The Two Cities: A Series
I have been kicking around the idea for a while, and now that i have completely given up on the American media following what can/will hence forth be considered the single greatest blunder in American Bi-partisanship in 2006 which led to a Dubai company's
honorable and mature gesture to forego a business deal on the east coast, I have a little time to flesh it out.
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To begin, i'm not sure if the Church is using its history well. and i think it's mostly because we do not appreciate the story. Other faiths, Islam in particular, have produced an amazing body of historical literature that combines time, faith, and identity. So have we, though. However, we do not use it, and often find ourselves in various states of ideological syncretism.
The Church has always found itself "between the two cities," that is the City of God, and the City of Man: Babylon the Great. the Proverbs reveres Wisdom beyond all else. Discernemnt between the the two cities is to be pursued like i pursue a good night at the bars (a bit of an oxymoron, i know). but as most find, it's not always a cut-and-dry, easy task. Sin, in some major ways, is most seductive because it mimics virtue. Example: Sex is inherently good. God made people to do it, and thus babies and too. Yet, there is a context to it, and outside of that context, sex becomes gaunt desire, that in the words of Dante, "replace appettite with the good of intellect." Accordingly, discerning the Cities is quite comprehensive: it's not just political in nature. it's intellectual, and it is also spiritual.
One express example of the someone using the "other-wordly" leanings of the Church for instilling self-promotion is the piractic actions of
Raynald of Châtillon , who specifically targeted muslim pilgrims and sacked their caravans 'In the name of God.' This was clearly political, but he touched on all the hot-button words of a day that saw Saladin over-run a Christian city --a city completely self-sufficient and without need of his "services." It is of note that Saladin had Raynald separated from a group of captives, and personally killed the man with his own hands.
There are also the
Gnostic Controversies of the Church's inception. the Gnostics held to a highly platonic understanding of the world, one that held wisdom as the highest pursuit, and saw it as a moment of enlightenent. It was divine and not earthly. Accordingly, the Gnostic Christians laboured greatly to demonstrate that Christ could not have been both fully man and fully God. For God to be of this realm was heresy, he must be configured according to the ways of the unseen realm amongst the perfection of forms --or so the reasoning went.
Yet, for the early strife over
the Deity of Christ, the Gnostics lost out on in the early church because their doctrine of Creation, while linked to a respected and rather formative intellectual model, was still overtly un-Christian. To deny that Christ was truly man as much as he was truly God was plainly against the testimony of the patristic fathers, more specifically against the teachings of Scripture, and was furthermore an explicit denial of the goodness of Creation.
It is this last point (the goodness of creation) that leads me to a growing problem in the Church today: an overly critical, albeit, flamboyant denouciation of institutional leadership.
Some have said that it's a man-made organization, an invention, and it doesn't have the best interests of the church as a priority. Others have critiqued it because of the lack of zealous leadership, and its wholesale refusal to accept a smaller, more "efficient" model. And i'm not talking about the Republicans fighting-off their Libertarian counterparts --i'm talking about the Bride of Christ.
I have a number of colleagues (and i call them this because while i hold their positions to be severly ill-thought, i still consider them equals) who are concerned over a local church's desire to expand its facilities, and still others who consider denominationalism, and structured worship to be without the Spirit of God. Most of these are sympathic towards the contemporary house church movement, A movement who has rightly discerned the fallacy of the mega-church movement (a reigning evangelical paradigm since the late seventies) : Bigger is not always better.
What has followed is a rapid and zealous renouncing of epistemical concrete, to the point that talk of Church revolves around 'What do you mean by 'Church,'' in which the
Church proper is understood to not reside in any building, is led by Spirit-filled zealous men (and women), whose worship is purposefully-unstructured (read 'contemporary' and spontanious) and Spirit-filled (advent of tongues and prophetic utterances).
This perspective holds that structured worship is the invention of men, as are denominations, that buildings are a waste of time and money and are most times linked to idolatry and early paganism. There is also a dislike of Christian thought, Christian scholarship, and history. Theology is discouraged for study, as is Church history, with the exception of what Scripture states. True knowledge, --a phrase, by the by, which is a purely Gnostic phrase outright-- comes from the enlightenment of the Spirit, not specific historical men (even if they were being led by the Spirit), and especially not historical institutions, and far less by denominations.
The next couple of postings will be to flesh-out the good and honorable concerns of this movement, but also to consider this in the light of the "Two Cities" principle as laid down in the Holy Scripture. This movement, while rightly identifying the mega-church fallacy, has over-stepped its boundaries like MacArthur in Korea --to the point that the house church movement is now accusing fellow brothers and sisters of not having the Spirit of God becasue of the difference in worship styles and perspectives on Creation. There is alot to be learned, and both have inconsistencies --and, in some cases, outright fabrications-- to admit.
