I Don't Think I'm a RadyTrad ...

... but still am proud to be listed on the banned list at Spirit of Vatican 2 (a tongue-in-cheek blog y'all will like).

Chuck Norris's Favorite Facts ...

Looking up the Chuck Norris facts list for a friend who hadn't heard of it, I see that Chuck himself has chosen his favorite lines which, natch, I put below.

(I was reminded of the list by the Mike Huckabee ad and if you missed that go look right now ... we'll wait ...)

• When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.


• Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.


• There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.


• Outer space exists because it's afraid to be on the same planet with Chuck Norris.
• Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.


• Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs.


• Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.


• Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice.


• There is no chin behind Chuck Norris’ beard. There is only another fist.


• When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.


• Chuck Norris is so fast, he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head.


• Chuck Norris’ hand is the only hand that can beat a Royal Flush.


• Chuck Norris can lead a horse to water AND make it drink.


• Chuck Norris doesn’t wear a watch, HE decides what time it is.


• Chuck Norris gave Mona Lisa that smile.


• Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.


• Chuck Norris does not get frostbite. Chuck Norris bites frost


• Remember the Soviet Union? They decided to quit after watching a DeltaForce marathon on Satellite TV.


• Contrary to popular belief, America is not a democracy, it is a Chucktatorship.

What Everyone Knows ... Turns Out to Be False Once Again

John C. Wright's investigations show him that there is more to Christian dogma than can be found in our "reasonable" philosophy.

It has always struck me as unjust in the Christian dogma that virtuous pagans are consigned to hellfire. Nothing could be more obviously an affront to reason than to condemn a man for eternity to punishment when the means of salvation were not and could not be known to him, and to call it just.

I discovered just today that this is not the Christian dogma at all.

M Francis writes and tells me this:

"…the Church always recognized something called "Baptism by Desire." The neo-Platonists like Augustine were much taken by the life and death of Socrates and saw in it a pagan parallel to the life of Christ - both unjustly executed by authorities for preaching virtue. Hence: the "naturally Christian man," Homo christianis naturalis, iirc. They supposed that, not having known Christ, the "virtuous pagans" would not receive the beatific vision complete but, being virtuous, a "limb" of heaven was reserved for them: a place of perfect natural happiness. This became "limbo" in common speech.

The Roman Catholic position can be summed up in Art. 1260 of the Catechism:"Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal mystery."

I also came across this quote by Billy Graham (actually, I came across John Derbyshire quoting David Aikman's biography of the great preacher):

“I used to think that pagans in far-off countries were lost — were going to hell — if they did not have the gospel of Jesus Christ preached to them. I no longer believe that. I believe there are other ways of recognizing the existence of God — through nature for instance — and plenty of other opportunities, therefore, of saying yes to God.”

... Ever since my conversion, I found the same thing over and over again: that the illogical or unfair parts of the Christian Dogma I was being asked to accept on faith, upon closer inspection, turn out to say, not what the world told me the Church said, but something more like what natural reason and supernatural love would be likely to say. If the Roman Catholics and the Southern Baptist Billy Graham agree on a point, it is safe to say it is a mainstream Christian teaching.

For those of you who think faith is some sort of willful blindness or deliberate affection for absurdity, please consider instead the cases like this: imagine that, more that once, you found your unaided opinion, the act of resting only on what you know yourself turned out, upon inspection, to be nothing more than finding a popular prejudice lodged in your mouth, something "everyone knows" but no one, not even you, actually checked.

Everyone knows the Church is the enemy of science, right? Look at the trial of Galileo! But then you read a history book or two, and it turns out that the Galileo affair was not about geocentrism, it was about Galileo insulting the Pope. ...

Everyone knows the Church is the enemy of law and justice! Look at the Spanish Inquisition! But it turns out the Inquisition was smaller than reported, handled with more legal safeguards, and was the actions of a national church operating independently, and sometimes in opposition to, the ecumenical episcopate. ...

Go read it all. I know well how he feels having gone through the same period of discovery myself. I was flabbergasted at some of the things that "everyone knows" (including me) that turned out to be dead wrong once I actually consulted the facts about Christian dogma.

An Inspirational Story Acts as Hinge for Two Truths

This inspirational story of a young Muslim woman who is converting to Catholicism is making the rounds and with good reason. She is attracted to Jesus because of the mercy he shows, and by extension, through the mercy she has seen U.S. medical personnel demonstrate by treating wounded enemies. (The story is reported by a journalist in Iraq who spent time with Fr. Bautista, found via Deacon Greg.)

