Truth At Any Price

In today's Wall Street Journal opinion page, Shelby Steele has an insightful article on both President Obama and the result of political correctness in our society. I've been following Steele's writngs and thoughts for a while now, having bought his book, The Content of Our Character in the early ninety's. Ironically, his most recent book is titled, A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win.

The point of the article is that the President has rejected any firm principles in order to maintain his bargaining position. Unlike Ronald Reagan who throughout his life made choices that put his popularity at risk and grew a core set of beliefs that in the end made him a decisive and overall beloved leader, President Obama has cultivated a politically correct core which leaves it empty in order to maintain popularity. This in turn has led him to be a weak leader because he has no core principles. Steele's criticism is aimed at our society as much as it is aimed toward our President. We, in our desire to be seen as politically correct, never demanded any explanations from this man when he was a candidate.

We are left with a rudderless leader, because we would not face any inconvenient truths about him. C.S. Lewis wrote of his wife, Joy Davidman, that she wanted "Truth at any price". I am in complete sympathy with her desire. When we will not face up to truth for whatever reason, to seem sophisticated, to avoid conflict, or simply to take the easier path, we end up with more problems and pain than can usually be imagined. As painful as it may be, it is at truth where real love, forgiveness and good will must begin. Otherwise, our personal relationships and our society are based on a sham and cannot continue in any healthy functional way.

The Feast of St. Stephen

Acts 7-8:3

An Ambivalent Christmas

Though I love Christmas, it always holds a bit of ambivalence for me. Jesus is born and worshiped, yet the prophecies even before his birth tell of wretched, horrible things to come, that he will be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

This Christmas the ambivalence is even greater. I am to be celebrating the Christ child while still mourning the death of my own. I'm afraid there isn't much room in my heart for the celebrating this year. My Christmas wish list changed from nursing dresses and diaper covers to that new book by Scot McKnight and maybe some paint for the bathroom. This just isn't how it was supposed to be, and yet, it is.

So here we are at Christmas, twelve days of it in fact. A child is born to die so that others might live, even those who who never had to chance to take a breath. It is deserving of both joy and sorrow. I wonder if these paradoxes are obvious those in the heavenlies, or only to those of us on this side of the veil.

Our Dear Santa

We've been visiting this Santa for eleven years, since Emma was two. He's become a dear old friend who always remembers the girls.




Gotta love a Santa that explains to the children that it takes becoming a Saint and going to Heaven to have the power to deliver all those gifts to all the children. How different our Christmases would be without Saint Nicholas!

Magnificat

Today is the fourth Sunday in Advent. The Gospel reading is from Luke 1:46-55.



Note: This song was written by Hildegard of Bingen.

Welcome

Quiddity readers. I hope you find something on this blog either helpful, interesting, or both. A big thank you to Andrew for the hat tip!

Stones To Bread

The Sunday school class which I attend has been studying the book of Matthew. In reading the book as a whole, rather than in snippets and pieces, I noticed something which I hadn't seen before. In chapter three, John the Baptizer warns the Pharisees that they cannot entrust their salvation to the fact that they are children of Abraham, for God can raise up children of Abraham from stones. He was basically telling them that they aren't necessary for God's work to be fulfilled, and if they wanted salvation they'd better stop thinking that they are.

Then, in chapter four, Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days of fasting to be tempted by the Devil. The first temptation as recorded by Matthew and Luke is the temptation to turn the stones into bread. Is there a connection between John's reference to stones and the Devil's? Not being a believer in coincidence, I think there must be.

In all three of Satan's temptations, there is the enticement to take the easier way, which was not God's way. There is also the temptation of Jesus to prove he is God. So, in these temptations the virtues of courage and faith are attacked and the vice of pride is appealed to. A return to Eden in a way.

Returning to the first temptation. "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." On the surface, it seems innocuous. What could it hurt to make some bread, after all the hunger was great, and Jesus had the power. But giving into this temptation would have circumvented God's plan and also made Jesus weaker to resist the following temptations. I can just hear the taunting, behind the command. "Come on Jesus, If God can raise up sons of Abraham and if you are God, surely this can't be too hard for you. Why continue suffering as you are? In fact why should anyone suffer from hunger if in fact you are God and can do such miraculous feats?"

