Commemorating the Martyrs of a Genocide

On Friday, it was the 100th anniversary of one of the greatest atrocities ever committed against humanity, ranking up there with the Holocaust that came 26 years after.   This atrocity was the Armenian Genocide of 1915, in which upwards of 1.4 million Armenians were slaughtered in cold blood by the Ottoman Turks for simply being Christians.  Ironically, as this is commemorated, in the past year or so we see evil raising its ugly head in the same region again now, as ISIS is committing the same sort of atrocities.  In addition to Armenians, about a half-million or more each of Assyrian and Greek Christians were massacred, and also several foreign aid workers - the total deaths calculated by those who chronicled the barbarity of the Turks then may have reached 2 million or more people.  Many Americans don't know (or simply don't even care these days) about these events, and if you ask the average person on the street, they probably would not have the foggiest idea of what an Armenian even is.  Yet, this atrocity serves to remind us that we as Christians are in a hostile world, dealing with "powers and principalities" which work through human mechanisms, and those mechanisms would like nothing more than to see all Christian civilization wiped off the map.   The enemies are varied, but they share the same goal - radical Islamists, communism, secularists, the "evangelists" of the "political-correctness gospel." etc.  Therefore, what happened to Armenian Christians and others one hundred years ago may not mean much to many, and many even reading this may not even be aware of what that horrific time was, but it nonetheless has implications for us today.

The ruins of Ani Cathedral - an ancient Armenian church 

First off, who are the Armenians?   The Armenians are an ancient Indo-European people who have been native to the area since probably Hellenistic times.  They once ruled a great kingdom that dominated much of Asia Minor, and although I personally am not sure of their exact origins, opinions have offered that they are descendants of the ancient Hittites, Phyrgians, or Hurrians that lived in the same area.  Perhaps that is so, but the fact is the Armenians have an ancient history connected to the region that comprises their homeland, and their history is also deeply entwined with Biblical and Church history in two important ways.

The Biblical Mount Ararat, with an ancient Armenian church in the foreground

The first example is the fact that Mount Ararat is at the heart of the Armenian homeland, and people who read the Bible know that this is the traditional place where Noah's Ark landed after the flood.  Even today, the evidence of the Ark's presence is still on that great mountain, and as far as the Armenians are concerned, Ararat represents the national soul of their people.  Unfortunately, today this great wonder of nature is in the hands of the Turks, even though the modern nation of Armenia still lies in its shadow.  

St. Gregory the Illuminator preaching to the ancient Armenian king Trdat (Tiradates)

The second major tie that Armenia has to Christianity is that the Armenians lay claim to being the first Christian kingdom on earth (although this is contested by their Assyrian neighbors, who believe that King Abgar Ukomo of the ancient Kingdom of Oeshrene was the first).  Armenia was indeed converted early in the history of the Church, as in the third century the evangelist St. Gregory the Illuminator brought the message of Christ to the Armenians, even converting their king, Trdat, and exorcising an evil spirit from him, as the tradition goes.  As one of the oldest of Christian civilizations, the Armenians hold a special mercy I believe with God for their perserverance in keeping the faith all these centuries, despite the constant onslaught by radical Islam and years of repression by Soviet communism.  That all says much for their testimony, which indeed confirms the miraculous survival of this special people. 

Armenians, like many other Christian communities in the Middle East over the centuries, have always been subject to Islamic oppression, but this culminated just after the turn of the 20th century in the Ottoman Empire due to a variety of factors.  At the end of the 19th century, change was afoot, and as European powers began to expand and build colonial empires, the "glory" of Islamic "civilization" began to fade, so much so that the Ottomans were slipping quickly into obscurity.  As a matter of fact, a prominent European politician referred to the Ottomans at the time as the "sick man of Europe."  However, were the Ottomans really European.  Sure, in the years leading up to the collapse and conquer of the Christian Byzantines in 1453, many parts of the Balkans had already been subjugated by the Ottomans (Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, etc.) and for the first time since the Moors held Spain a couple of humdred years earlier, Islamic powers had a toehold in Europe. However, in the 1800's. many of these people in the Balkans began to declare their independence, most notably the Greeks in 1821.  Additionally, the Ottomans were being chipped away at by rival Islamic kingdoms - specifically the Persians - and the French, Russians, and British began colonial expansion into what were lands held by the Ottoman Sultan.   By the end of the 1800's, the Ottoman Empire was but a shell of its former self, and the reactionary elements among its leadership, led by a sadistic butcher by the name of Abdul Hamid, used Islamic Sharia to subjugate those - namely non-Muslim minorities such as the Armenians - whom it believed to be enemies of the Empire which were "collaborating" with its enemies, and that subjugation led to a revival of an evil practice called dhimmitude, which in essence reduced Christians and others to second-class status.  The demonic drive behind radical Islam also inflamed local Turks as well as Kurdish collaborators, and the result was barbarous massacres of whole Christian villages in the remote areas of Asia Minor.  When Turkey entered WWI in 1914 on the side of the Central Powers, a type of xenophobia set in which led to the events of the 1915 Genocide that claimed so many lives.  I know this is an inadequately brief historical synopsis of the situation, but it is meant to give you an idea of the factors that led up to this atrocity in the preceding years, as it had been building for about 100 years previous or more. 

Lest you think all of this is just some emotional appeal by the Armenians to advance an agenda (as the Turks continue to baselessly accuse them even today) there are eyewitnesses to these atrocities from that time.  One of them was British Viscount James Bryce, who published a compilation work entitled The Treatment of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-19.  On pages 594-595 of that book, Bryce records the systematic way these Ottomans carried out their atrocities, and he notes that there were several things they did:

1.  The population of the village was disarmed by the gendarmerie (local Ottoman cops), aided by criminals they released from the prisons to assist them.

2.  The mass imprisonment of the Armenian residents of that village, on trumped-up pretexts of possession of firearms, contraband literature, etc. 

3.  The Armenians were deported from their homes.  Money and valuables were confiscated, the people were shackled sometimes in gangs of five or ten, and women and young girls were forcibly abducted, raped, and molested by the local Muslim population.  After the Muslim locals had their way with these unfortunate people, they were marched away usually into the desert, where many of them died of starvation or were attacked by bands of brigands. (V.L. Parsegian, preparer.  Human Rights and Genocide, 1975.  New York:  Diocese of the Armenian Church in America, 1975.  pp. 19-20.)

The Italian Consul-General at Trebizond at the time, G. Gorrini, confirmed that the execution of these atrocities came directly from the Sultan's own government, and he even noted that these actions were even opposed by some Muslims too (Parsegian, p. 20).  Further, Dr. Martin Niepage, a German ambassador and teacher at a German school in Aleppo, wrote a pamphlet entitled "The Horrors of Aleppo" in which he documented this:  "Such monstrous news left me incredulous.  I was told that, in various quarters of Aleppo, there were lying masses of half-starved people, the survivors os so-called 'deportation convoys.' In order, I was told, to cover the extermination of the Armenian nation with a political cloak, military reasons were being put forward, which were said to be necessary to drive the Armenians out of their native seats, which had been theirs for 2500 years, and to deport them to the Arabian deserts....I came to the conclusion that all these accusations against the Armenians were, in fact, based on trifling provocations, which were taken as an excuse for slaughtering 10,000 innocents for one guilty person, for the most savage outrages against women and children, and for a campaign of starvation against the exiles which was intended to exterminate the whole nation." (Parsegian, p. 21).  However, some of the most graphic reports came from American Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, who documented much of these atrocities in his work Secrets of the Bosphorus 1918.  What Morgenthau reported, if it were on film, would be so graphic that it would turn the strongest stomach, as what the Ottomans did ranks up there with the mass exterminations of Jews that Hitler would carry out some 20 years later.  The Turkish troups would seize Armenian women, and then would indiscriminately open fire on a village shooting everything and everyone in it.  Elderly Armenian men and women, on these forced marches into the desert, would be strewn on the path in the death throes of typhus, dysentery, and other disease, while little children would be seen lying on their backs wailing for food or water.  Women would beg strangers to take their babies, and if that failed, mothers would actually throw them into wells or leave them in brush patches that they at least might die undisturbed.  Soldiers would force young Armenian girls into sex slavery, and the way-stations (read concentration camps) along the march route were littered with the unburied and half-buried bodies of the dead, and buzzards were constant companions of these unfortunate people. However, it was especially horrific along river banks, when either soldiers would push people into the water to be "target practice" or those who would seek to preserve what little dignity they still possessed would jump in themselves, including women with their young babies (Parsegian, pp 21-22).  

