Following Crosswalk America

Some politics and a little about care of the earth.

by Merrill

• @Duck and Decanter
  

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  Last Wednesday was the 63^rd Anniversary of THE BOMB being dropped on Hiroshima (8:15 AM local time). The only mention I know of the anniversary was in the Ashi Shinbun online. The article (I am not sure how long the link will be good) I read quoted the mayor of Hiroshima, Tadatoshi Akiba as saying: “We can only hope that the president of the United States elected this November will listen conscientiously to the majority, for whom the top priority is human survival”. I wonder what the candidates would say if asked about that hope.

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  I am disappointed about what both of them have had to say lately. I was especially disappointed in the suggestion by Barack Obama that we should all put more air in our tires in order to get better gas mileage. Well, yes, over inflating your tire will give you better mileage. It will also help your tires to wear out faster and it takes a great deal of energy to manufacture a tire. So over inflating tires is a short sighted policy if you ask me – you didn’t but I am telling you any way. There is another way of getting better mileage. That is by reducing your speed above 50 mph. Since July 1^st I have made 60 my top speed. For my car, a 2006 Mercury Mariner, that has translated into about a two gallon per mile improvement.

  May/ June mileage July mileage 22.75 24.71

• Those values were for all my driving, most of which is not on freeways or open road. Still, even with the limited amount of freeway driving I do, I can save gas (and money). On long trips I will get 26 mpg or better. On my motorcycle, a 2002 Yamaha 1100 V-Star, which normally gets 53 or 54 miles to the gallon (at speeds less than 60) my mileage will decrease to about 35 mpg when I ride at the limit – 75 in Arizona on the interstate. It turns out that, above 50 mph, wind resistance is the determining factor in efficiency. The faster you go the more energy it takes to overcome the increasing resistance (even with a good aerodynamic shape). While I am on the subject, for most cars the air conditioning uses less gas than the drag caused by open windows.
  

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  In the 70s that was why the 55 mile per hour limit on federally funded highways was set. These days it would appear that our politicians don’t have enough courage to return to this very unpopular method of saving energy. Maybe we should ask the candidates to stop blowing so much hot air and do a little more homework and thinking.

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  For the home I also have a simple and effective way of conserving energy (I hope I haven’t mentioned this before – if I have please stop reading now). I installed a switch on my hot water heater. In Phoenix heating water is the third largest use of electricity. Typically I only need to have my hot water heater on twice a week for a few hours. Before I became a parasite on society –by retiring – I had it programmed for an hour every morning before I woke up. Since retiring I have found that I can manage with not as often. My usual thing is to heat water only when I run my dish washer –only full loads. Of course in Phoenix I don’t need hot water for showers as much as in the winter but even in the winter I find I don’t often have water too cold to not shower in between washing dishes.

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  Simple

  

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  In those two ways my care of the earth is partly motivated by saving money – but only partly. One thing I do (don’t do actually) is not to have my house and yard sprayed for bugs and other pests. I don’t like creepy crawlies any more that the next person but I refuse to use pest exterminators to get rid of them. As a result I have a lot of spider webs on the outside of my house and fences. There are also many birds (including one mating pair of cardinals) inhabiting the premises. I see some evidence of snakes like the molted skins by my front window uncovered when I had some yard work done recently. Then there was the very small snake that crawled out from underneath my bed one night.

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  Guest

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  I looked him (OK, it could be a her) up on the internet (pictures here) and determined that it is a Sonora semiannulata which are common in the Southwest. Finding out that they love to eat scorpions, which I have also found in my home, I released it into my back yard instead of the nearby Phoenix Mountain Preserve. The battery is an AAA and he was curled up in a plastic food container that I placed him in for the night.

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  Free at last, free at last` Slithering off the patio

Reality and Response

by Howie

But first, the news:

Will Americans Accept Greener Hotel Rooms?

A cool idea for sensitivity training and lessons for offering care for elderly people.

(These are NYTimes.com articles and may require free site registration.)

The Gift We Give To Tomorrow at OvercomingBias.com

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This one is super-important: The Science of Satire - Cognition studies clash with ‘New Yorker’ rationale. By Mahzarin R. Banaji

“It is not unreasonable, given the inquiring minds that read The New Yorker, to expect that an obvious caricature would be viewed as such. In fact, our conscious minds can, in theory, accomplish such a feat. But that doesn’t mean that the manifest association (Obama=Osama lover) doesn’t do its share of the work. To some part of the cognitive apparatus, that association is for real. Once made, it has a life of its own because of a simple rule of much ordinary thinking: Seeing is believing. Based on the research of my colleague, the psychologist Daniel Gilbert, on mental systems, one might say that the mind first believes, and only if it is relaxing in an Adirondack chair doing nothing better, does it question and refute. There is a power to all things we see and hear — exactly as they are presented to us.”

