Fragmentally Here

Today's Fragments....

Easter came and went. Candy overload at our house.

Being Easter week I was thinking about the stories in the gospel after Jesus' resurrection. In a few of the stories, people don't recognize Jesus even as he walks and talks with them (i.e., Luke 24).  Until this week I had never really thought about this metaphor before - but how often do we not recognize Jesus? He's been there walking and talking with us the whole time? You could claim Jesus was purposefully masking himself - but I think the writers are making the point - we're too wrapped up in the "possible". We're so grounded to objective "reality" that we've convinced ourselves there's no way God is right here. Next to you and me.  The gospel authors are not saying "seeing is believing" instead the ideas is,  if you don't believe - you can't see.

A few weeks ago my "pastor" said "The opposite of faith isn't doubt but fear". But what if it's fear and doubt? I mean, I'm really lacking faith!

You know it's the spring time when both my student's and my own motivation just drops like a rock. It's like it's adversely tied to the temperature rise of the spring season. As the temperature rises, the motivation goes down. My class seems to end on a whimper every spring (which is sad).

Oh Hell...

The last five years I have become more and more interested in the concept of hell. After much reading, reflection, thought (and not enough prayer) I pretty much have come to the conclusion (about three years ago) that I don't believe in the traditional Christian understanding of "hell".  These are based on the biblical texts themselves as well as logic and my understanding of the nature of God. Eventually, I'll write a blog post on this.

The last few days I started reading the Qur'an again. I am on a quest to finish the entire book but I typically get off track after a few weeks every time. I am about 25% in it and I just started again. This time the concept of hell just kept jumping out at me. 

If you're into hell, you're gonna love the Qur'an. If you thought the Christian idea of hell was gory (the "lake of fire", gnashing of teeth, etc.) take a gander at this from wikipedia:

"The Quran and Sunnah offer detailed descriptions of the methods of torture in jahannam. The Quran states the punishments will be: the burning of skin, only to be replaced for reburning; garments of fire will be worn, and boiling water will scald the skin and internal organs;faces on fire;lips burnt off; backs on fire; roasting from side to side; faces dragged along fire; bound in yokes then dragged through boiling water and fire"

Had enough?

I've always found the medieval artistic depictions of hell to be not only insanely horrifying but detailed enough to keep 13-year old boys entertained for minutes on end.

I can vouch for having (so far) personally read 3/4 of those examples given. Another personal favorite is the use of gold to brand those who have hoarded gold (9:34-35).

Completely and utterly horrifying. Making matters worse is that God seems to take delight in the whole ordeal, "That is what you get! Taste that!" (8:14). I should also note that the God of the Qur'an has a habit of hardening hearts and getting in the way of free will all together.

I write all this in confusion of how anyone can swallow this concept and still love and respect God at all.  I don't write this to disrespect Islam. I believe most Muslims to be respectful, moral and good people. Many of the traditions and teachings of Islam are beautiful (granted there's also some not related to hell that I am also disturbed by).  Heck, last summer, I "lived" like a Muslim for a week (with admittedly mixed results).  Basically every Muslim I have ever met has been friendly and nice. That's not what I can say for all the Christians I know! I'm not letting Christianity off the hook either - this isn't about proving Christianity to be "better" than Islam (even if it's my belief system).

The concept of hell (as it's generally taught today) is a moral quandary that has to be addressed by all serious believers.

I write this knowing there are millions living in fear of this kind of God. Millions are closed off from religion because they believe that a God that allows an eternal hell doesn't deserve their worship or a relationship.  Any God torturing humans forever - can't be a God of love but only of judgement and violence. As for me, I stand hopeful that the Bible is right - God really is love (1 John 4:8) and as Paul says, "love never fails" (1 Cor 13:8).

Top 10 Careers I Didn't Have

The type of blogging I do can be inherently self-absorbed (then again, so is life). Anyway, the other day I sat out on a back porch on a beautiful spring day and in my few minutes of solitude I wrote up a top ten list.

10 Career Paths I Could Have Followed But Didn't (and the reasons why they didn't work out)

10. Cartoonist (not focused enough/did not spend enough attention to detail/do not take orders well)

9. Hobo (too adverse to physical danger)

8. Advertising (considered briefly in college before determining I did not want to sell my soul, plus they didn't have it at the university I attended).

7. Children's Author/Voice-Over on Children's TV Show (never tried, measured cost/benefit ratio to probable success)

6. Artist (discovered modern art too late to change my academic career path)

5. Boring Government Job (didn't want to live a safe life full of cold regret under lifeless florescent lights)

4. Public School Teacher Grade 6-12 (See #9)

3. Photographer (See #6)

2. Writer (see #10)

1. Theologian (see #10, #9, #7 and #6)

my first crashed blog post

light a candle for my first crashed blog post.

i am not writing it again.

it was on a lark so i relied on the html editor provided by blogger.

it was sassy, smart, defining what blogging should be all about.

whatever.

meanwhile, the Horton post is coming (that one's being worked on offline). just not tonight.

in the meantime, have fun, kiddo's.

Thought of the Day

"If we only knew everyone's story - then maybe we'd be more compassionate and show a little more grace."

I thought that yesterday as I stared out a window watching strangers. Everyone's got a story - we just know a few of them....


In other news, I am thinking about writing up a blog on the existential nature (nightmare?) of the movie, Horton Hears a Who. You tend to meditate on the meta-narrative when you daughter is watching the movie for the 543rd time.

Saturday Night Special

Gonna try posting a rock song on Saturdays. It might be weekly. It might not be if I'm doing something.

Enjoy. The Breeders are awesome.

Fragments, Today

Overrated smell: New Cars
Underrated smell: New Shoes

Got some new finds from the Goodwill today. Yay!

Thinking about posting some links to my favorite sites/blogs. I'll get around to it eventually.

Spurs: Depressing

I spun the old Green Day album, Dookie the past week at various times in my car. The first time around it was great and brought back a lot of great memories from high school.  The second time I tried to get through it - I couldn't. Most of it just didn't age well with me. I can put this album away for safe keeping for another 5-10 years.

Funny Story: My first rock band t-shirt was a Green Day t-shirt with the "Green Day" written on the front, in front of a pile of "dookie" and "Dookie" written on the back, in front of another pile of "dookie" (with flies flying around the pile.) Now if you weren't paying attention you really didn't notice the pile of poop because the shirt was dark green and the poop was dark brown.  So my parents were cool with it until my sister "outed" me. It wasnt' a big deal, I just remember my sister telling my mom, "Do you know what's on the back of his shirt?" Of course, I could still wear the shirt....but it was pure disgust at my silly wannabe punk t-shirt. This t-shirt was about rebellious as I got in high school. Sometimes I wonder if my parents even know how good they got it with me.

Speaking of music, I recently bought tickets for the Weezer Pinkerton Memories show in Austin on June 6th.  Pretty sweet - but the ticket price was not so sweet. The first time I saw the band in 96' the ticket was  under 20 bucks with service fees.  I may love the "Blue Album" a little more but I figured there would be more hardcore fans at the Pinkerton show. So thus, the better overall concert experience.

Idea: a blog post of all the concerts I've ever been to....that would be fun to do!


Still trippin' on the international flavor that my hits show.....but that's all for tonight.