The Invisible Man

My children and I have just finished listening listening to The Invisible Man by Jules Verne on our car rides around town. The kids loved it and it's funny to listen to my 4-year-old playing "invisible man". While listening to it, I was struck with how close it was to the philosophical idea of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. The whole idea of the "super-man" pervaded both stories. I have to admit, I enjoyed The Invisible Man more, probably because he was so evil all the way through. It was an exciting story, almost a mystery, and the main character gets his comeuppance. Raskonikov in Crime and Punishment was convinced of his superiority until he commits a crime, but unfortunately for him, has some decency and ends up spending the rest of the book whining about his situation and ends up bringing a lovely, but very dysfunctional girl down with him.

Awesome Soup

First put a whole cut-up chicken in the crock pot and cover liberally with BBQ sauce. Cook all day and enjoy the chicken for a few days. Save the liquid.

The next time you need to make a dinner, combine in the crock pot:
the saved liquid from cooking the chicken
any chicken you have left over
1 can of black beans
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of corn (or a 10 oz. bag of frozen corn)
1 chopped onion
1 chopped bell pepper, any color
1 20-oz can of enchilada sauce
1 can condensed mushroom soup
1 handful dried mushrooms, broken up
1/2 cup pearled barley
diced potatoes (until the pot is full)
Add water or milk to cover if needed

Cook all day and right before you eat it, add:
1 cup shredded cheddar
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack

Serve with shredded cheese and a dollop of sour cream

What does this mean?

Luke 9:49-50 "John answered, ' Master, we saw someone using your name to force demons out of people. We told him to stop because he does not belong our group.' Jesus said to him, 'Don't stop him. If a person is not against you, then he is for you."

What is the criteria for "not against you"? The man was using Jesus name, but wasn't a disciple apparently. Does that expand the definition of who follows Christ? Is heresy a smaller group than most people believe? Does it have to do with the heart? How do we apply this verse to our lives today?

And what's up with the parable of the unscrupulous steward? Luke 16:1-8

This American Life

Our pastor friend, Jim Henderson, is on This American Life this weekend about Christian Bait-and-switch techniques.

Whose spot is it?

When Brad is gone on a business trip, I let my 4-year-old crawl into bed with me when monsters invade his room in the middle of the night. A few weeks ago, Brad got home late from a trip and was awakened at 3 a.m. with a gentle prodding and a sweet voice saying, "Daddy, you're in my spot."

Overheard during a Bible lesson

Oh, the joys of homeschooling. We were doing a Bible lesson on Joseph and his brothers in Egypt. I was telling the story:

The brothers came to Joseph's house and still didn't know who he was. The servant came out and said, "L! Stop grabbing A's nose!"

Following Blindly

Yesterday, Brad and I drove down to the Puyallup Fair in separate cars. Brad was going to take A to the Toby Mac concert in the evening and I was going to bring L home. I was following Brad, not because I didn't know how to get there, but because we were going to park together. Anyway, he went a different way than we had gone before and I didn't know why, but I just followed along. I figured that he had a reason and I trust him. I have a track record with Brad to know that when we're driving, his ways tend to be the best ways. I was following blindly, but not stupidly.

I think it's a lot the same with God. When things turn out differently than I had planned, I need to remember that God's ways are the best ways. I can follow blindly, because I have a track record with Him that I can look back on and see that I like where he's taken me, even when it wasn't the way I would've gone. I can follow blindly and it's not a stupid thing for me to do.

Small Groups

Our pastor is going to be pushing small groups in the next few weeks. I think small groups are really great, but they haven't worked for Brad and I since before we were married.

Back when we were newly married and before kids, we were with a group of other couples in the same era of life and a charismatic leader. We grew so much, personally and as a group. After we had kids and our leader moved away, we haven't been able to connect with a group since.

We have 2 main problems with small groups. The first is: we tend to be the most committed members of the group. We always give the group our priority time, scheduling our lives so we don't miss it. Only sickness keeps up away. There have been times when we've showed up for our small group to have even the hosts gone and no one told us. It's so frustrating to feel like we're the only ones who are serious about it.

Our second problem is that we take spiritual growth seriously. We always read and discuss the book or whatever before the group. We are growing spiritually on our own outside the group. When we try to go deeper or more philosophical, the other members of the group want to stay on surface issues. We have been shut down more times than I care to remember because we were straying from the "standard Christian response" and trying to actually explore something from all sides. We feel like we don't belong and that the others don't really want us there. So...we stopped going after trying several different groups for several months each at our church.

We've started our own group outside our church with 2 other like-minded and serious students of the Bible. It's an awfully small group, but at least everyone else is committed to it too. It's at our house and we have a potluck dinner. We meet 2 times a month to accommodate everyone's busy schedules. I would love to be a part of a larger group. I feel sad and jealous when someone gives a testimonial in front of the church about how close they are to everyone else in their small group and how accepted they feel. They talk about how they've been helped financially or emotionally or practically (providing meals or babysitting through sickness). Our little group does some of that for each other, but with only 4 people (3 families), it's not as do-able.

I want a small group. I want the closeness that other people talk about with other Christians. I want people to talk about my faith with that won't dismiss me for being too liberal or conservative or deep. (Most of the time when I'm around other Christians, I've learned to keep my mouth shut because the discussions become too vitriolic when you're not a "yes-man".) I've always been an introvert with only 1 or 2 good friends at a time, so I don't expect 20 best friends, but it would be nice to know I could count on a couple of other families in an emergency, but I just can't.

VBS

I seem to have the need to volunteer for VBS once every few years to remind myself why I stopped volunteering for it. So, I'm sitting here on Friday afternoon a few hours before my last VBS session and suffering a bad headache, upset stomach, and exhaustion, all due to VBS. The stress of it has even caused my 2-3 times a week nightmare of plumbing flooding to be every night. I regret to say that I always emerge from VBS week much less Christ-like than I go into it. I don't know if I should just accept that while I do OK performing at VBS, it is very unhealthy for me and my family (because of me) or if I should feel bad that I'm not letting the Spirit fully inhabit me. Either way I feel guilty and incompetent. Knowing that I won't be volunteering for any children's ministry anytime soon, I already have the phrases that have been thrown at me in the past circling my head: "You're not a team player." "Other people sacrifice to do this too." "Just pray more."

I know that other people have been having a good week, at least it looks like it on their Facebook pages. I don't have many kids in my "crew" (only 3) and they're all really nice kids. I just can't do the noise, energy and late night. Today the kids and I have spent the day all in separate rooms: L watching TV, A listening to books on tape, and me napping and trying to do a few necessary chores. Tonite I'm driving down to Olympia for a swim meet tomorrow morning.

I'm sick

Both Brad and I have been very sick for the last 2 days with fevers upward of 102F and nasty coughs. So far both kids are OK and have been enjoying lots of TV and X-Box. Our 9-year-old has been taking wonderful care of us and her little brother. We're much better today, but still coughing and pretty wiped out. While sick I began thinking about what romance really is, as my sick, achy husband would get out of bed to get me a drink or to take my temperature or take turns with me on the couch so that there would be an adult presence downstairs. Here's somewhat I'm thinking of.

Romance ISN'T (at least not much):
kissing a beautiful Sleeping Beauty.
Putting a glass slipper on a delicate foot.
Killing a dragon.

