The War, Addendum One
Having a blog to augment a webzine is awesome. Here is where I get to lay it all out, even though I hope to do that at the 'zine only a bit more formally. The difference with the blog is that I can just talk-- you may get a bit more of me.
I want to talk in this post about my latest piece. (It's here if you haven't seen it yet.) I went into it thinking I'd have that baby down and out and bam there it is. But as I got going with it, it just started to overwhelm me. I just found so much stuff that amplifies the harrowing reality of The War. I just had the damndest time leaving things out.
So here with the blog I can add stuff, and with the 'zine at future dates I can go into other areas of The War. One such area that I'm thinking about looking into is a great theological question that has certainly been addressed before, and that is, "Does Jesus Christ commit violent acts?" I mean, what's the deal with that question? Well, that's for later.
For now, here's this piece on The War. I've had to work really hard not to go back and do too much tinkering with it. I uploaded it last Sunday, made a few alterations (mostly grammatical) the past couple of days, and I mean it, I'm going to leave it like that. There it is.
So here's more of that stuff.
Just yesterday I looked at the latest Time magazine (May 7, 2007), and came across this article. "How to prevent the next Darfur. Step one: Get serious about climate change."
Now as a follower of Christ, at least in America, I'm supposed to display such modicum of comportment that I'm damn near stoic. "Ooo, don't get mad at anything, then you'll give away your certainty that Jesus has everything in his hands, now..." "Ooo, don't feel to deeply about things, after all you know Calvin was right about God deciding it all beforehand anyway so what difference does it make." (Okay, don't get me started on that now...)
But this Time magazine thing. Yeah, I feel deeply when I see things like that, because they are so insipid. Really, this headline could have just as easily said, "How to prevent the next case of Type II diabetes. Step one: fix the left taillight on my Chevy."
Yes, I get angry. Yes, I even weep because people read this and treat it with any seriousness at all. Here's what the reality is for the people of Darfur, and I'll put it exactly the way it should be:
"How to prevent the next Darfur. Step one: introduce them to Jesus Christ."
Here're the facts of it. The world will always have places where it is a bit more inhospitable for people to live. I think I saw there were a few more individuals who've taken up residence in New York City than, say, a place of similar size in the middle of the Sahara Desert.
So if there is a place that is desolate, then here's the solution: Get them to a place that's conducive for habitation.
Oh yeah? They're stuck there you say? Why? Because people who haven't known Christ haven't been able to love enough to help them. In fact, wretched people have been let loose in whatever capacity-- government, business, rebellion, whatever it is it doesn't matter-- to exploit them and they do that because they live in a fetid darkness that only Christ can dispel.
The War is all over this because too many well-meaning people get in the mix and offer all kinds of humanist "solutions" to the Darfur situation and all it does is keep these people in destitution. They utilize the great deception they've been taught by operatives assigned the task of keeping people in this crap, and one critical part of that pathetic deceit is simply that Jesus Christ is a fairy tale.
"Oh yes we respect Jesus and his followers but well, he's just a fairy tale so keep him out of our serious people's serious attempts to help the poor struggling Sudanese."
Eeerr-ralpharrgh.
Yeah, just feeling it.
And there is so much of this kind of pukifying pap that I want to throw up sometimes. There's just so damn much more than this.
But joy! Much more to address for future blogs. Got to stop there, before my brain explodes. My heart cracks in a dozen places. Or worse... I don't know. Something worse. But that's not hard looking at The War.
Needless to say there is The Ambassador, from whom I get sanctuary. I just pray incessantly that others would find their sanctuary from Him as well.
For more thoughts on Darfur, I did a home page piece a few months ago about it.
I want to talk in this post about my latest piece. (It's here if you haven't seen it yet.) I went into it thinking I'd have that baby down and out and bam there it is. But as I got going with it, it just started to overwhelm me. I just found so much stuff that amplifies the harrowing reality of The War. I just had the damndest time leaving things out.
So here with the blog I can add stuff, and with the 'zine at future dates I can go into other areas of The War. One such area that I'm thinking about looking into is a great theological question that has certainly been addressed before, and that is, "Does Jesus Christ commit violent acts?" I mean, what's the deal with that question? Well, that's for later.
For now, here's this piece on The War. I've had to work really hard not to go back and do too much tinkering with it. I uploaded it last Sunday, made a few alterations (mostly grammatical) the past couple of days, and I mean it, I'm going to leave it like that. There it is.
So here's more of that stuff.
Just yesterday I looked at the latest Time magazine (May 7, 2007), and came across this article. "How to prevent the next Darfur. Step one: Get serious about climate change."
Now as a follower of Christ, at least in America, I'm supposed to display such modicum of comportment that I'm damn near stoic. "Ooo, don't get mad at anything, then you'll give away your certainty that Jesus has everything in his hands, now..." "Ooo, don't feel to deeply about things, after all you know Calvin was right about God deciding it all beforehand anyway so what difference does it make." (Okay, don't get me started on that now...)
But this Time magazine thing. Yeah, I feel deeply when I see things like that, because they are so insipid. Really, this headline could have just as easily said, "How to prevent the next case of Type II diabetes. Step one: fix the left taillight on my Chevy."
Yes, I get angry. Yes, I even weep because people read this and treat it with any seriousness at all. Here's what the reality is for the people of Darfur, and I'll put it exactly the way it should be:
"How to prevent the next Darfur. Step one: introduce them to Jesus Christ."
Here're the facts of it. The world will always have places where it is a bit more inhospitable for people to live. I think I saw there were a few more individuals who've taken up residence in New York City than, say, a place of similar size in the middle of the Sahara Desert.
So if there is a place that is desolate, then here's the solution: Get them to a place that's conducive for habitation.
Oh yeah? They're stuck there you say? Why? Because people who haven't known Christ haven't been able to love enough to help them. In fact, wretched people have been let loose in whatever capacity-- government, business, rebellion, whatever it is it doesn't matter-- to exploit them and they do that because they live in a fetid darkness that only Christ can dispel.
The War is all over this because too many well-meaning people get in the mix and offer all kinds of humanist "solutions" to the Darfur situation and all it does is keep these people in destitution. They utilize the great deception they've been taught by operatives assigned the task of keeping people in this crap, and one critical part of that pathetic deceit is simply that Jesus Christ is a fairy tale.
"Oh yes we respect Jesus and his followers but well, he's just a fairy tale so keep him out of our serious people's serious attempts to help the poor struggling Sudanese."
Eeerr-ralpharrgh.
Yeah, just feeling it.
And there is so much of this kind of pukifying pap that I want to throw up sometimes. There's just so damn much more than this.
But joy! Much more to address for future blogs. Got to stop there, before my brain explodes. My heart cracks in a dozen places. Or worse... I don't know. Something worse. But that's not hard looking at The War.
Needless to say there is The Ambassador, from whom I get sanctuary. I just pray incessantly that others would find their sanctuary from Him as well.
For more thoughts on Darfur, I did a home page piece a few months ago about it.
Comments
Post a Comment