#Bethlehem Bible College
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Christian Resources on Palestine
Since I am seeing a lack of resources for Christians concerning Palestine from a faith based perspective (aside from the usual Christian Zionist fervor), I tracked down some sources, religious and secular, to bridge that gap. Even if you're not Christian yourself and know some Christians who have questions about what's going on, please share this with them.
Christ at the Checkpoint - A ministry and conference from Bethlehem Bible College in Palestine.
Friends of Sabeel North America - A peacemaking, ecumenical Christian voice for Palestine.
Christian Zionism - A resource that critically analyzes the intentions and theology of Christian Zionists from a Christian perspective.
1948: Creation and Catastrophe (YouTube)- A documentary where Israelis & Palestinians who witnessed the Naqba in the late 1940s talk about their experiences as well as detailing the trail of the ordeal.
With God on Our Side (YouTube)- From Vision Video, a Christian video distributor, analyzing Christian Zionism and giving voice to the Palestinian perspective.
Peacemakers: Crossing the Divide - A film that features both Messianic Jewish and Palestinian Christian believers' peacemaking efforts in the Holy Land. You can watch it for free in various languages.
Musahala - Faith based organization focused on reconciliation between Jewish people & Palestinians regardless of ethnic or religious backgrounds.
Theology in the Raw Interviews:
Eli Bonila, Jr. - married to a Palestinian.
Dr. Gary Burge - questions Christian theological support for Israel
Alex Awad - Palestinian Christian
Daniel Banourra - Palestinian Christian
Lisa Loden - Israeli Jewish Christian (Messianic) featured in the Peacemaking: Crossing the Divide film.
Rabbi Hanan Schelsinger - formerly Zionist rabbi
Rev. Munther Isaac - the Lutheran pastor behind the Baby Jesus in the Rubble photograph from Bethlehem (also check out the first episode of OnScript where he's featured).
Hope these will serve as an aid to understanding this a bit more than some streams of theology would want us to think.
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A sketch I made. Referenced from Bethlehem Bible College. Here's a link and two of the many gofundmes you should share, please donate if you are able to
https://shorturl.at/oswzF
https://shorturl.at/dlAHL
https://shorturl.at/dENPY
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This Christmas, I won't be celebrating as God's children in Palestine are facing a horrible genocide and Christmas can't even be properly celebrated in Jesus's birthplace. If you also find yourself struggling right now, or simply want to learn more about the situation in Palestine through a Christian perspective during this holy season in the religion, i highly recommend if you haven't already checking out the following notable Palestinian Christian resources
Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac, a Palestinian pastor in Bethlehem
youtube
Sabeel and its North American branch Friends of Sabeel
Rev. Mitri Raheb of the Christmas Church in Bethlehem
youtube
who has written many books!!!
Lina Abu Akleh, niece of the martyred Palestinian-American Christian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh
Given that Lina is also Armenian which she briefly mentions in the linked article, I'd like to dedicate some space in this post to those from the Indigenous, Armenian state of Artsakh who have been displaced in their recent ethnic cleansing from the region at the hands of Azerbaijan and with the help of Israel. As Armenian Christians (among the oldest Christians in the world) traditionally prepare to celebrate Christmas on January 6th, you can consider sparing some extra holiday cash to AGBU, or simply taking the time to educate yourself on the plight of Armenians whether they be from Artsakh or reside within the Armenian quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem where they also face age old struggles
And to further combine this shared struggle of Palestinians and Armenians at all times of the year and throughout history you can also check out A Palestinian Armenian: The Intertwine between the Social and the Political by Varsen Aghabekian w/ a foreword from aforementioned Rev. Raheb
Anyone else with some more additions please feel free to include them in the notes. No matter what faith you come from or not at all, please keep these vulnerable people in your thoughts this Christmastime, and may God bless them all 🧡
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Holidays 1.28
Holidays
Christa McAuliffe Day
Clash Day
Daisy Day
Data Privacy Day
Data Protection Day (EU)
Double Daisy Day (Flower of the Day)
Global Community Engagement Day
Gone-ta-Pott Day [every 28th]
Great Mental Health Day (UK)
International Data Privacy & Protection Day
International Lego Day
International Make Your Point Day
International Mobilization Day Against Nuclear War
International Reducing CO2 Emissions Day
Jackhammer Day
January Revolution and National Police Day (Egypt)
José Marti Memorial Day (Cuba)
Juan Felipe Day (Philippines)
King’s Name Day (Sweden)
Love Among the Nations Day
Make Your Point Day
National Amy Day
National Army Day (Armenia)
National Day to Combat Modern Slave Labor (Brazil)
National Film Day (Argentina)
National Gift of the Ladybug Day
National Kazoo Day
National Pediatrician Day
National Spieling Day
National Tina Day
Number Please Day
Paul Jackson Pollock Day
Pop Art Day
Poplar Day (French Republic)
Rattlesnake Roundup Day
Science Day (Belarus)
Serendipity Day [also 1.18]
Telephone Exchange Day
Thank a Plugin Developer Day
Welcome Home the Heroes from Iraq Day (St. Louis, Missouri)
World Day for the Abolition of Meat Day
World Lewy Body Dementia Day
Youth Climate Action Day (Indiana)
Food & Drink Celebrations
National Blueberry Pancake Day
4th & Last Sunday in January
Child Labor Day [4th Sunday]
Clean Out Your Email Inbox Week begins [Sunday of Last Full Week]
Dinagyang (Philippines) [4th Sunday]
Homeless Sunday (UK) [4th Sunday]
International Internet-Free Day [Last Sunday]
National Bible Sunday (Philippines) [Last Sunday]
National Holocaust Memorial Day (Ireland) [Sunday closest to 27th]
Sanctity of Human Life Sunday [Sunday closest to 22nd]
Septuagesina Sunday [4th Sunday]
World Leprosy Day [Last Sunday]
Independence & Related Days
Democracy Day (Rwanda)
Roschfallen (Declared; 2014) [unrecognized]
Festivals Beginning January 28, 2024
BRAFA Art Fair (Brussels, Belgium) [thru 2.4]
Carnival of Cento (Cento, Italy) [thru 2.25]
Carnival of Forano della Chiana (Forano della Chiana, Italy) [thru 2.25]
Filmfare Awards (Mumbai, India)
Historic Bethlehem Winter Restaurant (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) [thru 2.3]
Winter Seed Conference (Nashville, Tennessee) [thru 1.30]
Feast Days
Agnes (Christian; Saint)
Alan Funt Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)
Alice Neel (Artology)
Amadeus of Lausanne (Christian; Saint)
The Apocalypse (Pastafarian)
Black Pepper with Everything Day (Pastafarian)
Charlemagne (Christian; Saint)
Claes Oldenburg (Artology)
Colette (Writerism)
Cyril of Alexandria (Christian; Saint)
Day of Rules: Eunomia’s Day (Pagan)
Ernie (Muppetism)
Every Man’s Day (a.k.a. Rénrì 人日; China) [7th Day of 1st Lunar Month]
Fearn (Alder; Tree of Pre-Eminent Lineage; Celtic Book of Days)
Glastian of Scotland (Christian; Saint)
Jackson Pollock (Artology)
John of Reomay (Christian; Saint)
Joseph Freinademetz (Christian; Saint)
Julian of Cuenca (Christian; Saint)
Margaret, Princess of Hungary (Christian; Saint)
Muhammad (Positivist; Saint)
Paulinus of Aquileia (Christian; Saint)
Peter Nolasco (Christian; Saint)
Peter Thomas (Christian; Saint)
Thomas Aquinas (Christian; Saint)
Thyrsus, Leucius, and Callinions (Christian; Martyrs)
Valerius (Christian; Saint)
Witch’s Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Fortunate Day (Pagan) [6 of 53]
Lucky Day (Philippines) [5 of 71]
Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]
Umu Limnu (Evil Day; Babylonian Calendar; 5 of 60)
Premieres
Amphigorey, by Edward Gorey (Illustrated Book; 1972)
Blue Valentine (Film; 2011)
Boobs in the Woods (WB LT Cartoon; 1950)
College (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon; 1931)
Cryptozoo (Animated Film; 2021)
Dope (Film; 2015)
The Duck Hunt (Disney Cartoon; 1932)
The Flat of the Land or A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moose (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 251; 1964)
Flee (Animated Film; 2021)
Hamateur Night (WB MM Cartoon; 1939)
How to Be a Sailor (Disney Cartoon; 1944)
The Ice Age: Adventures of Buck Wild (Animated Film; 2020)
I’m Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover, by Jean Goldkette (Song; 1927)
The Invisible Monster (Animated TV Show;Jonny Quest #20; 1965)
It’s an Ill Will (WB LT Cartoon; 1939)
The Last of Chéri, by Colette (Novel; 1926)
La Vie Commence Demain (Film; 1951) [1st X-Rated Film]
Mack the Knife or Operation: Moose (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 252; 1964)
The Mechanic (Film; 2011)
The Moonflower Vine, by Jetta Carleton (Novel; 1962)
Mr. Spaceship, by Philip K. Dick (Short Story; 1953)
My Cherie Amour, by Stevie Wonder (Song; 1969)
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (Novel; 1813) [#2]
Red Rock West (Film; 1994)
Scratch a Tiger (Ant and the Aardvark Cartoon; 1970)
Seal Skinners, featuring The Captain and the Kids (MGM Cartoon; 1939)
The Shining, by Stephen King (Novel; 1977)
A Silent Voice (Anime Film; 2019)
Sissy Sheriff (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1967)
Sullivan’s Travels (Film; 1942)
Tales of the South Pacific, by James A. Michener (Short Stories; 1947)
Too Hop To Handle (WB LT Cartoon; 1956)
The Vacuum Gun, Parts 3 & 4 (Underdog Cartoon, S3, Eps. 35 & 36; 1967)
We Are the World, recorded by Supergroup USA for Africa (Song; 1985)
