Tucker vs ZERA

The Life of Pi

2009-09-23T23:06:00.000-07:00

"I know what you want. You want a story that won't surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won't make you see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story."

ZERA wins

2009-09-23T21:25:00.000-07:00

I'll be noting on Facebook in the future.

So you want another story?

2009-09-20T21:57:00.000-07:00

“But for the purposes of our investigation, we would like to know what really happened.”

“What really happened?”

“Yes.”

“So you want another story?”

“Uhh… no. We would like to know what really happened.”

“Doesn’t the telling of something always become a story?”

“Uhh… perhaps in English. In Japanese a story would have an element of invention in it. We don’t want any invention. We want the ’straight facts’, as you say in English.”

“Isn’t telling about something– using words, English or Japanese– already something of an invention? Isn’t just looking upon this world already something of an invention?

…

“The world isn’t just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no? Doesn’t that make life a story?”

(Life of Pi, p. 302). Stolen from / typed/ selection cut by La Gitana de la Valle

The Life of Pi

2009-09-17T22:59:00.000-07:00

I just finished The Life of Pi, and had a lot of fun with it, left it very disrupted and disturbed. It's early treatment of religion is so much fun though. Pi, a teenage Indian boy, asks a priest he meets about the Christian faith. (Selection stolen from Andrew Gray)

The first thing that drew me in was disbelief. What? Humanity sins but it’s God’s Son who pays the price?….

I asked for another story, one that I might find more satisfying…But Father Martin made me understand the stories that came before it–and there were many–were simply prologue….

That a god should put up with adversity, I could understand. The gods of Hinduism face their fair share of thieves, bullies, kidnappers, and usurpers. What is the Ramayana but the accoiunt of one long, bad year for Rama? Adversity, yes. Reversals of fortune, yes. Treachery, yes. But humiliation? Death? I couldn’t imagine Lord Krishna consenting to be stripped naked, whipped, mocked, dragged through the streets and, to top it off, crucified–and at the hands of mere humans, to boot…

Why not leave death to mortals? Why make dirty what is beautiful, spoil what is perfect? Love. That was Father Martin’s answer….

This son…who goes hungry, who suffers from thirst, who gets tired, who is sad, who is anxious, who is heckled and harassed, who has to put up with followers that don’t get it and opponents who don’t respect Him–what kind of god is that? It’s a god on too human of a scale, that’s what. There are miracles, yes, mostly of a medical nature, a few to satisfy hungry stomachs; at best a storm is tempered…Any Hindu god can do a hundred times better.This Son is a god who spent most of His time telling stories, talking. This Son is a god who walked, a pedestrian god–and in a hot place, at that–with a stride like any human stride…What kind of a god is that? What is there to inspire in this Son? Love, said Father Martin….

I’ll stick to my Krishna, thank you very much. I find his divinity utterly compelling. You can keep your sweaty, chatty Son to yourself. That was how I met that troublesome rabbi of long ago: with disbelief and annoyance….

He bothered me, this Son. Every day I burned with greater indignation against Him, found more flaws in him…

On our last day, a few hours before we were to leave Munnar, I hurried up the hill on the left…I booted up that hill…Short of breath I said, “Father, I would like to be a Christian, please.” He smiled, “You already are, Piscine–in your heart. Whoever meets Christ in good faith is a Christian. Here in Munnar you met Christ.” He patted me on the head…I thought I would explode with joy…It was a good smile he gave me. The smile of Christ.

I entered the church, without fear this time, for it was now my house, too. I offered prayers to Christ who is alive. Then I raced down the hill on the left and raced up the hill on the right–to offer thanks to Lord Krishna for having put Jesus of Nazareth, whose humanity I found so compelling, in my way.

A Softer World

2009-07-30T14:10:00.001-07:00

Courtesy of Kelda Choc.

Dang

2009-07-25T15:31:00.000-07:00

Her

2009-07-23T23:34:00.001-07:00

For this reason I bow my knees before the Mother, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,

that She would grant you, according to the riches of Her glory, to be strengthened with power through Her Spirit in your inner being; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length, and height, and depth; and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of Goddess.

