Monday, October 31st
Shameless reposting
I ordinarily hate reposting without comment large swatches of stuff that is already available elsewhere. But this was too good not to pass on:
---
Private Inman and his companion, an unnamed boy-soldier from Tennessee, are sitting out the night in a frozen Civil War battlefield “littered with bodies, and churned up by artillery.” It is long past midnight, and the eeriness of the carnage is still keeping them from sleep. Suddenly Inman spies Orion and, finding comfort in its familiar shape, is able to relax. The constellation stands there on the eastern horizon “like a sign in the sky…sure of himself as a man can be.” Pointing it out, Inman tells his comrade that the name of Orion’s brightest star is Rigel.
The boy peered up and said, "How do you know its name?"
"I read it in a book," Inman said.
"Then that’s just a name we give it," the boy said. "It ain’t God’s name."
Inman had thought on the issue a minute and then said, "How would you ever come to know God’s name for that star?"
"You wouldn’t, He holds it close," the boy said. "It’s a thing you’ll never know. It’s a lesson that sometimes we’re meant to settle for ignorance. Right there’s what mostly comes of knowledge," the boy said, tipping his chin out at the broken land…
At the time, Inman had thought the boy a fool and had remained content to know our name for Orion’s principal star and to let God keep His a dark secret. But he now wondered if the boy might have had a point about knowledge, or at least some varieties of it.
Source: Charles Frazier, "Cold Mountain"
Friday, October 28th
Fred the anarchist?
Recently at church someone told me that he has a libertarian friend who wants to meet me because I am a Christian and an anarchist. This surprised me somewhat. I've been studying the works of certain Christian anarchists, Jaques Ellul in particular, but to actually hear that this is what I am gave me reason to pause. I certainly don't feel like an anarchist. Not only have I never blown up any government buildings, I feel no desire to: perhaps because I myself am a government worker. I pay all of my taxes (not always on time) and even voted in the last presidential election. This is not a very good record for an anarchist!
But even the "great" Christian anarchist Jaques Ellul said that anarchism as a political system doesn't really work. He studied the Biblical implications of anarchism because of an experience early in his life. He was interested in anarchism as a politial movement and approached the local anarchists with the intent to join them. They told him that he couldn't be an anarchist because he was a Christian. This led him on a theological quest to determine if this statement were true. As a result, he developed a theology which could generally be called anarchistic, and also developed a critique of atheistic anarchism.
This criticism was towards the "atheistic" factor of atheistic anarchism. Ellul pointed out that the anarchist's slogan "No God- No Authority" is based on a misconception: that God's most essential attribute is His Authority. The truth is that God's most essential attribute is His Love- in fact God is love. If the atheistic anarchists became convinced of this they would more likely change their view of God rather than their slogan (No God- No Love).This made me wonder how the Apostle John might have written the famous verse about God being love if in fact God's most essential attribute was His Authority:
Subjects, let us bear authority towards each other. Because all authority is from God, and anyone who bears authority is under God's authority and knows God. He who bears no authority does not know God because God is authority 1 John 4:7-8, slightly paraphrased.
Other than having remarkable resemblance to many fundie sermons I've submitted myself to, what jumped out at me was the similarities between this and Romans 13. Romans 13 is a difficult passage for anybody interested in justifying anarchy from a Biblical perspective. But if we examine it in the light of 1 John 4 the difficulties don't seem so insurmountable.
I said earlier that love could be said to be an "essential attribute" of God. This means that if God were to cease loving, He would no longer be God. Is authority also an essential attribute of God? Evidently not, because all would agree that there are areas and situations where God chooses not to exercise authority. This does not cause Him to cease being God.
All of God's attributes were revealed well before Jesus was born. We knew that He was rich, powerful, male, jealous, full of truth, holy, and loving, as well as many other things. But Jesus revealed something much more interesting than this. If we can take at all seriously the claim that Jesus is fully God, then Jesus has revealed what God can give up and still be God. We know that Jesus became poor, he became a servant, he even died without giving up His essential Godhood. He never stopped loving.
Wednesday, October 26th
a Christian President
Can there be such a thing as a Christian President of the U. S. A.?
The president is sworn to defend and uphold the constitution. Thus, if there is a conflict between the constitution and the Bible, he is sworn to reject the Bible and uphold the constitution.
If you are one of those nuts that sees no conflict between the constitution and the Bible, this of course is not a problem for you.
Tuesday, October 25th
the half shekel
While searching the web for info on the half shekel tax, I ran across a page that said that the tax has been reinstituted in Israel, which I find kinda interesting. But not what I was looking for. While thinking about the tithe I was wondering what the purpose of the half shekel tax was. And the bible tells us:
The Lord spoke to Moses: "When you take a census of the Israelites to register them, each of the men must pay a ransom for himself to the Lord as they are registered. Then no plague will come on them as they are registered. Everyone who is registered must pay half a shekel according to the sanctuary shekel (20 gerahs to the shekel). This half shekel is a contribution to the Lord. Each man who is registered, 20 years old or more, must give this contribution to the Lord. The wealthy may not give more, and the poor may not give less, than half a shekel when giving the contribution to the Lord to atone for your lives. Take the atonement money from the Israelites and use it for the service of the tent of meeting. It will serve as a reminder for the Israelites before the Lord to atone for your lives."
