Canon Kendall Harmon’s mother passed away yesterday. Please pray for the repose of the soul of Mary Ann Harmon. Pray, too, for Kendall and his family. We know it is a hard time.
Kendall posted her obituary, here.
As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives and that at the last he will stand upon earth. After my awaking, he will raise me up; and in my body I shall see God. I myself shall see, and my eyes behold him who is my friend and not a stranger. (491, BCP)
Most merciful God, whose wisdom is beyond our understanding: Deal graciously with the Harmon family in their grief. Surround them with your love, that they may not be overwhelmed by their loss, but have confidence in your goodness, and strength to meet the days to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. (494, BCP)
Millstones, anyone?
I’ve been sick all week. Just a bit ago, the school bus that picks up and drops off kids rolled up after a hard day at school. The engine rumbles as it idles, red lights flashing, cars backed up, as kids stream off.
I can hear the commotion in my apartment – two sides face out over the street where the bus stops. A clear, exited voice raised up, “Mama! Mama!” He was so exited about something. The trust and love – the innocence, the excitement to see his Mama.
I just started crying. I don’t know why. Not a bad thing.
Then, I started thinking…
It is so hard for kids growing up in these times. Growing up has never been easy, but in these times, well. So many kids – so innocent, so hopeful, so trusting – are being so harmed and their young lives bent and destroyed by so much of our culture. A culture that we allow. (Does poetic license cover using sentence fragments to make a point, or am I adding to the problem?)
So much of culture is degrading. I spent yesterday wondering through MySpace and so many of the high school and college age people, well, their pages are full of sexualized images of themselves or their language and descriptions of themselves is jarring. They mimic the adult MySpace pages. These kids are Paris Hilton, Nicole Richy, and Justin Timberlake wannabes. This is the impression they are fed and accept – image is everything; the image is sexualized; to be someone you have to be sexualized by exposing as much as you can get away with and having ripped abs. No substance. No depth. Only image. And we let it happen.
What are we doing and allowing to be done to our children?
South Park did a perfect job exposing all this in their typically rude, crude, and particularly gross way through this episode – “8.12 – Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset,” originally airing Dec. 1, 2004 (I think). You can read a synopsis of the episode from Wikipedia. Here is the script, if you want to read it. It isn’t for the easily skweemish – it is typically South Park. And, here is the final video of the “South Park Whore-off.”
At the conclusion of the Whore-off, Mr. Slave says, “People, don’t applaud me. I’m a dirty whore. [the crowd falls silent] Being spoiled and stupid and whorish is supposed to be a bad thing, remember? Parents, if you don’t teach your children that people like Paris Hilton are supposed to be despised, where are they gonna learn it? You have to be the- [feels something in his stomach] ooohooho, Jezuth Christh. You have to be the ones to make sure your daughters aren’t looking up to the wrong people.”
I don’t know. We spend less and less money educating our children well. We spend less and less with them, period. We give them over to other people to raise and to the culture, which is not the way to maturity, self-respect, sanity, freedom, peace, joy, or wholeness. It is the way of manipulation, deception, and making lots of money for some corporations and certain people. God, save us from ourselves, and save the little children. Who will be wearing a millstone around their necks?
More battles, less faith
It seems there is a fight brewing between a couple dozen Religious Right organizations lead by James Dobson and Jerry Farwell and the National Association of Evangelicals, representing approximately 30 million American Evangelicals. The Religious Right organizations are demanding the resignation or firing of the Rev. Richard Cizik, who directs the NAE’s Washington office, because of his “relentless campaign” against global warming.
You can read the article on Christianity Today online.
“The issue that is dividing and demoralizing the NAE and its leaders is related to global warming,” wrote the leaders, none of whom are members of the association. “If he cannot be trusted to articulate the views of American evangelicals on environmental issues, then we respectfully suggest that he be encouraged to resign his position with the NAE.”
I thing the Ted Haggard incident may be a bit more demoralizing that global warming. None of the Religious Right organizations are members of the NAE, yet they demand the NAE abide by their demands. The NAE is moving in directions that these Religious Right groups do not accept. Since they believe that they themselves define who and what American Evangelicalism is, then a departure from their political, social, and moral agenda cannot be tolerated, especially when the challenge comes from the organization that represents far more Evangelicals than do the Religious Right organizations. Of course, there is cross pollenization.
Regrettably, some of the comments are just comical.
“The letter’s signers, who included American Family Association Chairman Don Wildmon and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, charged that Cizik has a “preoccupation” with climate concerns. Referring to a January USA Today article on evangelical identity, they said, ‘We believe that some of that misunderstanding about evangelicalism and its ‘conservative views on politics, economics, and biblical morality’ can be laid at Richard Cizik’s door.'”