In all the temptations is the temptation to avoid the cross and suffering. Christ is the bread broken for us. He is the son of Abraham and of God. Those in Christ are also his body, children of Abraham and of God, to be broken for others. In a very real way, Christ's temptations are ours.

There is a song I remember singing in various Christian youth settings. The lyrics go:

Would you be poured out like wine upon the altar for Me?
Would you be broken like bread to feed the hungry?
Would you be so one with Me that you would do just as I will?
Would you be light and life and love My Word fulfilled?

Yes, I’ll be poured out like wine upon the altar for You.
Yes, I’ll be broken like bread to feed the hungry.
Yes, I’ll be so one with You that I would do just as You will.
Yes, I’ll be light and life and love Your Word fulfilled.

I don't think any of us had a clue what those words really meant. I think I'm just starting to grasp the meaning in part.

Gaudete Sunday 2009

Today is Gaudete Sunday, when in the middle of the traditional Advent season of repentance and reflection, this day is set aside for rejoicing. The rose candle on the Advent wreath is lit as we look forward to the Saviour's coming. So it is reflective of our lives. A time of mourning is interrupted by a moment of joy and yet in the joyous season to come, which we know as Christmas, we are reminded of mourning and sorrow as Simeon prophecies of the infant Jesus and his mother, then later as the infants in Bethlehem are slaughtered on King Herod's orders.

Nothing is simple. The birth of a child is bloody and painful and begins the road to death which often is also bloody and painful. Yet, we are called to rejoice because ultimately death has been defeated, though in our eyes and experience we won't see this until Christ's return. So it is by faith that we say both, "How long?" and "I praise you.".



Gaudete, gaudete
Christus est natus
Ex Maria virginae, gaudete.
Tempus ad est gratiae hoc quod optabamus
Carmina laetitiae devote redamus.
Deus homo factus est natarum erante,
Mundus renovatus est a Christo regnante.
Ezecheelis porta clausa per transitor
Unde lux est orta sallus invenitor.
Ergo nostra contio psallat jam in lustro,
Benedict domino sallus regi nostro.

Update: I previously had a video embedded which is no longer available. I hope you enjoy the new one. 

The Feast Of Saint Nicholas

Snow

Loreena McKennitt Snow lyrics

White are the far-off fields,
And white the fading forests grow;
The wind dies out along the height
And denser still the snow,
A gathering weight on roof and tree
Falls down scarce audibly.
The meadows and far-sheeted streams
Lie still without a sound;
Like some soft minister of dreams
The snowfall hoods me around;
In wood and water, earth and air,
A silence is everywhere.
Save when at lonely spells
Some farmer's sleigh is urged on,
With rustling runner and sharp bells,
Swings by me and is gone;
Or from the empty waste I hear
A sound remote and clear;
The barking of a dog,
To cattle, is sharply pealed,
Borne, echoing from some wayside stall
Or barnyard far afield;
Then all is silent and the snow
Falls settling soft and slow
The evening deepens and the grey
Folds closer Earth to sky
The world seems shrouded, so far away.
Its noises sleep, and I
As secret as yon buried stream
Plod dumbly on and dream.
I dream
I dream
I dream
I dream

Veni Veni Emmanuel

Happy Thanksgiving

A very odd symptom of anemia is insomnia. One might say it is ironic.

Anyway, thought I'd put my sleeplessness to some use and post some songs and articles for Thanksgiving. I hope they are a blessing to you.





I can particularly relate to the first part of John Mark Reynolds' article.

Read here of the economics behind the Plymouth colony.

Update: Here's an article which debunks many modern day myths regarding the Pilgrims.

O Lord that lends me life,
Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.
~William Shakespeare

Can God Be Trusted?

That in the end was the question David and I were asking ourselves as I lie in the hospital the day after my miscarriage. We had been told a couple of days before that our baby had probably died, but there was still a sliver of hope, and now the hope had vanished.

