Friday, August 7, 2015
Jiggle Dancing for Jesus
I am a
cerebral exhibitionist, noetic
pole dancer—jiggle dancing for jesus
for crying out loud. Fool for christ’s
sakes. This is my bawdy broken for
view.
I am
wrong: the only way to be right.
“The
greater part of what my neighbors
call
good I believe
in my soul to be bad,
and if I repent of anything,
it is very
likely to be my good behavior.What
demon possessed me that I behaved
so
well?”
Ridiculous
to the smart and savvy.
Offensive
to the decent & conscientious.
Liberal
Art.
Nietzsche
Uber Alles: If I were actually
Beyond Good and Evil
and not faking
it and really not giving a shit
one way
or the other (could care less my
drill
sergeant tell us) and could actually
empathize
with ISIS and KKK and
Planned Parenthood
and Trump and
John Stewart, appreciate
fires and floods
and hurricanes, acts of
passion and
irrationality etc —you know:
all nature
working naturally for GOOD as we
all know
it, none of us for Evil how
could it be other
wise? that would be
silly —evolution evolving evolutionarily;
I’d still have to pretend partisanship
just to
get along. Beyond Good & Evil
is
inhuman and uncanny and socio-
pathetic and can’t
be tolerated anthropo-
logically. Have to take
sides. Have to vote.
If I’m not part of
the solution
I’m part
of the problem, no doubt. Put on an
angry face.Appalled.
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http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/colby-cosh-the-heretical-minister-to-help-her-flock-evolve-out-of-the-need-for-church
ReplyDeleteNadia closer in spirit to my jiggle dancing (in my mind), than Colby--but on the face of it and superficially, Colby appeals more than Carl (i confess) or my orthodox Presbyterian pastor fb friend from San Francisco.
ReplyDeleteColby is an atheist.
ReplyDeleteRight--still would hang with her if Nadia wasn't available--over those other 2 boys and many who call themselves Xtian.
ReplyDeleteColby is a guy.
ReplyDelete"Colby Cosh: The heretical minister to help her flock evolve out of the need for church"
DeleteHer. The "Minister", what's her name.
ReplyDeleteVerily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
ReplyDelete48 I am that bread of life.
49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
52 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.
59 These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.
60 Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?
61 When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?
62 What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?
63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.
65 And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?
68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.
70 Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?
71 He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.
Myth, of course.
ReplyDelete"Myth" is the highest order of speech and representation. Truth.
DeleteLike the whitewashing of Satan, the understanding of myth is not how we actually understand those words. As Tolkien strained to show: Christianity has been found to be the true myth. That would be the highest.
ReplyDeleteSatan is a personification -- mythic in the popular sense.
DeleteSatan is closer than my skin some people warn. Feels pretty real sometimes.
Delete... shirt, rather. Does it make a difference?
Delete"The Devil is closer than our shirt."
A Christian should know that he is sitting among devils and that he devil is closer to him than his coat or shirt, nay, closer than his own skin. He should know that the devil is about us everywhere; he and we are constantly in one another's hair, and we must fight with him, testifies the proverb: It is not necessary to draw a picture over the door.--The first thing, then, is to hold firmly that the devil exists and that he is much closer to us than the shirt on our body.
From Scripture it is clear that the devil sends evil thoughts into the heart of a man and holds minds captive. Of Judas it is said: "Satan entered into him" (John 13:27). And he not only knew the thoughts of Cain but also suggested to him that he murder his brother. However, he does not know all the thoughts of the pious until they come out into the open. For Christ is too strong for him. As he does not know what is in the heart of Christ, so he cannot penetrate into the souls of the pious, where Christ dwells. But he is a powerful spirit, whom Christ even calls the prince of this world. He shoots terrible thoughts into the heart: hatred of God, blasphemy, and despair. These are his "fiery darts." St. Paul realized to some extent what these darts are when he felt the thorn in his flesh.
Oh, he goes from shirt to skin.
DeleteIn any case, he can get very close, firing horrible thoughts, but he can't know the heart of the pious.
DeleteWhen Luther talks this way, he always means that the devil wants him to try to despair of the grace and mercy of God. Faith in those, are what the devil can't get into.
We have an interesting woman running for the Green Party, Elizabeth May. She thought she'd finish life as a nice little Anglican priest. She makes wistful comments about work life balance as a woman. http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/democracy-is-too-important-to-be-left-to-the-politicians-elizabeth-may-has-a-small-party-but-a-big-voice
ReplyDeleteI had a visit yesterday from a former student (class of 91) yesterday who is a rectoress in an inner city church in Rochester, NY. Episcopal priest--sassy and unconventional. She brought her new 64 year old boyfriend, a physicist who, she told me, was much smarter than me. I advised her honors thesis on Flannery O'Conner and she has the same sharp wit. I'd voter for her. It's the person--not the denomination or designation--that impresses, yes? Charisma
DeleteAlways Flannery and sass. :)
DeleteWhat about Flannery and orthodoxy?
