Birthdays:
480 BC - Euripides, Greek playwright (d. 406 BC)
63 BC - Augustus Caesar, Roman Emperor (d. 14)
1158 - Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany (d. 1186) [Note: Geoffrey was the younger brother of King Richard I Plantagenet (Lionheart) of England and the older brother of King John Plantagenet (Lackland) of England.]
1215 - Kublai Khan of the Mongol Empire (d. 1294)
Today is also the Autumnal Equinox this year.
Today is my Name Day - St. Matthew’s Day!
It all begins with The Call. God speaks his words of life into our lives, into the core of our being. This often surprises us, since we hear him tell us strange things - things that we resonate with, but things that we do not understand.
As surprising as the call can be, it is The Call, nonetheless. As the call develops, God invites us to speak his words:
When we speak the Word of God, we are given honor within God’s Kingdom.
Nevertheless, the Kingdom of This World often rejects the Word of God, and puts the messenger to death, even though it cannot touch the one who sent the message nor the Message himself.
Almighty God, who inspired St. Matthew to write the Good News of Your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, for the edification of all: write your Word on our hearts that we may know you and proclaim your Word to all creation. Let us make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in your Triune Name, and teaching them to obey all that you have commanded, for we know that you are with us to the end of the age. Amen.
An Op-Ed Piece by M Squared T.
Pope Benedict XVI is in hot water in the Muslim community over remarks he made in a speech in Germany last week. The juicy bit is this:
Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.
which is a quote from the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus (r. 1395 - 1425)
This quote is the beginning of a longer passage from M. II P. on the reasonableness of the idea of “holy war.” The Emperor states that “holy war” or “jihad” is incompatible with the nature of God because
“Faith is of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats… To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death…”
Benedict chose this quote as a point of departure to discuss the use of reason and rationality in religion. In his speech (available in English here, in the original German here), Benedict deals with the notion of how our thought as Christians is bound to Ancient Greek rationality - the culture in which the New Testament was written and the Old Testament was first translated for Greek-speaking people.
The crux of the argument is whether new converts to the faith must incorporate this Greek rationality into their new-found Christian faith, even if their culture is non-Western; or if they may incorporate the faith purely from The Word, without the Western Cultural baggage. This is a fruitful and profitable debate across Western Christianity at the present time. Much of what may be considered the Emerging Church is engaging this debate through the terms established by the late Rt. Rev. Lesslie Newbigin. Benedict favors the notion that the New Testament was written in the context of the Greek culture of the first century and is inseparable from it. Even to use the term Word forces us to contend with Greek culture. As I have stated in another place, this involves examination of the term as far back (at least) as Heraclitus (among the pre-Socratics) through Plato and Aristotle, into the New Testament, and then examining even Philo and Plotinus where necessary.
But this is not really why the Pope is in trouble with the Muslim world. The Muslim world really doesn’t care too much about how much Greek culture non-Western converts to Christianity must imbibe to apprehend the faith. This speech, delivered in the academy, is really a product of the acadamy for debate within the academy. Eventually, the conclusions will trickle down to the rest of us “normal humans.”
The issue with the Muslim world really has nothing to do with Benedict’s speech per se in regard to his introduction, conclusion and argument. It has everything to do with the quote from Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos. Benedict’s crime was to break our contemporary collective illusion that Islam has always been “a religion of peace,” going all the way back to Mohammed himself, and that these people who blow themselves and others up are the “lunatic fringe.” He reminded us of what every good historian of Europe and the Middle East knows - that forced conversions to Islam (as well as to Christianity during the Crusades) were part and parcel of life in the region from the time of Muhammed (570 - 632) on down to the last gasp of the Ottoman Empire in 1918.
Benedict did not agree with the Emperor that all that Islam has brought is “evil and inhuman.” However, he does seem to agree that forced conversions to Islam are. In that matter, most non-Muslims agree. The collective illusion cannot stomach the notion that violence - especially the violent conversion of non-Muslims, along with the hazing of those who will not convert - has been part and parcel of the essence of Islam throughout its history.
Moreover, the irrationality of the notion of “holy war” is proven by history - “peace” does not come about through subjugation and domination. England tried it in Ireland for close to a thousand years. American slaveowners tried for nearly 250. Peace is not achieved through legal conformity - or else the postwar years in America would not have led to the socio-cultural revolutions of the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and the millenial decade.
No, Benedict is not in trouble in the Muslim world over the missiological debate he was continuing in the University of Regensberg last week. Benedict is in trouble because for one brief moment the whole world - even the Muslim world - had its collective blindfold unceremoniously jerked off by a Medieval Emperor who reminded us that Islam has a history of violence, and that this violence is deeply ingrained into the system, written into its holy book.
Muslims were outraged at the insult to their faith; yet they would not seem to concede the point that conversion by violence is “evil and inhuman.” To prove the point, they have both threatened and carried out violence against Christians. Did Benedict really sin here? I think not. In this case, some would rather be blind than see the ugly (and, as Benedict would insist,) reasonable truth.
So a bit ago I posted about an ill-placed cut on a project I was working on.
Tonight, I re-did the project. It took half the time.
Even with “measuring twice, cutting once”.
via DashHouse
<10. Buy a stronger whip.
9. Change riders.
8. Declare, “This is the way we have always ridden this horse.”
7. Appoint a team to revive the dead horse.
6. Ignore the dead horse…What dead horse?
5. Create a training session to improve your riding skills.
4. Outsource contractors to ride the dead horse.
3. Appoint a committee to study the dead horse.
2. Arrange to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
1. Harness several dead horses together for increased speed.
–wink–
Humph.
