Category Archives: Religion

I love Carl Sagan, but…

Posted on by The Old Wolf

I recently came across a quote from Carl Sagan on Facebook which took particular care to disparage the beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and – what is sadder – accuse the Church of deliberate fraud related to its founding. I was moved to make a version of the following comment there, because I felt I could not remain silent in the face of this unwarranted calumny.

The Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at dusk.

I respect and love Carl Sagan, a brilliant man and staunch secular humanist who spent a good portion of his energy promoting adherence to scientific, empirically-proven realities rather than what he saw as superstitions. But I am also a member of this “peculiar people,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and there are good reasons for that. Many people say to me, “You can’t be both, you can’t believe in science and in creationism because blah blah yadda yadda,” and I say that you absolutely can. But it is essential to keep both sides in separate boxes, and not try to force one into the other. It doesn’t work. I love watching our knowledge of the macro-universe and the quantum universe expand and unfold, and feel a powerful sense of the numinous as Carl described in Cosmos:

“Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us — there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a great height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.”

But I have other feelings that belie the “hydrogen atoms evolved to consciousness” concept, more in line with the idea that if there is nothing else out there, it would be a tremendous waste of space as related in “Contact” and elsewhere; William Wordsworth related a similar sense of awe and the distant memory in other words:

“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
        Hath had elsewhere its setting
             And cometh from afar;
        Not in entire forgetfulness,
        And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
             From God, who is our home.”

Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood

People these days – even members of other Christian faiths – seem to find it both fun and socially acceptable to throw shade on the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for its “unorthodox” beliefs, but as a convert to that faith of almost 60 years, I find its tenets to be the most logical, the most sensible, the most inherently believable of any religion on the face of the earth. If you are going to begin by professing a belief in a creator, you have to ask yourself the hard questions, starting with “what’s the point?” and Latter-day Saint doctrine answers those questions clearly and consistently. When we zoom back in from contemplating the majesty of an ever-expanding universe, and zoom out from exploring the mind-bending complexity of sub-atomic interactions, we have to look at humanity and wonder why we are even here. [Oh, I hear the chorus of humanists, including all my children and my secular forefathers screaming “No we don’t!” but that’s certainly their privilege.] I refuse to believe that the whole thing is simply dust that exploded so hard that it began to ask questions about itself.

In much the same way as a point is a one-dimensional projection of a two-dimensional line (and all the way up to squares and cubes and hypercubes), what Latter-day Saints understand as the “Plan of Salvation” is a way for us as mortals to begin to understand eternal realities. Everything about the Church’s doctrine – from its foundational belief in Jesus Christ, to the Book of Mormon and how it came to be, to continuing modern revelation from prophets and apostles – all of these things are means of a Creator to tell us where we came from, why we’re here, and what happens when this temporary, carnal existence comes to an end. Yes, the humanist crowd will say “nothing, just enjoy the beauty of existence while you’re here and do as much good as you can…” which is all well and good, but once you get a glimpse of what else is out there, that pales in comparison to an eternal destiny. I know this right down to the quarks in my body, and I will testify of it to anyone who asks.

Science and religion don’t mix in practical terms, but I beleive that with a broader view they most definitely do. We just don’t see the whole picture now, and as Paul said, we are looking at our world “through a glass, darkly.” If we could see clearly, we would see that all truth can indeed be circumscribed into one great whole. My sense of awe in the physical universe is only heightened by spiritual truths that I hold dear, and vice-versa; the more I learn of the world that surrounds us, the more grateful I am to Him who is responsible for all of it.

Now, there will be many who will undertake after this (and as many have done in the past) to pick apart my convictions with good and well-considered arguments, and demonstrate to me how I am simply deluded by a cult, and point out all my logical fallacies, and claim that I’m a heretic for not believing in the Triune God, and etcetera to the lemniscate… but that is their privilege. I have stated what I believe, and I am not good at polemics. I know what I know, and I understand what Joseph Smith meant when he said “I had seen a vision. I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and could not deny it, neither dare I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation.” ❤

The Old Wolf has spoken.

The poison of Christian Nationalism

Posted on by The Old Wolf

In the Appendix to 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑛 𝐴𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑆𝑙𝑎𝑣𝑒 by Frederick Douglass (Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1845), Douglass wrote:

“I find, since reading over the foregoing Narrative, that I have, in several instances, spoken in such a tone and manner, respecting religion, as may possibly lead those unacquainted with my religious views to suppose me an opponent of all religion. To remove the liability of such misapprehension, I deem it proper to append the following brief explanation. What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the 𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑣𝑒ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛 of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference — so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐞, 𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭: 𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐮𝐩𝐭, 𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧-𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐞-𝐩𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐲𝐩𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝. [Emphasis mine]. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels.”

The entire appendix – nay, the entire book, but the appendix is a representative summary of Douglass’ thought – is a short but compelling read, and I recommend it to anyone who wishes to understand the foundation of hate in Christian Nationalism.

The following text is a representation of how this attitude showed up in 1965, and which persists today, to the great shame and detriment of our society.

“The hate stare was everywhere practiced, especially by women of the older generation. On Sunday, I made the experiment of dressing well and walking past some of the white churches just as services were over. In each instance, as the women came through the church doors and saw me, the “spiritual bouquets” changed to hostility. The transformation was grotesque. In all of Montgomery only one woman refrained. She did not smile. She merely looked at me and did not change her expression. My gratitude to her was so great it astonished me.” Griffin, John Howard, Black Like Me.¹

Given the gross disconnect between the Christianity found in the New Testament and the Book of Mormon, and the behavior of far too many² of those who profess to be followers of Christ in the current timeline, it is no wonder that so many people are turning away from mainstream Christian churches, citing loss of belief, negative experiences, LGBTQ-related concerns, scandals, and politics.

As a nation, we must do better if we are to have a country that works for everyone, with no one left out. R. Buckminster Fuller expressed this idea in what came to be known as his “World Game,” after which this blog is named:

“Make the world work, for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.”

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Footnotes

¹ Black Like Me, first published in 1961, is a nonfiction book by journalist John Howard Griffin recounting his journey in the Deep South of the United States, at a time when African Americans lived under the Jim Crow laws. Griffin was a native of Mansfield, Texas, who had his skin temporarily darkened to pass as a black man. He traveled for six weeks throughout the racially segregated states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia to explore life from the other side of the color line. Sepia Magazine financed the project in exchange for the right to print the account first as a series of articles.(Wikipedia)

John Howard Griffin as a Black man, walking under an arcade in New Orleans, Louisiana. Photograph by Don Routledge.

² It goes without saying that there are countless people in all Christian denominations who do their best to emulate the teachings of Jesus and go about, in a quiet and unassuming way, doing good. These are they who form a bulwark against the flood of openly-practiced hate and division of the hypocritical Christian Nationalists.

A Mission Triumphant

Posted on by The Old Wolf

WordPress just notified me that I marked my 17-year anniversary writing on this particular platform. I find that hard to believe,but there it is. Time rushes past with increasing speed as I grow older.

I felt moved to post something to mark the occasion.

Elder Ronald A. Rasband, an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ and one of the God’s special witnesses in these days, posted the following on Facebook today:

At general conference I spoke of our grandson Paxton, who was born with a very rare chromosomal deletion.
Paxton lived three treasured years. He could not speak, crawl, walk, or run after his brothers. But little Paxton’s hands reached out to ours and to our Savior with love and affection.
I remember the first time Paxton’s father and I gave him a priesthood blessing that, as it says in the scriptures, “the works of God should be made manifest in him.” They were.
He brought immense joy to our family. Families with such a precious member know what a privilege it is to be blessed with one with special needs.
Associating with Paxton, our whole family gained an increased, deep, and abiding trust in the Lord. Then God reached out and took him home.
The words of the psalmist say it all: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). That joy is, as the Savior said, “Because I live, ye shall live also” (John 14:19).
I know Paxton’s tender “spirit and [his] body shall be reunited again in … perfect form” (Alma 11:43). By the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, his joy will be in not only a resurrected body but one that is resurrected whole and perfect.

Elder Rasband’s story of little Paxton reminded me of a poem that has been in my files of inspirational materials for decades. I felt impressed to share it here, although it is available in other places on the Internet as well. It speaks boldly of God’s Plan of Happiness for all his children, and brings me comfort in ways I cannot easily express in words.

A Mission Triumphant
By Joan Bills

At a council assembled in Heaven,
Where presided the Great Magistrate, 
Came the spirits in anticipation
To make plans for their second estate.
Each was given his own special mission
And a talent to use and display,
And with joy each received his assignment 
With instructions to keep faith and pray.

Now one spirit transcended the others, 
So outstanding in talent and grace,
So majestic in stature and bearing,
With a light in his angelic face.
And the Magistrate turned to address him: 
"Lo, your mission is unlike the rest;
They are going to earth to be tested, 
But, my son, you are going to test.

"You will sift out the hearts of my people, 
You will test them for true charity;
What is done to the least of my children, 
That is the measure they mete out to me. 
You will challenge the faith of your loved ones 
And the stranger you meet on life's way; 
You will undergo great tribulation
And your spirit will feel deep dismay.

"When your sojourn on earth is completed 
And your message imparted to men, 
Then, as humble and pure as you left me, 
You'll return to my presence again."
For a moment the spirit was troubled, 
'Ere the conflict within him he'd won, 
Then he spoke: "I am willing, Dear Master, 
For Thy will and not mine shall be done."

Now the time had arrived for departure, 
And the spirits were ready to go,
But one paused at the throne of the Father 
And spoke in a voice sweet and low: 
"Hold my hand so I won't be afraid, Lord,
I am eager to go down to earth."
So with God's hand in his, he departed
And entered the channels of birth.

On a bright golden day in October,
All our family was radiant with joy,
For Heaven had sent a choice spirit
In the form of a dear baby boy.
How excited I was on that morning
As I ran to my schoolmates and cried:
"Oh, guess what, I've a new baby brother!"
And my small heart was bursting with pride.

How his hair was the color of Autumn!
He had brown eyes and rose-petal skin.
Through those eyes we were often permitted
A quick glimpse of the angel within.
Thus, joy lingered a while in our cottage,
and my father would whistle a tune.
My mother would scour and polish
And would smile at her baby and croon.

Happiness was short-lived in our household, 
For grave sorrow stole in at the door.
My father's gay whistling faltered,
And my mother's sweet voice sang no more. 
Our baby was entering boyhood,
And his strong body grew as it should,
But the mind did not function correctly, 
And we soon knew that it never would.

For the rest of his life he was destined
To remain a perpetual child;
He would laugh and then cry like a baby, 
With emotions subdued and then wild.
My dear parents' dreams were now shattered,
And their fond hopes reverted to grief; 
They discarded the plans for his future, 
And their heartache could find no relief.

But as time passed, we learned to accept it; 
We would all laugh together and play,
And my brother was petted and pampered 
And usually given his way.
And physical strength still continued,
All according to natural plan,
And his body received strength and passion 
While developing into a man.

And society must have its way now, 
So our darling was taken away.
He was placed in an institution, 
Where the rest of his life he must stay. 
I prayed day and night for my brother, 
And in mercy God answered my prayer, 
For one evening I knelt at my bedside 
And received inspiration while there.

My dear brother and those who live with him
Are fulfilling a mission sublime,
And they will return to the Father
To receive crowns of glory, in time.
In the meantime they're not being tested;
It is we who are taking the test,
And in serving the least of God's children, 
We truly are serving the best.

How dare we presume to neglect them,
And leave them alone to their fate! 
Those children should dwell in a palace, 
To be served by mankind while they wait. 
We should deem it an honor to know them 
And to do everything that we can
To comfort, to love, and protect them;
They should not be forgotten by man.

Even though there are those who will shun them, 
There are those who will bless them with love, 
And I, somehow, am sure that our actions
Are now being recorded above.
So I no longer fear for my brother,
For I know, though I don't understand,
That he'll travel life's highway in safety,
For his God is still holding his hand.

Mortal life is challenging for most of us at the best of times. But it is decidedly “unfair” in human terms: some are blessed with incredible wealth, health, and good fortune; others struggle with poverty, illness and death. But I have a firm knowledge and testimony that God’s hand and God’s eye is over all of us, and what is important is not the circumstances in which we are placed, but how we respond to them, and how we treat our fellow sojourners on this pale blue dot (hat tip Carl Sagan). I have unquenchable faith that in a coming day, all will be made right, and all will be made fair and just – as the saying goes,

Everything will come out OK in the end. If it’s not OK, it’s not the end.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

America’s Far-Right movements

Posted on by The Old Wolf

This video by Ronan Farrow clearly delineates the main far-right movements current in America. There are others, but these are the dominant ones infesting our society, and it helps to understand them.

Ronan Farrow

Below you will find the transcript of his remarks:

“In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination there has been a lot of discussion about the “far right” movement he was part of. But the “far right” is a spectrum of different movements, and understanding them might help you understand what is happening in America.

First, Christian Nationalism. This group’s leaders, like Kirk and Marjarie Taylor Greene, tap into valid frustrations with broken systems, but also exploit xenophobia and racism. They believe that the US was founded as, and must be restored to a Christian State. For many of them, that means white dominance and nonwhite immigration and multiculturalism are threats. Kirk himself said, “You cannot have liberty if you do not have a Christian population” and called the Civil Rights Act a “huge mistake.”

The movement works within the system, and its leaders don’t openly call for violence, but their rage baiting rhetoric has inspired it, with adherents participating in the January 6th attack.

A different strain is the Techno-authoritariarian or Dark Enlightenment movement, pushed by Curtis Yarvin and Silicon Valley billionaire supporters like Peter Thiel.

They hold that democracy has failed, and want an authoritarian society run like a corporation, by an  unelected CEO-monarch and enforcing a stratified racial hierarchy based on pseudoscience.

Finally, a view gaining ground across the far right is accelerationism. That’s the belief that society is byond saving and its collapse needs to be hastened.

This view is held by many within the Groyper movement, which is led by Nick Fuentes and seeks to establish a white, Christian, anti-Semitic, authoritarian state.

It’s named after its racist meme toad mascot. Fuentes avoids direct calls to violence, but his followers rely on online harassment, including threats of violence against political opponents and minorities. Some were also charged for their rôle on January 6th.

The Boogaloo movement on the other hand explicitly calls for violence against the government. Its name drawn from memes about the ’80s movie “Breaking 2, Electric Boogaloo” is a reference to a second civil war. Self-described ‘boogaloo bois” have been convicted of domestic terrorism plots and murders of government officials.

A more personal nihilism is embodied in the Black Pill worldview, which cuts across these movements. Its adherents often identify as incels and they want to destroy the progressive society that empowered women to reject them. The name comes from The Matrix, which is ironic. Since that film’s directors have said that the pills were a trans allegory.¹ Black pill followers are mainly misogynistic, but they have a lot of natural overlap with white supremacists

Most are passive, but the philosophy has inspired several mass murders.

People in this country are hurting. They are frustrated with systems that are rigged against them. You can see how those anxieties are exploited in these groups and their visions from building an authoritarian state to just watching the world burn.

Footnotes:

¹ I never knew this, but yeah, it’s a thing.

A message to my evangelical brothers and sisters

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Written by a mainstream Christian, Kate Penney Howard on Facebook. I am immeasurably grateful for this post.

“In recent weeks, I’ve watched a troubling pattern emerge online. Whenever a news story mentions the horrific attack in Grand Blanc, there’s an inevitable chorus of voices “correcting” the record: “Actually, Mormons aren’t Christians.”
Let me be clear: This is gatekeeping, and it needs to stop.
One of the most dangerous temptations of religious life is the urge to define who’s “in” and who’s “out.” When we appoint ourselves as arbiters of authentic faith, we’re not protecting orthodoxy. We’re playing God.
The Latter-day Saints call themselves Christians. They center their faith on Jesus Christ. It’s literally in the name of their church. They believe Jesus is the Son of God, that he died and was resurrected, and that salvation comes through him. They read the Bible, gather for worship, sing hymns, pray to God, and seek to follow Christ’s teachings about love, service, and redemption.
I know a LOT of LDS folk and I have to say, they give me a run for my money in the being kind and graceful department.
Do they have different theological perspectives than me? Absolutely. So do Quakers. So do Catholics. So do Methodists and Presbyterians and Episcopalians. So do Catholics and Orthodox Christians. So do Pentecostals. So do Seventh-Day Adventists. So do Unitarians. The body of Christ has always contained multitudes.
Exclusion has consequences.
We cannot talk about denying Latter-day Saints the label “Christian” without acknowledging the violent history behind such rhetoric. In the 19th century, largely at the urging of preachers in the Restoration Movement (that’s us, my DoC friends), and Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists, Mormons were driven from state to state, their homes burned, their communities terrorized, and sometimes killed. Missouri’s governor issued an extermination order against them in 1838. Joseph Smith was murdered by a mob.
And throughout this persecution, one of the accusations hurled at them was that they weren’t “real Christians,” that they were dangerous heretics who deserved what they got.
When we casually exclude LDS individuals today, we echo that violent history. We may think we’re making a theological point, but we’re perpetuating a legacy of exclusion that has caused real harm to real people.
Rather than obsessing over differences, let’s consider what Latter-day Saints share with the wider Christian tradition:
We worship the same God and proclaim the same savior.
We share sacred scripture in the Bible
We practice baptism and communion
We value prayer, worship, and community as essential to faith
We believe in serving others and caring for those in need
We affirm that Christ’s resurrection offers hope and new life
We gather to worship and encourage one another
We seek to follow Christ’s example of love and compassion
These aren’t minor overlaps. These are the heart of Christian faith.
Do I think they are perfect? No, I do not. However, neither is my tradition and neither is yours.
Here’s what troubles me most about the “Mormons aren’t Christians” crowd: the stunning confidence that their interpretation of Christianity is the only valid one. As if two thousand years of Christian diversity, debate, and development can be boiled down to a checklist, and anyone who doesn’t tick every box gets expelled.
The early church argued about whether Gentiles could be Christians without first becoming Jewish. They debated the nature of Christ for centuries. They split over the filioque and papal authority. We built this country on religious freedom. Why do we think it’s suddenly our job to kick people out?
I’m not suggesting all theological distinctions are meaningless. I’m not saying differences don’t matter. I’m saying that deciding who gets to claim the name “Christian” isn’t our call to make.
If someone says, “I follow Jesus Christ,” who am I to say they don’t? What profound arrogance would that require?
Instead, let’s practice some humility. Let’s recognize that God is bigger than our theological boxes. Let’s acknowledge that throughout history, the people who were absolutely certain about who was “in” and who was “out” have often been on the wrong side of justice.
The Latter-day Saints have been our neighbors, our colleagues, our fellow seekers of truth. They have fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and loved their neighbors. They have raised families, built communities, and tried to live out their faith with integrity.
They call themselves Christians. That’s enough for me.
But, Pastor Kate. We know you. We know you have strong feelings about some things, like the ordination of women and the safety of LGBTQIA believers. I do. I do have those strong feelings. And I also know that several LDS folk, including a Bishop, have kindly asked me if I would be open to talking to them about these two issues. And I did. And I could tell their ears were hearing me. I think there’s hope that we’ll agree on more things.
Maybe instead of asking “Are Mormons really Christians?” we should ask: “What kind of Christians are we being when we spend our energy excluding others instead of living out Christ’s radical love?”
Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). He didn’t say, “Everyone will know you’re my disciples if you have perfect theology.” He didn’t say, “Prove your faith by drawing the boundaries tightly.”
He said: Love one another.
The tent of God’s love is bigger than we imagine. Let’s stop trying to make it smaller.”

This is so comprehensive and well-written that it defies theological dispute.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

A prayer of peace for these troubled times.

Posted on by The Old Wolf

I found this beautiful and comforting. “Elohai neshamah shenatata bi tehorah hi” is the beginning of a traditional prayer recited upon awakening – it translates roughly as “God, the soul You have given me is pure.”

For some background, the full Hebrew prayer is below, found here:

Elohai n’shamah shenatata bi t’horah hi.My God, the soul You have given me is pure.
Atah v’rataH,For You created it,
atah y’tzartaH,You formed it,
atah n’fachtaH bi,You made it live within me [breathed it into me].
v’atah m’shamraH b’kirbi,And you watch over / preserve it within me,
v’atah atid lit’laH mimeni ul’hachaziraH bi leatid lavo.and/but one day, You will take it from me and restore it in the time to come.
Kol z’man shah-n’shamah b’kirbiAs long as the soul is within me,
modeh/modah ani l’fanecha¹I will give thanks to Your face/presence
Adonai elohai veilohei avotai,My Lord God of Gods of the generations before me,
she’atah hu ribbon kol ha-ma’asim,to You who are the power of good deeds,
mosheil b’chol ha-b’riot,the Ruler of all creatures,
adon kol ha-n’shamot.the Master Craftsman of every soul.
Baruch atah Adonai, ha-machazir n’shamot ha-meitim.Blessed are You God, giving souls to the dead.

It is interesting to me that this prayer by Rabbi Keller reflects a core plot point in The Chosen, the seminal novel by Chaim Potok. In it, one of the protagonists is raised by his father, a rabbi, in silence (i.e. without non-essential communication or fatherly affection). The father later goes on to explain:

“Ah, what a price to pay…. The years when he was a child and I loved him and talked with him and held him under my tallis when I prayed…. ‘Why do you cry, Father?’ he asked me once under the tallis. ‘Because people are suffering,’ I told him. He could not understand. Ah, what it is to be a mind without a soul, what ugliness it is…. Those were the years he learned to trust me and love me…. And when he was older, the years I drew myself away from him. ‘Why have you stopped answering my questions, Father?’ he asked me once. ‘You are old enough to look into your own soul for the answers,’ I told him. He laughed once and said, “That man is such an ignoramus, Father.’ I was angry. ‘Look into his soul,’ I said. ‘Stand inside his soul and see the world through his eyes. You will know the pain he feels because of his ignorance, and you will not laugh.’ He was bewildered and hurt. The nightmares he began to have…. But he learned to find answers for himself. He suffered and learned to listen to the suffering of others. In the silence between us, he began to hear the world crying.“

