Wanted to share a video from a professor at a music conservatory I attended back in the day. His name is Tom Willett and his thoughts are eloquent and often quite brilliant; I hope you like this as much as I did!
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Archive for the 'theos/God' Category
Driving into work this morning I saw one of those quasi-popular christian ripoff bumper stickers that said:
After a good moment or so of picturing a Hasidic Jew in the requisite milk-mustache, my first thought was…
“Aw shit, did you lose Jesus again?”
My second thought was…
“Maybe they forgot that I was supposed to pick him up this morning. Should I flag them down and let them know he’s riding with me today?”
My third thought was…
“I need to write a blog post about this, so I can blatantly mock the ridiculousness of christians.”
I figure it’s my responsibility, to a certain extent. It’s like how black comedians make fun of black people, or how Carlos Mencia makes fun of stupid people (haha, get it!?)… well, it’s the same phenomenon here. This is my faith tradition, so I am completely at liberty — perhaps even encouraged — to relentlessly rip it to shreds.
Have we really stooped so low as to compare Jesus to a dairy product!? I mean, I like milk as much as the next guy (’specially with chocolate chip cookies!), but c’mon…!
Haha — I gotta stop; I’m cracking myself up over here!
P.S. During my Google search for the nice “got jesus?” image above, I saw one that said: “Got Jesus? It’s Hell Without Him.” Seriously?? That is the statement you want to make with your Corolla??
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Hey everyone, sorry about the lack of posts lately — I’ve been pretty busy, and as much as you want some pithy comment about Ron Paul (he’s not giving up, btw) or a frighteningly dismal prediction for the economy (American employers reportedly slashed 63,000 jobs in February; the most in 5 years), all I have for you today is a wonderful quote by the brilliant Anne Lamott:
“I think joy and sweetness and affection are a spiritual path. We’re here to know God, to love and serve God, and to be blown away by the beauty and miracle of nature. You just have to get rid of so much baggage to be light enough to dance, to sing, to play. You don’t have time to carry grudges; you don’t have time to cling to the need to be right.”
How can you not love her?
Check out the full interview with the Washington Times here.
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An Interview With Brian McLaren by Phil White
Six million children under the age of five die of starvation each year, and yet, just one percent of annual global income would provide the world’s poor people with clean water and basic nutrition, health care and education. These are two of the startling facts Brian McLaren includes in his new book, Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises and a Revolution of Hope (Thomas Nelson), to illustrate both the extent of problems such as hunger, disease and environmental destruction and the as-yet untapped potential for solving them. RELEVANT had the chance to sit down and talk with McLaren about his new book and ways in which Christians can enact necessary change.
When was the seed planted for Everything Must Change?
When I was in my twenties, I asked high school kids at a youth conference to name the top five problems in the world and also the top five discussion topics at their churches. The lists they gave me were completely different and that birthed my desire to explore the disconnect between global crises and the inaction of Christians. I’m 51 now, so this idea has been growing for almost 30 years.
What would Jesus think of the state of the world today?
I think Jesus would have a tense relationship with modern religious leaders now, as he did in his day, because so many of them have used Jesus’ name to work against him and what he stood for. For example, for about 80 years before the Civil War, a lot of American preachers misused the Bible to defend slavery. It was the same when I was a boy, when some Christians misquoted scriptures to advocate racism and to attack the work of Dr. King. I think there are similar things going on today, but our children and grandchildren will see it better than we do, unless we really want to see the truth.
Can you expand on how business can help bring about change?
As individual consumers we can help build justice for underprivileged peoples by changing our buying habits. One example is by buying through fair trade organizations such as Tradeasone.com, and by deliberately avoiding purchasing goods we know were created in unethical conditions. When you go shopping without a conscience, you feel happy whenever you get a bargain. But when you are concerned about ethical buying, you aren’t happy at all if your bargain was purchased at the expense of a young woman working for thirty cents an hour, ten hours a day, or a child being exploited in an unsafe factory that pollutes the air he breathes and the water he drinks. You’d feel a lot happier to spend a little more money if you knew that your purchase strengthened an ethical business in an ethical economy.
Government policies must change if we’re to truly bring justice to impoverished nations. For example, U.S. Government subsidization of the cotton industry allows American producers to sell cotton so inexpensively that African producers can’t compete. Our tax dollars are upholding this kind of injustice, and most of us are completely unaware of it.
Do you think, despite the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans, that Hurricane Katrina was a necessary wakeup call to Americans?
Hurricane Katrina showed America part of itself that most of us weren’t paying attention to. It showed us a large number of shockingly poor people who were left behind, who weren’t helped. We still haven’t come to terms with that and we need to see more images of what happened in New Orleans, as many times as it takes to wake us up and make us take a stand for those in need.