Today’s Name Days
Caroline, Karoline, Manfred, Thomas (Austria)
Toma, Tomislav (Croatia)
Otýlie (Czech Republic)
Carolus, Karl, Magnus (Denmark)
Kaarel, Kaarli, Kaaro, Kalle, Karel, Karl, Karli, Karro (Estonia)
Kaarle, Kaarlo, Kalle, Mies (Finland)
Manfred, Thomas (France)
Karl, Karolina, Manfred, Thomas (Germany)
Haris, Palladios (Greece)
Karola, Károly (Hungary)
Tommaso, Valerio (Italy)
Kārlis, Spodris (Latvia)
Gedautas, Leonidas, Nijolė (Lithuania)
Karl, Karoline (Norway)
Agnieszka, Augustyn, Flawian, Ildefons, Julian, Karol, Leonidas, Piotr, Radomir, Roger, Waleriusz (Poland)
Efrem, Iacob, Paladie (Romania)
Alfonz (Slovakia)
Tomás (Spain)
Karl, Karla (Sweden)
Edward (Ukraine)
Carlotta, Charleen, Charlene, Charlotta, Charlotte, Charmaine, Manfred (USA)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 28 of 2024; 338 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 7 of week 4 of 2024
Celtic Tree Calendar: Luis (Rowan) [Day 8 of 28]
Chinese: Month 12 (Yi-Chou), Day 18 Xin-Mao()
Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)
Hebrew: 18 Shevat 5784
Islamic: 17 Rajab 1445
J Cal: 28 White; Sevenday [28 of 30]
Julian: 15 January 2024
Moon: 92%: Waning Gibbous
Positivist: 28 Moses (1st Month) [Muhammad)
Runic Half Month: Elhaz (Elk) [Day 4 of 15]
Season: Winter (Day 39 of 89)
Zodiac: Capricorn (Day 7 of 28)
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Holidays 1.29
Holidays
Christa McAuliffe Day
Clash Day
Daisy Day
Data Privacy Day
Data Protection Day (EU)
Double Daisy Day (Flower of the Day)
Global Community Engagement Day
Gone-ta-Pott Day [every 28th]
Great Mental Health Day (UK)
International Data Privacy & Protection Day
International Lego Day
International Make Your Point Day
International Mobilization Day Against Nuclear War
International Reducing CO2 Emissions Day
Jackhammer Day
January Revolution and National Police Day (Egypt)
José Marti Memorial Day (Cuba)
Juan Felipe Day (Philippines)
King’s Name Day (Sweden)
Love Among the Nations Day
Make Your Point Day
National Amy Day
National Army Day (Armenia)
National Day to Combat Modern Slave Labor (Brazil)
National Film Day (Argentina)
National Gift of the Ladybug Day
National Kazoo Day
National Pediatrician Day
National Spieling Day
National Tina Day
Number Please Day
Paul Jackson Pollock Day
Pop Art Day
Poplar Day (French Republic)
Rattlesnake Roundup Day
Science Day (Belarus)
Serendipity Day [also 1.18]
Telephone Exchange Day
Thank a Plugin Developer Day
Welcome Home the Heroes from Iraq Day (St. Louis, Missouri)
World Day for the Abolition of Meat Day
World Lewy Body Dementia Day
Youth Climate Action Day (Indiana)
Food & Drink Celebrations
National Blueberry Pancake Day
4th & Last Sunday in January
Child Labor Day [4th Sunday]
Clean Out Your Email Inbox Week begins [Sunday of Last Full Week]
Dinagyang (Philippines) [4th Sunday]
Homeless Sunday (UK) [4th Sunday]
International Internet-Free Day [Last Sunday]
National Bible Sunday (Philippines) [Last Sunday]
National Holocaust Memorial Day (Ireland) [Sunday closest to 27th]
Sanctity of Human Life Sunday [Sunday closest to 22nd]
Septuagesina Sunday [4th Sunday]
World Leprosy Day [Last Sunday]
Independence & Related Days
Democracy Day (Rwanda)
Roschfallen (Declared; 2014) [unrecognized]
Festivals Beginning January 28, 2024
BRAFA Art Fair (Brussels, Belgium) [thru 2.4]
Carnival of Cento (Cento, Italy) [thru 2.25]
Carnival of Forano della Chiana (Forano della Chiana, Italy) [thru 2.25]
Filmfare Awards (Mumbai, India)
Historic Bethlehem Winter Restaurant (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) [thru 2.3]
Winter Seed Conference (Nashville, Tennessee) [thru 1.30]
Feast Days
Agnes (Christian; Saint)
Alan Funt Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)
Alice Neel (Artology)
Amadeus of Lausanne (Christian; Saint)
The Apocalypse (Pastafarian)
Black Pepper with Everything Day (Pastafarian)
Charlemagne (Christian; Saint)
Claes Oldenburg (Artology)
Colette (Writerism)
Cyril of Alexandria (Christian; Saint)
Day of Rules: Eunomia’s Day (Pagan)
Ernie (Muppetism)
Every Man’s Day (a.k.a. Rénrì 人日; China) [7th Day of 1st Lunar Month]
Fearn (Alder; Tree of Pre-Eminent Lineage; Celtic Book of Days)
Glastian of Scotland (Christian; Saint)
Jackson Pollock (Artology)
John of Reomay (Christian; Saint)
Joseph Freinademetz (Christian; Saint)
Julian of Cuenca (Christian; Saint)
Margaret, Princess of Hungary (Christian; Saint)
Muhammad (Positivist; Saint)
Paulinus of Aquileia (Christian; Saint)
Peter Nolasco (Christian; Saint)
Peter Thomas (Christian; Saint)
Thomas Aquinas (Christian; Saint)
Thyrsus, Leucius, and Callinions (Christian; Martyrs)
Valerius (Christian; Saint)
Witch’s Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Fortunate Day (Pagan) [6 of 53]
Lucky Day (Philippines) [5 of 71]
Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]
Umu Limnu (Evil Day; Babylonian Calendar; 5 of 60)
Premieres
Amphigorey, by Edward Gorey (Illustrated Book; 1972)
Blue Valentine (Film; 2011)
Boobs in the Woods (WB LT Cartoon; 1950)
College (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon; 1931)
Cryptozoo (Animated Film; 2021)
Dope (Film; 2015)
The Duck Hunt (Disney Cartoon; 1932)
The Flat of the Land or A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moose (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 251; 1964)
Flee (Animated Film; 2021)
Hamateur Night (WB MM Cartoon; 1939)
How to Be a Sailor (Disney Cartoon; 1944)
The Ice Age: Adventures of Buck Wild (Animated Film; 2020)
I’m Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover, by Jean Goldkette (Song; 1927)
The Invisible Monster (Animated TV Show;Jonny Quest #20; 1965)
It’s an Ill Will (WB LT Cartoon; 1939)
The Last of Chéri, by Colette (Novel; 1926)
La Vie Commence Demain (Film; 1951) [1st X-Rated Film]
Mack the Knife or Operation: Moose (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 252; 1964)
The Mechanic (Film; 2011)
The Moonflower Vine, by Jetta Carleton (Novel; 1962)
Mr. Spaceship, by Philip K. Dick (Short Story; 1953)
My Cherie Amour, by Stevie Wonder (Song; 1969)
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (Novel; 1813) [#2]
Red Rock West (Film; 1994)
Scratch a Tiger (Ant and the Aardvark Cartoon; 1970)
Seal Skinners, featuring The Captain and the Kids (MGM Cartoon; 1939)
The Shining, by Stephen King (Novel; 1977)
A Silent Voice (Anime Film; 2019)
Sissy Sheriff (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1967)
Sullivan’s Travels (Film; 1942)
Tales of the South Pacific, by James A. Michener (Short Stories; 1947)
Too Hop To Handle (WB LT Cartoon; 1956)
The Vacuum Gun, Parts 3 & 4 (Underdog Cartoon, S3, Eps. 35 & 36; 1967)
We Are the World, recorded by Supergroup USA for Africa (Song; 1985)
Today’s Name Days
Caroline, Karoline, Manfred, Thomas (Austria)
Toma, Tomislav (Croatia)
Otýlie (Czech Republic)
Carolus, Karl, Magnus (Denmark)
Kaarel, Kaarli, Kaaro, Kalle, Karel, Karl, Karli, Karro (Estonia)
Kaarle, Kaarlo, Kalle, Mies (Finland)
Manfred, Thomas (France)
Karl, Karolina, Manfred, Thomas (Germany)
Haris, Palladios (Greece)
Karola, Károly (Hungary)
Tommaso, Valerio (Italy)
Kārlis, Spodris (Latvia)
Gedautas, Leonidas, Nijolė (Lithuania)
Karl, Karoline (Norway)
Agnieszka, Augustyn, Flawian, Ildefons, Julian, Karol, Leonidas, Piotr, Radomir, Roger, Waleriusz (Poland)
Efrem, Iacob, Paladie (Romania)
Alfonz (Slovakia)
Tomás (Spain)
Karl, Karla (Sweden)
Edward (Ukraine)
Carlotta, Charleen, Charlene, Charlotta, Charlotte, Charmaine, Manfred (USA)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 28 of 2024; 338 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 7 of week 4 of 2024
Celtic Tree Calendar: Luis (Rowan) [Day 8 of 28]
Chinese: Month 12 (Yi-Chou), Day 18 Xin-Mao()
Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)
Hebrew: 18 Shevat 5784
Islamic: 17 Rajab 1445
J Cal: 28 White; Sevenday [28 of 30]
Julian: 15 January 2024
Moon: 92%: Waning Gibbous
Positivist: 28 Moses (1st Month) [Muhammad)
Runic Half Month: Elhaz (Elk) [Day 4 of 15]
Season: Winter (Day 39 of 89)
Zodiac: Capricorn (Day 7 of 28)
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A Muslim Finds Jesus Christ
T.A. HERDIAN (Catholic Answers)
I was born in Indramayu, West Java, Indonesia, on April 13, 1978. I’m the third child in the family; I have two older brothers and one younger brother. I spent the first 18 years of my life in my hometown, and then went to Bandung to continue my study.
I grew up in a nominally Muslim family. My journey to Christian faith was a long, and not always conscious, process, which, as far as I can remember, started when I was about six or seven.
A Willing Victim?
It was the week in which I was having an elementary school test. I was reading a chapter in a book about the five religions that are officially recognised in Indonesia. When I read the section about Christianity, I came across words which soon I was fond of pronouncing. One was Yesus Kristus (the Indonesian name for Jesus Christ), described as the founder of the religion, and the other was Betlehem, the place of his birth.
I would pronounce the words aloud during the next few days simply because I liked the sounds of them. My parents and my oldest brother, however, discouraged me from doing it further by reasoning that it was no use trying to memorize the words since the teacher wouldn’t ask that kind of question in the exam anyway—which turned out to be true!
And so I abandoned the practice, until an incident that occurred during my teenage years triggered again the excitement that I had hitherto neglected but not yet completely forgotten.
One evening during Christmas time, when I was about 15, I watched a music show on TV. I forget whether it was at the beginning, middle, or end of the show, but a Christian song was played—not about Christmas, curiously enough, but about the Crucifixion. Some of the lyrics in the song that I still remember so well went like this: “You were willing to be crucified for us.”
