Hello?

I was just checking to see if I could hear my echo. Where in the world is everyone?

Ok, so I thought I would throw a question out. Not because I need help forming my own opinion, but because I just want to talk about it. I thought I would re-open the health care debate, perhaps with a different spin.

I am a follower of Jesus. This has a great many (though probably not nearly enough) implications on the way that I think, live and act. I love poor people just like I love rich people and middle class people, not because of the size of their bank accounts but because they are made in the image of Almighty God. But for the purposes of this question I will focus on the poor because Jesus did. He said that whatever I do to the least of humanity I have actually done directly to Him. He says that it will be extremely difficult for rich people to get to Heaven, and that poor people (like Lazarus for instance) rest in His care for eternity. Jesus loved poor people, He healed them, He fed them, He even commanded Zaccheus to give back the money He stole from them, and He commands me to give to anyone who begs. Jesus loves poor people and He wants me to love them too. So let’s try to be honest with each other and say that the debate does not (or at least should not) fall on whether you want to take care of the poor, because any follower of Christ, no matter who he/she voted for longs in his/her heart to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, adopt the orphan and visit the prisoner. In my opinion the debate amongst Christians is whether it is ok for us to abdicate the responsibility given to us by God Himself, to others (who will arguably do a much poorer (?) job than we can)? Should all of the conservative and liberal dollars being spent to advance a political agenda by Christian men and women, actually be spent feeding the poor (and even sending them to the doctor)? Should we steal from those who refuse to love the poor and needy simply because we love them? Did Jesus want the poor to be fed and the naked clothed, or did He want us to feed the poor and clothe the naked? Do you see the difference?

~chuck

The American Patriot’s Bible

I’m sitting here right now utterly dumbfounded. As I write these words I quite literally feel that I’m about to be sick. Please watch this video and let’s discuss:

http://www.americanpatriotsbible.com/video.php (particularly video #2)

~chuck

a post worth discussing

my good friend Andrew has been posting quite a while, and he just recently offered this thought on his blog, astatum.net

check THIS out

he links a video, includes some quotes, and then offers his opinion on the Idolatry of Modern Day ‘Preaching.’

Shaun,  Eric – i’m looking at you punks.  converse!   Jared, Chuck, and all readers – let us reflect on what is truly biblical about “preaching.”

thoughts on the “Power of Myth”

i hate cable TV.

it’s some sort of racket, with monopolies and the worst customer service available…

i LOVE Hulu.  i hear that they may be adding another ‘free’ internet TV network to the mix, which would make it even more silly to be paying for TV…

Netflix is my other best friend now.  it will help me purchase fewer DVDs that i ultimately don’t watch twice anyway, it streams instant viewing to the ol’ xbox, and my wife and i can get the movies we’ve wanted to see whenever we want.

one of the things i just found on Netflix Instant View – the Power of Myth miniseries, featuring interviews with Joseph Campbell.

i decided that i’m gonna watch this all the way through before i jump back into Thou Art That, but i have an unfortunately small amount of time to watch/read at this point in the year… so here are my thoughts from the first episode!  I’ll let this set a better context for continuing to talk about ‘myth’ in Campbell’s terms…

this miniseries was recorded at Skywalker Ranch… which is not a coincidence, but rather in indicator of how closely tied the work of Campbell is with the work of Lucas in developing the Star Wars story arc.

as Campbell takes some introductory time talking about all of the many ways that he has studied mythology from so many different cultures, he then jumps pretty quickly into the concept of the Hero’s Journey, the crux of his work in The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

Campbell says that the hero’s journey is “one deed done by many, many people.”  This is an interesting statement, because it illustrates Campbell’s worldview – a framework in which all of the world’s cultures are ultimately tied together in ‘spiritual’ ways.  Campbell is quite postmodern as a result of his intensely diverse, globalized work that is then intentionally unified.  It’s a little muddy when he starts talking about one culture but then ‘effortlessly’ slips into talking about another culture’s myth.

my friend mike noticed this in another of Campbell’s written works, and asked me, “so where’s the line?  what is myth and what really happened?”  notice how, in the case of talking about Campbell’s work, asking if it is “true” is not the point…

Campbell says that the hero is “giving to something bigger, other than himself.”  this is a recurring theme in Campbell’s work, and arguably in all mythology – the hero is journeying toward an ‘other’ that is much broader and universe-defining.

Campbell makes the distinction between the physical “deed” and the spiritual “deed” accomplished by the hero on their journey.  Physical deeds are epitomized by Hercules’ tasks… or, Luke creating a new lightsaber.  Spiritual deeds are deeper, more transformative, though… Campbell calls them a “mode of experience.’  I infer that spiritual deeds are what the Buddha accomplishes, what Jesus’ resurrection constitutes (to Campbell), and what Muhammed encounters (and maybe Joseph Smith, too).  This probably also extends to Luke’s time with Yoda.  These spiritual deeds, when completed, have been a mode of experience and they transform the hero’s mode of experiencing from thereafter.  For me, a Christian’s conversion experience is probably the best true picture of this spiritual deed, although the Christian is arguably the recipient of the deed rather than the doer… but the mode of experience is certainly transformed… or should be.

Campbell points out the death/resurrection “motif” in the hero’s journey.  For him, this motif is found ubiquitously, and thus it seems that Jesus’ experience is relegated to a similar plane as that of Krishna, Bacchus, Osiris, and a few other mythological entities.  That is pretty unfortunate, in my opinion, because Jesus is an arguably historical person (to Campbell), whereas the other three ‘gods’ are clearly not historical in any sense.

However, it is fair for Campbell to point out this ‘motif’ in myth.  The question for me is, where is this motif rooted?  what is the most true expression of this motif?  Campbell doesn’t really get into that during this episode…

Campbell includes some aspects of psychotherapy when pointing out that the “water is the unconscious” in myth.  Anytime that water plays a large role in a story, it is a metaphor for the unconscious.  this applies directly to the Jonah story, but i wonder how it would play out in Campbell’s interpretation of Jesus calming the sea…

He then points out that “the animal is the dynamism of the unconscious,” revealing another aspect of his worldview.  Humanity = elevated animal.  The driving forces of our unconscious, because they are similar to responses and reactions of animals, MUST mean that we are at root, animals.  at least, that’s how this kind of talk comes across to me, and it seems to be another potential weakness in Campbell’s worldview.

Here’s how he then unpacks this animal-consciousness issue.  Campbell explains that consciousness is a secondary “organ” of the human being… it is an organ in the sense that it must ‘serve’ the body.  if one’s consciousness is not serving the body, then it is not functioning correctly…  he uses the illustration of heliotropism, referring to it as a form of consciousness.  not sure what to make of that.  hope this is explained more in the next episode.

Campbell uses the terms “spiritual, heart life,” but he doesn’t really clarify what that means in his worldview.

Just wanted to offer this for thought, comments, etc.  i’ll hopefully catch the next episode this week or next, and will post as soon as time allows.

Viola Dollar 1920-2009

I gave the eulogy at my grandmother’s funeral today. I wanted to share it with you.

Death and Comfort

I would like to start off these few words I have today with some quotes, two from Scripture and one from C.S. Lewis.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Revelation 21:3-4

God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn’t. In this trial He makes us occupy the dock, the witness box, and the bench all at once. He always knew that my temple was a house of cards. The only way of making me realize the fact was to knock it down. C.S. Lewis – A Grief Observed

I chose these words because my family has certainly seen its share of death. We have gone through this particular fire of the Refiner before, and this time, as in that I have learned something about God. Some may be prone to wondering why I would bring God into such a grievous event, “He has no business here” they may say; or “If He were good people wouldn’t suffer so, so just leave God at home and mourn with us.” To you I say this, if you remove God from one of the most difficult and important experience of humanity then you cheapen the grief and you make it almost unbearable. No, as Christians our very first reaction must be to run to a God Whose arms are bigger than the world and Whose back in strong enough to bare this burden and we fall into Him and we fling this burden onto His back and we beg Him to carry us through this.

I wish that I could be there with you to mourn the passing of this beautiful woman of God. She was a dear friend to her friends, she was a wonderful mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She loved her family fiercely and I’m not sure how one chest could have held so much pride for her those she loved. Were it not for her I never would have known that I could “hitch my wagon to a star”. I never would have had a place to stay when my parents “just didn’t understand me”. I never would have learned how to use an encyclopedia or research a topic simply because it was interesting to me… and the Lord only knows what my grammar would have been like. She was a lovely woman with many stories that come from a lifetime full of living. So I wish I could mourn with you, but not so that we could weep together and soak each others’ shoulders with our tears, but so that we could remember a good, long life lived and ponder and laugh at all the stories that we all have. Do you know or do you remember that we mourn differently?

Do you know that Christians serve the God of ALL comfort? Do you know that He is the very Father of mercy? Do you know that He comforts those who mourn? Do you know that He is the sovereign King who has destroyed His enemy death and promises every Christian soul that He will personally wipe away every tear that we have cried and death will be thrown from us to a place where we will never see it again? If you do not know this, or if perhaps you have forgotten then use this time to remember. Use the death of this precious woman to remember that God is the most loving Father that you will ever know and that only He gives meaning to tragedy, comfort in mourning, and hope to those who weep.

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. C.S. Lewis – The Problem of Pain

Finally, remember that everyone will die. Your grandmother, your mother, your friend, they will all pass from this life to the next. But only a few of those whom they leave behind will use the time to reach out to God in faith remembering that He is the God of all comfort and the Father of mercies. I pray that you will be some of the strong who remember God. I pray that you will look past the tragedy of this death and rejoice that one of God’s precious children is resting in His loving care and knows Him more fully than anyone else on earth. If she could see us weeping, sobbing for loss, she would implore us to rejoice with her for she had the best day of her life just 3 days ago and now she lives in a home that Jesus Himself has prepared for her.

She will be greatly missed.