Jesus
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not "perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” (John 3:16-17)
Martin Buber
“In the relation to God, unconditional exclusiveness and unconditional inclusiveness are one. For those who enter into the absolute relationship, nothing particular retains any importance—neither things nor beings, neither earth nor heaven—but everything is included in the relationship. For entering into the pure relationship does not involve ignoring everything but seeing everything in the You, not renouncing the world but placing it upon its proper ground. Looking away from the world is no help toward God; staring at the world is no help either; but whoever beholds the world in him stands in his presences…” (from
I and Thou)
C.S. Lewis
“When I attempted a few minutes ago, to describe our spiritual longings, I was omitting one of their most curious characteristics. We usually notice it just as the moment of vision dies away, as the music ends, or as the landscape loses the celestial light… For a few minutes we have had the illusion of belonging to that world. Now we wake to find that it is no such thing. We have been mere spectators. Beauty has smiled, but not to welcome us; her face turned in our direction, but not to see us. We have not been accepted, welcomed, or taken into the dance. We may go when we please, we may stay if we can, no one cares. Now, a scientist may reply that since most of the things we call beautiful are inanimate it is not very surprising that they take no notice of us. That, of course, is true. It is not the physical objects that I am speaking of, but that indescribable Something of which they become for a moment the messengers. And part of the bitterness which mixes with the sweetness of that message is due to the fact that it so seldom seems to be a message intended for us, but rather something we have overheard. By bitterness I mean pain, not resentment. We should hardly dare to ask that any notice be taken of ourselves. But we pine. The sense that in the universe we are treated as strangers, the longing to be acknowledged, to meet with some response, the bridge some chasm that yawns between us and reality, is part of our inconsolable secret.” (from
The Weight of Glory)
Terrence Malick
Badlands (1972)
Days of Heaven (1978)
The Thin Red Line (1998)
The New World (2005)
Martin Heidegger
“Truth is the truth of Being. Beauty does not occur alongside and apart from this truth. When truth sets itself into the work, it appears. Appearance—as this being of truth in the work and as work—is beauty. Thus the beautiful belongs to the advent of truth, truth’s taking of its place. It does not exist merely relative to pleasure and purely as its object.” (from “The Origin of the Work of Art.”)
Saint Paul
“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (I Corinthians 13:12)
Marshall McLuhan
“All media work us over completely. They are so pervasive in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences that they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, unaltered.” (from
The Medium is the Massage)
Sufjan Stevens
And in my best behavior
I am really just like him
Look beneath the floorboards
For the secrets I have hid
(from “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.”)
F. Scott Fitzgerald
“And as I sat there brooding on the old unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s long dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it, He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.” (from
The Great Gatsby)
Yasujiro Ozu
Tokyo Story (1953)
George Steiner
“All representations, even the most abstract, infer a rendezvous with intelligibility or, at the least, with a strangeness attenuated, qualified by observance and willed form. Apprehension (the meeting with the other) signifies both fear and perception. The continuum between both, the modulation from one to the other, lie at the source of poetry and the arts.” (from
Real Presences)
Paul Tillich
“What is the nature of a being that is able to produce art? Man is finite. He is, as one could say, mixed of being and nonbeing. Once he was not. Now he is and some time he will not be. He is not by himself, but thrown into existence and he will be thrown out of existence and cease to be for himself. He is delivered to the flux of time which runs from the past to the future through the ever-moving point which is called the present. He is aware of the infinite. He is aware that he belongs to it. But he is also aware that he is excluded from it… Out of the anxiety, and the double awareness that we are finite and that we belong to infinity from which we are excluded, the urge arises to express the essential unity of that which we are in symbols which are religious and artistic.” (from
On Art and Architecture)
Dorothy Sayers
“Poets have, indeed, often communicated in their own mode of expression truths identical with the theologians’ truths; but just because of the difference in the modes of expression, we often fail to see the identity of the statements.” (from
The Mind of the Maker)
Over the Rhine
What a beautiful piece of heartache this has all turned out to be.
