Sunday, September 27, 2009
G-20, and Carl Sagan Video
.
First, I've been a little heads-down getting my sermon ready for today. And now I'm seeing the news that a "non-lethal sonic cannon" was used against protesters/rioters in Pittsburgh at the G-20 meeting. This is the first time such a device was used by government forces against people within our own boundaries. It was used not against peaceful protesters, but against rioters. As a device used within these parameters, its non-lethality may have saved lives, but a device like this SHOULD NOT BE NECESSARY.
The problem, as noted in the commentary on this article, is that the attendees at the G20 are not representative of the people. This is most definitely NOT common ground. It is the upper-most echelon of wealth determining where and how to deploy resources, with little attention to local movements, or to the states of poverty in the world. The problem is that there are people who WANT to riot. To suppress the riots is only a solution if you already have your main goal mapped out, and that goal does not include the will of the people. In the end, the effective solution will be to make sure that everyone (regardless of race, class, or nationality) has real voice/representation and truly get an adequate piece of the economic pie.
As the world population continues to grow, while our resources (especially the ability to feed ourselves and provide clean water) diminish, the riots will continue and escalate, unless the leaders exhibit real leadership embodying the will of the people and serving their needs, not the needs of those who seek to amass wealth.
There is no shortage of money. There are still enough resources to go around, and certainly MORE THAN ENOUGH LABOR to go around. The important thing is that those who make decisions that affect massive numbers of people (CEO's, business leaders, G20 participants) use the resources justly and effectively. None of my senses tell me that is happening on their part. Until the leaders do that, or the unwilling followers can successfully break from them, the world will be frustrated, and we'll have no glory, no justice, no liberation, and no peace.
Here's the awesome Carl Sagan video, and this great quote:
"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."
lyrics: "The simplest thought, like the concept of the number 1, has an elaborate logical underpinning. The brain has its own language for testing the structure and consistency of the world." - Carl Sagan
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
First, I've been a little heads-down getting my sermon ready for today. And now I'm seeing the news that a "non-lethal sonic cannon" was used against protesters/rioters in Pittsburgh at the G-20 meeting. This is the first time such a device was used by government forces against people within our own boundaries. It was used not against peaceful protesters, but against rioters. As a device used within these parameters, its non-lethality may have saved lives, but a device like this SHOULD NOT BE NECESSARY.
The problem, as noted in the commentary on this article, is that the attendees at the G20 are not representative of the people. This is most definitely NOT common ground. It is the upper-most echelon of wealth determining where and how to deploy resources, with little attention to local movements, or to the states of poverty in the world. The problem is that there are people who WANT to riot. To suppress the riots is only a solution if you already have your main goal mapped out, and that goal does not include the will of the people. In the end, the effective solution will be to make sure that everyone (regardless of race, class, or nationality) has real voice/representation and truly get an adequate piece of the economic pie.
As the world population continues to grow, while our resources (especially the ability to feed ourselves and provide clean water) diminish, the riots will continue and escalate, unless the leaders exhibit real leadership embodying the will of the people and serving their needs, not the needs of those who seek to amass wealth.
There is no shortage of money. There are still enough resources to go around, and certainly MORE THAN ENOUGH LABOR to go around. The important thing is that those who make decisions that affect massive numbers of people (CEO's, business leaders, G20 participants) use the resources justly and effectively. None of my senses tell me that is happening on their part. Until the leaders do that, or the unwilling followers can successfully break from them, the world will be frustrated, and we'll have no glory, no justice, no liberation, and no peace.
Here's the awesome Carl Sagan video, and this great quote:
"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."
lyrics: "The simplest thought, like the concept of the number 1, has an elaborate logical underpinning. The brain has its own language for testing the structure and consistency of the world." - Carl Sagan
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: astrophysics, Book of Romans, Capitalism, economics, globalism, oppression
Sunday, October 19, 2008
the problem is leaving: a tarot reading today
.
hi everybody,
i just did a tarot reading to suss out the haps for a new online church i am considering initiating.
the site will be called xcollective.org (unfortunately, at present there's somebody already squatting on (or planning for) it a little. perhaps we have common cause. they have a nice logo.)
the tagline on the top of the front page will read:
"say hello to your new online church community.
check in weekly for new songs, new services, new missions, new fun."
it will begin with services composed of readings, songs and dog-walk sermons by me, and in time will include works from my friends, and eventually any members of the site with an egalitarian high-renown.
