tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post6881919582138174071..comments2023-06-15T09:13:45.467-04:00Comments on Liberty's Torch: AssortedFrancis W. Porrettohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05862584203772592282noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-59318220007239785872019-12-08T18:44:30.437-05:002019-12-08T18:44:30.437-05:00In my past, I had a devote period. No longer. Bu...In my past, I had a devote period. No longer. But I fully grasp both the need and importance of it and it is often reflected in how people come to view the Christmas season. I very much like Bob's comment on Methodism. <br /><br />I tend to 'celebrate' via the music that pervades my daily life (by choice) during Christmas. This will be the first year in decades I will NOT be at my parent's home for the holidays - and my mother was an example holding Christmas as well as any could. <br /><br />During the devotion period, I'd say I was a predestinationist but didn't put any negative connotation to it. It didn't remove my freewill, only noted that God KNEW before I did my choices....kinda a characteristic of God. So I didn't, don't because I still hold those views, have any issues others seem caught up on. <br /><br />I'm a reprobate - maybe God foresees that changing, but then I'd not be one in His eyes and the future changes for me. S Tracy Coylehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-10566419621372419652019-12-08T13:06:44.214-05:002019-12-08T13:06:44.214-05:00..."but is there any other possible way divin......"but is there any other possible way divine omniscience can be harmonized with human free will?"<br /> <br />As I have come to understand these things, (humbly), the Creator lives outside time; He reigns in past, present and future simultaneously. So while affording free will to measly humans, He also "sees" what our choices were, are and will be.<br /><br />So, He didn't need a backup plan for Blessed Mary, the immaculently conceived one, because He saw what she would choose.milton fhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04222904984648426127noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-54948239728599029212019-12-08T13:01:17.683-05:002019-12-08T13:01:17.683-05:00(part two of two)
A large part of the problem is,...(part two of two)<br /><br />A large part of the problem is, I have no children, therefore no<br />subsequent generations of family to help remind me what a truly special<br />time of year it can be. A tradition not passed down is no tradition.<br />Christmas, at the heart of it, is a time for families. The Church is<br />a surrogate family of sorts, and I want to explore that a bit more<br />deeply.<br /><br />First, my biases up-front... I'm a baptized and confirmed Catholic,<br />and have pretty much been apostate since my mother's passing in 1999.<br />Not that I regularly attended Mass much since going off to college in<br />1977. Vatican II caused me and my family much grief. The Novus Ordo<br />Mass was bad enough on its own, but "folk Mass" variants with strumming<br />guitars, tambourines, and, G-d help us, timpani in the back of the<br />sanctuary, pretty much drove me away. When a beautiful marble communion<br />rail was removed from my home town's church so that congregants would<br />then gather around the altar to receive communion while listening to<br />some no-talent ass-clown's amplified screechings of various "hymns", I<br />was done :-(. Consider the following example of one such "pious"<br />musical offering (I'm certain you can imagine the twanging guitar,<br />shaking tambourine, and brisk 4/4 tempo):<br /><br /> "Sons of G-d! Hear His holy word!<br /> Gather 'round, the table of the Lord!<br /> Eat His body, drink His blood,<br /> And we'll sing a song of love!<br /> Allelu! Allelu! Allelu! Alleluia!",<br /><br />I'll pause a moment while you mop up the vomitus from your screens and<br />keyboards.<br /><br />In college, I tried attending the local Catholic church, and encountered<br />more of the same significant distractions from contemplative worship and<br />adoration of my Creator. It's a failing I'll happily admit to, but if<br />the music at a worship service isn't "good" (*my* standards), I'd rather<br />there be none. Music is extremely powerful in terms of encouraging a<br />response, stimulating memories, etc. Witness the lead-off ramblings<br />about Christmas music and why you feel the way you do when you hear<br />someone mangle it.<br /><br />(Much additional personal history omitted here as being irrelevant to<br />the present discussion :-).)