Lord knows we've learned the hard way all about healthy apathy.
And I use these words pretty loosely.
There's so much more to life than words.
(from “Latter Days”)
Soren Kierkegaard
“He will grant thee a hiding place within Him, and once hidden in Him he will hide thy sins. For He is the friend of sinners... He does not merely stand still, open His arms and say, 'Come hither'; no, he stands there and waits, as the father of the lost son waited, rather He does not stand and wait, he goes forth to seek, as the shepherd sought the lost sheep, as the woman sought the lost coin. He goes--yet no, he has gone, but infinitely farther than any shepherd or any woman, He went, in sooth, the infinitely long way from being God to becoming man, and that way He went in search of sinners.” (from
Training in Christianity)
Richard Linklater
Before Sunrise (1995)
Waking Life (2001)
Before Sunset (2004)
George MacDonald
“In what belongs to the deeper meanings of nature and her mediation between us and God, the appearances of nature are the truths of nature, far deeper than any scientific discoveries in and concerning them. The show of things is that for which God cares most, for their show is the face of far deeper things than they; we see in them, in a distant way, as in a glass darkly, the face of the unseen. It is through their show, not through their analysis, that we enter into their deepest truths. What they say to the childlike soul is the truest thing to be gathered of them.” (from
The Voice of Job)
Emily Dickinson
The Bustle in a House
The Morning after Death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted opon Earth –
The Sweeping up the Heart
And putting Love away
We shall not want to use again
Until Eternity
John Steinbeck
“In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed, most of their vices are attempted short cuts to love. When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror.” (from
East of Eden)
Bob Dylan
He woke up, the room was bare
He didn't see her anywhere.
He told himself he didn't care,
pushed the window open wide,
Felt an emptiness inside
to which he just could not relate
Brought on by a simple twist of fate.
(from “Simple Twist of Fate”)
Walker Percy
“What is the malaise? You ask. The malaise is the pain of loss. The world is lost to you, the world and the people in it, and there remains only you and the world and you no more able to be in the world than Banquo’s ghost.” (from
The Moviegoer)
Sofia Coppola
Virgin Suicides (2000)
Lost in Translation (2003)
Marie Antoinette (2006)
Kathleen Norris
“Church is to be participated in and not consumed. The point is not what one gets out of it, but the worship of God; the service takes place both because of and despite the needs, strengths, and frailties of the people present. How else could it be?” (from
Dakota)
Marilynne Robinson
“Whenever I think of Edward, I think of playing catch in a hot street and that wonderful weariness of the arms. I think of leaping after a high throw and that wonderful collaboration of the whole body with itself and that wonderful certainty and amazement when you know the glove is just where it should be. Oh, I will miss the world!” (from
Gilead)
N.T. Wright
“Preaching the gospel means announcing Jesus as Lord of the world; and, unless we are prepared to contradict ourselves with every breath we take, we cannot make that announcement without seeking to bring that lordship to bear over every aspect of the world.” (from
What Saint Paul Really Said).
David Bazan
It's weird to think of all the things
That have not been keeping up with the times
It's ten o' clock the sun is down
Just begun to set the western hills on fire
I hear that you don't change
How do you expect to keep up with the trends
You won't survive the information age
Unless you plan to change the truth to accommodate the brilliance of man
The brilliance of man
(from “Letter From a Concerned Follower”)
G.K. Chesterton
“Gazing at some detail like a bird or a cloud, we can all ignore its awful blue background; we can neglect the sky; and precisely because it bears down upon us with an annihilating force it is felt as nothing. A thing of this kind can only be an impression and a rather subtle impression; but to me it is a very strong impression made by pagan literature and religion. I repeat that in our special sacramental sense there is, of course, the absence of the presence of God. But there is in a very real sense the presence of the absence of God. We feel it in the unfathomable sadness of pagan poetry; for I doubt if there was ever in all the marvelous manhood of antiquity a man who was happy as St. Francis was happy.” (from
The Everlasting Man)
Gus Van Sant
Elephant (2003)
Paranoid Park (2008)
Solomon
"I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one's lifetime; moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor--it is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him. That which is has been already and that which will be has already been, for God seeks what has passed by." (Ecclesiastes 3:10-15).
