This & That

I declare, they read my mind!

2012-02-01T12:03:00.002-05:00

Remember how we've talked about freaky coincidences in the past? (Like this post from Halloween and this one about tuna.) Well, this morning I was flipping through the radio stations because the one I was tuned into started messing up.

I stopped on a song that reminded me of high school.

That made me remember riding in someone's car.

Which made me recall learning to drive...and how awful I thought I was (and probably indeed was until I became so expert..ha)

Which lead to thinking of people I've come across on blogs who were not thrilled with driving or learning to drive later in life. (Where I live we start driver's ed around age 14.)

That lead to a passing thought of Saudi Arabia and my not even being allowed to drive.

THEN I thought of men or women being better drivers.

Who got distracted more and caused more accidents.

(I thought of how sometimes Zach distracts me while I'm driving with him because he'll be looking at me or playing with his bottle or thrashing the part of his car seat that is supposed to keep the sun out of his eyes.)

About that time the song that started this train of thought ended and the morning radio hosts introduced their next segment

THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES

Oh, weird, I thought. I'd just been thinking about this pertaining to driving.

So their battle today: distracted driving!

Doubly weird. Did they read my mind?!

Isn't it funny when stuff like this happens? Have you had something similar happen lately?

This isn't exactly the same, but also recently a friend wrote about squirrel feeders and I joked that bird feeders were for squirrels as well, weren't they? And then in the Sunday Parade magazine insert in my parents' newspaper there was an article about squirrels in bird feeders which I had fun sharing with her. In case you were wondering, the lady in the Parade article named "her" squirrel Floyd. :)

Remembering Syria & January Books

2012-01-31T21:59:00.001-05:00

It's the last few hours of January and I just now finished the final pages of a pretty big book. Yay, I am glad I finished it in time to add to this list. Here's what I read this month. Not as much as some months, but I started off slowly and just have been busy doing other things. Three years ago right now I was in Syria. I decided to remember my days there by posting a few pictures on Facebook. I'm trying to post ones that I didn't post on Facebook when we got home. And I'm trying to share a few tidbits about the places we visited or people we met or things we did. Also I'm trying to add just a few pictures each day and trying to correlate them to the actual date three years ago. For instance today we would have visited the Umayyad mosque and a really fancy Shiite mosque. You can check out the album at this public link - Remembering Syria. Syria is in a mess these days. Some of my friends from our visit are out of there now, but many remain. My thoughts are often with them.

Captured by Grace by David Jeremiah -- although this was not on my wishlist, my brother gave me this for Christmas. What a challenging, good read for me! A great way to start of the new year. I made note of many things that spoke to me that I wanted to review later. These are just a few things some of which I posted as Facebook status updates.

‎"Mercy is God withholding the punishment we rightfully deserve. Grace is God not only withholding that punishment but offering the most precious gifts instead.

Mercy runs to forgive the Prodigal Son.
Grace throws a party with every extravagance.

Mercy bandages the wounds of the man beaten by the robbers.
Grace covers the cost of his full recovery.

Mercy hears the cry of the thief on the cross.
Grace promises paradise that very day. ..." (pg. 22)

"Imagine discovering that the God you worship is Someone else entirely, Someone who bears radical differences to your most precious assumptions about Him. You would ask the very question Paul now asks: 'And he said, "Who are You, Lord?"'" (pg. 112)

"...the essence of grace is surprise. There is nothing shocking about giving people exactly what they deserve. Grace subverts the rules and gives people what they don't deserve. It is motivated by the warmth of love rather than by cold calculation." (pg. 171)

Whose Bible Is It? by Jaroslav Pelikan - this was the first of my dozen Christmas books that I received and I got it from my Lil' Sis a couple weeks before Christmas day. I cannot remember why I had it on my Amazon Wishlist, but enjoyed it nevertheless. The author started off talking about oral tradition in cultures and that lead to the writing down of the Bible over the centuries. His chapter on the Septuagint was interesting as was the Bible in various cultures. The binding of Isaac example was especially good. He discussed peoples of the book and translating the Scriptures, the Bible according to Jews, Protestants, Catholics and so forth. I should have been good and taken notes on these chapters. Alas, I did not. He does conclude that the Bible is God's and "therefore really doesn't belong to any of us."

The Book of Books: The Radical Impact of the King James Bible 1611-2011 by Melvyn Bragg. This was one of those I found on the new books shelves at the library. I enjoyed how the author showed how the KJB had influenced English speaking societies. I especially enjoyed his treatment of slaves and how the KJB spoke liberation to them and how they worked for their freedom. He made them seem very powerful.; see previous post for most information on this book

Jesus Before Christianity by Albert Nolan -- one of those books I got from my Wishlist although I cannot recall why it was on there. The author had some interesting ideas about things, however, so I'm glad I read it. See previous posts for more details on this book

Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother by Xinran -- this book was so sad, but good! I am glad I read it as I know couples who have adopted children from China. It's sad to read how valueless daughters are in China that they are often killed at birth. Yet mothers are mothers and many of them do have great pain following through with tradition's evil dictates. This book shares cultural aspects of China and includes stories of women who have given up children for adoption. A very moving read. I was in tears several times.

Below Stairs by Margaret Powell -- Although this book was copyrighted in 1968 it was on the New Books shelf at my library. It is "The Classic Kitchen Maid's Memoir That Inspired Upstairs, Downstairs and Downtown Abbey" according to the jacket cover. It was an easy read and pretty entertaining. If you want to know what life was like for one kitchen maid turned cook in England, this book might be for you. A lesson I took from it is to respect all people and just because someone is a servant it doesn't mean she wants practical gifts and boring color schemes.

The Triumph of Christianity by Rodney Stark -- Last year I read a short book he wrote about the rise of Christianity and this book incorporates some of that information as well as quite a bit more. Prepare to have your thoughts on the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, the Dark Ages and the following periods challenged. (Or maybe you'll simply scoff at how he makes a mockery of history.) I actually enjoyed his point of view although I was left wondering if it were all true or a different sort of history revision.

Rethinking Hagar, Fearless Jesus, Chinese Women

2012-01-22T10:20:00.000-05:00

Here are blurbs from books I've been reading in January. I'd love to hear your thoughts on any of them.

In his book The Book of Books: The Radical Impact of the King James Bible 1611-2011 author Melvyn Bragg notes how different groups had read the biblical stories differently. For instance Hagar was often seen much differently than this:

"In America, several black feminist historians have seen Hagar as someone with whom it is easy and important for former slaves to identify. She is seen as a slave forced into a pregnancy for the convenience of Abraham and the determination of Sarah that he should fulfil his dynastic destiny. Then she is expelled for no fault of her own, out of jealousy and the possessiveness of the non-slave wife when she has no need for her. She is, like the African-American slaves, a thing, an object, to be used at will and rejected when the use is over and thrown out without a thought for her future life or that of her child.

'... Hagar, like many black women, goes into the wide world to make a living for herself and her child with only God by her side.'" (pg. 291)

In Jesus Before Christianity, Albert Nolan writes:

There are no traces of fear in Jesus. He was not afraid of creating a scandal or losing his reputation or even losing his life. All the men of religion...were scandalized by the way he mixed socially with sinners, by the way he seemed to enjoy their company, by his permissiveness with regard to the laws, by his apparent disregard for the seriousness of sin and by what we would call a bad reputation: 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard.' ...In terms of group solidarity his friendship with sinners would classify him as a sinner....In an age when friendliness toward any woman outside of one's family could mean only one thing, his friendship with women and especially with prostitutes would have ruined whatever reputation he still had...Jesus did nothing and compromised on nothing for the sake of even a modicum of prestige in the eyes of others. He did not seek anyone's approval....His family thought he was out of his mind...; the Pharisees thought he was possessed by the devil...; he was accused on being a drunkard, a glutton, a sinner and a blasphemer but nobody could ever accuse him of being insincere and hypocritical nor of being afraid of what people might say about him nor of what people might do to him.

Jesus' courage, fearlessness and independence made people of that age ask again and again, 'Who is this man?'

(pg. 144)

And finally from the book I'm currently reading: Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother by Xinran

"Chinese women down the ages have never had the right to tell their own stories. They lived on the bottom rung of society, unquestioning obedience was expected of them, and they had no means of building lives of their own. So 'natural' had this become that most women wished for only two things - not to give birth to daughters in this life, and not to be reborn as a woman in the next." (pg. 35)

This book is incredibly interesting though very sad and infuriating at times. Can you believe a two thousand year old law which gives boys land and girls nothing has contributed to so many infant girls being "done"? This is the country euphemism for smothering or strangling or dropping your newborn into the slop bucket so it would drown.

How can people be so evil?!

Your thoughts?

Jesus on The Law and True Liberty

2012-01-19T10:02:00.000-05:00

In Jesus Before Christianity, Albert Nolan writes:

Jesus did not see himself as a legislator. He did not wish to abolish the Mosaic Law...in order to promulgate a new law or in order to do away with all laws. Nor did he wish to add to it or subtract from it or amend it - not one jot or tittle ... What he wanted to do was to fulfill the law - to see to it that it fulfilled the role which God intended for it, that it achieved its purpose ... A person keeps God's law only when she or he fulfills the purpose of even "the least of these commandments" ... And the purpose of the law is service, compassion, love. God wants mercy not sacrifice....

Casuistry exploited the law for its own selfish purposes, thereby destroying the purposes of the law itself. By quibbling about trivialities, "the weightier matters" or purposes of the law, namely "justice, mercy and good faith" were neglected ... The insistence upon clean and unclean foods and the washing of hands and the imposition of these customs upon other people blinded everyone to the evil intentions of people toward one another ... The corban vow was used to evade supporting one's parents, thereby destroying the very purpose of God's commandment.... The scribes had forgotten or preferred to ignore the original purpose behind most of the laws. They had made the law into an oppressive power.

The leaders and scholars of Jesus' time had first enslaved themselves to the law. This not only enhanced their prestige in society, it also gave them a sense of security. We fear the responsibility of being free. It is often easier to let others make the decisions or to rely on the letter of the law. Some people want to be slaves.

After enslaving themselves to the letter of the law, such people always go on to deny freedom to others. They will not rest until they have imposed the same oppressive burdens upon everyone.

(pg. 87)

Later the author claims Jesus was deeply concerned about Jewish liberation yet while the Zealots "wanted a mere change of government - from Roman to Jewish, Jesus wanted a change that would affect every department of life and that would reach down to the most basic assumption of Jew and Roman. Jesus wanted a qualitatively different world - the 'kingdom' of God. He would not have been satisfied with the replacing of one worldly kingdom by another worldly kingdom."

The author believes Jesus was more concerned with "reaching down to the root cause of all oppression and domination: humanity's lack of compassion. If the people of Israel were to continue to lack compassion, would the overthrowing of the Romans make Israel any more liberated than before? If the Jews continued to live off the worldly values of money, prestige, group solidarity** and power, would the Roman oppression not be replaced by an equally loveless Jewish oppression?"

(pg. 116,117)

** What is wrong with group solidarity? you may ask. The author is more concerned with solidarity with all humanity instead of dividing ourselves into tribes, nationalities, parties, sects and so forth. He believes Jesus wanted us to genuinely care for ALL of humankind and not simply our group.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Do you believe some people want to be slaves? Or do you think the author should have rephrased that because relying on the letter of the law and allowing others to make decisions is anything but slavery to you? What do you think about the idea of Jesus' relationship to the Law? Do you agree or disagree with the author? Do you think Jesus was concerned with liberation of the Jews such as the author described or do you see things differently? Do you believe lawmakers (religious or otherwise) often make laws into "an oppressive power" so that they focus on trivial matters such as control rather than justice, mercy and love? Do you see examples of religious leaders enslaving themselves to the law or rules in order to gain some prestige in society? Do you believe some people truly fear the responsibility of being free? What do you see as the root cause of oppression and domination?

Please share any thoughts that came to mind as you read this.

(In case you wonder about all the ... in the first quote, I decided to leave out the biblical references the author provided for the sake of saving on typing.)

Polygamy in Poem; English Throughout the World

2012-01-15T13:26:00.000-05:00

Despite my having received these twelve wonderful books for Christmas and being in the midst of reading the one whence my miracles post came, I made the mistake of dropping by the local library the other day and had to take a peek at the New Books shelves. And, dadgumit, two books jumped off the shelf into my arms and came home with me!

I'm still reading Jesus Before Christianity (in fact the chapter on prestige and its relation to Jesus saying we should be like little children was great) and have completely finished two books from The Christmas Dozen. Yet the library books need to be read before they are due in three weeks so I started The Book of Books: The Radical Impact of the King James Bible 1611-2011 by Melvyn Bragg. He's English so the book has those delightful English spellings and it's really so interesting to me to read an Englishman's thoughts on the KJB and its impact on Britain as well as the United States.

In a chapter discussing the Bible and literature, I read this excerpt from John Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel about polygamy and found it cute enough to share (although anyone who knows me, probably realizes that I find polygyny as it's practiced for the most part, anything but 'cute.' Aaaaaand, in reality, this poem isn't so much 'cute' either as it's just witty....yes, let's say it's witty.)

In pious times, e'r Priest-craft did begin,
Before Polygamy was made a sin;
When man, on many, multiply'd his kind,
E'r one to one was, cursedly, confind:
When Nature prompted, and no law deny'd
Promiscuous use of Concubine and Bride;
Then, Israel's monarch, after Heaven's own heart,
His vigorous warmth did, variously, impart
To Wives and Slaves; And, wide as his Command,
Scatter'd his Maker's Image through the Land.

see the rest of this poem and more context here

This book is also where I got the John Adams quote which I posted on Facebook yesterday. I thought it was interesting especially after reading The English Is Coming! last year.

"English is destined to be in the next and succeeding centuries more generally the language of the world than Latin was in the last or French is in the present age. The reason of this is obvious, because the increasing population in America, and their universal connection and correspondence with all nations will, aided by the influence of England in the world, whether great or small, force their language into general use, in spite of all the obstacles that may be thrown in their way, if any such there should be."

—John Adams, Letter to Congress, 1780

Your turn: what do you think of either John Adams' thoughts on English or John Dryden's poem? Would you describe it as "witty" or "cute" or something else entirely?

Miracles and Motives

2012-01-13T11:52:00.001-05:00

Miracles are very often thought of, ... as events...that contract the laws of nature and that therefore cannot be explained by science or reason. But this is not at all what the Bible means by a miracle... 'The laws of nature' is a modern scientific concept. The Bible knows nothing about nature, let alone the laws of nature. The world is God's creation and whatever happens in the world, ordinary of extraordinary, is part of God's providence. The Bible does not divide events into natural and supernatural. God is in one way or another behind all events.

A miracle in the Bible is an unusual event which has been understood as an unusual act of God, a mighty work. Certain acts of God are called miracles or wonders because of their ability to astonish and surprise us, their ability to make us marvel and wonder. Thus creation is a miracle, grace is a miracle, the growth of an enormous mustard tree from a tiny seed is a miracle... The world is full of miracles for those who have eyes to see them. If we are no longer able to wonder and marvel except when the so-called laws of nature are broken, then we must be in a sorry state. (pg. 40,41)

How do you think of miracles? Do you believe they happen?

Why do you think Jesus did miracles? What was his motive? We he reluctant or quick to prove himself by doing signs and wonders?

Or if you don't believe in miracles such as are reported in the Bible, why do you think Jesus' followers would say he did miracles? What was their motive?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on any of this!

Quote from Jesus Before Christianity by Albert Nolan

'Cause they say confession is good for the soul

2012-01-01T20:04:00.000-05:00

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

(words from Jesus as recorded in Matthew 6***)

Happy New Year! Can you believe a dozen years have past since the Y2K hype with folks stockpiling food and water in case something bad happened because the computerized world might not be ready for a 2 as the first digit in the date? Really, I can't quite believe how fast the years fly by. I always heard this when I was in school, but, man, back then Chemistry class seemed to drag on forever so I was like "yeah right" when I'd hear an adult say such a thing. Fast forward all these years, and I'm that adult. Grrrrreat!

So today I was reflecting and resolving a bit since it is a brand new year. I decided to go for a walk and I had this brilliant post in mind yet as I sit here hours later, I cannot recall what I wanted to say.

I did want to confess to this bad habit that I have. See, I often approach holidays with some anticipation of all my family being together. I enjoy myself, but there is this niggling thought about "who won't be here next year when Easter (or Thanksgiving or Christmas or the new year) comes?"

And I hate that. I really do. It's like this little thought bent on destroying my peace and joy. It's worry and fear tormenting me!

I want to live each day enjoying the moments, not worrying about future possibilities or probabilities. I truly want to rest in knowing God has the future laid out and I can trust Him and rest completely knowing that my life is in His hands. Yet that side of me that simply won't rest, won't trust, won't just relax and leave it all to God ... *sigh*

For those of you who don't struggle with this either because it's not your personality trait to worry or you have complete faith in God or for whatever other reason that future happenings trouble you not in the slightest, I both admire and envy you.

I was resolving today that I would trust God more. That I would dwell on His goodness and faithfulness instead of worrying about what might happen.

I want the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart to be pleasing to God (Psalm 19:14). Last year I was angry and bitter way too much. God has been speaking mercy and grace to me lately. Christmas morning my pastor spoke on mercy. My brother gave me a book - not from my wishlist, but one I decided to start reading first from the pile I got for Christmas. It speaks of grace. And God is speaking to me through this book. The subtitle is "No One is Beyond the Reach of a Loving God" and if you knew the details of my life you'd know how timely this message is for me. Today I was reading the pages about the Prodigal Son and was reminded anew why I adore this parable from Jesus.


Books I got for Christmas

OK, enough from me. How was your New Year's Eve and first day of 2012? I was with my family last night. We met at my brother's house and some watched movies while others of us played Apples to Apples and Scattergories. We were laughing like crazy. Who says alcohol is required for fun? We did just fine with our silly games! :)

Do you have any resolutions for this year? Any words of wisdom? Anything at all that you want to share? Feel free ... the floor is yours.

*** Does it tell you anything about me that this passage was one I read often as a teen?

December Books

2011-12-30T20:47:00.001-05:00

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi -- "a memoir in books"; see previous post

At a café run by an Armenian in Iran -- "...forever I shall see on the glass door next to the name of the restaurant, which was in small letters, the compulsory sign in the large black letters: RELIGIOUS MINORITY. All restaurants run by non-Muslims had to carry this sign on their doors so that good Muslims, who considered all non-Muslims dirty and did not eat from the same dishes, would be forewarned." (pg. 180)

"'Both Yassi and I know that we have been losing our faith. We have been questioning it with every move. During the Shah's time, it was different. I felt I was in the minority and I had to guard my faith against all odds. Now that my religion is in power, I feel more helpless than ever before, and more alienated.' She wrote about how ever since she could remember, she had been told that life in the land of infidels was pure hell. She had been promised that all would be different under a just Islamic rule. Islamic rule! It was a pageant of hypocrisy and shame. She wrote about how at work her male supervisors never look her in the eye, about how in movies even a six-year-old girl must wear a scarf and cannot play with boys. Although she wore the veil, she described the pain of being required to wear it, calling it a mask behind which women were forced to hide. She talked about all this coldly, furiously, always with a question mark after each point." (pg. 328)

The Global Soul by Pico Iyer -- The author discusses our world of globalism and multiculturalism by visiting and reporting from airports (focus LAX), the "global marketplace" (Hong Kong), "multiculture" (Toronto), the Olympics (focus Atlanta), the Empire (focus on England) and "the alien home" (his life as a guy with Indian heritage who was born in England and grew up some there and California living in Japan with his longtime girlfriend and her two children. Oh, and his first name is after an Italian guy....so there.)

"To many I know from the New World, the Japanese response to every setback, from terrorists to burning houses to long hours, crowded trains, and sudden deaths - Shikataganai, or 'It can't be helped' - sounds fatalistic and too ready to surrender power to the heavens. But to me, coming from a California where it sometimes seems as if everyone is restlessly in search of perfection in his life, his job, his partner, and himself, it feels bracing to hear of limits that imply a sense of past as well as of future. A republic founded on the 'pursuit of happiness' seems a culture destined for disappointment, if only because it's pursuing something that, by definition, doesn't come from being sought: a culture founded, however inadvertently or subconsciously, on the First Noble Truth of Buddhism - the reality of suffering - seems better placed to deal with sorrow, and be pleasantly surprised by joy. In a world that's overheating with the drug of choice and seeming freedom, Japan, for all its consumerist madness, suggests, in its deeper self, a postglobal order that knows what things can really be perfected (streets, habits, surfaces) and what cannot." (pg. 284)

Two Birthdays in Baghdad by Anna Prouse -- The author is an Italian journalist and emergency medic and this book was translated from Italian. I liked reading her thoughts on people she met in Iraq - both natives and foreigners. Her thoughts on Iraqi inbreeding (pg. 38) and Iraqis' thoughts of Americans jogging for the fun of it (or health benefits pg. 48) were interesting. Also she told how the nursing profession was looked down upon for women (pg. 90) and I questioned again why the Americans allowed the people to ransack everything. Even IVs were ripped out of people's arms! How could (1) the Americans allow this and (2) the Iraqis do this? (pg. 94) The story of Saba being assassinated was sad. I enjoyed her trip to visit Iranian resisters who were given sanctuary in Iraq. These were people Saddam supported because they were against their leaders. The Americans didn't send them back because they would be imprisoned or killed. I didn't know they existed inside Iraq. I also liked the trip to Kurdish Iraq to celebrate the Persian new year festival.

My Prison, My Home by Haleh Esfandiari -- A rather interesting account of a sixty-seven year old grandmother's time in solitary confinement after the Iranian government decided she was working to overthrow the Islamic Republic. Years prior to the revolution, she had married a Jewish man. She admitted this was an oddity even then, but not criminal as it was under the new leadership. It was interesting to me how her interrogators brought up this fact and her thoughts on this being equivalent to adultery and would she then be stoned? This book made me see how evil the Iranian regime is.

Iran Awakening by Shirin Ebadi -- Oddly enough this lady was the lawyer of the lady in the previous book. I didn't realize that when I checked out both books. This book was great. I really really enjoyed reading of this Nobel Peace Prize winner who has fought for human rights in Iran from Iran (she didn't leave her country to fight from abroad). I was dismayed as she reported of how she was stripped of so many rights and even her job as a judge once the Islamic Republic was founded. She was no shah-lover and was fine with his removal, but she quickly found out that the Islamists taking over was not good for women. She has some great thoughts throughout the book. It's one of the best I've read lately.; see previous post for more on this book

Words to Live By; has no author listed just from Bethany House Publishers -- this is a book with 60 words: "reflections and insights on the most life-changing and thought-provoking words in the Bible" - I must say the one on worry was excellent and really spoke to me; I read this one to Samer - one word per day but not every day as we started this book back in May and only finished it this month!

Unveiled: Nuns Talking by Mary Louden -- the author interviews a few nuns from several different orders talking about their growing-up years, their reasons for becoming nuns, their outlooks on life and more; see previous post for a few quotes

A German Jewish lady speaks of leaving Germany for England at age 12 to escape the horrors of Hitler. In England she learns and speaks only English because being German is suspect there during the war years. She observes later in life: "I didn't belong anywhere, and also, in terms of language, I stopped learning German by the time I was twelve and so never developed an adult vocabulary, and yet I don't feel that English is my own language." (pg. 66)

My Guantanamo Diary: the Detainees and the Stories They Told Me by Mahvish Rukhsana Khan -- I've had this library book on my list for a few months now and I finally decided to read it. I had always thought the Gitmo prisoners were hard-core bad guys, but now I come away thinking maybe most of them are guys who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time - like at a time when turning in political enemies would give you a handsome reward! When Mahvish told, for instance, that the per capita income of Afghanistan in 2006 was $300 or 82 cents a day and a US bounty was $5,000 to $25,000 - she said in US dollars that was like the average American household (which made in 2006 $26,036) getting a $2.17 million reward! And she points out that tribal alliances and religious conflicts make for easy enemies in that part of the world. One Gitmo prisoner was turned in by his own cousin because the two had been fighting the night before. So yeah, I came away wondering how many innocent folks are being kept there. Such a horrible situation and bad thing for the US to be doing.

Walking to Vermont by Christopher S. Wren - Upon retiring from the New York Times at age 65 Mr. Wren walks from Times Square in New York City to the Green Mountains of Vermont much of it along the Appalachian Trail. He has a dry sense of humor, tells tales of the people he meets - complete with trail names like Storyteller, Knute, Flash, Seven States, introduces me to trail magic and more. A good, easy, end-of-the-year read.

I also liked reading this because last year when we went to Damascus, Virginia, we saw some of those hard-core trail people getting supplies and also we stood on the Appalachian Trail as it passed through a playground near where we were staying.

I found the picture of me on the App Trail!

Tomorrow is the last day of 2011. I wish you all a joyful 2012!

2011 Meme

2011-12-24T21:01:00.000-05:00

Since the year is mostly over I figure I can go ahead and post this now since I have some time! :)

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?

visited the Cherokee Indian Reservation in the North Carolina mountains

Can you find me?

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I didn't make any that I recall. No, I don't think so.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

my sister in law so I got a new nephew this year, Zach!

He's a keeper!

