The Divine Punishment Contradiction

I hardly ever do theology or metaphysics. I don’t feel qualified to describe a divine plan or how everything in the universe really works or fits together.

But I’ve just noticed something that doesn’t seem to work very well at all…

How could heaven coexist with hell? That is, how could heaven still be heaven if there was a hell?

Cheney-Bush Gets Bin Laden!

As an analogy, let’s say that Cheney-Bush finally caught Bin Laden and had him extraordinarily rendered to some island (not US soil) where the dynamic duo’s “we can do whatever we want to people” rule would apply on some kind of solid legal grounds like maybe we crossed our fingers behind our backs when we signed the Geneva Convention. And let’s say that Dick and George decided that because Osama is the world’s top “bad guy” and they’re the world’s top “good guys” (of course, I simplify) the appropriate thing to do would be to “apply continual stress positions coupled with adverse stimulation techniques and periodic resuscitation as necessary” to their captive - and for the rest of his life, taking special care to make sure that it lasted a really long time. Of course, this wouldn’t be the same as “torture,” but because torture is such a short, convenient word, I hope that you will tolerate my oversimplification of our administration’s legal “thinking.”

Your Island Paradise Is Extraordinarily Rendered!

Now, let’s say that Bin Laden’s torture cell is located on what’s otherwise an island paradise, and that you just happen to win a sweepstakes that gives you billions of dollars and a mansion built to your specs on the very same island. On the day you arrive, you immediately go to your favorite room – the one that you specified was to overlook the beach with a view of the cliffs and lots of air and light and opening out onto a balcony. Extraordinary! Everything has been rendered just the way you wanted, from the designer ceilings to the hardwood floors. You start to take in the spacious room’s sun-drenched walls, the view of the bright blue sky and distant cliffs, the fragrant sea breezes, and the bright, sizzling sound of the surf lapping the beach below – and the sound of groans and moans coming from your left.

It seems there's a catch and that your mansion abuts Bin Laden’s torture cell. That night, you have to listen for hours to his weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then, the next morning, the party you’d arranged for your children and their friends in the private playground area is accompanied by occasional yelps and howls of pain coming from a barred window above.

Threatening a lawsuit, you get the prison to set up visual and sound barriers, which helps. But still, you know that the high and colorful fence now shielding the playground and painted with colorful Disney figures conceals a dingy cinderblock building where some very unpleasant things are taking place day and night.

Is this “heaven on earth" for you? If not, then what becomes of a heaven above with a hell below?

Love at Work

I’m not much of a Bible thumper but once in a while I give it a few taps. Here are some New Testament verses that emphasize the importance of doing good work. It’s a major aspect of the NT’s message and one that I feel often gets downplayed. When it’s downplayed enough, Christianity can come off as self satisfied and complacent as in “Hey, what the heck, I was born a sinner and I’ll die a sinner but it’s all OK because Jesus died to save me.”


“My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” Luke 8:21

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23

”You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. Mat 7:16-17

“We must work the works of him who sent us while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” John 9:4-5

“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.” John 4:34

“From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.” Luke 12:48


Mary Ward, Thank You…

Mary Ward of DoYouDiggIt.com reviewed this blog early this month but it only just came to my attention. Thanks Mary!

Love and Integrity

We are here to own up to a Word that claims us; there is no other way that we can claim to be ourselves.

Love is who we are in essence and intention.

To find integrity is to respond to this call with emphasis and consistency.


Reference – Original Faith: Chapter One, What Love Is


Help Welcomed

Some of you have asked if you can help get the word out about Original Faith. You may have your own ideas - feel free to email me at martin22204 at yahoo.com if it’s anything you’d like to run by me. I’ll be giving this matter further thought myself.

Two things come to mind right away: first, emailing friends and family who might be interested in the book is always helpful.

Second, some readers may happen to be in a position to recommend the book to clergy/professors/teachers/book clubs – forums where it could come to the attention of groups of people.

Thanks for giving this your consideration.

“Lady Love” – or “Oh, What a Night…”

Homecoming

It was pretty late as I followed my mom and ten-year old sister Lynne through the back door into the kitchen. We’d just returned to our home in southeastern New Hampshire after driving the hour and a quarter north from Boston’s Logan Airport. Overhead, I could hear the clatter of Lady’s nails across the upstairs bedroom floors as she headed down to greet us.

It was December 1975, and I was home for Christmas break from my freshman year of college. I was kind of wondering what the dog’s reaction to seeing me would be. My father had bought the whippet – like a greyhound, but small – when she was a year old and I was eleven. Now she was eight and I was eighteen; I’d never been away from her for more than a week or two.

As I straightened up from putting my suitcase down in front of the washing machine, I saw Lady. She’d come to a full stop at the threshold of the kitchen without entering, and stood there motionless. This wasn’t normal; the dog usually came right in and pranced happily around our feet when we came home.

“Lady!” I exclaimed. It was enough to break the ice…

Canine Break Dancing

Lady sprang across the kitchen, jumping high enough to hit me in the upper chest with both paws. This was immediately followed by another three or four jumps before she suddenly bolted back out of the kitchen into the middle of the dining room where she performed three or four vigorous butt pirouettes. I really don’t know what else to call them. It’s the only time I happen to have seen a dog do this: she basically sat on the floor rotating her body in fast, jerky circles with her tongue hanging out.

After this maneuver she shot or flew – mostly leapt, I guess – back upstairs. It was like the hyperspace feature on our Atari asteroid game. Here and gone.

Lynne, me and our mom looked at each other kind of smiling but in a subdued way because we were amazed and still listening to what was going on upstairs. We could hear the dog bounding from bed to bed – landing on the floor, nails momentarily clattering, then back onto the next bed...

The next moment she was rattling back downstairs at a furious rate of speed to come straight back at me with another leap-to-chest followed by a high speed sprint to the other end of the house with a sliding halt on the carpet in front of the living room radiator. More butt pirouettes…

The entire upstairs/downstairs performance lasted about ten minutes until the dog, her sides heaving, finally settled into a more or less regular version of her “nice to see you” behavior.

Dogs, Love and Classical Music

Guess nobody told Lady I’d be coming back. But the funny thing is, my mom was the dog’s favorite even though she had tried to make sure that Lady was “my dog” from the time we got her – the dog slept in my room and I’d always been the one to feed her. But Lady had always clearly preferred our mother. Under normal circumstances, she’d orient herself toward Mom first and foremost, whether with greetings or asking to go outside. And if it were late at night and Mom was away, Lady would remain on high alert until her car pulled into the driveway.

Do dogs love? If not, what sort of experience was Lady having that made it look like she was listening to the end of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture?

And how would you describe the differences/similarities between “loving” and “liking?”