Crashing Through the Songs

AND NOW, in the spirit of the holiday season, I giveth to thee, a random post...eth. Yes it is a word. ..Yes, IT IS. Shut up! You are gonna spoil the moment!

I noticed that a lot of people not only sing Christmas songs, but they parody Christmas songs. Jingle bells for instance, has about five billion parodies. Ranging from batman to Pokemon, crashing to monkeys, there are tons of them! Likewise, the twelve days of Christmas and here we go a caroling are also often parodied. With so many Christmas songs about the holiday, God, and any number of things, why do we feel the need to parody these songs? My theory is that it makes it something special. It makes it more personal and fun. Especially if you make your own version to immortalize memories or events. It makes it something that only the singers share or understand, or something that anyone in that situation can relate to. This is the kind of thing I can really get into. And in fact, I do actually make a lot of these parodies with a friend. However, I sadly can not post them here because very few of them would actually make sense to you. BUT, never fear! As I clearly can not make a post like this and have no original parody of my own, I will make a (cough really horrible cough) new one up just for you guys! Yes, yes, I know. I'm amazing. So, in spirit of the holidays, I present to my fellow Kennedy students: Dismissal Bells!

Dashing through the hall,

The foyer's like a brawl,

It's the end of the day,

the crowds are in the way!

MOVE MOVE MOVE!

You people standing round,

and blocking the front door,

if you don't want us to push past

don't stay there anymore!

OH

Dismissal Bells,

Hear the yells,

Why are you still here?

The reprieve has finally started,

we wont see you till next year!

HEY!

Dismissal Bells,

Hear the yells,

It's all been worth the wait,

everyone's been counting

and it's time for Christmas break!

See you all next year, and Merry Christmas!

(and seriously, stop standing in front of the door you loiterers!)

-BlackFox

(371)

...No. Just...NO.

http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/

...No.
No.
No.

No.

just... just no.

Seriously guys.

Just.

No.

I mean wow.

This is a blog my dad frequently comments on, and we talk a lot about some of the subjects that come up. Today, we discussed this... monstrosity. I really admire my dad and his opinions, and I actually thought he made some really good points. So I will share with you, his comments, as well as mine.

Ok, two things wrong with this picture that my dad pointed out.

One, Jesus is portrayed as typical Anglo-Saxon. Jesus was Jewish, and therefore should be portrayed as such. He is not some fill-in-the-blank concept for us to use according to our needs. There is not a Japanese Jesus. Or an African Jesus. Or a British Jesus. Or an American Jesus. There is one Jesus and he should be portrayed correctly. He is not something to be molded and shaped to our own preferences. He was a real person.

Two, Dolls are a large part of the imaginary. You associate them with a child playing pretend. By making Jesus into a doll, you create a shift from historical to fantasy. The incarnation of God as a man becomes make believe or fiction, as opposed to historical reality.

My own personal observation.

I am aware that this is an attempt by the church to either A, comment on consumerism. Or B, spark debates about it. That does not make it right or effective. Because the idea is so ridiculous and childish, it does not really give a punch to the viewer. There is no impact or moment of realization. It fails to bring up that challenge in the reader because the concept is so ridiculous. You look at it and immediately think, really? “GodBaby”? Are you people serious? When I first saw it, it took me a minute to realize it was commentary and not legitimate, earnest, or designed to insult Christianity. All it does is generate the opinion of the ad being dumb and kind of offensive. The focus then shifts from the idea of “look how consumerist we are!” to “...someone actually had to green light this thing. Did a church really make this?” You begin to question the church as opposed to your own conduct this holiday season. That is why I say it is ineffective. When the commentary is so blatant, poorly thought out, or followed through, people stop caring about the message and start focusing on the failures.

-BlackFox

(420)

What Matters.

So, seeing as Christmas is just around the corner, I feel like it is proper to comment on the actual point of the holiday. Christmas, as you may or may not know, originally had nothing to do with Santa. There was no naughty or nice list. No happy elves or magic (and slightly judgmental) reindeer. No sleigh or presents or cookies left out near the chimney. Christmas is a time of remembrance.

Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. It is a remembrance of the day he made himself flesh and blood. He choose to put aside his deity to become human like you and I. To experience our suffering and feel our needs and hardships. He was not God smushed into the body of a man, he was an actual man. A living breathing human being, who had to live and learn like we do. The only difference between us and him, was that Jesus was without sin. He came as the perfect sacrifice. He became flesh solely to die on the cross for our sins. He came solely to bear our suffering to create a way for us. We celebrate Christmas to remember the day he was born. We celebrate it to remember the miracle and the majesty of Jesus Christ. It was not created as a day to get a ton of presents or to see everyone in the family.

