Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

Five Overlooked but noteworthy recordings of 2005

I'm probably the last person in the world who should put up a post on "Notable CDs".   No doubt about it.   But in glancing at the January 14, 2005 issue of World magazine, I was struck by the page title "Five (more) Overlooked But Noteworthy Recordings of 2005."  In particular I noted the comments on "The Art of Virtue"  by Adrienne Young & Little Sadie.  The reviewer said of her:  "Surpringly old-timey for so young a talent, strikingly fresh for music so rooted in the past."    That sounds like something I would like, especially when Adrienne Young is described as being "almost as good as" Alison Krauss.   The review says "In the title cut Ms. Young boldly declares her allegiance to both Jesus and chastity."   Hmmm...  great.   She also sings of moonshiners and hollers!   Will I go out and buy these CDs?   Not likely.   But at least by posting this I will be reminded to give these recordings a listening sometime soon.

On Negative Emotions

Until I learn how to begin a long post with a few sentences and then invite readers to read "more" if they choose, (something I am not sure Typepad can do at the level I subscribe - I am still learning the mechanics of blogging), until I can do that, I feel reluctant to put long posts on the blog.  I don't want to bog down readers.   Still, I think the piece below valuable enough to post "as is".  It is material germane to relieving ourselves of negative emotions.   Good stuff!

Charles Kraft in ""Defeating Dark Angels" says "We have found Satan particularly active in the emotional area.  Perhaps this is related to our culture, since our society is especially hard on people emotionally.  I think, however, that human emotions everywhere are particularly susceptible to satanic attack, since the harboring of negative emotions so easily leads to sin.  When, for example, a person is hurt, the natural reaction is anger.  But if the person does not get rid of that anger, it turns into sin. So we are commanded in Eph. 4:26-278 to get rid of it before that point: 'If you become angry, do not let your anger lead you into sin, and do not stay angry all day. Don't give the Devil a chance.' He also quotes Eph. 4:31-32, Is. 41:10, Phil. 4:6 Matt. 5:28

 We must not give the devil a chance (Ephesians. 4:26,27) to find something by means of which to gain a 'hold on' us (John 14:30).

Kraft speaks of the law of 'spiritual excretion."  "In our physical bodies, we have an excretory system.  It sees to it that material that cannot be used or could hurt us, is regularly eliminated.  If for some reason that system gets blocked or doesn't function properly, we get poisoned from inside.  The same seems to be true in the spiritual and emo­tional realms, except that we have to control our spiritual and emotional excretion by acts of our will.  This process doesn't take place as automatically as the physical one does." (p. 89)

  "Just as we feel a sense of relief after physical elimi­nation, we feel at peace or rested after spiritual excretion. The process involves simply giving up our right to anger, bitterness, revenge, and like emotions, and giving our feel­ings to Jesus. [my emphasis]  By so doing, we allow him to carry our impos­sibly heavy burdens and to repay any who needs to be repaid (Rom. 12:17-21). This is, I believe, what Jesus is referring to when he says, 'Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest. For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light' (Mt. 11:28-30)

"The stakes are high both for you and for the plans God has for you.  If you let the Enemy continue to have a hold on you (Jn 14:30 -["I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me; (31) but I do as the Father has commanded me..." NSRV], you are, in effect, a prisoner of war in the cosmic battle between God's kingdom and that of Satan.  You have been disarmed so that your weapons will do you no good.  Neither will the authority and power that Jesus has given you.  You are locked up in a prison without knowing that Jesus has made it possible for you to be released and set free from those things Satan has used to bind you." (pp. 89-90)

"Amazing Grace" looked at again

What I wrote yesterday about "grace," quoting Bono, I know to be startlingly, earth-shakingly true.   It's truly amazing.   But I also recall Dietrich Bonhoeffer's powerful phrase and warning about "cheap grace."    He stressed that grace is misunderstood if it is received lightly without any thought of an appropriate response.   I'll want to come back and re-visit this subject some time in the future, but for now I want to dig out a couple of quotes that I've jotted down in a journal:
           John Stott - “The faith which receives Christ must be accompanied by the repentance which rejects sin.”
        Michael Youssef (quoting Spurgeon) - "The grace that does not change my life will not save my soul.   It's not a license to sin." 
         New Testament theologian Klyne Snodgrass - "If we are to avoid cheap grace, our acceptance of grace must be accompanied by obedience, gratitude, and the extension of grace to others."

