9/30/24 – The analytical approach to the God question was best answered by the religious idiot, Blaise Pascal, called Pascal’s wager. (To those of you who say you want God to show himself to you before you can believe in him: please know that you do sound very much like a genius when you say that.) On the empirical side, the literature around spirituality, and mental and physical health is quite extensive and consistently suggests a positive relationship. (A particularly interesting area for those in the healthcare field is how to incorporate these findings into the practice of medicine, as part of a holistic approach to healing.) This positive finding is also consistently found for prosocial behaviors, such as volunteering, donating, helping, etc. The question is: with so much empirical evidence supporting religious/spiritual practices, why would one choose not to be religious/spiritual? The answer must be liberal indoctrination and the accompanying societal pressures: the liberal atheists’ pressure to be cool and smart by not being religious. Well, we, religious idiots such as we are, will continue to be quite idiotic with our inferior brains, our dumb happiness, our irrational gratitude and so on and so forth. Poor us.
9/30/24 – Many years ago, a friend of mine came to my place with something important that she wanted to share with me. She just had a conversation with another student, and she says to me, “Do you know what she said to me?” Obviously, I didn’t. “She doesn’t want to think.” A look of disbelief must have come over my face. “I know,” my bewildered friend says, “Who doesn’t want to think?” Apparently, a lot of people, and a lot of them are the very same people who try to convince you how smart they are because they don’t believe in God. Happy Monday!
9/30/24 – Actually, let’s take this to its logical conclusion. We already replaced entire portions of our brains that are activated when we engage in spirituality with cellphone use, which is clearly a superior activity…well, according to the liberal atheists. Why bother to think at all about anything? Why stop here? Let’s go all the way. What does the brain really do anyway? AI can do everything for us. Do our laundry, make our beds (that we’re always in), clean our homes, write our papers, do our jobs, do our research…. We can just hang out alone at the pool or better yet alone in our own bedroom.
9/30/24 – So, the perfect, all-knowing humans the liberal atheists like to worship, their gods, who go by their godly name, scientists, were wrong about the appendix. It actually serves a purpose, after all. Interesting. The rest of us, intellectually inferior religious types with clearly deficient analytic abilities, will have to make note that their gods, our humans, can actually be wrong. Oh, wait. It’s actually noted right there in the opening of our religious text. Forgot, blame said deficient intellectual abilities.
But yes, let’s continue this trajectory. Pretty soon, we won’t have to see anybody ever again. We can just do pretty much everything right from our bedrooms. Evolution. Progress. Courtesy of the cool, smart liberal atheists. They are so cool and so smart that they have no need for other human beings…well, except for their gods, our humans, the scientists. That’s what robots and AI are for, after all. Let’s outsource or eliminate any social interaction and dedicate our entire brains to…what are the words…stupid, social, emotional, inferior, spiritual brain is struggling again…got it, rational reason. The other parts of our brain are useless. Genius.
The Death of the Dining Room
9/30/24 – The Catholic Church celebrated the Mass of Solidarity yesterday for world migrants and refugee day. It’s a lot of fun. Readings are done in different languages, worship music and dance from around the world, food and refreshments, and we come dressed in our traditional clothing. God created life in splendid diversity. God always walks with his people. God loves you.
9/28/24 – One last point for the day because there is no way we’re backing down on this. It’s way too important. If you’re a liberal atheist (or even a none), go ahead and ask yourself these simple questions. Watch the young people in the Elevation Worship & Passion Music video below, and ask yourself, could you be in that state? Could you appeal to a higher power with such surrender and love? Do you even have an idea what that might feel like? Now, understand this. Those young people can be in that let’s call it spiritual mode of being in the spiritual world and switch back to being in an analytical mode in the natural world with no problem. Can you or your kids switch like that? (Doesn’t that support Tony Jack’s findings?)
You can try, but you can’t convince us that your inability to do this is somehow superior. Whatever findings there are in the research that kids who are raised with religion are less analytical (good at math, science, etc.) is likely due to confounding factors, such as a lower socioeconomic class, because we know it is positively correlated with rural communities and some poorer urban communities. Don’t try to tell us that this ability is not, to put it into secular terms, a skill, and a highly valuable one at that. It would serve one well through all the inevitable adversities one will face in life. And the data, you know, the science, show it. Flattering oneself with some BS by saying you believe in “science” not the flying spaghetti monster will not change this fact or this reality. But go on with yourself, you’re so cool and so smart.
9/28/24 – The only way to rein in these liberal excesses is to start splitting the ticket. Obviously, getting rid of a certain person.
9/28/24 – There is absolutely no intellectual diversity among the country’s elite, especially the propaganda. They are almost all liberal atheists, give a token this or that. This discrimination in ideology and background has led to glaring imbalances in reporting, intellectual perspectives, and a dearth of critical thinking. Critical thinking is practically nonexistent on certain issues, especially those related to science.
The propaganda has also contributed to the underdevelopment of millions of children’s brains in the country – an entire generation – because of their obvious liberal atheist bias. Those people have no community and no spiritual life, and this has damaged young people’s development. Who knows if they will ever recover from it. All of this and other factors have left deep scars on our country and its people, especially young people’s health. Shame on the propaganda!
9/28/24 – The propaganda (and many elites) would like ordinary Americans to know that they are young, cool, smart, sophisticated, rich and generally so much better than you. You should therefore allow yourselves to be indoctrinated by them, the superior Americans. However, no matter their self-glorifying estimation of themselves, the reality is that much of the country doesn’t trust or like them. And they shouldn’t. They have betrayed the trust of the American people. They are snobs and elites. The reality is that they’re a big part of the reason we’re in this mess: two dysfunctional parties, one headed by a demagogue, and extreme polarization. The disdain is mutual, and the American people’s disdain of the media is justified. No matter how hard they try to indoctrinate you, think for yourselves, and be your own people.
