08.27.08
Posted in Political Commentary at 09:10 am by Josh
Why is Hillary Clinton all over the news? Why is she chanting cliche Democratic catch phrases which have to be headlined and repeated to the point of severe nausea on CNN? Hillary, sweetie, you’re my state senator and until you ran for President, I kind of liked you. But you lost. Twice. Obama won’t even take you as his running mate. He passed you over for the white-haired, trust-funded, two-tongued political norm. It’s good of you to support your party, but do sit down. You’re starting to look a bit ridiculous. Learn a lesson from Al Gore. The people rejected you. If you want to win them back, go write a book.
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08.24.08
Posted in Theology, Culture, Life at 10:42 am by Josh
CNN recently posted an article about the health benefits of forgiveness. The article makes examples of a few different individuals who have been faced with difficults situations in which to forgive family members or loved ones. Every one of these individuals, when explaining how they finally came to forgiveness, cites external circumstances as either the obstacle to overcome or the justification; the reason the person could be forgiven. These things included abusive behavior (obstacle), lack of forgiveness from the perpetrator (obstacle), “that’s how things were back then” (justification), “then I realized that so-and-so had a hard life growing up and I understood what caused his or her behavior” (justification), etc. A professional then goes on to recommend confronting anger, talking it out with a friend or therapist, keeping a journal, meditation; in other words, looking for ways to understand and/or come to terms with your feelings so that you can begin to practice forgiveness.
Now what I’m going to suggest here will sound appalling to some while I’ve no doubt that others will cheer these sentiments across the home plate. Wherever you fall on the scale, please note that this is nothing more than my opinion.
Chrisitianity teaches us that none of us, not one person among us, is worthy of forgiveness. Non-Christians — indeed, even some Christians — really don’t like this idea. I can understand why. It’s not warm and fuzzy. It doesn’t intuitively resonate with us as the judgement of a loving God. That is because we do not fully understand what Love is. (There will be more on this concept at a later date; there is no time for it today.) The fact is, that if we have been created by the God of the universe, then we have also rebelled against Him and rebellion, by nature, deserves no forgiveness, no mercy.
Suppose that no one had ever taught you the first thing about morals. Do you think, then, that when a classmate in grammar school steals your sandwich or knocks you from the swing on the playground that you would not retaliate? Perhaps you’d steal something back or get into a physical altercation. You would not have forgiven the classmate and rightfully so. He has done nothing worth forgiving. He has hurt you; it is only fair that he should be hurt back.
Thankfully, this is not how we conduct ourselves, but I do not attribute that in the slightest to the goodness of mankind. If mankind were really so good, little boys would not steal lunches or knock classmates from swings in the first place. It would be counter-intuitive to our nature. I think, instead, that we have learned Forgiveness from a merciful God Who has chosen to forgive us. This choice of His is not the result of any benefit to Him at all; He does not need us, despite what we’d like to think. His Forgiveness comes from Love, pure and complete Love which, as I stated above, we do not fully understand.
So what can we understand? In terms of Forgiveness, I think that the answer is this. Overall, of course it is better to forgive than not to. It seems utter foolishness to say otherwise. However, if we are to do so – and if there is to be any real value to it besides the health benefits we may enjoy from fooling our bodies into believing we’ve truly forgiven someone – then we cannot begin to forgive by looking at the wrongs of the individual who has committed the offense. We must look, first, at ourselves. Now you are probably thinking me a bit idealistic or perhaps even ridiculous at this point. To be sure, if your car is broken, you look inside of it to find the problem and fix it accordingly. You get the parts from an outside source. Perhaps you even pay someone else to fix it for you. I will argue with none of this. What I will say, though, is that we as humans are all a part of the same machine. If you are broken, then so am I. And since I know myself much better than I know anyone else, no matter how close to parents, friends, siblings, spouse, etc., it makes the most sense to look inside of myself in order to forgive you. I will much sooner find what is wrong if I look inside the part of the machine I’ve owned for my lifetime than if I were to look into the part you’ve owned for yours. When we do this, what we ought to find two things which are simpler than you may expect. The first is that, as a broken machine, I could just as easily, at any moment of weakness, commit the same or a comparable offense as that which has called Forgiveness into question in the first place, regardless of my upbringing or society at the time. Second, and even more important, is that none of us deserve Forgiveness, but we have all been given it, if we are willing to accept it. There is the example for mankind to work from. If we have been forgiven for sins much greater than those we could commit against one another, then shouldn’t we forgive in the same way? CNN and it’s interviewees would not like me to tell you this, but you can save yourself much time, money, and apparently physical discomfort if you put unconditional Forgiveness into place.
I am sure you will tell me that this is more difficult that I make it sound. You are probably right. But squawking about the obstacles will do you no good in overcoming them. Only practice can do that.
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08.03.08
Posted in Music, Announcements at 12:55 pm by Josh
Anyone want to go see Keith Caputo (Life of Agony) at Mercury Lounge, 8/23 at 18:30? Ticket is $15, show probably won’t be long. Keith Caputo is one of the most influential artists I’ve ever listened to, both with LOA and solo. His solo work is less heavy and arguably more poetic, but his LOA stuff is equally as brilliant and probably more revolutionary, taking metal and making it so much more than angry words you can’t understand. Knowing Keith’s performance tendancies, it is highly unlikely that he will perform a lot of LOA material, but you never know 
.
First come, first serve. If I don’t have any volunteers by the 22nd, I’ll drag one of you with me.
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