Labels: gergia., ivria

Labels: america, empire, imperialism, native americans, noam chomsky

Yesterday Jack Ebert, editor of the Onion – a satirical news source – went on record concerning Harry Potter brainwashing.  He said, "On June 15, 2001 the Onion published an article on Harry Potter.  In it, we claimed thousands of children across the country took up witchcraft, wizardry, and satanism thanks to the popular novel series Harry Potter.  This article, in its entirety, was a joke."

            Cataclysmic and instantaneous recoil rippled throughout Western Christendom. Many professing Christians Googled the article to find poor-quality Photoshoped pictures and made-up names supporting these claims.  "It's all my fault," claimed Alissa Heyman.  "I sat around my house all day long that year, and when I got bored, I send out hundreds of email forwards.  The one I sent the most was the Harry Potter article, but I didn't quote the link.  I didn't think laziness and boredom would do this."

            But it did. 

            Several thousand Christians sent over four-hundred trillion email forwards that year, mostly involving nothing to do with their Gospel of Active faith that takes care of the poor widows and orphans in our culture.  The Harry Potter article ranked second only to a series using numbers and letters to prove, via basic addition, that CHRISTIAN = weapon and NON-CHRISTIAN = moving target.

            "I feel so betrayed," said Saint Archbishop the Right Reverend Grand High Poobah of Durham John Night.  "For all this time I've stayed away from fiction because of this rumor.  I thought fantasy would warp my mind and cause me to go out and buy a wand – three and five-eights inches long with a dragon heartstring core.  I don't know if I would have spent all this time writing intellectual books had I known.  

Maybe I'll start a fantasy series to match my four tomes on the historical Jesus!"  S.A.R.R.G.H.P.o.D. John Night - MA, MB, PhD – went to the first used bookstore he found and bought a copy.  Rowling herself signed it.

            Many righteous persons within the American church are disappointed.  "This is the equivalent of a recession in the economy of God," said Pastor Don Riley.  "We'll have to find something else to rail on soon, or it might throw us into an all-out depression."  Indeed several throughout the Midwest, that area of the country referred to by Californians and resident New Yorkers as "cow", launched into full-scale class-nine depression.  Zoloft and Effexor supplies are running low, and there's an excess of crackers and grape juice.  If people keep this up, there might be a belly-up response throughout the sacramental market.  "We might not even be able to take communion next year," suggested one christian statistical researcher.  "It turns out most Christians were actually Pagans."

            J. K. Rowling barely commented on the issue.  "When I was a little girl, I used to write stories.  Now I'm an adult, and I get paid to write those stories for other little girls."  But many in the Parent-Teacher Association have their doubts.  "We've already banned the books, and have started bonfires all over the country."  This is old news to Rowling, who simply points to Editor Jack Ebert, the man who called it all "a joke."

            Perhaps the most curious advice is one bible college graduate.  He says, "I believe the Harry Potter series to be the best picture of the Gospel modern Western culture has to offer.  It was the most spiritually enlightening experience of my Sophomore year of college, outside of prayer itself."

            Concerning this provocative statement, the leader of the N.C.H.C. (National Christian Home-school Co-op) Brad Bailey offers no comment.

--

Lancelot Schaubert, Ed.

Labels: fantasy, harry potter, hypocrisy, j.k. rowling, Jesus, jesus wants to save christians, religion, writing

As for me, I wanted to illuminate, more as a reminder, where the philosophical underpinnings of an alternative God came from, a God of War that is not represented within Scripture.

First, I point to the Greeks (and by later association the Romans), for this is where most of our philosophy/religion comes from.  We know of Ares, one of the twelve olympians, son of Zues and Hera.  Many place him under the title of the god of warfare, but he would more commonly fit among the Toren of WoW - the god of the Thirst for Blood.  But since he's the only true god of warfare the Greeks had, we'll go with him.  His name, ἀρή (are), is actually the Ionic form of the Doric ἀρά (ara), which means "bane, ruin, curse, imprecation".  The Bane God, God of the Curse, and God of Ruin might be more appropriate titles than god of war.  The spartans prayed to this god for victory in that gruesome battle of thermopoly - resulting in our movie "300".  In fact, east of Sparta, there stood a statue of Ares actually in chains to show that the spirit of bloodlust must never leave the city.  The Trojans prayed to this god for victory at the battle of troy, the war over an adultery, 

resulting in "Troy".  But even the gods never entrusted Ares with anything.  "You are the most hateful to me of the gods who hold Olympus, forever strife is dear to you and wars and slaughter," says Zeus in the midst of the Illiad (5.890).  The chief of the greek gods despised him, as did the rest.  Men like Nero prayed to the Roman version Mars, if he did not consider himself to take the seat of the god of bloodlust - a theme picked up in the modern video game "god of war" where Kratos kills Ares and takes his seat as god over all gruesome violence.  This god, the god who brought war and armies, even the chief pagan deity despised who would most readily be identified with the God of the OT.

