Stupid Fat Hobbit

So, I finished reading ‘The Shack’ this morning and decided I should try to put some thoughts down before going out to the internet and seeing what the general response is there. About 2 months ago, a small group of people were talking about it while I was over at their house. They highly recommended the book but at the time I was reading something else, probably the Twilight series and I decided it could wait. Then a couple of weeks ago, my mom called me to ask me if I’d read it…My mom is a voracious reader and I’m the only child she has that loves reading as much as she does. I told her that I was re-reading The Lord of the Rings but that when I was finished, I would pick it up and read it…Now, if you haven’t read it yet and plan to (which I recommend), stop reading here as there will be some spoilers in this review…Okay, here we go…

Even though I’ve been in the room with people who’ve read the book, I had not heard anything about the premise of the book other than it was spiritual in nature. To say that the blatant religiousness of the book took me by surprise would be a major understatement. I was expecting some sideways reference to Jesus or possibly the Holy Spirit, not a weekend with the Holy Trinity. First, I’d like to cover what I liked about the book but I don’t want to cover the reason why he finds himself in a shack with the Trinity because I think each person will respond differently to that situation and I don’t want to tarnish it with anticipation.

• Anyway, much of what is written resonates deeply with my interpretation of religion. The thought that the basis of life is relationships and that the greatest relationship in the universe is that of the three persons of the Trinity should be very comfortable with everyone. I have always had a rather weird view of ‘organized religion’. There is a big part of me that believes the Church is necessary but there is another part that knows deep down inside that a lot of what we consider to be ‘Christian’ probably has nothing to do with what God set out to do when he created the first man. While I was reading the book, I thought often of my father, who I’ve tried to get to go to church many times, and many times he’s told me that he has a different kind of relationship with God and that he doesn’t need to go to church to experience it. For the first time, I think I actually believe him…
• I love the way the author paints the scenes with colors and scents. I’m a visual person and the better a person can draw their world, the easier it is for me to understand it.
• I love the way this book treats forgiveness. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the phrase ‘forgive and forget’ as if these two things were linked and that one begets the other. In practice, I’ve given and received forgiveness many times and, knowing the situation has not been forgotten, felt like forgiveness has not taken place. In reality, we are not capable of consciously forgetting anything (that doesn’t come from this book) and life would be a lot easier to deal with if we understood that we may have to forgive someone many times for the same thing before true healing takes place.

There are one or two things about this book that I tend to disagree with though and I think it’s only fair to mention these also.

• First and foremost, you get the definite impression that the author does not believe in evil; especially in a personage such as the devil. Not only does he treat bad things as the absence of goodness (he says so much in comparing darkness to the absence of light); he doesn’t even mention the serpent in the Garden of Eden when Eve took the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
• I’m not particularly thrilled with the way the book ends either. You almost get the impression that once the ‘real story’ has been explained, the author completely ran out of material and just shut the book down. It’s not very graceful and leaves the reader feeling disconnected somehow; like something is missing but not in a ‘I need to go and explore this mystery’ kind of way…It’s much more of a letdown feeling.

I’m sure there are many more theological debates that could be held but as this is a work of pseudo-fiction, we should probably not debate them here.

I feel quite certain that the author (or at least one of the co-authors) read and very-much liked ‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’ and ‘One’ by Richard Bach. Reading this book, I got very close to the same feelings I had when I read those books as a young adult.

So, the long and the short of it is that The Shack is a very good read and will make you think about your relationship with God (all 3 of Him) and with others.

It’s been one month to the day since I sat down to write a post for the blog. I remember specifically because at that time, I pre-posted ‘Today’s the Day‘ wanting to have time to prepare the house and be completely ready when Debbie arrived from Virginia. So I wrote that post, walked away and was honestly unsure if I would ever post another message to this blog again. There were several good reasons for giving up the blog, all surrounding the family…the amount of time that it takes away from them, how it normally makes you think about yourself rather than them, and just the general thought processes of the day in which you begin to think about how to lead conversations so that they make good blogging fodder rather than just letting the day flow as it should. But I’ve been considering today’s topic for about 3 weeks now and with the kids asleep and the wife’s permission, I’ve decided to tickle the keyboard once again, perhaps a little more seriously than the hobbit ever has before.

