Mere Christianity

There is a nice little comment battle at Mere Comments following this post (and apparently continued here). Assuming you are like me, and don't have time to read the whole e-debate, I'll reproduce my favorite part.

Here is a comment by a reader, David:

Mr. Hutchens and Mr. Nicoloso,

During time of year where we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace why not take a break from 'discussing' the problems a Christian group of which you are not a part of? We Evangelicals are certainly not immune from criticism, and I wouldn't deny you your voice, but perhaps a better use of our voices right now would be to join together and sing, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!"

We have many differences, and they matter, and I don't propose ignoring them. But I think a Mere Comments version of the WWI Christmas Truce would help us remember that we have so much more in common. And that it what I appreciate most about Touchstone.

And a great response from S.M. Hutchins:

Alas, David, if only we could.

But I have before me an Evangelical Bible (the TNIV) that makes the angels' song, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests"--"men" (anthropois) removed.

Who should give up his principles to join the angel choir? Will the egalitarian sing "men," or the rest of us sing "those"? Do you begin to see what kind of damage has been done by the innovators--what kind of wound they have inflicted upon the Church? It does not stop bleeding during Christmas. If anything, it gets worse.

The egalitarians, whose translation this is, constantly involve us in nothing less than the question of whether we worship the same God. They must consequently worship in their own places, and we will worship in ours. They should have thought of their inevitable estragement from Christendom before they changed the Bible. Or maybe they did.

Yours is a nice thought, but while there may be lulls in the battle, there can be no truce.

Not only must we keep the nativity at the center of Christmas (per Pope Benedict), but we must keep striving for the absolute Truth of it all. Merry Christmas!

Is She Still the Material Girl?

I don't think this article is very surprising, but it does allow me to write a sentence I would have never thought possible -- Maybe we should take a parenting cue from Madonna:

"Television is poison," said one mother, whose children are banned from watching it, apart from one video on Sundays. This rule was set by none other than pop star Madonna.

I just hope her kids don't choose a video she was in.

On Boards of Governors (or, a blog on BoGs, if you will)

Continuing the flood of information on the internet concerning the Ave Maria schools (you can find all the dirty laundry here), I thought I would draw attention to a particularly insightful part of That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis. This section of the book concerns a board meeting at Bracton College. Bracton College is an institution under the control of a small group of men, called the Progressive Element. The college owns a certain tract of land called Bragdon Wood (which, incidentally, may be the burial site of Merlin). The reader is told that"[t]he most controversial business before the College Meeting was the question of selling Bragdon Wood." Yet even though this was the most important issue the school was facing, it was not given its proper respect:

The Progressive Element managed its business really very well. Most of the Fellows did not know when they came into the Soler that there was any question of selling the Wood. They saw, of course, from their agenda paper that item Fifteen was, "Sale of College land," but as that appeared at almost every College Meeting, they were not very interested. On the other hand, they did see that item One was, "Questions about Bragdon Wood." These were not concerned with the proposed sale. . . .

The meeting continues on for several pages. It is quite interesting to read as the Progressive Element manipulates the "outsiders" by deceit and double talk. The Progressive Element has already as much as committed to the sale of the Wood, but now they are engaged more in preemptive damage control with the others who care about the college.

Mark Studdock, a young Fellow at the College and one of the central characters of the story, also helps explain the actions of the few men in control of the college:

Three years ago, if Mark Studdock had come to a College Meeting at which such a question was to be decided, he would have expected to hear the claims of sentiment against progress and beauty against utility openly debated. Today . . . he expected no such matter. He knew now that that was not the way things were done.

This meeting takes place within the first 25 pages of the book, where the readers are learning of a new reality filled with many new people. Lewis, being a very deliberate author, uses these early scenes to shape the reader's impression of the characters. Addressing a general distinction in characters--good guys versus bad guys--the reader is quickly made aware through the dishonest leadership of the Progressive Element that they are not aligned with the good guys.

I hope that once the Ave Maria story is fully told it will sound less like Bracton College than it currently seems. Based on the actions of Ave's own Progressive Element, I am not too optimistic. Of course, in the Ave Maria story, the Progressive Element has to face characters with much greater virtue than Mark Studdock, which will at least make its work much more difficult.

A Few Quick Thoughts on Christmas

1. Pope Benedict XVI is preaching the truth again.

2. This interesting post of the clash of the religious and secular holiday is a must read.

3. My son's M.I.N.O. (Montessori in name only) daycare has a "holiday" tree. -- The camel's back is almost breaking. I wouldn't care too much, but I think it is fair to expect a Montessori school to be Catholic.

4. Kwanzaa is not a real holiday. Look at the etymology of the word holiday (Holy day). Kwanzaa was created as a tool of the civil rights movement. That may be a worthy and noble cause, but a holiday it is not.

5. If Kwanzaa is a holiday, then so is Festivus.

Ave Maria (Not the School, But the Words of the Angel)

In honor of the Holy Day, check out this post and ensuing comments.

The 25th Aniversary of John Lennon's Assassination

TO AN ATHLETE DYING YOUNG
by A. E. Housman

The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.

