"The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven."

-----Shakespeare, "The Merchant of Venice"

"Attack me, I do this myself, but attack me rather than the path I follow and which I point out to anyone who asks me where I think it lies. If I know the way home and am walking along it drunkenly, is it any less the right way because I am staggering from side to side!? If it is not the right way, then show me another way; but if I stagger and lose the way, you must help me, you must keep me on the true path, just as I am ready to support you. Do not mislead me, do not be glad that I have got lost, do not shout out joyfully: 'Look at him! He said he was going home, but there he is crawling into a bog!' No, do not gloat, but give me your help and support."

-----Leo Tolstoy, from a personal letter.

"I liked Balzac a lot, read 'luck and leather', and 'le cousin pons'. Balzac was pretty funny. His philosophy is plain and simple, says basically that pure materialism is a recipe for madness. The only true knowledge for Balzac seems to be in superstition. Everything is subject to analysis. Horde your energy. That's the secret of life. You can learn a lot from Mr. B. It's funny to have him as a companion. He wears a monk's robe and drinks endless cups of coffee. Too much sleep clogs up his mind. One of his teeth falls out, and he says, 'What does this mean?' He questions everything. His clothes catch fire on a candle. He wonders if fire is a good sign. Balzac is hilarious."

-----Bob Dylan, from "Chronicles Vol. 1"

Chesterton loved paradoxes. He could turn phrases and ideas like normal people roll ice around on their tongues. Part poet, part jester, he was like a five year old wielding a broad sword. The problem with paradoxes is that they never encompass the truth, they only get us to look at it in different ways. At best they're tools for dismantling functional fixedness, at worst they're smokescreens for bad arguments. Chesterton knew this, but he often got carried away. It's a shame too, because he makes some damn fine arguments and exposes a lot of nonsense considered foundational to modern thought by using paradoxes. But alas style is not content and artifice is not architecture. To put it punctiliously. .. . paradoxically it was his paradoxes that cost him the respect that his ideas deserved (wink). Still, I think he stands as one of the great thinkers of the modern age and points a way through for Christians to think about the present intellectual climate we inhabit.

"Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions."
"To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it."
"Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about."

-----G.K. Chesterton

"All of those things for which we have no words are lost. The mind--the culture-- has two little tools, grammar and lexicon: a decorated sand bucket and a matching shovel. With these we bluster about the continents and do all the world's work. With these we try to save our very lives."

-----Annie Dillard, "Teaching a Stone to Talk"

"A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery."

-----C.S. Lewis, "The Abolition of Man"

Discuss. . . .

What's really concerning to me about this country right now is our collective ability to have the wool pulled over our eyes due to our intellectual apathy and our willingness to let one or two key issues color every other issue. Particularly, I'm upset about the war in Iraq and the judicial nomination process. But what's most disconcerting is how moderate Republican and Democrat leaders alike keep getting played by this neo-conservative administration.

Let's not talk about all the lies and mistakes besmearing our name and reputation in Iraq, let's talk about leadership and patriotism. Let's not talk about judges with frighteningly narrow views of the constitution--judges who want to erradicate equality programs--rather let's talk about abortion. Both times the bait and switch. Why? Because hardly anyone is taking the time to do the hard work of trying to see through the smoke, or more ominously, no one gives shit because they're so tired of being lied to over and over again by nearly everyone in power.

I personally prefer to think of it more along the lines that Huxley articulated when he prophesied that we'll become "too busy with the orgy-porgy and the bumblepuppy" to care. It's what entertains us that kills us, and those in power know it all too well. Just appeal to a few hot button sentiments and no one will ever know the wiser. The average citizen can't be bothered with the truth when his faith only boils down to pro-life, or worse yet when the most pressing thing she has to know is what's gonna happen next on "Lost." Lost indeed!

It's frightening because the only way this country is going to change is if the people collectively stand up and call the leaders to task, hold them accountable, and we can't do that when most of us are sucking our thumbs in front of the TV instead of kneeling in the house of the Lord.

"When I look at the cross of Christ, what I see up there is all my shit and everybody else's. So I ask myself a question a lot of people have asked: Who is this man? And was He who He said He was, or was He just a religious nut? And there it is, and that's the question. And no one can talk you into it or out of it.....But there are two routes out of town. There always are. There's transcendence and there's the cover version, or the dull copy: junk food transcendence of drugs, the 'easy to digest but finally that's gonna give you heart disease' religion. But I tend to believe that people who just want a cheap way out of their life can find zealotry in lots of places. The true life of a believer is one of a longer, more hazardous or uphill pilgrimage, and where you uncover slowly the sort of illumination for your next step. Religious people, generally, they freak me out. Honestly, I start twitching when I'm around them. But sometimes, maybe weirdos are the only people who really know they need God."

