Category: Reflections of the Fall

24Nov

On Riots and Fatherlessness


Essayist Mary Eberstadt has examined the rise of violence in cities, and noted a correlation with youth being raised with no father in the home.  Currently 25 percent of all children, and 65 percent of African American children, are raised in homes where the father is absent.

“So, here’s a new theory: The explosive events of 2020 are but the latest eruption along a fault line running through our already unstable lives. That eruption exposes the threefold crisis of filial attachment that has beset the Western world for more than half a century. Deprived of father, Father, and patria, a critical mass of humanity has become socially dysfunctional on a scale not seen before.”

This disruption can be seen on both the extreme right and the extreme left.  Gangs are one of the outcomes of absent parents.  Another is the “street families” in Portland, OR, home of some of the worst violence in 2020:  “Street families” are an especially toxic variant of the current voguish phrase, “chosen families.” Street families are like gangs: poor and desperate substitutes for the real thing, called into being by the absence of the real thing.”

Read it all: https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/12/the-fury-of-the-fatherless

20Jul

A House Divided: The Evergreen State College Meltdown

Jesus famously said, “A house divided against itself shall not stand”. For those who would seize or destroy an institution, this is not merely descriptive but prescriptive. In recent years the outside world has watched in amazement as a vocal minority of activists has effectively seized control at a liberal institution of higher education. Disturbingly this may be only be the beginning of a new and uglier phase of the culture battle, in which a newer and more virulent strain of leftism finishes off the remnant of conservatives and begins to feed on its own political allies.

At Evergreen State College in Washington, student protests ultimately drove out two well liked liberal professors, who, their heads still reeling, wrote a postmortem on the chaos that descended. After the new president stopped protestors from derailing a convocation, he then reversed course and apologized for doing so, and opened a door to more of the same:

Even so, assume for the moment that Evergreen did have racism running rampant. Even under those conditions, would apologizing to students for asking them to respect the college and its invited speakers be the right move? Of course not.
What happened next was predictable. Protests became more frequent and intrusive. Protesters showed up at the swearing-in ceremony of the new campus police chief, Stacy Brown, and shut it down…Soon thereafter, protesters showed up at another ceremony, the dedication of a campus building to the last president of Evergreen, Les Purce. Purce happens to be black. Protesters grabbed the microphone and read an epithet-rich announcement claiming that the school is “unsafe for marginalized students.”

Much of the blame is placed upon the new president of the college who allied himself with the social justice warriors, encouraging ever more vocal protests, and shaming any who would dare question the new order.

A meeting was held in 2016 to “discuss” a new “Strategic Equity Plan”; no “discussion” was offered other than an invitation for attendees to come up onstage and step into an invisible canoe. Most did, to the sounds of Native American drum rhythms and recordings of surf. Prof Bret Weinstein chose not to go into the invisible canoe, and he circulated an opinion questioning the tactics as being intimidating. In turn, he received hate-laced emails.

The environment on campus deteriorated. Weinstein was denounced as a racist. Later a mob of protesters disrupted his class and held him hostage for a while.

Two of his students, neither of them white, attempted to defend him to the angry crowd. They were shouted down. Not following the faux-equity party line meant that you would be informed that you were wrong, that you were a traitor

The climate on campus deteriorated rapidly. Protestors stormed the last faculty meeting of the year, shutting it down. Then they blockaded the library. Thugs began patrolling the campus looking for Professor Weinstein, who was forced to hold class off campus. The police chief later resigned. Finally Prof Weinstein and his wife were asked by the administration to leave.

The irony is that they were (are) themselves from the political left, and had been protestors in their youth. This was a blow to them, and they wrote:

Why are we being advised by the social justice crowd that we shall not focus on the content of our character, but instead must focus primarily on the color of our skin (and our gender identification, sexual orientation, and various other signifiers of intersectional oppression)? This would be MLK’s nightmare. Why is it being handed a megaphone?

We agree. This portends a possible intellectual dark age coming to academia.

