Poem of the Day XI

Minnesota Thanksgiving
by John Berryman from Collected Poems: 1937 to 1971

For that free Grace bringing us past great risks
& thro' great griefs surviving to this feast
sober & still, with the children unborn and born,
among brave friends, Lord, we stand again in debt
and find ourselves in the glad position: Gratitude.

We praise our ancestors who delivered us here
within warm walls all safe, aware of music,
likely toward ample & attractive meat
with whatever accompaniment
Kate in her kind ingenuity has seen fit to devise,

and we hope--across the most strange year to come--
continually to do them and You not sufficient honour
but such as we become able to devise
out of decent or joyful conscience & thanksgiving.
Yippee!
Bless then, as Thou wilt, this wilderness board.

© 1989 Kate Donahue Berryman

Anne Frank's Tree

The chestnut tree that stands outside what was the only non-covered window in the attic where Anne Frank was in hiding for 25 months, is scheduled to be cut down. The tree has stood for 150 years, but has become the victim of a tree fungus, which has overtaken it.

As this article mentions, the tree made several appearances in the diary and served as a source of inspiration and beauty in what was a very limited existence. On February 23, 1944 she wrote:

"Nearly every morning I go to the attic to blow the stuffy air out of my lungs. From my favorite spot on the floor I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, and at the seagulls and other birds as they glide on the wind...."

And on May 13, 1944 she wrote:

“Our chestnut tree is in full blossom. It is covered with leaves and is even more beautiful than last year...”

While it is sad the tree must be taken down, it will live on in memory and on the net. There is a memorial to the tree here and until it is removed you can catch one last glimpse at the live webcam they have focused on the tree here.

It’s amazing that this tree has become such a source of inspiration to others. I had my own “man on the train” kind of moment while reading about it. We can never understand truly what it meant to Anne, but I think we all can identify with the idea of having something that would appear ordinary and meaningless to someone else, but with which we associate so much. There’s an old saying about the little things making life worth living, and there is a lot of truth to that. Anne found solace in the peace and majesty of the tree outside her window. It served a great purpose there for her and I’m happy that it existed.

Paradise Now

Last night I attended a viewing of the movie Paradise Now at Georgia Tech, which is the story of two suicide bombers in Palestine. The movie was followed by a brief lecture and discussion. As you may recall, this movie was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards this past year. The movie was very well made. The acting was excellent, as was the writing, which is amazing considering the danger the crew faced while making the movie: the location manager was kidnapped during filming and six members of the crew quit after a missile destroyed a car yards away from where they were working. These real life difficulties give extra impact to what is happening on screen. You realize that this is not just another movie.

The director insisted that, "the film is simply meant to open a discussion. It does not condone the taking of lives." This hardly kept the controversy away, as you can imagine. However, I do feel that it is an important movie to be shown and a discussion worth having. The movie does humanize the suicide bombers, but the thing we forget is that they are human. The interesting story here, and the almost unbearable sadness, is what leads a man to this. Having an understanding doesn't make the action right, these bombings are still horrible atrocities almost beyond words, but it does lead insight into the problem, and perhaps allows for a path to a solution.

The main point of the discussion that followed the movie was that the narrative of the Palestinian is one that is absent from most American news and discussions, which is true. The entire region is labeled "terrorist" and cast aside. While there are many people and organizations in the region that are terrorists, that do take innocent life, there are many that just want a peaceful solution. The best way to reach this is for both sides to understand the story of the other. The speaker after the movie claimed that no resolution will be made until an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian Arab can reach out to each other in mutual understanding and good will. This sounds nice of course, but the reality is much more difficult. Most of the time it seems that all we can do is hope and pray for peace and stability in the region, for all people, but it should also be our responsibility to learn both sides and educate ourselves on an extremely complex situation.

Poem of the Day X

Dawn Revisted
by Rita Dove from On the Bus with Rosa Parks

Imagine you wake up
with a second chance: The blue jay
hawks his pretty wares
and the oak still stands, spreading
glorious shade. If you don't look back,

the future never happens.
How good to rise in sunlight,
in the prodigal smell of biscuits--
eggs and sausage on the grill.
The whole sky is yours

to write on, blown open
to a blank page. Come on,
shake a leg! You'll never know
who's down there, frying those eggs,
if you don't get up and see.

