A Poem for Quaker Meeting-8/10/08

Often, when I go into Quaker Meeting for Worship, I'll bring a book, something of spiritual importance to me. Something I feel can teach me something. But mostly a book that will help me move into a space where I am open to God. Or at least closer to that place. Usually, I just open the book randomly and read the passage or poem or verse that opens before my eyes. Today I took a book of Wendell Berry poems, and opened to the following, which fit just fine.....

To the Unseeable Animal

Being, whose flesh dissolves
at our glance, knower
of the secret sums and measures,
you are always here,
dwelling in the oldest sycamores,
visiting the faithful springs
when they are dark annd the foxes have crept to their edges.
I have come upon pools
in streams, places overgrown
with the woods' shadow,
where I knew you had rested,
watching the little fish
hang still in the flow;
as I approached they seemed
particles of your clear mind
disappearing among the rocks.
I have walked deep in the woods
in the early morning, sure
that while I slept
your gaze passed over me.
That we do not know you
is your perfection
and our hope. The darkness
keeps us near you.

McCain the Antichrist?

by Robert Dreyfuss
Published on Friday, August 8, 2008 by The Nation

Wow, I never realized the Antichrist was likely to be a Romanian. What canst thou say?

Biblical scholars in Colorado Springs have uncovered startling evidence that Senator John McCain may be the Antichrist. Their conclusions, while highly controversial, may have a dramatic impact on the 2008 elections, since many Bible-believing Christians have already expressed doubts about McCain’s fealty to Christianity.

The analysis was conducted by the respected True Bible Society, and it will be published next month in the End Times Journal.

The analysis was especially ironic, given that it came out just one day after McCain was accused of subtly hinting that Barack Obama could be the Antichrist. McCain ran a commercial depicting Obama as “The One,” giving rise to charges that he was sending a subliminal messages to anti-Obama Christians.

“What started us looking at this issue is the fact that Senator McCain has declared his intention to maintain US forces in Iraq for a hundred years,” said David Jenkins, a leading Biblical scholar. “That means that McCain wants to control Babylon for at least a century.” According to many scholars of the Book of Revelation, the Antichrist will try to rebuild the ancient city of Babylon in order to use it as a springboard for an international effort at world domination. Ultimately, the Antichrist will marshal forces from Babylon to spark a showdown with Christian and Jewish-led forces in the battle of Armageddon.

“We believe that the End Times is near, based on the pattern of wars, earthquakes. and other strange phenomena we’ve been witnessing since the start of the New Millennium,” said Jenkins. “Given that it may be imminent, the person who controls Babylon must be the Antichrist.” Until 2003, many Christians believed that Saddam Hussein might be the Antichrist, since he started excavations to restore Babylon in the mid 1970s. But Hussein’s death meant that the Antichrist is someone else. Since Obama wants to get out of Iraq, he can’t be the Antichrist either, concluded Jenkins.

Jenkins said his teams suspicions were further heightened when genealogical research showed that McCain’s great-grandfather was actually not John McCain, but John Mihai. Mihai is an ancient Romanian name, and according to Bible-believing Christians, the Antichrist is likely to be a Romanian. “What clinched it for us was that the name Mihai means ‘who is like the Lord,’” said Jenkins. “As far as we’re concerned, that was enough. It means that McCain might easily pretend to be the Redeemer.”

McCain’s geniality and folksiness are consistent with his being the Antichrist, Jenkins said. “Many people think that the Antichrist will be a evil-seeming leader, but in fact the Bible tells us that he will be charming.”
So far the McCain campaign has refused to comment on Jenkins’ study.

Robert Dreyfuss, a Nation contributing editor, is an investigative journalist in Alexandria, Virginia, specializing in politics and national security. He is the author of Devil’s Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam and is a frequent contributor to Rolling Stone, The American Prospect, and Mother Jones.

