If you're ever going to ready anything in the Christian Testaments, read this:
After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias, and a great multitude followed him who had beheld the signs which he did on them that were sick. And Jesus went up into the mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. Now the passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Jesus therefore lifting up his eyes, and seeing that a great multitude cometh unto him, saith unto Philip: "Whence are we to buy bread, that these may eat?" And this he said to prove him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him: "Two hundred shillings' worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one may take a little." One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him: "There is a lad here, who hath five barley loaves, and two fishes: but what are these among so many?" Jesus said: "Make the people sit down."
Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, in number about five thousand. Jesus therefore took the loaves, and having given thanks he distributed to them that were set down; likewise also of the fishes as much as they would. And when they were filled, he saith unto his disciples: "Gather up the broken pieces which remain over, that nothing be lost." So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces from the five barley loaves, which remained over unto them that had eaten. When therefore the people saw the sign which he did, they said: "This is of a truth the prophet that cometh into the world."
Jesus therefore perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, withdrew again into the mountain himself alone. And when evening came his disciples went down unto the sea and entered into a boat, and were going over the sea unto Capernaum. And it was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. And the sea was rising by reason of a great wind that blew. When therefore they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they behold Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the boat, and they were afraid. But he saith unto them: "It is I; be not afraid." They were willing therefore to receive him into the boat, and straightway the boat was at the land whither they were going.
On the morrow the multitude that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, save one, and that Jesus entered not with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples went away alone (howbeit there came boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks). When the multitude therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they themselves got into the boats, and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. And when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him: "Rabbi, when camest thou hither?" Jesus answered them and said: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw signs, but because ye ate of the loaves, and were filled. Work not for the food which perisheth, but for the food which abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you, for him the Father, even God, hath sealed."
They said therefore unto him: "What must we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said unto them: "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." They said therefore unto him: "What then doest thou for a sign, that we may see, and believe thee? What workest thou? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, He gave them bread out of heaven to eat." Jesus therefore said unto them: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, it was not Moses that gave you the bread out of heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which cometh down out of heaven, and giveth life unto the world."
They said therefore unto him: "Lord, evermore give us this bread." Jesus said unto them: "I am the bread of life; he that cometh to me shall not hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you, that ye have seen me, and yet believe not. All that which the Father giveth me shall come unto me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the will of him that sent me, that of all that which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that every one that beholdeth the Son, and believeth on him, should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day."
The Jews therefore murmured concerning him, because he said, I am the bread which came down out of heaven. And they said: "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How doth he now say, I am come down out of heaven?" Jesus answered and said unto them: "Murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me, except the Father that sent me draw him, and I will raise him up in the last day. It is written in the prophets: And they shall all be taught of God. Every one that hath heard from the Father, and hath learned, cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he that is from God, he hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth hath eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which cometh down out of heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down out of heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever - yea and the bread which I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world."
The Jews therefore strove one with another, saying: "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus therefore said unto them: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life: and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he that eateth me, he also shall live because of me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate, and died; he that eateth this bread shall live for ever."
These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples, when they heard this, said: "This is a hard saying; who can hear it?" But Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at this, said unto them: "Doth this cause you to stumble? What then if ye should behold the Son of man ascending where he was before? It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing - the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life. But there are some of you that believe not." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who it was that should betray him. And he said: "For this cause have I said unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it be given unto him of the Father."
Upon hearing this many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Jesus said therefore unto the twelve: "Would ye also go away?" Simon Peter answered him: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we have believed and know that thou art the Holy One of God." Jesus answered them: "Did not I choose you the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"
- from the Gospel According to the Apostle John
In the grand tradition of Christian divines and apologists, I have not quoted the entire passage (e.g. the biblical divisions are arbitrary with respect to the original texts), but there is enough to provide more context than is normally given; for example Calvinism is entirely based on the single sentence: "No man can come to me, except the Father that sent me draw him, and I will raise him up in the last day." More importantly, this story provides the foundation stones for Augustinian Christianity (which is to say the church of Rome and its successors), with the crumbly mortar coming in the form of half-baked Platonism. With these you have everything you need to be a Professional Christian - as long as you aren't worried about the devil among the 12, that is.
Satyagraha!
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
The Angel of History
A Klee painting named ‘Angelus Novus’ shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing in from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such a violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.
- Walter Benjamin, On the Concept of History
Satyagraha!
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
The Other Side of the Prayer Book
Simon Wiesenthal, the famous Nazi-hunter, once spoke at a conference of European Rabbis in Bratislava, Slovakia. The rabbis presented the 91-year-old Wiesenthal with an award, and Mr.Wiesenthal, visibly moved, told them the following story.