Source:
Heying and Weinstein (2017) “Bonfire of the academies: Two professors on how leftist intolerance is killing higher education.” The Washington Examiner. Online at https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/bonfire-of-the-academies-two-professors-on-how-leftist-intolerance-is-killing-higher-education

14May

A Scam, With Terrible Consequences for a Serviceman

The army veteran Jared Johns was inspired by the tragic events of 9/11 to join the military as soon as he graduated high school. Following a tour of duty in Afghanistan, he struggled with depression and PTSD. Exactly 17 years after the World Trade Center tragedy, at age 24, he killed himself on another 9/11. He left a suicide note to his two young sons, who will grow up fatherless, saying, “It’s better this way, I promise.”

As it turns out, he had been the victim of a blackmail scam, perpetrated by inmates at a South Carolina prison, who have been targeting military personnel. Posing as young women, the men would flirt on dating sites, and eventually send nude photos. After reaching the nude photo stage in the “relationship” the scammers would then send threatening messages in which they pretended to be an enraged father of an underaged girl, who threatens to go to the police, and demands money in exchange for silence.

The Washington Post reports:
Between 2015 and 2018, 442 service members from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps were conned out of more than $560,000 through the scam, the investigators found. Five inmates were indicted in November, with officials warning that more than 250 people were under investigation and additional arrests could be forthcoming. (Washington Post, online at https://www.google.com/amp/s/beta.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/05/14/veterans-suicide-was-blamed-depression-then-police-found-threatening-texts-sent-prison/%3foutputType=amp

What a tragedy this is for this man and his family.

Filed under “Reflections of the Fall”

29Mar

“Get Your Stinking Prayers Off of Me”

I have been thinking about prayer lately. I know of a church that recently started a prayer group. This group gets together weekly to pray for the ministers and members of the congregation. The church is grateful to them.

Walk through one of our local hospitals and you’ll find ministers and laypeople of all varieties of Christian denominations, praying with and for the sick and dying. The recipients of such prayer are usually grateful.

But being prayed for is not always well received. In fact, in portions of the South the words “I’ll pray for you” (delivered with an air of condescension) can be a stinging insult—an odious assertion from one whose facade of perfection is intact, that yours is not.

Beyond this, though, some people are apparently triggered by well intended offerings of “thoughts and prayers” by ordinary people in the wake of tragedies, such as the depressingly frequent mass shootings that have taken place in schools and workplaces. A CNN article from 2018 describes How ‘thoughts and prayers’ went from common condolence to cynical meme”. Author A.J. Willingham tells us that “The phrase has gone from sincere to funny, but not in a ha-ha way.”

Today, in the wake of the tragic suicide of Jeremy Richman, father of Sandy Hook shooting victim Avielle Richman, an editorial in the Hartford Courant screams “Keep the thoughts and prayers and ban AR-15s instead”:

The mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, daughters, sons, wives, husbands and other family members whose lives have been broken by mass shootings don’t need thoughts and prayers.   What they need — what we all need — is to get military-style assault weapons off our streets, out of our schools and out of our lives

Now, this is a disturbing sentiment, and I’ll explain my reaction to this momentarily. I’ll leave the gun control issue aside—You’ll find that Christians are on both sides of the gun control debate (I’m generally for stricter gun control laws).

Furthermore, I’ll acknowledge some merit to the idea that prayers should be accompanied by deeds. Christians agree with this. Jesus taught this (for example, in the “Parable of the Good Samaritan”). James wrote that “faith without works is dead”. We don’t just sit around in meditation booths and marinate in our own thoughts—that’s dead faith. Pope Francis, who is spiritual leader over no small number of Christians, is quoted as saying “Prayer that doesn’t lead to concrete action toward our brothers is a fruitless and incomplete prayer” … “prayer and action must always be profoundly united.” (Catholic News Agency)

So why do I find myself disturbed by the editorial rather than shouting “amen”? Well, in one headline an editor has managed to crassly politicize a personal tragedy, and also to insult a host of ordinary people who would like to express empathy and kindness. Even looking at only the “thoughts” side of this maligned phrase, as Ben Rowan notes in The Atlantic:

For those that aren’t religious and do not pray, according to Ladd, the first half of “thoughts and prayers” offers a secularized alternative—much like “happy holidays” is to “merry Christmas.” It allows participation in the same communal ritual, which can compel a sense of social cohesion.

