Pacquaio etc.

This is delayed reaction. Anyway, I’m not a boxing fan.

My daughter and I were on a bus on our way to Baguio when Manny’s fight was being aired, and being inside the bus where Manny’s fight was being aired is like being inside Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas watching Manny’s fight, live. There were shouting, stumping, fists flying; there were also lots of analysis, and of course lots of cussing. I’m not a boxing fan and I’m glad that Pacquaio won because if the result of the fight went the other way…I don’t know, but a stampede inside a bus…horrible.

There were no pedestrians. But while passing by appliance stores, I saw people huddled together, watching from display windows. Videoke bars also tuned in to the fight that I saw people flocking in there as if their gawking at a body of a brutally murdered murder victim. It’s like Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” killed another human being.

Geneva Cruz’s performance of the National Anthem created a lot of stir because of the way she sung it. The National Historical Institute blabbed about the law against the desecration of the National Anthem, and prescribed how the National Anthem should be sung complete with a CD playback how the National Anthem should be performed. Good! But why not prescribe a standard size for mangoes also? If the size of a particular mango does not meet the standard size promulgated by law, then the unlucky mango should be declared a non-national-mango and the planters and harvesters sued for desecration of the national fruit. Why not limit it to mango? Why not prescribe a standard weight for carabaos? See, if the National Historical Institute prescribed standard forms for our national symbols, the law of consistency dictates that we apply it all our national symbols. I was reminded of an article on Jose Feliciano (the blind Latino singer and guitarist famous for “Feliz Navidad” and “Once there was a love”…etc.) about the controversy he created when he sung “Star Spangled Banner” in his soulful vibrato de legato de nata de coco style. (The guy is cool. He is a flamenco guitarist and flamenco is all about speed, rhythm and lots of passion.) He was castigated by the U.S. government; he defended that he was just singing soulfully. Anyway, the issue had long been forgotten and now you can hear “The Star Spangled Banner” performed in various styles. Why, my late friend Jimi Hendrix even performed an instrumental version of the US National anthem during the 1969 Woodstock Festival complete with engine whines, explosions and sonic boom using only his Fender Strat, a wah pedal and a Marshall amp.

Why pick on Geneva Cruz? Why not arrest the girl who sung the National Anthem before Geneva? That kind of singing is criminally desecrating and blasphemous! If Manny had lost that fight, I’m sure that girl would be declared persona non grata by her own country.

You can’t expect Angono’s Banda Dos and the Cainta Elementary School Choir to go to Las Vegas and do a marching version of the National Anthem? Come on.

Come on…Come on…Why not arrest Bayang Barrios?

Her mother named her “Bayang” because it was their custom to name their babies after the first sound they heard and the first sound Bayang Barrios’ mother heard was “Bayang…magiliw...

Blah, blah, blah, blah…

There was a Philippine Flag being waved during Manny’s bout with the inscription “Vote: Manny Pacquiao”…hmmm…shoot them! They are desecrating American Soil.

And worst of all…Manny is running for a congressional seat.

The Virgin Mary among the cocks.

The Virgin Mary among the cocks.

My daughter was wondering why Chippy in Baguio is full of air. It's the air. There's less pressure so Chippy packages looks like floaters.

Breaking grounds...hmm...breaking asphalt. A humble grass beats the odds.

Seeing Double

I was watching ghost rider, and I can't help but notice that Gary V. and Carmen Electra are twins! Maybe I need to have my glasses changed.

Latin Spells/Tillich’s Theology

Analogia entis, docta ignorantia, heteros nomos,imago dei, recta natura a rectitude, potentialer, Deus nudus absconditus, essential, ouk on, nihil, me on, telos, theos dike,eros, agape, libido, philia, existere…testefecandum..


I am reading or rather trying to decipher the book “The Systematic Theology of Paul Tillich”. This is just some of the Latin (I think there’s Greek in there too) words that I encountered. No. I didn’t list them down to look at their translations and meanings. No, far from it, I have other plan.