It was in Mauthausen, shortly after liberation. The camp was visited by Rabbi Eliezer Silver, head of Agudat Harabanim (Union of Orthodox Rabbis of North America), on a mission to offer aid and comfort to the survivors. Rabbi Silver also organized a special service, and he invited Wiesenthal to join the other survivors in prayer. Mr. Wiesenthal declined, and explained why.
"In the camp," Mr. Weisenthal said to Rabbi Silver, "there was one religious man who somehow managed to smuggle in a siddur (prayer book). At first, I greatly admired the man for his courage -- that he'd risked his life in order to bring the siddur in. But the next day I realized, to my horror, that this man was 'renting out' this siddur to people in exchange for food. People were giving him their last piece of bread for a few minutes with the prayer book. This man, who was very thin and emaciated when the whole thing started, was soon eating so much that he died before everyone else -- his system couldn't handle it."
Mr. Wiesenthal continued: "If this is how religious Jews behave, I'm not going to have anything to do with a prayer book."
As Wiesenthal turned to walk away, Rabbi Silver touched him on the shoulder and gently said in Yiddish, "Du dummer (you silly man). Why do you look at the Jew who used his siddur to take food out of starving people's mouths? Why don't you look at the many Jews who gave up their last piece of bread in order to be able to use a siddur? That's faith. That's the true power of the siddur." Rabbi Silver then embraced him.
"I went to the services the next day," said Wiesenthal.
- Yrachmiel Tilles
Satyagraha!
It was in Mauthausen, shortly after liberation. The camp was visited by Rabbi Eliezer Silver, head of Agudat Harabanim (Union of Orthodox Rabbis of North America), on a mission to offer aid and comfort to the survivors. Rabbi Silver also organized a special service, and he invited Wiesenthal to join the other survivors in prayer. Mr. Wiesenthal declined, and explained why.
"In the camp," Mr. Weisenthal said to Rabbi Silver, "there was one religious man who somehow managed to smuggle in a siddur (prayer book). At first, I greatly admired the man for his courage -- that he'd risked his life in order to bring the siddur in. But the next day I realized, to my horror, that this man was 'renting out' this siddur to people in exchange for food. People were giving him their last piece of bread for a few minutes with the prayer book. This man, who was very thin and emaciated when the whole thing started, was soon eating so much that he died before everyone else -- his system couldn't handle it."
Mr. Wiesenthal continued: "If this is how religious Jews behave, I'm not going to have anything to do with a prayer book."
As Wiesenthal turned to walk away, Rabbi Silver touched him on the shoulder and gently said in Yiddish, "Du dummer (you silly man). Why do you look at the Jew who used his siddur to take food out of starving people's mouths? Why don't you look at the many Jews who gave up their last piece of bread in order to be able to use a siddur? That's faith. That's the true power of the siddur." Rabbi Silver then embraced him.
"I went to the services the next day," said Wiesenthal.
- Yrachmiel Tilles
Satyagraha!
Monday, April 17, 2006
Beauty
Her rude garment, rough and restrictive,
Radiates with inner brightness like an ornament.
Hidden in the dank weeds the lotus glows,
And the dusky scars which mar the face of the moon
Only serve to heighten its radiance;
Thus is Sakuntala's beauty revealed,
Her drab covering makes her irresistible,
For true beauty always conceals itself.
- Kaalidaas, Abhijnanasakuntalam
Painting by Raja Ravi Varma, Chennai Museum
- Satyagraha!
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best...
And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...
If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle - that's the thing.
And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...
For life is quite absurd
And death's the final word
You must always face the curtain with a bow.
Forget about your sin - give the audience a grin
Enjoy it - it's your last chance anyhow.
So always look on the bright side of death
Just before you draw your terminal breath
Life's a piece of shit
When you look at it
Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true.
You'll see it's all a show
Keep 'em laughing as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.
And always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the right side of life...
(Come on guys, cheer up!)
Always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the bright side of life...
(Worse things happen at sea, you know.)
Always look on the bright side of life...
(I mean - what have you got to lose?)
(You know, you come from nothing - you're going back to nothing.
What have you lost? Nothing!)
Always look on the right side of life...
- by Eric Idle from Monty Python's Life of Brian
Satyagraha!
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Jokerman
Standing on the waters casting your bread
While the eyes of the idol with the iron head are glowing.
Distant ships sailing into the mist,
You were born with a snake in both of your fists
while a hurricane was blowing.
Freedom just around the corner for you
But with the truth so far off,
what good will it do?
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune,
Bird fly high by the light of the moon,
Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman.
So swiftly the sun sets in the sky,
You rise up and say goodbye to no one.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,
Both of their futures, so full of dread,
you don't show one.
Shedding off one more layer of skin,
Keeping one step ahead of the persecutor within.
