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New Civilization News: A Woman Shall Lead Us |
Category: Religion 25 comments 21 Jun 2006 @ 13:53 by rayon : SorryDear Jazzolog, Is this not the soul of America? To my view it is the very losing of one’s way. To keep updating equality between all things spiritual with whatever developments the mere human race and its chosen country get up does not tie in with messages and presences of our Creator’s Avatars. A falsity is being shown up here, greater than proliferated in medieval times in what is bieng acknowledged in the common understanding from the low to middle level in the church. One can only have one or the other. If we have reached a stage where only gays can couple because of the stress of the times stretching normal social behaviour for ordinary people to meet, we are lost. People can do whatever they want, but it cannot be supported and held up as model, yes the gay can be spiritual, but not priest or any holy man. To put woman as priest is a joke (it has nothing to do with education or background, or Magdalene) it is the ultimate misunderstanding of things human divine carved in stone: if woman is not honoured for Woman, she will disappear. One must ask a vital question - where is the Ego in all this fan dangling?? Most probably it has played a considerable role in putting nature topsy turvy. The Ego is the only entity forwarding Feminism, if it is not acknowledged and brought into the workings of the system, put in its RIGHTFUL place, given the best role to play within its chosen framework, it proliferates of its own accord, that is a rule for everything. With many apologies. 21 Jun 2006 @ 13:59 by dempstress : Well she looks nice and sounds pretty together too. It can't be easy to be the wedge driven into a crack to let a little light enter a dank and gloomy space, especially when it's a mental and cultural space, so good luck to her. Incidentally, over here in Alba the Episcopalians are know as the 'Piskies, a matter of some irritation to my American friend and houseguest who was raised Episcopalian in the US. Meanwhile the Church of Scotland, the main Scottish branch of Protestantism, ordained women ministers many years before the Church of England made the move, and last year for the first time a woman was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (an annually elected post, where the Moderator presides over the yearly ecumenical 'General Assembly' meeting in Edinburgh where matters are discussed and decisions voted on). 21 Jun 2006 @ 14:07 by dempstress : When I say 'she'...... and comment favourably on her views, I should stress I was referring to Bishop Jefferts Schori, not the commentator above who posted while I was composing, and whose views I would not condone. And while on that...what is it, I wonder, that suggests to that contributor that a the move to elect Bishop Schori in some way undermines 'honoring her as Woman'? What does this 'honoring' involve, and how is it to be supported by denying womankind certain positions? Presumably it doesn't involve the ancient honorable order of 'barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen'? 21 Jun 2006 @ 14:27 by jazzolog : The Ladies Of The UK Well, this is unexpected. "NO ONE expects the Spanish Inquisition!", to bring a little Monty Python into the mix. As members may know, nraye lives in London, and dempstress used to. And here they are having a chat about what us 'Piskies are up to. (Love that term!) I would never attempt to speak for Nicola, but my sense of what she's saying doesn't really have to do with women knowing their "place"---or something of that sort in a social doctrine. Nraye does not spend her days in the kitchen, the herb garden, or sewing center---at least not all the time. She is speaking, I think, of the very essence of us as individual humans and our glorious different sexes. Perhaps she says Nature does not need some church to sanction it or the way it miraculously works. And perhaps she detects a danger when a church does muck around with declaring a natural system should be this way or that. 21 Jun 2006 @ 14:49 by rayon : Peace keeping Thank you Jazzolog - yes I am thinking and speaking, by invitation only, about the beauty of differences, and that they should be honoured. Rather than continuously knocking the position of woman these days (what does this do for the morale of young girls, I would have thought it made them feel even more inferior) rather than continously knocking the door of Mythological Hard times for Women, try seeking and giving comfort to stressed out work mates, maybe life will take a happy turn to eradicate the hard modern woman myths. Charity begins at home in every sense of the word. In yoga we are supposed to do, concentrate on the things it is harder to do than the easier ones while attaining a complete and harmonious whole. It is easy for women to congretate, but maybe this natural talent is not sufficient to be transcendent in real heavenly terms. Are you demanding that Men listen humbly to a woman, what might this do to his genes, have you any idea? What are Man's proclivities in this realm, are you a woman a complete expert here? Or is the man, who speaks for all in specially chosen words incorporating wisdom for a mixed group of people, not good enough for you? Or is it allright for woman just to read a words written by a man, without knowing precisely and exactly what they mean from the greater picture, when she is intoning others to heed her words?? Or is one not supposed to be inspired when speaking in these realms?? But to continue - If this story is the heart and soul of America now, it means America is not following a universal lore, or religion, it is has forked off, because it - theoretically - will no longer be leading directly to redemption (ie the possibility of physical entry to heaven) but can only guarantee purgatory (reincarnation). Not believing doesn’t help here. 21 Jun 2006 @ 15:56 by dempstress : Thanks Jazzo Am not trying to create anything unpeaceful here....and as I have said before, as a non-practicing ex-Anglican it's probably none of my business anyway. I don't think it's a matter of whether 'men should listen humbly to a woman', rather that people of either sex (or any) should listen to each other. As for whether 'the man, who speaks for all in specially chosen words incorporating wisdom for a mixed group of people' is not good enough for me...what difference if it is a man or a woman? I will now bow out of this, since I do realise that deeply held beliefs are not amenable to debate...which is where to in my personal view the problem lies. I would however beg to differ in one respect: not believing plainly helps quite considerably. PS: am amused to note that that Men apparently come complete with capital letters! 21 Jun 2006 @ 19:46 by jazzolog : Joint Resolution On Gays June 21, 2006 3:04 PM Brothers and Sisters I’m sure everyone in the diocese has been keeping an eye on how the General Convention of the Episcopal church would respond to the Windsor Report. Today, decisive action occurred when the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops adopted Resolution B- 033. The resolution reads: "Resolved, the House of Deputies concurring that the 75th General Convention receive and embrace The Windsor Report’s invitation to engage in a process of healing and reconciliation; and be it further resolved, that this Convention therefore call upon Standing Committees and bishops with jurisdiction to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.” As you know, entering this General Convention, our major issue was balancing the concerns of the Anglican Communion as expressed in the Windsor Report against our strong desire to remain true to the positions our church has taken while living into our democratic system that allows bishops, clergy and laity to have equal voice. This resolution is not perfect, and many people who very strongly support the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people in the life of the church found it very painful to vote for this. Some of our bishops who have been their strongest champions supported this resolution at great personal cost. However in the end, the unity of the Anglican Communion was an overriding issue. We felt keenly the call to stand shoulder to shoulder with 77 million Anglicans throughout the world, and we highly value that relationship. It is essential that we stay in conversation with the gay and lesbian members of our own church and the people who support their full inclusion as well as with our more conservative brothers and sisters in our diocese, the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. Hopefully this resolution will allow that to occur. Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori, who has long been known as a champion for the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people, spoke eloquently of the need for us to move beyond our own personal feelings and to take an action that allows us to continue the conversation around the world. Her voice was important. My belief is that convention felt very strongly that we needed to support her in this. I think we need to send her forth in her new role with a place at that table. There will be gay and lesbian people in our diocese who are hurt by this decision, while others will feel that even this resolution does not go far enough. In our preparation of this General Convention, the Diocese of Southern Ohio has been marked by charity, graciousness and tolerance of different points of view. I encourage you to continue this conversation with respect and compassion. I thank you for your prayers and for your support during this important time in the life of our church. Faithfully, Bishop Ken Price Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- email: bishop_price@episcopal-dso.org phone: 513.421.0311 web: http://www.episcopal-dso.org 21 Jun 2006 @ 23:01 by dobrodoc @24.115.254.102 : splitting the communion This issue of the anglican communion splitting is yet another excellent proof in real life of why the church needs to be One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. Without any final authority over issues of faith and morals and how to interpret the Bible, history will repeat itself again and again as the churches have been doing since 1517. It's Deja Vu all Over again 22 Jun 2006 @ 09:27 by rayon : Splitting in the Past In the past, groups with strongly held beliefs and feelings, formed their own group with their own financial donations, well wishes, etc etc. Either in a closed order or openly like the Methodists, etc. What the anglican church is doing is imposing a certain set of new fundamental beliefs on the original worshipers and financiers (money has to come from somewhere), they have taken this so to speak for their very own purposes and imposed it on the majority. This majority joined the church for quite different reasons and respresentatives. In politics this would cause revelution. The "anybody can have anything philosophy" of our modern day is being taken for granted. Those groups who BRAVELY split in the past, actually got modicums of respect from the majority, not through fervent belief in their other way, but just because of wanting to be charitable and (progressively) tolerant of others beliefs. It is not quite the same to take the original and change all of that tradition: to me it seems very much as if it is being done by a minority for a minority, and every one agrees here that it is driving the ordinary regulars away, not bringing the multitude in. To Caroline, yes I do not normally use capital letters, always considered bad form, so apologise for this, but a comment section, is also a graphic unit of someone's comment, in a short small space, the odd cap to add balance in place of more and more sentances, I am sure does not go amiss. And I do wholly respect anothers views, and in no way feel obliged to explain vignettes or allusions to deeper meaning on such a personal subject as broader religion etc, as the most important instance here, is that the person progresses according to their need etc, and that is really up to them. But to hint that there is another view, and more, surely is charitable and social in the most human way. I hope. It is almost as though with the "anybody can have anything" philosophy that the people pushing these developments through are perhaps seeking to gain some extra virtue on themselves by embracing the minorities' causes and putting them in positions over the majority? The fundamental motivation question can sometimes reveal a depth of thinking. 22 Jun 2006 @ 11:06 by jazzolog : Healing And Mending I'm happy to meet dobrodoc (is he a mender of Dobros, a favorite musical instrument?) and love the aspect of Internet that brings 2 people into dialogue through a common Googled interest. If you click his name you go to his blog which is about conversion. I worked for a while at a comment there, which now goes to his moderation. If it shows up, I'll copy it here because it has something to do with this interesting and surprising thread too. Both his and nraye's comments warn against the potential chaos of splintering movements. The resolution passed yesterday, quoted above in Bishop Price's letter to us in the Southern Ohio Diocese, indicates obviously Episopalians prefer to continue dialogue with the Anglican Communion rather than make a decision that would insure a split. When I wrote this post I assumed that was the direction we were headed. The resolution about not wanting to welcome manners of life that present "a challenge to the wider church" doesn't reflect the Jesus I follow...at least at first glance. I tried the rest of yesterday to resolve the obvious political motivation with this Church's theology...but found I couldn't even be sure what the politics was. I think of the gay friends in my own congregation and wonder what they're going to do. I'll find out. The response of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the resolution was welcoming of course, but he seems to want us to know its passage hasn't made him forget about Bishop Katherine. We're not out of the frying pan yet. http://www.episcopalchurch.org/75383_76314_ENG_HTM.htm In light of the seeming change of tone of the Convention (from split to mend) you may find enlightening the following homily~~~ Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori preached the homily at the Closing Eucharist June 21 at General Convention in Columbus, Ohio: This last Sunday morning I woke very early, while it was still dark. I wanted to go for a run, but I had to wait until there was enough light to see. When the dawn finally began, I ventured out. It was warm, and still, and very quiet, and the clouds were just beginning to show tinges of pink. I ran by the back of the Hyatt just as two workers were coming out one of the service doors. They were startled, I'm afraid, but I nodded at them, and they responded. I went west over the freeway, and encountered a man I'd seen here in the Convention Center. Neither of us stopped, but we did say a quiet good morning. Then I found a lovely green park, and started around it. There was a man with a reflective vest, standing in the street by some orange cones, as though he were waiting for a run or a parade to begin. I said good morning, and he responded in kind. Around the corner I came to a bleary-eyed fellow with several bags who looked like he'd just risen from sleeping rough. I said good morning to him too, but I must admit I went past him in the street instead of on the sidewalk. Then I met a rabbit hopping across the sidewalk, and though we didn't use words, one of us eyed the other with more than a bit of wariness. Around another corner, a woman was delivering Sunday papers from her car. She was wary too, and didn't get out of her car with the next paper until I was a long way past her. Back over the freeway, and a block later, two guys seemingly on their early way to work. We nodded at each other. As I returned to my hotel, I reflected on all those meetings. There was some degree of wariness in most of them. There were small glimpses of a reconciled world in our willingness to greet each other. But the unrealized possibility of a real relationship -- whether in response of wariness, or caution, or fear -- meant that we still had a very long way to go. Can we dream of a world where all creatures, human and not, can meet each other in a stance that is not tinged with fear? When Jesus says that his kingdom is not of this world, he is saying that his rule is not based on the ability to generate fear in his subjects. A willingness to go to the cross implies a vulnerability so radical, so fundamental, that fear has no impact or import. The love he invites us to imitate removes any possibility of reactive or violent response. King Jesus' followers don't fight back when the world threatens. Jesus calls us friends, not agents of fear. If you and I are going to grow in all things into Christ, if we're going to grow up into the full stature of Christ, if we are going to become the blessed ones God called us to be while we were still in our mothers' wombs, our growing will need to be rooted in a soil of internal peace. We'll have to claim the confidence of souls planted in