Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Accesible Holiness



The good news: We're all invited. The bad news: It takes effort.
By William J. O’Malley | JULY 30, 2007

T he seniors I teach would cringe at being called holy. The very word secretes poisons like “uninteresting,” “sexless,” “goody-goody,” “unsophisticated”—hardly the path to popularity. Nor does the idea appeal much to older people either. They feel unworthy of a term justified only by a visible halo. Popes can canonize a married couple, but only after 13 children and late-life vows of celibacy.


Our ideas of holiness are so stringent that even aspiring to it seems presumptuous. Jesus faced that, too: “‘What is this wisdom that has been given him? Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?’” (Matt 13:55). Even slight contact with the less-than-sacred sullies any suggestion of sanctity: “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them!” (Luke 15:3). But here is the key: Jesus loves imperfect people. On that score, all of us qualify. We can, therefore, consider holiness without the distancing, antiseptic “requirements” that make the subject, and pursuit of the reality, inaccessible to ordinary mortals.


Ease the Qualifications for Holiness
Easing the qualifications seems justified, since the Scriptures abound with exhortations not just to the few but to the many to strive for holiness. “Be holy” (Lev 20:7; Num 15:40; 1 Pet 1:15, 16.); “Without holiness no one shall see the Lord” (Heb 12:14); “This is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess 4:3). St. Paul’s Greek term for ordinary believers is hagioi, “saints, holy ones”—not just meticulously purified souls, but all believers, made holy. It is not we who qualify as holy, but Christ’s generous acceptance of us that negates our unworthiness.


All religious traditions emphasize the separateness of the holy from the everyday. Whatever they call the ultimate reality is totally apart from anything common, profane, unclean, evil. Jews and Muslims tolerate no pictures of God, lest these devolve into idols. The Reformation ransacked cathedrals and village chapels to purge them of statues and crucifixes; even the consecrated elements of the Eucharist were de-sanctified. Eastern faiths go so far as to insist no predicate is appropriate for the Deity, not even “loving” or “intelligent.” Indeed, not even “is.” Thus, whatever we assert about God seems closer to falsehood than truth.


In the Abrahamic tradition, God is utterly other than anything created: “I am God and no man, the Holy One in your midst” (Hos 11:9). Yet God still walked companionably in Eden with Adam and Eve. There was separateness but also an easygoing connection—until the fateful moment the creatures said, “Who needs you?” And every human since has, in infinitely varied ways, shared that severing arrogance. Seeking holiness means trying to heal that separation and regain that person-to-Person friendship that makes us holy once again. The very word “religion,” in fact, means connection.


Incarnation Is Key
A constitutive element of Christianity (in contrast to all other faiths) is the incarnation. Uniquely, the Christian God became completely enmeshed in the material world: “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14). Jesus did not think himself defiled by what his co-religionists judged unclean—neglecting ritual washing or consorting with people considered corruptive (prostitutes, lepers, Samaritans). It is also a basic Christian assertion that except for sin, God became in Christ fully human. That means Jesus underwent bodily demands some would consider too degrading for God.


It would also follow that since of all species, only humans suffer doubt, Jesus had to face the insecurity of commitment to choices without certitude. If not, the temptations in the desert could not have been truly seductive, with no possibility of choosing wrongly. Further, the agony in the garden, where he sweated blood in terror, would have been impossible with full access to a divine intelligence that suffers no uncertainty. On the cross, when he shouted, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46), he could only have been quoting a psalm, not gripped by genuine temptation to despair. Without experiencing authentic uncertainty, Jesus could not have shared that most difficult burden of being human.


There is at least an explanation, though it might not convince all. St. Paul writes that at the incarnation, the son “emptied himself” (Phil 2:7). He did not stop being God, but though he remained fully divine, he surrendered all divine perquisites, like omniscience and omnipotence, in order to face life’s challenges just like the rest of us.


Jesus’ Invitation to All
Jesus’ invitation to the kingdom—to a personal relationship with God here and now—was in no way restricted to the special few. In the parable, when the original guests declined, the host ordered: “Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in” (Luke 14:23). The invitation was not restricted to the already righteous: “It is not the healthy who need a physician but those who are sick” (Matt 9:12). Nor was it confined to the chosen people: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Matt 28:19), nor limited to the ordained Twelve. Jesus loved the rich man who lived the Commandments but could not leave everything (Mark 10:21). Paul—and finally Peter—flung open the doors indiscriminately: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free man, neither male nor female; you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28).


If all that is true, one has ample justification to examine holiness with less stringent requirements than conventional wisdom might call for. To be judged holy—or at least trying to achieve some semblance of it—one need not be flawless, destitute or virginal. True, to declare publicly that someone is a saint, the church must scrutinize that life meticulously. But one need not be a World Series Most Valued Player.


