In case you missed his comment, Graham (link to the article on his blog) notes that the Bruderhof’s UK publishing house has been coaxed back online, and are making available PDF versions of their glorious books. (Some come in Palm format, too.) The site isn’t up to the former glory of the now-defunct Bruderhof sites, but it is more appropriately plain.
Younger Friends and the future
Last July, I wrote about how “younger evangelicals” see the Church.
Well, more than two years ago, Martin Kelley (Quaker Ranter, of the Gohn Bros. and Quaker plain clothing post) wrote the following article with the same source material, and Unitarian Universalist will find many, many parallels. Quite fascinating. Even the family legacy piece has a parallel in an old Universalist church dynamic that I’m glad to say is moribund and rare.
Emergent Church Movement: The Younger Evangelicals and Quaker Renewal
Feed me Epiphany candy
Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, or the Manifestation of Christ to the Nations. That would be the three Magi. I’ve read that it is probably an older holiday than Christmas, which is appealing. Plus, it isn’t commercialized, unless you consider a king cake commercialization. (And since the McKenzies bakery chain in New Orleans is long gone — which makes me quite sad — who sells them?)
Some Christians — at least in English speaking churches — promote Epiphany as a religious alternative to Christmas, which can be continued as a winter family fest without guilt of hypocrisy.
I could write more . . . or point you to the Epiphany posting at the Happy Feminist entitled “The Feast of the Epiphany: La Befana rides tonight.”
Very cool. Very Italian.
For the record
Jesus wept!
I’d like to be one of the many (I hope) Christian bloggers that completely repudiates the rhetoric and theology Pat Robertson inflicts on us. He has made a fool of himself by applying an admonition from Joel to Rabin’s assassination and Sharon’s stroke.
Does that Yigal Amir (Rabin’s killer) an agent of God? His implausibly aww-shucks “I was just saying” mode of plausible denial insults our intelligence and shames Christ’s church. Who does he think he is?
Not that my usual readers would confuse me for a Robertson supporter, but if he’s going to indulge in nasty little dicta, then other Christians need to be plain about their oppostion.
On death and hope
Ross Douthat — filling in at AndrewSullivan.com (the one celeb blog I read) — wrote poignantly about Christian Hope, following the West Virginia mine disaster and mis-reportage. With it, he makes a well-placed swing at one of the weaknesses of liberal Christianity.
And Death Shall Have No Dominion
Uh, thanks for inviting me
Well, I don’t feel any worse for wear for staying up and ringing in the New Year with Hubby, a few akvavit and Clamatoes not withstanding. And that Tom Collins at a swank new restaurant Hubby and I went to for midnight. But I did wake up at 11 am, so no church today, which is no great loss since the Swedenborgians are out today.
Today is one of my favorite named occasions in the ecumenical calendar, but one of the hardest to conceptualize: The Feast of the Circumcision. Jesus’ of course. The day his parents fulfilled their religious obligations and — this one is new to me — the first time Christ shed blood. What kind of carol do you sing? What food?
Little wonder it is more commonly known now as the Feast of the Holy Name.
Whew! I think I’ll stick to Happy New Year, and make black-eyed peas and greens instead.
Bruderhof books
2010: Use this link for the Leaving Muenster blog post — goodness, it was a great blog and I do miss it — and this one for the Bruderhof books. The following I’ll keep as I originally wrote it.
I wrote a couple of days ago about the Bruderhof sites being taken down. Graham Old, of Leaving Muenster, isn’t criticizing their decision, but notes the loss of the downloadable books, their crowning accomplishment.
And he has them online to download (bless his bandwidth) until he hears from the Bruderhof if he can continue to do so. If the thumb goes up, I’ll do my part and have a couple of the books available here, too.
Even if you’re not interested in the Bruderhof or their literature, you might like to see this alternate mode of publishing. Note that some are all are also available in dead-tree format. (I own a copy of God’s Revolution, for instance.)
Bruderhof MIA
I used to go regularly to the various Bruderhof websites: they had some of the best designed sites I had ever seen on peacemaking and grief. Their online downloadable books were rich resources with few if any parallels. Their Daily Dig email meditations were welcome and enriching.
Then, without notice, they were all gone, replaced with 1994-era “headstones” like Bruderhof.org.
I was confused — a server problem? an internal coup? — but assumed they would all be back eventually. I’m afraid I’m probably wrong.
A website lobbying the Bruderhof to bring back their sites. Serious and interesting stuff in our Internet age.
You can get a hint of the good old days from the unformatted, rather messy remote archives of Bruderhof (March 26, 2005), Grief Companion (March 15, 2005), and Saving Childhood (March 25, 2005) .
The new Mithraism
Given his comment in my last posting, I think Bill Barr and I might be talking past each other.
I think that if there is renewed spying and surveillance (different things) on peace activists, the driving force is political, not from the career military. Also, the past to which I refer is the early 70s, not the 80s. (Which were hardly blameless, but not within the scope of my current concern.)
But there is a political use of the military that ties in here, for which the military benefits in its appropriations and recruitment goals, and which we Americans need to be careful of: fetishizing the military. Today, political opportunists use it to quell dissent. Something along the lines of “if you speak against the American presence in Iraq, you’re hurting the troops.” Quakers, al-Qaeda — all the same.
Which means sooner or later people are going to have to say something about the military that’ll offend someone, if for no other reason than it is so easy to be accused of causing offense.
Warning: sharp segue.
Since Christmas is coming, I can’t help but think of Mithraism: one of Christianity’s main competetors in the ancient world, and there are some (opinions differ to the extent) cultic and social overlaps. The December 25 date is probably a direct rip-off from the Mithraists, given their Mithra was born that day. It was very popular among soldiers, and a plague among them is credited for Mithraism’s decline.
Had things gone differently, can you image what the greeting cards would look like this time of the year?
There’s an interesting desciption of the social power of Mithraism in its article at Wikipedia:
At Rome, the third century emperors encouraged Mithraism, because of the support which it afforded to the divine nature of monarchs. Mithras thus became the giver of authority and victory to the Imperial House.
No comment.
Today, of course, matters are different. Instead of a soldier’s religion, we have a civil religion about soldiers. Consider that, but hold it to one side.
For me, the worse matter is how lauded and defended “the troops” are on one hand, and how badly treated they are in real life. When soldiers can get food stamps but not armor plating, we have a big problem. Don’t get me started about military pensions or medical care.
The government — under either party — has long seen fit to make promises to the military that haven’t been kept. I’ve written about this before, and shall again.
But the result is the same: when the troops — and our ideas of what proper concerning the military — are misused we can’t be silent.
He's makin' a list
Well, the one good thing I can say about the current Administration is that’s there’s always something awful happening; that way you keep busy and don’t get obsessed by Christmas too early. Grrr.
Back in seminary (and before), there was a one-line faith self-assessment of the “What would Jesus do?” ilk. It went, If Christianity became a crime, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
Well, now that the Pentagon has likely gone all nostalgic and started collecting information about anti-war protesters, we might get to see this question become literally true. Sunny “it couldn’t happen here” feelings don’t hold a lot of water for me any more.
I think everyone in the land needs to do something brave, peaceful, and life-affirming: something list-worthy. Right now, we seem a nation of cowed and fearful people, which doesn’t excuse us from being judged for our inaction.
Lord I hope the “unrighteous nation deserves God’s wrath” crowd are wrong or there’ll be flaming blood meteors over Washington by New Year’s Day.
Hat tip: Jess’s Journal