As Fr. Bautista continued speaking with us, he described the fascinating story of a young Muslim woman who was entering the Church under his guidance through the RCIA process. Her story was moving. While working with Americans, this woman, who must remain anonymous, was touched deeply when she realized that the U.S. medical personnel not only treated wounded Americans and Iraqi civilians, but also treated wounded enemy combatants, including one who was known for having killed U.S. Marines. As she put it, “This cannot happen with us.”

This dramatic extension of mercy even to enemy soldiers caused her to take the next cautious step. She asked Father Bautista to “tell me more about Jesus.” As Father described Jesus and his life in the Gospels, one thing stood out among the rest for the Muslim woman he called “Fatima” (not her real name) and that was how kindly Jesus had related to, as she put it, “the two Mary’s.” Fatima was moved to see how Jesus deeply loved Mary, his mother, who was sinless, but also how Jesus deeply loved Mary Magdalene, who was “a great sinner.” As these discussions continued, Fatima reached a point where she said to Father Bautista, “I want to become a Christian.”

Since Father Bautista sees himself as a chaplain for all troops, not just Catholics, he decided to introduce Fatima to other chaplains from Protestant and Orthodox backgrounds. After some time had passed, Fatima returned to Father Bautista and said, “I want to become a Catholic like you.” When Father asked her the reason for her decision, she said, “You were the only one who told me about the other Christians, so you left me free to decide for myself. That’s how I knew this was the right decision.”

As their catechetical lessons developed over time, Fatima’s family discovered her plan and was warned sternly by her father that if she continued on this path, she would be disowned by the entire family and would never have contact with them again. At this point, Father Bautista became concerned for Fatima’s well-being and cautioned her to look carefully at the consequences of her decision and to think seriously before continuing her path into the Church.

Fatima paused for a moment and then looking intently at Father Bautista asked, “Do you give up so easily on Jesus?” The question took Father aback for a moment, but then he thought, “This is incredible; this Muslim woman is already bearing witness to me about how important my own faith is!”

Read the whole story here.

This morning, catching up from a missed day of devotional reading, that story was instantly called to mind when I read this quote and thought of how the demonstration of mercy beyond plain justice moved Fatima to ask, "tell me more about Jesus."

We should meditate on the life of Jesus because Jesus is a summary and compendium of the story of the divine mercy ... Many other scenes of the Gospel also make a deep impact on us, such as his forgiveness for the woman taken in adultery, the parables -- the prodigal so,, the lost sheep, the pardoned debtor -- and the raising to life of the son of the widow at Naim. How many reasons based on justice could Christ have found to work as great a wonder as this last one! The only son of that poor widow had died -- he who gave meaning to her life, he who would help her in her old age. Jesus did not perform His miracle out of justice, but out of compassion, because his heart was moved by the spectacle of human suffering.

St. Josemaria Escriva, quoted in In Conversation with God:
Daily Meditations, Vol. One: Advent and Christmastide

I was moved again to think of Fatima and her attraction to the truth when reading an email this morning with a press release for an upcoming book about interacting with Islam.

I am thrilled to bring your attention to a new book, Faith, Reason, and the War Against Jihadism by George Weigel, a Catholic theologian and Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington's Ethics and Public Policy Center. In his bold manifesto, Weigel calls all Americans to confront and recognize the religious passions that fuel Islamic Jihadism. Weigel claims that, in order to do this, we must begin to:

1. Realize that the great human questions, including the great questions of public life, are ultimately theological
2. Demonstrate acknowledgment that the greatest achievements of the West are works of spiritual grace
3. Retire the idea that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are the three Abrahamic faiths
4. Stop trying not to offend. Truth-telling is the essential prerequisite to genuine inter-religious dialogue
5. Try to bring about a non-violent regime change by engaging with the Iranian people, NOT their oppressors ...

Reading "stop trying not to offend" instantly recalled Fatima's question, "“Do you give up so easily on Jesus?” I will be curious to see what the book says. I found it interesting that I so well understood the chaplain's back-pedaling in an attempt to keep "Fatima" safe. He had forgotten what many of us have, here in the West. Speaking the truth may offend the hearer, even if done in charity and kindness. However, as long as we truly are speaking with charity and kindness then it is not a service to backpedal, but a grave disservice to the hearer. What they do with the truth is then up to them.