St. Irenaeus said in Against Heresies, “The glory of God is humanity, fully alive” (Lib. 4, 20, 5-7; S.C. 644-48). It is permissible to suggest then that “supernatural” life is not “supranatural,” not beyond the limits of human nature, but rather humanity itself superbly fulfilled. What separates humans from other animals is the potential to learn and to love. Other animals know facts; a stag pursued by hunters knows that danger is behind him, but so far as we know he does not ask why: “What did I do to those guys?” We have at least the capacity (if we use it) to understand. Other animals can give their lives for their young. But we can give our lives (often without dying) for people we do not even like at the moment. Ask any parent or teacher. Can we entertain the possibility that our God-given purpose is to prepare a fully realized recipient for the gift of holiness? Nor is that role limited to purging defects, as so many were taught, but more importantly to amplify those potentials of knowing and loving. “Let your light shine before people in such a way they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt 5:16).


Just Try
As the book of Job shows clearly, the architect of the universe has no need to check his plans with anyone beforehand, not even any official religious body. If God is content that an individual is trying his or her best (for the moment) to fulfill God’s hopes in raising humans above animals, that person qualifies as a saint, even if the Vatican has not gotten around to ratifying God’s judgment. That person does not need the external, ritual bestowal of baptism or any other symbolic sign of acceptance (cf. Simone Weil, Albert Camus, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.). A moment’s reflection should make God’s unchallengeable assessment obvious, since no intelligent creature would accept a God less kind than he or she is.


We all know unchurched people who are the salt of the earth, as Jesus hoped his disciples would be (Matt 5:13). You can call them when you are stalled on the freeway at 2 a.m. They will tell you when you are too pushy or flirtatious or tipsy, and not hesitate because you might stop liking them. It is difficult to imagine them excluded from a kingdom that welcomes Magdalene and the good thief.


Nevertheless, it is easier for ordinarily self-doubting people if some outside authority validates their inner sense that they are trying their best. Baptism and confirmation are incalculably precious assurances of inclusion in a second family that will welcome us back, no matter what. Reconciliation gives a concrete pledge that we can never make ourselves so unworthy that we negate what Jesus did for us.


Inadequacies No Barrier
If God so generously offers the merits of Christ to make up for our inadequacies and indiscriminately invites us to holiness, God does not expect anything close to undiluted purity of motive or action when asking us to lead holy lives. This is borne out on page after page in Scripture, despite our penchant for sanitizing saints regardless of what they did. Abraham, our “father in faith,” pandered his wife into another man’s harem. Jacob scammed his brother’s birthright. Even the unassailable Moses stammered for some time trying to weasel out of God’s call. David, the ancestor of the Messiah, was a conniving adulterer and murderer. Unthinking piety turns the apostles into bowdlerized saints instead of a passel of Keystone Kops, often bumping into one another in pursuit of personal advancement.


Reflect on the down-to-earth holy people you know—usually not the fastidiously devout, the cautious observers of the tiniest rules, the judgmental: Pope John XXIII, Dag Hammarskjold, Dorothy Day, Anne Frank; millions of men and women who refused to surrender their souls in Nazi camps; those who bear with dignity the slow impoverishment of disease; kids crippled in wars they did not comprehend; the nun who held your forehead when you threw up; the patient teacher who taught you to write; the parents who forgave before we “deserved” it. There is an almost palpable serenity about such people. They seem unafraid and open, indiscriminately caring, inwardly coherent and focused. Their holiness is their wholeness, their altogether-ness.
The source of that equanimity seems to be a special relationship with the ultimate being and, reciprocally, a freedom from the self-concerned values of this world. That genuine connection with a transcendent energy source makes them divinely restless, unwilling to ignore or yield to elements of human behavior that conflict with the obvious intentions of a provident God: exploitation, courageous ignorance, neglect of the marginalized and corruption anywhere.


Conversion Needed
Accepting holiness requires, at the very least, conversion in the sense of transformation, coming to a halt to ask, “Is this the truth? Is this where I want to go?” fiercely refusing to be bamboozled any longer by the mesmerizing media that promise instant gratification, but deliver ashes; rejecting the investment of your heart and hopes in anything that cannot defy death; uprooting one’s soul—one’s self—from the trivial and transitory and engrafting it into the eternal. It is not a static achievement but a continued evolution of soul that in authentic holiness becomes contagious. St. Paul suggests ordinary holiness should be easily evident: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Gal 5:22).


