Euphemisms for "sin" in MOBIA's Prodigal Son Exhibit

Maureen Mullarkey opines in the New York Sun for Oct 11 ("Scratch and Sniff Sin") that there is more than a whiff of euphemism in descriptions of sin and repentance in the Museum of Biblical Art's current exhibit of illustrations to the Lucan parable of the Prodigal Son.

She notes that "the exhibition offers a splendid selection of mainly paintings and prints that range from the 15th century to the present."

She knows enough about the parable to say, "Moral awakening is the pivot on which the story turns. Without a change of heart — metanoia the Greeks called it — there would be no expiatory homecoming, no occasion for absolution.

Emphasis on that radical contrition is vividly embodied in the works on view but absent from curatorial discussion. The sermonette reduces to easy verities a Judeo-Christian reflection on the terrible beauty of the bond of an ineffable God to a willful creation. In MoBIA's sentimental gloss the story merely "highlights the universality of love between parent and child, the consequences of misbehavior and the miracle of forgiveness." It accomplishes this for us all, "regardless of one's faith tradition or lack thereof."

The word "misbehavior" does not, she concludes, convey the gravity of sin.

Blogging from Philadelphia

This evening I walked past the excavations of the President's house in the historic section of Philadelphia.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer,

In the spring and summer of 2007, Archaeologists excavated a historical plot of land at Sixth and Market Streets, the site of the house where the slave-holding George Washington and the anti-slavery John Adams conducted their presidencies in the 1790s.

Officials hope to preserve the site in a way which commemorates the duality of the first president's life and recognizes the enslaved Africans who toiled in the face of American freedom.

Gore's Nobel Prize: Another Bible Belt Baptist (from the Washington Post On Faith)

Robert Parham makes a case for the moral values of Al Gore.

He notes the role Scripture has played in shaping their moral vision and values.

In a June 2006 interview before the Nashville premier of the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” Gore told me that his Christian faith shaped his moral convictions about the environment.

"I was taught in Sunday school about the purpose of life," he said. "I didn't ever get a single lesson about the purpose of life at Harvard University or prep school I went to. But I learned about the purpose of life in Sunday school. And I was taught that the purpose of life is to glorify God.

"How can you glorify God while heaping contempt and destruction on God's creation? The answer is that you cannot, you cannot.

"If you believe in the teaching 'Whatever you do to the least of these you do unto me,' the least of these include those who are powerless to defend themselves against harmful actions at our hands motivated by careless greed," he said.

Gordon Brown on Family Values (Take 2)

Married couples may be offered tax incentives, according to an article about Gordon Brown's policies offered by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

In what will be seen as another raid by Gordon Brown on Tory policies, Mr Burnham said: "I think marriage is best for kids."

Speaking in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, he added: "It's not wrong that the tax system should recognise commitment and marriage."

A Year of Living Biblically

A. L. Jacobs researched and wrote "One Man's Humble Quest to Live the Bible as Literally as Possible" according to the NY Daily News.

He heeded the Ten Commandments, and didn't lie, steal or covet. He tithed his income. He wore white and attached tassels to his shirt-sleeves. He didn't touch his wife, Julie, or any woman, at certain times of the month. He pelted an adulterer with a pebble. "It was a surprisingly intense encounter," says Jacobs.

Not that he always got it right. "I failed on an hourly basis, and that was one of the lessons," he says. "You'll never be perfect."

Nonetheless, he has changed in ways big and small.

"I spent so much time giving thanks while doing the book, I'm more thankful now. I focus on the 100 little things that go right every day.

Old Testament version of The Bible:The Complete Experience

Now Zondervan can claim that the title, The Bible: The Complete Experience really is just that with the OT scheduled to come out today.

The Old Testament version features the voices of over 400 distinguished African-American actors, musicians, personalities and clergy, including 2007 Academy Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker (Moses), Angela Bassett (Esther), Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jonah), Denzel and Pauletta Washington (Song of Songs), LL Cool J (Samson), and Bishop T.D. Jakes (Abraham), among others.

What I find striking and sometimes just odd is the music. I'm not exactly sure that "life-like sound effects" is accurate (how do we know?) and the "original music underscore" occasionally threatens to overwhelm the oral delivery. I'd like an explanation of who thought the music would be appropriate and by what means it was created and selected.

Our Autumn Flower Bed

Remember my excavation of a stone in this bed earlier in the summer? Here's the end result!

Granting Iraqis (among them Mandaeans) asylum in the US

Yesterday's NY Times had an OpEd piece by Nathaniel Deutsch about Saving Modern Gnostics.

