Favorite Books and Journey Into Humanity - Part 2

I am moving away from writing out my responses to Katrina, and resuming an earlier plan to write about why I listed some books as my favorite books. There are a certain number of books that have had an important place in shaping how I today think and face life. The Bible is the first and foremost of those books, and other books that I will mention have been important because they have helped me to see truths revealed in the Bible that I had not seen so clearly until someone pointed out certain themes. While there will be something akin to book reviews in these articles, these articles will not be so much book articles as a history of how I have come to understand some things. Hopefully there will be readers of this work that will be able to see a little of their own lives parallel to mine, and for others something to think about, and for others perhaps they will simply be able to say, "Wow this guy is really messed up and I am glad I am not like that man."
In the first article of this series, I told of how playing with an electrical fusebox as a child turned into a lesson about the importance of truth. My pursuit of "the truth" started out in those days and early on, the pursuit of truth meant for me that only what was seen could be trusted. As my family was not a religious family, religious concepts were not part of what was to be viewed as true. By the time, I was about seven or eight, I regarded religion, Jesus, the Bible and God, much as others would regard Santa Claus. But then a neighbor lady, Mrs. Taylor, offered to take me to Sunday School. My parents thought that was a good idea because religion teaches people to do good, and anything that teaches people to do good is a good idea.
Although, I initially felt betrayed at having to go to church, when I did not really believe anything about church, the Sunday School classes soon had an impact on my life. I especially liked the little Sunday School paper that had Bible stories. Within a few months, I found myself daydreaming about a whole new group of heroes including David, Moses, Gideon, and others. I began reading the Bible. I was especially impressed by the lives of faith that resisted the tendencies of the people in each generation. I began seeing that the Bible spoke of words from God that motivated men and women to live differently than those around them. In the next few years I would especially read the Old Testament. I did not read as much of the New Testament as the Old Testament. In the Sunday School I attended a lot was made of how the New Testament taught God's love and forgiveness and the Old Testament taught His holiness and wrath. I was impressed by the Old Testament men and women, and believed that by comparison the New Testament did not require near so much from people. It seemed a step backwards from the utter holiness of God found in the Old Testament. But I must also admit that this impression was something of a direct result of reading the Old Testament firsthand, while merely being told what the New Testament taught. By the time I was out of high school I had read the Old Testament at least four times, (although I read real fast and mostly skimmed some of the parts like some of those found in Leviticus.
While I don't recall coming to a philosophical conclusion that the Bible was God's holy inspired word, I can say that increasingly I found myself conquered by the Bible. What started out as a child's love for dramatic figures like David fighting Goliath, or like Moses facing Pharaoh and crossing the Wilderness became more and more someone who was confronted by the Holy God who sent the Prophets and called Israel out of Egypt.
But, my views of religion and of the Bible were often not pleasant. I remember how each week I would decide that maybe this week I would not sin. I would try to live by God's commands both in what I did and also without hypocrisy. That meant not only would I not steal, but also that I would not covet. I would not say bad words or even want to say bad words. I found myself increasingly thinking that God was really demanding. Every act of obedience seemed only to prove that my obedience was not sufficient for a holy God.
During my senior year in High School, in a World literature class, our teacher assigned from our textbook our reading of the Sermon on the Mount. Since I had pretty much not read the New Testament, I was very surprised as I read the Sermon on the Mount. I read the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5 through Matthew 7 and my thoughts were, wow Jesus speaks like the prophets. It was an important breakthrough because now I saw the same burning passion for holiness in Christ that had so impressed me in the Old Testament writings.