4. Did anyone close to you die?

no, but the pastor of the very small church I attended growing up died on November 10; he was 86

5. What countries did you visit?

none although Andrew went to Kenya so I felt I visited it through pictures and his stories

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?

hmmm,maybe a trip somewhere interesting; a settled soul; consistent hope and thankfulness despite life's circumstances

7. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

May 3 -- Zach was born

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

losing weight without really trying

9. What was your biggest failure?

inconsistency in faith

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

well, the Shiatsu massage pillow is so rough it bruised my backbone - ouch!

11. What was the best thing you bought?

meals for the elderly through our county's Meals on Wheels program

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Michael - as usual he's such a wonderful young fellow

Love him!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Bashar al-Assad's

14. Where did most of your money go?

probably health insurance and taxes

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

to be honest, I rarely get "really, really, really excited" about anything as it's not my temperament, but what I loved doing this year was spending time with my nephews and I was really excited when Andrew came home from Kenya (but don't tell him)

They're baaaaack!

16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2011?

Peace,Peace, Wonderful Peace -- my mom sang it at my former pastor's funeral; he always said he wanted her to sing it at his funeral so she did

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. Happier or sadder?

ii. the same

iii. Thinner or fatter?

iv. a bit (and I mean a bit) thinner although Christmas gatherings may have reversed that in recent days

v. richer or poorer?

vi. well, Andrew just broke his finger, had surgery and went to Kenya in December so ...

ouch!

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

traveling - I missed our summer beach trip due to Hurricane Irene coming through that weekend

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

worrying, being fearful

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

with family after church

21. How many one-night stands?

zero

22. What was your favorite TV program?

N.C.I.S.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

I try not to hate people, but I suppose I dislike some people more this year than last (see # 13 for starters)

24. What was the best book you read?

Wow, I just checked my end-of-the-month lists and was reminded of how many good books I read this year. It's a tough choice as there is no one book that stands out as my absolute favorite. I suppose it depends on what genre you are interested in. Since I have to choose, I'll go with Girl Meets God which I read in February if you care to go back and see what I noted about it. Some books I remembered so well, I could hardly believe it had been several months since I read them. They seemed like books I was reading just a few weeks ago not back in January or March!

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Juan, my brother in law's brother who visited for a couple of weeks from Venezuela

such a sweetheart

26. What did you want and get?

books

27. What was your favorite film of this year?

I only watched 2 movies, The Bucket List and Steel Magnolias; both were good and both made me cry; I'll choose the first as my favorite since I'd not seen it before and the second as my favorite because of the great southern accents

28. What did you do on your birthday?

went to a dog show with Stephanie and Michael during the day and out with Andrew for supper at Ruby Tuesday

29. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?

comfort is key

Me and the Ninja Child on Halloween

30. What kept you sane?

I'm not sure if I am

31. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

I love all the characters on N.C.I.S. and wish I'd been watching this show for the years it's been on TV (I guess I could get the past seasons on DVD eventually, right?)

32. What political issue stirred you the most?

the hypocrisy of so many people on the Arab Spring and more; so I guess foreign policy once again

33. Who did you miss?

talking to Louai from London once he moved back to Damascus

34. Who was the best new person you met?

Zach

35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.

If used correctly, Facebook can be a tool for learning a lot about a variety of viewpoints! And oftentimes it's fun meeting new people, but hard to tell them goodbye.

Come again soon, Juan!

Here is my 2009 Meme

and my 2010 Meme

"Unveiled: Nuns Talking"

2011-12-23T07:34:00.002-05:00

Here are a few quotes from Unveiled: Nuns Talking by Mary Louden that I found worthwhile to share.

"When someone dies here the attitude is one of rejoicing: we have an extra recreation day. Yes, really! There've been five old ones go since I've been here, and they've been really beautiful moments, with the whole community gathered around the person that's dying and the priest there as well. It really is lovely, and I don't think I've ever seen anybody shed a tear. They're all thinking, lucky thing!" (pg. 53) -- Angela Therese, Carmelite Community, Darlington, County Durham

I love this attitude about death!

"Within the Church, we're going to be faced with the question: do we really exist to serve people, and to attend to them in their needs? Or do we exist to impose ideologies?" (pg. 178) -- Lavinia, Institute of The Blessed Virgin Mary, Hampstead, London

Yes, really!

"Good does not exist without evil, and you can't have dark without light, but in my own appreciation, if God's hadn't allowed evil, then we would not know it,and we would almost be puppets. If good was all that existed, then I could only choose good, and it wouldn't be a proper choice. ... We search for the light, and it is an ongoing quest of humanity to find answers to these questions. Yet ultimately I believe we cannot find them here. In the end, I have to say, 'I believe this. It doesn't hinder my reasoning, but it is beyond my reasoning.' I have to be prepared all the time to accept that reason is great, but that it isn't infinite. There is a limit to reason." (pg. 198) -- Renate, Community of The Holy Name, Derby

I love that she recognizes that reason has its limits! Tell me again why we expect to fully understand God as if saying our religion is logical means it's better somehow?

"And I believe that the Christian faith is not the faith of a book or dogma: it is the acceptance of a personal invitation. It is like someone saying to you, 'You are important to me, therefore come and join my company.' It sounds very simplistic and very primitive, but I believe that that is what it is." (pg. 204) -- Renate, Community of The Holy Name, Derby

Relationship rather than dogma...yay.

Thoughts?

Iran

2011-12-14T18:58:00.000-05:00

Last night I finished reading Iran Awakening by Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi. She had lots of really interesting things to say dealing with both Iran and the United States and our history together and apart. These are just a few of the many things that took my attention. You'll just have to read the rest for yourself when you buy the book (or borrow it from the library as I did!)

"Ever since that day, the twenty-second of Bahman has been celebrated as the date of the revolution's victory. In Persian, we do not say the revolution was born, that it happened or came to pass; we require an oversize verb, and so we say the revolution was victorious. That day, a feeling of pride washed over me that in hindsight makes me laugh. I felt that I too had won, alongside this victorious revolution. It took scarcely a month for me to realize that, in fact,I had willingly and enthusiastically participated in my own demise. I was a woman, and this revolution's victory demanded my defeat." (pg.38)

A former judge, Shirin was now relegated to a secretary in the same court in which she used to preside. Because women couldn't be judges apparently.

Shirin enjoyed reading several newspapers every day. As the Islamic Republic started printing their new penal code, she felt she was "hallucinating" as she read how her value had just been cut in half and women's rights were stripped. She said it seemed they "had apparently consulted the seventh century for legal advice." (pg. 51) She felt so unsettled about these laws where her husband remained a person and she "became chattel" that she talked with her husband about how he'd been "promoted above" her. He agreed to a postnuptial agreement where she had the right to divorce him and primary custody of the children if they divorced. The notary looked at her husband like he'd gone mad.

Once when the family went on a skiing trip, Javad (her husband) rode the men's bus while Shirin and their daughters got on the women's bus. Unfortunately something about their vacation plans roused the suspicion of the bus driver so she was questioned. Her husband's bus had already left so he couldn't vouch for her.

'I'm sorry,' he said obstinately. 'I can't let the bus depart.'

... 'This is absurd,' I said, 'It's not fair to the other people on that bus.'

'There's only one solution,' ... 'I have to call your mother and see if you have permission to go skiing.'
...

And that is how I was forced, at the age of forty-five, to dial up my mother and say, 'Maman, can you please tell this man that I'm allowed to go skiing?''' (pg. 101)

She said her mother teased her about this later saying next time she might not give permission.

"The suicide rate among women rose after the Islamic Revolution, commonly taking the form of self-immolation. This tragic exhibitionism, I'm convinced, is women's way of forcing their community to confront the cruelty of oppression. Otherwise, would it not simply be easier to overdose on pills in a dark room?" (pg. 109)

I think we all remember a year ago when a young fruit vendor in Tunisia did the same thing. Many believe his act paved the way for 2011's Arab Spring.

On a somewhat related note, I heard on the news a bit ago that THE PROTESTER is Time magazine's person of the year.

That "Piece of Cloth"

2011-12-02T09:32:00.001-05:00

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

Mr. Bahri could not understand why we were making such a fuss over a piece of cloth. Did we not see that there were more important issues to think about, that the whole life of the revolution was at stake? What was more important, to fight against the satanic influence of Western imperialists or to obstinately hold on to a personal preference that created division among the ranks of the revolutionaries? These might not have been his exact words, but they were the gist of his language. In those days, people really talked that way. One had a feeling, in revolutionary and intellectual circles, that they spoke from a script, playing characters from an Islamized version of a Soviet novel.

It was ironic that Mr. Bahri, the defender of the faith, described the veil as a piece of cloth. I had to remind him that we had to have more respect for that 'piece of cloth' than to force it on reluctant people. ...

What could he think? A stern ayatollah, a blind and improbable philosopher-king, had decided to impose his dream on a country and a people and to re-create us in his own myopic vision. So he had formulated an ideal of me as a Muslim woman, as a Muslim woman teacher, and wanted me to look, act and in short live according to that ideal. Laleh and I, in refusing to accept that ideal, were taking not a political stance but an existential one. No, I could tell Mr. Bahri, it was not that piece of cloth that I rejected, it was the transformation being imposed upon me that made me look in the mirror and hate the stranger I had become. (pgs. 164-165)

"The Islamic Revolution, as it turned out, did more damage to Islam by using it as an instrument of oppression than any alien ever could have done." (pg. 109)

As I've read this book so far, I've thought of the elections coming up in 2012 in the United States. And, of course, just recently Tunisia and Egypt held their own first post-Ali/Mubarak elections. I like to learn from books and what I've learned from this book about a lady living through the Iranian revolution is this: beware voting for people who would seek to oppress others in order to re-create their dreams of an ideal nation or appeal to a voting bloc with those dreams. Beware of politicians who agree to sell the country to the devil in order to keep their power in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere. Let's truly have freedom and justice and the pursuit of happiness for all. Let's allow God to be God and not seek to be Him as we impose our visions of a perfect world on others. Let's live Micah 6:8.

"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

I think that's more than enough to keep us busy without meddling in others' affairs, don't you?

November Books

2011-11-30T18:36:00.001-05:00

Another month has come and gone. Thanksgiving last week was great! I love that the weather has been on the warm side.

Here are the books I finished reading this month. The last one I finished just about an hour ago. I wasn't sure if I'd finish it or not, but I did!

Hope you all are doing well!

Lipstick Jihad by Azadeh Moaveni -- I remembered seeing this review by Muslimah Media Watch back when I used to follow that blog, so when I saw this book in the library,I decided to read it. It's a memoir of a lady who grew up in California and later went to Iran where she found she was too American for some. Here is an interview you may find interesting.; see previous post for excerpts from this book that I found interesting

The Miracle of Freedom: 7 Tipping Points that Saved the World by Chris and Ted Stewart -- I found this on the new book shelf at my local library and found it rather interesting. The authors claim freedom is not the norm and have chosen 7 historical events that they say were major "what if" moments. Their choices range from Jerusalem not being destroyed by Assyria to the Mongols and Muslim armies not getting farther into western Europe to the Battle for Britain to the conversion of Constantine. I enjoyed the history that I learned from this book.

Looking for Lovedu: Days and Nights in Africa by Ann Jones -- another interesting traveling story this one focusing on the author's mission to find Lovedu and the queen who rules her people. Along the way, the reader is informed of problems with the vehicle, border crossings, corrupt officials, cranky co-travelers as well as the depths of mud, mud and more mud in Zaire! Quite a good book. I really enjoy learning more about other areas of the world through these types of books!

Islam and Democracy: Fear of the Modern World by Fatima Mernissi -- Overall I think I liked this book although some things perplexed me. This was written soon after the first Gulf War so it was a bit strange reading about Iraq and the Arab world's reaction back then having now gone through this other war concerning Iraq that we are trying to get out of none too soon! The author scolded the West, the Arabs, the men. She gave me much to consider and at times I wasn't sure if she were writing tongue-in-cheek or if she were serious. I had more than this to share, but I will refrain. But since I shared this bit on Facebook, I'll just leave it here.

"The supremacy of the West is not so much due to its military hardware as to the fact that its military bases are laboratories and its troops are brains, armies of researchers and engineers. ... The arms industry provides an enormous number of jobs in other sectors, such as electronics and communications. ... The West creates its power through military research, which forces underdeveloped countries to become passive consumers. The weakness of the Arab nations stems from the fact that they buy weapons instead of choosing to do their own research. .. The Arab states prefer to import finished technological products, especially arms, rather than train a powerful corps of scientists, which would risk destabilizing their authority from within." -- (pgs. 43, 50)

The Case for the Real Jesus by Lee Strobel -- "A Journalist Investigates Current Attacks on the Identity of Christ" - actually the book is a bit old (published in 2007) so it's not current current, but I appreciated it just the same. The author talked to experts about such things as other ancient documents being found that are just as credible as the four gospels, Christianity borrowing from pagan teachings and myths, the resurrection, the Church tampering with the texts and so forth. See my earlier post for more on this book

The Rapture Exposed by Barbara R. Rossing provides "The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation" as the author picks apart the theology of dispensationalists and those believing the End Times arrive with an escape plans for all true Christians and a blood bath and utter destruction for planet Earth. The author makes her case by talking quite a bit about the Left Behind series and the dangerous way it shapes American thinking about the rest of the world and foreign policy. She ultimately believes in the saving power of the "wonder working blood of the Lamb" which left me remembering Paul's words about overcoming evil with good. She tells us the true message of Revelation is that God is with us through all life's tribulations and that was personified as Jesus - God in the flesh come down to dwell among humans to be with them through storms and life's trials.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant -- this book is like a Jewish Midrash with Dinah, the daughter of Jacob (Israel) telling her story of growing up with four mothers and eleven brothers (she never knew Benjamin in this book until much later). I remember when Amber posted on this book ages ago and recently when someone else mentioned it,I remembered to look for it that day at the library. (It just so happened I was headed there to get new books! For the record, Amber, at the library I went to, they had this book in Christian Fiction...haha.)

Dudes of War by Benjamin Tupper -- curious about what soldiers do when they aren't out on a combat mission? This book has short chapters featuring people such as Shrapnel, The Greek, Lancelot, Deathwish, Casanova, Mr. OCD and so forth as the author tells about his experiences in Afghanistan. Read how the digital age has made it possible for our soldiers to enjoy women when there are very few women around (Afghanistan is not like Vietnam with prostitutes waiting for our soldiers' attentions; the author admits how he develops a "foot fetish" of sorts looking for pretty nail polish and high heels in a country where women are completely covered), how the soldiers compete for having the best gear, how alcohol is technically forbidden to them there, yet it's often available anyway. He briefly discusses blogging, humanitarian assistance (in winning the hearts and minds of the Afghans), loving the Hazara (which made the Pashtun interpreters angry), PTSD, religion and so forth.

"The soldier does not operate in a black-and-white world, so to romanticize or demonize both miss the target. The soldier is the fusion of Christ and Judas, the wolf and the sheep, and the aggressor and the victim. We are capable of altruism and moral failure at any given moment on any given day. Soldiers recognize this fact perhaps better than anyone, but that doesn't mean they agree on what constitutes altruism and moral failures. Soldiers who serve in the same army, under the same flag, and in the same uniform, will interpret their actions and justifications in starkly different ways." (pg. 105)

Eclipse of the Sunnis by Deborah Amos -- see previous post for more information on Iraq refugees in neighboring countries

Also I found this of interest:

"Without waging war, Iran had skillfully expanded its political influence in places that before 2003 had been under Arab sway, including Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine. The Arabs - above all the Sunni powers - had lost ground everywhere. Even the radical Sunni movements, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, were increasingly dependent on Tehran. Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah were furious about Iran's growing reach into the Arab heartland but what could they do about it? The American invasion that had removed Iraq from the balance-of-power equations on the Sunni side had tilted the region towards Tehran. The Sunni powers shuddered to think of living under the embrace of Shiite mullahs with nuclear arms." (pg. 178)

Sandstorms: Days and Nights in Arabia by Peter Theroux -- see previous post about Saudi Arabia in the 1980s for excerpts from this book

Fortunate Sons by Liel Leibovitz and Matthew Miller -- see previous post

Interesting fact: After the building of the Transcontinental Railroad groups of Chinese men dug in the Sierra Nevada. They "would come on pilgrimages to search for the graves of their fellow workers. Beneath simple wooden stakes lay bodies buried with wax-sealed bottles holding pieces of cloth inscribed with the deceased's name and native village. These remains, thus discovered, would be exhumed and shipped back to China; in all, twenty thousand pounds of bones would make this final journey." (pg. 102)

Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman -- Faced with a struggling marriage and a trial separation, the author heads to Mexico to live among indigenous people. Rita wasn't content to stay in the touristy spots, but went to the villages where not many - if any - foreigners travel. She connects with people this way in Mexico and Nicaragua, later travels to Israel hoping to find some connection with "her" people (fellow Jews). Her travels take her to the Galapagos Islands and Indonesia where she spends parts of 8 years living in Bali and traveling to the Indonesian side of New Guinea. She also talks about her life in New Zealand, Thailand and the United States. Unlike most of the travel books I've read this year where people talked with natives for short times, this book was different in that the author often lived with native people for weeks, months or years at a time. It was a great way for me to learn more about Balinese culture and other parts of the world. Learn more about Rita at her website.

The Early Arrival of Dreams by Rosemary Mahoney tells the story of an American woman who lived in China for a year as an English teacher back in the 1980s. It was good reading her impressions of the Chinese people, cities, food, university and so forth. Also I enjoyed reading how they interacted with her.

Naked in Baghdad by Anne Garrels -- This book is about "the Iraq war as seen by NPR's correspondent" and it includes a few months before the war started and the couple of months after. At first I was a bit bored thinking I'd heard most of this before, but I grew to really enjoy the book as the author shared about what happened on the ground once the war started, the people's reactions and such things. Interesting tidbit: Russian was useful to her as a second language since she didn't know Arabic and many of the Iraqis she met didn't know English. I liked that she tried to verify which civilian neighborhoods the US bombs hit and which other reported stories were true (or not). I was saddened to read how the US troops didn't stop the looting (except for the oil ministry *ahem*) saying they were not a police force. Yet they had just destroyed things and left the looters to wreak havoc. The author said the bombs were really accurate for the most part, but the ground war once the troops came to Baghdad showed how ill prepared our military was for the pandemonium of a people recently freed. She said many Iraqis feared themselves and I see why after reading of the looting plus seeing how things have turned out the last several years with the sectarian fighting. I enjoyed the reporting on how the Iraqi people reacted to Saddam's statue coming down.

Hijabs, Beards, Queues: outward ways we identify and submit

2011-11-23T09:16:00.001-05:00

It's rather interesting how we do things to either identify with others or perhaps show our submission.

Many Muslim women will choose to wear head scarves in order to do one or the other or both. I've heard some argue that they don't believe God requires them to cover their hair, however, they want to wear scarves in order to identify themselves as Muslims.

Probably the same with Amish and Mennonite women who cover their hair.

I think the Taliban required a fist-length beard for Afghani men in order to identify with proper Islamic standards.

And, if memory serves, there are Old Testament rules about how Israelite men were to keep their beards as well as the requirement for circumcision.

I'm currently reading Fortunate Sons by Liel Leibovitz and Matthew Miller. It's about "the 120 Chinese boys who came to America, went to school, and revolutionized an ancient civilization." The plan was that these 12-14 year old boys would be educated in American high schools and universities such as Yale and possibly study at military academies so that China could learn about technology and military might so they wouldn't always be dependent on western imports and could grow and defend themselves properly. (This was 1872, by the way.) These boys were to remain stateside for 15 years before heading home. (I've not read far enough in the book to see if they stayed that long. Presently the first high school graduates, who'd been in the US for about five years, are beginning studies at Yale.)

Reading some of the cultural differences made me smile especially since one lady, in a display of motherly affection I suppose, kissed the boy who was staying in her house. This boy had only bowed his head four times to his own mother as a way of saying goodbye for his fifteen year travel and he later wrote that he had not been kissed since infancy prior to this New England lady kissing his cheek! Of course the other Chinese boys giggled at this public display of affection.

Anyway, I digress. The reason this book reminded me of hijabs and Jewish beards, ways we identify with others and/or submit was talk of the queue, the hairstyle that Chinese men at this time were forced to wear in order to show their submission to the Qing Dynasty. I remember the boys wanted to blend in more with their American peers as their Chinese robes and long braids were cause for teasing. Their Chinese sponsor was able to get permission for them to wear western clothes, but they could not cut their hair. They were allowed to hide the braids in hats or under their clothes, however.

I like this book because I have also learned some about Confucian teachings. Did you realize before they were made to submit to Qing queues, most Han Chinese wore long hair because Confucius said we inherit our hair from our ancestors so we should not damage it?

Can you think of other ways (e.g., hairstyles, clothes, circumcision) that we show outward identification and/or submission?

Observations on Saudi Arabia in the 1980s

2011-11-21T18:46:00.001-05:00

If you've read any of my posts this year, you may know I've enjoyed a number of books by Westerners traveling through Arabia and other parts of the world. I find it such an interesting way to learn more about the variety of cultures, the religions, the people, the foods, the animals, everything. Of course they are told from specific people's eyes where the natives' habits may seem curious or strange, but that's part of what I love about reading books or blog posts of those visiting the United States. I like to see what stands out to people, what they find noteworthy, what they find worth sharing.

This book Sandstorms: Days and Nights in Arabia by Peter Theroux tells of the author's adventures in Egypt and Saudi Arabia during the 1980s as he was searching for information on what happened to Moussa Sadr. He wrote a book about that, but this one is about other stuff that happened during his time in the Middle East.

Peter learned Arabic, made friends with Arabs and did his best to explain Arab culture to visitors so the visitors would have a better understanding of the Arabian ways. Please keep this in mind as you read the following excerpts because I don't want you to get the wrong impression that his book was only about this stuff I noted. I guess these are just the funny and odd things that stand out the most to me. Actually there is so much more - like the man who wanted to convert Peter to Islam and then asked if he had any girls (American? British? Filipino?) available so he could have a good time. When one day Peter decided to say yes that he has available girls and they are Saudis, the man got extremely angry and never spoke to him again! Must be one of those cultural things about MEN that I will never understand!

Since this book's information is quite old, I do wonder as I'm reading how much has changed since Peter lived in Arabia.

THIS ONE JUST MADE ME LITERALLY LAUGH OUT LOUD

Peter was driving in Saudi Arabia when his car slid into a ditch. A police car arrived and the officer checked his driver's license which was issued in Peter's home state, Massachusetts.

Officer: "Just wait a minute - what's this?"

"That's my American license. I don't have a Saudi one yet, but -- "

"What do you mean, 'American license'? Show me where it says 'America.'"

Alas, it doesn't since it was issued by Massachusetts - a state - and not the federal government. So the officer calls another officer over and they talk. The second officer comes over with the pleasant "salaamu aleikum" greeting declaring that he knows Massachusetts: "It's the best state!"

We chatted - he was friendly and extremely religious and demanded to know why I had not converted to Islam, since I knew Arabic and could presumably see, in the Koran, the perfect fulfillment of Judaism and Christianity. Surely I rejected the infamous sacrilege that God had a mother and a son? ... I tried to pump him about his visit to Massachusetts.

"I never visited there - I know it from history. America is full of good people but bad things - sex and crime, and some people are so backward - they worship the devil and follow the tower" - he meant al-bourj, the zodiac - "but Massachusetts is the only place they know how to deal with witches - by hanging them! Good night, my friend." (pgs. 20-22)

Not sure why this struck me so funny. Must have been the matter-of-fact way the guy declared MA the "best state" because they hung witches there. In the past. Not that that is funny at all ... moving on.

ON CONVERSIONS OBSERVED IN KSA

It involved in his opinion "a cultural rather than spiritual transformation. I never knew a Christian whose values changed radically after adopting Islam, but the outward changes - especially in name and wardrobe - were always striking." [Insert examples of American converts who adopted "very specifically, the clothes and habits of the desert Arabs."] "It was as if a Russian Jewish convert to Christianity in Oklahoma made it an article of faith to dress as a cowboy every day, down to the chaps, spurs, and lasso. ... It was a one-way street, of course, since apostatizing from Islam to any other faith was a capital crime." (pg. 139-140)

Haha...I can understand adopting the head scarf if you thought God wanted you to cover your hair, but I have puzzled over the complete transformations and changed names. Hey, I guess if you don't like the name your parents gave you, it's a good excuse to find one you like better! Too bad your selection is limited to Arabic ones, however.

ON SHIITES

He told of an Islamic University which "used a textbook, which debated, among other questions, whether or not Shiites have tails." (pg. 127)

"The ugliness of the Arab world's hostility toward its own Shiites was remarkable, and I felt that Saudi Arabia was abusing its prestige as guardian of Mecca and Medina by hinting that the Shia were 'deviants' and ridiculing their clergy. I had to take my stand, and I took it by being part of this friendly Shiite underground." (pg. 128)

If I were a Shiite, I think I'd show them my tail so their mystery would be solved! ;-)

WHY NO CHURCHES ALLOWED?