If we trim inflated notions of heroic holiness that lead us to negate God’s prodigal invitation, we might fulfill the hope that motivated the incarnation, death and resurrection of the Son of God: “That you may have life, and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10); “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48). Jesus could not have used “perfect” in the ordinary sense: flawless, unblemished, absolute. That would have been blasphemous. Only God can be perfect in such a restrictive sense. Both Hebrew and Old English use “perfect” for the way a sphere, no matter how large or small, is complete.


Holiness as Well-Roundedness
“Holy” is really a synonym for successful, fulfilled, well-rounded. Each of those words describes what God intended fully evolved human beings to be. We are the only species that is incomplete, whose nature is not an inevitable blueprint but an invitation. Every rock, rutabaga and rabbit fulfills God’s intentions without insubordination. They have no choice but to glorify God with an obedience that is, more exactly, helpless conformity. Only we, of all creatures, can choose not to live up to the inner programming that invites us by a quantum leap above even the most intelligent animals. As far as we know, no shark or tiger is annoyed by qualms of conscience. They are incapable of being wrong.


Those who rise to the challenges of understanding more and loving more at least seem more alive, more fulfilled as specifically human than those who succumb to the allurements of the beast in us (pride, covetousness, etc.). Few would argue that Saddam Hussein had a more accurate concept of the human than St. Thomas More.


Also, unlike other species, the requirements embedded in our nature are not immediately operative through inbred instincts. Each of us must discover the directions in which we will find fulfillment. This is—or ought to be—the goal of a lifelong education: not merely to make a living but to find out what living is for. With that understanding, it becomes more obvious that holiness, the full evolution of humanity, is not inaccessible to ordinary people, but it is also not commonplace. It takes a lot of effort. “Holy” need not be confined to achievement. Just striving is enough.


William J. O’Malley, S.J., is a teacher of English and religious studies at Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx, N.Y.

Wrestling With God

Wrestling with God
2007-07-29 , RON ROLHEISER, OMI


In his memoir, Report to Greco, Nikos Kazantzakis shares this story: As a young man, he spent a summer in a monastery during which he had a series of conversations with an old monk. One day he asked the old monk: “Father, do you still do battle with the devil?” The old monk replied: “No, I used to, when I was younger, but now I have grown old and tired and the devil has grown old and tired with me. I leave him alone and he leaves me alone.” “So your life is easy then?” remarked Kazantzakis. “Oh no,” replied the monk, “it’s much worse, now I wrestle with God!”There’s a lot contained in that remark – “I wrestle with God.”

Among other things, it suggests that the struggles in later life can be very different than what we struggle with earlier on. In the normal pattern of things, we spend the first-half of our lives struggling with sensuality, greed, and sexuality, and spend the last half of our lives struggling with anger and forgiveness - and that anger is often, however unconsciously, focused on God. In the end, our real struggle is with God.But wrestling with God has another aspect. It invites us to a certain kind of prayer. Prayer isn’t meant to be a simple acquiescence to God’s will. It’s meant to be an acquiescence, yes, but a mature acquiescence, come to at the end of a long struggle.We see this in the prayer of the great figures in scripture: Abraham, Moses, Jesus, the apostles. Abraham argues with God and initially talks him out of destroying Sodom; Moses at first resists his call, protesting that his brother is better suited for the job; the apostles excuse themselves for a long time before finally putting their lives on the line; and Jesus gives himself over in the Garden of Gethsemane only after first begging his Father for a reprieve. As Rabbi Heschel puts it, from Abraham through Jesus we see how the great figures of our faith are not in the habit of easily saying: “Thy will be done!” but often, for a while at least, counter God’s invitation with: “Thy will be changed!”Struggling with God’s will and offering resistance to what it calls us to can be a bad thing, but and it can also be a mature form of prayer.

The Book of Genesis describes an incident where Jacob wrestled with a spirit for a whole night and in the morning that spirit turned out to be God. What a perfect icon for prayer! A human being and God, wrestling in the dust of this earth! Doesn’t that accurately describe the human struggle? We would do well to integrate this, the concept of wrestling with God, into our understanding of faith and prayer. We honor neither ourselves nor the scriptures when we make things too simple. Human will doesn’t bend easily, nor should it, and the heart has complexities that need to be respected, even as we try to rein in its more possessive longings. God, who built us, understands this and is up to the task of wrestling with us and our resistance.