This came to me as a surprise, since it was not in my understanding that there was a sense of willingness in the story of the Crucifixion. The popular Islamic version of the story that I was familiar with was that Jesus ran away when people were trying to crucify him, and when he finally got stuck and couldn’t go anywhere further, God lifted him up to heaven, and the people crucified someone else whom they mistook for, and whom God had made to resemble, Jesus.
After the TV show was over, I kept wondering why Jesus, whose birth in Bethlehem was now being celebrated, was willing to be crucified, and what benefit there could be in doing so, and what it had to do with us now. My search to find answers to these questions led me to read books that might contain such answers, to go to some Christian churches, and to befriend Christians, from whom (so I thought) I could get the answers.
Curiosity Becomes Habit
And so, during my high school years, I started to go to church. There are three churches close to where I was living: Pentecostal, Protestant, and Catholic. For some reason, I chose to go to the Catholic church, which was the farthest from my place. Soon afterwards, I began to obtain Christian things: a crucifix, tapes, even a borrowed Bible from a Catholic neighbor. Later, my parents found all of these, and they asked me why I collected such things. But I didn’t know how to answer the question appropriately, so I ended up not saying anything at all. Besides, I really didn’t know the answer. I was just interested in anything that had to do with Jesus, but I didn’t know why.
After this “interrogation,” all the Christian things that I had bought and borrowed were gone and I stopped going to the church for a while. This, however, didn’t last for very long, for several months later, out of some sort of spiritual longing, I would sneak out early in the morning to go to the (Catholic) church again, although this time I only did it now and then. I kept on doing this until I went to Bandung for college.
Conversations with Christians
When I first wanted to become a Christian, the kind of church that I had in mind (and that I actually went to for the first couple of times) was the Catholic Church. And so, even as a Muslim—ignorant of the differences between Protestantism and Catholicism (and in fact still ignorant of them several years after I became a Christian)—I wanted to belong to the Catholic Church. But later, at college in Bandung, I happened to meet and befriended a lot of charismatic Protestants who were “on fire for God.” I didn’t really see why I should view them as different from Catholics, so I went with them to their churches and discussed many Christian issues with them.
When I lost contact with them several years later, I started looking for an international church in the city. Then I found Bandung International Church, and soon I was involved in a certain ministry there. I was baptized in the church and finally even worked for some international (Protestant) mission organizations in Bandung and later in Jakarta.
I Make My Choice
This situation was about to change. One evening in October 2005, at the invitation of my boss at work, I watched the movie Luther at the house of the Australian pastor of All Saints Church in South Jakarta, the church that I went to at that time. During and after the movie, I suddenly realized that within Christianity are two main choices, Catholicism and Protestantism, and that I had to make mine.
The vague term Christianity, of which religion I thought I was part, doesn’t consist in one single unifying teaching: Christians believe a lot of things, sometimes supportive, but a lot of times contradictive, to each other. And for the first time in my life I came to realize that there was serious disagreement among them, which I couldn’t take lightly.
In the movie Luther, a bishop remarks that “the Bible is too profound for common people to fully understand.” This remark is, I think, intended by the movie producer, or whoever else that is involved in it (perhaps based on some legitimate grounds) to be some kind of attack against the Catholic teaching on the Bible. But the line stuck in my mind. And after the movie, when the pastor opened a discussion on what we had just seen, I decided to bring up the bishop’s remark.
I quoted the words of the bishop, and I asked those in attendance if this is why in Protestantism there are so many denominations, with each claiming its own as the true one, as a result of their interpretation of the Bible by way of private judgement? There was silence for about 30 seconds, until finally my German boss, who had invited me to the movie, admitted that there were indeed many different teachings within Protestantism, but that the differences were only secondary, and in no way affected either faith or salvation. At this suggestion, all the others seemed relieved and nodded their heads as a sign of agreement. Although I was quite satisfied with the answer at the moment, this didn’t stop me from looking for the answer myself; later I realized that what my boss said was actually more applicable to the Catholic Church than to Protestant churches.
The House of Adonai
And so I began reading a Wikipedia profile about Catholicism, from which I also got many Catholic websites as references. The one that I visited most was Catholic Answers and its online magazine, This Rock. My source for the Catholic point of view on the issues of Protestantism, and on many other things, was the Catholic Encyclopedia. In addition to that, I also started reading some Catholic theologians and writers, most notably John Henry Cardinal Newman and G.K. Chesterton, who have been a great help for me to understand Catholic teachings and to confirm my intention to be received into the Catholic Church: Newman’s Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine and Chesterton’s The Catholic Church and Conversion.
I was received into the Catholic Church in December 2006, a couple of days before Christmas, at a parish in South Jakarta. I became a Catholic because after much prayer and study on the issues between Protestantism and Catholicism, I simply could not hold the main Protestant tenets, namely sola scriptura, sola fide, and sola gratia. And as a consequence, I had to come into full communion with the Catholic Church, the Church that I’ve wanted to belong to all this time without fully realizing it, and the Church whose presentation of her Master once stirred, and still does, the desire in me to get to know him more.
During my Protestant years, there was a song, based on Psalms 92:12-13 (the Jerusalem Bible), which made much impression on my heart and mind, and which in fact I printed out and posted on a wall at my office. The song went like this: May I dwell in your courts O Lord, there to flourish like the trees of Lebanon, planted in the house of Adonai, there to live for evermore.
Although long and winding, I’m glad that the roads finally led me home, to the Catholic Church, in whose bosom I will hopefully be carried into God’s everlasting house, in which I shall dwell forever and ever.
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I was a Christian you uneducated fool. I went to a Christian college, studied the Old and New Testament book by book and took church history.
Yes the x in Christmas was something started by Christians, that is historical fact. You'll also be surprised to learn that Jesus wasn't born in December.
BTW Dan Povenmire supports queer people, so you are watching and promoting the queer agenda.
None of those things you said makes you a Christian. The only thing that makes you a Christian is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The very fact that you thought that going to a Christian college, studying the entire Bible book by book, and studying church history would make you a Christian proves that you didn't actually understand what you studied, and that your faith is either weak or nonexistent. And the fact that you said "I was a Christian" instead of "I am a Christian" tells me that it's probably the latter.
No, in fact, replacing Christ with an x is not a Christian thing to do. The tone of the reblogs confirms that they were doing it to try to mock us. And the only people who ever do it to Christmas are, well, those who want to take Christ out of Christmas. The only reason I can think of why a Christian would replace Christ with an x is to avoid persecution -- similar to the gesture of drawing the fish in the sand. But given your other completely false claims, I doubt that even that is true.
Yes, I am aware that Jesus probably was not born on December 25th. That date was chosen for two reasons: first, the early church wanted to replace a pagan festival to celebrate the first real indication of the days getting longer, and second, because that was the date in the year 4 B.C. when the star guiding the Wise Men to Bethlehem stopped. You may also be unaware that there is no year 0 on the Gregorian calendar we use today -- Jesus (whose Hebrew name Yeshua also translates to Joshua) was probably born in 4 B.C. (also the year Herod died) and died in A.D. 30 (the year of an eclipse on the Passover, among other signs).
You may also be unaware that most of the Christian landmarks in Israel are in the wrong place. Their locations were decided by Emperor Constantine's mother, who he had sent to Israel to find all the places. Her method basically consisted of pointing somewhere and saying "Oh, I think that's probably it." But we know her locations for some places are inaccurate because of what is close to them. For example, the temple had to be near a source of running water (to wash away the blood created by all the sacrifices). The location it's said to be at? There is no running water anywhere near it. Meanwhile, the Gihan spring (the most likely source of that water according to historians) flows on the complete opposite side of Jerusalem.
And yes, I am aware that Dan Povenmire thinks he supports people who think they are lgbtq. (He doesn't actually support the people, he supports the lifestyle. If he actually supported the people, he would be encouraging them to make Jesus their identity instead of their fantasies.) But really, who is NOT of that mindset in Hollywood? That's why I am of the mindset to care about the content and not worry about the creator. It's all we can do. And Milo Murphy's Law and Phineas and Ferb are among the best of the best TV shows ever produced.
Honestly? This has been a great conversation. Thank you for your asks, and God bless.
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TGIF: Roundup for April 14, 2023
Should Every Church be Multiethnic? SOLA Editorial Board member Daniel K. Eng interviewed Rick Hardison, lead pastor of Lakewood Ranch Baptist Church, who completed a PhD with his dissertation called, “A Theological Critique of the Multiethnic Church Movement.”
We also shared Renee Zou’s article: What Comes to Mind When You Think of Heaven? And I reviewed Sam D. Kim’s new book: From Doubt to Faith: Book Review of “A Holy Haunting.”
This newsletter is one of the many ways you can keep in touch with us. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For more, check out my Asian American Worship Leaders Facebook group and TGIF Playlist on Spotify. You can reach me on Twitter and Instagram.
Aaron Lee, Editorial Curator
Enter to win this excellent book! Read my review. Thanks to Sam D. Kim for providing this book for our giveaway, in partnership with my newsletters for @diveindigdeep and FCBC Walnut.
Articles From Around The Web
Ricky Njoto: Three Things Jonathan Edwards Teaches Us about Holy Communion
“By far the most important aspect of Holy Communion, for Edwards, lies in the present. After all, just as Christ was present physically in the Last Supper 2,000 years ago, he is also present spiritually at every Lord’s Supper today. For Edwards, the Holy Communion is a physical sign of a spiritual reality: that Christians are joined together in Christ.”
Tim Challies: Banksy and Beauty from Ashes
God takes what has been purposefully destroyed, what has been willfully ruined, what has been blown up by our own acts of sabotage, and he works upon it until it is a beautiful and precious work of art.
Related: Learning and Writing about God and the Church: An Interview with Tim Challies by Aaron Lee
Curtis Yee: Asian American Theologian: Our ‘Culture’ Is Not to Blame
“When it comes to the community’s response to trauma and anxiety, Daniel D. Lee calls for a closer look at the dynamics of racism and the migrant experience.”
The SOLA College Writing Cohort is our new writing cohort for college-age students to receive mentorship and training as young Christian writers. Editorial Board member Soojin Park will personally be leading this initiative, and she is very excited at the prospect of nurturing the next generation of Asian American thinkers and writers who will help encourage and edify the Church!
Books, Podcasts, Music, And More
Sam Choi: Prayer and Fasting
This message was given as a part of the Bethlehem College and Seminary spring 2023 chapel series on Prayer.