Essentially the sentiment “Keep your thoughts to yourself” comes across to me as “share my political beliefs or F*€k off.” Kindness itself is being assaulted here.  Kindness which is offered to others indiscriminately allows for connection beyond the differences of religion and other barriers, and is a stitch in the fabric of society. Eliminate such small scale kindness and empathy and we move one step closer to disintegration.

On the topic of prayer, it should be recognized that this Hartford Courant editorial is not a Christian critique inviting Christians to reflect on the need to back prayer with action. This is rather a cynical and secular critique that sees prayer as inaction. The assumption appears to be that prayer is not needed because it is ineffective. It is a self gratifying form of meditation at best, a mere murmuring into the void, since no one is on the other end actually listening to prayers. To the hordes of people who believe in God and the power of prayer, this kind of message comes across as a slap, a repudiation of their beliefs; it sounds like, “if you are the sort who prays, then get lost; we don’t need your kind.”

However, Christians pray not out of timidity in the face of existential emptiness, nor out of guilt, nor as a weapon of oppression against nonbelievers. We pray because we are commanded to do so, by none other than Jesus himself. Not praying is not an option for us. We are furthermore told that despite all the mysteries surrounding prayer, it actually works. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” says James 5:16.

So to my fellow Christians I would say “pray on.”  Do couple prayer with appropriate actions—God could do it all, but for reasons that are mysterious, God often chooses us to be the instruments of Divine mercy and aid. Even pray for those who see themselves as your enemy, for those who irrationally hate you for not being progressive enough, and who tell you to “keep your prayers”; for as Jesus said, in his famous Sermon on the Mount:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.(Matthew 5:43-44)

To those who receive these expressions of “thoughts and prayers” in the midst of tragedy, I would encourage you to try to accept the sentiment with some grace and forebearance, and try to love those whom you see as enemies. I would ask you to see these particular words as at the very least an expression of empathy and common humanity.  At most, they are an earnest attempt by Christians to actually do something.

(Note: Scripture references are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version).

30Nov

An Ecclesiastes Moment from Kevin Rowland

We’d become very successful very quickly. I remember walking down the high street and girls were coming out of the clothes shop and screaming at me. I thought: “This is amazing.” But you can’t turn it off. I thought that proving myself would make me happy, but I still wasn’t and that was a f**king shock.

—-Kevin Rowland, founder of the band Dexys Midnight Runners, and the author of the hit song “Come On, Eileen,” reflecting on his past in The Guardian.

06Nov

The Lurid Tale of Talhotblond

I must shower after reviewing this yucky story. In 2005, a jealous 46 year old machinist and Sunday School teacher named Thomas Montgomery killed a younger coworker, Brian Barrett. The two were in love with the same cyber entity, an 18 year old blonde girl named Jessi, who had the handle “talhotblond” on a video game chat room. Montgomery had been posing as a 20 year old marine combat veteran. His posts apparently exhibited some troubling “rage issues” and he expressed the desire to “slide all the snake slowly into his lady.” (His Sunday School pupils will likely need some therapy after this).

Many of the creepy twists and turns of the story I will pass over, but they are the subject of a documentary and a recent article by a Larry Getlen in The Daily Beast. As police investigated the murder, they were led to get in touch with Jessi, the young blonde. However, they quickly discovered that although Jessi was a real person residing in Oak Hill, WV, she had no clue about the communications. Her photos and identity were actually being used by none other than her own mother, 45 year old Mary Shieler. Mary had taken revealing photos of her daughter and used them to fuel a fantasy life online.

