Frederica Reviews The Da Vinci Code for National Review online

Here's a brief excerpt and link

"The movie’s premise, that the Church degraded St. Mary Magdalene and concealed her tomb, is such a whopper that it deprives the plot of traction; only the completely ignorant can maintain such extreme suspension of disbelief. St. Mary Magdalene was so beloved and admired that both Ephesus and Provence claim she spent her final years evangelizing among them, and her relics — far from hidden — were enshrined and venerated in both locations. She’s honored as a great saint, named patroness of churches and convents, pictured in icons and celebrated with liturgical hymns. How ignorant of history would you have to be to not know this?

So the movie’s plot is even more of a muddle than the book’s. (And as a friend told me, the book is so ahistorical that she had to pretend it was a sci-fi work about alternative reality to get through)."

http://www.frederica.com/writings/davinci-code.html

Aramaic Christians II

I thought of some other links to add to this topic..

links

"The Ascetics Jive Palace"
http://www.geocities.com/mfignatius/index2.html

"East of the Euphrates:Early Christianity in Asia" by T.V. Philip
http://www.religion-online.org/showbook.asp?title=1553

Of Academic Interest

http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/

http://www.bethmardutho.org/

Aramaic Christians

I Have to tip my hat to my sweetie for sending me a link that she got from"Justin Martyr's" blog. This is one of those favorite pet topics since not only do I love esoteric topics like this but I was actually in a church that's apostolic lineage was Aramaic/Syriac for a few years.

(hint- You may want to view this with Firefox instead of Internet explorer. There are some nice Aramaic music and slide shows apps that don't work on my machine when using Explorer but work just fine using Firefox.)


http://www.myspace.com/aramaicchristians



Some nice links on the subject...

Church/Bible history of the Aramaic Christians
http://www.aramnaharaim.org/english/aramean.htm


Syriac Orthodox Resources
http://sor.cua.edu/


Shoro online Syriac Christian Blog/magazine
http://www.socdigest.org/

Which Super Hero are you? While thinking about much much more serious topics, and reading some blogs of various folks today I ran acrossed this tongue in cheek personality test.

http://www.seabreezecomputers.com/superhero/


And my results were #1 "You are Green Lantern. Hot-headed. You have strong
will power and a good imagination." (got a 95%), and #2 was Spiderman... (90% score).

So I thought I would include it here for some light hearted enjoyment.

The Difference Between Discernment and judgement continued..


The engineers perspective continued


This is one of those topics that seems kind of dry on paper when your thinking about how to go about talking about it. But I think it's really a "fun" topic. But then again I'm not only a son of the military industrial complex but a History Channel junkie as well (And I love military history a specially studying military history, weapons tech etc.). I love all the scheming behind a concept and looking "to get the most bang for the buck" that comes with this discipline.


But cutting to the chase...

What is the Engineers Perspective? It really the same perspective that a lot of us have if we are a "smart shopper". Namely the ability to buy or in this case construct something based on a number of important specifications, requirements or needs. My family for the last 20+ really has been into using the magazine "Consumer Reports" when it came to making some of those important big ticket item purchases especially for buying cars, but also some of the other houshold appliances. That magazine is the epitome of this sort of reasoning. Products are evaluated on a number of important dimensions based on cost, performance, reliability, overall cost to maintain, as well as comfort, safety ratings as well as various features. And each one given a rating on each area as well as an overall value rating on which product is the overall "best deal".

People who design and invent things also have to think this way as well. I think that may even the most true for people who work for the goverment, especially designing for the Department of Defense. When the navy, airforce, army, orders a new tank, fighter, bomber etc. they have a list of mandatory specifications that must be met.

Let take a bomber for example... Based on my recollections some of our famous bombers had minimum requirements as far as such things as their operative range (the total miles they can fly on a tank of gas), total bomb load, armor and defensive systems, type of radar, max speed, cost to produce and so on.

So anyway like the parable of the blindman and the elephant I achowledge that Truth can be a complex multi sided thing. And likewise, a discerning engineer, needs to carefully think out designing his project to optimize the best combination and ammount of needs and requirements. And I would also state one of the Orthodox maxims that we are created in "the Image of God". The things we do finitely tend to be shadows of God's infinite nature. (While there is sin that corrupts aspects of human nature, God has nevertheless given us some revelation about His own nature in the way he has created us).

Anyway bringing this back to the topic at hand. If we are really going to think about what the nature is regarding the nature of judgement, discernment, truth etc. We really needed to a few basic things and that will be the subject of my next post....