"Surely the Saudi bigotry against other religions revealed a deep insecurity in the face of other cultures and faiths and was a sop to empty nationalism and phony clerics. Even the least observant Muslim in Saudi Arabia measured power and influence in religious terms. ... It was a subtle and informal way of marking territory. When the city of Rome decided, in 1984, to grant a building permit for a mosque near the Holy See, the reaction of the Riyadh press was anything but uplifting: jeering articles applauded this tanazul, relinquishing or surrender, on the part of Rome and the Vatican. They did not rule out that tolerance or political opportunism may have played a role, as they surely must have, but that was beside the point: Europe and all Christendom were gloatingly shown to be demoralized and weak for having caved to Islamic machismo. It was also portrayed as a crushing blow to 'world Zionism.'"

I wonder if this is similar to those folks in Tennessee who didn't want a mosque in their town. Were they also marking territory or desiring to not show weakness by surrendering? Were they trying to deliver a "crushing blow" to "world Islamism"? Hmmmm...

When Peter was talking to his friend about allowing a church for all the Christians in Riyadh (foreigners of course since all Saudis are Muslim by birth), he asked, "Wouldn't you respect them more if they went to church, if they had a church to go to?"

"'Having no churches prevents them from learning wrong things,' shrugged Hamdan. 'They should be grateful. It's their chance to learn something about Islam.'" (pg. 172-173)

So have things changed much in these 25-30 years? I don't know. But it sure is interesting to read some impressions about this part of the world from the pre-9/11 days. Sometimes it's hard for me to recall what I thought of or knew about Arabs or Muslims before then. Actually all these things described above sound nothing like the Arabs and Muslims I've had the pleasure of getting to know. Maybe I should be more clear from time to time about that. Samer asks me sometimes why I am reading books about his people (and finding faulty things such as I mentioned above) and I tell him if he were some Jewish Israeli guy who found me online, invited me to his country and became one of my best friends, I'd be reading books on Israel and Zionism and doing the same thing. So I blame Samer. He started it! ;)

Iraqi Refugees in Syria and Lebanon

2011-11-19T10:39:00.001-05:00

I'm reading Eclipse of the Sunnis by Deborah Amos. She is talking mostly about the Iraqi "surge" -- no, not the American soldiers surging into that country, but the "surge" of Iraqis fleeing their country into neighboring regions. This book tells the story of many people the author met during interviews with Iraqi refugees - millions who have been displaced mostly due to the American invasion and subsequent rising of a more sectarian government and society. The first few chapters take place in Damascus and surrounding areas. One chapter deals with the women forced to work as prostitutes in order to provide for their children.

That's extremely heartbreaking enough, but then reading this just made me want to throw up my hands in disgust at the hypocrisy and unjustness!

"In another story, I had heard about an Iraqi woman in the sex trade whose clients were young Shiite men from the Mahdi militia who came to Syria in the summer for vacation. They paid her for sex, enjoyed her company, but threatened that if she ever came back to Baghdad they would cut her head off." (pg. 84)

This is such an interesting book so far, and although it was published just last year, I am already wishing for an update due to how much Syria has changed in 2011. I am left wondering about all those Iraqi refugees who fled there. Syria was one of the only countries who accepted Iraqis as the Jordanians quickly closed their border. How have things changed for the refugees now that Syria is in an upheaval? Has it made more of them go back home? Have they joined either cause: those with Assad's regime or those who want more freedom?

In the section about Lebanon the author mentions Palestinians - particularly "young, third-generation refugees [who] had lost hope in liberating Palestine and found a more promising cause in the mujahedeen in Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan, and then Iraq - all places they had gone to fight." (pg. 100)

"The 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq fanned the long-burning flame, giving the angry young men of Tripoli an outlet for venting their rage. When they came home from the anti-U.S. jihad in Iraq, the Lebanese fighters brought comrades with them and found refuge in Lebanon's Palestinian camps, which remained off-limits to the police and the army. In this way, the unintended consequences of a generation of exiles that began in 1948 contributed to the ongoing destabilization of the region and the creation of a newly displaced people. It was the perfect example of the cost of doing nothing to solve an earlier refugee crisis: Ignore it for long enough and it will fan the next crisis and seed future ones." (pg. 102)

Jesus is the answer

2011-11-17T18:54:00.001-05:00

This was just something I read in a magazine a few days ago that I liked as it was a timely reminder for me as I've struggled with my thinking on the human condition and the brokenness of life and such things.

"Dramatic testimony or not, Christian home or 'rough background,' life is broken for everyone. But Jesus saves. Regardless of the circumstances, the backgrounds, the histories, the bad deeds and even the good ones, the Gospel is the answer."

I remember "gospel" being defined as "good news." And a friend telling us the good new is Jesus. Not religion. Not Christianity. Not all the stuff people tell you that you have to do to please God and make it to heaven.

It's just Jesus.

Jesus is the answer. He offers good news for my broken life.

Source: "From Death to Life: Redeemed by the Gospel" pg. 17

NT Manuscript Variations and Inspiration

2011-11-14T08:21:00.001-05:00

For those of you who have been to Sunday School classes or youth events where your questions were dismissed by your teachers because "you should just accept things by faith and not question God," I am glad to read that not everyone is this way. Thankfully many people have questioned and not simply accepted things blindly, but searched and studied. I liked this little snippet. Maybe because it's comforting to know scholarly people have studied and come out stronger in their trust of Jesus as he is presented in the New Testament.

In The Case for the Real Jesus author Lee Strobel recalls an interview he had with Bruce Metzger "a scholar who's universally acknowledged as the greatest textual critic of his generation." Bart Ehrman "even dedicates Misquoting Jesus to him, calling him 'Doctor-Father' and saying he 'taught me the field and continues to inspire me in my work.'"

Strobel was interviewing Metzger about the variations between New Testament manuscripts noting most of them "tend to be minor rather than substantive."

"Yes, yes, that's correct, " Metzger replied, adding: "The more significant variations do not overthrow any doctrine of the church."

Then I recall asking him how his many decades of intensely studying the New Testament's text had affected his personal faith. "Oh," he said, sounding happy to discuss the topic, "it has increased the basis of my personal faith to see the firmness with which these materials have come down to us, with a multiplicity of copies, some of which are very ancient."

"So," I started to say, "scholarship has not diluted your faith ____"

He jumped in before I could finish my sentence. "On the contrary," he stressed, "it has built it. I've asked questions all my life, I've dug into the text, I've studied this thoroughly, and today I know with confidence that my trust in Jesus has been well placed."

He paused while his eyes surveyed my face. Then he added, for emphasis, "Very well placed." (pg. 99)

I just wanted to share this for those wondering what the Bible being inspired meant.

In an interview with Dan Wallace ...

"Seeking a crisp summary, I said, 'Complete this sentence: when Christians say the Bible is inspired, they mean that...'"

"'...that it's both the Word of God and the words of men. Lewis Sperry Chafer put it well: "Without violating the authors' personalities, they wrote with their own feelings, literary abilities, and concerns. But in the end, God could say, That's exactly what I wanted to have written."'" (pg. 74)

Good definition or would you say it differently?

Thoughts?

"Lipstick Jihad"

2011-11-05T12:31:00.003-05:00

Excerpts from Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran by Azadeh Moaveni

Note: The author was born in 1976 to Iranian parents who came to America and ended up staying after the Islamic revolution. As an adult she lived in Tehran for several months as a journalist. She tried to remember the Iran she visited as a child and fit in with her people. Here are a few observations that I noted from this book.

I wanted to pinpoint precisely what it was that gave me away as a foreigner. After watching me for several weeks as we rode in taxis and shopped and had coffee, Celine concluded that it was nothing so obvious. She leaned forward in her chair, as if to make a serious pronouncement. One, you laugh whenever you want. And two, you smile too much. This is very American of you. It doesn't really occur to you, to alter yourself in public. So I should smile less? I asked. I should be less nice? No, she replied, you need to be more selective about who you're nice to. (pg. 69)

I just found that funny because I think I would be guilty of the same if I were in one of those societies where it's odd to smile at any ol' person walking down the street.

The major social aim of the revolution had been to impose Islamic faith on Iranian society. But the catalog of restrictions - on dress, behavior, speech - meant to instill a solemn decency instead inflamed people's carnal instincts. Made neurotic by the innate oppressiveness of restriction, Iranians were preoccupied with sex in the manner of dieters constantly thinking about food. The subject meant to be unmentionable - to which end women were forced to wear veils, sit in the back of the bus, and order hamburgers from the special "women's line" at fast food joints - had somehow become the most mentioned of all. The constant exposure to covered flesh - whether it was covered hideously, artfully, or plainly - brought to mind, well, flesh. (pg. 71)

Makes sense really. And I read stuff like this often on Muslim blogs about how preoccupied the people are with sex! To me, covering women doesn't really make the men stop fantasizing about what's hidden under the veil.

Her thoughts on temporary marriages, the Shiite practice of sigheh -- "It is a form of prostitution, which enables a patriarchal culture to cement the imbalanced gender relations in the guise of empowering women with a temporary and flimsy legal status that rarely works to their benefit." (pg. 74)

It amuses me somewhat when people try to defend this as some gift from God.

It was only over time, after repeated exposure to womanizing clerics, clerics who stole from the state and built financial empires, who ordered assassinations like gangsters, who gave Friday sermons attacking poodles, that I came to understand the virulence of my father and my uncle's hate for the Iranian clergy. Perhaps their flaws were no greater than those of ordinary mortals, but ordinary mortals did not claim divine right to rule, ineptly, over seventy million people. (pg. 101)

Yessssss! And that is the problem! You are corrupt like the rest of us, yet you believe God allows you to tell us what to do! And poodles are so awful just because some Westerners own them? Get outta here!

Thoughts on the veil -- "It was the symbol of how everything had gone horribly wrong. How in the early days of the revolution, secular women wore the veil as a protest symbol against the West and its client state policies, and then had it imposed on them by the fundamentalist mullahs who hijacked the revolution and instituted religious law. My generation, Iranians who learned about 1979 at kitchen tables in the United States, absorbed this version of history as truth. Though most women in modern-day Iran might not consider the veil their highest grievance, they knew it symbolized the system's disregard for women's legal status in general. Mandatory veiling crushed women's ability to express themselves, therefore denying them a basic human right." (pg. 170)

Nanny governments and mandatory veiling stinks! What happened to it being between a woman and God?

On how some women from conservative families were more free after the Shah's removal from power -- "Under the Shah's regime, traditional parents like hers would never have let their daughters stray out into society. They preferred to keep them uneducated and housebound rather than exposing them to corrupt, Westernized Iranians who drank, smoke, wore miniskirts, and slept around. The revolution erased all those sins from the surface of society (tucking them under wraps, along with women). In the process, it made possible for young women like Fatimeh to venture out of the home sphere. They were given the opportunity to do something with their lives besides washing dishes and birthing." (pg. 181)

This reminded me of the arguments of those who oppose the burqa bans in some European countries. They claim women will just have to stay home since they won't be allowed to go out in public with their faces showing. In that sense France, in their opinions, actually oppressed Muslim women (more).

I really enjoyed this book because I was able to learn some about the Iranian revolution and life in Tehran from an Iranian woman. I do realize she is a secular Muslim* woman who grew up in California and that colors her views of some things in Iran that others may have no problem with.

*Some would probably not even consider her Muslim, but I believe she culturally considers herself this way.

Climbing Trees and Breaking Things

2011-11-01T19:07:00.001-05:00

Remember how I've talked about noticing patterns in the past? (Like this post where I talked about tuna.) Well, last night I posted a few pictures from Halloween on Facebook. I had one where Michael took a picture of me pretending to climb a tree. I'd gotten to his house early so we took a few pictures while waiting for it to get dusky enough for trick or treating. (It's this picture for those who are able to see my Facebook photos.) Anyway, one of my doctor friends joked that it was cute, but he'd advise against it so I joked that yeah I might break my arm and have to visit a doctor.

No biggie.

A few hours later I was mowing the yard and thinking of climbing trees and wondering if kids even did that any more. I remember climbing trees at my great grandmother's house. My cousins and I had fun hiding out up there.

No biggie.

But then a couple hours later I was talking to my mom and she was telling me about one of her fifth grade students who was absent today. Turns out the kid was *cue spooky music* climbing a tree before trick or treating!

Fell.

And broke his arm!

What?!

I just thought that was weird enough to share.

In other news, Lipstick Jihad was a really good book and I enjoyed learning about the author's experiences in Iran. I never knew Iranians were so much like Americans in many ways.

October Books

2011-10-31T14:13:00.002-05:00

It's that time again! I read more books this month than I thought I would. It helped that many of these were rather short and/or easy reads. Some books just take way more thinking than others. Most of these were not that type so I read quite a bit. Happy Halloween to those who enjoy this day!

The Places In Between by Rory Stewart -- A book about a Scottish man's journey by foot through central Afghanistan and the people he meets along the way. I was impressed by some villages' hospitality, but mostly unimpressed by how many treated a stranger among them and how they treated dogs and donkeys! Rather neat story and way to "see" some remote parts of Afghanistan just after the Taliban fell.

Paul: The Mind of the Apostle by A.N. Wilson -- see previous posts

Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas -- "A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America" is a cute story I happened to stumbled upon in the biography section of my local library. Firoozeh was 7 years old when her family moved to California for two years. This was before the Iranian Revolution and the family was there because of her dad's work with a big oil company. She told how nice the Americans were and her first impressions of their language, foods and services. I laughed out loud when she and her mom went to the store looking for "elbow grease" to help get out stubborn stains! The family went back to Iran for a while, but came back to the US permanently after the revolution. While Firoozeh mentions Islam, Muhammad and being Muslim, she is quick to point out her family's secular views and speaks of her father's love of ham (which he was able to purchase and eat in Iran since they lived in a section developed by the British) and her own marriage to a cultural Roman Catholic French guy whom she met in the US. (Oddly, his mom never accepted their marriage as of the writing.) I loved her talk of our lack of using those guttural sounds, our lack of a billion names for relatives. Cousins, aunts, uncles covers a lot of people in English whereas in Iran they are each broken down specifically! Really cute book. I loved seeing America through her family's eyes!

The Language of Names: What We Call Ourselves and Why It Matters by Justin Kaplan and Anne Bernays -- the authors (a married couple) discuss movie stars taking new names as well as regular people names, place names and maiden names. Some chapters are of more interest to me than others, but overall a pretty good book even though it was published way back in 1997. A few tidbits:

"If first names whisper, surnames shout,and they often give misleading messages. 'In daily life,' Mary Waters, a sociologist, reported, 'Americans routinely use surnames to guess one another's ethnic origins,' but the conclusions they reach, based on folk knowledge of what is a typical Irish, Italian, or Dutch name, deal only with the father's ethnicity, ignore the mother's, and disregard mixed marriages, mixed ancestries, and earlier name changes. Even so, beginning with the first tidal waves of immigration, a surname could cut you off from employment and social acceptance as effectively as a criminal record. If it was O'Reilly or Epstein or Bertucci, your destiny was shaped in the cradle. Some people with undesirable names went the pragmatic route and changed them. Others, who couldn't tolerate the psychic wrench of a name change, did not and often paid for their refusal in reduced earning power and career advancement, although they may have slept better at night than the name changers." (pg. 56)

"Smith is the ultimate catchall for linguistic naturalization: it takes in Schmidt, Schmitt, Schmitz, Smed, Szmyt, Schmieder, Smidnovic, Seppanen, Fevre, Kalvaitis, Kovars, Haddad, McGowan, and other variants that in their original language mean someone who works with metal." (pg. 52)

Granted this book is old, but when it was published in 1997 it said this about Germany's naming laws: "'the gender of the child must be recognizable from the first name.' Junior, Jr., and Jun. are verboten, as are Hemingway, Jesus, and Woodstock as first names..." Under Hitler there "was a list of first names to be used exclusively for Jewish newborns" and those adults who were not readily identifiable by their last names as Jews had to take "Israel or Sarah as a middle name." (pg. 113)

"When a woman gives up her name at marriage, she's saying: 'While I'm willing to relinquish a piece of my identity for the sake of this union, I do not ask the same of you.'" (pg. 146)

Fried Eggs With Chopsticks by Polly Evans - An English woman tells of her travels by sleeper trains, buses, bicycles, taxis through parts of China. This book was written in a much more humorous way than some other travel books I've read. Almost like a comedy mixed with travel through China.

Thura's Diary: My Life in Wartime Iraq by Thura Al-Windawi (almost 20 years old) tells of the few days before the war, Thura's family during the initial days of war and such things. Interestingly, things got worse for women as religious people started making the women cover their hair and not celebrate Muhammad's birthday at the mosque like she had all her years before. Also pornography became much more commonplace. It could have just been the American soldiers, but Thura "scolded" the Muslim-majority Iraqi people for this.

Life In Year One: What the World Was Like in First-Century Palestine by Scott Korb -- a library book that discussed war, homes, religion, money, foods, bathing, respect and death in year one. Pretty interesting! You can read a short interview about these topics here if you want.

Faith Under Fire by Roger Benimoff is "an army chaplain's memoir" mostly about his second deployment to Iraq and the struggle he had with PTSD and adjusting to normal family life upon his return. He questioned how he could serve a God who would not step in to stop all the terrible things and suffering in life. This book made me so sad about the awfulness of war...all those killed and living with shattered bodies and minds.

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo by Paula Huntley -- I really enjoyed this book; see previous posts for more on it

Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo by Zlata Filipović -- life just before and during the war as told by 11 and 12 year old Zlata; it ends with the shelling continuing; I got to thinking that Zlata is now 30 years old and wonderedhow she is now. Oh, I found this about her on Wikipedia.

The Bookseller Of Kabul by Asne Seierstad -- a great book which tells about life in a fairly well-off family; each chapter follows various family members' roles in society and in their households. Makes me extremely appreciative for not being part of that life.

Muhammad by Deepak Chopra -- a fictionalized biography of sorts; each chapter is told by a contemporary of Muhammad - friends, families, enemies; I got the book recommendation from Wafa's reading blog - here is her review

Off The Map: Bicycling Through Siberia by Mark Jenkins -- granted this book is a bit old; the journey took place in 1989, but it was fun reading of that time in Russian history. I enjoyed Mark's telling of his trip with a couple other Americans and four Russians - complete strangers prior to this months-long journey - and their interactions with each other and people in Siberian villages. It was sobering to hear one lady admit that "they were pets" to the country's leaders. Interesting book!

Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah -- "The True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter" -- I found this at the local library. What a sad book in so many ways. Adeline's mother died two weeks after her birth so she was considered unlucky. Her stepmother was cruel and her father had no backbone to stand up to her. Adeline's siblings were troubling too. I admire Adeline for her hard work in getting good grades and determination to study abroad and finally settle in California as a doctor. This book was quite interesting as it told some history of Shanghai and Hong Kong as it pertained to the author's life. Made me wonder how people could sorely mistreat family like this.

What about you? Read any good books lately?

The Human Condition

2011-10-27T09:03:00.000-05:00

Journal entry excerpt from The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo by Paula Huntley. Last ones, I promise! I returned the book a few days ago. :-)

I read this and it just struck a chord. Maybe it's because not many days before this, I had been thinking of the "human condition" while sitting on my porch reading about struggles in Vietnam and elsewhere in the world. (Those travel books can really get to you when you start seeing "the enemy" as human beings!) It was so weird seeing those exact words written in this journal entry in this particular book. I can relate much to the author's sentiments here and in the final entry on this post. Only instead of Kosovo (Kosova to Albanians; the spelling is a political statement and both are used in the book), my heart was left in Syria. I always wanted to go back, but now it seems nearly impossible.

TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2001

... I remember a letter my brother, David, wrote me not long ago - a long thoughtful letter about the futility of most human efforts to improve things. Humanity evolves at its own speed, he says, and we are a long way away from being anywhere close to goodness, kindness, peace. He worries, I think, that with all the renewed violence in the area, I am discouraged, unhappy with our decision to come here. Maybe, he thinks, I have become cynical. After all, things look less stable now than they did when we arrived eight months ago.

It is true that after seeing what I have seen, learning what I have learned, I am less hopeful than ever about our human condition. I doubt we can ever straighten ourselves out. World peace is only a dream. The most we can do, I fear, is to prevent violence in some places, put a lid on it in others, help each other when we can.

But in the place of hope I now feel ... something else. I look around me and see that most of us share a certain sweetness. Most of us are trying to live decent lives, doing what we can for our families and children, trying to find some meaning, to piece together the puzzle. But we keep blundering, stumbling, falling into fits of rage and fear, hatred and self-destruction. Our stories are often sad, tragic, maddening. And I am not hopeful that things will get much better. I don't see progress, but I don't feel cynicism. I feel only an immense tenderness for all of us.

Tonight, as I have often done during my stay in Kosovo, I turn to a copy of The Sun, the magazine published by my friend, Sy. In an interview, James Hillman advises us to "pick one place where your heart can connect to the world's problems."

For me, that place has been Kosovo. I am so very lucky to have found it. (pg. 210)

Do you think Ms. Huntley's outlook on humanity or the world is too pessimistic, too optimistic or about right? Do you think the world is getting better, worse or staying the same? In what areas do you see progress? In what areas do you find cause for concern?

What do you think of the "immense tenderness" she feels for people? Do you also feel this way or do you tend towards cynicism or something else entirely?

What do you think about her observations of people sharing a "certain sweetness" and just trying to provide for their families and figure out this puzzle of life?

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2002

...So, we will return this spring. ... When I e-mailed them of the possibility of returning for a visit, Leutrim and Leonard wrote back immediately volunteering to try to round everyone up for a class reunion at the Cambridge School. And Genti wrote: "We wonder why anyone would come back to Kosova. We think you must love us very much." (pg. 225)

Thoughts? Where has your heart connected to the world's problems? Or maybe it's not necessarily a particular place, but a cause or a group of people scattered throughout the world or in your own country.

Anything you want to share?

The Darkness of My Heart

2011-10-23T18:59:00.001-05:00

Journal entry excerpt from The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo by Paula Huntley.

"Teacher" was talking to her Kosovar students about the war and about how not all Serbs are bad and it's not good to generalize the whole population as being one way...right?

MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2001

...Is their bitterness, their fear so great that they could do to Serbs what Serbs did to them? Could soft-spoken Veton burn a Serb village because his own was burned by Serbs? Would sweet, wide-eyed Enver, who loves basketball and never misses a class, stand by and watch while atrocities were committed? Could any of these bright, kindhearted young people kill Serbs because they are Serbs?

And if I were in their shoes, what would I be capable of? Have I come to grips with the darkness in my own heart?

Tonight I read the words of Francois Bizot, who was imprisoned by the Khmer Rouge for three months in 1971 and who writes in Le Portail: "Every war needs killers and they can always be found. We always put ourselves in the skin of the victims and not of their killers - we never put ourselves in the skin of a Nazi or Khmer Rouge. Yet between them and us there is very little difference, no more than between the victim and us."

And the same from Matthew Spender: "In extreme situations only chance divides the role of the torturer from that of his victims."

Are they right? Given the right circumstances, we are all, even the best of us, capable of anything? There are no easy answers, in Kosovo or anywhere else. (pg. 188)

I was talking to a friend in Damascus the other day and he was saying how things have changed the last two months. The uprisings that began in Syria back in March have continued yet Friend has noticed a shift. He said people are openly talking of revenge, of siding with the devil if it means toppling the regime. His exact words to me were:

ordinary people are now talking of revenge and very very dark thoughts

i fear that we will be torn apart there is so much hate now i never imagined that we would reach this level

He said he'd even lost friends because of differing of opinions, there was much sectarian division and he did not like the way things were headed.

Listening to Friend talk and reading this excerpt from Ms. Huntley's journal makes me think the man she quoted is right when he says we often identify with the victims without perhaps realizing we are capable of evil things if circumstances go another way. Maybe the Nazis didn't realize they were doing anything wrong. They were cleansing the world of filth in order to ensure the strongest of the species survived, right? And for the Syrian regime: why not stop those traitors who are bent on destroying the country? Even religions OK killing treasonous people, don't they?

It's actually pretty easy to rationalize our favorite evil things. Thankfully most of us won't go the route of rounding up people for gas chambers, or mutilating young boys for the sake of power and control of a country. But...

What do you think of the quotes in this journal entry?

Four Journal Entries

2011-10-21T20:24:00.000-05:00

Journal entry excerpts from The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo by Paula Huntley. I am really enjoying this book!

MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2000

I am in love with my students. They are bright, fun, curious, receptive. Today they practice speaking, repeating each sentence after me in perfect imitation, and I realize with chagrin that these Kosovo Albanian students are being taught to speak English not only with an American accent, but with a southern accent! It seems that, even after twenty-one years in California, my southern drawl is still with me - and now, with my students! (pg. 51)

Haha! I can totally see this happening if I were teaching ESL! Samer would consider it great, I think. He actually wishes sometimes that I had a heavier southern accent if you can imagine!

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2000

...And here is the key distinction, I've found, between Kosovar students and American students: American students study in order to secure lucrative jobs and a sense of individual achievement. Kosovo Albanians study so they can provide for their families - their parents, siblings, and grandparents, as well as any future family they will have. Education is a family goal, not an individual goal. (pg. 115)

A few entries later the author talks about how shocked her students are when told that American teens often study far from their families and get jobs hundreds of miles away. Families are very important to Albanians and they cannot imagine this. When "Teacher" reminds them that many of their relatives are in Western Europe working, they counter that they do this to send money back home, but their main goal is to return to be near their parents and siblings.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2001

At the bottom of Dragodan at an intersection close to the railway tracks, there's a sign that proudly proclaims: "This Corner Cleaned Up by UNMIK." The signpost itself is invisible because of the mountains of rubbish piled around it. The trash of kitchens, offices, and shops surrounds the sign and spills over into the street.