Mary, who is now divorced, apparently expressed no remorse, and said to her daughter during the proceedings, “Why don’t you just get over this?” Getlen concludes:

The final irony to this case and talhotblond is that behind the well-matched youthful sizzle of the Jessi and Tommy personas lay another, equally well-matched pair: the two malcontented strangers who created them. Montgomery and Shieler were both lonely people who reached their mid-forties with their best days behind them, who then created deadly deceptions in the hopes of recapturing the glory of youth, and of finding real intimacy by fervently denying their true selves.

Few stories better deserve the appellation of our recurring category, “Reflections of the Fall”

31Oct

Money Didn’t Buy Him Happiness

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (Matthew 6:24)

On the heels of my post about the misery brought into the life of a WV businessman by winning the lottery, I will mention the plight of another person who received a massive financial windfall. This case was brought to my attention by my children, both of whom at one time were avid fans of the game Minecraft.

Markus Persson, known as “Notch”, was the creative genius behind Minecraft. In 2014 the 36 year old sold his company to Microsoft for $2.5 billion.

Subsequently, Persson made some honest observations about wealth and loneliness. Despite “being able to do anything I want, I’ve never felt more isolated.”

In a series of tweets posted on Saturday, Persson exposed his feelings. Raw and deeply melancholy, they reveal that money truly isn’t everything — at least for him.

He began: “The problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying, and human interaction becomes impossible due to imbalance.”

The author of the CNET article, Chris Matyszczyk, made the astute observation that “all the money in the world doesn’t actually buy anything other than things and more things.”

Regarding Mr. Persson’s current state of spiritual or emotional well-being, I know nothing more than what was revealed in this fairly old (2014) article. I certainly hope that things have improved for him.

His situation punctuates the fact that we humans often find ourselves with a deep spiritual hole at the center of our lives, which money can’t fill. We here at this site believe that God can do so.

Source: “Billionaire Who Sold Minecraft is Sad and Lonely”, available online at CNET.

30Oct

Money Brings Out The Ugly

See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction…Choose life!” (Deuteronomy 30).

Sometimes the worst thing that can happen to a human is to be given exactly what he or she wants. In fact, this may at the heart of what is meant by “Hell”. It is the curse of God turning away, and allowing the darkened soul to banish itself to a self-sought outer darkness.

An unencumbered pursuit of transient pleasures yields devastating and self destructive results. The risks taken become ever higher and the rewards ever more elusive. Relationships are destroyed, with bonds of friendship and familial affection severed, often to be replaced by the human equivalent of parasites, or else by abject loneliness.

This kind of curse is what happened to a West Virginia construction contractor named Jack Whittaker, who in 2002 had the misfortune to win the largest powerball payout to date. In the words of Misty, an employee of a strip club called “The Pink Pony”:

Over the months, the once-dapper Jack grew slovenly, Misty says: “He would come in a sloppy shirt, all wrinkled. His hat would be dirty. He’d be unshaven.” And he became demanding. “At first he was, like: ‘I’m Jack Whittaker. I won all this money, yay for me,'” Misty says. “Later it was, like: ‘I’m Jack Whittaker. You’ll do what I say . . . I have more money than God.’ Who talks like that?
“It was like the money was eating away at whatever was good in him,” Misty says. “It reminds me, like, ‘Lord of the Rings,’ how that little guy — what’s his name? Gollum? — was with his Precious. It just consumes you. You become the money. You are no longer a person.”

Jack had helped out a waitress named Brenda, whose life similarly unraveled when others discovered she had received some of the money:

Heartsick, Brenda sold the house that Jack bought and moved away. “I probably would have rejected the money in the first place if I’d known then what I know now,” she says. “It seems like money brings out the ugly in people.

The money also allowed Whittaker’s granddaughter and several young people in her orbit to spin out of control on drugs, resulting in petty crimes, and two tragic deaths from overdose. One member of this circle, Josh Smith, got spooked by what was going on, and pulled away, noting that the effect of money on friendship was “it turns it to hell”:

”I turned into a different person…I had so much money, it turned me cold-hearted.”

