The Manhattan Declaration

http://www.manhattandeclaration.org/

It's about time some pastors, priests and academics got around to a public acknowledgment that they know the lions are being readied in this country, and that they will not cringe in the face of them.

I do not think it will succeed in stopping the coming persecution, but it is nice to know that, so far, 87,000 people will be joining me in the jails and "re-education camps."

Of course, no one really knows how per will ultimately respond when haled before an unconstitutional "human rights" tribunal; still, it is easier to suffer when it is known that others are doing likewise for the same convictions.

Trying to make sense

in letter (edited) to a friend.

Anyway, you have hit the nail right on the head: the freaking Catholic church is schizo. It always has been, but Vatican II reduced it to a state of gibbering impotence (and it is not just the American church - the German bishops are mostly insane, I think). The Orthodox Church of America, or at least some of its hierarchs, flat out blame Roe v. Wade and the 36 year-long inability to do away with it on the schizophrenia of the Catholic church (though they do not use that term!). The Magisterium does have a clear, solid teaching on just about everything, or is working on one, and compassion does undergird it. But since Vat II, the great majority of bishops have simply refused to teach it to their flocks and apply it (whereas before Vat II they perhaps applied it legalistically and without the compassion and love that characterizes it). Papa Ratzi seems to be committed to "reforming the reform," but I think all he really can do is keep slowly moving men like Burke, Chaput, and Tobin into higher positions so that they can replace the modernist bishops as they age out of their bishoprics. I am reminded of what arch-atheist Ayn Rand said of the Catholic church (actually, the "Vatican" as a eponym for "Magisterium"): "The Vatican is not the city room of a third-rate Marxist tabloid. It is an institution geared to a perspective of centuries, to scholarship and timeless philosophical deliberation." Or, as as JPII put it, "It is an expert in humanity."

Of course, experts are often wrong, which is why I no longer believe in the infallibility of the Magisterium on matters of faith and morals, in the sense required by the dogma. Good human experts are self-correcting, and may eventually get "it" mostly right before they die; since the Magisterium is motivated by a desire for good, it is helped by the Holy Spirit, and does, I think, get it right over the centuries. Take for instance Catholic social doctrine (since I have been thinking about it recently!): B16 just promulgated Caritas in veritate which reaffirmed Catholic social values in the face of the moral relativism of the West. In particular, he reaffirmed the need for subsidiarity and solidarity (the social order should be built from the bottom up, with the higher levels of organization existing to assist lower levels with problems beyond their immediate scope, and in no way interfering in those things the smaller organizations can do on their own; the social order must be interconnected for the common good). Well, Hell's Bells, the "Gospel Order" George Fox laid out for the Society to follow in the late 1600s, when the Magisterium still championed the divine right of kings and the power of the nobility over the peasantry, was and still mostly is the current Catholic social doctrine. I am not claiming infallibility for the Society, of course; it is as schizo as the Catholic church right now, and in any case never made the dogmatic claims of the Magisterium. But it too is motivated by compassion and love, and hence it too is helped along by the Holy Spirit to eventually get things right. That Manhattan Declaration mentions how the Catholic church condemned slavery in the 15th century and excommunicated some people. Well, yes, it did, but it had no follow through (too busy hunting down and killing heretics, I guess): It was the Society that followed through en masse and shamed everyone else into following. I truly think the nakedness before God that characterizes Quaker worship is why Friends have such a history of "leading" the way; if you spend your days attentive to "leadings," amongst other people doing the same, then it just makes sense that the Spirit might give you a corporate jump on things. Of course, having a Magisterium is a better way to effect changes once they are decided upon - if the Magisterium is doing its job. And once the Magisterium moves from a reactionary to a proactive mode.

Am I making any sense at all? Let me try to tighten things up a bit. I believe the Church (capital "C") is just as Penn describes it here

The humble, meek, merciful, just, pious and devout souls are
everywhere of one religion; and when death has taken off the
mask, they will know one another though the diverse liveries
they wear here makes them strangers.
- William Penn, "Some Fruits of Solitude," 1718 ed.

and not confined to those who outwardly profess the historical Christ. The object of faith, according to the Quaker Barclay, Penn's contemporary and a like thinker, is Deus loquens - "God speaking" in the soul. Those who listen and obey comprise the Church of Christ, whatever their "diverse liveries" on earth, and the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against the Church. Particular "Christian" churches, so long as they stay rooted in love, will always progress in Truth. The Society made its greatest strides while it was still in unity, or in the immediate years after the schisms tore it apart; that is, while love still ruled it. I think it has been coasting in on its reputation for a good hundred years now, though I am sure many Friends will disagree with that. But, it is slowly reuniting, so there is great hope for it and the world. The Catholic church tainted itself with the world way back in the time of Constantine, and has done horrific things. The Magisterium is neither indefectible nor infallible; however, it's very adherence to its Gospel foundation has allowed it to creep in the right direction over the centuries, despite itself. God can cause even the Magisterium to do good! I think the Catholic church is indeed an expert in humanity, even if that includes being an expert on how to screw things up royally. I have to say, though, those "churches" now founded on the Jesus Seminar's ersatz "gospel," or some similar "we-now-know" arrogance, are spoken of in the NT - they call good evil and evil good, and will only continue their slide into Hell.