There's a basic cultural misunderstanding on this corner. UNMIK, wishing to set an example for the community, cleaned up the site and erected the sign to show what could be done. The community took the sign to mean that UNMIK would clean up whatever garbage they dumped there. Thus, the messiest corner in the city. (pg. 171)

This just struck me funny. Cultural misunderstandings often are (and sometimes not, of course!) Oh, the people just pile trash outside. Apparently there are mounds of it to wade through to go anywhere.

THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 2001

As Leonard and I walk from the Monaco Café to the school today, I ask him: "Leonard, how is it that people here can always tell I am an American? Even before I open my mouth, shopkeepers, taxi drivers, people on the street can see that I am from the U.S." I've been puzzled about this for a long while.

"That is easy, Teacher," he says. "You are not afraid."

I don't understand.

"Teacher" - he eyes me carefully, not wanting to insult me - "you think that because you like everyone, everyone will like you. You show everyone a friendly face, a face that trusts. You don't think anyone would hurt you. Everyone knows that is how Americans are."

"Here in Kosova," he continues, "we have learned to be afraid. Americans have not learned this lesson." (pg. 182)

I remember when Samer and I were early in our friendship and I made a short video on my camera. Initially he told me if I came to Syria, I would blend right in with the locals because not all Syrians have dark hair and eyes and olive skin. (Since that area has had so many conquerors that have left their marks, the people can vary in skin, eye and hair color.) So he told me until I open my mouth and reveal my English-speaking talk, they would probably think I was local.

But then he saw a video where I was introducing myself to a few of his college friends and he changed his mind completely. He said there was something about me - my body language (although the video was mostly a head-and-shoulders shot), my facial expression, my voice, something - that said "you are not Syrian!" He said later that my eyes sparkled. And Syrian eyes did not so much.

Hmmm.

His friend "Jake" also thought I could pass for Syrian. He'd always seen the still-shot of me that I had on Skype or Facebook or somewhere! But when he came with Samer to pick me up from the airport, he was amazed that I did not look Syrian at all and was very American-looking (whatever that means!)

What are your thoughts or impressions of any of this? This book is great, by the way. Makes me want to learn more about that area of the world and the people and conflicts. I have been sorely ignorant.

Paul's misogyny, libertarianism and the Book of Romans

2011-10-10T10:32:00.000-05:00

A few last notes from Paul: The Mind of the Apostle by A.N. Wilson

Keep in mind the author believes some of the books attributed to Paul are actually products of a later era when "the Church" with its bishops and other offices was becoming a more organized entity.

PAUL'S MISOGYNY

"The misogyny of the Christian tradition could claim its origins in the writings of the New Testament. ... [insert woman-hating quotes by Tertullian]. But is any of the blame for this to be laid at the feet of Paul? True, in his letters Paul introduces the idea ... of the Fall of Man; 'as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.' The conclusion drawn by the later fathers of the church is that the blame for Adam's death must be attributed to Eve, but this is not something which Paul ever seems to have thought for himself.

[Having read all the Pauline letters many times, I tend to agree. I've often noticed how Paul uses Adam, Adam, Adam and maybe once or twice mentions Eve (or woman) so I've never felt my gender is particularly blamed from just reading Paul. If anything humankind as a whole is blamed and I'm OK with that having realized quite a while ago that I'm a sinner and so is most of the rest of the world!]

His writings do not suggest misogyny. True, he thought that the woman is the glory (doxa) of the man. But it is hard to know what that means. He believed in the Jewish myth that women were created from Adam's spare rib and that women were created for the sake of men. This is not what most people think in the late twentieth century, but it does not mean you were misogynistic if you thought it during the reign of Claudius or Nero. In those days you would have been hard put to find anyone who believed in 'sexual equality' in the modern sense, and the person who comes the closest to it is, strangely enough, Paul."

(pg.140)

LIBERTARIAN PAUL

"Many modern people, even Christians, regard Paul as a restrictive or puritanical presence in the Christian tradition. They blame him for taking what they suppose to have been the simple religion of Jesus and institutionalising it, or theologising it, or somehow making it more 'restrictive.' A reading of the few surviving authentic writings of Paul - Romans, Galatians, the two Corinthian letters, Philippians - absolutely contradicts such a view. Paul is the great libertarian of religious history. Though a Jew of Jews - by his own account - he had the most cavalier view even of the written word of God. ... Paul believed that human beings were the temples of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit flows through us, and Christ lives in us. In order to find out the mind of Christ you need to look in your own heart." (pg. 172)

He gives this passage as example:

¹ Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? ² You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. ³ You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Cor. 3:1-3)

I also think of Romans 14 one of my personal favorite passages when dealing with 'gray areas.' You think it's wrong to eat pork, then don't do it! But don't dare judge another person whom God has accepted. It's not your call to say their eating pork is right or wrong. You think it's wrong to celebrate Christmas or Independence Day because they aren't mentioned in the Bible, then don't. But don't look down on the ones who choose to celebrate those days. Seriously, check out Romans 14 and feel scolded for judging others while at the same time feel encouraged to do all things in love...even forbidding yourself a ham sandwich if eating it makes a weaker brother or sister stumble.

THE BOOK OF ROMANS

"For it is the most interesting, as well as the most impenetrably difficult, book about 'religion' ever written. In fact, of course, it is not about 'religion' at all, if by 'religion' we mean Judaism or Islam or Taoism or Seventh Day Adventism or Roman Catholicism. Romans is one of the most devastating pamphlet attacks on 'religion' ever penned. No one who read it and absorbed its profound messages could feel happy with membership of a 'religion' ever again. Jesus might or might not have gone into the temple in Jerusalem and said that he would pull it down and build it up again in three days. The letter to the Romans pulls down the temple at Jerusalem and the temple at Ephesus and the temple at Piraeus and the altars of Athens and every other altar and temple ever build by human hand. 'St Paul understood what most Christians never realise, namely, that the Gospel of Christ is not a religion, but religion itself, in its most universal and deepest significance.'" (pg. 195)

That last bit the author quoted is from "W.R. Inge, Outspoken Essays, p. 229" according to the footnote.

I've never thought of Romans like this before, but now I'm going to have to read it with this thought in mind to see if I agree!

Your thoughts on any of this?

What was it about Jesus?

2011-10-08T06:57:00.000-05:00

[W]e are compelled to wonder and awe at the fact that out of this strict and monotheistic religion, there was born such an all-but-idolotrous worship of a prophet. The scholars can speculate about the origins of theological ideas, imagining, for example, where this or that 'christology' first evolved. Simple common sense, and decent reverence in the presence of such faith, is bound to ask, 'What can it have been about this man that inspired such thoughts? ... What was it about Jesus at the time of his earthly life which so impressed his followers that they could group together in his name and be convinced that even after his death he was the focus of Israel's hopes? ...

Any Jews, however poor and humble...could in the teaching of Jesus embody in their own person the divine nature of pity and purity and love. When the Judgment comes, Jesus taught that we shall not be asked to rail at God for having created a world in which there are hungry, poor, unhappy people. He, by contrast, will have expected us to have incarnated his virtues; he will expect us to have been 'God' towards our unfortunate neighbours; for he will have been hidden within them.

'For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ (Matthew 25:35-36)

There is something immediate and accessible about this, the 'religion of Jesus,' and which formed the basis of the enormous authority of Jesus as a moral teacher. Combined with his gifts as a healer, we must believe that he was one of those rare and charismatic 'saints', rather like Francis of Assisi in the Middle Ages or Mother Teresa in our own day, who captured people's imaginations, filled them with the love of God. The historian comes to this conclusion not for reasons of sentimentality but because it is inconceivable that a movement could have grown up in Jesus's name had Jesus himself not been a person of remarkable virtue, eloquence and personal magnetism.

excerpts quoted from pages 114-116 of Paul: The Mind of the Apostle by A.N. Wilson

September Books

2011-09-29T13:34:00.001-05:00

Good day to you! Hope everyone is well and enjoying the last few hours of September 2011. I seriously cannot believe we are marching towards Christmas at such a fast clip! This year has flown. Of course I say this most every year now that I'm out of high school chemistry and algebra classes.

Here's the list of books I finished this month.

Sounds of the River by Da Chen -- This memoir was about the author's life in college after leaving the countryside and going to Beijing - the big city - to pursue his English language studies. I enjoyed hearing how a tanned southerner from the country with a heavy accent viewed big city life and how he was treated by "white" Chinese. I enjoyed tales about his college classes, his roommates, his spiritual life and how he didn't toe the party line good enough for the Communist faithful. I learned about bribes and how important they are in making things happen. I realized Chinese are a lot like men in other countries in their talk of girls. I enjoyed Da's interactions with foreigners - those from countries such as Cambodia as well as Europeans and Americans. It was interesting how the Communists tried to keep their people away from the foreigners so they wouldn't be tainted with western thoughts and materialism and liberalism and capitalism (all that bad stuff we offer that has contributed to Chinese jobs since we buy a lot of their manufactured stuff). Da shared about the time he worked as an English interpreter and an NBA group came through. I enjoyed hearing his impressions of these guys and his adventures with them. I liked his interaction with a few Christians he met. He was even given a Bible by a Norwegian and he was able to give it to his favorite professor from home who was overjoyed at receiving an English Bible of her own. The last chapters dealt with his friendship with an American couple and his trying to get to America.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon -- The subtitle reads "Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe" - this book was about Kamila Sidiqi and her life in Afghanistan especially after the Taliban came to power. Left in charge of a large family, Kamila looked for opportunities to support her younger sisters and brother and used her skills to open a dressmaking shop in the house. This book shares some of her adventures in securing new clients for her work and the ways she opened up her house to many women in the surrounding area who also needed to contribute towards the survival of their households. I loved Kamila's attitude of looking out for others by providing work for more than just her family members.

The Unexpected Adventure by Lee Strobel and Mark Mittleberg -- "Taking Everyday Risks To Talk With People About Jesus" -- I didn't have any more library books because I decided to not read one that I had left in the stack as it didn't interest me much. So while waiting until the next day to visit the library, I found this one on my bookshelf and decided to read it in the meantime. I'm glad I did as it make me happy to read the authors' adventures in telling others about Jesus. I especially enjoyed the part about serving others (pg. 64), coming out of our cocoons (pg. 76), embracing divine interruptions (pg. 95) and the challenge to never give up praying for people (pg. 151).

God Against The Gods by Jonathan Kirsch -- "The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism" -- see previous post

The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus by Amy-Jill Levine -- see previous posts

My Tears Spoiled My Aim and Other Reflections on Southern Culture by John Shelton Reed -- This book was a series of essays discussing such things as what and where is the South, who is a Southerner, violence in country music, Southern culture, the Southern diaspora and even how Southern women were portrayed in Playboy. Parts of it made me laugh especially when the author told stories of people he'd met or heard about or quoted letters to the editor of newspapers and magazines discussing Southern and Northern issues. I have always been fascinated by that stuff so it was great. I think my favorite chapters were "Life and Leisure in the New South" which talked about Southerners' characteristic easy-going lifestyle (read: we are lazy) and things we like to do in our free time. "Refugees and Returnees" was also a fun chapter for me.

Married to a Bedouin by Marguerite van Geldermalsen -- If you want to read about a woman from New Zealand on a backpacking trip through the Middle East with a fellow adventurer who meets a Bedouin in Petra by chance, falls in love, marries and makes her home in a cave, this book might be of interest to you. I enjoyed reading of Marguerite's years among the Bedouin, her help in their clinic, the food they ate, the things she finds worth mentioning. Yesterday I read of a man collecting money to pay a debt his tribe owed because someone killed a man in another tribe. Asking money of people to settle a debt like that just isn't what I'm used to. Also Marg's turn to get a gold tooth - a symbol of her father in law's generosity to his family. Yeah. Well, it was really just a gold piece glued over her real tooth, but still. They find that attractive? I don't think I'll ever get used to women being just another piece of property that you can buy if you come into money. Marg's talk of a guy getting extra money and deciding whether to get a concrete floor, a new mule or marry again...ah. According to her a lot of the second wives came from Egypt and they "brought an accent I couldn't understand, a standard of ululation I could never attain and pretty soon were producing a generation with fresh genes at a rate I had no desire to match." (pg. 211)

Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam by Zainab Salbi -- very interesting book about a lady who describes growing up as the daughter of Saddam Hussein's pilot and "friend"; I greatly enjoyed her story and learning about the perspective of one who was impacted by Saddam's control and her feelings about sanctions on her people and the wars fought by Iraq (on Iran and invading Kuwait - she claims many Iraqis didn't like Kuwait because the latter came across as privileged and they though the other Arabs would support their efforts.) She didn't like the sanctions on her people: punishment for a punished people. They would only hurt the ordinary people not Saddam who was entrenched in power. While she was happy Saddam was removed from power, she hated the fact that, again, ordinary people would be hurt. Ordinary boys like her brothers would be drafted and the country was so destroyed.

"Any society that stops questioning its leaders is vulnerable to dictatorship, and Amo used our own traditions against us to help instill and perpetuate fear. To the traditional concept of ayeb, which dealt with things that were forbidden by cultural courtesies, and haram, which dealt with things that were forbidden by religion, Amo seemed to add a third, mamnu'a, which just meant forbidden....We lived in fear. Fear had spread through our society the way color does when you put a single drop of tint into the water to dye eggs..." (pg. 117)

Wrong About Japan: A Father's Journey With His Son by Peter Carey -- I would have appreciated this book more if I actually cared about manga and anime. I still liked the part where the Japanese guy told about his memories of the US's attack on his country. Did you know dropping bombs sound like heavy rain?

In the Sea There Are Crocodiles by Fabio Geda -- this is based on the true story of Enaiatollah Akbari an Afghan boy who was taken to Pakistan by his mother and left there while he was sleeping. He was only about ten. But she felt he had a better chance of surviving there than within their family's village due to their being Hazara and Shia, two things Taliban apparently don't like. This story was Enaia's adventures living in Pakistan, later escaping and living in Iran, later moving on to Turkey, Greece and finally Italy where he was blessed to find a family to foster him and give him a home. Enaia graduated from high school earlier this year and plans to study in Italy so he can support his mother and siblings (whom he was reunited with) who live in Pakistan.

This book challenged me to be kind to strangers among me especially foreign ones. Maybe they are refugees in need of a friendly helper.

The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared by Alice Ozma -- I got this on the new book shelf at the library because it seemed rather cute. The author and her father decided to read together for 100 nights. There were rules such as they had to read at least ten minutes, her father read out loud to her and it had to be before midnight to count. The streak happened and was extended. Extended until Alice went off to her first year of college, in fact. The book is more than about reading books. It's about a single father through his daughter's eyes. It's about a quirky elementary school librarian who did his best to instill the love of reading into children. And it has funny, imaginative and sometimes sad tales of Alice's life.

Seeing Vietnam by Susan Brownmiller -- the subtitle is "Encounters of the Road and Heart" which about sums it up. The author went to Vietnam on assignment for a travel magazine. Her job was to explore the country noting must-see places and points of interest. I enjoyed seeing Vietnam through her eyes especially as she told about places through the politics and world situation of when she was growing up and seeing all the conflict with Vietnam. Several times I had to stop and think about why my country had to be involved in hurting others, killing them and harming future generations. It's so sad what we will do all because we fear something and/or want control. Heartbreaking.

But the book was really good. I enjoyed the author's encounters with natives, her official tour guides and flashbacks.

Jesus, Judaism/Baseball v. Christianity/Football, Changing Interpretations

2011-09-18T11:14:00.000-05:00

The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus by Amy-Jill Levine

Here are my last notes from this book. See this post for more of my thoughts.

First what the author said about herself in the introduction. I especially liked the last sentence.

"I find that the more I study Jesus, Mary Magdalene, James, Peter, and Paul in their own historical contexts, the more I come to appreciate my own Judaism: the diversity of its teachings, the richness of its encounter with the divine, the struggles it faced in accommodating to the Roman world. I appreciate, even find inspirational, the message of the kingdom of heaven, a message that spoke of the time when all debts are forgiven and when those who have willingly give, without thought of reciprocity, to those who need; a time when we no longer ask, 'Who is my neighbor?' but 'Who acts as neighbor?'; a time when we prioritize serving rather than being served. ... But as much as I admire much of the message, I do not worship the messenger. Instead, I find Jesus reflects back to me my own tradition, but in a new key. I also have to admit a bit of pride in thinking about him -- he's one of ours." (pg. 8)

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In discussing the "distinct canons" of both Christians and Jews, the author notes that even what ends each canon is significant. For Christian's, the Old Testament ends with Malachi.

¹ “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the LORD Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. ² But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. ³ Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the LORD Almighty.

⁴ “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.

⁵ “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. ⁶ He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”

For Jews, the Tanakh usually ends with II Chronicles 36 and the edict from Cyrus:

²² In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:

²³ “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:

“‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up, and may the LORD their God be with them.’”

"The Tanakh thus ends not with a promise to be fulfilled by something new but with an injunction to return to one's home, to one's roots."

Ms. Levine uses a sports metaphor saying Christianity is more like football. "There is a linear sense to the Christian canon; one moves from the promise of the line of scrimmage to the goal of the (eschatological) end zone. Judaism, at least as understood by the canonical order, is baseball. The concern is to return to Zion, to go home." (pg. 199)

I guess this helps explain why Jews have often longed to return to Jerusalem.

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She discussed that Judaism had a more communal approach whereas Christianity in a general sense was more individualistic. Jews were more likely to argue with the texts and with other Jews and realize "in some cases multiple meanings are possible. Jews are more inclined to say, 'I'm right, and you may be right too.'" (pg. 205)

Perhaps related to this - at least in my mind - this midrash which the author gives as an example of "a number of midrashim [that] go out of their way to prevent the view that Moses is divine." She writes,

"Moses receives God's permission to see the great teacher Rabbi Akiva. Seated in the last row of Akiva's school, Moses is so distressed by his inability to follow the discussion that he grows faint. Yet when Akiva's students inquire, 'Master, where did you learn this?' Akiva responds, 'It is a Law given to Moses at Sinai.' In other words, Moses could not understand the interpretation of the Torah that he himself received. The story not only highlights Moses's limited knowledge but simultaneously praises those who continue to interpret the text and celebrates the text's own ability to speak to each generation." (pg. 202)

I believe she's saying the text is not set in stone, but the interpretation should be changeable as people change. Also there is the fact that not even the prophets who gave us the texts can say for certain what they mean especially for all people of all times.

Your thoughts?

Putting Judaism back into Jesus...so the Christians won't hate us!

2011-09-16T07:53:00.000-05:00

The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus by Amy-Jill Levine

So I got this book from the library because I thought it would be interesting to read about Jesus as his teachings may have come across to a first-century Jew hearing his parables and teachings, messages of repentance and even prayers. And I guess the book is about that. I mean the first chapter has sections on his parables and prayers (I enjoyed the section on the Lord's Prayer), but much of the book is more or less putting Judaism back into Jesus since the author is a Jew and understandably doesn't like Christians throughout the centuries and even today to say that Judaism is a legalistic burden, misogynistic and overly concerned with purity rules.

I know Jews have been mistreated over the years and I tried to read this book understanding her mindset on that, however, the group of Christians I grew up in is so pro-Jew that the current State of Israel can do the most atrocious things and they chalk it up to "Islam's thugs" doing something to the poor Jews so that the Jews have no choice but to defend themselves. So, I read the author's words putting Judaism back into Jesus (so no one could argue he was anti-Judaism, anti-Law) thinking, "Oh, I didn't realize some Christians wrote/said/taught these things." Well, I guess I did know it on some level. Again, it just wasn't at all what I was taught or even today what most of my family and friends believe about Jews. I suppose the main thing many of them would be guilty of is desiring the Jews to follow Jesus because they believe Jesus is the Way to the Father, the Messiah whom they seek.

But then Ms. Levine said not all Jews were even looking for a Messiah. She explained that just as there were Sadducees who believed only in the Torah and no resurrection of the dead and Pharisees who tended to add fences around the Law and believed in resurrection, there was Shammai's school and Hillel's - not all Jews believed the same. Makes sense. I know Christians and Muslims who hardly believe the same as other Christians and Muslims so why not Jews? There's always a range of thought in groups with some believing more literally and some more metaphorically and so forth.

I shared this story on Facebook because I liked how Rebbe Moshe Leib of Sassov (1745-1807) taught his disciples how to truly love their neighbors.

"Tell me, friend Ivan, do you love me?"
"I love you deeply."
"Do you know, my friend, what gives me pain?"
"How can I, pray, know what gives you pain?"
"If you do not know what gives me pain, how can you say that you truly love me?"

Lesson: "Understand, then,...to love, truly to love, means to know what brings pain to your comrade."

(pg. 116)

Ms. Levine encouraged Jews and Christians to read the texts together and through each other's ears because Christians may not realize how "the Jews" doing such and such in John's or Peter's or Paul's words comes across to a Jewish person. She also pointed out to Jews that most Christians probably do not read anti-Jewish thought into the New Testament texts. I believe Rebbe Leib's illustration goes along with that. If I know that certain texts bring pain to someone because to them it seem accusatory, I can truly love my Jewish neighbors better.

Besides manna, I don't recall food ever coming down from heaven to feed people. Unless you count quail which God used to feed people on occasion. While discussing the "Lord's Prayer" Ms. Levine mentioned the phrase about giving us our daily bread and recalls a Jewish prayer said before eating, "'Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth." Bread, she notes, does not come forth from the earth. Grain does and then you use the grain to make bread. It's God giving grain from the earth and humans making and baking bread. She says these prayers are each "a concrete petition that God will motivate our hearts to do the right thing. Both insist that humanity and divinity work together." (pg. 49)

Other notable things according to the author:

1. Jewish teaching for some is such that Gentiles do not need to become Jews in order to "have a share in the world to come" as "righteous people of all nations" would be included. (pg. 69) Therefore Jews don't often see any need to convert people to their faith. (There have been times of exception or perhaps this thought is the exception.)

2. One Jewish philosopher's thoughts on why men needed to be circumcised and not women: "Circumcision is required to check male pride as well as male sexual impulses; women, ... have no such problems." - Philo of Alexandria (pg. 71) The author's point of bringing this up is because some have claimed women were perhaps not full members of the Jewish community since God made an outward covenant - circumcision - with only the men. She argued that their community considered women full members without their having to be circumcised. And the bigger reason for this being mentioned is that some have argued that baptism is more egalitarian since both men and women are included in this covenantal sign.

3. "Multiculturalism, then or now, cannot function if there is a homogeneous default that causes one group to give up what is of enormous value to them, especially if what is to be forsaken is divinely mandated Torah." (pg. 76) -- I just read that and found it both understandable and a bit disconcerting. It's fine if you are talking about Jews wanting to eat kosher or observe purity laws. Absolutely no problem. But it gets more questionable when you have a group whose divinely mandated scriptures imposes its will on the full population*, who tells its followers (according to how the majority interpret it) that they are the rulers and the unbelievers are to be protected, yet second-class citizens. I guess I was reading too much of what I fear happening after these revolutions in the Arab world into this statement. I've been all for the uprisings against these brutal dictators and I want the people to enjoy freedom, but I do hope they can avoid bringing Taliban types to power who will rule with iron fists anyone who does not subscribe to their interpretation of religion. Sadly, power is often corrupting unless we remember to keep it in check and stay humble.

* I suppose we do this also when we make laws limiting rights to certain groups because it's against the teaching of our faith. I'm specifically thinking of homosexual groups.

Your thoughts on any of this?

Thoughts on Pagans, Christians, Constantine, Julian, Polytheism and Monotheism

2011-09-12T19:44:00.001-05:00

For some reason I just can't get into the writing mood enough to make sense of this post. OK, maybe I got the writing part down, but the editing suffers.

Yet I wanted to record a few things from God Against The Gods by Jonathan Kirsch that I found interesting. Overall I really enjoyed the book. The chapters on Constantine and Julian were good. I know I've read some about them in the past, but it's been awhile so reading their stories - from this author's perspective and from my grown-up one (ha) - was good for me. Kirsch asked if Constantine were really a Christian noting how he was labeled "the Great" in Catholic tradition and "St. Constantine" for the Orthodox. Perhaps Kirsch recognized Constantine didn't seem all that devoted to the faith he claimed to fight for. He wasn't even baptized until he was close to dying. Maybe he wanted to commit all the sins he could in life before taking this crucial step because during his life as a so-called "Christian emperor," I surely wouldn't say by his fruits that I knew he was a follower of Jesus. He had his own son killed for goodness sake! I even went back and read where the Bible teaches

¹⁰By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. (I John 3)

So does this mean if you kill your own son, you are not a child of God?

After reading all this about Constantine, I made the observation on Facebook:

If my only examples of Christians were the people Julian saw, I think I'd be "apostate" too. Whew!

Yes, I sometimes express my thoughts on books on my Facebook statuses. Just so you know.

Other bits from the book that made it on Facebook as well as other notes of interest.

"'Paganism' to the pagan never existed, ... It is not far from the truth to say that before Christianity invented it, there was no Roman religion, but only worship, expressed in a hundred-and-one different ways." -- John Holland Smith in The Death of Classical Paganism (Kirsch quoted from this guy on pg. 9)

The author shares that paganus is really just a villager and in Roman military terms it differentiated the civilian from the soldier. Christian "rigorists" ready to be soldiers for the One True God "characterized anyone who refused to take up arms...as a civilian, a slacker, a 'paganus.'" Interestingly Christians were called "atheists" because they were against most of the gods, goddesses and godlings (as this author puts it) except the One True God.