The series will cover the Incarnation, the Role of Communal Revelation (the Deposit of the Faith), Diversity in Worship (Denominations), and Politics (conservative patriarchy vs. contemporary progressive agendas). My aim is
not to divert any house-churchers from their model, but to bring about an ecumenical understanding that buildings, and incidentally denominationalism, are not inherently
bad things (ill use of funds, however, is) but a declaration of the goodness of creation and the diveristy of the Body of Christ, and furthermore, that just because someone's worship is different, it doesn't mean they know the Lord any less (distinctive doctrines withstanding, of course).
Look for Part II later this week.
Missed Opportunities?
things have kinda cooled off in the world... sorta (Iraq is one example of an
immediate exception which comes to mind). but i have had some time to regroup from a few posts ago.
So, two things, Dr. Suess style.
THING 1: the UAE and the port purchase.
so if i understand what is being said in the media, on both sides, the UAE, an Arab country and strongly Muslim, etc., has been floated a deal to buy some port on the East Coast in the US. Right? Right. But the thing is, i understand they are to come into possession of a few
terminals right?
Right. Or, at least i think (there will be alot of shooting-from-the-hip in this post folks).
So then, the UAE guys are not 'buying' the Port, just some terminals, and this from the Brits --who by the way have had their own high-casualty terrorist bombing on 7/7/05. Is this reason for alarm? yes. is it deserving of the press coverage? yes. Is it deserving of all the 'bi-partisan' attention and talk of UAE as if they are already planning to float a dirty-bomb into port?
No.
For one: the contents getting shipped to the terminals in the US Ports are inspected before they are sent out. And Two, the terminal --and the port at large-- is run/supervised our own US Coast Guard. The UAE can't just put anyone in control, and fudge a sleeper through, as if we sold access to Al Qaida or Islamic Jihad lock, stock, and smoking reactors.
THING 2: Dealing with HAMAS.
A few posts back i wrote about the election of Hamas to parliament in Palestine. Fun times. things haven't improved much, and from what i understand, they are running out of money like Mike Tyson at Barnum&Bailey (for those not privy, Mike Tyson, who is in the dregs of bankruptcy, has spent his millions on the up-keep of a personal zoo located on-site at the Tyson Estate.).
America has refused to meet with them because of 1) their track record as a notorious suicide bombing terrorist faction, and 2) their insistence on wiping out Israel. And i stand by US resolve to keep governmental bodies accountable --which is what a war on terror should be focused on: just and responsible governance (i can see the lips of my more progressive comrades curling into a smug, but lovely, smile --but stick with me)
Yet here's the Red Herring: there is such a thing as pushing someone from a being candidate for extremism to an outspoken extremist. And it is because of our refusal to even speak with Hamas --and our movement from a concern over the control of a few terminals
to an inflammatory public uproar-- that we continue to loose the people in the market places across the Muslim world. what would it take to form alliances with other Muslim countries to inquire of the state of extremism? What would it take to trust the UAE? what would it take to speak with Egypt in regard to handling Hamas and intercede for more moderate positions on Israel, and more focused attention on the economic issues that Palestine will be facing?
I have to really give it to the "Bi-partisanship" that is being praised throughout the coverage of both of these items: between the left's desire to nail G. Dub for anything and the right's paranoia of an Islamic planet i think we've managed to stereotype every Muslim man and woman through our blatant disregard to discriminate between political terrorism and faith. If we want to make any headway in this war, we had better start looking into these questions.
The Proletariat will Rise, Indeed...
Came across
this today. And it just goes to show how traditions can be manipulated for the monetary benefits of criminals --
A family was murdered by paramilitary forces outside of Bogota, apparently the victims of a bloodfued. Chances are the perps will elude capture, but people of similar ilk will meet a violent end in order to atone for the deaths.
Colombia is fascinating. Socially, historically, etc.
I actually wrote a thesis exploring labor conditions in Colombia for my senior seminar at
Eastern University. After extensive historical and anthropological research, I found that multi-national corporations, like Coca-Cola, are not the criminals in the ill-treatment of workers
as some folks maintain (i'll have to write about these guys some other time). but rather, it is competing Colombian interest groups who are to blame for persecution of unionists. It seems that warring factions have been trying to accomplish one of the following three things: 1) To enforce a rule of law (as opposed to
incessant regime changes) in hopes of establishing some vestige of order, global recognition, and American crony-ism 2) To overthrown the current regime to replace it with some loosely communistic regime to satisfy local crony-ism, and 3) To consolidate power over coca production vis-a-vis options one, two, or both at the same time.
And most times, peasants are caught in the middle. they are just normal, small-town folks trying to keep their families clothed and fed.
It seems this country is nearly always in a state of transition and civil war. On one side you have the more formal and recognized governmental powers, and on the other you have the revolutionary, marxist paramilitaries. Now, add drug king-pins, mix and pour over the rocks, and you end up with groups that espouse ideologies of liberation that seem to victimize peasant ignorance and liberate people of precious little except their lives.
It may have been implict, but if you didn't catch it, the article reports that massacres are generally over peasant sympathies and battles for coca fields --which does much to re-enforce my feeling that Marxism in the americas is genuinely suspect. It's just a trading of an officiated capitalism for
a dirty, under-the-table capitalism which is purchased at the cost of innocent lives by the privileged few(these 'few' being the wildly jealous have-nots). The war on drugs and revolutionary cause seem to cross many lines in these areas.
I wonder, how many proletariats have overthrown the machine in the Americas, as opposed to merely getting ground-up in its gears, reciting some empty manifesto? How many souls has Liberation Theology actually liberated since its inception?
And what happens when marxism becomes just as much a structural institution as the government and religion Karl Marx himself saw as distractions from the man behind the curtain?
Madness, thou art Palestine
I was listening to
NPR coverage of the Hamas victory in Palestine sunday morning , and though they recognized the road to order as the road less traveled, they spoke optimistically of this new development, saying that when the PLO had formed they "were similar in cause and prejudice, and after relentless pressure from Europe and the States, finally moderated their views on Israel -even acknowledging their right to exist." the palestinian parlamentary representative, who they interviewed affirmed as much.
And generally speaking, i like being optimistic. i am for a Palestine that is willing to "get all their shit in the same bag." I'm not one of those types that hopes Palestine fails at all costs. but they gotta cut out the B.S. Up until recently (that is, before Hamas: the isreali deals to pull out of the West Bank, etc.) they were doing nothing but affirming what the pro-israeli's have been saying for years.
If they can just moderate their religious zeal, organize a functional government that takes care of the Palestian people, and refrain from comissioning suicide bombers in CANDY SHOPS in Tel Aviv, then all the better. it would do amazing things for Palestinian children: let's see, good schools vs. signing-them-up to strap bombs to each other and run into marketplaces to kill civilians -i think i'm with the schools. (look, if it was a military installation, i'd give it to ya, even though it's tantamount to a sucker-punch, i'd still give it to ya).
Then i came across
this. Fatah has already staged protests at their chairman's house, now we are seeing Fatah-on-Hamas violence (and vice-a-versa), and even Fatah-on-Fatah violence spreading throughout Gaza and the West Bank. Cell groups are conscientiously marking the end of the israeli-palestinian cease-fire, and are caling for an envigoured campaign of attacks in Israel.
This is also beside the fact that Europe and the US saying they will cut-off funding unless they back-off from extremism has the new parliament thumbing its nose, declaring confidently they will find funding else where.
T-r-o-u-b-l-e
The title says it all. Unfortunately, there will nothing nice said in this posting, as there is alot of bad things developing in the world, some closer to home than others.
First things first:
SO MUCH FOR THE PEACE PROCESS.HAMAS, a notorious Palestinian terror cell, has been recently voted into office as a
viable political party in Palestine. The
FPRI guys wrote about this event almost two years before it happened, fearing since the passing of Arafat left the
Palestinian government structure in a fractured multiple-party/multiple-interest group system with no real chairmen to take control, that a number of these parties would get behind one group -but only so long as they were settled on one issue: Destroying Israel. And the cows have decided to come home.
There are demonstrations across the territory. Abbas' home was beseiged by demonstrators from his
own party, Fatah, who are blaming him for the losing the elections.
A spokemans from Hamas, has released a statement saying that Israel's refusal to speak with them changes nothing.
Secondly:
THE ON-COMING GEO-POLITCAL MASSACRE IN BOLIVIA.
Juan Evo Morales, the indigenous, accused terrorist/one-time drug-lord and new 'president-elect' of Bolivia (This dude saw the pollsters putting him at one-third of the popular vote and
staged a revolution to seize control of the executive office) has annouced his desire to seize ground from CHILE. This stretch of ground was lost to the Chileans during the Venezulan/Bolivian alliance conflict in 1885, and left Boliva land-locked. Chile carried the day then, and they will do it again -they have the organization, capital, and firepower to do so. Guess who is encouraging Morales to take up this
one hundred and twenty-one year old arguement? -Why, none other than HUGO CHAVEZ of Venezuela. Chavez, interestingly enough, has recently been placed getting awful
chummy with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Like i said, despots get people killed by the pit-full.
Lastly:
WHITE SUPREMECY ROCK-BANDS TO PLAY IN GRANTVILE, PA. Yeah, i
live in Grantville.