The Mandeans are the only surviving Gnostics from antiquity, cousins of the people who produced the Nag Hammadi writings like the Gospel of Thomas, a work that sheds invaluable light on the many ways in which Jesus was perceived in the early Christian period. The Mandeans have their own language (Mandaic, a form of Aramaic close to the dialect of the Babylonian Talmud), an impressive body of literature, and a treasury of cultural and religious traditions amassed over two millennia of living in the southern marshes of present-day Iraq and Iran.

Practitioners of a religion at least as old as Christianity, the Mandeans have witnessed the rise of Islam; the Mongol invasion; the arrival of Europeans, who mistakenly identified them as “Christians of St. John,” because of their veneration of John the Baptist; and, most recently, the oppressive regime of Saddam Hussein, who drained the marshes after the first gulf war, an ecological catastrophe equivalent to destroying the Everglades. They have withstood everything — until (the invasion of Iraq).

When American forces invaded in 2003, there were probably 60,000 Mandeans in Iraq; today, fewer than 5,000 remain. Like millions of other Iraqis, those who managed to escape have become refugees, primarily in Syria and Jordan, with smaller numbers in Australia, Indonesia, Sweden and Yemen.

In September, the Senate took a step in the right direction when it unanimously passed an amendment to a defense bill that grants privileged refugee status to members of a religious or minority community who are identified by the State Department as a persecuted group and have close relatives in the United States. But because so few Mandeans live here, this will do little for those seeking asylum. The legislation, however, also authorizes the State and Homeland Security Departments to grant privileged status to “other persecuted groups,” as they see fit.

If all Iraqi Mandeans are granted privileged status and allowed to enter the United States in significant numbers, it may just be enough to save them and their ancient culture from destruction. If not, after 2,000 years of history, of persecution and tenacious survival, the last Gnostics will finally disappear, victims of an extinction inadvertently set into motion by our nation’s negligence in Iraq.

Here's some information about the bill.

With Malice Towards Nuns (Slate Magazine)

Melinda Henneberger of Slate Magazine writes on the eviction notice given to nuns in the Santa Barbara Convent as part of an effort on the part of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to meet the costs of paying victims in the priest abuse scandal.

Here's her conclusion:

So, why begin on the backs of these servants of the poor—in full traditional habit, no less? I'm trying to imagine the conversation in which the men who protected the men who victimized children thought to spread the pain first to these women—"Hey, let's start with Sister Angela! That'll show 'em our priorities!"—but I just can't get there.

And if, as I am sorry to suspect, the decision to send the sisters packing was actually intended to garner sympathy—and maybe even a tidy profit—for the church—well, this scandal may never be over. In Santa Barbara, supporters Catholic and non-Catholic have rallied to the side of the sisters. In the community where they are known and beloved, supporters are raising money that might allow them to buy the convent outright, presumably for more than the $97,746 value put on the property by the county assessor's office; other small, older homes in the neighborhood are selling for upward of $700,000.

But the damage done by this miscalculation—however it was hatched—raises questions about how much Cardinal Mahony's leadership and judgment have improved since he allegedly shuffled known sex offenders from one parish to another.

The bill has come due, and hard decisions must be made. But the idea of elite men kicking women on walkers to the curb is not, I think, one that will inspire many of the faithful to put a little something extra in the basket on Sunday.

A starred review coming on Monday from PW: Happiness Is an Inside Job

This week is alumni/ae week at the seminary and it has been a joy to get reaquainted with graduates from all over and to learn about their lives.

Coming from PW next Monday is a starred review:
Happiness Is an Inside Job: Practicing for a Joyful Life
Sylvia Boorstein. Ballantine, $22.95 (176p) ISBN 978-0-345-48131-3
From renowned Buddhist teacher Boorstein comes a small, polished gem of a book that seems somehow even more intimate and heartfelt than her previous books Pay Attention, For Goodness' Sake and It's Easier Than You Think. Boorstein begins with an anecdote about a day when her writing was interrupted by a call from a friend with a very ill brother; the effort of consoling her made Boorstein forget what she had been about to write. Boorstein uses her moment of resentful impatience at the interruption to illustrate how easily the mind can fall out of caring connection. The whole idea of this book, she writes, is that "restoring caring connection... and maintaining it when it is present, is happiness." This insight is a jumping-off point for Boorstein to explore three planks of the Buddhist path: wise effort, wise mindfulness and wise concentration. Skillfully using story and humor, Boorstein shows that she is no saint and that her life is made up of the same moments of vulnerability, aversion, joy, pettiness, depression and humor as all of our lives are. Her quiet insistence that the Buddhist practices of mindfulness, meditation and metta (lovingkindness) can quiet the mind, deepen concentration and lower anxiety is ultimately both convincing and inspiring. (Dec. 26)

Time Warner Cable and Being a Sausage

We have no internet service due to the UN General Assembly meeting through Oct 3rd. Apparently for reasons of security. Good grief!