Facts of Life

Evidently a British children's show has come under fire for having a disabled host.

Cerrie Burnett was born with only one hand, which has caused trouble among some viewers:

In one chat room, a father lamented that Burnell being on the show forced him to have conversations with his child about disabilities.

To put this bluntly: it is your responsibility as a father to have that conversation!  Perhaps it is an annoyance to be "forced" to have the conversation at a certain point, but you need to have it.  And keep in mind, some people suffer from more troublesome annoyances, such as having only one hand.

Another commenter, DoYouHaveKids?, said:

Do any of you who think this is so "unbelievable" actually have kids? It's very hard, as a parent, to have every social issue jammed down the throat of your kids before they even hit first grade.

I am aware that kids these days do get every social issue thrown at them early on, especially when those issues often have a moral element that parents may disagree with, and have a right to do so.  And those supporting throwing moral issues at them may justify it terms of my title for this post; that is, such behaviors are parts of the facts of life, and any disagreement is willful ignorance.  Perhaps viewing moral discussions with such blithe resignation is easier if one waters down his ideals (see my previous post)¹.  But: is this some sticky social issue? I don't think so.

Alternatively, commenter Rich said:

As a person with a disability, I am absolutely disgusted reading about the parent who complains about having to talk to his child about disabilities. As a child, I was subjected to humiliation and cruelty by my peers who obviously had learned such behaviors from their parents. A little enlightenment and sensitivity training would not have been amiss for those little brats.  

While the "sensitivity training" always raises this blogger's hackles, Rich is on the right track here.  We live in a fallen, broken world, and facing it with both courage and love requires having difficult conversations and not shirking or blaming.  There's no reason to avoid the reality of disability with our children, especially if we are to teach them to treat those with disabilities with love rather than disgust or fear.  

Loe and courage are even more in order when issues with an explicit moral element do arise; chances are, they will arise before you are ready, and you must be willing to face them.  Perhaps not on your terms, but face them you must.

1.  Question: for some, is it really resignation? Or active pursuit?

Insipid Ideals

A few days ago at Rod Dreher's blog, there was a discussion over some symposium or some such as Georgetown promoting "Relationships Beyond Monogamy," offering "thoughts on polyamory, radical honesty, the pitfalls & joys of open relationships and much more."

Rod said that "the people pushing this garbage are the enemy, pure and simple."

Commenter Jimmy Shi responded:

No, they're not. They simply have a different view of the nature of what you, and presumably, they, believe is the gift of human sexuality. That doesn't make them particularly villainous. And if you're indicting them as villains, chances are they're doing the same.

You may not like the concept of an open marriage. But frankly, it beats the hell out of a broken family that comes apart because one partner can't keep it in their pants and simply tries to hide that fact.

I responded:

1. Who is "the enemy"? Yes, I'll concede calling people the enemy isn't the best way to persuade them and more often than not will cause strife and contention. But, for whatever reason, even if they may not themselves be "villainous," they have arrived at a terrible conclusion and ended up in support of a "villainous" position on sexuality. In the interests of maintaining dialog, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, and presume they reached their conclusion out of a simple mistake, and hold off on the vitriol. Really, I mean that--I am not trying to be patronizing, and I don't think we should try to be. But at some point, disagreements will inevitably arise, and it's not "bad faith" argumentation or disingenuous to say so.

2. In regards to the open marriage point, a broken family because one partner can't keep it in their pants and proclaims that behavior loud and proud ain't much of an improvement. Or, to put it more plainly, I am not impressed with arguments for freedom based on lowest-common-denominator morality. Why must our ideals conform to our weaknesses? Isn't the entire point of ideals that we would conform our weaknesses to them? Or has thinking of sex using concepts such as ideals and weaknesses become utterly outmoded, leaving us only with "what is," and not "what should be?" What happens to people, societies, families, when we forget to ask such questions--or deliberately avoid them?

That's when I threw down and started wailin' till the ref had to throw me in the box.  Five for fightin'. But seriously, what are your thoughts? I'm all ears.

Days of Ashes and Squalls

Here's the liturgy from the 6:30 service at my church this morning.  I've copied it verbatim.

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the season of Lent -- a time of renewal and coming back to God. It comes as an intrusion as we face the reality that we are going to die.  "Remember, you are dust, and to dust you shalll return."  These words echo the

Perhaps I am an adequate shiphand, but I know I am a terrible captain

service at the grave -- "dust to dust."  This forceful reminder of our frail, short lives can seem offensive and rightly so.  In them we publicly state our sinfulness and human frailty.  It is a time of dying to ourselves and being crucified with Christ.  And as surely as we have died with Him, so we will be raised with Him to the glory of God.

Psalm 51 vv. 1-12.

For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

 ¹ Have mercy on me, O God, 

       according to your unfailing love; 
       according to your great compassion 
       blot out my transgressions.

 ² Wash away all my iniquity 
       and cleanse me from my sin.

 ³ For I know my transgressions, 
       and my sin is always before me.

 ⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned 
       and done what is evil in your sight, 
       so that you are proved right when you speak 
       and justified when you judge.

