Author: Robert Barrimond

Lost Christianities

In Ancient Document, Judas, Minus the Betrayal – New York Times:

An early Christian manuscript, including the only known text of the Gospel of Judas, has surfaced after 1,700 years, and it portrays Judas Iscariot not as a betrayer of Jesus but as his favored disciple and willing collaborator.
In this text, scholars reported yesterday, the account of events leading to the Crucifixion differs sharply from the four gospels in the New Testament. Here Jesus is said to entrust Judas with special knowledge and ask him to betray him to the Roman authorities. By doing so, he tells Judas, ‘you will exceed’ the other disciples.

“These discoveries are exploding the myth of a monolithic religion and demonstrating how diverse — and fascinating — the early Christian movement really was,” said Elaine Pagels, a professor of religion at Princeton who specializes in studies of the Gnostics.

It’s interesting to see other “Christianities” and how early Christians believed. Contrary to popular belief, Christianity was no monolith. The term heretic is anachronistic for the first four centuries of our tradition. Competing understandings of Christ existed and named themselves the true keepers of the tradition Jesus left us mediated through his Apostles.

It makes me realize how special faith is and how tradition is just as human as faith is. Incomplete, imperfect, yet sacred and holy. After reading a good book on this topic, my appreciation of this fact has only increased.

Black Men and Responsibilty

Grim forecast for young black men – Race in America – MSNBC.com:

“Making matters worse, a forthcoming book, which includes a study of nearly 1,500 private employers in New York City, found that black job applicants with no criminal records weren’t any more likely to get a job than white applicants who were just out of prison.”

Black folk who know that racism, albeit in different forms, is still part of the problems surrounding black men in our society. At Church you’ll hear about personal responsiblity, morals, etc. (“Being a father ain’t just about makin’ babies” and so on.) But you will also hear about racism in our society. When studies show employment issues for black people, we call that institutional racism. When a clean black man is as likely to get hired as a white ex-con, that’s pretty bad. That racism isn’t carried out by aliens, or “institutions” or “society;” it’s carried out by people. No amount of personal responsibility on the part of victims will cure this. Personal, or rather social, responsibility on the part of the prejudiced is also required. Prejudice is in all of us and is most dangerous in those with power. If you want to talk about racism in our society in the context of personal responsibility, then ask that we all accept it.

A Disgrace of Governmental Proportions

heraldsun.com: 3 Duke students tell of ‘disgraceful scene’

“Anyone who knows that area, if you had a bus, it would take you no more than 20 minutes to drive in with a bus and get these people out,” Buder said. “They sat there for four or five days with no food, no water, babies getting raped in the bathrooms, there were murders, nobody was doing anything for these people. And we just drove right in, really disgraceful. I don’t want to get too fired up with the rhetoric, but some blame needs to be placed somewhere.”

I am beyond livid at this point. Kanye must be right. Bush must not really care about black people, poor people, etc. If three students can make it and take people out in a Hyundai, why not the world’s most powerful nation’s government?!??!?!! In a CNN interview, they reported EMPTY BUSES LEAVING as they made their way to the Superdome. Words fail me to describe this as anything but monstrous racism, elitism, or incompetence. Take your pick. It’s just as ugly.

American Family Association calls for Ford boycott – Jun. 1, 2005

American Family Association calls for Ford boycott – Jun. 1, 2005

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – A conservative Christian group is calling for a boycott of Ford Motor Co. for what it says is the automaker’s support of a pro-homosexual agenda.

The boycott was called by the American Family Association, which a week before called off a nine-year boycott of Walt Disney Co. (Research) which it had declared on the same grounds.

AFA special projects director Randy Sharp told the Detroit News nearly 55,000 people had signed a pledge supporting the boycott by Tuesday afternoon.

Ford (Research) provides health care benefits for same sex partners of its employees, as does General Motors Corp. (Research) and Chrysler Group, a unit of DaimlerChrysler (Research), according to the News. But the group said that it also objects to donations that Ford has given to gay rights groups and advertising it bought in programs at gay pride events.

“From redefining family to include homosexual marriage, to giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to support homosexual groups and their agenda, to forcing managers to attend diversity training on how to promote the acceptance of homosexuality…to sponsoring Gay Pride Parades, Ford leads the way,” said a notice on the group’s Web site.

Ford vice president of human resources Joe Laymon told the Detroit News that the company “values all people, regardless of their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation and cultural or physical differences.”

Tupelo, Miss.-based AFA told the News it e-mailed an announcement about the Ford boycott to 2.2 million supporters.

The group said last month that it was ending its boycott of Disney because of some signs of change at the media conglomerate and because, “We feel after nine years of boycotting Disney we have made our point.”

It also said that the problems that the group has with Disney have become “lost among the other battles being fought on a crowded cultural battlefield.”