This next bit was wild because the author talks about the fight between Christians because of the wording of Jesus being of similar substance to God vs. the same substance as God. He said in Greek the only difference in the two (similar and same) was an iota. Kirsch writes,

"The question of whether God and Jesus were made of the same stuff or different stuff was and is ultimately unanswerable - indeed, that was what church authorities meant when they characterized the Trinity as a mystery - but that did not stop ordinary men and women throughout the Christian community from literally brawling with one another over an iota." (pg. 161)

Charming, no? Seriously I wonder sometimes what God thinks of such things. Does He watch and shake His head at how we treat one another? Especially those of us who say we know and follow and serve and submit to Him.

"At the heart of polytheism is an open-minded and easygoing approach to religious belief and practice, a willingness to entertain the idea that there are many gods and many ways to worship them. At the heart of monotheism, by contrast, is the sure conviction that only a single god exists, a tendency to regard one's own rituals and practices as the only proper way to worship the one true god." (pg. 2)

The heart of polytheism sounds somewhat like Universalism, doesn't it? Actually the author ends the book claiming western countries with religious liberty and cultural diversity are honoring pagan values.

"Contrary to what we have been encouraged to believe by the teachings of monotheism, the phrase 'pagan morality' is not a contradiction in terms. The pagans may have been guilty of hypocrisy, praising virginity and fidelity while indulging in sexual adventures of various kinds, but they were no more hypocritical than worshippers of the Only True God who have shown themselves to be equally capable of failing to practice what they preach." (pg. 59)

I just thought this was ouch-worthy. Too bad it's true too often concerning us hypocritical believers.

"No wild beasts are so hostile to mankind as are most of the Christians in their savagery toward one another." - Ammianus (pg. 211)

It seems Christianity the Religion lost its Jesus roots a long, long time ago. Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus or any of the apostles tell us to be unkind to others. Instead Jesus tells us to love our enemies. So if your fellow Christian is an enemy, love him. And for those who believe Paul invented Christianity, he says pretty much the same thing in his letter to the Romans (see chapter 12 here). These people of the Roman empire taking up arms for Jesus are just in error. And killing fellow believers? Wow.

Again, no wonder Julian decided to serve other gods.

Though Julian didn't have much use for Christianity, the author claims he "admired and envied the superior organizational skills that the Christians brought to bear in setting up and running their churches." (He liked organized religion...which I find in contrast to more and more people today who want to find God in their own ways.) He decided to copy them and "invented" a "pagan 'church' with its own all-encompassing theology and its own unified clerical hierarchy...He established a unified pagan priesthood. ... He encouraged the Hellenes, the term he used to describe what Christians called 'pagans,' to follow the Christian example in both chastity and philanthropy. Pagan priests were to avoid the excesses of the tavern, the distractions of the theatre and the seductions of erotic literature, and they must shun the company of actors, jockeys and dancers. He even prescribed a set of dietary laws that he extracted from the cult of the Great Mother - root vegetables, pomegranates and pork were forbidden, and fish was to be eaten only when prescribed." Additionally he made all the gods and goddesses subservient to the "the most high god whom Constantine had once worshipped, the solar deity variously called Apollo, Sol Invictus and King Helios." (pg. 255)

I thought the dietary restriction part was fascinating! Bye bye, morning glass of carrot juice! And does this mean french fries were forbidden, too? Ah!

To really get back at the Christians, Julian decided to allow the Jews (whom the Christians now regarded as their worst enemies) to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. Although the Jews were monotheists and Julian not, he saw the commonalities between the Hellenes and Jews. "'We have all else in common - temples, sacred precincts, altars for sacrifice, and purifications,...in all of which we differ not at all from one another." (pg. 260)

A series of natural disasters coupled with a rising threat from Persia got in the way of this Spite the Christians rebuilding project.

This quote was at the beginning of one of the later chapters. Made me of think of morality police who make people keep outward rules - for God's sake of course!

"What should be said of us, who are forced to live piously, not by devotion but by terror?" - Maximus of Turin (pg. 269)

Your thoughts on any of this? I'd love to hear 'em!

Attention!

2011-09-07T10:25:00.003-05:00

I remember awhile back there was some talk about how human brains were wired to notice patterns so maybe I can chalk this up to that, but in

NEWS OF THE ODD:

So, yesterday I was in the mood for and ate tuna on Wheat Thins. I can't tell you the last time tuna and crackers was my supper choice, OK? Like, um, years. Years! Like living-at-home-with-my-parents years!

This morning I was looking through a few Facebook statuses from overnight and read one acquaintance's that said

"just ate a bowl of tuna with some Crackers and i do have to say it was the bomb"

What?! Who eats tuna and crackers and posts about it on Facebook because it was so delicious?

I guess those like me who decide it warrants a blog post to talk about the oddity of it.

Have you ever noticed odd patterns like this?

In other news I was at some store yesterday just walking around and listening to people. Not eavesdropping...they were talking loudly so I had no choice but to hear them. Have you ever stopped to think about what a person from another country (or even state!) would think if he or she were walking through the store with you hearing the same things and seeing the same products displayed? I wonder what would take their attention. (Reminds me of this great video of the British guys in Walmart! Haha!)

Samer saw this picture of Michael on Facebook yesterday.

Michael's cousins were getting ready to head back to South Carolina where they live and I said, "Let's go outside to wave to them" so we did. One cousin threw his arm around Michael and told his grandmother to take a picture of them. Sweet, huh?

But the thing that Samer commented on was Michael's feet!

They were bare and he was outside!

It's funny what takes people's attention sometime!

Speaking of taking attention, I was talking to my aunt and cousins the other day when I felt a little cheek on my fingers. I looked down to see this.

Has anything or anyone taken your attention lately? What odd coincidences have you noticed?

August Books

2011-08-30T10:21:00.000-05:00

This month I traveled the world, learned why we need religious instruction in public high schools, and got inside Celtic culture in order to understand the Scots-Irish people that make up so much of my own region. All through books, of course.

One Year Off by David Elliot Cohen -- Have you ever wished you could quit your job and just take off around the world for a few months? Well, that's what this man and his family did after selling most of their possessions including their house. The family left their California home and traveled to a variety of places in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia after one or two stops in the Americas. The chapters are a series of informative, entertaining e-mail updates Mr. Cohen sent to family and friends back home who wanted to hear of their adventures. I enjoyed learning about the family's experiences in a variety of places such as Paris, Sardinia, Zimbabwe, Capetown, Istanbul, Zurich, Mumbai, Phnon Penh, Perth and many other cities around the world. Who knew hippos were the most dangerous creature in Africa? Well, read about the family's experience with one of them. Wow, the African safari chapters were exciting! Great book!

Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America by James Webb -- The author discusses the Celtic culture of the Scots-Irish going all the way back to Roman times with brief mentions of various factors that shaped those who make up a sizable number of those who settled and live in the United States. One chapter focuses on Braveheart and the fight for Scottish independence while others focus on Andrew Jackson and later still the author discusses some of his own life as a son of a career military man.

I enjoyed learning about this culture and could identify with much of what the author says since I live in an area with a huge Scots-Irish presence.

The Cruelest Journey: Six Hundred Miles to Timbuktu by Kira Salak -- This book told the adventure of the author as she paddled a kayak along the Niger River and across Lake Débo to Timbuktu. Along the way, she stopped at villages and told of her experiences with the various people. She met some very friendly tribes while others were hostile. Many (most?) wanted money as they saw "tubab" (white woman) as rich. The author told of various practices amongst these West Africans -such as men marrying more than one wife, female genital mutilation, sorcery, even slavery. In fact she bought two women's freedoms when she reached Timbuktu. Yes, they say slavery has been made illegal, but still the Tuaregs own the Bellas despite the governmental decree. A few times the author wanted to see inside one of the mud mosques only to be refused because she was "Christian." (She's actually Buddhist.) I really enjoyed this book. I felt I was paddling along experiencing the African sun and cultures.

Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know - And Doesn't by Stephen Prothero -- In this book the author makes a case for religious studies within high schools and colleges because so much of world and national events come from people's religious beliefs. Think of the American support for the State of Israel. Much of that comes from religious people who believe from the Bible that Israel has the right to this land because God gave it to them for all time. Without knowing this about the Bible, you may be perplexed why a number of Americans would care about the fate of some piece of land half way across the world. Happenings in Iran and Iraq and with al Qaeda have a religious reason. If you strip public life from all study of religion, you are ignorant of much of what makes the world tick.

It cannot be taught as literature alone, but "students must understand the historical force of the Bible - how its words have beckoned adventurers to new lands and motivated politicians to create new governments." (pg. 134)

A Ride Along the Great Wall by Robin Hanbury-Tenison -- An English couple rides along the Great Wall of China by horseback and tells of their adventures, sights they see, people they met and their overall impressions. I found this at the library and enjoyed reading this book about China. I was particularly interested in the section on when they met Muslims. They were the friendliest and most helpful Chinese this British couple met. Also their bathrooms were clean unlike the putrid pits they found elsewhere along the way.

Sleeping With The Devil by Robert Baer -- The subtitle is "How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude"; this book was written by a former CIA agent and it touches on the US's relationship with Saudi's royal family, the bribes, the corruption...ugh! He speaks of the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda as well as the Alawaites in Syria which I find extremely interesting to read in light of this year's events there. I actually thought it would be interesting to read an updated version since this book was published 7 years ago and he speaks of the cost of oil anywhere from $20 to $40 a barrel. Ha! Also the Syria thing...I'd like to read his thoughts on what has happened there in recent months and really in Egypt and Libya as well. As for the US and Saudi, did you know Saudi was our biggest customer in weapons? This book was rather painful.

From the epilogue: "Washington abetted the whole thing, even encouraged the Al Sa'ud to run a kleptocracy. The result is a kingdom built on thievery, one that nurtures terrorism, destroys any possibility of a middle class based on property rights, and promotes slavery and prostitution. We can't get around the fact that the House of Sa'ud underwrites the mosque schools that turn out the jihadists, just as it administers the charities that fund the jihadists. It channels the anger of the jihadists against the West to distract it from the rot in the House of Sa'ud." (pg. 205)

The House on Dream Street by Dana Sachs -- This is a memoir of an American woman during her extended stays in Vietnam. What began as a backpacking adventure with a friend to see Asia grew to a love for Vietnam. The author tells of her experiences learning the language (which is very tonal), interacting with locals, trying to cook an American meal (hamburgers and fries) for her landlords and other aspects of the culture. I found this a good way to learn more about Vietnam's people and their attitudes towards Americans and war and destiny in general.

I thought this statement worth pondering: "You only realize how heavily you depend upon the customs of your own culture when you live somewhere that doesn't follow them." -- She said this in the context of the Vietnamese rarely saying "please" and "thank you" which is something she grew up learning.

The Miss Stone Affair: America's First Modern Hostage Crisis by Teresa Carpenter -- I found this book in the library and although it wasn't the most exciting book I've read, I did learn a few things about separatist groups in the Balkans. A missionary lady was kidnapped by men who were opposing the Ottoman rule in order to get money for their cause. They also kidnapped a Bulgarian woman who was 6 months pregnant. Oddly, they kidnapped the latter for the sake of Miss Stone's honor. Propriety amongst kidnappers? Weird! These kidnappers for the most part were portrayed as rather kind although they had their moments of roughness. When Katerina's baby was born, the men each took turns holding her and vowing to put her name on their guns for good luck. This book was an interesting way to learn more about the Balkans and the roles western powers had in creating some of the borders and discord there.

Wuhu Diary by Emily Prager -- The author takes her adopted daughter back for a visit to Wuhu, China to see where LuLu was found and lived her first seven months. They stay for several weeks and LuLu gets to attend preschool and meet many Chinese people all of whom seem to adore the little Chinese girl who speaks perfect English. see previous post for information on Individualism

Individualism

2011-08-28T07:43:00.000-05:00

In Wuhu Diary author Emily Prager takes her adopted daughter back to her hometown in China. She wants LuLu, nearly five when they make the trip, to see the area in which she was born and found and lived her first seven months. In the early part of the book, Emily and LuLu went to a park where several families gathered. I found this observation worth sharing because Emily's thoughts on the individual's importance in Western culture slightly shocked me. Until...I thought about it and realized it was probably true.

"I am feeling pretty relaxed, although I am the only Westerner in the park. It will take a week or two for me to change myself so I can walk around China. My awareness of myself has to vanish completely. Right now, I am still too self-conscious. After all, this is a culture where the whole is greater than the individual, and I have just come out of a culture where the individual is more important than God. ..." (pg. 21)

What do you think? Do you agree with Emily or do you think this was a slight exaggeration on her part? At the very least I think it was an interesting way to get across the point that individualism is pretty important to us. Do you consider us too individualistic, not enough or just about right? Where would you like to see some improvements? What are the benefits of individualism, if any? What are drawbacks of it? What are the benefits of a more collectivist society such as China?

Books & Boys!

2011-08-20T20:12:00.001-05:00

Almost a month ago, I showed you my latest stack of library books. It took a while, but I finally finished all of those. Normally I am a fairly quick reader, but I kept getting distracted. By these guys. Especially the baby. (click pics to see larger)

Michael was busy spending time with his uncle Juan and hanging out with his friends before school starts back, but we did go to the park earlier this week on an especially nice day. The weather was about perfect!

My sister emailed me last night about a free 8x10 collage picture that Walgreens was offering so I uploaded a few photos and made this which I picked up at the store this morning. Pretty cute, huh?

I have many pictures of Michael around my house. Not so many of Zach so I should remedy that before he gets old enough to notice. The collage is a start.

We don't want the little man to feel neglected, do we?

I went to another library branch last week and ended up with these....none of which are in my yellow notebook, but they seem interesting enough.

There's a couple about China, one about Vietnam, the US's involvement with Saudi Arabia over the years and even a fiction story this time! (Hear that, Becky?) :-)

And no, really, I cannot believe I've not written much on my blog in so many days! I've been reading yours as I hope you've noticed by my comments and I've been pretty active on Facebook, but just haven't had much to blog about. I hope you all are doing great!

August, Syria, Ramadan, Somalia, Zach, Juan, World Travel, Fear

2011-08-03T09:10:00.000-05:00

First off...happy August! I really cannot believe it's the eighth month of the year and Christmas will be here before we know it! While growing up, I recall people talking about life going so fast once you were out of high school. At the time, I was stuck in chemistry and physics classes that crawled by so I didn't believe them. But, boy, do I now!

The tenth of this month marks two and a half years since our last day in Damascus. My heart has been aching over what the government continues to do there. The day before Ramadan, they decided to be even more cruel if you can believe it. I cannot even imagine that Syria is the same place I traveled to and loved. Which, in a way, it isn't. The people then feared their government and all was calm. Today, while they may still have this fear, many have chosen to speak out in spite of it. With hopes for a better, freer future. I admire their courage.

Secondly, I hope my friends observing Ramadan have a beneficial month as you reflect on God and what He has blessed you with yet others in the world lack. Some of them your brothers and sisters in faith. Like Somalia. Ugh, again heartache seeing those starving people on television and Wafa's blog posts. Heartbreaking.

Thirdly, today is the third and Zach is three months old! My dad reminded me that his grandfather would have been 111 years old today as he was born August 3, 1900.

Fourthly, my brother in law's brother has been visiting the area for the last few days. Juan is from Venezuela and it's his first trip to the USA. He doesn't speak much English, but thankfully Will is great at both languages and can translate. Really, smiles and hugs don't need any translating and Juan is a fun-loving, pleasant, loving 18 year old. I've enjoyed seeing him while he's been in North Carolina. Will hasn't seen his little brother since Juan was about 8....younger than Michael! Can you imagine? Of course he's talked to his family and seen Juan via Skype, but still. It's so cute seeing Juan and Will together. They have similar facial expressions and even walk the same!

Lastly, I have two questions for you.

1. I just finished a book about a family who took a year to travel around the world. They visited about 40 cities concentrating on southern Europe, South Africa, India, Cambodia, Laos and Australia. They avoided South America, the Middle East (except for Turkey), most of northern Europe, Russia and most of the USA since they are from California. I was curious if you could take off for a trip around the world for a year, what are the places you would most definitely want to visit?

2. I keep seeing how much fear drives the news. I've been hanging out at my parents' house recently and while feeding my baby nephew, I'll sometimes watch CNN to see what's happening in the world. For days last week, you would have thought the world was coming to an end if Congress failed to extend the debt ceiling. As if the USA keeps the world going and if we defaulted, life as we know it would come to and end, aliens would invade and we'd all be their slaves. (I think Amber's post influenced that last bit..sorry.)

I've read articles about the Norway terrorist and see how often fear drives people to do evil things. They fear Muslims. They fear immigrants. They fear the end of civilization as we know it. They fear the extinction of white people. Why so much fear?

That got me to wondering what YOU fear. Do you fear the same things? If so, why? I think we all have our own personal fears so who is brave enough to share some of them? And how do you deal with your fear? Do you feed it by listening to even more doomsday news stories (or preachers!) or do you handle it by denial - what exactly? What are your fear-busting remedies? Any recommendations?

Or maybe you think it's a good thing to fear because it keeps up from getting too complacent? What are your thoughts on fear? Healthy? Good in moderation?

Do share...unless you are too scared! ;-)

July Books

2011-07-29T18:30:00.000-05:00

Islam & Christianity: A Revealing Contrast by James F. Gauss -- I recall this being an Amazon.com recommendation. I ordered it back in 2009, but it didn't really interest me once I received it. It sat on my bookshelf for a year and a half before I decided I should read the books I'd bought before checking out new ones from the library. Thus, it got read finally. The author had some good points. I enjoyed many of the biblical passages. But overall the theme of the book was one that didn't encourage me to be more like Jesus. I felt the author misrepresented Islam on many points and I found myself arguing against what he wrote in defensive of a fuller context. I even marked a few pages with my arguments! So I'm glad I finished it and can move on.

In Ishmael's House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands by Martin Gilbert -- This was another Amazon.com recommendation which I got for my birthday. I learned quite a lot from this book and it inspired four posts because I really wanted to make notes on some topics discussed. ; see previous posts for more details

The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark. -- mentioned it here and in my post about Christianity in the ancient world

Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People by Jon Entine -- see some things that took my attention from this book in my Jews, Hispanics, Chosenness, DNA, Lost Tribes, Sheep & More post

Sharing the Love of Christ With Your Muslim Neighbours by Ahmad Aygei -- this guy spoke at our church earlier this year and offered his book for sale. It's actually 2 books in one thus the following book is by him as well. He is from Ghana and grew up in a large Muslim family. He briefly shares how he became a follower of Jesus and then shares the trials of a new convert and God's heart for Muslims.

One of my favorite parts is from the Introduction:

"It is a sad fact that many Christians are ignorant of God's purposes for the Muslim world. Rather than having God's heart for the Muslims, they feel threatened and become hard-hearted towards them. Some see Islam as a threat which can only be conquered by military might. They have forgotten that we do not use the weapons of the world (2 Corinthians 10:4) and we are not fighting against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12). ... The fact that a sect or religious group is opposed to our beliefs does not mean we should hate them and wish to see evil befall them. The spirit of Christ is full of Love. Loving when we are hated is what makes Christians different." (pg. 1-2)

My other favorite part was dealing with trials and avoiding self pity while going through them. He encourages us to deal with trials properly and not allow ourselves to be self pitying or fearful, but realize God is our strength. (see pg. 28)

Ishmael Shall Be Blessed by Ahmad Aygei -- the second part of this 2 in 1 book. The author shares about Jesus from both the Bible and Quran. I found the final chapter on the Comforter of great interest. He shared the Islamic argument of the Comforter being a prophecy of Muhammad and compared it to the Christian belief of the Comforter being the Holy Spirit just as Jesus stated.

A Christian Perspective on Islam by J.L. Williams -- this guy is the one who actually brought Ahmad Aygei from Ghana to our church for the 3 day conference. I would not have bought this book because I have read so many books of this type already, but Andrew bought it without my knowing thus I figured I'd go ahead and read it. And there was some stuff that was different from most books of this type. I enjoyed the discussion of community, culture, the Crusades and colonialism. Some of it turned me off because I feel such people really are fearful of Islam and I just am not. Perhaps I am naive for being this way.

And with that, I have finished all the books on my own bookshelves aside from the few that are Andrew's. And on July 20, I went to the library and got more books which I shall begin shortly!

After the Apple by Naomi Harris Rosenblatt -- see previous posts for notes

The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner -- NPR correspondent decides to travel various parts of the world to determine what makes people happy or unhappy in the case of Moldova. This was a fun way to learn interesting tidbits about several countries like Bhutan, Iceland, Qatar, India and so forth. The subtitle is "one grump's search for the happiest places in the world." I love the conclusion that he reached about happiness being relational; it's "utterly intertwined with other people" and also, I believe, with our relationship with God.

Two British Guys in Walmart - so funny!

2011-07-27T20:22:00.002-05:00

What was your favorite Alex and Liam discovery? :)

Last Notes from "After the Apple"

2011-07-26T15:44:00.002-05:00

After the Apple by Naomi Harris Rosenblatt -- last notes (see previous posts for more details on this book)

Lesson from Eve and Adam's scapegoating - "Taking responsibility for our imperfections is empowering, because blaming someone else for our actions necessarily assumes that we are victims who are acted upon. Acknowledging that everything we do matters focuses on the adult in us rather than the child. There must follow a behavioral change or at least a genuine effort; words alone are empty." (pg. 11)

I liked this reminder and it made me think of things I see sometimes in blogs about men who cannot control their actions because women dress provocatively or, maybe not even that, women just exist and men find them irresistible. To those who believe such things I say: grow up!

"Death confers a sense of urgency to life; the fact of death tells us that whatever we do is important, that we must not procrastinate." (pg. 20)

Makes me wonder what I need to do before I die.

Lesson from Sarah and Abraham heeding God's word and leaving home later in life - They teach us "that we can start a new life at an advanced age, that we need not stagnate or despair as we grow old." (pg. 24)

Good reminder as I age and feel less worthwhile.

"To me, the biblical emphasis on the barrenness of the matriarchs points out the importance of each individual to the survival of a minority community, by definition a people small in number. By focusing on one couple's struggle to conceive, the Bible transmutes the mundane occurrence of childbirth into a momentous event and thereby reinforce the Hebrew Bible's overarching principle that each individual is uniquely formed in the Divine image. The dignity of an individual is absolute and must be respected." (pg. 35)

It is rather odd how often women in the Bible are barren especially in a culture where, to many, children basically represent your only hope of immortality.

Re: hospitality -- "So central is this precept that the book of Genesis admonishes us not once but thirty-nine times to be kind to strangers." (pg. 57)

I thought that was pretty neat!

Concerning Rebecca and Isaac and his immediate love for her and how she comforted him after his mother's death: "The narrator could have ended here by saying that Isaac and Rebecca lived happily ever after. But this is the Bible, not a sequence of fairy tales designed to soothe the soul with comforting bromides. On the contrary, the Bible is written realistically for adults and continually alerts us to the ups and downs of marriages, the rise and fall of families, as well as the virtues and flaws of the protagonists." (pg. 61)

So true.

Remember the story of Tamar who dressed as a prostitute in order to have a child? By her deceased husband's father, Judah? He had shirked his lawful responsibility to her so she planned and took matters into her own hands by "do[ing] her homework, keep[ing] her focus on her goals, and think[ing] creatively and constructively on how to achieve them." The author notes that "the biblical scribes treat Tamar's resourcefulness and defiance of convention with dignity and sympathy. Her story affirms that a single human being is able to make a profound difference to history, even if that person is 'only a woman,' an outsider, [she was Canaanite], and one of society's least powerful members. Tamar deploys imagination and initiative to control her own destiny rather than waiting for a miracle or resigning herself to perpetual servitude. The Bible lauds and rewards her courage because they serve a goal larger than her own immediate welfare: the preeminent biblical values of family and continuity." (pg. 115)

Note: Tamar's line went on to produce King David and still further Jesus Christ. She is one of the only women mentioned by name in the genealogy given in the book of Matthew.

About those who blame Delilah for Samson's fall - This "is similar to blaming Eve for Adam's disobedience in the Garden of Eden. Neither Adam nor Samson is forced ... Both are free moral agents responsible for the actions they take. Depicting men as weak-kneed victims of female machinations only serves to infantilize them and to deprive them of personal responsibility and accountability." (pg. 128)

See my note above about growing up.

Hagar - first woman to whom an angel appeared

Michal - only woman in the Bible said to have fallen in love with a man; perhaps as the daughter of a king, her wishes were taken into account more than a common woman's would have been

Abigail - her "plea to David is the Hebrew Bible's longest single quotation attributed to a woman" (pg. 157)

I thought those were neat tidbits and wanted to share.

"The story of David and Bathsheba is a prime example of the Bible's 'tough love' approach to life. The Bible acknowledges that humans are both vulnerable and fallible, but it also holds us responsible for our actions. It teaches us that sexual behavior must be subordinate to a tradition of moral and ethical beliefs, and that lying to cover up sexual or other misdeeds is wrong. When David flouts this rule of life, the consequences of his behavior impinge on the lives of his children and bring misery and loss into his private life." (pg. 176)

This is what I mean when I say that I try to learn from the examples within the Bible. I don't use David as an excuse for having an affair. On the contrary, I realize God sees what I do and there are consequences - even for a king!

