“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” – Benjamin Franklin
We humans tend to live in extremes. Most people who drink, drink to get drunk. If not, it is because they don’t drink at all. Most people who smoke, chain smoke packs of cigarettes a day. The rest of us stare them down while exaggerating our coughs to show how disgusting they are. We gorge ourselves on fatty foods, or obsessively count calories (or carbs). We surround ourselves with sexually charged entertainment, or blush at statues in the local art gallery. This is our nature, which is the whole reason temperance was once a virtue we strived for, because it is so contrary to our nature but oh-so good for us!
In all things in life that bring us pleasure, there is the possibility of also bringing us harm. Everyone has heard the phrases “all things in moderation” or “too much of anything is a bad thing”. It would seem that those who fear for their moral or physical health tend to therefore conclude, “if it could be bad for me, why do it at all?”, or worse, “if it can be bad for you at all, then it is bad, period.”
People usually laugh and shrug off the quote by Benjamin Franklin I included at the top of this article, and while it is obviously somewhat hyperbolical, I believe the sentiment is accurate. Just about every pleasurable thing on this earth was meant, by God, to do just that – to bring us pleasure. The only alternative is that God all these things on earth purely as temptation to torment us, which is not something I find reasonable.
But there is more to it than pleasure, I believe that just like work, God made play as something to be mastered, which brings me back to temperance. Food is better for us when prepared with love and labor, the worst food we have is “fast food”. Wine is better when created by artisans who have worked hard, and then let the wine age over time. Cigars have been enjoyed for ages with little guilt, but it is cigarettes that are killing us.
When we seek to master our pleasures, they become even more beneficial to us. When we seek to cheaply consume our pleasures, out of pure gluttony, they produce in us all kinds of illness and mental disturbances. Recent medical science has shown us the drastic contrast as moderate drinking is so good for us, and heavy drinking is so harmful (just Google “Moderate alcohol intake”).
And who drinks “moderately”?… People who enjoy quality wines, good beers, and fine spirits. No one buys Bud Light to “savor the taste”. People who smoke less than once a week don’t smoke cigarettes (or at least not the kind you find as gas stations), and those who have truly healthy sex lives, aren’t to be found at your local strip club.
So would this have to do with Christian Mysticism? Well, it is hard to find a more effective way to balance the spirit, but taming and mastering the appetites of the body. Not to be sanctimonious, and often self-abusive, by pursuing some kind of unnatural abstinence from all pleasures, but to be in control. Using the earth God gave to us as a tool, using what we have, and not being used by it. For the man who has dominance over his “vices” is healthier than the man who is dominated by them, and happier than the one who hides in fear of them. Maybe Adam Ant was right after all….
“For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected when received with thanksgiving…” 1 Timothy 4:4
NOTE: Image at the top from the window of “The Men’s Toy Shop” in Nashville, IN. A wonderfully old-fashined small business run by great people, stop by if you can!
We are all born pagan. I realize how harsh that sounds, but just think about it. Idol worship and superstition come naturally to us. We quickly develop rituals to help our favorite sports teams have “good luck”. Gamblers blow on dice, lottery players have lucky numbers, and Friday the 13th still brings out caution in many (and maybe a rabbit’s foot or two). Even those of us enlightened “mono-theists” have our own methods of bargaining with “forces out of our control” to try to get what we want.
I see a lot of mutual frustration among well meaning pastors and active laity in their efforts to inspire and motivate their bothers and sisters toward a productive faith. I have thought much on the dilemma, on what it is which holds us back, and the best term I could come up with to describe it was “The God Bargain”. The sad truth is so many people approach Christianity as a method of appeasing God as opposed to actually just obeying God. Its a bargain, “God, I will do what you want if you help me *insert favor*”. Continue Reading »
Man wants to be free, but always looks for a king to rule him. A strange contraction in human nature. The truth is, when things are great and seem to be under our control, we just want to be left alone. We don’t want anyone to tell us what to do when we have what we want, and we gladly take credit for our own fortune. However, when things get bad, we cry for a savior and blame anyone but ourselves for the troubles we find ourselves in. (Hmm… I think I just defined both political ideologies) Everyone has varying degrees of each in their lives, but this article is about the latter: Our search for a messiah to save us from our troubles. The sad truth is, we had one, but we didn’t like what he had to offer.
Here is a shocker, an article expressing a positive opinion on religion in the NEW YORK TIMES! Stanley Fish reviews the book “Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate” by Terry Eagleton. In the book, Eagleton argues that science cannot replace religion for the simple reason that science has nothing to do with the questions, needs, and purposes religions fills. Likewise, religion has no functions to answer the questions of science. Here is my favorite excerpt from the article:
Eagleton likes this turn of speech, and he has recourse to it often when making the same point: “[B]elieving that religion is a botched attempt to explain the world . . . is like seeing ballet as a botched attempt to run for a bus.” Running for a bus is a focused empirical act and the steps you take are instrumental to its end. The positions one assumes in ballet have no such end; they are after something else, and that something doesn’t yield to the usual forms of measurement. Religion, Eagleton is saying, is like ballet… it’s after something else.
