Putting Labor in the Day

There's a nice tongue-in-cheek article up at CounterPunch by Linn Washington, Jr. While it takes a few jabs at the powers that be, it does make a great point. Below is a snippet:

The Obama administration and Congressional Democrats deservedly receive criticism for failing to take decisive action on the nation’s deepening crisis of prolonged joblessness – inaction constituting gross negligence.

The defiant intransigent of congressional Republicans painfully aggravates this unemployment crisis.

But give credit where credit is due: Obama and his Capitol Hill critics have been doing a great job in boosting newly created jobs in at least a few areas like sales of anti-Obama paraphernalia plus sales of weapons and ammunition.

An added benefit of these jobs erupting from the GOP’s incessant criticism of Obama is most are in small business, the sector of the economy that politicians love to laud-&-applaud as best situated for creating new employment slots.

Please excuse Obama and his GOP detractors for the fact that these newly spawned jobs fall far short of the huge numbers required for job growth sufficient to bring America’s economy back from the depths of the Great Recession.

Now these new jobs are separate from jobs created through Obama’s stimulus program that is increasing construction industry positions mainly for public works projects like rebuilding bridges, roads and other deteriorating infrastructure.

Additionally, Obama’s stimulus – trashed by the GOP – has pumped money into state governments that has preserved public sector jobs for police, teachers and others while also softening the pain among some unemployed through providing funding for unemployment benefits.

Obama’s inauguration ignited a bustling cottage industry churning out anti-Obama paraphernalia inclusive of tee shirts, bumper stickers, books, mugs, movies and other items…much of which come bearing hate tinged messages.

Consider that tee shirt emblazed with “Pray for Obama Psalm 109:8” -- citing a biblical verse widely considered “A Cry for Vengeance” that contains passages declaring “Let his days be few” and “Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.”

Making this anti-Obama tee shirt available in conservative circles creates and sustains jobs…employment for the people selling tee shirts to the anti-Obama entrepreneurs (hopefully shirts made in America), employment for the people employed printing that perverse ‘prayer’ onto those tee shirts, employment from the marketing of those shirts and employment for the distributing of those tees to eager buyers.

Anti-Obama-ism also fuels expanding employment in the manufacture and sale of guns...

The American Theocracy - US National Anthem

In the new American theocracy, the Star Spangled Banner will be cast aside as the nation's national anthem. Not only is it one of the most difficult national anthems to sing, but the popular version (the first stanza) makes no mention of God, the heavenly father, at all!! One has to wait until the 4th stanza -- ever heard the 4th stanza sung at a football game? -- for the SOLE mention of God in the whole dang thing.

This will simply not do, not do at all.

In it's place, God Bless America by Irving Berlin finally will take it's rightful place. It will be played several times per day on every licensed media outlet. Along with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance, it will form the start of every school day. It will be a mandatory requirement to be sung or played before every sporting event in which Americans participate. It will serve as the benediction for every church service or religious activity. It will become as ubiquitous as air itself.

So, here it is. Get used to it. Learn the words forwards and backwards. And always remember, America is the greatest nation on earth because the conservative Christian god blesses us to be so.

For full disclosure, I will admit for all to see that I absolutely DETEST this song!! Then again, I'm an avowed heretic.

If you're interested in reading more from this tongue-in-cheek series, go to the The American Theocracy Index page.

The American Theocracy - Global Warming

The evangelical world is split on this topic. On one hand, there is the Evangelical Climate Initiative that calls on Christians to work to eradicate the causes of global warming. On the other hand, there are organizations like the Cornwall Alliance that argue against human-caused climate change. Consequently, on first blush, it might appear as if this is one of those few issues in which there will be no consensus in the new American theocracy.

Oh, but such an assumption would be oh so wrong!! You see, the leaders of the new American theocracy use their "faith" more as a prop -- to control the unruly and sinful hordes -- more than anything else. The god that most of them worship is NOT the one found in the holy bible; they worship the god of wealth and power!