The infamous "death marches" of Armenian exiles, this one possibly taken in the Syrian desert

A sadistic Turkish official teasing starving Armenians by waving bread at them

Armenian casualties of a massacre by Ottoman soldiers in a remote village

An artist rendering of Turks ravaging Armenian women and slaughtering their children

The most ridiculous thing about all this is that despite the unprecedented number of eyewitness accounts by Western officials and aid workers of these events, the Turkish government to this day denies and refuses to take responsibility for it.  Even the Germans have come to terms with the Holocaust, but the Turks have yet to atone to the Armenians and others for their sins.  That is not to say all Turks are bad though by any means, as over the years there have been honorable Turkish individuals who have spoken out about this, and who want to reach out to the Armenians - those people are true heroes for their efforts, and should be commended, because they too face obstacles in their home country.  It is a crime punishable by imprisonment in Turkey even today, as a matter of fact, to even mention the Armenian Genocide,   And, what is worse is the chicanery of our own elected officials in Washington - despite many efforts to push for a recognition of the Armenian Genocide, it seems that President after President (Republican and Democrat) ignores this historical fact, and although other nations - recently both Pope Francis and Vladimir Putin recognized the Armenian Genocide and commemorated its victims - have had no problems with this, our government (which, off the record, is made up of worthless career politicians too lazy to do their jobs although they love to lie and make a lot of promises) still stupidly tries to placate the Turks!  Bill Clinton, as an example, will bomb innocent Serbs to defend KLA terrorists (which he did in 1999 to deflect from the fact he couldn't keep his pork-sword in his pants and was molesting his interns, so bombing Serbs was his way to distract the public from that!) and our current President, Barack Obama, is increasingly friendly to our enemies in the Middle East while alienating our allies - both of them, ironically, made hollow campaign promises to cater to Armenian-American voters in California to give national recognition, and both failed.   And, now you have ISIS and its kind, committing the same atrocities a hundred years later, and our leadership does nothing!  Then there is this Erdogan guy  (who I call Gog, due to his similarity with the leader it talks about in Ezekiel 38) who is the leader of Turkey - he has been becoming increasingly more Islamist in his tenure as President of Turkey, and the man has the potential to become another Abdul Hamid or Talaat Pasha, yet our lazy bureacratic fat-cats in Washington are letting that all happen too.   The Armenians and others have suffered enough over the years, and it is time they be vindicated, and if our government is too chicken to do it, we must do so as individuals.

As mentioned, other victims of the Genocide also included Greeks and Assyrians, and one in particular was the late Assyrian Patriarch Benyamin Shimun, who in 1918 was assassinated in cold blood by a Kurdish thug named Simkoo, who was in the employ of the Turkish government.   Mar Shimun's famous quotation in regard to this atrocity sums up the sentiment of the resolve these courageous people had, and it was:

"It is imposible for me and my people to surrender after seeing the atrocities done to my Assyrian people by your government; therefore my brother is one, my people are many, I would rather lose my brother but not my NATION"

Mar Benyamin Shimun (1887-1918), sainted Assyrian patriarch assasinated in cold blood.

Christians around the world today need to heed the lessons of the Armenian Genocide, as there is a growing hostility even in America toward people of faith.  Forces out there, demonically driven, are attacking Christian-owned businesses, as well as even trying to dictate to pastors what they can and cannot say in their sermons (a clear Constitutional violation).  That, coupled with the continued persecutions that barbarians like these ISIS clowns are inflicting upon Christians in the Middle East, should be getting our attention.  It was the philosopher George Santayana I believe who said that "those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it," and we need to take that to heart even today.  This is why it is important that we commemorate the lives of many innocent Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Christians who were killed simply for who they were by an oppressive, monstrous regime that had demonically-possessed leaders who drank gleefully of the blood of their victims, and we need to be prepared, because who knows - in the future, we could be next!  My prayers for both the Armenian and Assyrian families in the US in particular, as they mourn the loss of their loved ones who were martyred in the Genocide.

The Scoop on "Amish Mafia"

About two years ago, this so-called "reality show" premiered on Discovery Channel of all things that supposedly documented a sort of subversive underworld among the Amish communities of Lancaster, PA, and Holmes County, OH.   That show was called Amish Mafia, and from the first few minutes of the first episode, it was evident that there was nothing "real" about this "reality show."  To give the background on this show, Amish Mafia portrays the dealings of an enigmatic "Amish Godfather" they call "Lebanon Levi" Stolzfuss, and what he primarily does is collect something called "Amish Aid" from the local Amish communities - apparently, if he is not paid, there are consequences.  To aid in this enterprise, Levi employs several minions - one is a spineless goober named Alvin, who is Levi's right-hand man.  Another is a dumbass (pardon the term, but it fits) named John Schmucker, whose sister Esther also gets in on the action (they have a third schizophrenic brother named Freeman who was sent away to some Amish psych ward in North Dakota or something) - apparently their father was the original "boss" of Amish Aid, and they are trying to wrestle it back into their control.  A third is a big retard they call "Big Steve," who serves as the "muscle."  A forth is an alleged Mennonite hired gun named Jolin, who later is replaced by a young Brethren hothead named Caleb (who is about as Brethren as the Pope, but I am getting ahead here).  Also in the cast is Levi's rival, an Amish Rasputinesque nut named Merlin, who has a dwarf second-in-command named Wayne (Merlin and Wayne though later have a parting of ways), and they are headquartered in Holmes County, OH.  Later, Merlin is found in the company of a fat woman who resembles a Yorkshire pig by the name of Mary, who operates a "bundling school" in Ohio for engaged couples (this is where it gets really ridiculous, because Mary supposedly teaches the young betrothed clients about "soaking," meaning that the position of intercourse is allowed without actually having intercourse - this is pure BS).  Rounding out the regular cast is a Black man (called SchwartzAmisch on the show) named Alan Beiler, who was supposedly adopted by an Amish family and raised by them, but later turns into a criminal, ends up working for Levi, and is betrayed by him and ends up in jail.  In the recent season, Alan joins up with a rogue Mennonite leader named Doug, and convinces Caleb to ditch Levi and work for the Mennonites too, which Caleb does, and a sort of "turf war" over Lancaster that supposedly rivals the Crips and Bloods in LA ensues - the Mennonites think the Amish have too much control apparently, and want to wrestle it back, doing so with violence against the Amish.  At any rate, there you have it - the plot of the show, its main characters, and what is currently going on in the third season airing now.  As you can see, there are already some glaring problems with this whole enterprise from the start, but I want to get into specifics now.

The "disclaimor" statement that airs at the beginning of every Amish Mafia episode in poorly-spoken Plautedeutsche by the actor portraying "Lebanon Levi."

To begin, let me say that I am not exactly evaluating this as an outsider - my own family was Brethren by heritage, and I have roots in this whole culture, although not to the degree an actual Amishman or Mennonite from Lancaster would have.  That is why the majority of what this show portrays is an affront to all three groups.  I am not going to document every ridiculous thing that this show has portrayed as "true," but I want to deal with it generally.  I have watched every episode of it, and in doing so I can also see the entertainment value in it - the show is good fiction, and if you are into intrigue and suspense, the producers have that talent down well.  So, as long as you know better, watch it.  However, my concern is like that of many others - too many who watch stuff like this think that the Amish really live this way, and unfortunately in today's world, too many people who watch this show are too dumb to actually pick up a book and do a little research, and they are using Amish Mafia as eyewitness authority (which it is not) on Amish life.   There are many capable scholars out there who have rejected the authenticity of Amish Mafia, one being David Weaver-Zercher, a professor at Messiah College, who said, "“When I first saw the (show’s) trailer, I thought maybe it was a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit on reality television because it was so far-fetched,” as well as Donald Kraybill, a scholar whose works I am very familiar with as he has written some excellent reference books on the various Anabaptist groups in Pennsylvania, who said this: “When I’ve spoken about this program with Amish friends they’ve just kind of laughed and said they never heard of this kind of thing . . . It’s just sort of an example of the foolishness and stupidity and lies — misrepresentations I should say — that are promoted [about the Amish] in television . . . These production crews should be ashamed of trying to say that represents Amish life.” (Michael Mullins, "Experts Dispute Existence of 'Amish Mafia' as Reality Show Debuts."  Article originally published on 11 December 2012. http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/amish-mafia-dispute-reality/2012/12/11/id/467251/ {accessed 13 March 2015}).   Even a number of ex-Amish have come out against the show, saying most of what Amish Mafia depicts is so bogus that you would have to be totally uninformed about the Amish to accept it, and they are right.   However, what it amounts to is a couple of bottom-line facts, and let's briefly talk about those.

