Another SITE Ends: Self-Restrained Aggression, Praise vs. Criticism, Cheesus Strikes Again, Galli on Substitution, DFW on Addiction and Self-Help, 3eanuts, Richard Ashcroft

THE NEW SITE: On Monday we will be launching our new website, www.mbird.com, which will be an integration and significant upgrade of everything we've been doing and have done thus far. We could not be more excited!! Hopefully there'll be very little that needs to be done on your end, i.e. this site/blog will redirect to that one, including all links, and everything that's here will be there as well. Of course, it means we'll be moving over the weekend, so there may be a few hours here and there where everything is down. Commenting will be turned off tonight at midnight (and back on Monday morning). Please bear with any broken links while we make the switch. For those of you who subscribe via a feed, check back to this address on Monday if your reader doesn't show our latest entries then.

This is a super exciting development and probably a long overdue one as well. We've loved this little blogspot, it's certainly treated us well, but I'm sure you'll agree that it's time to "up our game." See over there! Now, on to my final blogger entry... sniff sniff:

1. A Scientific American podcast/article brings to light an interesting study on the correlation between self-control and aggression, which ties in to JDK's conference talk about the thin line between threat and promise (recording coming Monday!), ht JD:

Past studies have shown that exerting self-control may increase irritability and anger. But the new research found that the increased aggression brought on by self-restraint has a much broader effect. The researchers studied different types of self-control and the subjects' subsequent behavior. For instance, participants who carefully controlled their spending of a gift certificate were more interested in looking at angry faces than fearful ones.

Dieters preferred public service ads that were framed in threats, such as "if funds are not increased for police training, more criminals will escape prison." Subjects who picked an apple over chocolate were more irritated by ads that used words like "you ought to" or "need to,” which sound controlling. They were also more likely to choose to watch a movie with a theme of hostility over other options.

2. Also on the social science tip, an absolutely fascinating/vindicating entry on the Harvard Business Review blog, "Why Does Criticism Seem More Effective Than Praise?" - emphasis on the "seem" - which draws the connection between the "regression to the mean" and our genuinely mistaken conclusions about criticism, ht NW.

3. Conference speaker Mark Galli drops yet another bomb over at Christianity Today with his thoroughly sympathetic recent column "The Problem with Christus Victor," (a fitting rejoinder to his excellent conference talks on chaos and control - did I mention they'll be up on Monday?!), rightly and pastorally guarding against the tendency to reject substitution as the model for atonement. Bravo!

4. A top-to-bottom fantastic article by Maria Bustillos on The Awl which takes David Foster Wallace's private papers, which were just donated to the Ransom Center at the University of Texas (clear eyes full hearts), as a jumping off point to discuss his relationship to AA and depression and his own talent, among other subjects. Read the whole thing:

Much of Wallace's work has to do with cutting himself back down to size, and in a larger sense, with the idea that cutting oneself back down to size is a good one, for anyone... The love his admirers bear this author has a peculiarly intimate and personal character. This is because Wallace gave voice to the inner workings of ordinary human beings in a manner so winning and so truthful and forgiving as to make him seem a friend.

The article includes a priceless quote, apparently from Wallace himself, talking about his own experience in recovery:

Six months in Granada House helped me immeasurably. I still wince at some of the hyperbole and melodrama that are used in recovery-speak, but the fact of the matter is that my experience at Granada House helped me, starting with the fact that the staff admitted me despite the obnoxious condescension with which I spoke of them, the House, and the l2-Step programs of recovery they tried to enable. They were patient, but they were not pushovers...


People at Granada House listened to me for hours, and did so with neither the clinical disinterest of doctors nor the hand-wringing credulity of relatives. They listened because, in the last analysis, they really understood me: they had been on the fence of both wanting to get sober and not, of loving the very thing that was killing you, of being able to imagine life neither with drugs and alcohol nor without them. They also recognized bullshit, and manipulation, and meaningless intellectualization as a way of evading terrible truths—and on many days the most helpful thing they did was to laugh at me and make fun of my dodges (which were, I realize now, pathetically easy for a fellow addict to spot), and to advise me just not to use chemicals today because tomorrow might very well look different.