Obviously, I am a very Catholic Quaker :-) I always turn to Catholic teaching for guidance, while recognizing that it took the Magisterium two hundred years to get to the Quaker position on social order, and three hundred to recognize the need for that religious liberty the first few generations of Friends were imprisoned for in their tens of thousands and died for in their hundreds (and the Anabaptists, Vaudois and Brethren died for in their thousands even before the Friends).

Tobin is part of the Magisterium's return to mental health. If more bishops follow, there might be hope for this nation, yet, despite the fact that third-rate Marxists control the government, lauded by the third-rate Marxist tabloids that now pass as the mainstream media (did you catch Camille Paglia's comment on the MSM? "Only a simpleton would believe what they say.")

Corduroy blues

The corduroy I bought for my wamus-cut jacket is good stuff: rich chocolate brown, 21 wale material with a nice nap. I bought enough, I think, for a coat and vest. I have a piece of old - perhaps as old as I am - burgundy velour with which to line both. I like high wale corduroy, and I imagine that, with patience, I will be able to hand-stitch a fine coat and vest for fall and spring use for years to come, for less than $25. Even if I bought new lining, I could still come under $30.

However, its seems you cannot buy curdoroy made in America; at least, none of the stores around here say you can, and I could not find it on the internet. So, I rationalized and intellectualized buying it, even though the corduroy came from China. And I have not worked on it for a month. Even the fact that I use sewing as a vehicle for prayer has not helped: my prayers and my minor support of China's burgeoning "freedoms" cannot justify one farthing to a regime that hunts down hiding pregnant women in order to murder their children, not to mention its brutal torture and killing of State-unapproved religious believers (of course, the two are linked, as explicitly evidenced by Victoria Australia's Mockery of Human Rights).

The recent spectacle of the Marxist infanticide Obama kowtowing to his unspiritual mentors has dragged my own hypocrisy into the Light. Oddly, though, it has also provided me with a solution to my blues, and I can resume work on the jacket: I will simply donate the finished coat to the Thrift store or Goodwill, so that some small amount of good will come out of my error.

A Letter to my Senator

Senator Casey,

I just recently have read a marvelous definition of "faith" in "A Meditation on the Prayer of St. Francis," by the Quaker, Anne Curo. She writes, "Faith does not expect specific results, as we sometimes think; faith is more an ability to accept whatever may happen when we know we are doing the right thing."

It is time now to stop hiding in the "seamless garment" dodge, Senator, and take your full part in the war to end the killing of the innocents. Obama may have no problem cynically misrepresenting Bernardin to further the culture of death, but it is time for you to start acting like a Christian Catholic and defend life.

A lot of prayer and effort by good Christians and thoughtful people went into the fight to get Pitts-Stupak into the House healthcare bill. You had better make it clear to your colleagues and publically to the NATION that you, Robert Casey, will fight just as hard as Pitts and Stupak did to keep abortion out of healthcare.

Fail in this, and lose your seat next election. The garment will not hide you any longer; it will not protect you: The bishops are waking from their complacent slumber. Fail in this, and your children will grow to know that you are a not good man, but merely a politician.

What will it be, Senator? Will you take your place at the foot of the cross, or will you take your thirty pieces of silver, hoping that it will buy you the next election? It won't.

Would anyone read these books...

based on this not-so-final draft of my review for the Pittsburgh MM newsletter? Fortunately, I suspect more editing suggestions are on the way.

Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed and The Politics of Repentance

We live in a world that not only accepts the ultimate efficacy of violent solutions, but which invites violent entertainment into its homes routinely. Whether one is raised as a non-violent witness or comes to be one as an adult, it is inevitable that one will face the varieties of "what if?" that both the casually and thoughtfully violent believe invalidate the testimony of nonviolence. We need be ready, following Peter, to "always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for" our witness; at the same time, being only human, we need to know, or simply be reminded, that our convictions have borne fruit in the past. Two books in the meeting-house library go a long way to fulfilling these needs.

Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed , by Phillip Hallie, a philosopher and researcher into the "roots of human cruelty," is "the story of the village of Le Chambon and how goodness happened there." In his literary tapestry of the the Chambonnais witness, Hallie uses the lives and thoughts of André and Magda Trocmé as the warp that ties together the many disparate threads of the weft - the individual and collective contributions of Reverend Édouard Theis, the Huguenot and Darbyste villagers, the AFSC mission in southern France, and even those French and German officers who responded to "that of God" within them. Together, these compose but one picture of the peaceful campaign waged against radical, dehumanizing evil in the Haute-Loire uplands of WWII France. By war's end, between 2500 and 5000 men, women, and children, but mostly Jewish children, were saved from the Nazis and Vichy French by the villagers of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon."

If Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed, found in section "H" of the library, serves to inspire, André Trocmé's The Politics of Repentance, shelved a quarter turn to the right in "I," provides a set of philosophical, moral and religious reasons for non-violent resistance. To put it succinctly, for the Christian pastor Trocmé, "the secret of the universe is that your life has an absolute value," and the secret to peace is that "your neighbor is as real as you are and deserves quite as much consideration." Making explicit the essential truth that undergirds Martin Niemöller's famous poem, Trocmé held, according to Hallie, "that 'decent' people who stay inactive out of cowardice or indifference when around them human beings are being humiliated and destroyed are the most dangerous people in the world." The tension that exists between the absolute need to respond to evil directed at others and the need to respect all human life runs through both these books; however, while Hallie often uses emotive prose to highlight this tension, in The Politics of Repentance Trocmé deals with it with dispassion in a series of lectures (the book itself is collection of his contributions to The Robert Treat Paine Lectures for 1951) on, among other topics, "The Highest Good," "Sacrifice," "Society-as-it-ought-to-be vs. Society-as-it-is," "What is Truth?" and "God's Time and Man's."

Trocmé was no friend of relativism, either moral or otherwise. A Huguenot pastor, some of his views will not sit well with Friends. But he devoted his life to peace, and in the most concrete manner imaginable. He and his wife Magda both were awarded the Médaille des Justes by the government of Israel; indeed, eventually, the Yad Vashem honored as "Righteous Gentiles" all the residents of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and the surrounding area. Friends may debate the value of such awards. One thing, I think, is not debatable. Friends should know this story and be familiar with this man's thought. In this violent world of relative truths, all those who benefited from the witness of the Trocmés, Theis, and community of La Chambon, know an absolute truth, as do their generations: They know absolutely the answer to this question - "What if the Chambonnais had not done as they did?"

Friends' "greeting"

I just came across this - I do not think it truly every registered just how much the first Friends loved and suffered until now.

... and she took me frequently to meetings with her, where she often had some words in testimony; persecution being still very hot, and friends locked out of out meeting-house at Strickland, we met at the door, and I remember at two several times when I was a child, and came to meeting with my mother, the informers came, the first time the meeting had been over about half and hour, the second time not quite so much, so that we escaped their hands both times; but sundry friends were in prison at Appleby for attending that meeting, whom my dear mother went to visit, taking me along with her, and we had meeting with the prisoners, several friends from other places being likewise there by appointment. What I observed was, though very young, how tender and broken they were; and I was very inquisitive of my mother, why they cried so much, (which we call greeting) and thee greet too, (said I) why did thee? She told me that I could not understand the reason of it then, but when I grew up more to man's estate I might.

- from, An Account of the Life and Travels of Samuel Bownas

I have read many historical accounts of how the persecution was carried out, but they stayed just that - dry history. But that one parenthetical phrase has simply stunned me - "which we call greeting." What is it to live an existence where crying and greeting are so linked in a people's mind? And I am not just thinking now of Quakers, but also of the Vaudois, Brethren, Mennonites, Doukhobors, Molokans, and all the others persecuted by the Orthodox, Protestant, and Catholic churches for their "subversive" beliefs.

мирный королевство

Peaceable Kingdom

http://www.usccdoukhobors.org/galleries/webgalleryindex.htm#id=album19&num=1

As I again watch this long procession up the mountain, the slide show accompanied by this moving Doukhobor a capella hymn, which I think is about both their principle of "Toil and Peaceful Life" and our final repose at the toil's end, I know I have to spend some time here. I can't find any of my Russian language books, but there are grammars online, and plenty of untranslated material from which to work. Assuredly, all the Spirit-Wrestlers in Canada speak English now, but I suspect the richness of this spiritual way can only be appreciated in its own language.

And of course, I can also learn how to make pyrahi the "right" way.

Finally!

At the rate I am sewing, my neighbor is right - I will finish my suit in time to be buried in it (assuming, that is, I live to my father's age). But to go easy on myself, I had it mostly done weeks ago and put it aside to make the shirt for my greatnephew, as well as take care of sundry other material things. I think I have a handle on "tailoring" to individual measurements, though on the linen-cotton shirt that is next I do believe I will lose some of the fulness in the sleeves. And another 3/8 inch needs to come off the collar: Without a tie, I need a high and snug collar to "feel" comfortable, but this is a bit too Victorian even for my tastes. The covered buttons may go, too: I didn't use any extra material this way, but it seems a bit stylish.

On the other hand, I am not affecting the "plain" look, but merely going for simple, handmade, inexpensive, and from good fabric not grown or manufactured by wage slaves. My cheap black suit is plain enough, and triplely so with a bedsheet shirt, but I'd like to make another out of heavier cloth. And semi-dress solid tweed coat for fall and spring.

Cheap, sturdy, handmade, semi-dress clothing: This will have to pass for my "plain."