Three Things Thursday (again with bonus)
1) I discovered M.I.A. and her album Aural listening to Napster's top 99 of the year; besides one song I hate, I think this thumps. I'm pumping it through my computer sound system (including the Boston subwoofer) while I grade. It's techno-ish and not for everybody, but every little bit helps as I slog through the stacks of blue and white papers.
2) A very good friend of mine, the great Mike D., is coming to town tomorrow and this is very cool. For several years now we've talked for an hour on the phone every week, shared really, and any f2f time is greatly appreciated. Plus, he's bringing wine from my favorite shop.
3) Sorry to get serious, but my break with fundamentalism is becoming much more defined. It has taken me a long time. When I hear some people talk about 'biblical' principles for things like parenting I get queasy. I'm most upset about corporal punishment of children right now, James Dobson and Solomon's tragic legacy to well-meaning evangelicals. The research is completely against spanking, as is every child therapist I've spoken with. Some kids survive with minimal emotional damage; many have larger problems later in life. Often it increases aggression and defiance. Forget Solomon. In fact, look at his children and his kingship over Israel; what a terrible legacy! Maybe that's the lesson: we're supposed to read his advice according to what else we know about him.
Plus, while the evidence for evolution is still short of conclusive, it is very possible we did evolve through natural selection in God's universe. On this note, I even have to consider that Jesus' own world-view was limited by the kenotic emptying; he says himself he does not know the moment of the end of time, only the Father knows. What else he may or may not have known or chose to know or not know while on earth is unknowable. He never discusses origins in the gospels except to confirm the Hebrew mythology (though not when discussing creation per se). Of course, we only have fractions of what he said. I'll have time to think about this later.
***Bonus Section***
My priest, a man whose faith I respect, says preaching (which I do not do on any scale) is a pastoral office. That's the most important thing I've said in this entry.
I'm beginning to wonder if blog shouldn't also assume some of that, meaning that instead of just spouting opinion up here I shouldn't try a different approach. My goal is not to distance inerrantists who are my friends (and may have stopped reading by now because I'm repeating myself once again) nor is it simply to make happy the very few (or one, or none) who read who agree. My goal is to convince others so that the faith is both humane to those who feel and credible to those who think. How did I come to this perspective? Where am I almost sure I'm right and where might I be wrong? Above all, where does Jesus fit into it?
My personal faith is growing. Perhaps I'm finding my room in the house. C.S. Lewis notes in a clever analogy at the beginning of Mere Christianity that many believers spend time 'in the hall' of the home which is the church at large until they decide on their respective room/denomination. I certainly don't expect everyone to be in the Episcopal room, which itself is diverse enough to require a wing at least. But there are certain doctrines, even very important ones, which harm the Body. I believe that. For me, believing that God wrote every line of the 66 books in our canon, or even that he protected them from error, leads to vigorous, even destructive, confusion. I'll have much more to say on this as time goes on.
For an easy example: how many articles have I read beating the point that yom in Hebrew means day, a 24 hour period, and 'surely that's what Genesis means; read the text it's plain as day; God's Word is Truth, and all we perceive must be interpreted accordingly; the earth was made in six 24 hour periods.' Well, I don't know the Hebrew word for nostril or smoke, but plenty of sacrifices smell pleasing to Yahweh in the Torah; the smoke rises in his nostrils, and the words used there are quite plain. How many fundamentalists or evangelicals believe God has a nose and likes to smell burnt offering smoke? Ah, that is metaphor! I agree metaphor is a form of figurative language in Hebrew (Song of Songs at least), but I see no real indication that the text describing sacrificial smoke reads that way. But surely, I agree it is figurative. Likewise, Gen. 1 and 2 is creation myth-narrative, and that is its own genre worldwide just as figurative language is used, and understood, in many cultures.
All this matters, of course, because of what science is telling us about biological nature. The evidence for evolution is very strong, even if not perfect and not without the possibility of divine intervention to supercede natural law at one or more points. Even if we evolved 'accidentally,' a la Stephen Jay Gould (who, as a dead person, may now have some different insights) our need for a saviour, a reconciler, a bridge, is blatantly clear, and Jesus' mission was no accident, but instead evidence of a Love beyond what we very tiny beings can imagine. Total depravity? Maybe. How about total minisculity in the universal scale? We're little and abuse each other. Yet, Emmanuel.
While I was typing this my priest called and asked me if I'd like to re-up as senior warden. This is not common, and I said I'd have to think about it; I was very surprised. I'm extremely hard on myself, a recovering perfectionist (mother's voice shouts on in my head, iincredibly powerful but almost always below conscious radar); I thought I did a mediocre job. He felt otherwise. I've been wanting to do more in the church lately. Administrative work is not my favorite thing, but wardenship isn't all that (just mostly that). Regardless, it's a very high honor from a man I've come to respect, and every little thing I do for the church, even taking out trash, somehow feels right.
On that note, my son volunteered me to play a wise man (wise guy?) in the children's Christmas Eve play. Oh boy, as Samuel Beckett used to say. My only line: 'we've come to see the King of the Jews!' Wish me luck. Besides the wise men, everyone else in the play is about six. Some much younger.
Peace, genuine love, and Merry Christmas; I will probably not be able to post again until early January as we're out of town.
He is coming indeed.
2) A very good friend of mine, the great Mike D., is coming to town tomorrow and this is very cool. For several years now we've talked for an hour on the phone every week, shared really, and any f2f time is greatly appreciated. Plus, he's bringing wine from my favorite shop.
