The Questioning Christian

Genesis: Creation as a Process

From a book review in the NY Times about The Five Books of Moses, a much-remarked new translation by Robert Alter:

Return, then, to the Hebrew text of the Pentateuch - the Torah - where pronouns are often ambiguous, words are compacted with multiple meanings and clauses can begin to make sense not in the ordinary sequence of reading but only in the course of doubling back and rereading. Here is how Mr. Alter renders that first sentence of Genesis:

"When God began to create heaven and earth, and the earth then was welter and waste and darkness over the deep and God's breath hovering over the waters, God said, 'Let there be light.' "

That sentence unsettles. The creation is not a completed act, but part of a process. The act of speaking is the focus of attention, coming after an almost breathless catalog of elements in a world "without form and void" (as the King James version puts it), in which "welter and waste and darkness over the deep" and "God's breath" are components of a primordial earth.

It isn't likely that this rendering will soon replace the old. It doesn't easily scan. But it is so weirdly convincing, and so evocative of matters beyond conventional understanding, that it anticipates not just the story of Creation but the epic enterprise of translation and commentary into which Mr. Alter leads us.

(Emphasis added.)

Religious Tolerance and Freedom of Speech

Apropos of a Sikh mob in the UK forcing an  "offensive" play to close, writer Lionel Shriver excoriates those who claim that religious tolerance requires suppression of "offensive" speech:

Freedom of speech that does not embrace the right to offend is a farce. ***

The concept of religious "tolerance" seems to be warping apace these days, and we appear to forget that commonly one tolerates through gritted teeth. It is rapidly becoming accepted social cant that to "tolerate" other people's religions is to accord them respect. In fact, respect for one's beliefs is gradually achieving the status of a hallowed "human right."

I am under no obligation to respect your beliefs. Respect is earned; it is not an entitlement. I may regard creationists as plain wrong, which would make holding their beliefs in high regard nonsensical. In kind, if I proclaim on a street corner that a certain Japanese beetle in my back garden is the new Messiah, you are also within your rights to ridicule me as a fruitcake. ***

... Britain's Channel Four has promoted its "Shameless Christmas Special" with billboards parodying "The Last Supper," in which Jesus, if you'll pardon the expression, is drunk as a lord. Some Christians find the ads in poor taste. I may admire the campaign as droll; the pious may pontificate about how much they deplore it. Now, that is free speech.

Read it all.

Letter to an Interested Agnostic

In a comment on the Salty VIcar blog, "Erin" says:

I'm an ex-Catholic whose strong views on sexuality and its relationship to divinity eventually led me to apostasy. I'm happier there, but still very much interested in the debate. * * * I am an agnostic and a humanist, and while quite the moral absolutist by nature ... I'm more of a pragmatist by training.

That struck a chord with me; I posted the following in response to it (lightly edited here).

Next Christmas, a Lessons-and-Carols Singalong Brunch?

For a number of years I've listened to bits and pieces of the Christmas Eve live radio broadcast of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, from King's College Chapel at the University of Cambridge.   According to this article in the PBS Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, Nicholas Nash, who first brought the broadcast to the U.S. in 1979 for Minnesota Public Radio, has an even better idea:  Each year he hosts 40 people to listen to the broadcast and have breakfast.  And William Edwards, author of a book about the Festival, is going even further, hosting a singalong and brunch for friends.  "Instead of going out buying gifts at the last minute that you don't really want or need, Christmas Eve becomes more about Christmas," Edwards is quoted as saying.  (Hat tip to TItusOneNine)

Some Things I Love About Christmas

My sixteen-year-old son's taking the initiative to drive his mother and sister, in his second-hand pickup truck, to pick out the Christmas tree and bring it home while I was stuck at work.  They grow up so soon, and it's such a joy to see them doing so;

Not seeing a lot of Christmas commercials on TV, because we just don't watch all that much any more;

Hearing store clerks, and colleagues at work, saying Merry Christmas, instead of just Happy Holidays;

An Atheist Converts -- But for the Wrong Reasons?