But there was still something missing, and I found myself more impressed by the Scriptures but also saw myself increasingly as a sinner who lacked God's holiness. My thoughts were not only depressed because I was a sinner but also angry because God seemed to demand so much of me, and I could not see any way that I could begin to do what His holiness required of me.
It was then that I read a book. It was not a book that I would even recommend now, but the book told me something I had never really given a lot of thought to. In one part of the book, it told how God the Father had sent His Son to die for our sins and that our salvation was possible because Christ had taken our sins upon Himself and had given God's perfect righteousness to us. That was a turning point. I had become increasingly angry with God about all of His demands for perfection. I had even gotten down on my knees once to complain about how I could never keep all His commands, and complained about how I had been created. I even declared my independence from God and had begun to determine to live apart from Him. But this changed everything. God had so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. He had so loved this sinner that He took my sin upon Himself on the cross, while providing His perfect righteousness to become my righteousness before God.
There was a time when I looked back at how I had become a reader of the Bible before I ever embraced the Christian faith, and thought it meant I had come to God through the Bible alone. But, now I look back at the same time in my life and see that though I learned many things through the Bible, that I had no real understanding of faith in Christ until Christians told me of what Christ had done in His death, burial and resurrection.
In recent years I have come to appreciate that the Bible is truly the Word of God but also that it is a book that is meant to be taught by a living church. St. Paul expressed it in a letter to Timothy when he wrote, "But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." I Timothy 3:15,16.
In those words Paul informs Timothy that he wishes to remain around Timothy and those around Timothy so as to first instruct them how they should behave in the Church. The Church is a non-negotiable place where Christian obedience to the Word of God must be worked out. The Church is the pillar of the truth that enables the truth to not fall to the ground or into utter chaos.
F.F. Bruce once commented on the Scriptures and their relationship to the life of the Church known as the living tradition. He writes these words:
The living tradition, the continuity of Christian existence and witness is indispensible. Without it, the interpretation of Scripture would lose its context. Suppose the church had been wiped out in the last imperial persecution about the beginning of the fourth century and all her Scriptures had been lost, to be rediscovered in our days like the Dead Sea Scrolls, what would their effect be? Would their witness prove even so to be God's power of salvation, as we know it in our experience, or would the Scriptures, like the scrolls, be little more than an archaelogical curiosity and a subject for historical debate? It is a question worth pondering. (F.F. Bruce, A Mind for What Matters, Eerdman's Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1990, p.277.)
Bruce's question fortunately is a theoretical question because God has declared that the church would prevail against the Gates of hell and has declared that His Word is settled in the heavens. The Scriptures and the Church continually live forever together. Wherever the Bible becomes a churchless book it becomes an individual's book of quotations to be used to further a man's own opinions. Wherever a church forsakes the authority of Holy Scripture that church becomes a parody of faith pursuing every latest folly fancifully dreamed to be progress. But where the Church lives in obedience to the Scriptures as taught to her by the Holy Apostles under Christ's authority the Church is the pillar and ground of truth that acts like Phillip with the Ethiopian eunuch who needed someone to explain what he was reading.
So, it was in my own experience. I was invited and sent to Sunday School, where I was introduced to Bible stories. The Bible taught me about a holy God, and yet I was unable to put everything the Bible taught me in a way that enabled me to see God as my Redeemer or Christ as my Savior. But then Christians came into my life to explain the way more carefully. I became part of a Christian group in my early days in college and by my sophomore year in college was baptized into the church, which is appropriate for baptism into Christ is also without hesitation baptism into the Church, which is His body.

