the net.

This shot does nothing to change the game's outcome. And yet, for pure utility, it may be as great as any play in the history of sports. Eight minutes later, on the evening of March 14, 2008, during this Southeastern Conference tournament game between Alabama and Mississippi State, a tornado will roar through downtown Atlanta, and high winds will breach the Georgia Dome, and metal will strike the hardwood, and players will flee for cover, and it will seem to be snowing indoors. By morning Mykal Riley's three-pointer will be known as The Shot That Saved Lives.

Each life turns on a trillion silent hinges, and every act has an infinite series of prerequisites. For Mykal Riley to be where he was and do what he did, an incalculable number of things had to happen just so.

Before he could play for Alabama, he had to quit two other colleges and happen upon a third.

Before he could play in high school, he had to wash sweaty uniforms and sweep the gym floor.

And before he could learn the jump shot, someone else had to fire a gun.

Read the whole thing here. This is an amazing article. - DOB

The Great Martin Luther

2009-03-01T13:45:00.001-05:00

“A good tree needs no instruction or law to bear good fruit; its nature causes it to bear according to its kind without any law or instruction. I would take to be quite a fool any man who would make a book full of laws and statutes for an apple tree telling it how to bear apples and not thorns, when the tree is able by its own nature to do this better than the man with all his books can describe and demand. Just so, by the Spirit and by faith all Christians are so thoroughly disposed and conditioned in their very nature that they do right and keep the law better than one can teach them with all manner of statutes; so far as they themselves are concerned, no statutes or laws are needed.”
- Martin Luther

The "Nominal Christian"

2009-02-26T09:29:00.002-05:00

Here is part of a post from a seminary professor of mine:

"I have become more and more suspicious of the concept of the nominal Christian. Our parish churches are supposed to be full of nominal Christians who are just going through the motions, of half-believers who are relying on their good works and who have not really surrendered to Christ and accepted the Gospel. In any parish church there are a few real apostates, and a few real scoffers and perhaps a few who genuinely hate God. Their numbers are routinely exaggerated. Most of the people who come to the church Sunday by Sunday know they are dying and are placing their hope in Christ. It may be an inarticulate hope, it may be a confused hope. Often there are huge brambles of misunderstanding that must be cleared away before the whole power of the good news can come in upon them. Often there is real darkness into which the light of Christ has not yet come and which cries out for a light-bearer. Yet, they come. When Jesus saw such as these gathered in their multitudes on the hill side, the sight provoked in him not contempt for the nominal but compassion, “for they were like sheep without a shepherd.”.
- Leander Harding (read the whole thing here)

Here is a follow-up comment from a friend of mine:

"This quote directly addresses something I recently heard at a diocesan clergy meeting where a rector of a large church talked about how most of the people in our church were not true "disciples" but just "consumer Christians" looking to have their needs met. Now, I am not lauding narcissism or praising the "me-first" sort of Christianity. But I found this pastor's comments so contemptuous, so lacking in compassion. Shouldn't we praise God that there are actually people coming to church on Sunday, instead of lamenting their level of so-called discipleship? Anyways, I love Leander."

Steppin' Into Tomorrow

2009-02-25T20:37:00.000-05:00

Low Church

2009-02-15T15:41:00.003-05:00

In the C of E and the C of I traditional evangelical Anglicanism (at least historically speaking) is clearly defined. The Scriptures are the final authority in all matters. The Three Creeds and the XXXIX Articles define the biblically derived summations of precise Christian doctrine. The BCP, ordered after the received theology of the Creeds and Articles, defines matters liturgical. Ceremony and clergy attire is traditionally evangelical, Morning Prayer and monthly communion…no bells or incense…no sacrificial vestments. The XXXIX Articles are more than minimally assented to, they are believed wholeheartedly. In earlier times English and Irish evangelicals would have read Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Ussher, and Ryle, and would unreservedly agree with Dean Litton’s assessment that (quoted by Dean Paul Zahl, in his work ‘The Protestant Face of Anglicanism’), “The Anglican Church, if she is to be judged by the statements of the Articles, must be ranked amongst the Protestant Churches of Europe.”

Really nice article about the ebb of the low church evangelicals in our Anglican tradition. Read it all here. - DOB

Angry All the Time

2009-02-01T18:24:00.003-05:00

Bruce Robison is a terrific singer/songwriter out of Texas. - DOB

Looking Progressive

2009-01-28T12:00:00.000-05:00

"It will never be known what acts of cowardice have been motivated by the fear of not looking sufficiently progressive. "
- Charles Peguy

I can certainly relate to this. - DOB

Man on Wire

2009-01-27T16:59:00.004-05:00

I watched this last night and I have never been so amazed at a story like this. Amazed in the sense of wonder and disbelief. This guy is just on a different plane than everyone else. Tightrope walking between the tops of the Twin Towers in NYC? It made me think of three things:

1) Insanity. Of course. Yet, is was the insanity to do something beautiful and surreal. Insanity to take us away from the normal drudgery of our lives. A wonderful thumb in the pie, if you will.

2) Kierkegaard. Obviously, this man had been captured by something transcendental. Something irresistible that made him go beyond the "ethical" mode that the majority of us find ourselves in. It made me quite envious of that state with the full understanding that an undertaking of that magnitude would never fall to me.

3) Art. I have been given of late a monumental influx of appreciation for art. Literature, especially. But visual art and music is right up there. What this man did was art. Graceful art. Notice the smile and salute he gave 110 stories above the ground. It was literally the most wonderful performance I have ever seen.

It was the sublime act of a dead man offering horrific martyrdom to something transcendent. Crazy transcendent but transcendent nonetheless.

If I Needed You

2009-01-26T14:12:00.002-05:00

There are several things that resonate with me in this song and Van Zandt's recounting of how he came to write it. First of all, he was broke, sick, and alone (with regard to companionship of his own) at the time. Secondly, it was his unconscious that wrote the song in a dream, waking him up in the middle of the night. Thirdly, it is the lyrics that poignantly and clearly articulate a place of need and a desire to be loved in that need. Townes Van Zandt was a brilliant man with a powerful insight. - DOB

David Brooks Article - People Are Irrational

2009-01-20T16:43:00.001-05:00

The economic spirit of a people cannot be manipulated in as simple-minded a fashion as the Keynesian mechanists imagine. Right now political and economic confidence levels are running in opposite directions. Politically, we’re in a season of optimism, but despite a trillion spent and a trillion more about to be, the economic spirit cowers.

Mechanistic thinkers on the right and left pose as rigorous empiricists. But empiricism built on an inaccurate view of human nature is just a prison.

This is an amazing article by David Brooks. Read it all here. - DOB

Howlin' Wolf

2009-01-19T09:05:00.000-05:00

One of my favorites. - DOB

Ted Haggard Was Given No Quarter

2009-01-13T10:53:00.027-05:00

The following are exerpts from a recent Foxnews.com article:

"The reason I kept my personal struggle a secret is because I feared that my friends would reject me, abandon me and kick me out, and the church would exile and excommunicate me. And that happened and more..."

Haggard moved his family to Arizona after the scandal and also lived in Texas. He re-emerged last month at a rural Illinois church, where he delivered guest sermons and said he was sexually abused as a second-grader.