 ⁵ Surely I was sinful at birth, 
       sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

 ⁶ Surely you desire truth in the inner parts;
       you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

 ⁷ Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; 
       wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

 ⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness; 
       let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

 ⁹ Hide your face from my sins 
       and blot out all my iniquity.

 ¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God, 
       and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

 ¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence 
       or take your Holy Spirit from me.

 ¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation 
       and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Confession and Forgiveness

Leader: In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

ALL: Amen

L: Most merciful and holy Father:

A: We confess to You and to one another, and to the w hole communion of saints in heaven and on earth, that we have sinned by out own fault, in thought, word, and deed; by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.

L: We have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind, and strength.  We have not lovedo ur neighbors as ourselves.  We have not forvien others, as we have been forgiven.

A: Have mercy on us, Lord.

L: We have been deaf to Your call to serve as Christ served us.  We have not been true to the mind of Christ.  We have grieved Your Holy Spirit.

A: Have mercy on us, Lord.

L: We confess to You, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness.  The pride, the hypocrisy, and the impatience in our lives.

A: We confess to You, Lord.

L: Our self-indulgent appetites and ways and exploitation of other people.

A: We confess to You, Lord.

L: Our anger at our own frustration, and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves.

A: We confess to You, Lord.

L: Our intemperate love of worldy goods and conforts, and our dishonesty in daily life and work.

A: We confess to You, Lord.

L: Our negligence in prayer and worship, and our failure to commend the faith that is in us.

A: We confess to You, Lord.

L: Accept our repentance, Lord, for the wrongs we have done.  For our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty.

A: Accept our repentance, Lord.

L: For our waste and pollution of Your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us.

A: Accept our repentance, Lord.

L: Restore us, good Lord, and let Your anger depart from us.

A: Hear us, Lord, for your mercy is great. Amen.

In his brief remarks to us, Pastor John related today how we are in age of victimhood.  Everyone is a victim, he said, and people often justify their actions via the faults of others.  He sees it all the time in his frequent work with people suffering from various forms of addiction.  For any change to happen, for any progress to be made, they must first break their denial, and realize that there is a problem, and they are at fault.  It's a message we don't hear enough, and the consequences are just as grave for us, but we can easily excuse them. (In fact, I was just thinking, thank goodness I'm no addict.  There's no serious problem with me.)  How many of our difficulties and travails the bitter fruit of our own mistakes of commission and omission?  The things we do out of greed or malice, or lust, or pride? Or the things we neglect, or avoid, or weasel out of? The things we deny?

This morning before church I read a bit of a photography blog by Pablo Gazpachot.  Here's is what he had to say, and I think it's quite germane:

One of my primary interests in life is lost souls who become found. Not so much in the Amazing Grace, spiritual sense (though that can be a beautiful thing too), but more in the self creation sense. We all pass through valleys of doubt, bewildered by the world, and blown by the wind. I am drawn to people who willfully get lost and experience the brink with no safety net and then slingshot themselves back into a reality that is no longer threatening or uninteresting. These people often find a gusto and a joy that escapes so many of us who cling to the workaday world. They know that reality is both created¹ and experienced and that a command of the former brings rewards in the latter.

No.

I have tried "self-creation."  I'm sure many of you have, as well.  It's a common pursuit.  The problem is that my heart, my will, my desires, are perverted.    Oh, there may be good intentions, noble desires, and the like, but within moments they are imbued with a self-righteousness and pride that soon degrades into envy and jealousy.  And those are the moments I pursue selfless ends with selfish motives.  At other times I am purely carnal.

Mr. Gazpachot says I can slingshot myself into the destination of my choosing, and escape the brokeness around me.  But he misses the crucial detail that the brokeness is within me as well.  As I sail the seas of life, he asks that I chart my own course, but what destination should I choose?  My fancies shift with the wind.  Perhaps I am an adequate shiphand, but I know I am a terrible captain, not escaping storms, but travelling right into the tempest.  

Perhaps this heavy-handed emphasis on brokenness and failure seems bleak--some may even say hopeless---but such is to corrupt confession and ignore both its essence and its end.  First, we must realize that it is not about us.  This is the essential center of confession--not only that we are wrong, that we are flawed, that we are broken, but that our brokenness is utter, that it is not in our control, that we cannot fix it.  We must diminish.  "I'm sorry and I'll try harder next time," is not repentance: correction cannot be of our own doing.  We must be humiliated, desperate.² 

And yet!

Desperation is not despair, and humiliation is never shame!  Although the essence of confession is our utter brokeness, its end is the complete and utter grace of God--that His love is absolutely true, and absolutely free.  Confession, ultimately, is not about us, but about Him and Christ's love for us that crosses every barrier, including those we have built within ourselves.  In His love and mercy, there is hope.  There is joy.  That where we have failed, He can prevail.  A confession that does not culminate in hope is no confession at all, but a penitent man in the grip of God's grace is a saint.

I'll leave you with a hymn, continuing in the sea-faring theme, written by Charles Gabriel in the earl 1900's, titled "Sail On!":

Upon a wide and stormy sea,

Thou’rt sailing to eternity,

And thy great Admiral orders thee:

“Sail on! Sail on! Sail on!”