DeleteWhat about Nadia and orthodoxy? Brigitte and orthodoxy? Mirror mirror on the wall: who's the most orthodox of all?
DeleteThere are three ecumenical creeds. You can subscribe to them or not. It is not subjective. That's the point. Flannery was as imbued with this as anyone could be, and you know it. Perhaps one can only be meaningfully sassy with a foundation like that.
DeleteShe was orthodox and she was sassy. May be a correlation though I know some orthodox who are not sassy and some sassy or who aren't orthodox.
DeleteElizabeth May mounts a better opposition than Trudeau and Mulcair. They look like midgets.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth May says she tried the comedian route but gave it up. They call her school-teacher-ish now, but to me that would be a kind of anti-woman talk. Why should I try to conform to someone's idea of entertainment.
ReplyDeleteOr charisma.
ReplyDeleteor idea of "the devil"--evil personified when like the kingdom: within.
ReplyDeleteI am vibrating a bit with them finally judging the stories.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/literaryprizes/nonfiction/
As we recall, the chance of winning is .01%, and with my sass, it is probably lower.
good luck
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sam. In any case it was great fun.
ReplyDeleteThe Yearning is the Destination--not the destination. Not whether I win or lose but how I play the game/ "I write every day without hope and without despair?"( A Nin).
ReplyDeleteYet, the possibility of winning, the hope however faint, the glimmer of it, is an ingredient in the fun. For some people it is everything.
ReplyDeletetrue ---those other words are rationalizations
ReplyDeleteThe goal propels us, but the joy in the process is more obvious afterward.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I tell myself.
ReplyDeleteIt's how will console myself, after I loose, or in anticipation of loosing.
ReplyDeleteI said to my husband over breakfast that they must be deliberating over the results because my entry is so controversial and they can't decide if it should be the winner or not. He grunted very much not convinced.
ReplyDeleteValidation from without is so important no matter how much we talk about kingdom within.
ReplyDeleteYet studies show that rewarding intrinsically rewarding pursuits ruins the experience.
ReplyDeletePray that you're not extrinsically rewarded.You'll get it in heaven
DeleteThat's why heaven is a free gift of grace and can't be earned. All deeds of love are free responses.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless: I try and I try and I try
DeleteMuhammad turned it all on its head.
ReplyDeleteIT.
ReplyDeleteKarma. Same thing.
ReplyDeleteYou do me good. I do you good.
ReplyDeleteBad Mohammad--bad bad Mohammad
ReplyDeleteYes. Face it.
ReplyDeleteAnd Muslims, too: bastards. Jews, Hindus, Siks, atheists, boodhists (zen), wiccans, I could go on and on
ReplyDeletePeople are people. Leaders bear responsibility for their teachings.
ReplyDeleteFace it.
ReplyDeleteAuto mechanics bear responsibility for their repairs, dentists for their crowns ect. People are people is a true tautology....
ReplyDeleteI'm facing this screen and the trees thrashing across the way.
ReplyDeleteWe know what we mean by it. We are people.
ReplyDeleteIsis are people, Iraqis. Canadians are people: all know what we mean by it.
ReplyDeleteWe do. -- I am going to go recycle electronics and batteries. What to do with all the old cassette tapes. I have all sorts of children's stories in German, and recordings from family things that are irreplaceable. The changing formats are a real challenge.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/14/world/middleeast/isis-enshrines-a-theology-of-rape.html
ReplyDeleteTheology of rape. What could be more perverse.
Priests pedophile-ing young boys? As if not more?
ReplyDeleteAlso very bad.
ReplyDeletebad abound, bad galore--differs among cultures, conventions, customs, agenda, bias and belief system,
ReplyDeletebut BAD is an absolute--obviously. .
Bad does not differ so wildly. We know it's bad, but sometimes the culture sanctions it.
ReplyDeleteVarieties of Bad--regional, local, conventional. EVIL--something else & yet it is "relative" in perception alsol. Varities of Good - the same. Most of us swim in the culture, with no notion of wet or dry.
ReplyDeleteSometimes so bad that the government and the theologians mandate the evil.
ReplyDeleteNot with the notion that they are mandating evil.
DeleteSome people are able to rationalize anything, and some don't care.
DeleteSome know they are rationalizing --aware--, some don't know they are, unawarei
DeletePeople instinctively oppose it.
ReplyDeletesome
DeleteMost. Maybe driven underground.
Deletein the cave and don't know it?
DeleteMy parents were born under totalitarian government, and all my growing up years, there was one next door.
DeleteFirst thing they try to do is dissolve normal associations between people, so they can't effectively oppose.