<br /><br />People can say and think as they wish about John Wesley and Methodism,<br />but one thing I've consistently noted in my exposure to same are the<br />questions asked of new members. One is particularly germane to the<br />current discussion: "Will you give reverent attendance upon the private<br />and *public* worship of G-d?". I'd speculate for the vast majority of us,<br />it is absolutely essential to participate in the community of believers<br />to bolster and sustain individual faith. Corruption and disillusionment<br />of the isolated individual is easy for the Prince of Lies. As one local<br />preacher likes to put it, if you insert a white-gloved hand into mud,<br />the mud never becomes "glovey". Modern social constructs amount to an<br />incredible amount of mud. <br /><br />Parents -- raise your children. *You* are the bulwark against society's<br />"mud". The battle isn't lost unless/until you give up.<br /><br />In the absence of like-minded relatives with descendants over whom I might<br />have some influence, I'll be taking advantage of my church family and<br />immersing myself in the anticipation and celebration of Advent. The Christmas<br />spirit *will* put in an appearance for me this year, and it is my fervent<br />prayer for everyone reading this that you'll find something in your lives<br />worth celebrating. If nothing else, please accept my gratitude for your<br />role in pulling me back from a dark place.<br /><br />Respectfully,<br />--Bob in San AntonioBob T.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07154297944632565450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-60615362163853224472019-12-08T12:55:33.476-05:002019-12-08T12:55:33.476-05:00I've learned in recent years that, when my Lor...I've learned in recent years that, when my Lord puts something upon my<br />heart, it's best to take whatever action springs to mind, even if that<br />action amounts to little more than contemplation of where I am and how<br />I got here. What follows is going to ramble a bit, but I'll try to tie<br />it all together by the end.<br /><br />Today, I'll use Mike's recent admission to unexpectedly liking Bob Segar's<br />rendition of "The Little Drummer Boy" as a a springboard. First, the<br />statement of a hypothesis I've been formulating for a while, that our<br />musical tastes regarding Christmas music were very much set in concrete<br />as children. Briefly, you like what you grew up with and came to<br />associate with the most significant holiday in your childhood, and<br />everything else is sacrilege. If you grew up in a household where<br />Mannheim Steamroller was played frequently during Christmas, that's<br />your standard. My reference standards include "Christmas in Hi-Fi"<br />with the George Melachrino orchestra, the Stan Kenton "A Merry<br />Christmas" album (originally found in a Newton Walls bargain bin for<br />$.99 by my father), a particular Columbia Special Products offering<br />called "The Great Songs of Christmas" (subtitled "by great artists of<br />our time -- Album Three), and Handel's Messiah.<br /><br />The last of those has *always* stirred great emotion in me. I participated<br />in the Ada Community Choir's production of Messiah annually from the time I<br />was mature enough to do so. Dad played string bass alongside the OKC symphony<br />musicians and vocal soloists that made the annual performances a staple of<br />Christmas in Ada during my childhood. Robert W. Kaebnick was my Dad's<br />department chairman at East Central State College, and the conductor for<br />Messiah. Bob was a humble, gentle giant of a man who inspired and informed<br />my Christian faith more than any other influence save my parents. By the time<br />I found myself in San Antonio many years later, I realized how much I missed<br />the annual opportunities to perform Messiah, and began participating in the<br />community Messiah Sing, which "held me over" until I took the plunge and<br />became a member of the San Antonio Symphony Mastersingers.<br /><br />In later years, I came to appreciate other Christmas music besides what I<br />mentioned above, but significant exceptions aside, all the rest was<br />(1) classical; and (2) either instrumental or traditional choral. I'm a<br />particular fan of brass ensemble and jazz arrangements when performed by<br />musicians of obvious proficiency with appropriate sensitivity to the sense<br />of "the message". The only outlier I've encountered in my six decades to<br />date has been the "Handel's Messiah: A Soulful Celebration" album, but even<br />that 1992 exception to what I regard as musical truth is, you will note,<br />based on something extremely meaningful to me. If you're looking for it,<br />you'll find plenty of the "self-indulgent warbling" to which many of us object,<br />but as has been noted elsewhere, context matters -- the gospel music style is<br />going to include that element. "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth" has moments of<br />true beauty intermixed with "warbling" that is, at times, painful to suffer<br />through. Al Jarreau's version of "Why Do the Nations So Furiously Rage?"