Death, an Alp from whose summit all lesser things are the same size

The saying is falsely attributed to Mark Twain.

(source)

A vast multitude of Christians were convicted in 64 AD not so much for the crime of starting fires as for hatred of humankind

". . . to die is gain"

"multitude ingens baud perinde in crimine incendii quam odio humani generis convicti sunt"

Tacitus, Annals 15.44

The progress of religion?

Judaism is replete with sacrificed animals.

Christianity is obsessed with the sacrificial death of one man.

And now Islamists want to fill the world with the blood of all infidels.

It's regressive revelation, not progressive.

 

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

-- Hosea 6:6 

France's Muslim problem: It has about 1600 "free" foreign imams imported from Morocco, Algeria and Turkey

Reported here in Bloomberg View:

'Many of these imams don't feel French, speak the language well, or understand the lives of many of the second and third-generation immigrants they serve, according to [Abdelali] Mamoun [imam of Alfortville just outside Paris]. Many speak as though their congregations have to make a choice between being Muslim and French. Some just say daily prayers and leave, according to Mamoun, rather than trying to teach and mentor their congregations. Freelance "predators" then mix among the youngsters and draw them away for indoctrination, he says.'

Christ will not save you from the Muslim

Only you will save yourself from the Muslim

Say Jesus rose from the dead: What difference has it made?

The religion of pieces strikes again but the French remain in utter denial

In front of the theatre attacked in Paris last night, a piano is set out front on which a man comes up and plays "Imagine", John Lennon's ode to atheism, and leaves. A French soccer star who lost a cousin to the terrorists tweets that the important thing to maintain is that the horror in Paris last night "has no religion". And a rose and note are stuck in a bullet hole made by the Muslim terrorists asking "In the name of what?"

In the name of Allah, of course.

For a god who doesn't exist an awful lot of French people no longer do, either. Atheism, at any cost.

Image here.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali names religion academics John Esposito and Karen Armstrong "apologists for Islam"

It's about time somebody did.

Here in "Islam is a religion of violence" in Foreign Policy:

'Popular academics such as John Esposito at Georgetown and author Karen Armstrong believe that religion — Islam, in this case — is the “circumstantial” bit and that the real causes of Islamist violence are poverty, political marginalization, cultural isolation, and other forms of alienation, including real or perceived discrimination against Muslims. These apologists for Islam use words such as “radicalism,” “violent extremism,” and “terrorism” to describe the various attacks around the world committed in the name of Islam. If Islam is mentioned at all, it is to say that Islam is being perverted, or hijacked. They are quick to assert that Islam is no different from any other religion, that there are terrible aspects to other religions, and that Islam is in no way unique. That view is more or less the “official” view of policymakers, not only of the U.S. government, but also of most Western countries (though policy changes are beginning to appear on this front in some countries such as the U.K., Canada, and Australia). But the apologists’ position has been a complete policy failure because it denies the religious justifications the Quran and the Hadith provide for violence, gender inequality, and discrimination against other religions. ... [T]he intolerant and violent aspects of the Quran and the Hadith are never acknowledged or rejected.'

The partiality of Jesus: Good news for the lost sheep of the house of Israel

"For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet: The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs."  -- Mark 7:25ff.

"And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs." -- Matthew 15:22ff.

"These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." -- Matthew 10:5f.

"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." -- Matthew 7:6

"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." -- Revelation 22:14f.

The conversion of Peter to Paulinism

Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. ... Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

-- Acts 10:28, 34f.

The stairway to heaven, but the highway to hell

(seen here)

The way of life: It's your choice

[T]here is iron in your words of life. No signed paper can hold the iron. It must come from men. The words of Ten Bears carry the same iron of life and death. It is good that warriors such as we meet in the struggle of life ... or death. It shall be life. So will it be.

 

-- Ten Bears in The Outlaw Josey Wales

And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.

 

-- Jeremiah 21:8

The Way of God

And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men. -- Matthew 22:16

And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? -- Mark 12:14

And they asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly: -- Luke 20:21

And [Apollos] began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. -- Acts 18:26

What marriage used to mean

'In publicly advocating that the king’s marriage was indissoluble, Fisher argued that “this marriage of the king and queen can be dissolved by no power, human or Divine.” For this principle, he said, he was willing to give his life. He continued by noting that John the Baptist saw no way to “die more gloriously than in the cause of marriage,” despite the fact that marriage then “was not so holy at that time as it has now become by the shedding of Christ’s Blood.” Like Thomas More and John the Baptist, [Bishop John] Fisher was beheaded, and like them, he is called “saint.”'

Read the whole thing, here, from Archbishop of Denver Samuel Aquila.

However consequential Jesus has been for human history, zeal for Muhammad's message and its success have been at least comparable

From a follower of NT Wright, here:

"The real Jesus must have been . . . consequential. Jesus left such an impact on the early Christians that they were willing to suffer and die for their testimony that he’d risen from the dead. A failed prophet or revolutionary might have attracted lasting admiration at best, but what could’ve happened to make devout monotheistic Jews worship this man after his death?"

For a false prophet in the opinion of Christians, Muhammad's message has built quite a following in the world despite being a younger religion in the history of humankind. It's laughable not to notice how successfully Islam has revolutionized vast swaths of the globe despite having no divine man who rose from the dead to worship, and how many have died in the cause of pressing its case on an unbelieving world in the past and in our own time, through war and through martyrdom. 

Worldwide the 1.6 billion adherents of Islam face Mecca five times a day in something more than "lasting admiration", and now equal more than 70% of the global Christian population, while Hinduism's practitioners equal another 50%. Together the Muslims and Hindus outnumber the followers of Christ by over 20%.

Consider how many Muslims have martyred themselves in suicide bombings just in the period since 1982, as tracked by the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism, here. There are in excess of 4,600 cases. Compare that with the number of Christians martyred until the time of Constantine, which my late teacher Robert M. Grant in a seminar on the apologists back in the day once put at no more than 5,000.  

Jesus was no more comprehensible in his time than Noah was in his

From a disciple of NT Wright, here:

  The real Jesus must have been ... comprehensible. Jesus was a first-century Jew from Galilee, and so we should expect his words and deeds to fit within this historical and geographical context. His message must have been understandable and on some level plausible to first-century Jews in order to have gained a hearing among them. This is why it’s so hard to see Jesus as a pagan myth or a Cynic philosopher; these portraits simply don’t make sense in Jesus’s Jewish context.

On the contrary, Jesus' frame of reference came entirely from the last episode of worldwide judgment in Jewish mythology.

 

Did Noah's warning of impending doom "make sense in Noah's 'Jewish' context"? No. Did he "gain a hearing among" his peers? No, they all perished. And with what social convention did Noah comply in building and entering the ark? None. He was by all accounts crazy.

As it was in the days of Noah . . ..

-- Luke 17:26

They don't call him NT Wrong for nothing.

In Paul's mind, the Council of Jerusalem boiled down to one thing, about which Acts 15 says not one thing

 

Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.

-- Galatians 2:10

A Methodist imagines a more demanding form of discipleship would look like the church of the post-war

You know, when families were bigger, more people went to church, more came weekly, more prayed, perhaps at least at every meal because families ate together then, more attended Bible study or Sunday School, and more tithed of their time if not of their treasure.

Now all that looks like an impossibly lost ideal.

Seen here:

"Discipleship has some built-in defining characteristics that are much more demanding than occasionally showing up. People who haven’t shared in public worship for two years should not be called disciples. Those too busy to pray, who have no time to meet with other Christians for accountability and spiritual practice, who neglect a sacrificial commitment of time or money should not be called disciples. Those who do meet to debate carpet colors, criticize the pastoral leadership, snipe over music styles, and decide who isn’t welcome are not disciples. Those who only pay attention to the parts they like and that make them feel comfortable and lovable are not disciples. Come on! Why would anyone want to be a disciple if the key qualification is breathing?"

There's that dying vision of discipleship, at least in America, and then there's discipleship, the kind Jesus taught which the church has from the beginning safely stored away in a box reserved only for its true believers, its fanatics.

"So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own." -- Luke 14:33

When you drop this first demand, all the other dominoes fall . . . eventually. 

The tragedy of our times is that we are incapable of being disciples

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seen here, where asceticism is kept as the way of the true Christian life, followed by the very few, whereas the imminently coming judgment, for which Jesus' asceticism was originally prescribed to permit the disciple successfully to navigate it, goes wholly unmentioned:

You know, I recall the words of St. Gregory the Dialogist. He asked which is more correct: to zealously keep the fasts and be ascetic but proud, or to be humble and keep almost nothing? ... Gregory the Dialogist says, no. Let there be pride, but the person should labor ascetically; and the Lord Himself will find a way to humble him. However, there are few of us who zealously observe everything. ... [T]he tragedy of our times is that we are incapable of being disciples. ... Specifically the will for asceticism is paralyzed. Everyone knows and understands all this very well but they can hardly do anything about it. It is because this web has ensnared all of us, and only the Lord can somehow interfere and change it all. Thus have we gotten stuck in these nets—and this includes you and me. ... God looks at the man, at how he forces himself. ... We all have different passions, different inclinations. If we force ourselves, the Lord will reward us.

The tragedy of our times is the same tragedy which has afflicted Christianity since its inception: the failure of the kingdom to come, and the failure of the parousia.

With two hours to go to the end of the world there's no sign of a fireball let alone any heat

'Twas the night of the eschaton

and all through the house

not a creature was stirring 

in fear of a megaton . . .