You see, in the midst of this horrid world economy, social degradation, moral decline, and political hypocrisy (each large topics that impact millions of people) we’ve lost track of the family unit and how important that is to our stability and our sanity. I’ve been driven to this conclusion by the fact that 3 close friends; 3 close couples; have all within the last four weeks announced to us that they are in some state of the separation/divorce process. The youngest of these marriages is 13 years! Collectively they have 11 kids…In one of the cases, there is what the world would call a valid reason but in the other two, one of the spouses has just decided that they can do without the other spouse and no longer want to be married. What are you thinking?

Obviously, you think of the children, who will be devastated to learn that they now only get to see daddy every other weekend; only get to have mommy read them to sleep for two weeks during the summer. They didn’t do anything to deserve this but the rest of their lives will be spent not trusting others and wondering how they could have been better kids so that mommy and daddy would have stayed together. What are you thinking?

Then you think of the husband and wife, is divorce really the only solution to whatever is driving the wedge between them? Is there no counseling that could help them to learn to communicate their issues with each other? No amount of prayer, within the family and without, that could begin to heal the rift between them? What could he or she have done that caused the other to be unwilling to reconcile? Do you really feel that living out your life alone (or with some new person) is going to be better than being with someone who has loved you most of your adult life? What are you thinking?

Next you begin to think about yourself. Once you move beyond the ‘can I be friends with both of them’ types of questions, you begin to feel the impact within your own family. You anticipate the questions from your kids as they begin to understand that it could possibly happen to them, even though you do your best to convince them otherwise. You begin to wonder whether or not your spouse is contemplating divorce and instead of being a positive, loving spouse, you become negative. What are you thinking?

Being male, I’m genetically predisposed to attempting to fix these things. It is not in my nature to just listen and nod my head and ask the open-ended question periodically so that you can get this stuff off of your chest. Today, I’ll go against my nature and just tell each of these three couples these few things:

First, let me say Happy Father’s Day to all the dad’s out there. You (we) truly deserve some credit for being dude’s in a world where being a dude is not so cool anymore…When my father was younger, being ‘the man of the house’ was important and carried with it a lot of weight and responsibility. Being his youngest son (and his being an older father), I was raised with a different set of values than most of my peers. Something happened in the 60′s and 70′s to change the nature of fatherhood completely. I don’t know if it was Vietnam, Woodstock, Feminism, the killing of God, or what but certainly my fathers’ way of raising kids and being a man quickly went by the wayside in popular culture. And there were so many things about his way that were great! Men stayed with their families through thick and thin. They earned the money and their wives raised the children from home. More than once I heard the phrase “wait till your father gets home” and that truly meant something to me (I had messed up and dad was going to set me straight).

Today, our kids don’t respect their parents the way we used to. I didn’t fear my father but I certainly respected his authority. My kids don’t have that same sense of respect for me and I used to believe that I’d failed in raising them but I’m not sure that’s correct. I can tell because my oldest child thinks that the youngest child should respect him as her elder. Obviously, the lesson to respect your elders has penetrated but the application is self-centered rather than centered on others. Maybe that’s the difference in the generations. The last couple of generations don’t really care about anything outside of their own little world. Somehow we’ve become a world where our ‘fellow man’ does not extend beyond the realm of those we know or who we can benefit from. So this Father’s Day I’m asking you to think about how well you empathize with others. Empathy is almost foreign to the current generation. The ability to put ourselves in anothers’ shoes not to walk a mile in them but to feel what the other person is feeling and just to understand. We’ve removed that in our goal-oriented society where we need to know what we will gain from doing something and if that gain takes longer than a day, it’s just not worth it.

So, starting today, let’s take a moment to understand someone else. Someone who we don’t stand to gain from in our understanding. Maybe it’s our Pastor whose message today doesn’t fit well with our definition of God. Maybe it’s the waitress who appears to be distracted or rude. Maybe it’s the teenager covered in tattoo’s with 75-80 piercings who would normally receive your scorn. Every one of these people (and everyone else that we meet) have a story and a need. So many times we want to fix that need when really they just want someone to listen and understand, without judgment, without trying to fix it (which is a form of judgment), but with empathy…

Like many, I watched the inauguration today with great interest. I’ve made no bones about the fact that I didn’t support Senator Obama, was not happy with his win and am not looking forward to the next four years politically. That being said, I thought his speech today was very well done. I expected the hidden/veiled attacks on the previous administration so I was not surprised nor disappointed with some of the statements made. I was impressed with several of the statements, especially those promoting the rights of all American citizens. I only hope that over the next two weeks, the term American citizen can be defined to include unborn citizens as well. During the proceedings though, I was struck by something a friend of mine said. Discussing President Bush, it was mentioned that he was too aggressive in maintaining the war on terror and that his legacy will be forever tarnished by it.