To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:

Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.

So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.

And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl's.

Islam and ID

Maybe it is cynicism, but I don't think that ID will be the ecumenical bridge between Christianity and Islam. This is an very interesting article, nonetheless.

Refresher Course on Terrorism

On "Face the Nation" this Sunday, John Kerry discussed how American soldiers were terrorizing women and children (see p. 3-4 of the transcript):

And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs.

"Terrorizing" is a great Kerry word--it obviously shares the same root as "terrorism," which achieves the emotional reaction he desired, but is vague enough in meaning that he can explain himself out of any criticism over the comments.

But it seems Senator Kerry was not paying attention to the tragic news of the previous week and confused just who was terrorizing children:

A suicide attacker steered a car packed with explosives toward U.S. soldiers giving away toys to children outside a hospital in central Iraq on Thursday, killing at least 31 people. Almost all of the victims were women and children, police said.

I wonder if Kerry is reading the papers today as, unfortunately, the real terror continues.

Happy St. Nicholas Day

I am a little embarrased to admit this, but in all my Christmases past, I have never read "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." Fortunately, I remedied my flaw this year, and was rewarded immensely. This fantastic letter is one of the greatest pieces of Christmas literature ever written. It is filled so deeply with wonder and truth that it is hard to believe it was actually printed in a newspaper. While a simple "no" answer to the question of whether Santa Claus existed may have satisfied most of his readers, the author communicated greater truth in his answer to Virginia--truth like that which is offered by the voice of God (using the words of Tolkien) to John (the Lewis Character) in The Pilgrim's Regress:

Child, if you will, it is mythology. It is but truth, not fact: an image, not the very real. But then it is My mythology . . . this is My inventing, this is the veil under which I have chosen to appear even from the first until now. For this end I made your senses and for this end your imagination, that you might see My face and live. What would you have? Have you not heard among the Pagans the story of Semele? Or was there any age in any land when men did not know that corn and wine were the blood and body of a dying and yet living God?

So, in the spirit of Christmas and the celebration of St. Nicholas Day, I have reprinted the original letter and a modern response (in verse) below.

Is There a Santa Claus?
From the Editorial Page of The New York Sun,written by Francis P. Church, September 21, 1897

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

"Dear Editor--I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, 'If you see it in The Sun, it's so.' Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?"

Virginia O'Hanlon
115 West Ninety-fifth Street

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the scepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no child-like faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.



"Reply to Francis P. Church of the New York Sun"

To Church of the Sun, a name never more apt
For the gift that you gave the readers of your paper
Through all the news, no truth has been said greater
In the century that has since past.

Spurred on by words of the littlest child
Innocence still safe from skeptics and sinners
Complemented by your sense, your wit, and your wisdom
You cut to our hearts, through the bones and the lies.

So you explained Christmas and angels and fairies
Woven through reference to beauty and love
As sure as the Crucifix, flesh, and His blood
Eternal truths viewed through our simplest stories.

When does an idea become real to man
When broken down, catalogued, fully explained
When reduced to a form with a patented name
When held out by Thomas and touched by our hands?

Not so, Lord. Not so! Says the Church of the Sun
Or else we've lost poetry, romance, and passion
Or else we've lost childhood and vision of heaven
And we've lost life worth living once all that is gone.

So our fantasy, faith, even pagan beliefs
Whether Hercules, Aslan, or Santa Claus
Ten times ten thousand years still going strong
Will keep the world moving; unproven, unseen.

So to Church of the Sun, from times turned absurd
Where your simple sentiments wouldn't be news
Though the world closed its eyes and buried the truth
I believe in Virginia and I cherish your words.

News From the Ukraine

If Thomas Paine was still around revolution-hopping today, I believe that these would be the times that would try his soul.*

A year after the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine, democracy is sputtering under the new government. It would be nice to see the new government thrive, especially as the United States is pushing for democracy around the globe. Of course, Rome was not built in a day and it does seem like Yushchenko should get more than a year to turn the country around.

Since the above paragraph has exhausted my knowledge of Ukrainian politics, I have no more thoughts on their political situation. As a tangential thought, the article does provide a little lesson on overregulation:

What happened to the price of meat is a good example. Yushchenko's team increased pensions after retirees said they could no longer afford meat. But Yushchenko also shut down the black market meat-import business, fulfilling a pledge to fight corruption.

The result? Pensioners' demand for meat grew, while supply decreased. Prices doubled, leaving pensioners again complaining that they couldn't afford meat and making matters worse for millions more people.

Yushchenko's effort to undo the corrupt sales of government-owned businesses to cronies of longtime President Leonid Kuchma also was disastrous.

The government's plan was to take back businesses it believed had been bought through bribes or rigged bidding, then to resell them legitimately.

But the program so unsettled the business climate that investment slowed.

Be it meat prices, health care, or anything else, government control is a bad idea. The United States government, for example, was built upon purposeful inefficiencies, so it doesn't make sense that we should expect the government to improve upon the performance of private individuals and businesses. As Thomas Sowell said, "Most of us--if not all of us--are grossly incompetent at other people's jobs. That is why it is so dangerous to have politicians telling doctors, farmers, bankers, entrepreneurs and others what to do."