Now to Her who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Her be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Water:Charity

2009-07-15T21:30:00.001-07:00

Dance of the Dissident Daughter

2009-07-06T12:46:00.000-07:00

"They heard me into speech, and loved me into healing."

-Sue Monk Kidd, Dance of the Dissident Daughter

Explanations

2009-07-01T22:58:00.000-07:00

"Can man honestly give his life meaning merely by adopting a certain set of explanations which pretend to tell him why the world began and where it will end, why there is evil and what is necessary for a good life?" -Thomas Merton, A Letter on the Contemplative Life in Thomas Merton: Spiritual Master

Thank Mr Rice

2009-07-01T08:58:00.000-07:00

When is what in season? (in roughly the northern US)

Your Theology May Lack Support

2009-07-01T07:09:00.000-07:00

Pilgrimage

2009-06-29T22:50:00.000-07:00

"A pilgrimage is a journey taken in light of a story" - Paul Elie, The Life You Save May Be Your Own

Invisible Guitar

2009-06-27T22:18:00.000-07:00

This is from a website called Photoshop Disasters (not workplace/parent's computers safe). Just a reminder that everything is photoshopped. And not always well...

Dawkins Part II

2009-06-25T20:45:00.000-07:00

So Stefanie loaned me Is God a Delusion, by Eric Reitan, a friend of hers. So, we're back to Dawkins. Anyway, first quote:

"Dawkins may be closer to an authentic religious faith than most fundamentalists: he is devoted to atheism because he is devoted to the truth, because he sincerely wants to believe the truth about God."

Something about those last 9 words haunts me. It feels like a beautiful and daunting invitation. I'm not sure why I don't read it as a cold, rationalistic statement. It feels like I could replace "God" with my wife's name, "because he sincerely wants to believe the truth about Jen."

Something about the idea of truth seeking has been rattling around inside me lately. Not cold, objective truth, but more something to do with courage, trust, and wholeness. A kind of dis-illusion-ment that feels more vulnerable and personal. Having the wholeness of self to ache for honest, clear experience of those around you, your self, your story, your God. It feels different than 6 years ago starting seminary. Less scary, more work.

Post It

2009-06-23T21:52:00.000-07:00

S'mores

2009-06-22T22:14:00.000-07:00

nataliedee.com

Vermaport!

2009-06-22T15:26:00.000-07:00

We repeat, DO NOT.

Hope

2009-06-13T17:33:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jessica...

Go On

2009-06-12T15:22:00.000-07:00

Saints

2009-06-11T22:46:00.000-07:00

Curse books that aren't searchable on Amazon/Google. At the end of The Life You Save May Be Your Own, Paul Ellie quotes Dorothy Day as saying roughly "A saint is someone whose life makes no sense if there is no God," but for the life of me I can't find this quote anywhere to pass it on exactly.

What I do all day

2009-06-10T22:24:00.001-07:00

Is the first one too much? Does the difference between the two even stand out?

What kind of organization would you imagine this logo is for? Adjectives?

Self

2009-06-05T22:32:00.000-07:00

"The modern self is essentially empty–a 'nought.' The self goes forth in the world in order to fill itself, but swamps the world with its search for selfhood instead. As a result, the self assigns the highest value to the things it cannot swamp with selfhood, things that fill the self and remain undiminished–that have themselves left over. We prize an antique, for example, not becuase it is sturdy or well-made but 'because it is an antique and as such is saturated with another time and another place and is therefore resistant to absorbtion by the self.' Any old thing can make us feel full; but the things of the world that can be swamped by our selves and remain standing, alone, integral, lasting–these are the things worth marveling at, and the self seeks to loose itself in them."

Paul Elie, elaborating on Walker Percy's idea of the modern self, in The Life Save May Be Your Own

What I do all day

2009-06-03T22:04:00.000-07:00

Stories

2009-05-29T22:23:00.000-07:00

"Like it or not, we come to life in the middle of stories that are not our own."

- Paul Elie, The Life You Save May Be Your Own

Scott Erickson

2009-05-27T01:35:00.000-07:00

Scott wanted something funny for his newest show, and encourages us "don't think too much about it," but I feel like he's succinctly diagnosed and subverted what breaks my heart about the vast swath of Christianity that I know, in a language that is both accessible and lucid to everyone at the table. A haunting parable of an image that I presume will be working in my heart and imagination long after first viewing.

