Category: Notes Anthology

Being Christ-like
…those who seek to engage their opponents without giving up Christlike character are frequently dismissed as following a strategy that no longer works—as though any of these things were ever a “strategy” in the first place. The way of Jesus and the fruit of the Spirit do not work—and never have—by the metrics of the world. Lifelong marital fidelity doesn’t work either—if the goal is to maximize each man’s spreading of genetic material. For that, orgies work far better than one man and one woman giving their lives only to each other.
Russell Moore

Religion
Religion must beware lest it tone down in any degree the unconverted man’s judgment. Conflict and distress, sin and death, the devil and hell, make up the reality of religion. So far from releasing men from guilt and destiny, it brings men under their sway. Religion possesses no solution of the problem of life; rather it makes the problem a wholly insoluble enigma. Religion neither discovers the problem nor solves it: what it does is to disclose the truth that cannot be solved. Religion is neither a thing to be enjoyed nor a thing to be celebrated: it must be borne as a yoke which cannot be removed…Religion is the misfortune which every human being has to endure, though it is, in the majority of cases, a hidden suffering.
Karl Barth
From a purely human perspective, the church is a group of people who espouse and preach ridiculously high moral aspirations: “We love everyone” and “All are welcome here.” Christians say they exist to love everyone in sacrificial ways. Morally, the church is shooting for the moon. Christians claim for themselves impossible standards of conduct. But all those aspirations do is highlight how Christian’s don’t live up to their lofty ideals. Moral ambition makes moral failure more obvious and visible. No one cares all that much if some random bloke is unkind. But when you’re a Christian people notice your unkindness. They mark it. They hold you to your standards. In the words of Paul, sin is being “reckoned” to you. All you’ve done in declaring yourself a Christian is to make the sin in your life publicly visible as sin. And the worse your sin, the more visible your failure before the world. 
(unknown)

…knowing something is true and feeling like it is true are two different things because they reside in different parts of our brain. 

Judge’s response to Alex Jones’ defense
“Yes, I believe what I said was true,” Jones retorted.
“You believe everything you say is true, but it isn’t. Your beliefs do not make something true,” she said. “That is what we’re doing here. Just because you claim to think something is true does not make it true. It does not protect you. It is not allowed. You’re under oath. That means things need to be true when you say them. Don’t talk.”

When we we do good we find truth.
It is easier to learn truth when we are doing good.
Michael Hanegan

Thoughts from an atheist
I think what you want are people whose convictions scale with good reasons and good evidence and good arguments, and intuitions that are tutored by intellectual honesty and honest collisions with the opinions, so that there’s a certain kind of humility and circumspection and discomfort with illogic, and a desire for consistency.

We’ve got this postmodern effort that’s happening over in “Wokistan” that is making everything seem upside down, to a degree that’s insane, divisive and intolerable. And it really resembles a new religion. That’s what’s so awful about wokeness. It’s essentially intellectual dishonesty, plus a willingness to sacrifice obviously innocent people as scapegoats.
Sam Harris

Despite decades of urban legends and rumors about razor blades in apples or weed in candy, sociology and criminal justice researcher Joel Best has yet to document a single instance of children being seriously injured or killed by goodies they collected while trick or treating. 

What kind of society are we living in?
A society where leaders, broadly defined, insist that their political opponents are evil villains will be very different from a society where leaders insist that every human has innate dignity and our differences are subordinate to that. Telling people that the most important unit of society is the “nation” will produce a different kind of society from one in which people are told that the most important unit of society is the individual—or the family.
I shouldn’t have to say this, but if your first response to an 82-year-old man having his skull broken with a hammer is anything other than some kind of expression of outraged condemnation or sympathy for the victim, you’re doing life wrong. Period. Nothing else really enters into it.
Jonah Goldberg