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune,
Bird fly high by the light of the moon,
Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman.
You're a man of the mountains,
you can walk on the clouds,
Manipulator of crowds,
you're a dream twister.
You're going to Sodom and Gomorrah
But what do you care?
Ain't nobody there would want to marry your sister.
Friend to the martyr,
a friend to the woman of shame,
You look into the fiery furnace,
see the rich man without any name.
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune,
Bird fly high by the light of the moon,
Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman.
Well, the Book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy,
The law of the jungle and the sea are your only teachers.
In the smoke of the twilight on a milk-white steed,
Michelangelo indeed could've carved out your features.
Resting in the fields, far from the turbulent space,
Half asleep near the stars
with a small dog licking your face.
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune,
Bird fly high by the light of the moon,
Oh. oh. oh. Jokerman.
Well, the rifleman's stalking the sick and the lame,
Preacherman seeks the same,
who'll get there first is uncertain.
Nightsticks and water cannons, tear gas, padlocks,
Molotov cocktails and rocks behind every curtain,
False-hearted judges dying in the webs that they spin,
Only a matter of time 'til night comes steppin' in.
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune,
Bird fly high by the light of the moon,
Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman.
It's a shadowy world, skies are slippery gray,
A woman just gave birth to a prince today
and dressed him in scarlet.
He'll put the priest in his pocket,
put the blade to the heat,
Take the motherless children off the street
And place them at the feet of a harlot.
Oh, Jokerman, you know what he wants,
Oh, Jokerman, you don't show any response.
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune,
Bird fly high by the light of the moon,
Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman.
- Bob Dylan (b. Robert Allen Zimmerman - legal name Robert Dylan)
Copyright © 1983 Special Rider Music
Happy Easter to Infidels Everywhere --- Satyagraha!
Stand Up For Judas
Judas Saves - Why the lost gospel makes sense.
I don't normally mind offending holy men, but I can remember feeling absolutely aghast at the injured look that spread across the fine features of the Coptic Archbishop of Eritrea as we sat in his quarters in Asmara in 1993. Was it true, I had asked him, that in the Coptic Christian tradition Judas was considered to be a saint? He jumped like a pea on a hot shovel and, when he had regained his composure, demanded to know how I could possibly have heard such a wicked rumor. Nothing more profane could be imagined than this perversion of the Easter story. (Looking back, I think I may have misunderstood something I read in Graham Greene.)
Nonetheless, the idea of a sacred Judas always seemed rational to me, at least in Christian terms. The New Testament tells us firmly that Jesus went to Jerusalem at Passover to die and to fulfill certain ancient prophecies by doing so. How could any agent of this process, witting or unwitting, be acting other than according to the divine will? It did seem odd to me that the Jewish elders and the Romans required someone to identify Jesus for them, since according to the story he was already a rather well-known figure, but that was a secondary objection.
Now we have, recovered from the desert of Egypt, a 26-page "Gospel of Judas," written in Coptic script about 300 years after the events it purportedly describes. This fragment may or may not be related to the "Nag Hammadi library"—a collection of gospels, including those of Thomas and Mary Magdalene, that were unearthed near an ancient Egyptian monastery in 1945. Sometimes known as the "Gnostic" texts, they are the ones that were rejected as noncanonical when the early church made its vain attempt to standardize Christian dogma. Given how many discrepancies there are between the four remaining Gospels of the New Testament, one can almost sympathize with Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria, who in an Easter letter in the fourth century tried to boil down the number of approved books to 27.
The Judas gospel puts legend's most notorious traitor in a new light—as the man who enjoyed his master's most intimate confidence, and who was given the crucial task of helping him shed his fleshly mortality. And you can see why the early Christian fathers were leery of such texts. This book has the same cast but a very arcane interpretation. Right before Passover, as the disciples are praying, Jesus sneers at their innocence. Only Judas has guessed the master aright—and has discerned that he comes from the heavenly realm of the god "Barbelo." In the realm of Barbelo, it seems, earthly pains are unknown and the fortunate inhabitants are free from the attentions of the God of the Old Testament. Jesus himself is descended in some fashion from Adam's third son, Seth. With Judas' help, he hopes to guide the seed of Seth back to the realm of Barbelo.* (Is it possible that C.S. Lewis always had a copy of this esoteric text in one of his wardrobes? Or perhaps it fell into the hands of the Heaven's Gate sect-maniacs, as they castratedly awaited the satellite that lurked behind the comet?)
I don't think any summarizing sentence on all this could be more wrong than the one written by Adam Gopnik in the latest New Yorker. He states:
The finding of the new Gospel, though obviously remarkable as a bit of textual history, no more challenges the basis of the Church's faith than the discovery of a document from the nineteenth century written in Ohio and defending King George would be a challenge to the basis of American democracy.