Jack Kerouac
“What is that feeling when you’re driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing?—it’s the too-huge world vaulting us, and it’s good bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.” (from
On the Road)
St. Augustine
"Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee..."
Martin Luther
“Unless I am convinced by proofs from Scriptures or by plain and clear reasons and arguments, I can and will not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen."
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
The Son (2002)
The Child (2005)
;
The Search 
I haven’t said a single thing about Robertson since his comments, and I agree that our energy is better spent productively– I’ve been doing some organizing for the Red Cross. However, I am reminded of conservative Christians who, after September 11, claimed that no prominent Muslims had denounced those atrocious acts done in the name of Islam, and that therefore we are justified in lumping all Muslims in the pro-jihadist category. There is a certain degree to which it is important to publicly proclaim our disagreement with evil, especially that evil which cloaks itself in the name of good.
I can understand why many of us Christians (including myself) are so quick to say, “Pat does not speak for me.” We still have nightmares from the Religious Right of the ’80s and ’90s, and even though many good mainstream evangelical Christians have come since then to take back Jesus, there are a lot of nonbelievers who still think Robertson and Falwell speak for us, so that’s why we’re so quick to distance ourself from Pat.
But like you said, the best thing for Christians to do is to donate money to relief groups, not bash Pat. Compared to all the people who are suffering right now, who cares what some idiot on TV thinks?
This is a great post. Thanks for the strong words.
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I think the point of your article could have been made (probably strengthened) without the sarcasm directed at Miller. I know he’s not one of your favorite people, but yikes.
I love the sentiments expressed here, and I personally could benefit from a lot more confidence in God’s work in our lives.
That said, I do feel that it is important to let people know that Pat’s sentiments don’t represent all Christian’s beliefs. He is a public figure and like it or not, he is held up as a Christian representative in the media. And his words do so much injustice against Jesus’ gospel message.
In the end God loves us, and he demonstrated this through Jesus Christ. More than anything I want people to know this in a profound way. But when a Christian LEADER goes on TV and speaks words that go against God’s love – especially to so many who already don’t understand it, I do feel compelled to take action.
You mentioned something a while back that I think about all the time – that we as Christians need to be even more diligent at correcting our own. Isn’t this the same idea?
We don’t want to attack Pat the person, but we don’t condone his words and actions.
Certainly we should not condone Robertson’s words; I definitely agree that we should “correct our own” when they are in the wrong. But I think this sort of discipline is best done in a more private, “in house” sort of way rather than the very public, twitter-to-everyone-in-the-world way that we’ve been doing. The Christians in Robertson’s life have a responsibility to confront him and call him out for his errors, just as we do when a member of our church behaves in a inappropriate way. But I don’t know that we need to make a big show about publicly denouncing or apologizing for Pat Robertson’s behavior. If asked, we should certainly assert our disagreement with what Robertson said, but to go out of our way to distance ourselves from such utter ridiculousness (his comments were so absurd they hardly dignify a response) in efforts to “protect” the integrity of the Gospel seems to me to make Christians look a little desperate.
How shameful how sad! Pat Robertson and his comments on the Haitian tragedy is racism, pure and simple. And he knows nothing about their history. So I guess slavery was good, right? And you should not try to free yourself from it if you were a slave. But the worst part, his sanctimonious posturing is the antithesis of Christ’s teaching. In fact, Pat Robertson I believe the Devil spoke through you!