Pop

2009-05-23T20:57:00.001-07:00

A. I have yet to find a Lil' Wayne song I can stand.
B. I think that Natalie Portman is wearing the coolest sweater ever.
C. I think this is my favorite picture of Natalie Portman.
D. It's from TIME magazine, and I took a picture of it with my phone, sorry for the quality.
E. Probably my favorite picture of Eminem as well.

Jesus V Buddah

2009-05-21T21:45:00.001-07:00

What I do all day

2009-05-20T22:26:00.000-07:00

You Are NOT An Emergency

2009-05-13T15:28:00.000-07:00

JT vs LOST

2009-05-04T14:45:00.000-07:00

Jesus

2009-05-02T15:19:00.000-07:00

Religion

2009-04-23T15:27:00.000-07:00

Satan

2009-04-17T15:29:00.000-07:00

Hidmo Means Home

2009-04-05T09:18:00.000-07:00

For anyone interested in community or music/arts in Seattle, I highly recommend this documentary on the Hidmo from the Seattle Channel. Very highly.

The Most Fierce Wild Animal

2009-04-02T15:17:00.001-07:00

Grace

2009-03-04T20:12:00.000-08:00

“Grace cannot move with pat formulas and ready-made answers, grace puts us in touch with ourselves-perhaps for the first time."

-Robert E. Webber, Younger Evangelicals

Nod to Kj and her paper :)

Eco Rangers

2009-02-25T01:09:00.000-08:00

Hayakawa's Ladder of Abstraction

2009-02-23T12:01:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Anna :)

2009-02-22T17:06:00.000-08:00

Consumption

2009-02-16T14:59:00.000-08:00

"No one escapes from their own culture. It’s hardwired in us, from birth onward. A consumer society is a consumer society. It may start with washing machines and air-conditioning, but sooner or later we consume each other." -John Burdett

I was searching for this quote (which I had in print, but was too lazy to retype), but came across it plagiarized on a blog. I search for quotes a lot, but have never come across one used as if it was a bloggers own words. Interesting. Plagiarizing that literal seems a wee bit silly in the age of Google.

Love

2009-02-14T07:57:00.000-08:00

nataliedee.com

Viggo V Violence

2009-02-11T11:37:00.000-08:00

TIME Magazine does a 10 questions column with random people. A few months back they had one with Viggo Mortensen, and it touched on a subject I've been pondering heavily lately:

Q. Many of your films deal with a significant amount of brutality. What's it like to explore violent characters? Frank Pennisi, BAYSIDE, N.Y.

A: A lot of time the violence expressed onscreen is a metaphor for what's going on inside. I take it seriously, and I respect directors who depict it responsibly. There are a lot of directors who make too much of a joke about it. That lets the audience off the hook.

It's been clear to me for a long time now that most physical violence in our movies is not intended to correlate to actual physical violence in our lives. So, it a metaphor. But a metaphor for what? "What's going on inside" feels a bit vague. Last night JT and I caught a T2 revival at the Cinerama, and I was struck by the heavy-handed and conscious use of feminist and pacifist rhetoric in the dialogue. But I don't believe that the movie is really about either. It doesn't even feel like the film makers are consciously aware of what they're talking about. When the two terminators are throwing one another through walls with blank expressions on their faces, what's being engaged inside us? The endless footage of vehicles and building exploding and being demolished feel quickening and cathartic and hedonistic in our action films. But what is it a metaphor for in our internal landscapes? Is it just Nietzsche's Ubermensch: an unfeeling, unstoppable superman? What is it that we want to destory, and what is it that we want to be indestructible?

I got my first comment in a year last week. Any theories about what violence in our films is intended to speak to?

How (Not) to Speak of God, 17 of 23

2009-02-01T12:22:00.000-08:00

"Early Christians were called atheists because their own affirmation of God involved a rejection of the gods advocated by the Roman Empire. Yet the atheistic spirit within Christianity delves much deeper than this - for we disbelieve not only in other gods but also in the God we believe in. We... affirm our view of God while at the same time realizing that that view is inadequate... believing in God while remaining dubious concerning what one believes about God." p.25-26

-Peter Rollins, How (Not) to Speak of God

Courtesy of JT

2009-01-31T22:23:00.000-08:00

"You could make a cartoon in crayons about a red square that falls in unrequited love with a blue circle, and there wouldn’t be a dry eye in the house if you know how to tell a story.”