9/28/24 – The liberals like to flatter themselves by thinking that they are free-thinkers and critical-thinkers. They are not. It’s a lie. They are conformists who copy each other’s positions and thoughts. They have caricatures of identities.
9/28/24 – As a metacognitive exercise, when posed with the Linda problem in the video below, I couldn’t answer the question. I refused to choose since I didn’t see any evidence to support either choice. From a purely probabilistic perspective, if I didn’t see any evidence for either, I should have chosen “bank teller,” for obvious mathematical reasons. However, this “answer” would not have been based at all on the information provided, but on pure math.
What was interesting to me is that the vast majority of people actually see evidence in the description for choice b, “bank teller and active in the feminist movement.” Where? Apparently, this is supposed to be based on her age, marital status, personality trait of outspoken, college major of philosophy, concern for issues of discrimination and social justice, and participation in anti-nuclear demonstrations. Are these the characteristics of feminists? In my catalog of mental associations, am I supposed to find some pattern between this description and “feminists”?
I don’t have this association. I have known strong, barrier-breaking women, but none of them would fit this description, and none of them would describe themselves as feminists. They were religious women in traditional marriages, well-educated, with professional occupations that fit their interests and talents. One woman quietly did the hard work of helping migrant and other women for many years. Ultimately, my own personal experience carried more weight in my decision-making than stereotypes of feminists circulating in the culture, which might also give some insight into my unwillingness to yield to societal pressures and stereotypical associations, especially when they go contrary to my own lived experience. In the end, from an analytical and from a social, emotional perspective, nothing in the description gave me any information I could use to even make an association, leave alone a decision, which would also critically depend on how “feminist” is defined.
9/27/24 – Remember: the most important thing in life is not to pursue goodness and truth. It’s to pursue coolness and liberal groupthink.
9/27/24 – The propaganda is also really, really cool, with great taste in music. (They desperately want you to think they’re cool.) It’s not the same canned s—t, regurgitated over and over again for the masses. It’s not the same cheap, misogynist, violent lyrics repeated over and over again with hardly any lyricism. It’s novel and at tiny desks, so obviously, it’s good…and, of course, cool.
9/27/24 – The propaganda, which is full of liberal atheists, is never defensive. They are too rational for that. They only operate out of cold, calculating, unbiased reason. That’s why they have been promoting scientism for decades.
9/27/24 – One of the rather bizarre aspects of liberal atheists is that they are not particularly good at metacognition, especially when it comes to social and emotional reasoning. They seem oblivious to the fact that they are actually (or should be) switching from one mode of being, thinking, and interacting to another, from analytic to empathetic, and vice versa. It has all blurred together in their minds and in their reasoning as “rational.” However, it is not. In fact, some of the most sophisticated ways in which people reason is totally irrational, such as love. In the Christian belief system, love, the most irrational of reasoning, reigns supreme, and with good reason. It’s because love is the greatest of all.
The liberal atheists, deficient in metacognitive abilities, project onto evolutionary theory, some tortured, labyrinthine “logic” for why people would care about say disabled people, gay people, or anybody else, that from a strictly genetic might makes right perspective does not make any sense, which, by the way, goes contrary to the Christian belief that all people are created equal.
The liberal atheists claim that somehow, much like the magical primordial soup, for magically social reasons, this irrational love for others, no matter their objective value to society or to survival of the fittest, fits into evolutionary theory. It does not, and this is an intellectual lie. One only needs to observe how the world actually works, often in the absence of love, to see that it’s not true, you know, empirical observation. The liberal atheists entertain this lie because they can’t bring themselves to be truly intellectually honest since it would lead them to a conclusion that is unfavorable to their intellectually biased conclusion: evolutionary theory is rational reason that explains the totality of human life and its existence. The absolute and objective truth is that is does not, and it never will.
9/27/24 – IQ tests as they are presently designed are critically flawed. They are giving a biased and incomplete picture of human intelligence. At a minimum, they must include measures of social and emotional intelligence, which is the primary way in which human beings reason – that’s correct, reason.
9/27/24 – Some of the words that liberal atheists love saying the most are “science,” (how else could they signal that they are smart, really smart, but by repeating “science” over and over and over again), “evolution,” and “gay.” But isn’t there an inherent issue here? By evolutionary theory, aren’t gay people inherently inferior? What possible benefit to the evolution of the human species could people who are attracted to the same sex offer? In fact, in godless communist regimes, they have tried to violently purge them from society because they view them as threatening the social order and having minimal value in their transactional framework. There is nothing within evolutionary theory that gives gay people any protection from this dehumanizing conclusion.
In the religious context, and as the video below mentions, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, a fundamental tenet is that all people are created equal. As Tony Jack explains, this is objectively not true. It is our belief based on our religious texts and traditional practices. This is why even fundamentalist or conservative Christians who practice the faith correctly make the distinction between the person and the behavior. The faith doesn’t allow them to view any person as inferior because we are all children of God. This obviously also applies to liberal Christians, but they interpret the same texts as God made gay people as they are and/or we are called to love, and they don’t take issue with their behavior. Therefore, of these two frameworks, evolutionary theory and Judeo-Christian beliefs, the latter is more protective of all people, including gay people.
9/26/24 – So, keep in mind certain points of clarification as you watch this interesting Ted Talk about some neuroscience research on different ways of thinking: analytic and empathetic. Firstly, as anyone who’s been paying attention knows, MAGA and “Christian Nationalists” are not really religious people. They are political people pretending to be religious people. So, this doesn’t apply to them. These findings apply to genuinely religious people.
Intuitively, it makes sense that the brain switches modes, if you will, between analytic and empathetic. We’ve all known people with whom we share some difficulty in life (we might have been these people ourselves, well-meaning, but…), and they start analyzing our problem and telling us ways to “fix it.” We were actually looking for empathy (being present for us in our emotions as they are) and support. Also, in “solving our problem,” there’s an implicit criticism. If I were you, I would have done it this way, which is better than the way you’re doing it. In other words, you’re handling it wrong. Obviously, helping does often involve providing guidance and advice, but the delivery and timing matter a lot. First, just let people express their emotions, and be there for them in that space non-judgmentally and supportively.