The classical mystics speak of something they call “being bold with God”. This “boldness”, they suggest, comes not at the beginning of the spiritual journey, but more towards the end of it, when, after a long period of fidelity, we are intimate enough with God to precisely be “bold”, as friends who have known each other for a long time have a right to be. That’s a valuable insight: After you have been friends with someone for a long time, you can be comfortable with expressing your needs to him or her and in the context of a long, sustained relationship unquestioning reverence is not necessarily a sign of mature intimacy. Old friends, precisely because they know and trust each other, can risk a boldness in their friendship that younger, less mature, friendship cannot. That is also true in our relationship with God. God expects that, at some point, we will kick against his will and offer some resistance. But we should lay out our hearts in honesty. Jesus did. God expects some resistance.

As Nikos Kazantzakis puts it:The struggle between God and humans breaks out in everyone, together with the longing for reconciliation. Most often this struggle is unconscious and short-lived. A weak soul does not have the endurance to resist the flesh for very long. It grows heavy, becomes flesh itself, and the contest ends. But among responsible persons who keep their eyes riveted day and night upon the supreme duty, the conflict between flesh and spirit breaks out mercilessly and may last until death. The stronger the soul and the flesh, the more fruitful the struggle and the richer the final harmony. The spirit wants to have to wrestle with flesh which is strong and full of resistance. It is a carnivorous bird which is incessantly hungry; it eats flesh and, by assimilating it, makes it disappear.

EdwardAbbey

Threat of Martial Law in The United States is Real

SinéadO'Connor: 'Jeremiah (Something Beautiful)'

Friday, July 27, 2007

Gospel, Friday July 27th, 2007


Mt 13,18-23.


"Hear then the parable of the sower. The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it, and the evil one comes and steals away what was sown in his heart. The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy. But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away. The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit. But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold."


Commentary of the day Saint Padre Pio of Pietralcina (1887-1968), Capuchin Ep 3: 579; CE 54


To bear fruit, free from worldly anxiety Advance with simplicity on the pathways of God, and do not worry. Hate your defects, yes, but quietly, without excitement, nor anxiety. It is necessary to be patient with them and to benefit from them through holy humility. For if you lack of patience, your imperfections, instead of disappearing, will only grow. Because there is nothing which strengthens our defects as much anxiety and obsession to be rid of them. Cultivate your vineyard together with Jesus. To you the task of removing stones and pulling up brambles. To Jesus, that of sowing, planting, cultivating and watering. But even in your work, it is still him who acts. Because without Christ, you could do nothing whatsoever.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

The Way of Ignatius


A five-day programme of prayer to lead you a little deeper into Ignatian spirituality.


Tuesday 31st July is the Feast of St Ignatius of Loyola, who founded the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits)


Hurling in America Has a Problem -- Too Few Irishmen [Wall Street Journal]


Hurling in America Has a Problem -- Too Few Irishmen
The Lure of the Old Sod And Immigration Issues Make for a Player Shortage
By CONOR DOUGHERTY July 26, 2007; Wall Street Journal, Page A1
For five years straight, the Clan Na nGael sports club in Atlanta sent a team to the North American Hurling Championships. That ended a year ago: Try as it did, Clan Na nGael could muster only 12 players, and it takes at least 13 to make a team."We didn't play any competitive games last year," says Jim Whooley, vice chairman of Clan Na nGael. "We just played scrimmage games among ourselves, six on six and five on five."Hurling -- a centuries-old sport that has elements of field hockey and lacrosse -- has an immigration problem. With the Irish economy booming and the U.S. tightening borders, Irish expatriates are returning home and fewer newcomers are taking their place.The New York board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) has lost four of its eight hurling teams in the past three years. In Boston, the Wexford Hurling Club is worried it will soon lose one of its two teams. And ever since the San Jose, Calif., team folded a few years ago, Northern California's two remaining clubs have played each other, and only each other. They settle the local "championship" with a best-of-five competition. Hurling "is becoming extinct," says Tom Flynn, an Irish immigrant who started with a New Jersey team in 1954 and remains involved with the club's management. CONTINUE

Hitchens’ Hubris

Great article. some good comments at the end too.

The God that whined

Guardian article on Mike Gavel

NewYorkTimes article on Ron Paul

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Poster Child for the new milennium...

Hat tip to Paula

[Click on post title to see 'youtube clip' ]. Per Paula's post:

The video contain the monologue of Milton and the killing scene. It is a bit graphic, so be warned. A part of Milton´s (Satan) chilling rant is posted below. Warning again: graphic language.