Bono, the rock star, on the meaning of "Grace"

Not long ago I was in a youth meeting in which we sang the familiar song, “Amazing Grace.”  As I’ve done before on other occasions, I asked what the word “grace” meant.  Most had no idea.  I personally like Chuck Swindoll's definition:  grace means "extending special favor to someone who doesn't deserve it, who hasn't earned it, and can never repay it."   The rock star Bono offered his own insights in a fascinating interview from his book Bono:  In Conversation with Michka Assayas.

 Bono: . . . the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma.

Assayas: I haven't heard you talk about that.

Bono: I really believe we've moved out of the realm of Karma into one of Grace.

Assayas: Well, that doesn't make it clearer for me.

Bono: You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics—in physical laws—every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It's clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe. I'm absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that "as you reap, so you will sow" stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I've done a lot of stupid stuff.

Assayas: I'd be interested to hear that.

Bono: That's between me and God. But I'd be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I'd be in deep s---. It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for Grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity.

Assayas: The Son of God who takes away the sins of the world. I wish I could believe in that.

Bono: But I love the idea of the Sacrificial Lamb. I love the idea that God says: Look, you cretins, there are certain results to the way we are, to selfishness, and there's a mortality as part of your very sinful nature, and, let's face it, you're not living a very good life, are you? There are consequences to actions. The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That's the point. It should keep us humbled… . It's not our own good works that get us through the gates of heaven.

HT: SmartChristian.com

More on Kate O'Beirne's book "Women Who Make the World Worse"

I still find Kate O'Beirne's book title fascinating, Women Who Make the World Worse.   I also find the positive reviews well worth reading.   Take for example Betsy Hart's  and Mona Charen's.  Mona Charen titles her review "Feminism isn't dead, but a new book wounds it badly."  Liberals don't take to the book kindly, which is no big surprise.   But the problem is that many of the writers who flame the Amazon.com book review section with dastardly, negative reviews have never read the book.    That really bothers me.   All too often liberals choose to shout down their opponents rather than engage in true debate.   Michelle Malkin refers toEd Morrissey's piece  and his powerful quote:

The Left doesn't want people to hear what conservatives have to say, perhaps knowing that they have been intellectually outclassed and proven disastrously wrong by history and current events.   Instead, they issue mindless attacks, childish insults, and do everything possible to keep people from having access to conservative thought.

That's not the actions of people who have confidence in themselves.  Those are the actions of a fearful, small-minded, vulgar group of Neanderthals who have suddenly seen Homo sapiens and realized that their days are numbered.   These mouthbreathers cannot offer any new ideas, so instead of trying to compete with conservatives, they're busy with the electronic equivalent of sticking their fingers into their ears and shouting, "LA-LA-LA-LA, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU!!" as loudly as possible.

In short, the Left consists of ill-educated, ill-mannered children. That they keep going to such lengths to prove it shows that they don't have anything else to offer.

A friend's challenging e-mail signature

Today I received an e-mail from a friend I hadn't heard from for some time.   His closing signature includes the following quote which I find bracing and challenging:

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.  The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly . . . who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known either victory or defeat."

                                         - Teddy Roosevelt

"At once they left their nets and followed him."   (Matthew 4:20)

Verse of the Day

Once a long time ago a Christian leader pointed out a verse to me (and others) that has stayed with me for many years.   He noted the particular excellence of J.B. Philips’ translation which I follow here. 

 “The ultimate aim of the Christian ministry, after all, is to produce the love which springs from a pure heart, a good conscience and a genuine faith.”                            - I Timothy 1:5 (Phillips)

 I find that beautiful, succinct, and going to the heart of what God’s intentions in the Gospel are all about.

Brief Muslim - Christian contrast

Today I received an e-mail from a friend.  In a nutshell he lays out essential contrasts between Islam and Christian faith:

     “You cannot find in the annals of Islam how their god has a Father's love, as in the story of the prodigal son. You cannot read of a Messiah who takes human form to ransom his Father's children by pouring out his soul unto death. You cannot find the advice that husbands imitate the Messiah by giving themselves up for their sweethearts. You cannot find a safeguard against religious violence like the parable of the tares of the field: "Shall we go root them up?" "No. Let both grow until the harvest ..."

C.S. Lewis – The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

The screen version of C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe hit movie theatres nationwide Dec. 9^th, 2005.   Many good and important commentaries have appeared on the internet, and in due course I hope to make reference to at least a few that I think especially helpful or significant.