5. Thanks to some detective work by the great Caleb Maskell, we've unearthed an interview with Verve singer Richard Ashcroft from 2000 in which he makes his religious convictions explicit:

" I can't pin myself on any fixed religion, really. I'm just one of those sad, early-century people who just drifts around and picks up a bit of this and a bit of that. Cuz we are a scanning culture. We are turning over local drug culture and we suck in as much as we can in that given time that we are given, you know. So really, I don't know. It's a celebration of Jesus Christ. But whether that means I'm with the whole [malarky] that happened after he died, or left us, who knows... But I'm intrigued by all that, by religions, I'm intrigued by Jesus Christ. It's all fascinating.

This blogger maintains that pretty much all of Ashcroft's solo work is criminally underrated, both musically and, yes, as a laudable example of spirituality done right in rock (he very well may be the rightful heir to Mr. Dark Horse himself). Instead, it's overshadowed by haters who wish he'd record Storms in Heaven over and over again. Sigh...

6. In TV, have you been watching Mildred Pierce on HBO? Not personally being much of a Todd Haynes or Kate Winslet fan, I've been pleasantly surprised by how superb it is. A harrowing study in mother-daughter dynamics, not to mention the self-seeking underbelly of the American/Hollywood dream, with some stunning setpieces. Think Chinatown by way of Betty Friedan and The Omen. And don't forget, Friday Night Lights: The Fifth Season came out this week on DVD, a full three weeks ahead of its debut on NBC.

7. Conference follow-up: Beyond the recordings, if you enjoyed the delicious food, we invite you to "tip" our chef Edward Crouse by backing his very cool new Kickstarter project "Between Folks and Forks". If it takes off, who knows - he might forgo culinary school abroad and serve us again next year...

8. Finally, in "humor", the inspired 3eanuts showcases the bleak worldview underpinning Schultz's classic strip. Or, as the force behind the site puts it: Charles Schulz's Peanuts comics often conceal the existential despair of their world with a closing joke at the characters' expense. With the last panel omitted, despair pervades all. Ht WV:

P.S. Don't miss FailBlog's "Bible Study Fail." Bye Bye!

Even More From Franny and Zooey: Jesus vs. St. Francis

I know I'm risking overkill, but F&Z has got to be one of the two or three most quotable books I've ever read:

"Your age has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. There are no big changes between ten and twenty - or ten and eighty, for that matter. You still can't love a Jesus as much as you'd like to who did and said a couple of things he was at least reported to have said or done - and you know it. You're constitutionally unable to love or understand any son of God who throws tables around. And you're constitutionally unable to love or understand any son of God who says a human being, any human being - even a Professor Tupper - is more valuable to God than any soft, helpless Easter chick."

Franny was now facing directly into the sound of Zooey's voice, sitting bolt upright, a wad of Kleenex clenched in one hand. Blooomberg was no longer in her lap. "I suppose you can, " she said, shrilling.

"It's beside the point whether I can or not. But, yes, as a matter of fact, I can. I don't feel like going into it, but at least I've never tried, consciously or otherwise, to turn Jesus into St. Francis of Assisi to make him more 'lovable' - which is exactly what ninety-eight per cent of the Christian world has always insisted on doing. Not that it's to my credit. I don't happen to be attracted to the St. Francis of Assisi type. But you are. And, in my opinion, that's one of the reasons why you're having this little nervous breakdown. And especially the reason why you're having it at home."
---------------

"Franny, I'm being serious. When you don't see Jesus for exactly what he was, you miss the whole point of the Jesus Prayer [i.e. "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a miserable sinner"]. If you don't understand Jesus, you can't understand his prayer - you don't get the prayer at all, you just get some kind of organized cant. Jesus was a supreme adept, by God, on a terribly important mission. This was no St. Francis, with enough time to knock out a few canticles, or to preach to the birds, or to do any of the other endearing things to close to Franny Glass's heart. I'm being serious now, God damn it. How can you miss seeing that? If God had wanted somebody with St Francis's consistently winning personality for the job in the New Testament, he'd've picked him, you can be sure. As it was, he picked the best, the smartest, the most loving, the least sentimental, the most unimitative master he could possibly have picked. And when you miss seeing that, I swear to you, you're missing the whole point of the Jesus Prayer.

