When is Too Far, Too Far?

When is Too Far, Too Far?

P.Z. Myers threw the Holy Qur'an and Dawkins' God delusion in the trash with some coffee grounds and took a picture of it.  He drove a rusty nail through a communion wafer and took a picture of it.  What was the point?  What did he hope to achieve?  One could argue, as Myers did, "that nothing should be held as sacred" and yet we all have lines that we cannot or will not cross. We all have some sort of sacred line that will end a conversation.  To not acknowledge this is to be both foolish and willfully disrespectful.

    In science we human beings are required to question everything but have respect for the answers that manifest themselves.  In religion we are required to question everything but have respect for the answers that manifest themselves.  Some atheists have tried to get to God and cannot.  I am glad I do not sit in judgment of them.  I cannot judge others and I am reproached if I ever do so.  One will find that most Christians adopt this viewpoint (difficult as it is).  However there is a portrayal of Christians as being close-minded bigots.  I would like to say that everyone in church is a Christian, but as one wise Christian put it, "just because a mouse is in the cookie jar, doesn't make it a cookie."  We all know Christians whose grasp on the Bible is as tenuous as an atheist's grasp and once again, I am glad I do not sit in judgment of them.

    So what does one mean when one dumps the Holy Qur'an in the garbage with coffee grounds and The God Delusion?  It means that the opposing view offers nothing at all.  If we live in a world with P.Z. Myers' and such, I would say that we live in a world of close-mindedness.  I have on my computer copies of works by great Muslim philosophers, but I am very much not a Muslim.  I want to know what a person thinks and how their feelings are going to interact with their thoughts and culture.  I want to know what makes a person a person; and if I just look at science for this, I miss a great deal of life and the human experience.

    I love science.  I believe when certain scientists tell me something and certain scientists tell me other things.  Our belief in science, if we are truly honest, has little to do with the scientific method and a great more to do with faith.  We put our faith in scientists because we believe they have done their homework and thought things through very carefully.  Sometimes our faith is well-placed, but most of the time science experiences a paradigm shift every fifty years or so.  It is no big deal, it is just alternating opinions.  We are left with technology that is less efficient or useful and the technology based off of the new science is better, the technology of the future is usually better still.  Science doesn't so much move from strength to strength, but rather from opinion to opinion.  A great scientific mind will be open to new theories and humble to not being the smartest person alive; but they share something in common with the Christian fanatic when they fail to be open to different ways of thinking.  Einstein was brilliant but became foolish with his outright denial of quantum mechanics.  (I suppose the question is, if he is proven right, will we still think of him as foolish?)

    But the matter still stands of a Qur'an, an atheist book, and coffee grounds in a garbage can; and what that means.  To Mr. Myers it may mean one thing in his mind, but deeper down it means quite another.  I suppose that his notes on a particular task he is trying to achieve in his work are sacred in a way.  I suppose that his marriage certificate is sacred to him.  And if they are not, than what is a human beings life without some bit of the sacred, the thing which is set apart.  There has to be some sort of core to what makes an human an human.  The philosophers come back to this time and time again.  What is it that makes us so special?  One could argue it is the fact that we have something that is uniquely sacred to us.  We may disagree on what that is, but we can all agree that there is a sacred core to the human experience.

    I believe Mr. Myers did this subconsciously as an act of provocation.  As if provocation had meaning in and of itself.  He was not looking to bring enlightenment to people, but to set himself apart.  Christianity has always wrestled with this but, because humility is so interwoven into what we are supposed to believe, we have never been able to divorce ourselves from the need to be humble.  Mr. Myers action does bring up a good point on one level to always question, something all people are called to do; but his motivation was not to do this.  His motivation was to call attention to his own enlightenment.  If you are an atheist, I pray you do not read this next part because I am going to let you in on a secret that has made Christians the most dominant force in the world, namely: be humble when you reach out and always do good works with the love of God.  My best friend is an atheist and because of his brotherly love for me, I can never dismiss him or his belief.  He gets into trouble when his beliefs which stem from his desire to be right try and dominate me and put me into a box.  I know that my "Christian witness" when driven by my desire to be right and not show love or commune with my friend, drive him further from the cross.  When Jesus was giving the Great Commission he did not say "Go into the world and make disciples of all nations..." but rather, "as you are going out into the world make disciples of all nations ..."  This means that we are to humbly live our lives in ways bring people to asking the questions.

