London Day 2 - Marxinerd?

As many Protestant Christians of my generation seems to be crossing either the Thames or the Tiber (shorthand for becoming Anglican or Catholic), I found it of great interest to do a little swimming in both while in England. So on this Sunday I went to two churches right next to each other, The Brompton Oratory (which produced the Newman statue) and Holy Trinity Brompton (which produced the very popular Alpha course). But more on the differences between Catholic and Anglican London later. The most interesting Sunday experience involved a whole different kind of faith.

More DAY 2-John Updike once said that the problem with communism is that it's so far removed from the natural order that it doesn't work, whereas the problem with capitalism is that it's so close to the natural order that it's cruel. I think he was right, and find myself therefore increasingly committed to supporting capitalism because of its necessary concession to human nature, with the additional (and all too easily forgotten) element of a vigorous Church that calls attention towards and serves the poor. Until I am convinced otherwise I'll maintain that position - but what could be better than the chance to be convinced otherwise on such beautiful Fall day in London?

While in college I attended several demonstrations and marches in Chicago which were populated mainly by hard-core Marxists. At some of them in attendance were even members of (what's left of) the Black Panther Party. So I've had my conversations with the Reds - but never on the scale as I did this Sunday in London. As is well known, Speaker's corner near Hyde Park is a hopping place, and this day was no exception. Amid the throngs of predictable anti-Blair/Bush rhetoric, and fundamentalists of both Christian and Islamic persuasion, I was drawn to an acutely intelligent speaker whom I listened to for quite some time, and even engaged in a little friendly debate (which is welcomed). The speaker was a representative of this website, and make no mistake - this guy (and his significant entourage) are true believers. His basic message: America and England are built entirely on stolen land and slave capital, amounting to disproportionate disbursement of wealth, and it's time the people rise up and get get it all more evenly distributed. Marxism 101. But I really liked this guy, and got to talk with him a bit one on one afterwards. The following are some questions I posed to him publicly, and his very public responses.

Q. So you're saying history was a just dark abyss before Karl Marx?
A. (without missing a beat and very emphatically) Yes.

Q. What is your best case scenario in 50 years?
A. We live in a paradise on earth.

Q. How could that happen?
A. It already is happening in places like Venezuela. It can happen overnight.

Now I know those questions make him sound less than intelligent, but intelligent he was. At least for the regulars at Speaker's Corner, their rhetorical skills tend to be honed not in the safety of a classroom, but on the literal streets with lots of opposition - and the results are impressive. What the answers to those questions highlight for me the is the faith aspect of his commitment. Marxism has been called a secularized eschatology - and whatever your eschatology may be, faith is a necessary ingredient. This is because the essence of eschatology is that you don't see the evidence yet, and faith is "the evidence of things not seen." The man I spoke with converted to Marxism at 17 and hasn't looked back since (he must be about 35). I can safely say that I (and the Church) could certainly learn from, and be convicted by, his passion for justice. But the stumbling block for me in regards to Marxism remains to be the 20th century... because in Russia, China, Cuba, etc. we have, in my reading of history, evidence that certainly is seen.

Among the things which he said which prevented the birth of marxinerd (and there were several) was, and I quote, "Winston Churchill was the biggest [insert British expletive] who ever lived." My walk through the Cabinet Warrooms which I'll describe later left me with a distinctly different impression. Another was when our speaker thought to end on a "light note" he would recite a limerick about a topic as "light" as 9-11, describing the incident with what was for me, a bit too much zest. I never considered that perhaps, for a Marxist, the destruction of such a major symbol of capitalism, the "World Trade Center" was a good thing - But maybe for them it is. Personally, I thought it was a very, very bad thing.

The zinger was when in private I asked him whether violence was justified in bringing about such a revolution... the answer was, this time in a roundabout and qualified manner, but still with conviction... "Yes."

London Day 1 - Orientation

"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life," said Samuel Johnson... "for there is in London all that life can afford." I am happy to confirm for you that he was right.

I've spent the last week with the Mrs. in Londinium, as Julius Caesar called it, at the gracious invitation of my siniging sister-in-law Susie who studies here. For my own reference, I will outline each day of the trip below, with accompanying reflections, in detail.

Although as a rule I seek to avoid the standard "what I did today" blog entry, I can assure you that if ever there was a week of my life in which tracing my daily itinerary would be worthwhile, this was the one.

More DAY 1 - On our first day we got our basic orientation from Susie, and our friend Rick who traveled with us on the plane and all through the city. Rick even slept in my bag each night. If you haven't discovered Rick Steves' guidebooks, it is well worth your while. He's P.B.S.'s travel guy (sometimes they air his travel videos). His aim is the to avoid everything that reeks of the American tourist, and he hits the right balance between travel-smarts and excellent historical and art-historical information. Has a book for every major European city too.

We swung by Buckingham Palace, and though the changing of the guard and all that stuff is fun, what was really interesting to me was the monument in front of the palace. There she is, a massive statue of Queen Victoria inscribed, "Regina Imperatrix," with an imposing monument complete with pillars stretching the square for each of the Continents the Brits once dominated. The culture binge that we enjoyed in London was for the mostpart possible thanks to the fact that the empire at its zenith, as it was under her, had the chance to "acquire" such an astonishing amount of arifacts and art. Then we swung by the Cabinet War Rooms (which we toured later), an amazing testimony to the most intense moments of that next century, when Victoria's empire would be whittled back down to the size of an island.

The Victoria and Albert Museum, with German Blitz-damage on the side of the museum still visible, was particularly impressive because it made the trip to London feel like a trip to Europe. Because some Londoners couldn't afford the Grand Tour (the maraschino cherry to an aristocrat's education), the V&A commissioned plaster casts of many major Continental pieces (such as Michealenagelo's David and Ghiberti's doors) to scale! And to think I considered myself educated in art history (which was my major) without seeing how big all this stuff actually is. Standing before so many of these works (incuding a sawed in half Trajan's column!) humbled my inflated estimation of contemporary media's power to persuade, and took another whack at the ol' chronological snobbery. Furthermore, before contemporary Christian's try to re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-reinvent the wheel with new "visual" ways of presenting the faith, let's just take at least a little time with this stuff. There's a reason they called them Old Masters.

Also at the V&A was Thomas Beckett's reliquary and many other goodies. But imagine my surprise upon leaving the place to see this just a block away. If you're having trouble imagining my surprise, let me help you. I really like John Henry Newman, the famous 19th cent. convert from Anglicanism to Catholicism, who developed a (in my mind much more exciting) theory of evolution ten years before did Darwin.

I was tempted to spend the rest of the day and night riding around on the top story of the London busses, which have a right to be the town's signiature mode of transport. They're a blast (and at night are basically a moving party). More commentary on each day will follow as I find the opportunity. Do stay tuned...

I'll be having way too much fun this week to blog, so see you in November - No need to inflate the hit-counter.

the M.S.C., vol. III

GO SOX!

the millinerd sports chronicle, vol. II

Curt Schilling, after the history-making game when asked by the reporter how he did it:

"I gotta tell ya I became a Christian seven years ago and I was touched by God tonight. You saw what happened in game one when I tried to do it myself.

Might take issue with his theology, but hey, faith is faith.

Incidentally, those who watched the game may have noticed a strange police presence on the field in the ninth inning. Their presence was necessary to keep A-Rod from another frenzied dash towards the mound to knock the ball out of the pitcher's hand.

Fortunately it doesn't matter. GO SOX!

the millinerd sports chronicle, vol. I

Derek Jeter seems a likeable guy: A fine short stop, manages to bring some life to his commercials (an exception among sport personalities in my estimation), and he was even surprisingly funny on Saturday Night Live. But no matter how capable he may be, he did not make that tag in the bottom of the twelfth inning.

Fortunately it doesn't matter. GO SOX!

millinerd Top 5 Albums...

...which I own (thus narrowing the choices considerably). Choices are in no particular order.

1. Radiohead - O.K. Computer (never gets old).
2. Beth Orton - Central Reservation (that voice!).
3. Vigilantes of Love - Welcome to Struggleville (lyrically unmatched).
4. Flaming Lips - Yoshimi vs. the Pink Robots (weird but good).
5. Emmy Lou Harris - Red Dirt Girl (actually don't own this one, but if you want my list to have more integrity, you know what to do).

Runner ups
1. Coldplay - both albums (I'm not ashamed to like them, there's a reason they're popular).
2. Over the Rhine - Good Dog Bad Dog and Ohio (that voice!).

At a time of deep national division, where the cry for sound political analysis is at desperate pitch... I am glad to have been able to bring you the millinerd top 5 albums (which I own).

I'm going to try doing what blogs are traditionally supposed to do, that is, link to news stories.

Hatch's parents organized a volunteer search Saturday. That night Sha Nohr, a church member and mother of a friend of Hatch's, said she dreamed of a wooded area and heard the message, "Keep going, keep going."

Sunday morning, Nohr and her daughter drove to the area, praying along the way. Nohr said something drew her to stop and clamber over a concrete barrier and more than 30 metres down a steep, overgrown embankment, where she saw the wrecked Toyota Camry.

The story is pretty surprising, and is even more so considering the source. The Toronto Star isn't exactly Christianity Today.

Ecumenism

Michael Foster, after delineating his thoughts on mystery which I was so fond of a few posts ago, goes on to discuss Church unity. He quotes a participant in the 3rd Council on Faith and Order in 1952 (one of the 20th centuries' many ecumenical efforts) who said:

"It was in studying the doctrine of the Trinity that I came to realize that unity is not a simple thing... Now I am wondering whether in discussing the desired unity of the Church we do not too easily take it for granted that we know quite well what unity means... What if the unity God wills for His church be a unity which, like His own unity, we have not yet conceived in our minds."(p.23) Mystery and Philosophy

Interesting...

Inspired by this quote, I gave a small Scripture meditation to an ecumenical prayer group, specifically consisting of Lutherans, Catholics and Episcopalians. We met in the absolutely glorious setting of the Princeton University Chapel. As the service was at 10pm, it was not a packed house - so in order to increase my audience by just a few, I present to you my reflections:

The Scripture reading for this evening is from Romans 12, "Serve the Lord, rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer."

As you know, the chapel here was built with a magnificent plan of windows that explore different dimensions of the Christian faith. I would like to summon the assistance of those windows to help us reflect on tonight's Scripture. But seeing that it's dark outside... you'll have to take what I say about them on faith, or come back tomorrow during the day to see if what I said was true.

Directly above us happen to be the four windows each depicting one of the great written epics of the Christian faith. As this is an ecumenical service, I would like to playfully assign a window to each of the communions represented in this room.

The first window depicts Dante's Divine Comedy. Because it is the first of the epics published and thus the oldest, and because it is easily the most elaborate and comprehensive, clearly this needs be the Roman Catholic window.

The second depicts Le Morte D'Arthur (the Death of Arthur), written in the 15th century when Malory collaborated all of the Arthur legends into one work. Because of its English character, and because of the centrality of the eucharist in the work as symbolized by the Grail myth, this window has to go to the Anglicans.

The next window depicts John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. And although Bunyan himself was a Baptist, I would like to assign this window to the Lutherans in the room. For as Christian makes his journey to the Celestial City in Bunyan's work, each time he is led off track it is by grace alone that he is set back on the right path. Each time he gets into a mess, it is never by his merit, but by grace that he is rescued. And so due to the Lutheran tradition's reforming emphasis on God's grace over human effort, the Bunyan widow goes to them.

Finally, John Milton's Paradise Lost is depicted on the last window. Because first Milton was a Presbyterian battling against the established Anglicans, and later enough of a free-churchman to be included in Oliver Cromwell's army - we can safely assign the last reading to the Presbyterians and free church members among us.

Serve the Lord...
But what does all this have to do with the Scripture reading? The reading this evening says "Serve the Lord." Serve the Lord, not serve our various traditions. And although there is much to be thankful for and to celebrate in our various traditions, we are not to serve them, but serve the Lord who gives them their value. Therefore, beautiful as they are, to focus our eyes on any of the described windows for too long would be a mistake. Instead we should look to the great Christ window directly ahead of us [the epic windows flank it on both sides]. It depicts Maundy Thursday where the Lord humbled himself to be our servant, and so we should humble ourselves to be his.

