Easter Reading

By random chance, on Friday I picked up a used copy of Hume's "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion" at the awesome renaissance Bookshop at the Milwaukee Airport.

I was led there by Susan Nieman's "Evil in Modern Thought," about which I may try and write later. That was a challenging book...

And either I'm much smarter now and so more aware of the deep subtleties in books like this, or a whole lot dumber than I was in college when they were easy to read.

Execution day

At right, "The Three Crosses," by Rembrandt

Sometime on the Friday after Passover, almost 2,000 years ago, Roman soldiers, acting on orders of Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea, took Jesus of Nazareth to a low hill outside Jerusalem and crucified him to death. As crucifixion deaths went, Jesus' death came pretty quickly, within a few hours. It was not unusual for victims to linger on the cross for days.

There were two criminals also crucified alongside Jesus. Because it was Passover week, emotions ran high among the Jews who had made pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the holy observances. There were many thousands of pilgrims there, some historians say more than 100,000. At sunset on Fridays the Jewish Sabbath began then as now, and even hardened Roman soldiers were uneasy about the execution of these men continuing when the Sabbath began during this particular week. So they decided to break the victims' legs in order to make quick their suffocation to death. Crucifixion is, after all, a form of hanging, killing by suffocation. With their legs broken, the victims could not push up to take a breath and so would die a quick, though brutal death ("excruciating" derives from the same root as "crucifixion," and it is no accidental relationship).

But when they came to Jesus to break his legs, they discovered he had already died. Another soldier, probably more experienced and thus leaving nothing to chance, took his long spear and plunged it into Jesus' side, almost certainly penetrating his heart, since that would have been the whole point of spearing him to begin with.

Before sundown, the Romans permitted some of Jesus' friends to retrieve his body and entomb it.

Read the rest at Sense of Events.

Nov 2007: The Face of Iraq

Take a look at this photo. Care to guess what it is?

OK, guessing over. It's from Michael Yon's recent dispatch:

"Today, Muslims mostly filled the front pews of St John’s [church]. Muslims who want their Christian friends and neighbors to come home. The Christians who might see these photos likely will recognize their friends here. The Muslims in this neighborhood worry that other people will take the homes of their Christian neighbors, and that the Christians will never come back. And so they came to St John’s today in force, and they showed their faces, and they said, "Come back to Iraq. Come home." They wanted the cameras to catch it. They wanted to spread the word: Come home. Muslims keep telling me to get it on the news. "Tell the Christians to come home to their country Iraq."

read the rest! »

Methodism's coming death spiral

I've just returned from three days of the Bishop's Convocation of the Tennessee and Memphis Conferences of the United Methodist Church. The theme of the convocation was "Restoring Methodism." I'll not address the content of the convocation in this post except to note that the presenters, Professors James and Molly Scott, offered excellent ideas and processes for a potential restoration, if one is to be done. Their book and CD can be found here.

However, despite my enthusiasm for their ideas, I am pessimistic that anything can be done to reverse the decades-long downward trend in the number of people belonging to the UMC in the United States. (The UMC is a worldwide denomination and is growing outside the US.) In 1968 there were almost 13 million UMs; now there are about 8 million. Of these, we were told, the average age is 60. They didn't say what the median age is, but I expect it's higher. However, for this post I'll assume that the median age and the average age are about the same (as they are for UM's clergy). The median age for all Americans is 36.4 years (Census tables here).

What the convocation ignored was what the graying of the denomination portends. Once the mention was made of UMs' ages, the subject was dropped and we moved on to discussing how to fix the machinery of the denomination as a whole.

read the rest! »

Russia's Baptist Astronomer

Russia Today carried a story that I liked a lot:

"An amateur astronomer from the Russian Republic of Adygea has built his own planetarium out of locally available materials. Victor Matyushin, a Baptist priest, explains the structure of the universe to his visitors, including from a religious point of view.... When the lights go off, the mystery of space unfolds. Using home-made projection devices, Matyushin shows his visitors Saturn and its rings, the sun and the stars. He says some guests are so fascinated that they come back several times. The place is open to everyone and free for all.... At 76, Viktor is full of hope that someday he’ll be able to save money for modern astronomy equipment. So he can share with his guests - young and old - even more secrets of the universe."

A religious person who also has a passion for science? That's not hard to believe at all. Civilization needs more of them.

Must soldiers forgive the enemy?

Combat and the problem of forgiveness

For someone who professes to follow Jesus Christ, or at least follow his teachings, the subject of forgiveness is probably one of the most vexing. Jesus taught plainly that his followers are obligated to forgive, for example, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Mt. 6:14-15).

If, in combat, an enemy takes the life of your best friend, or blows off your leg, and if you think of yourself as a disciple of Jesus Christ, are you required to forgive that enemy? Is a Christian soldier required by the commandments of Christ to forgive those who have sought to kill him, or who have killed or wounded his comrades?

More thoughts about this over at www.donaldsensing.com

Update: See also, "Forgiveness, Justice and Hate," by Joe Katzman (August 2003) , who presents some Jewish perspectives.

"Jesus Family Tomb" drops from sight

Sunday night's Discovery Channel show, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," has disappeared from serious consideration faster than the Iraq Study Group's report did. If you wish to read my takedown, here a link to my own post at donaldsensing.com:

Archeo-porn! Conspiracy Theory! Hallelujah!

In brief, the entire thesis of the show is a conspiracy theory. And like most such theories, it requires it adherents to dismiss historical facts and replace them with enormous conjecture. In this case, the entire thesis rests on completely dismissing Jesus as a first-century Jewish religious figure and recharacterizing him as an anti-Roman revolutionary. That was a claim made explicity on the show. But there is absolutely no evidence for it and no less a figure than Pontius Pilate himself directly contradicted the notion.

And I'd sure like to know how this scene relates to the rest of the show at all; in fact it is more evidence that this show was a decidedly unserious work.

Jesus' bones - HWGA

Ya'll 'scuse me while I snore though James Cameron's latest epic, ""The Lost Tomb of Jesus," which he claims will prove that Jesus of Nazareth - yes, that Jesus - was buried in a tomb in Jerusalem far from where church historians say he was, stayed there, and that a stone ossuary in the tomb, discovered in 1980, once held Jesus' bones. He also claims other ossuaries found in the tomb once held the bones of Mary, Jesus' mother, Mary Magdalene, assumed to be Jesus' wife, and Judah, son of Jesus.

Snooooooze.....

It's the latest crisis of the year for Christianity, right on time: not long before Easter.

HWGA - Here We Go Again. They've even dragged out John Dominic Crossan, ulta-left Bible scholar, a founder of the fiercely anti-Scripture Jesus Seminar. He's been claiming for many years that the foundational claim of Christianity, the resurrection of Jesus, is hokum. He can be relied on by "documentarians" to reinforce anything they want to knock down the edifice.

Nuff of all that here - read the rest at DonaldSensing.com: "The Christian street won't stand for it! Oh, wait, uh, yes it will. . . ."

A Christmas Quiz

As you may imagine, December is a pretty busy time for ministers, so my posting will be light for the next three weeks or so. In the spirit of the season, I've posted a Christmas quiz at my own site. I'll post answers tomorrow. There are no trick questions. Have fun, and don't go googling the answers until after you've tried to answer them all!

Take the quiz!

Waleed Aly on Benedict's Speech

See Islamic Council of Victoria director Waleed Aly:

"Here, the vociferous protests came from people who, quite clearly, have not bothered to read Benedict's speech. Worse, some (like al-Hilali and Ameer Ali) themselves regularly complain of being quoted incorrectly and out of context. Had such critics done their homework, they would have noted Benedict's description of Manuel II's "startling brusqueness". Manuel's point was that violent doctrine could not come from God because missionary violence is contrary to rationality. Benedict's point was a subtle one: that Manuel draws a positive link between religious truth and reason. This was the central theme of the Pope's address. He was silent on Manuel's attitude to Islam because it was beside the point he was making."

The rest is also worth reading, and I especially liked his use of the phrase "overblown response of surreal imbecility"; surely a keeper for future situations of all kinds. But his first 2 paragraphs nailed it, echoing Rev. Sensing's point yesterday before making his own:

read the rest! »

The Apology

A friend recently emailed me regarding the following MSM translation of Pope Benedict's response to Muslim outrage, regarding his reference to a Christian emperor's challenge that Islam provide some example of Muhammed's uniquely benevolent contribution:

He said: "I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims."

Actually, he said ''sono rammaricato'', which means something more like 'I'm disappointed', than 'I'm sorry', & with no hint of 'deeply' anywhere in there at all.

Checking, I went to my Italian dictionary, which translates,

rammaricarsi: To grieve, to regret; to complain; to fret.
rammarico: Grief, sorrow, regret; groan. Con profondo--, with profound regret.

I can't find a direct translation of sono although my friend tells me that it's the first-person singular, present tense of the verb "to be". It may not be relevant, but the word sonoro means sonorous or resonant.