I plan to memorize the whole lot of them and then challenge our neighborhood albularyo (faith healer) to a Latin spell casting challenge. Or, I will cure kulams and barangs using it, lots of money in that business.

I think they’ll never know that there’s some Greek in there because I don’t think these albularyos (faith healers) understand Latin. Who knows, the Latin incantations they maybe saying to cure cancer or gas is a grocery list of some pre-Vatican II priest stolen by a Filipino shaman who needs new spells. Then they passed down this magic spells down to their children and grandchildren and generations and generations together with the mystique it created. Unthinkable, how many boils, gas, headaches, those Latin shopping list may have cured. Unthinkable and incredible…

I’m thinking of a costume…hmmm…Hand movements…The look…The choreography…

Analogia entis, docta ignorantia, heteros nomos,imago dei…

Maybe I’ll write these words down on old paper and give them to one of my classmate and tell him/her that it’s a love spell…Or maybe, I’ll have these words inscribed on wooden pendants and then sell them to one of those amulet sellers in Quiapo for protection against rabies from earthworm bites.

Or…I could just forget all these things and just continue on reading Tillich’s theology.

Tillich’s theology is also one of those science fiction stuffs (again in a nice way). He avoids using traditional language. For example: God is the “Ground of being”, Christ is the “new being”, a saved person is called a “being in itself”, an unsaved person is a “non-being”, sin is not an offense but “estrangement”…etc. While reading this science fiction theology of Tillich, I asked myself, how can you communicate this kind of theology? Reminds me of Luke Skywalker and "The Force".

Then I got hold of Tillich’s collection of sermons “The Shaking of the Foundations” and true enough, it shook a lot of foundations. Without this book as a practical side of Tillich’s theology, one cannot appreciate his works (Of course, I'm speaking from the non-theologs view).

Teilhard

“…I am convinced that only when the church sets out to re-examine the relationship between Christ and a universe now grown fantastically immense and organic will she take up her conquering march again.”
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Tielhard, p. 340

"Lastly, to put an end ...to the fears of 'pantheism ' ...how can we fail to see that, in the case of a converging universe ..., far from being born from the fusion and confusion of the elemental centres it assembles, the universal centre of unification (precisely to fulfill its motive, collective and stabilizing function) must be conceived as pre-existing and transcendent ?. ...For, if in the last resort, the reflective centres of the world are effectively ' one with God ', this state is obtained not by identification (God becoming all) but by the differentiating and communicating action of love (God all in everyone). And that is essentially orthodox and Christian."

-
The Phenomenon of Man



I just finished reading a biography of Tielhard de Chardin by Mary and Ellen Lukas. Tielhard is an interesting person. His scientific and theological trainings created in him a fusion of hmmm…science fiction like mysticism and theology. Anyway he’s one of those of people who are not satisfied with the anthropomorphic picture of God. I mean God for him is the "Omega Point".

-
Tielhard lived an interesting life. He was a paleontologist. He contributed greatly to that science. He is also a spiritual adventurer that contributed greatly to the thinking in theology especially with its relations to the natural sciences in particular evolution. He was persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church but his work survived. There are those who took him seriously and there are those who consider him an oddball (in a nice way of course).

-

http://www.kheper.net/topics/Teilhard/Teilhard_biography.html

(I can't master this blog linking thing!)

Childhood and Philosophy

Excerpts from Vittorio Hösle’s (http://www.nd.edu/~ndmag/sp2007/hosle.html) afterword in The Dead Philosopher’s Café.

First of all, childhood and philosophy have in common their wonder at the world. For children, the world is not old hat; it awakens their curiosity. The constant question children start asking when still very young are a sign of the determination of the human mind to find order in the world, to discover relationships to solve puzzles…

To be sure, we can justifiably dismiss the importance of many question children asks—understanding that some questions are illegitimate is an important philosophical step forward…Similarly adults err when they ironically dismiss questions asked in all earnestness by children, merely because they themselves cannot answer them or because they are afraid of the consequences of the right answer. In so doing they injure the soul of the child, who is willing to be guided by the adult, but can always tell when the adult is unfairly exploiting his superior power. Indeed, hey endanger the child’s spiritual development, in which conversations with patient interlocutors are particularly important—for not all children have the inner strength to satisfy their curiosity and thirst for knowledge, despite the disappointments that proceed from their apparently superior elders.