He now sells insurance and, in the documentary, says he isn't successful.
"At this stage in my life, I am a loser," he says.

Read the whole article here.

Ever since this happened, I have not been able to get it out of my mind. I remember hearing his interview on Issues, Etc. (unfortunately, I cannot link the interview because the Missouri Synod inexplicably yanked the show suddenly... it is now, thankfully, back on the air) before it became known that he was sleeping with a male prostitute and buying meth. Haggard was saying he had not sinned in some time and the host of the show was challenging him with the Sermon on the Mount. I remember thinking, "Ha, ha. Here's another Christian who doesn't think he sins. He obviously doesn't understand the bondage of the will. Ha, ha, LOL..." and all other sorts of derogatory (and arrogant) remarks.

Well, then it happened. The male prostitute saw him on television and then publicly revealed the whole affair. The secular (and theological) Left and the gay lobby were ecstatic. They watched gleefully as the life of an enemy (how could they ever regard him as anything other than that?) was destroyed and sank below the waves like the Titanic. No quarter.

Then, the Christian Right totally threw him under the bus. And then (just so no mistake could be made about it), they backed the bus right up so it could run over him again. The church of our Lord Jesus Christ, friend of sinners, turned its back on Ted Haggard. No quarter.

Read this again: "The reason I kept my personal struggle a secret is because I feared that my friends would reject me, abandon me and kick me out, and the church would exile and excommunicate me. And that happened and more..." Thank God, however, for that rural Illinois church that took him in and his wonderful wife.

I'll spare you, the reader, my theological disputation on this. If you look back into the archives of this blog, you will find it. I simply want to address Rev. Haggard with these words from my tradition's Book of Common Prayer:

Hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith unto all that truly turn to him.

Come unto me all that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you. St. Matth. xi. 28.

So God loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, to the end that all that believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. St. John iii. 16

Hear also what Saint Paul saith.
This is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be received, That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 1 Tim. i. 15.

Hear also what Saint John saith.
If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins. 1 St. John ii. 1.

God bless you, Ted Haggard. Sleep well tonight because you have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. - DOB

Just Let Me See...

2009-01-13T10:39:00.001-05:00

"...Before the stations of the mountain of desolation,
Before the certain hour of maternal sorrow,
Now at this birth season of decease,
Let the Infant, the still unspeaking and unspoken Word,
Grant Israel's consolation
To one who has eighty years and no to-morrow..."
- T.S. Eliot A Song for Simeon (Luke 2:29-32)

Penn & Teller Are Atheists But....

2009-01-06T15:16:00.003-05:00

This Might Be the Blog Entry of the Year

2008-12-21T13:46:00.007-05:00

This is an exerpt of a post from http://www.internetmonk.com/. In my opinion, we should read this over and over. Tremendous. - DOB

This post is inspired by a FoxNews piece updating the situation of disgraced megachurch pastor Ted Haggard. Haggard was a major leader in evangelicalism until he was brought down by evidence of sexual sin and drug use.

Dear Ted,

May I call you Ted? Not “Pastor Ted,” “Reverend Haggard” or any other ministerial name.
You may not feel like it, but you’re at a good place. Finally. It’s taken a while, but you’ve made it to the place where the Gospel of Jesus has its power. On the verge of the fourth Sunday of the season of waiting, you’ve made it to the place where all that can happen now is for a savior to be born to a virgin. Your savior, no less. Yours and all the other losers.

Yes Ted, honesty, your best gift now has arrived.

“Disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard says in a new documentary that he still struggles with his sexuality yet is committed to his marriage for the sake of his children.”

Struggles. YES!

"He now sells insurance and, in the documentary, says he isn’t successful. ” At this stage in my life, I am a loser,” he says.”

Loser. YES!

Ted, I hope I’m not telling you anything you don’t know, but all those years that you lived in the center of the evangelical circus, all those years you covered up your struggles and desires, all those years you were taught to lie, deny, obfuscate and yammer on and on with various high-octane versions of the evangelical revival story (complete with band and movie clips), you were far, far away from the truth.

You were living a lie and you were teaching a lie.

And some of the things you’ve said since your fall? How you were fixed with a few sessions of counseling? Not good, Ted. Not good. A very bad place. Avoid it.

Now, Ted, now…now you are starting to see the light. You can say “I was abused as a second grader.” “I struggle…..I’m a loser.” This is major progress.

My recommendation is to find a good group somewhere that will understand how you feel and what you’ve experienced. You see, the evangelical version of that you can say you strugglED and you WERE a loser, but now everything is all right because you prayed a prayer, got saved and got called to preach. You know that’s not true- you’re not all right. You’re a walking wreck and lying about it has just made things worse.

Read the whole post here. If you just read one post a year, this one is it. - DOB

A Charlie Brown Christmas (Enjoy!)

2008-12-20T19:44:00.001-05:00

Ecclesiastes

2008-12-15T21:04:00.003-05:00

Ecclesiastes 2:20-23
So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.

In a former life, I worked extensively in banking. Especially in the nonprofit sector where there are all sorts of worthy causes that do a great deal of good. In this one instance, I worked on a nonprofit entity that is well-known to a particular geography in the eastern United States. The entity was struggling financially and one of the executive managers of the bank was on its board of directors. This manager had a long record of service in the bank and was highly respected for his contributions and financial acumen.

The financial condition of the nonprofit began to deteriorate and the executive tried with all his might to help this particular entity. He was personally tied to it and he genuinely wanted to see it succeed. Well, the financial deterioration increased in severity and, finally, action had to be taken to protect the bank's interest. This was done, but there was an additional caveat. A head had to roll. It turned out that this executive manager who had given so many years of dedicated and competent service was fired. To add insult to injury, there were certain ambitious young managers who gleefully and smugly approved of this "justice".

Perhaps you have seen this happen in whatever part of the world you live in. Maybe it was a coach who gave years of successful service, impacted many young lives, had a bad season and was fired immediately. Maybe it was a pastor who had a public moral failure and was subjected to a self-righteous feeding frenzy.

The givens of life very quickly destroy two naive notions: cause-and-effect and self-created identity. Cause-and-effect basically says that you will get out of a thing what you put into it. For instance, if you read your Bible, good things will happen (commonly called "magic"). If you succeed academically, you will be accepted into Stanford Law, work on Wall Street, marry the man of your dreams, and have a fulfilled life. This is a terrible myth, as the former bank executive will be quick to tell you. The empirical fact is that life will crush cause-and-effect thinking.

Another thing that dies is the idea of a self-created identity. This is baldly prevalent in the United States but it is the same in Africa or anywhere else. It is Aristotle's idea that "you are the sum of your actions" but it the idea of the natural man most profoundly. If this is true (and it is if there is no Christ) then life is "vexation" and "striving after wind" because you have to re-create your identity every day for your entire life. Even if you were to theoretically succeed, the end of your life comes and you are quickly forgotten. Your gains are distributed among others and the whole process begins anew.

In this short devotional, I invite you to despair of cause-and-effect thinking and self-creation. Receive, instead, the perfect and unconditional gift of eternal love through our Savior Jesus Christ.