    It is hard to dismiss an atheist who humbly serves a world in need and has entered his or her decision with great fear and trembling, just as it is hard to dismiss a Christian who reaches his or her conclusion in such a manner.  However, it is easy to dismiss a Christian who condemns you to Hell.  It is easy to dismiss an atheist who throws books into a garbage can with coffee grounds.

On Pointing to Hidden Things

On Pointing to Hidden Things

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃

                                                    -Genesis Chapter One Verse One

Its only a small word made up of two Hebrew Letters.  It can be pronounced with just one sound, "eth".  It is the word אֵ֥ת.  It is untranslatable into English.  Some would say it is because its meaning is too obscure for English.  Our language can do a lot of things, but from time to time it runs into some word out there that is so foreign it just cannot process it.  However, I don't believe that this our problem with אֵ֥ת.  The problem is that the word means too much.

    You see, it is usually viewed as the sign of the definite direct object, not translated in English but generally preceding and indicating the accusative.  What does that mean anyway.  It means that this is a word that is constantly pointing to something.  "In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth."  In the Greek the phrase goes a little something like this: ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν. In this version God is first and, like in good English, it is in the active voice. God is the actor and acts upon the "heaven and the earth."  It works out about that same way in the Hebrew.  In reading the Hebrew wrong it would appear that the sentence starts with what we see and know around us, the heavens and the earth, and then proceeds to tell us the author with the little word  אֵ֥ת pointing the way.  I even read it that way at first.  Then I remember when you are reading in the language of God's people, you have to start reading (and thus thinking) backwards.  So rather than the world creating a God, we see that the Greek, the Hebrew, and the English translators believe God comes first.

    In fact in this little word can be the seen the entire Gospel and good news for us all. It is uncomplicated, unassuming.  It is found near the beginning of our story but does not have to be first to show its important.  It is with the first words.  Does it sound familiar?  In the beginning it was with the words that made creation and it was the word that shows who made creation happen.  In fact it is made up of aleph and tav.  These two letters begin and close the Hebrew alphabet.  They are the A to Z.  For the Jewish people (and I would hope for Christians as well) the A to Z of life is the Torah.  The Mishlei, or as we know it: Proverbs says, "The Torah is more precious than pearls."¹  The Midrash states that the "Torah is more precious than the first born."  Truly, the Torah is the Judeo-Christians A to Z.

    However, we Christians believe in another A to Z.  We believe in the Alpha and the Omega who is the beginning and the end.  In Christ, Christians have a unique relationship with Torah because in Christ we see that Torah wrapped itself in flesh and walked among us.  In Matthew 15 we get the sense that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and Prophets.  We get the feeling that like a pin-prick on a balloon or a jar that flips in water to finally let it all in, Jesus burst a hole in our world with finite beginnings and finite endings and let the whole of God's Kingdom come rushing in after Him.  We are drown by the fact that The ΑΩ put on the clothes of we human beings and, as Gene Peterson puts it, "moved into the neighborhood."  The Word that made the world dwelt among us.

    So moving away from the letters, we should move towards the word.  What exactly does  אֵ֥ת do.  Well it connects God to the Heavens and the Earth.  It is an arrow that shows the flow of how God made the Heavens and the Earth.  One might even say that it is the Word that God breathed out to make the Heavens and the Earth.  A Word that was with God and somehow this Alpha and Omega became God's presence.  All things were created through this word and without it ... well ... you can't have the Heavens and Earth created; at least not without the beginning and the end involved.