Yesterday I came across New Testament scholar Ben Witherington's blog.  I was delighted to see that he has offered some observations on the movie,  the first of which I hadn’t seen talked much about elsewhere.   Concerning his various observations, he wrote:

      The first is Lewis' profound conviction that "we are all in this together" by which I mean he stresses that the whole of creation is feeling the effects of the fall and all of it, including nature must be redeemed.  Romans 8 has a good deal to say about this if we would but listen-- "for the creation was subjected to frustration not by its own choice... but in hope, that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God" (vss. 20-21).  Lewis also stresses that humans are the crown of creation, meant to rule over it.  Though he loved an animated creation and creatures, he did not worship Mother Nature nor think that humans are merely a part of nature.

Good points, those.   Witherington continues:

      The second major theme, is that indeed there is a deep moral logic undergirding and overseeing the world, and that when the times are out of joint, they must be set right. But that which sets things right is a free act of sacrificial love, which while not setting things back like they were before the fall, instead carries creatures and creation to a whole new act of creation. . . Especially telling in this version of the Christian story is that Aslan dies in particular for Edmund-- Edmund the liar and betrayer.  Jesus himself reminds us in the 4th Gospel that while a person might die for their friends or for a good person, but who would die for a betrayer or liar or enemy?  The answer is Jesus would, showing that his love is pure grace--- unmerited favor freely bestowed, undeserved benefit freely given.

This is good, solid stuff.

      There are lots of Christian touches in the movie that the astute reader will pick out, like the fact that Aslan revives God's frozen people by breathing on them (see John 20) or like the moment at the end of the battle where Aslan kills the witch and says "It is finished" (see John. 19).  It becomes clear that this Christ figure owes most to the Gospel of John. Let us hope that the Christian themes of the movie are not so unobtrusive that audiences will largely be oblivious to them.  Let us hope they at least fall in love with true goodness and beauty and thereby with truth. Let us hope enough go to see this movie, that the next episode in the Chronicles of Narnia will be a lovingly and well filmed.

Antidotes to anger

      Here are some thoughts on anger I’ve come across that I find exceedingly helpful.   Anger is something that surges up in all of us, and as we’ve learned from experience, it can do enormous damage.

         - "When angry count ten before speaking. When very angry count one hundred and then don't speak."

         - "In an argument the best weapon to hold is your tongue."

         - "People who can hold their tongues rarely have any trouble holding their friends."

         - "Anger is one letter away from danger!"

         -"If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow." - Chinese proverb

         - 'For every minute you're angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness."

                                                                                * * *

 To the pithy sentences above, one does well to add the Biblical admonitions and exhortations:

               Proverbs 14:29 - “A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man displays folly.” (NIV)

Proverbs 15:1 - “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

Proverbs 15:18 - "A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention."

Proverbs 16:32 - "He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city."

Proverbs 17:14 - "The beginning of strife is like letting out water; so quit before the quarrel breaks out." (RSV) "The start of an argument is like the first break in a dam; stop it before it opens any further." (TEV)
 
                Proverbs 19:11 - "Good sense makes a man slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense." (RSV) "If you are sensible, you will control your temper. When someone wrongs you, it is a great virtue to ignore it."  (TEV)

 James 1:19 - "My dear brothers, take note of this:  Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, (20) for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”

 Ephesians 4:26 - “In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, (27) and do not give the devil a foothold.”  (NIV)

Ephesians 4:31 - “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. (32) Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

Jesus - Matthew. 5:22 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder’... “But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.” - Anger can be tied to other sins, like jealousy – cf. Genesis 4:7 “… sin crouches at the door..”

Quotes of the Day

On Christ's behavior -  "It is clear from many of His sayings that our Lord had long foreseen  His death.    He knew what conduct such as His, in a world such as we have made of this, must inevitably lead to." - C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm

On the Shortness of life - "Life is a pil­grimage between two moments of nakedness."

I attended the funeral of a good and godly man on Sunday.  The quote above came to mind as a great commentary on the New Testament passage, I Timothy 6:6-8: “There is great gain in godliness with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world; but if we have food and clothing, with these we shall be content."

Benefits of Coconut Oil

I don’t carry ordinary health insurance, but instead belong to Samaritan Ministries, a Christian cost-sharing health program, that keeps costs down and allows Christian believers to help one another with expenses, prayer and encouragement.  A book review of Bruce Fife’s The Coconut Oil Miracle (an interview with the author can be found  here) appeared in a recent Samaritan Ministries’ newsletter. 

