"Talk to me about the truth of religion and I'll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I'll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don't understand."


-----C.S. Lewis, "A Grief Observed"

Okay, I finally went out and purchased Beck's new album, Sea Change. I have to admit, I think I actually like this album, but not for the reasons I expected. I figured this would be a groundbreaking piece of work, but what I discovered is that it's really OK Computer "countrified." That's right, I'm making up a new word; "countrified." I guess I shouldn't be surprised by this album. You put Nigel Godrich of Radiohead fame on the boards, and get Beck in one of his hipster-doofus country moods, and you're bound to get a quasi-masterpiece.

All in all, a good album for the range-riding-neurasthenic-somnambulists among us.

"Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. "

-----Teddy Roosevelt

I can't tell you how many times that kind of thinking has got me promoted.

Read this article.

Link to DATA article

"It takes a lot of work to get condemned by Iran and Cuba, and North Korea has done it."

-----Ari Fleischer, on the recent nuclear events in North Korea

New Year's Resolutions from Martin Luther:

"Resolved: that every man [and woman] should live to the glory of God.

Resolved second: that whether others do this or not, I will."

"An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons -- marriage, or meat, or beer, or cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning."

-----C.S. Lewis, "Mere Christianity"

"God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn't. In this trial He makes us occupy the dock, the witness box, and the bench all at once. He always knew my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realize the fact was to knock it down."

-----C.S. Lewis, "A Grief Observed"

"MTV is like Unions, you know? Because it started out really cool, but now it's just turning into a big mess, and it needs to be changed. It's so boring! It's so bloody boring!!! I'm numbed, day after day."

----Jeff Buckley, 1995 French TV interview

"Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men."

-----John Fitzgerald Kennedy

"Beginners in the spiritual life are apt to become very diligent in their exercises. The great danger for them will be to become satisfied with their religious works and with themselves. It is easy for them to develop a kind of secret pride, which is the first of the seven capital sins.

Such persons become too spiritual. They like to speak of "spiritual things" all the time. They become content with their growth. They would prefer to teach rather than to be taught. They condemn others who are not as spiritual as they are. They are like the Pharisee who boasted in himself and despised the publican who was not as spiritual as he.

The devil will often inflame their fervor so that their pride will grow even greater. The devil knows that all of their works and virtues will become valueless and, if unchecked, will become vices. For they begin to do these spiritual exercises to be esteemed by others. They want others to realize how spiritual they are. They will also begin to fear confession to another for it would ruin their image. So they soften their sins when they make confession in order to make them appear less imperfect.

They will beg God to take away their imperfections, but they do this only because they want to find inner peace and not for God's sake. They do not realize that if God were to take away their imperfections from them, they would probably become prouder and more presumptiuous still.

But those who are at this time moving in God's way will counter this pride with humility. They will learn to think very little of themselves and their religious works. Instead, they will focus on how great and how deserving God is and how little it is that they can do for Him. The Spirit of God dwells in such persons, urging them to keep their treasures secretly within themselves."

----St. John of the Cross, from "Dark Night of the Soul"

"The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated in quotations." -Benjamin Disraeli

A friend forwarded the transcript of Bono's Dec. 1 interview with Larry King of CNN (I checked but the transcript is not yet online). Here are three things Bono said:
== "...religion is this sort of -- religion is the artifice, you know, the building, after God has left it sometimes, like Elvis has left the building. You hold onto religion, you know, rules, regulations, traditions. I think what God is interested in is people's hearts, and that's hard enough."

== "I'm half Catholic and half -- I mean, I'm not doubting. I don't doubt God. I have firm faith absolutely in God. It's religion I'm doubting.."

== "America is not just a country; it's an idea. You have to defend the idea as well as the country, and that idea is being attacked."

"As long as you are proud, you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you."