Romance IS:
kissing a fevered forehead while bringing a drink and medicine
taking care of the kids even when not well himself
fixing the bathroom wallboard
plunging the toilet
unclogging the drains
uncomplainingly putting in earplugs when the wife's snores shake the neighborhood
watching "chick flicks" with no disparaging comments
cleaning up the kitchen while your wife puts the kids to bed so she can have more time on the couch in the evening
folding the clothes that just came out of the dryer

If you have any other things to add, please comment.

Heaven

So now some totally theoretical questions. Our pastor preached a sermon a few weeks ago about heaven. I've been bothered by it ever since, but not about anything new that he said. I've just been looking at things in a new way.

One of the points was that we're more than the physical and that some part of us will survive past death. I've never doubted that, nor do I now, but I am bothered by what survives. As someone who has suffered from depression and can easily see how brain chemicals affect every part of me, I have to wonder what kind of "person" will I be without physical brain chemicals. If many of my attitudes and behaviors are dependent on exercise or caffeine or diet or drugs (I'm no longer on Paxil, but I took it for several years), is there any part of my soul that would actually be recognizeable to me?

Panic Attacks

I think that everyone who reads this got my Christmas letter and heard about all our plumbing difficulties over the last year. So as follow-up to that, several weeks ago the toilet downstairs got plugged up two days in a row and the first day I had a panic attack: I couldn't breathe, my head was spinning, and I almost passed out. The second day, I concentrated on breathing and did better. I also called a plumber who told me that there was probably just too much toilet paper from an especially messy BM from my 3-year-old (both days).

Anyway, having a panic attack is neither useful nor helpful in maintaining sanity and equilibrium, so I called a doctor and made an appointment. She asked if I wanted drugs for anxiety (I've previously had depression, but I haven't needed Paxil for more than 4 years now) and I declined since I don't really feel depressed, just having panic attacks that are located always in connection with the downstairs bathroom. Anyway, I see a counselor starting on Tuesday to see if I can deal with this...after all, I need to be able to do laundry and flush the toilet.

Last night I had a panic attack start just going into the bathroom. The toilet wasn't running, the washer was off; but I still felt dizzy and couldn't breathe. I don't think the dizziness is related to the lack of breathing, because it is immediate and feels like my head clenches off all the blood supply like a fist clenching. I'm still having occasional nightmares of flooding. I can't bring myself to do laundry except when Brad is home. (This has been difficult the last week since he's been working late at a conference every night, and it will be repeated this week.) Added to that, I try to wait 3-4 hours between loads so that if there is any blockage, there will be a lot of time for drainage. Who would've thought I'd get PTSD from my plumbing?

God playing favorites

I've been thinking a lot lately. Our favorite local news station has a website: komotv.com and they've started allowing comments on the stories. There was a story in the last week about a guy who was in a plane crash that survived with minor burns while the other 6 people on the plane were killed. He said something to the effect that while he wasn't religious, that God was with him. The comments were filled with people either cursing God for playing favorites and KOMO's insensitivity for making a story of the miraculous survival of this man or well-meaning religious people with scriptures who were being insensitive, but probably not meaning to.

I didn't contribute, but I couldn't help but think that no one that I read got it right. (I didn't read all the comments because I was getting upset by it all.) I also heard an interview with a man who wrote a book about FDR's first 100 days in presidential office, and he made the comment that FDR had been a cocky, disconnected rich guy up until the point that he got polio and was paralyzed for life. He realized through his suffering the suffering of others and gained empathy that guided him the rest of his life.

How are these two thoughts linked? I don't know about God playing favorites and sparing one person while dooming another, but it seems that we can let bad things make us better people. The guy who survived the plane crash may have something ahead of him that this is uniquely preparing for. Likewise, the family and friends of those killed may be able to look back on this sad event, not as a good thing ever, but as a turning point in their lives that puts them on a new and better path. I know of many stories where evil or pain has been important to a person's life story.

Another thing I've been thinking is that every person on earth will be exposed to tragedy; either through evil or disease, and always through death. We cannot escape it with anyone in our lives: parents, spouses, children, friends, or ourselves. God does not spare anyone. (OK, OK, there was Enoch and Elijah, but we don't know what else they experienced that wasn't recorded.) I believe that sometimes God can extend our lives for some reason, but I don't think it's ever for our own benefit, but for his own glory. Even Christ's miracles were "signs so that you may believe". There were many people whom Christ did not heal. He was known to leave towns where the crowds of sick people became too thick for him to be able to preach. God loves us and helps us, but we aren't the center of His universe.

The Wordy Shipmates

I recently read The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell. She’s a contributor to NPR’s “This American Life”. To preface with her point of view, she’s a part Cherokee Okie who lives in and loves New York City. She was raised Pentacostal, going to church every time the door opened but has since become Atheist, although she appears to have great regard for Christ and the New Testament. She’s very liberal and loves history.

So The Wordy Shipmates is about the Puritans who came to North America after the Pilgrims. They were led by John Winthrop and landed north of Plymouth and started Boston. The book is a rambling through the first 30 years or so of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, lingering on such characters as Roger Williams, who thought that any lands wanted should be paid for and that the Indians were fellow men, to Anne Hutchinson, who **gasp** started preaching on how a person can be indwelt with the Holy Spirit and that works do not signify salvation. (Both were banished from the colony.) There is also evidence of Winthrop’s tolerance (not sending another banished person out into the wilderness in the dead of winter: “He did not receive a death sentence.”) and intolerance (rejoicing in the wholesale massacre of the Pequot tribe by burning them all, men, women, and children in their palisade despite the pleadings of other tribes, who happened to be enemies of the Pequots, to spare the women and children). The scene is so horrific that the tribes who had been allied with the English against the Pequot switch alliances. The English guessed that 600-700 Indians were destroyed.

This book has really made me think lately about my own faith. Here were the Puritan people, who were much more dedicated to Godliness and being pure than I, yet they do these horrific things believing that God helped them in it. I do realize that I am looking at them through the lens of 400 years in the future. Did they get it wrong? Were they in the right? If I truly believe that the Holy Spirit leads us into all truth, and that all who sincerely seek Jesus Christ and His truth will receive it, then how can I reconcile it to what evil has been done in His Name by those who are sincerely seeking him. If people like Winthrop, who from his writings and correspondences seemed to really be trying to live a Godly life can condone and rejoice in such evil; if he can know his Scriptures better than I and commit such a hateful act, how can I know that what I believe and practice is really what is right and true? How can I believe that the Holy Spirit WILL lead into all truth?

A friend of mine who is very much a believer in Christ and is quite knowledgeable about the Old Testament talks about the concept of Hashem (I don’t know how to spell it) that was carried out on Jericho and other inhabitants of the promised land. It’s the idea that certain populations are so evil that they need to be wiped out entirely and are so “dedicated to God” through death. I’ve recently read a section where the women and children of a city were spared by the Hebrews and Moses himself was angry and commanded the slaying of the the non-virgins and male children. (Numbers 31:13-20) I can’t help but look on that with horror. I keep picturing A watching me and 3-year-old L being slain in front of her and being left alone in the world, since Brad would already be dead. I have a hard time believing Christ would approve. This makes me question what God really told Moses and Joshua about the conquest of Canaan and what was from their own belief in a tribal-type god like the lands they passed through. Did God have to reveal himself somewhat falsely because by being too different, they wouldn’t have a clue what to do with Him? They already couldn’t manage the few things that He commanded them as far as being a separate people.

Eifelheim

Eifelheim was a book that I didn’t read with my 9-year-old. It’s a very good book, but not appropriate for the age. My mom recommended it, and I glad I listened.
There are two settings for this book. One is a small village in Germany in the late 1300’s. The other is a University town at the current time. In the German town, a priest named Dietrich discovered a shipwrecked spaceship populated by beings resembling something like a praying mantis or grasshopper. They are able to communicate through the advanced technology of the aliens. Dietrich brings the creatures who are suffering the cold of winter to his lord, who takes them in as vassals. News of demons in the town begins to filter out into the surrounding countryside. There is much philosophical talk between the highly educated Dietrich and the Krenk (aliens) about the state of the universe. The townsfolk assist the Krenk in repairing their ship, although the copper wires the blacksmith makes are a poor substitute for the fiber optics the Krenk had been using. A number of the Krenk become Christians. It is discovered that the Krenk are dying because their bodies require an amino acid not available on earth so the rush to fix the ship becomes even more urgent. Throughout are the various personality difficulties in the village and among the Krenk. Finally the ship is fixed and takes off, and 8 Krenk remain behind to nurse the villagers who’ve just been hit with the plague.
In the modern time, Tom is a historian trying to figure out why a town in a naturally good location disappeared and had never been replaced. He keeps finding documents suggesting demons but is unwilling to admit that they might be aliens. Tom’s partner, Sharon, is a physicist on the cusp of a major discovery. She makes a breakthrough when she discovers one of the illuminated drawings that Tom had collected and sees it to be a circuit that she had just built to test dimensional travel.
There was a lot of science that I didn’t really understand, but that didn’t take away from the fun of the story. My mom doesn’t normally like Sci-Fi and she enjoyed it too. It presented a view of Christianity that was neither pie-in-the-sky nor angrily atheistic. The characterizations rang true, and I appreciated watching various characters grow, or in some cases, refuse to grow. This was a book that contributed to my faith in Christ and was very uplifting, even in the sad parts.

The Young Visitors

Last night Brad was out with friends, so I watched a movie called "The Young Visitors". It was written by a 9-year-old girl in Victorian times and has been in print ever since. It stars Hugh Laurie (House), Bill Nighy (Victor in "Underworld" and Davy Jones in "Pirates of the Caribbean") and other British actors who look familiar but I don't know who they are.

The movie is about Mr. Salteena, who is a lonely man. He meets Ethel on a train and falls in love with her. He offers to introduce her to the nobility he knows (only one earl played by Laurie) and so she accompanies him to the earl's manor. He confesses his love of Ethel to the earl who sends him off to a noble friend who gives lessons in being noble. This friend (played by Nighy) introduces Mr. Salteena to the Prince of Whales (remember, this is written by a 9-year-old, so there are lots of childish misunderstandings of the adult world that are hilarious) who knights him.

The ending is absurdly sad, but not really. It's just an absurd film and highly entertaining.

The People of Sparks

The People of Sparks is the second book in the Ember series. The people of Ember, around 400 strong, have come up into the world. Few of them brought much provision, so after several days of wandering, they begin to starve. Fortunately, they come upon the village of Sparks, population 200. The people of Sparks generously take the refugees in, although with many reservations. They had just had their first good harvest in many years and had enough to share, but were very nervous about using all their hard-earned stores in one year rather than having it for emergencies for many years. There is a nearly derelict hotel that the refugees are housed in.
Soon trouble starts and are stoked by various members of both communities out to start a fight. Meanwhile, Lina travels to “the big city” 5 days away to see what it’s like. It’s a bombed out ruin, like what you would expect if Berlin or Nagasaki hadn’t been rebuilt for 200 years. No one lives there and she learns the dreadful impact of global war. This was clearly the disaster the builders had been afraid of.
When Lina returns to Sparks, the people are on the verge of open fighting, but through good will on the part of Lina, Doon, and many others who do not want to fight, they are able to avert the trouble. The main trouble maker runs away from town before he gets his comeuppance.
Another very good book.

The City of Ember

A and I also read The City of Ember so that she could go see the movie with Brad. The story is set at some future date after some disaster that threatened to wipe out humanity. The “builders” created an underground city to preserve a remnant of humanity for 200 years. They left behind instructions on how to exit the city, but they have been lost and it’s now 200-some years later and all the supplies are running out and the generator that powers the city is nearly permanently broken.
Two young adults (age 12), Lina and Doon, have just graduated from school and been assigned their jobs in the city. Lina lives with her 2 year old sister and her grandmother, her parents having died of a disease that killed many in the city around the time her sister was born. Lina’s sister finds the box with the instructions for the exit in the closet and starts to eat the instructions. Lina rescues them, but can’t figure out what they mean with large chunks missing. Meanwhile, Doon is exploring the pipeworks below the city. When Lina shows Doon the paper, he’s able to piece together what they mean based on his explorations.
Lina and Doon tell the mayor of their discoveries and are branded criminals, but a fortuitous blackout allows them to escape out the exit and after a harrowing journey, reach the outside world where there is nothing but wilderness. They are able to find a hole to above the city in a cave nearby and drop a note down with directions for everyone to get out.
This book is also highly recommended.

Eragon

I haven’t blogged for a while, mainly because I haven’t had time, but tonite everyone in our Bible study group cancelled for one reason or another, so I have a little time to myself. I’ll try to give brief reviews of the books I’ve read recently, and maybe even some of the movies I’ve seen.
One of the books A and I read together was Eragon. It was a very good book with an intricate plot and well-rounded characters. It’s hard to believe that it was written by a 15-year-old (homeschooled naturally :) ). The boy Eragon finds a dragon egg out in the forest and it hatches and imprints on him. The local story-teller, Brom, knows something about dragons and begins training them both. Eragon lives with his uncle, to whom his mother abandoned him. When his uncle is killed by agents of the evil king, Eragon and Brom flee . There is a disturbing scene where they come upon a town that has been massacred. There is a pile of bodies in the center of the town.
As the 2 travel, Eragon is learning to use the magic that comes from his dragon. He learns that there are 3 kinds of magic. One kind comes from a dragon and is only accessible to that dragon’s rider. Another kind if from potions, and that kind belongs to witches. The third, and most dangerous, kind belongs to the realm of the sorcerers and involves calling upon spirits to do one’s bidding. We find out that the evil sorcerer in the book had not been evil until he called on a spirit that was malevolent and more powerful than himself and it possessed him.
Eragon ends up in a mountain stronghold of the rebellion and aids in their fight against an urgal army (basically orcs) and kills the sorcerer who’s leading it. He also meets the son of the king’s evil right hand man (now dead) and finds the son to be an ally. (I suspect that in a future book, we will find that they are brothers, and the mother had abandoned the younger to protect him from the abuse suffered by the older.)
A and I both enjoyed this book very much and I highly recommend it. We are now 43 in the hold list at the library to get the second book in the series.

To Say Nothing of the Dog

I just finished To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. It's very light reading and a bit of a farce in the context of time travel. It's set in 2057 and the Victorian era mainly.

The story is about Ned Henry, who is a member of the time travel research group at Oxford in 2057. The group has been taken hostage by Lady Schrapnall, who wants to rebuild a cathedral what was bombed out in an air raid in 1940, and in exchange for a large donation, makes the researchers travel to various times to research the cathedral. One of the researchers in the Victorian era accidentally brings a live animal (a kitten) back to 2057, causing an incongruity in the time line. The gist of the story is repairing the time line.

One of the difficulties in the repair is time-lag. When a person travels in time, they have to readjust, until which time they act as though they are drunk. Ned is sent back to the Victorian era to take the kitten back to its owner, but he can't remember what he's bringing back or to whom or where.

Another difficulty is that it can be very difficult to send a person back in time without some "shift", meaning you can never be certain where or when they will actually arrive.

Ned meets the researcher who caused the incongruity, Verity, and promptly falls in love with her and vice versa. Being the Victorian era, it's all very chaste. There are fake seances, artful fainting, silly uneducated rich girls, reserved butlers, flappable maids, over-bearing matrons, and quite a bit of slapstick. There is also a mystery about a piece of art that disappeared from the cathedral called the bishop's bird stump. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it..

Dragon's Keep

A and I both just read Dragon's Keep by Janet Lee Carey. It is set in around 1100 on Wilde Island. It's about Princess Rosalind who was born with a dragon's claw on her left hand and a prophecy that she will bring peace to the island.

Dragons have been preying on the people of Wilde Island for many years. Because she has a dragon mark, her mother forces her to wear golden gloves all the time so no one will see it. Her mother brings in all sorts of healers to try to cure the "flaw", but the healers are useless, partly because they are never told what they are supposed to heal. At one point, Rosalind is nearly eaten by a dragon, but when she takes of the gloves in order to try to scratch it, it kisses her claw and flies away.

Rosalind meets a young knight and begins to fall in love with him, but during a hunting accident, he sees her claw and appears to be disgusted. He sails away the next day to fight the civil war in England between Stephen and Mathilde. Shortly after this, Rosalind is kidnapped by the dragon to care for his pips (baby dragons) since their mother has been killed. He agrees to eat no more people as long as she doesn't try to escape or speak to any other humans. She comes to love the father dragon and his brood. Her best friend comes to the island to try to rescue her on a stormy day and end up saving the life of one of the pips by giving up her own life. The dragon finally realizes that not all humans are bad. (There's a long back story of dragons having saved humankind by giving them fire and then the treaties the humans made being broken and the dragons being hunted to near extinction.) He dies in grief for his lost mate and another pip that was killed in the storm.

Rosalind is brought back to the island by her dragon friends where she tries to regain the throne from a usurper who has poisoned her mother. She is nearly hanged, when the knight shows up and saves the day. The dragons come back and give her obeisance and she strips off the gloves and the people proclaim, "The dragons have given her a dragon's claw as a sign of peace."

It's a pretty good book. We both enjoyed it.

Christianity Rediscovered

I promised this review 3 months ago. I'll never get it done if I don't just do it. I've typed up several pages of stuff and it's just too much, so I'll just give the gist.

Christianity Rediscovered by Vincent Donovan is about Mr. Donovan's time (17 years) evangelizing the Masai. He is Catholic, and he looked at the current model of evangelism (schools, clinics etc) and saw that very few Masai became Christian. Those that did became isolated from their community and culture and usually ended up in the city. He wondered what would happen, if he just went to the villages and told them the gospel, no strings attached.

He went to 6 villages (one for each day of the week with a Sabbath) and asked if he could just tell them about the Christian God and not about hospitals or schools. In one village, the chief said, "If that is why you came here, why did you wait so long to tell us about this?" (page 18) He is given permission to come one day a week to each village and the chief would make sure the whole village was there to hear what Mr. Donovan had to say.

Mr. Donovan decided to go with a New Testament model introduced by Christ when he sent the 70 out and also by St. Paul. He would go for a set amount of time (1 year) and at the end of the year would ask the village to put their faith in Christ. If they did not, he would move on. If they did, he would train up the villagers to take over the teachings of Christ for themselves. He would try to give them the Bible (Old and New Testaments) without imposing all 2000 years of theological philosophy on it. He wanted to know if the gospel would be received better in its pure form.

It's interesting to note that one village at the end of the year did not want to become Christian, and while Mr. Donovan was rather shaken up by this, he was comforted in knowing that many also didn't receive Christ when he was standing right in front of them. He honored his commitment to put his energy into a new people rather that continue with the people who had not wanted to continue. The other villages began making their own Christian traditions. One interesting thing they did was to come to their worship place and dance all their old dances. If they found that a dance did not properly worship God, they would remove it (of their own decision) from their repretoire. In fact, they started to remove all sorts of "witch doctor" types of things without Mr. Donovan suggesting it. The only ceremonies or sacraments he introduced were communion and baptism.

The communities Mr. Donovan sparked are still in existance today. I can't find the website now that has a professor going to the Masai in the last year and seeing how the communities are doing, but they are doing well. If I find it, I'll add it to the post.

I just found it. It's http://nedmarch.googlepages.com/diaryjanuary20072

Secret Fantasies

So A is going to be Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter movies/books for Halloween. She is homeschooled, so she won't get much of a chance to show off her costume. The Wed before Halloween is "dress-up" day at the homeschool co-op. It's a Christian co-op, so knowing that the whole "Harry Potter" thing is a hot-button topic for many Christians, I asked the co-op president if A could wear her costume. I wanted to get her thoughts since she has more of a pulse of the whole co-op. I didn't want to offend anyone. (At least not much.)

The reply was something to the effect that "I know your family is really into fantasy" but anything to do with magic or whatever is inappropriate. A simple "no" would have sufficed. Instead, it felt like I got reprimanded for our family choices in entertainment; that we aren't "really" Christian. I'm pretty sure that's not what she meant exactly, but that's what it felt like.

I have to admit, I've felt a little nervous about the whole Harry Potter thing, but interestingly enough, not because I find anything morally wrong with it in and of itself, but rather that we have to "hide" it from our Christian friends. We DO like fantasy: CS Lewis, Tolkien, Harry Potter, Dragons, Fairy Tales, Super Heroes etc... Most of the time it is morally neutral (what we allow our kids and ourselves to see) and sometimes it is even morally uplifting. A has actually been told by a little girl that they can't be friends because of something I let A read. (The mom never told the girl to say this.)

I often feel isolated in Christian community. I hear about "home groups" who have a special kind of closeness and support, but when we've tried to become involved, we're either too "bookish" or too "liberal" or we make people uncomfortable by trying to go deeper than the usual "Christian" answers that we've heard all our life. (Brad got slapped down by proposing that disease isn't evil, but neutral. It's something that we had been talking about in "point of view". Perhaps we are evil for eradicating certain germs: we're killing an entire species with malice towards it. Anyway, Brad was shot down and I was proud of him for not trying to defend himself against the vitriol of the other person.)

I don't really feel like I fit anywhere besides Brad. I am fortunate to have a new friend of the last couple of years who doesn't always agree with me, but she thinks with me and enjoys fantasy also.

When I find an author who is detrimental to my faith, I avoid him/her. Philip Pullman is one. Anything in the romance genre is bad for me. (Why make myself discontented with my happy everyday life with my perfect husband?)

So what am I going to do with A's costume? We're going to cover up the Gryffindor crest and she's going as a monk. If I can find a bald head wig, I'll get it and glue a fur piece in the form of a tonsure. She can be Hermione at the church sponsored party.

Not Again!!