Hans Holbein the Younger

2008-11-07T11:31:00.002-05:00

Hans Holbein the Younger was a brilliant Lutheran artist who was captivated by Luther and the Reformation. Here you see the dramatic depiction of both the Old and New Testaments pointing the troubled sinner to the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Praise God for Hans Holbein the Younger. - DOB

The Onion

2008-11-05T21:19:00.001-05:00

OK, this is all in fun. I love all my Obama supporter friends and I hope that they will laugh with me over this one. - DOB

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Obama

2008-11-01T20:01:00.002-05:00

Obama: 'I Will Change The World'
Read here.

OK. I have nothing against Obama other than just disagreeing with him from a policy standpoint but this just reeks of meglomania. Just sayin'. - DOB

Just A Reminder

2008-10-22T10:59:00.002-05:00

"It [the Law] doesn't serve for the construction of the new man but rather for the destruction of the old man. It must ceaselessly tell us that we lie when we say that we have no sin. It unceasingly exercises the principle function (usus proprius) because it always accuses (semper accusans) and because it can't ever be anything else. To be driven by the spirit means not only by Christ but also to be driven unto him because we are unceasingly troubled by the accusations of the Law. The proper function (usus proprius) of the Law is, in the language of the old domaticians, the accusatory funtion (usus elenchticus) and therefore it is always the paedagogical function (usus paedagogicus) that drives us to Christ."

- Werner Elert "Gesetz und Evangelium"

David Foster Wallace

2008-10-20T13:24:00.001-05:00

This is powerful. - DOB

The Theology of Russia and Georgia

2008-08-19T11:59:00.000-05:00

One of the most pressing events going on in world affairs now is the Russian invasion of Georgia and its subsequent chain reaction. In case you have just flown in from Mars and have not heard of this, you may read the whole story here. Europe (especially those countries of the former Soviet bloc variety) has been put on notice by a resurgent (or desperate) Russia and has rightly become quite nervous. In any case, my immediate blame was cast on Russia due to a variety of reasons including its “coincidental” concurrence with the Olympic Games (thereby restricting press coverage) and the enormity and coordination of the attack which military experts have asserted could only have been prepared for and premeditated. There have also been attacks on parts of Georgia that are not associated with the disputed regions.

This is not a political blog entry, however. This is a theological thought. Plenty of political analysis can be reviewed from calculated opinions to frothy denunciations on both sides and in between. My particular thoughts have to do with the experience of life which is codified most deeply in the Bible. In this case, the most striking theological issue is that of total depravity. In other words, our condition is such that we are profoundly mixed to the depths of our conscious and unconscious and therefore tainted. We are both victim and victimizer. Murdered and murderer.

In a way, it is almost easier to see this on a geo-political scale and is undeniable even to our most fastidious opponents who champion a high view of the capability of man. One need only look in the well-documented history books and speak with survivors. In the case of Russia, history tells of a quite violent and unfortunate past. Its peoples have been at war with a dizzying array of people groups. Mongols racing in, painting the steppes red. Japan driving Russian forces through Korea and China . Bonaparte and Hitler gashing its borders from the West, leaving a wake of misery in their path. Kaiser Wilhelm wishing to do so.

If one reads Dostoevsky, Sergei Bulgakov and others, one will find a highly developed Russian nationalistic theology that makes American civil religion look like kindergartners trying to count to five (although this is hardly a notable accomplishment). “The sun will rise in the east,” “The Divine Wisdom in the soil of Mother Russia suffering for redemption,” and all that. Only now, God is out of the equation and the ultimate good is the state. Is it any wonder this nationalism arose?

The fascinating part is that the same Russia that is gashed and bleeding from the aforementioned attacks (as well as the internal revolution of Red October, the subsequent Stalinist purges, and the rigors of the Cold War) is the same Russia that has its boot on the neck of the hapless embryo of a democratic Georgian state and threatens both Ukraine and Poland (again). In the same breath, the Georgian majority that was persecuting the Russian minority in South Ossetia is now being persecuted in grand fashion by Russia proper and its partisans.

So who is the good guy? Iran or Iraq? Britain or Argentina? The United States, the Creek Nation, or the Confederacy? Russia or Georgia? What about our lives and the inevitable conflicts that arise with other individuals?

Ecclesiastes 1:13-15 And I applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to the sons of men to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be numbered.

Today We Are All Georgians

2008-08-12T14:51:00.000-05:00

Flying the Lawn Chair

2008-07-06T10:58:00.004-05:00

Ore. man completes flight of fancy - in lawn chair
By KEITH RIDLER

CAMBRIDGE, Idaho (AP) - Using his trusty BB gun to help him return to Earth, a 48-year-old gas station owner flew a lawn chair rigged with helium-filled balloons more than 200 miles across the Oregon desert Saturday, landing in a field in Idaho.

Read whole article here.

This is my kind of guy. - DOB

Twilight Zone

2008-07-04T22:46:00.000-05:00

Mercy

2008-07-03T19:31:00.002-05:00

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.
-William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice

Johann Hamann

2008-07-03T10:37:00.004-05:00

"My soul, with all its moral deficiencies and basic crookedness, is in His hand. Its righteousness is the work of the Spirit, a Creator, a Redeemer; to make it sound rests neither in my power, nor in that of a friend."
- Johann Hamann

Lest You Think I'm All Highbrow

2008-07-02T16:25:00.002-05:00

JJ Grey & Mofro - DOB

Lest You Think I'm All Country

2008-06-30T15:01:00.002-05:00

- Thanks to Jonathan Hansen for recommending this wonderful piece. Chopin's Piano Concerto in E Minor No. 1.

Les Miserables and Justice

2008-06-28T13:19:00.006-05:00

Then his heart burst, and he began to cry. It was the first time that he had wept in nineteen years.

When Jean Valjean left the Bishop's house, he was, as we have seen, quite thrown out of everything that had been his thought hitherto. He could not yield to the evidence of what was going on within him. He hardened himself against the angelic action and the gentle words of the old man. "You have promised me to become an honest man. I buy your soul. I take it away from the spirit of perversity; I give it to the good God."

This recurred to his mind unceasingly. To this celestial kindness he opposed pride, which is the fortress of evil within us. He was indistinctly conscious that the pardon of this priest was the greatest assault and the most formidable attack which had moved him yet; that his obduracy was finally settled if he resisted this clemency; that if he yielded, he should be obliged to renounce that hatred with which the actions of other men had filled his soul through so many years, and which pleased him; that this time it was necessary to conquer or to be conquered; and that a struggle, a colossal and final struggle, had been begun between his viciousness and the goodness of that man.

- Victor Hugo in Les Miserables

Watching the Discovery Channel one evening, I found out something I never would have thought about. The orbit and rotation of the Earth create hot and cold currents that interact and create streams in the seas. Baitfish and plankton follow these streams as the seasons change. This is why whales migrate.

It helps to peer beyond the skin-deep observations we make and rash value judgments that arise from them. Often things are not as they seem on the surface.

That is why the value of justice is vastly overrated. The greatest assault on pride, hatred, and hardness of heart is the unconditional pardon and kindness of one who is other. Our mind tells us that tit-for-tat, exhortation, carrot-and-stick straight-line power and manipulation are the answers to change. It turns out that this is not the case. Thank God for penetrating thinkers like Hugo who re-orient our often skin-deep observations.- DOB

Awful Article

2008-06-25T13:36:00.002-05:00

Easy ways to be an optimist
By Lise Funderburg

(OPRAH.com) -- Recent research suggests an optimistic state comes from a series of active inner processes, psychological somersaults. That's good news because it means that optimism -- like other skills such as putting on eyeliner or hitting a tennis ball -- is something we can improve with practice...