 A cursory reading of the New Testament:
…reveals that regenerate Christians are assumed to be in a state of transformation that is measured more in behaviors and attitudes than doctrine…and doctrine without the behaviors and attitudes is suspect at best and damning at worst…
 …reveals that God is deeply concerned with the development of His people, not so much the sins of the world…
 …declares that world is changed through observing the behaviors and attitudes of the people of God by the power of the Spirit. The “church” is to be so radically different it draws attention to itself…
…defines the primary difference to be exhibited is love for each other and the world…love that destroys tribal, racial, and national lines to create one people of God…
…makes clear that the people of God should be most concerned about the holiness of the church, not the moral failings of the world and when they are not…they become just like that which they claim to despise…
 …brings the understanding that Gods power is displayed through sacrificial love and suffering…and any other power is derived from the world and cannot accomplish the works of God…
… reveals that most American Christians have never read the New Testament in even a cursory manner…
The Phoenix Preacher

View from the front porch..
Thinking about the challenge of being a grandparent,
from Richard Rohr :

The final stage of the wisdom journey in mythology is symbolized by the ruling image of the king or queen or what I like to call the grand father or grand mother.

When we can let go of our own need for everything to be as we want it, and our own need to succeed, we can then encourage the independent journey and the success of others. The grand parent is able to relinquish center stage and to stand on the sidelines, and thus be in solidarity with those who need their support. Children can feel secure in the presence of their grandparents because, while their parents are still rushing to find their way through life’s journey, grandpa and grandma have hopefully become spacious. They can contain problems, inconsistencies, inconveniences, and contradictions—after a lifetime of practicing and learning.

Grand parents can trust life because they have seen more of it than younger people have, and they can trust death because they are closer to it. Something has told them along the way that who they are now is never the final stage, and this one isn’t either. We need to be close enough to our own death to see it coming and to recognize that death and life are united in an eternal embrace, and one is not the end of the other. Death is what it is. I am a grand father when I am ready to let go. To the grand mother, death is no longer an enemy, but as Saint Francis called it, a “welcome sister.”

The soul of the grand parent is large enough to embrace the death of the ego and to affirm the life of God in itself and others, despite all imperfections. Its spaciousness accepts all the opposites in life—masculine and feminine, unity and difference, victory and defeat, us and them and so on—because it has accepted the opposition of death itself. Grand parents know that their beliefs have less to do with unarguable conclusions than scary encounters with life and the living God. They have come to realize that spiritual growth is not so much learning as it is unlearning, a radical openness to the truth no matter what the consequences or where it leads. They understand that they do not so much grasp the truth as let go of their egos, which are usually nothing more than obstacles to the truth.

STILL ON THE JOURNEY

If you were based at Camp Lejeune between 1953 to 1987, for heavens sake PLEASE call 1-800-750-9511. Stop the madness.

Touchdown moments
There is nothing ordinary about the key claims of biblical faith. Indeed, there is almost nothing about biblical faith that can be understood according to our usual analytical, scientific, objective, or commonsense control of life. The Bible is, rather, organized around the explosive moments when the holiness of God touches down in our midst and changes everything. Such touchdown moments are not sweet and romantic. They are not pious and religious. Rather, they are moments of threat and risk, when our worlds are shattered and everything is changed (Collected Sermons, 65).
Walter Brueggemann

‘Tolerance does not mean the absence of debate and division, but the ability of people with differences to live side-by-side together without seeking to harm each other.” Michael Bird

Clichés
A glib “I have the answers” spirit makes us into protectors of clichés. Answers are wonderful when they are true and keep us on the human and spiritual path. But answers are not wonderful when they become something we hold as an ego possession, allowing us to be arrogant, falsely self-assured, and closed down individuals.  
Only those led by the Spirit into ever deeper seeing, hearing, and surrendering—spiritual seekers and self-questioners—will fall into the hands of the living God. This will always be “a narrow gate and a hard road” that “only a few will walk” (Matthew 7:14).  
Richard Rohr

Trust grows out of, and into, our relationship with God, forming bonds of love, trust, hopefulness and purpose. God’s mercy is not a guarantee against storms at sea, but of God’s presence in the boat. 
“Lord, have mercy. The sea is so vast, and my boat is so small.” 
Jim Gordon

How many of the world’s 1-year-old children today have been vaccinated against some disease?
A: 20 percent B: 50 percent C: 80 percent

I have tested a total of 12,596 people at 108 lectures over the last five years. This question gets the worst results.