Brett,
You’re earnest post leaves me perplexed. For starters, “One of the most devastating and tragic earthquakes of my lifetime hit the already downtrodden nation of Haiti on Tuesday”? The Indonesian (and subsequent tsunami) earthquake on Dec. 26, 2004 left nearly 300,000 people dead. The October 8, 2005 earthquake in Pakistan left over 50,000 dead. The earthquake on May 18, 2008 in Western China left nearly 100,000 dead. These were all just as sudden with countless lives lost. The tragedy is not that a massive earthquake hit and tens of thousands have died. The REAL tragedy is that most people in the U.S. didn’t care about Haiti before the earthquake. The REAL tragedy is that the experts were NOT surprised and the rest of us act shocked that such an atrocity of nature can occur. What’s discouraging is the extent of earnest, do good Christians that come out of the wood work when these events happen. If this country truly cared (deeply and profoundly) then we would spend more time trying to prepare these significantly inadequate locations for natural disasters. How many of the well intentioned Christians reading your post are actively lobbying for a reconstruction of New Orleans that will prevent a future catastrophe similar to or worse than Katrina? Same goes for the locations affected by the 2004 tsunami throughout Indonesia. The sad truth is that we, as Christians with platforms, like to find the popular tragedies of the moment to cling to for service and mission. Specifically, as it relates to Haiti, how many of your readers and those lobbying for action, had any concern for Haiti before the earthquake? Regrettably, Haiti’s been on the brink of complete despair for quite a long time now. Where were we then? Where will we be in five years? Ten? And these are just the tragedies by natural disasters. How does the conversation shift when discussing the man made catastrophes? From the recent genocides to the civilian casualties in Iraq since the war started. Also, I’m surprised by your fairly narrow minded perspective on the international context of the words by someone like Pat Robertson. Look at how much money his company pulls in annually. Look at the percentage of viewers he still attracts. Look at how many countries his television program reaches. By all means, it IS a serious concern for such ignorance to be shared on such a large scale. A recent parallel would be the destructive assistance Rick Warren and others gave in Uganda that did, in fact, lead to the deaths of Ugandan citizens (just for being gay). The other point I’m slightly confused on is….Pat Robertson is all that everyone is talking about? Has it been a news topic? Yes. Online and on TV? Yes. Is that all people are talking about? Not from what I’ve seen. Even the liberal sites/blogs don’t have Pat front and center. Swing by msnbc.com or even the Huffington Post to see just how much attention Pat isn’t getting. Pat Robertson proves just how destructive a Christian without a sound intellect can be. I’ve provided two links that I hope you, and others, find useful in processing and assisting those suffering in Haiti.
http://informationincontext.typepad.com/good_intentions_are_not_e/2010/01/suggestions-for-donors-in-choosing-ngos-to-donate-to-after-a-disaster.html
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/01/geopolitical-speculations-about-haiti.html
Brian,
I know your post was to Brett, but I have to respectfully disagree with your assertion that Christians are coming out of the woodwork just now that there has been a disaster in Haiti. I personally know of several Christians who have actively worked in Haiti long before the earthquake. I know Christians who moved to New Orleans to minister to those still impacted by Katrina. My own church just raised tens of thousands of dollars to build wells in a few countries. I have other friends who are part of ministries to stop sex trafficking. I try to help the best way I can (laid off several months ago so my funds are very limited) and hope to do more in the future.
What I’m saying is that just because a ton of Christians weren’t currently rallying to support Haiti before the earthquake doesn’t mean there weren’t many already helping. And for every Christian to take on every single cause (even those that aren’t “popular” at the moment) and be an advocate for every tragedy in the world would be impossible. Most Christians I know have one or two causes they work toward because that’s what has been laid on their heart. And they aren’t all the same cause–they vary widely from living in Yemen, Central Asia, or giving money to whatever organization they can.
If I misunderstood your post, I apologize. I agree with everything else you said, but I just wanted to make it clear that the Christians I know have not been doing nothing until this tragedy, but are now helping Haiti in addition to their other causes.
Thank you. I purposely ignored commenting on a particular blog’s post about Robertson. I just felt like ignoring him would be best at this time.