Off the Pulpit Podcast: The Wives Takeover
In this episode, the wives takeover and chat about all things pastor wife life and women in the church.
Aaron Lee: Related Works
Book reviews: Words of the Resurrected by Robert J. Nash, All About Bible Animals (Kids Book) by Simona Piscionera. Listen to our TGIF playlist on Spotify. Join my Asian American Worship Leaders Facebook group.
Check out the new edition of our SOLA Network Magazine! Download it for free and share it with your friends as a great way to be introduced to the work we do at SOLA Network.
Featured This Week On SOLA Network
Aaron Lee: From Doubt to Faith: Book Review of “A Holy Haunting”
What is faith and where does it come from? Is faith just a whim? Or is there something deeper? In A Holy Haunting, Sam D. Kim shows “why faith isn’t a leap but a series of staggers from one safe place to another.”
Renee Zou: What Comes to Mind When You Think of Heaven?
Fellow Christian, we are destined for the new heavens and the new earth. God is longing to bring us home. Are we longing for the same?
Daniel K. Eng: Should Every Church be Multiethnic? (Part 2): An Interview with Rick Hardison
Whether there is a mandate to be a part of a multiethnic church, approaching people with their heart languages to bridge cultural gaps, the relationship between contextualization and unity, the need for multiethnic and ethnic-specific churches, serving the people living in your church’s proximity, and the difficulties of being an ethnic-specific church.
Daniel K. Eng: Should Every Church be Multiethnic? (Part 1): An Interview with Rick Hardison
Where we get the idea of the “multiethnic mandate,” what the Bible does (or doesn’t) say about multiethnic churches, how to think about ethnic church “divisions,” and the stories of the Tower of Babel and Pentecost.
TGIF: Roundup for April 7, 2023
Gods and Gangsters / These 3 Japanese Christian Women Changed Their Country / Narco Saints’ Drug-Dealing Pastor / Moving to a New Place with Irene Sun / Gateway Chapel: Hanley Liu
General disclaimer: Our link roundups are not endorsements of the positions or lives of the authors.
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Kathleen “Kitty” Short Kandalaft, daughter of the late Kenneth Short and Martha Lester Short, was born on August 17, 1930, in Indian Creek, West Virginia, and departed this life on April 7, 2022, at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, at the age of 91 years.
Mrs. Kandalaft was a former educator with the Sikeston Public School System in Sikeston, Missouri, where she taught third grade for 20 years. She was a member of the First United Methodist Church in Dexter, Missouri, and a resident of Dexter. She was a former member of the Dexter School Board and Missouri State School Board.
A lifelong learner, Kitty loved literacy, music, nature, and poetry. She began her college career at Concord College in Princeton, West Virginia before transferring to Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina, where she learned to play the harp, and obtained her music degree. In 1957, she earned her master’s degree in education from Northeast Missouri State Teachers College. Aside from motherhood, one of the highlights of her life was obtaining her private airplane pilot’s license in 1971.
During her lifetime Kitty traveled extensively. She toured England, Rome, Venice, Paris, Spain, Portugal, Katmandu, Lebanon, Jordan, Amsterdam, Israel, Switzerland, and Germany. She visited Belgium via the Channel from England. Her favorite spot was Vienna, Austria, because of the musical influences, and because it was so clean.
While attending Bob Jones University, she met her first husband, Dr. Fuad Kandalaft and to this union four daughters were born, Victoria, Catherine, Patricia, and Leila. On April 14, 2007, she was then united in marriage to Dr. Floyd C. Northington. Dr. Northington preceded her in death on March 9, 2016.
She is survived by her daughters, Victoria Kandalaft of Germantown, Tennessee, Catherine Kandalaft Clippard of Ozark, Missouri, Patricia Kandalaft of Seattle, Washington, and Leila Kandalaft of Ludwigsburg, Germany; by her brother, Michael Short of Kentucky; by her sister, Patsy Harrington of Fayette, Missouri; and by seven grandchildren Arabella McGowan, Ayman McGowan, MarthaGrace Clippard, Luke Clippard, Leila Serene Heidsieck, Helena Stroetmann, and Alexander Stroetmann.
Other than by her husband and parents, she was preceded in death by her brother, Douglas Short and by her sister, Dorothy Short.
Visitation will be held at Mathis Funeral Home in Dexter on Sunday, April 10, 2022, from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. Funeral services will then be conducted at the First United Methodist Church in Dexter on Monday, April 11, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. with Rev. Larry Lawman officiating. Interment will follow in the New Bethel Ezell Cemetery.
Memorials may be made to the Bethlehem Bible College, 614C South Business IH-35, New Braunfels, Texas 78130.
#Bob Jones University#Archive#Obituary#BJU Hall of Fame#BJU Alumni Association#2022#Class of 1950#Kathleen Short Kandalaft
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TWD 10x19: More Stuff Pointing to Beth’s Imminent Return
Morning Everyone! As you can see, these are just a few more odds and ends about 10x19 that I didn’t cover yesterday. It’s not so much details or not details as just things I didn’t get around to in my first post, which was already very long. So, in no particular order, here goes.
***As always, spoilers abound below for 10x19. Don’t read until you’ve watched!***
First off, there were several Beth references that didn’t occur to me until I was watching the episode live.
Gabriel’s whole speech about how the bible is “still” important.
He gives Mays this rundown about how the word of God is still important and applicable. How it’s a beacon of light in an otherwise very dark world.
Now, I’m sure lots of people picked up on this as a Beth reference. Talk of the bible. Talk of light in the darkness. These are symbols that have definitely been used around her before. But what struck me upon rewatching it was the way he said it was “still” important. It can be directly linked to her “I still sing.” And if you analyze both conversations, both are about transcendence, rather than just surviving.
Mays fires his gun at the little office, and then only afterward, tells Gabriel Aaron is inside and asks, “do you think he made it?”
Guys, this is subtle, but this is a huge parallel of Beth. Think about it. Aaron being in the office could almost represent a tomb of some kind. He’s tied up (imprisonment). Mays shoots the gun (bullets). Then asks, “Do you think he made it?” When he goes to check, he says, “looks like he’s still breathing.” And then, when he brings Aaron out, he’s bleeding from a wound in the left side of his forehead. Exactly same place as where Beth was shot.
I can’t believe it took me like 3x watching the episode to pick that up, lol.
Gabriel’s story about his mentor
I felt like this had to be important, but it was hard for me to say how. And even now, I don’t think I have it all pinned down, but it may not matter. This speech may actually be more about Gabriel and his character than anything else.
I did wonder if the mentor in his story could represent Rick. It doesn’t all fit in detail (Rick’s not the biggest people person out there, lol) but there was a time when Rick really didn’t like Gabriel and wouldn’t give him the time of day (understandably) but eventually Gabriel earned his trust and they did become friends. Even if I’m right that this represents Rick, I’m not sure what the point of having this speech here is. It’s probably the kind of thing I’ll have to return to.
As always, I wanted to relate it to Beth, but I wasn’t sure how. I did feel somewhat justified in looking for TD clues here, not only because the episode is so heavy in them, but because right before Gabriel starts relating the story about his mentor, he says, “I’m serious.” And there were a few small clues, such as talk of driving 80 mph (Beth’s been missing 8 years in the show). But that’s pretty small.
But the one big reference that got me kind of excited was the funeral reference. He talked about going to a funeral with his mentor. While there have obviously been other funerals, the one really big one we saw Gabriel preside over was Tyreese’s in 5x09. A huge Beth episode, where we actually saw the number 8 next to her. And we have to assume, if TF tried to bury Beth, that he would have presided there, too. We just haven’t seen that, yet.
But here’s what got me. Even though Gabriel says this was the funeral of the young man, he said he was a college kid. And while Beth never went to college that we know, in Still Daryl did accuse her of looking for hooch like some dumb college bitch.
So, between that and all the other callbacks and references in this episode, I do think this was a subtle reference to her and perhaps to her “funeral” that we never saw. I’m unsure why they’ve put it here or how it’s supposed to function for us, but I think that will become more clear as the story progresses.
TTD:
I’m not going to do a separate Talking Dead post this week, because there just wasn’t tons to point to in this episode. Basically, there were three things that jumped out at me.
1. Ross Marquand mentioned the three people exiled from Alexandria in S5. And it seemed like a really random reference to bring up. I’m not sure why he did. For one thing, it’s a callback to S5. But that thing about those three being exiled was never hugely resolved. I know a couple of them were meant to be the walkers Aaron and Maggie found in the sewer, but still. It feels unresolved to me, and him bringing them up randomly here felt significant.
2. The Golf Sequence. So, I mentioned the golf parallels in the episode yesterday, but apparently there was a much larger, extended golf sequence where Aaron and Gabriel put together a whole mini golf course, but it got cut from the episode for time. So, not a big deal. It’s just that there would have been MUCH larger golf parallels in this episode if they could have included them.
3. The writer talked about how, at the end of the episode, where we see Gabriel and Aaron heading toward he water tower, there’s a dark, ominous forest between them and the water tower, and anything might happen in there. So, it sounds like this story with the two of them isn’t exactly over, and we’ll probably see another episode about the two of them in S11.
Alright, I said yesterday I’d talk about where this is going. It still sounds like one of these two might die, and you know I lean toward it being Gabriel. I did have a few people message me and point out that Aaron putting a gun to his head might foreshadow his death, and that’s a possibility. I can’t deny it. Honestly, I don’t follow the symbolism around either of these characters (except where it indicates Beth) closely enough to make an educated prediction here. But I do still lean toward it being Gabriel. Mostly because, as I’ve said before, he’s the Sirius character. And there’s one more thing that may indicate this.
The Bible Passage Gabriel Looks At:
I talked yesterday about how Gabriel opened one of the bibles and we could see the passage. It’s 1 Samuel: 1-21. Read the passage HERE.
Now, this passage basically talks about two things. This is where a new king needs to be crowned, and that king will eventually be David. First, the prophet (Samuel) goes to Bethlehem to offer up a sacrifice so the Lord will show him who is to be the new king.
Just the fact that we’re talking about a sacrifice, and it’s Gabriel reading the passage, screams death omen to me.
Also remember that both because of the cross she wore in the hallway at Grady, and because of Gabriel’s (yes, Gabriel’s) strange words to Sasha in 5x16 about “sacrificing one of your own,” Beth is often seen as a symbolic sacrifice of some kind. (I even think his white shirt in 5x16 could point toward him being a sacrifice, but that’s a whole other theory.)