Katrina and Remembering honor in public discourse

Since taking up blogging, I have had a fresh sense of how easily one becomes arrogant and foolish on the web. When a public speaker faces a crowd, he sees when people do not like the way something is said. When speaking face to face, the speaker gets a sense that he is offending someone and often moderates his speech. When a writer writes an article that has to be approved or go through the filter of a publisher, he may be questioned before his words pass into the public forum. But in blogging, the writer sits at his computer and can make a darned fool of himself without anyone to stop him, and without seeing an offended face that makes him think about how and what he is saying. In public, face to face, we generally think of whether or not we are offending people and then determine if the offense is necessary or not. I am grateful that not too many people probably read what I am writing, and at the same time as I like to write I am also grateful that as I blog and read my blogs I am hopefully gradually learning to anticipate what should and should not be said.
I think this will be the last blog I make on Katrina, at least that is my plan. I am thinking especially how leaders and rulers were treated during the past week. The Bible teaches us to honor leaders and rulers among people. It even teaches us to honor people whose positions and stances we must oppose. In Acts 23, we read of how St. Paul spoke before the Jewish council. When Ananias ordered Paul to be smitten before the council, Paul answered, "God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law?" The people standing by said to Paul, "Revilest thou God's High Priest?" Then Paul replied, "I knew not brethren, that he was the high priest, for it is written, "Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people." (Acts 23:1-5) Paul wrote elsewhere to Christians saying, "Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves." (Romans 13:1-2). Many scholars as well as strong ancient traditions believe that St. Paul wrote these words while Nero was Emperor of the Roman Empire. God has established leaders and leaders are to be honored although we are to sin for no man or woman.
We live in an era when the ordinary citizen sees it as his right to ridicule public officials. This occurs on all sides of the political spectrum. In this past week, we heard a number of political leaders criticized. It is healthy to raise questions about political issues, but for the Christian there is a responsibility to honor those unto whom honor is fitting. Governing authorities surely are among those to whom this honor is due. I apologize wherever my words passed the bar from addressing issues with which I honestly disagreed with a leader and attacking a leader. I think there is a difference between disrespecting a leader and voicing a concern of how an issue is being discharged. But there is a point where public debate of an issue becomes a baseless attack on character and the person of the officeholder. When such attacks are made, we will most surely give an account one day before God whether or not our society considers such attacks as sin or not.
Our public discourse in the past week has seen political opportunism on all sides of the political spectrum. We have heard the President spoken of almost as if he planned on drowning victims in the hurricane. We have also heard the Right Wing talk show people speak without any sense of how sometimes in the midst of a crisis people will say things that perhaps they may later regret. I think especially of the Mayor of New Orleans. Did he speak too strongly and with too heated words? There are those who were ready to pounce on every word he spoke and critique his words as if he were speaking such strong words in a staged political debate. The President should probably expect strong words and even inappropriate words in the midst of a crisis. I went through one spring in which in the first days of spring my family buried my mother, and in the last days of spring we buried our father. Tragedy generally distorts how we view the world and how we speak to others. Yes, we should be perfect, but let those who are cast the first stone. In crisis, you are extremely thankful for every good deed and also extremely critical of every failure to do a good deed you imagined that should have been done. I am dismayed at talk show hosts who from a distance expected the local civic leaders of some of the areas affected by the hurricane to simply be above all human frailty as they expressed their pain and disappointment. Without trivializing the genuine criticisms that could be expressed in regards to how the tragedy was handled, one should regard with some charity the words of those civic leaders who were faced with a devastating tragedy. My thoughts go especially to leaders of New Orleans, without trying to deny the tragedy that affected countless other communities in the Gulf region. If we can accept for a moment that many of these leaders had a special pride in their city, its port, its restaurants, its blues and jazz contributions to American culture, and a love for the people of what they regarded as "their city" then I think we could feel a little bit of their sense of horrendous loss as "their city" drowned.
Now would be a good time for Americans of every political persuasion to recognize to carefully draw the line between holding different political perspectives and plotting to make political hay by attacking and disrespecting public officials. Now would be a good time to begin remembering carrying out political discussion and even disagreement with a sense of paying honor to one another and seeking to believe good about an opponent whenever it is possible.
There is probably plenty of blame to be shared by federal, state and local officials. Local leaders knew their city was vulnerable. State leaders did not always face their responsibilities, and the federal government took away funds promised to the levee system and responded poorly in the opening days of the crisis. But, that is how we human beings are. We often treat a potential danger lightly and then cry about how prepared those around us should have been when that danger actually did arrive. I grew up in Illinois. In the nineteenth century, the city of Chicago had a scheduled meeting about the need for better fire protection. Unfortunately the meeting had to be postponed after Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked a lantern (according to the account of folklore) and the city of Chicago was mostly burned to the ground. I wish I had seen New Orleans before this flood. I wish I had been able to sit and enjoy a true bluesman entertaining an audience. But now all I can do is hope and pray that city leaders, state legislators, Louisiana Congressional and Senate leaders can rise to the occasion and make the nation proud of their leadership as literally more than a million people in the Gulf region try to regroup their lives and communities. Louisiana has often been regarded as a state with less than stellar leadership. Whatever the past may have been my hope now is that every person in leadership in Louisiana as well as Mississippi and Alabama might rise to the occasion in this hour. We can debate the issues soon enough, but for now let us just give ordinary human beings in places of authority and leadership enough honor that they might be able to recognize the respect we give them and feel duty bound to respond to such respect. We sometimes forget that about leaders. They are human and if they feel that whatever they do they will not be respected they will likely view their charge differently than if they know that despite all their shortcomings that a nation and their locales are looking to them for hope and direction to rebuild a devastated region.
This is one blog that as I finish it, I hope others will see some wisdom in its words.

Dan McDonald.

Katrina - Will there be political repercussions?