the overwhelming love of God, a love so abundant, so profligate, given with such unwillingness to count the cost, that we, too, are caught up into a similar abandonment. That full measure of love, pressed down and overflowing, drives out our idolatrous self-interest. Because that is what fear really is -- it is a reaction, an often unconscious response to something we think is so essential that it takes the place of God. "Oh, that's mine and you can't take it, because I can't live without it" -- whether it's my bank account or theological framework or my sense of being in control. If you threaten my self-definition, I respond with fear. Unless, like Jesus, we can set aside those lesser goods, unless we can make "peace through the blood of the cross." That bloody cross brings new life into this world. Colossians calls Jesus the firstborn of all creation, the firstborn from the dead. That sweaty, bloody, tear-stained labor of the cross bears new life. Our mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation -- and you and I are His children. If we're going to keep on growing into Christ-images for the world around us, we're going to have to give up fear. What do the godly messengers say when they turn up in the Bible? "Fear not." "Don't be afraid." "God is with you." "You are God's beloved, and God is well-pleased with you." When we know ourselves beloved of God, we can begin to respond in less fearful ways. When we know ourselves beloved, we can begin to recognize the beloved in a homeless man, or rhetorical opponent, or a child with AIDS. When we know ourselves beloved, we can even begin to see and reach beyond the defense of others. Our invitation, both in the last work of this Convention, and as we go out into the world, is to lay down our fear and love the world. Lay down our sword and shield, and seek out the image of God's beloved in the people we find it hardest to love. Lay down our narrow self-interest, and heal the hurting and fill the hungry and set the prisoners free. Lay down our need for power and control, and bow to the image of God's beloved in the weakest, the poorest, and the most excluded. We children can continue to squabble over the inheritance. Or we can claim our name and heritage as God's beloveds and share that name, beloved, with the whole world. Episcopal News Service content may be reprinted without permission as long as credit is given to ENS. http://www.episcopalchurch.org/75383_76300_ENG_HTM.htm 22 Jun 2006 @ 15:09 by rayon : Simple message Yes, intrigued with Dobrodoc, good to see it and will return. Thank you for this. Have the read the new Bishop's words about fear. A simple message, all fine, nothing wrong at all. But does it incorporate the seven sacrements and uphold them in constant awareness for the purpose of transcendence. Is her emphasis of Fear not just a warm blanket of rhetoric to throw on the dissension, and surely they are delivered to a certain kind of ear only, the bewildered one, or is it said to the media too? It is difficult enough reconciling the main religions of the world, as an comparative religion aficioniado, putting the thoughts of one into another's terminology that several understand without missing some of the action. They are seen as having major similar components, in quite different guises, but very similar in the end alluding to the same, sort of universal law. Unfortunately, it is my belief this new splinter group, must re write completely certain aspects. Or simply interpret at will to their fancy in which ever way they wish this translation or that tradition, taking what suits, to substantiate their position. Very few are actually able to argue the case or understand Cannon Law. So it is simply academic as they say. A branch of my family were the first publishers in the UK on behalf of the Holy See at the time of Emancipation in the early 1800's - this means nothing apart from the fact my interest must lie in my genes. There is nothing one can do about it. Except do a name search on the web, and I see they published this: which puts the case as far the catholic church is concerned. http://www.womenpriests.org/magdala/realmary.asp and several other books (not just prayer books etc for the church) but lay books too. (Burns Oats and Washbourne). 22 Jun 2006 @ 21:22 by Jodell Bumatay @24.185.134.42 : Coingratulations It is about time that the Mary the Virgin and Mary the Not-So-Virgin equal representation as Messengers. Coingratuations. It's a good thing that God gave me a good sense of humour because being a woman requires a healthy supply of those resources. That reminds me of other women I have met. I was once in the Pentacostal Church of a small town in Texas: I met the pastor and his wife on Easter Week. I had the opportunity to ask his wife, "What is the meaning of the word Jesus." She basically explained that "Jesus" meant "messenger". Well, the most interesting real issue behind that question was that I had discovered that night from another woman in the church that the Pastor's Wife had attended bible college and that the wife was the real inspiration of the church. The Pastor was really standing behind his wife but like many married woman know the woman has to pretend to stand behind the husband. All the ways we all have to hide. The man who hides behind the wife hiding behind the man is that not the most ridiculous posturing we humans do? Jesus may have said, "My father has many mansions" but he may well as said, "My father has many mirrors reflecting each other." Anyway, congratulations for Breaking on Throigh the Other Side of the Mirror!!! 23 Jun 2006 @ 02:40 by vaxen : FYI jazzo- bishop O.E. bisceop, from L.L. episcopus, from Gk. episkopos "watcher, overseer," a title for various government officials, later taken over in a Church sense, from epi- "over" + skopos "watcher," from skeptesthai "look at." Given a specific sense in the Church, but the word also was used in the N.T. as a descriptive title for elders, and continues as such in some non-hierarchical Christian sects. The chess piece (formerly archer, before that alfin) was so called from 1562. Bishopric is O.E. bisceoprice, from rice "realm." 23 Jun 2006 @ 12:53 by jazzolog : Dobrodoc, Jodell, Nraye, Vax Certainly this thread is the most challenging I've ever found myself bound up in at my own Log. Notice, dobrodoc, how I'm writing about binding all over the place now. He and I are continuing our exchange by email, which possibly is his preference. (I messed up the comment I left at his blog, but my attempt to correct it apparently is lost in cyberspace or something. I may try to reconstruct.) We're discussing the Will of God and how you find out what that is. I'm also writing with Father Carroll, our new priest at the Church of the Good Shepherd, who has been inspired for some reason to confide some things regarding his reaction to the new Presiding Bishop. All of this is quite time consuming, but very good for me so I welcome what is happening. Another challenge to think about is in Nicola's comment yesterday. I'm beginning to think she's a character come to life out of The Fountainhead, which I hope would not be an insult to her. [By the way, did you know Ayn Rand's name originally was Alisa Zinov'evna Rosenbaum (Russian: Алиса Зиновьевна Розенбаум)?] It's possible Bishop Katherine's message is a "warm blanket" thrown over us shivering pilgrims. I like that image, and it seems a mothering thing to do. I constantly amaze European friends when I speak of the fear so rampant in American culture now (and I think I have to include Canada and Mexico under the blanket too). When Ilona came back from France, she said the hardest part was getting used to all the fear she sensed everywhere---and the patriotism Yanks use as an offense. Bishop Katharine, I think, correctly identifies this fear of one's fellows as the huge barrier in the daily life of a Christian. She included herself in it. She had that insight in the clarity of her morning run---on the very morning of her election. I appreciate what she saw and shared. It helps me...and that is what I'm most grateful for in a priest, messenger, guru. I have to laugh as I welcome the distinguished healer and NCN member, Jodell Bumatay, to the conversation. What is this strange urge I have to contribute financially to her work as I read the subject of her comment? :-) I'm glad for my sense of humor too, and that of my wife. Without our laughter I can't imagine our marriage lasting a month. But hiding wherever is no good. My family was very traditional. Although an RN, my mother gave up career to take on homemaking, a job for which my father never stopped praising her. My father was a public figure, and my mother sometimes went along for his appearances, but reluctantly. She didn't like the spotlight, but she loved his praise of how they helped each other. Following my parents' generation came women who rejected, not so much homemaking exactly, but housework definitely. Much of my worklife has been spent being careful to honor and not offend women, nationalities, races who have entered the offices, schools, factories where I've spent my years. Thank you Jodell, and I hope to know you better. Thanx as always for the info Vax. It's great to realize these "fan dangling" terms, as nraye says, are very basic and down-to-earth. (I am easily intrigued by a dangling fan.) Now how about a definition of the fandango? 