If I didn’t love this person dearly, I might have reacted quite negatively to this type of comment. When President Bush took office, his mandate from the American people was clear; we want a leader with integrity, and we want to feel secure again. Most of the policies on his plate were domestic in nature. He understood there was an immigration crisis, he knew the military needed to be revamped, he knew that big government had invaded too much of our private lives and he set out to correct those things with a 5 year initiative. Then September 11th happened and we all watched as a single man stood in a pulpit and with a single speech put the weight of this entire country on his shoulders. I have never, ever been so proud of any leader, possibly any man, before or since. Later, I watched as all of our elected representatives and congressmen stood on those steps and pledged allegiance to our flag, and sung the National Anthem and swore to get those responsible for attacking our sovereign nation.

Since then, many have stated that they didn’t realize how long and difficult this war was going to be, even though President Bush warned them that there was no end in sight and that it would possibly have no end. Others have been replaced by new politicians who claim that they never supported the war in the first place and that they never would have stood on those steps if they had been in office at the time. Finally, we have those who have just ‘changed their mind’; saying they don’t think fighting this war is the right thing to do anymore. The press has been no better. They supported the war while their ratings were up but it soon became apparent that the only way to get the ratings they wanted was to be controversial. Controversial meant attacking every move President Bush made, broadcasting troop locations and movements and then publicly questioning why things were going so badly (their definition, not the military’s and not the Commander In Chief’s).

Behind all of this, one person remained firm. One person stuck to his guns. One person was John Wayne, frightened to death but getting in that saddle anyway. One person was resolute. One person was a leader. Damned be the press, damned be his approval rating, and damned be his critics. They did not know what he knew, they did not swear an oath, they did not promise the American people, he did and he stood by that promise through thick and thin.

God bless you President Bush! I wish you peaceful days ahead with Laura and the girls. I’m two weeks behind you to Texas and good Lord willing, I hope to one day meet you in person and thank you for every single minute of all 8 years of your presidency.

I am staying at my parents house for a few days and have very limited access to the world but I just wanted to take a moment and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. The birth of one single child has never been and will never be so celebrated as the birth of this Child. Praise God that Mary had the faith to accept what Gabriel said to her, that Joseph had the faith to accept Gabriel’s message to him and that Joachim and Anna had the sense to accept that Mary was not lying to them.

Our God is with us – Emmanuel!

As I may have mentioned before, my wife gets the Washington Post delivered to our doorstep every day. I have never really questioned her motives I just assumed that she had read Sun Tzu’s Art of War and was keeping her enemies closer. Anyway, for another 20+ days, I’m responsible for picking this piece of filth up out of the driveway, removing the plastic bag and depositing it in the recycle bin. I try my best not to get any of it on me because I have normally just showered and don’t want to have to go through that whole process again…

Anyway, a couple of days ago there was a headline in the middle of the front page that caught my eye talking about the new Dignitas Personae or ‘Dignity of the Person’ instruction document recently released from the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Being on the front page of the Post, I knew this would not be a flattering article for the Church but I thought that I should read through it to see what they had to say. I was slightly surprised in that the article was not completely negative however I was caught off guard by one of the interviewees. This gentleman, Jon O’Brien, is the President of an organization called ‘Catholics for Choice’ and he was allowed to give his 2 cents worth to the article. I just couldn’t stop thinking about the name of his organization. Didn’t Pope John Paul II make it perfectly clear?! Hasn’t Pope Benedict XVI spoken about this subject as much as anything else during his papacy?! Haven’t the US Council of Catholic Bishops produced enough information in the past two years to make any reasonable human being cower at the thought?! YOU CAN NOT BE CATHOLIC AND PRO-CHOICE!! Get over it. If you want the right to murder an unborn fetus; CHOOSE ANOTHER RELIGION! Go somewhere else. We don’t want you and we don’t want to be ‘reformed‘ on this issue.

Anyway, once my blood pressure came down below the point where I was no longer in danger of splattering bodily fluids all over the walls, I started thinking about other oxymoronic organizations that I could start which would allow me to not have to work for a living anymore. I’m just going to set up a business front and ask people to send money for my cause. Then I’ll spend the money any way I want to.