 

Refrain

 

Sail on! Sail on!

The storms will soon be past,

The darkness will not always last;

Sail on! Sail on!

God lives and He commands:

“Sail on! Sail on!”

 

Art far from shore, and weary worn,

The sky o’ercast, thy canvas torn?

Hark ye! a voice to thee is borne:

“Sail on! Sail on! Sail on!”

 

Refrain

 

Do comrades tremble and refuse

To further dare the taunting hues?

No other course is thine to choose,

“Sail on! Sail on! Sail on!”

 

Refrain

 

Do snarling waves thy craft assail?

Art pow’rless, drifting with the gale?

Take heart! God’s Word shall never fail.

“Sail on! Sail on! Sail on!”

 

Refrain

1.  I have a hard enough time with individualized ethics.  I shudder to think what I would do with all of reality at my beck and call.

2.  I cannot stress this enough: humiliation and shame are completely and utterly different!  Humiliation carries with it the denotation of ostracism and rejection, but I use it the strictest sense of imparting one with humility.  Ostracism and rejection belong to the cruel domain of shame.  They are Satan's cruel pleasures, but not God's.  God may convict us of sin, that is, he may show us our errors, but it is only that we might return to living in a  way that does not harm us or others.  He convicts that we might return to Him.  It is one of the most bitter of lies to confuse the two, and I know what it is like to walk with condemnation.  If this is the case with you, I must must must exclaim, no, no, a thousand times, No! God does not condemn you.  Read Romans 8:36-39.  Take heart.  Draw courage.

A Total Harvest

At the behest of my true friend, and last remaining loyal reader, Chris, I will put up some new content.  Indeed, in honor of Lent, I will try to put something up daily, even if at sometimes I must resort to the trite or mundane, but hopefully I will be able to churn out something worthwhile, at least occasionally.

My ultimate goal for this blog is to serve as a source of commentary on the prospects of professing Christ in a world that is often disinterested, but is often

...as we eat the flour of our pursuits, so, too, shall we live.

disintegrating, as well.  I understand that seems like both a vague and broad undertaking, and a daunting challenge, especially for one business medical student in a middling corner of the flat Midwest.  At this point, and as a means of introduction of my ideas, I can do no better than quote at length TS Eliot, noted poet, Nobel laureate, and erstwhile cultural thinker:

The fact that a problem will certainly take a long time to solve, and that it will demand the attention of many minds for several generations, is no justification for postponing the study.  And, in times of emergency, it may prove in the long run that the problems we have postponed or ignored, rather than those we have failed to attack successfully, will return to plague us.  Our difficulties of the present moment must always be dealt with somehow: but our permanent difficulties are difficulties of every moment.  The subject with which I am concerned in the following pages is one to which I an cconvinced we ought to turn our attention now, if we hope to ever to be relieved of the immediate perplexities that fill our minds.  It is urgent because it is fundamental; and its urgency is the reason for a person like myself attemptiong to address, on a subject beyond his usual scope, that public which is likely to read what he writes on other subjects. [More than I can say personally.--TE]  THis is a subject which I could handle better, no doubt,  were I profound scholar in any of several fields.  But I am not writing for scholars, but for people like myself; some defects may be compensated by some advantages; and what one must be judged by, scholar or no, is not particularised knowledge but one's total harvest of thinking, feeling, living, and observing human beings.

From, TS Eliot, Christianity and Culture, Harcourt Brace, 1939, p. 5.

Such is my endeavor, that "the total harvest of thinking, feeling, and living" as a believer in an age of uncertainty will be recorded here.  This apt phrase "total harvest" crystallizes many of my grave concerns facing society today: the compartmentalization of concepts and pursuits into specialized and distinct realms.  And as we sow our thinking, we reap our feelings and ideals, and as we eat the flour of our pursuits, so, too, shall we live.  

When our basic understanding of mankind at a fundamental level is fragmented within the increasingly inward-looking academy, the public eventually responds with indifference and moves to more hedonic pursuits.  And as hedonism is, at its core, selfish, what happens to society as people themselves become more inward-looking?

My goal is to restore and proclaim Truth that builds up such inward personal fulfillment that we can resume humanity's charge to live socially.  That the despair of consumption and its concomitant atomization of our society into the whims of the individual could subside into contentment and forgiveness.  Of course, I don't want to approach this naively, and want to convey emphatically that there are no easy answers, the usual suspects may not be guilty of the sins we charge, and supposed heroes may be flawed at best.  That arguing from conventional labels prevents serious thinking, but also that seeking common ground for fear of contention can be just as much an abdication.  That understanding first demands scrutiny of one's one positions, but not the assumption that apologies and doubt means you're being honest.  Perhaps you're just a wimp.  Strife is never valuable for its own sake, but contention sometimes is necessary.  It's been said before, but there is a difference between the use of a dagger and scalpel.  

I understand there's not much flesh on this skeleton of an argument right now, and you may have doubts or questions.  That's fine, and they're welcome.  I hope over the coming months I can, like in Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones¹, put sinew and muscle on them, and in the process, begin the resuscitation of a dying and dessicated culture.

¹Ezek. 37.