-----Bono, from "Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas"

I saw George Clooney's new film Good Night, and Good Luck today. Fantastic film. It's a wonderful retelling of Edward R. Murrow's showdown with Senator McCarthy in the 50's. The parallels to our present political/media situation are timely, but more significantly, the film showcases some of Murrow's prescience regarding the variously banal uses of televised media. It's like a combination of "All The President's Men" crossed with "The Insider". . . .and perhaps a little "Amusing Ourselves To Death" thrown in for good measure. Get off your computer and go see it!

"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."

-----Albert Einstein

"It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the creature He (God) wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those that please Him best....He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be decieved, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks around a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and ask why he has been forsaken, and still obeys."

-----C.S. Lewis, from "The Screwtape Letters", lifted heavily from George MacDonald's "Unspoken Sermons".

"A woman needs a man, like a fish needs a bicycle."

-----U2, "Trying to Throw Your Arms Around the World"

I got engaged over the weekend. You can read more interesting fun facts and see pictures on Sarah's Blog

Jack approves and is looking forward to having a full time Mom.

-----From an interview by Jeff Overstreet with Scott Derrickson, the director of "The Exorcism of Emily Rose"

JO: At Seattle Pacific, our mission reads, “Engaging the culture, changing the world.” How would you encourage Christian moviegoers — especially those who are aspiring artists and filmmakers — to proceed in engaging with art and culture?

SD: Part of the answer is ... not viewing Hollywood, or any of the resources of artistic and entertainment output, as places to be “conquered for Christ.” They are places where Christians who are artistic and want to be creative must go and must be. And I think that is where the starting point needs to be.

Assuming that people have their spiritual life together, the starting point is not even about integration; it certainly isn’t about occupation; the starting point should be excellence.

The fault line running through Christian interests in the arts in America is that they don’t love the arts enough. The problem with Christians who want to be involved with Hollywood, for the most part, is that they don’t love movies enough. They don’t love them enough to demonstrate the kind of commitment to excellence that it takes to succeed in the field.

That is, I believe, our Christian duty [as artists] — is to create great cinema, and to write great novels, and to create great music. I believe that God is glorified by excellence. That’s why I believe that the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is uniquely glorifying to God. It was made out of spiritual passion, yes, but it was a demonstration of the highest order of excellence in the realm of painting. And I believe that that skill and craft, as it is increasingly excellent, is increasingly glorifying to God. God is a creator and he made us to be co-creators with him.

Christians need to get their act together… and realize that it’s not about being better than the world. It’s about being as good as God intended us to be at creating things, and to become more and more creative, and more and more original, and more and more innovative. Insofar as we do that, we will inevitably impact culture. Impacting the culture shouldn’t be the goal — it will become the inevitable byproduct of glorifying God through the work itself.

I don’t think Flannery O’Conner sat down and thought, “Hm. How could I change the culture?” I just think that she loved books, and she loved words, and she loved stories, and she became as skilled at that as any writer of her day. And the result was that she wrote classic stories.

When Bono accepted a Grammy, I remember that he said something along the lines of [how] he wanted to thank God, but he always imagined God looking down and going, “No, no, no, no. Don’t thank Me; I hated that song.” [laughs]

If there’s a second part to the answer, it would be this: Christians must come to a point where they appreciate and embrace, wholeheartedly, a work of art because of its aesthetic qualities alone. [Christians] — even those who seem favorable towards cinema — tend to respond only to the content and the meaning of the content of the film. And I’m not going to disparage that; that’s a huge part of cinema. But it’s not necessarily the primary part of any given film.