“When taken as a supplement used in cooking, or applied directly to the skin, coconut oil has been found to promote weight loss; help protect against heat disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and many other degenerative diseases; prevent premature aging of the skin; strengthen the immune system; and improve digestion.”   

The book explodes the false information (funded by soybean and vegetable oil lobbies) that coconut and other tropical oils are linked to heart disease.   The reviewer says

“The key to understanding coconut oils is realizing it contains medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs).  The medium length of its carbon chains makes it an ideal food for the body to digest and the cells to metabolize.   In other words, ‘coconut oil produces energy, not fat.’”

More:

“Coconut oil is known to kill all three of the major types of artherogenic organisms.  Research has shown that MCFAs from coconut oil can kill bacteria and viruses that cause influenza, herpes, bladder infections, gum disease, and numerous other conditions.  Coconut oil is also a powerful antioxidant that neutralizes the free radicals that contribute to heart disease and many other maladies. . .

“The list of coconut oils’ applications goes on and on.  It neutralizes yeast infections, fights parasites, and boosts immune systems.  Cancer patients can take it to help keep white blood cells healthy…  Many patients suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome credit coconut oil as the key to their recovery.  Research has even shown its effectiveness in treating epileptic seizures..”

"...  It also produces amazing results when applied topically.  It can trest blisters, cuts, athletes foot, plantar warts, dandruff, hemorrhoids, acne and psoriasis...   (it) is most beneficial when applied in pure form directly to hair and skin."

The book “contains more than fifty recipes for using coconut oil in cooking and also tells how to find and buy the best coconut oil.”    The author concludes the book saying “the coconut is one of God’s greatest health foods.”   

A sidebar to the review refers to The Coconut Research Center.    It’s a site loaded with information.  Another website listed is Eat Fat Lose Fat that explains “why we must eat healthy saturated fats—especially coconut oil—to achieve weight loss and good health.  The complete text of the first chapter is posted, along with many recipes.”   Still another website listed is The Oiling of America - “the amazing story of the rise of coronary heart disease and the production of hydrogenated oils and trans fats in the 20^th century.”  Finally, "Tropical Traditions" is a recommended retailer of certified organic virgin coconut oil.   

I post this as information I plan to investigate myself.  I have no financial interest in coconut oil, nor am I medical doctor.  No guarantees!!!   But it seems worth noting.

Intelligent Design Debate

On the current debate concerning Intelligent Design, a sure-footed guide can be found in Nancy Pearcey.   Her book Total Truth, has a major section laying out the case for Intelligent Design.   She has stayed on top of the discussion and has written an article that takes account of the criticisms leveled by people such as George Will, Charles Krauthammer and others.   In this article she offers five reasons why intelligent design will win in the end.  Also worth checking out is her article, "Christianity Is a Science-Starter, Not a Science-Stopper".   She previously wrote one of the clearest introductions to science I have ever read, The Soul of Science plus she co-wrote with Chuck Colson How Now Shall We Live?  She and her husband have an important website, The Pearcey Report,  which gathers news and offers commentary.   

Shyness

I came across a note I had jotted down a year ago on shyness, a condition with which I have great empathy.   Steve Allen, the  comedian, author, composer and Emmy-award winning TV host (d. 10/21/00), was far more comfortable performing on stage than he was off stage in a social gathering.  When he and Jane [Meadows – his wife] went to a gathering, he would either go to the piano or to a bookcase and sit down and read.  When they met, they were both part of a larger gathering in a restaurant I think it was.  Jayne and he were sitting next to each other. During the evening he said not one word to her.  As the evening concluded, she said, ‘You are either one of two things.  Either you are the rudest man I have ever known or the shyest.’  He turned beat red and then suggested to Audrey (Meadows -- Jayne’s sister) that they go to another restaurant for a concluding dessert ‘and bring your sister with you.’”

Quotes of the Day

On doing the will of God - "The more a man is committed to doing the will of God in the world, the more he will know the need to pray."  - Lesslie Newbigin, Honest Religion for Secular Man, p. 150

On the measure of a life -  "The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation.  How much will you be missed?"   - source unknown

On the glories of reason -  "People sometimes say they feel a rush of emotion and feel the presence of God.  Another said, 'I fell a rush of reason and feel the presence of God.'"   