Can Gopnik not discern the difference between George III and Benedict Arnold, let alone the difference between a man-made screed and a series of texts sometimes claimed to be inerrant and divinely inspired? But never mind these trifling failures of analogy. The Judas gospel would make one huge difference if it was accepted. It would dispel the centuries of anti-Semitic paranoia that were among the chief accompaniments of the Easter celebration until approximately 30 years after 1945, when the Vatican finally acquitted the Jews of the charge of Christ-killing. But if Jesus had been acting consistently and seeking a trusted companion who could facilitate his necessary martyrdom, then all the mental and moral garbage about the Jewish frame-up of the Redeemer goes straight over the side.
Remember that Christians are supposed to believe that everybody is responsible for the loneliness and torture of Calvary, and for the failure to appreciate the awful blood sacrifice until it was too late. In living memory, the Catholic Church invoked the verses where the Jews called for this very blood to be, not just upon their own heads, but upon their every succeeding generation. (This sinister fable occurs in only one of the four authorized Gospels, but it was enough—and Mel Gibson recently coined himself 40 million pieces of silver by attempting to revive it.)
Now ask yourself, why did the church take so long to exculpate the Jews as a whole from the collective and heritable charge of "deicide"? It ought to have been simple enough to determine that the Sanhedrin of the time, whatever it may have done, could not have bound all Jews for all eternity. The answer is equally simple: If Christianity had to excuse one group of humans from everlasting blood-guilt, how could it avoid excusing them all? Two millennia of stupidity and cruelty and superstition dissolve in an instant when we notice that even some early believers were shrewd enough to see though the whole sham. On this weekend of official piety, let us all therefore give thanks for our deliverance from religion, and raise high the wafer that summons us to the wonders and bliss of the faraway realm of Barbelo and brings us the joyous and long-awaited news that Judas saves.*
- Christopher Hitchens, Slate Magazine
Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2139781/
About time the cowardly myth that has served as the foundation of the "Christian" mafia for millennia was left in the smoking ruins that spawned it. Of course that myth has been shakey ground for some time now, and many never bought into it at all. To wit, the following lyrics, which have been ably performed by Dick Gaughan and others:
The Romans were the masters when Jesus walked the land
In Judea and in Galilee they ruled with an iron hand
And the poor were sick with hunger and the rich were clothed in splendour
And the rebels whipped and crucified hung rotting as a warning
And Jesus knew the answer
Said, Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, said, Love your enemies
But Judas was a Zealot and he wanted to be free
Resist, he said, The Romans' tyranny
Jesus was a conjuror, miracles were his game
And he fed the hungry thousands and they glorified his name
He cured the lame and the lepers, he calmed the wind and the weather
And the wretched flocked to touch him so their troubles would be taken
And Jesus knew the answer
All you who labour, all you who suffer only believe in me
But Judas sought a world where no one starved or begged for bread
The poor are always with us, Jesus said
So stand up, stand up for Judas and the cause that Judas served
It was Jesus who betrayed the poor with his word
Now Jesus brought division where none had been before
Not the slaves against their masters but the poor against the poor
Set son to rise up against father, and brother to fight against brother
For he that is not with me is against me, was his teaching
Said Jesus, I am the answer
You unbelievers shall burn forever, shall die in your sins
Not sheep and goats, said Judas, But together we may dare
Shake off the chains of misery we share
So stand up, stand up for Judas and the cause that Judas served
It was Jesus who betrayed the poor with his word
Jesus stood upon the mountain with a distance in his eyes
I am the way, the life, he cried, The light that never dies
So renounce all earthly treasures and pray to your heavenly father
And he pacified the hopeless with the hope of life eternal
Said Jesus, I am the answer
And you who hunger only remember your reward's in Heaven
So Jesus preached the other world but Judas wanted this
And he betrayed his master with a kiss
So stand up, stand up for Judas and the cause that Judas served
It was Jesus who betrayed the poor with his word
By sword and gun and crucifix Christ's gospel has been spread
And 2.000 cruel years have shown the way that Jesus led
The heretics burned and tortured, and the butchering, bloody crusaders
The bombs and rockets sanctified that rain down death from heaven
They followed Jesus, they knew the answer
All non-believers must be believers or else be broken
So put no trust in Saviours, Judas said, For everyone
Must be to his or her own self - a sun
So stand up, stand up for Judas and the cause that Judas served
It was Jesus who betrayed the poor with his word
- Leon Rosselson
And of course 40 years ago we find St. Zimmie (more from him later) well ahead of everyone:
In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.
- Satyagraha!