The entire heart-wrenching account seems like something out of a tawdry novel. You can read the fascinating tale at Washington Post.

25Oct

Fish Stories and Garden Snakes

Jonah and Eve

I once heard a sermon on the prophet Jonah, in which the preacher opined that the fish story “makes good faithful Christians go weak in the knees” because it is hard to believe in a great fish swallowing a man whole, and then spitting him up again; and yet he does in fact believe. The reason is that once you have “swallowed” that God became incarnate as a human being, died on the cross, and was resurrected, and ascended into the realms of glory, then believing in Jonah is a little thing. Who are we to cherry pick which parts of God’s story to believe? To do this is dangerous, making God subject to our whims and sensibilities—making God to be not God. “The world needs more believers,” he concluded.

A great deal of discussion rages on about the historicity of Adam and Eve. This story reads to our contemporary context like a tall tale. I myself go “weak in the knees” when I contemplate the idea of defending the veracity of this story of a man and woman in a garden full of magic fruit, being approached by a sentient talking serpent. It just seems preposterous.

However, I take a similar approach to the tale of Adam and Eve, as the aforementioned pastor took to the story of Jonah. I have swallowed the idea of a Creator capable of bringing into existence a universe full of galaxies and black holes and many other wondrous things—this is a being of great power, and nearly infinite knowledge. Such a being, if it chose to interact with humanity, must be accorded the utmost respect. I believe that this God has indeed interacted with us, particularly in the person of Jesus, thus piercing the idea of a deistic God who observes some kind of “Star Trek”-like “prime directive” of never interfering with the course of natural events. Jesus of Nazareth, the “Son of man”, appeared among us, fulfilling many predictions from centuries past. This man mysteriously appeared to many after his death and then vanished, leaving behind a continually growing movement of people dedicated (imperfectly) to the love of others and reconciliation with God.

Therefore, I embrace Adam and Eve, and the Garden of Eden. A God who finely tuned the physical laws of our universe would not be sloppy in allowing mere fables into the sacred texts of His chosen people. Whether read literally or allegorically, the story must be taken seriously, as the very word of truth from on high.

Notes:

Christians have read Genesis 2-4 in a variety of ways. A fairly recent book of interest would be Barrett and Caneday, editors, Four Views on the Historical Adam, Zondervan, 2013. Featuring essays by Denis Lamoroux and others, it lays out some of the different positions taken by Christians.

My recollection of a sermon in the first paragraph is from notes taken on a homily preached by Fr. Michael Spurlock at Evensong, St Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, Oct 15, 2013. As far as I can discover, neither a recording nor any notes exist online at this time.

Photo credits:
1. “Eve Tempted by the Serpent” William Blake, c. 1799
2. “Jonah and the Whale” (oil on board). Aris, Fred (b. 1934). The Bridgeman Art Library International.

19Oct

A New Gilded Age

Are megacorporations and the government colluding to keep the working man (and woman) down? The recent spectacle of a real estate services giant, Cushman and Wakefield, suing a lowly janitor for violating a non compete clause, has prompted a very interesting reflection by Matt O’Brien in the Washington Post.

O’Brien points out the interesting paradox that capitalism works best when there is competition, yet capitalists wish to eliminate competition wherever they can. It boils down to the most powerful wielding ever more control over their workers.

Noncompete agreements have been increasingly foisted upon low level employees:

… noncompetes, which used to be about keeping top executives from taking actual trade secrets to rival firms, have now become much more common among all types of workers. This includes 14% of non college educated employees.

Not surprisingly, companies have been suing more frequently to enforce these noncompete agreements, which have a chilling effect even in jurisdictions where they can’t legally be enforced. Workers don’t generally know when this is the case:

All they know is that they signed something that they couldn’t afford to fight in court.

The entire opinion piece is worth a read.

We have filed this one under “Reflections of the Fall.”