To use science to address religious concerns perverts it. Likewise, to use religion to address scientific concerns is a debacle. We need to stop choosing between the two, and instead recognize the purpose and limitations of both.
As a life-long C.S. Lewis fan, I always enjoy taking a minute and reflecting on the many contributions he made to Christian Mysticism. I especially enjoy addressing the lessons inferred amidst his fictional writings. One of my favorite mystical lessons, is the lesson of the wardrobe. In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis teaches us a great lesson about seeking a relationship with the Living God… you can’t find God in the same place twice.
“I don’t think it will be any good trying to go back through the wardrobe door to get the coats. You won’t get back to Narnia again by that route… Yes, of course you’ll get back to Narnia again someday… But don’t go trying to use the same route twice. Indeed, don’t try to get there at all. It’ll happen when you’re not looking for it.” – The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, the Professor talking to the children who just left Narnia.
Everyone who seeks after God, has encountered Him at some point in their lives. There is always some point where God’s presence is so clear, that we ever wondered why we doubted. But then the moment passes, and passes, and fades. After a while we wonder if we experienced it at all. In an existential panic, we try to recreate the experience, only doing more to prove to ourselves it never happened in the first place.
Let’s take the Professor’s advice here. We should no go back and look for God where we previously encountered Him, rather we should move forward without looking at all. Where would Moses have been had be returned to the burning bush for a fresh dose of prophetic inspiration, rather than moving forward with the task he had already been given? Where would Paul have been traveling back to Damascus to look for a bright light? Our encounters with the Divine are singularly unique, and it is our fault, not God’s, that we forget them so easily.
It is also part of how God encourages our continual growth and maturity. If God stayed in the same place, so would we. Rather, God reveals Himself at moments we need Him most, then moves on, hoping we will continue to seek Him. As we move on, out of obedience, we find God without looking, and in a way we had never experienced before.
“If you want peace, work for justice.” – Pope Paul VI
“If you want justice, work for chastity.” – Pope John Paul II
This begins a serious of articles I have decided to write in defense of the Catholic Church and her controversial teachings in our current post-modern culture. I have entitled this series “Catholisense” because this is a mystical apologetic rather than a theological one. It is my belief that the presence and teachings of the Catholic Church are not outdated or irrelevant but rather necessary. Indeed, I will argue it is the very presence alone of the Catholic Church and the Vatican that is preventing our society from falling off a cliff of self destruction. Continue Reading »
Brian Roberston has posted a good comparison between the teaching of Jesus and the Tao Te Ching on his blog Christian Mystics. Here are some excerpts below:
“What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose their souls?” Luke 9:25
“To be proud with wealth and honor is to sow the seeds ofyour own downfall.” Tao Te Ching 9
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21
“The sage wears rough clothing and holds the jewel in his heart.” Tao Te Ching 70
“The least among all you of is the greatest.” Luke 9:49
“The best of people is like water. Water gives life to all things and does not compete with them. It flows in places people reject and so is like the Tao.” Tao Te Ching 8
Matt Stone, on his blog Global Christianity, brought attention to a YouTube posted discussion between Father George Coyne and Richard Dawkins. This is an amazingly disciplines and reasonable discussion, the likes of which I want to see more of:
Veteran readers of my blog know how much I respect and appreciate the efforts of Rev. Billy Talen and the Church of Stop Shopping. After all, I believe that our currently culture of consumerism is probably on of our biggest hindrances to connecting with God. Well, recently I posted a contribution to their newly budding forum that I was personally very happy with (*Shameless self-promotion alert!*) and got a lot of good feedback on. Please take a trip over to the Church of Stop Shopping forum and check out my article on where consumerism came from, and how we get out. Here is a sample:
I like, like many, who wake up to the disasters of consumerism at some point wonder, “How did we get here?”. I don’t think any would believe our ancestors fought to have us pack ourselves into Wal-Marts for the latest deals on DVD players and generic potato chips. I don’t believe our forefathers envisioned the American Dream of prosperity as a life of extreme debt, constant stress, and abundant discontent. I realize however, the problem is that no one envisioned this at all. The sad truth is… we got here on accident….
Religion is a powerful blessing when used to discipline one's own life and a terrible abomination when used to control another's View Original Tweet ->>
yaholo: ya-hol-o [yah-hole-oh]
noun a Native American name meaning "One Who Yells"...
mystic: mys-tic [mistik]
noun a person who seeks contemplation and self-surrender to obtain unity with or absorption into the Diety or the absolute, or who believes in the spiritual apprehension of truths that are beyond the intellect.
- Oxford American Dictionary
Here is a shocker, an article expressing a positive opinion on religion in the NEW YORK TIMES! Stanley Fish reviews the book “
It is in this life (the Lord told us) that we will have...