Second, I point to Norse and Viking mythology, for this is the closest influence to the Scottish culture shown in "Braveheart", the true first of the violent war movies listed above - and the underpinning of most "manly" arguments.  This god many are unfamiliar with unless they played Final Fantasy 3 or did some Tolkien/Rowling studies.  Few people actually study norse mythology for the fun of it.  I am one of those, so I beg your temporary pardon.  The Norse god of war, and the chief among their gods is Odin (pronouced woa-then from the Old Norse Óðinn).  His name stands by the Anglo-Saxon Wōden and the Old High German Wotan, it is descended from Proto-Germanic *Wōđinaz or *Wōđanaz.  He stands as the ruler of Asgard. His name is related to ōðr, meaning "fury, excitation," besides "mind," or "poetry."  They associated him with wisdom, war, battle, and death, and also magic,poetry, prophecy, victory, and the hunt.  I'd like to point out that, though these seem unrelated categories to us, to the Norse people wisdom (or crafty trickery as similar to Ahiqar of the Jews and similar stories) came through strategy in battles and wars, at the moment of death for many as indicated with the interaction of Loki and Thor, and required the magic of prophecy to attain victory of the hunt.  This prophecy came through poetic forms as found in the poetic Edda, the main text of Norse mythology and comparable to the Greek Illiad.  I want to quote from one of their texts, the Gesta Hammaburgensis 26, "In this temple, entirely decked out in gold, the people worship the statues of three gods... Wotan—that is, the Furious—carries on war and imparts to man strength against his enemies."  This is the exact sort of phraseology used by many modern preachers regarding the Lord Almighty and my chief link between these two points.  IF The Lord Almighty is him who we appeal to in order that we might "carry on war and impart strength to men against enemies," then he is indeed no different in character to Wothin, Ares, or Mars.  He is the one we bring tribute to that we might have success in battle.

Third, I just watched Master and Commander last night - good movie over all.  My adrenaline pumped, I paced around the house, my body loved it.  However, my mind was trouble at the end when the men of both sides started praying over the dead - French and British alike.  From the connection of the the two ships, they prayed the Lord's prayer together over the dead, prayed to the same Lord they begged to help them only weeks prior (as movie time goes).  Then I remembered an old quote that I cannot shake, made by the writer of Creating Communities of the Kingdom, "Pacifist or not, we Christians should make the basic commitment not to kill one another.  Regardless of our stance on war, we should not kill our brother."  And I looked back up at the screen and shook my head at what I had begun to believe - namely that God would bless the felling of one another just like Ares or Mars or Wothin.  This is the same sort of hook that 300, Troy, Gladiator, and yes, Braveheart use in the midst of an adrenal rush - namely that God Almighty blesses those who kill their brothers.  I cannot believe that, not when it's supposed to be the same God who said, "they will know you are Christians by your love for one another."  Christians, right now, are serving in militaries killing other Christians.  Whatever your stance, that cannot be okay.  We are here for the Gospel of the Kingdom, not for the propaganda of the earth, of Ares, of Mars, and of Wothin.  We do not worship this idols.  We do not worship war.  We worship the Prince of Peace.

Moreover, the most quoted line of Braveheart is this:  "They can take our lives, but they'll never take our FREEDOM!"  Think about that.  In the midst of battle, William Wallace breaks down his former ideology and repents.  He says essentially, "The greatest thing we can do today is not to kill, but to die."  That is the call of Christ.  That is true freedom - to actually believe that Jesus is alive and that resurrection happens and will happen for everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.  I would like to remind everyone that Braveheart does not end with killing, but with dying.  The greatest thing William Wallace ever did for his people was to expose the injustice of his oppressors by being tortured in front of everyone and beheaded.  William Wallace, in the end, repented of war and took up the standard of pacifism.  And for that, I consider him a peacemaker.

Labels: ares, god of war, lord almighty, Lord Sabaoth, MARS, mother theresa, norse, odin, wothin

            I've been told not to fear.  This is hard news to me being a writer, for anxiety tends to drive our blood through our veins – just ask Forrester.  But as a writer, I – like many of my contemporaries – find myself exiled to a sort of Patmos, plagued to produce that which I loathe.  I spend many of my hours revising for the sake of agents, and countless others devising plots for these men who do not care of the things I care for.  Most people are like that, scoffing at every manuscript you give them.  Most people tell you "writing's great – but what are you gonna do with your life?"  I'd like to remind them that Moses was a writer, not a speaker, but they don't handle truth well most days.

            And so, as with everything else, we compromise the integrity of the thing.  We wail in the night, but during the day, we put on our fancy suits of dry cleaned armor and ride out to a rather marketable battle.  But, being a good American, I am obliged to tell the whole truth, and nothing but.  So help me…

            It started with Meir's Reflection – the working title of book one of my fantasy series.  I have revised and manipulated and torn my love asunder for the sake of the agents to the extent that I do not want to touch it again.  If they come, they come, but heaven help me if I shorten another character's story.

            Then it moved into HOS, and the other modern-day presentations of literary whatever I'm driving at.  I enjoy them, and I truly want to write them, but spending my time – my formative time – right now on all of this mandatory regulative literature makes me feel… how can I put this nicely?  Burned at the stake.

