Minor Wisdom

Today's tautology ...

... is "due process of law"—unless someone can identify another kind of due process.

The mark of Cain

In this essay, written in 1944, Abraham Joshua Heschel finds the cause of the evil then rampant by looking in the mirror. The essay is as relevant today as it was in 1944. For me, the following passage hits home:

The conscience of the world was destroyed by those who were wont to blame others rather than themselves. Let us remember, we revered the instincts but distrusted ideals. We labored to perfect engines and let our inner life go to wreck. We ridiculed superstition until we lost our ability to believe. We have helped to extinguish the light our fathers had kindled. We have bartered holiness for convenience, loyalty for success, love for power, wisdom for diplomas, prayer for sermon, wisdom for information, tradition for fashion.

Read "Real Live Preacher"

If you haven't been reading Real Live Preacher, do yourself a favor and start today. I mean right now, stop reading Minor Wisdom for a minute, click on the link, and read RLP.

What, you're still here? You need more convincing? Okay. Besides being a superb writer, he may be one of the most compassionate. Consider these recent posts:

• Today, he reveals his lifelong battle against depression and his recent decision to try medication.
• On May 27, he wept for someone deeply wounded by "people who call themselves Christians even as they elevate rules, doctrines, and theology above grace, mercy, and compassion."
• On May 12, he wrote of the Fractured Family of Men, a meditation on seeing two gay men in a restaurant.

Read his life's journey, titled The Preacher's Story. Trust me, it's worth your time.

RLP is Gordon Atkinson, who is indeed a real-live preacher—Baptist, no less. A wounded healer who doesn't mind showing us his wounds.

Faith, science, and Einstein

This essay quotes Albert Einsten as saying that anyone who is “not lost in rapturous awe of the power and glory of the Mind behind the universe is as good as a burnt-out candle.”

Darfur: "What can I do?"

I have a confession to make: Up until now, I haven't done a damned thing about the horrors in Darfur. I was talking about this with a friend the other day, and I actually said that there was nothing I could do to help.

The more I think about what I said, the more I think about the rich man in the parable, who didn't do anything to help the beggar Lazarus. The rich man didn't go out of his way to hurt Lazarus, he simply sat in his home, eating and drinking, and doing nothing to help.

Well folks, if we do nothing about Darfur, then we're no better than the rich man in the parable. We're no better than the ones who did nothing about the Holocaust.

Here is my list of resolutions: things I can do—that anyone of faith can do about any evil that we seem powerless against.

The first thing is to pray. Cry out to God, like the psalmist: "How long, oh Lord?" Pray for the victims. Pray for their persecutors.

The second thing is to learn. The rich man's greatest sin may have been his unawareness of Lazarus. No one with access to a computer has any excuse for not knowing what's going on. Go to Google or Google News, search for Darfur, and read.

Warning: If you do these two things, your heart and mind will start to change. And there's no telling where a change of heart might lead you.

When your heart and mind change, you may feel compelled to do something to help. There are many worthy organizations out there trying to help, but you may feel skittish about donating to an organization you're not familiar with—worried that the money won't go where it needs to do. I'm happy to report that some folks you can trust have done something to take away that worry. Go visit the Coalition for Darfur. Founded by Feddie of Southern Appeal and Eugene Oregon of Demagogue, the Coalition's purpose is "to raise awareness about the genocide in Darfur, Sudan and money for a worthy organization doing vital work there: Save the Children." And if you're a blogger, consider joining the Coalition—for information on that, click here. Whether or not you're a blogger, you can bookmark CFD and make it one of your daily reads.

No surprise here

The FDA is investigating whether Viagra causes blindness. Maybe there's something to that old myth after all. Or maybe the FDA has it backwards: maybe blindness causes Viagra.

Thought police

I must confess that I was unaware of this matter before my pastor, Fr. Tom Stahel, mentioned it in last Sunday's church bulletin. It seems the Vatican's thought police forced the editor of the Jesuit magazine, America, to resign. His sin: public disagreement with the Congregation for the Doctine of the Faith. The story has been covered in the UK and the USA; see also editorials in America and Commonweal.

What does this man in the pews think? That suppression by the hierarchy pushes the hierarchy toward irrelevance. I hope someday they realize that they don't hold a monopoly on thought, or intellect, or spirituality, or God. They, like the rest of us, are blind men trying to figure out an elephant. We need each other to do that, which means that they need us as much as we need them. The converse is also true: to the extent they don't need us, we don't need them either.

What do you think? The comments are open. After all, blogs are about free expression of heartfelt disagreement. And unlike the Magisterium lately (ever?), I could be wrong.

Guitar god torches Lafayette Square

Tonight between 6:30 and 7:30, Lafayette Square in New Orleans was burned to the ground, in front of about 5,000 people, by this guy.

Metaphors aside: Did you think that all the guitar gods were dead? One still walks among us. He doesn't look like a guitar god—just a skinny, unassuming white guy from Lafayette, Louisiana. Trust me, the guy is a guitar god.

I didn't take any pictures or record any sounds. But someone else has recorded a similar event, which you can sample here.

Warning: Aunt Esther in car

While doing some, er, legal research,¹ I happened upon this Snope.com page, which includes a link to an audio file. It's almost as funny as the Armageddon thing. The premise: a guy, late for work, calls his boss while commuting and starts to leave a voice mail. In the middle of the recording, he sees and describes in real time (supposedly) a fender-bender—and the hilarious stuff that follows. Snopes hasn't figured out whether this recording is on the level, but regardless, it made me cry from laughing.

Speaking of Armageddon, if you haven't heard it before (or if you want to hear it one more time), listen to this (RealPlayer required).

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¹I was looking for an attribution for the adage, "You can't beat a station wagon full of nuns."

Steve Miller, businessman

The photo accompanying this story about rock-and-roller Steve Miller gave me another done-got-old moment. To his credit, Steve looks and dresses his age (unlike, say, these guys).