And since I'm a queen...heheheh, well? ;)

Rosenblatt on the Bible's Presentation of Polygamy

2011-07-25T19:58:00.000-05:00

See introductory post on this book, After the Apple by Naomi Harris Rosenblatt.

The author notes polygamy and the fact that this is a polygamous society a number of times throughout the book.

From chapter 1 when God creates one woman for Adam's partner, she writes, "Another point the Bible suggests is that monogamy is more rewarding than polygamy. God creates one, not multiple, companions for Adam. Anthropologists tell us that men are generally polygamously inclined in consequence of a genetic drive to procreate whenever the opportunity arises. Yet it seems to me that by creating just one woman for the sole man the story is telling us that monogamy is the preferred state and that men need to curb, tame, and control their instinctive sexual drive. Monogamous marriage has been referred to by the psychologist Ned Gaylin as 'the institution for civilizing' sexuality. The Bible suggests that human beings are most nurtured by deep and lasting emotional relationships and the more we put into a relationship the more we get out of it. Multiple or serial relationships dilute the intensity that a monogamous relationship can develop because it concentrates the emotional, sexual, and intellectual aspects of human beings into a single focus. Each time we read of a biblical polygamous family, we read of suffering and pain." (pg. 6)

In the chapter of Jacob with his wives Leah and Rachel -- "In this story the Bible demonstrates a preference for monogamy by detailing the miseries of polygamy. Polygamy is shown to encourage rivalry among multiple wives to gain the single husband's sexual and emotional attention, to have the most children, to receive the most kudos, and to gain the most favor for their children...Modern men may fantasize about a plethora of available women, but the Bible depicts polygamous men as forced to deal with the politics and rivalry among their wives and their children, a rivalry that often extends into the next generations. It offers the sobering suggestion that the husbands (such as Jacob with Rachel, Abraham with Sarah, and Elkanah with Hannah) endured unhappy domestic lives because they had to deal with the misery and suffering of many women..." (pg. 91)

Through the laws of their days, Leah and Rachel each owned a servant given to them by their father. And as permitted in their times, they could give their servants to their husband in order to have children through the servants. Thus Jacob not only dealt with the politics of sleeping with his own wives, but was told by those wives to sleep with their servants, Bilhah and Zilpah, in order to have more children for Jacob. (Rachel was barren at this time so Bilhah was the only way she could have children.) (pg. 97)

You'll also recall Sarah came up with the plan to have children through her servant Hagar since she was barren and she decided to take matters into her own hands and have children through Hagar. Of course that all backfired and got rather ugly.

Hebrew Bible and Women

2011-07-23T20:00:00.000-05:00

First library book finished...just a few notes for now. I need to watch NCIS.

In the back of the book there is a ten question conversation with the author, Naomi Harris Rosenblatt. I especially enjoyed the author's answer to question 8 about the most important thing she wanted people to know about these women in After the Apple and what biggest misconception she wanted to dispel.

First, I would like to challenge the widespread notion that the women of the Hebrew Bible were timid and crushed under a harsh patriarchal boot. After the Apple demonstrates that, on the contrary, these women used their power as women; they seduced, they challenged, they subverted authority, to work everyday miracles in a male dominated culture.

Second, to refute once and for all the widespread notion of Eve as an underhanded seductress. (pg. 268)

"In piecing together a book that is both a history of a people and its moral code, the Hebrew Bible esteems women who refuse to surrender to misfortune but marshal whatever resources they have available to defy what others view as inescapable fate. ... [She then mentions Ruth and Tamar's ways of making themselves part of the family after being widowed.] These women are alert to the rare appearance of opportunities for them to achieve justice, and they have the courage to act on their convictions." (pg. 233)

"What I find particularly intriguing about the women is that most of them circumvent male authority in a patriarchal society, and some even subvert it. Even more remarkable is the fact that the women, other than Jezebel, are never punished for their unconventional conduct. On the contrary, the biblical scribes treat the women with deep sympathy, and are sensitive to their plight." Most are even "rewarded for their boldness." (pg. 255)

Here are my library books, colorful sack and notebook! Whee!

2011-07-21T18:21:00.000-05:00

In yesterday's post I mentioned a trip to the library. Here are the books I checked out. You can even see the colorful sack that I took along with me and filled. OK, so it was only 7 books. It sure seemed like more! :)

Also you can see page one of my list of books to look for at the library. These are all books they have at one of the local branches per the website search feature. I have title, author, reference number, which branch of the library has the book and even a place for when I read it. Sometimes I even note where I heard about the book (e.g., Bridget's blog, footnote in book).

Nerd I am.

Two of these were on my list; the others just made it to my house somehow.

Any guesses which two were on my list?

Click photos to enlarge.

Ollie's, Library, Jesus

2011-07-20T20:20:00.000-05:00

Today I went to the Grand Opening of a new store in town, Ollie's. It's kind of like Big Lots. Has a lot of close-out stuff or slightly irregular products at cheaper prices than if you found them in other stores in pristine condition. I usually avoid crowded stores, but I was just in the mood to go so I did. They have a books section that I checked out with interest. An older couple was browsing in the same area and the husband walked away with a laugh saying he didn't need to get any more. He had 2 or 3 books in his hands already. I talked with them briefly and joked about his library. Good-natured stuff. I started to go back to looking and the man requested permission to ask me something "rather personal." I didn't mind and told him "sure."

"Do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?"

I smiled broadly and assured him I did.

He then grinned and held out his hand to shake mine, "Glad to meet you, sister."

Hehehe...I thought that was cute.

And, no, I am not offended. You care for my soul? Thank you very much! I mean that for people of any religion who care enough for my soul to share their faith.

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I was down to half a book left to read from my quest to read all my books so I treated myself to A TRIP TO THE LIBRARY!!!!!!!!! When I read books, sometimes I notice in the footnotes a book that seems interesting. First I'll look online to see if my library has it. If not, I resort to Amazon.com and my Wishlist. I keep a notebook of the library books I may want to check out and I took it with me today.

I found a few from my list and - as always - a few not from the list that just, you know the drill: jumped off the shelves into my arms.

*tsk* Naughty books.

I'm glad I took my reusable bag to carry them all. I had a sack of books!

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You know that verse in Luke about Jesus coming to seek and save that which was lost? I figured out this week part of that must be relationships. He came to seek relationships and restore them. And the more I see people having problems within families - mothers rejecting daughters; fathers abandoning families; children rebelling - the more I see the wonderfulness of this aspect of Jesus.

Thank you, God, for your willingness to heal relationships!

More and more I see the value in whole relationships. It's really awful to be at odds with people who should be bound by love.

Wouldn't it be nice to just sit around, enjoy your family and have peace?

Christianity in the ancient world

2011-07-19T07:32:00.000-05:00

The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark -- a few more notes; see this post for a brief introduction to this book written from a sociologist's perspective and his attempt at answering the question:

"How did a tiny and obscure messianic movement from the edge of the Roman Empire dislodge classical paganism and become the dominant faith of Western civilization?"

These are just some random notes of things that interested me. Sorry if they are too rambling and make little sense apart from the context within the book.

The author claims "a primary cause of low fertility in the Greco-Roman world was a male culture that held marriage in low esteem. One hundred thirty two years before Christ, a Roman censor "proposed that the senate make marriage compulsory because so many men, especially in the upper classes, preferred to stay single." Stark adds that men in that world "found it difficult to relate to women." (pg. 117)

Ha! I think.

Some reasons why Christianity rose / "women's improved status in the Christian subculture" -- The author discussed other reasons some having to do with more Christians surviving the devastating epidemics, but one of my favorite chapters had to deal with the role of women.

1. Christians prohibited infanticide. Thus more women were allowed to live. Women have children and Christian women often raised their children as Christians.

2. Christianity condemned divorce, incest, marital infidelity and polygamy

3. While pagans also "prized female chastity," Christians extended this by rejecting the "double standard that gave pagan men so much sexual license" ; Christian men were urged to remain virgins until marriage and extra-marital sex was condemned as adultery.

4. Widowed women were not forced to remarry (Augustus fined them if they didn't remarry within two years); Women who remarried lost their inheritance as it became the property of her new husband

5. There is evidence that Christian women married later (we're talking more marrying closer to 18 rather than 12 or 14) in greater numbers than pagan women.

6. Christians rejected abortion and there were apparently a lot of women who died due to bad abortions back then. Sadly, many of them were forced to abort by their husbands/lovers since women were property of men.

He also discusses the role of women within a Christian marriage based on the writings of Paul. The author notes, however, that later Christian leaders showed a more patriarchal view (reflective of the culture) that Paul did not (the author believes Paul's thoughts of marriage show more "symmetry of the relationship." see I Cor. 7:2ff). He also says Paul's thoughts of women within the Church were more favorable than the surrounding culture. The author notes Paul addressed 18 men and 15 women by name in the book of Romans, and Paul speaks of women deacons* and such like Priscilla who taught others.

* That the King James Version chose to use the word "servant" rather than "deaconess," the author says is reflective of 17th century sexism rather than what Paul truly wrote. Deacons and deaconesses in Paul's day "assisted at liturgical functions and administered the benevolent and charitable activities of the church." (pg. 108)

The author talked of the role mercy and love played in this ancient culture which deemed mercy and pity as "defects of character to be avoided by all rational men." (pg. 212) "Plato had removed the problem of beggars from his ideal state by dumping them over its borders." During epidemics when many people fled to the countryside, Christians often stayed and cared for the sick. Though he loathed the Christians, emperor Julian is reported to have "complained in a letter to the high priest of Galatia in 362 that the pagans needed to equal the virtue of Christians, for recent Christian growth was caused by their 'moral character, even if pretended,' and by their 'benevolence toward strangers and care for the graves of the dead.' ... 'The impious Galileans support not only their poor, but ours as well, everyone can see that our people lack aid from us.'" (pg. 84)

As stated in my introductory post, some things in this book were a bit too technical for my non-sociologist brain. But many things were of great interest since I tend to enjoy cultural tidbits. My favorite chapters dealt with epidemics in the ancient world and the people's responses to it, the role of women especially how Christian women differed from pagan women and the chapter on "urban chaos and crisis" where the author described ancient cities to such a degree that I felt the misery of living there even if it were only in my imagination.

Jews, Hispanics, Chosenness, DNA, Lost Tribes, Sheep & More

2011-07-16T13:59:00.000-05:00

So I'm reading a new book that's been on my shelf for about a year when Amber had her last giveaway. The title Abraham's Children sounded rather interesting when I selected it, but it's about 400 pages and I wasn't sure if I wanted to invest a lot of time in something that talks about, well, the subtitle is Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People so...? But in my quest to read books on my own bookshelf before submerging myself in library book bliss, I picked it up the other night. And found for the most part that I liked it. Now there are bits in it that, eh, I really don't care about, but since I find the Jewish question (for me that is race or religion?) of interest, it's been a good read.

Some highlights for me thus far. (I'm on page 242.)

According to the author, Jon Entine, a "bar mitzvahed and confirmed" Reform Jew who lost his faith when his mother died of ovarian cancer in his teen years ...

1. For most Europeans of Jewish ancestry, "lineage trumped faith" or as Hannah Arendt put it, "'Believing in his own chosenness without believing in Him who chooses.'" (pg. 17)

2. The Bible is probably an account written by the religious Judeans (of the southern kingdom which includes Jerusalem) looking down on the "infidel" north, Israel where those ten tribes were "lost" (pg. 103ff); "In writing their history, the surviving pastoral nomads of Judea combined fragments of the truth with liberal doses of political propaganda." (pg. 105)

3. The Hasmonean campaign "resulted in the absorption of more gentiles into Judaism than any Jewish government or social movement in history" (pg. 116); Gentiles were killed or forced to convert.

4. Re: Jesus -- "While the imprint of Judaism could still be found in the genes, Christianity came to be centered in the soul. It is a momentous fracturing of the tradition of tribal ancestry as the defining component of Jewishness. For the followers of Jesus, henceforth faith would take precedence over scripture and ancestry." (pg. 119)

5. Re: The Lost Tribes -- The fact that "some Christians believe that almost all Asians are of Semitic ancestry" traces back to a 19th century Scottish missionary who said Shem's ancestors "escaped to the east during the Assyrian debacle" wandering all the way to Korea, China and Japan. This part made me laugh: "What was his proof? The sheep he came across in Asia looked eerily like the breed of sheep from Palestine and sold in Smithfield market in London!" (pg. 162)

Hahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaa!

I enjoyed some of the stories of groups such as the Lemba in Great Zimbabwe and even Hispanics in North America and their connections to the Jews. Sometimes DNA was used to prove or disprove a supposed connection. Some Mexican-American Catholics found their historical ties to Judaism compelling enough that they formally converted to Judaism. (Many of these had ancestors who most likely fled Spain during the Inquisition.) On the other hand some with newly-found ancestral Jewish ties chose to keep Jesus as the Messiah, but also observe some Jewish religious practices such as a Sabbath day service because of "'all the Sephardim went through.'" (pg. 193)

I also liked the story of the LDS church trying to prove the Native Americans as Lamanites, those cursed by God with dark skin due to their rebellion. Apparently DNA didn't work in their favor on that project and one Mormon anthropologist had the integrity to say their insistence on trying to prove this is "tantamount 'to claiming the earth is flat'" and that "'Many people would like to see the LDS Church publicly acknowledge that it is no longer appropriate to label Native Americans as Lamanites or heathen Israelites.'" (pg. 147)

There is more, but this post is too long! Perhaps I'll share a few more notes later.

Did you learn anything new from this? Anything highly suspect as not true? Please share your thoughts!

Jesus: Confronting Racism in His Hometown

2011-07-15T15:44:00.001-05:00

Have you ever had the kind of relationship where things were going really well as far as you could tell? Outwardly things were great. You were praised for your intelligence and tolerance. You were well-liked. You were thought of as amazingly sweet and witty and merciful.

So you didn't want to rock the boat by bringing up anything negative. Like the fact your friend generalized all Muslims as women-hating terrorists or referred to Christians as unclean or Jews as apes. Maybe she used offensive words to describe black people or the Mexican family living down the street.

You wanted to bask in the glow of knowing you were charming.

It's not your place to confront people and challenge them on their bad traits after all. How intolerant would that be?

Luke tells this story about Jesus.

¹⁴ Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. ¹⁵ He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

¹⁶ He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷ and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

   ¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
   because he has anointed me
   to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
   and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
   ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

²⁰ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹ He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

²² All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.

So far, so good. Jesus returned to his hometown, spoke in the synagogue and amazed his people. Why did he not sit there, bask in their affirming words and share a smile with his mother who was probably beaming with pride at her son?

He'd had his say. He'd gotten their attention. He'd made himself known. Was there any need to continue? To challenge them..with this...?

²³ Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”

²⁴ “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. ²⁵ I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. ²⁶ Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. ²⁷ And there were many in Israel with leprosyin the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸ All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. ²⁹ They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. ³⁰ But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

My gracious, what just happened?!

Why did the hometown crowd go from being amazed by Jesus' gracious words to wanting to throw him off the cliff? What was so offensive about bringing up the widow in Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian?

Was Jesus confronting racism? If so, why was this important? What possible good could have come out of his deliberate stirring up this Nazarene crowd?

What do you think?

New Book and Blogs, Lack of Women and White Folks, Bible Stuff and Single Moms (though married)

2011-07-12T11:29:00.002-05:00

Ah, I have so much on my mind, but don't know where to start. Some days I go through droughts with not much worth sharing, but then I go through, um, spouts where I have too much. It's not that stuff I want to share is oh-so-fascinating especially to you, but it's just thoughts that come to mind. So maybe this post should just briefly mention those things and maybe I'll "flesh 'em out" in later posts if the mood strikes.

I started a new book, The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark. He's not a historian, but a sociologist and he's trying to answer the question about Christianity's rise from that perspective. It's slightly technical at times when he gets into the arithmetic part, but I am enjoying much of the cultural tidbits very much! His main question is this: "How did a tiny and obscure messianic movement from the edge of the Roman Empire dislodge classical paganism and become the dominant faith of Western civilization?" He explores such things as primary (often women) and secondary (often their husbands) conversions, social networks, epidemics, status of women, fertility, conversion of Jews being higher than we think, Christians being from all social groups not only slaves. Well, those are the ones I've read about so far. I'm about halfway through the book.

Just a bit ago I read some interesting facts about the declining birthrate and how the Roman Empire was giving incentives to men who would father at least three children. The Roman Empire so very much needed its citizens to have higher fertility rates that many emperors imposed "political and financial sanctions upon childless couples, upon unmarried women over the age of twenty, and upon unmarried men over the age of twenty-five." Perhaps if their male to female ratio were not 131 to 100 due to infanticide (killing mostly unwanted female infants), this would not have been such a problem.

The declining birthrate thing reminded me of this post Why Tanning, Barbie and God Forbid Belgian Chocolate May Disappear In the Future? by a Jordanian-Syrian man living in the United States. If you don't want to read the post, it's so titled because of the declining rate of white people in the world. There is a reason places like Germany are inviting other nationalities into the country to study basically free of charge.

By the way, that blog is one that I started reading this week and have found most interesting. I especially love when Malik shares cultural tidbits from both the US and Arab world. I enjoyed reading his Arab perspective on the 4th of July, for instance.

Another blog about a serious topic is this new one by a Jordanian who is speaking out about childhood sexual abuse. Visit Mohammed's blog here and lend him your support if you wish.

In other news, I was reading through Luke 2-4 recently and kept getting stopped by patterns I was noticing. And then today I started rereading some things in those chapters and ended up visiting Deuteronomy and Exodus and three places in Isaiah because my Bible had links back to those places. I was reminded again that I love Isaiah 40 and need to read it more often.

Note to self: write a post about Luke 4:14-30 and why Jesus didn't just leave well enough alone. They liked him and were amazed by him so why challenge them to the extent they want to throw you off a cliff?

Random thought that came to mind as I was driving the other day: I think I'd heard a story about single parenting and how many children are growing up in poverty due to mainly a lack of fathers. Then my mind went to polygynous families and how even if you have only one other wife, you've perhaps made your wives single mothers half the time. I guess unless you live with both wives and all the children in one household. But for those men who have two separate households and maybe spend one week with Jane and her kids following by a week with Cara and her kids...that reminds me of the children I've always felt sorry for because their divorced parents had joint custody meaning they had to live one week at mom's followed by one week at dad's. I assume the children get used to it, but it seemed rather dreadful to me. Only with polygyny, it's the man of the householdS who must move from place to place.

Which lead me to wonder if that's OK really. After all what is the father's role besides providing for his family? If he is providing for Jane and her kids sufficiently why not also have a life with Cara and her kids if he can provide materialistically for them just the same?

QUESTION FOR YOU: What roles did your father/grandfather have in your household? What about your husbands and adult brothers? The men in your life? Are they only useful for fathering children and then providing for them? Or do they have other roles that would be missed if they were gone 50% of the time to non-work-related things? Granted I know even in monogamous relationships, fathers can essentially make their wives into single mothers because they work too many hours or they pursue too many hobbies outside the household. Too much golf or fishing or maybe even just sitting in front of the television while the wife does all the child-rearing stuff.

The only other thing on my mind is remnants and I'll not talk about that now since this post is long and rambling enough.

Hope all are well! And, can it be that Zach is ten weeks old today?

Last Notes and Lessons Learned from Stories of Jews in Muslim Lands

2011-07-10T16:11:00.000-05:00

Last notes from In Ishmael's House: A History of the Jews in Muslim Lands by Martin Gilbert.

I finished the book! Ah, what an interesting read. Definitely a side of the story I'd never heard especially the part pertaining to how the Jews were treated in Muslim lands leading up to and after Israel was created. What a mess! Several times I got the impression that Arabs were simply frustrated at the British presence (like in Egypt) and angered by the creation of Israel so they took out their hostility on the local Jews. It is no different than Americans' mistreatment of Japanese living in the United States during World War II and blaming American Muslims for the sins of Al Qaeda or a rogue Muslim extremist. Or even our bombing of Iraq for what 19 mostly Saudi nationals did on 9/11. It's sad that the human race is such that we take out our wrath on innocent people when we feel injustice has taken place and we are lusting for revenge or dignity or whatever term we use to justify "making someone pay!"

Yesterday's post left off with Iraq and since then I've read about Egypt and the 1954 Lavon Affair in which the Israeli intelligence agency along with at least one Israeli Government Minister tried to implicate the Muslim Brotherhood in acts of terror! "The plan was to have Israeli agents explode bombs against Egyptian, American and British targets while at the same time making the attacks look like a Muslim Brotherhood operation." (pg. 253) I suppose you can guess that this plan's failure only increased the difficulty for Egyptian Jews.

Oh, and also in my last post I talked about the Arab mistreatment of Jews only bolstered Israel, right? If his stats are correct, the author states around 75% of the immigrants to Israel were from Muslim countries and not Europe where (I am assuming) the root of the problem started! Weird how that works. Interesting tidbit: even though the white, 'westernized' Jews make up only around a quarter of the Jewish population in Israel, most all of the big-time leaders have been from this group. The author said the Ashkenazis often looked at Jews from Arab countries - the Sephardi - as "primitive" and "fit mainly for manual labour and domestic service." (pg. 311) Racism exists from Jews towards Jews. Imagine.

Also I wondered yesterday why Arab countries would allow so many Jews to leave for Israel. Well continuing the book, I found not all of them did. Syria, for example, basically trapped their Jewish population for decades. Finally in the 1990s after much international pressure, President Hafez al-Assad agreed that "all 3,886 Jews in Syria were free to leave -- for anywhere but Israel." (pg. 308) Some Arab countries were similar in not allowing travel to Israel while others like Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco seemed fine with it.

The last chapter discussed the roughly 50,000 Jews still living in Muslim lands today. Many of those are in Iran, by the way. (Jews in Persia predate Christianity and Islam.) The ones that made me smile most were stories of the one Afghan Jew who stays because he wants to represent the Jewish culture that was there for a thousand years and the three Jews, the Pinchas family, in Kamishli, Syria. Also I think it's cute that two Jews are registered to vote in Sidon, Lebanon.

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Here are two final stories I wanted to share. One good, one bad. They represent to me much of the last half of the book which dealt with quite a bit more of modern Jewish/Muslim history than I recall from Zachary Karabell's book last year. (Karabell seemed to detail more of the older history while this book dealt more with modern times.)

After some problems in Egypt between the Muslims who took out their anger for the creation of the State of Israel on local Jews ...

"In spite of the return to order, an Egyptian Arab wrote a revealing letter to the Bourse égyptienne newspaper on July 22: 'It would seem that most people in Egypt are unaware of the fact that among Egyptian Moslems there are some who have white skin,' he wrote. 'Every time I board a tram I see people pointing at me and saying "Jew, Jew." I have been beaten more than once because of this. For that reason I humbly beg that my picture (enclosed) be published with an explanation that I am not Jewish and that my name is Adham Mustafa Galeb.'" (pg. 225)

YET ...

"Amidst all the political turmoil, incitement and violence, relations between Muslims and Jew were still possible. In the Aboukir internment camp, Egyptian-born Abraham Matalon met the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Alexandria, who had also been imprisoned. 'At first,' Matalon remembered later, 'I didn't know he was a member. We embraced, and we started meeting every day. He said he wanted to learn Hebrew, and I wanted to learn Koran, so this is how we spent our time. I wanted to have a dialogue with the Muslims, and they loved me for it! I did the call to prayer in the camp and the soldiers admired it, they even answered me. And they knew I was a Zionist, but they did not manifest any attitudes against me. They said we are friends in life. When you come to talk to your enemy, you see that he is a different person, you can see his human side." (pg.221)

Perhaps we can learn lessons from the stories I shared from this book. Thoughts?

Jews in Muslim Lands and the Creation of Israel: "They did not wish to be dhimmis any more. Finally they had a choice."

2011-07-09T09:33:00.000-05:00

Some more notes from In Ishmael's House: A History of the Jews in Muslim Lands by Martin Gilbert. Now we're getting into the section on World War II, the creation of the State of Israel and the aftermath of that.

So we've seen Muslims and Jews actually got along quite well at times. In those instances as long as the Jews kept their respectful stance as dhimmis, most often problems did not exist. After a time, however, this all changed and problems happened in places where Jews had thrived for years such as Iraq. One former Iraqi administrator, Abraham Elkabir, "later reflected - while living in Israel - on what went wrong" between Muslims and Jews. "He traced Muslim hostility to three factors:

1. "the Palestine issue"
2. "the Mufti of Jerusalem's campaign in Iraq identifying Jews and Zionists"
3. "the 'anti-Semitic tendencies' of the British officials and other Westerners in Iraq" (pg. 193)

Chapters 12 and 13 also mention Nazi Germany influencing Arab hatred towards the Jews. This despite the fact Hitler's social ladder put Arabs only one step above Jews. Wisely Hitler had this illustration deleted from the Arabic printing of his book Mein Kampf since he wanted Arab help.

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Observation: Part of the problem with Zionism is that it was in conflict with rising Arabism. So was this all a soured competition between nationalities?

COMPARE this thought ...

"The Muslim world, inspired by Arab nationalism but inflamed by Jewish nationalism, still considered Palestine as an Arab country and part of the Muslim patrimony, in which Jews could live only as a subject people." (pg. 201)

with this one:

"The imminent prospect of a National Home had given the Jews a sense of pride and a hope for a secure future. Jews would no longer have to put up with being second-class citizens, but that was how the Muslims among whom they lived considered them: the eternal, born dhimmis, subject to one form or another of the Covenant of Omar." (pg. 205)

So was the problem that Islamic faith said Jews were God-ordained to a certain role that Jews no longer were willing to play?

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I found this fact very interesting and wondered how I should weigh it in considering the whole Palestine/Israel issue.

"Between 1922 and 1939 more Arabs had entered Palestine than Jews. These were Muslim immigrants including many illegals, from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Iraq, Iran and Syria - as well as from Transjordan, Sudan and Saudi Arabia. These immigrants were drawn to Palestine by its opportunities for work and its growing prosperity - opportunities and prosperity often created by the Jews there. In 1948 many of these Arab immigrants were to be included in the statistics of 'Palestinian' Arab refugees." (pg. 175)

So much for all the Palestinians living on ancestral lands for centuries, huh? I'm sure many had, but not these 20,000+ who came only in the twentieth century from other Arab lands.

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The Partition problem also caused conflict in Egypt where the Muslim Brotherhood "called for the reintroduction of the dhimmi laws, which had been repealed by Egypt's Mohammad Ali dynasty a century earlier, allowing both Egyptian society and Egyptian Jewry to flourish." (pg. 213)

Several times Arab suspicion of the Jewish communities giving money to Zionist organizations was noted. It seemed most Arab countries at this time simply wanted to make sure their Jewish populations didn't support the creation of a Jewish state and they wanted the Jews to renounce Zionism, declare their loyalty to their countries (whether Iraq or Morocco or Libya) and definitely not financially support any Jewish agencies which might work to relocate Jews to Palestine. This reminds me of today in the United States where many Muslim "charities" are under suspicion for supporting what the United States deems as terrorist organizations. If you want to support the Palestinians by giving to any charity with ties to Hamas or Hezbollah, forget it.

And people here often want Muslims to show their loyalty to the United States. It seems some are suspicious of Muslim ties to that mysterious worldwide ummah.

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The last chapter I finished was about Iraq from 1948 to1952. One Jewish man put the reason why his family left, "because of 'hostility at a popular level to the new State of Israel' - not due to any official Iraqi discrimination or expulsion.'" (pg. 243) It's as if the Arab people hated Israel so much that they took out their frustrations on the local Jewish populations which caused most of them to flee. The author noted by the end of 1951, over 113,500 Jews had left Iraq legally while 6,000 remained. When Jews left Iraq they had to surrender all but a small amount of money so a few Jews decided to stay.

What I find ironic to consider is that European Jews discriminated against and hurt so much by the Holocaust and preceding years (and years) understandably wanted to flee Europe for the newly created Israel where they felt safe. Most Arabs throughout the region hated this new creation so they took out their wrath on the Jewish people in their countries. Which, in turn, made those Jews want to leave. So many Arab countries let them leave -- for Israel! Which to me makes little sense. If you are wanting to destroy this newly-created entity, why bolster it with more people? Especially Jewish people who seem to have an innate ability to thrive wherever God puts them?

I think I see more clearly why many Palestinians feel abandoned by other Arabs and why they are cynical of Arab nations truly wanting to aid them. If anything, Palestine and Palestinians have been used as a rallying point for some Muslims who are trying to unite a fragmented ummah. But has real effort taken place to do anything? Or is it mostly talk? Arabs have often blamed their dictatorial leaders so we'll have to see if this Arab Spring - and new leaders coming to power - makes any difference for the Palestinian refugees.

All that said, it does not change the fact that I detest how Israel treats the Palestinians. I find it very shameful that people who have suffered so much over the centuries could, in turn, show they can be just as evil now that they are in superior positions. One would hope the human population would learn lessons from history, but that seems too difficult.

Thoughts? Corrections? Please share!

(see the two previous posts for more information on this book)

Lesson from a Brave Muslimah & Stories of Jews in Muslim Lands

2011-07-08T10:56:00.001-05:00

Besides the subject of Muhammad's example of how to treat Jews, here's a sampling of some of the topics discussed in this book's first 200 pages. There are some encouraging stories at the end of this post!

In Ishmael's House: A History of the Jews in Muslim Lands by Martin Gilbert

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The Fatimids for the most part treated the Jews well enough. Until Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah came on the scene destroying all synagogues and churches and giving Jews and Christians the "choice of conversion to Islam or departure from the countries under his rule." A year before his death, however, he changed his mind and synagogues could be built and Jews could practice their religion again. The lesson from al-Hakim: "although the dhimmi laws made room for both persecution and protection, their effect was decided by the temperament, religious zeal and personal caprice of Muslim rulers." (pg. 38)

The author notes Caliph al-Hakim likely had mental issues so ...

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Chapter 4 -- Jews thrived in Spain under Muslim rule for a time and even held high positions. I think it was here that a Jewish man commanded a Muslim army until someone got jealous. Yet later a Muslim tribe from North Africa the Almohads or "Unitarians" (for the unity of God) came into the region and they were much less tolerable. Either convert to Islam or leave. (Throughout the book so far, I am amazed at how often Jewish people are forced to move from one place to another. Reminds me of reading the biblical tale of the Jews wandering in the desert.)

It was during the Almohads rule that the great Jewish scholar Maimonides lived. In fact he outwardly converted to Islam. "He advised his fellow Jews: 'Utter the formula' - of conversion -'and live.'" A footnote says, "Maimonides was echoing Deuteronomy 31:19: 'I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.'" (pg. 56)

Moses influencing the Jews in a convert-or-die situation!

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Page 64 records how Jews flourished in Baghdad and assisted in its construction,

yet page 66 records how in Fez, Muslim leaders realized the Jews' conversions to Islam were insincere and devised special clothing and "degrading costume" for all Jewish men who supposedly had converted to Islam.

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The book records "brief glimmers of light whenever Muslim nobles intervened on behalf of the Jews" (against common folks who testified against the Jews) yet also sad times when Jewish children were given to Muslim families enabling "authorities to take advantage of a particular Islamic theological position - fitra - that maintained that all males were born Muslims, and that they became Jews or Christians only because of the education received from their non-Muslim parents." (pg. 67)

The author notes Ibn Aqnin who said many Muslims believed they would gain "considerable reward from Allah" for taking children from Jews and Christians.

God-sanctioned kidnapping is sad.

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The Mamluks were not kind to Jews in Egypt, yet the Jews in the Persian city of Shiraz did pretty well. (pg. 71)

At times the Jews lent aid to Muslims in fighting Christians. (pg. 72) And when the Jews were expelled from Christian Europe, they were welcomed and protected in Muslim lands (pg. 76).

The Ottoman Empire was good for Jews suffering not only in Christian lands, but also in other Muslim lands such as Yemen. Jews from those places found refuge for the most part among the Ottomans. (pg. 82)

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THE GOOD STORIES

What I like about the book is that the author will be sharing how awful Jews were treated by a Muslim mob...well, I don't like those stories, but I will be thinking how wrong it all is and then...ah, hope! Then he will start a new paragraph sharing how individual Muslims stood against the mob mentality to protect the Jews! And I remember looking off into the distance last night hoping that if ever an angry, murderous mob were in my town that I would not be tempted to join it and do harm to others. And that I wouldn't be afraid of them and go hide and pretend they are not doing these awful things. But that I would be bold in doing right and standing up to the bullies!

Here is one example from a Tunisian leader, Muslim ruler Muhammed al-Munsif ("known to the French as Moncef Bey"):

"When the Germans occupied Tunisia at the end of 1942, Moncef Bey summoned his senior officials to his palace and told them: 'The Jews are having a hard time but they are under our patronage and we are responsible for their lives. If I find out that an Arab informer caused even one hair of a Jew to fall, this Arab will pay with his life.'" (pg. 181)

In Baghdad Jews found favor and help from the Mayor, Arshad al-Umari who rid the city of Yunis al-Sabawi who wanted to target Jewish houses and shops. (pg. 189)

Later in Adhamiya north of Baghdad when anti-Jewish fervor spread, Mordechai Ben-Porat told this story from when he was just 18 years old. "'Armed with vicious tools such as axes, knives and all manner of sticks and clubs,'" he could "hear very clearly 'their strident voices and calls on Allah to sanction their murder of Jews.'" His family "barricaded themselves into their home and climbed up to their roof to see what was happening....'I watched as our "good" Moslem neighbours, living on the opposite side of the street, those to whom mother would offer occasional savoury dishes from her kitchen participated in the general madness: they guided the raving attackers to our front door.'"

I noted after reading one such tale how horrible it is that people who for years got along, lived together and were friendly, good neighbors would turn their backs on that in the name of religion and politics and nationalism! It's so sad to see a root of bitterness allowed to grow into a cancer of destruction, isn't it?

But here is the good part of this particular story. Ben-Porat continues: "But at the very moment when the mob reached [his] house, the wife of another Muslim neighbour, Colonel Taher Mohammed Aref, stopped them from proceeding. Holding one of her husband's guns and a hand grenade, she 'stood facing the menacing crowd. ... Her determination and show of arms convinced them of her serious intent and they retreated.' Ben-Porat never forgot this woman's actions: 'It was an act of bravery and left an indelible impression on my mind.'" (pg. 191)

I want to be brave like this unnamed woman who stood up against the mob to do the right thing! Even when that mob was her people of her faith and the ones being defended were not.

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Thoughts? Corrections? Please have your say in the comments!

Gilbert on Muhammad and the Jews

2011-07-07T10:28:00.000-05:00

So the other day I started reading In Ishmael's House: A History of the Jews in Muslim Lands, a gift I received for my birthday. I recall this being one of those recommended by Amazon.com after it saw other books I had viewed. I think at the time I was interested in Jewish life and the treatment of Jews while living among Muslims because Zachary Karabell's book, Peace Be Upon You, (one of my favorites from 2010), made me better understand coexistence is possible...and there was historical proof for it having happened. People who say Muslims and Jews have never gotten along since the days of Isaac and Ishmael and Muslims have always persecuted the Jews and what we see of Muslim Arab hatred for Israel is only proof of that aren't entirely truthful.

So I put this book on my Wishlist thinking perhaps one day I'd order it. At least it was on the list as a reminder. Fast forward to birthday 2011 and I received it from a thoughtful friend! Having just finished a book pretty much detailing why Islam is so awful (a book I'd had for a couple years and decided to finally read in my quest to read books I have here instead of checking out more library books), I was weary of another Muslim-bashing book and when I found out the author, Martin Gilbert, was Jewish, I thought, "Oh no! This isn't like Karabell's book at all!" But then I started reading and overall have found it fair. (I've read about 150 pages with about 200 to go.)

In all honesty, I've heard the Muslim side of some of these stories. I've read enough Muslim-leaning blog posts and snippets from books and articles and talked to Samer enough to have heard the justification given for Muhammad's treatment of Jews. And I'd often thought it seemed fair enough. He was asked to be the leader or mediator guy in Medina and when the Jews broke their commitment, covenant, signed agreement (whatever!), they were punished. Martin Gilbert didn't present those stories in the same manner. In fact it was after reading the short chapter on Muhammad and the Jews that I had my "Oh no!" reaction. He described more of a cleansing of Arabia or a moving out of the Jews for the sake of the Arab Muslims which made me think of modern-day Palestine in reverse. He did say Muhammad initially seemed OK with the Jews, but his later response changed when the Jews refused to accept him as a prophet. *shrug* I don't know the true story of what happened. But at least now I've heard two sides of the story, right?

He didn't totally condemn Muhammad, by the way. In fact he concluded the chapter with "Throughout the centuries to follow, Muslims had to decide in their relations with the Jews whether to see them as cursed people, or as a people protected by Islam. Mohammed's example gave them ample reason to take either view. Although he had protected Jews living under dhimmi status and granted them religious freedom, he had also subjugated them and punished them severely." (pg. 26) Based on what I know of the story from Muslim, Jewish and secular sources that seems pretty accurate. Maybe this author didn't tell the whole story of how bad the Jews were and why they deserved the "severe" punishment and how it was par for the course at that time in history and even seemed OK with other Jewish tribes. I think he didn't represent that point of view quite fairly. Or maybe that is the Muslim side of things coming out from my memory.

I just know it seems whenever I read most any book - aside from the Bible - Jews (pre-Zionism) never do much of anything wrong. It sincerely comes across as if they are mostly innocent victims who were just bullied by many throughout history for often made up reasons. Like they killed a Christian child to use his blood for their Passover. Or made too much money in their businesses and people were jealous of their wealth. Stuff like that. Has that been your reading experience as well?

I may share more notes from this book later, but this post is long enough. Share your thoughts if you'd like.

Moses, the Egyptians, Tahrir Square and Reenslaving Ourselves

2011-07-03T09:16:00.000-05:00

Remember Tahrir Square earlier this year? Oddly, perhaps, I thought of the Egyptian revolution several times as I read a book about Moses' influence on the United States.

"'Freedom is the right to be free, and then the obligation to accept responsibility. If you don't understand that, then ugly stuff happens. And when you do understand that, you're prepared to meet the obligations straight-on.'" (pg. 132)

I read this statement in America's Prophet: How the Story of Moses Shaped America. Author Bruce Feiler was speaking with an African-American pastor about slavery and an Old Testament truth the slaves as well as other Americans had to learn. Society is not great if you have total freedom. Anarchy is not that good. In fact one political theorist suggests "the solution...is to voluntarily commit oneself to a new form of bondage. To reenslave oneself." (pg. 96)

Moses represents both. There is the freeing of the Israelites from the bondage of the Egyptians (whose Hebrew name apparently means "the confining place" or "pressed in"), yet they are soon put under a code of law. The children of Israel trade bondage to Egypt (often representing "the world" in Christian talk) for divine law.

Americans took inspiration from this. Before the Pilgrims got off the boat, they wrote the Mayflower Compact as a form of law governing them when they landed. Though not everyone agreed to it and didn't sign on, it shows that many of them understood that total freedom was not ideal. Who is going to keep your freedom to swing your fist in check with my desire to keep my face bruise-free? :)

According to the author, Exodus provides three things:
1. "A language of chosenness for a beleaguered population"
2. "A rhetoric of mission that emboldens the aggrieved people to strive for their own liberation"
3. "A rhetoric of control that allows the newly emancipated community to rein in any tendencies toward excess" (pg. 129)

I was trying to think of these things in light of the Arab Spring since it has been so much in the news throughout 2011. Even Egypt was included and while they were successful in ousting Mubarak, they are going through the growing pains of forming a new government and constitution. They are in that critical area of having won some freedom, but now having to curb it for the sake of not abusing minorities and just for common decency. No one wants criminally-minded individuals to think they now have the freedom to loot and make life more chaotic. The same is true for other countries such as Syria. Although they are still fighting that battle if, God willing, they are successful and one day free of the Assad regime, they will have to basically build a government from scratch. They will have to restrain any undesirable tendencies of those experiencing certain freedoms for the first time.

In the post where I showed off the many American Moseses, a friend mentioned that America could have chosen one of its own historical personalities instead of Moses since God provides for everyone. She stated that we didn't have to borrow from another culture. Yet I think for some - starting with the folks on the Mayflower - they were inspired by what they read back then. Just as we may get inspiration today from scientists, artists, musicians, poets and maybe even TV personalities and sports figures, they apparently took their inspiration from the Bible. Especially the Old Testament.

One lesson I took from this is that while the early settlers and former slaves realized they needed to "reenslave" themselves and drew inspiration from Moses, they didn't adopt Mosaic law completely. Some aspects were relevant. No need to murder and steal and commit adultery and lie and covet. It's always good to honor God and parents. But as far as I know they didn't find it necessary to become Jews and adopt the no-pork-or-shrimp rule or circumcise every male child or avoid mixing fabrics and such things. They saw the Mosaic Law as good and a principle from which they could learn. People need some guidelines in order to enjoy their freedoms. At the same time, they realized the Mosaic Law was for the children of Israel. They were OK with adopting the spirit of Mosaic Law without binding all Americans to every little law God deemed necessary for the Jewish people.

I think this is important because society today is not the same as it was then. Sure we are humans and have human traits that have passed through time. But things do change. We have to deal with regulating vehicles on busy streets which was not an issue when most people walked. And they had to deal with diseases such as leprosy in tougher ways than we do now that we can treat them with modern medicine.

It's a good lesson for me to realize principles are there, but they are not always applied to every generation the same way. Some things you can disregard and still honor God in how you deal with others. Jesus gave me the impression it's really the way we treat God and others that matters the most. When you honor God and love others, you naturally will not murder, steal from, commit adultery against or lie to them.

What lessons can we learn from Moses today? What lessons might the Egyptians of 2011 - mostly Muslims and Christians who should have some fondness for Moses - learn from him to help their own country?

Michael's take on hijab

2011-07-02T20:29:00.002-05:00

Note: I can count on one hand the number of women wearing hijab that I've seen in my county during the entire time I've lived here which is all except the first few years of my life. Keep that in mind when you read this...and why seeing a (most likely) Muslim lady was noteworthy to me. Oh, and Michael is my nine-year-old nephew.

Michael a few Halloweens ago covering his cuteness

Yesterday we were leaving my grandparents' apartment when I saw a lady with hijab walking with a young girl. They, like Michael and I, were loading the car in order to leave. Discreetly (read: without pointing) I said cheerfully, "Oh, there's a Muslim lady over there." Michael glanced across the parking lot.

"Why isn't the little girl wearing one of those things?" he asked.

I explained that children didn't have to wear them.

"But her parents might make her when she's older?" he pondered.

"Maybe. But it's supposed to be the individual's choice."

Michael again, "I don't see why they want to cover their beauty."

I chuckled inwardly. Did he just actually say "cover their beauty"? Where did he hear that?

I do remember when we returned from Syria over two years ago that I showed him photos from our time there. I explained about the women covering their hair and that they felt God required this of them in order to be modest. Maybe I used that phrase back then, but that's been quite a while ago!

"Oh, you think women's hair is beautiful, huh?"

"Oh yeah...there's not much better than good hair."

And what would I know about that?

Then we went on to discuss Muslims a little bit since he's never met any. He said, "Don't most Muslims want to kill us?" *groan*

I'm thinking he really needs to take a trip to Syria!

(Or at least back when I was there. Now it's in a bit of turmoil...for freedom's sake.)

June Books & I fought temptation and won!

2011-06-30T18:57:00.000-05:00

Another month has gone, and we are half a year away from 2012, people! Half a year away from making new year's resolutions and posting lists of books we read in 2011 and putting away the Christmas decorations after yet another busy holiday season. Time sure does move quickly.

So in my May post I told y'all I read a book about a road (from Damascus) and this month I read about another road (Eastern Orthodoxy).    Last month I read a book by an Indian (from Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh) who said very positive things about Christianity and the Bible. This month I read a book by an Indian (Native American) who didn't much care for most of the Christians he'd encountered. (I think he was OK with Jesus.) I finished my journey through America with Akbar Ahmed and his team. That book was rather long (500ish pages) and detailed, but kept my attention throughout. I read a book about two "promised lands" - Israel and the United States. The latter dealt with Moses' impact in inspiring the settlers here.

Have you read any good books lately?

Journey Into America by Akbar Ahmed -- fantastic book about American identity and culture and the ways minority groups have been treated here; see posts from late May and early June for many more details

"Through discussion and dialogue with my Jewish friends, I have learned about Jewish history and culture and how these shape Jewish identity -- the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, the trauma of the Diaspora, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, which remains a dark and troubling cloud over the history of all humankind. I also learned of the deep attachment that Jews feel toward the city of Jerusalem and the land of Israel, which is more than just a country to the Jewish people. It is an expression of their religious and cultural identity. Becoming friends with Jews allowed me to view the Israeli narrative from their perspective. In this way, while they saw and hopefully understood my Muslim narrative, I tried to understand theirs." (pg. 395)

The chapter on Mormons and Muslims showed me how similar the two faiths are. In fact the Mormon university has a geography class where one professor gives handouts showing 21 similarities between the two faiths. Granted, they also have huge differences, but the team said Mormons they met seemed to be the most accepting of Muslims in America. When breaking down stats, Mormons over any other group put religion as number one in their lives (96%; Muslims were at 85%), When asked about the biggest threats to America, Mormons were more likely to say the "breakdown of the family," "ourselves," "immorality," and "the economy." One student "named pornography as the greatest threat to America, calling it 'the root of a lot of evil.'" "More Mormons saw America as a Christian country than did either Protestants or Catholics." (pg. 420-1)

When discussing the rise of Mormonism during what he calls "the Great White American Century" the author noted "Mormonism provided an optimistic theology in an era of hope and promise. Unlike the austere and puritanical preachings of Calvinism, Mormonism offered what scholar Fawn Brodie called an 'ingenious blend of supernaturalism and materialism, which promised in heaven a continuation of all earthly pleasures - work, wealth, sex and power.'" (pg. 405)

The Historical Road of Eastern Orthodoxy by Alexander Schmemann -- I shared much more about this book here.

"In the record of Orthodoxy, as in the story of Christianity in general, there is no lack of defects and human sins. ... The true Orthodox way of thought has always been historical, has always included the past, but has never been enslaved by it. Christ is 'yesterday and today and forever the same,' and the strength of the Church is not in the past, present, or future, but in Christ." (pg. 341)

Speaking of Jesus by Carl Medearis -- after having read a book filled with Christian Church stuff, this book was almost simplistic by contrast. The author basically tells us to just talk about Jesus. He reminded us that the complicated doctrines, explanations, egg illustration of God and often horrid Christian history are not what people need. They just need Jesus. And he shares what a joy it is for him to talk about one he loves so dearly. I like too that he stressed discipleship - a commitment of relationship - rather than evangelism which is often a one-moment deal (e.g., one altar call, one revival meeting, one door-to-door soul winning evening). ; also see previous post

"We can't simply pull in our church boundaries, tell the rest of the world to drop dead, and then bomb the sand out of the Middle East. At least not if we are trying to follow Jesus. The conservative movement here in the West often tries to embrace the moral code of Christianity without the self-sacrificial teachings of Jesus." (pg. 148)

Here is an article of Carl's published at Huffington Post just yesterday.

Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto by Vine Deloria, Jr. -- Andrew asked why I got this book and I think it was in the footnotes of a book I read earlier this year. I decided I wanted to read a book about Indians from an American Indian rather than a white author so I found this one on Amazon and received it for my birthday.   Read more about my thoughts on this book here.

And see my pictures from the Cherokee Indian Reservation here if you'd like. We were there last Saturday.

The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace by Aaron David Miller -- My brother found this book somewhere and gave it to me for my birthday. He said he saw the word "Arab" and knew how much I like them so he got this.   About halfway through this nearly 400 page book I was ready to toss it aside because I was exasperated with how much time and money and energy has been used in trying to bring peace to this region! (Not to mention all the trees killed to write all those drafts and official treaties!) To read more go here.

America's Prophet: How the Story of Moses Shaped America by Bruce Feiler -- I saw this on Amazon.com and decided to buy it. It was inexpensive and I like Bruce Feiler. I've read at least three of his other books. See the previous post for some of the American Moseses (or Mosii per Amber's suggestion) discussed in this book. Also I'll probably add a bit more from this book in an upcoming post. I finished it just in time to add to June books!

If you want to see most of these books because you are a visual person and maybe like to see that people actually are nerdy enough to take photos of their stacks of books, go here. From my stack of 18 books pictured there, I have only one left to read! I actually went to the library once, had 3 books in my arms to check out and ...

(try not to faint when you read this)

PUT THEM BACK ON THE SHELVES!!!

I yielded not to temptation because I remembered I still had books at home that needed to be read. Just a few more to go now and then Helloooooo, Library! :)

The American Moseses

2011-06-29T14:25:00.001-05:00

"The persistence of Mosaic imagery at nearly every major turning point in the country's formative century shows how clearly the themes of chosenness, liberation from slavery, freedom from authority, and collective moral responsibility had become the tent poles of American public life." (pg. 173)

In America's Prophet: How the Story of Moses Shaped America author Bruce Feiler, well, gives a lot of coverage to how the biblical story of Moses has played out in American history. I've still got about one hundred twenty five pages to go, but I've been keeping track of who all is compared to Moses. Here's the list I've collected thus far.

President George Washington

"'Kind Heaven...pitying the servile condition of our American Israel, gave us a second Moses, who should (under God) be our future deliverer from the bondage and tyranny of haughty Britain.'" (pg. 102)

Harriet Tubman "the Moses of Her People"

"The Founding Fathers chose the Exodus as their theme in an attempt to make their lives better. The slaves needed it to make their lives worth living." (pg. 107)

Uncle Tom, the character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's book

"On the page he may have been a Christian symbol of martyrdom, but once he entered the culture as the face of American slavery, Uncle Tom became a Mosaic call to action." (pg. 152)

President Abraham Lincoln

For his part in freeing America of that "peculiar institution" of slavery.

