Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Erudite ... (?): Indian mascots are immoral
I dunno. I'm shedding "R"-points by the freakin' gozillion.
I have been convinced that "Redskins," "Savages," and other of the most egregious American Indian-related school and team mascots are, in fact, not just racist but repugnant and morally wrong.
Once you accept that what happened at the hand of the Europeans on this continent was, in fact, genocide, there is no other moral conclusion one can make.
Systematic genocide? No. But systemic -- the European peoples and the institutions they brought with them and the ones they set up here were shot straight through with it. Which is different than saying the genocide was "systematic," which, to me, means planned, deliberate, universally applied, and of that I remain unconvinced.
But them's just words and semanticles, as Dr. Bill Loney mighta putted it.
Bottom line: Hey, hey, ho, ho, Indian mascots have got to go.
--EN
I have been convinced that "Redskins," "Savages," and other of the most egregious American Indian-related school and team mascots are, in fact, not just racist but repugnant and morally wrong.
Once you accept that what happened at the hand of the Europeans on this continent was, in fact, genocide, there is no other moral conclusion one can make.
Systematic genocide? No. But systemic -- the European peoples and the institutions they brought with them and the ones they set up here were shot straight through with it. Which is different than saying the genocide was "systematic," which, to me, means planned, deliberate, universally applied, and of that I remain unconvinced.
But them's just words and semanticles, as Dr. Bill Loney mighta putted it.
Bottom line: Hey, hey, ho, ho, Indian mascots have got to go.
--EN
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Lifehouse's Everything Skit
I love this. In light of "Paradise Lost," "The Pilgrim's Progress," other attempts throughout history to depict, allegorize and explain just what it is that Christ does for us, tell me: Is there any reason why this shouldn't make me weep? Is there anything in it that is suspect?
--ER
--ER
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Wherein ER reaffirms his adherence to the Phoenix Affirmations
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Ecclesiastes 9: 12: 'Shit happens'
That's what I meant, Feodor.
--ER
--ER
Monday, April 19, 2010
Damn dat ol' Debble'n his damn lies!
(Keith: Green: "No one Believes in Me Anymore" -- lyrics in first comment)
Payin' bills at the kitchen table this morning, it came to me:
"*THIS* is real. Payin' bills. Keepin' the wolf away from the door. Protectin' your credit. Bein' a respectable and productive member of society. Not all that seminary foolishness."
And it was just about as plain as my call last spring, "Start seminary," and the confirmation I got last fall, "Keep going." But not nearly as plain as the peace-amid-chaos I've had since switching to the M.Div. -- with the intention of seeking ordination.
Was it dat ol' Debble? Or a misfirin' synapse -- a brain fart. Well, I dismissed it and sent the old Unholy Son-a-Bitch packin'. Having recently steeped myself in John Milton's "Paradise Lost," I am all about flashin' back to days of yore before I ever doubted that the Debble was as real as Mr. Jesus H. Christ Hisself.
It was a half-hour or so after I'd read an e-mail from Dr. ER sayin' how, because she was awake in her own pain, she was able to help a hurting friend in the wee hours, on Facebook, and how 30 minutes afterward she had her own sense of communication, which said, "I needed you to be awake tonight" -- and how it made it easier to accept her own always chronic but varying-in-intensity hurting, and how it gave her peace to have been able to be there for her friend.
She asked, and I said, "Yeah, I think that's exactly how God works with his peeps. Maybe you heard God; maybe God allowed you to hear your friend's prayer of thanksgiving: 'I needed you to be awake tonight.' "
I know it's totally uncool to personify dat ol' Debble. Why, pray tell? What happened? Is it just a matter of "sophistication"?
What do y'all think? The devil: real or not?
--ER
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Stand with President Obama on Wall Street Reform
United Church of Christ: Bouncer Ad
My personal tipping point on homosexuality and the church:
--ER
Bouncer Ad from United Church of Christ on Vimeo.
--ER
Friday, April 16, 2010
'The Language of God' -- God is still speaking ...
Monday, April 12, 2010
The Word speaks Aramaic with a Galilean accent
The Word, I think, is the best metaphor to start with to get to the metaphor of God Incarnate in Christ. And, I think it helps to see it all as involving translation.
Via the Incarnation, the Word was translated from God into humanity to result in Christ -- from one language (to extend the metaphor) into another language, which results, thanks to a kind of hybrid vigor, in something else larger again for both the speaker and the hearer.
Via the spoken word, spreading the Gospel of the Incarnation does the same, resulting in something larger than the spoken word for the speaker, and something larger than the heard word for the hearer who accepts it.
I think. Or something like that.
In any case, I think a linguistic approach to studying the Word, and the Incarnation, and the Gospel, is better for all concerned than, like, biology.
--ER
Via the Incarnation, the Word was translated from God into humanity to result in Christ -- from one language (to extend the metaphor) into another language, which results, thanks to a kind of hybrid vigor, in something else larger again for both the speaker and the hearer.
Via the spoken word, spreading the Gospel of the Incarnation does the same, resulting in something larger than the spoken word for the speaker, and something larger than the heard word for the hearer who accepts it.
I think. Or something like that.
In any case, I think a linguistic approach to studying the Word, and the Incarnation, and the Gospel, is better for all concerned than, like, biology.
--ER
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Metaphors! Metaphors! Get your red-hot biblical metaphors here!
Actually, I wan't y'all to tell me parts of the Bible you consider to be metaphor. An example would be Zion as cheating wife who reconciles with God.
What else ya got?
--ER
What else ya got?
--ER
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Note the change in my header
Condolences accepted.
--ER
--ER
Monday, April 05, 2010
'Nothing to anyone'
This makes two Easter Mondays in a row I've woken up with an emotional hangover -- and yesterday, after starting with a positive bang, went downhill fast.
Nothing, except for church itself, failed to suck. And it still sucks, and that sucks.
Not quite the "terror and amazement" Mary, Mary and Salome felt. But something has seized me, and I don't feel like saying anything to anyone, and I might, I guess, be a little afraid.
8 So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. (Mark 16:8, New King James Version)
--ER
Nothing, except for church itself, failed to suck. And it still sucks, and that sucks.
Not quite the "terror and amazement" Mary, Mary and Salome felt. But something has seized me, and I don't feel like saying anything to anyone, and I might, I guess, be a little afraid.
8 So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. (Mark 16:8, New King James Version)
--ER
Sunday, April 04, 2010
A-a-a-a-a-lle-e-lu-u-ia!
Two or more, he said. Two'll do.
--ER
--ER