The miscarriage itself had not gone well, if one can say a miscarriage ever goes well. After five hours of struggling through it at home, I was still hemorrhaging and could hardly stand so we went to the emergency room where I was immediately attended to. After many pokes and sticks it was discovered that I was also in septic shock and had surgery late in the evening.

It is an odd thing, grief. It keeps getting interrupted, whether by hope or illness or just the mundane issues of life, though it's always in the background, taking a bit of the color,energy and taste out of things, but in the quiet it comes on in full force with all it's pain and emptiness. How much I wanted and loved this child. How much I feel cheated to not hold it in my arms and nurse it, to not know the color of it's eyes, or to not inhale that sweet smell from our newborn's head.

I am assured by scripture that I will one day meet our child, and I firmly believe that I will. I believe in the resurrection. Like Job, though, I want to know why. Why did our baby die? I realize I probably will never know the answer this side of the veil. As to the question, "Can God be trusted?". I think I am a bit like Peter when he said, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18

Twenty Years Ago Today

the Berlin Wall was brought down. I think the time that has passed has caused us forget the horror that occurred behind that wall. Here is a video of some trying to keep the memory.


It might me a good time to make a purchase from Amazon or rental from Netflix, so that we don't forget.

I Am David

Night Crossing

The Lives of Others

Both Night Crossing and The Lives of Others are based on true stories.

Free T.V.

Is the internet not wasting all of your time yet? Here's a new website where you can watch television channels from around the world, absolutely free. It's called TV Free 4U. Try the link, especially if you've been dying to know what Sri Lankan's t.v. culture is like.

Our Massive Debt

My friend Jim posted this link on Facebook. It is a cold dose of reality.

U.S. Debt Clock

Be sure to check out the last figure. It calculates the debt per citizen, what each of us owe some part of the world, probably China, which purchases our debt. This is why we will probably have escalating inflation in the future and why there are rumors of the world financiers wanting to no longer tie the dollar to oil.

This from U.S.A Today article in June, 2009.

The government's plan is to fight the sour economy now by spending money, and worry about the debt problem later. "If that's the price to keep from having the second Great Depression, it's a bargain," say Ken Goldstein, economist at The Conference Board.

Even ardent supporters of the government's plan, however, worry that massive U.S. debt could be inflationary. Every day, for example, the U.S. needs to borrow $15 billion to fund the deficit, says Axel Merk, portfolio manager of the Merk Hard Currency fund. "Someone has to buy all that," he says. More important, the U.S. has to repay it.

Inflation is a tempting choice to pay the nation's staggering debt, especially because the alternatives are to raise taxes or cut spending. Already, some economists are suggesting letting inflation take some of the bite out of government spending.

Kenneth Rogoff, chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, gently told Bloomberg News that a bit of inflation might be a good thing. "I'm advocating 6% inflation for at least a couple of years," said Rogoff, now a professor at Harvard University. "It would ameliorate the debt bomb and help us work through the deleveraging process."

The effects of inflation are cumulative. After five years of 6% inflation, $1 trillion would be worth $734 billion, a 27% drop. Even a 2% inflation rate would be a cumulative devaluation of 81% over 30 years.

Unexpected Blessings

I apologize for the dismally light posting recently. Fact is, I've been tired! Homeschooling has started up, I've been busy with serving on the church council and various other activities which explains part of it, but really, I've been extraordinarily tired, and have in fact found the reason for the fatigue.

Last month before our family made a trip to Busch Gardens and a visit with David's brother and sister in law, Mark and Patti, I thought I ought to take a pregnancy test, just to rule out the possibility. Well, the results of the test did anything but! I jumped on the internet and scared myself with statistics of pregnancies in older women. My biggest concern was the greater possibility of miscarrying, but other concerns weighed heavily, particularly where we were going to add another family member in our cozy little house.