It’s almost as though a fan of Renaissance art is standing in front of Picasso’s work, trying to extract the moral lessons of adultery from his paintings about his various exploits with women, and trying to dissect Picasso’s cosmology or anthropology. Yet what they’re missing is that the greatness of Picasso really has nothing to do with that. Is it there? Yeah, it’s there. Can you find it in there? Sure, I guess so. [But] the greatness of Picasso was form and style. That person standing there should just look and recognize that God breathed through this man and gave the world some of the greatest form and style ever put on canvas. That is as glorifying as the content of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

I’ve had so many arguments with people about “Kill Bill, Volume I and II.” I fundamentally reject the revenge ethic of “Volume I,” especially. It’s anti-Christian. It is an attitude toward the world that I think is [laughs] pretty destructive. And the movie borders on reckless violence. But all I can say is I love those films. I think that they are such masterful demonstrations of form and style, that they are almost completely redeemed by it. As a filmgoer and as a Christian, I don’t have to react violently against the fact that it’s a revenge movie. I know that I think revenge is bad. But I don’t know that that movie is going to propagate that idea in any kind of dangerous way. What I, as a Christian, respond [with] whenever I watch it is, “My goodness, what form! And what style! And what beauty! And, boy, I can just feel the creative passion and the excellence in that work!” I’m inspired by it. I take away something very rich and beautiful from it, and I feel better as a human being for having that experience.

That is a place that, that few Christians are living. It’s an important thing for us to get to a place where we really understand that form and style are sitting on the same level as content as things to be appreciated in cinema. My favorite films are films that embody both. I can make a good argument those are the best ones. It’s why Kurosawa is my favorite director, He was always hitting a “10” on the aesthetic and form meter, and he was always hitting a “10” on the meaning and content meter. He just never wanted to let one outweigh the other; he just wanted them both to be supreme at all times. And, and he made about 10 or 15 masterpieces because of that.

"As I now reflect on Jesus' stories of the kingdom, I sense that much uneasiness among Christians today stems from a confusion of the two kingdoms, visible and invisible. Each time an election rolls around, Christians debate whether this or that candidate is 'God's man' for the White House. Projecting myself back into Jesus' time, I have difficulty imagining him pondering whether Tiberius, Octavius, or Julius Caesar was 'God's man' for the empire. The politics of Rome were virtually irrelevant to the kingdom of God.

Nowadays, as the U.S. grows increasingly secularized, it appears that church and state are heading in different directions. The more I understand Jesus' message of the kingdom of God, the less alarm I feel over that trend. Our real challenge, the focus of our energy, should not be to Christianize the United States (always a losing battle) but rather to strive to be God's kingdom in an increasingly hostile world. As Karl Barth said, "[The Church] exists....to set up in the world a new sign which is radically dissimilar to [the world's] own manner and which contradicts it in a way which is full of promise."

Ironically, if the United States is truly sliding down a slippery moral slope, that may better allow the church---as it did in Rome and also in China---to set up "a new sign....which is full of promise." I would prefer, I must admit, to live in a country where the majority of people follow the Ten Commandments, act with civility toaward each other, and bow their heads once a day for a bland, nonpartisan prayer. I feel a certain nostalgia for the social climate of the 1950's in which I grew up. But if that environment does not return, I will not lose any sleep. As America slides, I will work and pray for the kindgom of God to advance. If the gates of hell cannot prevail against the church, the contemporary political scene hardly offers much threat."

-----Philip Yancey, from "The Jesus I Never Knew"

"Rescue the perishing; don't hesitate to step in and help. If you say, 'Hey, that's none of my business,' will that get you off the hook? Someone is watching you closely, you know---someone not impressed with weak excuses."

-----Proverbs 24:11-12 (The Message translation)

"If I speak with the tongues of Reformers and of professional theologians, and I have not personal faith in Christ, my theology is nothing but the noisy beating of a snare drum. And if I have analytic powers and the gift of creating coherent conceptual systems of theology, so as to remove liberal objections, and have not personal hope in God, I am nothing. And if I give myself to resolving the debate between supra and infralapsarianism, and to defending inerrancy, and to learning the Westminister Catechism, yea, even the larger one, so as to recite it by heart backwards and forwards, and have not love, I have gained nothing."

-----Kevin J. Vanhoozer, from "First Theology: God, Scripture & Hermeneutics"

"Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that 'God helps those who help themselves.' That is, three out of four Americans believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture. The thing is, not only is Franklin's wisdom not biblical; it's counter-biblical. Few ideas could be further from the gospel message, with its radical summons to love of neighbor."

-----Bill McKibben, in his Harper's magazine essay, "The Christian Paradox"

"My favorite Replacements story is that when compact discs started replacing records the band were appalled that Twin/Tone, their first label, was going to release their early albums on CD. So, they had a few drinks and stewed about it and had a few more drinks and then went over to Twin/Tone. They gave the receptionist some line about working on remixes, grabbed as many of the master tapes as they could find and threw them into the Mississippi. When the Replacements told me this story, they expressed the hope that Prince, who lived in a big purple house downriver, would see the tapes floating by like the baby Moses, retrieve them, play them and reconsider his musical approach."

