Who is My Neighbor?

Tags

bible, Good samaritan, inspiration, Jesus, Jude, Luke, Mel Gibson, neighbor

It’s a good question. One that we should be asking ourselves on a regular basis. As is my usual method, a number of instances which brought this question to mind coalesce, and I realize that God is asking me to probe more deeply.

The Gospel today was from Luke 10:25-37, the parable of the Good Samaritan. As you recall, Jesus relates the story of the man who is beaten and robbed and left by the side of the road. Both a priest and Levite pass by, apparently following ritual purity laws, moving to the other side of the road.

A Samaritan sees the man and comes to his aid. “Who is the neighbor?” Jesus asks. Of course the answer is obvious.  As our rector said, the question asked by the lawyer,”Who is my neighbor?” also seems obvious and unnecessary to ask in the first place.

But, I can see the lawyer’s dilemma. We don’t treat everyone the same, so perhaps not are our neighbor. Yet Jesus seems to imply that there is but one answer: everyone is my neighbor.

Unfortunately it was not and is not so clear to us, I don’t think.

It was clear to William James in his classic, The Varieties of Religious Experience. In a lecture on saintliness, he points out that saints are noted for their treatment of all persons with equal love and charity. Unlike the rest of us who are all too willing to fight “fire with fire” and treat others with the same meanness they may treat us.

James is unwilling to let go of the saints being the better angels here. In a rare insight into the human psyche, he claims, regarding the tendency to categorize humans into “good, bad, and in the middle:”

“We have no right to speak of human crocodiles and boa-constrictors as of fixedly incurable beings. We know not the complexities of personality, the smouldering emotional fires, the other facets of the character polyhedron, the resources of the subliminal region. St. Paul long ago made our ancestors familiar with the idea that every soul is virtually sacred. Since Christ died for us all without exception. . . .”

Yet, far seeing as his sentiments are, we need look no further than scripture to find plenty of evidence that suggests that we must too be wary.

St. Jude says this in Jude 17:20-25:

When there are some who have doubts, reassure them; when there are some to be saved from the fire, pull them out; but there are others to whom you must be kind with great caution, keeping your distance even from the outside clothing which is contaminated by vice.

I’m not sure what is being presented here.  But clearly it does not sound like Jesus’ words to the lawyer, nor that all are our neighbors without fail. Jude seems to suggest that we must be careful of the truly evil among us, keeping our distance as he says.

It confuses me assuredly.

But it reflects certainly who I am.

One need not spend a long time on this blog to realize I have very unkind things to say about any number of people I consider to be self-serving evil presences among us. We can start there.

But I really got to thinking about this after the latest rounds of excrement to exit the mouth of Mel Gibson. We have long since decided that we no longer can watch Mr. Gibson’s movies, given his past expressions of racist thinking. It seems now that this man considers all who are not white to be something scornful and not quite as good as himself.

It’s all ironic given that Jesus was a Jew. And with all due respect for Mr. Gibson’s ultra orthodox positions, most scholars are pretty clear that Jesus had no desire nor intent to become something else. He seemed intent on correcting Judaism, not starting a new religion altogether.

Given that Mr. Gibson has  noted his displeasure with Jews, African Americans and Latinos, I suspect he harbors no love for Arabs, Eskimos or American Native peoples, to say nothing of Asians, Indians and Greenlanders.

Overall, I’m inclined to think rather poorly of the man, again as I say, so ironic, given his ultra conservative position as a Roman Catholic. I don’t know as I’ve heard an explanation as to why he had an affair, a child out of wedlock, and is either in the midst of, or legally divorced. None of these comport with the rigid believes of the right wing Roman Catholic. I have no idea whether he receives communion, but those who espouse his positions regularly call for the barring of various politicians from receiving, based only on their voting record on abortion.

I figure, based on the Samaritan story that I shouldn’t think so ill of Mr. Gibson. I would like to think I would assist him should I find him bloodied and beaten in the street. But I’m not so sure I’d invite him in for dinner. Jude suggests perhaps that is a wise choice on my part, but, frankly between Jesus and Jude, I’m opting that Jesus carries the weight.

Maybe I’m missing something here. I guess it’s pretty clear that sainthood is not right around my corner, at least. If you have any ideas about where to draw this line, I’d be happy to hear them.

A Little Depp Will Do Me

Tags

Chuck Grassley, Hillary Clinton, Mel Gibson, psychology, Sean Hannity, Ted Nugent, u-turnisms

So sue me. It’s rainy and dark and I have to go into town for some shopping and a church meeting. Tomorrow we have another appointment at the VA. I’m grouchy, so I got me some eye candy to brighten my day. Sighhhhh, oh that most certainly is delicious looking.  And before you open you mouth, the Contrarian is free to post his pics of  (the list is extensive, but mainly reflects excessive delight in the  butts of several well known and not so well known nymphets around the viewing dial) various women he casts a discerning eye for.

