Much has been said and blogged about the tragic cost of the actions of racist mass-murderer Dylann Roof. The cost in terms of human life and grief is incalculably large.
Dylann Roof stole joy and life from the people of this faith community.
The family members of the nine Charleston Martyers handled this incredibly difficult situation with overcoming Christian love.
But Roof stole other things, too. One thing he stole was the ability for us to easily trust one another. Can you imagine being a member of an all black church, and having a white visitor come and join your church in worship? What thoughts would go through your mind? Would you not wonder if this visitor was the next in a series of Dylann Roofs? You could not be blamed for thinking such a thing. And it has a chilling effect on everyone involved. The white visitor of good will may easily choose not to visit, not wanting to scare anyone.
When I was a grad student at Purdue University, I sometimes visited a small C.O.G.I.C. (Church of God in Christ) parish, which was 100% African-American. It afforded me the opportunity to worship with brothers and sisters in Christ in a way that was outwardly very much different than the Dutch Reformed-style worship of my own home church at that time.
I profited from attending there. But today, in the wake of the Charleston church murders, could I even visit that church? I don't think I could. Not for a long time, anyhow. It wouldn't be fair to the parish to distract them from their worship of Almighty God, wondering about the Other in their midst.
Time can heal some wounds. But not if men like Dylann Roof keep ripping them open.
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Thursday, June 11, 2015
1962 Mercury Meteor - New Exhaust, 2-Tone steelies, & M/T Drag Radials!
We've made a few improvement to our 1962 Mercury Meteor, in anticipation of a few cars show, but mostly in anticipation of the 2015 Michigan Gumball Rally! We'll be #62!
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
My Daughter's First Time Drag Racing!
I suppose it is a sort of rite of passage in our family. When you get to a certain age, you head down to the drag strip and make some passes.
This is my 17-year-old daughter Violet on her first day at the drag strip, piloting her 2005 V-6 Mustang. I'm proud of her!
This is my 17-year-old daughter Violet on her first day at the drag strip, piloting her 2005 V-6 Mustang. I'm proud of her!
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
A New Poem - Wifely Beauty
I was finishing up my leg workout in the gym today, and thinking about how it is that my wife keeps getting more and more beautiful to me as the years go by. It seems to be some really deep magic in operation. And then, the basis of this poem came to me.
Wifely
Beauty
What if all women have beauty sublime?
And what if all men are quite blind?
And what if the scales will not fall from our eyes
Until after the covenant’s signed?
What if all women have beauty sublime?
And what if all men are quite blind?
And what if the scales will not fall from our eyes
Until after the covenant’s signed?
And what if
her beauty, unseen until wived,
Is hidden
until you give plight?
And what if
that covenant, faithfully lived,
Is the balm
that will strengthen your sight?
In that case,
my son, I suggest that you vow,
That you
promise, commit, swear, and yield.
And do not seek beauty to cause you to love;
But love, and see beauty revealed.
©2015, Paul ErlandsonAnd do not seek beauty to cause you to love;
But love, and see beauty revealed.
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Down Syndrome as Superpower
I remember when Down Syndrome used to be considered a disorder or a defect.
The March of Dimes apparently still thinks so:
"Down syndrome is a chromosomal disorder that includes a combination of birth defects."
But recently, to my great surprise, two very trusted Anglican priest friends each posted this meme with an Albert Mohler quote, which paints Down Syndrome as something that makes one infinitely more beautiful than other people. It is in fact (according to Mohler's logic) something of a superpower.
I'm not sure that I trust a Southern Baptist to define or delineate the Christian worldview for me. But this quote is wrongheaded any way you look at it.
Can any one person be "infinitely more beautiful" than another human being, when we are all made in the image of God? Mohler robs cover models of the Imago Dei.
"But," someone will object, "surely he is focusing on the airbrushing, and not the model."
Doubtful. But let us yield, for sake of argument, that airbrushing blurs or mars the image of God in us. Do not aging, incapacity, defect, and disability mar it also? The God whose right arm is not shortened cannot be perfectly modeled by a man whose birth defect is to have no arms. The God who sees all cannot be perfectly reflected by a blind man. But just as these defects do not take away the image of God from the disabled, so airbrushing away of wrinkles does not take away the image of God from a cover model. Or, it ought not. It apparently does for Mohler. How else to explain the fact that another human being is "infinitely more beautiful" than she is?