The god of wealth and power has deemed it far too expensive in the short-term to change the status quo. Since the bottom line of the powerful few is what matters most, the discussion of global warming will be forcibly removed from public discourse. We will be reminded again and again that God's creation -- the earth -- is perfect and nothing humankind can invent or create can despoil this perfect creation.

Concurrent with this theme, we will be told that worsening environmental conditions are not the fault of capitalist enterprise -- that fuel that makes the United States of America the greatest nation in the history of the world. No, the problem lies with Satan and all those Christian-denying nations.

In time, most Americans will come to believe this and it will be on this platform that our leaders will shepherd us into supporting more wars and more environmental destruction.

If you're interested in reading more from this tongue-in-cheek series, go to the The American Theocracy Index page.

Line by Line - Verse 4, Line 2

How deep and unfathomable it is, as if it were the Honoured Ancestor of all things!
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Oh, unfathomable source of ten thousand things!
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

So deep! It seems to be the source of all things
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

Use as much as you want, there's plenty more where that came from.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

The grand mystery of all.

We can't see, hear, touch, taste, feel or understand it. We can only experience tiny fragments of it. But there's something that brings forth and sustains life. Call it what you like -- God, Science, Tao, the mysterious void. Naming it does not lead to greater comprehension!

Whatever this nebulous it is, it is.

To view the Index page for this series to see what you may have missed or would like to read again, go here.

Not That Namby Pamby Stuff

Yesterday afternoon I posted the lyrics and video to The Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" under the title, "The Counterbalance to Hate." I just want to make it clear that I am NOT referring to a namby pamby sort of love. The essence of genuine love is more than wearing flowers in your hair and flashing the peace sign at anyone who walks by!

And let's be even clearer -- living a life of love does not mean that we won't face travails, heartache, sickness and death. It doesn't mean everything will work out the way we want it too and it sure as hell doesn't mean we won't be involved in conflicts with ourselves and others. To believe such things is naive, at best.

People who live their lives with love as their foundation are open to new ideas and are forever eager to try to solve problems through peaceful and respectful means. They try to find ways to bring people together and to broker solutions that meet in the middle. They are humble individuals who both realize and acknowledge that they aren't always right and they feel no need in being boastful and parading their accomplishments in front of everyone else.

They represent the polar opposite of those who live their lives gripped by distrust, suspicion and hate. Hateful people don't want to hear new ideas and their idea of solving problems is to dictate the terms. They forge divisions and offer solutions that fall toward one extreme. They are anything but humble. In their mind's eye, only they represent the truth. They spend their time boasting about every little thing and dangle their supposed largess in everyone's face. Worst of all, instead of nurturing life, they foment death and destruction.

Interested in turning around our society, nation and planet?

All we need is love!

The Tao of Dark Sages - Preface

The Tao of Dark Sages
by Scott Bradley

Preface

It is an intimidating thing indeed to write the preface to a book with an introduction by the Buddha! But I shall try my best.

What we have here is a wonderfully irreverent and quixotic journal about a journey of self-discovery. Very much like the writings of that ancient sage so clearly dear to Sue-tzu’s heart, Chuang-tzu, this is a work full of humanity and human foibles. It is from start to finish a work in progress. Rather than a treatise full of fact and precision, it is a distinctly human endeavor, full of contradictions, false starts and dead ends. And like the human journey itself it is a continual process of picking up and moving on.

For this reason, I think we can honestly say that if the message were ever in the medium, it most certainly is here. And because that is so, it is hoped that the reader will not become entangled in the ‘teachings’ but rather, become enamored with the process. For as Sue-tzu so frequently proclaims: The process is all. The process is Life. The process is awakening.

It is hoped, too, that the iconoclastic nature of the work will not be construed as negativism. If we are to grow, we must constantly slew off the dead tissue natural to the process of growth itself. All ideas, however great, become ossified and fossilized. Only a good scrubbing allows for new and more living ideas to inform.

Finally, for my part, I have been deeply inspired by the incredible single-mindedness of Sue-tzu and her grasshopper friends in their pursuit of self-discovery. And when I see how this single-mindedness has given rise to such joy, excitement and, yes, anticipation, I cannot help but want to renew my commitment to pursue this fun-filled adventure.

