Today, before we get to my next post, Apocalypse Now and Later, I want to visit a song I absolutely love from Neko Case. Case, if you don't know, is from The New Pornographers, a band I avoided for years because of its name. But it turns out I like them, love her, and really enjoy her song John Saw that Number (as a sidenote, I just found out she's from Tacoma, near where I grew up, and went to school in Vancouver, near where I went to school...maybe we can be friends). Anyways, here's the lyrics:
Old John the baptist, old John divine
Leather harness round his line
His meat was locust and honey
Wild honey lord, wild honey
John saw that number
Way in the middle of the air
Cryin' holy, holy to the Lord
Old John the baptist, old John divine
Frogs and snakes are gonna get John this time
God told the angel "go see about John"
So he flew from the pit with the moon round his waist
Gathered wind in his fists so the stars round his wrists
Cryin' holy, holy to the lord
Read the revelations, you'll find him there
Third chapter, fourth verse where he said unto me
"There's a beast that rose out of the sea"
Ten crowns, ten crowns
On his horns write "blasphemy"
John couldn't read it (John couldn't read it)
Get on repeat it
John couldn't read it
Holy, holy to the Lord
There was a man, a pharisee
Who came by night to meet him
Said "I know thy teacher came from God cause no man can do such miracles
Without the lord to entreat him
"God told the angel "go see about John"
So he flew from the pit with the moon round his waist
Gathered wind in his fists and the stars round his wrists
Cryin' holy, holy to the Lord
Holy, holy to the Lord
Holy, holy to the Lord...
Aside from her naming John the Baptist as the John of Revelation fame, I do think these lyrics have grasped onto another important part of apocalyptic literature. Case has worked herself into the style of apocalyptic! Listen to these amazing lyrics about "moon round his waist" and "stars round his wrists" and you are suddenly beginning to picture those images that we have let grow stale in books like Revelation and Daniel after too much literalist reading. This is imaginative, even psychadelic, imagery folks!
My desire with today's post was to share that the imagery of past apocalyptic literature can still be celebrated today. I hope lyrics like these brings helps to bring those ancient books back to life for you in the same way they have for me.
In his book In God's Time, Craig Hill brings up what is missing from a Neko Case apocalypse. He says that "Where there is an emperor with divine pretensions, there is need of an apocalypse." Case's apocalypse seems more historical than for the here and now but I'm getting way too far ahead of myself...
Have you seen apocalyptic imagery used or expanded upon anywhere?
Peace,
Matt
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Popalyptic III: Dolorean
I can't really contain myself any longer. I want to get into the "pop" part of these blog posts. There may not be a lot of order to them, but I'm going to start unloading some of these, and I don't know where we'll stop. For the moment I do not want to actually try to define pop culture because, honestly, I don't really know where to say it stops anymore. I do know that books, movies, music, and television fit into this category. This of course is what makes it so difficult; where doesn't TV go nowadays? Regardless, we're going to dive in and see where this takes us.
Dolorean
Last Spring I went on a long road trip with my parents and my little brother. He kept telling me to listen to this band on his iPod and I finally consented, and fell in love immediately with Dolorean. Maybe you don't know who they are, or maybe you just aren't into their music, but I really enjoy it. It's pretty mellow with somewhat strong lyrics. I was immediately struck by the obvious faith elements in the songs, though lyricist Al James does not claim to be a Christian. Today's song in particular shows obvious Christian roots, and provides an easy point to jump in to the mixture of pop culture and apocalyptic literature. It is called Violence in the Snowy Fields, and although you can't hear the song, hopefully you can still enjoy these lyrics:
"I’m quittin and givin' up on bein' good enough
My body is bones and blood, my heart is pure
And when the rider comes and tells what I have done
I’ll gladly sing along, won’t change my tune
And in the end St. John says all things shall be revealed
Like violence, like violence
Like violence in the snowy fields
And on a night like this when nothing stirs about
If I hear the hoof beat pounds I will not turn
I will not be afraid of how I spent my days
I may go down in flames but I shall not burn
And in the end St. John says all things shall be revealed
Like violence, like violence
Like violence in the snowy fields
And in the end St. Johns says all things shall be revealed
Like violence, like violence
Like violence in the snowy fields"
What I enjoy about this song, and why I chose to start with it, is that at least in a basic way, they get it! The first four lines are ambiguous, and can be taken a number of ways. Which I enjoy, considering final judgment is not as easily predicted as many in the evangelical world believe it to be. Beyond that, though, is the fact that Dolorean appears to realize that the end is a revealing, as is the book of Revelation in general. It is an unveiling, a show of reality as it really is.
The following comes from an interview done with frontman Al James. You can read the entire interview here. This is an entry point for understanding where he is coming from:
I think that a point of particular interest is your lyrics. You often refer to Biblical themes, and in general I feel a kind of spiritual mood in your words. What about it? How do you consider Christian religion in your life and in our present society?