It's a funny thing about blindness. When Jesus confronted it, he healed it. He did not stop, upon seeing a blind man, and say: "Behold, a blind man! His face is infinitely more beautiful than the faces of the sighted." No. He saw a defect, and he fixed it. He healed it. He remedied it. He undid it and reversed it, like the effect of the Fall that it really is.
Would Jesus heal the defect (only quoting from the March of Dimes, mind you!) we call Down Syndrome? I say he would. Moher must say no, because to do so would be to rob that individual of infinite beauty!
In sharp contrast to the spirit of Mohler's quote, I was always taught that the Christian worldview demands that we "love the unlovely." And now that Mohler has informed me that airbrushed cover models are the unloveliest people of all ... I intend to dedicate the remnant of my life to loving them.
The March of Dimes apparently still thinks so:
"Down syndrome is a chromosomal disorder that includes a combination of birth defects."
I'm not sure that I trust a Southern Baptist to define or delineate the Christian worldview for me. But this quote is wrongheaded any way you look at it.
Can any one person be "infinitely more beautiful" than another human being, when we are all made in the image of God? Mohler robs cover models of the Imago Dei.
"But," someone will object, "surely he is focusing on the airbrushing, and not the model."
Doubtful. But let us yield, for sake of argument, that airbrushing blurs or mars the image of God in us. Do not aging, incapacity, defect, and disability mar it also? The God whose right arm is not shortened cannot be perfectly modeled by a man whose birth defect is to have no arms. The God who sees all cannot be perfectly reflected by a blind man. But just as these defects do not take away the image of God from the disabled, so airbrushing away of wrinkles does not take away the image of God from a cover model. Or, it ought not. It apparently does for Mohler. How else to explain the fact that another human being is "infinitely more beautiful" than she is?
It's a funny thing about blindness. When Jesus confronted it, he healed it. He did not stop, upon seeing a blind man, and say: "Behold, a blind man! His face is infinitely more beautiful than the faces of the sighted." No. He saw a defect, and he fixed it. He healed it. He remedied it. He undid it and reversed it, like the effect of the Fall that it really is.
Would Jesus heal the defect (only quoting from the March of Dimes, mind you!) we call Down Syndrome? I say he would. Moher must say no, because to do so would be to rob that individual of infinite beauty!
In sharp contrast to the spirit of Mohler's quote, I was always taught that the Christian worldview demands that we "love the unlovely." And now that Mohler has informed me that airbrushed cover models are the unloveliest people of all ... I intend to dedicate the remnant of my life to loving them.
Monday, March 16, 2015
A New Movie - Killing Poe
Take a look at the trailer!
Monday, February 23, 2015
A Real Live Flannery O'Connor Character!
You never know what or who you will find on facebook. This morning, I found a real live Flannery O'Connor character. His peculiar concoction of God-hauntedness and sin-blindness was amazing, and I ended up reading his entire timeline. I will call him Dwayne (not his real name).
Consider a few facts about him, and try to make them all fit into one person:
1. He talks about his own recent failed suicide attempt. He failed this time (if he even really attempted it), but promises to do better in future.
2. For several hours in a row, he posts the one photo he possesses of himself and his (ex?) wife, begging her to "come home". Because he is lonely. Because he is horny. Because he is so incredibly needy.
3. Worked at: Disabled. Studied at: Didn't.
4. Frequent admonitions (to us readers, or to himself?) to "pray."
5. Blames the "dirty, nasty cops" for breaking up his home.
6. Says the cops run the church.
7. Says all Christians are mean.
8. Has about 3 dozen facebook Friends, all of them are scantily clad women half his age.
9. Says he "really needs to get stoned."
10. States that people need to be nice to crazy people, because he is right on the edge, and if people don't learn to treat him nice, some people are going to get hurt.