How many of us pull out a nativity set and call it good? How many of us stopped telling the story of the birth of Jesus when the kids outgrew those books? How many of us go to the Christmas service and spend the entire time waiting for it to end? Many of us, myself included, can be guilty of this on Christmas day. We get so wrapped up in the holiday that we forget its purpose. We forget what it is that we are really celebrating. We forget what Christmas is really about. And no, I don't mean the holiday specials that say family and being together are all that matters, or that it's the thought that counts. Those things are true, but they are not the main focus. Now, I am not saying that nothing else is important during the holidays. I am not saying that Christmas is not a time to be with the ones you love. I am not saying you should abandon your traditions and stop giving gifts. I am saying that there is more to the holiday than these things. That there is more to Christmas than being with your family and giving presents. That it is a day to remember what God has done for us.

-BlackFox

(450)

Removed From It All

You will remember that I, in the first of my three weekly posts, mentioned reading the Divine Comedy as part of a school project. It involves analyzing an author and his methods with your own little specific group. Mine is centered around Dante. Now, when we first started to discuss the book, I was very clear and adamant on my own beliefs and how I viewed the bankrupt theology within the pages. It was something I was extremely unmovable on. So one of my group mates made a point of telling me to leave my own beliefs out of these discussions. And my question to you, is why should I?


Why should I abandon my beliefs? To be more objective when analyzing the essay? During such analysis using your own experiences and knowledge is expected. Different points of view and interpretations are supposedly wanted and create a “deeper” discussion. Also, if it focuses mainly on religion, then discussing how the religious imagery goes against normal doctrine is important in terms of the style and substance of the writer. Wherefore should I deny my group mates the benefit of another view? In terms of being more “open minded” there is something specific I would like to point out about that. If you open your mind to one way of thinking, inevitably it is closed to another. For instance, opening your mind to the concept of truth being what you make it and unknowable, closes your mind to all claims of objective truth. It is simply a fact. This is why most people want to discuss with many others who hold different beliefs, so it prevents a bias forming according to the collectively open and closed perceptions. So again I say, who am I, to deny my group the benefit of another point of view?


And finally, I am not going to ignore my beliefs. I am not going to sweep them under a rug. I am going to stand up for them and question that which contradicts them. Truth is more important than analyzing a 13^th century author with a removed eye. I am not going to leave it behind for the sake of removing myself from such a debate as this. When I go into discussion, I'm taking truth with me.


-BlackFox

(384)

Hell and Demons

Continuing my posts inspired by the Divine Comedy (more specifically the Inferno at present.) I will once again give the warning of a spoiler.


Another thing Dante has set up for hell, is the concept of demons ruling over it. This idea is actually pretty popular. Often seen as Satan and his minions controlling the suffering of the lost souls of the dammed. However, this is actually not so. Hell is not a place where demons reign. They are sinful and evil and just as guilty of punishment as men are. They will not be ruling hell, they will be suffering in hell. God has no interest in rewarding their wickedness with power and entertainment. Demons have one goal, they wish to turn men away from God. In the Bible, such action is specifically condemned, saying one who causes another to stumble is worse than he who falls. When the time of judgment comes, they will be cast into the lake of fire to burn for eternity. Also, demons have no connection to God. At one point in the Inferno, a soul suffering in hell curses and insults the name of the Lord, and is immediately set upon by a demon watching over that level of hell, demanding to know the location of the “insolent blasphemer”. Demons do not condemn or punish such a thing, in fact they actively try to cause it. There is an instance in the Bible, where Christ confronts a group of demons. They ask him, “What have you to do with us? Have you come to punish us before our time?” Here we see they are sinful and oppositional to God. They do not support him, and even allude to the fact they too will suffer. And probably most important, Satan is a bitter enemy of God. There is absolutely no reason why God would not pronounce judgment on the prince of darkness, and no way for Satan to prevent that judgment from falling upon himself. He is powerless before the might of the Lord, and so will suffer like the rest.