-----Bill Flanagan, from the liner notes to "The Replacements: All For Nothing" compilation

"At a time when religion so often seems to get in the way of God’s work, with its shopping mall sale pitch and its bumper sticker reductionism, I give thanks just for the sanity of Billy Graham—for that clear empathetic voice of his in that Southern accent. Part poet, part preacher. A singer of the human spirit, I’d say. Yeah, I give thanks for Billy Graham. Thank you, Billy Graham."

-----Bono, introduction to "Thank you Billy Graham" by Pat Boone.

Strange bedfellows indeed.

SPIN'S TOP 10 OF THE LAST 20 YEARS
1. "OK Computer," Radiohead
2. "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back," Public Enemy
3. "Nevermind," Nirvana
4. "Slanted and Enchanted," Pavement
5. "The Queen Is Dead," Smiths
6. "Surfer Rosa," Pixies
7. "3 Feet High and Rising," De La Soul
8. "Sign 'O' the Times," Prince
9. "Rid of Me," PJ Harvey
10. "Straight Outta Compton," N.W.A


It's definitely a debatable list with some curious omissions. e.g. Where is the Joshua Tree? Where is London Calling? But you have to love the inclusion of Pavement, Prince and PJ Harvey. What's your take?

"Have you really been reading my books, and at this time ask me what have I lost of the old faith? Much have I rejected of the new, but I have never rejected anything I could keep, and have never turned to gather again what I had once cast away. With the faith itself to be found in the old Scottish manse I trust I have a true sympathy. With many of the forms gathered around that faith and supposed by the faithful to set forth and explain their faith, I have none. At a very early age I had begun to cast them from me; but all the time my faith in Jesus as the Son of the Father of men and the Saviour of us all, has been growing. If it were not for the fear of it's sounding unkind, I would say that if you had been a disciple of his instead of mine, you would not have mistaken me so much. Do not suppose that I believe in Jesus because it is said so-and-so in a book. I believe in him because he is himself the vision of him in that book, and I trust, his own living power in me, has enabled me to understand him, to look him in the face, as it were, and accept him as my Master and Saviour, in following whom I shall come to the rest of the Father's peace. The Bible is to me the most precious thing in the world, because it tells me his story; and what good men thought about him who knew him and accepted him. But the common theory of the inspiration of the words, instead of the breathing of God's truth into the hearts and souls of those who wrote it, and who then did their best with it, is degrading and evil; and they who hold it are in danger of worshipping the letter instead of living in the Spirit, of being idolaters of the Bible instead of disciples of Jesus...It is Jesus who is the Revelation of God, not the Bible; that is but a means to a mighty eternal end. The book is indeed sent us by God, but it nowhere claims to be his very word. If it were--and it would be no irreverence to say it--it would have been a good deal better written. Yet even its errors and blunders do not touch the truth, and are the merest trifles---dear as the little spot of earth on the whiteness of a snowdrop. Jesus alone is the Word of God"

-----George MacDonald, "Letter to an Unknown Lady" circa 1866

tworedshoes called me out. she also calls me a number of other names, depending on the situation. . .and she'd probably like to club me with a large book.

Number of books I own:
too many. embarrassed. shameful face.

Last purchased book:
I can't remember the last time I purchased one for myself. The library rocks.

Last re-read:
The Hungering Dark, Frederick Buechner

Five books for a deserted island:
Bible, A River Runs Through It, Walden, The Brothers Karamazov, Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics

Book I'd use to thwack someone on the head:
My vintage 1941 2nd Edition Webster's Dictionary. To see the dust fly after that 40lb thing nails your head would give me great pleasure.

Book I'd like to burn:
Anathema. The Nazi's burn books. Bring em all on.

Book that is overrated:
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Get over yourselves.

Fun classics (you had to ask!):
"Fun"??

Last book read:
Amusing Ourselves to Death

Five people I tag to answer these and take a photo of their bookcase:
Let it die with me.

