I’ve decided to take my blog in a new direction for the next few weeks. I’m going to be doing a series called “Redefining Orthodoxy.” In this series I will examine traditional, orthodox Christian beliefs, and explain how my understanding–though perhaps atypical–fits within orthodox Christianity.  I’ve started by creating a Statement of Faith, a living document that essentially outlines my perspective on life.

For those who have know me or have been following my blog for the past few years, you know that I’ve undergone a process of spiritual deconstruction. I grew up in a theologically conservative Christian tradition. Beginning three or four years ago, I began deconstructing my faith with the support and help of many loved ones. Piece by piece, I pulled apart the faith that I learned growing up, until all that was left was a pile of spiritual detritus. But chaos is not humanity’s preferential state. I began trying to make sense of the pieces that remained. After much studying, thinking and discussing, I began to form my own ideas and opinions about the nature of God and the human experience. The result looked nothing like the concepts that I had learned as a kid. From the conservative Christian perspective of my youth, I am most likely an atheist or Buddhist and most certainly a heretic.

Yet, I still deeply appreciate and value the stories of the Bible. I still find many of the truths found within it to be beautiful and inspiring. I love the metaphors of the incarnation, communion, crucifixion and resurrection. I never could let go of these ideas, even though I struggled to understand how they apply to my beliefs. I never could disregard the religious tradition that I grew up in. I still identified myself as a Christian.

So this project, Redefining Orthodoxy, will be a personal endeavor to reclaim my faith practice. I will attempt to explain how my atypical beliefs still fit within orthodox Christian beliefs like the incarnation, communion, crucifixion and resurrection.

As I reinterpret fundamental Christian beliefs and illuminate a new perspective on an ancient faith, I have two hopes for my readers. For anyone undergoing a similar process of deconstruction, I hope to encourage you to look for and cherish the beautiful, redeemable aspects in their own faith practice. For those who profess popularly accepted orthodox beliefs, I hope that this new perspective will challenge you to ask critical questions about your beliefs.

In the process, I invite dialogue. If you feel I am being inconsistent, please respectfully bring the inconsistency to my attention. If there are specific issues which you would like me to address, please let me know. The topics which I discuss often evoke strong emotional responses; please be respectful. Remember that the purpose of communication is to understand one another, not prove oneself right.

“There is a very interesting relationship between wilderness and sacredness. All the great monastic traditions, whether that’s Christianity, Buddhism, or Taoist, all find their roots in an experience of their founders going into the desert, into the wilderness, onto the mountains, and finding there something that civilization cannot give them, a realization about themselves, about nature, about the divine. …It’s that sense that you are in front of something greater than yourself.”

~Martin Palmer, Chief Executive, Alliance of Religions and Conservation

The tragedy at Fort Hood should absolutely be condemned. It was absolutely wrong.

According to the system of morality adopted by the military-industrial complex–and perhaps our culture at large–the actions of Major Nidal Malik Hasan were morally acceptable.

I realize that this statement sounds preposterous. Allow me to explain.

The system of morality embraced by the military-industrial complex upholds that when one cannot imagine any other way to resolve a conflict, it is appropriate to respond by asserting one’s way forcibly and violently over others.

When Saddam Hussein refused to cooperate with our demands, we responded in violence. When Osama bin Laden orchestrated attacks on innocent civilians, we responded in violence. When Timonthy McVeigh bombed a government building in Oklahoma City, we responded in violence. When we are attacked, threatened, or simply challenged, we respond in violence. Our culture does not condemn violence. In fact, our culture glorifies violence. Examples of the glorification of “moral violence” can be seen in action movies, yellow ribbons on car bumpers and capital punishment in our ‘justice” system.

Leviticus 24 states, “If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth.”

“An eye for an eye.” In the case of our culture, an eye for a potential eye–or perhaps even a dirty glance.

If we believe that violence may be justified, glorious, even moral–as it is with the military–then we cannot condemn Major Hasan. He was acting according to the moral code espoused by the armed forces.

In 2006 in Pennsylvania Carl Roberts killed six people including himself in an Amish school shooting. The Amish response to this tragedy was strikingly beautiful. They reached out to Roberts’ family, offering forgiveness and comfort. Amish families visited Roberts’ family, comforted them and even set up a charitable fund for his family.

It’s a bold statement, but one that I believe our culture desperately needs to hear. As long as violence is permitted as a solution to problems, events like the tragedy at Fort Hood will persist. Reconciliation, not retaliation, must be our ultimate goal.

Scotteriology had a post on How to Ruin Halloween. It was so ridiculous, I thought I’d keep it going.

Chick tracts describes how to make Halloween a soul-winning event. You may remember Chick from the best tract ever. May God save you from hellish boredom if you’ve ever been handed one of Chick’s tracts by a badly-dressed, over-enthusiastic street preacher. They’re hard to avoid on Michigan Ave. The Statement of Faith on Chick’s website opens by declaring that the KJV is the only source of absolute Truth. Their theology degenerates from there (as if that weren’t low enough) to decry such heretical institutions as: Catholicism, Masonry, the odious NIV.

I digress. Back to soul-winning on Halloween. Chick.com says, “Let’s be honest. How many of us have hidden in the back of the house, with the porch light off, hoping the kids will leave us alone? We don’t like Halloween and its occultic history, and we don’t celebrate it. So we hide our light, instead of letting it shine. Is that what Jesus called us to do?” Apparently real Christians don’t go trick-or-treating. I forgot. So, how do they suggest we let our light shine, instead of hiding it? Check it out:

Let Trick-or-Treaters pick from a tray stocked with different Chick tracts.

Pass out Chick tracts at Haunted Houses.

Put a Chick tract under windshield wipers at adult Halloween parties.

Leave tracts in the candy section of stores.

Set up a table and give Trick-or-Treaters Chick tracts as they pass by your church.

Go house to house saying, “Trick or Tract,” then hand the person a Chick tract.

Share Halloween tracts at school.

Leave Chick tracts at Costume shops.

Hit the streets, shouting, “Free comic books!” You’ll be swarmed with requests.

Won’t be home? Leave a box of Chick tracts at your front door with instructions.

Give some of your tracts to your Christian friends to get them involved.

Organize a church-wide Chick tract distribution project.

Hand out tracts at places where they sell Halloween pumpkins.

I would just like to highlight number 6 on that list, “Go house to house saying, ‘Trick or Tract,’ then hand the person a Chick tract.” Disclaimer: if you say “Trick or Tract” to me at the door this year, I will throw a bowl of rotty oatmeal on your face.

Or how about number 9, “Hit the streets, shouting, ‘Free comic books!’ You’ll be swarmed with requests,” … until everyone realizes your passing out Chick tracts, at which point you will likely be pushed into a stagnant body of water, stripped naked and dropped miles from home, or mercilessly pummeled.  All of these are appropriate responses to the situation.

Please, kids. Stick to candy. It may rot your teeth, but it won’t rot your mind.

Recently, I’ve been writing a series of posts that I plan on releasing in the next few weeks. I’m titling the series, “Redefining Orthodoxy.” I will be examining traditional, orthodox Christian beliefs, and explaining how my understanding, though perhaps atypical, fits within orthodox Christianity.

I plan on addressing a number of topics, including:

• The incarnation
• Communion
• The crucifixion
• The resurrection
• Scripture

However, I want to be thorough, and address as many issues of essential Christianity as I can. So I’m asking everyone:

What are the essential components of the Christian faith?

What are the pillars of orthodoxy? What differentiates Christianity from other religions and philosophies? What beliefs, if deleted from Christianity, would change the fundamentals of the religion? What sacraments and ordinances are key to Christianity?

Last night the wife and I made homemade saffron ricotta ravioli. Saffron consists of “threads”–stigmas of a crocus flower. Each crocus contains 3 stigmas, which must be picked out by hand. It takes approximately 80,000 crocuses to make one pound of saffron, making it the most costly spice in the world by weight. My Herbs and Spices book describes its aroma as: “rich, pungent, musky, floral, honeyed and tenacious,” and it’s taste as: “delicate yet penetrating, warm, earthy, musky, bitter and lingering.” Saffron’s bright color also make it an excellent dye. I’ve heard that it was traditionally used to dye the robes of Buddhist monks.

Pasta:
400g flour
4 eggs
1T olive oil
1t salt

Ricotta filling:
1/2 t saffron
1 T milk
1 1/2 c ricotta
Zest of 1/2 orange
1 egg
Pepper to taste

Sauce:
2 cloves garlic
3 small tomatoes
1 sprig of fresh sage
4 T olive oil

Make the pasta dough:

Sift flour onto clean counter top.

Make a volcano out of the flour. Break eggs into the crater.

Add olive oil and salt. Using your fingers, mix eggs, oil and salt. Begin working flour into the egg mixture, being careful not to rupture the edge of the volcano.

Work into a dough, and knead for 3-5 minutes. One finished, wrap and let sit for an hour.

Make the ricotta filling:

Crush the saffron and let it soak in the milk for 20 minutes.

Zest the orange.

Mix the zest, egg, pepper and saffron/milk into the ricotta.

Make the ravioli:

Step 1: Keep all cats away from the pasta machine.

Break off a fist-sized chunk of pasta dough, and run it through the machine to the thinnest setting. (If you don’t have a pasta machine, roll the dough out on a floured surface until about as thick as a postcard).

Lay the dough over a ravioli tray. Carefully stretch the dough into the pockets of the tray.

Beat an egg with 1T of water. Paint the edges of the ravioli pockets (acts as a glue). Scoop a heaping teaspoon of filling into the pockets.

Lay another sheet of pasta dough over tray to cover the pockets. Roll the tray to perforate the edges of the ravioli.

Dump them out, separate them, and let them dry for an hour.

Finish:

In olive oil, lightly fry two cloves of minced garlic. Reduce heat to lowest possible setting. Add diced tomatoes (seeds removed), chopped thyme and pepper to taste.

In another pot bring water to a boil. Add ravioli, and let them cook 4 or 5 minutes until puffy and floating.

Today, I finished The Origin of Satan by Elaine Pagels. Here’s an excerpt from the conclusion.

To pray for one’s enemies suggests that one believes that whatever harm they may have done, they are capable of being reconciled to God and to oneself. Paul, writing about twenty years before the evangelists, holds a still more traditionally Jewish perception that Satan acts as God’s agent not to corrupt people but to test them; at one point he suggests that a Christian group “deliver to Satan” one of its errant members, not in order to consign him to hell, but in the hope that he will repent and change. Paul also hopes and longs for reconciliation between his “brothers,” “fellow Israelites,” and Gentile believers.

Many Christians, then, from the first century through Francis of Assisi in the fifteenth century and Martin Luther King, Jr., in the twentieth, have believed that they stood on God’s side without demonizing their opponents. Their religious vision inspired them to oppose policies and powers they regarded as evil, often risking their well-being and their lives, while praying for the reconciliation–not the damnation–of those who opposed them.

Pagels suggests that the traditional Jewish view, prevalent throughout most of the OT and much of the NT, holds that Satan is not the arch-rival nemesis of YHWH, engaged in an epic, dualistic battle. Rather, Satan is an agent or servant of God, an antagonist sent to test God’s subjects, as in the case of Job.

Today’s popular views of Satan as the ultimate rival of God, embodiment of evil, became popularized in the couple centuries before the life of Christ with the Essenes. In the face of persecution during the early centuries of the Christian movement, many Christians adopted this perspective. Married to such beliefs is the systematic identification of one’s enemies as agents of or embodiment of Satan and his foes.

Jesus’ teaching of nonviolence and love for neighbor radically challenges the Christian dualistic beliefs. Our foe should not be one whom we demonize and seek to eradicate. We should not accept or permit violence and oppression. We should not under any circumstances, wish damnation on our enemies. Rather, we should, above all else, seek reconciliation.

For those of you attempting to learn to speak Progressive Liberalese, this lesson should provide some further insight into the P-L language and build your vocabulary.

This lesson is on the suffix: -industrial complex.

Similar to the English prefix anti-, non-, and un-, the suffix -industrial complex gives a negative connotation to the word it is attached to. P-L language adds this suffix to any sector of the economy which it wishes to criticize. By attaching -industrial complex to any societal structure, one causes the listener to wonder if the structure is actually a gigantic system controlled by a mysterious group of inaccessible conspirators for their own oppressive gain. While formal usage of the suffix is relegated to social and economic discussion, colloquial usage of this suffix can be expanded to non-economic terms.

Common usages of this suffix include:

• Military-industrial complex
• Prison-industrial complex
• Medical-industrial complex
• Real Estate-industrial complex

Colloquial examples in use:

• If you fear or dread going to the dentist, you might say: I hate going to the dental-industrial complex.
• If you are more of a dog person than a cat person, you might say: I prefer dogs to the feline-industrial complex.
• If your friend, Greg, is extremely annoying at parties, you might say: Don’t invite the  Greg-industrial complex. He’s so lame!

Exercise:
Try using the suffix in the following examples by filling in the blank.

1. Everyone should unilaterally the expansion of the medical insurance  ____________.
2. Increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan would only strengthen the military ____________.
3. We need alternative forms of justice to our defunct prison ____________.

Now create your own sentences using the following words.

1. Capitalist-industrial complex
2. Private health care-industrial complex
3. Penguin-industrial complex

A core component of conservative Christian theology is that of dualism. Dualism dictates a divide exists between the physical world and the supernatural realm. These dual realities overlap impermanently and abstractly. For example, according to Christian dualism, a divide exists between the physical world and the spiritual world. Many Christians believe that a spiritual battle rages between the angelic forces of Heaven and the demonic forces of Hell. However, physical evidence of this conflict remains almost exclusively circumstantial. On a personal level, most Christians also believe in a body/soul dualism. One may die, but the soul lives on in eternity. This dichotomy gives rise to the belief that this temporal existence is but an insignificant “blip” on the time line of eternity. Equipped with such beliefs, many Christians permit a disregard for the physical well-being of others and themselves in favor of what they regard as the more important spiritual reality.

I believe that this notion of physical/supernatural dualism often leads to a lack of stewardship for the environment. Ultimately, caring for the environment is of secondary importance to securing the eternal well-being of other human souls. This world may be pass away, but Heaven and Hell are eternal, permanent destinations. Plus, with the promise of a spiritual “new Heaven and new earth,” Christian dualism gives little incentive to care for this physical, and ultimately damned, world. In fact, due to their eternal impermanence, little motivation exists for Christians to be concerned about the environment. Were it not for God’s command in Genesis to subdue the earth and rule over it, Christian dualism may not have removed environmental stewardship from the conversation altogether.

So, my family has been known to get carried away. On occasion we have been known to take something silly and run way to far with it. My sister recently discovered a list we made a few years ago while having lunch at our favorite Italian restaurant. We’d just gone to see one of those sub-par superhero movie. (It’s hard to remember which, because there are so many of them). Our conversation drifted from sub-par superhero movies to to sub-par superpowers. The resulting brainstorm session yeilded the following list of superheroes, villains, and a few that we’re really not sure about, all of whom are equipped with mysterious but rather lackluster special powers. While the moral character of your average superhero may range from transcendentally righteous to heinously evil, these not-so-super heroes range from slightly convenient to mildly annoying. Sure, Superman just stopped that missile from hitting a bus full of schoolchildren, but we can all agree that the Temprighture is the real hero of the day for reheating my latte.

Superheroes

• Confettiman: Shoots confetti like Spiderman.
• Genulaughman: Makes courtesy laughs sound sincere to the person telling a corny joke.
• Temprighture: Dips his finger into a drink and makes the drink the perfect temperature to sip.
• Radioman: Can tune the radio perfectly to the station for the clearest signal.

Supervillians

• Tablerocker: Walks into a room, and one leg of every table and chair is slightly shorter than the other three, making it wobble.
• Tiltawirl: Walks into museum, and makes all the paintings slightly crooked.
• The Sneeze: When he looks at you, you sneeze every time you say the word “the.”
• Snortman: When he tells a joke, everyone who laughs, inadvertently snorts.
• Awkward Introduction man: Can’t decide whether to handshake or hug.

Not quite sure

• Caralarmer: Sets of the alarm of every vehicle he walks past.
• Rhymeman: Everyone in the room speaks in rhymes.
• Popeye: In his presence, a faint “pop” noise can be heard any time anyone blinks.
• Gollyman: Every time he points at you, you say, “Golly!”