The Flatland Almanack

Richard Dawkins on the Limits of Human Perception

THE MARGINAL CHRISTIAN'S HANDBOOK.    So strange to find  biologist Richard Dawkins, a fairly insistent atheist,  making the same arguments I use to prove that there's a window somewhere in there for the inexplicable, including God and other spiritual phenomena....  I need to listen to this tape again, but of course Dawkins is always worth reading and listening to, even when you don't necessarily see eye to eye with him. More here.....

Blogcombing: "What Have the Faithful Done?"

THE MARGINAL CHRISTIAN'S HANDBOOK.  A lovely blog post from a lovely blog answers this question in a way that helps even institution-mistrusting marginal types like me see grounds for hope.  Read more here....

Religion in the US: The Gallup Poll

MARGINAL CHRISTIAN.  The results of this poll won't exactly startle anyone who is from my part of the country.  In fact, perhaps they wouldn't startle anyone.  But my new page banner's worth a look!

Torture is a Religious Issue---Make Your Voice Heard

THE MARGINAL CHRISTIAN'S HANDBOOK. I always imagined, as a matter of common sense, that Jesus would feel rather strongly about torture.  After all, he experienced it himself.  Curiously, many right-wingers who claim to be among Jesus's sunbeams don't see any application for "Do unto others" when it comes to people they're (rightly, of course) afraid of. 

If you're a person of faith (any faith) who opposes torture, you'll want to read this post. 

A Liberal Christian Considers the Ways in Which The Christian "Right" Turns Out Not to Be

THE MARGINAL CHRISTIAN'S HANDBOOK.  Quite possibly they mean well.  But of course meaning well never counted that much for Jesus. 

What got me thinking on the subject was an article in The Telegraph which somewhat miscast remarks made by the Archbishop of Canterbury in an interview/debate with Ricky Gervais and which seems to have (predictably) stirred up conservatives.  He didn't say what some of them said he said, as anyone who listens can clearly attest.  But the whole tempest in a thimble illustrated the reactiveness of the far/far right and the tragic lack of discrimination between one thing and another.  You can read it for yourself here. 

In addition, I found via a blog I usually read a link to a WaPo article on Christian hardliners which compares them to the KKK.  While I don't approve of the comparison---it's so inflammatory that the very valid points Meyerson scores are apt to get lost in the outrage---Meyerson undoubtedly makes some good points.  That and much else is dealt with here.

The Marginal Christian's Handbook for 4 April 2007. Why every Christian should read the Gospel of Judas (Reflections on the Interview with Elaine Pagels at Salon.)

I was so excited to see the Pagels interview in Salon. I love her books.  She's an amazingly accessible writer and  I'm fascinated by the lost Gospels.

If you're a contemporary Christian aren't you hungry for any glimpse of  Christ that history can afford you?  As a small-c christian, I know I am.   

And before you discount this Gospel, read good old John's account of the last supper again.  So much that isn't apparent about Christ (or how the author of that Gospel saw him) if you only read it the way someone else tells you to read it becomes clear if you just take a step back.  And certain aspects of this lost gospel are, in their way, curiously consistent (or so it seemed to me).   After all, John was always an outlier, with a strong gnostic tinge. 

But first, read Pagels to give you a perspective.  And before you read Pagels, read more here.
 

The Marginal Christian's Handbook for 17 March 2007. Can I Hear You Say Hallelujah? Evangelicals Step Up.

  So.  Prayer sometimes does work:  such as the prayer that Christians on the right will give some thought to their larger societal responsibilities as Christians.  Will common sense prevail?

JUMP TO THE MARGINAL CHRISTIAN'S HANDBOOK. 

The Marginal Christian's Handbook for 18 February 2007. Sara Miles at Salon.com: When Christ-consciousness gets a hook in you, the tug hurts like hell.

If you think religious conversion is just a matter of having God tap you on the shoulder and say, "You," think again. 

There are social as well as spiritual consequences.  If your milieu consists of people who do not already share your views, your friends are not going to understand you.

Here's an excellent article by Sara Miles in "The Marginal Christian's Handbook" on the pains and perils of becoming a Christian if you have a lot of intelligent, progressive friends. 