The Pope's response seems to imply grave disappointment but it's not clear with whom. It's also probably sufficiently vague that it allows people who want to see the words as apologetic to do so.

It would be undignified for the Pope to be flagrantly defiant of the Ummah, but he seems to have crafted a response that is both profoundly respectful, and deeply resonant with Manuel II Paleologus' original challenge.

"Our goal is not to document actual events . . ."

ABC's entertainment division found itself in a minor kerfuffle this week and sort of apologized to the good people of Hyattsville, Md.,

... for Thursday night's episode of Commander in Chief in which the town was depicted as violent and crime-ridden. At one point a character said that 11 homicides had occurred in Hyattsville over the past six months. "We haven't had 11 homicides in Hyattsville in the past 10 years," Jim Keary, a spokesman for the County Executive Jack. B. Johnson, told the Associated Press. ABC apologized for any offense, saying that it had embellished crime statistics to enhance its story. In a statement, the network added, "Our goal is not to document actual events, but to create characters and compelling stories for our viewers."

read the rest! »

Hey, Judas

I quarantine the "Judas Gospel," in scare quotes because it's neither a gospel nor the work of Judas.

Gospel is condensed from Old English godspel, which is a compound meaning "good news." The first element of the Anglo-Saxon word had a long "o," but pronunciation shifted under mistaken association with God. It really is the adjective good we still use, and which the Anglo-Saxons would more or less recognize, if they could hear us say it. Then as now, it meant "having the right or desirable quality."

The Proto-Germanic root is *gothaz (cf. Old Norse go�r, Dutch goed, German gut, Gothic go�s). The original notion is "fit, adequate, belonging together," and linguists trace it back to the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European base *ghedh- "to unite, be associated, suitable." This relates our good to Russian godnyi "fit, suitable," as well as the Old English verb g�drian "to gather, to take up together," the root of gather.

It is not, however, related to God. God is good may be a theological truth, but it is not a linguistic one.

read the rest! »

"Judas gospel" a Yawner

Much is being made today of the "Judas Gospel," a set of papyrus texts recently acquired by the National Geographic Society and authenticated as ancient, dating from about 140 years after Jesus. The texts were discovered in Egypt in the 1970s.

Judas was one of the Twelve, who were the core group of disciples of Jesus during his ministry. Canonical gospels agree that Judas betrayed Jesus for money paid by the Temple priests. Obviously, the "Judas gospel" wasn't written by Judas, who committed suicide after Jesus was arrested in Jerusalem.

The Mercury News reports:

Judas Iscariot, long reviled as history's quintessential betrayer, was actually the best friend of Jesus and turned him over to authorities only because Jesus asked him to, according to the Gospel of Judas, a long-lost document presented Thursday by the National Geographic Society.

The document, considered by some to be the most important archaeological find of the past 60 years, purports to record conversations between Jesus and Judas in the last week of their lives -- conversations in which Jesus shared religious secrets not known by the other disciples.

It was ruled heretical by early church leaders because of its disagreement with the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Not quite.

read the rest! »

A Tale of Two Towns

Fallas festival, Valencia

In the Fallas festival, giant sculptures of the high and mighty are placed in the streets for the public to mock before being destroyed in an orgy of gunpowder and flames. It has survived attacks by the Roman Catholic church, various puritanical rulers and the Franco dictatorship.

. . . .Valencians watched global protests against newspaper cartoons of Mohammed with growing alarm. Last month, the mayor, Rita Barber�, urged artists to "temper freedom with a sense of responsibility" when referring to religious subjects. At least one well known local Fallas artist admitted to removing elements from his display of comic sculptures. . . . that identified them as Arabs.

F�lix Crespo, the senior official in charge of the Central Fallas Council that runs the festival, urged the neighbourhood committees that raise funds to build the sculptures to avoid mixing humour with religion, "because that can be misunderstood".

Everyone assumed these warnings referred to Islam because sculptures of Roman Catholic priests, nuns, even of God, are a central part of the Fallas.[emphasis mine]

read the rest! »

Closed for Xmas. Open for Christmas.

MSNBC Headline: "Some megachurches to be closed on Christmas." Given my own experience with High Holidays, I find that kind of funny and completely weird.

On a happier note:

"A youth wing affiliated with Indonesia's largest Muslim group Nahdlatul Ulama, some 40 million strong, told Reuters that members would guard churches for the coming Christmas festivities and it had persuaded youths from other religions to join the project."