Catholic Action!

There are a lot of different Bibles out there. Go to your local bookstore, and you'll find Bibles for groups ("Make some non-Christian friends"), Bibles for teens ("Don't look at bad internet sites"), Bibles for the retired ("You can still have a vocation in your golden years"), Bibles for men ("Remember, don't look at bad internet sites"), Bibles for women ("Right now, men are looking at bad internet sites") and on and on. The text of these Bibles are almost always from the NIV, and therefore the same. It's the notes, the exercises, and the study guides that differentiate them.

This in mind, I went into my sacristy before church last week, and saw the book pictured to the left. I'm curious, what notes, exercises and study guides might we find inside? Got any ideas? Serious and funny ideas welcome...

Example: For group discussion: Who would win in a fight, The Pope or The Terminator? And go deeper: What characteristics does the T-1000's liquid metal constitution share with the Holy Spirit?

Two from Salinger's Franny and Zooey

"The part that stumps me, really stumps me, is that I can't see why anybody -- unless he was a child, or an angel, or a lucky simpleton like the pilgrim -- would even want to say the prayer to a Jesus who was the least bit different from the way he looks and sounds in the New Testament. My God! He's only the most intelligent man in the Bible, that's all! Who isn't he head and shoulders over? Who? Both Testaments are full of pundits, prophets, disciples, favorite sons, Solomons, Isaiahs, Davids, Pauls -- but, my God, who besides Jesus really knew which end was up? Nobody. Not Moses. Don't tell me Moses. He was a nice man, and he kept in beautiful touch with his God, and all that -- but that's exactly the point. He had to keep in touch." (p. 170)

"(Zooey) said he was -- this is exactly what he said -- he said he was sitting at the table in the kitchen, all by himself, drinking a glass of ginger ale and eating saltines and reading 'Dombey and Son,' and all of a sudden Jesus sat down in the other chair and asked if he could have a small glass of ginger ale. A small glass, mind you -- that's exactly what he said." (192)

Acts 9:18

Their captive attention was intoxicating, until one day in the middle of a heartfelt retelling of a long ago hunt, he stepped too close. The illusion shattered miserably and wholly. (From 'Unhappy Hipsters')

Oscar Wilde and the Love of Christ- Part 4 of 4

I thought it fitting to end this little series on Oscar Wilde with what is probably my favorite Wilde quotation. (Click for: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 3.5.)

"Christ, like all fascinating personalities, had the power not merely of saying beautiful things himself, but of making other people say beautiful things to him; and I love the story St. Mark tells us about the Greek woman who, when as a trial of her faith he said to her that he could not give her the bread of the children of Israel, answered him that the little dogs who are under the table eat of the crumbs that the children let fall.

Most people live for love and admiration. But it is by love and admiration that we should live. If any love is shown us we should recognize that we are quite unworthy of it. Nobody is worthy to be loved. The fact that God loves man shows that in the divine order of ideal things it is written that eternal love is to be given to what is eternally unworthy. Or if that phrase seems to you a bitter one to hear, let us say that everyone is worthy of love, except he who thinks that he is. Love is a sacrament that should be taken kneeling, and 'Lord, I am not worthy' should be on the lips and in the hearts of those who receive it."

By way of slight explanation, the first half demonstrates a profound understanding of the earthly ministry of Christ. Here Christ's words and acts are themselves creative events. Jesus' life is not simply a model to pursue or a mere prerequisite before his death, but is gospel. Jesus was not simply a prophet, but an evangelist. What follows in the second half is Wilde's own personal reflection as affected by his reading of St. Mark. In other words, Jesus' words have reached out to Wilde, now 1850 years later, so that Wilde speaks beautiful words back to Jesus. The humbled, yet worshipful, Wilde speaks of God's eternal love for that which is 'eternally unworthy', namely everyone.

Watch Your Language, The Children Are Listening!