© 1999 by Rita Dove

Christianity and Politics

I just read an interesting article by former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson from this week’s Newsweek called “A New Social Gospel”. In it, he describes not a new type of Evangelical, but simply one that is often ignored by the mainstream media. The crux of the article can be summarized in this paragraph:

Often the media miss or ignore this kind of new evangelical leader. There is a tendency to elevate the most irresponsible and strident religious figures, mostly because it makes for better cable TV. This practice reflects a stereotype held by many media decision makers, who view every orthodox Christian as a fundamentalist, and every fundamentalist as a theocrat. The stereotype is unfair and uninteresting. Evangelicalism is both more diverse and more idealistic than its critics understand. And that should be welcome news for Americans, religious and secular alike.

One of many aspects in our current political climate that is negative is the tendency to lump all Evangelicals, really all Christians, into the Republican camp. This isn’t just making the assumption that Christians hold conservative values, this is saying that Christians have taken the Republican Party as their own. In many instances, this is true, but it is a fallacy, and a disservice to Christians, to assume this is natural. The Republican Party has formed its message to fit the conservative beliefs of many Americans and now it seems many Christians are forming their beliefs to fit the Republican message. As with any tide, it’s bound to recede. As Gerson points out, perhaps it is starting to happen (perhaps the “new Evangelical” he speaks of is not “new” in the sense of “never seen before”, but “new” in the sense that “it is a fresh perspective in the current political climate”). The issues that are important to Christians should go beyond Party lines and should be about individual platforms. There will probably never be the perfect candidate for Christians, and many of the candidates that are chosen by Christians may be Republican, but there should be a willingness to not be closed in. If the Democratic Party is smart, they will stop marginalizing this group. Gerson words it this way:

These changes in evangelicalism should be an opportunity for Democrats. But seizing it would require a philosophic shift. Modern liberalism has defined the belief in truth as the enemy of tolerance because absolute claims of right and wrong lead to coercion. And religious claims, in this view, are the most intolerant of all, and should be radically privatized so no one's morality gets "imposed" on another. It is difficult for liberals and Democrats to appeal to religious people while declaring their deepest motivations a threat to the republic. And it is difficult to imagine the history of the republic if this narrow view had prevailed. How does moral skepticism and privatized religion motivate decades of struggle against slavery, or lead men and women, step by step, toward the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma? If there is really no truth, why believe in, or sacrifice for, the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence?

There have been many progressive changes in this country because of the Christian influence. Gerson mentions several including Women’s Suffrage and Civil Rights. By toeing the Party line, Christians are playing into the segregating nature of politics today. Reasoned discourse has been sacrificed on the alter of ratings on cable news and in the editorial pages of most major newspapers. The nature of Christ was that of a revolutionary, and not in the sense we think of. Christianity cannot fit into a mould or an ideology and certainly not within the planks of a particular political party’s platform. By pursuing the Truth offered in the Gospels the outcome will be more progressive and at the same time conservative than either Party’s ideology could conjure up. Christians are limiting themselves by playing party politics. Be involved, engage in honest conversation and debate, research and read, but don’t play the game. Perhaps that’s the best advice for all of us.

News in Review I

Great News for Gourmands

Obese mice on a high-fat diet got the benefits of being thin — living healthier, longer lives — without the pain of dieting when they consumed huge doses of red wine extract, according to a landmark new study. -from 11/02/06 AP story

Great! So, now, as long as what works for mice will work for humans, we can gorge ourselves on fatty foods and cancel it out by washing it all down with some red wine! Don't worry about diet or excercise; revel in your Epicurean lifestyle! Man, if this is true, I'm eating Big Mac's with a bottle of Merlot every night.

Surprise!

Amanda Brisendine attributed the 30 pounds she gained in the past year to an abandoned smoking habit and rich food. So when she went to the hospital with sharp stomach pain, she wasn't expecting to leave with a newborn son. -from 11/01/06 AP story

Now, granted, I know very little about pregnancy, and I don't want to be one of those men that puts his foot in his mouth about something he will never truly understand, but, what!? How do you go 9 months and not know you're pregnant?

Woman: "Honey, good news! I found a great weight loss solution!"
Man:"Oh yea, what's that?"
Woman: "C-section! Meet your new son!"

Um...Why is this News?

Barb Dougherty, a 30-year Postal Service employee, said she was attacked and bitten Monday by a squirrel while delivering mail in Oil City, about 75 miles north of Pittsburgh. -from 11/02/06 AP story

I mean, sure, it's a bit odd, but c'mon. War, faminine, disease, and squirrel bites... At any rate, at least the mail was delivered...come rain, snow, or small furry animals!

Straight, No Chaser

Because I have nothing of importance to say right now, and nothing in the news will give me anything to bounce off of for a post, I decided to recycle an old post. This is from a blog I worked on with several other people a couple of years ago called Barnes Ignoble (you can check out the ruins here). The point of the blog was to discuss books. We made it through two, I believe, before it collapsed. At any rate, I was happy with this post on the book Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen, and have re-posted here for your reading pleasure:

Straight, No Chaser

The discussion that grew from the previous post was one that cut to the heart of Christianity. As I've mentioned before, it is essential to define our terms lest they become void of any real meaning. Christianity is a term that necessitates solid definition. Machen realized this and composed Christianity and Liberalism for this very purpose. We may not agree with everything he says, but we cannot deny its importance. To this end, and jumping off the previous post, I'd like to analyze, briefly, the person of Jesus and why it is important to solidify the essentials.

It doesn't take a scholar to notice the increase in attention that is being focused on religion in general in recent months and Christianity specifically. First it was The Da Vinci Code and the numerous television specials probing its claims. Next we had the election and the supposedly grand victory of "moral values", whatever that means. Also with the recent passing of the Pope, the mainstream media has brought religion to the forefront more than any time in recent memory. Machen saw a similar trend in his own time in response to the tumultuous time of war during the early 20th century. He had this to say: "such considerations [that previous solutions have not worked] have led to a renewed public interest in the subject of religion; religion is discovered after all to be a useful thing. But the trouble is that in being utilized religion is also being degraded and destroyed. Religion is being regarded more and more as a mere means to a higher end." (150) This is the crux of the problem. The more we look to religion as a means to an end the more we lose the importance of the message. We tend to water down Christianity in an attempt to derive from it what we want. Recently I read an article about a church in Arizona that has become a "Mega church" (the article has been taken off the site unless you want to pay for it, however if you'd like to read a copy let me know and I'll email you the text). The church was built to avoid looking like a traditional church at all costs. There is no iconography, however there are X-boxes and plasma TV's. Let me preface my next point with an old adage from Seinfeld: "not that there's anything wrong with that". I am not one to doubt that God can work through anything and if this church is bringing people in to hear the real message of Christ then more power to them, I certainly will not scream about the speck in my brother's eye lest I forget the plank in my own. However, there was one part of the article that disturbed me: "Almost half of each service is given over to live Christian rock with simple, repetitive lyrics in which Jesus is treated like a high-school crush: 'Jesus, you are my best friend, and you will always be. Nothing will ever change that.' Committing your life to Christ is as easy as checking a box on the communication cards that can be found on the back of every chair. (Last year, 1,055 people did so.)" Again, I will not deny that God can work through pop music and communication cards, but the message the church is putting across is one of a watered down Christ. Yes, Christ loves us, and yes nothing will ever change that, but to compare him to a high school crush not only demeans our Lord, but it demeans us for worshiping such a Lord. Machen says it this way...it is a long quote, but important:

"Yet such a God has at least one advantage over the comforting God of modern preaching--He is alive, He is sovereign, He is not bound by His creation or by His creatures, He can perform wonders. Could He even save us if He would? He has saved us--in that message the gospel consists. [...] It all seems so very local, so very particular, so very unphilosophical, so very unlike what might have been expected. Are not our own methods of salvation, men say, better than that? [...] Yet what if it were true? [...] God's own Son delivered up for us all, freedom from the world, sought by philosophers of all the ages, offered now freely to every simple soul, things hidden from the wise and prudent revealed unto babes, the long striving over, the impossible accomplished, sin conquered by mysterious grace, communion at length with the holy God, our Father which art in heaven! Surely this and this alone is joy." (134-135).

Okay, you say, so the love expressed in pop songs is not of this magnitude, but it is still love. True, I would respond, however you are also forgetting something else. Machen continues:

"But it is a joy that is akin to fear. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Were we not safer with a God of our own devising--love and only love, a Father and nothing else, one before whom we could stand in our own merit without fear? He who will may be satisfied with such a God. But we, God help us--sinful as we are, we would see Jehovah. Despairing, hoping, trembling, half-doubting and half-believing, trusting all to Jesus, we venture into the presence of the very God. And in His presence we live." (135).

When we water down Christianity we destroy its beauty, its truth, the very thing that makes it worth devoting a life to. We take God and make him manageable and make Him a thing not worth our worship. This is why Machen's book is important and why a constant reiteration, with discussion, with prayer, with thought, of Christianity is important. You may choose to believe or not to believe, this is not an argument to convince unbelievers, but if you choose to believe...believe. Do not make God manageable, let God manage you. If you choose to worship something make sure it is worth your worship.