Ronon Dex
... of Stargate Atlantis
Kind of depressing what's going on with the Anglicans and the Ordinariate thing. I've been keeping up on it at Thinking Anglicans - I just couldn't like the triumphant note in the Catholic press. Does ecumenism = turning everyone into a Catholic?
And speaking of depressing, there's an article today in The Guardian - How real is America's faith? - by Stanley Hauerwas (an American Radical Orthodoxy guy) which drips contempt for people like me - those who are, among other things, dopey enough to wonder why God lets bad things happen. Here's a bit from the article .....
America is the exemplification of what I call the project of modernity. That project is the attempt to produce a people that believes it should have no story except the story it chose when it had no story. That is what Americans mean by freedom. The problem with that story is its central paradox: you did not choose the story that you should have no story except the story you chose when you had no story. Americans, however, are unable to acknowledge that they have been fated to be "free", which makes them all the more adamant that they have a right to choose the god that underwrites their "freedom." A people so constituted will ask questions such as "Why does a good god let bad things happen to good people?" It is as if the Psalms never existed. The story that you should have no story except the story you chose when you had no story produces a people who say: "I believe that Jesus is Lord – but that is just my personal opinion." ....
I feel like giving up on religion and devoting my disposable time to Stargate Atlantis instead.
posted by crystal | 7:56 PM
7 Comments:
Hauwerwas. What a bonehead.
You know what they say about twisting around enough that your head goes up your ...! Hauerwas seems to have made it and now sensory deprivation seems to be effecting him.
You are among a very high class of people that have asked the question of why bad things happen to good people, so don't worry about it. And then I have to ask isn't he fated to be stupid too?
Hugs,
Mike L
Hi Matthew and Mike,
:) I don't know much about Hauerwas - I had seen he was going to have a talk with John Milbank of Radical Orthodoxy at King's College while in London - if that gets published online I'll post part of it.
Hi Crystal --
I agree with both Matthew and Mike. "Bonehead" is good... I was thinking more like "arrogant, inhuman airhead." I hate when people try to play those superior-sounding logic games. It reminds me of my college math course, and questions like "Does the set of all sets that do not have themselves as members of the set contain itself as a set?" Jerk.
And Mike nicely sets you straight, Crystal. Don't let guys like Hauwerwas get to you.
Of course, Stargate Atlantis is pretty interesting... :)
I have been thinking of getting back to the blog, I seem to have more energy and interest in doing things since the last heart ablation. I have a couple of panoramics that I want to make up from last winter and the snowfall that I would like to post. Also Susannah has a "mound"of flowers, mostly cosmos, that is truly spectacular. She got frustrated and dumped enough wildflower seed over about a 10x10 foot area to seed acres. I love it!!!
So we shall see, but like you, I just can't muster the fire of life that nature manages, but maybe that is old age.
Hugs,
Mike L
Denny,
I think waht disturbs me about Radical Orthodoxy is that they have some really compelling and even beautiful ideas mixed in with some really (imho) awful ones, so I can't jusr dismiss them. I don't think I mentioned this earlier, but John Milbank wrote me an email once after seeing my comment about his ideas on some other bog. He was really nice and articulate but at the same time so believing stuff I don't believe.
Do you watch Stargate too? I like the original series even better ... SG-1 :)
Hi Mike - I wrote you back at the other post.
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