David came home and I shared the news. I was quite concerned about miscarrying, so we decided not to tell the girls yet, and we sat on the news for about two more weeks, just sure someone would figure it out by my not having anything to drink or my not riding much at Busch Gardens. The person who come closest to figuring it out was Berkley, our waitress at Annie Moore's who was stunned that I didn't order an Original Sin, which is my drink of choice at that establishment.

I finally couldn't stand it any longer. I just had to tell the girls, so David and I sat down with them on a Sunday morning before church. It was priceless to see their looks of surprise and delight. The news has been spreading ever since. Thankfully, almost everyone has been encouraging and supportive, and I can't adequately express how much that has meant to David and me.

We've had a few bumps. The day we told the girls, I had some bleeding. I spent most of the next several days pleading with God to save and protect this baby. I am a mama, you know....and he knows. The bleeding has subsided and I have had an ultrasound and seen and heard the heartbeat. How very reassuring! Also reassuring is my midwife who informs me that at age 42 and in good health, I should have a normal pregnancy.

I promise not all my postings will be about the new little one or the pregnancy, but I will write about them here and there, because this is big.

A new life.

We are so blessed.

Into The Wardrobe

Tomorrow, we'll begin a new school year. As I had mentioned in an earlier post, we will take the next several months to focus on The Chronicles of Narnia and use these books as a jumping off point for other literature, history, theology and philosophy. We will begin with, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, while also focusing on Norse myths, The Gospel of Luke, the Blitz and Aesop's Fables. If you've read LWW, you'll see how these fit in.

I'll post more of what we're reading and of our discoveries as we progress.

Emma will continue to study Latin, math, Greek, writing, art, logic, classical astronomy, and ballet.

Olivia will study English, nature studies, math, Latin, basic astronomy, art, piano, and horseback riding.

In all of this, setting before us, the good, the true and the beautiful in order to cultivate wisdom and virtue.

The Illusions Of Technology

In The Abolition of Man Lewis states,

There is something that unites magic and applied science (technology) while separating both from the "wisdom" of earlier ages. For the ancients, the cardinal problem of human life had been how to conform the human soul to objective reality; and the means were knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic and applied science alike the cardinal problem is how to conform reality to the wishes of the soul; and the solution is a technique.

Peter Kreeft in his lecture, Lost in the Cosmos, points out that if we were to categorize these four things; technology, science, magic and religion, into two groups, that a quite proper grouping would be magic and technology in one group and religion and science in another. The reason being, as he gains from Lewis, is that science and religion are about conforming one's will to reality and technology and magic are about bending reality or nature to our will.

So, where does that leave our society, which Neil Postman branded a technopoly? We have become so enamored with technology that an optimistic pragmatism, where whatever "works" is what is deemed true, has become the spirit of the age. The appeal to reason, truth,natural law, religion or ethics seems passe, whether in matters of education, farming, family life, civic life, commerce, etc.. Instead what is appealed to is efficiency, convenience, entertainment and a sense of control. It is ironic that technologies which are often presented as increasing one's control, (not of ourselves of course, but of nature or other people), are most likely what one will forfeit one's control to. It is indeed a Faustian bargain.

Know Your Farmer

Continuing on the same theme of aschewing pragmatism, there's a new video out, taken undercover showing male chicks being ground alive. Apparently, male chickens aren't useful enough.

According to Mercy for Animals, male chicks are of no use to the industry because they can't lay eggs and don't grow large or quickly enough to be raised profitably for meat. That results in the killing of 200 million male chicks a year.

Now, that's pragmatism. Notice, it's not that they are of no use, it's just that they are of no use quickly enough. I guess another month or two of feed is simply out of the question.

So, what is the purpose of a chick? Is it only to meet our needs. Is there not something of intrinsic value in this life? If it's value does not supercede a human's life, and as a Christian I don't believe it does, for it is not made in the image of God, mustn't it have value beyond it's utility to us, because we are not it's creator? In Genesis, humans are given the mandate to be stewards of creation. Here's another case where we are falling short.

If this disturbs you at all, I suggest getting to know a local farmer and start buying eggs from him, or from your local coop. (No pun intended)