Slavery, Then and Now

M. Simon's The Slave Trade Continues links to an excellent historical retrospective entitled The Scourge of Slavery, done by a South African Christian organization. I recommend it very highly - and the figures involved will probably shock you;

"It is estimated that possibly as many as 11 million Africans were transported across the Atlantic (95% of which went to South and Central America, mainly to Portuguese, Spanish and French possessions. Only 5% of the slaves went to the United States).

However, at least 28 million Africans were enslaved in the Muslim Middle East. As at least 80% of those captured by Muslim slave traders were calculated to have died before reaching the slave markets, it is believed that the death toll from the 14 centuries of Muslim slave raids into Africa could have been over 112 million. When added to the number of those sold in the slave markets, the total number of African victims of the Trans Saharan and East African slave trade could be significantly higher than 140 million people."

Broad numbers, indeed, but not beyond the realm of probability. Which leads to the next, even more troubling set of questions...

read the rest! »

Steyn on Europe and Faith

Mark Steyn, in an interview with John Hawkins:

John Hawkins: In your opinion, why is it that Europe has become so much more secular than the United States, where Christianity is still strong?

Mark Steyn: The short answer is separation of church and state - and I use that phrase as it was intended to be used: The founders� distaste for "establishment of religion" simply means that they didn't want President Washington also serving as head of the Church Of America and the Archbishop of Virginia sitting in the Unites States Senate - as to this day the Queen is Supreme Governor of the Church Of England and the Archbishop of York sits in the House Of Lords. Most European countries either had de jure state churches, like England, or de facto ones, like Catholic Italy. One consequence of that is the lack of portability of faith: in America, when the Episcopalians and Congregationalists go all post-Christian and relativist, people find another church; in Britain, when Christians give up on the Church of England, they tend to give up on religion altogether.

So the dynamism of American faith exemplifies the virtues of the broader society: the US has a free market in religion, Europe had cosseted overregulated monopolies and cartels. The other salient point is that obviously Europe does have a religion: radical secularism. The era of the state church has been replaced by an age in which the state itself is the church. European progressives still don't get this: they think the idea of a religion telling you how to live your life is primitive, but the government regulating every aspect of it is somehow advanced and enlightened.

Dan Darling has made this point to me in phone conversations. It's a good one, and "muslim refusenik" Irshad Manji has pointed out some of the interesting modern-day consequences. Off topic but apropos, Steyn also said this:

read the rest! »

Christians and Gays

The Pryhills have a sparse post up with a couple of links. They're good ones, written by committed Christians for Christians, yet they offer examples for us all.

It's possible not to approve of somebody's choices and to hold fast to that moral stand - but still treat them with love, respect, and understanding as a human being.

Un-Bible Study

Rev. Donald Sensing linked this one a while ago, and I thought it was worth highlighting again. Blog One another writes:

"Last week in our gathering, we had an "un-Bible study". My experience with "Bible studies" is that someone has read the passage and come up with a set of conclusions. Then they come up with a matching set of questions designed to lead people to those conclusions. The whole point is to find the "good" answers.

But for our "un-Bible study", instead of coming up with good answers, I explained that I wanted our group to come up with good questions...."

Jon Reid then goes on to describe their application of "un-Bible Study" in practice. Is there a connection between the philosophy behind this practice and alpha dinners? Read Un-Bible Study and see.

Going to the Temple

In the Prologue to The Wisdom of Jokes, Alejandro Jodorowsky discusses his zen master Ejo Takata and what he learned. One of the things he learned was this:

"A temple isn't the "exclusive" place of the sacred.

You go to a temple to learn the meaning of the sacred.

If you've understood the lesson, the entire world becomes a temple."

In Defense of The Grand Inquisitor

I seem to have come late to the debate, judging from some of the comments in Joe's post on the issue of Pope Benedict XVI. I made my own remarks on the subject over at my own blog, but I figured that they'd be worth posting here. While I very much suspect that there is absolutely nothing I can do to change the minds of those quarters who have already decided (with all the dogmatic absolutism of anything Ratzinger did as a cardinal) that the new pope is a Nazi, a fascist, and Torquemada reborn, I figured that I might at least make the good faith effort to explain why I welcome the selection of Pope Benedict XVI, even though my own preferred candidate was Cardinal Arinze of Nigeria.

read the rest! »

Pope Benedict (Ratzinger) 16th

We run "Islam, the Vatican & the New Christianity", talking about the changes in Christian demographics and the likelihood of more not less traditionalism in future. Later that same day, the traditionalist enforcer of doctrine Cardinal Ratzinger becomes Pope. Andrew Sullivan is beyond shocked, as you might imagine given Ratzinger's views on homosexuality. Meanwhile, the two words that went through my head were: Konstantin Chernenko. Until someone shows me a better interpretation, this email from one of Andrew Sullivan's readers strikes me as a very plausible account of the dynamics involved in the choice.