Correct answer is 80%

You make this kind of false assumption when you have a “them” category in your head, into which you put the majority of humanity. What images are you using to imagine what life is like in this category? Are you perhaps recalling the most vivid and disturbing images from the news?

Rosling, Hans; Rönnlund, Anna Rosling; Rosling, Ola. Factfulness (pp. 148-149). Flatiron Books. Kindle Edition.

Prophesy
Christianity has given little energy to prophecy, which Paul identifies as the second most important charism for building the church (1 Corinthians 12:28; Ephesians 4:11). Too often, when Christians talk about prophecy, we think prophets make predictions about the future. In fact, prophets say exactly the opposite! They insist the future is highly contingent on the now. They always announce to the people of Israel that they have to make a decision now. You can go this way and the outcome of events will undo you or you can return to God, to love, and to the covenant. That’s not predicting the future as much as it’s naming the now, the way reality works. The prophet opens up human freedom by daring to tell the people of Israel that they can change history by changing themselves. That’s extraordinary, and it’s just as true for us today.
I’d like to put it this way: it is not that we go out preaching hard and difficult messages, and then people mistreat and marginalize us for being such prophets (although that might happen). Rather, when we go to the stories of the prophets and of Jesus himself, we discover the biblical pattern is just the opposite! When we find ourselves wounded and marginalized, and we allow that suffering to teach us, we can become prophets. When we repeatedly experience the faithfulness, the mercy, and the forgiveness of God, then our prophetic voice emerges. That’s the training school. That’s where we learn how to speak the truth.
Richard Rohr

Hypocrisy
Time and again, when our commitment to morality collides with our self-interest, then our self-interest wins. A religion of morality devolves to a religion of self. It’s powerless against our pride. But when a commitment to self collides with Jesus, then it’s our pride that’s powerless. We know exactly where our hope lies. David French
https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/frenchpress/how-hypocrisy-drives-unbelief/

View from the front porch
The recent news report about the rescue of 4,000 beagles revealed the troubling, heart-wrenching paradoxical nature of our culture.

On one hand, there was the horrendous for-profit dog breeding business:
Built in 1961, the breeding operation featured 27 long, low-slung metal buildings used for whelping and housing about 5,000 beagles in cages and cement runs. The campus had its own waste water treatment plant and incinerator, one full-time veterinarian and about 25 employees. It became the nation’s second-largest breeder of what the industry calls “purpose-bred canines.”
“Research on dogs has, and continues to lead to, life-preserving and enhancing treatments in the areas of diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, organ transplantation,” 
…more than a hundred federal and state officials, law enforcement officers, rescue volunteers and veterinarians arrived at Envigo with a search warrant. Over five days, they seized health records, computers, and 446 beagles — about 10 percent of the facility’s dogs — who were suffering life-threatening illnesses or injuries.

On the other hand, there was the response of concerned people:

The public fascination with the Envigo beagles was instantaneous. Thousands of people across the country wanted them.

In Milwaukee, the Wisconsin Humane Society set off a frenzy when it announced that it would put a litter of Envigo puppies up for adoption on a Tuesday morning in early August.

Identical twins from Southern California were the first in line.

The 31-year-old sisters had flown to Milwaukee and shown up at the shelter at 3 a.m., carrying a new tent that they couldn’t figure out how to set up.

“We have been stalking all the rescue groups,” explained Christine Fan, who — like her twin Chrisdo — worked as a real estate attorney in Irvine, Calif., about 15 minutes from Disneyland. “We booked a one-way red-eye flight here.”

All of the beagles have been placed in over 120 rescue facilities across the country.

http://www.georgeezell.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Envigos-4000-beagles-rescued-in-record-Humane-Society-animal-welfare-seizure-The-Washington-Post.pdf

I believe our lives are a journey. A healthy life is characterized by growth and change. Each day holds the prospect of adventure and discovery. Life is not defined by seeking a safe place and hunkering down insulated and protected from the world around us.

Change continues to be important in my life. As I grow older, change is less attractive and more difficult. I struggle daily to resist the inclination to hunker down. In that regard, one small change I have decided to make relates to “So Much To Think About” posts. You may have noticed I deviated from Friday posting. This and future posts will come randomly. reflecting the rhythm of my reading and daily life. Content will be less, but, hopefully interesting and worthy of your attention. I would appreciate your feedback.

