In Defense Of Religion, Part I

All cultures, to my knowledge, strove to convey and control the experience of transcendence, and to name it. The follies and tragedies we humans commit against ourselves and others would seem to belie, belittle, or invalidate attempts to reach and understand the divine, but religion is an indication that we're trying to become more than animals, and are succeeding. While we're still sandwiched tightly between the sacred and the profane, those persistent struggles to find god are actually testimonies that one might exist.

We are all seekers, and even if inactive or atheistic we all confront the mystery of good and evil when we undergo bodily suffering, psychic pain, or loss, and when we genuinely express love or feel its overarching power. Many voices echo from the past, doing their best to honor this mystery and its nature, and the traditions of the major religions all set down principles of ethics which would help us live together and draw out better societies.

The resulting codes of ethics and senses of morals are strikingly similar, and in their basic precepts, they got it right. Although we often fail to do what we should, we come from traditions which contemplated over the basic questions of life and came up with the right answers. We have that much in common, and I try to remember that when someone asks if I have accepted Jesus into my life. Yes, but not for a distorted doctrine which redeems the irredeemable and excuses all manner of pomposity.

Tolerating differing beliefs, so critical a component for the world we hope to build, is a balancing act of respecting their wellsprings and gently but firmly pushing back when they flow too heavily upon the commons, one which newly encompasses not a lazy river or a village green but the entire earth. A path to tolerance is to listen to the other sources of belief and learn about them, and to consider lives in other societies which are unlike our own. Can the differing codas be reconciled, in a practical sense, now that distance has shrunk and we're so intertwined?

I think it's possible, but requires a great deal of luck in leaders, ones who believe a certainty in knowing god's will for application of policy is extremely dangerous. If there is an impulse to fight without reservation, it is religious certainty in government, deeply underscored by menaces recent and present. Governments always try to convert religion into civic religion, but the goals of the theocratic-leaning state show a strong tendency to diverge from the goals of the divine. We're far more likely to find god in what we don't know, and there will always be plenty of that.

Of Monies, Markets, Minds And Gods

Monies are coin and specie, the basis of kingdoms. In the times and places where carrying much is perilous enough to precipitate bonds of trust, we create tokens, symbols of promise and obligation. Every promise, when exchanged, creates untold more, every obligation kept or broken extends over manifold relationships. When these spread and cross sufficient distance, an economy is born, formed as fecklessly as grexes chain their way across shaded forest pools, as reflexively as greens sprout under the blessings of rain and sun. Monies are the flashing fruits of the earth, intoxicating distillations of expansive holy things. When seashells or oxen are used to signify and calculate its power, the greatest invention of mankind redolently imbues humble placeholders with ostentatious shine.

Markets are crucibles made for melting gold, harbors for the rolling seas of silver which bubblingly leap on torrents of light and heat. As with all the arts of man each has its own distinctive style, one expressed on a spectrum between the high-ordained rites of Mayan sacrifice down to bashi-bazouk excesses in furtive torch-shadowed bazaars. Markets, never free, require high walls and protections if they endure to allow the veiled fundaments of ever-present fears to politely meet the vengeful, sexual howls of unslaked greed. Sometimes sublimated, sometimes not at all, amongst cultured company the activities conducted in them are often called investing.

Minds imagine reflections of Gods, law-givers who set the cycles of heaven and earth, forces which wove the tapestries of space and time. Gods whisper reasons to the great and small, channelling their motivations, suggesting what to build. Histories become legend, legends become myth, and myths are echoes of godly conversations which distantly delighted in every human action. You can discern the names of a land's Gods in its taller buildings, you can read the interpretations of their priests in statues. I write this so my children might know the circumstances which one day will seem far-off, far as another country with other gods. If, my sons, you find yourselves carried off to strange kingdoms, you must learn their deities, while remembering how easily primitive needs puncture high pretensions.

Our priests, their hearts corrupted, had us worship consumption. They betrayed gods who should not have been forgotten and traded the respect of the world to be landlords of hell. Our armies have been beaten by peasants, our gold and silver have been stolen by the courtly and squandered on destruction. The priests are gathered in dark rainments, murmuring incantations to the horned god of Optimization, they're burning offerings to the fertility goddess of Capacity Utilization. The name of their favorite spell is Arbeit Macht Frei. It is the greatest of all their lies, lies which were beloved because they seemed merciful, to the indentured. And now only the truth can set us free.

The truth. What a fantastic monument to the better instincts of the human race this country might have been, and might improbably become. If there is any road to that redemption, it will be long, and paved with truth. In the mirk beyond the firelight, I see the outlines of an altar made for sacrifice. Not another of unfortunate enemies, but of us. One torch to set righteous fire, or one to light a funeral pyre. Tomorrow we will decide what goes up on that altar, whether it will be our children or our lies. Go, souls, our bodies' guests, upon these quests and errands. Fear not to hope in the West, and the truth will be our warrant.