Lastly, he closes with the point that you can gain this same benefit from reading about history, anthropology, art, literature, etc. This is not the same. Art and literature can provide great insights into the human condition, but the effect is definitely not the same as nurturing a healthy spiritual life. In any case, worth watching and considering…with an open mind, of course.
A scientific defense of spiritual & religious faith | Tony Jack | TEDxCLE
9/26/24 – There is the graceful way of getting old, and then, there is this way of getting old. Richard Dawkins and his ilk are boring trolls. See also the post below regarding narcissism.
The New Atheists Are Getting Old
9/26/24 – So nice to see young people not staring down at their phones but looking up at God. We would like to tell the young people out there: enjoy your youth and beauty, and know this: getting older is glorious. It’s liberating and enriching. We pray that as our children of God age, their faith ripens and that they live and spread the Good News as Jesus intended it to be, for everybody, faith, hope and love.
Same God (Live from Passion 2023) | Elevation Worship & Passion Music
9/26/24 – “When does so much racism, misogyny, and xenophobia finally become so toxic that Republicans join with other decent people in rejecting such behavior?” The entire world is waiting for an answer to this question. This was once the party of Lincoln. What a shameful disgrace!
MAGA Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry
9/25/24 – On a different note (because really how much of this can a person take), one of the amazing things about The Lord of the Rings (the book) is that it started out as a linguistic exercise. Tolkien, who was educated in the classics, wanted to create a fictional language, and after doing so, he built the fictional world around it. Why is this amazing? Well, if you read the post below, in the Jewish and Christian traditions, God speaks, and the universe is created. Tolkien was Catholic, and at least subconsciously, he ended up mimicking this process. His fictional word leads to the creation of his fictional world. We are so blessed to have the spark of the divine. Let’s use it to glorify our creator, and let us always be grateful.
9/25/24 – “‘[T]o put it another, even more familiar, way, if Trump supporters blamed Jews for nailing their Messiah [a certain person] to the cross.” To MAGA: Do you know the number of people who think that you worship a certain person instead of the Christian God? It is a wide and varied group that were not prompted by anybody or any media. They came to that conclusion observing your own words and actions. Do you know how spiritually shameful that is? Think about Moses and the Israelites after they had been delivered out of bondage. Think about the first, very first, commandment. Then, think about what David Frum just wrote. Also, you can’t claim to be a good Christian and hate the very people who gave you the religion. Not only does it go against basic decency, but it also makes no sense.
Trump’s Threat to American Jews
9/25/24 – Hillary Clinton talks about her own conflicts and mistakes in this opinion piece. Are the conspiracy-minded figures on the right, who claim to be so Christian, capable of doing the same? Are they capable of doing an examination of conscience? One of the fundamental Judeo-Christian beliefs is that we are all sinners, which goes back to original sin. So, let’s see their spiritual work. Put it out there as she, the person the right vilified, has done. By the way, you might also want to read the first book on her bookshelf. Truly practicing Christians regularly do spiritual work, and The Prodigal Son is a common parable for deep meditation. Think about how it relates to the opinion piece.
The opinion piece is also worth reading because it’s a glimpse into how hard practicing true Christian tenets is. Jesus was deeply compassionate, and sometimes, this is mistaken as being less demanding. He was arguably more demanding. In his ministry, Jesus was primarily a rabbi (a religious leader), teacher, and a healer. To this day, these are the professions that have some of the highest ethical standards, as they should. You’re dealing with people’s souls, minds, and bodies. Handle with care. He asked us to go against our worldly and survival instincts, and to follow him, to do as he did. Can we do that? Read in the piece what repentance and redemption look like. Does it look easy?
It’s easy to beat your white chest and proclaim your Christianity like it’s your white birthright even though it’s a religion that originated from a brown Jew and his Jewish followers in the Jewish homeland. (For those who are counting, yes, that’s Jew and Jewish exactly three times in the same sentence.) It also spread first to communities that were not white. (Additionally, we treat Greeks and Romans as white, which is not exactly genetically accurate.) From its humble beginnings, Christianity was never a white man’s religion, but a world religion. Don’t forget it, and do the work.
To Err Is Human, to Empathize Is Superhuman
What’s on Hillary Clinton’s Bookshelf?
9/23/24 – Much of this terminology requires a “crank dictionary” or social media, neither of which is going to happen. So, forgive us for not wanting to compromise our sanity to more fully understand the madness. Even without this insight, it’s obvious to anyone paying the slightest attention that the Republican Party has become a magnet for truly crazy, conspiracy-minded people. As a brief sampling: a certain person, you know, the chosen one who is in actuality, well, evil, then there is the black Robinson who is quite jealous of MLK Jr. and wants to bring slavery back seemingly oblivious to the fact that he would be the enslaved not the enslaver (the man needs to seek treatment for his self-loathing and loathing more generally), lies about immigrants eating cats and dogs, and on and on. All of this is the inevitable result of thinking that you’re persecuted, the end of times is nigh, Christianity is under assault, and whatnot. It’s persecution psychosis, persecution complex driven to insane levels by social media, a demagogue and other inflammatory factors.
All one has to do is stop thinking like this. Just stop. If you say you believe in God, you have to actually mean it. Love and trust God. You can see this contraction play out in their own minds and words. Their fears run them around, yet they say, they believe “Christianity will stand the test of time.” Which is it? Of course, Christianity will stand the test of time…in spite of the incredible damage the “crank Christians” have done to it. Let’s just break this down. In the 80s and 90s, they thought they were the silent majority so that justified treating Christianity like a political party. Now, they’re realizing that their extreme political positions pretending to be Christian tenets aren’t broadly popular. So, they’re telling themselves that they’re fine with being the minority, but they’re still going to influence government to force other Americans to do things their way. One person cited of all people the Apostle Paul, someone who was executed by the Roman emperor, as inspiration for this approach. Are they kidding us? They are not martyrs for the faith, and they need to stop flattering themselves with this delusion.
