Friday, April 8, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
February 2- Happy 105th Birthday to Ayn Rand!
Two weeks ago, I wrote my Ayn Rand article. For her birthday, I now put up the video I made of that, AND a surprise coming up on April 15 of this year!
Visit the Official Atlas Shrugged Movie Web Site!
Visit the Official Atlas Shrugged Movie Web Site!
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
For Pro-Life Week January 2011~
I've been thinking what to post for Pro-Life Week, this being the anniversary of the 1973 Roe vs Wade decision- I keep coming back to this-
This time, in 1973, the US Supreme Court and later our Government made its deal with the Spirit of King Herod. The Lord spoke to Herod's day and so He speaks to ours through His prophet...
Jeremiah 31:15-17
15 Thus saith the LORD: "A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel, weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for her children, because they were no more."
The Evangelist Matthew quoted the former part, but the Lord continues...
16 Thus saith the LORD; "Restrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded," saith the LORD; "and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
17 And there is hope in thine end," saith the LORD, "that thy children shall come back to their own border."
There is & will be Judgment on the West-
People ask "Where do the jobs go? We were supposed to have more jobs than workers to fill them!" Yet when that draws nigh, the economy always seems to contract. The native peoples of Europe watch their populations shrink while they watch an ever radicalizing Islamic populace arise in their lands.
BUT there is also Redemption-
the Removal of Guilt by The Atonement when God Aborted God at Golgotha;
the Conquest of Death by The Resurrection- in which Jesus seized Immortality, broke open His Tomb, pillaged Hell & in the words of C.S. Lewis, "Death itself began to work backwards";
And In the Day of His Presence, every discarded child shall dance on Paradise Earth into the arms of their forgiven mothers & bowed to by those who had slain them.
Even so, May your Presence come, Lord Jesus- for our revival & repentance, for an end to the reign of Death, for a rescue of Your Innocent ones! Amen.
This time, in 1973, the US Supreme Court and later our Government made its deal with the Spirit of King Herod. The Lord spoke to Herod's day and so He speaks to ours through His prophet...
Jeremiah 31:15-17
15 Thus saith the LORD: "A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel, weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for her children, because they were no more."
The Evangelist Matthew quoted the former part, but the Lord continues...
16 Thus saith the LORD; "Restrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded," saith the LORD; "and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
17 And there is hope in thine end," saith the LORD, "that thy children shall come back to their own border."
There is & will be Judgment on the West-
People ask "Where do the jobs go? We were supposed to have more jobs than workers to fill them!" Yet when that draws nigh, the economy always seems to contract. The native peoples of Europe watch their populations shrink while they watch an ever radicalizing Islamic populace arise in their lands.
BUT there is also Redemption-
the Removal of Guilt by The Atonement when God Aborted God at Golgotha;
the Conquest of Death by The Resurrection- in which Jesus seized Immortality, broke open His Tomb, pillaged Hell & in the words of C.S. Lewis, "Death itself began to work backwards";
And In the Day of His Presence, every discarded child shall dance on Paradise Earth into the arms of their forgiven mothers & bowed to by those who had slain them.
Even so, May your Presence come, Lord Jesus- for our revival & repentance, for an end to the reign of Death, for a rescue of Your Innocent ones! Amen.
A Tribute to Ayn Rand
The Holy Bible and Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged both come up often on lists of life-changing books. Both are sprawling passionate apocalyptic epics centered around a mysterious hero in whom resides the passion, purpose and paradoxes of the Universe; his pursuit of his Beloved; and his gathering a circle of friends with whom to rebuild the world.
To Ayn Rand, Man is meant to be & can be a heroic rational passionate productive being who belongs on Earth to thrive and strive for joy. As such, Man by nature must have rights of life, liberty, property and pursuit of happiness. Government exists primarily to secure the rights of free minds in free markets by prohibiting & punishing crimes of force or fraud. The best art should reflect Romantic Realism, showing life as it can & should be. The main theme of Atlas Shrugged is the Productive Individuals going on strike against the Parasitical Collective. In a way, it humanistically parallels the Rapture, Tribulation, Second Coming scenario of many Apocalyptic Christians.
As much as I love Ayn's writing, especially Atlas Shrugged, there are difficulties.
Growing up in pre- and post-Bolshevik Russia, Ayn came to see Religion and Statism as two sides of the same irrational oppressive coin. Thus, she was a resolute atheist, yet she regarded the Universe as a Rational and Benevolent system. By this, she meant that the Universe operates with a consistency that can be rationally perceived and that it is geared to produce and nurture life. However, Rationality & Benevolence are also personal attributes, and when applied to the Universe, hints at the possibility of a Universal Personal Rational & Benevolent Force, ergo God.
Ayn confused her ability to rationalize & moralize her views & actions, with Rational & Moral Clarity. Out of this came a dogmatic uncompromising rigidity, personality cultism, contempt for any disagreement or dissent- especially from her disciples, and betrayal of her devoted husband. Also, her contempt for socialist exaltation of altruism & self-sacrifice could easily be confused as contempt for those who need & who give charity & compassion. However, when either she or her fictional characters show such self-giving behavior, it is redefined as investment & integrity to ones' higher values which somehow involve the beneficiary of the sacrifice.
