Bad Poetry for December 2019

Some poems about God and life, the Bible and aliens, semi-sentient Algorithms, and Santa Claus knocking someone out.

Consumerism, Yoga, and Meditation

Over the last two decades there have been a vast number of studies which document the effectiveness of mindfulness and meditation on everything from emotional health to recovery from illness. This has been coupled with the rise of "The Mindfulness Industrial Complex" which packages Eastern spiritual practices for Western Corporate consumption. In the last couple of years, I have noted some really good thought pieces and video essays which analyze and critique these trends. I wanted to catalogue these critiques of Westernized forms of Eastern Spiritual practice, ranging from yoga to mindfulness to meditation, offer some of my own commentary on how Consumerism had adapted Eastern practices to its own ends, and suggest where we might go from here.

While I see immense value in Eastern spiritual practices and have incorporated several into my journey with Christ, my problem with Consumerized versions of Eastern Spirituality is threefold:

Consistent Life Ethics and the Conundrum of Abortion

Recently, someone asked me what the Christian view on abortion is, since they find themselves uncomfortable with both extreme "pro-choice" and dogmatic "pro-life" views which are always at war in our culture. I realized I have never written anything specifically on abortion, so here I would like to set out the ethics of abortion in 3000 words or less. Much more can and should be said, but I think this is a kind of limit for quick reading (or a medium length sermon). So please excuse the points I make which could be elaborated on or debated.

On Chins and Spandrels, God and Gaps

The other day I had a conversation with a student and a biology teacher about whether human chins have a purpose. Yes, chins. As in the outcropping of bone beneath your lower lip. That kind of chin. 

Apparently, humans are the only animals to have a chin, according to this article which was sent to me by the teacher. In this article, it compares the evolution of chins to Spandrels in classical architecture. And since I totally tend to geek out on stuff that interests me, this sent me down a couple-hour-long rabbit hole reading where the idea of Spandrels came from and how they are applied to evolutionary biology, as well as some of the pushback against Spandrels as an analogy to evolution. 

Dark Fate and the bright future of Terminator

I come from a generational fandom of the Terminator movies. My dad loved 1984's Terminator, and took me to see it in the movie theater about a dozen times, where I fell in love with it too. My 11 year old son now loves the Terminator franchise. We have seen all the movies, and regularly tell each other "I'll be back" and "come with me if you want to live". Like the Star Wars franchise, Terminator has had its ups and downs. There are classic episodes, such as 1984’s T1 and 1991’s T2, along with the Terminator equivalent of Jar Jar Binks, such as T3, Salvation, and Genisys. 

I say all of that to say this:

On Dividing and Conquering

A fundamental means of controlling any population is “divide and conquer”. Identify those who are oppressed, abused, and excluded, and then get them to hate one another instead of joining together to overcome those who are oppressing, abusing, and excluding them. Teach them to exclude and diminish other powerless people on the basis of race, culture, religion, origin, citizenship, gender, and sexuality. Then all the powerless will be so busy pointing fingers at each other, they will forget all about those who control the levers of power and shape the system that keeps them in bondage. Give them a scapegoat to hate and they will forget all about those who supplied the scapegoat in the first place. “Us versus them” is the first and foremost way that the powerful keep the powerless under control. Because if the powerless realized their shared cause and common struggle together, no force on Earth could stop them from joining in solidarity to create a more just and compassionate society. United we stand, divided we fall.

To control people, control their stories

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Romans 12.2)

To control a population, control their imagination of what is possible. Because people will not even attempt what they think is impossible.

To control their imagination, control the stories they hear and the stories they tell. Because stories paint pictures of identity and possibility which go beyond our everyday experience into what could be. So only allow stories to be told which frame what is possible in a way that is most beneficial to those who want to maintain power.

The Harrowing of Hell

A Lovecraftian incantation of Hope to banish dark enchantments. A poem for my son who enjoys reading Lovecraft and Poe and creating stories about things that go bump in the night.

When Forgiveness is Inconvenient

What captures my attention most often is what is wrong with the world: The craven and the cruel, the unjust and the outrageous, the hypocritical and the corrupt. But there is a still small voice echoing across history with a different message. And every now and then you can hear it speak clearly. This time through a bereaved brother who has chosen to follow Jesus...

The Abolition of Man after a decade (or more)

Tonight I re-read CS Lewis’ “Abolition of Man” for the first time in over a decade. I now realize that, just as “Mere Christianity” has implicitly shaped my fundamental assumptions in theology and epistemology, so also “Abolition” has shaped my fundamental assumptions in ethics and education. For instance:

Live Wire

All of them were taken into ecstasy and they glorified God. Indeed they were awestruck and kept saying “we have seen strange signs today!” (Luke 5.26, my translation)

Nobody told me there'd be days like these. Strange days indeed! Most peculiar, Mama. Whoa! (John Lennon)

We often treat spirituality like a banking transaction: Rational, calculated, with a clear cost-benefit analysis, and no hidden variables. But perhaps spirituality is more like the electric current that gives power to our passion, which we try to contain within neatly organized power cables labeled “religion” and “morality” and “ritual” and “devotion” and “belief”. 

But every now and then, when we reach deep inside ourselves, we grab ahold of a cable that has not been insulated with respectability and predictability and social acceptability. It is then that we get a great shock, and we feel the power of the Divine surge through our whole being, lighting us up from the inside: A surge of passion that pushes us beyond our ability to comprehend our life, and pretend that everything is “normal”. 

We are awestruck with the unpredictable wonder and messy beauty of the world just long enough get outside of our own heads for a moment. And that moment of transcendence, that millisecond of grasping the breadth and depth of infinite Love, is powerful enough to fuel our passion for years to come. May we all rip open the fuse box of our soul every now and then and embrace the Divine power within us.

If there ever was someone inclined toward seeing spirituality in purely rational, calculated terms, it would be the co-founder of calculus and probability theory, Blaise Pascal. Pascal was not only a famous mathematician, but also a famous defender of the Christian faith, who wrote at length about the most rational way to defend and uphold the Christian faith. And yet, his most powerful spiritual insights came when he reached deep inside and grasped the Live Wire of God's presence within him. The experience was so powerful that he wrote it down in poetry, and had it sewn into his jacket by his heart. His Live Wire experience reads thus:

The year of grace 1654, Monday, 23 November... From about half past ten at night until about half past midnight.

FIRE.

GOD of Abraham, GOD of Isaac, GOD of Jacob
not of the philosophers and of the learned.
Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace.
GOD of Jesus Christ.
My God and your God.
Your GOD will be my God.
Forgetfulness of the world and of everything, except GOD.
He is only found by the ways taught in the Gospel.
Grandeur of the human soul.
Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you.
Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.
I have departed from him:
They have forsaken me, the fount of living water.
My God, will you leave me?
Let me not be separated from him forever.
This is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God, and the one that you sent, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
I left him; I fled him, renounced, crucified.
Let me never be separated from him.
He is only kept securely by the ways taught in the Gospel:
Renunciation, total and sweet.
Complete submission to Jesus Christ and to my director.
Eternally in joy for a day’s exercise on the earth.

May I not forget your words. Amen.

On the Nature of Sainthood

What makes someone a “saint” as opposed to someone who is just popular and persuasive and affable? What makes someone genuinely deep rather than merely fashionable? What makes a person inwardly spiritual rather than outwardly religious?

A Provocation on the Golden Rule

How a person treats their opponents is how they will treat their friends. 

How a nation treats its enemies is how it will treat its citizens. 

People will do to us as we have done to others. 

Therefore, it is not only in the interest of Divine Love, but also in the interest of self preservation, to do to others as we would want them to do to us.