Now, the accusation that Cizik is preoccupied with anything is laughable considering the Religious Right’s decade’s long preoccupation with same-sex marriage, with homosexuality, or with sex period. Then, to assert that the general public misunderstands evangelicalism because of Cizik’s emphasis on global warming is just absurd. If there is a general misunderstanding of evangelicalism, is comes directly from the Religious Right organizations who have abandoned their spiritual mandate and have take up nationalism, right-wing politics, and laissez-faire economics.
The battles between the fundamentalists and the more progressive-evangelicals for the soul of American Evangelicalism have begun. Who truly represents American Evangelicals? We shall see whether the NAE gives in to the bullying tactics of the Religious Right demagogues. Anglicanism is not the only faith tradition with looming battles. Anglicanism may pull itself apart, but we are not the only ones.
What can Rome learn from Canterbury?
An interesting article about a Roman Catholic, The Rev. Keith Pecklers, SJ (“a leading international authority on liturgy”) concerning what Rome can learn from Anglicans.
I appreciate his statement about Anglicans showing a way to live with questions honestly and in the open. The few Roman Catholic clergy I know talk about the same thing – or themselves refuse to discuss “issues” openly.
Here is the article.
The Monasatic Fling
So, I was reading the New York Times at the Tea Lounge in my neighborhood this morning, and starting reading an article on the changes happening to social networks, you know, like MySpace and Facebook. There is a growing trend for more interactive and inter-connected social networks. An example of “Ning” was given, so I thought I would troll over and see what it was about.
There are several of us clergy that gather every Thursday at The General Theological Seminary on Thursdays for Evensong and then dinner. We hang out. Most of us have high-church, if not Anglo-Catholic, sympathies. I am a Curate and a wonderful and growing Anglo-Catholic parish. (I feel the need to specify that his parish is more progressive than some that have become quite reactionary against womens ordination, etc.).
Anyway, my clergy group has been discussing what kind of future Anglo-Catholicism has within the Anglican Tradition, and more specifically within The Episcopal Church (TEC). Anglo-Catholicism has alway made up a small minority in TEC. I read recently about an extensive study done by and issued by The Alban Institute, an Episcopal tank-tank dealing with issues of church growth, among many other things. Anyway, the report covered future growth trends and evangelism. From what I understand, Anglo-Catholicism is regarded as one of the very positive avenues of growth within TEC, particularly among the young and I suspect among immigrant populations. Go figure (actually, from what I’ve been reading about the younger generations and what I’ve experienced over the past several years, this doesn’t surprise me!)
Alright, I went to Ning and created a new social network called “The Monastic Fling.” The purpose may be anything, but I stated that it is a place where those who are frustrated with American Christianity might find the ancient monastic traditions a bit more helpful in our desire for a deeper experience of God and our faith than the trendy and sometimes shallow American Christian experience.
Check it out, if you want. I created the space to just kind of play around, but it may turn into something – who knows. The Monastic Fling
First things
I have said for a while now that one of the main schemes of the Enemy of our Faith in these times is to encourage us to be so busy that we no longer have time to sit, to be quite, meditate, listen, and rest in the presence of God. We don’t take the time or make the time to be with God and to hear His voice.
We fill our minds and our emotions with so many other things that either do nothing to bring us closer to our true selves or actively work against it. Our true selves, by the way, are realized through our relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
I realize that all this religio-political crap has done nothing to encourage me on my way to knowing God more fully and knowing God’s will for my life. It crowds out so much, it burns-outs my brain-cells and keeps them from firing in ways that enable understanding. Wisdom is lost.
I’m not talking about doing good theological work or Scriptural exegesis – thinking about the things of God, but about just listening and participating in the banality of the Anglican blogshere as we fight like worldlings, using the rhetorical and physical weapons of this world.
Fr. Cullen keeps telling me, “Bob, you’ve got to get away from that stuff.” I do. The political animal that I am keeps drawing me back into the fray. I suppose I should, as others have done, fast during this Holy Lent from such things and focus instead on my prayers and filling my brain with good things. These are the first things, it seems to me.
THEOSIS IN CHRYSOSTOM AND WESLEY:
An article:
THEOSIS IN CHRYSOSTOM AND WESLEY: AN EASTERN PARADIGM ON FAITH AND LOVE
by Steve McCormick
Where is deception found?
Retreatants Hear of Guises of the Antichrist
What do you think about this?
There are some interesting points, even if the examples he gives may rub some the wrong way.