Free Market Capitalism - A defense

A helpful comment on capitalism, drawing on its Biblical background, may be found as comment #5 on the page linked.   The whole post needs to be read, but below is a sample:

When God formed the nation of Israel he made clear that all that is belongs to him. We are but stewards of what he has entrusted to us. But he also did two more things. First, he instilled private property rights, the most basic of which was that each clan was to own their own land and labor and no one could be permanently alienated from that property. If you read Leviticus you will find that many laws are directed at practical justice when someone’s private property is stolen or damaged.

Second, clear provisions are made for the poor. Farmers are prohibited from farming to the edge of their fields so that the poor may gather grain and eat. The Jubilee ensured that the worst decisions or disasters did not leave a family permanently in destitution and without a means to produce of a living. Therefore, God owned all that is and portioned it out by means of private property to be developed and made productive, while always insisting that there be no poverty.

 

--  Francis Schaeffer once wrote, "There is a peculiar kind of capitalism in the Bible -- a capitalism, an acquired property, that cares for people.  And this we have forgotten.  Our choice is not between a capitalism, an acquired property, which is hard, cold and unloving (characterized by people who care for nobody but themselves as they amass great fortunes) and a socialism in which the state owns everything.  The Christian has a third option -- property acquired and used with compassion."  "Ash Heap Lives" in No Little People, p. 264  - This is a powerful chapter dealing with materialism in a Christian's life.  "We all tend to live 'ash heap lives'; we spend most of our time and money for things that will end up in the city dump."  (Emphasis his).

-- Long ago I jotted down a comment whose origin I can no longer trace:   "We can discern in the system of capitalism some sort of inner affinity with the human desire to work, to make or build something of one's own and an even deeper affinity with the human desire to change, to improve not only one's self but one's environment."

-- Having said all the above, there exists the challenge of "the new monasticism" as well:  young people (primarily) experimenting with new possibilities of corporate living to extend and live out the Kingdom of God in unique ways. 

America's pro-homosexual business giants

If anyone is interested in which companies score 100% from "gay-rights” groups, here is the list.

The "Women's Vote" is not monolithic

Kate O'Beirne, journalist with National Review magazine and author of the recently published Women Who Make the World Worse: and How Their Radical Feminist Assault Is ruining Our Schools, Families, Military, and Sports (as previously noted on this blog), outlines in  a short article the way different categories of women (by age, marriage, education, etc) view abortion and similar issues.  She demolishes the preposterous claim that liberal women activists speak for women in general.

Pope Benedict XVI on the Unchanging Nature of Islam

“Spengler” has an important article  in the Asia Times Online on Pope Benedict XVI’s understanding of the inability of Islam to reform itself. The Pope has stated how Islam’s view of the unchanging nature of the Koran differs fundamentally from Christianity or Judaism. In short, the suggestion that Islam can modernize or moderate is extremely unlikely. The leader of Iran, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, said on January 5th of this year,

“We must believe in the fact that Islam is not confined to geographical borders, ethnic groups and nations. It's a universal ideology that leads the world to justice. We don't shy away from declaring that Islam is ready to rule the world. We must prepare ourselves to rule the world."

That statement represents more mainstream Islamic thinking than most American thinkers are prepared to acknowledge.

Spengler says his own views “simply follow the leading Muslim authorities, who are unanimous that Islam is in no need of reform.”

HT: Rod Dreher at the Corner, National Review Online

Update: 1/17/06 -  Daniel Pipes, noted scholar on things Islamic, disagrees with the Pope and cites reasons why it is possible to hope that Islam can undergo reforms.  He cites certain scholars and examples, but also acknowledges it will not be easy. 

Crucifixion

The other day I was dipping into  David F. Wells’ Losing Our Virtue: Why the Church Must Recover Its Moral Vision. His words on crucifixion (p. 168) hit me afresh.

“Crucifixion was a barbaric way of carrying out capital punishment.  It was also an exquisitely designed means of bringing total, humiliating shame  upon the accused as they slowly made their way toward death.  It entailed public “status degradation,” destroying every vestige of a person’s standing in society before he died.  The condemned frequently were flogged as a prelude to crucifixion and, perhaps, blinded to underscore their helplessness.  They were forced to carry the cross beam upon which they would die, which added insult to the injury they were about to sustain.  Their clothes were parceled out to others so that they had to bear the humiliation of being naked in public.  Once nailed, they were exhibited as powerless, and this provided much public entertainment.  The victim was ridiculed, and the possibility of vengeance, which might have rectified such dishonor, was publicly withheld.  The humiliating body contortions and excretions were in public view, and often the bodies were not buried but left on the cross until the birds had done their work.  Crucifixion meant death with great dishonor; with public degradation, and that is what Hebrews has in mind when it says that Christ “endured the cross, despising the shame.”  (Heb. 2:2).