If they are “disappointed,” they have no one else to blame but themselves. When even liberal atheists are telling you that you seem to be worshipping the wrong god, meaning a certain person instead of the Christian God, you might want to pay attention. (They think they can bear witness to the faith after this?) They made a deal with the devil, and now, the devil has political considerations that are not favorable to them, which was inevitable. MAGA, or as their chosen one likes to refer to them, the basement dwellers, need to accept that they got conned. In fact, a certain person doesn’t care about anybody but himself. So, it’s simply a matter of time before all of his constituents are disappointed, particularly, the disgusting, greedy rich who are bankrolling him.
Even David French, who seems genuinely appalled by the degradation of the Republican Party, still hasn’t figured out the real problem. He needs to go deeper in an examination of conscience. He says, “Leaders don’t simply enact policies; they dictate the cultures of the institutions they lead.” To some degree, this is true. However, this is a democracy, and we, the American people, collectively build our country, every aspect of it, including our institutions. Also, Christians aren’t supposed to be focused on earthly leaders, institutions or culture. We’re supposed to be focused on serving God and serving each other. Here’s an idea: stop forcing your idea of Christianity down anybody’s throat, stop associating Christianity with politics, and stop with the persecution psychosis. This might be particularly hard for white people, who are coming out of the European tradition, to understand, but Christianity is not a political party or a state religion. It is simply a religion. All Jesus asked his followers to do is to love God, love each other and live the faith. You live it by humbly doing the Lord’s work day after day. Stop pursuing earthly power. Start pursing divine grace.
Christian Conservatives Face Reality: Increasingly, They Stand Alone
MAGA Wants Transgression. Mark Robinson Is the Result.
9/23/24 – One conclusion is abundantly clear: losing religion has been a disaster for our society and for our world. So much has been lost, and nothing has been gained. Also, the damage that has been done to Christianity by its self-proclaimed protectors must be repaired.
9/22/24 – Happy Sunday! God of Day and God of Darkness
9/21/24 – Some poetry courtesy of the Bible, “Learn from the way the wildflowers grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of these.” Matthew 6:28-29
9/21/24 – Parents need to be held legally accountable for their kids’ cellphone addiction. It’s a form of child neglect and, in some cases, child endangerment.
9/21/24 – Everybody needs to leave X. It’s especially ridiculous for journalists, politicians, and the media to be on it. It’s propaganda and owned by a dictator-wannabe enabler. Come on, already. You need to model what you want to see in others. As Jesus said, “hypocrites.”
9/20/24 – The cheaters, also known as a certain person’s campaign, must be prevented from changing the electoral vote allocation in Nebraska and in requiring a hand count in Georgia. He is a sociopath who wants to undermine our democracy. Stop him! Also, in addition to Pennsylvania, Harris Walz need to push in Nevada and Arizona.
9/19/24 – Y’all, don’t treat people like they’re dumb. Of course, people should learn and grow, but it’s a matter of whether or not people perceive it as such or as opportunistic flip-flopping to get elected. Walz’s change in position related to gun restrictions seems like a genuine change as a) the society changed (even Gen X didn’t have this level of gun violence, it was just starting at that time) and b) he was a teacher, and, naturally, he probably had a strong reaction to kids being gunned down in their classrooms. In case the media forgot, voters are also human beings, and they understand that people change and grow because they have likely done so themselves. They also intuitively understand the conditions under which this happens organically and the ones under which it’s being forced.
Having read several articles about undecided voters (and channeling Holden), there is a considerable number of them who view Harris as phony and flipflopping to get elected. Are they wrong? The truth is that on some issues, probably not. Unfortunately, we have an election system where politicians stake more extreme positions during primaries and move toward the center during the general election. It’s BS, and it really needs to stop. See ranked-choice voting. So, of course, voters find politicians opportunistic and phony. It’s because they’re being opportunistic and phony. Instead of trying to gaslight them with some phony evolution in ideology or policy position, make the authentic parts shine such that they outweigh the inauthentic parts in voters’ minds. Stop BSing voters and simultaneously claiming to be better than a certain person.
9/18/24 – A certain person loves himself so much, he can’t possibly love anybody else. A cautionary tale for us all.
9/18/24 – One thing is for sure: narcissism is rotting people’s body, mind, and soul. Also coming out of the Jewish tradition, Christianity has historically placed a lot of emphasis on discipline in thoughts, words and deeds. This is not fashionable right now, but it is the way to live, and it desperately needs to make a comeback. Tip to pretty much everyone: stop seeking attention and start seeking goodness, truth, and beauty. Attention-seeking is not a healthy way to live a life. Instead, focus on substance and soul consciousness.
Caravaggio (clearly an Italian name) is known for a style of painting called chiaroscuro. (Also Italian, think clear and obscure combined. Another tip: If you’re trying to learn a Romance language, one of the easiest ways to remember the vocabulary is to find the English version of the same word, e.g. clair(e), also meaning light, is French for clear, and clarity is similar to the Latin root, clar(a/um/us).) Chiaroscuro is basically strong contrast but with paint or similar medium not photography. (If you’re an artist, you know that this effect has historically been easier to achieve with paint and the like than with photography, which is highly sensitive to light and speed.) In Caravaggio’s depiction, the Greco-Roman mythological figure Narcissus stares longingly at his own reflection. The figure is light, and the reflection is dark upon even darker water. Contemplate the poetry in the painting for a bit.