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Present day philosophy provides ample evidence that without imagination philosophy is doomed to failure. To be sure, philosophy has to be restrained, ideas have to be criticized, and for that purpose abstract concepts and logic are absolutely necessary. However, logical criticism can only be brought to bear when ideas are already on the table; it cannot produce these ideas itself…In short, philosophy needs not to eliminate but to supervise imagination.

Finally naiveté is absolutely indispensable for substantive philosophizing.

Dear Nora,

…all these educationists and psychologists only want to learn about children, not from them. Thereby, however, the children are reduced to objects…

Vittorio

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I really love the book.

The Dead Philosopher’s Café

I’m reading The Dead Philosopher’s Café by Vittorio Hosle. (http://www.nd.edu/~ndmag/sp2007/hosle.html) It’s a compilation of the correspondence between Nora and Vittorio. Vittorio is a philosophy teacher while Nora is an eleven year old girl whose interest in philosophy was aroused when she read Joseph Gaarder’s Sophie’s World.

Nora met Vittorio when her mother participated in a philosophical conference and they got into conversation about Sophie’s World and there their correspondence started.

In the book great philosophers came alive to discuss Nora’s letters that encompasses diverse subjects from idealism, nihilism, realism, ontology, psychology, theology, theodicy, and all those migraine inducing -isms. One of my favorite philosophers Nietzsche is portrayed as a kindly old man. There’s also Plato, Aristotle, Rosseau, Kant, Freud, Chuang Tzu, Berkeley, Augustine, Aquinas, Einstein, al-Farabi, Confucius, Wittgenstein, and many more. They are portrayed in the book as kindly sages that pop up whenever they felt like it, forever discussing and debating, helping guiding Vittorio and the inquisitive Nora in their search for (the) truth.

I’m posting a portion of one of Nora’s letter to Vittorio:

Dear Vittorio,

“When I was sitting in Tintagel on a cliff above “Merlin’s Cave,” I had to think about the Knights of the Round Table and the quest for the Holy Grail. According to English legend, only Sir Galahad was allowed to see the Grail and hold it in his hands, and maybe drink out of it, I’m not so sure about that. But afterward he died. I think that mean that no living person can completely possess the Grail that is, the chalice from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper, the symbol of love, and communion with Jesus. Only when we are dead are we allowed to experience “the truth,” only then are we capable of extinguishing the evil within us. Then we are at the end of the quest for…well, for the “Holy Grail.” But I believe that a philosopher is not completely satisfied with pure belief alone….

…All these explanations only make us sad; and God is never conceived as a mother or a father. You don’t have to ask many questions about Him! He is simply there, with you.

Sometimes I quarrel with God. Sometimes I’m no longer sure He exists at all.

But fortunately I usually find my way back.

See you soon,

Nora

Here is a portion of Vittorio’s reply to Nora. A letter in which Vittorio is telling Nora of his conversation with Blaise Pascal, Socrates, al-Ghazali, Thomas Hobbes about her letter (above).

Dear Nora,

…I asked Socrates what he thought.

“Well, on the whole it’s not so serious. A little doubt does no harm. On the contrary: by passing through doubt Nora will come to a deeper conception of God. Her father and mother won’t always be there; someday they will die. To that extent the notion of God as Father or Mother is misleading. God is much more like the truth, which cannot be disputed, because it is presupposed by any dispute. His greatness is shown precisely by the fact that we are brought back to him like a boomerang whenever we move away from Him. And it is mere thoughtlessness if we don’t find our way back to Him.”

