Category Archives: video

Three-dimensional thinking

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The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, gave the Presidential address to the Church of England’s General Synod, yesterday.
Of particular interest, aside from his more balanced thinking on the whole LGBT issue and of the troubles within the Anglican Communion, of particular interest to me was his explanation of the distinctiveness of the Christian understanding and definition of freedom and liberty. (this starts around the 17:51 minute mark)
I also find very interesting his presentation of the concept of “three-dimensional thinking.” In many ways, he is presenting something that should be natural for Anglicans – really it is a re-presenting of the Via Media extended beyond the original middle way between Roman Catholicism and the Continental Reformation.

“Seeing something in three dimensions is seeing that I can’t see everything at once: what’s in front of me is not just the surface I see in this particular moment… So seeing in three dimensions requires us to take time with what we see. It may help us look more critically at solutions that seek to do too much all at once; and perhaps to search for structures that will keep open the ability to learn from each other.” (Source)

This is something I want to thank more about.

In the name of Christ, supposedly

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I don’t know how many people have heard or read about the gay-bashing of a 49 year old man, Jack Price, in Queens a couple weeks ago. You know, sitting here in Brooklyn and working in Manhattan and having this story all over the news in all of NYC, I just realized that the incident barely registered on my radar. I don’t quite know what that says about me – too busy, too expectant of gay-bashing incidents even in New York City, hardness of heart towards or numbness for victims, cynicism about whether our society will ever get beyond such things (and I mean really get be on them, not just having Political Correctness forced upon too many people that brings nothing much more than a shut down in honest dialogue and real education than the changing peoples’ hearts and minds) – I just don’t know.
Well, here I am, and over in Queens a guy had to be put into a medically induced coma in order to survive.
A brief article in the NY Times.
I was going through some old photos on Sunday and came across some old Web addresses. One of them was for a website started and operated by a guy I met years ago through Soulforce, so I tried to see if it still existed. It did, and on the splash screen was an update on the guy attacked in Queens entitled “Idiots for Christ.” Here is the picture from a channel 7 (ABC-NYC) news segment that was posted on the website. Watch the full video of the news piece, with the interview of this guy.
tatoo.jpg
What in the world would possess a straight guy in New York City to be tattooed with this verse? This guy, Gelmy, was defending his friend, one of the guys arrested for beating Jack Price. Why would someone get that particular verse tattooed on his arm? Alright, he may have a thing against gay people, but to go to the extreme of permanently tattooing such a thing on your arm where it will be exposed often is beyond me.
And, yes, this is the natural outcome of all the anti-gay Religious Right rhetoric that has been going on for the past 20 years. When you scape-goat a population, that population gets screwed. As much as the Religious Right organizations and leaders want to claim that their anti-gay stuff is all about saving souls and society, it is about power and money. There are those who have real theological positions opposed to homosexuality, but the Religious Right groups are unprincipled and dishonest and are not made up of these people.
The attack was caught on a surveillance video.

Iranians and their desire

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From Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish:
What The Opposition Stood For
It’s worth recalling the campaign and its enormous energy as it continued. Here is a campaign ad for Karroubi. The resonances are quite obvious. The translation is below:

1 (Girl in street): Defending civil rights
2 (Boy next to old man): Counterbalancing poverty/deprivation
3 (Boy pushing away donation box): Nationalizing oil income
4 (Man standing on rooftop): Reducing tension in international affairs
5 (Boy sitting next to satellite dishes): Free access to information
6 (Girl sitting besides her mother): Supporting single mothers
7 (Girl with cast): Knock down violence against women
8 (Boy): Education for all
9 (Boy infront of man locking car): Increasing public safety
10 (Girl on rooftop): Ethnic and religious minority rights
11 (Man on rooftop): Supporting NGOs
12 (Girl in front of wall): Public involvement
13 (Boy and girl): We have come for change
14: Change for Iran

What we see in Iran…

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Freedom from oppression & democracy are realized through the people, not from imposition by an outside force. Iran is in the midst of it! I honestly believe that for a true freedom to take hold in any country (nation or state), it must come from within the desire of the people. It is the people that rise up against the oppressors (of whatever form and to whatever degree) when they long for freedom.
This is one reason why the struggle in places like Iraq is so difficult. U.S. policy went forward believing that we could impose (or establish) a democracy by an outside force simply because we wanted to and because we believed they would welcome it. Many did, but many more (if not most) were not ready and did not welcome the attempt. I suspect most all welcomed the removal of Saddam, but not in the way it all transpired. My hope is that the Iraqi people will be free, but they must first want freedom more than their fear of the oppressive/manipulative/self-centered authorities.
We saw a while ago in Pakistan people rise up against military/civil dictatorship, and even though the process is not finished in Pakistan it has come a long way. The battle now is between the desire for freedom and fear.
We see the goings on in Iran right now, and the people are demanding a different outcome than what certain officials set in motion. My hope and prayer is that it will remain peaceful, as much as it can. Freedom, honest freedom, will be realized when the people demand it, we did when the citizens of the 13 colonies rose up against the British.

Some Republicans from the loosing side of the last election are chastising President Obama for not being stronger in his support for the “revolutionaries” in Iran. I fear they still want another Iraq.

Bad Vicar

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Oh, the good ole’ days!

Some of the best lines:
“Where back.” “Who?” “The incredibly horrible and twisted people who are still unaccountably vicars.”
“…my wife’s entitled to her opinion.” “Aren’t you all entitled to your half assed musings of the divine? You’ve thought about eternity for twenty five minutes and think you’ve come to some interesting conclusions. Well, let me tell you, I stand with 2,000 years of darkness, and bafflement, and hunger behind me. My kind have harvested the souls of a million peasants and I couldn’t give a hateme jizz for you Interest assembled philosophy.”