In his depiction, narcissism might seem to be focused on one’s looks, vanity, but it doesn’t have to be focused on personal appearance. It frequently takes other forms, such as attention-seeking. Let’s consider all the different ways one might seek attention: wanting to be famous, wanting to be on stage, wanting “followers” and “likes,” wanting to be published, wanting one’s name on other things, wanting people to admire you, and on and on. If “fame” happens, which, unfortunately, it does even to people who don’t seek it, let it be a byproduct of seeking the good, the true and the beautiful. You must also actively reject the allure of gazing upon yourself. To refer to Michelangelo (yes, again), he signed his name once in a flex of ego. He didn’t do it again, and he really didn’t need to. The latter part of his life was focused on a project that does not bear his name and is not associated with his name alone: the redesign of the Vatican. He simply felt called by God to do the work.
Let us all consider: when you have a bunch of followers, fans and such, does it change the quality of your work and your personal development? Are you trying to please them to maintain and grow this following, or are you trying to please, in religious terms, God, the only audience that matters? There needs to be a purity of intention or the quality of the work and of your person will become compromised. Another considerable benefit is that you’ll have a life in which you can more fully enjoy simple pleasures because you’re more present. Instead of looking into murky water to find even the slightest reflection of yourself, no matter how dark the figure, raise your eyes to God, to our creator of light, and say, I am here to do your will and to bring you, not myself, glory.
9/18/24 – This is a highly relevant and interesting question. Again, thank you to the Jewish people for thinking about these worthwhile questions, which effectively consider not just how to live a meaningful life but one that connects us more deeply to the divine, starting millennia ago. There are numerous types of work, which category, e.g. melakhah (creative) and avodah (menial toil), do types of work fall into? Also, does their categorization depend on individual tastes or habits? Also, when we labor with our bodies, is it spiritually different from laboring with our minds, both of which can be creative? (Michelangelo, yes, it’s an obsession, labored with both, and clearly he was driven by a desire to connect with the divine.)
In the Christian tradition, specifically, coming out of the Benedictine tradition, we say “ora et labora,” pray and work, and work, even repetitive, uncreative tasks, can be treated as a form of prayer. In general, work can be divine and an integral part of our fulfillment. However, our identity is still supposed to be centered around God, not our jobs. This likely overlaps with the Jewish tradition, a certain distance that needs to be maintained with work.
Where Christian and Jewish traditions depart is on the elaboration of what types of work are not allowed on the Sabbath. So, this opens up ambiguity for the rest of us, such as Christians, who don’t have the detailed guidance. What exactly constitutes work? What work should we avoid, and can our own preferences substitute for the missing religious guidance? For secular people, they often don’t think about this in religious terms for obvious reasons. It’s usually thought about in terms of work/life balance. This is even more ambiguous, as there isn’t even a mandate to set aside a single day primarily to worship God.
Not to disagree with the author of The Atlantic piece, Sara Tillinger Wolkenfeld, but simply to consider, say one hates doing the dishes but loves folding the laundry, would this latter task be work (menial toil)? Technically, it’s a chore, but as Lydia Sohn, author of The New York Times piece, asks, do we really want to outsource all of this type of labor? Instead, might we approach it, to use eastern spiritual language, as an opportunity for Zen.
Productivity Is a Drag. Work Is Divine.
The Household Chores You’re Avoiding Are Key to a Deeper Life
9/17/24 – Maybe a certain person would get shot at less if he toned down his demagogic rhetoric. Until then, maybe the money that taxpayers, including the majority of the country that loathes the man, pay should be redirected to secret service for the Haitian immigrants and the school children who had to evacuate their school because of a certain person’s hateful rhetoric. A certain person should hire and pay for his own security detail.
9/16/24 – Many Christians find Einstein’s, a Jew who fled Europe during WWII, General Theory of Relativity and Lemaître’s, a Catholic priest, Big Bang Theory convincing. People can knock themselves out with a theory that isn’t testable or pray that one day it will be, but until it is, just don’t waste our time. No offense, but such is science. Happy Monday!
9/16/24 – Who knew that physicists and economists had so much in common. Apparently, both groups have a penchant for mistaking (mathematical) beauty for truth. Also, what applies on a micro level may not apply on a macro level. So, one would be wise to be cautious about trying to get fundamentally different dynamics to fit together like one jigsaw puzzle.
9/16/24 – “After the service, some parishioners gathered at Rose Goute Creole restaurant for a traditional Haitian meal of rice and beans, fried plantains and pork.” Sounds delicious, but where are the cats and dogs? Remember: As Christians, we are called to lean in to our suffering. Look upon our Lord on the cross, an innocent man crucified based on false allegations, a death he freely chose. We all have a cross to bear. May we do so filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit. May our suffering bring us closer to God. May we embrace it.
To our beautiful Haitian sisters and brothers: Don’t be afraid. God is with us. Jesus didn’t leave us orphaned. The vast majority of Americans stand with you. We don’t believe the lies, and we don’t practice the hate. We try to love as Jesus loved us. Don’t let hateful people change you for the worse. It’s not easy, but when they show you hate, you show them love. Let us be instruments of God’s peace.
Haitians in Ohio find solidarity at church after chaotic week of false pet-eating claims
9/15/24 – Rosh Hashanah, the birthday of the universe, is coming. In anticipation, let’s consider a few things. One can listen to the Psalms sung in Latin or English. It’s lovely, but one wonders, how did this sound in the original Hebrew or Aramaic, or even in Syriac, which is also a Semitic language?
Shakespeare translated into another language is not the same as in the original English. Something is always lost in translation. (However, translation is still better than nothing.) If you’ve ever tried to memorize Shakespeare, it’s a lot easier to do so if you understand its melodic cadence. A word might have many synonyms (semantics/meaning), but it’s harder to find a synonym that sounds the same as the original word.
“Certainly the psalms were songs as well as poems, as the headings of many of them indicate. The religions that sprang from Judaism have all used music and chant as part of the experience of worship, and there is every reason to assume that this was influenced by the practice of the parent religion. Over the centuries, music that accompanies worship has been developed into a high art.” This is absolutely true. The church’s tradition of music comes from the Jewish tradition.