I hope as people read Everything Must Change they develop a new awareness, a new sensitivity. For example, I hope readers realize that as Christians they have a relationship with the parents of a child who died of diarrhea in Africa last night—that mom and dad are our neighbors. We can’t just keep flipping cable channels to escape the reality of our neighbors who are in need.
Do you think political polarization in the U.S. is delaying such a change in perception and action?
I really do. I represent people who are frustrated by the polarization of religious denominations and political Left versus Right. When we’re facing global crises we can’t afford to be divided politically, religiously, economically—we spend a lot of time debating small, petty issues and we stay in denial about huge problems like extreme poverty, ecological crisis and a trajectory of hate and fear that moves us toward increasing conflict. The divisive partisan issues that preoccupy us become weapons of mass distraction.
What advice do you give to young people who want to follow the example of Christ?
If I could speak just one sentence to young people, I’d say, “Don’t waste your life in being part of the religious machine, but spend your time on the real work of Jesus: helping to actively heal global crises through the wisdom, love and power of God.”
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“When small men cast large shadows, the sun has set on a civilization.”
At least so said my boss and friend, Dave, yesterday afternoon, and thus began one of those dread-filled conversations Americans have every once in awhile about the world “going to hell in a hand-basket” (but, more importantly, what the hell is a hand-basket?) and how things were so much better “back in when we were growing up.”
A churchgoer had come into the office to chat with us, and began talking about the state of the world and all that. You know, some people will do anything to avoid conversations concerning things as troubling as “the state of the world,” but there are a refreshing minority who will dive right in. It’s probably that same contingent of the population who can jump into an ice-cold swimming pool. Not me; with pools I always stand at the edge, looming, afraid, touching toes to the frigid obviously not-safe-for-humans substance. I’m not really like that with ideas, though; the state of the world doesn’t scare me.
Usually.
I tend to think we have a lot of choice in where we place ourselves, these days. Emotionally, spiritually, mentally — even physically — we have an inordinate amount of freedom to decide (to choose) “where” we exist. Do you want to place yourself in a conspiracy theory camp? Do you want to be in the ignorance camp? Do you want to live in California or Switzerland? If you want to make your fire in virtually any location (again, physical or emotional), as an American, at least, you pretty much can.
Most of the time, mentally speaking, I find myself living in the optimist camp. Of course, I’ve been through the deconstruction, my honesty project (and I still get its daily injections of reality), but for the most part, I set up my tent amongst people who believe we can actually create the future. In my camp we believe that our demise isn’t written in stone, that we can make progress, and battle the regress. We believe that people can change, and when they do, the world follows.
But yesterday, I felt as though I was inside a comic book, in the middle pages somewhere. On the cover was drawn a picture of a brilliant explosion, surrounded by devastation. Starting my read, I knew the cover would be the outcome, and as I worked my way toward the last pages of the book could palpably feel the impending doom. (Honestly, I really just wanted to use the phrase “impending doom,” and you shouldn’t do that without a comic book context.) The whole conversation was strange, though; I guess people bring their camps along with them, because a dark cloud settled over the room, over my soul, and I felt the hopelessness, as if I had Empathy or something.
I didn’t talk much; I rarely do, until I have something to say. (I guess I find that most people don’t really care what you think anyway.) But I listened, and sensed, and as the conversation between Dave and the other gentlemen continued, I was blown away with depression: this was quickly becoming a slit-your-wrists kind of conversation. They talked about our Trillion dollar war (yes, with a capital T and 12 zeroes), the American dependency on oil, the fallacy of California’s “green-ness,” the fakakta SoCal (and US, too, of course) economy, the scores of people we personally know that are facing foreclosure and losing their homes, the addictions, crime, and general declining state of education in our Valley, the forthcoming fall of the American empire (thus Dave’s quote), and the inevitable alien invasion.
Just kidding on that last one.
Don’t worry, though, somebody said something about Jesus, we slapped a band-aid on that sucker, and it seemed to make my two friends, at least, feel better.
Didn’t work for me, though. I guess the problem is that when I look, Jesus isn’t here right now.
(Please leave a message.)
I do think having a guy like Jesus around would be pretty helpful, but I’m not sure he’d take care of the problems we’d like him to, anyway. Call me crazy, but I think it’s going to take a brilliant, high-level economist (or President) to assist our shitty economy, and if Jesus were here right now, I doubt we’d find him in D.C., campaigning for the GOP nomination. He’d probably be in some crazy place like Darfur, Iraq, Detroit, or the Antelope Valley trying to help people or something.
I don’t know, I could be all off. That makes it sound like I think the only place for the work of Jesus is in some violence-ridden destitute locale, which isn’t really true. I just don’t think Jesus is a Republican, necessarily.
But maybe this system is actually better, in a way. You know, the fact that there isn’t just one Jesus hanging around. I’m no physicist, but I figure that one Jesus can be in one place at one time… but we — the collective camp of Jesus — well… there’s a lot of us (or there could be). We can spread out, actually increase the exposure that a guy like Jesus would have by exponential amounts.
Whoever thought of that plan was pretty smart.
P.S. I’m pretty sure Dave’s initial quote is a twist on a paraphrase written by Nathaniel Lee, who said “when small men cast large shadows, it’s a sure sign that the sun is setting.” Lee (1649-1692) was an English playwright, FYI.
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The university professor challenged his students with this question: “Did God create everything that exists?”
A student bravely replied “Yes, he did!”
“God created everything?” the professor asked.
“Yes sir,” the student replied.
The professor answered, “If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil.”
The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to the students that he had proven once more that faith was a myth.
Another student raised his hand and said, “Can I ask you a question professor?”
“Of course,” replied the professor.
The student stood up and asked, “Professor, does cold exist?”
The professor replied “Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?”
The students snickered at the young man’s question.
The young man replied, “In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Everybody or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body, or matter, have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 degrees F) is the total absence of heat. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat.”
The student continued. “Professor, does darkness exist?”
The professor responded, “Of course it does.”
The student replied, “Once again you are wrong sir. Darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact, we can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color, but you cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a
certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn’t this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present.”
Finally the young man asked the professor. “Sir, does evil exist?”
Now uncertain, the professor responded, “Of course, as I have already said. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man’s inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.”
To this the student replied, “Evil does not exist, sir — or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.”
The professor sat down.
The young man’s name: Albert Einstein
(DISCLAIMER: I have no idea if this is for real, true, or if someone made it up. However, it’s factuality doesn’t have much to do with the point, which is, simply, quite brilliant.)
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I’ve been hearing a lot of hoopla coming from the seemingly ever-upset corner of “christianity” lately concerning this week’s parabolic scapegoat, The Golden Compass.
Now, I’m quite certain the entire film reeks like a demon’s breath (which is very bad, mind you), pushes old ladies down (so they can’t get up), and has absolutely no redeeming qualities of any kind. In fact, I’m pretty sure the movie actually kills kittens in its spare time.
(But if you want another perspective, click here.)
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Mission accomplished!
My very first book, entitled blur: finding jesus in a fuzzy world has finally been released to the world, like an endangered snowy tiger cub… pushed out of the nest… or something.
In reality, it’s nothing like that, but having finally birthed this book out of my computerwomb, I think I can almost relate to that fictional mother tiger-bird, at least on some proverbial, nonsensical level.
For now, my book will be available for FREE in eBook (PDF) format, easily (and enjoyably!) readable on all computers that were born after 1990 or so.
My giddy ridiculousness is reaching an all time high, so in the interest of sanity, head over to joshAllan.com and download your copy today!
Click HERE or the book cover above to get your blur!
Thanks so much for reading and supporting my artistry!
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P.S. If you or someone you know could help me get this book into good ol’ paper-and-ink form (there’s just something about a real book…), please email me!
P.P.S. If you’re on Facebook, please come join my blur group HERE!
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Yesterday I had a fantastic conversation with one of my best friends in the entire world. Gabe (yes, that Gabe) and I talked for two and a half hours (not a normal thing, if you didn’t know, for two people with a male disposition), and covered pretty much, well, everything. We talked about tax laws, socialism, social justice, politics, starting families, raising kids, places to live, the godlessness of Europe, the godlessness of America, back injuries, back surgeries, succsess stories, master’s degrees, laziness, my job, his lack of job, our frustrations with jobs in general, getting older, and (hopefully) getting better.
In the course of our conversation — in the midst of the “social/politics” section — I had one of those mental epiphanies, where the clouds clear in fast-forward and a concept is sharpened, like I just put my glasses on.
Talking about our frustrations with the world and with the way that politics and governments interfere with human lives, I suddenly saw, as if for the first time, that there really are two kingdoms. (Forgive me as I try to communicate the picture in my head.) I know the “kingdom” word is a bit archaic, but I like it because it implies something imperialistic and vast, powerful and complex: think “Lord of the Rings.”
There is first “kingdom” that exists for nothing but itself, for the propagation of me, that desires power and position above all else, and will stop at nothing to get it. You don’t have to look very far to see this kingdom: turn on Fox News, pick up a newspaper, go to CNN.com, or read Boomsday.
Then there is another “kingdom” I see the outlines of — it’s a subversive, underground movement, really. This kingdom has no power, in the traditional sense. When looked upon by the first, has no prestige or position to speak of. But it exists, it is real. The main thing that differentiates it from the first is that it actually exists for the other kingdom — the kingdom that would (and often does) desire to crush it. It exists to liberate the captives of Kingdom #1. (To further elucidate what I’m talking about here, read The Secret Message of Jesus.)