Copyright © 2008 The Nation

Post-Apocolyptic Summer Reading, Part 2

I Am Legend
by Robert Matheson

I saw the movie first. The one starring Will Smith as Robert Neville, the last human alive in Manhattan (and perhaps the earth) after a synthesized cancer curing virus mutates and starts killing everyone. Well, almost everyone. The movie was ok, Will Smith is energetic and entertaining, there's a dog, and some zombie creatures that somehow survived the epidemic. Oh, and some really well done computer graphic work. It could have been a good movie. Maybe a great movie. They waited to bring God into the flick until the last 20 minutes. I won't say what exactly happens since I'm sure at least 4 of my 10 loyal readers will rush out to rent the movie. Plus, after I read the book, Will Smith just isn't introspective enough to play Neville. So, let's get back to the BOOK, which bears little resemblance to the movie.....

The book was penned in the 50's and bears almost no resemblance to the movie. Once again, a virus has killed off just about everyone, turning most people into vampires. Takes place in LA, there is a dog, briefly. There is a woman in the book, too, but she plays to the stereotype of the "designing woman", which I found more than a little annoying. But it plays out in the book fairly well. Oh, the zombies in the movie are actually vampires in the book. So Robert Neville spends his days running around Santa Monica driving stakes through vampires hearts. We ALL know they only come out at night, right? And he uses standard gear for warding off vampires such as mirrors, necklaces of garlic, crosses, etc. I liked the part where he wonders if a cross would ward off an Islamic vampire. (guess I'll check Wikepedia). I've asked Poodledoc, Jr this question, since he's quite an authority on vampires. He just laughs at me! Anyway, back to the book. It's way darker than the movie. Matheson has his character spend more time in hopeless moods, introspecting and also drinking heavily. The vampires are much scarier than the zombies from the movie. And in the book, Neville even offers up a prayer or two, although he doesn't seem to have much faith that any God will be there to hear. I will say that the book had some really excellent suspense writing, which I enjoyed. But as far as post-apocolyptic fiction, I wouldn't rate it very high. Creepy? Yes. Suspenseful? Yes, in places. My feeling is that both the book and the movie fail to to answer the question: Where is God?

Post-Apocolyptic Summer Reading, Part !

The Road
by Cormac McCarthy

I'd always wanted to read a book by Cormac McCarthy. Not sure why. So I chose this one for my summer reading list. I found this book to be well written and a great read, especially if you are feeling a bit too....cheerful.
It tells the story of a father and son, walking along a road across an America in the throes of a nuclear winter. Little is said about the initial catastrophe. It's the results, the dregs of the horror McCarthy shows us here. And the dregs of horror are almost beyond words. Still, he uses his words to take us along with the father and son as they walk towards the coast hoping to find...........something.

It's perpetual winter. Snow falls often, quickly covered with ash. The sun does still rise on this tragedy, but it's a lighter shade of gray than the night, which is colder and darker. As I read this, I was hopeful that they'd reach the sea and there'd be this group of healthy folks, waiting to receive them, living in some sort of a dome city, still getting their mail on time. But as I read, my hopes sagged with theirs. There's not much food around, when you can't grow it. Most people have resorted to cannabilism. They are starving. At every town, they have to cautiously poke through old stores and houses, looted long ago, looking for a scrap of food, a useful tool or something they can use to keep warm. Or some fuel.

The ironic "highlight" to me is the moment they uncover a "fallout shelter" as we used to call them in my town back in the 60's. Forcing the lock, they descend into a world reminiscent of the magic cave in Aladdin. Clothes, fuel and a huge stock of canned goods. Peaches, pears, tomatoes, okrah (yuck on the last one!) After all the lack of color, the dark gray, I can imagine the colors. I can almost taste the canned peaches as the joice runs down my chin. I guess the irony for me is that when I was young, we were all instructed to build these structures and stock them in case the Russians attacked us. In this book, the shelter never gets used by it's creators. It serves only to 'save' the father and son who wonder if their existence is worse than death. Well, I guess I'd better get canning. All those tomatoes I'm about to "put up" should see me through even the harshest nuclear winter, dontcha think?