First, it is money.  Discovery Channel, if it were truly as educational as it claims to be, should pull the show off the air immediately being it does misrepresent a whole community, but they won't because they have ratings.  Ratings are the only things that big corporate broadcasters like Discovery understand, because they will push any agenda that sells their product.  And, the reason they are exploiting the Amish is simple - the nonviolent nature and convictions of the Amish religion make them a viable target, because the Amish don't fight back.  If they did this with Evangelicals, Catholics, or Jews, they would have so many lawsuits hitting them that probably Discovery would be out of business, and rightfully so.   And, unfortunately, as long as the Amish (who eschew using media for religious reasons) refuse to fight this, Discovery will continue to slander their community with many of the lies spewed by Amish Mafia and similar shows (yes, there are more of them!). And, the reason for that is Discovery is making a filthy profit off this sensationalist stuff.

Second, there is a propensity to slam and slander traditional religious groups in the US now, as we become an increasingly secularized culture.  Whenever religion is portrayed in a positive light - such as that mess called Preachers of LA, which chronicles the lives of several primarily super-wealthy African-American Pentecostal megachurch pastors and their playboy lifestyles - there is often a motive;  the reason many of the "pastors" in shows like Preachers of LA are viewed positively is because they represent a compromised Christianity and not the true faith of millions of faithful Evangelicals in the US.  Or, it is due to trying to sensationalize what many view as an eccentric religious practice - such as the serpent-handlers in the Appalachians - but it backfires because for some reason a real picture of those people comes through (take that series Snake Salvation - which was actually good - that was also on Discovery - once the serpent-handlers on there looked like normal people, the show was cancelled - go figure!) that endears them.  Bottom line is, Discovery and others are not about the intellectual enhancement of their viewers, but rather the spatial enhancement of their own bank accounts.  So, if slandering a certain religious community draws ratings, then it will be exploited to the limits, and what better target than a community of Christians who don't even watch TV and espouse a conviction of nonviolence?  

Again, for us who know Church history and have some familiarity with the Amish and Mennonite communities, Amish Mafia is an obvious exercise in fiction that can safely be watched.  But, unfortunately the audience Amish Mafia is reaching is made up of mostly ignorant people who know little about the Amish, and who for some reason feel that Discovery, due to its educational-documentary reputation, can do no wrong - therefore, it's gotta be true, right?  To most of those viewers - and I mean no disrespect when I say this - I would say that it would be better to set down those cellphones and other gadgets and actually pick up some books (surely you remember what a book is, right?  That bound paper thing with thousands of words on pages - very enriching activity if you take the challenge to read one!) that, if you don't have them at home, you can easily find at a little place called a library.   If more viewers would actually take the time to inform themselves about stuff like this, we might be in better shape as a country.  Also, it is worth mentioning that there are efforts to combat gross misinformation about the Amish as conveyed in stuff like Amish Mafia, and they are worth taking a look at.  For one, the Governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, has made a commendable stand against media propaganda against the Amish and others.  In a statement the Governor signed with 19 other state officials, it was stated that "By misrepresenting the Amish as a crime-ridden culture, the show gives, by association, the same impression of Lancaster County. It changes the image of the county from one of pastoral beauty, where people are devoted to faith, family and friends, to one of banal ugliness." (http://www.pennlive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2014/08/governor_corbett_amish_mafia.html). The Governor has been accused by the producers - and they ironically wrote it into the story line of the season's episodes (go figure!) - of protecting Lancaster tourism, political leveraging (which makes no sense, as the Amish don't vote - again, go figure!) and other nonsense.  But, Gov. Corbett and the statement are correct, and I would stand by it myself.  Also, a new group called "Respect Amish" has been formed to combat the negative propaganda spewed against the Amish in shows like Amish Mafia, and this is the Joint Statement they issued, which was a very commendable effort:

"Many Lancaster County residents are concerned about the negative, inaccurate and potentially
damaging portrayal of Amish religion and culture in the Discovery Channel’s “Amish Mafia” TV series.
These shows vilify the Amish religious way of life, suggesting that a peaceful people devoted
to non-violence are vengeful, violent and criminal.
The Amish are horrified, shamed and embarrassed by the show’s depiction of their religion and
culture. While their religious beliefs forbid them from public objection to this portrayal, their
spokesmen have expressed deep appreciation and support for the efforts of others to foster respect
for their community.
At their core, this television series engages in religious bigotry. “Amish Mafia” is no more acceptable
than “Jewish Mafia,” “Catholic Mafia or “Evangelical Mafia.” The show is an affront to all
people of faith.
By misrepresenting the Amish as a crime-ridden culture, the show gives, by association, the same
impression of Lancaster city and county. It changes the image of the county from one of pastoral
beauty, where people are devoted to faith, family and friends, to one of banal ugliness.
Each of us has a responsibility to consider how we, and members of our faith community, would
feel if these shows attacked us as they are attacking the Amish. All religions observe some form
of the Golden Rule – that we treat others as we would want to be treated. To stand by silently
while these shows mistreat the Amish in our community would make us complicit in breaking that
rule."  (accessed from http://www.respectamish.org/ on March 13, 2015)

I agree with this statement, and the purpose of this article today is to show my support for the efforts of good people like those at Respect Amish as well as governmental leaders like Tom Corbett.  Discovery of course is raising a stink by writing slander against these good people into the story lines of the episodes of Amish Mafia (thanks in part to one of its producers, none other than the supposed SchwarzAmische himself, Alan Beiler - Beiler is no jailbird, never has been Amish, and is a professional actor who for some reason wants to pick on the Amish and pick the pockets of others doing it.  The real crime Beiler is guilty of is picking the pockets of many viewers watching this stuff!).  Discovery is threatened because its cash cow is on the verge of being turned into hamburger by informed citizens who are sick of media exploitation, and by all means it is time to send the Discovery "cash cow" to the slaughterhouse now!  Although I have watched Amish Mafia to stay informed of many gross errors it has in its portrayal of Amish life, it would not be something I would miss personally if it went away.  So, my prayers are with Gov. Corbett and the Respect Amish people for their success - Lord knows something must be done.  God bless until next time.

Sources of Inspiration

It has been some time since I have been able to post a good article, and for good reason.  Now that I have a break for a short bit, I will catch you all up on what's been happening.

To begin, as you may have read in my year-end post last year, I have switched majors at Franciscan University of Steubenville to the Catechetics program.  I probably will finish up in the same amount of time, as it is the same number of credits, but I have a lot of work with these courses that has been keeping me pretty busy the past couple of months.  It more than likely will continue to be like that probably for the next year, so I will be somewhat limited in writing.

I wanted to now talk about some more specific things that have been on my mind lately.  For one, I have recently really taken to a classic work of music, that being Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony (or the Leningrad).  Dmitri Shostakovich composed that great work in 1941, at around the time the great city of St. Petersburg was being beseiged by Nazi offensive forces.  Shostakovich wrote the piece as a patriotic work, and although he was not a great fan of Josef Stalin's, he did love his "Mother Russia" and wanted to awaken a sense of patriotism in his people. It is a very majestic and beautiful symphonic work, and it invokes in my own soul a great desire to stand against forces today that threaten the way of life I hold dear.  This one now can be counted along with Sibelius' Finlandia, Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring (which makes me homesick for my native West Virginia whenever I hear it), and of course Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps as well as Petrouchka and The Firebird.  I don't know how many of you folks reading this can relate, but I have an endless soundtrack of great music like this in my mind that resonates almost constantly, but it is good to hear it this way too.  I am listening to the Seventh Symphony now on a disc as I write this, and something about that great music makes my spirit soar - good music should do just that too.