I am a spiritual person and I was raised in the Christian faith. I don’t really know what I believe right now. I don’t attend church, but I still cling to the teachings of Christ – humility, kindness, love, patience, sacrifice, honesty and generosity. I fear that in general the essence of Christianity that I find in Christ’s teachings has been massively perverted by social-political organizations that claim to be churches. It makes me very, very sad, but I know that this has been happening throughout history. Since I am a spiritually complex person, it seems natural that those themes would appear in my music. I work to avoid alienating anyone by lyrics, but they may hit closer to home for some people. Ultimately I want to make music that connects with people, not divides folks.
What are your ideas about this presumed fight between Muslim culture and Catholic culture that also is generating the war in Iraq? Personally, I think that the only God that the West of the World is trying to safeguard is the Money...
I basically agree with you. I am disappointed by the West’s plans to “democratize” and “Christianize” other cultures. It’s utterly repulsive and makes me sad beyond belief. We’re living in dark times right now and I hope that change comes soon. I agree that money and power continues to be “God” in most cases. Self-righteous western leaders who occupy other countries and promote massive genocide will be accountable for their actions. If not in this lifetime, there will be some sort of spiritual accountability I am convinced of this.
Revealing, future accountability for the powers that be; I would say that Dolorean puts out some lyrics that mix pop and apocalypse, and fortunately, do so in a way that is true to the text.
Your thoughts?
Peace,
Matt
Dolorean
Last Spring I went on a long road trip with my parents and my little brother. He kept telling me to listen to this band on his iPod and I finally consented, and fell in love immediately with Dolorean. Maybe you don't know who they are, or maybe you just aren't into their music, but I really enjoy it. It's pretty mellow with somewhat strong lyrics. I was immediately struck by the obvious faith elements in the songs, though lyricist Al James does not claim to be a Christian. Today's song in particular shows obvious Christian roots, and provides an easy point to jump in to the mixture of pop culture and apocalyptic literature. It is called Violence in the Snowy Fields, and although you can't hear the song, hopefully you can still enjoy these lyrics:
"I’m quittin and givin' up on bein' good enough
My body is bones and blood, my heart is pure
And when the rider comes and tells what I have done
I’ll gladly sing along, won’t change my tune
And in the end St. John says all things shall be revealed
Like violence, like violence
Like violence in the snowy fields
And on a night like this when nothing stirs about
If I hear the hoof beat pounds I will not turn
I will not be afraid of how I spent my days
I may go down in flames but I shall not burn
And in the end St. John says all things shall be revealed
Like violence, like violence
Like violence in the snowy fields
And in the end St. Johns says all things shall be revealed
Like violence, like violence
Like violence in the snowy fields"
What I enjoy about this song, and why I chose to start with it, is that at least in a basic way, they get it! The first four lines are ambiguous, and can be taken a number of ways. Which I enjoy, considering final judgment is not as easily predicted as many in the evangelical world believe it to be. Beyond that, though, is the fact that Dolorean appears to realize that the end is a revealing, as is the book of Revelation in general. It is an unveiling, a show of reality as it really is.
The following comes from an interview done with frontman Al James. You can read the entire interview here. This is an entry point for understanding where he is coming from:
I think that a point of particular interest is your lyrics. You often refer to Biblical themes, and in general I feel a kind of spiritual mood in your words. What about it? How do you consider Christian religion in your life and in our present society?
I am a spiritual person and I was raised in the Christian faith. I don’t really know what I believe right now. I don’t attend church, but I still cling to the teachings of Christ – humility, kindness, love, patience, sacrifice, honesty and generosity. I fear that in general the essence of Christianity that I find in Christ’s teachings has been massively perverted by social-political organizations that claim to be churches. It makes me very, very sad, but I know that this has been happening throughout history. Since I am a spiritually complex person, it seems natural that those themes would appear in my music. I work to avoid alienating anyone by lyrics, but they may hit closer to home for some people. Ultimately I want to make music that connects with people, not divides folks.
What are your ideas about this presumed fight between Muslim culture and Catholic culture that also is generating the war in Iraq? Personally, I think that the only God that the West of the World is trying to safeguard is the Money...
I basically agree with you. I am disappointed by the West’s plans to “democratize” and “Christianize” other cultures. It’s utterly repulsive and makes me sad beyond belief. We’re living in dark times right now and I hope that change comes soon. I agree that money and power continues to be “God” in most cases. Self-righteous western leaders who occupy other countries and promote massive genocide will be accountable for their actions. If not in this lifetime, there will be some sort of spiritual accountability I am convinced of this.
Revealing, future accountability for the powers that be; I would say that Dolorean puts out some lyrics that mix pop and apocalypse, and fortunately, do so in a way that is true to the text.
Your thoughts?