Milton's rant :

Eddie Barzoon… take a good look because he’s the poster child for the next millennium. These people, it’s no mystery where they come from. You sharpen the human appetite to the point where it can split atoms with its desire. You build egos the size of cathedrals. Fiber-optically connect the world to every eager impulse. Grease even the dullest dreams with these dollar-green gold-plated fantasies until every human becomes an aspiring emperor, becomes his own god. Where can you go from there? As we’re scrambling from one deal to the next, who’s got his eye on the planet? As the air thickens, the water sours, even bees honey takes on the metallic taste of radioactivity… and it just keeps coming, faster and faster. There’s no chance to think, to prepare; it’s buy futures, sell futures.. when there is no future. We got a runaway train, boy. We got a billion Eddie Barzoons all jogging into the future. Every one of them is getting ready to fistfuck God’s ex-planet, lick their fingers clean, as they reach out toward their pristine, cybernetic keyboards to tote up their fucking billable hours. And then it hits home. You got to pay your own way, Eddie. It’s a little late in the game to buy out now. Your belly’s too full, your dick is sore your eyes are bloodshot and you’re screaming for someone to help. But guess what, there’s no one there!

Interesting online radio station:

Provoke believes the desire for social justice has long been a central theme of all the world religions. With that in mind, each show highlights those individuals and organizations who work tirelessly on behalf of the poor and marginalized, peace and justice - and in so doing, make a difference in the world. HERE

Beware of the Bible

From Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Soren Kierkegaard

“The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. ‘My God,’ you will say, ‘if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world?’ Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.”

available free from :
http://www.plough.com/ebooks/Provocations.html

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Addendum to previous post:

From the comments section:

qz65m0 July 13th, 2007 5:46 pm
"...First, let me say that I am a Dennis Kucinich progressive.Nonetheless,William Buckley is assuredly one of the most brilliant minds that ever discussed politics. You don’t have to agree with him (and I often don’t) to see that he has an uncanny ability to make a point.Try reading some of his stuff.Oh, and by the way,many thoughtful Republicans didn’t support the Iraq invasion….Pat Buchanan, Bill Buckley,etc.Don’t take this as an apology for the lunatic right wing now in power; I’m only sayingthat not all conservative thought is poisonous nonsense.John from Portland OR
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ChristIsntComingBack July 13th, 2007 6:00 pm
“not all conservative thought is poisonous nonsense.”
That’s right John, but ALL neo-conservative talk IS nonsense."
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ol wobbly July 14th, 2007 3:41 pm
Folks, it’s all very simple. They’re not another breed, another species of animal. They are simply animals, protecting their animal rights. In one simple word — greed. They know nothing except what their greed-soaked minds want them to know. As the old Marines used to say — Semper Fi, Mac — meaning, I got mine and f–k you. I use dashes in this word because I am new to this blog and don’t want to offend the offendable.
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Franklin Carter July 15th, 2007 1:15 pm
Johann Hari’s account of his sea voyage with 500 subscribers to The National Review is quite entertaining. But if you booked a cruise on another ship for 500 subscribers to The Nation and sent along a conservative journalist to record the conversation, I’m sure the resulting story would be filled with ridiculous left-wing quips and similar examples of groupthink. / People can dismiss The National Review as the mouthpiece of America’s ruling class; they can dismiss the journalists’ opinions as partisan or misleading. But they cannot honestly dismiss The National Review as the product of illiterate or uneducated people. It is a well-written and well-edited journal. After reading Johann Hari’s story, I think the real mystery is why so many subscribers to The National Review talk like unsophisticated high school drop-outs. Don’t they actually read the magazine?
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Ship of Fools: Setting Sail With ‘The National Review’

Published on Friday, July 13, 2007 by The Independent/UK
by Johann Hari

The Iraq war has been an amazing success, global warming is just a myth - and as for Guantanamo Bay, it’s practically a holiday camp… The annual cruise organized by the ‘National Review’, mouthpiece of right-wing America, is a parallel universe populated by straight-talking, gun-toting, God-fearing Republicans.
I am standing waist-deep in the Pacific Ocean, both chilling and burning, indulging in the polite chit-chat beloved by vacationing Americans. A sweet elderly lady from Los Angeles is sitting on the rocks nearby, telling me dreamily about her son. “Is he your only child?” I ask. “Yes,” she says. “Do you have a child back in England?” she asks. No, I say. Her face darkens. “You’d better start,” she says. “The Muslims are breeding. Soon, they’ll have the whole of Europe.”
I am getting used to these moments - when gentle holiday geniality bleeds into… what? I lie on the beach with Hillary-Ann, a chatty, scatty 35-year-old Californian designer. As she explains the perils of Republican dating, my mind drifts, watching the gentle tide. When I hear her say, ” Of course, we need to execute some of these people,” I wake up. Who do we need to execute? She runs her fingers through the sand lazily. “A few of these prominent liberals who are trying to demoralize the country,” she says. “Just take a couple of these anti-war people off to the gas chamber for treason to show, if you try to bring down America at a time of war, that’s what you’ll get.” She squints at the sun and smiles. ” Then things’ll change.”