Meanwhile, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne points to some potentially defining words from Cardinal Ratzinger: "We are moving," he declared, toward "a dictatorship of relativism...that recognizes nothing definite and leaves only one's own ego and one's own desires as the final measure." Dionne thinks it could be an emerging battle cry for the Catholic Church, and he may be right. For a very human look at why that issue matters, I cannot recommend Belmont Club's "Nightfall" enough. Dalrymple's account of his experiences treatimg people in Britain's hospitals and prisons are utterly chilling, in a way you won't soon forget.

On a lighter note, the funniest post I've seen related to the selection is Ace of Spades HQ's very tongue-in-cheek "Top Ten Changes the New Pope Will Enact to Make Christianity More Acceptable to Liberals" (Hat Tip: reader Mike Daley).

Islam, the Vatican, and The Next Christianity

And why does this not surprise us at all?

Saudi Sheikh Muhammad bin Abd Al-Rahman Al-'Arifi, Imam of the mosque of King Fahd Defense Academy, discussed the coming Muslim conquest of the Vatican. Citing a Hadith in an article posted on the Kalemat website in 2002, he stated: "...We will control the land of the Vatican; we will control Rome and introduce Islam in it. Yes, the Christians, who carve crosses on the breasts of the Muslims... will yet pay us the Jiziya [JK: poll tax paid by non-Muslim second-class citizens under Muslim rule], in humiliation, or they will convert to Islam..."

Nor is he the only example. Given the level of persecution and violence Christians face in Muslim countries, it's probably no surprise that the Wahington Post reports that the Vatican is rethinking its relations with Islam. Yet it is the ripening developments within Christianity itself that could end up mattering most of all.

We'll begin with recent developments in the Vatican:

read the rest! »

For all those interested in the upcoming papal election ...

Please do yourselves a favor and turn off the TV.

Based on what I've seen so far, the American press is basically viewing this as the Catholic equivalent to the Iowa caucuses or New Hampshire primaries with liturgy and fancy vestments. Hence the entire process gets hopelessly placed within the context of the dynamics of domestic American politics, with everything from the liberal/conservative split (both of which I think horribly over-simplify the actual issues in Catholics), polling public opinion (including that of non-Catholics, which would probably be pretty offensive if it wasn't so amusing), identity politics, ranking the "likely successors" according to media prominence, etc. God only knows what they're going to do when the voting process drags on for longer than 48 hours ...

In any case, if you're truly interested in the ins and outs of the process, I recommend Papabile that has thus far done a pretty good job with its coverage so far.

Combines

The last time the Pope died I was fifteen. 1978 was the year before the Iranian Islamic revolution, a time when terrorism had less international cohesion than it does today. It was a time before the Reagan years of American optimism, during President Carter's tentative, brow-beating leadership.

The Soviet Union and its European vassal states were under the dominion of aging terror-wielding apparatchiks. By 1978 their onerous, lifeless empire was merely a dull ache for the Western world, made endurable by d�tente. Symbolic goodwill gestures like Apollo-Soyuz helped make communist tyranny vague and unimportant for the West, obsessed with exorcising Vietnam's demons in disco palaces that blasted the Bee Gees and Olivia Newton-John.

I remember reading issues of Soviet Life as a boy at the local branch library. Soviet Life' was a coffee table pictorial publication, proudly endorsing the softer side of the Soviet workers' paradise, pitched to Americans. I remember flipping through the colorful photo essays thinking, "Now that's a lot of wheat." But even my boyish na�vet� saw through the obvious poses and setups purporting to be slices of happy Soviet life. Something about those depictions was off. Every other page showed even more wheat fields, traversed by giant mowing red combines manned by happy hay-stackers somewhere in the Ukraine. There was no mention in those pages of Stalin's purging those happy farmers' grandparents, whose mass graves were probably helping to fertilize those golden, wheat-filled plains.

read the rest! »

The Angel of Death, And What Junior Told Him

Most of you know Glen Wishard as a presence in our comments section, discussing issues political. This Sunday I'd like to show you another side of Glen, courtesy of a short story he posted to his blog:

The Angel of Death, And What Junior Told Him

The Death of the Pope

As I imagine everyone in the world is now aware, His Holiness John Paul II died earlier today.