23 Jun 2006 @ 14:18 by dempstress : How strange that you speak of fear in a country which is so huge and powerful. From an outsider's viewpoint the biggest danger appears to be from other Americans, given the number and range of firearms knocking about the place. The majority of your citizens are very far away from a border with a neighbouring country, and those countries are hardly hostile. Perhaps it's because until recently most Americans felt themselves completely invulnerable, and the fear of which you speak is an over-reaction to the realisation that no such state ever exists. Not, you understand, that I would wish to make light of the terrible events of 9/11, or the Oklahoma bombing, but if Richard's description above is accurate, the level of response seems strangely disproportionate as seen from over here. It got me thinking about the response within the UK to such things, and the culture and history which might be behind that response. I am a post-war baby boomer, born in 1955, too late to remeber rationing but raised on black and white movies about the blitz and stories from my parents and grandparents about their own experiences. Then there was the Northern Ireland situation with bombings there and on the mainland, a constant in the news during my teens and onwards. I myself narrowly escaped (by about 10-20 seconds) a bomb attack (grenade as I recall) in the City of London when I was working there between school and university, although as I believe that was something to do with the Middle East rather than Northern Ireland.....we were quite a popular terrorist visitor attraction at the time. Now let us not pretend that all this sort of stuff doesn't make Brits individually and collectively a bit more wary, aware of unattended parcels and so on....but fear? No, I wouldn't say so. There's a certain ammount of what might be termed fatalism, along the lines of 'if it's got your name on it', and perhaps having never felt invulnerable we may never have lost that almost animal awareness of our own vulnerabilities as part of the balance of everyday living. Anyway, I was certainly taken aback at the thought of American as fearful in everyday terms, and sorry if I've veered away from the religious element of the debate. 23 Jun 2006 @ 17:51 by vaxen : Jidu... Krishnamurti suggests welcoming fear and understanding it. Maybe I'll look for that quote and deposit it here. "The great departs, the small approaches." Chou Yi "It is often forgotten that (dictionaries) are artificial repositories, put together well after the languages they define. The roots of language are irrational and of a magical nature." -Jorge Luis Borges, Prologue to "El otro, el mismo." As for fandango... it is of uncertain etymology however 'dangling fan' immediately comes to mind. "Fado" has been suggested but I can't agree with that though the suggested Portugese origins in ''fado'' are interesting enough... The fandango is a slow dance... quite in keeping with the 'idea' of a dangling fan. Fan dangled. ;) Au Revoir 23 Jun 2006 @ 18:56 by jazzolog : Crossing The Tiber This is the comment I left at Dobrodoc's blog yesterday. Although it floated around for awhile in limbo, it's posted now at his article from Wednesday called The Need for One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church http://www.crossed-the-tiber.blogspot.com/ . I add it here to include Bishop Griswold's remark about "conversation" and how important it is an atmosphere of fear surrounding a Stranger not interfere with the possibilities~~~ jazzolog said... Good morning, and thank you for saying hello at jazzoLOG, my blog at New Civilization Network but also mirrored here, if that would be more convenient. http://jazzolog.blogspot.com/ In your comment there, above, and in this post, you refer to the intention of Christ for a binding authority upon disciples. If you mean the Will of God, I understand you...and welcome further dialogue as to how we find out what That is. Our Episcopal Convention has concluded, and the joint resolution passed yesterday in response to criticism of us by the rest of the Anglican Communion should give indication of how important continuing dialogue is to us, rather than "splitting (again)." In fact in supporting the resolution, Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold made the following comment which may interest you since it is about conversion: "When I became your Presiding Bishop eight and a half years ago, I called the church to the costly discipline of conversation. At that time I pointed out that the word conversation and the word conversion come from the same Latin root. I said that to enter into conversation deeply, and with an undefended heart, opened the way to conversion. By conversion I did not mean one point of view capitulating to another – but rather a new way of seeing one another and recognizing Christ in one another. The conversion of which I spoke had less to do with a change of mind and more to do with a change of heart." http://www.episcopalchurch.org/75383_76301_ENG_HTM.htm Perhaps some aspect of Crossed The Tiber offers the opportunity for such conversation. Thank you Tiber Jumper, it is good to meet you. June 22, 2006 5:09 AM Dobrodoc is indeed connected with dobros...and if he gives me permission, I'll let you know a bit more about who he is. 23 Jun 2006 @ 19:20 by vaxen : Perhaps... understanding where the word ''GoD'' came from would assist you in understanding how to understand HU's will? Sovereignty is self-determination. So what is the origin of the word self? ;) Also 'will' reveals much... as does the word 'whore' and also the word urge... Logos, logoi... urge (v.) 1560, from L. urgere "to press hard, push, drive, compel," from PIE base *werg- "to work" (cf. Avestan vareza "work, activity;" Gk. ergon "work," orgia "religious performances," organon "tool;" Armenian gorc "work;" Lith. verziu "tie, fasten, squeeze," vargas "need, distress;" O.C.S. vragu "enemy;" Goth. waurkjan, O.E. wyrcan "work;" Goth. wrikan "persecute," O.E. wrecan "drive, hunt, pursue;" O.N. yrka "work, take effect"). The noun is first attested 1618, from the verb; in frequent use after c.1910. 24 Jun 2006 @ 19:06 by dolfina : thx jazzlog I might mention that my viking (swede) grandmother quit the Swedish Lutheran Church to become Catholic. That was the first break from our viking Hela (the Heithin Goddess) from sending our ancient ancestral enemies to Hel. One cannot make it through the trials of breakfeast with the kin without be being dunked in the Vyrd (well of time) by the Yggdrasill (family ancestral tree). My humor comes from the s-word smith of anglo-saxoid heithinism hidden within the Lutheran Church wherein a witch or healer of any other name is merely called a good Christian. The ancestors did not allow my ancestors to escape the Norns of Hela so we are often reminded by ghosts (why would a Lutheran become Catholic? To not be crucified for seeing ghosts!). I suppose when the Vikings bred with the Druids they embeded their s-word play into an entirely unique Orlog (actions that create the events of our lives) using humour as a device to release the pain of intensity of feeling alive. If my family was not already Vryd, I would certainly think a lot of people were crazy in our country. What they have forgetten is their roots... which makes them forget their destiny. Thanks for sensing my Vyrd sense of humour, it comes from the well... not my self. 28 Jun 2006 @ 11:00 by jazzolog : From One Swede To Another http://www.visitsweden.com/upload/SRT/Srt_startsida/midsommar_162.jpg Even though both sides of my Yggdrasill hail from Sverige, very little Svenska was heard in the home...although it was offered as a language in my high school. (Half the town was Swedish and the other half Sicilian. We shared almost nothing as 2 cultures...except the meatball, and we were ready to fight in the streets over how you make one!) My family had been here longer than yours I guess dolfina, and I don't think there even was a Lutheran anywhere in sight. (Lots of Lutherans and Salvation Army people in town though. There even was an embassy guy there.) I was raised pretty straight true-blue American, and steered clear of Swedish traditions until quite recently. Now I go nuts for the new Nordic folk groups. My wife is of Danish/Hungarian extraction, with Lutheran pastors on both sides...including her parents, both of whom are ordained. We were Lutheran until quite recently, when we changed our membership. The liberal wings of both denominations are in communion now, which means members go freely to each other's services and stuff. One Lutheran told a meeting I attended that the gay issue is a perfect example of how the 2 deal with such questions. Lutherans form huge study groups, which meet for 10 years to discuss what they should do and then issue a report after the question no longer is hot. Episcopalians dive right in, make a big change, and figure out the ramifications later. 