Currently rereading this title

Paul Kirchner, Forgotten Fads and Fabulous Flops (Rhino Records, 1995)

We've all had those moments of brilliance, where some idea so astoundingly splendid and mind-bogglingly impressive that we can't believe no one else has ever thought of it pops into our head. You know, like pet rocks. Paper dresses. Instant fish kits. The "Interbang" (a cross between ? and ! to symbolize What the?!). Earring Magic Ken.
You get the idea. Okay, so maybe there are times when we're not such clever monkeys after all, and what seemed like a good idea at the time turns out to be a major dud, or forgotten within a year. Smell-O-Vision? Animal of the Month Club? The Amphicar (good on land and in the water)? Premature Burial Alarms?
The sad truth is that sometimes, we'll try anything that's neat and shiny and new. For, oh, five minutes. And that's where the fun comes in. This is a book composed solely of the most ridiculous fads to capture our attention, the most profound flops, the silliest patents, and the ideas that never got off the ground. Even the great geniuses had their off moments, such as Frank Lloyd Wright's Mile-High Building, Buckminster Fuller's Geodesic House (and Geodesic Bathroom, Geodesic Car, Triton City), Thomas Edison's Talking Doll, and Nikola Tesla's Death Ray.
Yes, this fascinating book covers the sublime and the ridiculous, with 237 pages devoted to hundreds of our finest moments as a tool-using, sentient, self-aware race. Numerous pictures and diagrams provide incontrovertible proof that -someone- thought that Reverend Moon's movie, Inchon, would be a success, or that goldfish swallowing was a smart and popular thing to do, or that Death Magazine would be a bestseller.
Air-cars. Coca-Cola wannabes. NEW COKE. (So good it deserves capital letters.) Failed celebrity franchise restaurants (such as Minnie Pearl's Chicken, Willie Mays Say-Hey Restaurants, and Tony Bennett's Spaghetti House.) Smokeless cigarettes. Kudzu.
Really, you'd think we'd learn better, after seeing what previous generations attempted. Rabage, a combination of cabbage and radish with none of the popularity. The Foot-Operated Breast-Enlarger Pump. Bird diapers.
Not everything in this book is completely useless. Some of it was just way ahead of its time, like the pneumatic subway, and picturephones. But then you get "No Frills Books," which were the ultimate manifestation of the generic concept. Entitled, simply, Science Fiction, Western, Romance, or Mystery, they delivered just that, using every cliche in the book.
Those who forget the past are doomed to fail when they inadvertently duplicate something already failed. Avoid Vietnam-styled theme parks, iceberg aircraft carriers, and women's urinals.
This book makes for truly fascinating reading, both out of morbid curiosity and genuine amusement. It's one of the finest looks at our least finest ideas that I've run across. Rhino Records seems to have an eye on culture and society, and they prove it here with Forgotten Fads and Fabulous Flops. Well-researched and cleverly written, it's like a time capsule of the damned.
Skunkguard. Trepanation. Rocket Belts. Forgotten bands of the San Francisco Sound (Blue Crumb Truck Factory, Immaculate Contraption, Fifty-foot Hose, and more!). Failed television shows like Huggy Bear and the Turkey, Weekend Nun, and Poochinski.
Wait. I remember Poochinski. Oh dear.
Anyway, this is one book that any pop culture fan will be glad to have, if just for the sheer giggles it's sure to create. But go ahead and laugh if you want, and say that we'll never be so foolish as to give in to fads like that, or ideas that awful.
Two words, bunkie.
Beanie Babies.
Have a nice day.
[Michael M. Jones]

from

http://www.greenmanreview.com/forgottenfads.html

Keeping up with what's going on in Egypt

my favorite Catholic blogger has been keeping me abreast at what's going on in my Church's homeland.

http://italiancatholic.blogspot.com/2006/05/blogger-alaa-and-others-arrested-in.html

and Some other bits of news.

Egyptian Blogger & human rights activist, "Alaa" arrested (shown in picture to the right). She journals the blog, "Freedom for Egyptians".

http://freedomforegyptians.blogspot.com/

Six Million African Muslims Convert to Christianity Each Year

Al-Jazeerah Website

http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles6/AlJazeerahAfrica.php

ordination pics IV

ordination pics III

Ordination pics II

The Difference Between Discernment and judgement coninued..

The engineers perspective.

I grew up the son of an engineer. A literal "rocket scientist" to be exact. My Father actually worked as a senior engineer for famous naval design base and testing station, known as "China Lake" which link is here.


http://www.nawcwpns.navy.mil/


Further I would even say I've got engineering "in my blood". When I take personality tests I tend to come up with engineering personality types. Like the INTJ (Scientist) for the myers briggs, or the investigator on the Enneagram. I think from not only from social conditioning growing up in a research and design community, but also in terms of basic inherited 'biological traits" there is something that really lends itself to this orientation.

I also believe that this is also true of God as well. When we review passages of the Bible dealing with such things as God as creator, Predestination and so on. It really looks like this is an aspect of God's personality, temperment, character etc.

Suprise Deaconation

I was ordained a "deacon" today. Technically speaking I think I am a "epsaltos", which is described in the bottom link.

Photos will be edited in when they are posted on the church web site or emailed to me. (This one does give you an idea what Coptic deacons look like).

http://saintabanoub.org/module-pagesetter-viewpub-tid-1-pid-158-page-3.html

Christianity Today covers St. Athanasius

Linking to the exact article screws up my format, but you can find it somewhere on the general site, which I have linked here.


http://www.christianitytoday.com/


excerpt

"Those who maintain 'There was a time when the Son was not' rob God of his Word, like plunderers."

