I thought this picture was appropriate since I'm philosophizing in this entry.
I'm staying at Nadia's house again, and while eating lunch I put on a Christmas CD by Bebo Norman that she has. I wasn't really listening to it until I heard the lines:
To break the chains
Of guilt and sin
To find us here
To pull us in
So we can join in Heaven's song
And with one voice around the throne
I am thrilled that part of my job is "to proclaim freedom to the captives" and I started worshiping God that all these silly tasks I have to do are leading to a larger goal. Thinking of the concept of freedom from sin, I was reminded of the book I was reading last night: Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Now there's a woman with a message she wants to deliver! I liked The Fountainhead better since it didn't have so many long speeches, but I like quite a bit of Atlas Shrugged as well. I don't agree with a lot of her philosophy, but the high value she places on reason, integrity, and absolute truth is inspiring. She is very focused on the glory of the individual, the importance of individual effort, and adamantly against religion and socialism. For example, in a (far too long) speech by the main character John Galt she writes:
"Integrity is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake your consciousness...that man is an indivisible entity..., and that he may permit no breach between body and mind, between action and thought, between his life and his convictions...that courage and confidence are practical necessities, that courage is the practical form of being true to existence, of being true to truth, and confidence is the practical form of being true to one's own consciousness."
She's very against the idea of original sin, and I can't quite understand what she thinks about forgiveness, though it comes up several times in the book. Sin is definitely a focus for her, and it seems that her idea of how to deal with it is to decide that much of it doesn't really exist, but is rather misplaced ideas of a moral code. That's pretty interesting, since she speaks very strongly against people who deny truth's existence.
Then I read about the inspiration for Bebo Norman's album: a Jackson Browne song called, "Rebel Jesus:"
All the streets are filled with laughter and light
And the music of the season
And the merchants' windows are all bright
With the faces of the children
And the families hurrying to their homes
While the sky darkens and freezes
Will be gathering around the hearths and tables
Giving thanks for God's graces
And the birth of the rebel Jesus
Well they call him by 'the Prince of Peace'
And they call him by 'the Savior'
And they pray to him upon the seas
And in every bold endeavor
And they fill his churches with their pride and gold
As their faith in him increases
But they've turned the nature that I worship in
From a temple to a robber's den
In the words of the rebel Jesus
Well we guard our world with locks and guns
And we guard our fine possessions
And once a year when Christmas comes
We give to our relations
And perhaps we give a little to the poor
If the generosity should seize us
But if any one of us should interfere
In the business of why there are poor
They get the same as the rebel Jesus
Now pardon me if I have seemed
To take the tone of judgment
For I've no wish to come between
This day and your enjoyment
In a life of hardship and of earthly toil
There's a need for anything that frees us
So I bid you pleasure
And I bid you cheer
From a heathen and a pagan
On the side of the rebel Jesus
That reminded me of an excerpt of Focus on the Family that I heard while driving from Michigan to Ohio last week. I didn't hear the entire show because I got out of range, so perhaps I missed some important points. But James Dobson was talking about boycotting stores primarily because they had stopped using the word "Christmas." He proceeded to list stores and detail the changes they had made. I take no issue with that, and it may well be a slippery slope to something evil. It does strike me, however, that it may be more critical to know which stores buy from sweatshops (Macy's?), or countries that routinely use political prisoners' labor (China?), or keep people imprisoned for work (Nike?), or routinely destroy the environment and the availability of potable water (Coca-Cola?). I have question marks because I have not looked into the above issues for several years, and I don't know the major offenders anymore. There likely are reputable organizations that look up information like that, but it seems really difficult to find trustworthy information and then to follow through on it. So, I think that yet again I'll avoid making the effort to find out about them and pretend that since I don't buy much it doesn't matter what I buy. Integrity, anyone?