Back to the bible reference. So the second thing that’s done here is that each of Jessie’s sons is brought before the prophet so he can tell which one the Lord has anointed to be king, but he doesn’t choose any of them, saying the Lord is telling him that the king is not among them. He asks if these are all of Jessie’s sons, to which they reply that the youngest (David) is not present.
Now, if you know anything of the bible, David does become king, but they didn’t think to bring him before the prophet here, because they just didn’t think he was “king” material. David was a shepherd. He was humble. He was a poet and a bard.
Yes, you read that right. David sang. He actually sang very beautifully. Tended to totally mesmerize the court with his singing.
Sound like that could be a Beth parallel to you?
In this passage, David is not crowned king, but he is anointed to be king one day. I also notice that the page Gabriel looks at says 1 Sam 16:21, which just means verse 21 is the last verse on that page. Verse 21 ends with David basically living by and learning from the current king, Saul.
Just reminds me of Rick declaring Beth the “new sheriff in town” and how we’ve always said she’ll be his protégé.
So, all I’m saying is that I think this passage suggests both a sacrifice of some kind, and the coming of a new “king” (read: sheriff) that has a lot of things in common with Beth. And since it’s Gabriel who opens the bible, it makes sense that he’ll be the one to die as or just before she arrives. Just saying.
Okay, that’s all I have for today. I’ll get to some Asks tomorrow.
#beth greene#beth greene lives#beth is alive#beth is coming#td theory#td theories#team delusional#team defiance#beth is almost here#bethyl
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Stuff I might never get to do (from books I read after I thought I had mastered the Bible / Scripture)
1.
Theories of ‘political vision’ - ex. Obama’s ‘A Promised Land,’ or from someone I miss, UKPM David Cameron’s ‘For the Record.’ Also records of military careers and the consequences and lessons therefrom, particularly Gen., Prof. Stanley A. McChrystal’s ‘My Share of the Task’ - decades of one meal a day, utterly excellent love-letters and wisdom-writings to his wife, sweeping reports, culminating in the operation that ‘extrajudicially or para-judicially executed’ bin Laden. I also never forgot the NYTimes photo of the SEAL operator’s back-muscles. My giant Obama critique, however, was one of those ‘grandfather Hall of Presidents’ books that I want to postpone.
2.
My mistakes and wishes. Ex. the woman I wanted to marry in early 2011; I had cut off my parents for 6 months and called one night my mom; she got really drunk that night, flirted with foreigners from [ultra-mercenary cram-school that hires anyone], got terrorized by [b/Black man of the type who clearly believes ‘As I am b/Black I know everything worth knowing and can terrorize, antagonize, demonize anyone and anything for the greater glory of my own ego / Chairman Mao]. Culminating in me in the ladies’ room telling her to get up and I told her so, going back to the pub-room and threatening the mercenaries, and finally being ‘mogged,’ masculinity-compromised or eclipsed / overpowered, by the man who was either her surrogate father-figure, rapist, seducee-turned-wrist-breaking-controller, no one really knew, and my ex-father-figure who however either a) failed to bait the trap properly and/or b) failed to communicate the true meaning and message and purpose of his love for me, to me. But, it was instrumental in blowing what was probably the best job I ever had, and the only job that ever asked me back.
After that I started honestly trying to live for either a) the younger generation b) ‘just me.’ I also made a number of hard or soft promises to students involving me writing stuff. Don’t say ‘will’ or ‘might’ to Koreans b/c it kind of spiritually translates in to ‘shall’ or ‘must’ or ‘has to.’ They’re the poor in spirit from what I can tell.
I also drove around California for a while, missed a job-offer from a Catholic university in [central Korean city], and thought a lot about F. Scott Fitzgerald. Studied Emmanuel ‘ethics-as-first-philosophy love-of-wisdom-converting-into-wisdom-of-love’ Levinas a bit, read ‘Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother’ and couldn’t sleep
3.
Sundry ‘Teacher Dream(s).’ I’d been hoping in a way that ‘Free Food for Millionaires’ author Min Jin Lee, JD Yale etc, would put this all in her ‘American Hagwon’ but she’s been baking fancy cakes and writing offside / deflective lit. about Japanese gays for like 10 years while NK marched on in real life killing people and Koreans were also dying from numerous causes, running away from home, economically induced suicide, amazing shame- and rape-culture: cashing in. I remember my last night at the hagwon, a time of bonhomie, when I perhaps might’ve even said, ’Y’know, can I un-resign-in-protest?’ Boss, What’ll you miss most about Korea, Korean women?’ Me (playing the fool), ‘There are Korean women in America.’ Boss, (sforzando), ‘Gyopo women.’
My ‘best guess’ anyway at ‘edubusiness’ was sth I labored at off and on for now like 6 years called ‘Three Kings’ which is partly about a white ex-literary agent family named ‘Foch’ after the French Generalissime who actually won WW1, famous for his ‘moral factor’ theory of war as well as his remark, ‘This is not a peace but an armistice for 20 years. He makes 400,000 dollars in his 1st year of college by advising his roommate to publish his ‘freshman’ novel with an extreme ‘point,’ not worrying about winning every possible reader, just let me edit all the sign-post-phrases and tell you what I firmly believe you were trying to write, sell this novel for 2million dollars, marry the Korean girl across the hall, forget RU, cultivate life and love with your stylus, and I’ll continue to march on simultaneously trying to promote love while reading everyone and everything semi-against or [angle / thrust-vector to] their grain (for their own good). Later he starts a school with his two friends, an MD/PhD program dropout from LA and an MBA ex-Samsung Managing Director or something. But in the end his MD/PhD friend can’t stop thinking about [student’s] amazing breasts and [MBA] friend can’t stop hating and short-selling himself w/r/t marriage and self-regard b/c he’s stuck in the other-always-has-more-money-always-more-money-to-make mentality. In the end the protagonist resigns in protest from the company he himself designed, developed, planned, etc. but didn’t have the money to call his own after reaching the position of ‘Joint Department Head’ which is kind of like ‘Chief of Staff’ to a president at a much smaller scale. He’s a devout literal Christian or at least Christianist who wishes the world were Christian and he reflects in the end on the Longfellow poem about the Three Kings who ‘know King Herod’s hate’ and had to travel back to their homelands a different way. There is also a possibly-to-be-deleted ‘Interludio Meridiana’ where he happens across the molested constantly male-gazed student in Nonhyeon (a neighborhood South of the Han River but not at all like the PSY song), starts to hear Palestrina’s ‘Sicut Cervus’ (listen to it on YouTube - Palestrina’s polyphony philosophy is one of the crowns of human art) in his head, wanders down to the bus depot and finds that his thoughts / creativity etc. have become cathected, chained to, or at least led by memory, and he has joined a ‘chain of being’ that connects the past to the future.
4.
‘Bethlehem Dream’ - kind of my homage to the forementioned Kim Minju of IZ*ONE, my last favorite pop-star before assuring Christian friend I’d stop following K-pop (I’m against BlackPink and their entire organization). Connects to all my dreams and theories of education - including my extreme disillusionment with education, and sympathy for anyone made the ‘beneficiary’ of the latest theory or tool - as well my homage to the school that most closely approximates my dream school, Prof,. Pastor, Dr. Chancellor John Piper’s Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis. And also, women’s desire to have children / babies, even without husbands, men’s desire to bear spiritual fruit with or without traditional fellowship.
5.
Masculinity in novels. Not Norman Mailer Philip Roth stuff but novels that can lens reality from the top down and not get addicted to some or other cupidity or method of endearing / charming the audience, which often makes them stupider or causes them to regard hidden truth as an outright lie and/or triviality. MJL’s ‘Free Food for Millionaires’ was pretty masculine; better is billionaire Michael Kim’s ‘Offerings,’ a novel I wish I could teach someone only I can’t find a good student / reader and maybe I myself missed the point and only thought I got it.
Thinking quitting while ahead - I really don’t know whether adding to people’s minds and knowledge at this point in Time is good or whether writing amounts to feasting the already glutted, furnishing them further excuses for disbelief and inaction and alienating / dividing them from the hungry and poor. I like a song called ‘Love Song for No. 1.’ Remember talking about a walk in the woods I took, understanding something about the Other’s first language the authenticity of this language and its nativity to their understanding and ‘originary’ or ‘birth-mother’ identity or ‘self-system.’ Not something to tell your Anglo-but-ish-they-were-Teutonic biological parents because they will make like they want to backhand your head off then spend years denying they’re either racist, non-believers, or what I have come to call anti-believers; people who amid ‘Delta Covid Summer’ are trying to destroy the beliefs of others. Also Dr. R.C Sproul Ligonier Ministries, ‘Forgetfulness is apostasy.’
6.
‘Flowers on Water.’ Kind of my homage to Krystal Jung Soojung of ‘hieroglyphic’ girl-group f(x) and later IMO excellent actress, her best moment perhaps the final episode of ‘My Lovely Girl,’ a shocking and awesome scene that appears to talk about Resurrection and Eternity. The protagonist is another cynical edubusinessman who is thinking about mass-death, getting mad at mainstream American Christianity for singing songs while people were drowning, and finally on Google Books comes across a teacher-poem from 1881 titled ‘Flowers,’ for a group of rather hapless seemingly American Indian students in California as well as critiques of educational praxis which, in 1881, were identical to what they are today. ‘God is sovereign in all things’ - such a difficult category. I abandoned this novel for a number of reasons such as the belief that I might be able to reverse-engineer Brad Thor or something for a quick buck. Went to Half Price Books (now closed) where they had a picture of the Jackson Five over the toilet in the men’s room. I read a bit of a one-dollar Brad Thor book about Russia but on the way on home I once started once again dreaming mytically about Korean girls / women as it began to snow and thinking about ‘Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming’ (’Es Ist Ein Rosentsprungen) the German Nativity song which Michael Praetorius composed at least in part in response to the appalling Reformation Wars and out of a hope or wish that remembrance of Christ’s birth could somehow reunite the Church. This also made me think about a high school I admire / respect and my old friend and his now-divorced wife with whom I many times fantasized about singing and talking with again; and whom I kind of wish I could tell the author of ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ remarried his first wife eventually but IDK what good it is to give already-dreaming people more dreams either.
It’s 9:35 AM and my ‘insomnia’ type notebook-postings haven’t made me any new friends in a while. My last thing is just, if you care about Education or young girls / American women / culture / schools, achievement, heroines, stories, or for that matter Bible-translation or the latter-day odysseys of the nominal Episcopalian Church, with trembling heart, try to reflect on Headmaster Josiah Bunting III’s ‘All Loves Excelling.’
One of my favorite Christian songs is ‘The Death of King David’
And God said that day shall dawn
to bring that flow’r newly born
from thy stem in fullness growing
in fragrance sweet night and morn
all My people shall adorn
with Breath of life bestowing
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
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The Virgin Mary
I was first inspired to write this biography by an issue of LIFE magazine that was completely about Mary. As I was reading I realized that despite being raised in a Christian household, as well as being surrounded by Serbian Orthodox and Catholic families for most of my young life-- the only thing I truly knew of Mary was that she was the virgin mother of Jesus. It’s important for me to note that although my family was full of devout Christians, I had spent all of my life rejecting it as a non-believer. I still stick to this thought process today.
I had learned later in my first semester of college of the symbolism and religious rites that surround her, but I still did not know anything of the Historical life around her. Was she real? What kind of life did she live? And who really was she? I wanted to know the truth vs myth of who Mary was.
“The young Jewish girl goes to the stone synagogue in Nazareth. She offers devotions in the small women’s section adjacent to the main prayer hall. In chorus with the other congregants, the girl recites Psalms and absorbs their lessons: ‘Abandon yourself to God.’
One extraordinary day she is visited by an angel who asks if she’ll play a part in the birth of God’s son. She answers yes. Perhaps a little more than 2,000 years ago, she makes her way with her husband Joseph, a carpenter, to a village called Bethlehem. Perhaps Bethlehem; some scholars posit Nazareth as more likely. In a stable, for the inn was filled, Mary and Joseph celebrate the birth of a son. They lay the infant in a feeding stall and name him Yeshua -- in Greek: Jesus. she raises Jesus to be a strong, brave young man. A leader of other men. That is the story of Miriam of Nazareth. And that is all we really know,”
But how did we get to this story? If as stated by Jarslov Peikan, we could copy on an eight by eleven sheet everything there is about Mary in the New Testament. Then why is Mary so popular through the ages? I think Mary is the perfect and most original examples of what happens when an idea evolves and grows from its original source.
Miriam of Nazareth: Miriam was born in a small village in Galilee. Known as Mary to the masses, her real name would have been Miriam or Maryamme-- one of the most common names of the day. As a young Jewish woman living in Palestine, she was a second class citizen. Not knowing how to read or write, she worked alongside her mother since she could walk. Basically, she was a poor woman and modern depictions of her are usually able to recognize that, But, the catholic church had a huge role in presenting us with images of a fair-skinned woman robed in blue silk. When she was a Mediterranean woman of low class who would have most definitely worn a simple wool or linen tunics and a shawl over her head.
The political environment of Mary’s life was a complicated one with constant Jewish oppression in the form of Roman legions. The end of the dictatorship of Herod the Great had made way for the Romans to storm into Galilee and squash Jewish revolts. Which I think is a perfect breeding ground for Jewish prophecy of a savior to form in. Josephus, a Jewish writer records that many cities were burned and people murdered by the Romans
Mary and Joseph: So, where does Joseph come into the life of Mary? The popular image of Mary we have come to know is that of a young woman in her early twenties birthing the savior. But, if we think realistically of the time period, she was probably only 12 or 13 years of age when betrothed to Joseph. Who would have been much older than she. However, Mary became pregnant before her marriage to Joseph. Let’s see how the Bible addresses this:
(NCV) Luke 1:26-38:
“God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin. She was engaged to marry a man named Joseph from the family of David. Her name was Mary. the angel came to her and said, ‘Greetings The Lord has blessed you and is with you.’ But Mary was very startled by what the angel said and wondered what this greeting might mean. The angel said to her ‘Don’t be afraid Mary; God has shown you his grace. Listen! You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of King David, his ancestor. He will rule over the people of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will never end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘how will this happen since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to Mary, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will cover you. For this reason the baby will be Holy and will be the Son of God.’ Mary said, ‘ I am the servant of the Lord. Let this happen to me as you say.’ And the angel went away.”
For the millions of Christians, Catholics, and sub-sets of these practices, the Immaculate Conception is proven fact based on the actual fact the Bible records it as such. The apparently divine conceptions of Jesus Christ, is a miracle -- a simple and unquestionable matter of Faith. But the gospels tell us very little about Mary and the pregnancy itself. Nor does it cover the societal reaction of Mary exposing to her village, let alone her husband. When Joseph had found put, he would have most definitely thought of her as unfaithful. We do know that when Joseph found out, he had the idea to divorce her quietly, as not to expose her to shame and death from the village elders. But the Bible does state that an angel appeared to Joseph and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, Because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to name his Jesus, because he will save people from their sins.
Since most scholars today consider most of the Bible to be legend and mythology, it could be theorized that Mary, a young girl of no younger than 12 but no older than 16 had been raped by a stranger or Joseph himself. I believe it could be Joseph because I don’t know why he would have motivation to cover up another man’s rape child as the birth of the savior. I theorize essentially, that Mary and Joseph had premarital sex and Mary was impregnated. I will not determine that Joseph actually raped her as there was no such thing as statutory rape back then and they were already betrothed. I know that does not exclude it. But, given the context of the time, That is my estimate. No one will ever know what actually happened probably besides Mary herself.
But was the immaculate conception truly just a couples cover up? Maybe. We probably won't ever really know. I cannot prove or deny what is fundamentally the foundation of 2 major religions and its sub-branches. But, I as someone who believes in nothing, have a hard time thinking that this was simply a Hebrew God formulating the redemption of Man. However, the New Testament, and I suppose history; say that Joseph was a kind man, and did not give away Mary to the Elders or have her stoned for “adultery.” As far as how and exactly when the conception happened, that will continue to remain between Mary and Joseph... Or maybe Mary and herself. Even then, practically impossibly, it could be true that Mary gave birth to the Jewish Messiah.
Mary the Idea: It’s important to address the immaculate conception and life of Mary as the ultimate catalyst for what she would become. So how did Mary become the exalted Saint and Mother of All ideal to the populace?
When taking a look at Mary’s fame, it is not terribly difficult to see her evolution as the Virgin Mother of the Messiah to the Virgin Mother of all the Christian World. Though it is important to know that she is more popularly worshiped by catholic sects, Christianity also celebrated her above any other biblical figure, Save God/Jesus himself.
“Not everyone needs a brother or sister or savior, or accepts that a savior has arrived historically, or will do so one day. But everyone once had a mother.” Basically, even with all the majesty of the universe going on and changing around you, we all need a mother. Even though she is not the only saint to patron mothers, children, motherhood, and orphans-- she is regarded as the Mother of Mothers and Jesus/God is the King of Kings, Having a mother (with special circumstances aside) is the one most universal experiences of life. We all have one and we all want to love them and be loved in return. And Mary is clearly the finest and most ideal example of a mother in all of history. She is the mother of Jesus, How could she herself not be equally perfect?
But as we know, Mary as a mother is not really explored in the Bible. Basically through the centuries, as Christianity spread through European missionaries and expanded as an idea/religion, Mary expanded as well. If Christianity were not so against “false idols” I think she would be a Christian god in her own right. She was also a huge inspiration to poor people as an impoverished second class citizen becoming the “Queen of Heaven.”
Millions of people today and throughout history have turned to Mary for help, fortune, and love. She is the most named after woman in history and the most prayed to saint in all of Catholicism. Mary was a girl whose choices and circumstances made her into the most famous woman ever. Not all to her own credit as I hardly assume she could have predicted this, The spread of Christianity through colonialism was probably the biggest amplification of her life and story. Allowing her to become Mary, Mother of All.
#mary#the virgin mary#catholiscism#history#christianity#religion#jesus christ#the bible#catholic#christian#immaculate conception
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01/11/2020 DAB Transcript
Genesis 24:52-26:16, Matthew 8:18-34, Psalms 10:1-15, Proverbs 3:7-8
Today is the 11th day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian its great to be here with you as we continue our journey by taking the next step forward in the Scriptures. And the next step forward takes us back into the book of Genesis where we are…well…we’re kind of moving into a new generation. We’ve been traveling with Abraham and Sarah and Sarah has passed away and now Isaac, the son of promise is emerging into our story. So, we’ve been reading from the New International Version this week, which is what we’ll do today. Genesis chapter 24 verse 52 through 26 verse 16.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for…well…for bringing us into this new year and allowing us to begin to settle into the rhythm that will carry us each and every day through this year. I thank You for what You are speaking into our lives here at the beginning of a decade, in the beginning of a year because it's challenging us and it's shaking us in its re-orienting us and it's…it’s bringing us clarity. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit to continue to speak deeply into our souls and that we might be aware and awake and listening when You begin to shift things inside of us. Even today's proverb, don't be wise in Your own eyes. Just that right there, just that alone, we could probably sit with that the rest of our lives as a piece of constant wisdom that needs to be ever before us. Yes, we’re not wise on our own, but the proverb goes on to tell us to fear You and shun evil and this will bring us health. And it’s a physical thing, health to our bodies and nourishment to our bones. Physical healing and health can happen when we…when we become aware that there is a wisdom that is far deeper than what we think we know. So, come Holy Spirit into that because we are looking for this, we are hungry for this, we are asking for this, we are seeking, we are knocking, we are present. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial or you can just press the Hotline button, little red button at the top of the app and off you go.
And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I will be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hi Daily Audio Bible this is Brooke Wright from Omaha Nebraska and I would just like to pray for my daddy who is now…right now he’s in Argentina and I pray that on Monday, by the way it’s Sunday, January 6th and I would like to pray that today he has a good flight since he has more than one flight and he has to fly today and tomorrow. I would just like to pray that he would have a good trip and he would not have a bad day. This is Brooke Wright and I would just really like if you guys would pray for me and my brothers and my mom and that my mom would have…her cough would go away. Since I only have two minutes I’m going to end here. This is Brooke Wright and I’ll probably be calling very soon. Bye.
I want to pray for everyone listening and you are good people for listening and I hope it makes a change in your life. And try and remember I wish I could be like you guys. Shout out to my friend named Porshe. She listens to DAB and she’s disabled. She lost her leg, but she says that she __ God can help her through. She also had cancer and when she started listening to the DAB her life changed and she just wanted to thank God. Even at church she gets on her __ and prays. She does it for the Lord.