            So instead, I'm trying to remember everything I've forgotten over the last three years or so.  It will take some time, but if the goal of writing, or preaching, or any craft for that matter is truth-telling, I intend to tell all of it.

            And if by the end of it all I find myself guilty until proven innocent, then at least someone in this forsaken court room was honest.  Damn me if you have to, but at least I chose a side.

1

            Most people irritate me with their definitions of faith.  I don't mean to have a critical spirit, nor to sound like most pessimists when they proclaim such things.  What I do mean to say is that, like a piece of dirt in my eye, the standard definition of faith entered into my soul's membrane and caused me to blink so long I've forgotten what I was doing.

            Nearly a dozen months ago, I holed myself up in the guest bedroom of a little place out in the country.  It belonged to some older friends of mine – one's a mailman and his wife's a librarian.  I wanted to add an "a" to the end of librarian to make it more feminine, but anyway…

            They were gracious to let me stay there, especially in the state I was in, having left the hospital only a few weeks prior thanks to anxiety – my life in parts, divided among thousands of worries.  But  I wrestled that weekend through the essence of my Gospel – the good news I came to believe – and in the end I found something incredible.

            Grace is real.  It's different than mercy.  See anyone can earn a pardon.  Ask Andy DuFrane.  He earned a governmental pardon and state grant in order to soup-up his prison's library.  Write the Governor, or the President, or Bin Laden enough and they'll just get annoyed and let you go.  Kind of like a persistent widow – in the words of my teacher: "Gimme Justice!  Gimme Justice!  Gimme Justice!"

            But not grace. 

            Grace happens when the governor decides that justice must be done, even though mercy sits better on his conscience.  When the pain of mercilessness meets the joy of patience, we get grace. 

            It's not that the governor pardoned your crime. 

            It's that he sent his kid brother, or his own boy to death row for you.

            That's where it all starts anyway.  It's a wonderful feeling waking up in the morning having been given permission to receive the grace of God.  My atheist friends still can't wrap their minds around this, and most of my pluralist friends can't either.  Truth is, I hate religion more than Richard Dawkins does.  Religion is the true killer of our times.  It starts a whole lot of wars, damages a whole lot of families, and murders a whole lot of infants.  Different religions just seem to kill off different things, I guess.

            One man didn't believe we worshipped our technology and pace of life, until I pointed out that we're sacrificing the planet on that altar.  Someone scoffed at the idea of child sacrifice, and I pointed to abortion.  Another hated the fact that people drive drunk – he was a cop coming from a sobriety checkpoint. Curiously enough, he was off duty, hanging out of his truck window telling me this.  He had a beer in his hand – opened and half empty.  It's not the alcohol I scoff at so much as the hypocrisy of that moment.

            I've seen relationships where sin enters and so people kill off the marriage.   I've witnessed emotional insecurity between married couples, and so they sacrifice their sex-life.  I've seen sexual infidelity and so they sacrifice intimacy with one another on the altar of pleasure. I've even heard of entire bus loads of senior citizens dropping off at casinos to try their "luck" with the slots.  Many of them attach their credit cards to these machines, credit cards connected to bank accounts, bank accounts connected to life savings, life savings connected to… well… life.  And at the end of it all, they killed off everything good and peaceful and slow-cooked and breathable by pulling a lever over and over and over again.  One pastor said "the gods aren't angry"[i].  I wish people believed that.

            Thing is, most people don't realize that Christianity isn't about religion.  It's about a substitute, a stand-in.  It's about a death connected to a bank account connected to a credit card connected to a lever so that we don't have to die any more.  It's about letting Jesus die so that marriages, kids, families, relationships, communities, creation, and our identities can live.  Really live.

            That kind of grace sustains the world.  That kind of grace comes from a person who gives us principles which turned into precepts.  That kind of grace suspends even our ethics if our faith leaps when he says "leap" and stops when he says "stop" and asks for directions on the way out the door.

            Or am I mistaken in thinking that Abraham "did not know where he was going" (Hebrews 8:11) ?

1.  Entry must be poetry - no prose

2.  Entry must in some way deal with one of three topics: beards, manliness, or the combination of the two (i.e. the art of barbarianism).

3.  No limit on the amount of lines, though epic poems may be cut depending on number of entries

4.  Language must be kept to a minimum, and used intelligently.  If you don't have a reason to use a hard "c" word, for instance, don't.

5.  All worthy entries will be published in the 2009 Whiskerino Poetry book.

6.  Deadline is December 17th, 2009  Must be received via mail or email @ whiskerino.poetry@gmail.com before 11:59pm central time.

7.  Winner will be announced January 15th, 2009 following the publishing of the book, and availability in the www.whiskerino.org marketplace.

 

Thanks for participating!

thanks Mackle.  I really appreciate
------
Lancelot T. M. Schaubert
2418 Manitou
Joplin, MO 64801

Labels: books, nanowrimo, novel, progress, word count, writer, writing