We're having flooding problems again with our plumbing. It's been 6 months since this happened last and we've just finished paying that off (thanks to the stimulus package). The honey bucket should be here any time and the plumber will be here this afternoon. Our kind neighbor, Mary, is letting us use her facilities until then.

Weekend Vacation; or My Wonderful Husband Loves Me

I am on vacation. My wonderful husband, sensing that I was feeling overwhelmed, told me to go somewhere restful for the weekend. I trust his judgment, so I found a hotel not too far away that was not too expensive and came here Friday evening. It has been a good weekend. I haven’t slept too well because of the normal hotel noises, along with being right next to the lobby and the laundry room, but I still feel rested.
I have worked on a Bible study I will be doing starting in the next week or two. I have organized the last year’s worth of pictures. I have done some reading. I have watched a movie that I’ve been wanting to see. I’ve spent hours and hours by myself.
Yesterday morning, I met Brad for racquetball at the YMCA. (My hotel is only 2 blocks from the Y.) I was able to get there early and do a full resistance routine before racquetball. Usually we can’t do that because childcare is only for 1 ½ hours and with an hour of racquetball and a shower, there isn’t any extra time. I got to see the kids and give them love.
I had to take my car in for its 40,000 mile check-up at Klein Honda. Brad has never had this experience, but whenever I take my car in there, it takes an hour or more past the estimated time to get my car back. I was supposed to have it back at 2:00, and I didn’t get it back until 3:00. Maybe it’s because I’m a woman. I went across the street to IHOP for lunch and the waiter there kept calling me “Sweetie”. It was really annoying. He didn’t call the guy behind me “Sweetie” or any of the women who were there with anyone else. That whole experience with the Honda place and IHOP were the worst part of my day. Once I got back to being alone in the hotel, things went better.
As soon as I’m done with this blog, I’m going to work on my blog about the book Christianity Rediscovered by Vincent J. Donovan. I finished reading it more than a month ago, but haven’t had time to write anything up. Hopefully I’ll be able to post it in the next day or two. I have limited laptop time because my laptop no longer charges when it’s on. It has to be off and the lid has to be wiggled up and down until the battery charge light comes on. Then it has to be checked periodically to see if it’s still charging and wiggle the lid some more if it’s not. So all weekend I’ve been working until it gets down to 25% and then shutting it down to let it repower. My laptop is just over a year old, so it shouldn’t be doing this.

New Testaments being burned in Israel

If you click on the title here, you will get sent to an CNN article on New Testaments being burned in Israel. Apparently, the mayor of a city was gathering up New Testaments with the help of some teenagers. He was upset by proselytizing in his city. When he wasn't directly supervising, the teens set the books on fire. Upon returning to the group, he salvaged about half the books that hadn't burnt yet and stopped the activity.

Angel

My 8-year-old wrote a sound poem this week. The goal was to have alliteration, onomatopoeia, and at least one rhymning couplet. Here it is:

Angel
Ring! Clank! Rattle!
What was that?
My piggy bank, Angel, made that sound
She is a pink and purple pig.
And her fur, her fur is velvety.
Her wings and halo are silky and soft.
Her eyes are batting blue.
I like her best because she’s new
That’s my piggy bank, Angel.

In interest of equal time

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See also www.expelledexposed.com

Expelled: the movie

I took my 8-year-old to see this documentary yesterday. It was really good. I know I could have waited for the DVD and bought it for the price I paid for the movie tickets, but I wanted to support Ben Stein with my dollars. This is the kind of thing that is valuable to have open to the general public.

The movie started with scenes of the Berlin Wall, and it is used throughout the film as a metaphor of the intellectual wall in science intended to keep ideas of intelligent design out of discourse. Mr. Stein interviewed scientists who have lost their jobs in universities for even mentioning intelligent design. He also talks to scientists who feel that anyone who believes that way is stupid. The main question seems to be, not evolution in terms of species change, but the origins of life and species transmuting (i.e. reptiles into mammals etc.). Richard Dawkins, the prominent atheist biologist, conceded that life could possibly have been designed by aliens (who had themselves evolved), but no God could ever have been involved because he doesn't exist.

Mr. Stein also pursued the logical consequences of Darwinian evolution as a philosophical system. That led him to Hitler. Multiple people talked about how Hitler, while evil, was not crazy. He honestly believed that he was benefiting the human race by improving the gene pool. Darwin was quoted as saying, and I'm paraphrasing here, that "civilized society" is dooming itself by allowing imbeciles to survive and breed, and that no farmer would breed inferior stock. (The movie didn't mention that Darwin (go to November 2005 and the article, "Darwin's Skrink") was married to his cousin, and was himself the offspring of several generations of cousins marrying. Most of his children died very young of genetic diseases that would have been eradicated through not inter-marrying. It is also interesting to note that Darwin didn't lose his faith in God because of his science, but after the death of his favorite daughter.)

My daughter thought the best part was a computer simulation of the inner workings of a cell. It was very beautiful and shown to demonstrate the irreducible complexity of the cell. One of the interesting points brought up was that if evolution were true, DNA would continue expanding and getting more complex, but the evidence seems to point to the opposite. It appears as though the DNA were programmed and over the millenia, it's been losing information and becoming more compact.

There were several disturbing photos of concentration camps and a tour of a facility that killed "mentally impaired" people in Germany, so I would recommend not taking extremely sensitive children to this film, or at least waiting for the DVD so it can be skipped.

Global Warming

The average last frost date in our area is April 20. I do realize that this is an average, but we got 4 inches of snow this morning. We couldn't make it to church this morning. We made it to the top of our hill, but the road was a sheet of ice and the tow truck was already pulling a car out of the ditch.

What's the real cost of what you buy?

Fugitive Denim

Today I finished Fugitive Denim: A moving story of people and pants in the borderless world of global trade by Rachel Louise Snyder. I had to finish it today because it was due at the library, so I went to the Y and rode an exercise bike for half an hour to finish the book. I don’t know if I’d be so faithful about exercising if I didn’t want some uninterrupted time to myself to read. The kids love the child care at the Y, so they’re happy with the arrangement too.

In this book, Ms. Snyder traces how jeans are made, from cotton fields in Azerbaijan to fabric designers in Italy to jeans designers in New York and finally to clothing factories in Cambodia and China. There is a lot of emphasis on the actual cost of making jeans. She focuses on the people who are trying to be socially responsible and create healthy environments for the various workers and the earth. She also addresses the concerns of people who are losing their jobs in first world nations because third world countries are cheaper to manufacture in. Ms. Snyder focuses on a few individuals as representative of the whole, even exploring their family lives and towns.

This book was fairly easy to read. It was a hopeful book rather than depressing, but there was encouragement for the reader to be conscious of buying choices. Ms. Snyder’s style was not my style of thinking, so I sometimes had trouble following. She’s not Michael Pollan. However, if you’re interested in some of the issues that are driven by the clothes you are wearing, I would highly recommend this book.

Fluorescent Lights a danger to the environment

Apparently CFL lights have mercury in them; each one with enough to poison 6,000 gallons of water and make it unsafe to drink. I've just learned that we are not supposed to throw them away in the garbage...they have to be taken to a hazardous waste facility. If you break one, clean-up by professionals costs $2000. If you clean it up yourself, you have to air out the room 15 minutes, and do a bunch of other stuff to dispose of the mercury. When you vacuum, you have to dispose of the vacuum bag right away and double bag it. It makes me wonder if I should go back to incandescents.

