Embracing the unclean...
Exorcism Of The Gerasene Demoniac
Jesus: Festive Tippler And Friend Of Whores, Publicans, Tax Collectors And Sundry Sinners
http://paxonbothhouses.
"Who Were The Tax Collectors And Shepherds In Jesus' Time"
"Who Were The Tax Collectors And Shepherds In Jesus' Time"
Spit, Mud, Miracle
What Too Many Christians Get Wrong
Thanks for your email.
I wouldn't worry too much about the privatization of medicare and social security - at least not yet. (Don't stop focusing the issue but don't worry either.)
Elsewhere...
You will at least enjoy the cartoon that leads the following post: http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2016/12/bull-in-china-shop-trump-keeps.html
A largely unexamined component of human reality is that uneducated, ignorant people engender the most children, and until this prolixity ends -- and it DOES end above a certain family-wealth-threshold -- there will be an unusually large number of idiots in every generation. (This thought has been on my mind for half a year and I intend to eleborate it.)
Blind Faith is The Hopfeful Antidote to hopelessness.
And hence a very large number of idiots take refuge in aggressive ignorance, representing (what has always "passed" as) "human wisdom" as "folly in the eyes of God."
In one of his letters, St. Paul says something very much like this although it needs to be said that Paul had no access to scientific knowledge and -- in that "information void" -- monotheism was, to a large extent, antiquity's best answer to the ubiquitous swamp of superstition/magical-thinking and the ceaseless, small-minded, back-biting gossip born of pre-scientific thinking.
Faith and Falsehood
Frank Zappa Prophesied A Fascist Theocracy. Barry Goldwater Agrees
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ: "Research As Adoration"
With an ever-fresh supply of idiots, it is always possible for any society to turn fascist.
Every major political change is just one educated -- or uneducated -- generation "away."
However, to the extent that Spain suffered so horribly from Franco's fascism, España is as well-innoculated against fascism as any country on earth.
Love
A
PS Don't judge all Morocco by the pushiness of Tangiers peddlers. In related vein, I know your perception of Morocco's uncleanness will be a limiting factor, but I also think "coming to terms" with this "unclean" "cultural component" -- along with hiring a fastidous maid to clean daily -- may be the very place you can make the greatest leap forward.
I also think a very strong argument can be made that Jesus was killed because he didn't give a shit about Jewish purificatory rites. In fact, failure to wash his hands before eating unleashed Yeshua's most cutting tirade against "The Good Jews" ("The Good Germans"... "The Good Americans"...)
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
7:1 Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him,
7:2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.
7:3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders;
7:4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.)
7:5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
7:6 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;
7:7 in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’
7:8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
7:14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand:
7:15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”
7:21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder,
7:22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.
7:23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Woes to Religious Leaders
(Matthew 23:1-36)
37As Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee invited Him to dine with him; so He went in and reclined at the table.38But the Pharisee was astonished to see that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.
39“Now then,” said the Lord, “you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40You fools! Did not the One who made the outside make the inside as well? 41But give as alms the things that are within you, and you will see that everything is clean for you.
42Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and rue and every herb, but you disregard justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former.
43Woe to you Pharisees! You love the chief seats in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces.44Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, which men walk across without even noticing.”
45One of the experts in the law told Him, “Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us as well.”
46“Woe to you as well, experts in the law!” He replied. “You weigh men down with heavy burdens, but you yourselves will not lift a finger to lighten their load.
47Woe to you! You build tombs for the prophets, but it was your fathers who killed them. 48So you are witnesses who consent to the deeds of your fathers: They killed the prophets, and you build their tombs.49Because of this, the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles; some of them they will kill and others they will persecute.’
50As a result, this generation will be charged with the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world, 51from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, all of it will be charged to this generation.
52Woe to you experts in the law! For you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”
53As Jesus went on from there, the scribes and Pharisees began to oppose Him bitterly and to ply Him with questions about many things, 54waiting to catch Him in something He might say.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ: "Research As Adoration"
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
7:1 Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him,
7:2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.
7:3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders;
7:4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.)
7:5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
7:6 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;
7:7 in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’
7:8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
7:14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand:
7:15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”
7:21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder,
7:22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.
7:23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Woes to Religious Leaders
(Matthew 23:1-36)
(Matthew 23:1-36)
37As Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee invited Him to dine with him; so He went in and reclined at the table.38But the Pharisee was astonished to see that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.
39“Now then,” said the Lord, “you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40You fools! Did not the One who made the outside make the inside as well? 41But give as alms the things that are within you, and you will see that everything is clean for you.
42Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and rue and every herb, but you disregard justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former.
43Woe to you Pharisees! You love the chief seats in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces.44Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, which men walk across without even noticing.”
45One of the experts in the law told Him, “Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us as well.”
46“Woe to you as well, experts in the law!” He replied. “You weigh men down with heavy burdens, but you yourselves will not lift a finger to lighten their load.
47Woe to you! You build tombs for the prophets, but it was your fathers who killed them. 48So you are witnesses who consent to the deeds of your fathers: They killed the prophets, and you build their tombs.49Because of this, the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles; some of them they will kill and others they will persecute.’
50As a result, this generation will be charged with the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world, 51from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, all of it will be charged to this generation.
52Woe to you experts in the law! For you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”
53As Jesus went on from there, the scribes and Pharisees began to oppose Him bitterly and to ply Him with questions about many things, 54waiting to catch Him in something He might say.
Yeshua Excoriates Fellow Pharisees: "The Woe Passages"
"Twelve Steps For The Recovering Pharisee (Like Me)" By John Fischer
http://paxonbothhouses.
"Love Your Enemies. Do Good To Those Who Hate You," Luke 6: 27-42
"Do You Know What You're Doing To Me?"
Jesus of Nazareth
http://paxonbothhouses.
Notably, when Jesus washes the apostles feet at The Last Supper -- an act that many Catholic Christians have argued should be sacrament -- he is, in cultural context, performing the work of a slave. Sandaled feet and dusty roads meant that all manner of filth -- including, Heaven Forbid! pig shit -- became encrusted on travelers feet so that only non-Jewish slaves could "safely" undertake the abominable task of cleaning a visitor's feet, a service provided by all householders who could afford slaves.
On Sat, Dec 3, 2016 at 10:54 AM, FV wrote:
Dear ASpain is appealing and certainly has my heart. Morocco is not. I will check out the magic carpet ride.The changes coming with Donald are going to make an escape more appealing.Will the Sec.of Education, HHS, Treasury, and all of his cabinetry actually do enough damage to take D down?S.S. and Medicare are on the chopping block to be privatized. When his peeps get their head out of the sand will they finally see clearly what they did and put his head on the block instead?Is starting a boxing match with China by his ignorance of the issue of Taiwan cause political or economic pain? This may not speak to the common man but it must speak to the ruling class.He needs to have his hand held, maybe both hands, if we are going to survive before he resigns because he doesn't like the job or my fantasy he's FIRED.My only fear is that journalists and Dem.s will run out of steam before he does and the Fascist tyrant will lift the veil and be out in the open unchallenged.What will Spain look like then?Love
F
Dear F,
I think living in Spain -- or Caltanissetta, or Calabria -- would make
America seem amusing rather than horrible-deplorable.
Nothing like traveliong far away to lend perspective to Uncle Sam's madhouse.
A fin de cuentas, we are an ill-educated democracy.
And we got what ill-educated democracies get.
The only dicey issue is whether H.G. Wells was right: "Increasingly,
the future of humanity is a race between education and catastrophe."
When Danny settles into university next year, let's give thought to
spending the last half of January, all of February and the first half
of March somewhere over the rainbow, dividing our time between
Andalucia and Morocco. A nice little pueblo blanco not far from
Granada, Ronda or Sevilla and a sleepy town in the Moroccan outback.
Start contemplating with a magic carpet ride to Chefchaouen and Fez.
Just visit Wikitravel.org and punch in the names. For more details,
see what TripAdvisor has to say.
We could rent apartments or "a wing" in somebody's oversized house and
spend less than we would spend in the States.
In Morocco, we'd spend less than half what we spend in the States.
Might get by on a third.
Love
A
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