Sometimes, we say the Lord’s Prayer. Other times during the liturgical calendar, we sing it. It’s always powerful, and it’s pretty incredible how musical this simple but complete prayer can be. We sing it without any musical accompaniment. Somehow, we all know the tune. Saying the Lord’s prayer feels like praying. Singing it in unison feels more like an appeal to and a glorification of God.
Imagine you, little speck of a human being, are singing to our omnipotent, omnipresent God. “Where were you when I made the universe?” I didn’t exist, but now, my pathetic little offkey voice is singing to you, my God. We’re glorifying you, our God, through song. How incredible is that!
In the Jewish and Christian traditions, God speaks, and the universe is created, and in the Christian tradition, the Word was made flesh. Words have power, and as we approach Rosh Hashanah, let’s thank our Jewish sisters and brothers for showing us how to use words and song to express our feelings, such as our love for God and for each other.
Music and Jewish Prayer
9/15/24 – Dear Church, we aren’t one-dimensional people, and we don’t want to be one issue voters. God bless you. Happy Sunday!
9/14/24 – Assuming the Fed lowers the target interest rate (to mitigate the risk of recession), if Harris raises the federal minimum wage (which would put upward pressure on wages), and consumers save more and spend less (which would put downward pressure on prices), the economy might rebalance to a better place. Perhaps the administration could consider creating an index fund, managed by federal employees, to supplement Social Security. They could create some tax incentives to encourage using it to save for retirement. Instead of always thinking along the lines of tax cuts or even tax credits, we need to think in more creative and holistic ways.
9/14/24 – The American people deserve a second debate with Harris so that a certain person, the smartest person in the world, can show the world how superior he is – again. Make debates great again.
9/14/24 – If you’re not white and you’re a woman, you’re doubly stupid. If you’re a white man, by the superiority of your genes alone, you’re the smartest. If you’re orange, however, your orange genes make you the smartest, most superior person in the world.
The Real DEI Candidates
9/14/24 – The Harris Walz campaign needs to make Pennsylvania a priority. It needs to spend more there than a certain person’s campaign.
9/13/24 First, read this from a little over a month ago. 8/12/24 – We don’t want to indulge in it too much because we might jinx it. But we’re feeling too joyful to not indulge in it just a little bit. It’s just too good. Like when you eat one small bit of ice cream and then a little bit more, and then you stop.
Now, you get to watch two little clips, like when she baited him into the unhinged immigrants eating cats and dogs, “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country.” And then, you get to eat a little bit more ice cream (or cats and dogs if you’re an immigrant), “Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison. This is a radical left liberal that would do this.” But then, you must stop. You cannot – repeat cannot – eat the entire gallon of ice cream.
READ: Harris-Trump presidential debate transcript
9/11/24 – Let’s pray for the victims and the first responders of 9/11. We love and remember them all.
9/11/24 – A certain person quoted Mike Tyson, the domestic abuser, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” Well, Kamala Harris just shook a certain person’s hand: “Everybody has a plan until someone shakes their hand.” Was it obvious to others that she kept baiting him, and he kept falling for it? Then, there was her description of a certain person inviting the Taliban, a terrorist organization, to…wait for it…Camp David. Then, there was his own pride in being played by autocrats, such as Victor Orban and Kim Jong Un. His ego is so desperate for flattery that his brain lacks even the most basic self-awareness to realize that the quality of the flatterer matters more than the quality of the flattery. Yes, that’s some fine skills and temperament for negotiation. The emperor wears no clothes, and we pray that when his supporters get bored and leave his rallies early, they might look back one last time at that diminished figure, by age and by his own demons, and see him for who he really is: an insecure con man.
9/9/24 – If a politician can actually be honest with the American people and win elections, they are worth their salt. From Americans to fellow Americans, stop expecting the sun and the moon. This is the real world not a fictional dream (or is it nightmare) where a demagogue says everything you want to hear and makes you feel so so good, but it’s total bulls—t. The truth is that you can’t get everything because that’s simply not the way the world works, yes, even for Americans.
9/9/24 – Just as it was her call to choose her VP running mate, Harris needs to approach the debate as she feels comfortable. However, if we were, by some dream or is it nightmare, in her place, we would have moderately detailed policies that are open to the direct input of the American people. We would say that we are fighting to preserve our democracy and also trying to make it more responsive to the people. Therefore, we would like to actively solicit the direct input of the American people as we refine our positions.
What would they like us to do to make the economy work better for them? How would they like us to address inflation? Typically, inflation is managed by the central bank, and they feel that they have achieved a “soft landing,” meaning they have brought it down without triggering a recession, which is the theoretical tradeoff. The central bank feels pretty good about this. Would Americans rather have a recession but inflation come down further and faster?
Some have argued that Biden was too generous with the stimulus and that the extra money he sent Americans during the pandemic, when many Americans weren’t able to or allowed to work, caused inflation. Was he too generous, or was that the right approach given the tough situation?
Others have said that inflation was caused by supply chain disruptions. Whether or not one follows macroeconomic data, supply chain disruptions were (and still are to some degree) obvious. You could see gaps on store shelves that did not exist prior to the pandemic. What would Americans like us to do to reduce this? We ask because the supply chains we have now were created by free trade economists across the political spectrum who argued that this reduced the cost of goods for consumers? Should we make everything in the United States to potentially minimize supply shocks? We can do that (with considerable re-engineering of our economy) but most everything will cost more? Is this a tradeoff Americans are willing to make?
Economists like to say that there are always tradeoffs. It’s likely the only thing they consistently get right. There are always tradeoffs. So, let’s ask the American people: would they have rather gotten less financial support during the pandemic to avoid inflation later? Would they rather have risked their lives to continue working during the pandemic when there was no vaccine so that they wouldn’t have needed the extra stimulus? Would they like to have more autarky (economic independence) but generally more expensive goods and services? We believe that Americans have the right, as part of our extraordinary experiment in self-governance that we continue to perfect, to make these value judgments and have them reflected in our policies, but they should know one important thing as they do so – there is no free lunch in economics or in life. You always have to trade something off.