When I used to sketch years ago, I often listened to certain music that inspired my creations too - listening to a certain piece of music sort of paints a picture in one's mind about what the picture should be, and it often turns out better with that inspiration.  Sketching is something I just don't have the time to do like I used to years ago, but I probably should keep in practice.  Music like this also helps me with my writing, as my flow goes better and I can write more lucidly.  On occasion, that piece of music might be something like Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, or it could be something as simple as a Chuck Wagon Gang gospel song - I have been inspired by both of those in different ways.  And, that leads me to another part of my discussion.

My distant ancestor, St. Vladimir, Grand Prince of Novgorod

How many of you reading this can attest, when you listen to a certain recording of music, that it strikes at something at the core of your being?  I have had that happen to me many times, and it is almost directly related to my above creative interests in writing and sketching in that it unfolds something that is inherently part of my overall makeup.  Many of you by now know my genealogy, and that I have aristocratic blood via one of my distant ancestors, Sir Thomas West (the Third Lord De la Warr).  One of the figures that pops up in my family tree is Prince Vladimir of Novgorod, or St. Vladimir of the Rus.   In  AD 988, St. Vladimir was baptized a Christian, and Russia has a deep Orthodox Christian identity thanks to my ancestor Vlad's conversion.  When I listen to Russian symphonic music (contrary to the popular terminology, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and other modern Russian composers are not "classical" - they are 20th century composers of their own genre) it resonates with something deep in my soul that connects me to Kievan Rus and my roots there.  I am a proud American of Russian heritage because of that, and I am blessed to have that Slavonic DNA interwoven in my genetic blueprint.  I am equally proud of everything else I am too though - I am a Pennsylvania Dutch, a Muskogee Creek Indian, a descendant of French Huguenots, a Jew, and a scion of nobility, all simultaneously.  WIth the blood of Charlemagne, William the Conqueror, Constantine, and so many other royal personages in my veins, my DNA is a history book of Western civilization.  God has blessed me in that regard, and it gives me a clearer sense of the identity I have been gifted by God with.   And, recently, that identity has given me some reflection on something serious.

We in the US are under a cultural onslaught of things that essentially seek to destroy and undermine Western civilization, and something must be done about that.  Especially with the demonic scourge that is radical Islam, which is slaughtering innocent Coptic, Assyrian, and other Christians as well as Jews and other minorities in the Middle East, in particular with the rise of ISIS in the past year or so, it has become imperative that we who are traditionalist, monarchist-leaning Christians need to step up to the plate, and quite honestly, the only way that Islamic extremism can be successfully combatted is by doing so on its own terms - show no mercy.  That is why I believe that maybe it is time we call a Crusade against wicked forces like ISIS, and begin to put Islam in its place.  There are many ways this can be done, and different people may feel called to different aspects of the same work, but it must be done.  If not, we risk a serious threat from radical Islam.  We cannot rely on people like Obama for this either - Obama is a traitor to the country he was supposedly elected to lead (as Rudy Giuliani correctly and astutely pointed out a couple of weeks back), and he is as much a part of the problem as ISIS.  It has to start at the grassroots and work its way up until we neutralize the threat of ISIS and the demonic Islamist agenda it has.  My own ancestors, such as Charles Martel, fought to keep Islam from corrupting and destroying Western civilization, and now I am starting to feel that it is up to me, through whose own veins the noble blood of Charles Martel flows, to do my part to defeat ISIS and those like them.  I don't necessarily feel the need to take up physical arms against ISIS or anything, but perhaps I can inspire and encourage those who have been persecuted by these evil dogs as well as those who are making a courageous stand against them.  I believe that a new breed of Crusader could take the Shostakavich Seventh Symphony, and appropriate it to our cause - we, like the many valiant Russians who fought off the brutal Nazi aggressors back during World War II, can be inspired by the great music that built Western civilization like this piece did.  We need to start by being creative in punishing Islamic terrorists instead of rewarding them, and I have an idea I would like to propose.  In the US - particularly in the Southeast - there is an explosive population of feral wild hogs - they are mean, they cause billions in damage to farmland and other real estate, and they carry disease.  However they are also good meat - if you have ever had the privelege of eating a wild boar porkchop, it tastes like a T-bone steak, seriously!  I believe the feral hog problem and dealing with dangerous Islamic terrorists can be dealt with in one major action.  First, the feral hogs need to be rounded up and controlled in such a way that they can remain alive.  Now, the terrorist part of it.  Islam strongly forbids any association with pigs - no eating pork, no raising them on farms, etc.  If a devout Muslim even touches a pig, they believe their soul is imperiled.  So, I got an idea.  When we catch these Islamic terrorists, why not throw them into an enclosure with a bunch of these feral hogs, and let the hogs dispense the justice?   I will tell you one thing - if we did that, Islamic terrorists would think twice about attacking any American, that is for sure!  I think solutions like this take care of more than one problem, and again it is the only language a radical Islamist will understand.  I would probably get into some hot water for even proposing  something like this, but you know something, who cares anymore??  I hear so much crap that offends my sensitivities these days, and no one seems to take that into consideration, and therefore why should I have to be held to that standard??  If this offends you, suck it up and keep your hatemails to yourself, because I have the freedom to speak my convictions too.

Well, I have essentially said my piece for tonight, so I will end there.  I hope to write again in the near future, so take care, and keep your chins up.

Thoughts For the Week

As I begin this year of 2015, I do so with a lot of concerns, as well as a lot of hopes.  It has gotten off to a busy start, as my MA studies at Franciscan University continue with two intense but very interesting classes on Catechetics.  I really believe that much of what I am going to be learning in those courses though will have a great impact upon my theological writing, and some of you who follow my Sacramental Present Truths blog will start seeing that hopefully soon.  I will be visiting as I am able, being my classwork will be taking up a lot of my time, but I need to continue to share things.

To start this off right, let's just chat some, as I need to get a bearing on what we can focus upon here.   It is hard to imagine that it is already 2015!  And, it is even harder to imagine that just over 2 months ago I turned 45 years old.  I have been on a quest over the past several years to write down as much of my "story" as possible, and it is out of that endeavor that I have developed the idea of the "master book," coupled as well with some of Fr. Norris Clarke's ideas about the Book of Nature and Book of Revelation (not the biblical book, but rather this refers to Scripture and Holy Tradition in general as Clarke designates the terminology) that sort of reinforced my own thinking on that.  All of us, regardless of who you are or what your station in life is, have a "master book," and it is the fiber of the Book of Nature God gave each of us individually.  When those of us who know the fullness of Christianity and accept it take this into perspective, it is the Book of Revelation that perfects and clarifies our Book of Nature so that we can more fully see that God created us as individual persons with a particular and sufficient reason for existence.  What we choose to do in regard to living that out is left up to us, thanks to God instilling in us free will, but nonetheless we must understand too that choices lead to consequences - some of those will be good, others will be not-so-good being we are fallible in our limited human nature and prone to sin and mistakes.  But, all of it together constitutes our own "master book," and as I get older I have begun to understand the importance of documenting meticulously all aspects of my life so that I can one day, in retrospect, see a fuller picture.  I probably will never see the complete full picture until I pass onto my eternal reward, but hopefully I can document enough of it to really create a legacy, thus sharing a significant part of my own "master book" with someone in the next generation to come.

Why am I rattling on about all this?  It's quite simple really - I have sitting adjacent to my desk about 6 volumes of handwritten manuscript that contain about as much of my life story as I could document, and it constitutes about 3 years of meticulous note-taking.  Since writing all that down, I have found out other things, stuff that fills in gaps and clarifies information I had previously written, and I have documented that in a series of about 30 small journal books I have kept up for about 19 years.  As I was reading over a lot of that material the other day, I came across a series of things that I had written down which merit a book of their own.  We all have a worldview, and it shapes a lot of who we are and what we perceive the world to be.  I am no exception, and I had begun to write down thoughts on a variety of subjects, from religion, politics, and philosophy to personal quirks and specific theories I have about a number of subjects.  I have decided to write them all into their own book, which if all goes well I will have published by the end of this year.  The point of this is to provide a sort of codified ideological underpinning to the whole story of my life, as many convictions, experiences, and other things have shaped me and formed me into the person I am.  Some of it has proven particularly complex to write - for instance, as of this time, I am sorta stuck in the middle of my Politics chapter, as I both need material to reference as well as a more concrete way of outlining it, as my political views have been somewhat complex over the years - I have embraced a variety of normally divergent views as a Monarchist, a Christian paleoconservative, a proponent of states' rights, a bioregionalist, and also my long-time involvement in leadership and advocacy with the Christian Falangist movement.  I am drawn, for instance, to people like Pat Buchanan and reference him extensively, but I also like some of what people like Kirkwood Sale have said too.  The dilemma for me is answering the question of how to make all this fit together, but an important part of my own personality and thought process is knowing how to piece the more attractive aspects of various ideas together to create something unique, and I hope that when all this chapter I am working on is written, it will be concise enough to work out a lucid worldview that is easily comprehended and not overly complicated.  And, that is what takes some work!