The AFA cited the upcoming retirement of Michael Eisner as CEO, the departure of the founders of the Miramax film studio from the company as what it feels are positive moves at the company. It also cheered the decision by Disney co-produce a film based the book “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” by C.S. Lewis, which the group described as a “Christian literary classic.”

It said that Disney is reaching out to Christian groups to market the film, due for release in December.

No matter how much we dress it up. Bigotry is hatred.

New Hope for a New Pope

I hope the Cardinals pick someone who isn’t afraid of the future. My church sometimes seems the victim of its own history. JPII was a very holy person, but the conservatism he espoused always rings awfully Pharisaic to me. They too espoused a back to the old days kind of religion. If we Christians believe we are beyond that, then I hope we can practice what we preach. If the next Pope can make a case for principled change, then my prayers will have been answered.

Trash Picking Itself Up

Supreme Court Sides with Klan in Adopted Highway Program:

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court let stand on Monday a ruling that the Ku Klux Klan white supremacist group can take part in Missouri’s “Adopt-A-Highway” program in which volunteers pick up trash along the road and the state puts up a sign thanking the group.

Without comment, the high court rejected Missouri’s appeal of a U.S. appeals court ruling that declared the state had violated the Klan’s constitutional free-speech rights by rejecting its request to adopt a portion of a highway.”

Words fail me. Too surreal.

The Price of Freedom

washingtonpost.com: Supreme Court Says Federal Sentencing Guidelines Not Mandatory:

“The Supreme Court today declared unconstitutional a portion of the nation’s federal sentencing law and said that federal judges are no longer obligated to follow the controversial system of sentencing guidelines established by Congress in 1984.

The long-awaited decision, one of the most significant rulings in a criminal case in years, effectively converted the guidelines from mandatory status to advisory status, meaning that judges must consider them rather than necessarily follow them.

The greatest uncertainty today was the extent to which the ruling will permit appeals by individuals already sentenced under the guidelines.

The central problem with the guidelines, the court said in its 5-4 decision, is that they allow convicted criminals to have their sentences increased on the basis of facts that are unproven before a jury in court.”

Some will complain about judges who make law as being out of control, “activist” judges who pervert laws. However, few seem to grumble when legislatures restrict the ability of judges to do their job, that is, to judge. It seems they might prefer to weaken that our government’s system of checks and balances to attain ends they find suitable. However, these folks might want to re-examine their thinking.

Without “activist” judges, there’d be no Brown vs. Board of Education, for example. They stand between the tyranny of the majority and the freedom of the minority. (I mean that both ways!) And if that means a felon gets his/her sentence reduced, well that’s we must be willing to pay that price. Freedom is seldom free.

Weapons?! Weapons?! We Don’t Need No Stinkin’s Weapons!

Search for Banned Arms In Iraq Ended Last Month (washingtonpost.com):

“Four months after Charles A. Duelfer, who led the weapons hunt in 2004, submitted an interim report to Congress that contradicted nearly every prewar assertion about Iraq made by top Bush administration officials, a senior intelligence official said the findings will stand as the ISG’s final conclusions and will be published this spring.

President Bush, Vice President Cheney and other top administration officials asserted before the U.S. invasion in March 2003 that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program, had chemical and biological weapons, and maintained links to al Qaeda affiliates to whom it might give such weapons to use against the United States.”

Though my Republican-esque friends made the assertion that the media is liberal, it’s hard to stretch that to the CIA’s report. This is as conclusive as it is ever going to get, folks. And it contradicts every assertion this administration has made as a justification for war. How Bush sent this country to war was either irresponsible, at best, or some reprehensible Clinton-esque truth telling, at worst. (Remember that “Well, that depends on what your definition of the word ‘is’ is,” comment? OUCH!) We’ll never know the truth for sure, unless some defector from Bush’s Administration decides to strike it rich with a tell-all. Now, THAT would be some comedy. 😉

Ultimate Switcher Mac?

I read an article on eWeek about the Mac mini being the ultimate “switcher” mac because all you need is a KVM switch and you are done. No muss. No fuss. At first, I thought that was a bullshiznit argument, but on second thought, it makes a helluva lot of sense.

First, the thing will take up no space. Second, Macs shine when used over time. My father-in-law has a whole Windows 2000 network built by yours truly, but he is switching whole hog to the Mac on the basis of using his iMac G4 for less than a year. Laptop for him and his wife with the desktop as the new server.

Clearly this is something Apple should push. Given the growth in the computer user market, even a 1% market share up tick would be hugely lucrative for Apple.

Apple’s mini Shuffle

Apple – Mac mini and iPod Shuffle are new editions of the hardware lineup that even cheapskates can love. Simple. Elegant. Mac.