As I read this, I thought about C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and especially ch. 14, “The Triumph of the Witch.” There we see Aslan on the Stone Table undergoing the mocking and ridicule and suffering that corresponded in the land of Narnia to the suffering of Christ in our world.  It’s an extremely powerful and moving scene.   It helps me better grasp -- at least a little bit more -- the reality of Christ’s suffering.

Current Absurdities in Art History

Roger Kimball, a distinguished art critic, editor of "The New Criterion," and author of The Rape of the Master: How Political Correctness Sabotages Art  offers a commentary on his encounter with Michael Fried, a celebrated art historian from Johns Hopkins University.  This is a long article but worth reading if one wants an immersion into the esoteric, truly weird, sicko world of academic art history.  Kimball will have none of it.

Kimball has the quaint idea that "we teach and study art history to learn about art. . . The answer furnished by the academic art establishment, however, is that we teach and study art history in order 1) to show how clever one is and 2) to subordinate art to a pet political, social, or philosophical agenda."

Hat tip: Corner National Review Online

The Tyranny of TV Everywhere

Froma Harrop hit the nail on the head with her recent column.    She wrote, “I watch television, and I use it as a drug. Let no one call me a television snob. But let me also draw a line in the sandbox: Free humans should never have television forcd on them. this is happening more and more, and it gives me the creeps. I know others who feel likewise.

 
There’s no escaping TV. It’s in the doctor’s office, the gym and the jury-pool waiting room. It’s in the bar, whether there’s a game on or not. It’s at the airport, where CNN holds everyone hostage. Note how the monitors are carefully placed around the boarding areas so that no seat is beyond their grasp.  

Hospital waiting rooms are perpetually under television domination. The detainees may want to read, pray or listen to their own thoughts. They are not allowed to. Television must be watched.

 In a way, the TVs that blare at us wherever we go are worse than the telescreen in “1984,” George Orwell’s novel about totalitarian communism. In “1984,” Big Brother may have been watching you, but you didn’t have to watch him all day long.  

In this world of TiVo, Netflix and video iPods, we can supposedly watch exactly what we want, when we want it. That’s civilization. But the society that lets television hijack public spaces — that’s tyranny. Television should always be our servant, never our master. I fear it may be too late to save ourselves.

I couldn’t agree more!

Letter to Europe

The always valuable and insightful Victor Davis Hanson, classicist and military historian, today wrote a letter to Europe which is wise, respectful and poignant.     What are the chances Europe will respond positively to the kind of critique Hanson offers?   Slim indeed.

Is President Bush a Liar? No

Joel Belz of World Magazine sets the record straight.    A still more definitive answer may be found in Norman Podheretz's "Who is Lying About Iraq?"

 

Update: 1/12/06 - See the article  Bush Understated Saddam's Threat which discusses the treasure trove of materials found in Iraq (over 2 million items!), including the names of 8,000 or more terrorists who trained in Iraq from 1999-2002 under Saddam.   This article in turn builds on Stephen Hayes' 1/16/2006 piece that appeared in the Weekly Standard.  Only 2% of the materials have so far been translated but they are amazing and totally discredit the accusations that President Bush lied about Saddam's threat.   

Christian winsomeness in the public square

Chuck Colson  argues that Christians need to act winsomely in the public square to achieve their goals.  He says,  “To seek political victories in a heavy-handed way is not only a bad witness; it’s unwise.   To ultimately achieve our goals we need both political victories and cultural support.”

“To change the culture, therefore, we must learn how to engage the political process more winsomely. It requires a different mindset, a recognition that we’re appealing to hearts and minds, not twisting arms. In both fact and appearance we are not seeking to impose but rather to propose. The Christian Church makes a Great Proposal, inviting everyone to the table, regardless of color, ethnic origin, background, or economic status. We’re inviting people to consider a worldview that works, that makes sense, and through which people can discover shalom and human flourishing.

“This means first loving those we contend against in the political process. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, “Whom you would change, you must first love.” Second, we offer our strongest witness when we demonstrate our love for others through fighting AIDS in Africa, slavery in  Sudan, persecution in North Korea, and when we reform prisons and prisoners.  When the world sees us working for human rights, we earn a moral authority that blunts the 'Imposing your morality' attacks in the public square.

The cultural mandate requires that we work for justice and righteousness to reflect God’s majesty and goodness. That includes engaging in politics and getting good justices confirmed; but we must remember as we do this that we are not imposing—we are proposing, in love, a more excellent way to a needy society.”