An Avowed Tim Burton Hater Swoons Over Sweeney Todd

All my life I've loved -- worshipped -- what Stephen Sondheim's music can do for the human heart. Blend this with a tragic, grand guignol metaphor about how we're all caught up with some issue of the past -- needing on some level to pay the world back for the hurt and the woundings. Add to this Burton's exquisite visual panache and precision, the drop-dead beautiful, near monochromatic color, the ravishing production design and...pardon me for sounding like a pushover, but this movie pushes over.

At times it melted me like a candle. I was lifted, moved. I was never not aroused. Every frame is a painting.

Johnny Depp is fantastic as the Demon Barber of Fleet Street -- he has to be a Best Actor candidate as of this moment. It grieves me to admit this, but bully-boy David Poland predicted that Depp's Todd would be a major contender early last year. Helena Bonham Carter can't sing very well but she's great anyway. Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Jamie Campbell Bower (a major new arrival), Jayne Wisener, Sascha Baron Cohen...everyone fills the bill.

That doesn't sound like someone who has been disappointed in Burton's films for a long, long time, but Jeffrey Overstreet on whose blog I saw the link, assures us this is so. Read the whole review and get ready ...

Special MP3 Advent Reflections

EWTN is featuring reflections that will change weekly throughout the Advent. They also have other special seasonal listening to be downloaded. This week it is an International Rosary. Scroll down to the bottom of the page each Monday to see what's offered.

I am about halfway through Father Saward's reflection for this week and can wholeheartedly endorse it. He talks about just what it means to "wake up" and has some good ideas for us to incorporate in our routines.

Here's a thought ...

Elliott sez:

Christians shouldn't refrain from criticizing Pullman, but they should reflect on the fact that they already have the theologically-freighted young adult fantasy worlds of four self-professed Christians: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Madeleine L'Engle, and J.K. Rowling. (I recently came across a Ph.D. dissertation in which a grown woman (who seemed to be a non-Christian) enthusiastically described L'Engle's impact on her and the inspiration which L'Engle's theological ideas of 'chronos' and 'kairos' gave to the dissertation itself.) The impact of these four has been enormous. So don't get too intimidated by one blustering late-comer who wants to compete.

True enough.

Where Do We Look to Find Jesus?

This insert was in our church bulletin last week and I thought that y'all might like it as well. The new liturgical year is a good time to start afresh and this begins a series that will take us back to basics in looking for Jesus.

Where Do We Look to Find Jesus?

“ This is the context in which we need to read the conclusion of the prologue to John’s Gospel: “No one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is nearest to the Father’s heart who has made him known” (Jn 1:18). It is in Jesus that the promise of the new prophet is fulfilled. What was true of Moses only in fragmentary form has now been fully realized in the person of Jesus; He lives before the face of God, not just as a friend, but as a Son; he lives in the most intimate unity with the Father.

We have to start here if we are truly to understand the figure of Jesus as it is presented to us in the new Testament; all that we are told about his words, deeds, sufferings, and glory is anchored here. This is the central point, and if we leave it out of account, we fail to grasp what the figure of Jesus is really all about, so that it becomes self-contradictory and, in the end, unintelligible. The question that every reader of the New Testament must ask—where Jesus’ teaching came from, how his appearance in history is to be explained— can really be answered only from this perspective. The reaction of his hearers was clear: This teaching does not come from any school. It is radically different from what can be learned in schools. It is not the kind of explanation or interpretation that is taught there. It is different; it is interpretation “with authority.” …

Jesus’ teaching is not the product of human learning, of whatever kind. It originates from immediate contact with the Father, from “face-to-face” dialogue—from the vision of the one who rests close to the Father’s heart. It is the Son’s word. Without this inner grounding, his teaching would be pure presumption. This is just what the learned men of Jesus’ time judged it to be, and they did so precisely because they could not accept its inner grounding: seeing and knowing face-to-face. ”

Jesus of Nazareth by Joseph Ratzinger

-------------------------------------------------------

Last Sunday we celebrated the Solemnity of Christ the King. This Sunday, we begin Advent and a new liturgical year. How fitting that we begin and end the year with our eyes fixed on Christ as he is the center of our faith and the Church’s reason for existence.