Hurricane Katrina's winds tore into the Gulf region destoying homes, infrastructure, and led to the collapse of the levee system that once protected one of America's most historic cities and important ports. Along with those results Katrina's winds have stirred up political emotions that may well change the direction of American politics.
The city of New Orleans will become a symbol for those believing that American policies are misdirected and in need of radical change. The Army Corps of Engineers had planned on upgrading the levee system protecting the city of New Orleans. Funding for the project was diverted to the war effort in Iraq and to the Pork Barrel legislation known as "Homeland Security." The experts had determined that New Orleans' levee system could only be expected to withstand a level 3 hurricane. While New Orleans escaped the level 5 as a direct hit, the surge from the hurricane and flooding along Lake Ponchatrain proved too much for the levees and then too much for the pumps protecting the historic city. The federal government listened to the warnings of the experts and decided to gamble that a big hurricane would wait until we were done with the war on terrorism. When will that war end? Is terrorism an enemy or merely a strategy by people with little power? We went to war with an enemy, or was it a strategy? Each month of the war has given us different reasons for the war. The American public had already begun to question the war, but were willing to follow their leaders and not go against the red, white and blue. But now a disaster has hit America and the government's reaction has been slow, arrogant and positively inept. Private persons are forbidden to help and public help is almost non-existent. A small change in the numbers of people supporting the President and the Republican party could produce a landslide in support of change.
The Iraq war effort will be blamed and not without cause for the debacle that has taken place in New Orleans and the Gulf region. The administration early on determined to fight a war with less troops than were expected to be needed, and with less reserves for other possibile contingiencies. When a general said 300,000 troops were need for the Iraq mission, he was quickly reproved by the Defense Secretary. So, the result was that when Saddam's government collapsed there were too few troops to maintain order. That resulted in a quick rise in the level of Iraqi distrust for the American military and American policy and will be responsible for a much longer transition period to Iraqi domestic security. The American National Guard has historically been the extra police and a force for insuring order when natural disasters struck the homeland. But many of the Gulf region's National Guardsmen were away in Iraq fighting a war that would have been historically the domain of the regular military. But politically the Defense Department was unwilling to ask for more troops. They determined it was better to draw down the force kept for domestic difficulties rather than raise more troops for the regular army that might lead to an unpopular draft. This war on terrorism was said to be all important, but only as long as it did not seem to change the way our nation worked. The gamble was taken that a major homeland crisis would not occur until the war in Iraq with its undetermined end would be over.
We can see more of how the administration's war effort took resources from the homeland's needs. A fellow with whom I worked, has relatives living in the Gulfport-Biloxi area. He was gathering supplies to take to his relatives, although many have tried telling him he would be turned back and not allowed in the region. We joked that if he wanted to get through he should dress like an illegal alien because they can always go anywhere they want in America. Homeland Security is interested in airport security and greater police powers, but the borders are insecure and easily penetrated.
When the first break in New Orleans' levee took place, a quick plan was made to bring large sandbags by helicopter to fill the breach. There was no one in charge to make the essential command, and there was difficulty getting enough helicopters to implement a possible solution. So, the city of New Orleans became like the song Arlo Guthrie sang of a disappearing train, "Don't you know me, I am your native son, the train they call the City of New Orleans?"
The Conservative coalition that has dominated American politics has never been a monolithic political movement. There are social conservatives that have been reluctant supporters of American foreign policy as well as "neo-conservatives" intent on exporting American democracy by a forceful American foreign policy. The entire coalition has been held together only because there seemed to be little cost in pursuing the active foreign policy. Many Conservatives were not so much in support of the war, as much as they were unwilling to undermine their Conservative government. The debacle of New Orleans shatters that compacency, and brings home the costs of a national government that has made the exporting of democracy a primary policy and domestic security of this one Republic secondary.
There is a political advantage in this situation for the party not in power. Republicans, will by the nature of the situation, be held accountable for much of what went wrong. Perhaps this is not fair. Republican officials will be on the defensive trying to explain that their governing decisions were legitimate and reasonable. The wise Democrat will stand above the fray. They will not so much attack the Republican administration, but will call for a change of vision and priorities. Of course, a lot of what takes place will follow the insight made by Tip O'Neill. He used to say that "all politics is local." I reviewed the Senate websites of the six senators from the three states most ravaged by the hurricane. There was one Senator's website that stood out for its helpfulness and ease in directing website visitors to how they might help in this situation. It was Senator Mary Landrieu's website. On page one, there were several numbers where different kinds of help could be donated, as well as specific needs. No other website competed for expressing how help could be sent to the hurricane victims. I sent her an email commending her website and acknowledged that this complement came from an Oklahoma Republican.
Hurricanes have a way of dramatically changing weather. It is God's way through the natural order to export warm air from the tropics and prepare for cooler air to arrive from the northern continental regions. I suspect that for good or ill, Hurricane Katrina's winds have set in motion a change of the prevailing weather conditions in our national politics. The big change will be the potential dividing of Conservatives into "homeland first" Conservatives, and the "America everywhere in the world" Neo-Conservatives. As the costs of pursuing the latter comes into focus, it is unlikely that the "homeland first" Conservatives will remain loyal to the goals that have prevailed in recent years. There will be new attempts at mending divides within the Conservative movement as well as attempts by moderate non-conservatives to siphon off the disaffected. It would only take a two or three percent shift in political affections to produce a landslide change in American politics.