So without further ado; here’s my shortlist of organizations whose ideals would make no sense in the modern world but unsuspecting saps might fall for:

1. Prostitutes for Puritan Clothing
2. Politicians for Campaign Finance Reform – Too easy, sorry
3. Criminals Against the ACLU
4. Men Against Sex
5. Teenagers Who Think About Others First
6. Lead Guitarists Against Porn
7. Catholics for Widening the Front Pews – I had to pick on us a little
8. Hobbits (or Dwarfs, or Elfs, or Humans) for the Ethical Treatment of Orcs

And if you happen to BE one of these cafeteria Catholics who thinks it’s okay to be pro-choice, to support gay marriage, or any other of the dozen or so things the Catholic Church says you cannot do and still call yourself a Catholic; I would suggest that you schedule an appointment with your local priest or even the bishop to discuss this subject with him.

God bless you all and have a Merry Christmas.

Today is the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron saint of the America’s. All of the America’s, North, South, and Central. Isn’t that cool? Many people have heard the story of how she appeared to Juan Diego (who is now a saint) and told him to speak to the Bishop about building a church on top of a mountain. The bishop was reticent and demanded a sign. Mary showed to Juan Diego several rose plants blooming in the middle of winter which she picked herself and arranged within his tilma (an outer garment worn by Aztec men). The PowerPoint below is about this tilma and the miraculous, scientifically proven things about it. Enjoy!

Our Lady of Guadalupe PowerPoint

437,000 petition signers in 168 countries! That is awesome. Read how the C-FAM organizations’ petition to protect the family was presented to the U.N. this week.

In the article, they mention that the petition will remain open with the hope of presenting 1,000,000 signatures to the U.N. General Assembly in the Fall. I say we send this out to everyone we know and get to the million mark ASAP. Here’s the link again…http://www.c-fam.org/publications/id.95/default.asp

Hello all,
Please disseminate this information to as many people as you possibly can as quickly as possible. I was not really aware that the UN was in the abortion business but apparently all of it’s Human Rights documents don’t yet apply to the unborn. From what I read, a large number of Pro-Abortion organizations plan to petition the UN to make abortion a fundamental right to all of it’s member nations. Though this will not have any binding legal ramifications, it will legitimize abortion for those countries wanting a little more support for their culture of death.

The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute plans to counter the Pro-Abortion petition with one of their own. They were looking for 100,000 signatures by December 10, 2008. It appears, from their web ticker, that they have reached that goal however I would highly encourage everyone to sign the petition and encourage others to sign it as well. Personally, I’m appalled that there are not millions of signatures on the petition. There are over 350 million citizens in the US alone can we not find at least a million citizens to sign this petition?

Here is the website address: http://www.c-fam.org/publications/id.95/default.asp

Okay, so lately I’ve had a lot of friends talking about Obama and the abortion issue. As a Catholic, this issue is important to me and I know that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops have made it the number 1 priority for them. I know that many priests, such as this one in South Carolina are taking this issue into the parish and working it hard but it also seems like everyone I talk to seems to think this issue BELONGS to the religious. I just don’t get that!

Look, 35 years ago a law was implemented that made abortion illegal. Lots of people fought against the law but it passed anyway. Can any of us really remember what it was like in 1973? You remember, dads used to sit in the waiting room of the hospital smoking cigarettes and the doctor would come out and tell him whether it was a boy or a girl. We had nowhere near the medical science we have now. We literally have electron microscope video of cells splitting now. We can actually see the sperm fertilize the egg. We KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that a human life has started at that moment. Those are the facts and they are indisputable. This information was not concrete in the early 70′s. Oh, doctor’s knew this but they couldn’t show the jury pictures like they can today. Today, no one can say “we just don’t know when life begins”. Scientific proof shows that life begins at conception. An independent life form is living within the mother’s womb. And our laws, founded on inconclusive evidence, allow this independent life form to be murdered and for the murderer to be protected from prosecution. If you don’t believe it, watch the following video clip:

Of course, this is a priest telling the story so I am not really helping my cause of proving this is just as much a secular issue as it is a religious one, but look at the size of the fetus doll in his hands. Only 18 weeks after conception, just over 3 months!!! This is murder of the innocents and our new President-Elect is waiting to sign a bill that will allow this procedure, theoretically, to be performed on any and every baby from conception up to and including delivery! Please, please, please, pray and ACT to keep FOCA and any other pro-abortion bill from passing.

Fight FOCA
Looking abortion in the eye
Pro-Life Activities