c.o.e. says: 'no Blake'; e.l.p.: rocked

A report by Gnostic priest Jordan Stratford that the Church of England has banned the Blake hymn because it's "too nationalistic"...


You know, ELP did a kickass version of that back in ,73...
One of my favorite hymns and one of my favorite prog rock tracks...



















(can't mention ELP's BSS without saying "Karn Evil 9" is one of the best songs of the 20th Century --- in our family, it's a grab something to drink, dim the lights, sit down, and listen for all 30 minutes kind of song.)

Anyways, all this reminds me of Kinky Friedman's line when he ran for Governor: this is the wussification of Texas! And banning hymns on grounds of nationalism is kind of wussified. Stratford points out briefly that you can take it metaphorically, but seems post-modern liberal Christians would rather not have to do the work of taking things metaphorically. It'd be too much like eating barbecue. It'd get their hands dirty with the wrong kind of company, huh?

Folks forget: Jesus was (is!) all about the 'wrong kind of company'.

crappy christians

Whatever happened to The Crappy Christian Show?
I mean, is it totally out of production these years?

"If you were offended by the Janet Jackson breast incident, this show isn’t for you. If you are anti-gay, anti-porn, anti-drinking, anti-cussing and anti-loving people just the way they are, this show isn’t for you. Everyone else, grab a drink, subscribe and we’ll have some fun!"

hello to papa

The Pope visiting America has got me thinking a lot about the Catholic Church... On one hand, I find the idea of coming home to a "universal" church family very warming -- to be welcomed into the body of Christ. But on the other, I've got major beef with Catholic doctrine. The church is a church of man, of the world. The church is not the Kingdom. But still... I feel drawn to show up to a mass again, to see if there's a way, some way, to make peace with this little church.

I'm afraid there really isn't.


The body of Christ, after all, is everywhere, always. It's in bread, wine, pillbugs, soap, gelatin, soda, pork chops, shoes, jewelry, gasoline, cardboard lean-tos, tampons, tortillas, mitres, rice, rosary beads, park benches, mosque flagstones, and silly red hats.

fishy mitre

From Deo's Shadow blog:

Dagon: described as god of the Philistines, is mentioned heavily in the Bible as “the Zeus of the plough.” The earliest mention of Dagon is from ancient Sumeria in 2500 B.C.E, translated from the Mari Tablets which discovered by French archaeologists in the 1930’s.

peace with nicene creed

Seems dishonest to sit in a pew by folks who believe it literally and completely, if you're sitting there accepting it as metaphor, as symbol.

But what else could it be?

What else could it really be, and how else are we meant to engage it but as a meta-parable?

It's hard to find peace with the Nicene Creed.