Another implication of this system is that either demons are outside of God's power, or that they are his agents. A demon seat of power in hell allows for no alternative. Because a demon is an evil creature of sin, they are subject to the righteous fury of God, and no salvation is allowed -or from the demons perspective even wanted- for them. This means that if they do not suffer in hell, something must prevent God from exacting retribution. The first option is that demons are beyond the reach of God to punish, that he has no power over hell and merely casts down sinners into it. The reason the demons are allowed free reign is simply that God has not the power to punish them. This is obviously ludicrous. God created everything, heaven, hell, and demons alike. Nothing is beyond his power. A creator may do with his creation as he pleases. Now, the other options is that the demons escape punishment because they were created by God for the purpose of tormenting souls in hell, that they were created to be sinful and evil and corrupt for this purpose. This also is not viable. God cannot endure sin, hence the need to inflict justice upon it. He will not allow it to roam unimpeded for all eternity. In any case, He has no need of their services. God does not need a helper to punish sin, he is quite capable of doing this himself. He certainly does not require the enlistment of sinful, evil beings for the task. Ergo, there is no reason for a demon to be spared the fires of hell.


-BlackFox

(627)

Inferno

So, recently I have begun reading the Divine Comedy by Dante for a school project. What I had originally thought of as an interesting concept has turned into a painful, painful, experience. For those who do not know, the Divine Comedy follows the author through a literal journey into hell, purgatory, and paradise. The theology in this book is extremely painful, and will thus influence the next few posts, and possibly more in the future. (warning: there will be some spoilers.)

First of all, let's talk about Dante's concept of the nine circles of hell. He basically assigns each sin it's own torment to suffer for eternity. The lower you go, the worse the sin and therefore the worse the punishment. However, while this might sound interesting at first, it is poorly handled. Many of the punishments are not exactly all that bad...at all. Seriously, some of them are minor annoyances. And whats even worse, some of the upper sufferings are greater than the lower sufferings. Take for instance, a level where you are torn and flayed limb from limb if you dare to rise above boiling pitch, against the level beneath it: wearing a really heavy cloak for eternity. Adultery for instance, is only the second circle. Justified in this spot as being the sin “closest to love”. The punishment for breaking the seventh commandment? To be blown about in a harsh windstorm for all eternity. How exactly is that suffering? How does the soul feel the wrath of God in such a manner? Wherein lies the pain and the wailing and the anger and sorrow? Adultery is not a minor thing. It is not a sin that God feels little anger towards. Hell is a terrible, horrible place. The suffering endured there is beyond any mortal comprehension. It is not a place for such a minor inconvenience. Even worse, is the level above it, or Limbo.

Here, the light of human reason shines. This is supposedly where people who are unbaptized, alive before the time of Christ, or a... “virtuous” pagan.... will reside. Their punishment is that, as their only crime was not accepting salvation, they must live forever with the longing to be near God. Now firstly, baptism is neither a necessity nor a guarantee of acceptance to heaven. The death of the Lamb covers all sins. Baptism is a symbol of rebirth in Christ, but it does not make you righteous or holy or cleansed, only the blood of Christ can do that. The same principle goes for those alive before Christ's death on the cross. Some people look forward to the cross, and some people look back, but all those chosen are saved. There is nothing very special about someone who is baptized compared to someone who is not. The symbol is important yes, but it does not make you a better or more righteous Christian. ...Lastly... the third denizens of Limbo are offensive to the Christian beliefs. If someone is pagan. If they do not believe in God. If they do not believe in death and resurrection, then they have sinned grievously. This is not a minor thing, it is one of the worst sins that can be committed. Their presence is justified here as, thanks to human reason, they sought truth and goodness but simply lacked the means or knowledge to find God. They are depicted as shining with a great light of said human reason, though not as great a light as that of God. However, human reason does not have a light. It is clouded in sin and darkness. It is wrong. It is evil. It is not going to get you close to heaven. These men will suffer for all eternity. They are not going to be put up on a pedestal to glorify the might of human reason. Human reason is what leads man astray. It takes him away from the light of God into hell. It lies and rejects God and seeks to glorify itself. It can not seek goodness in the absence of God, all it can find is sin and death.

We can not even imagine the torments of hell, but we do know one thing, the sinners there are tormented. They suffer, they cry, they scream, they hate God with all their heart and curse his name. There is no longing to be with him. There is no repentance. There is no reprieve or end. There is no place of honor for a pagan who denounces God and blasphemes against him. In this case, our poet friend has grievously misrepresented the fires of hell.

-BlackFox

(772)

No One

No one was beside me,

No one cared to see.

Not one listened to me,

Not one let me be.

No one bid me wait for them,

No one called me friend.

No one stood beside me,

in that cold and lonely end.

Not one gave me pity.

Not one lent out a hand.

Not one choose to cheer me,

when once I tried to stand.

No one there would aid me.

Not one would set me free.

No one else but you Lord,

You were enough for me.

-BlackFox (with another short filler post because she is really lazy.)

(100)