- Don Hertzfeld

How (Not) to Speak of God, 16 of 23

2009-01-23T12:10:00.000-08:00

"In the same way that the sun blinds the one who looks directly at its light, so God's incoming blinds our intellect... While anonymity offers to little information... hypernymity gives us far too much information. Instead of being limited by the poverty or absence we are short-circuited by the excess of presence." p.24

-Peter Rollins, How (Not) to Speak of God

Hope

2009-01-22T22:12:00.000-08:00

nataliedee.com

To be in a Band

2009-01-19T10:50:00.000-08:00

At the end of the eighties, we campaigned for Martin Luther King Day. I remember, in Arizona, we got into trouble, and we had some death threats. Normally, they happen. But occasionally, you get one that the police and FBI take seriously. There was a specific threat: "Don't go ahead with the concert. And, if you do, don't sing 'Pride (In the Name of Love),' because, if you do, I am gonna blow your head off, and you won't be able to stop this from happening." Of course you go onstage and you put it out of your head. But I do remember actually, in the middle of "Pride," thinking for a second: "Gosh! What if somebody was organized, or in the rafters of the building, or somebody, here and there, just had a handgun?" I just closed my eyes and sang this middle verse [Early morning, April 4 a shot rings out in the Memphis sky...], with my eyes closed, trying to concentrate and forget about this ugliness and just keep close to the beauty that's suggested in the song. I looked up, at the end of that verse, and Adam [Bono's bass player] was standing in front of me. It was one of those moments where you know what it means to be in a band.

-Bono (Lead Singer of U2)

How (Not) to Speak of God, 15 of 23

2009-01-11T22:37:00.000-08:00

"In the aftermath of God, all of our being cries out in response." p.24

-Peter Rollins, How (Not) to Speak of God

How (Not) to Speak of God, 14 of 23

2009-01-04T22:36:00.000-08:00

"The fundamentalist [nature]... refuses to give up its interpretation of God, even in the presence of God." p. 21

-Peter Rollins, How (Not) to Speak of God

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter

2008-12-27T12:53:00.000-08:00

I'm only in the intro, but two themes stood out to me.

"...a woman's right to define the sacred from a woman's perspective."

"... [A] struggle to wake up, to grow beyond old models of womanhood and old spiritualities that no longer sustain."

I cannot shake the conviction that the vitality and vibrancy of women, our stories of women, and women's authentic voices in the church, arts, politics, etc is deeply essential to my hope and future as a man.

To quote the Dakota Fanning version of Lily Owens, in all of it's 14-year-old drama, "My whole life's been nothing but a hole where my mother should have been." A hole where the strong feminine should have been. The "wholeness women have lost within patriarchy" (Sue Monk Kidd's intro again) was devastating to me as a boy and haunts me as a man.

Evangelism

2008-12-27T11:38:00.000-08:00

I really enjoy this story. And I appreciate the kindness in Pen's telling it. The thing is, I'm not sure I entirely agree with Pen. It seems like his logic breaks down. I recall giving the same runaway truck metaphor to a friend when I was a teen, and I remember how much harm it felt like it did to the relationship.

I don't think Jesus gives a spiritual equivalent of tackling someone. There's also the tiny detail where I don't think eternal life is anywhere near the main point. How much would you have to hate someone to have been invited into being fully human, fully yourself, growing and awaking to a kind relationship with your Creator, yourself, and your neighbors, and to not extend that invitation onward?

We can't live in a diverse culture if everyone tackles everyone else in the path of their own subjective trucks. It seems like the deeper challenge is the creativity and spiritual sensitivity to dream of ways that Jesus' invitation could be both good and new for our neighbors. What is it about the Gospel that inherently offers grace and life to Pen as an atheist? I'm pretty sure it's not "concur with my theological positions and abandon your own hard-won integrity." I guess I hear this story, and I find the part where the Bible-guy is enjoying Pen and is present with him as a clear, calm, voice of kindness, and I intuitively sense the Kingdom is on the move. When the proselytizing and Bible enter the picture, it feels cold, dead, lifeless. It feels so hard to offer a packaged religious plan that isn't really just personal colonialism. My worldview is better than your worldview and I'll tackle if I have to.