Daniel Boone, the "Moses of the West"

Lead people further into the country so they could settle "the Promised Land" (pg. 148)

Lady Liberty

"'The Moses story is about the tension between freedom and law,' ... 'between the exhilaration of the Exodus moment followed by the constriction of the Sinai moment. And it seems to me that you can see this tension in the Statue of Liberty, from the broken chain at her feet to the tablet in her right arm to the light around her head. She perfectly embodies the American story - and the Mosaic story.'" (pg. 187)

Emma Lazarus

A nonreligious aristocratic New York City Jew, she became interested in her faith when Jews from Eastern Europe fled persecution for the United States. She penned The New Colossus as an expression of what the Statue of Liberty, what America should mean to oppressed people from other lands.

"A society must gauge its worth not by power, the statue insists, but by how it treats its strangers." (pg. 191)

You may find this next addition out-of-place on the list since he's not typically thought of as a religious figure.

Recognize the 'Moses' in this picture?

Jews "began converting Moses into a pillar of American identity" perhaps because their "'greatest fear was that America would become a Christian nation. ... By emphasizing Moses, they showed that Jews belonged here as well. Jews were fortunate that so many American Protestants were Old Testament-focused.'"

Some left-wing Jews even suggested Judaism change its name to Mosaism, "in part because Moses was perceived to be a more appealing figure to Christians. Many Jews had a sense that the words Jew and Judaism had negative connotations.'"

Yep, it's Uncle Sam!

"Exactly when the United States was becoming more religiously diverse, Jews subtly redefined what it meant to be American. Instead of a Christian country, they insisted, America was a biblical country. Moses played a key role because he resonated with Protestants and Jews. Jews belonged to the United States, they said, because America and Judaism had the same source: Moses." (pg. 200)

Any surprises? Which is your favorite? Do you agree with these choices? Which is most interesting to you? Who would you take off the list? Add to it? Any other thoughts or observations?

"Bibles and bullets had long gone together..."

2011-06-28T09:15:00.000-05:00

It's interesting how wars and religious beliefs shape countries. Even national obsessions and reenactments.

Bibles and bullets had long gone together, and the Civil War was no exception. ... [The] American Bible Society published three million Bibles during the war, and three hundred thousand were smuggled from the North to the South. IN GOD WE TRUST was first placed on Union coins during this period; Thanksgiving became a recurring national holiday. And with 622,000 dead, heaven became a national obsession. Before the war, most people died at home, surrounded by family members, and heaven was a vague place where the deceased went to be with God. On average, the number of books about heaven published each year was not quite one. But with so many people dying far from home, and many bodies never returned, families became concerned about their loved ones. In the decade after the war, ninety-four books about heaven appeared. (pg. 159)

Beginning with the Puritans, the world was often referred to as God's "manifestation" and history as God's "destiny." Manifest destiny was another way of saying that God had chosen Anglo-Americans to convert the land for him - no matter who got misplaced. In the same way that colonizing America was viewed by many participants as a reenactment of the Exodus, many settlers heading west saw themselves as reliving the Israelites' flight into the wilderness to create a new American Israel. (pg. 148)

Thoughts?

America's Prophet: How the Story of Moses Shaped America by Bruce Feiler

A few thoughts on Arabs, Israelis and America: 'small tribes' talk and all that

2011-06-23T07:42:00.001-05:00

The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace by Aaron David Miller

When the Jewish State was created, many people's homes were stolen.

My brother found this book somewhere and gave it to me for my birthday. He said he saw the word "Arab" and knew how much I like them so he got this. About halfway through this nearly 400 page book I was ready to toss it aside because I was exasperated with how much time and money and energy has been used in trying to bring peace to this region! (Not to mention all the trees killed to write all those drafts and official treaties!)

The author is a former State Department historian, negotiator and analyst who worked for several administrations on creating treaties between the Arabs - mainly Palestinians but also Syrians were mentioned a number of times - and Israelis. He is an American Jew (and I was shocked with just how many other people in this process were Jewish), but not religious. The first section explores why Americans favor Israel. He speaks of the Jewish community and how Israel is like an insurance policy for them. He devotes much time to AIPAC and its influence on Congress and how it is highly influential in making US policy favorable to Israel and appropriating funds for the Jewish State. He also speaks of the conservative evangelicals who strongly support Israel. In one chapter he visits Jerry Falwell and later attends a night for Israel held at John Hagee's church in Texas. Pastor Hagee presented millions of dollars to Jewish organizations and had a program the author stated didn't mention Jesus Christ one time. This was about Jews and Israel after all. Jesus isn't so popular with that crowd.

The organization that assures US support of Israel by controlling Congress.

The second section included rather long chapters on Henry Kissinger, Jimmy Carter and James Baker - three men the author thought worked the most on Arab-Israeli peace. I felt I knew much more about these guys after reading those chapters. The last section dealt with presidential years - how the presidents like Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43 dealt with the situation. He went into discussions of the various Israeli leaders and how the US presidents got along with them (or not). Another main player was Yasser Arafat and also mentioned several times was Hafez al-Assad from Syria. He was a tough guy with little room for negotiating. The author stated how weird it was that a man who lost ground in a war would come with such confidence that he wanted everything back. Perhaps the author believes what is lost in war is negotiable because, hey, you lost. I didn't take extensive notes, but did mark a few pages especially in the earlier section about small tribes and great nations.

In the later chapters the only thing I noted was during the 6 months between Rabin's murder and the next election in May 1996. The author admitted they did "all [they] could to ensure that Shimon Peres...won the election." Of course Benjamin Netanyahu did instead. This quote stuck out to me: "The idea that America doesn't sometimes interfere in Israel's politics is about as absurd as the notion that Israel doesn't meddle in ours." (pg. 267)

In the section on smaller tribes ... "Great powers...meddle in the affairs of small tribes at their own risk....Small powers can't always best you, but they can always outwit and outwait you." He uses the example of Vietnam, "a nation that has defeated the Chinese, French, and Americans. It's a fact of life: small guys who have a single-minded purpose and resolve can wear out and wear down big guys who may be focused for a time but are far from home with many other things to do." (pg. 45) He also gives the example of Iraq. (This book was published in 2008.)

These ghosts of the past make Israel a security blanket of sorts for the Jews.

"Smaller nations will do just about anything to survive and are not inclined to listen to or even trust advice offered by a distant power whose political and physical survival is not at stake. The ghosts of the past, made real by history's fears and traumas, speak louder than the untested promise of a brighter future offered by American diplomats." (pg. 37)

"Americans who recognize the galactic gap between a secure and confident America and the traumatized and insecure world of Israelis and Arabs fare best of all." (pg. 38)

"This region hates big ideas, certainly those offered up from outside and usually those from inside as well. ... Small tribes don't convert or transform easily. In fact, if there's any conversion, it's usually the other way around. The last three truly big ideas floating around out there - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - came from them, and they converted us." (pg. 38)

Thoughts?

Where's Susanne?

2011-06-21T10:34:00.000-05:00

My cousin posted this photo on Facebook awhile back. Oh the memories! It's cute seeing the family back when we gathered to celebrate my great-grandmother's birthday each October. Any guesses about which one is me?

River Pic, Father's Day, Mike to Camp, Book Talk

2011-06-20T07:09:00.000-05:00

Samer shared this on Facebook a few days ago when he was walking by the Main River in Frankfurt.

How was your weekend? Father's Day was yesterday and I got together with my parents, siblings and their families. Of course we all had to love on Zach and Michael. Speaking of Michael, he is going to camp this week. He went last year for the first time and absolutely loved it! A whole week of spending time with his friends and having fun and learning about Jesus and buying Sour Punch candy at the canteen! What's not to love about that? He is incredibly excited and has been looking forward to it for weeks!

Have you read any good books lately? Any bad ones? Done any traveling? Watched any thrilling movies? I am making progress on my Christmas/Valentines/birthday books ever since I quit going to the library. Of the 18 books, I've only got 2 left to read! Yes, two! I did buy 3 more books earlier this month when I was ordering something on Amazon for a friend. I've read one of those. As I read one book, I often get suggestions for more from either the author's text or footnotes. (Thus Custer Died for Your Sins from my last post.) It's a never-ending cycle!

Maybe I can refrain from buying more books and after finishing these, I'll revisit the local library as there are several books I've made note of to get. Can you believe only a few years ago, I would read 98% fiction? Now it seems the opposite. Why have I changed thus?

OK, enough Monday morning ramblings. Have a great week!

An American Indian's Thoughts on White People, Tribalism, US Culture, Churches

2011-06-18T10:05:00.001-05:00

Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto by Vine Deloria, Jr. -- note: the author uses Indian to refer to himself and his people throughout the book when not speaking of specific tribes (e.g. Cherokee, Sioux, Seminole) so I will use Indian instead of Native American in this post, but do realize we are speaking of the inhabitants of present day United States and not the Asian country! I have questions for you at the bottom. Be thinking how you would reply to the author if you could and what lessons we can learn from his thoughts.

Andrew asked why I got this book and I think it was mentioned in the footnotes of a book I read earlier this year. I decided I wanted to read a book about Indians from an American Indian rather than a white author so I found this one on Amazon and received it for my birthday. I expected this book to be more about the wars between Indians and the white people who came to the United States. I expected Custer to play some role in the book (the title kind of conveys this) yet he only came up a couple of times. This "Custer died for your sins" thing was actually a bumper sticker "originally meant as a dig at the National Council of Churches" and which "referred to the Sioux Treaty of 1868 signed at Fort Laramie in which the United States pledged to give free and undisturbed use of the lands claimed by Red Cloud in return for peace. Under the covenants of the Old Testament, breaking a covenant called for a blood sacrifice for atonement. Custer was the blood sacrifice for the United States breaking the Sioux treaty." (pg. 148)

I knew the title was a rather clever play on words since most Christians say Jesus died for our sins. It's a bit weird and good reading this book just after Carl Medearis' Speaking of Jesus which stressed, well, our speaking more of Jesus and essentially not bringing western cultural baggage into the mix. Jesus wasn't a westerner and although many bad things have been done in the name of Christianity, Jesus never started this religion nor did he ever instruct us to go and make Christians out of people or compel them to join the Christian cause.

As I was reading this book I was heartbroken at times especially when I realized how different things could have been and could be if we acted like Jesus instead of going into situations as Christians bent on solving the Indian problem essentially turning these "savages" into respectable white people. As if that's what Jesus meant when he told us to go and share the good news with every creature! The disciples struggled with this. Do the Gentiles have to become Jews? Must they be circumcised? Essentially, must they be one of us, adopt our customs, follow our law in order to follow Jesus?

NO.

This book gave me a different perspective on tribes. Of course the Bible - the Old Testament - is full of tribe talk. There are the 12 tribes of Israel as main players after all. And, of course, I was familiar with Indian tribes. I've always loved the names and found them fascinating to say. Yet when I hear of tribes today, I think of conflicts in the Arab world and places like Afghanistan and Pakistan. I think of divisiveness (sectarianism) and narrow mindedness and keeping women down and exalting the almighty man. Saudi Arabia's tribal culture - rather than its religion - is often blamed for the things I don't like about that country. Sure there are a number of good things, but those tend to be overlooked when compared to honor killings and the importance of virginity in women and the control of parents over their daughters. Honestly it makes me feel smothered reading about such things.

Yet, this book helped me see tribes in a better light. How if there is a good hunting season, everyone eats. And if there is a bad hunting season, everyone suffers. There is not this hoarding of wealth and this great divide between the haves and the have nots. The author notes "each man must be judged according to his real self, not according to his wealth or educational prowess. Hence a holder of great wealth is merely selfish unless he has other redeeming qualities besides his material goods. Having a number of degrees and an impressive educational background is prerequisite to prestige in the white world. It is detrimental in the Indian world unless the person has the necessary wisdom to say meaningful things also." (pg. 233)

This book was published in 1969 during the era of hippies and black power movements. Hippies, the author notes, had shrugged off some of the prestige qualifiers of white culture yet he found fault with them for not adopting the things that make for good Indian prestige. Hippies were basically passing fads and out for publicity. The Indians often rejected the black power movements because equality meant the blacks would be equal to the whites. To Indians, equal meant sameness and they did not want to adopt 'white culture.' They were Indian and they had their own customs thus they refused to be 'white' no matter the effort government agencies and churches undertook to make them 'white.'

Speaking of 'white culture', Deloria says it's like a cancer. It destroys other cultures and the whites essentially have no culture except the violent culture they brought from Europe to the New World. He says when we cannot solve problems, we use violence - overkill - to stamp out our enemies. He says this country "has never made a successful peace because peace requires exchanging ideas, concepts, thoughts, and recognizing the fact that two distinct systems of life can exist together without conflict. Consider how quickly America seems to be facing its allies of one war as new enemies." "Violence is America's sweetheart," and America "alienates everyone who does not automatically love it." (pg. 256)

You can imagine how much love I felt reading this book, right? Yes, it's often painful to see ourselves through others' eyes yet we often need attention drawn to our blind spots and things we'd rather not consider. This book has definitely made me reflect on several issues - some serious ones like how Jesus, the wonderful person that he is, got so separated from people who claim to follow him (these "Christians"). Other issues perhaps not so serious, but still thought-provoking: do we 'white' folks really have no culture? Is violence really our "sweetheart" and why do we alienate people who don't love us? Why do we "overkill"?

Has this ever truly been a Christian nation? Or shall we once and for all separate the word "Christian" from "follower of Jesus" since there seems to be a huge divide between most Christian action and the actions of the Christ.

Thoughts? What do you think of tribalism? Do you tend to view it negatively, neutrally or positively? Why? What do you think of the author's view of white culture? Do you think white people have no culture? Do you agree with Deloria's thoughts on black power (equality = sameness)? This actually reminded me of Akbar Ahmed's thoughts that I expressed in this post about Barack Obama acting like the white presidents. Do you agree that we love violence? Why is this? Do you think we should separate Christianity in the US from Jesus? What took your attention from this post? How would you reply to this author if given the chance? Any lessons we can learn from Vine Deloria's thoughts?

I've already alluded to Deloria's disdain for the Christianity as shown by most churches. You should also hear his loathing for anthropologists and his views of Democrats and Republicans. I would share more, but this post is too long already.

"Christianity is problematic in so many ways."

2011-06-16T13:25:00.000-05:00

While the ideals of Christianity have a basis in Jesus, in the history of the world - from the Crusades to Calvin's oppression of Geneva - we have often seen everything but Jesus' love. Culturally, Christianity has met with resistance because of this pained history, and also because, to most of the world, embracing Christianity means embracing Western civilization, Western policy, and even Western rule.

Even within the boundaries of our own "civilized" countries, we can see the systemic problems within Christianity. Picketers, political manipulators, and cultural warmongers all tend to have their own versions of Christianity. Many racists consider themselves Christians. The same goes for many corrupt politicians, gangsters, and abusive parents.

... Within the domain of Christianity, we all suffer beneath the weight of sin. Understanding the doctrine of forgiveness does not deliver us from sin. Jesus does. Our Western logic, our reason, our "right thinking" cannot deliver us from evil. ...

As Christians, we're faced with a problem difficult to see because it's so obvious. We're aware of Jesus, but we are obsessed with Christianity. We're stuck on its requirements and we're defined by its doctrines, caught in an endless struggle to find out where we fit, if we've "arrived" yet, and if we're doing it right. We struggle with sin, and yet, because of the boundaries, we're forced to decided between being honest about our feelings and hiding for fear we'll be judged. In this state, we're not living in the grace of Jesus. We're trying to maintain our membership.

excerpt from pg. 72-3 of Speaking of Jesus by Carl Medearis

Six weeks ago right now, I was waiting for a phone call to inform me ...

2011-06-14T18:01:00.000-05:00

...that this sweet boy had arrived!

Isn't he so snuggly cute in his pajamas?

This is the bear his Poppy bought him and his parents named Napoleon.

"Susie, what're you doing now?"

Look! Baby drool!

Already wearing a tie!

(click any picture to see the cutie pie a bit bigger...especially that first picture...how can you resist a face like that anyway? :-))

Eastern Orthodox Stuff: Constantine, Pagan Influence in the Church, Obliged to Believe, Christ

2011-06-12T20:49:00.000-05:00

You may recall that I started off this year reading Timothy Ware's The Orthodox Church which had been recommended by two friends. It was a great overview of this faith so when Amazon recommended The Historical Road of Eastern Orthodoxy by Alexander Schmemann, I put it on my Wishlist. And a dear friend sent it to me for my birthday! *feels the love* So I just finished reading it and must admit the first book was better, more complete in explaining (so, Amber, your recommendation was better than Amazon's), but this one had many interesting aspects not covered in the first. So I feel a bit more well-rounded after having read both!

Here are a few things that took my attention enough to jot down the page numbers with intent to share. There was other stuff that I just decided not to post although I found it educational as well.

This bit about Constantine was good. I'll let you guess which side I fall under in the East/West divide. I was especially surprised when I read that the Eastern Church puts Constantine up there with the disciples of Jesus!

"For Eastern Christianity, Constantine still remains the holy initiator of the Christian world, the instrument for the victory of light over darkness that crowned the heroic feats of the martyrs. The West, on the other hand, often regards the era of Constantine as the beginning of an enslavement of the Church by the state, or even as the first falling away on the part of the Church from the height of primitive Christian freedom." (pg. 62)

For some reason I found this incredibly interesting although I'm not exactly sure why. Is "becoming a Christian" being baptized, saying a 'sinner's prayer,' following Jesus or what? Reminds me of becoming Muslim being as simple as saying the shahada. For the record, Constantine really wanted to be baptized in the Jordan River so that may be why he waited so long to be baptized.

Constantine did not receive baptism "the only symbol the Church accepts of becoming a Christian" until his deathbed. Thus the "primary, initial paradox" is "that the first Christian emperor was a Christian outside of the Church, and the Church silently but with full sincerity and faith accepted and recognized him." In Constantine's mind his faith in Christ "had been bestowed personally and directly for his victory over the enemy - in other words, as he was fulfilling his imperial duty. Consequently the victory he had won with the help of the Christian God had placed the emperor - and thereby the empire as well - under the protection of the Cross and in direct dependence upon Christ." (pg. 66)

Ever heard how Christianity has a lot of pagan aspects to it? Like Christmas, for instance, isn't talked about in the Bible as being December 25. Easter eggs? Not there. Christmas trees? Nope. Animal sacrifice and circumcision starting with the Jews as something new God gave only to them? No again.

The author talked a bit about paganism and how people back then felt about their religions and in a section speaking of reverence for saints and their relics and the "increasing complexity of worship" and interest in holy places and such, the author notes that many have directly attributed this to "pagan influence in the Church and regarded [it] as a compromise with the world for the sake of a mass victory." Yet the author states that the Christian does not need to apologize for this or try to explain it. "On the contrary, he may boldly accept the charge....Christianity adopted and assimilated many forms of pagan religion, not only because they were the eternal forms of religion in general, but also because the intention of Christianity itself was not to replace all forms in this world by new ones, but to fill them with new and true meaning." Instead of thinking of Christianity borrowing from and being influenced by pagan things, think in reverse. All things were initially good, but due to the fall, it has been distorted. "The Church in its own mind has returned to God what rightly belongs to Him, always and in every way restoring the fallen image." (pg. 98) So in a sense, the pagan rites have been redeemed by Christ!

Even if you come to church for the wrong reasons, it's OK! You can hear about Christ and - who knows? - your life may be changed because of it!

Speaking of the "cult of saints" even when their deeds were distorted greatly, the author says when people came to the Church and learned of the saints, they could see how lives were transformed by Christ. "However much men may have brought into the Church what they had seen and sought in pagan temples, when they entered it they now heard those eternal and immutable words about the Savior crucified for our sins - about the perfect love that God has shown us - and about His kingdom as the final goal of all living beings." (pg. 101)

Notice that last phrase and tell me if that won't make a HUGE difference in your "Christianity." Christian-in-name-only, anyone?

About a "Christian theocracy" -- "State sanctions gave the Church unprecedented strength, and perhaps brought many to faith and new life, but after Theodosius the Great it was no longer a community of believers; it was also a community of those obliged to believe." (pg. 111, emphasis mine)

Well, hey, if many in your community were "obliged to believe," why would you not have this problem? What is our excuse today? This is how John Chrysostom saw the Church

"His central concern was the Christian life of his flock and its variety and everyday reality. Before him was a world that had accepted Christianity but was still so close to paganism, so deeply poisoned by sin and ignorance, that it did not take the faith itself too seriously. People crowded into the churches, but outside church walls - and indeed, sometimes within them - were moral irresponsibility, hatred, and injustice." (pg. 112)

This was the last bit of the whole book, the last sentence is included below. I love the last three words.

"In the record of Orthodoxy, as in the story of Christianity in general, there is no lack of defects and human sins. ... The true Orthodox way of thought has always been historical, has always included the past, but has never been enslaved by it. Christ is 'yesterday and today and forever the same,' and the strength of the Church is not in the past, present, or future, but in Christ." (pg. 341)

Thoughts?

When a little cub comes to visit ...

2011-06-11T12:58:00.001-05:00

In recent weeks there has been talk of black bears being spotted in areas populated by people and airplanes. In fact a black bear had to be killed after it was roaming a nearby international airport. They just couldn't take a chance of a plane hitting it on the runway.

But no one warned us about little tiger cubs prowling around with all of their cuteness ready to pounce and overpower unsuspecting adults!

Behold! One of those bundles of adorableness showed up at my house.


Thankfully it was caged because

they like to bite!

and growl *roar!*

And their little faces scream "Kiss me!"

which I do - with joy!

And who knew they enjoyed milk so much?

May your life be as blessed by a cute little cub as mine was today.

Amen.

Suffering for Jesus

2011-06-07T17:40:00.000-05:00

I read this excerpt today and it made me think. It was said in the context of Chinese Christians denouncing their faith in Jesus when being persecuted by their government. There were many who did not, of course, but this was just a small part of what was said.

Your not becoming a traitor and your resistance in times of intensive trial depends upon your earlier Christian life.

When, after the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, the Lord appeared to Ananias, He told him how to teach a new convert: "I will show him how many things he must suffer for my Name's sake" (Acts 9:16).

Every Christian church that does not teach its members the main religious science, sufferology, does not fulfill its duties. Impose upon yourself mortification. Learn to suffer and not to yield. The time may come when you will need this knowledge. -- Richard Wurmbrand as quoted in The Voice of the Martyrs, pg. 10 - June 2011

Why do you believe it matters that we endure a trial and resist denouncing our faith even under intense pressure? Is that crazy? Would something like taqiyya be more sensible in getting through this world? I remember in a book I read last year that Maimonides thought it foolish of his people to go through suffering when they could easily "convert" in name only in order to be left alone.

Grrrrrr!! Why are we so angry?!?!

2011-06-05T21:22:00.000-05:00

So today I was glancing at the Yahoo headlines and this article Poll finds Americans angry about pretty much everything caught my attention. We are angry at Obama for not doing enough! We are angry at the congressional Republicans for not doing enough! Dadburnit, we must be angry at God because He only has a 33% approval rate according to the poll!

"The poll finds that Americans are being affected by their anger in other parts of life as well. Fifty-six percent are so angry that they can’t even sleep and 13 percent say the anxiety has affected their sex life. Twenty-six percent of married respondents claim the country’s economic problems have affected their marriage, with more than half of those people saying it has made their marriage worse."

In Journey Into America, anthropologist Akbar Ahmed talks about Americans living at such a fast pace and being so "connected" to electronics and social media and "drowning in information" that they don't take much time for self-reflection, for silence. He claims "people have lost the capacity for self-reflection and find it difficult to see the majesty and mystery of life."

Take time to enjoy the many pleasures God gives us every day

He describes today as "cynical, noisy, iconoclastic, and [a] materialistic world of consumerism" where even "heroes and role models provide little more than temporary entertainment." Often politicians, performers and sportsmen end up "as fodder for everyone's entertainment" when they fall from grace.

"It is perhaps an awareness of this predicament at various levels that makes Americans, in spite of consuming a disproportionately large share of the world's wealth, among the unhappiest people on earth while obsessively insisting they are happy. Americans have much to be unhappy about: the incidences of suicide and depression are abnormally high, especially among their students and soldiers; their jails are the fullest compared with those of any other nation, their rates of obesity the highest, their marriages more in danger of breaking up, and more Americans claim to have been abducted by aliens than any other nationality. A foreigner may be forgiven for assuming Americans perpetually oscillate between two primary emotions, those of anger and fear, all the while proclaiming that their country is the greatest and best in history." (pg. 461)

In another part of the book, the team had met with Noam Chomsky. I'll quote him in regard to the American fear factor.

"For Chomsky, it is not the idea of freedom and democracy that lies at the heart of America, but fear. A sense of fear and threat permeates every aspect of society, he explained to us: 'It's a very frightened country. Unusually so, by international standards, which is kind of ironic because [we're] at a level of security that nobody's ever dreamed of in world history....The theme is we're about to be destroyed by an enemy, and at the last minute, a super weapon is discovered or a hero arises, Rambo or someone, and somehow saves us. The Terminator or high school boys hiding in the mountains defending us from the Russians.'" (pg. 379)

Have you ever stopped to wonder why a nation that supposedly has a majority of Christians is so angry and so fearful? My pastor reminds us regularly that the Bible tells us "do not fear" over three hundred times. Enough for nearly every day of the year. So why are we afraid? Why do we fear? Why do we let anxiety and fear and anger rule our lives?

"He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul."

How about we meditate on this instead? Seriously. Isn't this great stuff?

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (Phil. 4)