So why do I admire a woman with such a flawed philosophy and personal life?
Because she experiences firsthand the horrors of the Bolshevik Revolution. She fled to America, starting as part of Cecil B. DeMille's secretarial pool and going on to become a best-selling novelist who revered her adopted country. When the intelligensia was selling out America, common sense and free enterprise to internationalism, sentimentalism and statism, she stood out as a champion for her country, reason, rights and liberty. For this cause, she gave us the short parable Anthem, the semi-biographical We The Living, and the epics of integrity & liberty The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.
And so God bless Ayn Rand, and I hope she has reconciled with our Lord, embracing the Sacrificial Grace she did not understand in life.
To Ayn Rand, Man is meant to be & can be a heroic rational passionate productive being who belongs on Earth to thrive and strive for joy. As such, Man by nature must have rights of life, liberty, property and pursuit of happiness. Government exists primarily to secure the rights of free minds in free markets by prohibiting & punishing crimes of force or fraud. The best art should reflect Romantic Realism, showing life as it can & should be. The main theme of Atlas Shrugged is the Productive Individuals going on strike against the Parasitical Collective. In a way, it humanistically parallels the Rapture, Tribulation, Second Coming scenario of many Apocalyptic Christians.
As much as I love Ayn's writing, especially Atlas Shrugged, there are difficulties.
Growing up in pre- and post-Bolshevik Russia, Ayn came to see Religion and Statism as two sides of the same irrational oppressive coin. Thus, she was a resolute atheist, yet she regarded the Universe as a Rational and Benevolent system. By this, she meant that the Universe operates with a consistency that can be rationally perceived and that it is geared to produce and nurture life. However, Rationality & Benevolence are also personal attributes, and when applied to the Universe, hints at the possibility of a Universal Personal Rational & Benevolent Force, ergo God.
Ayn confused her ability to rationalize & moralize her views & actions, with Rational & Moral Clarity. Out of this came a dogmatic uncompromising rigidity, personality cultism, contempt for any disagreement or dissent- especially from her disciples, and betrayal of her devoted husband. Also, her contempt for socialist exaltation of altruism & self-sacrifice could easily be confused as contempt for those who need & who give charity & compassion. However, when either she or her fictional characters show such self-giving behavior, it is redefined as investment & integrity to ones' higher values which somehow involve the beneficiary of the sacrifice.
So why do I admire a woman with such a flawed philosophy and personal life?
Because she experiences firsthand the horrors of the Bolshevik Revolution. She fled to America, starting as part of Cecil B. DeMille's secretarial pool and going on to become a best-selling novelist who revered her adopted country. When the intelligensia was selling out America, common sense and free enterprise to internationalism, sentimentalism and statism, she stood out as a champion for her country, reason, rights and liberty. For this cause, she gave us the short parable Anthem, the semi-biographical We The Living, and the epics of integrity & liberty The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.
And so God bless Ayn Rand, and I hope she has reconciled with our Lord, embracing the Sacrificial Grace she did not understand in life.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Oneness & Individuation: Primal Sin, Divine Incarnation & Atonement
On her Facebook page, Anne Rice has been wrestling with the concepts of Original Sin & Atonement while fully accepting Jesus as God Incarnate~ To me, it's all the same package:
Oneness & Individuation~
The first truly spiritual humans knowingly
broke trust with their Creator,
forfeited their potential immortality,
and from them, we all come-
untrusting & mortal branches from one diseased trunk-
each one of us with our own fatal flaw.
Thus, the Creator infuses Himself into our race
as the man Jesus~ "Yahweh Saves"
ImmanuEl "God With Us"
taking the entire human experience,
with its joy & life and its horror & death,
the pain of the abused & the guilt of the abuser,
upon Himself & within Himself.
Eternal Law and Its Penalties
engraved into His torn flesh
vivid in His spilling blood;
His Breath released into our Air.
He Himself plunged into the Depths.
But then, that flesh and bone raised Immortal
Perfect Humanity seated on Yahweh's Throne,
that Flaming Breath igniting the faithful
to spread His Life, His Compassion & Justice,
across the face of the Earth,
to all peoples, to each person,
unto the Day of His Appearing
to absorb every being
into the Comfort of His Judgement
and the Fury of His Love.
Amen and Maranatha.
Oneness & Individuation~
The first truly spiritual humans knowingly
broke trust with their Creator,
forfeited their potential immortality,
and from them, we all come-
untrusting & mortal branches from one diseased trunk-
each one of us with our own fatal flaw.
Thus, the Creator infuses Himself into our race
as the man Jesus~ "Yahweh Saves"
ImmanuEl "God With Us"
taking the entire human experience,
with its joy & life and its horror & death,
the pain of the abused & the guilt of the abuser,
upon Himself & within Himself.
Eternal Law and Its Penalties
engraved into His torn flesh
vivid in His spilling blood;
His Breath released into our Air.
He Himself plunged into the Depths.
But then, that flesh and bone raised Immortal
Perfect Humanity seated on Yahweh's Throne,
that Flaming Breath igniting the faithful
to spread His Life, His Compassion & Justice,
across the face of the Earth,
to all peoples, to each person,
unto the Day of His Appearing
to absorb every being
into the Comfort of His Judgement
and the Fury of His Love.
Amen and Maranatha.
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