If you're interested in the news article I read today on this, click on the title above. Or, click this link here. Woo! It's not as easy to figure out how to do links as one would like to believe.

Pick it up!

The Dawkins Delusion?

I've just finished reading The Dawkins Delusion by Alister McGrath. It is a response to Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion. Mr. McGrath has doctorates in micro-biology and philosophy at Oxford. He is also a former atheist who has become a Christian.

Mr. McGrath expresses deep regard for Dawkins' contributions to science, but reveals how Dawkins' latest book is neither scientific nor true. He shows how Dawkins uses bad or outdated science to make points. He also reveals Dawkins tenuous grasp of anthropology, or even what is in the Bible. Evidently Dawkins quotes bits of the Bible incorrectly or attributes passages erroneously.

This is a slim tome and easy to read. I appreciated this balanced approach to an ideological opponent.

Evidently I'm a criminal moron

There's a new documentary coming out by Ben Stein about how scientists who express a belief in the divine are persecuted in the scientific community. I made the mistake of posting to the blog on Monday, March 31, saying that I was a Christian who homeschooled. I'm not going to relay everything I said. If you're interested, the website is www.expelledthemovie.com and click on the blog button at the bottom. My comments are on the blog posting prior to the one currently on the screen. I believe my first comments are down at number #1023. Anyway, some guy named BobC said that I was ignorant, a moron, and I should be put in prison for child abuse. Several other people somewhat defended me. I also posted yesterday and today, and again, if you're interested, it's there for you to read. This Bob guy has been calling just about everyone an idiot, so I don't take it personally. It's actually a little comical.

The Easter Tiger Rescue

My lovely 8-year-old daughter wrote this story this week. Being the proud parent that I am, I thought I'd post it for the 2 people who actually read this, who probably got it in e-mail already.

The Easter Tiger Rescue
One day in Easter land the fairy king’s daughter, Sarah, and her friend, Ilena, were hiding the royal eggs and talking to each other about their Easter wish. ”Hey, I heard one of the eggs has a tiger in it. I hope I get that tiger,” Sarah said. “Hey some of the eggs have chicks in them. I really want one of them,” said Ilena. One egg accidently got stuck in a tree and cracked open and a baby tiger fell out into a nest. The eggs in the nest all hatched and the chicks thought the baby tiger was their mommy and the baby tiger thought the chicks were her mommy. Then the branch started to break. The fairy princess saw it on the brink of breaking so she called, “Help!” to Ilena and Ilena came running and got the baby tiger down safely. Sarah took the tiger home and Ilena took the chicks home. Princess Sarah and her friend got their Easter wish.
The end

Without a Net

Sunday, March 16, 2008
Another book that I’ve just finished reading is Without a Net: Middle Class and Homeless (with Kids) in America: My Story by Michelle Kennedy. I just picked this up at the library on Tuesday and I finished it last night, so you know it’s a fast read. I also had a hard time putting it down.
Ms. Kennedy was a young woman who had a promising future when she started college until she could no longer afford it. As a dependent of her parents, she could not get financial aid, and she couldn’t get it until either she got married, or had been unclaimed on her parents’ taxes for 2 years. She chose to tell her boyfriend to marry her so she could stay in school. She then got pregnant and had 3 children in quick succession, causing her to drop out of school and be a housewife while her husband went to work at his technical job. Things were very tight and she learned budgeting very well.
Her husband quits his job when she is pregnant with their third and takes them up to a one-room cabin in the woods to get “off the grid”. The cabin has no electricity or phone or insulation. They sleep on blankets on the floor and the husband is gone for weeks at a time and rarely sends any money home. Ms. Kennedy has to go out in the deep Maine snow (this is winter) to collect firewood every day. When her husband comes home for a while, she finds a job waitressing, but her husband is incompetent watching the kids, and often leaves the woodstove open or lets it go out and generally doesn’t pay the kids any attention. It’s after the 4-year-old daughter is mauled by a dog while playing outside (the husband says, “I heard her screaming but didn’t think anything of it for a while”) that Ms. Kennedy decides to leave him to try to get a better environment for the kids to live in. The husband makes no objection.
She drives to a tourist town and is able to get a job waitressing the first day there. She has no money, but by now it’s June, so she decides that she and the kids can live in the car until she saves up enough to get an apartment. She’s scoped out the Laundromat and a truck stop where they can get daily showers, but quickly discovers that food takes a large portion out of her money because she can’t buy anything but convenience food without a refrigerator or a place to cook. When she works at night, she beds the kids down in the car outside the back door of the pub and the cooks help keep an eye on them. She can’t afford child care.
Every day she tries to find an apartment, but with less than $1000 saved, she can’t afford the security deposit on top of first and last month’s rent. Also, the only apartments she can afford are one bedroom, and no one wants to rent that small of an apartment to a woman who has 3 children. She tries to get food stamps so she can save more money for a bigger apartment, but she earns too much. She tries to get subsidized housing and spends half a day filling out forms, only to have them lost by the welfare office.
Finally, after more than 3 months living out of her car, she finds an older woman who is renting out rooms that she has made into small apartments in her house who lets her move in despite not having all the money required. She finds babysitting with a woman who is doing it mainly to give her own child some playmates, so the price is well below normal. These things in place, she’s able to get a job at a bank and make enough money to be comfortable. Finally, she falls in love with a man she’s been working with at the pub and they get married. Now after several years, they have been able to buy a farm and she writes for such publications as The New York Times and The Christian Science Monitor.
I found this very interesting. She talks about the constant awareness that even today, after 6 years, she is only a few months from homelessness. She now realizes that she could have gone to just about any church or church organization and receive help, but being agnostic, it never crossed her mind at the time. The last chapter is about the statistics of homeless women, children, and even whole nuclear families today. Even with all the help available, it’s very difficult to survive when you are actually working but have no insurance, childcare or home.

Sensationally Living

Sunday, March 16, 2008
I’m always reading more than one book at a time, and I’m a little back logged reviewing them. Another book I just finished is called Living Sensationally: Understanding your Senses by Winnie Dunn. Ms. Dunn is a leading expert in sensory processing.
Evidently, people tend to be one of four ways in how they sense the world around them: Seekers who seek out sensation, Bystanders, who need lots of input for their senses but don’t seek it out, Avoiders, who are easily overwhelmed by their senses and actively limit sensation, and Sensors, who notice more sensory input than the others and are often overwhelmed. There is a quiz in the book to help you discover what sensing style you have. I came out moderate in everything, leaning a little toward Sensor and a little away from Seeker.
The book then describes daily life for each personality and strategies and advantages to each type. There are many case studies, especially of two incompatible types learning to work together. The chapters discuss home location, clothing, vacations, work environment, marriage, parenting, and more. It’s a pretty quick read, especially when one focuses on the topics one is most interested in.
I found this book mildly interesting, but not particularly informative. It did get me to thinking as I was getting dressed in the locker room at the YMCA that maybe people who don’t seem as modest as me might not just be flaunting immodesty. I try to go into the most remote corner and dress facing the wall, but I prefer not to talk or look around or get any stimulus other than what I’m doing. Perhaps some of the other people who aren’t as concerned with all that actually need the added stimulus of the busier parts of the locker room. I don’t know. I’m just musing.

Classical Deja Vu?