28 Jun 2006 @ 11:18 by jazzolog : The Archbishop Responds I realize most readers of this comment are not Anglican or Episcopalian...or care if there's any difference between those 2 words. However, this particular negotiation among American Episcopalians with each other and, at the same time, with Anglicans throughout the rest of the world is one dialogue of importance in which we are not threatening with guns or economic reprisal in the global "free" market. (It would be a stretch, I hope, to assert American charity is a major factor, at this point, in the discussion.) While the Congress moves from flag-burning to Internet porn in their review of significant issues facing our nation, this church is grappling with a question of inclusion that probably is of importance to any religious or ethical organization. For every American Episcopalian the question in mind this morning has got to be, "What'll we do now?" The New York Times June 28, 2006 Anglican Plan Threatens Split on Gay Issues By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and NEELA BANERJEE In a defining moment in the Anglican Communion's civil war over homosexuality, the Archbishop of Canterbury proposed a plan yesterday that could force the Episcopal Church in the United States either to renounce gay bishops and same-sex unions or to give up full membership in the Communion. The archbishop, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, said the "best way forward" was to devise a shared theological "covenant" and ask each province, as the geographical divisions of the church are called, to agree to abide by it. Provinces that agree would retain full status as "constituent churches," and those that do not would become "churches in association" without decision-making status in the Communion, the world's third largest body of churches. Conservatives hailed the archbishop's move as an affirmation that the American church stepped outside the bounds of Christian orthodoxy when it ordained a gay bishop three years ago. The archbishop wrote, "No member church can make significant decisions unilaterally and still expect this to make no difference to how it is regarded in the fellowship." Leaders of the Episcopal Church — the Communion's American province, long dominated by theological liberals — sought to play down the statement's import, saying it was just one more exchange in a long dialogue they expected to continue within the Communion. The archbishop said his proposal could allow local churches in the United States to separate from the Episcopal Church and join the American wing that stays in the Communion. But that process could take years, and some American parishes are already planning to break from the Episcopal Church. Entire dioceses may announce their intention to depart, as soon as today. The 38 provinces that make up the global Communion have been at odds since 2003, when the Episcopal Church ordained Bishop V. Gene Robinson, a gay man who lives with his partner, as bishop of the diocese of New Hampshire. The archbishop's statement is the most solid official step yet in a long march toward schism. Twenty-two of the 38 provinces had already declared their ties with the American church to be "broken" or "impaired," but until now the Communion had hung together, waiting for guidance from the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is considered "the first among equals" in the Communion but does not dictate policy as the pope does in the Roman Catholic Church. For the proposal to be enacted would take at least half a dozen major church meetings spread out over at least the next four years, the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, said in a telephone interview. What should be included in a covenant could become the next focus of debate. The idea of a covenant was first proposed in the "Windsor Report," issued in 2004 by a committee commissioned by the archbishop. Canon Kearon said, "Many churches welcome the idea of a covenant, but they didn't particularly welcome the text that was proposed." He said he did not regard the archbishop's proposal as a step toward schism but as a means to clarify "identity and common decision-making procedures" in the Communion. Church liberals said that any "covenant" would be crafted with the participation of the American church and other provinces that favored full inclusion of gay people. "I think the archbishop takes a long view and underscores the fact that we are involved in a process rather than a quick fix," Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold of the Episcopal Church said in a telephone interview. Several church officials in communication with the archbishop's office said he wrote his six-page communiqué, which he called a "reflection," after the close of the Episcopal Church's convention last Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio. At the convention, the church fell short of the demands in the Windsor Report for an explicit apology and a full "moratorium" on ordaining gay bishops. Instead, the church approved a conciliatory statement encouraging American dioceses to refrain from ordaining gay bishops. But the convention also offended the conservatives by electing a new presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori of Nevada, who has been an outspoken advocate of full inclusion for gay people and who allows gay union ceremonies in churches in her diocese. Bishop Jefferts Schori, who takes office after Bishop Griswold retires in November, will represent the American church in meetings with the world's primates, some of whom do not approve of women as priests or bishops. She said in an interview yesterday that she was heartened by Archbishop Williams's comments in the letter that he would not be able to mend rifts over sexuality single-handedly. "There were expectations out there that he would intervene or direct various people and provinces to do certain things, and he made it quite clear that it's not his role or responsibility to do that," Bishop Jefferts Schori said. The Anglican Communion has about 77 million members in more than 160 nations. Members in conservative provinces far outnumber those in the liberal provinces. The Episcopal Church has about 2.3 million members but contributes a disproportionate amount to Anglican Communion administration, charities and mission work. The Anglican Communion Network, a group leading the conservative response, said it had 200,000 members last year. The archbishop's proposal was greeted with satisfaction by conservative leaders in the United States, who had formed a powerful alliance with prelates in many of the provinces in Africa and in Asia, and in some parts of Latin America. The conservatives have insisted all along that it is the American church that destabilized the Anglican ship and should be pushed overboard if it will not relent. The Rev. Canon David C. Anderson, president of the conservative American Anglican Council, said: "We really believe that the Episcopal Church wants to follow a course that takes it out of both Anglicanism and Christianity, as Christianity is historically known. So a two-tier approach looks good in theory." Canon Anderson said the plan could be difficult in actuality, because many parishes and dioceses were ready to sever ties with the Episcopal Church now, years before the archbishop's plan for reorganization could take effect. He said that churches and dioceses had already asked to be put under the authority of bishops in Africa and Latin America and that many more would do so in coming months. "The floodgates are starting to open," he said. The division has already led to legal battles over church property. Under Episcopal Church bylaws, parish assets belong to the dioceses, but churches in some states have challenged that in court. Archbishop Williams said in his statement, "The reason Anglicanism is worth bothering with is because it has tried to find a way of being a church that is neither tightly centralized nor a loose federation of essentially independent bodies." But that decentralization will continue to be a cause of conflict unless it is addressed, he said, adding, "What our Communion lacks is a set of adequately developed structures which is able to cope with the diversity of views that will inevitably arise in a world of rapid global communication and huge cultural variety." Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/28/us/28episcopal.html?ex=1152158400&en=288e4fe1c65ce8c6&ei=5070&emc=eta1 28 Jun 2006 @ 15:48 by rayon : One Difference between Anglican and Episcopalian is that the Queen is titular head of the Anglican church, Defender of the Faith, as proclaimed by Henry VIII when breaking from Rome to take a different wife. (Vaxen may be able to enlarge here) - I believe they come together under the term Protestantism - i.e. not Popish, as they used to say, or perhaps this is just a word catholics use? As most US counties seem to adapt their own way in certain things, the law, etc, why can Church not do so too? In the article above the Seismic shifts are certainly given alarming illustration. I am afraid any decentralisation arrives together with loss of power, through lack of adhesion to the Head or Upper eshalons of church. Yes, it is an incredible log, and very good reading the whole way through. Actually, Jazzolog, shivers went through me to hear a speech based on the notion of Fear, because each hearer (who is not fearful) of this will assume that others are all fearful (after being told so), and so fear in each hearer is inserted. Does this imply that anything and everything we are fearful of is wrong? I sense safety in the catholic camp for what I believe, can wish it for others safely, even gays and eskimos into my church. My singing seems to gather more voice in happiness to see Nigerian or Japanese catholics at my Mass in central London, and the heart swells. Further, I know how those gays or whoever will be helped if required by the clergy here, and if required I can offer my "conversation" too, even if a "Good Morning" or "Thank you" or "Peace be with you" because everyone is "singing from the same hymn sheet" in the whole Communion of the church community. This is a big entity which can face big problems, larger than mere gender ones, because the Will of God as I see it is the path of following Love, not losing it. 18 Jul 2006 @ 09:29 by jazzolog : More On Dobrodoc A comment at this entry on June 21st led me first to dobrodoc's blog, where you can go by clicking that nickname above, then into email dialogue when he answered. Crossing The Tiber, his blog's name, refers to someone who has converted to Catholicism. In dobrodoc's case, he started out Catholic, went Pentecostal, and recently has repented the error of his ways by returning to the Catholic fold. He's a very interesting guy and actually is a doctor besides being a dobro player. Through his permission I can tell you his name is Russ Rentler, and if you like old time American string music you may want to visit his site and investigate a couple of CDs he's made. www.russrentler.com Making a new friend this way only happens on the Internet. I love it! And by golly! there he is with a dobro...just in case you've never heard of the thing~~~ http://jazzolog.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/.pond/dobrodoc.jpg.w300h200.jpg 31 Aug 2006 @ 08:26 by jazzolog : Dancing To A Different Drummer I love this article currently at TruthOut. Vicki Gray is a retired Foreign Service Officer who served as Director for Northern Europe in the Department of State and as International Cooperation Director at EPA. A political scientist, Dr. Gray has taught at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and written extensively on national security affairs. She is also a candidate for ordination in the Episcopal Church. Now that sort of dossier REALLY interests me! The Militarization of the American Language By Vicki Gray t r u t h o u t | Perspective Wednesday 30 August 2006 Once was a time when we used to joke that military justice is to justice as military music is to music. You musicians get the point. Trouble is, military justice is no longer a joking matter. And we have moved apace in other regards. Now we must add: military language is to language as ... well ... Orwellian "newspeak" is to reality. And unfortunately for those in the "reality-based community," military newspeak has replaced standard American English as the lingua franca of the United States, thanks to the spinmeisters in the White House and a pusillanimous press corps eager to lap up whatever Karl Rove, Tony Snow, and Ken Mehlman feed them. What is military newspeak? It is a mumbling, numbing speech by an Al Haig or a George W. Bush. More subtly, it is a TV ad by Boeing - soft music and soothing voices over images of bombers gliding noiselessly through the clouds. Their mission? To defend our freedoms. How? We don't need to ask. We know. They will soon be dropping bunker busters on un-shown apartment blocks, producing ... well ... "collateral damage" - all off-screen of course. Military newspeak is, in short, a mèlange of obfuscating euphemisms designed to hide the truth, desensitize our sense of morality, and re-image reality. Like that Boeing ad, it can manifest itself in non-verbal, sometimes subliminal, forms such as that little American flag that keeps flapping in the upper left hand corner of the Fox News screen or the steady drum beat (literally) that opens each CNN newscast, virtually shouting "War, War, War! Terror, Terror, Terror! Fear! Fear! Fear!" It's all designed to jangle your nerves, disorient you, instill fear ... and conflate fear with patriotism. One danger of military newspeak is that it conditions the mental muscles in much the same way that video games do - to react instinctively, violently to perceived threats. Enemies are not to be understood or reasoned with. They are to be bombed - killed - as quickly as possible. No questions, no regrets. The worst danger of all, however, is how it creates obstacles to clear thinking. For clear thinking - critical thinking - is necessary to a well-functioning democracy. And, in the current circumstance, our democracy is crumbling under the weight of military newspeak just as surely as Lebanese democracy has been battered by American-made bombs. Our capacity to resist has been dangerously eroded by the rapidity and thoroughness with which the militarization of the American language has proceeded, and there is no Edward R. Morrow or Walter Cronkite out there to shout "Wake up, America! Before, it's too late, wake up!" None of this is to say that, to one degree or another, we haven't experienced such things in the past. Remember that Strangelovian Cold War doctrine Mutual Assured Destruction, or MAD? Funny thing, it was so mad, it was sane, allowing us to traverse a nearly half-century-long nuclear standoff. Closest we came to losing it was Cuba 1962, when we called a blockade - an act of war - a quarantine and, doing so, averted war. Then there was Vietnam, where we used to throw about terms like "vertical envelopment," "pacification," and "free fire zone," the latter being an enemy-controlled area where anything was a "legitimate" target. You could kill anything that moved - a water buffalo, the farmer directing a plow behind it, or a child playing in the nearby village. It was a misuse of language that clouded our thinking and numbed our morals to the point of producing a My Lai ... and countless other My Lai's from the air. In the current circumstance, however, the abuse of the American language has reached pandemic proportions. If we are to resist, we must recover some sense of what's happening. Let me give just a few examples to encourage you to look more closely at - and behind - the now steady diet of obfuscating euphemisms we are being fed. It's called the hermeneutic of suspicion. Where to start? How about a simple word like "war?" We used to know in our bones what that meant. You know, opposing armies - in uniform, carrying flags, representing countries, taking territory, attacks and retreats marked by shifting lines on a map. To be sure, there were always fuzzy exceptions to the rule. There were, for example, civil wars, brother fighting brother to be king of the hill within