rejoice in hope...
The Scripture also says rejoice in hope. As we keep our focus on Christ, we can rejoice in the hope that one day, perhaps in our lifetimes, the divisions in Christendom will cease. Certainly no one could have predicted the Second Vatican Council that did so much to foster ecumenism, and neither can we predict what is to come. When Cardinal Kaspar, the head of ecumenical affairs at the Vatican, came to speak in Princeton two years ago he made the following point: No German historian could have predicted the Fall of the Berlin Wall, and in the same way no one can predict what the Spirit will do to reunite us... so we are to wait in expectation.

endure in affliction...
The Scripture also says endure in affliction. And this we need to do. We are not yet united, and we cannot pretend we are. It is a mistake in the ecumenical movement to share communion as a "protest" to the divisions in Christendom. It is painful that Protestants cannot share communion with Catholics - but it is a pain we must endure, if only for penance for the our own sins and the sins of those before us which have fostered our divisions. We must endure in the affliction of disunity - we cannot share communion yet.

persevere in prayer.
But although we cannot share communion, we can pray together, and should continue to do so. For as the Catholic Catechism says, point 821, "prayer in common... should be regarded as the soul of the whole ecumenical movement."

Amen.

See No Evil?

So I have the privilege for my field education this year of teaching basic Christianity to Princeton students... and I have to discuss creation and fall. To treat the topic without mentioning the devil may be moderne, but it's also incomplete, and I dare say even passe. But how to make a convincing case for Satan to intelligent 21st century-ites?
Continue...
In her novels, Susan Howatch vacillates between the old fashioned (but time-tested) religious language such as "demon," and contemporary reformulations like "disembodied malevolent psychic entities." This may be of help to some, but what I needed was a reputable source that wasn't necessarily from a Jungian, or even Christian perspective. In my searching, I never thought I'm come up with something as appropriate as this:

"Of course I did not believe that possession existed. In fifteen years of busy psychiatric practice I had never seen anything faintly resembling a case.... But the fact that I had never seen a case did not mean such cases, past or present, were out of the question. I had discovered a large volume of literature on the subject - none of it 'scientific.' Much of it seemed naive, simplistic, shoddy, or sensational. A few authors, however, seemed thoughtful and sophisticated, and they invariably stated that genuine possession was a very rare phenomenon. I therefore could not assume it to be unreal on the basis of limited experience.

So I decided to go out and look for a case.

If you don't mind my interrupting... that was ill-advised. Now back to the quote:

"I wrote around and let it be known that I was interested in observing cases of purported possession for evaluation. Referrals trickled in. The first two cases turned out to be suffering from standard psychiatric disorders, as I had suspected, and I began making marks on my scientific pistol.

The third case turned out to be the real thing.

Since then I have also been deeply involved with another case of genuine possession. In both cases I was privileged to be present at their successful exorcisms. The vast majority of cases described in the literature are those of possession by minor demons. These two were highly unusual in that both were cases of Satanic possession. I now know Satan is real. I have met it.
- M. Scott Peck People of the Lie (p.182-83)

Well Dr. Peck, thanks for the skeptic-busting narrative, but I can't say I envy your experience. I'm happy to take that one on faith alone. But enough interruptions...

"The reader will be naturally disappointed - even skeptical - that I am not going to describe either of these [possession] cases in depth. But there are a number of compelling reasons for my withholding such descriptions... Each case was extraordinarily complex - far more so than usual psychiatric patients. Genuine possession , as far as we know, is very rare. Human evil, on the other hand, is common. Since the relationship between possession and ordinary evil is obscure at best, it would be highly unrealistic to devote half these pages to the subject. Nonetheless, I might be tempted to do so were it not for the fact that there is a book that describes quite well five cases of possession - Malachi Martin's Hostage to the Devil. All of my experience confirms the accuracy and depth of understanding of Martin's work, and a case description of my own would contribute practically nothing beyond his writings.

The skeptical reader is likely to ask, 'How can you hope to prove to me the reality of the devil when you don't even present your evidence?' The answer is that I don't hope to convince the reader of Satan's reality. Conversion to a belief in God generally requires some kind of actual encounter - a personal experience - with the living God. Conversion to a belief in Satan in no different. I had read Martin's book before witnessing my first exorcism, and while I was intrigued, I was hardly convinced of the devil's reality. It was another matter after I had personally met Satan face-to-face. There is no way I can translate my experience into your experience. It is my intent, however, that, as a result of my experience, closed -minded readers will become more open-minded in relation to the reality of evil spirit. (p.183-84)"