New Orleans after Katrina - What am I to think?

As we see the reports on the results of Katrina, and of the flooding of New Orleans, there are so many thoughts that must rush through our brains. It is all too easy for people like me to express their thoughts about such a calamity. I am reminded that as I express my thoughts, how inadequate they are, how inadequate is my scope as a sole observer speaking from a safe and far removed distance, of people I have never known.
I think of the looters. I get angry and then I hear a more compassionate review from a reporter. There was an instance when looters were stealing from a grocery store. Police arrived. Instead of arresting the looters, the police began directing the looters to help move food and supplies to a nearby neighborhood in dire need of supplies.
That made me think of the fabric of community and how the Lord in whom I believe looked over the multitudes and thought of sheep without a shepherd. Looting is abhorrent, but many of these folks were probably not looters a week ago. But the flood waters were rising and they were faced with losing their property and probably fearful about their own lives. All manners of thoughts must be running through their minds. Most of us in any community are more followers than leaders. I have known the testing of leadership in a small way at times, and have found the results of such tests pretty humbling. I discovered that I am not courageous and fears easily overwhelm principles when the human spirit finds itself tested. But what a difference one leader can make when the multitudes are overwhelmed by events. New Orleans is flooding. Most of the supplies in the stores being looted will be destroyed as the flood waters rise. Looting is still wrong, but I wonder if the police did not do the wisest thing when they came and made use of supplies that will ultimately be flooded. It is a community needing supplies to live until a rescue arrives. It was a true act of leadership when these police redirected chaotic self-centered looters into valuable distributors of needed goods and services.
Floods and surprising natural disasters tell us something of human nature. Our inner natures explode. Fear leads to evil and love springs to action. Acts of compassion and self-sacrifice are multiplied but so are acts of greed. The soul overcome by the chaos of the situation may do strange things. The commanding presence of one person can make all the difference. One thinks of the presence of a Thomas Jackson as his soldiers are about to be routed in the Battle of Bull Run. He took his place in front of the troops and stood his ground like a "stonewall" and became forever known as "Stonewall Jackson." The battle was won instead of lost. Such is leadership in the midst of crisis. Most of us are not leaders, but followers. One of our frequent prayer requests ought to be that God gives our communities the sort of leadership that helps men and women see the needs of the community and not just our own individual needs.
It would be easy to look at what is taking place in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast as a judgment. But all too often our thoughts of judgment are so ill informed that the very label causes us to stumble. In biblical judgment events there was a multitude of testings and results. Biblical judgment was as much about the deliverance of those being redeemed as the punishment of evil-doers. Faith in a God who arranges all things to work together for those who love Him requires us to recognize that nothing takes place apart from His Divine supervision although He is not the author of sin. When most of us think of Divine judgment we just think of God punishing evil. That thought line would certainly misread what is taking place in New Orleans and the Gulf. There is far more going on than eye can see or brain can comprehend or mouth can explain.
There are proverbs and parables that come to mind and take on a new life as I see these events. I think of the looters and also think of how one who is slack in his work is brother to him who destroys. When a community is in collapse it is not good enough to simply refrain from looting, positive work and help is needed. The one who sits on a safe hill and judges is perhaps brother to him who loots. The parable of Good Samaritan comes into view. The priest and the Levite wanted to make sure they do not make themselves ceremonially unclean. They chose to walk away from the wounded man. The Good Samaritan stopped, cleaned the man's wounds, bandaged him, and saw that he was taken care of. The robbers did evil and the action of the Sadducee and the Pharisee would have completed his killing, they were partners in the crime. But the Samaritan stopped and helped and then led others to aid the man. There is something for us in every community to learn from these events. A private righteousness that withdraws itself from the community is unable to alleviate the crisis of the chaos that threatens every community. We must be able to see and somehow respond to needs around us. We need men and leaders capable in a circumstance to not simply arrest an evildoer but to give him a vision for how he may serve and love a neighbor. Ultimately when we profess our belief in the Good Shepherd, we are expressing belief in God become flesh, so that walking in the midst of humanity we hear His voice and learn to love God, to keep His commandments, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We learn that we are part of a flock and that when one sheep strays the Good Shepherd cares.
The looter is one who denies every law and sees no need but his own. Some men are so evil that they are by nature looters. Some men are weak in some conditions such as forget everyone around them and lose their bearing and become looters. There is something of the looter in all of us who turn to selfishness and bit by bit care only for ourselves and our ability to accumulate goods and acquire things. Yet in the created human nature misarranged as it is by the presence of sin threatening to forever master us, there is generally an appreciation when someone comes and turns us from looting for ourselves to serving those in need. When someone is able to do that, for a moment our lives seem meaningful. The Good Shepherd looked over the multitude, each going their own way and yearned to bring them together. He longed to take the chaos of sin that had devastated our lives and to redirect the impulses of life towards love of God and love of nighbor. That is what I am reminded of by one scene in New Orleans. Love God, keep his commandments and love your neighbor.