This novel, and this passage in particular, always touched me deeply. I was moved to hear the sentiment expressed in a modern prayer for peace, but also for compassion and compassionate action.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Footnotes:

¹ This line reflects the prayer Modeh/Moda ani, which is recited upon awakening and before getting out of bed. “As this prayer does not include any of the names of God, observant Jews may recite it before washing their hands.” In Talmudic times, Jews traditionally recited Elohai Neshamah upon waking. The prayer was later moved to the morning synagogue services. (Wikipedia)

Roe is dead… and many women and girls will be as well.

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Today the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, struck down Roe v. Wade, which newly-confirmed justices Brett Kavanaugh (the alleged rapist) and Amy Coney Barrett (the evangelical activist) had sworn to the Senate was “established law.”

Immediately, a number of states moved to implement “trigger laws” – most recently Missouri – State Attorney General Eric Schmitt acted to put his state’s trigger law into effect within minutes of the court ruling, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. [Newser]

It is expected that over half the states will now move to ban abortions, with varying degrees of draconian severity.

The evangelical right will be celebrating tonight, and there will be many posts and tweets about “liberal tears” filling the ether in days to come. But I personally can guarantee you the following things, just for starters:

  • If one of their own – an individual, a spouse, or a child – is raped or otherwise violated, or if a pregnancy strikes them as inconvenient, they will find a way to get that abortion, either by going to a progressive state or by going to what will pass for a “back-alley abortionist.”
  • Women and girls will die, and many will suffer irreparable health issues.
  • There will be a surge in poverty rates and homelessness associated with this decision
  • With the stroke of a pen, the court has not prevented abortions – they have only prevented safe abortions.
  • The ripple effect will be horrific.

This is the Republicans’ long game come to fruition, a game they have been playing for the last 60 years at least. It demonstrates why evangelical voters didn’t care how terrible a person Trump is; they knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that if they could get him into the White House that the Supreme Court would be theirs for generations, and would strike down every law they considered unholy.

Like Roe. And, as Clarence Thomas wrote:

“In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold [contraceptives], Lawrence [gay rights], and Obergfell [same-sex marriage].”

Where this will go, I cannot say. I know only that I will not live to see the end of it, since the echoes of this court will propagate down generations. But I take comfort in the sane and sensible words of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:

This is the kind of person we need leading our country and making our laws, and not the clown-circus dumpster fire minority-led junta we currently have.

I am a boomer, but this is not what I voted for or worked for. I apologize to my posterity for the world that they are now inheriting. For as long as I have breath, I will fight the trend of authoritarian oppression that so many in the Republican Party seem to want imposed upon our entire nation, and I hope that they will do so as well instead of succumbing to despair and apathy.

For the love of anything you hold dear, vote in November and in every local and national election from now until the end of time. Vote for people who will work to build a world that works, in the words of R. Buckminster Fuller, “for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.” Vote to repudiate Trump and Trumpism in all its aspects, vote as if your life and the lives of your loved ones depend on it… because now, more than ever, they do.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Note: Comments are disbled for this post, for obvious reasons. If you have dissenting opinions, post them on your own pages, not here.

Note 2: If you come to the conclusion by reading this that I think abortion is a great thing, I regret I must disappoint you. Read this.

The Burning of Vladimir Putin

Posted on by The Old Wolf

In a Church in Ukraine¹, Vladimir Putin has been burning in Hell since 2017.

Note: Christian stuff here. If you’re a humanist, feel free to move along except for perhaps the cultural interest.

The painting, by graduates of an Academy of Fine Arts, was unveiled on Easter even in 2017. Backstory was provided by two Polish websites, fakt.pl and kresy24.pl.

According to the reports, the work shows Putin burning in hell with the Soviet coat of arms and other symbols of evil, according to the Ukrinform news agency.

“The idea was to leave the historical memory of something that happened in our history for future generations. And this fresco of the Last Judgment is probably so unique, because of the depicted figure who did a lot of evil to Ukraine,” said a pastor of the church. ²

Another website reported:

“The painting is right at the entrance to the temple. It represents doomsday. The flames of hell consume, among other things, the symbols of criminal regimes – the hammer and sickle and the swastika. The most striking, however, is the screaming man in a suit. The faithful have no doubts – this is Vladimir Putin on fire. However, a priest at the church has a different opinion: the character symbolizes an official who robbed the country.”²

I’m intrigued by some of the details of the painting.