Via: Drell’s Descants
“Think Different”
On my website proper, there is a quote from Ann Rice. It is one of my favorite quotes and has to do with being open to the truth – and recognizing the difference between seeking truth and seeking affirmation for what one already believes. I’ll include it at the end of this post.
I was praying for a very good friend of mine and his family. I haven’t seen him in a long time. I prayed that he would have an open mind and discerning heart, that he would recognize the history of the Church and how things have changed, and that the same or similar things are going on right now in the Church over a wide variety of issues. I prayed that he would be open to continual growth in God’s Truth, rather than seeking those things that will only confirm what he already believes.
Sometimes, that means that he (or any one of us) will be in a quite uncomfortable place. It is rarely comfortable when God challenges our understanding or belief or actions. In the end, as he and God work through the stuff, he may find that he has come back around and affirms what he originally thought or did, or he may believe differently. The difference is that he did the hard work of wrestling with his beliefs, wrestling with Truth, doing the hard work of growing-up in Christ, and being open to the Truth rather than simply and comfortably affirming current belief.
From my past experience, there is a huge hesitation (if not a bit of fear) among certain parts of the Church to delving into ideas or the writings of theologians or scholars that present significantly different perspectives because of the possibility of deception. There is strong belief that Satan and/or the systems of this world are always perched on the edge just waiting for the right opportunity to swoop down and plant deception in our minds, to corrupt our understanding of God and what is required of us and promised to us as children of God, and to supplant the Truth of God with a lie.
What this can lead to is stifled growth (not moving from spiritual milk to spiritual meat, moving from immaturity to maturity, even gaining more of the Christ-like heart and mind). What this does not mean is that being open to new ideas and concepts automatically or necessarily leads us to “liberalism,” agnosticism, heresy, or anything of the like. It can lead to deception and falsehood. It can also lead us to a fuller understanding of God’s Truth! We take a chance, but if an earthly father does not give his son who asks for a piece of bread a stone, how much more will our Father in heaven guard us (give to us) as we seek His Truth?
Too many of us simply don’t want to take the time or place ourselves in these uncomfortable places to reconsider what we currently believe. In the end, we may come back to what we already believed – I’ve experience that. We may also move into a different understanding – and I’ve done that. When we go through the process, we come by our convictions honestly, rather than simply accepting someone else’s understanding or being intellectually lazy.
What has not changed one way or another is my (and hopefully our) desire to know God, to honor God, to worship God, to love my neighbors, and to become the man that God created me to me – realizing my gifts, potential, abilities, and the places God can lead me.
Opening ourselves to new ideas and different ways of thinking does not mean we put ourselves in a place where we will be deceived. Yes, the possibility exists. If we seek God’s Truth and have faith that God desires us to know Truth, we have to acknowledge that what we believe right now could be wrong – no matter how comfortable it makes us. If we don’t, we are simply seeking those things and teachers that scratch our itching ears rather than allowing challenge to force growth in truth and maturity.
What I didn’t pray for is that he will believe a certain thing or way of thinking – that he will believe like me. I can be wrong. I prayed for God’s will to be done in his life and heart and mind.
Sign of the cross
I get weekly e-mail updates from a variety of organizations. Today’s came from Christianity Today, a more Evangelical news magazine. There is an article by Nathan Bierma about making the sign of the cross, which traditionally Evangelicals do not do – it’s too “Catholic.”
The author referenced two new books on the practice and history of the Sign of the Cross.
I’ve watched over the years in my own move from American Evangelicalism to Anglicanism in The Episcopal Church and still further towards Anglo-Catholicism as more staunchly Protestant and particularly Evangelical expressions of the faith have begun to re-incorporate many of the ancient Traditions of the Church universal back into their practice. Such things as weekly communion and now making the sign of the cross, for example.
He writes:
After reading these two books, this previously ignorant Protestant, for one, has decided to introduce the sign of the cross into his daily prayer, as a link with the early church, a sign of God’s claim on me, and a reminder of the mystery of the Trinity.
Whether we practice it or not, the sign of the cross is one manifestation of how physical—how embodied—worship really is.
An important aspect of Episcopalian and Anglican devotion, particularly the High-Church/Anglo-Catholic bunch, has been the keeping alive this very idea of the embodiment of what we do as devotion and demarcation of who and what we are. In ideas of incarnation, a unique Anglican strength, we realize that during our common worship and in private devotions, our bodily actions and our doings are as important in our formation as is the stimulation of our minds. Orthopraxis – right doing. It is a full-bodied worship experience incorporating all the senses and postures.