2. Short-circuit pessimism

There's another reason for putting on a happy face: It influences your brain in a positive way. In one study, subjects who were asked to hold a pen in their mouth (causing them to inadvertently make the facial muscle movements characteristic of a smile) rated cartoons to be funnier than did other subjects, even though they were unaware that it was the smile that was boosting their reaction.

There's an interesting biological reason for this effect: When you feel down, your brain tells your face you're sad, and your facial muscles respond by putting on a depressed expression -- and convey back to the brain that, yes, you're feeling blue. Consciously changing the facial muscles so they don't correspond to what you're feeling is a way of sending a different message: "Hey, it's not so bad down here after all." The brain will respond by beginning to change your mood accordingly. Oprah.com: Six steps to a regret-free life

Read the whole article here (if you don't think that's enough).

It is amazing to me that grown-up people can write such blather. Thanks to Todd Brewer for bringing this to our attention. - DOB

Chris Knight and Romans 7

2008-06-25T09:44:00.012-05:00

There ought to a bridge somewhere they could dedicate to me
I'd probably come to the ceremony with a can of gasoline
Walk on over to the other side Where I'd light a match
Sit and stare through the smoke and flames and wonder how I'm gonna get back

Why do I do the things I do?
Was I born this way or am I self made fool?
I shoot the lights and I curse the dark
I need your love but I break your heart
And I know the words that’ll bring you back
But I don’t say nothing as I watch you pack
I had to work to become the jerk I've come to be
It ain’t easy being me

There oughta be a side show act
For freaks like me
I could be the star of the show with my name on the marquee
In a room with a big red button that says ‘danger do not touch’
Twice a day I'd mash it down and you can watch me self-destruct
- Chris Knight It Ain't Easy Being Me

Romans 7:15-24 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Josey Wales

2008-06-15T01:02:00.001-05:00

This from one of my favorite movies - The Outlaw Josey Wales. - DOB

Sons Need Fathers

2008-06-14T14:02:00.002-05:00

This article is from the Wall Street Journal.

When fatherless young people are encouraged to write about their lives, they tell heartbreaking stories about feeling like "throwaway people." In the privacy of the written page, their hard, emotional shells crack open to reveal the uncertainty that comes from not knowing if their father has any interest in them. The stories are like letters to unknown dads – some filled with imaginary scenes about what it might be like to have a dad who comes home and puts his arm around you or plays with you.

They feel like they've been thrown away, Mr. Myers says, because "they don't have a father to push them, discipline them, and they give up trying to succeed . . . they don't see themselves as wanted." A regular theme of their stories is that they feel safer in a foster care home or juvenile detention center than on the outside, because they have no father to hold together the family. There is no one at home.

This article reminds me of Rod Rosenbladt's presentation on fathers and sons at the Advent a few years ago. This issue presents itself a lot these days, probably because I have become attuned to it thanks to Professor Rosenbladt. As you celebrate Father's Day Sunday, remember the fatherless. - DOB

The Prodigal Son

2008-06-12T22:41:00.000-05:00

The great Hank Williams. - DOB

Where the Soul of Man Never Dies

2008-06-12T22:15:00.000-05:00

Merle Haggard

2008-06-11T17:14:00.002-05:00

"Freedom is what prohibition ain't."

- Merle Haggard

I guess you don't have to go to school for eight years to learn that. Haggard is a very intelligent man and an incredible musician. A lot of folks discount country music (and it is called for in the contemporary Nashville scene... yuck) but when you start talking about the insights of a Merle Haggard, a Hank Williams, or a George Jones, you are talking about powerful insight into life. Self-deception, addiction, frustrated love, liberating love, self-deification, the cathartic... they are all there. - DOB

Mark Mattes is Awesome

2008-06-11T14:59:00.004-05:00

"Moderns are significantly more conflicted with respect to law and its final evaluation, since they find themselves with with no summum bonum as the ultimate evaluator. They are thus positioned between an antinomianism which results from the belief that there is no objective final purpose to life, and a nomianism in which one is condemned to fulfill one's potential as the only way to extract meaning from life. This insight implies that the preaching of the gospel is no less "relevent" for moderns than pre-moderns."

- Mark Mattes from The Role of Justification in Contemporary Theology pg. 156

What more is there to say? - DOB

Obama, Church and State

2008-06-10T13:54:00.002-05:00

This is from a nice article by the Wall Street Journal's William McGurn called "Obama, Religion and the Public Square".

Here is how he [Obama] put it: "Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, William Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King – indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history – were not only motivated by faith but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause. To say that men and women should not inject their 'personal morality' into public policy debates is a practical absurdity. Our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition."

Read it all here.

Good for Senator Obama! - DOB

Amazing Grace

2008-06-10T00:08:00.000-05:00

Mama Tried by Merle Haggard

2008-06-09T23:50:00.003-05:00

Great song with great lyrics but the best part of the video is the mullet the guitar player is sporting.

I'm going to try and drop a meaningful country song on you every now and then for a while. - DOB

Fix The Country!

2008-06-09T22:45:00.002-05:00

NBC's Williams Tells Grads U.S. Broken, 'Need You to Fix the Country'

By Brent Baker

Delivering the commencement address Sunday at Ohio State University in Columbus, where we was awarded an honorary Doctor of Journalism degree, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams implied America is broken as he told the graduates: “We need you to fix the country.” That clip, squeezed in between Al Gore at Carnegie Mellon and Martin Sheen at Notre Dame, aired as part of an annual compilation of commencement advice run at the end of Monday's NBC Nightly News. NBC also aired this from Williams: “We need you all now to step up. And every adult in this place has every faith that you're up to the job.”

Read the whole article here (if you really have a mind to).

This is the best way to make sure that none of those graduates fix the country. - DOB

Salman Rushdie Quote

2008-06-07T17:34:00.003-05:00

"There was a number of ways in which such an event could cripple a writer," Mr. Rushdie says of the death sentence that lasted until 1998, when the Iranian government withdrew support for it. "One way was that it would frighten you into innocuousness – that you would suddenly try and avoid writing anything that could in any way upset anyone. Which would essentially mean you couldn't write anything. Or, it could provoke you into vindictive writing. Kind-of revenge fiction. And I thought both of those things would destroy me, because they would turn me into a creature of the attack."

- Salman Rushdie from a very fine Wall Street Journal interview that can be read here.

This is just another instance of how a religion of control and judgment squelches love and creativity. Notice how he perceptively describes the result as either "innocuousness" or "vindictive writing". Both leave creativity and love in a shambles. Despair or anger. The Christian community should take note. - DOB

Men With Broken Hearts

2008-06-06T13:12:00.003-05:00

This song was written and sung by Hank Williams (Sr., I probably need not add) under the pseudonym "Luke the Drifter". It is powerful and a little depressing so some of you might not want to listen to it. Basically, the song is about people who have been crushed under the weight of the world and the law. Luke the Drifter is crying out on behalf of grace over law for sufferers.