If you sit down and consider your own approach to stuff like this, I will be the first to tell you that you won't formulate something overnight.  It involves a lot of thought, as well as a lot of effort to be as well-informed on things as possible.  But, I would encourage you to take the challenge and do it, because you will learn a lot about yourself through it.  In the near future, I am going to give a little tutorial concerning that here, and if you are so inspired to take this task on as a personal challenge (a word of advice - do this for yourself, not to impress someone else; it can involve a brutal self-honesty that may not be comfortable to share!) then I hope to give you a pattern to work with eventually to aid your own quest.  That will be something more for the future though, as right now I am still formulating a lot of things myself!

One thing about a project like this I will mention too.  It will give you a source of comfort and reassurance especially when you are going through times of uncertainty.  At the end of the last year, for instance, I was up against some things - we had some economic challenges in our household, and due to some limited publicity I attracted a lot of people who attacked me for a stand I made on something very important.  It must be understood that there are haters out there, and not everyone will be so enthusiastic to hear what you have to say.  It often takes both a thick skin and a quick wit to deal with such people when they come against you, but more important is a self-awareness of who you are as a person - attacks against what you say can easily degenerate into character assassination, and it can really take a toll on you if you are not prepared for it.  Therefore, know how to choose your battles before engaging an enemy, and also make sure you are well-fortified personally with a clear sense of your own personhood before engaging enemies who attack.  In religious circles, the enemy is also quick to call you "brother" and yet hate your guts - I found that out some time ago, and experienced it in a profound way recently.  Yet, if you know where you stand, often your enemy will back off when they see you know what you are talking about, although they may hide it behind some fancy talk about "Well, we'll just have to sort it out at the Last Resurrection!"  Although it makes them look like they are being "Christian" about things and that they somehow are using some misguided sense of reasoning, what they are really saying is something two-fold - first, the message is, "Well, you don't agree with me so you are not worth talking to," but also the more subtle message is this "I don't know how to respond to this person, so I am refusing to engage them."  Count that a blessing, because a lot of times frankly both you and they have better things you both could be doing with your time.  Which leads to another interesting observation - in the situation I just faced, I was basically dismissed by my detractors as being "merely a disgruntled person" and "just one lone opinion," yet for some reason my self-designated enemies still wasted a lot of time trying to refute me, argue, and justify themselves.  The way I look at that is like this - if you are investing (or wasting!) that much time trying to engage me in debate, I must be somewhat important to you.  Therefore, if I am not that important to them, the question is why they are investing (wasting) so much time trying to counter me?  I mean, if I am just a lone opinion, does it really matter?   This should be reassuring to others who have faced a similar issue, because it reveals some chinks in your opponents' armor.  For one, if they are going to great lengths to justify, refute, and argue, it means that something you said touched a sensitive nerve, and their reaction is a form of damage control for something.   Second, although they don't want to admit it, you should feel flattered that they take you that seriously to think you are important enough to respond to.   That all being said, although it is temporarily making things unpleasant for you, obviously you are on the right track at either exposing something, or confronting something.  And, one day, some of those same people who oppose you may either be thanking or apologizing to you later, because you are probably right in your assessment and perspective.

I hope my little discourse on dealing with opposition is of help to someone reading this, and if so, I am glad to be of service to you.  However, the most vital thing to remember is that these little ideological skirmishes should never detract you from your vocation in life, as you have an objective of some sort you need to reach and you need to keep focus.  Therefore, it is all the more important to have a thick skin, sharp wit, and also the foresight to see that often an aggressive reaction means you may have a legitimate concern that touched a nerve.  And, that is the lesson I wish to impart as I wrap this up.

This is hoping that all of you reading this have a great 2015 ahead, and the blessings of God - + Father, Son, and Holy Ghost - be with you always, amen.

Random Thoughts

I don't know why on earth I keep writing, but there are many things that need be said, and sometimes it can be a lot when the inspiration hits and you have to find an outlet to express it.  I have done year-end perspectives already, philosophized until Descartes was almost resurrected, and have been on this continued piecing-together of my story which has gone on now for a number of years.  So, what is left?

Today is the eve of Christmas Eve, and as I am writing here I can say it has been intense this past week.  In addition to Christmas preparations, there was the Archbishop's visit at church, a Metaphysics exam, and I was interviewed by Chelsen Vicari at the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, DC, about the prevalent liberalism which has emerged in the Religion Department of my alma mater.  This latter issue has caused somewhat of a buzz, and I have drawn some fire from people who take issue with what I said - that comes with the territory, and exposing error at a large institution will get you attention to be sure.  And, although I have managed to handle the feedback for the most part, it has also been exhausting - you find out quickly when you write on-line or your name has public exposure that not everyone is going to like what you have to say (go figure, right?).  At the same time, there is this conviction from deep within that tells you "this is right!" and it encourages you to stay the course.  It may mean sacrificing friends (I lost a few over it), but if they were true friends they may have tried to understand your position.  Some other friends feel more action is needed, and may be encouraging you to take some bigger steps that may be beyond what you can handle - one of my friends of many years, a pastor and practicing attorney out on the West Coast, suggested for instance that the faculty of said university should be reported to the district office of the church denomination which operates the university, and although I would agree that some accountability is necessary, there are some things to consider with doing something like that.  For one, if a pastor of a church or a professor in a denominational college is teaching outright heresy, there has to be documented proof of it in order to proceed with a measure like that.   Second, although I know for a fact that some things at that university are being taught that shouldn't be, and have heard it with my own ears, there are others who sat in those classes (many of whom, in my estimation, have not been properly taught the essential beliefs of their own religious tradition) who think that what the professor is saying is gospel truth, and they would easily start hurling stones at me instead - that is a big battle to step into by yourself.   Third, it is also factual that I am not a member (nor have I ever been) of that particular church denomination, and their officials would probably be less likely to take that as seriously.   At this point, the best policy would be to sit tight and let this one play itself out - those who are teaching incorrect agendas will eventually get theirs anyway, so there is no need for me to even fire the proverbial shot on that one.  The thing about something when it is wrong is that the person (or persons in this case) who is responsible for it will eventually snare themselves, so it is a matter of timing - so, I just smile, go on about my business, and take a "wait and see" approach on it.

As mentioned when I did my year-end perspective a couple of weeks back, I have had three books published this year - two bound copies and an e-book.  I am not planning on doing as much writing in the next few years save the occasional articles due to the fact that I am probably going to be very busy with graduate work and that has a lot of time invested in itself.   It doesn't mean I will be stopping all writing for good, as I will on occasion write some articles and such.  However, bigger writing projects - such as new books - will have to wait.  At this point, we are also planning a move in the near future, as I will be doing my Ph.D. work in Naples, FL, and we are anticipating that within the next couple of years as it will only take about 16 months to complete the MA I am working on now.  Suffice to say,  I have a busy few years ahead!

I just wanted to drop a note, and as I wrap it up I only want to say that I hope each of you reading this has a blessed Christmas season, and also keep in mind why we are celebrating it - it is not about Santa Claus, but is about a small child born in a smelly barn two millenia ago who changed many people's lives - and, not just any child, but God Himself come in the flesh to institute a purpose that would allow us to be reconciled to Him.  For those of you who may be Christians, these final couple of days of the Advent season are also a time to reflect on your own story of Christ's work in your lives - don't ever be ashamed of your testimony, because every story of God's working in a person's life is a precious thing, and it is one of your most valued gifts God has given you.  So, God bless, and will probably see you all again in 2015.