Don't Let The Children See...Anything

As the world outside the boundaries of Texas often calls them, the above pictures are of "sculptures." If you're in Texas and happen to be a school teacher, don't take your class to the Dallas Museum of Art, because you'll forever sully their tender eyes with Aristide Malliol's pornographic 'Flora' to the left above, and Auguste Rodin's shocking 'The Shade,' the bare-assed bronze guy to the right. Who knows? They might even see a male torso from a 330 B.C. Greek funerary with...wait, I can hardly bear to say it: genitalia. And maybe you'll be fired, like Sydney McGee was, who had taught elementary school for 28 years. One of the children in her fifth-grade class told her parents she'd seen something naughty:

She [McGee] later received a memorandum in which the principal, Nancy Lawson, wrote: “During a study trip that you planned for fifth graders, students were exposed to nude statues and other nude art representations.”

I hadn't planned on doing a "Kulturkampf" piece on this lovely Sunday morning. I simply wanted to post some beautiful artwork, and used what I thought to be a thoroughly unprovocative search term: "Rodin." One of the first images returned didn't look at all like a Rodin sculpture, so I clicked on it, and found the NY Times story through a blog post which had attached the Malliol photo. Good morning, America. Hello, all you kiddies in Texas, and behold. Feast your eyes on the pornographies above, and fill your filthy, teeming little minds full of dirty thoughts and questions.

If anyone from the Dallas Museum of Art management happens to blunder in here, someone out here cares, and recognizes what you're up against. You're peein' into the wind, cow-pokes, and I want to help you. I will consider taking one or both of these offensive sculptures off of your hands, and might host them for a modest fee in a more private setting. I think the Malliol could fit nicely in our master bedroom suite. I assure you, no one but family and special guests would see it there. As for the Rodin, we could hide it in our discreetly fenced backyard. I've already built a patio for it, and, if we can agree to terms, would build a small pavilion to protect it from the elements and from prying eyes. My contact info is &#@%texasupthe^**@fellationation.com.

Religion Is Good For Children And Makes People Moral

Larry Wilson: Ex-Steuben pastor pleads guilty to sex abuse charges. A former Steuben County pastor faces up to 32 years in prison following his guilty plea Monday to felony sexual abuse charges. David J. Troup, 39, of Frog Hollow Road, Painted Post, pleaded guilty Monday to all charges in a Jan. 18 indictment. The most serious charge, first-degree course of conduct against a child, carries a maximum sentence of five to 25 years in state prison. [...] State Police arrested Troup in October following a report from the New York Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment. They identified the victims as two boys younger than 11 years old and said the incident occurred in the town of Woodhull in July 2005.

Jeff Brumley: Trinity Baptist faces new abuse lawsuit. The second negligence lawsuit in just more than a week was filed Thursday against Trinity Baptist Church, also saying the Jacksonville church hid knowledge of alleged sexual abuse of children by former Pastor Robert Gray in the 1970s. [...] Adam Horowitz, the Miami attorney representing the plaintiff, filed a similar lawsuit Feb. 21. As with that action, the new suit says the church failed to provide a safe environment for the girl, that it concealed its knowledge of other abuse claims against Gray and that it did not report what it knew to authorities.

Former Ft. Worth Priest Convicted of Abuse. A former priest was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison after being convicted of molesting an 11-year-old boy in the early 1990s. The Rev. Thomas Teczar, 65, of Dudley, Mass., was a priest in the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese until his departure in 1993. [...] The victim, now in his late 20s, testified Wednesday that Teczar used threats, persuasion and the use of his Mercedes to entice him to have sex and keep it a secret when he was 11 years old. Teczar told him he could have him taken away from his mother, the man testified before a state district judge. [...] Before moving to the Fort Worth area, Teczar had worked as a priest in the Worcester Diocese, where he was forced out after being accused of inappropriate behavior with a teenage boy. He is no longer in active ministry.

John Spano: California law violates gays' rights, ex-priest says. Defrocked priest Michael Stephen Baker, 59, said the provision denies equal protection of the law to gay people. He cited a provision of the U.S. Constitution that has been used to advance racial and gender equality. Baker, appearing in court with a trimmed gray beard, is awaiting trial for allegedly molesting two boys — one who was unconscious — during weekend Catholic youth trips. Baker's case is the one Cardinal Roger M. Mahony has said "troubles" him the most. Baker confessed to Mahony his interest in children 20 years ago. He was sent for treatment, allegedly molested more children, and was defrocked by Mahony in 2000.

(Reposted here from American Samizdat.)

Woe, Woe Unto Thee, Wicked-pedia

For those of you who have been led astray into the wages of orgiastic sin by reading godless, liberal-leaning Wikipedia entries, prepare to be saved. Your solution has arrived, courtesy of God 2.0:

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