DeleteEven Plato tried to do it. First Nazi in some ways. Rationalizes it with the light.
DeletePhilosopher as dictator.
DeleteIn Islam opposition is not allowed, as it means submission,
ReplyDeletesubmission to allah
DeleteAnd his word and his prophet. No critical thought allowed. You are in or you are out. Off the head with all Kufars. Except maybe the people of the Book.
DeletePoor bastards--hate the sin and love the sinners
DeleteThe American Mueller woman was raped by the Calif according to the news this weekend.
ReplyDeleteI cried. Constance's aria from "the Abduction from the Seraglio" is one of my favourites having sung it since our parents let us use the turn table. She would have rather suffered all torments rather than be unfaithful. I have belted it out hundreds of times.
The horrors being perpetrated are beastly. At least Dawkins says something about it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IOe5NSGdg-c
There is a thing called WikiIslam.
ReplyDeletehttp://wikiislam.net/wiki/Rape_in_Islam
http://www.nytimes.com/video/world/middleeast/100000003854736/at-home-in-london-girls-chose-isis.html?nl=todayshe
ReplyDeleteLet Your Kingdom Come
ReplyDeleteLet your kingdom come.
Let your will be done
on earth as it is done in heaven.
Matthew 6:10
We should not pray, "Dear Father, let us come into your kingdom, as though it's a place to which we travel. Instead we pray, "Let your kingdom come." For if we're to receive it at all, God's grace and kingdom with all its virtues must come to us. We will never be able to go to him. In the same way, Christ came to us--from heaven down to earth. We didn't go up to him from earth to heaven.
Another mistake of those who pray the Lord's Prayer is that they only think about their eternal happiness. they understand the kingdom of God to mean nothing but joy and pleasure in heaven. thinking from an earthly, physical perspective and fearing hell, they only seek their own benefit and advantage in heaven. These people don't realize that God's kingdom is nothing but godliness, chastity, purity, gentleness, tenderness, and kindness. His kingdom is full of every virtue and grace. They don't know that god must have his way and that he along lives and reigns in us. this should be our first and foremost desire. We are saved only when God reigns in us, and we become his kingdom.
We don't have to seek or ask for joy, happiness, or anything else that we may desire. Rather, all of this comes along with God's kingdom. So to help us avoid wanting what is false and selfish, Christ tells us to seek first God's kingdom itself, not the fruits of the kingdom. But those who seek the fruits of God's kingdom seek the back end of God's kingdom. They seek the last part first, and the first part they value only because of its ultimate benefits.
This is your response to the Muslim Girls of England? After all the attention you've been given them? What pious soul composed this encomium?
ReplyDeleteWearing certain clothes, praying and exercising in basements, leaving your families, escaping to marry a terrorist... To gain heaven... Is NoT pious. This is not the kingdom of God.
ReplyDeletePeople do all that to gain entrance into heaven, even though it repulsed even themselves. There is something wrong with the picture, at the most fundamental level. God's kingdom is not like that.
ReplyDeleteI am speaking to them exactly where they are at, and with the only thing that will help them.-- God's kingdom is grace and it comes to us, not we to it.
ReplyDeleteThis is how you can live comfortably among many people, except be that they persecute you. Indeed that would be a glory to die a martyr, but unsought.
ReplyDeleteLet the strength of the message be your sword, not a physical sword.
ReplyDeleteThe pious encomium I was referring to is your long block quote
ReplyDeleteYes, and I have just explicated it for you.
ReplyDeleteAll familiar
ReplyDeleteShould does not imply can, and know does not imply "know". Familiar does not imply grasped.
ReplyDeleteKingdom from without and another place.
ReplyDeleteKingdom within: where ever I go, there I am.
ReplyDelete"Your kingdom come" is counter-intuitive and pure genius. We see how it is the thing helpful and needful.
ReplyDeleteThy kingdom come--peace that passes understanding (shalom). Beyond intuition, counter-intuition, genius. Ridiculous to the smart & savvy; offensive to the conscientious & decent. Rest ye merry
ReplyDelete--When the Church shirks its catechetical responsibility, the result is not that it goes un-catechized. Far from it. The result, rather, is that, by default, the Church comes under the tutelage of that unholy adjunct, the devil, whom Luther calls "a master of a thousand arts." No slacker himself, he is eager to teach where the Church is silent, with his own commandments, his own prayer, his own creed, and his own "good news." He is, in other words, a master catechizer. We labor under a false dichotomy when we ask whether or not the Church will be catechized. The answer is always yes. The question is not whether, but by whom?
ReplyDeleteFrom here: http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=28-05-015-v#ixzz3jEDks7yw
ReplyDeleteSome hard hitting stuff on that site.