Peace,
Matt
Monday, January 28, 2008
Popalyptic II: Apocalypse Then
First things first, before this post really begins... Effie and I have been updating our daugter's blog if you are interested. She is now three months and cute as usual. Secondly, this strange new site called Bohemian Alien has published an aritle I wrote many months ago on Kafka. You can check that out here. I titled it A Kafka Kick to the Face, so you know it has to be good. Okay, now on to today's post...
Before we can get into the meat of where these posts are going, I feel the definite need to define our terms. Pop and the idea of pop culture will have to be fleshed out in future posts, but of course the most important thing to start with is apocalypse and apocalyptic literature. Although I am not a scholar on this, I do have some understanding that I would like to share and use to move us into the heart of this conversation.
The first for us to do, then is to find some definitions of “apocalypse.” I want to share a variety, look for themes, but leave it somewhat open as to exactly what it is, because I believe what it was historically and what it has become are not necessarily the same thing. Today we will look at apocalyptic literature from history, setting us up for the next post, which will (if all goes according to plan) focus on how our understanding of apocalypse has changed over time. So here goes…
In How to Read the Bible for All it’s Worth, Fee and Stuart list five common characteristics of Apocalyptic literature:
1. “Apocalyptic was born either in persecution or in a time of oppression [for the Bible, think how apocalypse is seen during the exile and during persecution of the early church]. Therefore, its great concern was no longer with God’s activity within history. The apocalyptists looked exclusively forward to a time when God would bring a violent, radical end to history, an end that would mean the triumph of right and the final judgement of evil.”
2. “Apocalypse is a form of literature. It has a particular written structure and form.”
3. “Most frequently the ‘stuff’ of apocalyptic is presented in the form of visions and dreams, and its language is cryptic (having hidden meanings) and symbolic.”
4. “The images of apocalyptic are often forms of fantasy, rather than of reality.”
5. “Because they were literary, most of the apocalypses were very formally stylized [think of the use of numbers, time, neat arrangements of these and more].”
Leland Ryken, in How to Read the Bible as Literature, calls this visionary literature, which “transforms the known world or the present state of things into a situation that at the time of writing is as yet only imagined.” The apocalyptic author writes in such a way because “visionary literature, with its arresting strangeness, breaks through our normal way of thinking and shocks us into seeing things are not as they appear.” Think of how awesome these combined statement are; an apocalyptic writer uses wild imagery for the sake of the readers, so they can have their eyes opened and realize the world is not as everybody around them assumes. As Bob Dylan sang, “There’s something happening here, but you don’t know what it is.” To have eyes opened, the jarring style of apocalypse becomes necessary.
The online etymology dictionary, one of my favorite places to dink around online, points out that the word apocalypse comes from a root that means “to uncover.” The way it was once described to me was that it is similar to coming into a room where somebody is cooking an amazing soup. You can smell it and you are desiring whatever it is that is setting your tastebuds off. Then, suddenly, the cook takes the lid off and lets you see what is inside and, BAM, apocalypse.
Last one, then we will move on. Craig Hill, in his book In God’s Time (which I consider the best book I have ever read about apocalyptic literature), lays out 12 characteristics of apocalyptic literature, which are as follows:
1. Division of History into Old and New Ages.
2. Dualism: full of good and evil, with little in between. Or, as Hill puts it, “short on grays but copiously supplied with black and white.”
3. Determinism: “history is moving forward to its inevitable conclusion.”
4. Exclusivism: there are “few insiders” and “many outsiders.” Guess who gets in.
5. Portrayals of Judgement.
6. Expectations of the End: “to such a mindset, bad news is good news.”
7. Code Words, Numerology, and Cryptic Symbols
8. Means of Revelation: visions, dreams, and archangels reveal God’s plan.
9. Transportation of the Visionary: author taken away, most often to heaven or the heavenly realm.
10. The Heavenly Realm: highly involved with what happens on earth.
11. Exhortations to Endurance.
12. Demonstrations of God’s Justice.
Okay, that’s a lot to ask blog readers, known for their short attention spans, to digest. I hope you can see that even when it comes to reading ancient apocalyptic literature, there is not perfect agreement as to what defines it. We can know what it is when we read it, but it is not so easy to define. Which is what makes it tricky, but also what makes it so wonderful. Eugene Peterson, in his wonderful commentary on Revelation, Reversed Thunder, says that the Christian community needs teachers, apologists and “masters of the imagination… [who] keep us awake and aware before the living God who speaks to us…to remind us that we are living beings who are being spoken to.”
We could go further today, especially to listen to some other scholars and their opinions on apocalyptic literature, but I’d rather let Peterson’s words ring out for us to end on. “We are living beings who are being spoken to.” Let us listen for those words.
Peace,
Matt
Before we can get into the meat of where these posts are going, I feel the definite need to define our terms. Pop and the idea of pop culture will have to be fleshed out in future posts, but of course the most important thing to start with is apocalypse and apocalyptic literature. Although I am not a scholar on this, I do have some understanding that I would like to share and use to move us into the heart of this conversation.