[Note: It's good to have Scott and his story-telling alter egos back on this blog. This long series is from a book he wrote in 2007. Each day's installment will appear at 4:03 a.m.]

Pious Indoctrination

It looks like you will all be treated to a chapter-by-chapter book review of American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America by Chris Hedges. Chapter 3, to say the least, was highly disturbing!! It details one method of converting non-believers into mindless believers.

In fact, if the words surrounding the Christian belief system are removed, it doesn't sound all that different than the kind of mass brainwashing that went on in Germany in the 1930s and brought the world the horrors of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

Hedges took part in a 5-day seminar, Evangelism Explosion, run by the late Dr. D. James Kennedy. The program sounded far more like a sales pitch for used cars or time-share opportunities than trying to win souls for Jesus. Hedges details each step along the way, from identifying vulnerable victims in crisis all the way up to selling them eternal hope coupled with the fear of damnation. He shows how effective evangelical proselytizers learn to become adept at feigning sincerity and friendship in order to reel in their unsuspecting prey!

Of course, once they become ensnared in the web of the evangelical community, they soon discover that independent thinking is frowned upon. All authority rests with the church and the men who run the organization. In essence, they cede most of the control of their lives to others.

This control, while destructive to personal initiative and independence, does keep believers from wandering back into the messy situations they fled. The new ideology gives the believer a cause, a sense of purpose, meaning, feelings of superiority, and a way to justify and sanctify their hatreds. For many, the rewards of cleaning up their lives, repairing their damaged self-esteem, and joining an elite and blessed group are worth the cost of submission. They know how to define and identify themselves. They do not have to make moral choices. They are made for them.

I don't know about you, but I'm suspicious of ANY belief system that has to develop elaborate strategies to win people to the cause. The way I look at it, if you can't simply model the things you believe in and must instead develop methods of haranguing people, what does that say about your religion or philosophy in the first place?

Tao Bible - Exodus 12:35-36

And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.
~ King James version ~

Tao does not bestow earthly riches.
~ possible Taoist alternative ~

After God strikes down the firstborn of the Egyptians, the Pharaoh begs the Hebrews to "get the hell out of dodge." Before leaving, God directs the Hebrew people to ransack and pillage the land.

Tao does not value gold and silver. These things are valuable only because of human desire.

If you're interested in reading more from this experimental series, go to the Tao Bible Index page.

The Precursor

If asked, a clinical psychologist will tell you that depression is fueled not by sadness and loss, but by anger and rage. In this same vein, Chris Hedges in American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America (Chapter Two) explores the road to hate along the avenue of despair. What we often see in life is the manifestation of a different root. We see one thing, but the true impetus is altogether different.

The rise of fundamentalism in this country in the past two decades has occurred because the rich keep getting richer and the rest of us keep getting left further and further behind. In a society marked by alienation and a growing insecurity for the middle class and below, more and more Americans are despairing their lot in life. While it's certainly true that the standard of living in the US dwarfs that of many, many places in the world, the American ideal of rugged individualism and pulling oneself up by our own bootstraps, has taken hit after hit. More and more people are coming to see that, no matter how hard they work and struggle, they continually are losing ground.

It is this feeling of abject impotence in the face of corporate power that has led many to give up hope. Hopelessness, in turn, quickly boils over into anger. People are desperate to strike out at someone -- anyone -- to regain their stolen feeling of self-worth. And this becomes the breeding ground for Evangelical Christianity.

We want somebody to blame for our plight. The fundamentalists create scapegoats for us.

We want to know that our suffering has meaning. The fundamentalists lure us in with the promise of a beautiful paradise in the afterlife.

We crave a black-and-white world in which answers come easy. The fundamentalists give us rigid rules to live by.

In our suffering and desperation, we want to believe that we will be victors in the end. The fundamentalist sell us on the idea that, in the end times, we will be feted off to heaven, while all the imaginary bogeymen will be cast into a fire of torture and agony.