The days of socially acceptable Christianity in the West are surely over. The days of comfortable Christian orthodoxy are past. It is no longer easy to be a faithful Christian, a good Catholic, an authentic Evangelical witness to the truths of the gospel. A price is demanded and must be paid. There are costs of discipleship—costs that are burdensome and painful to bear.
Related Touchstone articles:
The First Freedom
Why Religions Must Be Free, Not Tolerated
by William L. Saunders
Man, Woman & the Mystery of Christ
An Evangelical Protestant Perspective
by Russell D. Moore
Designed for Sex
What We Lose When We Forget What Sex Is For
by J. Budziszewski
Of course, one can still safely identify oneself as a "Christian," and even be seen going to worship services at church. That is because the guardians of those norms of cultural orthodoxy that we have come to call "political correctness" do not assume that identifying as "Christian" or going to church necessarily means that one actually believes what the Church teaches on issues such as marriage and sexual morality and the sanctity of human life.
Now, if one does not believe what the Church teaches, or, for now at least, even if one does believe those teachings but is prepared to be completely silent about them, one is safe—one can still be a comfortable Christian. In other words, a tame Christian, a Christian who is ashamed of the gospel—or who is willing to act publicly as if he or she were ashamed—is still socially acceptable. But a Christian who makes it clear that he or she is not ashamed must be prepared to take risks and make sacrifices.
Read more: http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=28-03-003-e#ixzz3jMirFCiK
Sorry. That did not copy well.
ReplyDeleteIf the devil is a master catechizer, what is it he teaches in opposition to the church?
ReplyDeleteMohammed lived among Christians, but he chose his own message. First of all Christ cannot be God or the Son of God. That is the first article. As the Muslim intones: God cannot have a son.
Second article: we must win the world by power and strength and cunning.
Third article: deny the gospel as weakness, but keep everyone ashamed and enslaved.
Fourth article: human life is dispensable, especially that of the herd, kufar... You name it.
Fifth article: keep them at each other's throats.
And so on. I have to go to work.
Karl Barth's fundamental theological reduction:
ReplyDelete"Jesus loves me this I know," for the bible tells me so.
My old man's favorite hymn: "What a friend I have in Jesus."i
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-nose-hill-liberals-defend-former-candidate-ala-buzreba-over-offensive-tweets-1.3197346
ReplyDeletePretty face. I assume you have some point in all your posts, but I couldn't say what it is.
ReplyDeleteHer vitriol reminds me of Reza Aslan's.
ReplyDeleteok. With a face like that, vitriol is do-able.
DeleteI thought you might find it charming.
DeleteShe looks charming to me.
DeleteNext thing, she will have to cover her face.
DeleteWould be a shame
DeleteWhen I took World Religions (from a great scholar, Rev. Dr. Leske, has had a Lutheran commentary on Matthew added to the Vatican Library), I learned then that Shia and Sunni pronounce curses on each other in their respective mosques. The late Christopher Hitchens also spoke about this having witnessed it in his travels.
ReplyDeleteThis indulgence in blood curdling curses is what is striking.
ReplyDeleteIt seem "in" among American young females o curse like soldiers. "Fuck" is ubiquitious as an intensifier. At the same time "N" word is obligatory as are "trigger warnings" if a sensitive subject is intended.
DeleteThose are not "curses".
ReplyDeleteTrue.
ReplyDeleteI am going to Canmore to see my sister. My oldest aunt and oldest cousin are also coming up from Vancouver, for the weekend. Last minute plan before summer is over... The geese are flying about in small groups gathering. The air has a definite chill and the shadows are long. The mountains should be lovely, though I think we will be sitting around drinking coffee.
ReplyDeleteClasses resume Monday.Katydids ratcheting all night lone. Coyotes and bear and turkeys--and this morning a couple bucks crossed the road in front of me. Canadian geese are ubiquitous down here. Used to be a rare treat in the 50's. Lizards in the living room, first ever.
ReplyDeleteDo the geese stay year round, there, or do they migrate, you think? Lizards in the living room. It sounds so tropical.
ReplyDeletePictures from Canmore, this weekend. It has been enveloped in smoke from forest fires in Washington State since then. http://thoughts-brigitte.blogspot.ca/2015/08/managed-to-get-away-to-canmore-once.html
They may migrate here--stay here a lot. Have become a nuisance in many areas. Lizards are small. I get the terrible impression that some end-days rapture-ists are taking some pleasure fires and floods--confiriing their expectations.,
ReplyDeleteMy sister gas a man from Trinidad for dinner every day, an independent prophet. He looked at me and said "what are you?", but I did not feel like playing.
ReplyDeletedon't blame you
DeleteWell, the geese are not here that long, with the short summer. Could be the same geese. There long, here short.
ReplyDeleteI would freak a bit with too many critters in the house. We were once in Italy and there were big ants walking everywhere, which gave me nightmares.
Hard on Ann..
Delete