The first for us to do, then is to find some definitions of “apocalypse.” I want to share a variety, look for themes, but leave it somewhat open as to exactly what it is, because I believe what it was historically and what it has become are not necessarily the same thing. Today we will look at apocalyptic literature from history, setting us up for the next post, which will (if all goes according to plan) focus on how our understanding of apocalypse has changed over time. So here goes…
In How to Read the Bible for All it’s Worth, Fee and Stuart list five common characteristics of Apocalyptic literature:
1. “Apocalyptic was born either in persecution or in a time of oppression [for the Bible, think how apocalypse is seen during the exile and during persecution of the early church]. Therefore, its great concern was no longer with God’s activity within history. The apocalyptists looked exclusively forward to a time when God would bring a violent, radical end to history, an end that would mean the triumph of right and the final judgement of evil.”
2. “Apocalypse is a form of literature. It has a particular written structure and form.”
3. “Most frequently the ‘stuff’ of apocalyptic is presented in the form of visions and dreams, and its language is cryptic (having hidden meanings) and symbolic.”
4. “The images of apocalyptic are often forms of fantasy, rather than of reality.”
5. “Because they were literary, most of the apocalypses were very formally stylized [think of the use of numbers, time, neat arrangements of these and more].”
Leland Ryken, in How to Read the Bible as Literature, calls this visionary literature, which “transforms the known world or the present state of things into a situation that at the time of writing is as yet only imagined.” The apocalyptic author writes in such a way because “visionary literature, with its arresting strangeness, breaks through our normal way of thinking and shocks us into seeing things are not as they appear.” Think of how awesome these combined statement are; an apocalyptic writer uses wild imagery for the sake of the readers, so they can have their eyes opened and realize the world is not as everybody around them assumes. As Bob Dylan sang, “There’s something happening here, but you don’t know what it is.” To have eyes opened, the jarring style of apocalypse becomes necessary.
The online etymology dictionary, one of my favorite places to dink around online, points out that the word apocalypse comes from a root that means “to uncover.” The way it was once described to me was that it is similar to coming into a room where somebody is cooking an amazing soup. You can smell it and you are desiring whatever it is that is setting your tastebuds off. Then, suddenly, the cook takes the lid off and lets you see what is inside and, BAM, apocalypse.
Last one, then we will move on. Craig Hill, in his book In God’s Time (which I consider the best book I have ever read about apocalyptic literature), lays out 12 characteristics of apocalyptic literature, which are as follows:
1. Division of History into Old and New Ages.
2. Dualism: full of good and evil, with little in between. Or, as Hill puts it, “short on grays but copiously supplied with black and white.”
3. Determinism: “history is moving forward to its inevitable conclusion.”
4. Exclusivism: there are “few insiders” and “many outsiders.” Guess who gets in.
5. Portrayals of Judgement.
6. Expectations of the End: “to such a mindset, bad news is good news.”
7. Code Words, Numerology, and Cryptic Symbols
8. Means of Revelation: visions, dreams, and archangels reveal God’s plan.
9. Transportation of the Visionary: author taken away, most often to heaven or the heavenly realm.
10. The Heavenly Realm: highly involved with what happens on earth.
11. Exhortations to Endurance.
12. Demonstrations of God’s Justice.
Okay, that’s a lot to ask blog readers, known for their short attention spans, to digest. I hope you can see that even when it comes to reading ancient apocalyptic literature, there is not perfect agreement as to what defines it. We can know what it is when we read it, but it is not so easy to define. Which is what makes it tricky, but also what makes it so wonderful. Eugene Peterson, in his wonderful commentary on Revelation, Reversed Thunder, says that the Christian community needs teachers, apologists and “masters of the imagination… [who] keep us awake and aware before the living God who speaks to us…to remind us that we are living beings who are being spoken to.”
We could go further today, especially to listen to some other scholars and their opinions on apocalyptic literature, but I’d rather let Peterson’s words ring out for us to end on. “We are living beings who are being spoken to.” Let us listen for those words.
Peace,
Matt
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Popalyptic
Over the course of a few blog posts I am going to try to do something I have never done before on this blog. First of all, I am planning to keep with one topic for more than one post, rather than commenting on random things from the news and current books I am reading. This will take more discipline than I am used to, but stranger things have happened. Please be reading regular and providing some feedback as I meander towards a point with this series.
So what am I planning on doing? Why, commenting on the popalysm going on today, and seeing where it takes us.
First things first: Popalyptic. Not necessarily the most clever or original combination of the words pop and apocalyptic, but it is functional and I thought of it, so we are going with this as a title. I want to spend some time examining the use of apocalyptic material in pop culture and measure it up against Biblical writings. This is not to point out which are “right” and which have it all “wrong.” It has much more to do with seeing what these movies, books, and songs are telling our society about “end times,” not to mention how God works. I really have no specific intention as far as where this ends up.