$10/month, applications for waivers accepted
the site will also have a forum available for peer-mentoring. this will be a new venture of peer ministry. i am hoping to have it user-moderated in some way akin to slashdot. somebody writes in and says "hey, i have a problem," or "hey, i need a clarification," or "hey, i want to start up a project." then others reply to them either with offers of advice, or of assistance. based on the questions and answers, certain readers (selected at random, upon login) will be able to vote responses up or down. then those whose responses are voted up (based on the awesomeness of their questions, answers, or projects) will earn a certain amount of renown (a measure of moral virtue and brilliance).
and the there will be a portion of the site that will help us to have enough economic fuel to energize the effort. it will read:
say hello to t-shirts, to soup kitchens, sweatshirts, knitted blue mittens, shorts, hats, jackets, solar power, carbon offsets, and more. paper clip triangles!! (that last one i will expand upon in another post/sermon.)
okay so at the top of this post is the tarot reading i did this evening, using the Tarot of Dreams deck and the Orphalese Tarot program, and a custom reading I designed myself. It has a lot of cards, but the reading's story-form fits together nicely (as does the story of this specific reading). I'll let the cards and the explanations in the boxes tell the story. the subject of the reading is the effort surrounding xcollective.org.
and then i had a little revelation, and a cause for hope and joy.
there is a problem that has been plaguing the world. we are beginning to identify it
and soon, by the grace of the one who set fire to the sun, we will vanquish it. the problem will either leave or die or be reformed into the solution.
this problem is the fallen state of humanity. how did we fall? we fell when we invented the possessive pronoun -- "mine," "yours," his," "hers," "ghers*, "its," even "ours." We fell when we applied it to stuff that we had no right to claim (resources outside our body, or our immediate needs, when we began to acquire and collect and accrue money and possessions, rather than them being owned collectively by the community or the earth). and we fell when we chose to value the first person pronoun more than the first-person plural pronoun ("I" is more important than "we").
this fallen state (the same such as st. paul mentions in romans 8) is our frustration, experienced by us as living within a futile system, rife with external impositions and exploitation dividing humans against humans, using tools such as malleable currency and usury/interest in an untethered growth market economy, corporations, media, adversarial individualism, adversarial nationalism, adversarial corporatism, manifest destiny, go-forth-and-conquer attitudes, slavery, sexism, racism, classism, prisons, and a system of law designed according to the values of the dominant groups within humanity. it hurts because we know the glory is coming and seek a way to co-create it, and yet the sentience on this planet is divided into more than one will. yet multiple adversarial will ought not be the case, as it's a waste of resources.
one day soon on this planet, we will have a growing and infectious community of universalist utilitarian egalitarians, with a strong distributive justice ethic. (comprised from among a group of xcollectivists, including: all sorts of christians, all sorts of muslims and sufis, jews, buddhists, hindus, jains, sikhs, humanists, daoists, confucianists, pagans, neopagans, zoroastrians, rastafarians, pastafarians, olympians, angels, children of god, children of the earth, and existentialists -- plus many more yet to be named. even dadaists and people dressed as unicorns. this community will have the will to create, sponsor, and steward a set of values that are in league with the needs of the previously-mentioned glory.
apocatastasis is soon to be upon us.
*gher is a gender-neutral possessive pronoun, pronounced with a soft g, like the j in "frere jacques, frere jacques, dor mez-vous."
Lyrics: "Sent by the one who set fire to the Sun!" from Parable of the Light
Colors: Rainbow above the magician's head on the 1 card.
Prayer: No bosses, only peer-mentors and students. Everyone owns their own energy.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
http://revjd.blogspot.com/
"Everybody believes in something and everybody, by virtue of the fact that they believe in something, use that something to support their own existence."
- Frank Zappa
"The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which have been hidden by the answers."
-James Baldwin
i just did a tarot reading to suss out the haps for a new online church i am considering initiating.
the site will be called xcollective.org (unfortunately, at present there's somebody already squatting on (or planning for) it a little. perhaps we have common cause. they have a nice logo.)
the tagline on the top of the front page will read:
"say hello to your new online church community.
check in weekly for new songs, new services, new missions, new fun."
it will begin with services composed of readings, songs and dog-walk sermons by me, and in time will include works from my friends, and eventually any members of the site with an egalitarian high-renown.
$10/month, applications for waivers accepted
the site will also have a forum available for peer-mentoring. this will be a new venture of peer ministry. i am hoping to have it user-moderated in some way akin to slashdot. somebody writes in and says "hey, i have a problem," or "hey, i need a clarification," or "hey, i want to start up a project." then others reply to them either with offers of advice, or of assistance. based on the questions and answers, certain readers (selected at random, upon login) will be able to vote responses up or down. then those whose responses are voted up (based on the awesomeness of their questions, answers, or projects) will earn a certain amount of renown (a measure of moral virtue and brilliance).
and the there will be a portion of the site that will help us to have enough economic fuel to energize the effort. it will read:
say hello to t-shirts, to soup kitchens, sweatshirts, knitted blue mittens, shorts, hats, jackets, solar power, carbon offsets, and more. paper clip triangles!! (that last one i will expand upon in another post/sermon.)
okay so at the top of this post is the tarot reading i did this evening, using the Tarot of Dreams deck and the Orphalese Tarot program, and a custom reading I designed myself. It has a lot of cards, but the reading's story-form fits together nicely (as does the story of this specific reading). I'll let the cards and the explanations in the boxes tell the story. the subject of the reading is the effort surrounding xcollective.org.
and then i had a little revelation, and a cause for hope and joy.
there is a problem that has been plaguing the world. we are beginning to identify it
and soon, by the grace of the one who set fire to the sun, we will vanquish it. the problem will either leave or die or be reformed into the solution.
this problem is the fallen state of humanity. how did we fall? we fell when we invented the possessive pronoun -- "mine," "yours," his," "hers," "ghers*, "its," even "ours." We fell when we applied it to stuff that we had no right to claim (resources outside our body, or our immediate needs, when we began to acquire and collect and accrue money and possessions, rather than them being owned collectively by the community or the earth). and we fell when we chose to value the first person pronoun more than the first-person plural pronoun ("I" is more important than "we").
this fallen state (the same such as st. paul mentions in romans 8) is our frustration, experienced by us as living within a futile system, rife with external impositions and exploitation dividing humans against humans, using tools such as malleable currency and usury/interest in an untethered growth market economy, corporations, media, adversarial individualism, adversarial nationalism, adversarial corporatism, manifest destiny, go-forth-and-conquer attitudes, slavery, sexism, racism, classism, prisons, and a system of law designed according to the values of the dominant groups within humanity. it hurts because we know the glory is coming and seek a way to co-create it, and yet the sentience on this planet is divided into more than one will. yet multiple adversarial will ought not be the case, as it's a waste of resources.
one day soon on this planet, we will have a growing and infectious community of universalist utilitarian egalitarians, with a strong distributive justice ethic. (comprised from among a group of xcollectivists, including: all sorts of christians, all sorts of muslims and sufis, jews, buddhists, hindus, jains, sikhs, humanists, daoists, confucianists, pagans, neopagans, zoroastrians, rastafarians, pastafarians, olympians, angels, children of god, children of the earth, and existentialists -- plus many more yet to be named. even dadaists and people dressed as unicorns. this community will have the will to create, sponsor, and steward a set of values that are in league with the needs of the previously-mentioned glory.
apocatastasis is soon to be upon us.
*gher is a gender-neutral possessive pronoun, pronounced with a soft g, like the j in "frere jacques, frere jacques, dor mez-vous."
Lyrics: "Sent by the one who set fire to the Sun!" from Parable of the Light
Colors: Rainbow above the magician's head on the 1 card.
Prayer: No bosses, only peer-mentors and students. Everyone owns their own energy.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
http://revjd.blogspot.com/
"Everybody believes in something and everybody, by virtue of the fact that they believe in something, use that something to support their own existence."
