Because the diverse parts of human nature need to be nourished in different ways.
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An Important Service Announcement: I Am The New Prophet Of Professional Football And Everything Else.
The false prophet Tim Tebow has fallen from grace, but fear not, for I have received a sign from the heavens that I am the true apple of god’s cosmic eye. You rightly demand proof, and here it is: Behold the photograph below, which shows a black feather that miraculously appeared in my front yard this morning. It is obviously from a raven, and so here is the bold prophecy on which I stake my claim to divine favor: The Baltimore Ravens will win Super Bowl XLVI. After the Ravens prevail, I will immediately devote myself to the serious business of becoming an American religious celebrity by establishing a non-profit corporation with its own non-accredited university, setting up a tithing schedule (you will all be sending me 20% of your earnings – and that’s gross earnings, my slavish devotees, not net), being a color commentator on ESPN, marketing sacred artifacts (holy feather dusters, Black Bird of Happiness ceramic figurines, Poe Boy sandwiches, etc.), and promoting my new book on radio and television talk shows – “In Tim We Trust – Nevermore!”
Born 15 January 1929 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., American religious leader and civil rights activist.
Given the frequently benighted state of religion and politics in America today, one quote from Dr. King should be better known: “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
Dr. King’s birthday would be a decidedly appropriate occasion on which to ponder the arbitrary and ultimately artificial character of many of the boundaries people and nations spend so much time building and defending. For example, Dr. King was inspired by Gandhi, who was in turn inspired by Thoreau, who at least partly derived his notion of passive resistance from the doctrine of “ahimsa,” or non-violence, that he encountered in his investigation of Buddhist teachings.
My point is that in every moment of our lives we are surrounded by thought lines, the convergence of which find expression in our ideas and actions, even if we are often unconscious of their existence and origins. However, the more we come to understand that we and our society are the products of multiple cultural and historical influences interacting in countless but generally unsuspected ways, the greater becomes the likelihood we will evolve into more tolerant and compassionate beings and thereby move closer to realizing Dr. King’s magnificent dream of universal justice.
Pagan Patriots – 45 Biblical Broncos – 10
Since so many evangelicals have insisted on viewing Tim Tebow as an actor in a cosmic morality play and the Dark Side has prevailed, I hope that they will now have enough integrity (doubtful) to join me in becoming a devoted servant of Bill Beelzebubichick. On behalf of all intelligent, well-educated, superstition-free Americans – I thank you, New England.
Born 12 January 1876 – Jack London, American author, journalist, and social activist. I concede that there is some merit in the criticism that London was not especially adept at handling long narratives, such as the novel, but in his masterpiece, “The Call of the Wild,” he achieves a poetic grandeur that transcends the strictures of aesthetic form. There is something unabashedly primordial in the book’s stark appeal, something shadowy but also strangely familiar in its story, something that whispers to us from outside the sheltering walls of our increasingly virtual lives, reminding us of important matters that we have almost but not quite forgotten. I urge you to attend to that gently insistent call, as it addresses the reader in the Epigraph at the beginning of the novel:
“Old longings nomadic leap,
Chafing at custom’s chain;
Again from its brumal sleep
Wakens the ferine strain.”
And then read on, heading out with Buck into the vast uncharted heart of the world, which is the landscape of all true adventures.
Born 12 January 1729 – Edmund Burke, Irish statesman, orator, political theorist, and philosopher. Though the noun “conservative” in American political usage has generally become synonymous with “religious zealot,” “ideological extremist,” and “corporate shill,” Edmund Burke was the genuine article. Throughout his career, he consistently defended traditional social norms but also recognized that creative change is necessary to preserve the political, intellectual, spiritual, ethical, and economic health of both individuals and nations. For example, though steadfastly loyal to British cultural values, Burke supported the cause of American Revolutionaries. I wonder how many self-styled conservatives among the current crop of Republican Presidential candidates have even heard of Edmund Burke, let alone read his work (presuming that all of them can and do read).
As readers ponder the quotations from Edmund Burke posted below, I ask them to consider which ones would delight Tea Party partisans and which ones would appall them – and why. What, then, do these candidates and their respective supporters mean by their frequently stated claim that they, and they alone, are the “true” conservatives?
“All that’s necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.”
“A State without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.”
“But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever.”
“Custom reconciles us to everything.”
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If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.”
“Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing.”
“Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy.”
“Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement.”
“The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.”
“Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety.”
“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”
“To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.”
”It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.”
“When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.”
Edmund Burke - Conservative
I don’t know why so many political pundits keep puzzling over the question of what’s wrong with Mitt Romney, when answer is obvious: Like most American men who have devoted themselves to becoming rich at the expense of their humanity, Mitt Romney has no soul.
(For my definition of what constitutes “soul,” click on the “About” tab, above.)
Died 8 January 1642 – Galileo Galilei, Italian scientist and astronomer: “It is surely harmful to souls to make it a heresy to believe what is proved.”
If theocratic Creationists get their vile political way in America, scientifically-determined facts will once again be “heresy.” Interestingly, “heresy” comes from a Greek root meaning “to choose” or “choice,” and choice is exactly what most religious authorities deny their cowed underlings. As a wise man said, “Philosophy gives us questions we cannot answer; religion gives us answers we cannot question.”
Born 8 January 1981 – Graham Chapman, English comedian and actor, best known for his performances with Monty Python’s Flying Circus: “We don’t deliberately set out to offend. Unless we feel it’s justified. And in the case of certain well-known religions, it was justified.”
Offense to the offensive, I say.
Born 8 January 1979 – Sarah Polley, Canadian actress, who, commenting on the most important difference between “The Passion of the Christ” and “Dawn of the Dead” (in which she starred), said: “They’ve got only one guy who comes back from the dead. We’ve got millions.”
This seems to me to be a conclusive argument for the religious superiority of Zombie-ism. Below – High Priestess Sarah:
Something for Americans to think about during an important election year:
“But if the young are never tired of erring in conduct, neither are the older in erring of judgment.” – Fanny Burney, English writer who died on 6 January 1840
“Half the work that is done in this world is to make things appear what they are not.” – Elias Root Beadle, American minister who died on 6 January 1879
“It has always seemed strange to me… the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.” John Steinbeck
When I was a young man living in New Jersey, I would often take the bus across the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan, in order to ride the subway downtown to the bookstores, art galleries, and coffee shops of Greenwich Village. One evening the Port Authority Police stopped the bus on which I was traveling, because a blizzard had temporarily closed the bridge. Rather than return home, I decided to walk across the bridge, and it was a memorable experience: I was quickly enveloped in the deep quiet that attends a serious snow fall, and the lights of the great city were barely visible in the spindrift. I could not even see the wide Hudson coursing seaward just below me, and places long familiar had become strange. The storm suddenly increased in intensity, and for a brief moment I feared losing my way, and so I kept my hand steady on the rail as I walked steadily forward into what seemed the very heart of winter.
The photograph below reminds me of that occasion, and I hope that it both delights everyone with its haunting beauty and perhaps causes a few people to recollect some equally memorable time and place in a now-distant winter of their own.