Things are about to get real interesting. And earlier this week i distinctly remember
a little bird whispering whoever it was that said 'may you live in interesting times' must have meant it as an insult.
Teaser: Some Short Fiction
*A Bad Day, Indeed* From 'Thom And Clara'by Justin Cave========================
The rain had been pounding off the road the whole ride home, the drops were large and seemed to bounce like rocks skipping across a lake surface, thousands at a time -rippling and breaking off into a million different pieces; slowing down, speeding up; getting smaller, getting larger; flowing like a heart-pumping river source, pulsating like a migraine headache.
He knew it was a bad habit, but Dudley would trail off when he drove -especially when things were scenic. He positively loved drivng at break-neck speeds on clear fall days, the leaves swirling around the back of the car. One time, He actually side-swiped a parked car while trying to check out a mural on an apartment building in Philadelphia.
He slowed down in bad weather, but like any other time, couldn't fight-off the desire to look out the window. He loved the rain, it was so... relaxing, he thought. Though for the moment, this was all about to change.
Thom didn't see it until he was overtop of it -but even then he knew what had just happened, and his stomach knotted up like a College freshman going through his first break-up. His truck had hit something, and it wasn't a pothole -potholes didn't
feel like this.
'Dammit... Oh!" he said, letting all the breath in his lungs out at once.
From somewhere out of the wet haze, a nightly adventurer had made its way out from the amazon of roadside brush. Pulling itself out of the waterary lagoon, like some kind of glorious evolutionary thing, it was just in time to venture its last steps, its last trek, and land right under the steel-belted radials of the Dudley's Escape. The truck screeched to a stop, and sat cock-eyed in the street.
After taking a second to compose himself, Thom opened the door and stepped out into the rain. He stood ther for a minute and gazed back up the street. Inbetween hazard flashes, he could make out a lump some 18 or so yards back. He could hear it before he saw it.
By this time the rain was running down his head and into his eyes and mouth, tasting of mild, cool salt. Scared as hell, he took his first steps towards the lump, and didn't get five strides behind him until he realized what he'd done.
"...Oh... Sh-ite!" he muttered.
It was someone's dog. A retriever mix -young, and hurt in a bad, bad way. Dudley's face sagged like a washcloth on a towl rack -heavy. He perched a fist on a his hip, and pivoting on his heel, gave a quick scan of the area. There wasn't a light for miles.
"Aughh...," He sighed, "...Who let
you out?"
The Dog whined and flipped about like a fish stole from its lake.
"God, all you can probably make to think of is your owner."
His clothes were completetly soaked through. This dog was dead, it just didn't know any better, and went on trying to fight and hang on. Dudley knew the injuries were far too pronounced, and did what seemed to come natural. He got down on one knee, and put the thing down himself, with his own hands.
When the dog was still, he let loose of it and kept by its side. "Damn Dog."
Dudley wept. In silence, he hung back with the lump for what seemed like hours before his thoughts turned to home and collar around the its neck.
"Clara is gonna
kill me."
===================
Watch out for this Guy: Juan Evo Morales...
Over the last month, Bolivia has announced
This Guy as their New President. His campaign stomp? -Nationalized natural gas sales and open proliferation of coca planting throughout the country (In accordance with traditional indigenous practice, of course).
How will this effect us? probably not much. Though it does stand as a point of reference for why the I.T. fields need to stop going to India amd Pakistan, inc., and turn south to the Americas.
I used to not understand why there was such an uproar over free-trade agreements until i studied the geography of some these places. To impose an open market for certain agriculture and textile goods over the span of the Central America would drive prices so low as to bankrupt entire local economies.
I (heart) capitalism, and do not feel bad about businesses going under because their model is outdated and inefficient. BUT with this freetrade issue, we are not talking about mere Mom-and-Pop's going out of business because
Walmart opens down the street. What we're talking about are entire neighborhoods -whole provincial regions- being "put out of business."
Likewise in the Americas -and i guess Columbia and Bolivia would stand as stated examples- there are not many viable resources outside of, well, cocaine production. So, there is a diplomatic/economic double-edged sword if i ever felt one!
Our free-trade agreements decimate what legitamate capital they make, and our war on drugs threatens the other.
Accordingly, if there are not may renewable resources for these countries, why not shift IT operations, and other sustainable initiatives to the south? there are the obvious problems with this suggestion: the sheer mass of of rampant poverty, Indiginous culture that resists modern innovations, and the dense forests of the Americas that are hostile to the infrastructure needed to support such tech-revolutions.
But what else is there to suggest? Take away the genocides and the AIDS pandemic, and we are looking at the next Africa.
Guys like Morales lead revolutions that help no-one. Most times, campaigns directed by demogogues get
thousands of innocent people killed.
More on this later....