Favorite Books and Journey into humanity-part 1

In my profiles I have listed some of my favorite books. They are the Bible, The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis, and Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. There are some other books as well that could have been added. I am especially thinking at this time of the two first volumes of The Christian Tradition by Jaroslav Pelikan. In Volume I, Pelikan writes on The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600) and in Volume II, Pelikan writes on The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600-1700). In this blog I would like to write on how these books have been instrumental not only in shaping the way I think about faith and religion, but also in helping me to become a little more human than I had been before I met these books. That is a story I want to begin to write with this blog. It is a story that is unfinished and is hopefully not yet what it shall be, but it is a story that has covered much of my life and perhaps as others read it there may be some resonance with their own experiences or perhaps surprisingly some usefulness in what I share in these lines.

Today I will write about my years before I became acquainted with any of these books. I begin with a story about my father and I, a story of my exploration in the basement of our house and a lesson that would impact the rest of my life.

I was, if I remember only about six years old. Our house had a basement, and like many old basements of that time there was often water on the basement floor. Part of this was that basements often leaked, and another reason is because we had an old ringer washer that always left clothes sopping wet and much of the water went to the floor.

On this particular day I was in the basement and I saw this box on the wall. I wanted to see what was in it. I looked and saw a way to get up to the box. I could climb up on chest freezer. I did so, and finally by standing on the freezer could reach the box hanging on the wall. I found that by pulling down the lever I could get the door of the box open. As I did so, the lights would go out. So, as I got my fingers inside the box I would take the little round things out of their holes and try to figure out what they were all about. Eventually I got tired of playing with the little round things, and tried to put them back into the box. Then I shut the door to the box. Then I pulled the lever up again and the lights came back on. Then I got down from the freezer.

My dad came in from outside and noticed that the clock must have stopped and that some of the lights were not working. So he went down to the basement and checked out the fuse box on the wall. He asked me if I had been playing with the fuse box. I thought that I detected something in his voice that indicated he did not think I should have been playing with that box. So, I told him that "no" I had not played with that box.

Well, the next thing I knew was that was telling me that he knew I was lying. You see, there were these little muddy footprints on the freezer where the smallest boy in the family had been walking through the water on the basement floor so that he left muddy footrpints when he climbed up on the freezer so he could stand up and reach that box on the wall.

My dad then explained to me that he did not want me to ever play with that box again. To this day, I am not an electrician. But he told me something else that was to have a stunning impact on my life, probably beyond anything he even planned. He explained to me that I could have been killed by playing with that box, that it was very dangerous. Then he said to me, "I am going to spank you. I am not going to spank you for playing with the box. You must never play with that box because it could kill you. But you did not know that before today. I am going to spank you because you have just lied to me, and it is important for you to always tell the truth."

That was a life changing moment. I put those two sentences together and perhaps even as a five or six year old made my first dramatic sense of a logical relationship. It was wrong for me to play with the fuse box. I must not play with the fuse box. That was the first thing I had to understand. Secondly, I was getting a spanking because I was not telling the truth. That I was getting a spanking for not telling the truth and not because that box could have killed me, meant that the truth must be more important than life itself. That is how I understood that spanking that day. It would stay with me in much of my childhood. When a teacher told me I should read more fictional stories, I argued with her that I should only read about real things and not make believe stories.

I can also remember when I had my first great disappointment in my parents. It was a few months after the fuse box lesson that my Dad and Mom told me there was no Santa Claus. It was devastating. Why had my own father and mother told me a lie for years. Surely there had to be a Santa Claus. I came at last to the conclusion that this time they were telling the truth. From now on I would only believe what I could see. I then went to school and in music period we sang songs about Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus and Christmas carols. We had not been particularly religious in our home, so I kind of put Santa Claus and God and this baby Jesus together as being something make believe.

I became very determined to live by the truth and as much as I could see that meant believing only in what one could see. This lasted a few years. When other kids talked about going to church, I figured I had the truth and that they were playing make believe. But then my Mom and Dad decided that when a lady offered to take me to Sunday School, that perhaps I should go because religion taught children to do good. I felt betrayed by my own parents. But they wanted me to go, so that was that. I didn't know what to do about having to go to Sunday School, but there I was and then I started being intrigued by the Bible stories there. That led me to begin reading the Bible. Well, that will be part 2 of this story of how I began to learn about God, about religion, faith and ultimately what it meant not only to believe in God but to be human.

Review of the movie: The Island

Yesterday I went to see a movie. I don't do it that often. It was recommended by a fellow parishioner. It was entitled The Island. It starred Ewan McGregor, and Scarlett Johansson and had Sean Bean playing a significant part. It was a futuristic adventure thriller. As far as any movies it resembled, probably Logan's Run from the 70's comes to mind. The futuristic movie genre is followed as the gals are all attractive, wear identical white outfits, have pretty legs and short skirts. But the movie is worthwhile, in that it follows that genre to deal with the medical and ethical dilemma we face by pursuing all the possibilities now open to us by what we know through modern science and medicine. From my Christian perspective, the movie shows some of the ramifications of building on our acquired knowledge while setting aside essential moral and ethical considerations regarding those pursuits. Scarlett Johansson has an important line when she asks if her pursuit of life means that someone else is going to have to die.
I liked the way the movie combined futuristic adventure with the ethical questions it raises. The ethical questions are there, but there are those who will see the movie and like it for the adventure that will not be readily moved by the ethical issues. There are those who will like the movie because of the chase scenes or just because Scarlett Johannsson looks good. While some will probably decide that such an approach weakens or cheapens the ethical issues the movie raises, I think of it in another way. I think of importing such a message in an adventure film as the way most of Christians witness of important truths in life. We try to get along in life with our neighbors and fellow workers. We try to enjoy life as much as possible and seek peace with all men inasmuch as it is possible. But, our core values and our recognition that God has spoken means that we live in a way that while sharing many of the same pursuits and enjoyments, we raise issues in the background. I think that is how this movie sets up the current ethical debates swirling around the world of medicine. It is an adventure movie, everybody can enjoy the chase scenes, but in the background important questions facing our culture are in view. We see how our culture is increasingly built on a cheapening of human life from the disposable fetus in its water filled placenta to the view of the good life being that of eternal youth living out self-centered hedonistic pursuits.
I went to the movie at a time when few people are in theaters, and there were at the most five of us in that showing. It will not be in the movie houses very long, and it is worth seeing. I am an old bachelor, so I do not have a good idea of what movies children should see. If I were married I think I would be cautious regarding even most of the movies I can appreciate as an adult. But I do hope that a few people will read this blog and see the movie. I hope that movies that stand on the correct side of an important ethical debate will be rewarded in the marketplace by a sizable portion of those who support the Christian view on these ethical debates. This movie, in my humble opinion, does what a movie ought to do. It raises a forum for ethical consideration while not forgetting that many will see this movie simply for entertainment. That is okay, it is the mustard seed planted in the garden that one day gives shade to the garden. In some ways that is how a modern Christian witness may well need to be. We stand alongside our neighbor, we share life with our neighbor, and we enjoy our neighbor and try to share life enjoyably with our neighbor. But somewhere along the way, we share our worldview in the matters of life where we recognize that God's ways are not our ways, and that true human life is being attacked by the age old temptation of obtaining eternal life and equality with God through knowledge.