Peter Rollins talks about being an enticing aroma to the world as being about arousing hunger. He points out that we particularly live in a time when people believe they are full. I wonder about evangelism as hunger-inducing, rather than feeding. I wonder about evangelism as asking, rather than telling. What would it mean to come alongside our neighbors with questions that invite them into re-imagining their understanding of themselves and God, rather than answers.

How (Not) to Speak of God, 13 of 23

2008-12-26T22:35:00.000-08:00

"The relationship we have with God cannot be reduced to our understanding of that relationship." p. 20

-Peter Rollins, How (Not) to Speak of God

The Shack

2008-12-26T09:40:00.000-08:00

The Shack by William P. Young

rating: 2 of 5 stars
The father as Papa, the heavy-set African-American woman, Jesus, the mid-eastern man, and Sarau, the out-of-focus Asian woman as the Holy Spirit gripped me at a visceral level. The names and characters got me in a primal way. Mother God's kindness and gentleness caught me off guard. I was, again, deeply convicted of the heartless, male, distant God that fills so much of my expectations about God. All of my intellectual notions about God's immediacy, tenderness, and enjoyment of me translate so thinly into my actual experience of my world on a day-to-day basis.

But, beyond the personification of God, what actually fills this book left me cold and bored. Endless god-talk by God. An endless series of pithy pop-theology platitudes, eaten up by a jaw-dropped, golly-gee-whiz protagonist. The author is able to assume the voice of God, dropping an incongruous, quilted-together theology composed of listening to a lifetime of clever Evangelical sermons. The reader is relegated to the dumbfounded, uncritical protagonist's passive-viewer seat. 250 pages of the author's theological observations put into God's voice, offered to a dumbfounded, elated protagonist-reader.

At the core of my being, I hope that a weekend with the Trinity wouldn't be theological Q+A. At the core of my being, I don't believe that propositional, theological statements (from "God", or anyone), are an important venue for healing and redemption.

William P. Young obviously had nothing but the best intentions in writing his runaway best-seller. He is a kind and hopeful author. But I have to hope for so much more in a contemporary re-imagining of the Trinity.

Christmas Cards

2008-12-25T10:09:00.000-08:00

This is from the (now defunct?) web comic Perry Bible Fellowship. Despite the name, and this sample cartoon, I can promise you that it's not workplace appropriate. Or mom-and-dad's computer appropriate. However, the link I included is, 'cause it's a Wikipedia link :)

Oh Come, Oh Come

2008-12-24T23:23:00.000-08:00

This is by my friend Phil.

The true meaning of Christmas

2008-12-24T11:06:00.000-08:00

Chex Mix

2008-12-22T21:52:00.000-08:00

nataliedee.com

Bloomers

2008-12-17T21:27:00.000-08:00

Font Companies send out emails and catalogs to advertise their fonts. Now, I know that to normal people, the prospect of buying a font seems mind boggling. But, for design snobs, keeping up with the latest fonts is like keeping up with the latest fashions. You don't want to be using a font that is so last season.

I'm typographically challenged, but I love getting my FontShop emails. Most of their fonts they highlight are gorgeous, but, more importantly, the way they use their fonts in their ads makes my head hurt. To add sprinkles on top of the frosting, they also choose brilliant, wonderful contextless snippets of poetry, sayings, quotes, and product specs to use in their examples. Some even as terrifying and exhilarating as this snippet (the paragraph in the middle):

Mary and the Magic Baby

2008-12-16T19:25:00.000-08:00

God Bless Bizarro :)

Prodigy

2008-12-15T19:19:00.001-08:00

All I want for Christmas...

This is a local photographer. Who's 15. She was on the front page of the PI today. Insane. JT says I'm too old to be a prodigy now.