As the second century BC proceeded, a rural economy of arable smallholdings gave way to large sheep and cattle ranches, owned by the rich and serviced largely by slave labor. Many peasants ere forced off the countryside and swelled Rome's population; jobs were scarce and they soon became dependant on supplies of subsidized, cut-price grain.

Roman Taxes

In the absence of a civil service, Rome sold the right to collect taxes to the highest bidder. Tax farmers often colluded with governors to make exorbitant profits.

Cicero on Gladiators

What pleasure can a cultivated man get out of seeing a weak human being torn to pieces by a powerful animal or a splendid animal transfixed by a hunting spear? Anyhow, id these sights are worth seeing, you have seen them often: and we spectators saw nothing new. The last day was that for the elephants. The ordinary public showed considerable astonishment at them, but no enjoyment. There was even an impulse of compassion, a felling that the monsters had something human about them.

Cicero

Thursday, March 13, 2008
I have recently finished reading Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician by Anthony Everitt. I had planned on doing a much longer review than the one that follows, but time is marching on and I can’t seem to get enough quiet time without answering kids’ questions and calls to do more that quickly check e-mail, so I’ll have to content myself to this. However, this was a fascinating book and I have more than 50 note markers in it of all the things I wanted to mention.
Cicero was from a wealthy provincial family. His father had been of poor health and not able to attain to the education he desired, so he determined that his sons, Marcus (our Cicero) and Quintus, should have it. Cicero excelled at learning and was not at all interested in physical sport or aggression. Roman boys were sent to a mentor, a well-connected man, where they lived and were tutored in rhetoric, Greek literature, and philosophy along with other boys who were under the same mentor. One of Cicero’s contemporaries was Julius Caesar, who was several years younger. Cicero was known, even from this young age, as being likeable and fair-minded.
As a young man, he participated in a Civil War in Italy called the War of the Allies. Rome seemed to suffer these politically seismic events on a fairly regular basis. There was always conflict between the communities on the peninsula that weren’t considered Roman, and thus had none of the privileges of a citizen, and the Romans. The commander’s son in the unit Cicero fought in was Cnaeus Pompeius. That’s Pompey to the modern reader. Through his experience living through this conflict led him to detest Roman militarism when it came against democracy. In his writings he said, “Victories in the field count for little if the right decisions are not taken at home.” It was shortly after this, that the slave rebellion led by Spartacus broke out. The slave army bested four Roman armies before Pompey arrived to put it down.
As Cicero entered law and began making a name for himself, he actively styled himself as a man who could bring the popularis (common man) and optimates (aristocracy) together. He did this in order to start building up a base for himself so that he could eventually attain the Consulship. This was very similar to a presidency, but there were always two consuls that acted jointly. He attained the Consulship with a rather weak fellow named Antonius, and gave him his pension in return for Cicero having free rein. When Cicero puts down a revolt through quick thinking and quick action, he is voted by the Senate as “Father of His Country”. In Rome at this time, it was acceptable and even advisable to brag about oneself, and it seems that Cicero flaunted this virtue over this event to excess. Plutarch writes about having to listen to “endless repetitions” of Cicero’s success.
It is during this time, that Julius Caesar began working his way up in the ranks of the political system. He was frustrated with the deadlocks in the Senate and began trying to build up ties with three other powerful figures: Cicero, Pompey, and Crassus. Pompey and Crassus were not difficult to bring on board, but Cicero was a Republican through and through and was leery of being involved in anything that would take power away from the Senate. Another man who wanted to attain power, Clodius, hired bands of thugs to terrorize Rome, and under threat, the people voted him into the Consulship where he promptly exiled Cicero and seized all his property, even burning down his house in Rome. Clodius then turned his attentions on Pompey, and was mightily slapped down.
Cicero’s friends in Rome began a campaign to recall him. Popular opinion grew and with Cicero’s promise not to oppose the triumvirate of Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus, was brought back to Rome to a hero’s welcome. He was considered an elder statesman, and because of his isolation in exile, was seen as a political independent that could be counted on to support the common man. He was given a triumph parade similar to a military victory with town officials coming out along the route to offer up flattering speeches. However, he found that his influence in the Senate much abated because he was now indebted to the triumvirate. Furthermore, he was still broke and forced to take large loan from Caesar.
Then the triumvirate began to disintegrate. Crassus was murdered during a military campaign by a treacherous enemy during parlay. Then Julius Caesar’s daughter, who was married to Pompey, died in childbirth, along with the child. Caesar was in Gaul (Those Romans are Crazy!), and Pompey was promoted to Consul to replace Crassus. Cicero took advantage to his lack of power in the Senate to go into retirement and write many, many books on how the nation should be run in specific and philosophy in general. His ideas of mixed constitution greatly influenced political thought in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. His ideas took full flight during the Enlightenment, particularly in North America.
Cicero was then appointed as governor of what is today Turkey as a way to get him out of the way for a while. Before leaving Rome, he enlisted the services of a young man to keep him up to date on the entire goings on. He was very careful to make sure that his presence didn’t overtax the local administration and was determined to run a clean administration. He was generous and made a habit of rising early each day to greet any officials who wanted to come pay their respects. One of the reasons he did this was that the preceding governor had been Clodius’ brother, whose sole concern was enriching himself, brutally extracting taxes. In fact, this brother refused to lay down power and kept holding office in one end of the province as Cicero was entering in the other. At the same time, the province was attacked by the Parthians and Cicero himself led a sub-prime military force to victory, and was lauded by his troops for his strategic leadership, calling him “Commander-in-chief”, an honor only given to a military leader who led in person.
Upon successfully completing his civil service, he returned to Rome, bent on reconciling Pompey and Caesar. He writes to his good friend, Atticus, “There looms ahead a tremendous contest between them….There is no room for fence-sitting.” His main concern was the preservation of the Republic. If either man gained the upper hand, he would be so powerful as to overthrow the Republic and establish a dictatorship. Cicero worked for compromise. As Caesar pushed his power, the Senate gave Pompey the military power to “save the Republic”. Cicero predicted that Caesar would do a surprise attack on Rome before Pompey was ready for him, and was absolutely correct. As Caesar moved swiftly and secretly down to Rome, he continued to make peace offers. Between his famous luck and the loyalty of his soldiers, his advance was nearly miraculous. Most towns simply gave in. One town tried to mount a defense and was defeated. Caesar promptly released all the Senators and aristocracy there, in a classic example his well-renowned leniency. Pompey freaked out and ordered the evacuation of Rome.
Caesar entered Rome uncontested. He urged Cicero to return to Rome. He saw Cicero’s value as propaganda. Cicero was miserable and thought about escaping Italy. Mark Antony, Caesar’s protégé, urged Cicero to stay, thinly veiling threats against his family. Cicero asked for formal permission to leave for Greece. It was not given, but he escapes anyway and is welcomed into Pompey’s camp in Greece with open arms. Caesar surrounded Pompey’s camp and was nearly defeated, but Pompey did not push the advantage and Caesar was able to march away and regroup. Pompey then attacks Caesar and is stunningly defeated, even though Pompey’s forces are much greater.
At this point, Caesar goes to Egypt and meets Cleopatra. All his attention on her, Pompey regroups, and Caesar nearly loses all the gains he has made. Finally he comes out of his thrall and returns to solidifying his empire. Meanwhile, Cicero has been anxiously awaiting Caesar’s verdict. When Caesar arrives in Brundisium, where Cicero is holed up, Cicero goes out to meet him on the road, and Caesar dismounts and embraces Cicero, and given a full pardon. Caesar, now in full power, enacts social reforms, including giving free food to the poor and extending the calendar to 365 days. Many people at the time were amazed at his even-handedness. Cicero used his favored position on behalf of the defeated aristocracy, both out of his natural kindliness and also out of hopes of restoring the Republic with a mixed congress.
Shortly after this, Cicero’s beloved daughter, Tullia, dies in childbirth. He is devastated and retires from all activities to grieve, something that was just not done over a “poor little frail woman” and he was criticized for it. He describes spending most of his time out of doors crying. He writes a work, now lost, called Self-Consolation, attempting to consolidate all relevant texts on overcoming grief. Finally, he makes plans to build a grand memorial for Tullia, but event would soon turn his attention elsewhere. The lasting impact of her death is a new perspective on life. He becomes less volatile and less prone to listen to criticism. He attains new self-control and a new steely resolve. He begins writing again on philosophy pointed at the political environment. One thing he writes, seemed very Buddhist: “So let us, believe me, study to dissociate ourselves from our bodies—that is, to acclimatize ourselves to the idea of death. While we are still alive, this will be an imitation of heavenly life: once we are free from our chains here, our soul will run their race less slowly. For those who have always been shackled to the flesh make slower progress even when they are released. It is as if they have spent many years in manacles. Once we have arrived at the other place, and only then, shall we live. For this life is truly death.” Through reading his works, early Christian leaders merged his ideals with Christian theology, and even declared him a “virtuous pagan”.
Then comes the assassination of Caesar. Cicero was front and center for the event and was stunned and somewhat offended that he was not invited to the cabal. Brutus and the others tried to calm the crowds after the deed was done, but the people truly loved their dictator, and Brutus was nowhere near the eloquent speaker that Shakespeare made him out to be. He is characterized as “plain and unemotional”. Instead of the Republic being restored to life, Mark Antony tries to take over the dictatorship. He and Brutus skirmish when out of left field comes Caesar’s nephew and heir, Octavian, later known as Caesar Augustus. He was only 18 years old, and had been a sickly child, but he was determined that he would follow in his uncle’s steps.
With the conspirators in Caesar’s death still lurking about, Mark Antony and Octavian form an uneasy alliance. Octavian went to Cicero as a mentor, seemingly indicating that he was for the Republic. Cicero returns to Rome after fleeing, and is again welcomed as a hero, much to Mark Antony’s annoyance. Cicero sees through Octavian’s guise, but decides to play nice in hopes of swaying the young man away from dictatorship. Antony calls out Cicero’s “divide-and-rule” policy, but Cicero’s plans succeed, at least temporarily. Brutus and Cassius attempt to return from exile to retake Rome, and are driven back by Mark Antony and Octavian, who re-ally to do so, thus negating Cicero’s plans. Mark Antony, Octavian, and another man, Lepidus, create a second triumvirate and formalized as a triple dictatorship. In order to raise much needed cash, they come about with a plan of killing various rich senators and other aristocracy who had been troubling them and seizing their property. Prices were put on their heads, with a high bounty being paid out of the victims’ estates. Cicero’s entire family was put on the list. Cicero half-heartedly tries to escape, but is captured. His last words were, “Come here, soldier. There is nothing proper about what you are doing, but at least make sure that you cut off my head properly,” and stretched his neck out while his servants covered their faces.
Besides this book being about a fascinating character, it has helped me understand a lot of what was going on around the first century, and I’ve used some of the material in my New Testament Survey class that I teach at church. The general social set-up of roman society had major consequences for Judea and the atmosphere that Christ was born into. I promised a short review, but I just couldn’t. I’ve been 4 hours writing this and am really late for bed, so I’d better post this and go. I might post some other interesting stuff I found over the next few days.