I continue to be busy. Alas, not always busy with things I  desire to do, but what’s new with that? Housework is a mean mistress, always managing to rear her ugly dusty paws on a too regular basis. I mean why can we just step outside while it sucks itself clean? Who is working on this? Somebody must be–imagine the  payoff on that patent?

I have received two more books for review. I guess I’m being convincing in my requests these days. I’m near finished with one and will hopefully post a review no later than next Monday. You may wonder why all my reviews are positive? Well, quite simple really. I usually know something about the book or a lot about the author before hand, and I choose what I WANT to read. I can’t live long enough to read crap I don’t like. So it stands to reason, I’m usually right in picking something I can rave about. I will tell you when I don’t, you can be sure. Should that happen.

I’ve been getting a kick out of thinking that we all have rather selective memories. Our Senator, Chuck Grassley, only a year or so ago, maybe a bit more was claiming that filibustering was “unconstitutional.” Now with a new Supreme Court nominee looming, it’s looking more constitutional all the time. Gotta do it ya know, no choice. Wrong takes a u-turn.

It seems most of us are forgetful of the fact that much of what we now say is recorded for all time. So when we say the exact opposite, it comes back to bite us. But we do it anyhow, not realizing that a large number of people have nothing but time to search the archives of public discourse and find those embarrassing tidbits of u-turnisms. (I am claiming that I just coined that word, so do give credit when you use it.)

I read another example this morning. Seems our aging matinee idol of the wagging finger, Sean Self-Righteous Hannity has oopsed a u-turnism. He has been berating entertainment blogger Perez Hilton who asked that embarrassing question to that bimbo contestant from California.  Oh, how dare he call Ms. Prejean a “bi*ch! I might well agree. But Sean in his holier-than-everybody on Planet Earth, went on, and on, and on, about how saying such a degrading thing to ANY woman was unforgivable, just terrible and sooo very wrong. Again, we might agree, but…..

It seems that during the T-baggy thingie, one Ted Nugent (aging rock star and big mouth extraordinaire) called Hillary Clinton a “worthless bi*ch” in front of Hannity, and not an eye was batted. Even when called on it later back on his show, he claimed Ted was his personal friend and would continue to appear on his show. So much for calling a woman something unforgivable!

I have to laugh, and I often do when I go to a particular forum. They have a section devoted to Politics 2009 which of course is nothing else much but a place for a ton of nearly insane right wingers to run around waving their arms and crying “the sky is falling” and having vapors attacks, and wringing their hands and preparing for Armageddon. All because a black man who is a dirty Democrat is running the show in Washington. Mostly because he is ungodly and evil and actually may be the anti-Christ.

They have a huge number of forums actually, some quite good, and occasionally you can meet some intelligent people and have interesting conversations. I can’t remember which one had a discussion of  Mel Gibson.

Personally, I don’t pay attention to him. He’s a anti-Semite as far as I’m concerned so I don’t view his work. Beyond that, I find only amusement in his claimed ultra conservative religious beliefs and how he’s dealing with that given his marital woes. As much as I’ve garnered at this point is that his wife (long suffering as I understand her to be)  has filed for divorce, and he has been, for some time living with his girlfriend who is divorced herself and may be pregnant.

As the story has developed on the forum thread, a number of supporters have reminded everyone that “we don’t know his heart” and it’s “up to God to judge.” They keep talking about how if he is living as brother and sister with the girlfriend he is still in good graces with the Church. (Yep, and of course pigs still fly after midnight we all know.) This in full u-turnism from their about face when they talk about various Democrats who happen to be divorced. They are just “adulterers.”

Mores to the point, a woman who declares her clear personal knowledge that “I belong to the only church started by Jesus Christ, and you wouldn’t have a bible if it weren’t for us” is busy u-turning. This same woman who routinely tells everyone of every denomination, even her own, that they are far from pious, faithful, and knowledgeable, is haranguing everyone on the Gibson thread with “ye who is without sin cast the first stone.” “Are you without sin????? ” she rants.  I’m sure she doesn’t see the  u-turnism.

I have no doubt at all that we are all pretty much guilty of this. Our lens get so dirty that we can’t see the u-turn arrow. We somehow see our about face as different than the other instance. It’s good when we are called on it. It reminds us that we all bring our prejudices to the table. Me too. So remind me when I stumble.

Anyway, I’m going to get back to Johnny. I’ll never u-turn on you buddy. No way!