I am traveling on a bright white cruise ship with two restaurants, five bars, a casino - and 500 readers of the National Review. Here, the Iraq war has been “an amazing success”. Global warming is not happening. The solitary black person claims, “If the Ku Klux Klan supports equal rights, then God bless them.” And I have nowhere to run.

From time to time, National Review - the bible of American conservatism - organizes a cruise for its readers. I paid $1,200 to join them. The rules I imposed on myself were simple: If any of the conservative cruisers asked who I was, I answered honestly, telling them I was a journalist. Mostly, I just tried to blend in - and find out what American conservatives say when they think the rest of us aren’t listening. CONTINUE

Podcasts to check out

Another Joe Bageant interview

The phony "Catholic Right" and "Catholic Left"

By Michael Joseph, at VOX NOVA

A Snippet:


...The complete task is to link faith energies with energies of justice and peace in service of the Living God and social transformation. Faith and justice need to become as one flesh in service of both. The secular hunger for justice from the Left needs to find its deeper root in spirituality. The spiritual hunger of the Right needs to find God's true face in justice and peace.

There are two seeds of creativity in the world--social engagement and spirituality. Similarly within the Christian community, these two movements have their echo--on one side the justice and peace movement, often developed in secular style; and on other side the prayer movement, often without social engagement.

It is sad when good people from both sides fail to see the other's complementary gift.

Is it the terrible sin of human pride on both sides which causes this division? Is it the pride of secularism on the Left--afraid of spiritual energies because they are not subject to rational control? And is it the pride of religiosity on the Right--afraid of the Spirit's prophetic power in the secular arena because it is not subject to religious control?

Thus we may speak of two criteria for guiding our path in the crisis which envelops us. The first criterion is openness to the creative transformation of our civilization. The second criterion is openness to the spiritual roots of creative energies. The classic secular Left fails the test of the second criterion. The classic religious Right fails the test of the first criterion.

[Quoting
Joe Holland's Social Analysis ]

Friday, July 20, 2007

...I will give you rest

Gospel for Thursday 7/19:

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."

-- Matthew 11: 28-30

Thursday, July 19, 2007

GETTING THE POOR DOWN FROM THE CROSS: CHRISTOLOGY OF LIBERATION

FREE eBOOK!


ISBN:978-9962-00-232-1
Pages: 300

More than 40 Co-Authors: Leonardo BOFF (foreword), Tissa BALASURIYA, Marcelo BARROS, Teófilo CABESTRERO, Oscar CAMPANA, Víctor CODINA, José COMBLIN, CONFER de Nicaragua, Lee CORMIE, Eduardo DE LA SERNA, José ESTERMANN, Benedito FERRARO, Eduardo FRADES, Luis Arturo GARCÍA DÁVALOS, Ivone GEBARA, Eduardo HOORNAERT, Diego IRARRÁZAVAL, Jung Mo SUNG, Paul KNITTER, João Batista LIBÂNIO, María y José Ignacio LÓPEZ VIGIL, Carlos MESTERS, Alberto PARRA, Richard RENSHAW, Jean RICHARD, Pablo RICHARD, Luis RIVERA PAGÁN, José SÁNCHEZ SÁNCHEZ, Stefan SILBER, Ezequiel SILVA, Alfonso Mª Ligório SOARES, José SOLS LUCIA, Paulo SUESS, Luiz Carlos SUSIN, Faustino TEIXEIRA, Pedro TRIGO, José María VIGIL, and Jon SOBRINO (epilogue).

2 more great posts from 'NonviolentJesus' blog:

Sunday, July 01, 2007

A Cry Before the Dark Face of God.



"We’d be cruising down the road in a convoy and all of the sudden, an IED blows up," said Spc. Ben Schrader, 27, of Ft. Collins, Colo. 'You’ve got these scared kids on these guns, and they just start opening fire. And there could be innocent people everywhere. And I’ve seen this, I mean, on numerous occasions, where innocent people died because we’re cruising down and a bomb goes off.'

Worse yet were home raids, or 'cordon and search' operations. Twenty-four vets who participated in the raids described them as a relentless reality of the occupation. Generally on little evidence, Iraqis were rousted in the night, their homes turned upside down, the family patriarchs humiliated and sometimes arrested.

Staff Sgt. Timothy Westphal, 31, of Denver, said that he’ll never forget one on a hot summer night in 2004. He and more than 40 other soldiers raided a farm near Tikrit and, pointing their rifles and lights at a group of sleepers, woke them up.

'The man screamed this gut-wrenching, blood-curdling, just horrified scream,' Westphal recalled. 'I’ve never heard anything like that.'