I don't normally mind offending holy men, but I can remember feeling absolutely aghast at the injured look that spread across the fine features of the Coptic Archbishop of Eritrea as we sat in his quarters in Asmara in 1993. Was it true, I had asked him, that in the Coptic Christian tradition Judas was considered to be a saint? He jumped like a pea on a hot shovel and, when he had regained his composure, demanded to know how I could possibly have heard such a wicked rumor. Nothing more profane could be imagined than this perversion of the Easter story. (Looking back, I think I may have misunderstood something I read in Graham Greene.)
Nonetheless, the idea of a sacred Judas always seemed rational to me, at least in Christian terms. The New Testament tells us firmly that Jesus went to Jerusalem at Passover to die and to fulfill certain ancient prophecies by doing so. How could any agent of this process, witting or unwitting, be acting other than according to the divine will? It did seem odd to me that the Jewish elders and the Romans required someone to identify Jesus for them, since according to the story he was already a rather well-known figure, but that was a secondary objection.
Now we have, recovered from the desert of Egypt, a 26-page "Gospel of Judas," written in Coptic script about 300 years after the events it purportedly describes. This fragment may or may not be related to the "Nag Hammadi library"—a collection of gospels, including those of Thomas and Mary Magdalene, that were unearthed near an ancient Egyptian monastery in 1945. Sometimes known as the "Gnostic" texts, they are the ones that were rejected as noncanonical when the early church made its vain attempt to standardize Christian dogma. Given how many discrepancies there are between the four remaining Gospels of the New Testament, one can almost sympathize with Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria, who in an Easter letter in the fourth century tried to boil down the number of approved books to 27.
The Judas gospel puts legend's most notorious traitor in a new light—as the man who enjoyed his master's most intimate confidence, and who was given the crucial task of helping him shed his fleshly mortality. And you can see why the early Christian fathers were leery of such texts. This book has the same cast but a very arcane interpretation. Right before Passover, as the disciples are praying, Jesus sneers at their innocence. Only Judas has guessed the master aright—and has discerned that he comes from the heavenly realm of the god "Barbelo." In the realm of Barbelo, it seems, earthly pains are unknown and the fortunate inhabitants are free from the attentions of the God of the Old Testament. Jesus himself is descended in some fashion from Adam's third son, Seth. With Judas' help, he hopes to guide the seed of Seth back to the realm of Barbelo.* (Is it possible that C.S. Lewis always had a copy of this esoteric text in one of his wardrobes? Or perhaps it fell into the hands of the Heaven's Gate sect-maniacs, as they castratedly awaited the satellite that lurked behind the comet?)
I don't think any summarizing sentence on all this could be more wrong than the one written by Adam Gopnik in the latest New Yorker. He states:
The finding of the new Gospel, though obviously remarkable as a bit of textual history, no more challenges the basis of the Church's faith than the discovery of a document from the nineteenth century written in Ohio and defending King George would be a challenge to the basis of American democracy.
Can Gopnik not discern the difference between George III and Benedict Arnold, let alone the difference between a man-made screed and a series of texts sometimes claimed to be inerrant and divinely inspired? But never mind these trifling failures of analogy. The Judas gospel would make one huge difference if it was accepted. It would dispel the centuries of anti-Semitic paranoia that were among the chief accompaniments of the Easter celebration until approximately 30 years after 1945, when the Vatican finally acquitted the Jews of the charge of Christ-killing. But if Jesus had been acting consistently and seeking a trusted companion who could facilitate his necessary martyrdom, then all the mental and moral garbage about the Jewish frame-up of the Redeemer goes straight over the side.
Remember that Christians are supposed to believe that everybody is responsible for the loneliness and torture of Calvary, and for the failure to appreciate the awful blood sacrifice until it was too late. In living memory, the Catholic Church invoked the verses where the Jews called for this very blood to be, not just upon their own heads, but upon their every succeeding generation. (This sinister fable occurs in only one of the four authorized Gospels, but it was enough—and Mel Gibson recently coined himself 40 million pieces of silver by attempting to revive it.)