Hey DAB family this is Lori in Ohio I am a third-year DABber starting my 18th year reading the Bible through in the year. In 2020 am stepping away from a 20 year long, long relationship that should have never…I should have never been in. It did not strengthen my walk in God, and it was awfully verbally abusive, sometimes physically and he really made me do things I didn’t want to do and gosh after work pressuring me every day to…to do things I didn’t want to do. That aside two decades of memories __ family blended and the loss of the best friend as well I’m coming off mutual friendships. It’s very painful, beyond painful. Exhilarating though, to get rid of this sin and to have nothing blocking me and God. Just praying once again like it used to be and walking in the light of Christ, a whole person now as God’s girl once again. I ask that you please pray for me as for my focus and strength on this journey as a finally reborn again, rebooting a brand-new life that pleases God, continually growing a strong godly support team that are very helpful and whenever or wherever He takes me. I’m free. Woo! Please call me…my handle here will be 202020. I’m looking forward to all God has in store. I love you guys. I need you as iron sharpens iron. Please pray for me. I…I know God is preparing for me something big and this is such a way of peace that it’s a brand-new life for me. I’m praying for Finding Peace, for Good Smile in England, Rebecca in Michigan, Denise with Louis the rescue dog and Dave in Colorado. Okay guys. Talk to you soon.
Hey Daily Audio Bible this is John calling from Bethlehem Pennsylvania it is the 4th of January. It’s great to be here to be around the Global Campfire and toss a couple logs on and keep it burning and speak with you all in community as we do this, as we step through the Bible one day at a time, one step at a time as Brian says. I wanted to call in and let a couple people know I’m thinking of them here this morning. Of course, I’m keeping you all in prayer. I want to just mention a couple people. So, Finding Peace and also Dave from Colorado. Finding Peace, I want you to know that you are a child of the most-high God. You see yourself as stock but sees you as free. He sees you as released. He sees you as not in the place that you see you, but He sees you in His kingdom and doing a mighty thing. You are mighty in the land, you come from royal blood, you are a princess of the most-high God and what He has in store for you in 2020 is going to absolutely blow your mind. You are touched, you are equipped, you are well able, and there’s nothing that can stop you except the thinking that you have and that but that you put out there. So, my prayer for you is that you remove your but that you get your own “butt”, BUTT, and your “but” BUT out-of-the-way to be able to live into everything that God has for you. I’m praying for you sister and I can’t wait to hear your report when you call back to say that you’re out of the hole and it’s because of God’s grace and kindness that He’s taken you out of that hole. Don’t listen to anything that the enemy has to tell you it’s a lie and deceit. And then Dave, my brother from Colorado, listen I love your voice. Don’t hide under a rock and don’t put a bag over your head man your beautiful and your voice is beautiful to. You have nothing to be ashamed of you’re an awesome person. It was great to hear from you and if I were in Colorado I would totally…
Dear Anonymous, hey, this is Annette from Oklahoma City. I just want to start off by saying, I love you sister. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. I can tell you real quick in my life story I was pretty much beaten and abused by my mother and ignored by my father a lot of the times because of these things. I got…I tried to get away by joining the Air Force where I was taken advantage of by a supervisor. I was…thrashed around and taken sexual advantage of by there only to get into two marriages where I was abused and I can tell you I know exactly how you feel. I wondered many, many times if I just drove up this ditch if I just, you know, did the same thing, you know, that my life would be better because it would be over. I understand. I totally, totally understand but I can tell you this, these are the things that I would’ve missed had I done that, and this is a very, very short condensed list because the Lord has blessed me since then. And now I understand that maybe those things happened to me because I was strong enough to endure them so then later on, I could help other people who have been through this type of situation and these tragedies and these hardships. And, you know, I would have missed my husband that I have now. He loves me more than anything in this whole wide world and he takes good care of me. And I would’ve missed seeing my children to grow up and enjoying grandchildren. Riding my motorcycle out in the middle of the country and being able to pray for all of you…
Hi DAB family I’m calling in to ask for prayer for my daughter. She graduated high school and then went to college for a semester and then she’s not going to be returning and she’s really gotten into some really difficult times in her life and she carries a lot of weight from her childhood from…her dad committed suicide when she was four years old and that’s been coming up a lot. And she told me that she’s was having dreams and I can’t go into detail but there are some things that could cause a mother…afraid to have a lot of worry but that’s what I don’t want to do. I’m actually pregnant and I just pray that…I ask that you guys pray with us…my husband and I…for __ this down and we’ll have a healthy pregnancy but pray for my daughter. She really needs prayer right now. She is, I guess, what you would say a prodigal. And, so, she, I don’t think wants anything to do with God right now and just a very, very hard time in her life. Thank you so much.
Hi Daily Audio Bible family my name is Tammy I’m from Georgia today is January the 5th. I’m calling specifically for anonymous. I’ve listened for 10 years completely and I have never called in, but your message has just really hit my heart. I would love to be your friend and I want you to know that you’re never alone and if you would love to reach out to me my email address is [email protected], [email protected]. Anonymous, I’m praying for you and you are never alone. Jesus loves you and He has you honey. Please email me.
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Holidays 1.28
Holidays
Christa McAuliffe Day
Clash Day
Daisy Day
Data Privacy Day
Data Protection Day (EU)
Double Daisy Day (Flower of the Day)
Global Community Engagement Day
Gone-ta-Pott Day [every 28th]
Great Mental Health Day (UK)
International Data Privacy & Protection Day
International Lego Day
International Make Your Point Day
International Mobilization Day Against Nuclear War
International Reducing CO2 Emissions Day
Jackhammer Day
January Revolution and National Police Day (Egypt)
José Marti Memorial Day (Cuba)
Juan Felipe Day (Philippines)
King’s Name Day (Sweden)
Love Among the Nations Day
Make Your Point Day
National Amy Day
National Army Day (Armenia)
National Day to Combat Modern Slave Labor (Brazil)
National Film Day (Argentina)
National Gift of the Ladybug Day
National Kazoo Day
National Pediatrician Day
National Spieling Day
National Tina Day
Number Please Day
Paul Jackson Pollock Day
Pop Art Day
Poplar Day (French Republic)
Rattlesnake Roundup Day
Science Day (Belarus)
Serendipity Day [also 1.18]
Telephone Exchange Day
Thank a Plugin Developer Day
Welcome Home the Heroes from Iraq Day (St. Louis, Missouri)
World Day for the Abolition of Meat Day
World Lewy Body Dementia Day
Youth Climate Action Day (Indiana)
Food & Drink Celebrations
National Blueberry Pancake Day
4th Sunday in January
Child Labor Day [4th Sunday]
Clean Out Your Email Inbox Week begins [Sunday of Last Full Week]
Dinagyang (Philippines) [4th Sunday]
Homeless Sunday (UK) [4th Sunday]
National Bible Sunday [4th Sunday]
Sanctity of Human Life Sunday [Sunday closest to 22nd]
Septuagesina Sunday [4th Sunday]
4th & Last Sunday in January
International Internet-Free Day [Last Sunday]
National Bible Sunday (Philippines) [Last Sunday]
National Holocaust Memorial Day (Ireland) [Sunday closest to 27th]
World Leprosy Day [Last Sunday]
Independence & Related Days
Democracy Day (Rwanda)
Roschfallen (Declared; 2014) [unrecognized]
Festivals Beginning January 28, 2024
BRAFA Art Fair (Brussels, Belgium) [thru 2.4]
Carnival of Cento (Cento, Italy) [thru 2.25]
Carnival of Forano della Chiana (Forano della Chiana, Italy) [thru 2.25]
Filmfare Awards (Mumbai, India)
Historic Bethlehem Winter Restaurant (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) [thru 2.3]
Winter Seed Conference (Nashville, Tennessee) [thru 1.30]
Feast Days
Agnes (Christian; Saint)
Alan Funt Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)
Alice Neel (Artology)
Amadeus of Lausanne (Christian; Saint)
The Apocalypse (Pastafarian)
Black Pepper with Everything Day (Pastafarian)
Charlemagne (Christian; Saint)
Claes Oldenburg (Artology)
Colette (Writerism)
Cyril of Alexandria (Christian; Saint)
Day of Rules: Eunomia’s Day (Pagan)
Ernie (Muppetism)
Every Man’s Day (a.k.a. Rénrì 人日; China) [7th Day of 1st Lunar Month]
Fearn (Alder; Tree of Pre-Eminent Lineage; Celtic Book of Days)
Glastian of Scotland (Christian; Saint)
Jackson Pollock (Artology)
John of Reomay (Christian; Saint)
Joseph Freinademetz (Christian; Saint)
Julian of Cuenca (Christian; Saint)
Margaret, Princess of Hungary (Christian; Saint)
Muhammad (Positivist; Saint)
Paulinus of Aquileia (Christian; Saint)
Peter Nolasco (Christian; Saint)
Peter Thomas (Christian; Saint)
Thomas Aquinas (Christian; Saint)
Thyrsus, Leucius, and Callinions (Christian; Martyrs)
Valerius (Christian; Saint)
Witch’s Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Fortunate Day (Pagan) [6 of 53]
Lucky Day (Philippines) [5 of 71]
Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]
Umu Limnu (Evil Day; Babylonian Calendar; 5 of 60)
Premieres
Amphigorey, by Edward Gorey (Illustrated Book; 1972)
Blue Valentine (Film; 2011)
Boobs in the Woods (WB LT Cartoon; 1950)
College (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon; 1931)
Cryptozoo (Animated Film; 2021)
Dope (Film; 2015)
The Duck Hunt (Disney Cartoon; 1932)
The Flat of the Land or A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moose (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 251; 1964)
Flee (Animated Film; 2021)
Hamateur Night (WB MM Cartoon; 1939)
How to Be a Sailor (Disney Cartoon; 1944)
The Ice Age: Adventures of Buck Wild (Animated Film; 2020)
I’m Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover, by Jean Goldkette (Song; 1927)
The Invisible Monster (Animated TV Show;Jonny Quest #20; 1965)
It’s an Ill Will (WB LT Cartoon; 1939)
The Last of Chéri, by Colette (Novel; 1926)
La Vie Commence Demain (Film; 1951) [1st X-Rated Film]
Mack the Knife or Operation: Moose (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 252; 1964)
The Mechanic (Film; 2011)
The Moonflower Vine, by Jetta Carleton (Novel; 1962)
Mr. Spaceship, by Philip K. Dick (Short Story; 1953)
My Cherie Amour, by Stevie Wonder (Song; 1969)
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (Novel; 1813) [#2]
Red Rock West (Film; 1994)
Scratch a Tiger (Ant and the Aardvark Cartoon; 1970)
Seal Skinners, featuring The Captain and the Kids (MGM Cartoon; 1939)
The Shining, by Stephen King (Novel; 1977)
A Silent Voice (Anime Film; 2019)
Sissy Sheriff (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1967)
Sullivan’s Travels (Film; 1942)
Tales of the South Pacific, by James A. Michener (Short Stories; 1947)
Too Hop To Handle (WB LT Cartoon; 1956)
The Vacuum Gun, Parts 3 & 4 (Underdog Cartoon, S3, Eps. 35 & 36; 1967)
We Are the World, recorded by Supergroup USA for Africa (Song; 1985)
Today’s Name Days
Caroline, Karoline, Manfred, Thomas (Austria)
Toma, Tomislav (Croatia)
Otýlie (Czech Republic)
Carolus, Karl, Magnus (Denmark)
Kaarel, Kaarli, Kaaro, Kalle, Karel, Karl, Karli, Karro (Estonia)
Kaarle, Kaarlo, Kalle, Mies (Finland)
Manfred, Thomas (France)
Karl, Karolina, Manfred, Thomas (Germany)
Haris, Palladios (Greece)
Karola, Károly (Hungary)
Tommaso, Valerio (Italy)
Kārlis, Spodris (Latvia)
Gedautas, Leonidas, Nijolė (Lithuania)
Karl, Karoline (Norway)
Agnieszka, Augustyn, Flawian, Ildefons, Julian, Karol, Leonidas, Piotr, Radomir, Roger, Waleriusz (Poland)
Efrem, Iacob, Paladie (Romania)
Alfonz (Slovakia)
Tomás (Spain)
Karl, Karla (Sweden)
Edward (Ukraine)
Carlotta, Charleen, Charlene, Charlotta, Charlotte, Charmaine, Manfred (USA)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 28 of 2024; 338 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 7 of week 4 of 2024
Celtic Tree Calendar: Luis (Rowan) [Day 8 of 28]
Chinese: Month 12 (Yi-Chou), Day 18 Xin-Mao()
Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)
Hebrew: 18 Shevat 5784
Islamic: 17 Rajab 1445
J Cal: 28 White; Sevenday [28 of 30]
Julian: 15 January 2024
Moon: 92%: Waning Gibbous
Positivist: 28 Moses (1st Month) [Muhammad)
Runic Half Month: Elhaz (Elk) [Day 4 of 15]
Season: Winter (Day 39 of 89)
Zodiac: Capricorn (Day 7 of 28)
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Christmas: divine humility, powerlessness & poverty are the foundation of all that exists
Scène du massacre des Innocents (“Scene of the massacre of the Innocents”),
By the Parisian painter, Léon Cogniet in 1824.
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Fr. Kenneth Tanner writes:
God takes the form of a baby because divine helplessness is greater than any other force in the universe.
When on the first Christmas divine humility and powerlessness and poverty are revealed as the foundation of all that exists, this revelation of God in the flesh threatens all human notions of power, all human leadership that rests on exertions of might and personal charisma.
Real Christmas was and remains political. The conception and birth of Jesus—the silent infant who in the beginning spoke all things into existence, and who holds all things together, the helpless child who can do nothing but lay their in glory, the government on his tiny shoulders—set a challenge to all other leaders and governments, visible and invisible.
All temporal rulers instinctively know they are bested here by an eternal kingdom of others-directed, self-sacrificial love that does not seek its own, that does not keep a record of wrongs, that is not jealous, that seeks to serve rather than to be served.
Herod knew the jig was up, that the age of self-seeking rulers was now exposed and that the game was over. Herod turned to murder to try to reimpose the old order, as have so many visible and invisible powers down the centuries since the Incarnation, since God took up permanent residence as a member of the human race in Jesus Christ.
I appreciate the way this artist captures the horror real infants and real mothers faced in the aftermath of the real Christmas, the infamous slaughter of male Hebrew children in and around Bethlehem that we remember today [fourth day of Christmastide].
Fleeting worldly powers desperate to hold on to a false authority that is being defeated by divine humility lash out. They always do, for violence is their defeated way of maintaining strength. God answers them then, now, and I the future with the surrender of a world-converting cross.
What they did not know is that in (eventually) killing Jesus Christ they reversed the permanence not only of their rule but of all their violent actions. Violence has no future because of this infant God.
These poor children and all who suffer violence in the meantime have in Jesus Christ a glorious way now to endure beyond suffering and death, to shine forever in the kingdom of their Father, while the kingdoms of this world and their violence await permanent, shameful expiration.
Remember the Innocents. We have inherited a kingdom; we await a world without end.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10220896286054288&set=a.2253573056187&type=3&theater
Fr. Kenneth Tanner is pastor at Holy Redeemer Church in Rochester, Michigan.
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Cogniet’s ‘Scène du massacre des Innocents’ asks us to examine ourselves, to consider why this woman would be so scared of us, to examine the ways we have been coopted by the forces of empire, and sided with the powerful over the weak and the poor.
Empires continue to clash. The powerful continue to victimize children to secure their political goals. Mothers still cradled doomed children in their arms all around the world.
Is this the greatest Christmas painting of all time?
https://mikefrost.net/greatest-christmas-painting-time/
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Dr. Esau McCaulley is an assistant professor of New Testament at Wheaton College and a priest in the Anglican Church in North America. He published an important piece in the New York Times about the ‘slaughter of the innocents.’
The Bloody Fourth Day of Christmas
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/27/opinion/christmas-feast-of-innocents.html
Here are some excerpts:
The Gospel of Matthew reports that an angel warns Jesus’ family of the impending danger, and they leave the country. Jesus spends the first years of his life on foreign soil, in Egypt. When he finally returns from Egypt, his family cannot settle in their ancestral home of Bethlehem because there is still unrest.
The Bible story, then, depicts Jesus as a refugee fleeing a nation marked by political violence and being displaced within his own country even after some of the violence settles down. And though he avoids murder by Herod, he does not escape death by the state altogether — three decades later, Pontius Pilate, an official of the Roman Empire, pronounces Jesus’ death sentence. Like Herod, Pilate does so to maintain power and remove a threat....
The church calendar calls Christians and others to remember that we live in a world in which political leaders are willing to sacrifice the lives of the innocent on the altar of power. We are forced to recall that this is a world with families on the run, where the weeping of mothers is often not enough to win mercy for their children. More than anything, the story of the innocents calls upon us to consider the moral cost of the perpetual battle for power in which the poor tend to have the highest casualty rate.
But how can such a bloody and sad tale do anything other than add to our despair? The Christmas story must be told in the context of suffering and death because that’s the only way the story makes any sense. Where else can one speak about Christmas other than in a world in which racism, sexism, classism, materialism and the devaluation of human life are commonplace? People are hurting, and the epicenter of that hurt, according to the Feast of the Holy Innocents, remains the focus of God’s concern.
This feast suggests that things that God cares about most do not take place in the centers of power. The truly vital events are happening in refugee camps, detention centers, slums and prisons. The Christmas story is set not in a palace surrounded by dignitaries but among the poor and humble whose lives are always subject to forfeit. It’s a reminder that the church is not most truly herself when she courts power. The church finds her voice when she remembers that God “has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble,” as the Gospel of Luke puts it.
The very telling of the Christmas story is an act of resistance. This is how the biblical story functioned for my ancestors who gathered in the fields and woods of the antebellum South. They saw in the Christian narrative an account of a God who cared for the enslaved and wanted more for them than the whip and the chain. For them Christianity did not merely serve the disinherited — it was for the disinherited, the “weak things” that shamed the strong.
Christians believe that none of this suffering was in vain. The cries of the oppressed do not go forever unanswered. We believe that the children slaughtered by Herod were ushered into the presence of God and will be with him for eternity. The Christian tradition also affirms that Jesus’ suffering served a purpose, that when the state ordered his death, God was at work. Through the slaughter of the truly innocent one, God was emptying death of its power, vanquishing evil and opening the path toward forgiveness and reconciliation.
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The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) has condemned organizers and planners of the “Christ at the Checkpoint” Conference for hosting Rev. Dr. Stephen Sizer, a well-known purveyor of anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
The conference is currently taking place in Oklahoma City as part of the organization’s concerted effort to turn Middle America away from supporting Israel.
One of the key points in the Christ at the Checkpoint ‘manifesto’ is that, “for Palestinian Christians, the occupation is the core issue of the conflict.”
“Sizer’s presence at a ‘peacemaking’ conference hosted in part by the United Methodist Church Foundation in Oklahoma is a shock,” said Dexter Van Zile, senior Christian media analyst for CAMERA. “Sizer’s animus toward Israel and his disdain for Jews is well-documented. He has demonized Israel and its supporters in the U.S. before audiences in Iran and Malaysia. He has posted anti-Semitic links on his social-media accounts.”
Sizer retired as a priest in the Church of England after a series of scandals prompted church officials to instruct him to remain silent about issues related to the Middle East. After retiring, he participated in a pro-Hezbollah conference that took place earlier this year in London.
“Sizer promotes a theological and political anti-Semitism that has made Jewish life increasingly difficult in England,” said Van Zile. “Why are Oklahoman Methodists helping to import his message to America’s heartland?”
He has also posted links to articles that blamed Israel for 9/11 and attended a conference in Iran devoted to promoting Holocaust denial.
“Christ at the Checkpoint has long been a forum for bigots and anti-Semites,” said Yona Schiffmiller, director of the North America desk at NGO Monitor. “Predictably, this gathering seems poised to follow in that dubious tradition. The decision to give a platform to a 9/11 conspiracy theorist—a participant in Iranian Holocaust-denial conferences—and to those who try to engage avowed terrorist organizations in ‘non-violence training’ exemplifies the radical agenda of this gathering’s organizers.”
Despite his troubled past, Sizer is scheduled to speak on Oct. 17 at the conference organized by officials from Bethlehem Bible College in the West Bank and staffers from the United Methodist Church Foundation in Oklahoma.
“Sizer has encouraged his followers to visit explicitly anti-Semitic websites,” said Van Zile. “Do conference organizers truly think that he is a ‘peacemaker?’”
Local Christians affiliated with the United Methodist Church Foundation in Oklahoma, who helped organize the “Christ at the Checkpoint” Conference, should have prevailed upon Palestinian Christians from the West Bank to keep Sizer off the agenda.
“Sizer was sanctioned by his superiors in the Church of England before his retirement and his books were remaindered by his publishers because of his irresponsible posts and undeniable animus,” said Van Zile. “Prominent Methodists played a significant role in organizing and publicizing this conference. Why are they helping Sizer get a stage in the U.S. when his own church and book publishers decided to keep him at arm’s length?
He added that “for Christian organizations to assist in the broadcasting of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories is profoundly irresponsible.”
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