To read it, JUMP TO TO "THE MARGINAL CHRISTIAN'S HANDBOOK."

The Flatland Chronicles for 14 January 2007. Ann Lamott's Plan B & Oprah's Demonstration of True Charity.

After finally taking a friend's advice and reading Ann Lamott's Plan B:  Further Thoughts on Faith,  I thought at first I'd write about it immediately, because it was that good.  Then I thought I'd better think about it a bit more first.  So I'm thinking about it.

In the meantime, I had some meta-thoughts about books I've read over the years that have actually changed how I perceive reality (this being one of them).  I also reflected on how such changes come about.  I'll come back to Plan B and what, specifically, those changes were, but in the meantime, there's a partial reading list of novels (not nonfiction) that have had a major influence on how I view the world and some thoughts etc.  Anyway.

IN ADDITION, because I associate Ann Lamott with Oprah and also with Salon, a comment on Rebecca Traister's article in Salon about the recent flap over Oprah's school for girls in South Africa and what it means.  Traister think it means one thing---and she isn't wrong---but I think it means something else, perhaps in addition to that rather than alternatively to it. 

The lesson is an important one because it has to do with a piece of Christianity too many people seem to miss:  the requirement that a charitable act also be a graceful and generous one.  According to me, there's little charity in giving to the poor only what you think they ought to be grateful to get.   In this age when people who purport to practice christianity view the injunction to "love your neighbor as yourself" as just food for thought, like advice from Dr. Phil, it's gratifying to see someone do the work of love gracefully as well as graciously. Who cares if she can't tell the difference between "beauty" and "high quality consumer goods." 

Despite what you've heard, it isn't the thought that counts, but the feeling behind it.

To read more, jump now to The Flatland Chronicles for January 14.

The Marginal Christian's Handbook (the blog formerly known as "The Heretic's Handbook") for 9 January 2007. My New Year's Resolution Discerned!

As a marginal Christian, I usually steer clear of any discussion of sin or Sin.  It isn't the bright, clean, 21st Century thing to do particularly for a leftward tilting God-botherer like me. 

I got onto the subject of sloth and Sloth via a tragic event in the life of a young friend of mind who is renowned for her laziness.  She was lazy in high school, and ended up dropping out; lazy in her personal habits, and ended up getting kicked out of her mother's house; lazy in her sense of her practical responsibility, and ended up getting evicted three times and losing her house the fourth; and lazy with respect to bringing up her children, and therefore lost custody of them to her husband's relatives). 

I've done what I can to help, of course, but giving money to someone who won't work for herself (especially if you don't have much to start with) can only be a temporary solution.  I don't know what will happen to this child (now an adult); but I hope that the most recent development will stimulate her to get off her ass (mentally, physically, and spiritually).  For one thing, I can only assume she'll be much happier in that case.

It was while reflecting with  sadness, frustration, exasperation, love, and disgust that I realized that one reason her slothfulness makes me so ANGRY is that sloth is also my besetting sin.  It doesn't manifest itself in the same way----no one would call me lazy; I work 15 hour days and do many other things as well----but it's there all the same.  In me, it comes out as a sort of sluggishness of the spirit.  I don't put any energy into enjoying life or in interesting myself in everything that I could be interested in.  Nothing seems worth doing that I don't have to do.   

Seeing this about myself has energized me to the extent of causing me to make a resolution to fight it.  Working for years as a Crisis Counselor, you'd think I'd have learned sufficiently about the soul deadening effects of depression to recognize it as the 21st Century's Apollyon.  More Americans live drifting, aimless, ineffectual, unsatisfying lives because they assent to depression, after all, than will  ever be victims of a terrorist attack. 

When you see someone in that state, you instinctively know what to tell them, which is this:  don't give in.  Do something ELSE.  I am going to try very hard in the year 2007 to overcome my own tendency to be overtaken by apathy, boredom, depression, and the whole constellation of unpleasant consequences of avoiding the obligation to be interested in life.  My new mantra?  "I don't feel like doing this, but I'm going to enjoy it ANYWAY."  Well, we'll see how it goes.

TO READ MORE, JUMP TO "THE MARGINAL CHRISTIAN'S HANDBOOK," HERE.