It turned out the people weren’t insurgents but a family sleeping outside to escape the heat."

We all cry before the dark face of God when the mystery of human violence makes us shiver with rage. The dark cry rising from the violated man is the cry that every Christian who loves God should raise at the sight of the inner and outward violations we make on our fellow images of God. We must become as passionate as God about the mutilation of justice.

"The antipathy toward Iraqis was confirmed in a survey released in May by the Pentagon. Just 47% of soldiers and 38% of Marines agreed that civilians should be treated with dignity and respect. Only 55% of soldiers and 40% of Marines said they would report a unit member who had killed or injured 'an innocent noncombatant.'"

O how our empty hearts howl in the wilderness! They are empty of the love that God has poured into us.

This Sunday we were presented with the careful details of what the good Samaritan did. Have you noticed how thoughtful the Samaritan was? Instead of self-congratulation, there was concentration on the details of how the beaten man was to be nurtured, renewed and brought back to health. Right now in Iraq, children wounded by American contempt for life, for God, and for their inner integrity, are lying by the side of the road with hands reaching out for our care. Will we do the careful tasks that need to be done to end this suffering?

It is not sufficient to give charity, but deeper questions must be asked if we are to be true Samaritans. From a recent article in the Nation: "The Iraq War is a vast and complicated enterprise. In this investigation of alleged military misconduct, The Nation focused on a few key elements of the occupation, asking veterans to explain in detail their experiences operating patrols and supply convoys, setting up checkpoints, conducting raids and arresting suspects. From these collected snapshots a common theme emerged. Fighting in densely populated urban areas has led to the indiscriminate use of force and the deaths at the hands of occupation troops of thousands of innocents."

In other words, the conditions of the war have led to the indiscriminate mass killing of innocent civilians. A culture of contempt for the life created by God for love has been ingrained in the soldiers in Iraq. Most believe that this is due to accidental conditions or incompetence by the war's leaders. In fact, this contempt is part of standard military indoctrination and will not be healed until the stain of war is wiped from our civilization.

"'The frustration that resulted from our inability to get back at those who were attacking us led to tactics that seemed designed simply to punish the local population that was supporting them,' Sergeant Mejía said."

Over the next few posts, we will be examining the soldier's stories in detail to reveal the spiritual face that emerges. In the course of this investigation, we may also see glimpses of our own face in the mirror of this contempt, a contempt we participate in when we refuse to be Samaritans to the Iraqi people that our membership in a nation deluded by fear has called us to be.

"Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will." - Frederick Douglass

Hope is Thick in the Air.



"The mighty are only mighty because we are on our knees. Let us rise!" - Camille Desmoulins

"Army Spc. Eleonai 'Eli' Israel was stationed at Camp Victory in Baghdad when he told his commanding officers June 19 that he would no longer participate in the illegal and unjust U.S. war on Iraq. 'We are now violating the people of this country in ways that we would never accept on our own soil,' said Eli.

Support Eli by going to http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/ and making a donation. Make hope fold a little thicker around us by defying the mighty on their thrones, as Mary did when she proclaimed the greatness of the Lord. Let the voice of John of Damascene rise with the voices of those who have put an end to killing in their hearts.

In the words of Kenneth Rexroth, "There was a similar movement amongst the Humanists of the early sixteenth century, contemporary with the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation. They attempted to develop a social philosophy based on the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, Clement of Alexandria, John of Damascus and similar thinkers. Its basic concept was the establishment of a community of love encompassing all of society and having as its final end the divinization of the world. These words are John Damascene's. They are also Teilhard de Chardin's. They are also Karl Rahner's. They are also St. Thomas More's." This movement continues into our day through the voice of liberation theology, the voice of the poor rising into the conscience of the Church. Make a pledge to carry out an act of resistance each day to the glory of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Liberation Theology Resources

Democracy with blood on its Hands: An Interview with Ariel Dorfman




By Ascen Arriazu
November 2006
This article has been translated/adapted from an original Spanish articleTranslator: Isabel Negreira
“To create a democracy, blood must sometimes be spilled”. These would be wise words were it not for the fact that they were pronounced by Augusto Pinochet, one of the greatest mass-murderers of the 20th century. Pinochet’s seizure of power on September 11th 1973, an earlier 9/11 which produced a similarly catastrophic scene - that of the storming of La Moneda in Santiago, Chile, where the then president, Salvador Allende, died. One of Allende’s daughters described her escape during a BBC documentary: “We escaped in a taxi and the police let us through because my sister, who was pregnant at the time, pretended to be in labour”.
Since then, thousands of cases of murders, disappearances and torture have been and continue to be investigated by several pro-human rights NGO’s throughout the world. Amnesty International has been the most active of these groups and publishing detailed reports regarding the torture techniques carried out in prisons during Pinochet’s dictatorship. Among those who have expressed concern for the administering of justice is one of Chile’s greatest activists, Ariel Dorfman. Without mincing his words, he has come dangerously close to the underlying truth. The author, despite a consistently full schedule, kindly shared his time and experiences with Three Monkeys Online. CONTINUE

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Some sustenace for the struggle...