I want to paint like this

2008-12-15T19:16:00.000-08:00

Feminazis

2008-12-12T22:33:00.000-08:00

toothpastefordinner.com

This one goes out to Andrew

2008-12-02T22:35:00.000-08:00

toothpastefordinner.com

Thoughts on Beauty

2008-11-25T09:21:00.000-08:00

From Barbara Nicolosi's talk at the Transforming Culture conference this spring, as recorded by Livingpsalm

The Polish philosopher, artist, poet and actor who had another name, Pope John Paul II, spoke about the call of some of us to pursue on behalf of the rest what he called new epiphanies of beauty. Epiphany means revelations of the beautiful. Aristotle’s definition of the elements of the beautiful are wholeness, harmony, and radiance.

Wholeness means nothing’s missing; that all of the parts are present and there is a sense of completeness. No one looks at The Pieta and says, Yeah, you know, she needs just a little more fringe around her veil. Oh, well. They don't listen to Mozart's Ave verum and say, Hmmmm, it needs another G. There's something about these works that suggest completeness. [This reflects the truth that] we are made for the One. We are made to cleave to the One. When we experience completeness we have the sense of being at home. The sense that we can rest.

Aristotle's second element of beauty is harmony. Harmony means that all of the parts relate to each other in complementary, not domination. So every part brings out the best of the other parts. They perfectly complement each other. Harmony brings us a sense of joy because we are called to be in community. We are made by a triune God who lives in community and we were called to community. This is our destiny to be in perfect community. We get a sense of joy when we are reminded that we can dwell together as one without being crushed.

So the beautiful makes you feel rest and it makes you feel joy.

And, finally, the third element of beauty is radiance. Radiance means that something profound and, often, beyond language is communicated. Think about a sunset. When you see a sunset you experience it calling to you personally. When you experience some pieces of artwork, it's like you're standing in front of it and suddenly it's personal -- like you, yourself, are being called personally. And you think about the artist and you want to meet the artist because he or she said something to you personally. Radiance says I know something and I’m sharing it with you. It fulfills in us the desire to learn. We are made to learn, and so radiance gives us a sense of fulfillment in our nature....

So, now, I've told you what the beautiful is -- wholeness, harmony and radiance. I want to state unequivocally what the beautiful is not -- just in case you're not clear.

It’s not cute.
It’s not easy.
It’s not banal.
It’s not silly.
It’s not facile.
It’s not sweet.
It’s not non-threatening. ...

The Church has gotten in trouble in the twentieth century by reaching to other ends for art than the simple goal of seeking new epiphanies of beauty...

One use we demand is political. We've made the purpose of art political. I don't mean left or right, I mean statement-making. The goal in the political is not to share radiance but to manipulate, to coerce, to propegandize and to change behavior.

Jurassic Park

2008-11-22T22:10:00.000-08:00

nataliedee.com

Artists

2008-11-19T09:10:00.000-08:00

"There are two kinds of people in the world: people who are artists and people who are supposed to support them. So, figure out which you are and do it with vigor." -Barbara Nicolosi

Advent

2008-11-19T09:07:00.000-08:00

Prop 8

2008-11-13T22:11:00.000-08:00

Charlton Heston is Not my President

2008-11-12T22:23:00.000-08:00

toothpastefordinner.com

Get Rich or Die Trying

2008-11-02T22:30:00.000-08:00

toothpastefordinner.com

Karina VS Raisin Female

2008-10-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

When we were in middle school, my friends and I thought our other friend Karina looked just like the girl/woman/lady on the raisin box. I still associate the two. For the record, it was deemed a positive association :)

nataliedee.com

Gauge

2008-10-12T22:19:00.000-07:00

toothpastefordinner.com

In my defense, I don't have any cats...

2008-10-03T21:40:00.000-07:00

toothpastefordinner.com

TP

2008-10-02T22:30:00.000-07:00

toothpastefordinner.com

The God Delusion

2008-09-27T14:47:00.000-07:00

Or, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, for Atheists.

I'm several chapter's into Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, one of the handful of Atheist texts coming out to much publicity lately. In Darkins' defense, I was warned it wasn't a great book. I want to be open to critique of my theism, but I'm going to have to find it elsewhere.