This post isn't about what you think it might be ... ;)

My husband shared with me the following excerpt from a post from a blog we like to read, "Free-Range Kids" authored by Lenore Skenazy,

Dear Free-Range Kids: My kids have a children’s bible which says “and Jesus went away.” Kind of destroys one of the central tenets of Christianity.
Yikes! For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son a long vacation? “Judas! What is this ticket to Bermuda for?” The possibilities are pretty endless. — L.

I find Lenore's response to be funny and accurate. More importantly, the one sending the comment to Lenore makes an important point: we destroy one of the primary tenets of the Gospel if we rephrase it. Jesus didn't just 'go away', He died.

But, obviously, someone had some concern about how we should talk about the event of the cross with our children; otherwise, the particular author and publishing company that authored and published such a version of a Children's bible wouldn't have used different language then what we are typically familiar with about the event of the cross.

Still, the post made me wonder: how should we talk about the Cross with our children? Do we need to watch our language and rephrase parts? Or, should we just go ahead and tell them the story? Now, I have no idea how to accurately answer that question; my boys are 4 and 2, and we are just breaking the ice into the deeper things of God, Jesus, and humanity. We have yet to talk about Jesus' death on the cross and what that means. I am not a child psychologist, I couldn't come up with an answer, thus, I turned to the one source I knew would tell me what language I should use about the event of the Cross: "The Jesus Storybook Bible" (the best Children's Bible out there, by far. For another post about this bible, check out Justin Holcomb's post here). Anyway, I'll share here how the "Jesus Storybook Bible" tells the story of Jesus' death (taken from the chapter titled, "The sun stops shining"):

Even though it was midday, a dreadful darkness covered the face of the world. The sun could not shine. The earth trembled and quaked. The great mountains shook. Rocks split in two. Until it seemed that the whole world would break. That creation itself would tear apart.

The full force of the storm of God's fierce anger at sin was coming down. On his own Son. Instead of his people. It was the only way God could destroy sin, and not destroy his children whose hearts were filled with sin.

Then Jesus shouted out in a loud voice, "It is finished!"

And it was. He had done it. Jesus had rescued the whole world.

"Father!" Jesus cried. "I give you my life." And with a great sign he let himself die.

Strange clouds and shadows filled the sky. Purple, orange, black. Like a bruise.

While I believe that there are plenty of words and sights that I should do my best to keep away from my children; the truth of and in the Gospel is not one of them. The author of the Jesus Storybook Bible (Sally Lloyd-Jones) writes in her acknowledgments, "To my parents who first told me The Story, as a four year old..." I want to be that type of parent; the one who tells The Story.

I think it is fine to stop watching my language when I tell the Gospel Story to my children, precisely because they ARE listening.

Lil Wayne Reads The Bible

Priceless quote from the upcoming Rolling Stone cover story, ht BG:

In prison he read biographies of Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Marvin Gaye, Joan Jett, Vince Lombardi and Anthony Kiedis. "[Kiedis'] Scar Tissue was really good," he says. "I also read the Bible for the first time. It was deep! I liked the parts where some character was once this, but he ended up being that. Like he'd be dissing Jesus, and then he ends up being a saint. That was cool."

On the Usefulness of Fables

Excerpts from Philipp Melanchthon's short treatise (1526 or so) 'On the Usefulness of Fables':

'There is altogether nothing more beautiful and pleasant than the truth, but it is too far removed from the sight and eyes of men for it to be beheld and known fortuitously. The minds of children need to be guided and attracted to it step by step by various enticements, so that they may then contemplate more closely the thing which is the most beautiful of all, but, alas, all too unclear and unknown to mortals... Therefore, extremely sagacious men have devised some tales which first rouse by wonder the children's minds that are sleeping as if in lethargy. For what seems more unusual to us than that a wolf speak with a horse, a lion with a little fox or an oak with a gourd, all in the manner of men?...

'I believe that fables were first invented with that intention, because it appeared that the indolent minds of children could not be roused more quickly by any other way of speaking... For we see that the most serious and wisest of men have used this kind of teaching, and I cannot say easily what a great public evil it is that it is now banished from the schools. The learned admire the sagaciousness of the poet Homer so greatly that they place him beyond the common condition of mortals and clearly think that his mind was roused by some divine power. Yet he wrote about the war between frogs and mice...