For far too many, this picture provides the emotional prescription to doctor our wounds. It provides an apt vehicle by which we can channel our hate -- a hate born of our dislike for ourselves and our current situation. It provides us with the mechanism to sign on to the winning team and to rub shoulders with God's all-stars.

But beyond the fake glitz and hoopla, the people selling us this product genuinely aren't all that interested in God, heaven and the rest of the trappings that come with it. For them, it's nothing more than a pr gimmick. What they are after can't be found in the afterlife; they want earthly power, riches and iron-fisted control.

To claim their place on the throne, they need an army of self-righteous pawns. They need people blinded by hate and despair to do the heavy lifting. Once their crazed throng overthrows the reigns of power, the pawns will be cast aside like straw dogs. Only then will a good many of them realize that they've been used for less than ideal purposes.

Unfortunately, this realization will come far too late and it won't save them from even greater despair.

The Counterbalance to Hate

(Love, love, love)
(Love, love, love)
(Love, love, love)

There's nothing you can do that can't be done
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy

There's nothing you can make that can't me made
No one you can save that can't be saved
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time
It's easy

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

(Love, love, love)
(Love, love, love)
(Love, love, love)

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

There's nothing you can know that isn't known
Nothing you can see that isn't shown
There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be
It's easy

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love
Love is all you need

All you need is love (all together now)
All you need is love (everybody)
All you need is love
Love is all you need

Love is all you need
Love is all you need
Love is all you need
~ Performed by The Beatles, written by Lennon/McCartney ~

To The Extreme

The middle path.

It is one of the recurrent themes in eastern philosophy, in general, and philosophic Taoism, in particular. In the writings of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, both Taoist thinkers talk about how we each engage disharmony when we jump from one extreme to the other. We become blinded to all the potentialities before us and only see those within our myopic lens.

The person who skates on the extreme edge tends to fall easily because we leave ourselves little room to maneuver. If a small obstacle presents itself, we're moving so fast in a straight line that there is no time to jog around it or to stop to plot a new course.

Extremeness breeds tension and stress. When you pull a rubber band to its tightest point, it quivers as it fights to maintain its structural integrity. If it slips from your grasp, it will shoot off violently in an indiscriminate direction. If you pull it a bit tighter, it breaks and flops around before going limp.

One of the lessons in works like the Tao Te Ching and the Zhuangzi is to avoid living a life of extremes and instead to take the more tranquil path of moderation. The message is focused on each of us as individuals, but the lesson applies equally to people in collective form.

I realize that some readers may wonder why I have recently gone off on a tangent against the so-called Christian Right. Why don't I merely stick to writing about Taoism and leave Christianity out of my discussions altogether?

My answer is that extremism by groups tends to generate disharmony, stress and tension for the whole of that society. While zealots come in all shapes and sizes, religious zealots are the most dangerous because they believe that they are doing the bidding of a supernatural entity -- a god. When people believe in something this powerful and irrational, they will go to terrible and horrible lengths to make their distorted version of reality THE reality.

As I highlighted earlier today, the zealots of Christianity and Islam aren't altogether different. They are planting the same seeds of fear, dissension, and hate in their respective spheres. They utilize the same sorts of language and imagery. The chief thing that separates them is what they've named their supernatural deity: God and Allah.

The world as we know it will be destroyed if these two competing zealot religious groups are able to steal the reigns of power. They will concurrently brutalize the "other side" AND their own citizens. They will foster a world of distrust and distortion. They will create an era of disharmony and death, both biological and spiritual.

Silence is not an option. Silence will only pave the way for institutional ugliness.

As a Taoist, I cannot be silent.

Line by Line - Verse 4, Line 1

The Tao is (like) the emptiness of a vessel; and in our employment of it we must be on our guard against all fullness.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

The Tao is an empty vessel; it is used, but never filled.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

The Tao is empty
When utilized, it is not filled up
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

How much Tao is there? More than you'll ever need.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

I can see some people reading the first line of Verse 4 and thinking to themselves, "So, is this Tao like an airhead?"