Now ask yourself, why did the church take so long to exculpate the Jews as a whole from the collective and heritable charge of "deicide"? It ought to have been simple enough to determine that the Sanhedrin of the time, whatever it may have done, could not have bound all Jews for all eternity. The answer is equally simple: If Christianity had to excuse one group of humans from everlasting blood-guilt, how could it avoid excusing them all? Two millennia of stupidity and cruelty and superstition dissolve in an instant when we notice that even some early believers were shrewd enough to see though the whole sham. On this weekend of official piety, let us all therefore give thanks for our deliverance from religion, and raise high the wafer that summons us to the wonders and bliss of the faraway realm of Barbelo and brings us the joyous and long-awaited news that Judas saves.*
- Christopher Hitchens, Slate Magazine
Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2139781/
About time the cowardly myth that has served as the foundation of the "Christian" mafia for millennia was left in the smoking ruins that spawned it. Of course that myth has been shakey ground for some time now, and many never bought into it at all. To wit, the following lyrics, which have been ably performed by Dick Gaughan and others:
The Romans were the masters when Jesus walked the land
In Judea and in Galilee they ruled with an iron hand
And the poor were sick with hunger and the rich were clothed in splendour
And the rebels whipped and crucified hung rotting as a warning
And Jesus knew the answer
Said, Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, said, Love your enemies
But Judas was a Zealot and he wanted to be free
Resist, he said, The Romans' tyranny
Jesus was a conjuror, miracles were his game
And he fed the hungry thousands and they glorified his name
He cured the lame and the lepers, he calmed the wind and the weather
And the wretched flocked to touch him so their troubles would be taken
And Jesus knew the answer
All you who labour, all you who suffer only believe in me
But Judas sought a world where no one starved or begged for bread
The poor are always with us, Jesus said
So stand up, stand up for Judas and the cause that Judas served
It was Jesus who betrayed the poor with his word
Now Jesus brought division where none had been before
Not the slaves against their masters but the poor against the poor
Set son to rise up against father, and brother to fight against brother
For he that is not with me is against me, was his teaching
Said Jesus, I am the answer
You unbelievers shall burn forever, shall die in your sins
Not sheep and goats, said Judas, But together we may dare
Shake off the chains of misery we share
So stand up, stand up for Judas and the cause that Judas served
It was Jesus who betrayed the poor with his word
Jesus stood upon the mountain with a distance in his eyes
I am the way, the life, he cried, The light that never dies
So renounce all earthly treasures and pray to your heavenly father
And he pacified the hopeless with the hope of life eternal
Said Jesus, I am the answer
And you who hunger only remember your reward's in Heaven
So Jesus preached the other world but Judas wanted this
And he betrayed his master with a kiss
So stand up, stand up for Judas and the cause that Judas served
It was Jesus who betrayed the poor with his word
By sword and gun and crucifix Christ's gospel has been spread
And 2.000 cruel years have shown the way that Jesus led
The heretics burned and tortured, and the butchering, bloody crusaders
The bombs and rockets sanctified that rain down death from heaven
They followed Jesus, they knew the answer
All non-believers must be believers or else be broken
So put no trust in Saviours, Judas said, For everyone
Must be to his or her own self - a sun
So stand up, stand up for Judas and the cause that Judas served
It was Jesus who betrayed the poor with his word
- Leon Rosselson
And of course 40 years ago we find St. Zimmie (more from him later) well ahead of everyone:
In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.
- Satyagraha!
Slavery and Duty
Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone where it is, because that much is due to the necessity arising from its actual presence in the nation; but can we, while our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the National Territories, and to overrun us here in these Free States? If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty, fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so industriously plied and belabored - contrivances such as groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong, vain as the search for a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man - such as a policy of "don't care" on a question about which all true men do care - such as Union appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists, reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the righteous to repentance - such as invocations to Washington, imploring men to unsay what Washington said, and undo what Washington did.
Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH, LET US, TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT.
Abraham Lincoln - Cooper Union Address, October 1859
On another Good Friday on April 14, 1865 Abraham Lincoln was killed by a coward - but his dream never died.
- Satyagraha!
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Charity
Although I speak with the tongues of men and angels,
without charity my voice is like a tinkling cymbal.
Although I have the gift of prophesy,
and understand all mysteries and knowledge,
and have faith such that I could move mountains,
without charity I am nothing.
And if I give all my goods to feed the poor,
and give my body to be burned,
without charity it profits me nothing.
Charity suffers long, and is kind.
Charity has no envy, and does not boast.
Charity is not puffed up,
does not behave itself unseemly or only seek its own,
is not easily provoked and thinks no evil.
Charity does not rejoice in iniquity,
but rejoices in the truth;
and bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.
Charity never fails;
but wherever there are prophesies, they will fail;
wherever there are tongues, they will cease;
wherever there is knowledge, it will fade away.
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part,
but when that which is perfect has come,
then that which is incomplete shall fade away.
When I was a child I spoke as a child,
I understood as a child,
I thought as a child;
but when I became a man I put away childish things.
For now, we see through a glass, darkly;
but then, we will see face to face.
Now I know in part, but then I shall know, as I am known.
And now abide in faith, hope and charity, these three.
And remember, the greatest of these is charity.
- the Apostle Paul, first letter to the Corinthians
- update of translation by William Tyndale
If one in a hundred "Christians" took this one passage to heart, "Christendom" would be a far better place. Happy Eastertide.