Yet, often that very task can be more difficult than one might imagine. There are many interpretations of Christ presented in books, on television, and in movies. Newly unearthed “Gospels” told by Thomas, Peter, or Judas are not found in the Bible but flourish on store bookshelves. Popular thrillers such as the Da Vinci Code are sold as fiction but claim roots in older nonfiction texts. Ancient heresies are dusted off, given a new name, and taught as spiritual truths. We are told that there is no such thing as an absolute truth in this relativistic age and that all of the world’s main religions are basically the same. In other words, we continually have new, misleading information given to us with an authoritative tone. No wonder we are confused.

As Catholics we do not have to look for Jesus all alone. The Church has written down her teachings to help us understand Holy Scripture and Tradition in one handy book: the Catechism. If you haven’t opened your Catechism lately, take a look the next time you have a question. Use it for daily meditative reading. There is a wealth of over 2,000 years of cumulative Christian wisdom between those covers.

More recently, “Jesus of Nazareth” was written by Pope Benedict precisely to help us fix our eyes firmly on the real Jesus shown in the Gospels. No one sees the swirl of confusion, misinformation, and flawed scholarship to which we are subjected more clearly than one who carries the papal shepherd’s crook. He takes us back to Scripture in order to show us Jesus Christ clearly, as well as providing much good material for meditation.

In the weeks to come, we will look for the real Jesus using these books as well as other informed sources. We will also consider occasionally some of the difficult questions of modern times in the light of Church teachings. We will fix our eyes on Christ together.

-------------------------------------------------------

Jesus of Nazareth by Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) is available at the St. Jude Library.

Love That Spe Salvi ... Christ, the True Teacher

Reading the encyclical ... and I am only about a third through it ... some things are just hitting me right in the face. So simple and yet so unrealized until I read what Pope Benedict says. For instance, try this on for size ...

... Philosophy at that time was not generally seen as a difficult academic discipline, as it is today. Rather, the philosopher was someone who knew how to teach the essential art: the art of being authentically human—the art of living and dying. To be sure, it had long since been realized that many of the people who went around pretending to be philosophers, teachers of life, were just charlatans who made money through their words, while having nothing to say about real life. All the more, then, the true philosopher who really did know how to point out the path of life was highly sought after. Towards the end of the third century, on the sarcophagus of a child in Rome, we find for the first time, in the context of the resurrection of Lazarus, the figure of Christ as the true philosopher, holding the Gospel in one hand and the philosopher's travelling staff in the other. With his staff, he conquers death; the Gospel brings the truth that itinerant philosophers had searched for in vain. In this image, which then became a common feature of sarcophagus art for a long time, we see clearly what both educated and simple people found in Christ: he tells us who man truly is and what a man must do in order to be truly human. He shows us the way, and this way is the truth. He himself is both the way and the truth, and therefore he is also the life which all of us are seeking. He also shows us the way beyond death; only someone able to do this is a true teacher of life. ...

Saved in Hope: Pope's New Encyclical Released

Pope Benedict XVI released Spe Salvi (Saved in Hope) today. The very word "encyclical" seems intimidating but I often have found encyclicals to be surprisingly easy to read and understand.

So now the Pope has written about love and hope. Can an encyclical on faith be far behind?

John Allen reports "Benedict wanted this encyclical to appear in the Christmas season, since Christmas is the great feast of the Incarnation, traditionally understood as the principal symbol of Christian hope. On Saturday, the church enters the period of Advent, pointing towards Christmas."

Get the Vatican's English translation of Spe Salvi.

John Allen has two articles about it already which I will be reading after I have read the document itself.

• Spe Salvi a 'Greatest Hits' collection of core Ratzinger ideas
• Benedict XVI offers the second in a possible triptych of encyclicals: 'Saved by Hope'

"God bless America and I mean it."

These were words uttered by Rosalie Schiff last night at a talk she and her husband, William, gave at Rose's school. As they are Holocaust survivors telling their stories, attendance yielded students an extra credit in history (a worthy lure). We also were grateful for their talk as Rose retold it throughout dinner last night. It was touching, inspiring, much was sorrowful, and the sheer evil described was incomprehensible. However, it is important to keep this reminder in front of us that we may attempt to keep history from repeating itself.

Interestingly, when we looked up their book (find it here) Tom remembered hearing that the Schiff's live in Dallas and their co-author goes to our parish. Sometimes it is a very small world.

I completely missed the fact that the Dallas Morning News was publishing excerpts, for which you can find links here and here.

Ready for Some Latin?

Or perhaps I should say, ready to help ME with some Latin pronunciation?

