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July 21, 2008
I guess Benedict XVI, in attacking has attacked the spreading "spiritual desert" of the modern secular world, and calling for a new religious age of faith and redemption, has given the Liberals a new message.
Bill Leak
They can begin to talk in terms of for a new age in which hope liberates us from the shallowness, apathy and self-absorption which deaden our souls and poison our relationships. Nelson can say that the world needs this renewal, and only conservatives can deliver it. Trust us.
Of course, they may need to temper their enthusiasm for wealth creation and prosperity a bit and talk a bit more in terms of moral absolutes. They would have to go easy on the idea that we live in a world of mere appearances, a kind of husk of reality where we grasp after shadows, though. And on the embrace of poverty and a life of self-denial.
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Gary, An oblique comment on the entire circus especially the "stations of the cross" theatrics last Friday.
First of all none of the stuff portrayed in that theatrics is described in the Bible, and yet it is hyped as a vivid, even accurate re-enactment of the "last hours of jesus".
Never mind too that none of the people who wrote the various books of the "new testament" ever actually met "jesus" in the flesh---that is when he was alive. Nor did they witness the entire drama "described" in the Bible, or the "stations of the cross".
The Bible altogether is really just a piece of religious imaginative story-telling. Similar to the Bhagavad Gita. Very few Hindus believe that Krishna was a "real" person---nor do they care. The Krishna story communicates universal spiritual and psychic archetypes which are universally and timelessly applicable to Humankind altogether. As do all the great classical works of "literature".
A few weeks ago the "moral conservatives" were foaming at the mouth re the use of naked children and adolescents in photographic art.
Meanwhile on Friday the actor portraying "jesus") was beaten and bloodied (tortured) and then hung from a cross (nails were not allowed). An exercise in sado-masochistic murder. A dreadful scapegoat "ritual". All the "faithful" were wetting their pants in joyous/tearful celebration.
The same "moral conservatives" were all fullsome in their praise at the wonder of it all and the supposed "fact" that such an event signalled the possibility of a renewal of "faith"---and the end to cultural relativism.
Meanwhile the entire event was an exercise in gross emotional manipulation of all the suckers that were present.
PT Barnum would have loved it.