There is already a book out there that uses a lot of this imagery, and it’s called the bible. But the problem is that, at least for someone like me who grew up around this book, I think our interpretation has been off. When the bible makes dichotomized statements about “the world” and “God’s kingdom” we have often mistook that to mean “non-follower” and “follower of Jesus,” respectively. But we’re not making it big enough! Kingdoms — empires, worlds — are made of many people; they are, by necessity, comprised of group dynamic.
I have a major issue with most christian-type people i know and the dualistic way that they think. (I actually have a whole chapter about this in my upcoming book, blur, which is SO close to being done and released I could just about spit.) Simply, we put people into categories — us versus them — and then wonder why we can’t love them. This is unhelpful, wrong, unfortunately very easy to do, and is a complete detriment to following Jesus, as he was radically inclusive.
The whole “parting-clouds” moment still didn’t happen for me, though, until, as I said, I put in the social/political factor.
The truth is that, until our belief moves from idea to action, from philosophy to praxis, from psyche to the streets, it doesn’t really matter. What you believe doesn’t really make a difference until it actually influences you to do something.
The first kingdom won’t care about what the second says until it senses enough action to imply a power struggle; unfortunately, the people who desire to occupy the second kingdom don’t often make enough waves to actually rock the boat. So we exist in this informational purgatory, where nobody gets hurt, but nobody ever gets better, either.
We will not even see these kingdoms until we move beyond rhetoric into reality — until we begin helping the poor, feeding the hungry, liberating the rich.
Until we inject our message with enough passion for justice to actually get off our fattened bottoms and DO something, I have to question what kingdom we’re really a part of. (Things Jesus said like this make a lot more sense now.) Our opinions can float us peacefully by all day long, but it means something different entirely if we’re getting thrown in real jails.
If we can re-adjust our focus to see the kingdoms that are at war, I think we’ll notice the split that really does exist. There is a sharp political implication to the message of Jesus, and viewed in that light, the things he said seem to start to make a lot more sense…
This is just the beginning.
(Sorry this blog is such a mess — I know it’s pretty disjointed and incomplete. Hopefully you were still able to salvage some part of what I’m trying to communicate! And yes, I get the irony that I’m writing this call to action in a blog, but believe me, I’m desperately trying to figure out the answer to the next obvious question: “Well, what should I do, then?” More coming soon!)
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Thus spake Holden Caulfield:
“I felt like praying or something, when I was in bed, but I couldn’t do it. I can’t always pray when I feel like it. In the first place, I’m sort of an atheist. I like Jesus and all, but I don’t care too much for most of the other stuff in the Bible. Take the Disciples, for instance. They annoy the hell out of me, if you want to know the truth. They were all right after Jesus was dead and all, but while He was alive, they were about as much use to Him as a hole in the head. All they did was keep letting Him down.
I like almost anybody in the Bible better than the Disciples. If you want to know the truth, the guy I like best in the Bible, next to Jesus, was that lunatic and all, that lived in the tombs and kept cutting himself with stones. I like him ten times as much as the Disciples, that poor bastard.
I used to get in quite a few arguments about it, when I was at the Whooton School, with this boy that lived down the corridor, Arthur Childs. Old Childs was a Quaker and all, and he read the Bible all the time. He was a very nice kid, and I liked him, but I could never see eye to eye with him on a lot of stuff in the Bible, especially the Disciples. He kept telling me if I didn’t like the Disciples, then I didn’t like Jesus and all. He said that because Jesus picked the Disciples, you were supposed to like them. I said I knew He picked them, but that He picked them at random. I said He didn’t have time to go around analyzing everybody. I said I wasn’t blaming Jesus or anything. It wasn’t His fault that He didn’t have any time.
I remember I asked old Childs if he thought Judas, the one that betrayed Jesus and all, went to Hell after he committed suicide. Childs said certainly. That’s exactly where I disagreed with him. I said I’d bet a thousand bucks that Jesus never sent old Judas to Hell. I still would, too, if i had a thousand bucks. I think any one of the Disciples would’ve sent him to Hell and all — and fast, too — but I’ll bet anything Jesus didn’t do it.
Old Childs said the trouble with me was that I didn’t go to church or anything. He was right about that, in a way. I don’t. In the first place, my parents are different religions, and all the children in our family are atheist. If you want to know the truth, I can’t even stand ministers. The ones they’ve had at every school I’ve gone to, they have these Holy Joe voices when they start giving their sermons. God, I hate that. I don’t see why the hell they can’t talk in their natural voice. They sound so phony when they talk.”
- J.D. Salinger, The Catcher In The Rye (p. 130-131)
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