We have had two events lately that dovetail in a not-so-obvious fashion: the JFK assassination and the coming of the end of the world. For poor Pres Kennedy, the last of the files on his murder have been redacted yet again, giving fodder to the conspiracy theorists. Why, after over fifty years, can’t we know everything about this most horrible event? We do know that the Russians hated Kennedy, that the Mafia hated Kennedy, and that Cuba hated Kennedy. We do know that Oswald was a communist sympathizer and had actually lived in the USSR back when no US citizen did so who was not a diplomat, and that he had visited the Cuban embassy in Mexico shortly before his dirty deed. We also know that Jack Ruby, the man who shot and killed Oswald during his perp-walk, owned a nightclub frequented by the Dallas Mafia. We also know that Oswald had a lot more money to burn than he should have, and that a journalist in England was informed by a communist sympathizer in Cambridge that something really bad was about to happen in the US, only half an hour before the assassination.
Oh, we know a lot, but still not everything; is it any wonder that Oliver Stone’s movie was so popular? There are lots of dots to connect, but still we are told to stop being paranoid; that Oswald acted alone. Sure, sure, but might he also have been encouraged and paid by outside forces? Do those last redacted transcripts tell us exactly what happened? If not, why has every president since LBJ protected the CIA and FBI and every other agency involved with the president and security with this secrecy that only breeds suspicion?
In the Oswald case, suspecting that something is not right is NOT paranoia. To say that one knows what really happened is only closure based on ignorance; given everything, to speculate and suspect that something here smells rotten is not nuts. We may find, as the sensible keep telling us, that Oswald was simply a bizarre man with a bizarre life who was never directly involved with outside forces. However, speculation to the contrary is absolutely logical.
On the other hand, we also have new knowledge on Nefiti, or whatever its name, the black star that’s supposed to extinguish life any day now. A self-proclaimed expert on the Bible and Egypt claimed to have put information together which showed clearly that this star was to kill us all last September, and then October; now, we are told that we will all perish on something like November 19th. A friend of mine who is not insane told me in all seriousness that he believed that this “dark star” is actually a vast alien spacecraft that has been “cloaked” by advanced technology, and is now heading straight for us – as prophesized in ancient Egypt.
And yet – what might the experts tell us of gravitational disturbances? Could this lack of force merely be evidence of More advanced technology? Just as important, no recognized (as far as I know) biblical scholars or experts on ancient Egypt agree with these speculations. Prophesies that have been tied together for this “proof” are spurious, they say, having no context for such an event. The proof is made piecemeal, of bits of unrelated stuff that have been patched together to make a quilt with some design. It is crazy stuff, in other words.
I do not think such thinking is necessarily crazy, however. Years ago I took up the hobby of identifying local flora. In time I realized that by looking for certain plants, I learned to find them much easier than I had before, when notice of them had been haphazard. Suddenly, for instance, I would realize that the woods were filled with American chestnut saplings, coming back to life from the roots of ancestors dead for a century. I had never noticed them before. In the same vein, someone looking for proof of some coming disaster might hone his senses until he begins to find the proof he needs hidden in the subtle wording of ancient religious texts. Stuff that seems nutty to us has become expected for him, not because he is nuts, but because he is focused on an outcome and has malleable material to use to make that outcome.
Malleable material. I am enrolled in a biblical study course this fall that is highlighting all the connections to the Old Testament made in the Mathew gospel. The connections are indeed there, and the effort made by Mathew is truly inspired. We learn, for instance, that Herod is particularly concerned with the birth of Jesus because the wise men have told him that a King of Kings has been born among the Jews. Herod knew that Isiah (if I remember correctly) had foretold that this King would snub out the line of the Moab king then in charge – and Herod was a Moab king. Yes, this connection to Old Testament prophesy and others are all there and legitimate. So, do these links prove the existence of Jesus as the foretold King of the Jews?
Many believe so, but Mathew wrote after-the-fact, and certainly wanted this belief to be the outcome. Because of the depth of his account of Jesus, it is almost inconceivable that he is lying – but he most certainly believes and wants others to believe as well. He is, then, seeing the connections that others cannot see, just as I saw the chestnut saplings. But my saplings were indisputably real; with Mathew, as with the black star, the connections might be spurious, so much so that Jewish biblical scholars have to this day remained unconvinced by the evidence.
Thus we turn to faith, always faith. However, it is perhaps unwise to have faith in the man who made the Blackstar connections. So what makes Mathew or Mark or the other gospels true?
It is, in my reasoning, the underlying message, for This is true: it is true, that is, that we are fallen from the knowledge of ourselves and need help; and that God, or the god within – that human element of God, our fundamental inner knowledge – is there to give us that help. To get it, we must tear ourselves from the attractions of this world so that we might see the larger picture that we need and crave. We cannot see it if we are looking in the wrong place for the wrong thing, and thus we need the moral code, the way to behave and to think, to find our truth. The story of Jesus thus fits - as some other deep stories might as well – but certainly this story fits. Even dressed up in many ways, it still provides us a way that belies the need for absolute material confirmation. The important parts are worthy enough to be called True because they fit with the entirety of our condition.