    This is only what the word  אֵ֥ת is and does not even begin to address what that word does.  It points.  One of the best translations for Torah is "Way."  A way is usually something that points us down a certain direction.  Here the Torah was pointing towards something ... something BIG.  It was pointing us its fulfillment.  It was writing about something big that had happened once long ago and was making itself known all over again.  It was pointing to itself not as an end, but as that which is waiting to be fulfilled.  The Laws, beautiful though they are, could never bring us into right relationship with the Author of creation.  The Laws were band-aids to a broken and bruised world that could only see the Torah, and the world that was built on top of it, dimly.  So, we ask ourselves, what if this Way became human and walked among us?  What then are we to do?  The word that God used as the way to create creation that showed He was the creator and pointed to His handiwork is the same Word, Way, Alpha and Omega, Aleph and Tov that we Christians worship and find peace and rest in today.

    The early Christians, or People of the Way as they were called, saw all this clearly.  They marked the letters Chi and Rho, two other letters that mean their salvation, where they were.  It is amazing how two little letters bring us back to a right relationship with אֱלֹהִ֑ים, the Strong God, Elohim, who is so powerful and big that He surrounds the entire universe and so majestic that our words are often forced to do things that only our imaginations can glimpse of, just to speak of Him.²

notes

¹ It should also be noted that Jesus once said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a pearl of great value that one would sell everything to possess."  I believe a good association can be made between the words of the Torah and the Kingdom of Heaven.  Christians and non-Christians can argue the aspects of this for as long as they want, but is dialogue with the Holy Scripture something to be rejected?  By no means!  If we are to argue about trivial matters and amongst our closest friends, how much more are we supposed to argue about deep matters and amongst God in Heaven?

² My Greek Professor who loves Hebrew will know about the roots and origins of Elohim, however it is a plural verb always used of and considered as One or perhaps is like how we use the royal singular that speaks of itself in the plural (i.e. Queen Victoria's famous statement, "We are not amused."); and it means powerful and strong.

Now What?

Now What?

    Yesterday couldn't have gone better.  From beginning to end it was a great day.  I spent time with friends, was able to work, and saw a movie to boot.  Yesterday's over and I guess I am dealing with its fall-out.  Yes, there is the awareness of homework yet to be completed and a rather lengthy day at work to look forward to; but what am I to do in the good times.  Truth be told I listened to Sara Grove's song, "Painting Pictures of Egypt," a song about what to do when we are thrown into the chaotic beauty of real life.

    I have lived too many years in a dormant winter place, a slave to the routine of it all.  It wasn't good, it just wasn't frightening because it didn't require too much.  I could take the bad; I really could!  Not just the mediocrity, the bad!  I could stand the rejections, and firings, and even the ennui that mediocrity heaps out upon us.  Now that I am in Greek and working at Starbucks, I can take that too.  It is painful and the rewards aren't that noticeable.

    But what am I to do with a day as wonderful as yesterday?  What am I to do when I get blown away by one good thing after another?  I felt close to God in my suffering of futility.¹  But, when things shake out for good, I am totally at a loss.  Perhaps, just as we are to give our problems to God, maybe we are to give our good feelings back to God.  I am not talking about "giving thanks" here.  I am talking about something else that I just can't quite put my finger on.  Maybe things were just too out of the ordinary that my brain is having trouble taking it all in; or maybe it was so good that I would rather not know how good things could be when I contemplate how mundane my life usually is.

    In any case, I will give thanks to God and ask for His help, even on the good days.

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1. I really ought to learn German.  I am sure they have words that mean "suffering caused by futility" or "suffering from too much joy."  If anyone knows  words to describe these things (besides "emo"), let me know.

A link to: What's the Other Guy Saying, by Spencer Troxell

My good friend Spencer wrote a post that I believe is handles this question even better than my own. It is good to have friends who can say things better than we can. Here is the link: What's the Other Guy Saying

ochlarchy

ochlarchy

    It is late, very late in fact.  I should be in bed, but I felt that this was important.  It was too important to be left until some later time when life got in the way of the things that really matter.  You see, I am afraid for my country now more than I have been in quite some time.  I am afraid that the careful tapestry woven over so many centuries is coming undone.  I don't want to live in a country that becomes "America-in-Name-Only" or becomes the foolishly pathetic Rome just before the barbarians over ran it.  I am a patriot, I guess ... but not how certain people define patriots.

    Once upon a time, before we were anything worth mentioning and even before we were a country, several British soldiers fired into a crowd of Americans who had been hurtling not just insults but objects at them.  Someone yelled "fire!' and when the dust had settled, dead bodies lay on the ground and up rose from the masses a battle cry.  No one would defend the soldiers except on patriot by the name of John Adams.  The story is well-known for those who have studies the history of their country, but for those of you who don't know it.  John Adams won his defense because he believed they were innocent and he believed in a nation ruled by laws and not ruled by the dictates of fear or by the mob.

    Too often we have seen war-torn countries descend into bitter violence as one mob clashes with another in a futile war of empty words.  We have seen the "dignity of man" flagrantly ignored in favor of a powerful and stirred up mob.  This is the rule of law of the two-bit dictatorship and the worthless anarchic state.  History has seen these places and will see them again and again.  They exist not for the protection of their people, but as a warning for everyone else.  These are the dead and dying places of the world; and while we give them aid we take from them a warning to never become like them.  It would better to be blown off the face of the earth by an act of God than to descend into that Hell.

    Adams would try to re-enforce this notion throughout his political life, while others like Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine would try and exploit the whims of the people's emotions to further some grand view that THEY HAD.  The rule of law was important to Adams, Washington, and even Hamilton; and they sought to buttress the United States of America with it.

    Now we are screaming about health care reform.  The fact is, I don't care about the issue itself anymore.  I'd love to dialogue about it, but there is a far more important problem facing our country.  It is this: Are we to be ruled by civil dialogue and laws or are we to be ruled by the capricious whims of screeching mob.  I would be glad to hear us talk about how to make our health care system work better.  I am sure those in congress would too, but tonight I beheld something that embarrassed me more than I have been embarrassed in years.  I saw an elected member of congress asked a question and then shouted down when he tried to respond.  I saw another member try and answer a question and then be chanted into submission.  If the tyranny over a people's laws gives this group a sense of power and righteousness, than I believe that this people is no longer a civilization but a collection of savages.

Some Musings on Fame

Some Musings on Fame

    With the "King of Pop" dead people are talking quite a good deal about what drove him to the grave.  I wasn't going to write this post, because I felt like there was already enough stuff out there.  But something struck me this week and I seemed to have found the proper context in which to frame my musings.

Post-Modern America & The Cult of Personality

    Billy Mays was the quintessential celebrity.  Unlike other celebrities who earn their stripes by acting or playing in a band or (unfortunately) writing a novel or being a public figure; Mr. Mays claim to fame was that he was famous.  He was what is known as a pitchman.  He sold products, that was pretty much it.  He earned notoriety for doing so and became a household name.  Somewhat laughable sure, but he had his fame.  With that fame and fortune he was able to build an house and start a business.  The question is, what did he really create in the world that would warrant fame?

    Paul Hewson, better known as Bono, the frontman for U2, disdains his fame but understands its uses.  In one interview he said, "I'm just trying to put this thing called fame to good use."  However, when one watches most famous people it is easy to see how they have to be drug from the limelight kicking and screaming.  When one looks at what is behind there fame, one is faced with a truly frightening reality.  Like the great and powerful wizard, there may be nothing behind the curtain.  John and Cate are going through a messy break-up.  Paris Hilton was foisted on us as something we should admire.¹   American Idol and the myriad talent shows are great, but one feels as if those singers are even one step removed from the bands who play small shows until finally breaking into the big time.

    Why do we do it?  What purpose does it all serve?  America, land of opportunity and meritocracy.  A country the Hamilton envisioned as place where all people could get ahead by shear hard work and perseverance, a place that Washington and his army fought for the right of a government by the people conspicuously devoid of king and gentry; finds that it cannot get rid of that desire for nobility.

    I can't help but think of George Orwell's "1984."  The thing he left out was celebrity.  With enough celebrities one can take over the world.  In a recent ad campaign by T-Mobile, the company pokes fun at this.  They claim to have numerous economists go door-to-door to explain why T-Mobile is the right choice in cell-phone coverage, only to have each and every economist forced away.  At the end Catherine Zeta Jones, the original spokesperson for T-Mobile, goes to a door, and hey presto, she's accepted.²  

    How bad is it that we can be shown exactly what is going on, and still not care one bit?  Quick question, who is the president of France?  The chancellor of Germany?  The prime minster of Japan?  Who leads China?  Where is Iraq for heaven's sake?  These are questions that no one cares about, but if Michael Jackson dies we drop everything.

Oh How the Mighty Have Fallen

    There is a certain glee we take from watching heroes fall.  Arthur Schopenhauer, the German philosopher, called it: Schadenfreude.  For those of you who frequent my page, you know all about it; but for those of you who don't, it is the concept that we take joy from other people's misery.  I suspect some of us feel that way about Michael Jackson.  His over the top behavior seemed lead us to believe that he was going to fall and fall hard.  Jackson was obsessed with "the show," it ruled his life.  He had bought into the myth he had created and in that darkness he found his oblivion.  It was the perfect death for a twisted public's spectacle.

    While reading, I happened upon another interesting article about a non-celebrity.  Whereas Michael Jackson moonwalked, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.  Armstrong however, does not give interviews and practically disappeared from center-stage.  He had done what he thought was his job, and it certainly would've been easy and tempting to capitalize on all that fame; but he has rejected it.  He took a job working at the University of Cincinnati where students used to form human pyramids just to get a look through the window at his office.

    Today, People don't climb up to see his windows and the limelight has fallen away from Armstrong as a public figure and installed him as an historical figure.  He seems to live a life of quiet dignity away from the cult of personality which has already claimed so many.  Perhaps, like the astronaut with ice-water in his veins who landed safely in the Sea of Tranquility, we would be best to ignore the siren's call from the rocks of fame.  Perhaps it would be better to go about our business and not look for our fifteen minutes of fame or glory in the fall of others.

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1. Incidentally, I have yet to meet a man who finds Paris Hilton attractive.
2. I suppose it should be duly noted that it is Catherine Zeta Jones; who, unlike Paris Hilton, is attractive.  Still she is a celebrity and therefore my argument is still valid.

ThoughtsAboutaVision

              I once remember in college having a vivid image of Jesus under a tree in the middle of a field of green grass.  He was sitting under it and when I walked up to him, I felt bad for not living up to the standards that I thought every Christian should live up to in their lives.  I hadn't helped the poor or the needy as much as I should have, I hadn't been as personally responsible or read the Bible or been as consistent with so many things.  Yet, when I went to him I can remember him saying it would be okay.

              Life doesn't turn out okay ... or at least it doesn't feel that way.  Years of flailing around in the wilderness of just life itself takes a toll on a person.  It isn't so much that we feel unworthy or we do things that aren't that great; its just the mediocrity of it all.  The nine to five job or being stuck in the same place can kill a person.  I'd wake up with that vision in my head and my heart.  I'd feel it getting harder and harder to get back there.  The rage just to be under the tree and hear him say it was going to be okay wasn't half so heart breaking as feeling that it was getting farther and farther away.

              The thing is that faith in God is never about us.  It never has been and never will be.  Faith in God is a painful, grueling experience.  There is this glimmer of hope in God and that glimmer gets fainter and fainter.  The mountain top experiences where you thought you believed in God move further and further into your recesses and it is only the fool who always says that he or she had always clung to faith. 

              These people forget the great giants of faith.  They forget how Abraham doubted, Moses had to lose everything, and Paul had to be knocked off his ass.  These are the people that we idolize in our churches and hold up to as great examples of what it means to believe.  Perhaps the greatest example of one of these giants of faith is Elijah who, having just scored a victory for the existence of God that is still unparalleled in all of existence, not only becomes suicidal, but wants God to do the job for him.  (This is either the most whiny assisted suicide of all recorded history or the most lazy.)

              It is because of these imperfect people that a Christian gets his or her strength.  Some ludicrous nabob is "called" because they are fit for nothing else in life but to follow God with all their heart, mind, and spirit. 