- Frank Zappa
"The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which have been hidden by the answers."
-James Baldwin
Labels: art, Book of Romans, Capitalism, Christianity, equal rights, heaven on earth, oppression, paradigm shift, parousia, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, tarot
Saturday, September 20, 2008
a quick evolutionary history of the logos from an arian successor perspective
x=logos=christ
x(-1) is the one who learns to taste the creator's wisdom for the first time (adam and eve, the first person to make a wheel, or matches, the first person to sell land, or split the atom)*
x(0) is th one who knows and speaks the understood nature of the creator's wisdom/logos (zoroaster, moses, some OT prophets, mohammad)
x(1) is th one who learns to incarnate it and manifests it (krishna, buddha, socrates, jesus, hypatia, joan-of-arc, mlk, saoshyant?)
x(1.5) is th one who basks in the afterglow of the incarnate (gospel writers, disciples, paul, saints, promise-keepers)
x(2) is th one who can speak and manifest it without punishment or remonstrance
(saoshyant)
x(3) is th one who can live it freely and naturally (saoshyant, along with a not-too distant future generation) (post Glory of Romans 8.)
*th enumerations within parens are not meant to be exhaustive, only examples
chant/prayer/mantra: may we enter the unravelment of the Zoroastrian eschaton, and all be of one ousia with the saoshyant.
i know that may all sound nutty and high-falutin', but really its just fancy theological talk, for "let's get past this, and get along, and get it on to happening, eh?"
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
x(-1) is the one who learns to taste the creator's wisdom for the first time (adam and eve, the first person to make a wheel, or matches, the first person to sell land, or split the atom)*
x(0) is th one who knows and speaks the understood nature of the creator's wisdom/logos (zoroaster, moses, some OT prophets, mohammad)
x(1) is th one who learns to incarnate it and manifests it (krishna, buddha, socrates, jesus, hypatia, joan-of-arc, mlk, saoshyant?)
x(1.5) is th one who basks in the afterglow of the incarnate (gospel writers, disciples, paul, saints, promise-keepers)
x(2) is th one who can speak and manifest it without punishment or remonstrance
(saoshyant)
x(3) is th one who can live it freely and naturally (saoshyant, along with a not-too distant future generation) (post Glory of Romans 8.)
*th enumerations within parens are not meant to be exhaustive, only examples
chant/prayer/mantra: may we enter the unravelment of the Zoroastrian eschaton, and all be of one ousia with the saoshyant.
i know that may all sound nutty and high-falutin', but really its just fancy theological talk, for "let's get past this, and get along, and get it on to happening, eh?"
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: Book of Romans, Christianity, christology, heaven on earth, parousia, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, theology, Universalism
Friday, September 19, 2008
Christian Egalitarianism
.
...
...is acceptable to me.
Makes reference to
"There is [now no distinction] neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is not male [a]and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." from Galatians 3:28. That and Romans 8:18-25 are about all the Paul I can take, however. Too toxic. Paul gets two points for two good pericope samples. Although this one kind of has a yonic invasive quality to it, it might be difficult to deal with for some folks who've been through certain Christian damage events, or who simply don't appreciate the violation of being hoovered into a giant wicker basket.
lyrics: Eddie Izzard, talking about the Stoics, on "Circle".
colors: blue, orange, and yellow, for an angel education picture i drew earlier today.
mood: metatronic, bionic, embryonic
chant/prayer/mantra: be. do. have (only a little). enjoy.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
...
...is acceptable to me.
Makes reference to
"There is [now no distinction] neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is not male [a]and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." from Galatians 3:28. That and Romans 8:18-25 are about all the Paul I can take, however. Too toxic. Paul gets two points for two good pericope samples. Although this one kind of has a yonic invasive quality to it, it might be difficult to deal with for some folks who've been through certain Christian damage events, or who simply don't appreciate the violation of being hoovered into a giant wicker basket.
lyrics: Eddie Izzard, talking about the Stoics, on "Circle".
colors: blue, orange, and yellow, for an angel education picture i drew earlier today.
mood: metatronic, bionic, embryonic
chant/prayer/mantra: be. do. have (only a little). enjoy.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: anti-oppression, Book of Romans, classism, coursework, equal rights, freedom versus freedom, heaven on earth, Multitheticalism, parousia, racism, theological sources, Universalism, Women's Rights
Monday, April 9, 2007
Google.org coming along
If you had any doubts about the sincerity of Google.org's good intents, they are all but put to rest by this official Google team post, which conveniently doubles as a press release of sorts.