11. Can't spell to save his life (e.g., cercomstances for circumstances, camit for commit)
12. Posts memes with Scripture verses.
13. Claims to be a defender of the downtrodden, especially strippers and models.
14. Posts memes about trusting God.
15. Says that Jesus is a whore who has stabbed him in the back.
16. Claims he is going crazy without his wife, then adds request for his wife to bring him cigarettes at the loony bin.
17. Posts the pic of him and his wife (for the hundredth time), pleading for her to come home. Then immediately posts a photo of "my favorite model" in a bikini, seductively pulling down her bikini bottom. Mixed messages?
Well, you get the idea. He's not very bright, but he's very angry. His career, for a long time apparently, has been to be Disabled. Lack of productive work will do terrible things to a person. We may think it's great collecting money we didn't work for, but it rots us from the inside out. Deep inside, we know we are slackers. Deep inside, we know the wife is very wise to stay away. But we need someone to lash out at. So we befriend pretty models on the internet, hoping that one of them will make the mistake of getting close enough to hurt her and (maybe) make the anger go away for a moment.
I start off trying to be very compassionate to such people. But you can tell from his Timeline that a lot of people have already tried that (the church, women, law enforcement, Jesus). He rejects them all. They are all losers; only he is vindicated out of all humanity. Compassion is sadly lost on such a person. In the Bible stories (e.g., the sinful woman washing Christ's feet), there is a difference. They had shady pasts, but in the present, they admit their wrongness, and own up to their own wretched dirtiness.
But what is one to do with one who has sinned more than any of them, but holds his head up high, strutting like a peacock in his pride? Who (unlike the humble man in the story of the publican and the sinner) confesses sin, but only the sin of others against him? Such a man is very like some of the characters in C. S. Lewis' The Great Divorce, who instead of merely doing sin, have in the final end become their sin.
Consider a few facts about him, and try to make them all fit into one person:
1. He talks about his own recent failed suicide attempt. He failed this time (if he even really attempted it), but promises to do better in future.
2. For several hours in a row, he posts the one photo he possesses of himself and his (ex?) wife, begging her to "come home". Because he is lonely. Because he is horny. Because he is so incredibly needy.
3. Worked at: Disabled. Studied at: Didn't.
4. Frequent admonitions (to us readers, or to himself?) to "pray."
5. Blames the "dirty, nasty cops" for breaking up his home.
6. Says the cops run the church.
7. Says all Christians are mean.
8. Has about 3 dozen facebook Friends, all of them are scantily clad women half his age.
9. Says he "really needs to get stoned."
10. States that people need to be nice to crazy people, because he is right on the edge, and if people don't learn to treat him nice, some people are going to get hurt.
11. Can't spell to save his life (e.g., cercomstances for circumstances, camit for commit)
12. Posts memes with Scripture verses.
13. Claims to be a defender of the downtrodden, especially strippers and models.
14. Posts memes about trusting God.
15. Says that Jesus is a whore who has stabbed him in the back.
16. Claims he is going crazy without his wife, then adds request for his wife to bring him cigarettes at the loony bin.
17. Posts the pic of him and his wife (for the hundredth time), pleading for her to come home. Then immediately posts a photo of "my favorite model" in a bikini, seductively pulling down her bikini bottom. Mixed messages?
Well, you get the idea. He's not very bright, but he's very angry. His career, for a long time apparently, has been to be Disabled. Lack of productive work will do terrible things to a person. We may think it's great collecting money we didn't work for, but it rots us from the inside out. Deep inside, we know we are slackers. Deep inside, we know the wife is very wise to stay away. But we need someone to lash out at. So we befriend pretty models on the internet, hoping that one of them will make the mistake of getting close enough to hurt her and (maybe) make the anger go away for a moment.
I start off trying to be very compassionate to such people. But you can tell from his Timeline that a lot of people have already tried that (the church, women, law enforcement, Jesus). He rejects them all. They are all losers; only he is vindicated out of all humanity. Compassion is sadly lost on such a person. In the Bible stories (e.g., the sinful woman washing Christ's feet), there is a difference. They had shady pasts, but in the present, they admit their wrongness, and own up to their own wretched dirtiness.
But what is one to do with one who has sinned more than any of them, but holds his head up high, strutting like a peacock in his pride? Who (unlike the humble man in the story of the publican and the sinner) confesses sin, but only the sin of others against him? Such a man is very like some of the characters in C. S. Lewis' The Great Divorce, who instead of merely doing sin, have in the final end become their sin.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
