Lunch with the Devil

Two little boys, Basilio 14-years-old and Bernardino 12-years-old, sit side-by-side in a cave. Warm flames of light lick the walls in the separate vault where they eat their lunch beside the devil.

The older boy warns his brother to always give honor to el Tio, so he will not kill their bodies and eat their souls. If they respect him, he will not crush them by the falling rocks of his teeth or destroy them with his poisonous breath. So, they gracefully sprinkle fists of crushed coca leaves onto Tio's lap. They adorn his cracked, clay torso with precious food.

Yet, Tio's red stone eyes remain starring, unmoved. The little brother says he doesn't like to look at Tio's face with his blackened nose, snarled lips, and straight horns jutting from his head. To calm his brother's fears, Basilio tells the story of Tio's birth:

"This Tio is from the time of the Spanish when they made the Indios work in the mines for days without seeing sunlight. Twenty hours of work, four hours of sleep. The Indios didn't want to work anymore. But the Spanish knew the Indios worshipped many gods, and they built this to frighten the Indios, saying if they didn't work, he would eat them. The Spanish called him Dio, but there was no "D" in their language, so the Indios called him Tio."

Even knowing the story of Tio's creation, the boys still draw dark sinewy devils onto the cave walls with their kerosene lamps. The community still sacrifices a llama and throws its blood onto the mine's face for the devil to drink. Above ground, in the sunlight, they worship God, but once underground they are in the devil's providence.

The local Catholic priest says to see such children working in the mines is to still see Jesus suffering on the Cross. But he says he cannot tell them outright they stray from the "true faith," he only tells them in church that God is more powerful. But belief in a mostly benevolent, protective force is one thing when you are 14 and get to go to school to learn about the planets and stars, throw water balloons at girls, and sit in a church full of candles and glass windows. Belief in a monster is reality when you go into the depths of the earth to feed yourself, your brother, mother, and baby sister. Basilio and Bernardino's father died too soon to save them from this adulthood.

Later we see Basilio in the deepest part of a different, bigger mine. The temperature is hellish, 105 degrees. Dust fills the air and lines the workers' eyelashes, nostrils, and lungs. Their faces turn as white as the pale Spanish that forced their ancestors to this work. Most miners in Cerro Rico die before 40 from Tio's explosions, gasses, cave-ins, or his slow curse of Silicosis. Indeed, belief in a real devil isn't so difficult when we see bodies crushed in the jaws of the world's lust for precious things.

Documentary The Devil's Miner

Religious Ruckus

I see this Fresh Air interview is causing a commotion over at NPR today (see comments). Some of them are quite vitriolic. Personally, I thought it was an interesting interview, although I don't agree with Ehrman about Jesus as primarily an apocalypticist. And it's not because I refuse to see Jesus as wrong. I've confronted that, and it doesn't bother me. I just don't see it as the core of Jesus' message. But, I must admit, I'm choosing to read the text/s that way.


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101389895


*Thanks for the recommendation Catherine. I'm interested in what you and others thought too.

Stupid people getting you down?

Just laugh and maybe sing.

Tonight we watched Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. I thought the songs were the best part. I really like "The Galaxy Song." Sadly, I've also got the song "Every Sperm is Sacred" reproducing itself over and over in my head-- very catchy tune. And seriously, how could anyone not love the lyrics to "Oh Lord, Please Don't Burn Us"?

Lyrics to "The Galaxy Song":

Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown,
And things seem hard or tough,
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft,
And you feel that you've had quite enough,

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour.
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.

The sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see,
Are moving at a million miles a day,
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of a galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars;
It's a hundred thousand light-years side to side;
It bulges in the middle sixteen thousand light-years thick,
But out by us it's just three thousand light-years wide.

We're thirty thousand light-years from Galactic Central Point,
We go 'round every two hundred million years;
And our galaxy itself is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding,
In all of the directions it can whiz;
As fast as it can go, the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is.

So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth;
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!

Lyrics to "O Lord Please Don't Burn Us":

O Lord, please don't burn us.
Don't grill or toast Your flock.
Don't put us on the barbecue
Or simmer us in stock.
Don't braise or bake or boil us
Or stir-fry us in a wok.
Oh, please don't lightly poach us
Or baste us with hot fat.
Don't fricassee or roast us
Or boil us in a vat,
And please don't stick Thy servants, Lord,
In a Rotissomat.
Amen.

Speaking of Faith

I really enjoy "Speaking of Faith" on Sunday mornings, when I remember to listen to it. Recently I discovered the podcast availability of all its programs.

I just finished listening to the one on Revenge and Forgiveness:

"Michael McCullough describes science that helps us comprehend how revenge came to have a purpose in human life. At the same time, he stresses, science is also revealing that human beings are more instinctively equipped for forgiveness than we've perhaps given ourselves credit for. Knowing this suggests ways to calm the revenge instinct in ourselves and others and embolden the forgiveness intuition."

Usually the hour-long program just helps me reflect on things I value, and it helps refocus my energy and thoughts. I always feel I learn something too. I really enjoyed the discussion with Polkinghorne "Quarks and Creation." Polkinghorne's description of God is one of the closest to my own way of thinking, to a large extent. Anyway, sometimes the music is cheesy, but for the most part, it's one of the best programs on various aspects of spirituality. I've also downloaded these episodes: The Spirituality of Parenting ; The Inner Landscape of Beauty; Inside Mormon Faith; and The Ethics of Eating. Most of them are pretty good.

Let me know if there is an episode you'd like to listen to, maybe we could discuss it further together. I'd be interested in other takes on any of them.

A sure sign of the impending apocalypse

The world is ending.

Jim Bakker has his own show again! I just saw this monstrosity while flipping through the t.v. stations. He came onto the stage with a microphone and his new wife Lori to sell religious jewelry, books, and t-shirts.

He shouts: "Proclaim your faith; show you're proud of Jesus through your jewelry; testify," and they cut to an image of a woman with a 5 inch, huge silver cross around her neck. Then they show her glittering bracelet with inscribed crosses. (Bling, bling).

Is it delusional of me to think the guy who overthrew the money-changers' tables in the temple might have a slight problem with this? (Or with selling t-shirts for $20.00 -- a so-called "love gift" for the ministry?)

They tell people the t-shirts are 20 bucks, but if you send in $100, they'll give you six t-shirts instead of five. This is the message:

Christ is
Christmas

And Jim points to the shirt held up in front of him with his index finger: "'Christ,' 'Christmas'-- 'Christ,' -- 'mas' -- get it? Isn't that clever and brilliant!?"

Because Christmas isn't about materialism; it's about Christ, right Jim? He concludes: "Now who in your friends and family wouldn't enjoy that under their tree?"

Then some guy starts singing: “without him, Christmas lights would all be dim.”

Next, they sit down to chat about prosperity, turducken, and witchcraft: "If you're a Christian, you don't have to worry about witchcraft." And they hand out talking, plastic "Word of God" swords-- that say "The word of God is mightier than any sword"-- to three kids in the studio audience. (They're in Branson, Missouri from what I can gather).

After that, they continue "selling" things, although Jim keeps saying "selling" and he gets corrected by the singing guy that they are "offering" love gifts, not "selling" them.

(Only, you have to pay for them with love, which means dollars).

How to Preserve a Husband

Mom and especially Daughter don't look so excited here do they? Rather a cheerless cover for a cookbook if you ask me. I guess it gives off an authentic ol' timey and homey vibe. Anyway, my mom and sister have had fun reading this cookbook. Mom rediscovered it in her pile of recipe books. My sister greatly enjoyed the directions for "How to Preserve a Husband." You'll notice it's squeezed in between recipes for "White Bread" and "Mom's Hot Rolls." May I also draw your attention to "Boise Potato Biscuits" and "Missionary Valley Yam Biscuits"? Bon appétit.


Here's the text for how to preserve a husband, if you can't see it:

How to Preserve a Husband

Be careful in your selection; do not choose too young and take only such varieties as have been reared in a good moral atmosphere. When once decided upon and settled, let that part remain forever settled and give your entire thought to preparation for domestic use. Some insist on keeping them in a pickle while others are constantly getting them in hot water. Poor varieties may be made sweet, tender and good by garnishing them with patience, well sweetened with smiles and flavored with kisses to taste; then wrap well in a mantle of charity, keep warm with a steady fire of domestic devotion and serve with peaches and cream. When thus prepared they will keep for years.

"Man accused of stealing communion wafers"

Ok, this story made me smile, although I do not condone stealing communion, especially if you have to wrestle an 82 year old person for it. :)

"Head Knowledge"

I read over this yesterday while proctoring. I thought I'd share. They have them in the hallway of a science building for some reason.

Religulous

So, I got J.D. to take me to this movie to cheer me up Saturday after I didn't get to go to the Obama rally.

Basically, Bill Maher goes around questioning and sometimes harassing people about their religion. Anyone attending this film shouldn't be surprised by its antagonistic tone, although I think Maher is decent to most of the people he meets.

Maher begins the film standing in Megiddo, the location believed by most Christians to be the place where Jesus will return during Armageddon. Maher's underlying point about religion, and I absolutely agree with him here, is that apocalyptic visions of the world's end matter, especially now, since we have the power to kill each other on massive scales. I also have a problem with apocalyptic creeds and mindsets because if we are not trying to save the world, and if destruction is really God's plan, then it clears us of the responsibility of doing our best to avoid war and violence and to take care of each other and our planet. Maher has a great line about the particular danger of self-fulfilling prophecies.

The movie will make most people laugh at points I think, if people have any sense of humor, but I also think it's targeted at the minority of agnostics Maher wants to spur into vocality, not the truly religious people. On the surface, Maher is trying to make people question their firmly held beliefs, but that will never work in a film where people go in feeling defensive.

The film also get things wrong, as it is interested in broad strokes not the details. The small bit on Mormonism presents the idea of God's physical intimacy with Mary as a standard, completely accepted teaching. Previously, I had never heard about this at all. It appears that some church leaders have talked about it, but if you ask most LDS people-- I'm guessing-- they won't know what you're talking about. While it is dramatic and makes for perhaps some interesting movie making, it's not entirely fair.

Ultimately, Bill Maher himself is on a quest. He goes around, sort of like Jesus, trying to ask people parables, trying to get them to question their absolutely accepted beliefs. But from Jesus' life we should learn that people generally don't know how to handle doubt. People generally don't react well to having their world views turned upside down, or even questioned. (Maher may want to watch out).

Maher's quest is really to find the cynic in everyone. He finds a few, like the lovable crack-pot priest outside the Vatican, who appears to not actually believe much of Catholicism. But mostly, he finds people that will just never see from his point of view the silliness of belief in alien overlords, virgin birth, living inside a giant fish, or speaking serpents. But Maher is the equal and opposite of all literalists. He examines only the literal stories and not any metaphorical interpretations. He isn't interested in them. He condemns all religion, as inherently silly, with no reserve, even as he himself operates on the premise of a huge leap of faith.

He believes that humanity is rational. We're not. We have rational capacities and we occasionally do something rational, but the human is not a rational machine, by any means.

Maybe Maher's message of the power of doubt will make some people think twice, but it seems he is mostly preaching to the choir.

Quiet

I love the hush of everything when it snows. You can stand in the middle of a city and hear nothing. There are thousands of people hiding away in their houses, apartments, and rooms, but you can't hear one of them. Walking home Tuesday night it was cold. A damp, light snow was beginning to fall. I walked briskly, but then I saw how the snow seemed like a revelation in the street light, and I slowed down. I stood perfectly still. There are small blessings that assuage us when our hearts are most heavy. How was snow in the orange lamp light a revelation? It was beautiful. Sometimes the rare incidence of beauty, however insignificant, is what we most need.
Image from: SnowCrystals.com.

The Earnestness of My Agnosticism

I always get a little annoyed when people equate atheism with agnosticism. They are not the same. Atheism is closer to religious belief; they are opposing sides regarding the absolute declaration of what "Is" or "Is Not."


It's also annoying when people think agnostics are just individuals who don't care. It might be true for some, but for me, it's a very deeply pondered ethical question. Because I care, I believe living in a state of perpetual questioning is a state of awareness, rather than saying I "know" the secrets of the universe. God doesn't mind about not revealing herself personally and directly to me, so I don't think she'll be offended by my doubt.


"Faith is an act of a finite being who is grasped by, and turned to, the infinite." -Paul Tillich


Soul: integrated, vital potential open to the future of an organism. To say "[he/she] had a generous soul, is all that needs said."