You see, we too often think of the concept of emptiness in only a negative sense. A person who has nothing to their name is not the kind of person any of us wants to be. We look at such a person with pity, compassion or contempt. We wonder why their life has fallen off the rails.

But as Derek Lin points out in his book,

The emptiness of Tao is not a vacuous state of nothingness, because its infinite depths conceal the seeds of Creation. There appears to be nothing in the Tao, and yet it contains everything. It is the "pregnant void," a field of unlimited potentialities.

So, the next time you see a person with nothing, maybe you will look at them differently. While the individual may have nothing in terms of material riches, he or she may be rich with the essence of Tao.

To view the Index page for this series to see what you may have missed or would like to read again, go here.

Quite an Irony

It is perhaps telling that our closest allies in the United Nations on issues dealing with reproductive rights, one of the few issues where we cooperate with other nations, are Islamic states such as Iran. But then the Christian Right and radical Islamists, although locked in a holy war, increasingly mirror each other. They share the same obsessions. They do not tolerate other forms of belief or disbelief. They are at war with artistic and cultural expression. They seek to silence the media. They call for the subjugation of women. They promote severe sexual repression, and they seek to express themselves through violence.
~ from American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America by Chris Hedges ~

This book has been on my saved library list for quite some time. When I decided to launch The American Theocracy series, I decided it was high time I requested a hold on the book. It arrived yesterday.

I'm confident that you will be seeing more quotes from Hedges in the coming days and weeks. I really liked this one because it underscores that zealots from differing religions often have more in common than they like to think!

As Luck Would Have It

There was a very poignant story posted on CNN on Friday. It's the story of a young man who survived a familial murder/suicide. Now 30, Chris Keith's story is being told.

His father suffocated his mother and then shot Chris' 8-year-old brother, Mikey, in the back of the head while he slept, his grandparents explained...His grandparents then told him the hardest news of all. Before his father killed himself, he put the .38-caliber handgun to Chris' head and pulled the trigger.

Medics had declared everyone in the house dead, including Chris...

What a gut-wrenching event to live through!!

Not surprisingly, Chris credits his survival to God (and Jesus). The almighty had a plan for his life and that's the reason he was saved.

Having never gone through a situation ANYTHING like this, who knows how I might have reacted? I suppose that, when by all accounts a person should have died but didn't, it's common to look for a supernatural explanation. Since we humans crave answers, it often makes us feel better to create an answer out of thin air than to have to live our lives with unknowing uncertainty.

However, whenever I hear or read explanations of this sort, it spurs the question: What about the others who died? Why didn't God having a living plan for them?

Looking at this particular case, why would God not want to save the 8 year old, Mikey? He was an innocent victim of this tragedy too. Why is his life less important than his younger brother's?

I know some people believe that God has every life mapped out. They might contend that, had the 8 year old grown up, he might have become an axe murderer, so God allowed him to die to save his future victims.

That argument ONLY works if the person saved from certain death goes on to live an exemplary life. However, if you do a little research into the backgrounds of lifelong high-profile criminals, you'll find that many of them went through a lot of ugly episodes as children. There's more than a few who, miraculously, didn't die when everyone around expected them to.

If they lived and you buy into the argument that God saved them because he had a plan, what on earth could that plan be? Did God knowingly want the person to grow up to be a murderer, rapist or pedophile? Did God knowingly want them to grow up to kill, injure and victimize others?

Oh boy, now there's a heavenly plan!

Tao Bible - Exodus 11:5

And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.
~ King James version ~

Tao is not a murderer.
~ possible Taoist alternative ~

I find this whole section befuddling. The Bible states that God hardens the Pharaoh's heart so that he will not free the people of Israel. At the same time, however, God punishes Pharaoh for HAVING the hardened heart that God himself has hardened. The punishment this time? God will murder the first-born of each of the Egyptian people AND their animals.

Nothing is singled out by Tao for reward or punishment. People create distinctions; Tao does not. People have wills; Tao does not. People allow their emotions to rule them; Tao has no emotions, so Tao is not ruled.

If you're interested in reading more from this experimental series, go to the Tao Bible Index page.

Deliberate Distortions

I am beginning truly to understand why Lao Tzu, to a greater extent, and Chuang Tzu, to a lesser extent, wrote so much about government and the role of leadership in society. So much of what we, the people, take to be bona fide reality is based on the information we are supplied with. From what I've seen, it doesn't matter if a country's government is democratic or communist, a republic or a dictatorship, secular or bound by religious dogma: Leaders deliberately distort reality for their own political ends!

This fact was brought home the past few days as I read several essays on the internet. In the first by Ian Angus from Climate & Capitalism, "Mislabeled Food and the Myth of Consumer Sovereignty,"

One of the great lies of mainstream economic theory is “consumer sovereignty” – the idea that the consumers actually control the economy by “voting with their wallets,” deciding what to buy and thus forcing corporations to do their bidding. I discussed some reasons why this isn’t true in a recent article on claims that consumers are to blame for the BP oil disaster.

An issue I didn’t deal with there is the fact that the theory depends on the assumption that consumers know everything relevant about products, prices, etc., and so can make informed and rational buying decisions.

Of course, that’s nonsense. Every part of the capitalist market is characterized by what a few economists recognize as “information asymmetry” – the sellers have far more information than the buyers. And, although it’s hard to get an economist to admit this, the sellers deliberately and constantly withhold important information from buyers...

Aah, but it's not simply not corporations that employ this strategy. As John Pilger writes in "New Statesman - Flying The Flag, Faking The News,"

False reality The last US combat troops have left Iraq "as promised, on schedule", according to President Barack Obama. The TV news has been filled with cinematic images of the "last US soldiers", silhouetted against the dawn light, crossing the border into Kuwait.

Fact They have not left. At least 50,000 troops will continue to operate from 94 bases. American air assaults are unchanged, as are special forces' assassinations. The number of "military contractors" is 100,000 and rising. Most Iraqi oil is now under direct foreign control...

Everywhere we look -- no matter the topic or event -- those in power twist, omit and outright lie about what's going on! When reality is too disagreeable, they manipulate public opinion by sugar coating and distorting the information shared.

It doesn't seem to matter who the players are. Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Tony Blair, George W. Bush, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong-il and Barack Obama each has been guilty of whipping up nationalistic pride or furor for strictly political gain. Even worse, the faceless elites who pull the strings behind the curtain do it solely for economic gain.

It's getting to the point that I'm simply suspicious of the establishment, regardless of the players or the brand. Maybe I'll become a hippie, two or three generations after the fact!

The American Theocracy - School Choice

This is one of those issues that in the new American theocracy will be turned on its head. In current society, the major proponents of school choice are fundamentalist Christians. They believe that education should be Christ-led and that the public school system instead chooses to advance the e-v-i-l "gay agenda" and disparages their narrow beliefs.

Consequently, they advocate for public education dollars to go to families, so the parents can choose the appropriate educational setting for their children. Such settings include charter schools (specific public schools that often govern themselves), private schools and homeschooling. If such a scheme became fully vested, most fundamentalist parents would pull their progeny from the public schools and, since the dollars would follow their children, this would necessarily dilute public education even more than it is now.

However, in the new American theocracy, the battle lines would be completely redrawn. My guess is that the main proponents of school choice would now be non-Christians parents.

You see, in nation that has "returned to God" -- one in which school prayer is mandatory -- the public school system would come to resemble Church School! The conservative Christian worldview would become part of the everyday curriculum. Therefore, it would be non-Christian parents who wanted to get their kids away from this narrow perspective.

But, like so many other issues in the new American theocracy, school choice would be a non-starter. Our religious/political leaders would turn a deaf ear to such positions. Why? Because they specifically want to brainwash all of America's children into becoming the next generation of Christian soldiers.

If some non-theist parents continued to persist in calls for school choice, I can hear the rebuttal. "Don't like our Christ-centered educational system? Then you can leave the country. Go enroll your kids in schools in Russia or Iran!"

If you're interested in reading more from this tongue-in-cheek series, go to the The American Theocracy Index page.

Question: What Light?

As mentioned previously, as I work my way through the Christian Bible (again) for the Tao Bible series, I run into aspects of the text that make little rational sense. So, my hope is that some of the Christian readers of this blog can explain these aspects to me.

Though I'm now working through the Book of Exodus, there was something in the Book of Genesis that kept bugging me, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. Last night, as I was drifting off to sleep, it hit me. It concerns the order of creation in the very first verse.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
~ Genesis 1:1-5, KJV ~

OK, this appears to be very straightforward. God creates the sun on the first day and it is the sun that provides the definition between day and night. So, what's the problem?

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
~ Genesis 1:14-19, KJV ~

If God created the sun on the first day, what did he create on Day 4? If he created the sun on Day 4, what is the light he created on Day 1?

And here is where a person lands themselves in trouble by reading the Bible literally. The text that covers Day 1 stipulates that the light divides the day from night and we all know that this light is the sun. But, according to Genesis, God didn't create the sun until Day 4. Consequently, if the Bible indeed is the word of the almighty, then it appears he created the same thing for the first time on Day 1 AND Day 4.

Would someone care to explain how this is possible?

To see what other questions I've asked about the Christian Bible, go here.

Line by Line - Verse 3, Line 6

When there is this abstinence from action, good order is universal.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

If nothing is done, then all will be well.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Act without contrivance And nothing will be beyond control
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

Stop doing stuff all the time, and watch what happens.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

There's a popular saying that embraces the above idea: Get out of your own way!

When we scheme, plot and try to manipulate circumstances to come out they way we desire, what often happens? We know the answer; more often than not, everything comes out all screwed up! Aspects of the situation we didn't bother to take into consideration tend to exert the greatest impact. Variables that don't match up our desires are ignored and then come back to haunt us.

If we would only get out of our own way, life usually falls into place by itself. Needless to say, I think Ron Hogan captures the spirit of this line very well.

To view the Index page for this series to see what you may have missed or would like to read again, go here.

A Thirty Year Delay

I've been in a bit of a funk lately. While you might think this predominantly is the result of my pain issues, you'd be incorrect. Yes, the increased pain IS an issue, but I think I deal with chronic pain better than most. I've had my entire life to get used to it! ;-)

No, my funk is based on something that happened nearly 30 years ago: the death of John Lennon. As I wrote in Radio Daze, I got a bit choked up at the time, but it was nothing major. It wasn't so much that I mourned Lennon himself; it was more that one of the Beatles died and this meant they could never perform again as a group, not that they planned to anyway.

The main reason it didn't affect me as badly as many other fans is really darn simple: I never cared for John Lennon very much. Of the Fab Four, my favorite was George Harrison. John always seemed a bit too out there for my tastes. The story of why my perspective has changed so dramatically is the subject of this post.

Since a very early age, I've been a philosopher and a rebel. I always seemed out of step with my peers and, like many others with Asperger's Syndrome, I felt I had somehow been dropped on the wrong planet! While I've always traveled to the beat of a different drum, in my younger years, that drumbeat was within the external parameters defined by society.

The best way I can explain this by offering the example of the mainstream media. Over the years, many have charged that the media has a liberal bias. This is both true and untrue. Within the parameters of corporate interests, there is no question in my mind that the mainstream media leans to the left. However, what I think most people don't understand is that the channel that has been established for media discourse is very narrow. Consequently, leaning to the left on a narrow street doesn't mean as much as leaning to the left in a limitless field.

And so it was with me. Though I leaned to the left, I did so within the established mores of society. John Lennon, on the other hand, didn't abide at all with external norms. He was a free thinker who tended to follow his own internal compass. And it is because I had not yet been able to break free of the established pathway that people like John Lennon scared the heck out of me!

I'm in a totally different place today. I've thrown off the yoke of societal expectations. Thus, I now see the man's brilliance. I now understand that he fought against external boundaries. I now recognize the gift he shared with the world and his words now speak to me like they never spoke to me before.

As I've discovered the man behind the music, his loss has meaning for me now. And so, thirty years after the fact, I grieve that tragic night of Monday, December 8, 1980.