I will say right here, at the start of this, that I have my own beliefs about what apocalyptic literature is and have even stronger opinions about what it is not. If you have different ideas, that is fine. Hopefully this will still be interesting for you and the conversations (if any ensue from this) that come out of it will bless both of us greatly. On my next post, which should hopefully come tomorrow, I will write about my understanding of apocalyptic literature, the Apocalypse, End Times, and try to share my limited understanding of how this has been historically read, turning specifically to the U.S. We’ll see if I can do all of that in one post… After that, we’ll turn to the pop part of these posts, which should make all of you who read People and Us happy.
For now, I will leave with two questions that should help me get moving on this (if, that is, anybody responds):
- What do you, without going to a theological dictionary or any other resource, think apocalyptic literature is? And why is it written?
- Where have you seen intersections between pop culture and apocalyptic ideas?
Peace,
Matt
Thursday, January 24, 2008
A Message from Haiti
"...is every human being not a person?
Yes, all human beings are people. It is we, the afflicted, who speak now. We have come together...to discuss the great difficulties facing the sick. We've also brought some ideas of our own in our knapsacks; we would like to share them with you, the authorities, in the hope that you might do something to help resolve the health problems of the poor.
When we the sick, living with AIDS, speak to the subject of 'health and human rights,' we are aware of two rights that ought to be indivisible and inalienable. Those who are sick should have the right to health care. We who are already infected believe in prevention too. But prevention will not save those who are already ill. All people need treatment when we are sick, but for the poor there are no clinics, no doctors, no nurses, no health care.
Furthermore, the medications now available are too expensive. For HIV treatment, for example, we read in the newspapers that treatment costs less than $600 per year [in developing countries]. Although that is what is quoted in press releases, here in a poor, small country like Haiti, it costs more than twice that much.
The right to health is the right to life. Everyone has a right to live. If we were not living in misery, but rather in decent poverty, many of us would not be in this predicament today...
We have a message for the people who are here and for all those able to hear our plea. We are asking for your solidarity. The battle we're fighting - to find adequate care for those with AIDS, tuberculosis, and other illnesses - is the same as the combat that's long been waged by other oppressed people so that everyone can live as human beings."
-A Declaration made by a group of rural Haitians living with HIV, August 2001.
Yes, all human beings are people. It is we, the afflicted, who speak now. We have come together...to discuss the great difficulties facing the sick. We've also brought some ideas of our own in our knapsacks; we would like to share them with you, the authorities, in the hope that you might do something to help resolve the health problems of the poor.
When we the sick, living with AIDS, speak to the subject of 'health and human rights,' we are aware of two rights that ought to be indivisible and inalienable. Those who are sick should have the right to health care. We who are already infected believe in prevention too. But prevention will not save those who are already ill. All people need treatment when we are sick, but for the poor there are no clinics, no doctors, no nurses, no health care.
Furthermore, the medications now available are too expensive. For HIV treatment, for example, we read in the newspapers that treatment costs less than $600 per year [in developing countries]. Although that is what is quoted in press releases, here in a poor, small country like Haiti, it costs more than twice that much.
The right to health is the right to life. Everyone has a right to live. If we were not living in misery, but rather in decent poverty, many of us would not be in this predicament today...
We have a message for the people who are here and for all those able to hear our plea. We are asking for your solidarity. The battle we're fighting - to find adequate care for those with AIDS, tuberculosis, and other illnesses - is the same as the combat that's long been waged by other oppressed people so that everyone can live as human beings."
-A Declaration made by a group of rural Haitians living with HIV, August 2001.
Links!
Here's some random links for ya'll to check out:
*Larry Lessig has put his book out on the internet for free. It is called The Future of Ideas and I would highly recommend that you download and read it. To understand who he is and what he is about, you can check out his blog or watch his incredible presentation at ted.com.
*Brian McLaren was recently interviewed by the Sierra Club. It's a great listen.
*I don't know if I ever put a link up for this or not, but it is a letter from local Catholic bishops written in 2000 to defend the Columbia River Watershed, which the PNW needs to start doing.
*Naomi Klein has a new book out titled The Shock Doctrine. The premise sounds amazing. There is also an awesome short video to go along with it that you can watch on her website.
*I have been listening to the mp3's of a class on Heidegger at Berkley. If you want to really get to know and understand one of the most important thinkers in the past 100 years, and you have a lot of time on your hand, start listening (and taking notes)!
*Arrested Development the movie?!
Peace,
Matt
*Larry Lessig has put his book out on the internet for free. It is called The Future of Ideas and I would highly recommend that you download and read it. To understand who he is and what he is about, you can check out his blog or watch his incredible presentation at ted.com.
*Brian McLaren was recently interviewed by the Sierra Club. It's a great listen.
*I don't know if I ever put a link up for this or not, but it is a letter from local Catholic bishops written in 2000 to defend the Columbia River Watershed, which the PNW needs to start doing.
*Naomi Klein has a new book out titled The Shock Doctrine. The premise sounds amazing. There is also an awesome short video to go along with it that you can watch on her website.
*I have been listening to the mp3's of a class on Heidegger at Berkley. If you want to really get to know and understand one of the most important thinkers in the past 100 years, and you have a lot of time on your hand, start listening (and taking notes)!
*Arrested Development the movie?!
Peace,
Matt
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
B.S. and Politics
Two interesting stories today from NPR:
*This one is about the brutal fight currently going on between Clinton and Obama, both of whom are making a lot of accusations towards the other.
*This one is about Robert Lewis and his compiling of every lie told by senior White House officials between Sept 11, 2001 and Sept 11, 2003.
What do these two stories have in common? They are both about political bullshit - this insane desire to get what is wanted no matter the cost to truth, integrity, self, or other.
Here's what Henry Frankfurt has to say about this in On Bullshit:
"When an honest man speaks, he says only what he believes to be true; and for the liar, it is correspondingly indispensable that he considers his statements to be false. For the bullshitter, however, all these bets are off: he is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false. His eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyse of the honest man and of the liar are, except insofar as they may be pertinent to his interest in getting away with what he says. He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose."
Ponder that, my friends.
Peace,
Matt
*This one is about the brutal fight currently going on between Clinton and Obama, both of whom are making a lot of accusations towards the other.
*This one is about Robert Lewis and his compiling of every lie told by senior White House officials between Sept 11, 2001 and Sept 11, 2003.
What do these two stories have in common? They are both about political bullshit - this insane desire to get what is wanted no matter the cost to truth, integrity, self, or other.
Here's what Henry Frankfurt has to say about this in On Bullshit:
"When an honest man speaks, he says only what he believes to be true; and for the liar, it is correspondingly indispensable that he considers his statements to be false. For the bullshitter, however, all these bets are off: he is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false. His eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyse of the honest man and of the liar are, except insofar as they may be pertinent to his interest in getting away with what he says. He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose."
Ponder that, my friends.
Peace,
Matt
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
MLK II / Vincent Harding
"We preachers have also been tempted by the enticing cult of conformity. Seduced by the success symbols of the world, we have measured our achievements by the size of our parsonage. We have become showmen to please the whims and caprices of the people. We preach comforting sermons and avoid saying anything from our pulpit which might disturb the respectable views of the comfortable members of our congregations. Have we ministers of Jesus Christ sacrificed truth on the altar of self-interest and, like Pilate, yielded our convictions to the demands of the crowd? We need to recapture the gospel glow of the early Christians, who were nonconformists in the truest sense of the word and refused to shape their witness according to the mundane patterns of the world."
-MLK, "Transformed Nonconformist"
Dr. Vincent Harding was in Bellingham over the weekend and I was fortunate enough to take 25 teens to an ecumenical discussion with him on Sunday afternoon along with teens from other churches in the county. It was great. Dr. Harding is a passionate man, but also a great teacher. He asked a lot of questions, remembered names, used multimedia, put us in break-out groups. He also said it how it is. He didn't let kids get off with the easy answers about who MLK was; he brought up King's fight against poverty and the war in Vietnam. I loved watching my kids squirm as Harding brought up the obvious parallels for today. It's always easier to admire a guy who is only remembered for the past. It's much harder when you imagine what they would say to us today. But kids did listen, and the highlight for me was watching one of my seniors go to Dr. Harding and ask him about non-violence and its biblical reasoning. Sure, I would have loved it if he asked me, but the fact that he asked at all was awesome. I think Martin Luther King would have been pleased to see such a small, but significant, interaction.
Peace,
Matt
-MLK, "Transformed Nonconformist"
Dr. Vincent Harding was in Bellingham over the weekend and I was fortunate enough to take 25 teens to an ecumenical discussion with him on Sunday afternoon along with teens from other churches in the county. It was great. Dr. Harding is a passionate man, but also a great teacher. He asked a lot of questions, remembered names, used multimedia, put us in break-out groups. He also said it how it is. He didn't let kids get off with the easy answers about who MLK was; he brought up King's fight against poverty and the war in Vietnam. I loved watching my kids squirm as Harding brought up the obvious parallels for today. It's always easier to admire a guy who is only remembered for the past. It's much harder when you imagine what they would say to us today. But kids did listen, and the highlight for me was watching one of my seniors go to Dr. Harding and ask him about non-violence and its biblical reasoning. Sure, I would have loved it if he asked me, but the fact that he asked at all was awesome. I think Martin Luther King would have been pleased to see such a small, but significant, interaction.
Peace,
Matt
Monday, January 21, 2008
Remembering MLK
"We are gravely mistaken to think that Christianity protects us from the pain and agony of mortal existence. Christianity has always insisted that the cross we bear precedes the crown we wear. To be a Christian, one must take up his cross, with all of its difficulties and agonizing and tragedy-packed content, and carry it until that very cross leaves its mark upon us and redeems us to that more excellent way which comes only through suffering...
We must make a choice. Will we continue to march to the drumbeat of conformity and respectability, or will we, listening to the beat of a more distant drum, move to its echoing sounds? Will we march only to the music of time, or will we, risking criticism and abuse, march to the soul-saving music of eternity? More than ever before we are today challenged by the words of yesterday, 'Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.'"
-Martin Luther King Jr, from his sermon "Transformed Noncomformist."
We must make a choice. Will we continue to march to the drumbeat of conformity and respectability, or will we, listening to the beat of a more distant drum, move to its echoing sounds? Will we march only to the music of time, or will we, risking criticism and abuse, march to the soul-saving music of eternity? More than ever before we are today challenged by the words of yesterday, 'Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.'"
-Martin Luther King Jr, from his sermon "Transformed Noncomformist."
Friday, January 18, 2008
Off the Trail
Tonight, for some reason more than usual, I am missing my dad. The snow has been dumping in the mountains, and he he would have been twitching to get into the mountains for some skiing or snowshoeing. I look at these pictures and remain angry as I imagine a strong, energetic man wasted away until he looked like a holocaust survivor. I try to figure out how to be a dad and wich he were here to teach me. How do you let go of that kind of frustration?
...
Dad was never really into poetry, but this reminded me of him anyway. It is a Gary Snyder poem called Off the Trail. Maybe he would have liked it. Our hikes typically went that way sooner or later, especially once we were in goat, elk and deer country. He's off the trail now...
...
"We are free to find our own way
Over rocks - through the trees -
Where there are no trails. The ridge and the forest
Present themselves to our eyes and feet
Which decide for themselves
In their old learned wisdom of doing
Where the wild will take us. We have
Been here before. It's more intimate somehow
Than walking the paths that lay out some route
That you stick to,
All paths are possible, many will work,
Being blocked is its own kind of pleasure,
Getting through is a joy, the side-trips
And detours show down logs and flowers,
The deer paths straight up, the squirrel tracks
Across, the outcroppings lead us on over.
Resting on treetrunks,
Stepping out on the bedrock, angling and eyeing
Both making choices - now parting our ways -
And later rejoin; I'm right, you're right,
We come out together. Mattake, 'Pine Mushroom,'
Heaves at the base of a stump. The dense matted floor
Of Red Fir needles and twigs. This is wild!
We laugh, wild for sure,
Because no place is more than another,
All places total,
And our ankles, knees, shoulders &
Haunches know right where they are.
Recall how the Dao De
Jing puts it: the trail's not the way.
No path will get you there, we're off the trail,
You and I, and we chose it! Our trips out of doors
Through the years have been practice
For this ramble together,
Deep in the mountains
Side by side,
Over rocks, through the trees.
...
Peace,
Matt
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Update on my Goals
I recently wrote about some "2008 Goals" I had decided upon (scroll down if you are interested, because I'm not putting a link here to further your laziness). In the spirit of accountability (and no, I don't mean the typical evangelical kind that focuses in one sin...I think you know what I'm talking about), I thought I'd share on how I'm doing:
- Riding my bike to work. Check. It is a blast, but it is also hell. Once I force myself out the door, I have so much fun. I feel like a little kid again! The only problem: it is definitely a Bellingham winter. EVERY SINGLE DAY I ride one or more of the following is happening: rain, wind, deep freeze, snow, dark. There was one day where the weather was actually above 32 degrees and nothing was falling from the sky...and I got a flat tire. Still, believe it or not, I am having fun, helping the environment, and losing weight. Kind of a win/win/win.
- Run 30 miles on my 30th birthday. I haven't exactly put a schedule on paper, but I'm up to 15 miles already, with exactly 4 months left to train. I think I should not only be in good enough shape to run it, but hopefully even be able to run the distance with a fair amount of speed. Beats crawling to the finish line...
- Finish Old Testament Theology and Truth and Method. Umm... I looked at them sitting on my bookshelf and didn't get much further. But luckily I still have 11 and 1/2 months left.
- Write more. Crap. Why'd I have to give myself so many goals... I have written a few things, which will be mentioned later in this post. But they weren't really what I was thinking about when I wrote about writing. Still need to work on this one.
- Stop wussing out. Been doing better...and it's been getting me into tough situations. Oh well, I guess that's part of the process. I've been causing drama. I guess that's kinda cool.
- Start living out my convictions. I've been doing better at this, though it is definitely just a start. Again, it's also getting me into trouble.
- Eat better. Check. Less sugar, beer, ice cream and smaller portions. Woo-hoo. I'm hungry...
- Stop taking work home with me. Crap... I'm trying.
- Be a better friend. Sorry Ron.
- Spend more time in nature. Not really, but refer to my bike issues... I did go for a short hike a few days ago and saw some black-tail deer in the process.
- Organized athletics. n/a. Bellingham hasn't really had any, at least that I've heard about at this time.
There ya go. I'm doing okay with my first ever New Years-type goals. Maybe my 3rd grade teacher was right when she put on my report card; "sets goals and strives to achieve them." Wow.
Peace,
Matt
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Bellingham: America's first slave-free city
Two nights ago I went to a community meeting featuring Kevin Bales. He is the president of Free the Slaves and author of multiple books, including Disposable People and Understanding Global Slavery. He shared for about 45 minutes on modern-day slavery and how Bellingham can become the nations first "slave-free city", something he hopes he Free the Slaves can convince every city/county in the country to become. Here's some things I wrote down while listening to his presentation:
- There are over 27 million slaves in the world today. During the entire span of slavery in the United States, only 13 million were bought and sold.
- The average cost of a slave is now at an all-time low. There are a lot of "disposable people" today; people who have absolutely nothing, including protection, options and money. They are "expendable." Comparatively speaking, a slave in the U.S. used to cost approximately $40,000 in today's currency. In other words, they were a big investment. Today, a slave can be bought for as low as $30. Let that one sink in. Think about how little a person would care about a slave if they could go out and buy another one for so little. Meanwhile, the slave holders make massive amounts of profit on the weak and marginalized of our world.
- Three things are needed to fight global slavery: awareness, resources and commitment.
- This one I found extremely interesting, though it is an idea that Bales is just beginning to work our for his next book: slavery and the destruction of nature are intertwined. They form a vicious circle and go hand-in-hand throughout the world.
- How to become a slave-free city; 1. Community decides it wants to do it, 2. People learn how to identify a victim of slavery/human trafficking (similar to the pamphlets sent by the government post-9/11 on how to identify a terrorist), and 3. Trace product supply chains to make sure they weren't made with the help of slave labor.
So that's the run-down on Bales' message for my city. I am skeptical but hopeful when it comes to all of "us" (as in comfortable Americans sitting in our comfortable houses) actually helping. But you never know. For now, I am trying to figure out how I can be the change I want to see. You never know...
Peace,
Matt
Sunday, January 06, 2008
My New Favorite Website
I don't know if I am ahead or behind on this, but either way you must go to ted.com. Some of the most brilliant/important people in the world coming together to share their thoughts? Priceless. I just listened to two messages from the Steven Pinker and am going to listen to Isabel Allende after I'm done writing this entry. Check it out, listen to any of the speakers, and be blessed.
Peace,
Matt
Peace,
Matt
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Unorganized Goals For '08
I've never been one to give a rip about New Year resolutions, or really making resolutions at all. But coming into 2008 I realized I had some goals in my head and decided this morning that I would write them out. Voicing my goals aloud helps me to actually work towards them, which is a good thing (thanks Martha). So, in no particular order, here they are:
- Ride my bike to work at least four times per week. I did it this week. It would be five, but on Sundays I work until after 9pm, which is not a fun time to ride your bike, especially when you don't have any sort of light.
- Run 30 miles on April 17th. That is the day I turn 30, and I want to run one mile for every year. It's kinda crazy, I know, but I hate aging and like running.
- Finish reading Old Testament Theology and Truth and Method. Both of these massive books have dogged me for years, and I'm more than half-way through both. This is the year I'd like to finish reading both books.
- Write more. That includes blogging, but also, and more importantly, articles and essays that I would like to try to start submitting to different magazines/journals to see if I can get them published.
- Stop wussing out. I don't confront people when I should, whether it is a point of debate or an actual argument, I need to speak my mind in the real world and not just on the web. I was driving the other day and heard Tom Petty's song, I Won't Back Down, and realized that that is the kind of person I want to be, but have not been up to this point.
- Start living out my convictions. My last blog entry was about this, so you can look at that for more info. I am passionate about justice and mercy and peace, but have been lazy about living these things out in the past two years.
- Eat better. I'm not getting any younger, and I consume a lot of sugar, beer, coffee, ice cream, etc. Lo and behold, I'm also not getting any lighter. This isn't some massive diet plan, but just a desire to be smarter about what I eat, and better about stopping before I want to vomit.
- Stop taking work problems home with me. A little thing goes wrong at work and I go home unable to talk or sleep or eat. It's lame and has to stop.
- Be a better friend. I like my friends and typically wait for them to call me and make plans with me. That is not really what a friend does. I want to call more often, make plans more often, and ask better questions about their lives.
- Spend more time in nature.
- Participate in some organized bike rides and runs around Bellingham and even the great PNW. Oh boy, I'm going to regret that one.
There ya go. They've been voiced aloud.
Matt
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