No Earthly Good-----Johnny Cash

Come hear me good brothers come here one and all
Don't brag about standing or you'll surely fall
You're shinin' your light yes and shine if you should
You're so heavenly minded and you're no earthly good
No earthly good you are no earthly good
You're so heavenly minded you're no earthly good
You're shinin' your light yes and shine if you should
You're so heavenly minded and you're no earthly good

Come here me good sisters you're salt of the earth
If your salt isn't salted then what is it worth
You could give someone a cool drink if you would
You're so heavenly minded and you're no earthly good
No earthly good you are no earthly good
You're so heavenly minded you're no earthly good
You could give someone a cool drink if you would
You're so heavenly minded and you're no earthly good

If you're holdin' heaven then spread it around
There are hungry hands reaching up here from the ground
Move over and share the high ground where you stood
So heavenly minded and you're no earthly good
No earthly good you are no earthly good
You're so heavenly minded you're no earthly good
Move over and share the high ground where you stood
So heavenly minded and you're no earthly good
No earthly good...

"Of all the sayings attributed to Jesus perhaps none are as relevant to our current political situation as these two: 'One's foes will be members of one's own household' and 'Love your enemies.' Should it come as such a surprise to find so many of my political enemies within my faith tradition? I intend to oppose them as enemies. But I also intend to make it clear that if you want to attack Christians as Christians, then you are also attacking me. I want no exemption. No safe conduct pass. I intend to wage guerrilla war within the borders of Jesus Land, but it is still my country."

-----Garret Keizer, "Guerillas in Jesus Land", from Books & Culture, May/June 2005

I've been reading through Anthony Lane's collection of writings from the New Yorker lately and I just finished his piece on the work of Alfred Hitchcock. It was a fascinating article that peaked my interest in finally going out to rent some of his films. Sara is a huge fan too and had recently watched "The Man Who Knew Too Much", so naturally I tried to go rent that film. But Blockbuster was out of stock, literally, on that title, and I ended up getting the 1946 smash "Notorious" starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. I loved it.

You'll notice two things right away: 1) Even though the movie is set in Rio, all of it is shot on a Hollywood lot against moving picture backdrops. Kind of disappointing, but if you let it go, it doesn't bother you after awhile. 2) Cary Grant is the man. They don't write dialogue or use leading men like Cary Grant anymore. I was literally stunned at the level of wit his character possesses relative to what passes for normal movie dialogue these days.

"Reality is harsh to the feet of shadows."

-----C.S. Lewis, "the Great Divorce"

"I'm disappointed that Iraq hasn't turned out better. And that we weren't able to move forward more meaningfully in the Middle East peace process... The biggest regret is that we didn't stop 9/11. And then in the wake of 9/11, instead of redoubling what is our traditional export of hope and optimism we exported our fear and our anger. And presented a very intense and angry face to the world. I regret that a lot."

-----Richard Armitage, Departing Deputy Secretary of State on the disappointments of the first Bush term.

"If by 2008, the Democrats hope to come near to a meaningful fraction of [faith-based] voters, they will have to find candidates and field workers who can spread the word down South---that is, find the equivalent of Democratic missionaries to work on all those good people who may be in awe of Jehovah's wrath, but love Jesus so much more. Worked upon with enough zeal, some of the latter might come to recognize that these much-derided liberals live much more closely than the Republicans in the real spirit of Jesus. Whether they believe every word of Scripture or not, it is still these liberals rather than the Republicans who worry about the fate of the poor, the afflicted, the needy, and the disturbed. These liberals even care about the well-being of criminals in our prisons. They are more ready to save the forests, refresh the air of the cities and clean up the rivers. It might be agonizing for a good fundamentalist to vote for a candidate who did not read the Scriptures every day, yet some of them might yet be ready to say: I no longer know where to place my vote. I have joined the ranks of the undecided.

More power to such a man. More power to all who would be ready to live with the indecision implicit in democracy. It is democracy, after all, which first brought the power and virtue of good questions to the attention of the people rather than restricting the matter to the upper classes."

-----Norman Mailer, from "Change Links" newspaper

"Ash Wednesday is a day for honesty, a realistic assessment of the human heart. By tradition it is a day when we assert (unfashionably but rightly) the sinfulness of our nature, and ask God to 'create and make in us new and contrite hearts,' and many kneel to have ash placed on their foreheads in the shape of a cross. But even in the stringent days of Lent there is a complimentary truth which also needs affirming. We may be dust, but we are dust that is full of mystery and that dreams of glory; dust (we sense) that is to be changed, transfigured, into God's own likeness."

-----Michael Mayne, "Pray, Love, Remember"

"What I do is live.
How I pray is breathe.
What I wear is pants."

-----Thomas Merton

"Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be."

-----Martin Luther King, Jr.