I could only find this song performed by Hank, Sr., Hank, Jr., and Hank III. I'm not a big fan of the latter two but I love Hank, Sr. I believe he was a certifiable genius and (as Hermann Hesse described Dostoevsky) a sick prophet. As you can see below, the song also touched Elvis. - DOB

Victor Hugo

2008-06-03T23:53:00.003-05:00

"He did not attempt to give his robe to the folds of Elijah's mantle; he cast no ray of the future on the dark scroll of events; he did not seek to condense the glimmer of things into flame; he was nothing of the prophet and nothing of the magician. His humble soul loved, and that was enough."

- Victor Hugo in Les Miserables describing Monseigneur Bienvenu

The art in this book is something to behold. It is absolutely one of the most beautifully written and profound works of art I have ever come across. Hugo was a Romantic and they get a bad rap from folks in my circles but this is just what I need right now. "What enlightened this man was the heart. His wisdom was formed from the light emanating from there." This is like water to a parched soul. - DOB

Sacrificial Love

2008-06-03T11:40:00.001-05:00

This has always been one of my favorite songs. - DOB

Self-Medication

2008-06-02T19:19:00.001-05:00

Kelsey Grammer has heart attack in Hawaii
By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Kelsey Grammer, best known from his long-running sitcom "Frasier," suffered a mild heart attack during the weekend in Hawaii, three weeks after his latest show was canceled, his publicist said on Monday.

So much for self-medication. How ironic. - DOB

Rousseau

2008-05-29T11:08:00.003-05:00

"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others, but remains more of a slave than they are."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau

Let me first say that Rousseau was not a nice man. Anytime I've ever heard anyone cite him, they always prefaced whatever they were going to say with the fact that he was not a nice man. I figure that, since I know so little, I had better follow the lead of my betters. He even looks like one of those slick-types one comes across in the political world. That said, I think this is an interesting citation. I believe it comes from his Social Contract.

I'm not quite sure what he means by the first phrase of the first sentence but the rest of the citation is pretty powerful. I say this, at least, from the context from which I view it. Certainly, he has a higher anthropology for the "noble savage" than "man enlightened by reason" but there is a real veracity in what he is saying. If we see the Fall of Man as a mortal attempt to place himself in the position of God and bend others to his will, we can work with Rousseau here.

Anyway, I would love to hear thoughts from others who know a little more about him. - DOB

Knights Who Say "Ni!"

2008-05-28T23:37:00.000-05:00

The Integration of the Individual, Chronic Anxiety, and Mayberry

2008-05-27T01:28:00.004-05:00

Notice how Andy tries to train the two into being nice to each other. He even uses the word "habit." Straight out of Aristotle and straight out of evangelicalism as we know it. If you have seen the episode, you know the experiment fails and Andy lets them be. Nice observation by the best show ever. - DOB

Caesaropapism Rampant

2008-05-26T14:32:00.002-05:00

"Americans are said to be cynical about politics. Actually, they are presidential romantics. Which is why they suffer serial disappointments."

- George Will

Read the whole article here. I could not agree more with Mr. Will. I can tell you this as a former presidential and otherwise political romantic. - DOB

John Locke, Tolerance, The Glorious Revolution, and the Orange Order

2008-05-25T16:28:00.009-05:00

"We should do well to commiserate our mutual ignorance, and endeavour to remove it in all the gentle and fair ways of information, and not instantly treat others ill as obstinate and perverse because they will not renounce their own and receive our opinions, or at least those we would force upon them, when it is more than probable that we are no less obstinate in not embracing some of theirs. For where is the man that has uncontestable evidence of the truth of all that he holds, or for the falsehood of all he condemns; or can say that he has examined to the bottom all his own or other men's opinions? The necessity of believing without knowledge, nay, often upon very slight grounds, in this fleeting state of action and blindness we are in, should make us more busy and careful to inform ourselves than to restrain others... There is reason to think, that if men were better instructed themselves, they would be less imposing on others [emphasis mine]."

- John Locke Essay Concerning Human Understanding Book IV, Ch. XVI, Sec. 4

The Glorious Revolution of 1688 does not get the credit it deserves for introducing religious tolerance to England. The tone and substance of Locke's thought is self-explanatory. In fact, these ideas were those which the American Founding Fathers piggy-backed on to create our Constitution. In England, this religious tolerance brought about by William of Orange and John Locke resulted in the following observation by Bertrand Russell. - DOB

"The Act of Toleration, while leaving Catholics and Nonconformists subject to various disabilities, put an end to actual persecution."

- Bertrand Russell A History of Western Philosophy Ch. XII

This is why I and many like-minded friends associate ourselves with the Orange Order. It is the last remaining vestige of faith that consciously carries on the remarkable and (relative to previous wars) bloodless revolution that put Western Civilization on a new course of tolerance. The ideals and spirit behind the Order's mantra, Civil and Religious Liberty, are something I wish to be associated with. - DOB

What Does It Matter?

2008-05-22T23:02:00.001-05:00

Nothing matters. - DOB

Except that. - DOB

2008-05-20T23:39:00.001-05:00

I Graduated

2008-05-17T17:59:00.002-05:00

Existential Wrestlemania

2008-05-10T22:39:00.002-05:00

Very Funny

2008-05-10T22:28:00.000-05:00

Diary of a Country Priest

2008-05-08T22:41:00.002-05:00

This is one of the best movies I have ever seen. In this scene, the young priest is talking with a woman who lost her young son. Her husband is also having affairs.

You know (and I'm being very frank, here) there are just very few church services, events, films, or musical pieces that really take me back to when I first understood what the Gospel means. Lately, Black Snake Moan and this film have been the only two in a long time. - DOB

Profound Johnny Cougar

2008-05-07T20:22:00.004-05:00

When my pride is bruised and broken
She slips her hand into my empty hands.
Without hope, without love, you have nothing but pain
Makes a man not give a damn.
It's no way for us to live.
We've got to fill these empty hands.

- John Cougar Mellencamp Empty Hands

A McCain Hanoi Hilton Story

2008-04-30T13:29:00.003-05:00

Mr. Day relayed to me one of the stories Americans should hear. It involves what happened to him after escaping from a North Vietnamese prison during the war. When he was recaptured, a Vietnamese captor broke his arm and said, "I told you I would make you a cripple."

The break was designed to shatter Mr. Day's will. He had survived in prison on the hope that one day he would return to the United States and be able to fly again. To kill that hope, the Vietnamese left part of a bone sticking out of his arm, and put him in a misshapen cast. This was done so that the arm would heal at "a goofy angle," as Mr. Day explained. Had it done so, he never would have flown again.

But it didn't heal that way because of John McCain. Risking severe punishment, Messrs. McCain and Day collected pieces of bamboo in the prison courtyard to use as a splint. Mr. McCain put Mr. Day on the floor of their cell and, using his foot, jerked the broken bone into place. Then, using strips from the bandage on his own wounded leg and the bamboo, he put Mr. Day's splint in place.

Years later, Air Force surgeons examined Mr. Day and complemented the treatment he'd gotten from his captors. Mr. Day corrected them. It was Dr. McCain who deserved the credit. Mr. Day went on to fly again.