To which I say a hearty “Amen”.

Miscellaneous items from WorldNetDaily.com

---  Here's an interesting story about a Catholic priest in the Philippines who works with the poor near a garbage dump.  He sees globalization and the internet as aids for his parishioners.   "If the poor are unprepared, if they're still linked to the industrial age when we're living in the cybernetic age, then globalization won't benefit them.   So it's the responsibility of the church and civil society to ready the poor.   We shouldn't hold back the march of history. Our faith tells us to move from the garden to the heavenly city."

 

--- Michael Travers of Southeastern College in Wake Forest, NC became a C.S. Lewis reader and scholar.  He finds that Lewis speaks to the human condition from a Christian perspective in an enormously helpful way.

 

--- I've often wondered about the mental contortions some postmodernists employ in order to deny the reality of "truth".   Do we not all know, for example, the reality of a lie?  Now scientists are studying the way "functional magnetic resonance imaging - fMRI for short - enables researchers to create maps of the brain's networks in action as they process thoughts, sensations, memories, and motor commands."   It spots lies.  The article Don't Even Think About Lying  in Wired magazine explains how this developing technology far surpasses the old 'polygraph' test. 

Saudi Gov't's Muslim Publication in America

Daniel Pipes offers a short review of a major study published by Freedom House, titled “Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Fill American Mosques”    He says,
"Freedom House’s Muslim volunteers went to fifteen prominent mosques from New York to San Diego and collected over two hundred books and other publications disseminated by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (some 90 percent in the Arabic language) in the mosque libraries, publication racks, and bookstores.
"What they found can only be described as horrifying. These writings – each and every one of them sponsored by the kingdom – espouse an anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, misogynist, jihadist, and supremacist outlook."

Pipes' review is must reading.   He concludes: 
"The Bush administration needs to confront the domestic menace that the Wahhabi kingdom presents to the United States. That means junking the fantasy of Saudi friendship and seeing the country, like China, as a formidable rival whose ambitions for a very different world order must be both repulsed and contained. "

C.S. Lewis: A soldier's life

As we think about U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq and elsewhere, the battles and deprivations they face are well described in a letter found inThe Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis  Volume II: Books, Broadcasts, and the War, 1931-1949. (Edited by Walter Hooper [HarperSanFrancisco], 2004).    In his letter of May 10th, 1939 C.S. Lewis wrote his friend Dom Bede Griffeths OSB: “My memories of the last war haunted my dreams for years.  Military service, to be plain, includes the threat of every temporal evil:  pain and death wh. is what we fear from sickness: isolation from those we love wh. is what we fear from exile:  toil under arbitrary masters, injustice and humiliation, wh. is what we fear from slavery: hunger, thirst, cold and exposure wh. is what we fear from poverty.  I’m not a pacifist.  It its got to be, its got to be. . ."    p. 259

Movies to see

I came across the following note I made a year ago.  I have yet to see these movies, but still want to.

Thomas Hibbs concluded his recent review of Hotel Rwanda by mentioning two other movies that sound well worth seeing: 

"With Hotel Rwanda, last summer's Osama  (a harrowing and captivating tale of a girl's attempt to secure a job to assist her family by disguising herself as a male under the ruthless Taliban regime in Afghanistan), and the just-released Moolaade (a deeply critical look at the practice of female circumcision in Africa), a number of current films about non-Western society manage to captivate, inspire, and educate.  These films also reveal the moral poverty and political impotence of certain still-trendy proclamations of multiculturalism.  Instead of railing against imperialism, these films face squarely the moral and political deficiencies inherent in a number of non-Western cultures and regimes.  Even as they provide Americans with an introduction to cultures in many ways quite alien to our own, these films appeal to and refine a moral sensibility that largely transcends the specificity of culture."

Freedom in Narnia

I like this short essay by R. Andrew Newman on the role of freedom in C.S. Lewis’s Narnia.  After many Narnian illustrations, Newman concludes with  this comment:  “In an essay that deserves to be better known, 'Is Progress Possible? Willing Slaves of the Welfare State,' Lewis argued that the state no longer exists to 'protect our rights but to do us good or make us good — anyway, to do something to us or to make us something.  Hence the new name 'leaders' for those who were once 'rulers.'   We are less their subjects than their wards, pupils, or domestic animals.   There is nothing left of which we can say to them, 'Mind your own business.' Our whole lives are their business."