Unlike the Blackstar. Where does this death star lead us except into our own terror of the end? To our own terror, really, of our errors, of our sins, such that our lives SHOULD end? It is cosmic, this black star, and it is true in its own way too, but it is of no help. It only touches at the core of our self-hatred, not our inner core which is endless life itself; which is, we find out one way or another, and certainly in the Gospels, God bringing Himself out from the human, to the human, and for the human. In this we can, and perhaps must, believe. FK
Oh, we know a lot, but still not everything; is it any wonder that Oliver Stone’s movie was so popular? There are lots of dots to connect, but still we are told to stop being paranoid; that Oswald acted alone. Sure, sure, but might he also have been encouraged and paid by outside forces? Do those last redacted transcripts tell us exactly what happened? If not, why has every president since LBJ protected the CIA and FBI and every other agency involved with the president and security with this secrecy that only breeds suspicion?
In the Oswald case, suspecting that something is not right is NOT paranoia. To say that one knows what really happened is only closure based on ignorance; given everything, to speculate and suspect that something here smells rotten is not nuts. We may find, as the sensible keep telling us, that Oswald was simply a bizarre man with a bizarre life who was never directly involved with outside forces. However, speculation to the contrary is absolutely logical.
On the other hand, we also have new knowledge on Nefiti, or whatever its name, the black star that’s supposed to extinguish life any day now. A self-proclaimed expert on the Bible and Egypt claimed to have put information together which showed clearly that this star was to kill us all last September, and then October; now, we are told that we will all perish on something like November 19th. A friend of mine who is not insane told me in all seriousness that he believed that this “dark star” is actually a vast alien spacecraft that has been “cloaked” by advanced technology, and is now heading straight for us – as prophesized in ancient Egypt.
And yet – what might the experts tell us of gravitational disturbances? Could this lack of force merely be evidence of More advanced technology? Just as important, no recognized (as far as I know) biblical scholars or experts on ancient Egypt agree with these speculations. Prophesies that have been tied together for this “proof” are spurious, they say, having no context for such an event. The proof is made piecemeal, of bits of unrelated stuff that have been patched together to make a quilt with some design. It is crazy stuff, in other words.
I do not think such thinking is necessarily crazy, however. Years ago I took up the hobby of identifying local flora. In time I realized that by looking for certain plants, I learned to find them much easier than I had before, when notice of them had been haphazard. Suddenly, for instance, I would realize that the woods were filled with American chestnut saplings, coming back to life from the roots of ancestors dead for a century. I had never noticed them before. In the same vein, someone looking for proof of some coming disaster might hone his senses until he begins to find the proof he needs hidden in the subtle wording of ancient religious texts. Stuff that seems nutty to us has become expected for him, not because he is nuts, but because he is focused on an outcome and has malleable material to use to make that outcome.
Malleable material. I am enrolled in a biblical study course this fall that is highlighting all the connections to the Old Testament made in the Mathew gospel. The connections are indeed there, and the effort made by Mathew is truly inspired. We learn, for instance, that Herod is particularly concerned with the birth of Jesus because the wise men have told him that a King of Kings has been born among the Jews. Herod knew that Isiah (if I remember correctly) had foretold that this King would snub out the line of the Moab king then in charge – and Herod was a Moab king. Yes, this connection to Old Testament prophesy and others are all there and legitimate. So, do these links prove the existence of Jesus as the foretold King of the Jews?
Many believe so, but Mathew wrote after-the-fact, and certainly wanted this belief to be the outcome. Because of the depth of his account of Jesus, it is almost inconceivable that he is lying – but he most certainly believes and wants others to believe as well. He is, then, seeing the connections that others cannot see, just as I saw the chestnut saplings. But my saplings were indisputably real; with Mathew, as with the black star, the connections might be spurious, so much so that Jewish biblical scholars have to this day remained unconvinced by the evidence.
Thus we turn to faith, always faith. However, it is perhaps unwise to have faith in the man who made the Blackstar connections. So what makes Mathew or Mark or the other gospels true?
It is, in my reasoning, the underlying message, for This is true: it is true, that is, that we are fallen from the knowledge of ourselves and need help; and that God, or the god within – that human element of God, our fundamental inner knowledge – is there to give us that help. To get it, we must tear ourselves from the attractions of this world so that we might see the larger picture that we need and crave. We cannot see it if we are looking in the wrong place for the wrong thing, and thus we need the moral code, the way to behave and to think, to find our truth. The story of Jesus thus fits - as some other deep stories might as well – but certainly this story fits. Even dressed up in many ways, it still provides us a way that belies the need for absolute material confirmation. The important parts are worthy enough to be called True because they fit with the entirety of our condition.
Unlike the Blackstar. Where does this death star lead us except into our own terror of the end? To our own terror, really, of our errors, of our sins, such that our lives SHOULD end? It is cosmic, this black star, and it is true in its own way too, but it is of no help. It only touches at the core of our self-hatred, not our inner core which is endless life itself; which is, we find out one way or another, and certainly in the Gospels, God bringing Himself out from the human, to the human, and for the human. In this we can, and perhaps must, believe. FK
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