              This is the point that most aggravates Americans though.  The book shelves are filled with self-help books tinged with passages from scripture taken out of context and forced to obey the philosophy of the time.  How often do we listen to Joel Olstein or some other schmuck in slicked back hair and a three piece suit telling us life will be okay if we just follow God's instructions.  The fact is that following God's instructions is pitiful, painful, and pure suffering.  No amount of sugar coating will get us around this.  The Bible isn't joking when it says that every day we are crucified with Christ.

              The fact is we don't live in a Christian nation.  We never have.  Trust me, I'm an history major.  (Famous last words.)  The people in this country say they don't want to give the money to help the poor; they don't want to pay for better health care, schools, infrastructure, and development; they don't want to end abortion; they don't want much of anything except to have a big screen television, a cushy job, and a decent tax break around April. 

              Then they do something good and they feel like they have appeased God.  Some distant memory of what they should have done, who they should have been, came into their hearts and mind for a split second and they think they have tasted the wellspring of everlasting happiness and goodness and have it in with God.  I have done "good things" and I still come back to that dream and doubt ... and doubt. 

              I doubt because I am probably more American then I would like to admit.  I haven't gone to save starving children in Africa or gone to fight for the right to vote in Asia or built orphanages in Latin America.  American Christians put too much emphasis on what you have done and not enough on who you serve.  Bonhoeffer once said it was better for a good man to do a bad thing than for a bad man to do a good thing.  For the longest time I couldn't understand what he meant.  The words were caught in my head all the time and I quoted it quite a good deal too, but it still never really made sense.  It makes sense to me, but not to most of us living in turn of the millennium America.

              It means the good deeds and noble causes that you and I have fought for are nothing without our love of God.  I think back to the great saints and what failures they were and realize what made them saints was never anything they had done, but when God called they listened.  God rarely calls us to be CEOs and multimillionaires.  God calls us to suffer and find joy.[1]  The Bible has its share of kings, but more often has its share of nobodies.

              This here is what the devil loves so much.  This here is what Americans hate so much.  Americans pay lip service to Christ, but when push comes to shove we do things for ourselves.  Who are we?  What do we really want?  Nietzsche talked about the rise of the superman and how Christ, though a charismatic character in his own right, had ruined that.  We Americans follow Nietzsche far more than we follow Christ.  In many ways Nietzsche was right and we would be better off to abandon Christ and the “lies” we no longer believe.  We would be better off to live as libertarians and forget the “myths.”

              Yet, I have lived the failed life.  I have lived a life of trying to figure out the answers.  Perhaps that is why the fates conspired against me and allowed to make me a Christian.  I shouldn’t be one.  I doubt too much.  I read books “that a Christian oughtn’t.”  I have friends who aren’t Christian at all.  Then I think of Christ whose faith overcame the doubts that tried to assail him, who talked to people he shouldn’t have, and who was friends to people who were the worst kind of sinners.  It really puts things in perspective.  The lies vanish and one can see the false dichotomy.  There is not should’ve in God’s book, just the question: are you willing to serve?

              I am not, and never will be.  My life will always be filled with doubts where I wonder if there is really anything out there.  I will wonder as to whether there is a God in heaven and how this world could have ended up such a mess.  I will wonder if that vision of Christ under a tree telling me all will be okay is real or whether it was all something I created to make me feel okay.  In this wonder I will probably die as I have lived.  Still, it is better to have wonder than to die without it.  I should count my life half lived without the pain and its inevitable comfort.

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[1] It should be noted that this particular thread could be an essay in and of itself.  However, I leave you with this thought.  Name any artist, musician, or business leader of any lasting renown who has ever known success without suffering.  Van Gogh only sold one painting.  The Beatles were rejected from numerous labels.  Steve Jobs lost his company only to come back and make it stronger than before.  Suffering and joy are bound up together.  To miss the former is to have a shallow victory.  To miss the latter is to dive into despair and oblivion.  The walk of faith is just the same razor’s edge.  The only difference being is that you have to trust in something else to make the steps for you.