Read the whole article here. There are more good stories in the article that I did not post. I'll warn you that Karl Rove is the author of the article and I know he provokes strong feelings among some of you. As far as I can tell, there is no alterior motive in the article other than advising McCain to open up a little more about the specifics of his biography. Of course, he will be biased to the Republican candidate but all of these stories are well-documented. - DOB

The Faith of Stonewall Jackson

2008-04-28T21:45:00.002-05:00

Man's Search for Meaning

2008-04-27T23:10:00.010-05:00

"By declaring that man is responsible and must actualize the potential meaning of his life, I wish to stress that the true meaning of life is to be discovered in the world rather than within man or his own psyche, as though it were a closed system. I have termed this constitutive characteristic 'the self-transcendence of human existence.' It demotes the fact that being human always points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself - be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself - by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love - the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself. What is called self-actualization is not an attainable aim at all, for the simple reason that the more one would strive for it, the more he would miss it. In other words, self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence."
- Viktor Frankl, psychiatrist and Auchwitz survivor

This is interesting to me for two reasons. First, it sounds an awful lot like Kierkegaard and Heidegger. Both believed that one could only become an individual if one is called up into something that transcends that person. In Kierkegaard, it is "higher immediacy" or "the religious" which calls the person out of the "ethical" (which is sort of the standard mode of existence). To use a Star Wars analogy, Luke Skywalker was in the "ethical" mode when he was helping his uncle harvest whatever they were harvesting in "Episode IV, A New Hope." He was called into "higher immediacy" or "the religious" when circumstances arose such that he had no other alternative than to help Obi-Wan Kenobi rescue Princess Leia. As the series progressed, one could see Luke passing more and more into "the religious." He was called into a vocation that transcended him personally. Only then did he become a true individual. Heidegger is similar when he calls this self-transcendence "Being."

Using this mode of thinking, most of us are situated in "the ethical." And we are bored. And unfulfilled. And bumping around aimlessly, hoping that something or someone will call us into "the religious" or "higher immediacy." Often, I will watch a movie like Red Dawn, Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings and be envious. Envious of that sort of strife, conflict, danger, and hardship? Yes. And so are most of you.

The other reason I am interested in this portion of Frankl's book is due to its existential underlining of the bankruptcy of self-generated identity. It matches Martin Luther's suspicion of any progress that looks within one's own heart and soul for its juice. For Luther, the human being must look outside himself for any hope of peace, love, and joy. It can only do so if there is a benevolent Other that will enable this to happen. Thus, one looks to Christ who is the friend of sinners. One looks to Christ who comforts the sufferer and stands with the guilty. One looks to Christ who loves us even as we stand mired in the "ethical"; bored, unfulfilled, and repetitive. - DOB

Peggy Noonan is Awesome (she's also pretty dadgum attractive)

2008-04-25T13:44:00.002-05:00

America is in line at the airport. America has its shoes off, is carrying a rubberized bin, is going through a magnetometer. America is worried there is fungus on the floor after a million stockinged feet have walked on it. But America knows not to ask. America is guilty until proved innocent, and no one wants to draw undue attention. America left its ticket and passport in the jacket in the bin in the X-ray machine, and is admonished. America is embarrassed to have put one one-ounce moisturizer too many in the see-through bag. America is irritated that the TSA agent removed its mascara, opened it, put it to her nose, and smelled it. Why don't you put it up your nose and see if it explodes? America thinks.

And, as always: Why do we do this when you know I am not a terrorist, and you know I know you know I am not a terrorist? Why this costly and harassing kabuki when we both know the facts, and would agree that all this harassment is the government's way of showing "fairness," of showing that it will equally humiliate anyone in order to show its high-mindedness and sense of justice? Our politicians congratulate themselves on this as we stand in line.

All the frisking, beeping and patting down is demoralizing to our society. It breeds resentment, encourages a sense that the normal are not in control, that common sense is yesterday. Another thing: It reduces the status of that ancestral arbiter and leader of society, the middle-aged woman. In the new fairness, she is treated like everyone, without respect, like the loud ruffian and the vulgar girl on the phone. The middle-aged woman is the one spread-eagled over there in the delicate shell beneath the removed jacket, praying nothing on her body goes beep and makes people look.

America makes it through security, gets to the gate, waits. The TV monitor is on. It is Wolf Blitzer. He is telling us with a voice of urgency of the Pennsylvania returns. But no one looks up. We are a nation of Willie Lomans, dragging our rollies through acres of airport, going through life with a suitcase and a slack jaw, trying to get home after a long day of meetings, of moving product.

Read the whole article here.

More Immigration Hand-Wringing

2008-04-22T16:22:00.002-05:00

Pope Benedict XVI called on U.S. bishops last week to "continue to welcome the immigrants who join your ranks today, to share their joys and hopes, to support them in their sorrows and trials and to help them flourish in their new home." Mr. Tancredo's response was to accuse the pontiff of "faith-based marketing" and claim that "the pope's immigration comments may have less to do with spreading the gospel than they do about recruiting new members of the church."
Mr. Tancredo – who sports T-shirts that read "America Is Full" – also cited a March 1 Wall Street Journal editorial to support his argument.

The editorial concerned a new Pew survey on religion in the U.S. and noted that in recent decades the Catholic Church has been losing members among the native born but gaining them among the foreign born. "We'd encourage our friends on the right who want to limit immigration to consider the health of our churches," we wrote.

Read the whole thing here. Somebody needs to wake up on the Right and realize that anti-immigration is inherently broken. With all waves of immigration, the old Know-Nothing Party just comes out of the woodwork. Despite their feverish warnings of Armegeddon, the immigrants always end up integrating into American culture, re-invigorating the society, enhancing the culture, and accelerating the economy.

I'm sorry, but this issue just sets me aflame and I'm embarassed that it comes primarily from my political Party. Count me with the pope on this one. - DOB

2008-04-22T16:11:00.002-05:00

2008-04-20T12:29:00.000-05:00

Paul Zahl Article on The Historical Jesus

2008-04-13T13:02:00.003-05:00

The question of who Jesus was in world history and what he was really like can be unnerving for Christians. What if the view we have of him, as all-compassionate, universally and inclusively loving, embracing of every single sort of sufferer, the epitome of kindness and gentleness, were not a true one? What if the real Jesus, the "historical Jesus"-to use the common phrase-were different from the Christ of Tiny Tim and Mary Magdalene and "Away in a Manger," that essentially Christian picture of magnitude in meekness and power in weakness? What if the Jesus who really lived were different from the Christ-Child we love and revere? Even Saddam Hussein invoked Christ's all-compassionate character the day after he was condemned to death in Baghdad. And the president of Iran has called on President Bush to get in touch with the nonviolent and gentle Jesus of the New Testament. This is the Jesus "whom the world has gone after" (John 12:19), whose perfect mercy is the core of Christianity.

Read the whole article here.

If you are at all interested in the Jesus Seminar, New Perspective on Paul, Biblical Theology, Rudolph Bultmann, or Albert Schweitzer - pro or con - this article is a brilliant must-read. - DOB

Hiddenness

2008-04-12T13:52:00.000-05:00

I believe in the sun
though it is late
in rising

I believe in love
though it is absent

I believe in God
though he is
silent …

– Anonymous

Mark Mattes Quote

2008-04-10T14:26:00.002-05:00

Humans exist for God's good pleasure, not vice versa. In this truth, humans can find liberation from their self-imposed tutelage arising from the belief that their freedom could be secured in exercising their self-expression. The need to actualize this potential becomes a compulsion to authenticate and establish the self. In such self-expression, we become like Atlas, bearing the whole world on our shoulders, and in that way are doomed to be free...

- Mark Mattes The Role of Justification in Contemporary Theology pp. 7-8

Little Feat

2008-04-08T17:24:00.001-05:00

Out of the Comfort Zone A Little

2008-03-29T14:26:00.002-05:00

This is an odd one. This is a Finnish group called the Leningrad Cowboys. They are joined by the real Red Army Choir in a rousing rendition of "Sweet Home Alabama". The crowd consists of Russian youth. Talk about a sublime statement on identity.

Am I naive in assuming the hair is real?

Easter vs. Christmas

2008-03-22T22:06:00.002-05:00

The following is taken from this article in Slate. - DOB

Even the resurrection, the joyful end of the Easter story, resists domestication as it resists banalization. Unlike Christmas, it also resists a noncommittal response. Even agnostics and atheists who don't accept Christ's divinity can accept the general outlines of the Christmas story with little danger to their worldview. But Easter demands a response. It's hard for a non-Christian believer to say, "Yes, I believe that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, died, was buried, and rose from the dead." That's not something you can believe without some serious ramifications: If you believe that Jesus rose from the dead, this has profound implications for your spiritual and religious life—really, for your whole life. If you believe the story, then you believe that Jesus is God, or at least God's son. What he says about the world and the way we live in that world then has a real claim on you.

Easter is an event that demands a "yes" or a "no." There is no "whatever."

Three of the Best Bands You Have Never Heard

2008-03-12T22:48:00.003-05:00

Mofro

Tishamingo

North Mississippi All-Stars

A Blog Post by Jady Koch

2008-03-12T12:54:00.002-05:00

Annie Hall and The Denial of Death

The recent posts about Woody Allen and Lucian Freud reminded me of a scene in Annie Hall where, shortly after explaining that “I feel that life is divided into the horrible and the miserable,” Alvy recommends Ernest Becker’s book The Denial of Death to Annie. Written in 1973, it is Becker’s evaluation of human psychology from a Freudian and post-Freudian perspective. In it, he argues that Freud’s (in)famous argument that people are fundamentally libidinal—that is driven by sexual desire—was descriptively accurate but specifically misguided; the real motivation behind people’s subconscious maladies lies not in the hyper-sexual realm but rather in the existential reality of their own mortality.

As he states in the opening pages: "The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity—activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man (ix)."

While it is intellectually fashionable to argue that people are fundamentally different than they were 2000 years ago, or even 200 years ago, one can’t help but notice parallels between Becker’s psychological analysis of this primal fear and the very thing that St. Paul believes that the Gospel addresses. In 1 Cor. 15:55 he states: "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"

Read the whole post here.

This is a piece by my friend Jady Koch who is in Germany working on a PhD at Humboldt. He has an incredible insight and you will hear from him in the future. - DOB

Viktor Frankl

2008-03-12T12:08:00.002-05:00

"Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is... After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips."

- from Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning

Frankl is a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. This is a powerful undergirding of the doctrine of total depravity. Man is inherently both Jekyll and Hyde all in the same body. - DOB

Bulgakov on Freedom

2008-03-09T00:15:00.003-05:00

"The spiritual life requires one condition, a negative condition, but invaluable and irreplaceable: freedom. Ethical self-determination cannot but be free, and, conversely, only free self-determination can have an ethical goal. It would be superfluous to try to demonstrate this self-evident truth. But perfect freedom belongs only to pure spirit, which is free from all external influence and open only to interior motivation."

Sergius Bulgakov was a Marxist-turned-Russian Orthodox priest and theologian who sort of lived in hot water from the Orthodox hierarchy. This quote from his essay, "The Economic Ideal" is a help from an unlikely place. - DOB

Important 50th Anniversary

2008-02-27T13:28:00.008-05:00

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

2008-02-25T00:15:00.000-05:00

Rudolf Bultmann and Martin Heidegger

2008-02-23T23:16:00.004-05:00

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

2008-02-20T15:25:00.001-05:00

"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

2008-02-15T19:56:00.003-05:00

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

2008-02-13T20:00:00.001-05:00

Crime and Punishment

2008-02-10T13:54:00.000-05:00

"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

Obama vs. (Bill) Clinton

2008-01-21T14:35:00.000-05:00

Barak Obama is at least acting like a very smart and savvy politician. He is engaging in a war of words with Bill Clinton over various matters. Read this article to get a feel for it. By running against Bill, he is putting Hillary in her husband's shadow, thereby minimizing her aura. It will be interesting to see if Bill can put aside his ego and allow Hillary to defend herself.

The Stockdale Paradox

2008-01-10T23:27:00.000-05:00

Admiral Jim Stockdale was a POW in the infamous Hanoi Hilton for seven years and was tortured over twenty times. He was the highest ranking military officer to be captured during that war and the following observation is called "The Stockdale Paradox".

...we continued the slow walk toward the faculty club, Stockdale limping and arc-swinging his stiff leg that had never fully recovered from repeated torture. Finally, after about a hundred meters of silence, I asked, "Who didn't make it out?"

"Oh, that's easy," he said, "The optimists."

"The optimists? I don't understand," I said...

"The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, 'We're going to be out by Christmas.' And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they'd say, 'We're going to be out by Easter.' And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart."

Another along pause... he turned to me and said, "This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith you will prevail in the end -- which you can never afford to lose -- with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they may be."

This is a stunning undergirding the the theology of the cross learned in the hottest of cauldrons. - DOB

Derek Webb

2008-01-05T18:48:00.000-05:00

“We’re so fearful that people would know who we really are. More is wrapped up in trying to look like Jesus than look like people who need Jesus. Which I think is a tragedy. I’m not like Jesus. Not at all, actually. I’m a wreck of a person. I need him. Without him I’d be lost. And I’d rather people see my potential losses than some made-up fictional righteousness that doesn’t get me anywhere. Because if that’s all I show them, they’ll be shocked when they find out that I really am a wreck of a person… And I’d rather people just know that now. I’d rather there be no pretense about whether or not I’m a good person, whether or not I’m somebody they should listen to. I’m not. At all. But I know a guy…”
- Derek Webb

Eulogy of Hank Williams

2007-12-23T17:54:00.000-05:00

"What was the secret of his greatness?... He had a message. It was swelling in him like a great body of water behind a massive dam. It was a message of the heart."
- Dr. Henry L. Lyon, pastor of Highland Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, giving the eulogy at the funeral of Hank Williams

Ecumenism

2007-12-17T10:07:00.000-05:00

"Denominationalism, which was actually the ecumenical idea that brought religious warring to an end, is now blamed for being the source of our troubles. Actually, of course, it is always the claim by one church to be the one visible church on earth that causes all the trouble to begin with. It could well be argued that the idea of 'visible unity' is the most unecumenical idea the world has ever seen!"
- Gerhard O. Forde, A More Radical Gospel