DT,
You’re absolutely right and I should have clarified. My statements were more in regards to whatever happens to be on the front page of papers and blogs, at any given time. You’re right that (Christian) groups and individuals are throughout these parts of the country and world doing superlative work. The unfortunate aspect of that is…the collective ‘we’ rarely gives them the attention and support they deserve. When was the last time the reconstruction of New Orleans was on the front page of multiple secular or religious publications/websites? You’re also right when stating that not every one can take up every cause, all the time. Yet when it comes to journals, newspapers, blogs and other resources of information, they do have a responsibility (should they choose) to share the stories and events that should matter or concern the greater population. No offense to Brett, but when’s the last time he posted an article or link regarding any hot bed of Christian missionary work? We’ve seen plenty of self promotion of his upcoming book on Christian hipsters, but that’s about all I can recall at the moment. Thanks for responding and highlighting something that I needed to clarify. All my best….
It *is* worth “defending” Christianity against Pat Robertson. I say this as a new Christian who spent most of my life being repulsed from Christianity by people like Pat. I can say that for many non-Christians like I was, Pat Robertson epitomizes hypocrisy and non-compassion that prejudices the entire religion. Was I wrong? Yes. Was I seeing the whole picture? No. But I think my point is clear. Pat Robertson does a disservice to Christianity and every opportunity we have to disassociate from him, that is one more opportunity to save a soul that was repulsed by him.
I think your spot on! And this is from someone whose last blog post was related to Pat. Thanks for the challenge.
I also felt the same about Millers post, and thought you were right to highlight it.
Brett,
This is my favorite post of yours ever. Complete agreement sauce. I appreciate your contribution.
“We should love others and ease the suffering in the world… because the Bible tells us to and because the Spirit inside us spurs us to outward action.”
Whether you are Christian or religious or not, we should love others and ease suffering because we understand the nature of suffering, and we have the power to ease it in this world!
It’s been repeated way too much, but the bible can be used to justify any action. But when the news about Haiti broke, that’s not the time to flip through the manual to see what’s right or not right. You heart and your mind are usually telling you immediately. And from the looks of it, still more is needed. Haiti is still in our hearts and minds, and in our news and conversations, right now, isn’t it?
As for Pat Robertson, well as soon as he judged, he was judged, right? The power of a connected, educated world means we can put the ‘crazy old uncles’ in their place. We can’t always do much about them, but we can understand them, and understand what to do with them.
The real tragedy of a Pat Robertson, is that you can say ‘he does not speak for me’ and still (as a Christian) be tainted by his terror tactics: the oh-so-subtle; condescending and patronizing, of the poor people, of Haiti. On his show, he make his remarks with a “sister” sitting next to him. To show I guess, he’s not a racist. Please!
The West could not and still will not, accept the fact that slaves defeated the great Napoleon and the tens of thousands of soldiers sent to Haiti to put down the slave revolt. In the Western mind there had to be some otherworldly power that contributed to the slaves success. For Pat Robertson, it’s “the devil made me do it”.
Slaves are not suppose to have the wherewithal in military skills to defeat one of the great powers in the eighteenth century. Even Spartacus didn’t defeat the Romans, though they still keep making movies about him.
With Haiti, you get only silence on what was the third major revolution in that time. The other two being the American and the French Revolutions. Yet though they won their freedom, France make Haiti pay big time; for succeeding in doing what no slaves had ever done : slaves freeing themselves. For over fifty years Haiti paid “reparation,” amounting to what would be today in the billions. Money, to the slave owners for the loss of their property: the x-slaves. How ironic! America occupied Haiti for almost twenty years in the twentieth century. And through much of its history, proped up despotic rulers. No, Haiti is not cursed because of a so-called pack with the devil. Rather, Haiti is a victim of the sins of the West that built empires on the backs of slaves through institutionalized racism. Haiti in free- ing itself: denied-the-lie-of-their-nothingness.
They were children of God, not things. In the West where most African Americans are Christian and the descendants of slaves I give you this truth, from a black mystic.
“By some amazing but vastly creative spiritual
insight, the slave undertook the redemption of a religion that the master had profaned in his midst” Howard Thurman
We are still redempting, and there is hope for even Pat Robertson . Amen