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| I've decided to move. I can now be found here.
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| Why do birds sing?
Let me know what you think! Your answer will reveal a lot about yourself... | | |
| Those of you who have been following the Terri Schiavo case have
probably wondered (as I have) about the woman's actual condition.
Much has been made about her being in a persistent vegetative state,
and some have even claimed that certain parts of her brain have been
"liquefied". Well, here
is an article that I found to be very informative (thanks, Heather
Bayly, for posting it), and I highly recommend it to you all.
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| I had a conversation with my father yesterday that I still cannot get
over. We were speaking about some of the terrible atrocities
committed by some of the warlords in Africa (the abduction and
desensitization of children to be used as child soldiers is a
particularly poignant example - take a look here),
and he asked me what should be done with such men. After thinking
about it for about 15 seconds I responded that these men should be
captured, given the opportunity to repent of their wickedness, and then
executed. He responded by asking if that was what should have
happened to the apostle Paul... and I didn't really have an answer.
Certainly it is true that Paul wasn't abducting and mutilating
children, so don't mistake me for saying that there is moral
equivalence between Paul and these warlords. Still, Paul went
from killing innocent followers of Jesus to being a follower himself in
about a week!!! What are we supposed to learn from this story?
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| Over the past few months, Pastor Stephen Baker and I have had a number of conversations about Beauty. He recently passed this article along to me, and I highly recommend it.
I agree wholeheartedly that "holiness, glory, and beauty are
inseparable," and it is a tragedy of 21st century church in a America
that we have such disdain for seeking the proper place of beauty in our
worship of God. Furthermore, I think that this low esteem for
beauty is mirrored in our culture in many ways.* I also
appreciated how the author steers us away from thinking
simplistically about beauty; he reminds us that beauty isn't simply
something that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside, but that true
beauty includes "humanity and its dark dimensions." Finally, I
often assume that one must understand the message of
Jesus Christ intellectually before anything else. The author
correctly points out, however, that this is not necessarily the case:
"We assume that the attractive power of the gospel comes from a clear
intellectual presentation (truth) or from a desire for a higher
standard of
moral behavior (goodness). In reality, it is beauty that has the
greatest pull."
I think that the article correctly points out that beauty isn't simply
a concept that we should tack on to our worship, but instead that it is
absolutely central to our worship of God. Beauty, whether it is beauty
found in man-made art or in Gods creation, draws us to God. The author writes: "In Romans,
Paul teaches that
the answer to the two greatest human problems – ungodliness and
immorality (Romans 1:18) – is true worship and godly behavior (Romans
12:1-2). The answer is
given in the proper order. We cannot have authentic godly behavior
without
dealing with the root of sin – false or untrue worship. And yet, far
too often,
we want morally good behavior without authentic Christian
adoration." I found this section to be the most
instructive. All humans are
wired to worship, and we naturally worship that which we love and
esteem. What we esteem and worship will furthermore define how we
live and what we believe (ie. it will center our morality and
truth). Beauty, therefore, must remain at the center of our
worship, and we should strive to refine our ability to see it and
appreciate it.
But this brings me to a point of confusion. How are we to speak
about beauty and, at the same time, keep away from "intellectuallizing"
beauty? My biggest beef with the article is that it conveniently
avoids
the million dollar
question: what is the criteria for something to be recognized as
beautiful? It is easy enough to say that we need to refine our
taste
for beauty (which I accept as true), but how am I supposed to recognize
it in the first place? I agree wholeheartedly that beauty is not
entirely subjective... but how are we to recognize
those parts that are objective? This kind of confusion doesn't
occur in the realm of truth or goodness, so why does it persist in the
realm of beauty? On what basis can I say that the
emanations of Eminem or Slipknot are not beautiful? And, finally,
in what way are we to "act
out" beauty?
In sum, my confusion arises at the point where the rubber meets the road - I
simply don't know how to take beauty out of the realm of ideas and
theological debate and put it into practice in tangible ways.
*The loss of the love of beauty in our culture is mentioned in passing in this
excellent article about feminism by an English professor at IU, Barbara
Lehr. I add the link to her article here because it might prove
beneficial to explore the possible link between the concomitant
confusion and devaluation of both beauty and femininity in our culture.
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