'[Finally,] there are so many fables in the Holy Scriptures that it is sufficiently clear that the heavenly God Himself considered this kind of speech most powerful for bending the minds of men. I ask you, what greater praise can fall to fables than that the heavenly God also approves of them?'

A Couple More Relevant Fails

One Last Jab at New Year's Resolutions

Just one more quick good-natured jab at New Year's resolutions: a crowd-sourced New Year's Resolution Generator. Users sent in their personal resolutions, which were added to a randomized display of things we all should be doing in 2011. Some are fun and good natured, like the Vanilla Ice inspired "Stop. Collaborate (and Listen)." Others revealed a deep sense of guilt and shame about how off track their lives were.

Some more poignant examples of guilt-inspired New Year's Resolutions: Forgive her (also: Forgive him), Carpool, Learn to Cope, De-Clutter, Learn to Commit, Avoid Drama, Be Spontaneous (ironic?), Wake Up Earlier, Move on, and Be Spiritual.

It's an interesting and sobering experiment. For every guilt-themed resolution, you see the evidence of a life lived in "quiet desperation." Even for non-guilt themed resolutions, you have the stark contrast between hopeful expectation and deflated reality (for every resolution like "Enjoy the Outdoors," there is a life being lived by a person who does not "Enjoy the Outdoors," and probably won't by 2012).

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:21-25)

Another Christmas Arrives: DFW on Federer, Pinsky on Donne, Gervais on Atheism, The National Bible Bee, Backfiring (!) Smoking Bans, and Troubled Childhoods

Just the links this time, for some holiday reading:

1. On Slate, if you have time for a mind-bender, The Philosophical Underpinnings of David Foster Wallace's Fiction (hint: rhymes with Littgenstein). For some prime DFW himself, check out his renowned profile for the NY Times, "Roger Federer as Religious Experience." For all of our posts on DFW, click here.

2. Also on Slate, in a column entitled "Nearer, my God, to Thee", former poet laureate Robert Pinksy takes a look at man's relationship to the divine via two Jeremiah 12-based sonnets, one from John Donne and one from Gerald Manley Hopkins.

3. Comedian and actor Ricky Gervais, a favorite of ours, offers a pleasantly humane/funny explanation of his atheism over at the Wall Street Journal. Almost makes up for the ueber-preachy "The Invention of Lying" (ht JD).

4. In the Atlantic, an amusing and highly informative look at The National Bible Bee.

5. From the NY Times, a harrowing reality-check about infidelity and its fallout, A Roomful of Regret and Yearning (ht VH).

6. A post on the Times' Freakonomics blog asks the question, "Do Smoking Bans Lead to More Fires?" A recent paper responds... yes.

7. According to a new poll by the Center for Disease Control (last seen in The Walking Dead), 60% of American adults claim to have had troubled childhoods.

8. Finally, there's this:

Nativity Scene FAIL - watch more funny videos

And with that, Merry Christmas from Mockingbird! Thanks for reading this year. We'll see you in January (if not before).

Mere Anglicanism 2011

The 2011 Mere Anglicanism conference this year is held in thanksgiving for the faithful witness of Bishop C. FitzSimons Allison to the Word of God’s Grace. It will be held at St. Philip's Church in Charleston S.C. January 20-23. Some of Mockingbird's favorite theologians will be speaking at the conference.

Here is the Morning Prayer Homilist for the conference
Dr. Jim Nestingen

"At the same time , the First Commandment sums up the whole gospel. It is God's promise, the announcement of the decision that God has made for you and each of us in Christ. This is the promise Paul declares in Rom. 8:31 when he asks, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Because God is for us, Paul goes on to say, nothing "in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39)." (Free to Be, 14)

A Reading from the Hipster Bible

Mere Anglicanism 2011

The 2011 Mere Anglicanism conference this year is held in thanksgiving for the faithful witness of Bishop C. FitzSimons Allison to the Word of God’s Grace. It will be held at St. Phillips Church in Charleston S.C. January 20-23. Some of Mockingbird's favorite theologians will be speaking at the conference.