"At least in Narnia, the state has its business and the subjects retain theirs."

Colson’s Nightmare, Political Correctness, and the Clash of Civilizations

Chuck Colson’s nightmare of a Muslim-Al Qaida takeover of the world makes for a chilling read. It's not as wild and unrealistic a scenario as one might suppose.   Colson’s Breakpoint article links to a separate article on political correctness that reviews The West and the Rest:  Globalization and the Terrorist Threat by Roger Scruton.  I found much of value in this essay, including Scruton’s distinction between Islam and Christianity.

The Muslim faith, like the Christian, is defined through a prayer. But this prayer takes the form of a declaration: There is one God, and Muhammad is his Prophet. To which it might be added: and you had better believe it. The Christian prayer is also a declaration of faith; but it includes the crucial words: "forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us." In other words, the appeal to divine mercy—which prefaces every sura of the Koran with the beautiful words bism illah il-rahman il-rahim, "in the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful"—is made conditional, in the daily prayer of Christians upon the habit of forgiving our enemies. The "imitation of Christ" is conceived in the same terms: not a vanquishing of God’s enemies, but as a self-sacrifice, a willing oblation, an acceptance—in a sprit of forgiveness—of the worst that human beings can do. . . . Christianity contains within itself the idea of a political solution which Aeschylus presents in the Oresteia: a solution that steps out of the cycle of vengeance in order to seek peace through conciliation.

Lessons of 25 Years

Michael Barone, Senior Writer for U.S. News & World Report, lists three major political and economic lessons of the last 25 years.  Quite unbelievably, most university and media elite remain impervious to these lessons.  This article  is a must read.  There is wisdom to be gleaned from history.

Verse of the Day

“Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life.” 
                                    Psalm 54:4 (ESV)

The last several days I’ve been meditating on this verse from the Psalms.  We don’t use language like “Behold” very much today, but I like it.  It adds a point of emphasis that can arouse us from our slumbers.

Spiritual Aspirations for the New Year

It's January 1st, 2006.   A new year has rolled around.   I am old enough to remember when 1984 was a long way off.  That year held the promise of the dire predictions associated with the book 1984.  But the years have continued to pile up, and now we have arrived at 2006.

For my own good, if no one else's, I want to remind myself of some challenging aspirations I originally compiled some years ago.  The Christian life is full of paradoxes, and one of the most profound is that we find our lives by losing them.   Personal meaning is found in being the channel of God's love and grace to others.  This we cannot manufacture on our own.   We must be united with God through prayer and self-surrender. 

Mother Teresa captures this very vividly in her prayer,

"Dear Lord, help me to spread thy fragrance everywhere I go.  Flood my soul with thy spirit and life.  Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of thine." - Life in the Spirit, p. 9

She advises,

"Pray--pray for grace, pray that you may understand how Jesus has loved you so that you may love others, and pray for us that we may not spoil God's work."  Life in the Spirit, p. 18.

She wrote the following on being light in a dark world: 

"Often you see small and big wires, new and old, cheap and expensive electric cables up -- they alone are useless and until the current passes through them there will be no light. The wire is you and me. The current is God. We have the power to let the current pass through us and use us to produce the light of the world or we can refuse to be used and allow the darkness to spread. . . Let his light of truth be in every person's life so that God can continue loving the world through you and me. . . Put your heart into being a bright light." - Life in the Spirit, p. 7

To what she wrote may be added the words of C.S. Lewis, the great British writer, now made even more famous through the movie version of his book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  He wrote,   

“Our whole destiny seems to lie in. . . acquiring a fragrance that is not our own but borrowed, in becoming clean mirrors filled with the image of a face that is not ours.”  - “Christianity and Literature” in Christian Reflections, p. 6.

This, in turn, seems a remarkable variation of what the Apostle Paul wrote to some early Christians in what would now be modern Greece:

“Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.”   - II Corinthians 3:18 (The Message)

These are powerful thoughts.  And yet, they shouldn't be strange to us, for what is "salvation" if it does not involve "transformation"?

May the New Year find us all growing deeper into the transformation God intends for us all.

 

                                                                 *   *   * 

Some years ago I picked up a little wall plaque that captured my attention.  I still think it states things extremely well.

“Why were the saints saints?

Because they were cheerful when it was difficult to be cheerful,

patient when it was difficult to be patient;

and because they pushed on when they wanted to stand still,

and kept silent when they wanted to talk,

and were agreeable when they wanted to be disagreeable.

That was all.

It was quite simple and always will be.