<br />was an unexpected pleasure. The opening track, "Overture: A Partial History<br />of Black Music", pretty much sets the stage for what follows. Give it a try<br />if you're feeling adventurous this season.<br /><br />I found myself contemplating the above in the context of how it has<br />become increasingly difficult to feel anything like the Christmas<br />"spirit" of my youth. Each year, the mood/attitude takes longer to<br />arrive. Last year, it never did. I'm determined to reverse that<br />trend, and I'm grateful to both our host and his many participating<br />readers and contributors for their ability to inspire and motivate me<br />in that regard.<br /><br />(part two of two following... 4,096 character limit hit)Bob T.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07154297944632565450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-55763693008808483032019-12-08T07:26:00.344-05:002019-12-08T07:26:00.344-05:001. I contend, and have stated for a while, that th...1. I contend, and have stated for a while, that the Left consists of MISSIONARIES who are True Believers in the idea that with absolute power, and the chaos and societal breakdown they foment, the inevitable Socialist Utopia will arise. It's clearly stated as the heart of the Cloward-Piven theory, is IMHO the reason for the Great Replacement (which, unless we just roll over, WILL result in bloody civil war), and is behind the in-your-face double-standard which not just protects them, but makes most Normals want to give up.<br /><br />2. The only reason Western Europe, etc., have the luxury of such welfare programs is the American taxpayer paying for NATO.<br /><br />Now, as I tell the wife often and the kids now too - one makes decisions based on what is known and understood at the time. Part of NATO was, IMHO, to make sure the Western European countries knew who was buttering their bread so as to retain influence. We can argue now, with hindsight, this was not the correct course of action.<br /><br />Now, IMHO Russia is still a threat, but Putin - for all the bloodstained hands he has - loves Russia, and sees the threat of Islam. This is, BTW, why I think the Dems constantly circle back to attack Russia (for whom they couldn't bend over for fast enough during the cold war) as a Russia / USA / Eastern Europe alliance (not necessarily friendship) would roll back the Eurabia project the Globalists want (see 1 above).<br /><br />3. Have a raffle to pull the lever.<br /><br />4. An anecdote about the enemedia. My late mother was far-Left. But I remember, one day visiting her after my father died, hearing some monstrosity of a 30 minute segment on National Progressive Radio, where even she had her gorge up her throat. "Who does this kind of drek?" she asked. I told her "They do these programs for their friends, so that their friends can write letters to the NPR stations praising these things and they can bask in the adulation."<br /><br />5. Haven't seen any such barriers around here yet. However, in a completely non-scientific poll, I am seeing an increase in Hijabs. I expect the former will, inevitably, be installed. And that's one reason I don't like going to the local malls.<br /><br />An anecdote, and instruction for my kids. A year or so we were in the food court having lunch: me and my kids. I INSIST on sitting at the edge of the thing, either near the exterior doors, or the way to the center of the mall. There was a Middle Eastern-looking guy with an uncharacteristically heavy jacket, and large backpack too, wandering around. Had he started moving towards the center of the food court we were OUT OF THERE NOW. (He didn't.) I've been trying to teach my kids situational awareness.<br /><br />And skipping to 8: That's an interesting quandry that I, too, have wrestled with albeit within Judaism. Most particularly, within the context of the Shoah. As I've been asked, how can we continue to believe in Hashem given the Holocaust? It's something that has caused a number of my fellow (ethnic) Jews to be atheists.<br /><br />Yet... an answer that has stuck with me is this. Q: Where was Hashem during the Shoah? A: Weeping that His creation could do this.<br /><br />And, to build off that quote: As I tell my kids, Hashem is infinite in both time and space. We are neither. We are as ants (if that) attempting to understand the workings of people... it's simply beyond us. We either believe, and have faith, or we do not. And this morning, after my morning prayers, I had a line come to mind about my own mortality (though not soon, please - at least let me get the kids to adulthood)... from Job: "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him."<br /><br />--<br /><br />I am sure I will say this again, but wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas... you, and your readers too.NITZAKHONhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04110716447757507226noreply@blogger.com