Bach - Cello Suite No.1 i-Prelude

Bill Kauffman

I came across this guy while reading the comments to one of Michael's latest posts. I'm posting it here to remind me to check him out when i get a chance

Friday, July 13, 2007

Joe Bageant talks about Deerhunting With Jesus

Listen...

Antiwar Radio: Charles Goyette Interviews Ray McGovern

Thursday, July 12th, 2007 in News, Antiwar Radio by Charles Goyette
Fomer CIA analyst Ray McGovern gives his view of DHS head Chertoff’s “gut feeling” that something very bad is going to happen, “faith-based” intelligence in general, the actual threat of terrorist attacks versus our government’s hysterical scare-mongering - due largely to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, the public’s demand for Bush and Cheney’s removal from office, Libby’s get out of jail free card, the latest NIE, why the U.S. should withdraw from Iraq, Cheney’s “plenary powers,” the modern conservative movement’s contempt for the constitution, No, the “whole world” did not think there were WMD in Iraq, No, al Qaeda in Iraq is not responsible for most of the violence there, No, the thousands of American Muslims rounded up after 9/11 were not terrorists, and the “50% chance” of war with Iran.
MP3 here. (38:14)

Ray McGovern is a retired CIA analyst of 27 years, antiwar activist and co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Austin Freedom Fest, 8.10.07







A Review of Joe Bageant's "Deer Hunting with Jesus"

[Be sure to check out Joe's website also. The book is great, but I think the writing on his website is even better]

A Review of Joe Bageant's "Dear Hunting with Jesus"
What's the Matter with Winchester?

By MICHAEL DONNELLY

Joe Bageant's book "Deer Hunting with Jesus" is a book anyone in out-sourced America who still maintains any working class sensibility absolutely must read. Any urban, educated leftist who wonders why the great mass of meat hunting, NASCAR-loving, cryin'-in-your-beer, country music-loving, overweight, bible-thumping American bubbas continue to vote against their own self-interests and help the GOP purloin elections and man (and woman) the front lines of endless imperial wars will be smacked upside the head with the answers.
As my good buddy, roofing contractor John Yackshaw, a son of rural Iowa, who read the book simultaneously with me (the same actual book) notes, "This book answers the question What's the Matter with Kansas?"
John's referring to Thomas Frank's earlier book that came at the same issue and opened the dialogue. But, like any top-down, scholarly work analyzing an exotic species, Frank's work comes up short on down-to-earth answers compared to this book written by a son of the same permanent underclass he lovingly, funnily and angrily writes about. CONTINUE...



The Frames, live in D.C., April '07

Listen to this story...

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Another great rant from Joe Bageant:

some excerpts:


...All the green energy sources and eating right and voting right cannot fix what has been irretrievably ruined, but only make life amid the ruination slightly more bearable. Species gluttony is nearly over and we've eaten the earth and pissed upon its bones...

..So we postpone transformation through truth, and stick with what has always worked -- empire and consumption. And we twiddle our lives away thorough insignificant fretting about mortgages and health care and political parties and pretend the whole of American life is not a disconnect. Hell, all of Western culture has become a disconnect. Somebody needs to tell the Europeans too; progressive Americans give them entirely too much credit for the small positive variation in their cultures and ours. We both get away with it only so long as the oil and the entertainment last.

...The hearts of even our most avowedly thriving cities are just a dead, reduced to nothing more than designated spending zones, collections of bars and banks and overpriced eateries lodged at the center of a massive tangle of overpasses and freeways designed for a nation of soft people hurtling themselves through the suburbs in petroleum powered exoskeletons in search of fried chicken, or into the city for the lonely monetized experience called urban nightlife. Which is no life at all, but rather posturing in lifelike poses amid simple drunkenness and engorgement...

...Yet, I dare say that comfort is not the most important thing in most American lives. It is just the only thing we are offered in exchange for our toil and the pain of ordinary existence in such an age. Consequently, it is all we know. Meaningless work, then meaningless comfort and distraction in the too-few hours between sleep and labor. But we settled for that and continue to do so. The day will never come when we stand around the office water cooler and ask one another: "Why in the hell are we even here today?" It's the most dangerous question in America and the Western world...

READ