*If Thomas Paine was still around revolution-hopping, I wonder if he could get the world rallied against the government in Sudan.

Free Speech and Video Games

A federal judge invalidated an Illinois law banning the sale of violent or sexual video games to minors. It isn't really surprising, considering what else passes as free speech. Of course, the real loser after this ruling is Hillary Clinton, because the judge took away her one safe moral issue. It was not controversial, yet it allowed her to demonstrate her "morality." 2008 is coming quick, the senator may need some suggestions for a replacement.

Chessboxing

I've just discovered my new favorite sport. I couldn't hold my own in either component of the game, but it sounds quite exciting.

Men Without Heads

A couple of breakthroughs in science this week:

1. Men and women are different.

I always had a hunch, but I guess now I can really be sure--men and women are different. As the article states, "The science proves it." Thank goodness we have science, otherwise we may have to trust observation or reason.

The best part is that these scientists are not done with this study:

"The larger implications of this work, as well as other work pointing in the same direction, is that we may increasingly find out that there are differences in the 'hard wiring' of male and female brains."

"We'd like to push forward in this area," added Bell, a Killam scholar at the U of A. "It hasn't been seen yet how this information can be used to help patients, but more work in this area may lead to that."

Let's hope their funding keeps pouring in, we may discover more differences between men and women. Oh, the possibilities!

2. There is something common to all humanity, no matter what race or nationality.

Ok, this one is technically billed as "art," not science, but it is technology that has allowed these people to understand the commonality shared by all humans:

Marwa Morsi, a 16-year-old junior in the school's Arts, Humanities and Communications Academy, was taken by the machine's promotion of unity. The deeper message of the race machine, said Morsi, who is of Middle Eastern descent, was that "everyone's the same on the inside. It's the outside that's different."

This common link of all people was demonstrated in a fascinating way:

Within seconds, the machine morphs his image, projecting color photos of how Hawthorne, who considers himself white, would look if he were Asian, black, Hispanic, East Indian and Middle Eastern. Hawthorne, a fine-arts major at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, W.Va., says he sees a bit of himself in each picture.

Of course he sees a bit of himself in each picture! It is still a picture of him, just morphed with another photo. Who knew the end to racism could be found in Adobe Photoshop?

It's just a funny article all around, but I have to give the creator of the race machine some credit. At least she recognized the irony of having to use physical stereotypes to create a machine that is supposed to break down stereotypes:

Then Burson chose the "most representative photographs of each race" to develop composites, she said, adding that this process was the most difficult. She felt as if it went against the principles of nonjudgment and racial unity the machine was meant to represent, she said.

"I struggled with . . . 'You know, everybody is beautiful to me. Now I have to decide what's going to look better. What's going to blend better. What composite can I arrive at that's going to blend with everybody's faces,' " Burson recalled. "I felt like I was judging people on their appearance."

[Also, as a disclaimer to anyone who thinks this race machine is real art, I concede that I have no taste. My wife loves Mark Rothko, but I can't tell the difference between his level of talent and what it took Warhol to do his Oxidation Paintings.]

What if Fooball Was Reported Like the War?

This article is great.

Tolkien on Ave Maria School of Law

(Well, not exactly Tolkien on Ave Maria School of Law, but close . . .)

With a Wall Street Journal opinion piece (and a response from the Dean) as a catalyst, Ave Maria School of Law and the looming move to Florida has become a hot topic on several blogs. You can read some of the discussions here, here, here, here, here, and here (I'm sure you can find plenty of other sites if you still thirst for more).

I won't share my opinion of the move, which is surely irrelevant to you compared to the prospect of Tolkien's thoughts. For that, we turn to an interesting article on Christian Colleges from Touchstone Magazine:

In The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien gives us a picture of a place dramatically out of step with the “real world.” His Rivendell is an elvish haven, a place of safety where the constantly harried heroes of the story can recover from their wounds and prepare themselves for the tests and trials ahead of them. It is not a place for them to live indefinitely. After leaving Rivendell they will face horrible evil and endure constant peril. But they will be able to draw from their experience and be nourished by the conviction that there is an ideal worth defending and attaining to, because they have seen it.

And so it is with college. The argument that Christian colleges are not enough like the real world is like suggesting that Rivendell fails the heroes by not being enough like Mordor. A Christian college is properly an elevated thing, a city on a hill, a marked departure from the world around it. The strength of Rivendell keeps the evil things at a distance for a time, allowing the heroes to sojourn, to grow strong, and to make sound plans. To listen to the critics of Christian colleges, you would think that the very strength of Rivendell is itself sinister, enfeebling the heroes and needlessly delaying the inevitable.

Take it for what you will. There are many other issues involved in this controversy--some known, some probably forever unknown. I suppose a Lord of the Rings comparison doesn't provide much solace for the students and alumni who are witnessing their beloved school plagued with such uncertainty and turmoil. But, if the students are expected to remain in a state of (blissful?) ignorance, at least Rivendell is a more promising destination than Jonestown.