Here it is:

"Flammascat igne caritas accendat ardor proximos ..."

May the fire of love burn ever bright, enkindling others with its flame."

11-1, How Sweet It Is!

How 'bout those Cowboys?

I also was happy to see how well the second string Packers quarterback played when he got the chance (as long as he didn't play so well that they won the game, that is). Working in Brett Favre's shadow must be fairly unsatisfying and I could imagine his family's delight at seeing him doing so well last night..

So Many Movies, So Little Time

We watched so very many movies over Thanksgiving that I was astounded. However, it was great fun. I already reviewed American Gangster and mentioned The Prestige. Here is a very quick rundown of the others:

• My Best Friend (French): a nice little story about a man who suddenly realizes that he has no friends at all and sets about making some. The surprise that happens to the taxi driver in the end of the movie had us laughing in appreciation of the familiarity. You'll know it when you see it.


• Reign Over Me: I was surprised at how very much I liked this movie. It had the potential to be a real downer as it examines grief from several angles, but thanks to the strength of friendships and comedy the movie wound up being uplifting.


• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: spoofing noir at the same time as BEING a noir movie. Hard to do but this is great. It is also great fun watching Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer in this movie.
  


• Citizen Kane: Tom and I hadn't seen this for (mumble, mumble) maybe 20 years? Rose wanted to see it and it was fascinating to watch for the many techniques that Wells did for the very first time and that are now common. As well, the final shot of the movie hit me like a slap in the face ... I just didn't see it coming. (And, no, I'm not talking about Rosebud.)


• Amelie: (we actually watched this the weekend before Thanksgiving). This was a delight to me simply for its sheer Frenchness. It is difficult to see how any other culture would have made this movie with its mix of whimsy, sex, romance, and ... well ... Paris. It also is a celebration of friendship, love, and connectedness.
  

Bringing the Saints to the Streets

... the streetwise lingo represented the playwright's attempt at what theologians call an "inculturation of the Bible--that is, a translation of the Gospel texts not simply into a different language but for a different culture.

For Guirgis, that culture is contemporary urban life. Hence, his saints and apostles speak (and often shout) as if they were standing on a crowded subway platform at rush hour. Freed from the need to provide historically accurate quotations for his characters, Guirgis deploys such language to reveal the essential nature of his characters in surprising ways.

For example when the defense attorney in Judas faces difficulty in getting Judas's case heard before a judge in the afterlife, she appeals to Saint Monica, the fourth-century woman whose relentless prayers are credited for the conversion of her wayward son, Augustine. In the biography Augustine of Hippo, church historian Peter Brown describes Monica as an "all-absorbing mother, deeply injured by her son's rebellions."

In Guirgis's world, a fiery Monica is a self-described nag who encourages the audience to seek her intercession: "I got a calling, y'all--you should try giving me a shout if ya ever need it, 'cuz my name is Saint Monica ... and ya know what? My ass gets results!"

Among some Jesuits, Guirgis's approach got results, too. After one performance, a friend said to me, "Maybe I should start praying to Saint Monica again."

A Jesuit Off-Broadway turned out to be one of my favorite books of the year. I am not alone as the book made Publishers' Weekly list for best books of the year (noted here along with a link to a chapter pdf). Father James Martin wound up acting as theological consultant for the Off-Broadway play, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot when Sam Rockwell, the actor portraying Judas, and the playwright, Stephen Guirgis, were directed to Father Martin for background and insights. Later, as the cast somewhat adopted him, Father Martin wound up acting as a unofficial chaplain to the group.

Father Martin leads a diverse group of actors in theology "classes," gives them biographies of saints, and helps them dig deeper into essential questions of faith in everyday life. In return, he finds their fresh approach to the Gospels and the main characters therein to be thought provoking. It can be enlightening for us as well to see how well the playwright encapsulates characters to give us fresh insights.

In Stephen's play, the defense attorney questions the high priest about his decision to hand over Jesus to the Roman authorities. Caiaphas responds with growing impatience:

Our Torah has six hundred thirteen Sacred Laws--I can't even count how many Jesus broke or treated with wanton disregard and disdain! He broke the laws that came from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! He violated the word of God. He violated the laws of Moses. He consorted with the Unclean, and women, and prostitutes. He performed Miracles on the Sabbath. He proclaimed himself Messiah! He forgave sin! Who was he to forgive sin?!Only God can do that! If that's not crossing the line, then I don't know what is!

..."Sometimes," explained Jeffrey [the actor portraying Caiaphas], "I would feel such rage on his behalf. Rage to the point of tears. Having to answer questions from the lawyers suggested that Caiaphas was less of a man, less of a human being, and even suggesting that he was evil."

As the play script develops and production begins, he not only takes us behind the scenes with him but shares how this all affects the actors with distinctly different religious backgrounds who are living their faith on widely differing levels. I especially liked the fact that Father Martin did not pass judgment on these people whatever their backgrounds but simply engaged them in conversation about the topic of the moment. Granted, those topics were generally Jesus, the saints, and Christianity. However, it gives us a good pattern for remembering how best to share our faith in our own lives, as Madeleine L'Engle put it:

We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.

I also really enjoyed the way Father Martin uses the inspirations he realizes to make side trips into other, related subjects such as Jesuit theater, celibacy, Mary of Magdala, and the historical Jesus. I was also delighted when, after teasing us with snippets of the play throughout the book, Father Martin gives us a synopsis at the end. This is a play that I would have wanted to see and one in which I was deeply interested after reading about the actors and process.

Perhaps the best tribute to this book comes in the forward from the playwright who says that he didn't read the book as it is difficult to be a "character in someone else's story." That just made his testimony the more valuable.

... And along the way, Father Jim accomplished that thing that I hoped, and hope, to accomplish with the play itself: he got good people thinking about God again, and even got some back to the church. Even me.

Highly recommended to do that very thing, get us thinking about God in a new way. Christmas is coming. Get it for a theater lover you know.

Update:
Busted Halo features a book excerpt focusing on the play's director, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Read it here.

What a difficult, annoying religion!

To those of you who think religion is a self-delusion based on wish-fulfillment, all I can remark is that this religion does not fulfill my wishes. My wishes, if we are being honest, would run to polygamy, self-righteousness, vengeance and violence: a Viking religion would suit me better, or maybe something along Aztec lines. The Hall of Valhalla, where you feast all night and battle all day, or the paradise of the Mohammedans, where you have seventy-two dark-eyed virgins to abuse, fulfills more wishes of base creatures like me than any place where they neither marry nor are given in marriage. This turn-the-other cheek jazz might be based any number of psychological appeals or spiritual insights, but one thing it is not based on is wish-fulfillment.

An absurd and difficult religion! If it were not true, no one would bother with it.

No freaking kidding. John C. Wright says a bit more on this, amusingly and correctly. Read it all.

More on The Golden Compass ...

... since I seem to be on a linking roll on this subject.

I thought that I had linked to Jeffrey Overstreet's writings on this, which came out a week ago, but perhaps I didn't. In any event, it's worth linking to again. Anyone who has read Through a Screen Darkly knows that Overstreet loves movies and doesn't require them to toe the Christian party line to convey a message that is worthwhile. He also has written an excellent fantasy, Auralia's Colors which shows among other things that he has a deep understanding of the genre.

Specifically, he has read all three books and has some intelligent commentary and also answers people's questions, including how to approach this subject with your children. Read it all here.

Okay, so we shouldn’t start boycotts and complain.
But what should Christians do?

These recommendations come from my humble opinion, and you’re welcome to disagree.

• Educate yourselves. And equip your kids with questions… lenses, so to speak… that will expose the problems in these stories.
• Respond with grace and love. And truth.
• Worried about putting money in Pullman’s pockets by investigating the books? Fair enough. Here’s a little secret I’ve discovered: The Public Library!
• Admit that, yes, Christians have committed grave sins in the name of Christ, and that those shameful misrepresentations of the gospel have made many people fearful of, and even repulsed by, the church. But Christians have been called to serve the oppressed, proclaim freedom for the captives, bring healing to the sick, to seek justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly, and to bring good news of “great joy.” And by God’s grace, many are living out that calling. They paint quite a different picture than what Pullman has painted.
• Encourage the artists and storytellers in your church. If you see talent and imagination, provide resources and opportunities for those artists. We don’t want visionaries abandoning the church because they are tired of being misunderstood or having their talents exploited for the sake of evangelism.
• Do not get hysterical, mount massive boycotts, or behave in ways that the Magisterium in Pullman’s books would behave. You’ll just make Pullman’s stories more persuasive, and you’ll confirm for the culture around us that Christians only really get excited when they’re condemning something.
• Equip yourself and your kids with sharp questions that expose the lies of this story. Here are a few examples:- If we cast off all “Authority” and set up “free will” as the ultimate source of guidance, where will that get us? Has the world shown us that the human heart is a trustworthy “compass”? Does free will lead us always to the right choice?- If the heroes accept the “truth” of the aletheometer (the compass itself), aren’t they letting themselves be guided by just another source of truth… another “Authority”? But wait a minute… the movie told us that “Authority” is bad and we should only follow our own hearts, didn’t it?- If there are “many truths,” then aren’t these heroes being as self-righteous and wicked as the oppressors by demanding that their version of the truth is better than others?- What is so inspiring about the battle between the bears? Hasn’t this story led us to a place where it’s just “survival of the fittest” all over again? Should we really hope that the world falls into the hands of the strongest fighter, rather than into the hands of love?
• Finally… pray for Philip Pullman. Pray about the influence of his work. And pray for humility and wisdom in your own response.Pullman is just a man who, somewhere along the way, got a very bad impression of the church.I also cannot help but note a detail from biographies published online: Pullman’s father died in a plane crash in the 1950s, when Pullman was only seven years old. I don’t know if that had anything to do with his view of God… but I do know that many of the men I know who have struggled with the idea of a loving, caring, benevolent god are those whose fathers abandoned them or died while they were young. Boys without fathers often grow up with deep resentment, and having no focus for that pain, they target God.I want to be careful here: I am not explaining Pullman to you, because I don’t know him. But that detail made me stop and think about how little I know about his experiences and motivations. Shouldn’t I be praying for him instead of condemning him? Shouldn’t I be looking for ways to show love and respect to the man, even as I look for ways to expose the flaws in his work? Pullman’s not likely to reconsider his notions about God if those who believe in God organize a full-scale assault against him and his work.

He also gives us as much of a hint as an ethical movie reviewer can as to content without breaking promises about not jumping opening dates with a review.

Today, I saw the movie. And I’m not going to change a word of what I’ve written as a result. If the filmmakers tried to “tone down” the anti-religious content, they pretty much failed. “The Magisterium” is not a term invented by Philip Pullman. It’s a reference to the Catholic church. And it isn’t hard to see that in the film.

But by professional film-critic standards, I cannot publish a movie review until the day the film opens. (That doesn’t mean that scores of critics won’t break the rules and post their own in order to win readers. But I’ve agreed to play by the rules.) So you’ll hear from me about the movie when it opens.

God's Not as Fastidious as We Are

... Odd, she [Philippa] had thought, I never seriously visualized coming out of Brede again; it had not occurred to her, but in those minutes it occurred painfully. She could have blushed to think how once she had taken it for granted that, if she made enough effort -- steeled herself -- it would be settled. "I know," Dame Clare said afterwards. "I was as confident. Once upon a time I even thought God had taste, choosing me!"

Dame Perpetua had been more blunt. "Weren't you surprised that God should have chosen you?" a young woman reporter, writing apiece on vocations, had asked her. "Yes," Dame Perpetua had answered, "but not nearly as surprised that he should have chosen some of the others -- but then God's not as fastidious as we are," said Dame Perpetua.

In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden

Great Moments in the History of Technical Services

537 B.C.
The National Library of Babylon, finally switching to papyrus, ceases maintaining its clay tablet shelflist, but is unable to discard it for nostalgic reasons. Two years later, under seige by the Persians, the city finds a new use for the old tablets and manages to inflict severe losses on the beseiging army by pelting them from the ramparts with large quantities of shelflist tablets.

43 B.C.
First attested use of an ISBN (for the special collector's edition of Caesar's Gallic Wars with an introduction by Marc Anthony): IXIVVIIXVIIIVIIIVIVII.

81 A.D.
Second gospel of the Christian New Testament becomes the first document written in MARK format.

427 A.D.
The Library at Alexandria decides to contract out its annual weeding project; Vandal hordes are the lowest bidder.

The geek-index is high for this one. Read the whole list here. Via Catholic Bibliophagist.

Shaped to Have Meaning

The statue seemed to emerge almost naturally from the stone, though again, statue seemed the wrong word, it was so alive. "He's uncovering it," said Dame Gertrude, marveling.

After the novitiate had watched him, Sister Constance had said, "It's like us. We come as a rough piece of stone and have to be carved and shaped to have any meaning."

"But he can only shape," said Cecily. "He can't put anything there that wasn't there before."

"Still more like us, "said Philippa ...

In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden