Objective Uncertainty

My new blog, "Objective Uncertainty," is up and running. I've only got one post up as of now, but I've got a few in the works that should be up over the course of the week. Hope you get a chance to make it over there. Click the link below to check it out:

Objective Uncertainty

This is the End(ish)

Hello readers (or what's left of you).

I haven't been here in awhile and it may be awhile before I come back.

But fear not, I have continued writing and will continue to write though at another website. The Postmodern Beat will not cease to exist and I don't rule out the idea of ever returning here. However, it seems that a new site with a much more focused theme is in order. So, I've decided to move over to wordpress (I know) and have a site dedicated to theological exploration, etc. So far I have decided to call it, "A Leap Into the Abyss," which is sort of a reference to both Kierkegaard and Barth. I'm not sold on the name but it's the best I have come up with so far. Don't be surprised if it changes.

I won't put the new address up just quite yet because I'm still tweaking a few things over there but I suppose if you searched around long enough you could find it (though there isn't much there to see yet). I'll link to the new address once everything is in order.

I've been writing on The Postmodern Beat since October of 2006 (5 years!). I'm a bit sad to see it go, but I'm excited about some of the possibilities with this new site. It's been fun. I hope you continue reading after I officially make the switch. I'm sure you all care.

thanks for reading,
isaac

Somebody Bigger Than You and I

Reflection on Genesis 22

This was an outline for a mini sermon I gave at The Mercy House teaching pool today on Genesis 22 (I did not edit this--expect grammatical errors, etc)

As Christians, we often rush to assume our own faith in God, as if it is a possession bought and sold at churches around the world. We are taught to simply “believe in our hearts” and arrive at faith. Faith becomes a starting point for which we base all our ministries and institutions and relationships. These things are not necessarily bad, but I believe the story of Abraham challenges to things in a different way.

Many chapters ago we began to read about the absurd notion of an old couple having a young child. Not only will they receive a child, but the larger covenant it represents and will represent for all of time.

While it seems to take him awhile, we can see Abraham begin to mentally and emotionally accept that maybe God is telling the truth, that maybe he will actually father a great nation. He has traveled to foreign lands and maintained his safety and his wife’s safety. He plead on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of Lot.

Yet equally as much as he’s followed he has made attempts to circumvent certain situations by taking matters into his own hands. He slept with Hagar and In the previous chapter he attempted to care for them though sending them away ultimately to be protected by God.

After a lifetime of believing in the absurd notion that God will provide Isaac, he is born, and once again, Abraham is put to the test when God calls him to sacrifice the very promise that has taken nearly a lifetime to arrive.

The text is considerably reticent in terms of Abraham’s thoughts, feelings, and motives. In the first verse God calls and Abraham simply says, “Here I am.” After the command we are given no response on the part of Abraham. He does not plead for Isaac as he did Sodom and Gomorrah, but instead silently begins to prepare for the long journey ahead of him. Throughout the three-day journey, Abraham is strangely silent. The reader is left to imagine what must be going through his mind.

To add to the sense of ambiguity, in v.5 Abraham tells the servants that he and Isaac will go worship together and that the both of them will return. This can be read as a type of “white lie” from Abraham, as he does not want to reveal to the servants, or to Isaac, what they are going to do. However, it could also mean that Abraham does not believe that he will have to go through with the sacrifice, that he is convinced God will step in at the last moment. Lastly, it could be read that Abraham thinks he will indeed go through with the sacrifice but that he will somehow get Isaac back.

This same dilemma is found in v. 8 the reader does not know if he believes Isaac will be sacrificed but cannot face it, so analogizes “the lamb” as Isaac. He could also think that God will not make him follow through. Again, lastly, he may believe that he will have to sacrifice Isaac, but will receive him back, and a lamb will be provided.



In v. 11 we find out that God steps in at the last moment, and again it is repeated, “Abraham!” and his reply “Here I am.” These are the last recorded words that Abraham says to God.” This “Here I am” caps off the segment, and seems to show that throughout the entire ordeal, Abraham never wavered in his faith—both in his willingness to kill Isaac and in his belief that if he killed Isaac, he would somehow receive him back.”

It takes Abraham a lifetime to arrive at here. Yet we read the story of Abraham and think we can leave off where he ends. We often think that because we can intellectually ascend to certain doctrines or statements of belief that we have somehow experienced what it would be like to raise a knife to the throat of our own child. I’m rarely willing to give up the dusty clothes hiding in the back of my closet, yet I claim faith in God. This is nothing short of hypocrisy on my part.

Faith is so difficult because it is not simply a matter of the mind or the heart. One does not acquire faith by reading about it or by coming to some place where it “makes sense” to believe in God. One does not acquire faith based on the amount of tears they’ve shed at their own guilt nor by really really, really, no really, really, I mean really just knowing that God exists. These things are okay, but faith they are not.

At the Exodus House, we were once asked why it is we do what we do, i.e. what did we hoped to accomplish with the house. Were we trying to change the world, our community? Were we solving something? The reality is we’re fighting a losing battle. We’re not going to change the world. The Mercy House is not going to change the world. In fact, we’re most likely not going to solve the problems of the West Side, and we’re surely not going to solve the problems of the East Side, which are probably more damaging. I have no grand vision of an end to all things. Unemployment is on the rise. The drug cycle continues to devastate person after person, both the dealers and the users. The DOC continues to harden an already vulnerable and marginalized population. Our education system is falling apart, physically and figuratively, while consumerism continues to plague us—each class wishing to live one class ahead while turning up there noses at those below them.

Each individual concedes to the greater mass surrounding them. Judges and lawyers must play the part, every day putting aside personal beliefs for the sake of a system. The same goes for police officers, teachers, CEOs, students, pastors and program directors at transition homes called The Exodus House. We all fall prey to the sin of denying that we, as individuals, must stand before God and make a choice to have faith, despite the absurdity of that faith. There is no reason to have faith living in a world like ours where God more often that not seems far away if not a complete fabrication. One cannot look around and know that there is a God with any type of conscience—not considering the wars, poverty, hatred and greed surrounding us every day.

But it is with this in mind that we may occasionally have faith that God is there. It is only with this in mind that we may muster the strength to say, “Here I am, Lord,” when God calls our name. We must be willing to give up everything—physically and intellectually—as Abraham was willing to give up Isaac and with him God’s covenant, if we ever hope to come to a faith such as Abraham’s.

To go one step further, we must not only be willing to give up everything but we must actually do it. Abraham is not called the Father of Faith because he was simply willing to kill Isaac. God did not stop him when he saddled the donkey or chopped the wood. Surely God could have seen this as a sign that Abraham was willing. God did not stop him on the third day when the arrived at the mountain and began the walk to that dreadful place where Isaac was to die. God did not stop him as he built the altar and bound Isaac. God stopped Abraham only after he stretched out his arm, knife in hand, ready to strike and kill his son. Abraham can only be considered the Father of Faith if, had not God stopped him, he actually would have brought down the deadly blow; he had to risk looking like a madman and a hateful father.

We do not remember Abraham just for his willingness. We do not remember Jesus because he was willing to die on a cross. We remember them because they acted on an absurd notion of faith. We remember Abraham because he could hold the paradox in tact at every moment—that he would kill Isaac and that Isaac would not die. We remember Jesus because he could hold a similar paradox—that he would die and in death he would live.

It is faith that propelled Abraham yet it is faith where he arrived.

isaac

A Second Reflection on the Murder of Osama bin Laden

My last post was not very well thought out, nor was it very mature. I leave it there so as to keep myself from denying that I thought those things. I am by no means well-educated when it comes to politics or current affairs, but these are just some of my observations with the help of Robert Fisk (articles are linked). Most of my other sources are from wikipedia, I know I know....

Upon further reading and reflection, I’m now more inclined to believe that Osama bin Laden was actually killed the night of May 1st, 2011. While I wouldn’t put it past certain people in Washington to develop such an elaborate scheme, I’m finding it harder to believe that even they could have pulled off something to this magnitude. However, I’m not fully convinced of this.

That in mind, there is still much to be said.

To begin, bin Laden’s relationship to the U.S. seems to be of alarming suspicion. According to Robert Fisk over at The Independent, Osama seemed to have had at least a minimal connection with the CIA during the Soviet/Afghanistan War. (Read the entire article by clicking here)

Of course both the CIA and bin Laden himself denied the connection, stating that while the U.S. did fund the Afghans against the Russians, none of these funds, weapons, or training ever got into the hands of Osama nor any of the other so-called “Afghan Arabs.” Even if the resources provided by the CIA did not literally reach bin Laden’s hands, its easy to see much of his activity since then as blowback from America’s involvement at all. This controversy, like all others surrounding the relationship between the Middle East and America, still shines a light on the fact that the United States government has gotten itself into a place where it garners little to no trust from its citizens, let alone those who live outside of the country.

Assuming bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy Seals in his compound on May 1st and then “buried at sea” within 24 hours, many questions remain. It seems to be rather well-documented at this point that what Obama originally deemed a “firefight” was not true. From what I have gathered, Osama was unarmed and did not resist capture to the extent that he needed to be killed. Why not arrest him and put him on trial according to law? While even this would have been a poor example of “justice” as I see it, it would have at least been “fair” in terms of what is generally regarded as proper treatment of an enemy of the state. Not only did the U.S. soldiers kill an unarmed Osama bin Laden, they killed the woman he was supposedly using as a human shield. All of this seems absolutely unacceptable. Not only did they not capture him, but he was “buried at sea,” supposedly according to Islamic regulations, though this too is false, as one is only allowed to be buried at sea if they died at sea. I don’t so much care how he was buried, but why lie and tell the public that they followed all of the religious rites when they clearly did not?

Even looking at this from the standpoint of the American government, I do not understand why they chose to go about the whole Middle Eastern conflict in this way. According to Saif al-Adel's 2005 document "Al Quaeda's Strategy to the Year 2020", the five strategies of al-Qaeda are to:

1. Provoke the United States into invading a Muslim country.
2. Incite local resistance to occupying forces.
3. Expand the conflict to neighboring countries, and engage the U.S. in a long war of attrition.
4. Convert Al-Qaeda into an ideology and set of operating principles that can be loosely franchised in other countries without requiring direct command and control, and via these franchises incite attacks against countries allied with the U.S. until they withdraw from the conflict, as happened with the 2004 Madrid train bombings, but which did not have the same effect with the 7 July 2005 London bombings.
5. The U.S. economy will finally collapse under the strain of too many engagements in too many places, similarly to the Soviet war in Afghanistan, Arab regimes supported by the U.S. will collapse, and a Wahhabi Caliphate will be installed across the region. (taken from Wikipedia)

From what I can see, the United States has played right into every move on the list and seems to be tirelessly working its way toward number five.

What Fisk and others have pointed out, is that al-Qaeda and bin Laden should not have been of much concern to the U.S. Government in terms of an actual threat. As we have seen in Egypt, Tunisia, and soon Libya and Syria, corrupt dictators are overthrown by peaceable groups of people, not violent attacks from terrorists (bin Laden) or terrorist states (the U.S. and Israel). Fisk, who actually had multiple interactions with bin Laden, called him as “has been.” He believed that Osama knew his end was near and that his dreams of a militant Islamic nation were awaked by the reality of his failures. Both Osama, et al and Obama et al need to learn from history…that violence begets violence, etc.

Fisk also rightly points out that this whole ordeal has made the U.S. look even more hypocritical than it has in the past. For a country that preaches peace, our government bombs and kills a lot of people, both “enemies” and civilians. Fisk writes “The real problem (…) is that the West, which has constantly preached to the Arab world that legality and non-violence was the way forward in the Middle East, has taught a different lesson to the people of the region: that executing your opponents is perfectly acceptable.” (Read full article by clicking here) Not only do we preach peace, but Obama recently received the Nobel Peace Prize, and just about everyone in Washington at least claims Christianity, a religion founded on the teachings and life of a man of supreme self-sacrificial love, who himself was unjustly killed by a violent state government, Rome.

Since 9/11, somewhere between 62,570 to 1,124,000 Iraqis have died (civilian and combat), 10,960 and 49,600 Afghanis have died, 6,500 Somalian citizens have been killed, and it’s all cost over a trillion dollars (stats for wikipedia). This is many more than the 3,000 that died from the 9/11 attacks. Many of these deaths have been civilians, and the United States justifies killing these civilians in the same way al-Qaeda does, that it’s about a higher righteousness, a higher justice, and some lives are going to inevitably be lost in the pursuit of their ideals. Much like al-Qaeda, the United States attacks large areas killing enemies and civilians so as to incite terror in the minds of its opponents, demonstrating their willingness to sew massive destruction at the cost of innocent lives.