That last sentence is why I struggled so hard with Arrested Development. It’s why even insincere compliments have a positive effect on people. It’s why, in order to be effective, political candidates should make positive assertions (”I patriotically support freedom of speech”) instead of denials (”No, I don’t hate America!”). It’s why every story we tell is significant.

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MORAL PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF RELIGION at edge.org. By Jonathan Haidt

“I study morality from every angle I can find. Morality is one of those basic aspects of humanity, like sexuality and eating, that can’t fit into one or two academic fields. I think morality is unique, however, in having a kind of spell that disguises it. We all care about morality so passionately that it’s hard to look straight at it. We all look at the world through some kind of moral lens, and because most of the academic community uses the same lens, we validate each other’s visions and distortions. I think this problem is particularly acute in some of the new scientific writing about religion.”

Haidt’s piece is excellent and I highly recommend it to you, but while reading it I had a broad insight that I’ll share instead of commenting on it directly.

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More and more intentionally as I travel on my journey of faith, I don’t ask my faith to tell me what is real; what is out there.

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Does that sound weird?  What I mean is that I trust math and physics to tell me what the universe is, working my way through the hard and then soft sciences with lesser degrees of trust the farther we get from quantum reality.  I don’t expect faith to tell me anything different than or beyond what these disciplines have discovered, and in cases of conflict, I’m the one who needs to change.

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My faith is my response to what I learn about reality.  Faith tells me what is true, then challenges my ideas of truth; faith tells me what reality might mean, and what it could mean to live one way or another within it.

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This is why I link to and write about stuff that has to do with learning about reality all the time on the blog.  In order to make effective responses, I need the best knowledge I can get about world I’m in!  I figure we generally agree that the response Jesus calls us to looks something like the Phoenix Affirmations, and so I feel like I have a role pointing toward new discoveries and edgy realities so we can start responding to them in the spirit of the Affirmations

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I look at reality as a non-theist, but I respond to it as a Christian.  Does that parse?  Is it honest?  Does it have integrity?

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That’s what I ask myself, anyway.

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Maybe I give it integrity.

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Does that jive? -h

Acting out beliefs?

by Merrill

@Duck and Decanter

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On Sunday morning before church I read about a woman being consecrated – by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Richmond Virginia- as a perpetual virgin. Curious, I googled and found more on Roman Catholic beliefnet. The articles started me thinking about what people to do to practice their beliefs In particular I wondered about which of my activities stem from my beliefs as a follower of Jesus and which were things I did for other more down to earth reasons.

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Later at Asbury Tom Kiracofe told the story about Shiphrah and Puah who were midwives in ancient Egypt. Their story is told in Exodus 2:

15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah,

16 “When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.”

17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.

18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”

20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

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After this Tex Sample told the story of an uncle – on his mother’s side – who was a Baptist preacher preaching against segregation when such things were not done in the South.

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On Monday I got an entirely different view of people acting on their beliefs when I read about the shooting in a Knoxville church (and here). Suddenly, all sorts of new questions about the practice of beliefs occurred to me. The church in Knoxville was apparently chosen because of the social justice activism. Here we have a congregation that does things like founding a chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and championing women and gay rights because of their beliefs. The shooting took place during a play put on by children. The shooter apparently was stressed out by things like job loss and loss of food stamps and so was lashing out because anger and fear. Why the animosity against liberals? But it’s not the shooter’s motivation that caught my attention. One of the people killed had reported stepped up and taken a shotgun blast to protect others.

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Two years ago I walked from Phoenix to Washington DC for my beliefs. I walked with others and people along the way fed and put us up because of their belief that what we were doing was the right thing.

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Today when I talk to people about walking from Phoenix I still find it hard to think of it as a big deal. There is also some doubt, in my mind, about my motivations. Did I walk because of my beliefs or did I do it as a way of avoiding the heat in Phoenix and because I liked the idea of walking that far? Would I have walked if the Governor of Arizona, say, had told me not to? I know I would have if the president of the United States had told me not to. But he was on my ignore list. Was the Pharaoh of Egypt on Shiphrah and Puah’s ignore list? I can’t image being celibate because of my beliefs about Jesus. Even as a fundamentalist that would never have occurred to me. And even if it had, would I have done it for longer than a week? Would I have had the courage of Tex’s uncle to preach an unpopular message? I am not even sure that I would have thought of it especially if I had been raised in the pre-integration South. Did Shiphrah, Puah, Bernadette -the celibate -, or Tex’s uncle doubt for one instant that they were doing the right thing? I remember waking up one morning before the Walk wondering if I was.

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Jim David Adkisson believed that liberals have ruined the country – according to “A Whole Lotta Ugly” in Church Shooting an On Fait post in the Washington Post - and thought he should kill the people who had voted liberals in power. Greg McKendry, 60, stood between a shotgun and others to protect them. What of the men that tackled Adkisson and kept him from using the other 78 rounds he had? Did they think of dying? Did Greg stand up to an armed man because he was an usher? Did he think about what he was doing? Adkisson obviously thought about what he was going to do because he bought the shotgun a week before and then placed it in a guitar case before going to the church. What did he think about during the previous week? Was it only his beliefs about liberals that drove him or was he just striking back at a hostile world? And what of all the other people doing the “right” thing? Are our actions - that we think come from altruistic beliefs - any more pure than what I think must have motivated Jim David Adkisson?