9/9/24 – To our fellow Christians who don’t like a certain person, remember that we are Christians first and foremost, even before being Americans, leave alone party, and we’re asking you to set aside differences on the highly sensitive matter of abortion for this particular election. We are also asking that you understand that on this issue, for as surprising as it might seem, we fundamentally agree. The sanctity of life is not in question. It is a central tenet that is nonnegotiable. What has always set Christians apart, from the very first practitioners of the faith, is our abiding love for life and our belief in the spark of the divine that every single human being possesses. The earliest Christians would save abandoned infants that were discarded in a society, the pagan Roman Empire, that was marked by ruthlessness and callousness toward human life.
Our differences are about how and to what degree we account for human sinfulness, fragility and the brokenness of our world. We do not agree on placing this burden entirely on women or indiscriminately overriding their God-given right to free will. However, this does not mean that our accommodations are limitless. They have limits, as they should, and those limits need to be reasonable for both parties, the innocent unborn and their pregnant mothers. We also agree on conservatives’ end-of-life positions to a considerable degree. We definitely agree on the immorality of assisted suicide for people with disabilities. It has been a consistent position of the faith that human beings are not disposable and are not to be discarded because they are or have become inconvenient. That is the position of people like a certain person, and we know that this is exactly the kind of person and attitude toward life that the earliest Christians rejected. Please do not mistake our willingness to make allowances for the human condition on this issue of abortion as an implicit or explicit compromise on the core value of the sanctity of life.
We are asking our fellow Christians of any and all political persuasions to understand these fundamental tenets are not in question and to vote for Harris Walz for this election with one goal: to save our democracy. Like Liz and Dick Cheney are doing, our fellow Christians would not be compromising anything about their position on abortion. They would be making a pragmatic decision that would save our nation. Many lives were sacrificed to liberate us from the British and to preserve our union. Please honor this sacrifice. Please do this for our ancestors and for our future.
After this election, Christians, across denominations, need to hold meetings to find common ground on abortion and related issues. We are well-suited to do this work, and it’s long overdue. It would help our nation heal and right the ship. If we, as Christians, who worship the same God, cannot model dialogue and constructive conflict resolution, what message are we sending the world about our faith? We tell the world that our faith is powerful and that it will transform them. We need to show this. We need to put our words into practice and use our faith for reconciliation.
Pro-life Voters Are Politically Homeless
9/8/24 – As a random and final Sunday observation: One of the odd things about taking communion in different parts of Europe is that the communion line can be chaos, with everyone basically rushing up toward the front of the church. In the United States, people are extremely respectful, calm and orderly. Two sets of pews merge into one line, or each side of the pew or pew gets its own line. In the Lutheran churches, you go up to and kneel at the altar. People wait patiently for the elderly, parents with young kids and the disabled. Nobody is ever pushy. We are in the Lord’s house, after all.
9/8/24 – Having said all of this, spending time by oneself is necessary and a form of self-care. Different people will have varying needs. One of the main problems with being in others’ company is that one has to process their words, needs, etc., and there ends up being a lot of words and emotions everywhere. It can feel like a lot. It’s helpful to consider the religious communities. They are obviously communal, yet they also spend a lot of time in quiet, solitary prayer. Finding some combination of these ways of being: alone in prayer, nature, reading, or simply silence, with community or companionship “in passing,” and with established community that is consistent and recurring, such as friends, family, neighbors and our religious communities, would likely be ideal.
9/8/24 – Both of these articles helped me remember a moment in my life that I still find remarkable. It was many years ago, and I was fairly young. I was living in Paris. It was lunch time, and I was hungry. I popped into a pleasant-looking and very typical Parisian restaurant that was catering to the lunch crowd. The restaurant was almost full, and I was seated at a small table for two. A few minutes later, the hostess asked me if I would be OK with a gentleman joining me. I said that’s fine. It didn’t take long before I realized this was not an uncommon occurrence, and there were expectations regarding La Politesse. You share the bread being the most important. It was Paris, after all. He made a gesture for me to take it first at what was my table and being a lady, which I found rather charming. You offer polite gestures and greetings but not lengthy conversation. You are simultaneously eating alone yet with company. It was civilized, orderly companionship in passing.
Party of one: Restaurants are catering to a growing number of solo diners
9/8/24 – Pretty certain most of us are guilty of this. It seems accurate to say that we are so much more tired than we used to be, and it’s hard to diagnose the reason(s). Many of us don’t even have as many demands as previous generations that had bigger families, and we have so many more conveniences. As an educated guess, it might be that as our societies became more individualistic, we also became more exhausted, which can easily become a vicious cycle leading to us spending less time together in person. Technology and the ever-increasing expectations regarding our professional lives, credentials, etc., might also be factors. In any case, finding ways to break out of this cycle would be good for all of us.
When Life Feels Too Busy for Friendship
9/8/24 – It’s all very tiring. Go to church. Take a break from the rest. Jesus loves you.
9/8/24 – Is Pennsylvania going to hold?
9/8/24 – Democrats would be wise to be careful with abortion. They have support among liberal Christians, but it’s not the secular, we can do anything we want with our bodies kind. It’s accommodative, not an unrestrained right, and it’s more European in law, for as surprising as that might be for the American left.
9/5/24 – David Brooks has an article, “The Junkification of American Life,” that’s also worth reading (and happens to be related to Bai’s critique). Bad habits are easier to not develop than to break. Good habits are harder to develop than to break. The entire key to living a wholesome, productive, healthy life is to try to get yourself on and stay on a virtuous cycle. Then, continuing good habits and avoiding bad habits won’t feel hard. It will feel natural, even routine.
Brooks said that once one tastes good wine, one won’t want to drink Kool-Aid. Not if one has already damaged their palate. When you do drugs, smoke, eat bad food, consume bad things in general, you’re damaging your sensibilities, your body, mind and soul, whether or not you (fully) realize it.
If you’re having a hard time exercising adequate discipline to break yourself of these bad habits, start with simple things: make your bed every day, brush your teeth twice a day, keep your bedroom clean, put your phone away at work, go to your place of worship every week. Choose something small that you could improve, and start there. The goal is to do it consistently until it becomes a routine. Then choose something a little harder. Keep repeating this process.
RE Brooks’s passing comment on ambition, see below.
8/24/23 – “Here’s the question we all need to ask ourselves:… what do I love when I long for achievement?… What do I want when I want accomplishment? What am I looking for in this aspiration?” Recently, we discussed suffering in the context of Job’s life. (See below.) Here, we discuss success in the context of Augustine’s life. One can suffer not just from deprivation, pain, loss, or other negative experiences, but we can also suffer in the midst of our success. Are we going to blame God for this too? What aren’t we going to blame God for? A well-ordered, well-directed love provides protection from the brutal onslaught of the world and the whims of fortune and provides protection from our own egos. The one we’re made for is the one who made us, and it’s only by directing our ambition to glorifying and pleasing him that we can find rest. “Be our glory, let it be for your sake that we are loved.”
PS The audio isn’t the best.
Reforming our Ambition: James K.A Smith
9/5/24 – Matt Bai has an article in The Washington Post, “I understand Trump voters. Do I also have to empathize with them?” which is in part a response to Kristof’s article, which was in The New York Times. (These are worthwhile debates to have.) As is often the case, the Gospel is a good guide for difficult questions or situations. If liberals and others, patriotic Americans, feel anger, even rage at some points, toward a certain person, that’s entirely understandable. It’s also understandable to feel hurt, anger, frustration, and so on toward his supporters without whom he would have disappeared a long time ago. The problem is that giving voice to it doesn’t help the situation, or anything really, even oneself in the long term.
As Bai described, it is true that there are those who would have their dog run over to extend tax cuts, which was a rather clever and accurate description, and there are other deplorables, yes, deplorables, such as the white supremacists who also support a certain person. (Then, there is Elon Musk who is somehow managing to carve out a special spot in the pantheon of despicable autocrats, wannabes and their enablers, by vying to “outwit” the Hitler variety, who was in fact elected, by aiming to have control over the American government, and therefore, the American people, not by election in our democracy but by buying his way to power by supporting a certain demagogue, financially and by spreading his propaganda. Has anyone noticed that both of these people also have no idea what it means to be a good man or a family man? Coincidence? No.)
The most famous example of anger in the Gospel is when Jesus overturns the money changers’ tables in the Temple. What was his intention? To purify the Temple. He clearly chose not to take a diplomatic approach or to try to persuade people but to do so by force and with angry rebuke. Then, there are the numerous examples of Jesus trying to persuade people to follow him. He never uses anger in these cases.
The question is: what is the purpose, and what approach serves that purpose? If the purpose is to persuade voters, anger is not the way to go. It’s love and compassion. If the purpose to rid the country of the scourge of slavery, purification at any costs is the way to go. Word to the wise: we have one mutual goal – keep a certain person out of the White House. It should be ample motivation to keep you on your best behavior. Keep your eyes on the prize, your tongue in check, and listen with the ear of your heart because it will win more votes, and it’s also the right thing to do.
PS The circle example below was in response to Kristof’s piece. Feel free to practice it to get yourself in a place to do this hard work of healing our nation.
9/2/24 – Today, let’s also remember and honor the millions of people throughout the work who work without compensation, sometimes in generational debt bondage, basically slavery. They deserve to be liberated, to have dignified work and to bear the fruits of their labor. They, like all people, have rights, especially the right to be free.
IJM
9/2/24 – On this Labor Day, let’s remember that our two-day weekend was brought to us by unions and the Jewish people, the ones who taught the world the value of respecting rest as a divine mandate, a day for God. In the Catholic tradition, ora et labora.
Shabbat as Social Reform
9/1/24 – Belated Shabbat Shalom to our Jewish friends. Every Sunday, Christians’ Shabbat (Sabbath), we thank our Jewish brothers and sisters, without whom we would not have our beautiful religion. We want them to know that they gave us everything, and we are forever grateful to them. Our hearts break for the victims of Hamas’s terrorism and their grieving families. We hear, see and feel your frustration with Netanyahu’s terrible leadership. We understand the ramifications this has had on the Jewish people and the Palestinian people, who are suffering unnecessarily. May the God of Abraham help us find peace and unity.
9/1/24 – We are strongly opposed to any form of religious oppression, discrimination or persecution, and we are strong advocates for religious freedom. Usha Vance is Hindu, as is her right, and this personal choice needs to be respected. Hindus and Hinduism deserve to be treated with kindness and respect, as do people who practice any other faith or no faith.
India has always been a religiously pluralistic country. Before Hinduism arrived and became India’s majority religion, people practiced various forms of spirituality that basically worshipped nature and the creator (some still do), similar to our indigenous brothers and sisters in the United States. Christians and other religious minorities, especially Muslims, have been persecuted in India, particularly after the BJP inflamed religious intolerance.
For Indians, Kerala state has historically had a proud tradition of religious tolerance. Lean on them to revive Gandhi’s India. For Americans, remember our country was founded on religious tolerance, and when you treat religious minorities disrespectfully, it negatively impacts Christian minorities in other parts of the world.
In any and all cases, religious bigotry is unacceptable and not in keeping with Christ’s teachings. As Christians, we are called to be the hands and feet of Christ. We are asked to follow him. As Catholics, we are to be in communion with Christ. He is to live within us. Jesus never persecuted anyone. He was persecuted. Walk humbly with the Lord. Let the Holy Spirit guide your mind, heart and soul.
9/1/24 – Jesus said that we should love our enemies. The persecuted church practices this better than any other Christians in the world. In the face of brutal discrimination and persecution, they extend their persecutors grace. To our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ, we love you, and we pray for you all the time. You are always in our hearts.
Barnabas Aid
Global Christian Relief
The Voice of the Martyrs
