jimrigby.org

This youtube video might be a nice introduction to a discussion of free will, and how human beings might have our choices limited and yet experience ourselves to be totally free.

http://youtu.be/wT9QgjC-ZWw

Rand Paul was giving a talk to university medical students in Louisville when he was asked if he had any last minute advice for those about to take a major test.

“Actually, I do, I never, ever cheated. I don’t condone cheating. But I would sometimes spread misinformation. This is a great tactic. Misinformation can be very important.”

“We spread the rumor that we knew what was on the test and it was definitely going to be all about the liver, we tried to trick all of our competing students into over-studying for the liver” and not studying much else.

So, that’s my advice. “Misinformation works.””

Suddenly, recent political events are making much more sense. If you see life as a dog eat dog struggle for survival, and if every other human being is your rival for resources, then of course you will spread misinformation to win that struggle. If there is no such thing as human solidarity, then there is no such thing as human virtue. In a world without a common life, there are no common standards, there are only winners and losers.

Raj Patel has a brief but revelatory talk on what the American way of life truly costs the rest of the planet. He estimates that, if the true labor and environmental costs were not “outsourced” to other places, a hamburger would cost about $200. Even if that figure turns out to be wildly inflated, it might begin reframing the conversation about what our way of life really means to everyone else.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oagmlbhobnY&feature=youtu.be

It is very nice for churches to have services expressing our love of animals. What seems strange to me is the idea of churches “blessing” the animals. Animals live connected to the web of life in a way we can only imagine, it is we who need to be blessed by them. If animals could speak, I think they would say, “Thank you for wishing us well, but if you want to show us you care, we’ll trade your service of blessings for a day of the week when you don’t hunt, torture or eat us.”

It is very nice for churches to have services expressing our love of animals. What seems strange to me is the idea of churches “blessing” the animals. Undomesticated animals live connected to the web of life in a way we can only imagine. It is we who need to be blessed by them. If animals could speak do you not suppose they would say, “Thank you for wishing us well, but we don’t really need your approval. If you want to show you care, how about you stop torturing and eating us?”

“What struck me as I began to study history was how nationalist fervor–inculcated from childhood on by pledges of allegiance, national anthems, flags waving and rhetoric blowing–permeated the educational systems of all countries, including our own. I wonder now how the foreign policies of the United States would look if we wiped out the national boundaries of the world, at least in our minds, and thought of all children everywhere as our own. Then we could never drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, or napalm on Vietnam, or wage war anywhere, because wars, especially in our time, are always wars against children, indeed our children.”

― Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present

“Love art in yourself, and not yourself in art.”   -Constantin Stanislavski

This quote by Stanislavsky strikes me as important. I understand him to mean that a true artist expresses the artfulness within, which can actually be threatened when art becomes a profession or practice. I suspect it is what Picasso meant when he said he did not mind plagerizing other artists but he was terrified of imitating himself.

I believe the warning is doubly applicable to the topic of religion. It is a wonderful thing to respond deeply to feelings of reverence within us, but once religion becomes an idea, a practice or a profession, we must constantly be on guard that we do not love our idea of religion more than the mystery itself.

Many people claim that America is a Christian nation, but democracies cannot be religious in nature without discriminating against those of other faiths and philosophies. Jesus summarized the essence of his ethical teachings as being a good neighbor. Being a good neighbor begins with respecting others for who they are, and not using religion to dominate them.

If one claims that the founders of this nation were Christian, would that not also imply that enslaving African people and slaughtering the native people in order to steal their land was also Christian? Does no one notice that the myth of a Christian nation also provides a pretext for privileging those of European descent? After all, Christian conquerers are the heroes of that story, not the natives who were here first, not the enslaved people who had religions of their own, not the Jews and the Deists and the non-believers who were here as well. Can we really say that our non-Christian neighbors are irrelevant to our national story simply because there are more of us, and we can outshout them?

In a nation of many faiths and philosophies, being a good neighbor requires a secular state. If any would like to make America more Christian, they might begin by being better neighbors themselves.

I remember the first time I did a same-gender wedding years ago. I was so nervous. Was I supposed to declare them “wife and wife” or “husband and husband?” What if I said something that revealed my almost total ignorance about the gay life style?

What I discovered, of course, is that the “gay life style” is really a misnomer. Most people spend a very small percentage of their life in the act of love making, so calling the weddings “same-sex” is missing the most important point of all, that marriage is about love not sex.

I also discovered that the same-gender weddings were not so different either. If I eliminated sexism from the traditional service I was already there. In fact doing same-gender weddings has made my other weddings better. After all marriage is not primarily about sex, it is about two hearts vowing to be faithful kind and loving for the rest of their lives together.

I feel sorry for anyone raising money for women’s causes in this sexist culture. I just pulled up behind a car that has a “Save the ta-ta’s” bumper sticker.” I understand the strategy. I know the phrase is tongue in cheek, and that they need to do whatever they can do to raise money for this important cause. Still, it makes me very sad to think that the only incentive they can find to motivate men to donate money to saving women’s lives from breast cancer is that we enjoy looking at their breasts.