That’s the funny thing about Obama. A lot of people believed he’d be something different (I was not one of these people). He rallied everyone around an abstract and detached slogan of “Hope.” It turned out to be empty and the only thing he’s shown is that he, like our past presidents, will use his power to hunt down and kill a “has-been” symbol of terror using the very tactics he criticizes. My fear is that all of these minds being swayed by the death of Osama bin Laden are going to justify the deaths of all of these innocent people, justify the torturing at Gitmo and elsewhere to receive information, and justify the secrecy and propaganda it takes to carry out such horrendous acts. The truth is that Obama has done very little to distance himself from our last president, George W. Bush. Obama has increased troops in Afghanistan, left many of our troops in Iraq, bombed Lybia, unjustly ordered the murder of Osama bin Laden without trial, failed to shut down Gitmo, and continued the support of the fellow terrorist state of Israel. I do not say this because I do not like Barack Obama as he relates to other political candidates. I’m only pointing out the fact that any trust placed in the hands of a president of the United States of America is futile if not damaging.

I forget who said it, but there’s a quote that’s something along the lines of, “If voting made a difference it would be illegal.” And that’s true. The reality is, you do more good talking to that neighbor you’ve never talked to than you do standing in the voting booth. You do more good picking up trash along your street than you do signing a petition. You do more good physically handing your jacket to someone who’s cold than you do making a donation. The problem for most people is that none of these things immediately draw attention to you, nor do they allow you to sit comfortably and argue about things with your friends. These things don’t allow you to give responsibility to someone else for your actions nor to take credit for the actions of the one you voted for or campaigned for on your twitter or facebook page. They take endless amounts of dedication every day and an ability to affirm yourself when no one else is looking.

isaac

"I take no pleasure in the death of a wicked man" : a reflection on the murder of Osama bin Laden

Today, while millions take pleasure in the death of a man they never knew, knowing only what he symbolized in their simple minds, the family members of those who have died as a result of Bush and Obama’s terrorism still live minus a father, a mother, a sister, a sister, a daughter, a son. No death has ever redeemed the sins of another, neither will this unnecessary loss of life.

The proof points in neither direction. If I were to take a stab at this situation what comes to mind is a scenario much different than the one the came seeping out of our president’s mouth last night. Bin Laden’s death has been rumored since 2002, and I would be very surprised, neigh, shocked, if his life was taken just last night. The politico’s sitting high up in the American Government have been holding on to this card for some time, if you’re’t’ask me. Obama has secured another term, where he will continue to go on masking the hate and fear he and every other president of this so-called nation have perpetuated throughout our world. The blood will continue to drip from his hands, as it drips from that hands of those who have pulled triggers or pushed bombs launching missiles to reap death and destruction on women children and men around the world, as it drips from the hands of all who put Obama into office, (to a lesser extent, so as not to offend those who voted for him despite warnings from me and a lot of others who have opted out of this pathetic excuse for a political process, tired of the tired rhetoric used to control the public, swaying them toward consumerism and greed as we all drift into a euphoric state of powerless ignorance and apathy) as it drips from any of our hands who have not taken steps to repair this broken world, to resist this government, to love instead of hate.

I’m not alone in my thoughts. Many others have said what I’m saying, yet those voices of hate will ring out much louder than ours as we mostly sit by feeling frustrated brooding and writing and so on.

Why can’t so many of us see it? The strings are being pulled right before our eyes. The powers that be stand in straight suits with white shiny smiles telling us—“All is well, just trust us, we’re taking care of things. See, this man who did these things is dead because we did not like him and the things he did. Neverind the fact that we previously supplied him with weapons and resources to fight our former enemies, the Russians. Nevermind the fact that our country is floundering. We’re in debt probably something like in the trillions of dollars—we’ll take care of it. We’ve spread war to Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Palestine—we’re taking care of it. Nevermind the fact that our public school system is the worst its ever been, or the fact that our prison system is absolutely unjust and corrupted, or the fact that gas prices are skyrocketing, or the fact that the cycles of drug addiction and dealing are killing our citizens in outrageous numbers, or the fact that the relatively few corporations that control our country by exploiting the marginalized are fucking our economy and the economies around the world from behind, nevermind the fact that racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, and religious prejudice are infecting our national stomach from the inside out, or the fact that we spend more on our military than any other country in history, enough to end world hunger and economic poverty across the globeJust don’t think about any of that, goddammit, because we killed this guy and everything’s gonna be alright.”