"Black Dwarf" was the tag his enemies gave him. And the short, dark-skinned Egyptian bishop had plenty of enemies. He was exiled five times by four Roman emperors, spending 17 of the 45 years he served as bishop of Alexandria in exile. Yet in the end, his theological enemies were "exiled" from the church's teaching, and it is Athanasius's writings that shaped the future of the church...

The Difference Between Discernment and judgement

I've been thinking a lot about this issue lately, especially in light of some recent conversations over the last few months. This was an issue I first really explored as a Charismatic when I encoutered some things said by various famous preachers that didn't jive, and I decided to really to do a thorough and detailed hard look about what the Bible says on the subject. And then later on I ran acrossed "post modern" Christians and issue came up again, and this has especially recently in light of issues of Christian morality and so on....


Basically stated the problem is: people tend to over generalize the term of "judging", as in the scripture that says "Judge not lest yee be judged" and they tend to apply it to all areas of discernment, applying church discipline etc. Far out reaching even the way the disciples who first received that instruction ever understood it to mean.


So for the week, maybe even two weeks I'm going to be writing down all the stuff I've studied and learned on this issue over the years.


INTRODUCTION

When I thought about how I should handle this topic over the last few hours, I decided to do this according to a autobiographical, developemental model. My brain basically works that way, as far as thinking back historically of what caused me to believe this and that, at this time and that. And of course "narratives" are all the rage in some circles where I use to hang out. So I'm basically taking a "Developmental model", hearkening back to my old psychology days. Where I talk about different times/ stages of developement in my life, what happened and so on...

One issue that I came to realize today is one big factor that first gave me an awareness of the need for discernment was my former background as a Lutheran. Specifically speaking my very long catechismal instruction when my parents and I joined the Wisconsin Evangelical Synod (or WELS) back in the end of the 1970s. At that time, I had a very long and ardous confirmation class (due to the fact that we lived a good 100 miles from the nearest WELs church). And at the time, as an adolescent both me and fellow student tended to get sick all of the time. Between communting and getting sick my confirmation lasted about 3 times longer than usual, which was really significant at the time; because preparing for confirmation classes really cut into my fun time! Which as a kid I naturally resented. In retrospect however I realize that my overly long catechism class was a blessing in disguise.

Here is an example of an online catechsim of my former denomination

http://www.wels.net/cgi-bin/site.pl?2617&collectionID=711&contentID=4333&shortcutID=2076


"The blessing in disguise", part, that I mentioned yesterday came from me learning unwittingly about a kind of "Common sense" philosophy about the Bible and ministry. Specifically Lutheran's realized that there was a certain ammount of "dynamic tension" in the Bible, and on various issues. They realized that there could be some complexity there, and at times a person could be in a situation where there one scripture might suggest one course of action and another a different one. So the Lutheran way was not to pick one scripture and base your decision on that but rather to consider the Bible as a whole, consider all the scriptures on the given issue. But not just that, think about other issues that are also tangental, or possibly could also affect one's policy.

So when it comes to the nature of "reality" on an issue I would say the Lutheran (as well as Orthodox etc.) view, would mirror that of the famous parable of

“Six Blind Men and An Elephant”

http://www.uiowa.edu/~cyberlaw/csl03/blindmen.html

This parable, however, would also be endorsed by other groups that I disagree with. Emergent and postmodern ones also endorse it. In my next post, (Which will be a brand new post, probably to not make overly long scrollers). I will talk about the "engineers perspective" when it comes to Truth, achomplishing objectives, setting sensible policy and so on. Because I think it is that view, when combined with such ideas like, dynamic tension, the blindmen and the elephant that sets, this view of the Bible apart from other belief systems that can have dubious credibilitity and reliability.

Back to Matthew

The Birth of Jesus Christ

18This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.


Commentary

you know I've actually been talking very recently about this passage. And there are a lot of traditional reasons to talk about it. With it being relevant to Jesus being the messiah and meeting those prophecies, the Incarnation, yada, yada this and that.


You know the reason why I've been talking about it? Premaritial sex. There are some liberal Protestants who say that it's not wrong. I've actually had to site this verse as a verse that prooves that sex between premarried folks is wrong. Because I've heard some pretty convoluted "Situational Ethics" based reasons on the subject.


Anyway besides all the lofty deep theological meanings of this passage. It does say something to our current state of morality today. As I said to one young man on the internet, "If sex between engaged couples wasn't wrong, then why didn't Joseph fib a little and say that Mary and him hooked up a few months ago? After all she was in danger of being stoned for adultary, he could have easily provided her with an Alibi!" Furthermore there are some other godly biblical figures that have also lied to save a person they loved from death etc. so I don't think that such a unreasonable assumption.


St. Joseph however "decided to put her away quietly", as the King James said, precisely because he was a "righteous man". He was righteous in that he knew right from wrong (and knew the importance of chastity), but also was kind in his righteousness and that is the reason he wanted to put her away rather than have her be punished for what would normally be considered incontrovertable evidence of adultary (because marital fidelity was mandatory with the betrothal in that culture, even before the marriage was consumated). Unlike many people of today, St. Joseph wasn't nonchalant about such things.