This is one of my favorite quotes from Bishop Allison:

"A sergeant told a grim joke to his trainees during the Second World War, which shows the real flaw in the Pharisaic understanding of Christianity. A man stopped on a dirt road to help get another man's car our of the ditch. The latter was beginning to harness two small furry kittens to the bumper of this huge car when he was asked, 'Mister, you aren't going to try to get those kittens to pull that car out of the ditch, are you?' His reply was, 'Why not? I've got a whip.' The lash of the Law is used in similar spiritual situations. Without the principle of forgiveness our conscience acquires a quality of cruelty that makes the Gospel of Christ anything but the Good News."

White as Snow...

The following is a piece I did for my school's Advent Devotional. It is based off of the readings for this past Monday (according to the 1979 BCP), specifically Isaiah 1:10-20.

Isaiah’s words are a fitting opening for this season of Advent. In the first nine verses of chapter 1, Isaiah describes the rebellion and iniquity of God’s chosen people; they have not only strayed, they have rejected their God the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and His commandments (v.4). Isaiah (vv. 10-15) describes the disgust God has over their many sacrifices, vain offerings, feasts. As a result, God turns from His people: “when you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood” (v.15). God, as Judge, has delivered the divine verdict to the people: guilty.

But this is not the final word. Isaiah does not stop there at that word of death. “…though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow…” (v18 b). Among great transgressions, God assures His people through Isaiah: it’s not over, this isn’t the final word; there’s one more word to be spoken: the divine promise, the word of life. This word of life, this divine promise is Jesus Christ: the Incarnate God—the promised Suffering Servant (Is. 53)—Redeemer of the world. Jesus is the Word made Flesh (John 1:1-14) who will (by His life, death, resurrection, and ascension) be the perfect propitiation for the sins of the world, and evoke the very repentance commanded by God (vs. 16-17, 19-20; cf. also 1:27-28); through Him sins are atoned for, “though they are like scarlet, they shall be made white as snow” (v.18b).

Let us, during Advent, wait with Isaiah’s audience, knowing our guilt yet brimming with expectant hope at the fulfillment of the divine promise; let us watch with eager eyes for the birth of Jesus, the Word of Life.

Lord, as we enter into this season of Advent, press upon our hearts the gravity of our transgressions And drive us, Lord, to Your unfaltering promise with full and expectant hearts. Prepare our hearts to rejoice in the Word of Life: Your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving Song No. 4: Derek Webb's "Thankful"

And you thought (Reformational) theological anthems were a thing of the past?! Try this one on for size... Happy Thanksgiving:
[CONTINUE READING]

Final Pensacola Preview: Revisiting the Gospel Message - Grace Again

The week of the Pensacola mini-conference is upon us! And to entice those of you who are still on the fence, we thought we'd offer one final preview from the main speaker himself, Dr. Paul Zahl. This event is not to be missed, so don't wait another minute - register today. And for the updated schedule and other details, visit the microsite:

This Friday night's talk, entitled "Revisiting the Gospel Message -- Grace Again", will simply describe what grace is, and how it works. I'm interested in what grace, or one-way love, has to offer tortured relationships. For "tortured" you can substitute, "not as close as I'd like it to be".

Some of us are on semi automatic-pilot when it comes to understanding the one really important thing -- our love life. (I mean the phrase broadly: our life of love, and love distorted, and love meant well but unwise, gone wrong, not getting what it's looking for.) This talk examines the human love life, and especially marriage and parenthood. Oh, and also singleness and aloneness. It examines anger and burning hurt; defeat, as in, "I am a defeated person"; aspirations simply never accomplished, dreams gone unfulfilled, and the chronic misfires represented by the phrase "looking for love in all the wrong places".

The text will be Galatians, especially Paul's list of things 'against which there is no law' and Paul's insight that creativity and love exist in direct proportion to their not being called for. Exhortation sentences to death the hapless earthling who only wants to love and be loved. My first talk in the Pensacola Mini-Conference is therefore something quite familiar -- though forgotten in about five seconds -- which is the Gatorade of grace and imputation.

Saturday morning's talk will try to relate the grace-message, that one great inspirer -- or rather, grace itself, electrifying change-agent in love -- to the culture and world in which we are living. I'm focussed just now on some of the 'back-story' character dramas in Herman Wouk's 'Tolstoyan' epic War and Remembrance. He is not a Christian author. Yet there is in that book more wisdom about and understanding of human relationships than exists in a ton, a literal ton, of religious literature. Wouk, together with the television genius, Dan Curtis, who translated the book into a powerful series of images in the 1980s, understood people. He also understood how grace works, without even calling it by name.

I am also interested in some things LeRoi Jones, the African-American writer known as Amiri Baraka, had to say about communicating -- about communicating real things person to person. Between Wouk and Jones, between Paul and Luther, between "The Browning Version" and "Red Beard", we can find a host of friends. These people often know more about grace in practice than we seem to. Let's listen to them. Why did these creators, and their productions, become instant classics? For the same reason the Christian Church recognized in Galatians a voice of diagnosis and truth, and therefore the Holy Ghost.

I hope the first talk will comfort you, delight you, aid you, and give you joy. Hope also it will make you laugh! The second talk I hope will set off some depth charges in your archaeological psychic ocean. I hope it will open some new doors. I hope it will connect you anew with things you already like that have addressed you in the past. As William S. Burroughs never tired of saying, you can only really teach a person what he or she already knows.


Deep down, and sometimes not so deep down, everybody already knows about grace, in practice.

[ed. note: speaking of which, a big congratulations to Dr. Zahl on the just-announced second printing of Grace in Practice!]

So there you have it, your final warning/exhortation (!): "plans" you will always have with you... cancel them, hit the road and join us in sunny Pensacola! 

Do You Have a Zombie Plan? Part 2

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:5-10)

I hope you (like me) are really getting into the new AMC series The Walking Dead. Great story, great acting, and great cinematography. You see the zombies walking around people's middle-class homes or around a downtown area and it just looks believable (and terrifying). In the midst of this, there is the drama of realistic human interaction with this post-apocalyptic (zomb-pocalyptic) scape and it just rings true. Much like the fight over racial tensions that we looked at in the previous post.

There is something other-worldly, though, that happens in both Episode 1 and 2. And it is as surprising as it is touching. Rick Grimes is the sheriff's deputy who awakes from a coma only to find this terrible new world and reality have replaced that which was familiar. He cannot find his family and there are precious few survivors. In addition, he keeps running into zombies who want to eat him alive.

The first zombie he sees in Episode 1 is a really pathetic one. She is quite disfigured (picture included in the poster) and everything below her torso is unusable. Still, she wants to kill Rick just as much as any of the others do. After Rick later gets his bearings, regains his strength, and arms himself, he returns to the place where he first sees this particular zombie. She has crawled away so, at great risk to himself, he tracks her down. He then does something very un-Woody Harrellson-like. He looks at her with great compassion and says, "I am so sorry that this happened to you." He then painlessly puts her out of her misery.

In Episode 2, a group of survivors kill an exceptionally motivated and virulent zombie. After finding out that they are trapped and zombies identify potential victims primarily by smell, they decide to use the dead one as a source of "zombie grime" that will help them slip past unnoticed (gross, I know). Before they "harvest" the grime (which is not a scene for the kiddies, by the way... as if any of this is), Rick takes out the zombie's wallet and finds his name. There is some money and a photograph or two of his family. In a way, he eulogizes what was once a very real and motivated threat to life and limb. A sense of compassion enters the scene.

This reminds me very much of a section of Paul Zahl's book Grace in Practice called "The Relation of the Un-Free Will to Compassion". Here is a portion of that section:

[CONTINUE READING]

Being "Human"

Human
I'm only human
Of flesh and blood I'm made
Human
Born to make mistakes
- The Human League ("Human")

As it is written, there is no one righteous
Not even one
There is no one who understands
There is no one who seeks God
- St. Paul (Romans 3:10-11)

To watch the actual video in all its 80s hair-related glory (they won't let me embed it), go HERE.

When's the last time someone brought up their humanity as a good thing? Have you ever heard anyone say, when congratulated on a success, "Hey, I'm human!" All we can do is rely on the one who was born to not make mistakes.