They’ve all been saying it, every president in any of our lifetimes, and they’ll continue saying it.

And Mark Driscoll, my sworn enemy, that fuck, an antichrist, false prophet, has the gall to say the following “Finished long day of gospel preaching to hear the news that bin Laden is now dead…thank you Jesus for being his JUDGE” and “The cheering crowds remind us that justice is glorious & comes ultimately through Jesus cross or hell. Justice wins.” No! Mr. Driscoll, a resounding No! You are wrong, my fucked-up friend, you were not preaching the gospel but a false gospel of hate, judgment, murder, shame, and guilt. The very fact that you praise Jesus for the death of another human being means you have misunderstood Jesus’ gospel from beginning to end. If God is ever to judge a human being, you shall be first on the list, first to be leveled, first to reap the punishment of your sin as a symbol for Satan among us. The crowds you reference, Mr. Driscoll, remind me of the crowds calling for the blood of Jesus, a crowd that you surely would have been a part of had you been there on that day. Mr. Driscoll, it is you who will ultimately be responsible for the stream of steaming shit and hatred that comes pouring out of your mouth on a daily basis.

But Driscoll, too, is just a symbol and stands not alone as Christians across the world dance in the streets, spurred to euphoria by their own bloodlust, the very bloodlust that killed Christ.

Let us not forgot those who died alongside Osama yesterday, most notably the woman who was shot and killed by a coward after being used as a human shield at the hands of another coward. Let us not forget her or her family or friends. Surely her death is just as important as the death of Osama bin Laden. No, surely her death is more important than the death of Osama bin Laden, for first of all she was a human being full of life freedom and dignity, but also because her death now serves as a symbol to the ruined logic of humanity today, that we would shoot through an innocent woman to kill our enemies, that we would not only do this but say that it was an unfortunate necessity.

These are dark times, my friends, getting darker each day.

isaac

His God. His Sin. (draft)

Sitting in class one day, a young man was asked to draw a picture of God. The idea was not to realistically conceive of an image of God, but to put down the first thing that came to mind when the one asking said the word “God.” The young man thought for a time before putting anything down. His classmates began to doodle little sketches of old men with white beards. Others drew popular images like a burning bush or a pillar of fire and smoke. Being who the young man was, he did not wish to put down images such as these, nor really any image at all, both because he could not conceive of any image he thought appropriate and because he thought the whole idea to be rather silly.

In an attempt to be clever, the young man drew a sort of stick figure, though this stick figure, because of how it was drawn, was quite obviously a woman. The young man sat back and smiled, thinking he’d cleverly won a little game inside his head, refusing to be trapped by rendering a stereotypical God.

The class continued on. His classmates held up their pictures and gave explanation for their pictures. Some of them had drawn abstract types of swirls and scribbles, often circular, with shading in some areas and other areas completely white.

The professor stood silently in front of the class. “This silly exercise proves an important point. What comes to mind when we think of God? Very often our thoughts go toward that which we understand as the ideal. Thinking of God often tells us more about our shortcomings and ourselves than it does God. We imagine that which we are not but wish we were, or perhaps what we wish we had. We are imperfect; God must be perfect. We are finite; God must be infinite. That is not to say that God is not all of these things. But I doubt very much that God is what we think of when we think of God.”

A great fear suddenly overcame the young man as he sat there adrift in thought. He looked down at his drawing—a woman. His god.

The professor went on. “It is not all that uncommon for people to talk about the idea of placing our faith in the wrong things. People worship money as a God, there’s surely no doubt about that. Yet I wonder if we don’t all, at times, worship a false God—the God we’ve created, if only subconsciously. We become so secure in our beliefs about who or what God is that we actually begin to believe in a God of our own creation, or worse, we begin to believe that we are God. If there is a cardinal sin, surely this is it.”

The young man reached for his paper and crumpled it up, quickly as if involuntary. He looked around at his classmates, most of whom had somewhat confused looks on their faces. He stuffed the paper into his bag, shaken and slightly disturbed to have been tricked into revealing his most inward wound, to come face to face with the truth of his sin.

isaac