Stravinsky, Chord Organs, and Metaphysics

As I was sitting here the past couple of nights writing some journal entries, a lot of thoughts flowed into my head about so many things.  It has been a pretty intense couple of weeks for me actually as I write this - I have been getting ready for a Metaphysics final exam (which I took yesterday - fingers crossed I passed it!), I have caught some flak over an interview that I had regarding some of the theological liberalism going on at my former university, and the holiday rush has also been quite evident in our household - all the decorating, baking, candy-making, etc. So, I just had to take a step back, smell the proverbial roses, and recollect myself a little.  That being said, I want to share some insights that I organized out of my past few journal entries for your edification, although I had not planned on writing anymore this year.

First, let's talk a little Metaphysics.  One thing about studying Theology at a Catholic institution is how much Philosophy you are expected to learn, and so far I have had to do two prerequisite classes this year for my major - one was Philosophy of the Human Person, and the second was Metaphysics.  I finished the Human Person course a while ago, even getting a pretty decent grade in the course, but this Metaphysics course has royally been kicking my butt!   Surprisingly though, it is not the content that is a problem - it is actually quite good.  The actual issue is the professor of the class almost expects you to have the equivalent of a Ph.D. dissertation by the time you finish the course - it is just a prerequisite!  But, despite challenges, I learned a lot, and in the near future I am going to synthesize a lot of that into a separate writing those of you who subscribe to my Sacramental Present Truths site will see.  Summarily to say however, I now understand why we need those Philosophy prerequisites - they aid in a great way in making people more well-rounded in their faith, and that is a good thing.   That being said, I want to preface the rest of this discussion with a little something from that course.

The primary text for the second half of the course was a book by Fr. Norris Clarke entitled The One and the Many, which is a primer on contemporary Thomistic metaphysics.  Written in 2001, this book essentially takes the question of the "one and the many" and it breaks it down in such a way that it is more digestible.  And, being Fr. Clarke is a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest who taught Philosophy at Fordham University for many years before his repose a couple of years back (as well as guest-lecturing a lot at Franciscan, where his good friend and my former Philosophy of the Human Person professor, Dr. John Crosby, serves as program chair - Dr, Crosby is a fine scholar in his own right, by the way).  However, it is weird that Clarke taught at the same university as another less-savory individual, Merrold Westphal, whose book Whose Community, Which Interpretation was used as a text in a Hermeneutics class at my former university - Westphal is a postmodernist who essentially believes that Nietzsche and Marx are "prophetic voices of Christendom" (read it on page 140 of his book) and in thought he is as far removed from Clarke as Texas is from Alaska.  Any rate, the one thing that stood out in Clarke's text and will provide the focus of some of my discussion today is found page 7 - Clarke on that page talks about distinguishing Metaphysics from religion and Theology, but in doing so he notes that many early theologians (notably his predeceased influence, St. Thomas Aquinas) were simultaneously philosophers, and he notes that their guiding principle was the fact that God has spoken to us in two great books.  The first he called the Book of  Nature, which is where natural reasoning comes into play and nature bears witness of God directly.  The second is the Book of Revelation, which would essentially be Holy Scripture (although he elaborates that it also is deeper than even Holy Scripture).   Clarke contends that both "books" have the same author, but Revelation perfects nature - if I were to put that into theological language, it is this - the Book of Nature would be equivalent to God's rhema word, while the Book of Nature would be more of a Logos.  Again, I will elaborate more on that when I get to the writing on Sacramental Present Truths later, but I mention it here to provide a groundwork for the discussion.  To take all this to a more personal level, each of us has our very own Book of Nature that is being written on practically every day of our lives, and when you read these articles I have posted here, you are actually reading some excerpts from my own Book of Nature.  Of course, the perfecting part comes from our conversion and acceptance of our free gift of salvation in Christ, who in his person is the ultimate Book of Revelation, according to John 1.  Again though, that is getting into theological writing for another time.  Today, I want to now focus on this whole Book of Nature from my own perspective, and what I have come to understand about it, and then I want to talk about some specifics.

For years now, I have been working at writing down so much about my own life story - it has been a journey of self-discovery.  This started somewhat back in 1996, when going through a rough patch I decided to keep a journal.  In October of 1996, I recall, just before writing in my journal that night Mom had come over to visit, and for some reason we were talking about our old dog Jill from years ago, and it sparked in me something that initiated a project - writing down my memories as detailed and specific as I could remember them.  That resulted in a series of journal entries that spanned about a year and a half - it took me all the way up to April 1998 or thereabouts - and later in 2006 I began to rewrite those stories into their own volumes - they are sitting here as I write now in about 5 full spiral-bound notebooks.   Out of that comes a lot of the articles you have been reading here for the past five years or so.  There are still gaps I am filling in with much of this stuff, and it is supplemented by a host of pictures, genealogy paperwork, and other things.  As all of this gets into my head, it comprises what I call my "master book" which one day I want to just type, print, and bind for my own edification after I get through all my schooling and begin to come to a place where I can devote time  to doing so.  I would not call this "Master Book" of my own life necessarily my personal Book of Nature, but it does comprise a significant part of it.  Much of what you have read in recent years - my recipes, my memories of specific individuals, etc. - come out of that "master book" though in some aspect or another.  This is something now though that I can definitely begin to give form too thanks in part to Fr. Clarke's insights, and that is why I wanted to mention it.  Many stimuli go into evoking the memories that make up my "master book," and those can include a musical piece, a book I have read in the past, some people I have met and gotten to know over the years, or other things.  And, that sets my stage today for talking about a couple of things I have thought about the past week or so.

First, a question - do any of you fellow old geezers over 40 like myself remember a small musical instrument called a chord organ?  It was a small, portable keyboard instrument invented by the same company that created the Hammond back in the 1950's, and at one time they were pretty popular due to their portability and ease of learning.   It was simpler than most organs though in that it only had a single keyboard and a set of chord buttons to supply melody .  At one time in my early teens I had 3 of them, as they were relatively easy to find at most junk stores and yard sales (you could pick up one for about $5 actually).  In sound, they more resembled an accordion or a harmonica, but they were good to learn how to play basic tunes and you could actually learn to play piano from one.   

An electric chord organ similar to the ones I had back in the day.

I used to pick around on it then, and as I became more serious later on about its potential, I actually learned to play a tune or two on one.  I kind of miss having one of these around, and perhaps I should do some looking.   According to this article I read on Wikipedia, the chord organ is used by some new musical school called "minimalists," which originated with Danish composer Hennig Christenson in the 1970's and utilizes simpler instruments like harmonicas, xaphoons (a bamboo saxophone-type instrument), recorders and such.  I am not really up on that stuff or really into it, but I think that something like a chord organ has potential and would not mind having another one.  

The second point of today's musings has to do with a composer whose works I really appreciate, Igor Stravinsky.  For some reason this past week I got this overwhelming urge to pull out my copy of Stravinsky's work Petrushka and listen to it - Stravinsky composed this around 1909 or so, and it is essentially based on a Russian folktale similar to "Pinnochio" about a puppet that comes to life.  It is a wintery composition, and has been one of my personal favorites since I was 17 years of age.  Stravinsky is a composer I also got to appreciate at around that point in my late teens, as I recall wanting to find out more about his 1913 ballet le Sacre du Printemps (or, The Rite of Spring). When this ballet first debuted in 1913, it was so controversial that it caused riots, but it is actually a beautiful musical score although somewhat melancholy and dark.  A large part of the early hoopla of this piece centered behind the story that inspired Stravinsky to compose it.  In the late 1800's, a movement swept Russia called Pan-Slavism, and it was a sort of cultural renaissance in the Slavic roots of Russian culture.  Stravinsky I believe was influenced greatly by that, and as he researched historical data, an ancient pre-Christian pagan Slavic fertility rite that actually involved a human sacrifice got his attention (I want to say this was associated with the ancient Slavic idol Perun, a storm deity, but could be wrong) and he composed a ballet based on that.   Some wags over the years - including some over-zealous fundamentalists such as Texe Marrs (my warning -stay away from this character, as he is racist and bases much of his own theology on weird conspiracy theories!) - have misinterpreted Stravinsky's writing of this to mean that Stravinsky was somehow encouraging paganism and he has even been accused by less-informed people of being "pagan/anarchist" himself, which is a frank absurdity.  The reality though, as Dr. Alvin Schmidt writes in his book Under the Influence - How Christianity Transformed Civilization (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001) on page 332, was that Stravinsky was devoutly Christian, having undergone a heart-felt conversion at age 26, and his two core convictions can be summed up in two points:

1.  "The more one separates himself from canons of the Christian Church, the further one distances hinself from the truth."
2.   In order to compose religious music, one cannot be merely a believer in "symbolic figures" but must believe in the real person of Jesus Christ, the fact a real Satan exists, and what he called "the Miracle of the Church." 

I don't know about you, but it sounds like Stravinsky had a vibrant faith to me!  Sure, he was not perfect - he did love his vodka, like any good Russian - but at the same time his ideas on sacred music are something that many in the so-called "Contemporary Christian Music" industry should pay attention to!   The mystery in all of this, however, is this - why would a devoutly Christian composer like Igor Stravinsky write a ballet about a pre-Christian Slavic sacrificial ritual?   I believe there are two explanations for this.  First, let us look at the chronology - Le Sacre du Printemps debuted around 1913 or so, when Stravinsky was about 31 years old.  He would have been relatively young in his faith then.  That being said, he also noted in a 1920 interview that the music dictated the story, and as he was writing the score this vision of a solemn pre-Christian pagan ritual came to him.  Composers are inspired by both good and bad things, and a composer writes based on that information and it has no bearing necessarily on the composer's own convictions, strange as that sounds.  Also, it is worth noting that the avante-garde (for the time anyway) character of Stravinsky's work, not its story, is what set off the uproar when it first debuted.  For most people reading this, all of this has little bearing, but I do have some more conservative voices that read these articles, and the point was that Stravinsky was telling a story, not preaching paganism - there is a huge difference.  And, when I hear le Sacre, I don't really envision any pagan ritual at all - it is a beautiful and moving piece of music that evokes for me instead the folktales of my youth, as well as feeling the winter morph into spring, and I can even see some of the drama of the Orthodox liturgy or the coronation of a czar in the music.  There is a distinctly Russian character to the music that actually touches my own soul, being a descendent of St. Vladimir, Prince of Novgorod, myself.    And, that is probably why I like it so much.

When I first got into Stravinsky in my junior year of high school, le Sacre was one of the first works of his that I was able to get to know in its entirety, although thanks to my senior-year English teacher, Mrs. McConnell, I also was exposed to his other works, in particular The Firebird and the aforementioned Petrushka.  The thing I remember though about it was the summers at home those years - we took care of an old lady named Myrtle out on a farm on Salt Lick Road south of Terra Alta, WV, and I spent many days foraging woods for stuff like wild garlic, which I would then experiment with recipes - my main thing in those days was a rather spicy concoction I made out of stew beef that only I could eat, and although now I see it needed some work (I have come a long way in my cooking since then!) it was a relaxing hobby I did when I wasn't involved with church activities or my itinerary with the high school marching band.  It was at the same time that I became interested in Eastern Christianity, and the beginnings of my involvement with the dear Assyrian people can be traced back to around that time too.  It was an exciting point in my life when I was younger, more idealistic, and I had great ambitions for what I planned to do.  There are many days I miss that early enthusiasm of my youth, as it is an important part of my own Book of Nature, but that is why I am writing all this in the first place.  Also, my recent studies at Franciscan are starting to call me back to some of my own early Christian roots, and I am realizing that as a Christian (even when I was a very young one) I have had my greatest intellectual development.  The more vibrant my faith, as a matter of fact, the more hungry for expanding my own intellect gets.   And, that is what all this is about - "studying to show myself approved."  

I hope you don't mind my ramblings today, as they have been verbose, but I needed to share.  May you all have a blessed Christmas season, and may God grant you all a blessed 2015 that lies just ahead of us.  

The Year in Review

The year 2014 was quite a busy one for us, and there is a lot to talk about.   There are many milestones to document, as well as a lot of other things.  And, it has been a year filled with ups and downs, new opportunities and a few setbacks, and mostly, it has been busy.  This also marks the end of our 5^th year doing the blog thing, and who would have thought that the combined content of Sacramental Present Truths, David’s Mountain Memories, and David’s Culinary Page would at this time end up being about a thousand pages!  I have managed to take that whole content and publish them into an e-book that is available at www.lulu.com.  In 5 years, I may do it again – we’ll see.  And, I will be talking about where we are going with that shortly too.

Personal Year in Review

As I have said, this year has had its share of both challenges and blessings, and I want to do a summary of those now as it relates to our lives personally.

To begin, I am unfortunately not having as much luck with work this year, being that I am essentially only getting temporary/contract positions as I have the past couple of years, and those can be quite sporadic.  Although we are OK financially, the bottom line is some extra income would not hurt us any at this point, and hopefully in 2015 things will change for the better.  I would say that if my total work time is summed up this year, it would be about 3 months actual.  However, having some extra time to work with has helped me accomplish some other stuff, which is a plus.

2014 was also my second year of grad school too, which is still progressing well as I have transferred to Franciscan University of Steubenville and it is so much better – I have regained a passion for learning, and although my coursework is all distance education, it is rich with a lot of new insight.  I will be talking more about that later.  In addition, this is the year I have published 3 books and an article in a theological journal, and that too is quite an accomplishment on my part. 

Onto other developments, we have had a collapsed ceiling in my home office this past spring, and the landlady also had to replace the a/c unit during the heat of the summer months – the week in August we were without air was the closest thing to hell I hope I ever have to experience, as summers in Florida are extremely humid.  Additionally, this year in September my mother had to give up her place, and as 2014 draws to a close she has been living with us.  With her health issues and this, I am a little concerned for her, but fortunately she is being taken care of by the Veteran’s Administration, whom we anticipate will be assisting her with several things soon.  All-in-all, Mom’s stay with us has not been bad, but at the same time she’d be better off in her own place, and I think that is what she wants too as she is fairly independent-minded.

Now that I have given you the gist of the year, let me now get into the specifics.

Graduate School

My work toward my Master’s degree is progressing well, as now I feel somewhat liberated after transferring to Franciscan University of Steubenville at the beginning of the year last January. Southeastern University, where I had initially taken some coursework, has totally gone a negative direction and I just didn’t feel comfortable going there anymore.  To put it this way, the difference between the two universities is like night and day, as now I feel like I am really getting an education instead of being forcibly indoctrinated with liberal agendas.  Of course, it has been somewhat challenging, in particular the various Philosophy pre-credits I had to take, but it is actually good stuff – I learned another dimension of my own faith, and that Philosophy and Theology are not in conflict, but rather complement each other – the only real difference is that Philosophy has to do with what one thinks, while Theology has to do with what one believes.  And, I have had a whole new area of theological and philosophical discipline opened to me, of sound scholars like Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthazar, Romano Guardini, and novelist Flannery O’Connor.   Learning some new things and incorporating them into my own belief system has been enriching, and I feel now as if I can authoritatively write theology in a way that I never could before.  And, that has me looking eagerly forward to the next coursework!

Also, I now have a clear-cut plan for my Ph.D. work too – it turns out that I may be able to enroll at another good Roman Catholic institution in a couple of years, Ave Maria University in Naples, and will be in good hands to finish up my education once and for all in about 5 years.  The scary part of this however, is that I will be 52 years old before I do that – oy!!  However, the best thing to do is enjoy the ride and learn all I can, because it is rich material and a stellar educational experience.

Writing Projects

I mentioned that I have had some books published, and this year has been a busy one for that as well.   Back in February, I was able to finally get my first book – a study on Ephesians – to the publisher after finishing the draft on it last year.  The book is entitled Unity in the Body and Sacramental Devotion, and although the first edition was not overly impressive – I had to scan the hard copy as a pdf document to submit it to the publishers, so it’s got mixed fonts, no page numbers, and a lot of grammatical errors.  I am planning a revision of the text next year in order to make it look more professional, as soon as a figure out how to convert my original draft to edit it!  I anticipate though that it will be a good resource to teach others.

My first book, published in February of this year (2014)

My second book was another project that involves close to 25 years of research, as there are denominations and fellowships I wanted to publish a church history book about that many “mainstream” scholars have chosen to ignore.  When I published it in July though, there were a few things I was unable to add at the time as I was still waiting on some other material, but most of that has gotten here now and I plan a revision of that next year as well.  The title of that one is Where Two or Three are Gathered – The Small Fellowships of the Highways and Hedges, and it definitely looks more professional than my first book, as I did this one right.  It has nice footnotes, uniform font, and it just looks really good – once the final information is added in my revision, it is going to be even better.   I anticipate this one to have a little more exposure than my first volume, as it deals with more historical information.

My second book, published in July of this year (2014)

My other publishing venture was somewhat smaller, but was my first this year.  A friend of mine who is a traditionalist Byzantine Catholic priest, Fr. Jack Ashcraft, attempted to publish a theological journal but for some reason it didn’t go.  The publication was titled Watchman Theological Journal, and it only had one issue in the winter of this year (2014).  However, I had an article on Transhumanism published in it, which is my first serious theological publishing venture.   The article I submitted was originally a class project for a graduate-level Theology of Ethics course I had taken back at the end of 2012, and it garnered so much interest that I decided to publish it for a wider audience.   Thankfully Fr. Jack gave me the platform to make that happen, and for the first time I have an actual published article in a serious academic context!  I hope to do more of this type of writing in the future, as another old friend, Dr. Robert Paulissian of the Assyrian Academic Society, is encouraging me to write more and submit some material to him as well.  We’ll see what happens next year.

The issue of Watchman Theological Journal my article was published in (2014).

Summarily speaking, it has been a busy year of writing, and I forgot to mention the “blog book!”  That one is only going to be available to a limited audience as an e-book, being it is over 1000 pages, but hopefully I can get it published as a hard-copy volume for my own use.  It is entitled Five Years of Ramblings, Musings, and Other Masterpieces – The Blog Collection Vol. I, and it is big!  I wanted to put all of my smaller articles together in one volume, and this was my way to do just that.  Additionally, I have also included some photos of my artwork and other stuff I have done over the years, so it acts almost like a portfolio of my entire creations.  If I get that one bound, it will be limited as to who can get it, etc., as it will serve as a sort of blueprint for other projects I have in coming years.

Although 2014 was a busy year for writing for me, I don’t anticipate doing much more large-scale writing projects until I get my graduate school and doctoral studies completed.   Mainly, I am confining myself to blog articles and revisions of work I have already done, as school and other commitments may hinder any plans for writing anything else.  However, I am anticipating a book in the near future that would pretty much embody my theology and political perspectives, but we’ll see where we go with that later.

Church Work

2014 has also been a busy year for church work, as I am entering soon my fourth year as a licensed Lay Reader with the Anglican Catholic Church, as well as serving a second year as delegate to Diocesan Synod and now in 2015 I have also been nominated by the diocese to go to Provincial Synod, which fortunately will be in Athens, GA, in October.  However, the big news was that this year at Synod I was elected by pretty much a unanimous vote to be our diocesan Deputy Speaker of the House of Laity.  I am still not sure what all that entails, but as I understand it, if the Speaker (who is Jack Kylander from Chapel Hill, NC) cannot make it for some reason, I am next in line to preside over the House of Laity assembly at the next Synod – oy!!  I only pray Jackie stays in good health!  However, that aside, I have been really blessed with being part of the ACC Diocesan Synods representing our parish the past couple of years, and it is good getting to know the extended ACC family, as they are truly a great group of people – both our clergy and laity are some of the best, and Archbishop Haverland is a phenomenal blessing as the spiritual shepherd not only of the Diocese, but of the whole First Province of the ACC, which pretty much covers the entire globe except India, which is the Second Province.  My church work is also tied pretty closely to my studies at Franciscan University too, as I hope to serve the ACC better in future years as a lay theologian or catechist.  I had originally thought about ordination, but maybe that is not what I am supposed to do.  Of course, things could change, so we’ll see.

My Record Collection

I would not have a complete report this year if I didn’t deal with my musical library and its growth.  Unlike in past years, I have not focused as much on acquiring new material, although I did get some this year (including the entire “Molly B” polka Christmas specials she broadcasts on RFD-TV).  I did manage to buy a few vinyl items (mostly gospel) but for the most part it hasn’t been a very active year.  As we come to year’s end, my collection now stands at 1190 CD’s, 903 LP’s, and 96 DVD’s.  However, I have a new development that I wanted to talk about, because that has increased the collection a little too.

There is a lot of good music online, both through Youtube and another service called Soundcloud, but the problem all these years has been trying to find a way to capture it.  In the past few months, I have discovered that I can download Youtube videos, convert them to audio MP3’s, and save them on audio CD discs.  I have managed to rack up several recordings of those, which I don’t include in the statistics I listed earlier, and that too is a great little accomplishment.  In addition to saving a lot of this on discs, I also have discovered the miracle of the flash drive, and have reserve copies of the various “playlists” I have created on those too.  It is a great way to get quality music without a lot of investment.  Of course, there is work involved in doing this, as I want to create suitable album covers for my newly-created discs, but finances have restricted my printing capabilities although I can create the covers easily.   I will eventually have a lot of work printing and cutting out covers for all those discs, which number about 30 now, and that may be a task for next year once I have ink to do the job.

I am not anticipating a lot more buying up of recordings for the collection, as for the first time in a long time I feel like I finally have that vintage big band collection I have always wanted, and have even dreamed about since I got into this stuff at the age of 10.  I will no doubt get some new CD’s, and maybe even a few vinyl items, but not near the scale I have in the past.   It is now time to just enjoy this great collection and maybe even find a way to utilize it to work for me – education maybe?   That is definitely something to consider that is for sure.

Where Do I Go From Here?

It is now at year’s end, and I am both optimistic and frustrated a little as I am writing this.  A lot of things have challenged me this year, from some former co-workers looking down my nose because I don’t travel as much to badly-misinformed in-laws falsely judging my graduate school endeavors.  I am ready for a major shift to occur – in the positive – for me to forge ahead with what I am supposed to be doing, but making that happen is often not the easiest thing when you have limited resources to work with.  So, I wanted to talk about a few things that have been on my mind recently.

To begin, this new education at Franciscan University has opened up for me a whole new dimension of things – I now appreciate philosophy better, and I am being enriched as far as theology is concerned.  I am chomping at the bit to get all this new stuff digested, and then be able to formulate some new material in my writing that will hopefully benefit others.  As is the case though, it is a lot to absorb, and my head literally swims with a lot of stuff that I need to channel and organize, and I am praying for help to do that in the coming year.  I also need a source of revenue to fund things, as I want to begin to include field research in my studies and make the material I produce even more accessible to others.  This is especially true as I begin to incorporate some of the better things I am learning from both personalist philosophy and metaphysics, and as I read these great thinkers like Norris Clarke and Romano Guardini, I want to utilize the things they have to offer and incorporate them into my worldview, but how do I do that?   This is perhaps the greatest struggle I have in the year to come, and perhaps I would be best served if I reached out to some individuals who can help me channel all this stuff in such a way that it becomes productive for me.  Mostly, though, I need open doors – my prayer for the coming year is that those will become accessible to me.

A large part of my own writing thus far has been an expression of my own collective experience – I often envision a “master book” of my story from which I can write and apply to so much, and my goal is to make that “master book” a tangible reality one day.  I have in the past few years done more contemplation about who I am, where I came from, and have also sought to incorporate various components of my own past in such a way that I can present a fuller picture of myself.  Mom has unwittingly been a great blessing in that regard, as we sit often during the mornings talking about certain things over coffee, and it provides some fill-ins of gaps I may have in my own recollections.   Good friends, relatives, and former classmates from years ago that I have recently reconnected with on social media have also been a great asset in that regard too, and these people do not know what a tremendous blessing they have been.  In the past year, I have not indulged in as much family history or anything as I have previous, but I have begun to get many of my own materials better organized for the eventual bigger project when the time comes to get it on paper.  I only hope that everything will come together with almost a symphonic harmony so that I can leave a legacy for future generations to follow.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it – 2014 in review for me!   There are probably other things I could have included but didn’t.  However, you may see some missing material in future blog articles if you keep track.  May all reading this have a blessed 2015 as it dawns, and will be seeing you around the cyberspace arena!