Dawkins sets up the books premise by asking that we imagine a world without religion, a world with no 9-11, no crusades, no Taliban. But thus far, it doesn't feel that he's compelled by a moral revulsion to the holy war and patriarchy that seems so deeply embedded in theism (and a message that would get easy sympathy from me). He seems to be more motivated in his writing by the pathetic idiocy of anyone foolish enough to believe. His sneering contempt for religion feels driven by his contempt for stupidity and intillectual weakness, rather than his concern for the well being of the rest of us.

In all sincerity, I can't remember the last time I read a work this objectifying and stereotyping of any group of people. As a religious person, and a religious leader in particular, I feel Dawkin's loathing of me on every page, for my participation in the Taliban's suicide bombings and the Televangelists fleecing of millions. Any hope of being seen for who I am seems lost in this text.

I was struck by how the Washington Post review of God is Not Great (another book, which I have not read), applies seemlessly to Dawkin's work as well:

"Hitchens claims that some of his best friends are believers. If so, he doesn't know much about his best friends. He writes about religious people the way northern racists used to talk about "Negroes" -- with feigned knowing and a sneer. God Is Not Great assumes a childish definition of religion and then criticizes religious people for believing such foolery. But it is Hitchens who is the naïf. To read this oddly innocent book as gospel is to believe that ordinary Catholics are proud of the Inquisition..."

Dawkins' nievite about the role religion plays in the world seems best summed up by an odd editorial oversight in his introduction. While he's inviting us to imagine a world without religion, he invites us to "Imagine no Taliban to blow up ancient statues." He seems sincerely unaware of the broad implications that without religion, there would be no ancient (Buddhist in this case) statues to blow up.

Natlie Dee Loves You

2008-09-22T21:55:00.000-07:00

nataliedee.com

Shorts

2008-09-14T08:48:00.000-07:00

nataliedee.com

Moving

2008-09-13T12:04:00.001-07:00

Mysogyny

2008-09-13T08:48:00.000-07:00

Markers

2008-09-12T22:02:00.000-07:00

nataliedee.com

Secret Life of Bees

2008-09-04T08:32:00.001-07:00

With or Without You

2008-09-03T22:35:00.000-07:00

"The lyric is pure torment. One of the things that was happening at the time was the collision in my own mind between being faithful to your art or being faithful to your lover. What if the two are at odds? Your gift versus domestic responsibility?

I had always been the kind of person who would sleep on everyone else's floor, the eye of the traveling rat, a natural tinker. I would just wander off and be very happy. So now I have this person in my life whom I love more than my life but I'm wondering if the reason I'm not writing is because I'm now a domesticated beast. I'm wondering if I'm house-trained? If I meet somebody and I want to go off with them, to find out what their world is like, I can't because I'm a married man.

It's not even about sexual infidelity. I just remember thinking: 'Is this the life of an artist? Am I going to have kids and settle down and betray my gift or am I going to betray my marriage? It was a very difficult thing in my head. I had met a couple of people on the way who had taken advantage of my naivete, is the best way I can put, and I realized I knew so very little about this world and now, the future looked like I was going to know even less. You can learn about politics, culture, but your emotional life also has to be developed.

I think in some senses mine wasn't, and I was going through all this kind of uncertainty. I was at least two people: the person who is so responsible, protective and loyal and the vagrant and idler in me who just wants to run from responsibility. I thought these tensions were going to destroy me but actually, in truth, it is me. That tension, it turns out, is what makes me as an artist.

Right in the centre of a contradiction, that's the place to be. There I was. Loyal. But in my imagination filled with wanderlust, a heart to know God, a head to know the world, rock star who likes to run amok and sinner who knows he needs to repent...

If I had cut loose, what would have become of me?"

-Bono, U2 on U2

Pale

2008-09-02T22:17:00.000-07:00

toothpastefordinner.com

What I Do All Day

2008-09-02T20:57:00.001-07:00

I may have already posted this

2008-08-29T23:01:00.000-07:00

nataliedee.com

Obama

2008-08-28T21:53:00.000-07:00

I can't begin to tell you about the layers of meaning this has for me. At the deepest level, the caustic overtone of comparing Barack to Christ is lost on me.