Satyagraha!
without charity my voice is like a tinkling cymbal.
Although I have the gift of prophesy,
and understand all mysteries and knowledge,
and have faith such that I could move mountains,
without charity I am nothing.
And if I give all my goods to feed the poor,
and give my body to be burned,
without charity it profits me nothing.
Charity suffers long, and is kind.
Charity has no envy, and does not boast.
Charity is not puffed up,
does not behave itself unseemly or only seek its own,
is not easily provoked and thinks no evil.
Charity does not rejoice in iniquity,
but rejoices in the truth;
and bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.
Charity never fails;
but wherever there are prophesies, they will fail;
wherever there are tongues, they will cease;
wherever there is knowledge, it will fade away.
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part,
but when that which is perfect has come,
then that which is incomplete shall fade away.
When I was a child I spoke as a child,
I understood as a child,
I thought as a child;
but when I became a man I put away childish things.
For now, we see through a glass, darkly;
but then, we will see face to face.
Now I know in part, but then I shall know, as I am known.
And now abide in faith, hope and charity, these three.
And remember, the greatest of these is charity.
- the Apostle Paul, first letter to the Corinthians
- update of translation by William Tyndale
If one in a hundred "Christians" took this one passage to heart, "Christendom" would be a far better place. Happy Eastertide.
Satyagraha!
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
What God Wants
The kid in the corner looked at the priest
And fingered his pale blue Japanese guitar
The priest said
God wants goodness
God wants light
God wants mayhem
God wants a clean fight
What God wants God gets
Don't look so surprised
It's only dogma
The alien prophet cried
The beetle and the springbok
Took the Bible from its hook
The monkey in the corner
Wrote the lesson in his book
What God wants God gets
God help us all
God wants peace
God wants war
God wants famine
God wants chain stores
What God wants God gets
God wants sedition
God wants sex
God wants freedom
God wants semtex
What God wants God gets
Don't look so surprised
I'm only joking
The alien comic cried
The jackass and hyena
Took the feather from its hook
The monkey in the corner
Wrote the joke down in his book
What God wants God gets
God wants boarders
God wants crack
God wants rainfall
God wants wetbacks
What God wants God gets
God wants voodoo
God wants shrines
God wants law
God wants organized crime
God wants crusade
God wants jihad
God wants good
God wants bad
What God wants God gets
God wants dollars
God wants cents
God wants pounds shillings and pence
God wants guilders
God wants Kroner
God wants Swiss francs
God wants French francs
Oui il veut des francs francais
God wants escudos
God wants pesetas
Don't send lira
God don't want small potatoes
God wants small towns
God wants pain
God wants clean up rock campaigns
God wants windows
God wants solutions
God wants TV
God wants contributions
What God wants God gets
God help us all
God wants silver
God wants gold
God wants his secret
Never to be told
God wants gigolos
God wants giraffes
God wants politics
God wants a good laugh
What God wants God gets
God help us all
God wants friendship
God wants fame
God wants credit
God wants blame
God wants poverty
God wants wealth
God wants insurance
God wants to cover himself
What God wants God gets
God help us all
- George Roger Waters
And fingered his pale blue Japanese guitar
The priest said
God wants goodness
God wants light
God wants mayhem
God wants a clean fight
What God wants God gets
Don't look so surprised
It's only dogma
The alien prophet cried
The beetle and the springbok
Took the Bible from its hook
The monkey in the corner
Wrote the lesson in his book
What God wants God gets
God help us all
God wants peace
God wants war
God wants famine
God wants chain stores
What God wants God gets
God wants sedition
God wants sex
God wants freedom
God wants semtex
What God wants God gets
Don't look so surprised
I'm only joking
The alien comic cried
The jackass and hyena
Took the feather from its hook
The monkey in the corner
Wrote the joke down in his book
What God wants God gets
God wants boarders
God wants crack
God wants rainfall
God wants wetbacks
What God wants God gets
God wants voodoo
God wants shrines
God wants law
God wants organized crime
God wants crusade
God wants jihad
God wants good
God wants bad
What God wants God gets
God wants dollars
God wants cents
God wants pounds shillings and pence
God wants guilders
God wants Kroner
God wants Swiss francs
God wants French francs
Oui il veut des francs francais
God wants escudos
God wants pesetas
Don't send lira
God don't want small potatoes
God wants small towns
God wants pain
God wants clean up rock campaigns
God wants windows
God wants solutions
God wants TV
God wants contributions
What God wants God gets
God help us all
God wants silver
God wants gold
God wants his secret
Never to be told
God wants gigolos
God wants giraffes
God wants politics
God wants a good laugh
What God wants God gets
God help us all
God wants friendship
God wants fame
God wants credit
God wants blame
God wants poverty
God wants wealth
God wants insurance
God wants to cover himself
What God wants God gets
God help us all
- George Roger Waters
Darwinian Grandeur
There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
- Charles Robert Darwin, On the Origin of Species
Satyagraha!