  • The devil poking the symbols of Nazism and the Soviet Union with a pitchfork
  • the concept that not all clergy are evil, since one is being led to the light
  • the (purportedly) Russian soldier being bitten on the neck by a demon
  • an innocent child being protected by an angel and carried to Heaven
  • soldiers and churchmen and royalty along with regular people consigned to the flames.

I’d be curious to know if any of the other figures represent real persons in the minds of the artists, and what the writing above the mural and on the scroll says.

Spiritual leaders whom I respect have counseled us not to consign anyone to Hell even in our imaginations as all judgment belongs to God, but it is easy to understand these kinds of sentiments being expressed by people who have been oppressed by brutal regimes.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Footnotes

¹ The exact location and the identification of the Church are known, as well as certain other names and details, but I’m not including them in case the Russian army happens to read this and decides to reduce the church to rubble and ashes out of spite. If Ukraine is successful in resisting the unholy invasion by Vladimir Putin, I will return and update the post (if I’m still alive).

² Automatically translated from the Polish.

Don’t vote for Trump just because you think he’s “pro-life.” He’s not.

Posted on by The Old Wolf

I have recently seen claims that Democrats support “abortion on demand up to the point of birth – and beyond – in some states.” This is a complete falsehood; not just a dogwhistle but a foghorn. Democrats do not believe in infanticide. Doctors do not believe in infanticide. People like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are simply lying when they claim otherwise.

Joseph Biden believes that Roe v Wade is the law of the land and supports it, feeling – just as Hillary Clinton does – that “abortion should remain legal, but it needs to be safe and rare,” but he has never said that he supports elective, late-term abortions unless a pregnancy has gone catastrophically wrong. This is another gross Republican misrepresentation.

It is important to understand that Donald Trump is not pro-life. He simply echoes the views of his evangelical supporters, the part of his base that he can most easily manipulate because of this single issue. And they themselves are not pro-life, they are only pro-birth, without any regard for surrounding circumstances.

If the GOP were pro-life, they would be providing increased government support to Planned Parenthood, which prevents far more abortions on an annual basis by providing family planning services than they ever facilitate.

“Roughly half of the more than six million pregnancies in the United States each year are unintended. And many of them are to young mothers: according to the Guttmacher Institute, the rate of unintended pregnancies among sexually active teens is double that of all women. Despite opponent’s claims, the vast majority of Planned Parenthood’s work is devoted to the organization’s more central goal—helping people avoid unwanted pregnancy altogether.”

(Michael Specter, the New Yorker)

If the GOP were pro-life, they would all be wearing masks and supporting a national, comprehensive plan to fight the pandemic instead of being “maskdebaters,” waving Confederate flags and screaming about “muh freedom!”

If the GOP were pro-life they would be marching in the streets protesting the horrible conditions immigrant families are subjected to, in cages, their children cruelly torn from them (and Stephen Miller has said out loud that cruelty was the point).

If the GOP were pro-life they would be immediately voting for Medicare for All instead of trying to take healthcare away from millions of Americans and dismantle the ACA – a plan they hate only because it was put in place by a “black, socialist president”, the thought of which still galls them – and maintain a status quo that favors profit and “maximizing shareholder value” over health and well-being.

If the GOP were pro-life they would be enacting reasonable gun-sensibility laws like banning the insane high-power, high-capacity rifles and other weapons that no one needs to hunt deer, supporting universal background checks for every gun sale public or private, and treating guns and gun owners with exactly the same kinds of regulations required to own and operate a car (which, it may be noted, almost everyone does regularly and abundantly, mostly without complaining about the “draconian government control” of education, licensing, inspection, insurance, registration and taxation that are part of that privilege.)

If the GOP were pro-life, they would immediately get us back into the Paris accords and work as a global leader with the rest of the world to control anthropogenic climate change. The National Bureau of Economic Research predicts that if climate change is left unchanged, higher temperatures could lead to 85 deaths per 100,000 people globally per year by 2100. Calculating from today, that comes to a half-billion lives lost. That’s not pro-life in anyone’s book.

No, the GOP and by extension Donald Trump – who has no other values than his bank account and his galactic ego – are not “pro-life.” They only use this term to court the evangelical right and make sure that their political opponents are demonized for being “baby killers.”