Don Miller

2008-08-27T21:50:00.000-07:00

I barely recognized him.

Saving Paradise

2008-08-26T23:21:00.000-07:00

"Once Jesus perished, dying was virtually all he seemed able to do."

We were over at Wendy and David's house tonight and he passed me a book from his bookshelf. I was so caught by the dust jacket blurb on the book. It made me feel aware again of this awkward seem I'm on between one way of following Jesus and another. The thesis of this book resonates so strongly with me, but I know if wasn't that long ago that it would have been impossible for me to hear their critique.

Dust Jacket:

_________________________________

When Rita Brock and Rebecca Parker began traveling the Mediterranean world in search of art depicting the dead, crucified Jesus, they discovered something that traditional histories of Christianity and Christian art had underplayed or sought to explain away: it took Jesus Christ a thousand years to die.

During their first millennium, Christians filled their sanctuaries with images of Christ as a living presence in a vibrant world. He appears as a shepherd, a teacher, a healer, an enthroned god; he is an infant, a youth, and a bearded elder. But he is never dead. When he appears with the cross, he stands in front of it, serene, resurrected. The world around him is ablaze with beauty. These are images of paradise—paradise in this world, permeated and blessed by the presence of God.

But once Jesus perished, dying was virtually all he seemed able to do.

Saving Paradise offers a fascinating new lens on the history of Christianity, from its first centuries to the present day, and asks how its early vision of beauty evolved into one of torture. In tracing the changes in society and theology that marked the medieval emergence of images of Christ crucified, Saving Paradise exposes the imperial strategies embedded in theologies of redemptive violence and sheds new light on Christianity's turn to holy war. It reveals how the New World, established through Christian conquest and colonization, is haunted by the loss of a spiritual understanding of paradise here and now.

Brock and Parker reconstruct the idea that salvation is paradise in this world and in this life, and they offer a bold new theology for saving paradise. They ground justice and peace for humanity in love for the earth and open a new future for Christianity through a theology of redemptive beauty.

Recycle Me

2008-08-25T21:49:00.000-07:00

nataliedee.com

Maroda or Winner?

2008-08-25T09:43:00.000-07:00

Posting other people's cartoons is still easier than blogging

2008-08-21T23:13:00.001-07:00

Toothpastefordinner.com

This one goes out to Paul

2008-08-20T22:45:00.000-07:00

At the Risk of Being a Corporate Tool

2008-08-16T21:14:00.000-07:00

My friend Molly argues that the commercials during the Olympics are better than the commercials during the Super Bowl. I'll have to take her word for it, as I think Regan may have been in office the last time I saw more than a snippet of the Super Bowl.

I do have to say that this may be the most romantic commercial I've ever seen.. Which, admittedly, there's not a big pool to draw from.

How (Not) to Speak of God, 11 of 23

2008-08-07T10:34:00.000-07:00

"Revelation is often treated as if it can be deciphered into a dogmatic system rather than embraced as the site where the impenetrable secret of God transforms us."
17

-Peter Rollins, How (Not) to Speak of God

Trifecta

2008-08-06T09:49:00.000-07:00

"A person who says he doesn't understand art doesn't know himself very well."
-Sophie's World

Art. Subconscious. Theism. 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

How (Not) to Speak of God, 10 of 23

2008-08-05T22:33:00.000-07:00

"Revelation ought not to be thought of as either that which makes God know or as that which leaves God unknown, but rather as the overpowering light that renders God known as unknown. This is not dissimilar to a baby being held by her mother - the baby does not understand the mother but rather experiences being known by the mother."
17
-Peter Rollins, How (Not) to Speak of God

Global Warming: sign of the end times

2008-08-02T12:20:00.000-07:00

How (Not) to Speak of God, 9 of 23

2008-08-01T22:32:00.000-07:00

"Unlike those who would seek to offer a different set of answers to theological questions, those with the emerging conversation are offering a different way of understanding the answers that we already possess... This is not then a revolution that seeks to change what we believe, but rather on that sets about transforming the entire manner in which we hold our beliefs."
7
-Peter Rollins, How (Not) to Speak of God

Only Al Gore Can Save Us Now

2008-07-29T12:15:00.000-07:00