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Satyagraha Explained
Satyagraha literally means insistence on truth. This insistence arms the votary with matchless power. This power or force is connoted by the word satyagraha. Satyagraha, to be genuine, may be offered against parents, against one's wife or one's children, against rulers, against fellow-citizens, even against the whole world.
Such a universal force necessarily makes no distinction between kinsmen and strangers, young and old, man and woman, friend and foe. The force to be so applied can never be physical. There is in it no room for violence. The only force of universal application can, therefore, be that of ahimsa or love. In other words, it is soul-force.
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
-Satyagraha!
Medawar on Religiosity
To abdicate from the rule of reason and substitute for it an authentication of belief by the intentness and degree of conviction with which we hold it can be perilous and destructive. Religious beliefs give a spurious spiritual dimension to tribal enmities.
It goes with the passionate intensity and deep conviction of the truth of a religious belief, and of course of the importance of the superstitious observances that go with it, that we should want others to share it -- and the only certain way to cause a religious belief to be held by everyone is to liquidate nonbelievers. The price in blood and tears that mankind generally has had to pay for the comfort and spiritual refreshment that religion has brought to a few has been too great to justify our entrusting moral accountancy to religious belief.
Sir Peter Brian Medawar - The Limits of Science (1984)
Satyagraha!
It goes with the passionate intensity and deep conviction of the truth of a religious belief, and of course of the importance of the superstitious observances that go with it, that we should want others to share it -- and the only certain way to cause a religious belief to be held by everyone is to liquidate nonbelievers. The price in blood and tears that mankind generally has had to pay for the comfort and spiritual refreshment that religion has brought to a few has been too great to justify our entrusting moral accountancy to religious belief.
Sir Peter Brian Medawar - The Limits of Science (1984)
Satyagraha!
Monday, April 10, 2006
Redemption Song
Redemption Song
Old Pirates Yes They Rob I,
Sold I To The Merchant Ships
Minutes After They Took I
From The Bottomless Pit
But My Hand Was Made Strong
By The Hand Of The Almighty
We Forward In This Generation,
Triumphantly
Won't You Help To Sing,
These Songs Of Freedom
Cause All I Ever Had,
Redemption Songs,
Redemption Songs
Emancipate Yourselves From Mental Slavery
None But Ourselves Can Free Our Minds
Have No Fear For Atomic Energy
Cause None A Them Can Stop The Time
How Long Shall They Kill Our Prophets
While We Stand Aside And Look
Some Say It's Just A Part Of It
We've Got To Fulfill The Book
Won't You Help To Sing,
These Songs Of Freedom
Cause All I Ever Had,
Redemption Songs,
Redemption Songs,
Redemption Songs.
-Robert Nesta Marley
-Satyagraha!
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Why REFWrite?
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in Stride Toward Freedom: "As I delved deeper into the philosophy of Gandhi, my skepticism concerning the power of love gradually diminished, and I came to see for the first time its potency in the arena of social reform". This passage refers to the only kind of reform that matters: reform of society at all levels from the individual to the supranational community. Dr. King also refers to the force most capable of driving such reform: the power of love, or as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi called it, satyagraha (literally grasping onto truth). The prospect of reform dazzles the cowards responsible for Business as Usual. They style their insipid attempts to impose the hoary shackles of superstition and tradition as "reform movements" (e.g. the feeble crowd of degenerates who have seized power in North America), and they use"reform" as a spongy plank for intellectual constructs designed to justify evil, stupidity, viciousness and greed (e.g. the Dutch reform movements that provided comfort to the architects of the international slave trade, exploitative colonialism, apartheid, global capitalism and the Holocaust). To the cowards reform is something to be done to other people, communities, tribes, races, countries, landscapes, or - if they can get away with it - to the whole world. For example the U.S. is intent on "reforming" Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Mexico, etc. while turning the Earth into a runaway adiabatic hell in the service of their hunger for energy, fast food and everything else they can get their hands on. Satyagrahis know that reform begins at home, and that the process is long, painful, dynamic and unending. We reform as we live, as we breathe, as we watch, as we read, as we examine, as we formulate and as we write.
Satyagraha!
Satyagraha!
Imagine...
Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today...
Imagine there's no countries,
It isn't hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...
Imagine no possesions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say I'm a dreamer,
but I'm not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.
-John Winston Lennon
...and imagine if that little pigfucker hadn't blown Johnnie away, driven by the desperation cowards feel in the face of genius, beauty and the power of the truth.
Satyagraha!
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