You may believe – as I do, parenthetically – that all life belongs to God and should be treated sacredly. I don’t fault you for this belief. But a huge percentage of our nation doesn’t share your values, and decisions of government should never be based on religion, as enshrined in the First Amendment.

A real pro-life stance is far more complicated than that.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Can you think of anything stupider to fight about?

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Cross-posted from LiveJournal

Arguing about the nature of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. If you’ve been touched by his noodly appendage, this is not supposed to happen.

An experience interacting with a rather un-Christian biblical apologist some time ago left me somewhat unsettled, and I wasn’t able to think about much else for a couple of days. The thing that unsettled me the most was that despite my best intentions, I felt myself being dragged into the fray.

Additional research on the internet has led me to a plethora of websites of every possible permutation.

  • Atheists vs. Apologists
  • Evangelicals vs. non-orthodox Christians
  • Muslims vs. Jews
  • Muslims vs. Christians
  • Jews vs. Gentiles
  • Secular humanists vs. Believers
  • Mormons vs. Atheists
  • Evangelicals vs. Mormons
  • Bible-believing Christians vs. Jehovah’s Witnesses
  • Scientologists vs. Everybody
  • 7th-Day-Adventists vs. …

You get the picture. Choose one from column A, and one from Column B, and you’ll be able to find it out there.

Incredible amounts of time, effort, indignation, anger and outright hatred are being spent in attempts to prove, by logic, or reason, or scripture, or exegesis, or tradition, that which is virtually unprovable – hence the cartoon above, which I created more for my own benefit than anyone else’s. And it all comes down to the most basic of human addictions, the addiction to being right.

Of course, none of this is new. It’s only that the internet era gives us fingertip access to the full spectrum of human maladjustment and brings it into clearer focus. People have been killing each other for their differences, religious and otherwise, since the dawn of time [be careful, that link is a bit grim]- and since the same epoch, there have been those who have risen up against the madness.

I remember back in the late 60’s and early 70’s when Vietnam was in full swing, a popular bumper sticker read, “What if they gave a war and nobody came?”, and that led me to an odd thought. My own faith holds out that before Christ comes again, the earth has to be made ready for his coming. Part of this involves preaching the Gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, which is why almost everywhere you go, you see our young missionaries out spreading the word.

That’s well and good, but what’s the ultimate point of that Gospel? Imagine with me for a moment that the earth was divided into only two nations, Exegetia and Harmonia.

The Republic of Exegetia consisted of three billion people. 99% of those belonged to a single faith – the “correct” one, whatever that happened to look like. Other than that, things were pretty much the same way they are now.

In Harmonia, there were also three billion people, of all different persuasions, religious and secular – and it was not uncommon to find a mosque and a synagogue built next to each other, right across the street from a Hindu temple, an Anglican chapel, and a chapter of the Harmonian Humanist Society.
While not everyone was rich, there were no poor, because everyone believed in a society where everyone wins.
People didn’t covet one another’s goods.
People didn’t lie, or steal, or rob, or murder, or slander or persecute one another.
People lived simply, so that everyone could simply live.
People respected their environment, and did all they could to be good stewards of the only planet they had to live on.
People were kind, and loving, and charitable.
Lawyers and judges were out of work, because nobody wanted to sue anyone else.

If you were God, which nation would you want to walk with? “Wait, wait, God loves everyone, he’s not a respecter of persons!” Well, you’re right but you get my point, which is:

“In the end analysis, God cares less about which Church you belong to, or don’t, than how you’re treating your fellow man.”

This, then, is the Ecumenism that I support. It has nothing to do with the various faiths trying to become like one another. It has nothing to do with everyone joining the “First Church of Blah Unsalted Farina”. It has to do with each one of us, regardless of our walk in life, reaching out to every member of humanity and doing our best to create an entire planet where everyone wins, and helping every other member of our species to make it across the finish line.

Utopia won’t come cheap. Given human nature, there will always be poor folk, there will always be those who don’t obey the rules, there will always be illness, natural disasters and everything else that makes our world a challenge to live in. But what if we were to make it even halfway to that glorious goal? Wouldn’t that be better than maintaining the status quo?

The more time goes on, the more I become committed to bringing people to Christ (which is my particular walk) by raising the human condition, rather than worrying about what they wear, which scriptures they read or which direction they face to pray – or if they even pray at all. I may be the only book of scripture that some people ever read.

Just saying that could get me heaved out of my own faith by certain people.

I’ll take my chances.

The Old Wolf has spoken.