While its usually not good to be entirely trusting and naive about anything, if I had to throw in with any corporate entity, Google might likely be my best bet. A PR-related press release is one thing, but the fact that they are bringing in some heavy-hitters from all sorts of industries says to me that they are serious about making good things happen.
And I find it intriguing that they are looking to hire a team of people who meet some seriously high minimum requirements (advanced econ or public policy degree, mathematical prowess, 15+ or 7+ years experience in the field, depending on the position) to address "Poverty and Sustainable Development" in their business model.
When they're looking for a generalist or a minister, maybe I'll be there.
Though I'm slightly troubled -- only slightly. In one of the job opening requirements, they state, "Our mission is to accelerate growth and positive social impact using market-based, entrepreneurial approaches that promote sustainable economic growth and empowerment." I wonder what if in our present world "sustainable" and "economic growth" don't go together, at least without a lot of twisting and bending? I can see areas of the world where there will definitely *need* to be economic growth in the future, but I hope their model of economic growth is an order of magnitude better than the Dow-Jones-worshiping "Growth-for-growth's-sake" mentality that has been subjecting our world to some pretty futile actions for some time now.
Note that the verse (Amplified Bible)linked to previously states, "nature (creation) itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption [and gain an entrance] into the glorious freedom of God's children." As a Universalist minister, that brings joy to my heart. Once we get a good working defn of "God's children," and elaborate enough so as to bring a well-grounded understanding into the mix, we end up with a declaration that we here on Earth are going to start doing right, and in so doing, transcend the common shackles of humanity that have hounded us for millennia. THAT will be an exciting time. In the meantime, "GO TEAM!"
lyrics: Pixies - Gigantic
mood: tired
colors: color of my cat sitting next to me, or maybe purple and green again.
agape to everyone,
and pax hominibus,
joel
While its usually not good to be entirely trusting and naive about anything, if I had to throw in with any corporate entity, Google might likely be my best bet. A PR-related press release is one thing, but the fact that they are bringing in some heavy-hitters from all sorts of industries says to me that they are serious about making good things happen.
And I find it intriguing that they are looking to hire a team of people who meet some seriously high minimum requirements (advanced econ or public policy degree, mathematical prowess, 15+ or 7+ years experience in the field, depending on the position) to address "Poverty and Sustainable Development" in their business model.
When they're looking for a generalist or a minister, maybe I'll be there.
Though I'm slightly troubled -- only slightly. In one of the job opening requirements, they state, "Our mission is to accelerate growth and positive social impact using market-based, entrepreneurial approaches that promote sustainable economic growth and empowerment." I wonder what if in our present world "sustainable" and "economic growth" don't go together, at least without a lot of twisting and bending? I can see areas of the world where there will definitely *need* to be economic growth in the future, but I hope their model of economic growth is an order of magnitude better than the Dow-Jones-worshiping "Growth-for-growth's-sake" mentality that has been subjecting our world to some pretty futile actions for some time now.
Note that the verse (Amplified Bible)linked to previously states, "nature (creation) itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption [and gain an entrance] into the glorious freedom of God's children." As a Universalist minister, that brings joy to my heart. Once we get a good working defn of "God's children," and elaborate enough so as to bring a well-grounded understanding into the mix, we end up with a declaration that we here on Earth are going to start doing right, and in so doing, transcend the common shackles of humanity that have hounded us for millennia. THAT will be an exciting time. In the meantime, "GO TEAM!"
lyrics: Pixies - Gigantic
mood: tired
colors: color of my cat sitting next to me, or maybe purple and green again.
agape to everyone,
and pax hominibus,
joel
Labels: Book of Romans, Capitalism, economics, google, parousia, Universalism