The Church as a moral witness
Generally, we expect the church to be a moral witness. That is, we expect Christians should be “better” than non-Christians. And when Christians are not any better than most people, we despair and chuck the whole business. Our metric of success is wholly moral.
But let me simply observe, as a regular church goer, that the people gathered on a typical Sunday morning are just normal people. Church people have the same sorts of problems as everyone else. And they are sinners just like everyone else.
We know this about ourselves, that we are sinners, yet we keep getting disappointed. What should be expected–our moral failures–keeps surprising us. Over and over. Why? I think it’s our stubborn moral framing of the church, that church people should be “better.” 
But if we’re not any better than other folks what then is church all about?
The church, to borrow that line from the Catholics, is “a sacrament of salvation.” Yet I mean this differently than extra Ecclesiam nulla salus. What I mean by “a sacrament of salvation” is that the gathered church makes salvation visible. 
The gathered church isn’t a moral witness–How could it be?–but a sacramental witness. We gather to make visible the salvation of God in our midst. This is how a depraved, broken, and lost people can gather together on a Sunday and be called “the church.” These gathered sinners simply point to the reality of grace. Our moral portfolio is abysmal, but in our worship, prayers, liturgies, and testimonies we make visible the love of God, in our lives and in the midst of the world. “Grace exists,” our presence declares. And we make this declaration not only for ourselves, but for the world as well. 
If this is so, “the church” simply is this sacramental witness. Which means “the church” doesn’t point to the moral performance of human beings. Rather, the “the church” is a gathered group of sinners who come together to point toward the grace of God. We sinners gather to bear witness to grace, and it’s toward grace where we must direct our gaze.
Richard Beck
http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2022/10/despairing-for-church-part-5-sacrament.html

Sympathy vs Compassion
I believe the problem today can be summed up simply: people mistake sympathy for compassion.
Sympathy is feeling bad for someone and wishing they didn’t feel so bad.

Sympathy is noble on the surface (“people should suffer less!”) but can often end up being subtly self-serving (“people should suffer less because I don’t want to feel bad for them anymore.”)

Compassion is similar to sympathy but different in an important way.
Like sympathy, compassion begins with feeling bad for someone. But instead of simply wanting the person’s suffering to go away, compassion involves someone who is willing to suffer alongside that person so that they may overcome their challenges.

Sympathy is sending flowers and a card to a friend when a parent dies. Compassion is driving to their house and holding them as they cry.

Sympathy is letting a screaming child have that toy they want so they’ll stop screaming. Compassion is letting them cry because you know they will be better off once they understand that they can’t always get what they want.

Sympathy is changing your profile picture on social media for whatever the new cause du jour is. Compassion is actually giving time or money to victims, listening to their stories, helping them rebuild their lives.

Sympathy is a good thing. We need it in the world. But it’s also easy. It’s short-term and short-sighted. It’s an, “Aw, I feel bad for him.” Sympathy is focused on the feeling rather than the person. “I hope they feel better.”

Compassion is about the person. “I don’t just hope they feel better, I hope they become better.” Therefore, compassion is more involved. It takes more effort—both mental and emotional.

Sympathy is trying to remove as much strain and struggle as possible. Compassion is trying to help a person move through a manageable amount of struggle so they can grow into a better person.

I believe that as a culture we’re over-optimized for sympathy and under-optimized for compassion. This is probably largely social media’s fault, but not entirely.

Sympathy is easy to communicate online. It’s also easy to see sympathy communicated between others. Compassion is like sarcasm, it is not communicated well online. It’s also harder to recognize between others.
We’re probably also over-optimized for sympathy because it’s easier to measure and study. It’s relatively easy to measure how good/bad a person feels. It’s incredibly difficult to measure whether someone has grown or not.
Mark Manson

Wendy Wasserstein wrote in her book “Sloth,” “When you achieve true slothdom, you have no desire for the world to change. … Better to fall into line than to question the going ethos.”

STILL ON THE JOURNEY