Short Takes on the Day, 04/13/09

Tags

Buddhism, Episcopal Church, gay rights, Iowa, Levi Johnson, Mel Gibson, Obama, pirates, Sarah Palin, Somalia, spirituality

Now that Easter is officially over (not really, but Easter Day has come and passed), it behooves us to return to some serious news again. There is just so much to talk about.

The dangerous drama that has been taking place off the coast of Somalia is now over and the captain of the American trawler was recovered unharmed from Somalian pirates.

While the wingnuts of the right and their punditry sycophants were howling that our President was not doing a thing and was caving into terrorists, of course saner heads prevailed in our leadership.

First of all the perpetrators were not terrorists but common thugs. Secondly our President was fully in command. Thirdly we have to thank the excellence of the Navy Seals who were able to remove the threat and save the captain free from any harm.  It’s regrettable that lives were lost of course, but this was handled it would appear with the utmost professionalism by both the Navy and the Administration. Kudos to both, and let the wingnutteries return to grousing about the pizza party.

***

The sniping continues from Sarah Moosey Hunter Palin, and as usual, she keeps sticking that high heel into her big mouth. Levi, once the soon to be wonderful son-in-law, is now the dude who was but a mistake on her daughter’s part.

Ever since Levi appeared on Tyra Banks, the snowballs have been flying, mostly one way. Where Levi claimed he lived with the Palin’s for a few months, Mama Palin says, “over my dead body.”

What’s worse, she says Bristol is about the business of extolling the virtues of abstinence as the proper way of a all young women not yet married. Problem is, Bristol is already on record as saying that while a lovely idea in theory, it “doesn’t work.”

I guess Sarah the Enforcer has had a word or two with her daughter. Course, Bristol continues to make up her own mind on these things we are assured. Sure, sure, sure, as long as it doesn’t interfere with mom’s courting of the religious right that is.

***

The Episcopal Cafe reports that the Obama’s attended Easter Sunday services at St. John’s Episcopal church in DC. This is not to say that the Obama’s have chosen this as their church, and actually it might be a wonderful thing if the Obama’s chose no church, but attended many different ones over the next four years. It might send a much needed message that there is value in all faith traditions, even those (gasp) not Christian.

The entire family received communion. The Episcopal church welcomes all baptized to the table of God.

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Just one of those weirdnesses you never expect. When we learned here in the Peyton household of the anti-Jewish tendencies of one Mel Gibson, we swore off his movies, much as we had OJ’s. Course Gibson’s transgressions were not in the same league as murder, but after his bloody and ultra-orthodox rendition of Christ’s crucifixion, it added up to be enough for us.

Right wing Roman Catholics have long touted Mr. Gibson for his very very orthodox views.

Well hold on to your hats, it seems that Mrs. Gibson has filed for divorce. This is a huge no-no for those of the Roman persuasion and we can but guess how Mr. Gibson is reacting.

We find that they have in fact been separated for more than two years, his drunken adventures being some part of the catalyst it seems. Also there are rumors of “adultery” floating around.

Now we take the position, that Mr. Gibson is no better nor worse than any human and subject to all the frailties of the species. Yet, when you toot your orthodoxy as loud as has the above mentioned, it often comes back to bite you in the arse.

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I planned on getting away from religious stuff for a bit, and truthfully, this isn’t religious, but spiritual. If you don’t have time to read much here today, make this your one stop. I tend to believe in serendipity, and I find it active here. Yesterday, in our sermon, Barbara told us not to get bogged down in the issue of “did the resurrection really happen.” Rather, she advised, live the resurrection, practice it daily. That is the value of it, and the lesson. Every athlete or musician knows the value of practice–you get better and better at it.

Dean Sluyter is a Buddhist, chaplain, and teacher. His words are magical in their simplicity and sense.

Live the Resurrection, live God, and stop worrying about believing. If it’s real, if you experience it, that is enough. Alleluia!

***

The nuttery league, known as the National Organization for Marriage, tells us that marriage is under attack. The Contrarian has stood ready for several days now, shotgun cocked and ready should those crazy gays invade our meadow and try to attack ours. So far so good. A round of applause for the Rethugs who continue to tie their wagon to this dying star.

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Just wanted you to know that during the last week, nothing has changed and the following people are still crazy:

Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Michelle Bachmann, Bobby Jindal, James Inhofe, Lou Dobs, Michele Matlin, Ann Coulter, Bill Kristol, Michael Steele, Rep. Steven King (R. IA), Karl Rove, George W. Bush, John Bolton, Sarah Palin.  I’m sure the list is longer, but that’s all that come to mind right now. Boy the GOP is full of nuts isn’t it? What’s the likelihood statistically speaking that this many airheads could inhabit such a tiny little party?

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Well, I’m off to cook up some farm fresh eggs, some sausage and fresh hashbrowns for dinner. Hope you find an interesting link or two.