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I wonder - does Jim David Adkisson still believe the same as he did before the shooting?

GreenShot Update, Guide to OB’s Quantum Physics Series, and Pilgrimage v. 2.1

by Howie

I’ve sent my “GreenShot” meme for Al Gore’s 100%-carbon-neutral-energy-production-in-10-years goal to two of the Inconvient Truth presenters.  They say they have limited access to Mr. Gore’s inner circle, but will pass it on, and gave a positive response to the idea.

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In my continuing conversation with Dad about Eliezer’s quantum physics sequence at the Overcoming Bias blog, I found the over-arching index to the quantum physics sequence.  This will be very helpful to anyone seeking to read the entire sequence, or just to gain familiarity with the subjects it covers by reading the index itself.

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Last night we had a “meta-Pilgrimage” among the regular Pilgrims at St. Peter’s UCC in Kansas City; a Pilgrimage about Pilgrimage.  We talked about the different things we’ve been doing lately including our “form,” mission projects, and educational events, and where we want to go from here.

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Like the Quaker-inspired fellowship we are, we arrived at a sense of the meeting.  First, we agreed that we should try to practice our house-church “form” more often than we have been.  Lately, we’ve done that less than once per month.  Going forward, we want to aim for roughly two experiences of form for every one outside mission or education event.

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Then, we decided to adjust the “form” to include two different practices during the stewardship section of worship.  One way is the same as we’ve done until now; a “circle of trust” based on Parker Palmer’s model in “A Hidden Wholeness.”  The second way will be more of a planning meeting for the various ongoing and new healing and proclaiming projects we are working on.  (Including our new food shelf, website, participation in MICAH ministry, St. Peter’s brochures, etc.  On and on and on… !)

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The changes come from recognizing that 1) our worship motivates our ministry, and we are not worshipping together enough to stay sufficiently motivated, and 2) our “form,” while personal and at times intense, is not as open and hospitable to new friends as we had hoped.

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That’s the plan.  Will let you know how it rolls.  -howie

A sign

by Merrill

@Duck and Decanter

Tom Kiracofe preached at Asbury again last Sunday. He and Tex Sample are standing in for Jeff Proctor-Murphy who is on hiatus for a few weeks. I like Tom but sometimes I get just a little tired of the disquieting thoughts he brings to his preaching. Take the one about the parable of the Good Samaritan a few Sundays ago. He asked us to imagine that we were the hero of the tale and that the person that we disliked (even hated) the most in life was the person needing our help. That was the situation for the Good Samaritan of the bible. Samaritans returned all of the animosity and hate that the Jews of the time felt for them. So here Tom was asking me what I would do if the person I detested the most needed my assistance. The nerve! I was reminded of Tom’s message last Tuesday by two events. I ran into the person I dislike most at present (the person I immediately thought of when Tom was asking us to imagine ourselves finding out that our disliked adversary was in need) and I got a extra nudge from a sign.

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` The sign

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Tuesday, when I saw the sign on the playground fence of First Presbyterian Church in downtown Phoenix, I did not think of me meeting a personal savior as I would have in times past. But I did think of two alternative interpretations. Both have to do with my spiritual journey. As the fundamentalist I was in (what now seems to be) a former existence, I never gave much thought to theology. I merely accepted what I heard on Sunday and when I read the scripture I found confirmation only for what I believed. It just never occurred to me to question either what my pastor told me or my own preconceived beliefs (which were mostly the result of listening to others with similar beliefs). I went for most of my life without questioning or studying theology (which for the purpose of this post, I will define as what humans believe or have believed about God and/or scripture). I will mention three key beliefs that I held in those days of denial:

1. The bible (King James version of course) was the inerrant, literal Word of God.

2. Homosexuals were an abomination to God.

3. If you had something bad happen to you – like a disease – it was because of SIN in your life.

There were other beliefs, that I now repent of, but those are enough for one post – and all I feel up to tackling today.

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That state of affairs lasted until 1990. That year I began to work with Gail. Now it happens that Gail is a lesbian. But regardless of my feelings about homosexuals, we worked well together. Sometimes I believe that this was because of the view I held of myself as someone in danger of hellfire. At any rate Gail and I got along well and eventually we became friends. One of the reasons for this was that we held a similar view of work as well as ethics. Eventually our friendship went beyond the workplace. Unnoticed by me at the time was the destruction of my cherished belief in homosexuals being an abomination to God. In fact it took me about 10 years to realize (consciously) the implications. Eventually I did and as a result I began to question the literalness of the bible and a few more of my personal beliefs. So when in 2002 I went to Asbury for the first time, I was ready for a crash course in a theology that I had only been dimly aware of. You might note that I turned 60 in 2002.

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First I got Jeff Proctor-Murphy (Living the Questions) and Tex Sample (Blue Collar Resistance and the Politics of Jesus) followed by the likes of Bishop John Shelby Spong, John Howard Yoder, and others to numerous to mention. Eventually (through Jeff) I met Eric Elnes and Rebecca Glenn and CrossWalk America. That was how when I came to read the Phoenix Affirmations, I could see how they made sense (how they affirmed what I had come to believe). But there is a rather subtle difference about how I now process the ideas that I get from these teachers as well as others I have run across (such as Bruce Van Blair, Phillip Cary, Richard E. Rubenstein, Bart Ehrman and many more). I no longer assume that they KNOW the absolute truth and that I need to believe exactly what they say. In fact I often note differences among them in what they teach. But I listen and sometimes I question what I believe and how I feel about any given thing. Taken together, the teachers that I have mentioned – and more – have changed my view of Jesus and what it means to “meet” him.

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One way I could have taken the sign is that it is never too late to learn about Jesus and his teachings. In view of my late entry into the study of Christian theology, I rather fancy this. But in another way I think that it is too late to know Jesus because of all the filters that are between now and the actual Jesus that lived and taught 2000 years ago. Even the gospels filter Jesus differently among themselves. Personally I prefer the earliest, Mark, but I also like the others for one thing or another. I think Mark is my favorite because of the emphasis on the immediate coming Kingdom of God and the need for repentance. Several times in Mark we are told by Jesus that those living at the time would see the Kingdom of God. If I could put my personal theology in a single sentence it would be: The kingdom of God came with Jesus’ crucifixion. Furthermore the need for repentance is just as necessary today as it was in the time of Jesus for entry into the Kingdom. And that brings me to the way I choose to interpret the sign.

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I was reminded that it is never too late to repent and meet Jesus. The person I feel least like loving, suffers from the effects of Cerebral Palsy and he is epileptic. He is also an extremely angry person. The anger is why, I suppose, that it is difficult for me to feel compassion. Although there is this little bit of suspicion that I might be holding on to some of that “caused by sin” fundamentalism ‘gotcha’ that I use for people I don’t like. It is very difficult for me to remove all those leftovers. But it is hard to think of a way that a baby (or child under three) could sin enough to deserve cerebral palsy even for a recovering fundamentalist such as myself. I like that sign.

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I wonder how the good folks at First Presbyterian interpret the sign.

We Can Solve It, Mos Def

by Howie

1.4-odd million people have beaten me to the www.WeCanSolveIt.org party, but that’s a good thing! We’re calling for 100% green energy production in 10 years - the same length of time President Kennedy used in his challenge to put a man on the moon.
Sound familiar, long-time readers?

So I ask you to join with me to call on every candidate, at every level, to accept this challenge - for America to be running on 100 percent zero-carbon electricity in 10 years. It’s time for us to move beyond empty rhetoric. We need to act now.

This is a generational moment. A moment when we decide our own path and our collective fate. I’m asking you - each of you - to join me and build this future. Please join the WE campaign at wecansolveit.org.We need you. And we need you now. We’re committed to changing not just light bulbs, but laws. And laws will only change with leadership.

On July 16, 1969, the United States of America was finally ready to meet President Kennedy’s challenge of landing Americans on the moon. I will never forget standing beside my father a few miles from the launch site, waiting for the giant Saturn 5 rocket to lift Apollo 11 into the sky. I was a young man, 21 years old, who had graduated from college a month before and was enlisting in the United States Army three weeks later.

I will never forget the inspiration of those minutes. The power and the vibration of the giant rocket’s engines shook my entire body. As I watched the rocket rise, slowly at first and then with great speed, the sound was deafening. We craned our necks to follow its path until we were looking straight up into the air. And then four days later, I watched along with hundreds of millions of others around the world as Neil Armstrong took one small step to the surface of the moon and changed the history of the human race.

We must now lift our nation to reach another goal that will change history. Our entire civilization depends upon us now embarking on a new journey of exploration and discovery. Our success depends on our willingness as a people to undertake this journey and to complete it within 10 years. Once again, we have an opportunity to take a giant leap for humankind. -Al Gore

So I need your help, guys. Gore is drawing the parallel with the “Moon Shot,” but hasn’t lept to the conclusion that this goal needs a name - a meme - as well. If you can help get the name “Green Shot” as shorthand for “100% carbon-free energy production in 10 years” to his attention, please do! I’m going to submit something via the website, try a message board, and work with a friend-of-a-friend who is one of the three thousand “Inconvenient Truth” presenters. If you can add to the effort, please. The marketing on this idea may make or break it, with serious consequences for all of us - especially the most vulnerable members of humanity.

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I was driving around last week, listening to Mos Def, and “Fear Not Of Man” struck me:

Bismillah ir Rahman ir Raheem *
If you can hear me ladies and gentlemen
Then I’m very happy that you came here..
Ooh-ooooooooooohhhh, ooh-ooooooooooooooohh-WHEEEEE!!!
That was for Brooklyn..
Ha ha, we get it everytime
You got me on? Ohh
Shout out to all of my crew, East-West, North-South
All the continent, Europe, all abroad international
Bring it in, bring it in, bring it in, bring it in

It’s a lot of things goin on y’all
21st century is comin’
20th century almost done
A lot of things have changed
A lot of things have not, mainly us
We gon’ get it together right?
I believe that
Listen.. people be askin’ me all the time,
“Yo Mos, what’s gettin’ ready to happen with Hip-Hop?”
(”Where do you think Hip-Hop is goin’?”)
I tell em, You know what’s gonna happen with Hip-Hop?
Whatever’s happening with us
If we smoked out, Hip-Hop is gonna be smoked out
If we doin’ alright, Hip-Hop is gonna be doin’ alright
People talk about Hip-Hop like it’s some giant livin’ in the hillside
Comin’ down to visit the townspeople
We are Hip-Hop
Me, you, everybody, we are Hip-Hop
So Hip-Hop is goin’ where we goin’
So the next time you ask yourself where Hip-Hop is goin’
Ask yourself.. “Where am I goin’? How am I doin’?”
‘Til you get a clear idea
So.. if Hip-Hop is about the people
And the.. Hip-Hop won’t get better until the people get better
Then how do people get better? (Hmmmm…)
Well, from my understanding people get better
When they start to understand that, they are valuable
And they not valuable because they got a whole lot of money
Or cause somebody, think they sexy
But they valuable cause they been created by God
And God, makes you valuable
And whether or not you, recognize that value is one thing
You got a lot of socities and governments
Tryin’ to be God, wishin’ that they were God
They wanna create satellites and cameras everywhere
And make you think they got the All-Seeing Eye
Eh.. I guess The Last Poets wasn’t, too far off
When they said that certain people got a God Complex
I believe it’s true
I don’t get phased out by none of that, none of that
Helicopters, the TV screens, the newscasters, the..
Satellite dishes.. they just, wishin’
They can’t really never do that
When they tell me to fear they law
When they tell me to try to
Have some fear in my heart behind the things that they do
This is what I think in my mind
And this is what I say to them
And this is what I’m sayin, to you check it

All over the world hearts pound with the rhythm
Fear not of men because men must die
Mind over matter and soul before flesh
Angels for the pain keep a record in time
Which is passin’ and runnin’ like a caravan freighter
The world is overrun with the wealthy and the wicked
But God is sufficient in disposing of affairs
Gunmen and stockholders try to merit my fear
But God is sufficient over plans they prepared
Mos Def in the flesh, where you at?, right here
On this place called Earth, holdin down my square
‘Bout to represent in your whole atmosphere
‘Bout to represent in your whole atmosphere

(* - means In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate)

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Wise. Now replace “hip-hop” with “church.” Read again.
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True.

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It was the line about the giant living in the hillside that got me. How often do we say or hear things like “What’s happening with the church?” or “I wonder what the church will be like in… years?” or “Why doesn’t the church do such-and-such?” as though the the church is something other than you and me. Mos is great, turning the question around; what’s happening with you? What will you be like in X years? Why don’t you do such-and-such?

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Like church, hip-hop isn’t the sound of the music, the look of the fashion, or any of the multitude of things you can point to. Hip-hop is a spirit; a way of being in the world, a lens through which we view everything else. A culture. A frame. If I’m in the spirit, anything I can do can be hip-hop.

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Now replace “hip-hop” with “church.” Read again. -h

Not Orthodox

by Merrill

@Duck and Decanter

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I posted a new thread on the message board I mentioned last week. The post is in the welcome section. As a non-Christian I can’t post just anywhere but the welcome section is OK. Here is a copy of the post.

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Iwojimakid

Member

Are you a Christian?: No, I am not a Christian.

Join Date: Jul 2008

Posts: 1

iwojimakid is a new member, showing promise.

Hello you all

I ran into this forum last week while researching for a blog I write and decided to join. I registered and without thinking placed myself in the “Yes, I am a Christian” category. I am after all a follower of Jesus as I have been for 54 years after “making a decision for Christ” at the age of 12. Over the course of those 54 years I have had occasion to revise my theology from my original fundamentalism (although we did not call it that at the time) to what I believe is a more accepting, loving, and reasonable Christianity. Never in those 54 years have I found it necessary to identify as a non-Christian. Until now. So here I am. Hi you all.

Merrill

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Iwojimakid is my screen name for this message board. I suppose I could have mentioned that I later changed to “No, I am not a Christian” but since all posts are labeled under the member designation I thought it unnecessary. So far there are three comments to the thread. They are all pretty generic and just welcome me. No comments about me being a non-Christian. Just in case you are wondering their definition of Christian is:

Definition of “Are you a Christian?” in profile

For the purpose of posting as Christian on this board, we believe:

A Christian is a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, referred to as Christ or Messiah. Christians believe Jesus to be the only Son of God, who lived a sinless life. He is eternal, uncreated God, and has always been and will always be God, the creator of the universe. At the end of his earthly life He was crucified, on the third day He rose from the dead, and later ascended into heaven.

Christians further believe that Jesus alone offers salvation, and that it is only possible through and by Him. Apart from Jesus Christ, there is no salvation. Ephesians 2:8-9 states that “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God that no one should boast”. Humans cannot save themselves through good works, only Jesus can save them. Good works, however, are a result of living according to the Word of God.

Christians identify themselves as monotheistic, believing that there is one God

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When I first read this I immediately thought of Martin Luther (Yes, I am STILL working through the lectures) who would have agreed that with the “It is by grace you have been saved…”. But he would also have had something to say about “Have you made a decision for Christ?” (which is a question that was posed where you checked your choice on the Christian thing). I believe that Luther would have labeled that asking or answering that question as “works” of man!

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It is worth noting that the message board has some specific rules regarding some Christians:

IV. Specific Rules

Unorthodox teachings or discussing specific doctrines of ANY of these religions will be moved to the “World Religions” Forum:

Teachings of ANY of these religions and discussion of specific doctrines may be discussed only in the World Religions forum in the interest of seeking factual representation and refuting any doctrinal differences from mainstream Protestantism:

1. Seventh Day Adventist (SDA)

2. Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW)

3. Latter Day Saints (LDS)

4. ANY non-Christian religion, such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Wicca, etc.

5. Roman Catholicism.

6. ONENESS (DENIAL OF THE TRINITY/DEITY of Christ)

7. Universalism of any sort to include Universal Reconciliation

This is not just for posting messages on the open board. If you use the various systems on the message board to promote these doctrines (such as Private Messaging or Rep system etc.) then we will take appropriate action.

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I think it is kind of funny that Roman Catholics are included with the non-orthodox (in that in previous centuries – and even today - they fought to define being a Christian almost exactly the same as the message board’s definition). Of course they also would have narrowed the field by excluding all non- Roman Catholics.

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How many points in the definition do you think a heretic, like me, might disagree with?

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PS Howie’s sacrilegious post probably would not have been appreciated on the message board but I appreciated it. Thanks, Howie.

This Week’s Moment of Sacreligion Brought To You…

by Howie

“Well they showed you a statue and told to pray, they built you a temple and locked you away

But they never told you the price that you pay, the things that you might have done…

You might have heard I run with a dangerous crowd, we ain’t too pretty, we ain’t too proud

We might be laughing a bit too loud, but that never hurt no one

So come on Virginia, show me a sign, send up a signal I’ll throw you a line

That stained glass curtain you’re hiding behind never lets in the sun

You got a nice white dress and a party on your confirmation,

You got a brand new soul and a cross of gold

Well Virginia, they didn’t give you quite enough information

You didn’t count on me, when you were counting on your rosary

And they say there’s a heaven for those who will wait,

Some say it’s better but I say it ain’t

I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, the sinners are much more fun

You said your mother told you all I could give you was a reputation

She never cared for me, but did she ever say a prayer for me?”

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Who in our faith tradition criticized religiosity when it gets in the way of our doing what needs done?  Who ran with a “dangerous crowd,” laughing with the sinners?  Who proclaimed that God’s Kingdom is at hand, here and now, and that those who follow should not wait for it but start becoming a part of it immediately?  “Trust me; follow me, believe in me, count on me!” - Who said that?

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If you guessed Billy Joel…  partial credit.

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I was listening to The Stranger yesterday, and in the middle of “Only the Good Die Young” on the second side I was struck by the thought that “This is a Maundy Thursday song.”

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Slowed down and turned minor… Or is that too sentimental?  …Joel’s earnest attempt at a lighthearted, mischevious seduction started sounding to me like a call to leave the trappings of faith* and start a journey toward new life.

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Maybe it would work.  Maybe in the context of worship, this familiar zippy pop tune - re-arranged or not - has the potential to shake us up a little.

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My attitude is that it can’t hurt to try; the rest of the stuff I’m hearing lately isn’t shaking me at all. -h
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* Of course, but in case you’re reading me for the first time, I understand the particularly Catholic imagery in universal terms.  All religious systems have their symbols that for some people stop pointing toward what they’re intended to symbolize.  This is about when a person’s faith becomes divested of meaning, not about Catholicism.

Bad News

by Merrill

@Duck and Decanter

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I ran into a message board while looking for information about Ronald Weinland this past week. I decided to register because I thought it might be interesting. To register for the forum an applicant must pick one of three categories:

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I. Yes, I am a Christian.

II. No, I am not a Christian

III. No I am not, but I am seeking Christ.

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Without hesitation I clicked on Yes, I am a Christian. Later while confirming my registration – an email is sent and you click on a link in the email to complete registration – I read the definition and decided that I failed the definition of “Yes, I am a Christian”. Being ever (well, mostly) honest I immediately changed the self-identification to “No, I am not a Christian”. I suppose I could have identified as “No I am not, but I am seeking Christ” but I think that my definition of seeking Christ would not match theirs. Besides which my choice would probably result in fewer attempts to convert me being emailed. I think that is the first time I have ever identified myself as a non-Christian. Feels kind of strange. Currently I am debating about posting about that subject on the board. I suspect that the people who read (and operate) the message board would have a problem with Affirmation One. I’ll let you know.

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That wasn’t the bad news. This next isn’t ether. I was I was checking on Ronald Weinland because I found a reference to his latest book, 2008 - God’s Final Witness, and I was somewhat curious. If you are interested, you can download a copy from the site. Our boy Ronald is not only Pastor of the Church of God – PKG (PKG stands for Preparing for the Kingdom of God) but he is one of the Two Witnesses spoken of in Revelation. Alternately, you might believe that he is a false prophet (which he said he would be revealed as if his prophesies did not turn out to be true).

According to God’s Church, COG – PKG, the following timeline was started this year:

- Feb 2: 1335 days begins until the kingdom of god will return.

- March 18th: 1290 days. This marked the opening of the seventh seal.

- April 17th: 1260 days. This marks the date of the beginning of the end of the Great Tribulation and the blast of the first trumpet (again from the book of Revelation).

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Even as I write this he and his wife, Laura, are in Jerusalem. You may or may not remember that the two witnesses will be slain in the streets of Jerusalem at end of the 1260 days (according to a literal interpretation of revelation) started April 17^th (according to Weinland). Or maybe not since COG – PKG (and Ronald) are now saying that the events originally scheduled for March 18^th and April 17^th (I am not quite sure what events but I think destruction of the United States was supposed to begin and maybe nuclear war – in any case were we sure not to be able to miss them) are now being said to be “spiritual”. One thing did happen on April 17^th and that was that the name of the second witness was revealed (by Ronald). It is his wife Laura. Presumably that is why she is in Jerusalem with him. Hard to be slain in the streets of Jerusalem if you aren’t there. Which makes me wonder why they have trips planned for July and August in the US and Canada.

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OK, that’s old – and mostly discredited – news. Now, here is the bad news. It turns out that the real end of the world, according to some - for example -, is due to occur on December 21 2012. This is the date (again according to some – there are other dates) that the Mayan “long count” calendar resets after 1,872,000 days. Since that calendar started on August 11, 3114 B.C. it is due to reset on December 21^st, 2012. About 3 ½ years from now. Isn’t that peculiar. That is pretty close to the final 3 ½ years that Ronald was predicting.

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There are alternate understandings of what will happen on December 21^st 2012. I guess we shall see. I would be more impressed if the Maya had been able to predict the demise of their own civilization (as mentioned in the example of alternate understandings) partly due to their own activities.

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I wonder: why are some so quick to believe in the destruction of the world (as we know it) even if it doesn’t make much logical sense?

Determinism, Etc.

by Howie

My “Nothing is Random” post from Mark Helprin’s “Winter’s Tale” sparked an email conversation with my dad, which I’ll share below, starting with his message in response to the post.

Howie,

Of course I’ve read writers on free will and predetermined, and if they are on one side or the other they are usually understandable. But then there are those in the middle who seem to take a position that you can have both at the same time, and it seems that the writer you quote on CWA blog is one of those. He says nothing is random and nothing is predetermined. I can’t quite get my mind around that.

Love, Dad

Hey Dad.

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I started dealing seriously with determinism after reading Daniel Dennett’s “Freedom Evolves.” I didn’t buy his argument completely, but he made a couple of strong points. First, he points out that no one has been able to satisfactorily explain how IN-determinism can lead to freedom, and in fact that true chaos (indeterminism) is a bigger threat to freedom than determinism is.

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Second, what we call freedom may not be exactly what we imagine. Dennett sort of says that freedom is the sum of things we can choose to avoid in the universe. A rock can’t avoid anything; a bug can avoid a few things; a dog can avoid many things; and humans can even look into the future and avoid a vast number of things that have never even happened, but are just things we imagine might happen. We are extremely complex avoiders, and that gives us a measure of something compared to rocks and bugs that Dennett thinks is worthy of the name freedom. (”Free-from” communicates the idea better, but is awkward.)

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Another thing I’ve read much more recently is the Overcoming Bias series on quantum mechanics. Eliezer engaged in a project to explain quantum mechanics from the ground up to an amateur audience, avoiding many of the standard explanatory tools that cause confusion. What’s remarkable is how consistent it is with Helprin’s prose rendering in “Winter’s Tale.” Among the conclusions at Overcoming Bias are 1) Existence itself is a static mathematic object 2) Everything happens; all potential is realized in this universe or another (Helprin’s eternal “moment of perfect justice”) 3) The multi-universe interpretation of quantum mechanics - that at every quantum event, both probabilities are realized in branching universes - is by far the best explanation we have.

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The fun part is, it all adds up to normality. This is the way things have always been - only our knowledge is changing. And our knowledge may change again, but reality has been the same all along.

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Now then, as a person who experiences freedom and love and God, I re-interpret my experiences in light of what I’ve learned about reality. Because if my God is the God of truth, no truth can threaten God. If I am free, learning about what my freedom really is and isn’t will make me more free than before. If I have known love and meaning, and am then convinced that reality is determined, then I will seek love and meaning within determinism.

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Time is a slippery thing, and I need to revisit Eliezer’s explanation of why the math is static and works in all directions but we only ever see eggs getting scrambled, never unscrambling.

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“Nothing is random” means that everything is determined, which is good news for us; chaos is an illusion, and order is reality. We are ordered beings. We can avoid some things when they’re ordered; we can’t do anything but suffer true chaos. And what is the first thing God does in Genesis? Brings order to chaos.

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“Nothing is predetermined” means that even though everything happens, we don’t know which corner of the Everything we’re in! Our actions still have consequences, and my actions are still determined within the boundary of “Howie.” Sensory information and energy enters my body/me, gets tossed around inside my brain, and output as action - whether I can find any freedom or meaning in that or not, I’d better be prepared to accept that my output has an impact on others and on the universe.

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I could go on and on, but I’d better stop for thoughts/comments/questions before going any further.

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-h

Howie,

I see what Dennett is saying about avoiding things, but can’t we just as readily choose to engage in things? Or is he saying that engaging in something is really avoiding something else?

I’ve read your blogs on quantum mechanics, but I haven’t tried to understand it. If I’m going to understand it I think I need to read the book, but I’ve been looking forward to reading Lost Christianities, and I figured I would read Trueblood, Tillich, or Johnson’s “Emergence” after that, so I don’t know if I will get to it very soon. But I do see “Winter’s Tale” relating to this. Is Eliezer saying that at least to some extent we can react (or choose) and that reaction sends us into one of the universes and another choice would send us into a different universe? And Helprin talks about choosing: the milkman chooses, the rat picks, etc. But if we can’t choose at random, how can we choose? Maybe it’s in the definition of the words.

And I don’t understand about reality not changing, only knowledge. Things change - we didn’t used to have computers - so doesn’t that change reality?

You can tell I’m not getting this, so probably my questions don’t make any sense. I have more, but I think I’ve asked enough for now. And I don’t expect you to answer them in email (maybe some on the blog?). I understand things better when we are face to face and can interact frequently. I look forward to the blog.

Love, Dad

Avoidance - Dennett develops this idea further, but the main point is that we cannot make anything happen that is not fully determined at the quantum level.  For example, I just reached out for my glass of water and took a drink; if we could crunch all the data of all the relevant quantum-level amplitude flows, we would see that this event was entirely determined; nothing chaotic or un-determined entered the system of me, my cup, and my environment.

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The truth we’re circling around here is slippery because it’s almost tautological; it adds up to saying “You can’t do the impossible!” where the impossible is “anything un-determined.”

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To answer directly, what you’re thinking of when you say “engaging” is very complex avoidance.

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Multi-universe quantum mechanics - The branchings between universes happen at a much simpler level than human choices.  When amplitude flows interact, the outcome is expressed as a probability.  (We’re talking at a level of reality even deeper than atoms, here!)  Both sides of the probability are realized, in different universes.  Take a second for that to sink in; it implies that reality is mind-bogglingly bigger than we tend to think!  If every side of every probability branches…  trillions of universes branch from your pinkie finger every second.  There aren’t words.

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This is what Helprin means when he writes “The universe is still and complete. Everything and ever was, is; everything that ever will be, is - and so on, in all possible combinations.”  Everything happens.  All potential is realized.  It is terrible and beautiful.

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Choice unfolds within this context.  To grasp it, I think of myself as a complex configuration space of amplitude flow.  Amplitude enters the “Howie” system through my senses from the universe, gets shuffled around with the “Howie” amplitude, and is output as action.  What happens inside the “Howie” configuration space is 1) determined (because how could it not be?) and 2) properly called my choice (or my freedom) because the determinations are made inside the boundary of “me.”

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Reality not changing - You and I are talking about reality at different levels.  Computers changed historical, social, and cultural reality.  But we’re discussing quantum reality; we’re trying to dig down to the foundation of the universe (multiverse!).  That doesn’t change.

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I remain astounded that everything that I’m trying to elaborate on here, Helprin wrote in his piece.  Going on thirty years ago.  Amazing.  -h