3) Sorry to get serious, but my break with fundamentalism is becoming much more defined. It has taken me a long time. When I hear some people talk about 'biblical' principles for things like parenting I get queasy. I'm most upset about corporal punishment of children right now, James Dobson and Solomon's tragic legacy to well-meaning evangelicals. The research is completely against spanking, as is every child therapist I've spoken with. Some kids survive with minimal emotional damage; many have larger problems later in life. Often it increases aggression and defiance. Forget Solomon. In fact, look at his children and his kingship over Israel; what a terrible legacy! Maybe that's the lesson: we're supposed to read his advice according to what else we know about him.
Plus, while the evidence for evolution is still short of conclusive, it is very possible we did evolve through natural selection in God's universe. On this note, I even have to consider that Jesus' own world-view was limited by the kenotic emptying; he says himself he does not know the moment of the end of time, only the Father knows. What else he may or may not have known or chose to know or not know while on earth is unknowable. He never discusses origins in the gospels except to confirm the Hebrew mythology (though not when discussing creation per se). Of course, we only have fractions of what he said. I'll have time to think about this later.
***Bonus Section***
My priest, a man whose faith I respect, says preaching (which I do not do on any scale) is a pastoral office. That's the most important thing I've said in this entry.
I'm beginning to wonder if blog shouldn't also assume some of that, meaning that instead of just spouting opinion up here I shouldn't try a different approach. My goal is not to distance inerrantists who are my friends (and may have stopped reading by now because I'm repeating myself once again) nor is it simply to make happy the very few (or one, or none) who read who agree. My goal is to convince others so that the faith is both humane to those who feel and credible to those who think. How did I come to this perspective? Where am I almost sure I'm right and where might I be wrong? Above all, where does Jesus fit into it?
My personal faith is growing. Perhaps I'm finding my room in the house. C.S. Lewis notes in a clever analogy at the beginning of Mere Christianity that many believers spend time 'in the hall' of the home which is the church at large until they decide on their respective room/denomination. I certainly don't expect everyone to be in the Episcopal room, which itself is diverse enough to require a wing at least. But there are certain doctrines, even very important ones, which harm the Body. I believe that. For me, believing that God wrote every line of the 66 books in our canon, or even that he protected them from error, leads to vigorous, even destructive, confusion. I'll have much more to say on this as time goes on.
For an easy example: how many articles have I read beating the point that yom in Hebrew means day, a 24 hour period, and 'surely that's what Genesis means; read the text it's plain as day; God's Word is Truth, and all we perceive must be interpreted accordingly; the earth was made in six 24 hour periods.' Well, I don't know the Hebrew word for nostril or smoke, but plenty of sacrifices smell pleasing to Yahweh in the Torah; the smoke rises in his nostrils, and the words used there are quite plain. How many fundamentalists or evangelicals believe God has a nose and likes to smell burnt offering smoke? Ah, that is metaphor! I agree metaphor is a form of figurative language in Hebrew (Song of Songs at least), but I see no real indication that the text describing sacrificial smoke reads that way. But surely, I agree it is figurative. Likewise, Gen. 1 and 2 is creation myth-narrative, and that is its own genre worldwide just as figurative language is used, and understood, in many cultures.
All this matters, of course, because of what science is telling us about biological nature. The evidence for evolution is very strong, even if not perfect and not without the possibility of divine intervention to supercede natural law at one or more points. Even if we evolved 'accidentally,' a la Stephen Jay Gould (who, as a dead person, may now have some different insights) our need for a saviour, a reconciler, a bridge, is blatantly clear, and Jesus' mission was no accident, but instead evidence of a Love beyond what we very tiny beings can imagine. Total depravity? Maybe. How about total minisculity in the universal scale? We're little and abuse each other. Yet, Emmanuel.
While I was typing this my priest called and asked me if I'd like to re-up as senior warden. This is not common, and I said I'd have to think about it; I was very surprised. I'm extremely hard on myself, a recovering perfectionist (mother's voice shouts on in my head, iincredibly powerful but almost always below conscious radar); I thought I did a mediocre job. He felt otherwise. I've been wanting to do more in the church lately. Administrative work is not my favorite thing, but wardenship isn't all that (just mostly that). Regardless, it's a very high honor from a man I've come to respect, and every little thing I do for the church, even taking out trash, somehow feels right.
On that note, my son volunteered me to play a wise man (wise guy?) in the children's Christmas Eve play. Oh boy, as Samuel Beckett used to say. My only line: 'we've come to see the King of the Jews!' Wish me luck. Besides the wise men, everyone else in the play is about six. Some much younger.
Peace, genuine love, and Merry Christmas; I will probably not be able to post again until early January as we're out of town.
He is coming indeed.
Comments
I'll be posting some similar thoughts as soon as I have a day off that I don't spend at hospital. I'm delighted that you are finding your place in the house. peace.
Maybe some evolution did happen, and I agree, in God's universe.
Glad to hear that your faith is growing. As is mine.
Merry Christmas, brother.
thanks for posting, and Happy Advent on this Day of Days.
t
Sorry I've been a little scarce around these parts of late. For many reasons, I had sharply curtailed my blog reading habits there for a while. I'm not saying that I'm ready to begin again devoting much of my waking hours to reading and commenting on blogs, but I will try to drop in for a visit on occasion.
May your 2006 be filled with further growth, in your faith, in your marriage, in your role as a father, and in your continual striving for health and balance.