I thought that the coolest thing about this passage is that the rich are prohibited from paying more than the poor. The money was used first for the maintenance of the tent of meeting (also called the tabernacle), but historically we know that it was later used for the maintenance of the temple.
How different from our modern tithing system where the rich can gloat over the poor because of their superior religious service!
As somebody who is into simplicity, I think that it is cool that God would rather live in a tent than in a palace, and instituted a simple and meager system to finance His housing needs.
Then I looked at the ancient tithing system:
Deuteronomy 14:22-29 "You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. And you shall eat before the Lord your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the Lord your God has blessed you, then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household. You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you. At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.
The ancient tithing system was really rather cool. Tithing was not something specific to Israel. It was generally recognized in the ancient world that in the sharecropping system, the owner of the land was entitled to 10% of what was produced. God proclamed that because He owned all of the land, He was entitled to 10%. Now since the God of Israel (unlike other local Gods) didn't actually have to sustain Himself with food, He was able to use His portion for other means. He did this by giving back His 10% to the people themselves. In 2 years of a 3 year cycle the people were commanded to use the tithe food for a celebration of God's goodness. In the third year the tithe food was to be stored in order to feed the poor and the Levites.
The Levites were an interesting bunch with no modern economic counterpart. When God divided up His land, He did so among 11 of the 12 tribes. The tribe of Levi was prohibited from owning land, and therefore was entitled to a portion of the tithe. According to the various censuses from the Bible, Levi was a rather small tribe, constituting at best 3% of the population. Thus 1/3 of the tithe would have been ample for their needs. Because they didn't have any land to work, the Levites became skilled in various crafts, including music.
The modern tithing system is based on the fact that the Levite was a religious worker. Thus (the theory goes) modern religious workers are entitled to a tithe of our income for maintenance of modern religious facilities and their own personal incomes. This theory doesn't work out so well in my thinking, because God continuously says that the reason the Levites are entitled to the tithe is because of their economic condition (they have no inheritance in the land), not their religious one. No such class of people, who are legally unable to participate in our economic system, exists today.
The tithe is basically contrasted with the half shekel tax in that it is a tax on agriculture, not on money. I'm glad that people are finally figuring this out. I remembering doing a search on tithing several years ago to see what people are saying, and the count was about evenly divided on whether tithing money was necessary for Christians. Yesterday I did a search and overwhelmingly the articles on tithing rejected tithing money as necessary, or even a helpful guideline, for Christians.
Friday, October 21st
Who does Satan's hair?
So I've finally decided to let my daughter cut my hair. Both she and her mother are telling me that it will make me look way younger. This is somewhat counterintuitive for somebody raised in the 60's and early 70's- but as I look at pictures of me with shorter hair I have to admit to the truth of what they are saying.
I get a real kick out of conservative churches. You look at the pictures on the wall and see that Jesus had beautiful long flowing hair. Jesus beard is usually fairly prominent, although neatly trimmed. However if you're lucky enough to see a picture of Jesus' dad, you'll notice that His hair is out of control and His beard is a complete mess. The devil, on the other hand, has really short hair and an immaculately trimmed beard. Nevertheless, if you take a look at the people that actually attend these churches, none of them look like Jesus- much less like his dad. All of them bear a much closer resemblance to Satan. Now as for me, since I've for the most part been unable to resemble Jesus in my behavior, I made a decision early on to resemble Him in my hair style. Unfortunately as I become older and older this becomes increasingly difficult to do.
I have to ask myself: why doesn't God ever get his hair cut? And then of course it hits me- no one can get high enough. Since He sits on the highest throne- far above all rulers and authority- anyone who cut His hair would have to be higher than Him- or at least on the same level.
Which is, of course, impossible.
We all know that Satan's main wish is to be like God. This makes me wonder why he always looks like he walked out of a corporate meeting- not a hair out of place. And then it hits me- God cuts Satan's hair. He does this to reinforce the fact that He is higher- and to get Satan's goat.
It also explains why Satan's haircuts are always perfect.
Friday, October 14th
My new business
I'm starting a new financial advisory business. Here is what I will recommend to my clients:
If anyone sues you, give them twice as much as what they ask for.
Don't bother to screen loan customers. Give them whatever they ask for and don't expect to get repaid.
Every so often sell your stuff and give the money to people that can't possibly repay you.
Sunday, October 9th
Jesus: Conservative or Liberal?
What is a conservative?
Conservatives deeply feel that poor people are evil. The fact that someone is poor is clear evidence that they lack the moral fortitude to become rich. They don't have the self discipline to save or acquire the education necessary to succeed and get good jobs. They usually are immoral sexually which only serves to keep them poor. When conservatives say that they favor less government, they are not talking about less government for the poor, but for the rich. Conservatives are always in favor of more prisons and police, and more standing armies ready to punish poor countries (who are clearly less moral than rich countries).
What is a liberal?
Liberals deeply feel that rich people are evil. The fact that someone is rich is clear evidence that they have behaved immorally- opressing poor people to obtain their riches. Rich people must be reigned back by government regulation of their business practices. Otherwise they will surely exploit the working class and the environment.
So was Jesus a conservative or a liberal?
As far as I can tell, he was both. Not only did he think that the rich were evil, he thought the poor were evil too. He taught that no one was good- except for God.
|