Following Christ and Social/environmental concerns

This is a response I put on my friend, Karlene’s, blog. http://karleneclark.com/?p=48#comment-87 I find that I cannot be a Christian now without being concerned about God's creation and about the people who are raising our food. I don't want to buy anything that is causing suffering to someone either by pesticides or low pay or whatever. This isn't to say that a person can't be a Christian if they aren't organic. I think a lot of this comes down to a matter of conscience as Paul says. However, a little education is a dangerous thing. I still struggle over the issue of clothing. We are not clothes-horses, but it's still too expensive to not shop at Target or Penney's, which means clothes probably made in sweat shops of some sort. I boycott Wal-Mart for a variety or reasons, not the least of which is their predatory practices. Baby steps I guess. Who know where we'll be in a year.

Labyrinths and the Christian Life

We got a Guideposts Magazine in the mail today. We have a subscription from Brad’s Aunt Cora. There’s an article there about prayer labyrinths. The oldest prayer labyrinth in the world is in the cathedral at Chartres in France and is 813 years old. Most prayer labyrinths do not have multiple possible choices of direction, but each path will lead to the center or back out again. One simply follows the path as it approaches and recedes from the center in the faith that it will eventually lead to the middle. In the labyrinth in Chartres, there used to be a brass medallion in the center of Theseus battling the minotaur from Greek mythology. (It was melted down during the Napoleonic era to make cannons.) The myth was a symbol of the battle between Christ and Satan. Maze scholar Craig Wright is quoted, “The myth of the maze expresses the hope of salvation—that eternal life will be won for all by the actions of the one savior.”
I think this is a wonderful symbol of the Christian life. When we follow Christ in faith, we don’t always see how it is we are getting closer to God. Sometimes, we may not even be able to see God. At the center of our Salvation is the struggle between the Creator and the Destroyer. It should be no surprise that as we get closer to the center of our faith, we will encounter more and more instances of that struggle in our own lives. Christ himself has promised it.
Then men will arrest you and hand you over to be hurt and kill you. They will hate you because of me. At that time, many who believe in me will lose their faith. They will turn against each other and hate each other. Many false prophets will come and cause many people to believe false things. There will be more and more evil in the world. So most people will stop showing their love for each other. But the person who continues to be strong until the end will be saved. Matthew 24:9-13
Brad and I are trying to start a study group for our friends who are wanting to talk about God, but have been spooked by the hypocrisy and religiosity of the Church. They have had encounters with Christians that have left them wanting nothing to do with the organized Church and its hateful practices, but they want to learn more about Jesus. We want to have a group in our home with the intent of studying Christ and the Bible in a low-key and non-threatening way. We’d even be open to studying other religions with the purpose of respectfully comparing them to the claims of the Bible.
We were planning to start in February, and our downstairs got flooded with sewage in the past week. (See Brad’s blog referenced below.) Coincidence? I think not. Someone doesn’t want us doing this and is trying to distract us. I think we can expect other difficulties to crop up. Already, we have a much loved friend who is worried for our souls because we are delving into the post-modern mindset. This friend is a disciple of some highly publicized Christian leaders who freely slander and libel anyone who disagrees with them on faith issues. (See verse above. It’s to be expected in these times.) That’s not to say that there aren’t false teachers in the post-modern movement. I’d have to say that there are false teachers in the fundamentalist movement too, and one has to very carefully weigh the teachings of every leader balanced against the Bible—the whole Bible.
There is a prayer labyrinth locator on-line if you’re interested in visiting one. http://wwll.veriditas.labyrinthsociety.org/home

The Flood

We've had some excitement here. Brad is so much more eloquent than I, so if you're interested, read his blog at http://pomoe.blogspot.com/