Mere Christianity

"I met Prince some years back---I believe in Prince almost as much as Prince believes in Prince, which is saying something---and he had 'slave' written on the side of his face. I asked him why he was doing that. He said, 'I don't own my master tapes. I don't own my copyrights.' Then he said, 'You do own your master tapes. You do own your copyrights. How did you do that?' I said, 'Lower royalty rate.'

-----Bono on the diminutive artist who was formerly good, and how U2 owns all their music. Rolling Stone, November 28th, 2002

I AM AUGUSTINE

"God will not suffer man to have the knowledge of things to come; for if he had prescience of his prosperity he would be careless; and understanding of his adversity he would be senseless."

You are Augustine! You love to study tough issues and don't mind it if you lose sleep over them. Everyone loves you and wants to talk to you and hear your views, you even get things like "nice debating with you." Yep, you are super smart, even if you are still trying to figure it all out. You're also very honest, something people admire, even when you do stupid things.

What theologian are you?

A creation of Henderson

I read an interesting piece on Herbert Asbury, the author of "Gangs of New York", in the New Yorker last night. Apparently Asbury was a lapsed Methodist, with three generations of pastors in his family. His comments regarding the church are generally bitter, which probably makes them all the more important for those of us who still attend service (much like we should all read Twain's "Letters from the Earth"). Anyway, there was one section in particular that stood out to me. Asbury wrote a book called "Up from Methodism" and in it he acridly described the story of a local harlot who would take men into the cemetary to offer her wares, and then try to come to church to atone for her sins.

"She was not wanted in the house of God. I have seen her sit alone and miserably unhappy while the Preacher bellowed a sermon about forgiveness with the whole church rocking to a chorus and sobbing, moaning amens as he told the stories of various Biblical harlots, and how God had forgiven them. But for Hatrack (the harlot) there was no forgiveness. Mary Magdalene was a saint in heaven, but Hatrack remained a harlot in Farmington. Every Sunday night for years she went through the same procedure. She was hopeful always that someone would speak to her and make a place for her, that the Brothers and Sisters who talked so voluably about the grace and mercy of God would offer her some of the religion that they dripped so freely over everyone else in town. But they did not, and so she went back down the street to the Post Office, swishing her skirts and brazenly offering herself to all who desired her."

And then this morning I was reading in Matthew 23 for my devotional, and I read this:

"Woe to you hypocrites! because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men, for you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in."

A strong reminder to us all.

"We boast our light; but if we look not wisely on the sun itself, it smites us into darkness."

-----John Milton

Every Grain Of Salad
(Bob Dylan)

In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need
When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed
There's a dyin' voice within me reaching out somewhere,
Toiling in the danger and in the morals of despair.

Don't have the inclination to look back on any mistake,
Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break.
In the fury of the moment I can see the Master's hand
In every leaf that trembles and, in every grain of sand.

Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear,
Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer.
The sun beat down upon the steps of time to light the way
To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay.

I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame
And every time I pass that way I always hear my name.
Then onward in my journey I come to understand
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand.

I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night
In the violence of a summer's dream, in the chill of a wintry light,
In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space,
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face.

I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there's someone there, other times it's only me.
I am hanging in the balance of a perfect finished plan
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand

Biloxi Blues aired on Comedy Central tonight. I hope this means that a DVD release is imminent.

Toomey: Tell me, Jerome, if a piss drunk sergeant has a loaded .45 pointed at the head of a piece of dung that the piss drunk sergeant hates and despises, how would you describe the situation?
Jerome: Delicate. Extremely delicate.
Toomey: Right. I'll be honest with you, Jerome. It was my intention of getting Epstein in here, and putting this pistol to his ear, and blowing a tunnel through his head. But you'll do just as well.
Eugene: I'm sorry to hear that.
Toomey: There's something about you New York boys that riles my ass. You don't appreciate the Army, do you?
Eugene: There are some things I like.
Toomey: Such as?
Eugene: Mail. I like getting my mail.
Toomey: You shittin' me, Jerome?
Eugene: A piece of dung would never shit a piss drunk sergeant with a loaded .45.