Ecumenism gives rise to what I call "Hippopotamus Theology." It is said that a hippopotamus is what is produced when a committee designs a race horse. It is also true for theology. When all the wildly different traditions try to agree on the Gospel, it is watered down and tamed. This isn't the jist of the Forde quote but, hell, it's my blog, right? - DOB :-)

Thank You, God, for Martin Luther

2007-12-11T21:00:00.000-05:00

I just love Martin Luther. He really did rescue Christianity. Christians just need to preach the law and the gospel and leave people alone. Quit moralizing to people for the sake of all that is holy. - DOB

2007-12-05T23:36:00.000-05:00

Who would have ever thought of squirrels with light sabers? :-) - DOB

McCain Defends Illegal Immigrants (thankfully, someone does)

2007-11-30T14:45:00.000-05:00

"As for McCain, he seemed disgusted by the odor of the nativist compost being spread around the stage. "This whole debate saddens me a little bit," he said. Of immigrants, he dared to declare: "These are God's children as well, and they need some protections under the law and they need some of our love and compassion." I hope God blesses McCain for that."
- from this E.J. Dionne article

- Praise God for John McCain. This whole anti-immigrant ruckus in the Republican Party is an embarassment. The Religious Right crows about morality and then they are silent when decent people who want to support their families are attacked by neo Know-Nothing bigots. Immigration makes this country great and who wouldn't want an influx of people who would risk everything to provide for their familes? Family values, anyone?

The protectionist racism of this debate honestly makes me wonder whether I want to be a Republican anymore. The Religious Right won't touch McCain with a ten-foot pole but he's the only one (Huckabee, too) acting like a Christian.
- DOB

Thomas on Grace

2007-11-22T19:30:00.000-05:00

Grace is, first, a quality of graciousness in the Giver, and then, a quality of gratitude in the recipient, which in turn makes him gracious to those around.
- W.H. Griffith Thomas in The Principles of Theology

More Townes Van Zandt

2007-11-20T23:56:00.000-05:00

" There ain't no dark 'till something shines."
- Townes Van Zandt

The Heidelberg Disputation by Martin Luther

2007-11-16T20:47:00.000-05:00

1. The law of God, the most salutary doctrine of life, cannot advance man on his way to righteousness, but rather hinders him.
2. Much less can human works, which are done over and over again with the aid of natural precepts, so to speak, lead to that end.
3. Although the works of man always seem attractive and good, they are nevertheless likely to be mortal sins.
4. Although the works of God always seem unattractive and appear evil, they are nevertheless really eternal merits.
5. The works of men are thus not mortal sins (we speak of works which are apparently good), as though they were crimes.
6. The works of God (we speak of those which he does through man) are thus not merits, as though they were sinless.
7. The works of the righteous would be mortal sins if they would not be feared as mortal sins by the righteous themselves out of pious fear of God.
8. By so much more are the works of man mortal sins when they are done without fear and in unadulterated, evil self-security.
9. To say that works without Christ are dead, but not mortal, appears to constitute a perilous surrender of the fear of God.
10. Indeed, it is very difficult to see how a work can be dead and at the same time not a harmful and mortal sin.
11. Arrogance cannot be avoided or true hope be present unless the judgment of condemnation is feared in every work.
12. In the sight of God sins are then truly venial when they are feared by men to be mortal.
13. Free will, after the fall, exists in name only, and as long as it does what it is able to do, it commits a mortal sin.
14. Free will, after the fall, has power to do good only in a passive capacity, but it can always do evil in an active capacity.
15. Nor could free will endure in a state of innocence, much less do good, in an active capacity, but only in its passive capacity.
16. The person who believes that he can obtain grace by doing what is in him adds sin to sin so that he becomes doubly guilty.
17. Nor does speaking in this manner give cause for despair, but for arousing the desire to humble oneself and seek the grace of Christ.
18. It is certain that man must utterly despair of his own ability before he is prepared to receive the grace of Christ.
19. That person does not deserve to be called a theologian who looks upon the invisible things of God as though they were clearly perceptible in those things which have actually happened [Rom. 1:20].
20. He deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross.
21. A theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theologian of the cross calls the thing what it actually is.
22. That wisdom which sees the invisible things of God in works as perceived by man is completely puffed up, blinded, and hardened.
23. The law brings the wrath of God, kills, reviles, accuses, judges, and condemns everything that is not in Christ [Rom. 4:15].
24. Yet that wisdom is not of itself evil, nor is the law to be evaded; but without the theology of the cross man misuses the best in the worst manner.
25. He is not righteous who does much, but he who, without work, believes much in Christ.
26. The law says, “do this,” and it is never done. Grace says, “believe in this,” and everything is already done.
27. Actually one should call the work of Christ an acting work and our work an accomplished work, and thus an accomplished work pleasing to God by the grace of the acting work.
28. The love of God does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it. The love of man comes into being through that which is pleasing to it.

2007-10-28T22:33:00.000-05:00

I thought I might share with you this wonderful encounter with a Yellowstone bull elk. I am shooting the video and you can hear my surprise when the elk starts bugling.

Corndogs Are Next!

2007-10-28T13:18:00.000-05:00

The story of LSU's corndog smell

...Sadly, by an Auburn alum

LSU fans smell just like corn dogs.

Yes, it is often said, but so, so true.

LSU fans do smell like corn dogs.

I would never tell them that to their face though. This is something better said at internet distances.

Even now, I am afraid. I am afraid that they'll know I said it. I'll walk past an LSU fan someday, and he'll see that look in my eye that gives it away. That look that says, "gee, what is that smell? Is it corn dogs? "The next thing you know, I'll have flat tires on my car.

If you only learn one thing from me today, remember not to tell LSU fans how they smell - you know, like corn dogs. LSU fans seem, somehow, sensitive to that whole corn dog issue.

Read it all here...

Identity

2007-10-28T09:25:00.000-05:00

“Philosophy had set the individual free, and had discovered a human being in the common citizen. By the blending of states and nations, which coalesced to form a universal empire, cosmopolitanism had now become a reality. But there was always a reverse side to cosmopolitanism, viz. individualism. The refinements of material civilization and mental culture made people more sensitive to the element of pain in life, and this increase of sensitiveness showed itself also in the sphere of morals, where more than one Oriental religion came forward to satisfy its demand.”
- Adolph von Harnack The Mission and Expansion of Christianity

“You are born alone and you die alone. Life gives you a bunch of rules to make you forget. I never forget.”
- Don Draper from the AMC series Mad Men

These two quotations help me in narrowing my understanding of human identity to a practical level that identifies with human experience. That is, how one defines himself as other than finite.

Just for a second today (I am going to ask you to do this because I’m a little too frightened to), close your eyes and consider all the parts of your identity… the way you (and/or others) perceive yourself. What does your identity consist of? What is your alma mater and how does that influence who you are? Are you a self-made businessman? What is your social status in church or at the club? How about your sorority? Are you a proud working man who sees yourself as more honest and productive than the wealthy? A brilliant contributor to the arts or sciences? A pious follower of ethical norms? A priest in the church? A bishop?

Take a moment then and move all of these things aside. Just for a moment. What then do you have? When you are on your deathbed, which of these things will last? What portion of your identity will take you over into the great abyss?