Since I am a convert to Catholicism, there is so much I feel right now that simply cannot be put into words, now or ever. Looking back over the Pope's life and his accomplishments on so many levels since Thursday, I am still in awe of everything he has done. Working to end communism, improving ties and break down old barriers between Catholics and Protestants, Jews, and Muslims (and I am extremely surprised at how al-Jazeera has become EWTN for the purposes of the Pontiff's death), and everything else that he has done, it's simply amazing. Any one of these things could have been the accomplishments of a great man, and I think that any one of us would be very lucky indeed to achieve even half of what he did.

While I know that many people, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, did not always agree with the stances that he took on any number of issues, I think that any one of us would be hard-pressed to deny his enormous impact on our world. The enormous role of the Church in putting an end to the Soviet Union is due in no small part to his vision and his moral leadership and as such we all feel a sense of loss at his passing. Wretchard once compared John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher to the Three Musketeers during the latter stages of the Cold War and I think the comparison holds even more now as we honor the Pope in his passing.

read the rest! »

Hasidic Wisdom: Death and Memory

This was prompted by Rev. Donald Sensing's excellent post What About Terri's Schiavo's Soul?, which describes his understanding of relevant Christian doctrine. His post does not directly address his opinions on the Schiavo issue; issues like the soul, death and dying will also be on people's minds right now, and he's wise enough to keep them separate (see Pastoring families of the hopelessly ill for his take on Ms. Schiavo's situation).

It's hard to speak of a "Jewish doctrine" given the mulitiplicity of opinions, but here's a very interesting one by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan of blessed memory, whose brief and excellent book If You Were God includes a Hasidic/ Kabbalah take on the issue of death and soul:

"We know that God is ominiscient. He knows all and does not forget. God knows every thought and memory that exists in our brains. There is no piece of information that escapes His knowledge.

What, then, happens when a man dies? God does not forget, and therefore all of this information continues to exist, at least in God's memory.

read the rest! »

Friendship Caravan

Mike Daley emails to note that The Brothers Judd blog has an interesting piece about an initiative between evangelical Christians and Muslims in Morocco:

"Friendship Caravan is the flagship organization for this conversation. Founded by photojournalist Michael Kirtley after the September 11 attacks, it is now headlining an unprecedented effort focused on helping American evangelicals and Moroccan Muslims understand each other."

Triumph, Betrayal, Acceptance, Hope

I've been thinking today about the young teen who shot his grandfather, his schoolmates and then himself ... a boy who faced one dislocation and betrayal after another, his father a suicide, mom brain-damaged in an accident, leaving the city where he grew up for the remote and inwardlooking reservation where he couldn't fit in, and the dark pull of the Nazis on the Net. I watched his aunt tonight, try to explain her grief and bewilderment and sadness and I shared it all with her.

Tonight is Holy Thursday for Christians. I wasn't going to blog this week, but somehow the press of all that is happening ... not only the lingering death of Terry Schiavo and the violent deaths in Minnesota, but also the uncertainty in Lebanon, the violence in Kyrgystan, the horrors going on in Sudan and the cynical maneuverings of France and others at the UN ... it all got to me today.

read the rest! »

A Saint for the Internet

Peggy Noonan writes:

"St. Isidore of Seville, inventor of the encyclopedia, is said to be the leading contender for the title, but I hope he doesn't get it. The obvious patron saint of the internet is St. Joseph Cupertino...."

I suppose St. Liebowitz was out of the question. Read more about St. Cupertino (it's the final entry of her homage de blog style column), including links to a more detailed story about his life and times. Catholics refer to such a one as a saint; my own religion might dub him a lamed-vavnik; one of The 36. Peggy Noonan, again:

"Why is St. Joseph Cupertino the obvious patron saint of the Internet? Because he flew through the air, lifted by truth. Because no establishment could keep him down. Because he empowered common people. Because they in fact saw his power before the elites of the time did. And because it could not be an accident that the center of the invention of the Internet, ground zero of Silicon Valley, is Cupertino, Calif., named for the saint centuries ago."

If you think Ms. Noonan has a point, she gives the Pope's email address at the end of her article.

UPDATE: Some great discussion, links, and reminiscing in the comments section about the birth of the Inrternet.

A Religious Conservative Describes His Journey

As a follow-up to Robin Burke's article about CPAC, religious conservatives, and libertarian conservatives, Dignan in Atlanta points us to his article Inside the Religious Right, describing his personal and political journey from the inside. Give it a read - it gives you an additional perspective on some modern events and trends, and explains the variations within a movement that most see as a monolith. It might even short-circuit a stereotype or two.

Bad Economic News in Germany

This and this are not good.