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal features a column by Andrew Klavan, a former atheist who was baptized into the Episcopal Church this year.  He took that momentous step, not because science suggests the existence of God, but because of "the human experience of God's presence."  Contrasting his recent conversion experience with that of noted British atheist Antony Flew (see this posting), Mr. Klavan seems to argue that the scientific method really shouldn't come into play in deciding whether or not there's a God:

Standbys - Caritas in Action

From the Gloucester County [New Jersey] Times, a heartwarming story of caritas in action (via TitusOneNine):

While many Christians will be spending the holiday weekend in church or celebrating with family, a group of 95 volunteers from Congregation M'kor Shalom synagogue in Cherry Hill will be relieving staff members at the Ronald McDonald House in Camden.

Marilyn Hailpern has been going to the home-away-from-home for families with sick children for eight years. She said it has become a family tradition for her and other members of her congregation to give the Ronald McDonald House staffers a chance to be with their families on Christmas.

Her congregation holds social justice and its tikkun olam -- or "repair the world" in Hebrew -- responsibilities very seriously, Hailpern said.

"It's a wonderful Christmas gift for us," said Teddy Thomas, the executive director for the Ronald McDonald House of Southern New Jersey.

God bless 'em. 

UPDATE:  In case you're wondering, the term "standby" in the title of this posting is a Navy expression.  Even when in port, U.S. Navy ships are manned by at least a skeleton crew every day of the year, 24x7x365.  Back in the day, if a ship was going to be in port on Thanksgiving or Christmas or Easter, the single guys who didn't have the duty on that day, and who weren't going home on leave, would often volunteer to stand by for any married guys who did have the duty.  That way, the married guys could spend the day with their families, and would reciprocate on some other occasion.  It was a nice, cooperative arrangement.  (I use the term "guys" advisedly, because this was back before women could serve aboard Navy ships.)

Rowan's a Godsend -- A. N. Wilson

That splendid British writer A N Wilson, author of provocative books about Jesus and the apostle Paul among others, has this essay about Archbishop Rowan Williams in The Spectator (via Thinking Anglicans).  Here's an excerpt:

... As well as the evangelicals, the usual suspects among right-wing journalists now line up to denounce him — Peter Hitchens, the Revd Peter Mullen and so on — because of his supposed weakness on such subjects as Hell, Islam and other matters.

Yet my faith in him is undimmed, and my admiration has grown in the last year. The crowning glory for me was a trivial matter. The Today programme on Radio Four offered him a ‘prime slot’ to do ‘Thought for the Day’ on Christmas Eve and his office replied that the Archbishop would be offering his thoughts on the Nativity of his Saviour from the pulpit of Canterbury cathedral.

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Questions Being Debated at The Salty Vicar

I'm a little late in noting this, but on Saturday The Salty Vicar posed a series of Questions for Reasserters [i.e., traditionalists] that touched off a slew of interesting comments.  Some excerpts:

I have a few questions for reasserters that would help me understand their position.  If any of you feel like trying to answering them, please do so - also on your own blog, if you have one. 

*  *  *

How do you determine the criteria for interpreting scripture allegorically or literally?

*  *  *

How you might convince a non-religious person, without using religious language, that the Bible is reliable?  How is it reliable? 

*  *  *

Blessing of Sons and Daughters

Last night the New Covenant group to which my wife and I belong did a test drive of the short, general-purpose liturgy for families and small groups, which I posted yesterday.  There were probably 25 at our house, counting all the kids.  The liturgy seemed to go over well; several people commented that they liked it.

The Blessing of Sons and Daughters seemed to be a particular hit with several of the moms.  (I didn't call it "Blessing of Children" because some of the children, like mine, probably would bristle at being labeled as such.)  Here's the text of the prayer, which is stitched together from a couple of different prayers for children in the 1979 BCP: