An Ardent Heart
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The Hungry Dudes: Reblog Contest: Win a White Castle Candle
So here’s what happened. My wife Angela loves candles and I bought her a rare White Castle candle for her birthday. I had to visit 3 White Castles in the Detroit area just to find it.
The candle smells like a burger. The outside is ceramic in the likeness of a White Castle hamburger box.
Turns…
(Source: thehungrydudes)
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More thoughts on Glee’s Faith
Fin ate a week old cheese sandwich that had been taken into a locker room. If you can get past this disturbing thought, the beauty of him eating his Grilled Cheeus is wonderful. He discovers that God doesn’t work the way he thought, that the Big Questions are big for a reason, but he didn’t throw away the sandwich. It was a sandwich, and the purpose of a sandwich is to be eaten, to nourish the body. But this sandwich represented more than that to him. Ultimately, he didn’t discard that personal revelation that came into his life and forced him to face the Big Questions, but rather took it into himself and allowed it to nourish him. Perhaps it’ll grow into something more.
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Glee’s Faith
Glad to see a diverse sampling of religiosity displayed. The childlike, God of the gaps faith of Finn, the cultural faith of Rachel, the depth of Puck and Mercedes, the rational atheist in Kurt, and the broken atheist in Coach Sylvester.
Glad that they didn’t skewer any of them except the extremely facile faith of Finn, and that there were no conversions to anything. I think theism and atheism were both dealt with respectfully and knowledgeably, which I’d hope for given the writing staff.
The songs weren’t the strongest, but very appropriate, even though it felt weird having Rachel singing to Kurt’s dad.
I wish they’d have a Kurt episode where he doesn’t cry, though. I also wish they’d better use Quinn in episodes that seem quite natural for her (re: Home, Faith).
I like these episodes much better than the theme episodes, where they try to construct a plot around a guest star or a song.
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Detroit 187 (there’s a lot of country between the coasts)
It’s an okay show. Not remarkable, not terrible. I like that it tries to captures the feel of Detroit. I like the soundtrack, though it was better in the pilot. What I don’t like? The influence of Hollywood forcing California on everything.
1. 187 is not the homicide code in Michigan. I guess it’s become synonymous with homicide, so if we’re expecting it to be a story completely set aside from reality, kudos.
2. Michigan doesn’t have the death penalty. Why the fuck would the prosecutor push for the death penalty? Oh, way, he wouldn’t, because the most severe sentence in Michigan is natural life.
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Things I’m thankful for…
Apples. Beautiful fruits with a wonderful crunch, enough acid not to be cloyingly sweet, but sweet nonetheless. Wonderful size, shape, edible skin. Apples are the perfect fruit.
That dinger in my car that tells me I left my lights on. Without it, I’d have to jump my car at least weekly. I know; I did this in high school when I drove a car that didn’t have that dinger.
Wool socks. They’re so comfy.
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Mosques and Qur’an burnings and Eucharist defiling
Just some thoughts on all this ecumenical drama:
1. It is within the rights of the Cordoba house to build on the property that they’ve been approved for. The furor didn’t flair up until a year+ after they got permission. I perceive this as the rest of the country being knee-jerk patriotic and yes, anti-muslim.
2. It is with the rights of Pastor Jones to burn the Qur’an. It may not be the brightest move (it isn’t), but there is no law prohibiting him from doing so, just as there is no law preventing Phelps from protesting every screening of the Laramie Project.
I remember a few years back when PZ Myers decided to get people to send him consecrated hosts for the expressed purpose of defiling them. When I expressed sadness and anger over this, it was met with derision by pretty much everyone. They viewed it as a stupid symbol that Catholics get too worked up over. There was no collective moral outrage beyond Bill Donaghue (I hate to side with him on anything, but just this once…) and Co. So, why is it okay to organize a campaign to defile that which is most sacred to Catholics, but doing the equivalent thing to Muslims is met with worldwide, ecumenical outrage?
I’m not bitter, and I’m not asking for tit for tat. I don’t think that this, now called-off, burning should happen, or should’ve been proposed, and I don’t wish that that Muslim community goes through what Catholics went through with the Eucharist debacle. But I would like to know why the response is so different.
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Religion in two Americas
A good read that emphasizes the two aspects of the debate concerning the Islamic center near Ground Zero and many other religious issues.
“There’s an America where it doesn’t matter what language you speak, what god you worship, or how deep your New World roots run. An America where allegiance to the Constitution trumps ethnic differences, language barriers and religious divides.
[…]
But there’s another America as well, one that understands itself as a distinctive culture, rather than just a set of political propositions”
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Fractured thoughts on the Assumption.
Humans are body and spirit; divorcing the two is denying part of the human experience. If I understand correctly, this is also one of the gnostic ideas rejected by orthodox Christianity, though it seems to have resurfaced in some modern Protestant churches.
The Assumption is an old idea, only recently pronounced an infallible doctrine, is an old idea. The idea, at least in my understanding, is that Mary, upon the end of this life, immediately received the fullness of Jesus’ promise of the afterlife.
I sort of like the Orthodox understanding; natural death and fulfillment of an eternal reward. If I recall correctly, Catholicism leaves open the question of whether she actually died; I prefer to think that she did. Otherwise it really doesn’t make any sense for me; it becomes hardened in a way that myths aren’t supposed to be hardened.
Also in the Orthodox teaching is the name: the Dormition of Mary. The going to sleep of Mary. The power of death is broken; she is not dead, but asleep to this world and awoken in another. And this notion is very nice for the rest of humanity, because unlike her God/Man son, she was all human, as we are. If that’s her end, we can hope that ours will be the same.
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I love it when Catholics…
…forget which pew they were in on their way back from communion. I really do find this adorable and endearing.
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Anger
Angry at “safe” christianity. Too sterile. Angry at christian art made for the purpose of making christian art, rather than art made out of joy or exaltation of the human spirit.
Angry at advertising. Just trying to convince us that our life isn’t complete if we don’t have the right whitening product for our teeth, or if we don’t have the right car.
Can’t talk someone into Christianity. Can show how much more easily. Angry at people who try, who treat others as conversion projects.
Angry at across the board uneveness in handling various sins. Nun excommunicated for recommending termination of a pregnancy to preserve the life of the mother, priests kept in active ministry despite knowledge of abuse.
Belief v. Faith. Belief v. Faith. Belief is intellectual assent to propositions. Faith is trust in the goodness of God. Faith isn’t faith if nothing proceeds from it.