Combine this with a heavy social services burden and the demographic collapse we've posted about at WOC, including here, and the next few years may be very dicey on the Continent. Lest we indulge in schadenfreude, keep in mind that our economy is greatly linked to that of Europe and elsewhere around the world.

A Jewish Christmas in America

Reform Judaism magazine has an interesting article this month, discussing Christmas' influence on America's Jewish community. It describes a wide range of responses, but I thought this one fit the season best:

"Today, thousands upon thousands of American Jews have become vested in Christmas through the doing of mitzvot -- volunteering in soup kitchens and hospitals, visiting the homebound, preparing or delivering Christmas meals, buying Christmas presents for the poor, or substituting for colleagues at work. Increasingly, volunteerism has become an established means of combining the Jewish values of tikkun olam, repairing the world, with the Christmas message of bringing joy to the world.

Who would have imagined that this once-feared holiday would become an occasion for many American Jews to affirm their identity with confidence and pride, both as Americans and as Jews?"

A: Anyone who believed that a bit of tolerance and some imagination would produce much better results than trying to marginalize a wonderful holiday. Merry Christmas, boychicks n maidels!

Christmas Vatican-blogging

I see that Patrick Belton is in Rome, and blogging his visits to the Vatican.

TG and I went to Rome at the conclusion of a motorcycle trip a few years ago (and no, we didn't ride in Rome - do I look suicidal?).

We spent a day at the Vatican, which was amazing. But amazing as it was, the highlight was the tour we didn't get to take, and the verbal smacking I got when I tried to get us there.

read the rest! »

A Legacy of Heroes: The 4 Chaplains

You will rarely read a story of such extraordinary interfaith courage, honour, and brotherhood. In modern times, it has added another element: reconciliation.

And the legacy lives on:

"In the late 1990s, in an effort to reinvigorate the legacy of the four chaplains, David Fox, the nephew of Chaplain George Fox, and Rosalie Goode Fried, the daughter of Chaplain Alexander Goode, created the Immortal Chaplains Foundation. Other descendants of Chaplains Goode, Fox, and Poling (Father Washington's could not be located) soon became active in the organization, which is dedicated to promoting the values of the Immortal Chaplains by presenting two annual Awards for Humanity each February on the anniversary of the Dorchester's destruction. Awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated courage in helping others at their own risk, regardless of racial, religious, or other differences. Recipients since 1999 have included Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa; Charles David, an African American Coast Guardsman from the Comanche who died of pneumonia after repeatedly jumping into the freezing waters to rescue Dorchester survivors; Omri Abdel Al-Jada, a young Palestinian man who died while saving a Jewish child from drowning in Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee); and the villagers of Le Chambon, France, who saved 5,000 Jews from the Nazis...."

You'll want to read the whole thing, of course.

Peace Amid Strife

In 1987, I spent several weeks in the Middle East on business. One afternoon found me in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, within the Old City walls in Jerusalem. There, amid the icons and the incense, I stopped for a little while to absorb once again the timelessness and beauty of the Orthodox church of my youth.

The Jerusalem Post has a long story on those who have embraced the monastic life in the Holy Land. It's worth a read.

He loved his family and old friends, and he enjoyed his work as a public service attorney, but at age 28, after a dozen years of consideration, he was finally ready to withdraw from his attachments to a "higher calling."

By the way, that was the trip where a) I was caught up in a riot in the Arab Quarter, b) I almost didn't get back from the West Bank after taking a taxi there and c) an engine on my plane home burst into flames over the Mediterranean. The two Navy pilots sitting next to me nearly burned their official passports at that point -- official policy after the hijackings and murders of US military and civilians by Palestinian and other terrorists during that bloody and conflict-filled year. And did I mention the long grilling by Israeli border police on my way out of the country?

Some of the peace of the icons and the beauty of Jerusalem in the late afternoon sun stayed with me through it all, though, and is with me still. What beauty and peace do you carry with you each day?

The Confederate Flag, Christianity & Slavery

Texas ChristianBlogger "Lamech" has a long and interesting post:

"I have discovered a group of Christians who claim to have pride in the battle flag of the Confederate States of America, the stars and bars. Some fly it in their homes. Some declare a sense of patriotism when they see the Rebel flag flapping in the wind overhead -- it represents freedom. They say that slavery was not a major reason for the War Between the States."

He says they're wrong. Wrong on their history. Wrong on their understanding of Christianity. And wrong to fly that flag.

Jimmy Swaggart, Idiotarian

I don't know what's worse. That Jimmy Swaggart is such an idiot, or that a supposed man of G-d thinks Ha'shem is such an idiot. You'll be answering for that remark one day, Jimmy - and not to me. So will those in the audience who applauded.

UPDATE: Jimmy's apology writer obviously works for CBS, because it leaves him looking like an even bigger idiotarian. Eugene Volokh has some thoughts for Swaggart & Co.

Christianity Changing China?

China's rise onto the global stage is one of the geopolitical issues that will define the 21st century, and the kind of country China becomes matters a great lot. The current regime is promoting attitudes that could easily morph into something akin to fascism (xenophobic nationalism + dictatorial government + 'thwarted destiny'). In contrast, religions like Falun Dafa and Christianity offer something else:

"Moreover, embracing Christianity brings Chinese seekers into a mindset that replaces traditional Chinese nationalism and xenophobia with the community of believers. Under Communism the central relationship is between the individual and his master, the state. Replacing this threatened, isolated understanding of the self is one of the crucial tasks in renewing a society that has suffered through totalitarianism. Even non-Christians should welcome the spread of Christianity in China as an extraordinarily good sign for that country's renewal. (Aikman also argues that Christianization has the potential to transform China from an antagonist of the United States into an ally.)"

This is a very quiet story - and a very big one. Eve Tushnet has the details.

Dan Darling has relayed the phrase "The Constantinization of China" to describe the strong upsurge in Christian belief there, and what it may portend. This is a story worth keeping a long-term eye on.

25 Theses on Christianity

Lucas Sayle writes:

"The following are 25 theses on the modern state of Christian faith. That is, they deal with specific teachings in the several Christian denominations as well as the larger societal context in which Christianity currently resides...."

It's an interesting and at times provocative exploration of faith and teachings by a practicing member of the Christian religion. If you're religious, watching another go through this process is valuable all by itself. Its insights into the role of organized religion in society, meanwhile, make it valuable to secularists as well. Recommended.

Spotlight on Sensing

My friend Donald Sensing is definitely in a groove with his latest series of posts:

• A bomb plot to kill thousands of soccer fans at Saturday's Manchester United-Liverpool match was foiled in Britain. I'm surprised it has taken the Islamofascists this long to try a plan along these lines, especially given the helpful race riots that would likely follow their success.

• A letter from a chaplain on the front lines around Fallujah:

"We are on the edge of the town..we see the minirets of the city and we hear the Immams sermons as they rail against us....good thing few here understand Arabic cause I can tell you the preachers weren't teaching the golden rule today. Morale, sky high...extra intensity..friends are on the line. the senior NCO's and officers here, feel the pull the most. They have served with or trained everyone on the line. The Corps is a small community. This is very personal."

• Sensing will feel a lot better when he sees U.S. forces gaining and using the initiative, instead of reacting. In an echo of his own central point, he links to Hobbs Online's where is Iraq's Wyatt Earp? My own take: the problem in Iraq is strategic, not tactical (vid. Belmont Club's post, also caled "Attrition") - but I do agree with the part about keeping the initiative and fighting on one's own terms.

• Donald explains the ambiguities of intelligence analysis. Real intel is never cut and dried. A reader who spent 10 years in Air Force SIGINT writes in to agree and explain - the reason is surprisingly commonplace.

• Rev. Sensing, formerly Maj. Sensing, thinks bringing back the draft is a really stupid idea. When he sees the arguments being used in the draft's favour, his support actually manages to decline.

• Kerry's officer fitness reports. Donald, no fan of Kerry's, gives credit where it's due and says they look pretty good. Both of us would also argue that Kerry's record since then looks a lot less good. He also discusses the issue of Kerry's purple hearts, and the history behind that medal.

The Passion of the Easter Bunny

Not a spoof, a real event. You'll have to read this one to believe it... it's pretty funny in a dark sort of way.

Passover 5: Good Friday, Passover & Hope

Adam, a.k.a. Single Southern Guy, wrote:

"Today is Good Friday as observed by my faith. It is also the fourth day of the Jewish holiday of Passover. As most careful observers will note, many of the traditions of Christianity can be closely traced back to its Jewish heritage.... In that spirit, I sat down to meditate on what both Easter and Passover meant in the most general of terms to both Christians and Jews and I realized the observances both are founded in hope.... It is in this spirit that I give you a few thoughts on hope that perhaps Christians, Jews, and any person can share, and perhaps, celebrate on this day."

Religion, Terror & Our Future

Is the War on Terror really a war between the West (or at least some parts of the West) and Islam? Do the terrorists speak the true thoughts and aspirations of Muslims around the world? And can Westerners speak freely about the limitations of