I just spent 2 hours cutting a $37 piece of oak for a new door sill. And I cut it an inch too short, lengthwise. No good way to fix that.
Now I have to start over, with a 41.5″ piece rather than a 40.5″ piece.
Other than that, this one looks perfect.
I guess this one was just for practice or something.
Perhaps we give the form to all 1st, 2nd and 3rd time visitors?
Fred Peatross via Next-Wave:
Safe places stand as a corrective to the prevailing mentality of the church and its uncanny addiction to centripetal ministries, which attempts to drag seekers into its gig. Jesus wasn’t centripetal but centrifugal. The four walls of a church building should simply serve as a location for training loyal apprentices how to leak the life of Jesus to the people around them. Portable spirituality is the ministry of Jesus.
“leak the life of Jesus.” Now I’ve GOT to use that one.
Peatross continues:
The tradition of primarily using church facilities for activities to bring people closer to the presence of God is not the creation of “safe places.” Church buildings are owned and managed by the church, sometimes to good effect but always subordinate to some other purpose. God’s people would come closer to fulfilling the mission requirements of the emerging culture if they could define the common ground in such a way that it is not directly under the control of the organized church. This is the significance of the boundary between the sanctuary and the “Court of the Gentiles” —such as, believers must come out of the church in order to play on the common ground. They do not cease to be believers, but the rules of the game have changed.
It is unfortunate that someone is writing on creating an “outer court,” where Christians and pre-Christians can comfortably mingle, considering that Christians should be that “outer court” 24 hours a day, seven days a week, regardless of their location. Yet, our history of engaging the pre-Christian hasn’t created significant middle ground between the church and the world, between being either wholeheartedly Christian or ashamedly secular, between expressing and repressing our faith. The pre-Christian screams “Fanatic!” when the overtly evangelistic shows up on their doorstep and murmurs “Hypocrite” when the spiritually sterile bows their heads. This is perhaps the fundamental missional challenge we face — how do we allow this emerging state of spiritual being to emerge, protected from both the world and the church?
Right on! I’m still figgerin’ on how to answer the question… it’s the one I’ve been asking for, well, ever.
Again, via Beliefnet:
On the way to the church picnic, some Christians may not be sidestepping one of the seven deadly sins: gluttony.
A new study surmises that among Christians in the U.S. — particularly Baptists, Pentecostals and Catholics — there is a significant relationship between being religious and being obese.
Well.
But no, wait, it gets better:
“We usually think of religion as contrasting negative behaviors,” [Purdue University sociology professor Kenneth E.] Ferraro said. But “Baptists, as well as most fundamentalist groups, place great emphasis on separating the mind or soul from the body,” which may lead to over-eating.
The study found a significant correlation between obesity and people who use religious media, such as television, radio and magazines. These “couch potato saints,” as the study calls them, tend to be less active and often watch “lots of obese religious leaders on TV,” according to Ferraro.
Followers of Jesus Christ speak out on many issues of excess in our society. Obesity as a societal issue is a problem of excess. While we challenge many excesses in society, we rarely challenge this excess or help people with unhealthy approaches to food and wellness. Maybe we should take this more seriously. It is, in fact, a theological issue, as Farraro pointed out.
How do we deal with this?
Via Beliefnet:
ISTANBUL - The latest victim in the rising tensions between the West and the Islamic world didn’t want to become an international symbol for the clash of civilizations; in fact, Pinocchio’s only wish was to become a real boy.
Book publishers in Turkey, reacting to controversy that arose over inclusion of such titles in the Turkish government’s recommended reading list for schoolchildren, have reprinted several of the classics with Islamic elements inserted into the storylines. In “Pinocchio,” when the wooden puppet arrives at the end of his quest, he exclaims to his maker, Geppetto, “Thanks be to Allah, I am a real boy!”
Earlier in the book he says, “If Allah wills it, please give me some bread.”
In Alexander Dumas’ “The Three Musketeers,” as D’Artagnan is en route to Aramis’ house, he is told on the street that he can’t visit his friend because Aramis was in the company of religious men since he had converted to Islam following the recovery from his illness.
When Johanna Spyri’s “Heidi” asks if there is a benefit to prayer, she is told that praying to Allah is comforting.
Turkish Minister of Education Huseyin Celik blasted the publishers of the Islamicized books, threatening them with a lawsuit since the publishers put the Ministry of Education’s logo on their books without government approval. “If you like Heidi, then write your own `Heidi.’ Don’t work to Islamicize her,” he said in the Turkish newspaper Radikal.
Celik said the government only approved the book titles, not the altered versions printed by the publishing companies.
While proponents of the books argue that “Allah” is simply a translation for “God,” others say the word is used specifically with an Islamic connotation. Turkish columnist Ismet Berkan said publishers had a religious motivation because “Allah” was a special title only employed by Muslims, and not even Arabic-speaking Christians use it in their traditions.
Now, may I just say… REDICULOUS!
As someone who has done quite a bit of translation, this re-translation is an ethical and moral issue. Cultural sensitivities or no, the job of a translator is not to edit the story but to render it into the new language and culture. That’s it. The job of a translator is not to add to or change the story for those who can’t handle it. If a story is abridged, it should be marked as such - clearly and unequivically. No one should add to it - except in rare circumstances and then only with the passages marked and footnoted.
Beyond all that, why make a story about a Swiss girl Islamic? As if the Swiss were muslims or whatever. That’s basically like trying to say the world is or should be Islamic. Same with an Italian fairy tale. What’s next? Making the brothers Grimm completely Christianized?!? Come now!
Rediculous…