a country. And there were always guerrilla wars - literally, little or demi-wars - in which oppressed local inhabitants, often lacking uniforms, fought more powerful outside armies. In many ways, the American Revolution was a guerrilla war. Much later, after a conventional war with Spain, we became the powerful outside army pitted against Filipino guerrillas fighting for their independence. And, throughout the Cold War, there were any number of limited wars - as opposed to total, hot, or world war - and, lest we forget, a "police action" in Korea. In many ways, the Cold War overlapped and merged with the anti-colonial wars of the fifties and sixties, usually against our British and French allies. Vietnam was one such war. There were others: in China, Malaya, Algeria, Kenya, the Philippines, Indonesia, Angola, the Congo, to name a few. As a class, they became known as wars of national liberation. The Cold War being what it was, we normally sided with our colonial allies in seeking to thwart these local struggles for self-determination, while the Soviets usually provided support to the home-grown "freedom fighters." Lacking the resources of the occupying colonial armies, many of the "freedom fighters" adopted terror, the "poor man's bomb," as a weapon and a tactic in increasingly unconventional, always "asymmetrical" wars. Thus, in the eyes of the "civilized world" - i.e., the colonial metropoles of Europe - "freedom fighters" became "terrorists." But, as we saw in Algeria and Central America, the colonial armies learned well how to be terrorists themselves; witness the "Contras" in both Nicaragua and Algeria and the death squads in Guatemala and El Salvador. And it was in Algeria that the French elevated the use of terror and torture to an art form, transforming their vaunted "civilizing mission" into a grotesque caricature. In this regard, I highly recommend General Paul Aussaresses' memoir, The Battle of the Casbah. And, too bad our leaders watched "Patton" rather than Pontecorvo's masterful "Battle of Algiers" before invading Iraq. Had they learned their French lessons, they might have learned how much such warfare can corrupt the would-be overlords ... and we would not have to learn how to pronounce such words as Abu Ghraib and Haditha. So what is the nature of this new "asymmetrical war" we're involved in. No, I don't mean Iraq, which began as a conventional limited war and has now deteriorated into an equally conventional guerrilla or civil war. No, Iraq is an unfortunate sideshow to what the president and his secretary of defense (Hard to believe Rumsfeld's still there!) insist is a "Global War on Terrorism" or GWOT. Oh, it's real enough. Too many people have died already. But, in the minds and mouths of our leaders, it takes on an other-worldly air of fantasy. As we try to wrap our minds around the concept, we find ourselves adrift in a sea of newspeak, on shifting ground, increasingly unsure of what is real and what is unreal, our fear approaching panic. And our leaders are no help, as they rush to feed the fantasy and the fear. How is it a war? Where is "terrorism?" What is its capital? How is it "global?" Have disparate, unrelated grievances merged into what the Newt Gingriches of the world see as "World War Three," into a cataclysmic "clash of civilizations," or into some millennialist Armageddon? To be sure, there are some on the religious right who pray for Armageddon and are cheered by each new manifestation of death and destruction. Others, on the secular right, have their own Bible: Samuel P. Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order. Huntington's is a truly dangerous book, a sort of Mein Kampf for the GWOT. Written in the mid-nineties, when the military-industrial complex was searching for a new "enemy" to replace the collapsed Soviet Union, it depicts the by-definition culturally superior West in a "civilizational war" with Islam and, to a lesser degree, China. All is black and white, life and death, kill or be killed ... good and evil. No need for nuance. No need for understanding beyond "they" are bad, we are good. Simple minds latched on to such simplicity as an explanation for all the bad happenings in the world, missing even Huntington's recognition of the causative tension between modernization and fundamentalism. In the hands of our leaders, Huntington's thesis was fashioned into a self-fulfilling prophecy. In the wake of September 11 - the work of a fanatic spawned by the fundamentalism of Saudi Arabia - we faced, we were told, an "axis of evil" comprised of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea, none of whom (save perhaps Iran) had anything to with the attack on the World Trade Center. A nice pre-election catch phrase, it bore, however, no relationship to the real nature of the threat we faced from the Middle East. Arabs - and Iranians - don't "hate our freedom" or our "way of life" (save perhaps the coarseness of our materialism). They hate a century of deception, colonialism, occupation, exploitation, and humiliation visited upon them by the West. In the immediate aftermath of September 11, we properly attacked Afghanistan to root out al-Qaeda (which had attacked the World Trade Center and other American targets around the world, such as the USS Cole and the American Embassy in Nairobi) and to take down the Taliban, who harbored al-Qaeda. An irony - lost on the American public - was that the Taliban had, a bare two decades ago, comprised the mujaheddin or "freedom fighters" that we had armed and trained to resist the Soviet invaders of the time. Fighting us, they became terrorists. Unfortunately, we quickly lost interest in Afghanistan, never deploying enough boots on the ground, allowing Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda leadership to slip through our fingers at Tora Bora, and allowing the Taliban to reconstitute itself as a credible fighting force in what has become a forgotten war and a side show in the GWOT. Equally unfortunately, the deaths of American soldiers there continue: four last week, three the week before, forgotten - worse yet, never noticed - except by their families. For still unfathomable reasons, our Commander in Chief and self-styled Decider (formerly known as the president), who, he allows, doesn't think much about Osama bin Laden, decided it was time to move on. It was time for a "war of choice." So he decided to invade Iraq. We opened this pre-emptive war (formerly known, in places like Nuremberg, as aggressive war) with an aerial campaign of "shock and awe." Despite our best use of smart bombs, this surgical strike produced extensive collateral damage in the form of thousands of civilian dead in a burning city. Stuff happens! Within two months, however, the Commander in Chief could declare the "end of major fighting." Mission Accomplished! And, over the next three years, we succeeded in transforming Iraq into the Central Front in the Global War on Terror - another singular accomplishment requiring the recruitment and importation of thousands of foreign fighters to bolster the Saddamist dead-enders who have been in the last throes for the last year or so ... ever since the Decider issued his "Bring 'em on!" challenge and pinned those Medals of Freedom on the architects of success - George Tenant, Tommy Franks, and Jerry Bremer. For nearly that same time we have been "on the verge of civil war." Freedom is on the march! The progress is palpable. Only last month, for example, we posted a new monthly record for Iraqi civilian dead - 3,438! And the total of young American soldiers killed in Iraq now approaches the number of deaths on September 11. All we need do now is stay the course. Now, there's a winning strategy! So steady has been our progress into sectarian violence (aka civil war) that, by early summer, a clear majority of Americans had lost interest in the project, many entertaining "cut and run" as an antidote to their boredom. We no longer wanted to hear about IEDs and car bombs, and even the diversions of Paris Hilton, Baby Suri, airborne pedophiles, and assorted serial killers proved to be insufficient distractions. Even such Republican patriots as William Buckley, George Will, Pat Buchanan, Chuck Hagel, John Warner, and John McCain started to yearn for something more than "stay the course." And, despite the stalwart "Democrat Party" support from Joe Lieberman, Hillary Clinton, Dianne Feinstein, and others, the need to change the subject became clear to Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman and, through them, the Commander in Chief. Enter a welcome deus ex machina in the form of Hamas, Hezbollah, and a neophyte government in Israel intent on proving its collective manhood. Down in Gaza, some Hamas hotheads took hostage a hapless Israeli soldier, while up north, Hezbollah kidnapped two other members of the Israeli Defense Force, or IDF, and started lobbing World War II-era Katyusha rockets into the Galillee. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his defense minister Amir Peretz, who was still in the midst of his on-the-job training, were faced with several choices: launch commando raids to rescue the captured soldiers, negotiate for their release (as had been done on several occasions in the past), unleash some limited proportionate response, such as destroying the offending rocket launchers ... or do what they had apparently been itching to do for some time (even, according to Sy Hersh, going so far as to tout their plans at the Pentagon): impress the world, especially the Arab/Muslim world with the crushing power of "asymmetrical deterrence," the Israeli version of shock and awe. A strategy designed by Ariel Sharon, asymmetrical deterrence demands a wildly disproportionate response to impress upon an aggressor and future aggressors the ability of the IDF to inflict unacceptable pain at will. As the Israeli Defense Minister put it, he would insure that the Lebanese "will remember the name of Amir Peretz." Despite the fact that such disproportionate response is generally viewed as immoral and illegal (cf. Just War theory and the rules of war), the temptation proved too great. Thus, with not only another green light but active support from Washington, the Israeli Air Force was unleashed by IDF Chief of Staff Gen. Dan Halutz on the whole of Lebanon and a hapless Gaza. In Lebanon, within days, whole neighborhoods and towns were turned into rubble, the country's infrastructure destroyed, more than a thousand civilians killed, and the "Cedar Revolution" left reeling - the "birth pangs of a new Middle East." In Gaza, the entire population was thrown into darkness in the middle of the sweltering summer with the destruction of the main, American-financed power plant, and some twenty members of the democratically-elected Palestinian government were arrested to join the 10,000 or so other Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners already in Israeli jails. (Allow me here an aside on the power of words as illustrated by treatment of these captives in the American media. Good guys are "kidnapped" or "taken hostage." Bad guys are "captured" or "arrested.") As the destruction proceeded, the American left went mute, the media, by and large, became cheerleaders for the IDF, and neo-cons like Bill Kristol declared this "our war." And George W. Bush made it "our war" by air-lifting to Israel re-supplies of bunker busters and the cluster bombs, thousands of which remain scattered around southern Lebanon in what a UN mine-removal expert called "an angry and very volatile state." More importantly, he ordered Secretary of State Condi Rice and our interim-appointment UN ambassador John Bolton to thwart efforts to secure a cease-fire ... even a humanitarian 48-hour cease fire to remove refugees and provide medical assistance. The Decider had decided that it was the role of the United States to provide Israel time to "finish the job," to destroy Hezbollah once and for all. This time, however, the IDF was not up to the job. In the twenty-four years since its last real war, an ill-trained, poorly equipped, ineptly led IDF - seventy percent of which is composed of reservists - was not up to the job. Occupation duty does not translate easily into combat competence. This came as a surprise to the Israelis and to us. Even now, we are scrambling to cobble together a face-saving cease-fire and wondering aloud who "won" - Hezbollah? Iran? Syria? More important questions are "Who lost?" and "What did we lose?" The Lebanese lost - not only in their deaths, but in the destruction of their infrastructure and the damage to their "Cedar Revolution." The Israelis lost - not only in their deaths, but also in the damage done to the IDF's aura of invincibility. Above all the United States has lost. We have lost our preciously guarded role as an "honest broker," leaving the "peace process" and the "road map" in shambles. We have deepened the hatred, throughout the Middle East, of the United States and increased the numbers of young men willing to act on that hatred. And, by allowing the strengthening of Hezbollah, Syria, and, above all, Iran, we have weakened our ability to defend our interests in the area and to prosecute our vaunted Global War on Terror. Five years after September 11 - five years full of babble about "Homeland" Security, yellow and orange shades of fear, and the "ideology of terror" - we are far less secure than we were before. Our military is hollowed out, demoralized, just plain broken. It is no longer capable pursuing our most basic - and most worthy - interests, much less the grandiose dreams spun of the White House's overblown rhetoric. And no amount of words, newspeak or otherwise, is going to change that reality. Words, however, retain meaning, because they reveal a culture's understanding of the world, attitudes toward it, and sometimes serve as predicates to action. For these reasons we should study how others use them. And we should be far more careful about how we use words, for they are being studied by those "others." And subtly and over time they work their effect on us. They can incite, in their heat, unwise actions or, in their subversive softening where clarity is needed, can benumb us and weaken our resistance to the same unwise actions. Take a word like "torture," which must - for the sake of our souls - remain clear in its meaning. It finds meaning not so much in the eye of the beholder - eyes do not easily lie - as in the mind of the beholder, for the mind always entertains the possibility of rationalization. John McCain knows what torture means. Unfortunately, Alberto Gonzales and Donald Rumsfeld do not, or will not. They stretch the limits of grammatical parsing, declare "quaint" settled standards of morality, and allow the president to append an unworthy signing statement to his signature on the tough anti-torture legislation sponsored by Senator McCain. No wonder we've become inured to Rush Limbaugh's and Bill O'Reilly's high school humor about "Club Gitmo." No wonder we fail to protest when General Geoffrey Miller - Miller of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib - retires "honorably" with a Meritorious Service Medal on his chest. And take our easy acceptance as "robust" such phrases as "regime change" and "pre-emptive war," un-American phrases that have found their way into the pages of the National Security Strategy of the United States of America. Take also the president's embrace of so offensive a term as "Islamo-Fascist," a term popularized by a hate-mongering talk show host and softened only to Islamist-Fascist in the president's mouth. Does he know how that sounds in the Middle East? Does he care? I doubt it. For in the closed mind of our Decider, there is no need to understand or talk with our growing number of real and potential enemies in the Middle East. Iran? Syria? No need to talk with them. "They know what they have to do." We've told them. And, if they don't do what we've told them? In our militarized lexicon, they'll "suffer the consequences." We'll bomb them. We'll kill them. We know how to do that. That's all we know any more. Trouble is, we can no longer follow through on our threats. It's time to stow the "newspeak" and to start speaking truth to our friends, our enemies, and, above all, to ourselves. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/083006B.shtml 29 Apr 2016 @ 08:59 by Bandar Togel @103.12.162.4 : brilliant! I would like to share this ar Togel Online Singapore Togel Online Hongkong Bandar Togel Singapore Bandar Togel Togel Online Terpercaya Bandar Togel Online Terpercaya Togel Online Agen Togel Online Terpercaya Agen Togel Online Other entries in Religion 6 Oct 2015 @ 03:38: NEW AGE: LUCIFER’S PREFERRED RELIGION, REPLACES GREAT RELIGIONS 11 Dec 2008 @ 21:17: Bless the beasts and the children 27 Aug 2008 @ 08:32: Theology of the Other 27 Feb 2008 @ 09:48: CHURCH CRIMES: WHO EXPOSES? WHO PAYS? 25 Jun 2007 @ 11:12: When Christians Torture 22 May 2007 @ 10:08: Who Is Davis Mac-Iyalla And Why Is He Here? 9 Aug 2006 @ 15:56: Constantine - The Making of a Saint 4 Aug 2006 @ 22:56: Medieval Book of Psalms Unearthed 3 Aug 2006 @ 11:06: Fundamental Madness 2 Aug 2006 @ 23:32: Implications of the Da Vinci Code
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21 Jun 2006 @ 11:07, by Richard Carlson