Adventures in Darkness

Walking along the gravel road
Uphill
And hot
Came to a canyon
It blinked dark
The sky turned low and I was sliding
Down
Tumbling
Towards the black
Small rocks scraped
My hands
My legs
To the edge now
Wobbling vertigo
Peering down
And in.

Inky
Black
So devoid of light that it sucked the air out of my lungs.
I cried out to God
Where are you, dammit!
A strange prayer
But I felt such anger
At the deity
Who is supposed to protect me.

That’s when I saw them
In the distance of space
That I called the canyon

Stars
By the millions
And finally
I saw God.

Eldering is NOT Scolding

I'm struggling with the term "Eldering" as it is used in the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). In other religions, it can mean the older, more experienced people in the spiritual group sharing their wisdom. I think some of that certainly goes on here in the Quaker world. Truly, some people's words carry more weight than other in our Meeting. Hence the somewhat humorous (to me at least) "weighty Quaker". But I'm not sure exactly what it means.

I feel there are things it is NOT. It is not scolding individuals or the Meeting as a gathered body. It is not attempting to speak FOR the Quaker Meeting. It is NOT confronting individuals who are attempting to connect with God in their own way.

But there are certain rules of conduct in Quaker Meetings. And of course, these rules can and do vary from person to person. For example, I have trouble and feel uneasy with someone singing out of the silence. That may sound strange to some, but that's me. I'll own that unease as mine. I try to be open. Am I going to scold the person and tell them I don't like this, or am I going to try to be open to God's message in the song. If the some members of the group begin to sing along, do I rise and berate the group about this? If I did, I would not call that eldering. I would call that scolding. Clearly their are modes of conduct that need to be spoke to such as conversation in Meeting for Worship. Who does that and how it is done are tough questions for me.

My sense, at this place in my life, subject to change and learning is that eldering has nothing to do with the chronological age of the eldering person. It may have more to do with the SPIRITUAl age of the person. For instance, I was in a workshop a few years ago and the leader had along a young man to elder the gathering. To keep things spiritually grounded, as she put it. I was skeptical at the time. He's so young, I thought. How can he possibly elder? Plus, he has his eyes closed for pete's sake! Several days into the workshop, I had lots of feelings come up. Some were angry feelings. I didn't speak them. After the days gathering had ended, he crossed the circle and told me he sensed I had a lot of stuff inside, struggling to get out. And I felt safe enough to finally let them come gushing out. He had his physical eyes closed, but his spiritual eyes open.

So, my understaning is that eldering seems to work best, in the Quaker sense, when the elder is connected to God. Grounded in the Spirt of God. I'm not saying that's the way it is or the way it should be. I'm saying that's my understanding and that the eldering comes to the listener as a message from God. Perhaps.

I do know one thing for sure. Eldering is NOT scolding.

Camping: A Quaker Meeting?

We had a great time camping up in the lower Chequemagan National Forest, the lower area, near Medford, Wisconsin. We camped on North Twin Lake. The first couple nights were pretty quiet, with the exception of some folks enjoying fireworks. Otherwise, I liked the quiet. One night we heard a group of coyotes talking to each other. Another day, we heard the call of a loon, until someone started up their chain saw. I liked the quiet while it was thee. There was space to notice things. As in my Quaker Meeting, entering a quiet space and hearing the voice of God. This was a Quaker Meeting of sorts. And God spoke through loons and coyotes and, unfortunately, deer flies! But it was a fragile quiet. Since the National Forest land bordered on private land, sadly, there was noise at various times that blotted out that voice. Maybe it's hard to hear God on an ATV, hurling along the dirt trails. But who knows, maybe that works for someone. Not me. But even with the noise, it was a special time.