“I hope you’re right, Socrates,” al-Ghazali and Blaise cried…lets shake hands…

I was satisfied with this answer, and I hope you are too.

See you soon,

Vittorio

I love the book and I plan to have a copy of it…literally a copy of it. I really love the book. I want to eat it! Literally eat it.

Whose afraid of atheists?

A lady classmate asked that we pray for an atheist Filipino philosopher whom she had dinner with here in Baguio. She told the class that this Filipino atheist talked about God being an invention of man and that this atheist enumerated all the atrocities of Christianity to warrant its eradication in the world, etc. Of course our lady classmate was aghast at such blasphemy, and I can imagine her silently praying and exorcising the guy. I can’t blame her.

I told her and the class (I hope they understood me and not misinterpreted me) that it's not blasphemous to listen to atheist. In fact in my experience it is healthy to read cricism of God for it proves that God does not exist.

Now you may ask if I'm making any sense?

To think that God exist is to deny God. For God is beyond essence and exitence. I think it's Paul Tillich who said this.

Anyway, I'll go with Immanuel Kant when he said that there are somehting that's beyond our understanding (reason) and it's no use going in there. Paraphrased, of course.

It is the trademark of people who think that they are smart to prove that they are smart by disproving the existence of God through reason. They do this not so much for intellectual satisfaction but for attention (I mean, all they want is to outrage Christians). I told the class that atheist are lonely people because they have no one to talk to. For heavens sake, they don't even speak English.

The best way to deal with an atheist is to agree with what they are saying. Nothing will irk them more. Agreeing with them does not mean believing in what they are saying.

Atheism (or specifically anti-Christian theism) is, in reality, more of a creation/reaction to the ever widening gap between the ideals of Christianity and the actual Christianity; in these gaps the atheists (the brand of atheism my lady classmate encountered, to be specific) are born.

That's my take on it.

Beauty/Wrong Exegesis

The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came out through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the things itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have not visited.

C.S. Lewis

As I was checking my exegesis papers, I realized that I have not been as thorough as I should have been. There are a lot of errors in there in interpretation and in the commentries...anyways, that's why I'm studying the thing (exegseis).

Nature as Creation

If nature is to reveal the Christian God, it must be regarded as creation—that is, as bearing some relation to God, in order that this God may somehow be disclosed through it. Natural theology cannot become a totally autonomous discipline, independent of revelation, in that it depends for its credibility upon the revealed insight that God is creator of the natural order. If the Christian God is to be known through the natural world, that world must have some relation of likeness or affinity to this God; otherwise it is not this God which is disclosed, however imperfectly, through it.

How is this relation to be understood? The traditional view, with which I can find no convincing reason to disagree, is to affirm that there is an intrinsic capacity within the created order to disclose God. Here, nature-as-creation is understood to have an ontologically grounded capacity to reflect God as its maker and originator. Yet it is also perfectly acceptable to conceive this as a covenantal relationship, in which the ability of the creation to disclose God is not intrinsic, resting on analogia entis, but is rather grounded in a decision that this shall be the case…

Alister McGrath, A Scientific Theology: Nature, pp. 296-297


“The great tragedy of science—the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.”
T.H. Huxley

The most difficult verse in the Bible

As we progressed in our discussion of the book of Corinthians, I came across what I think is the most difficult and problematic verse in the Bible. It is difficult not because it is difficult to understand, it is difficult not because it is profound and it is difficult not because it is difficult, it is simply difficult because, well, it’s difficult and it’s a problematic verse because I think most will agree that this is problematic verse. The verse is 1 Corinthians 4:16, “Therefore I urge you to imitate me”. If this is not the most difficult and problematic verse in the Bible, I don’t know what is.

I mean…I know it was Paul who said this, but...I won't dare say this behind the pulpit. Of course that's me, and I don't have pulpit...he, he, he. And I will bet my two pesos that not all pastors can say this behind the pulpit with a straigh face.

Day 5/Exegesis

I was able to write my own brand of exegesis. I didn't notice it but my paper balooned to five pages, single spaced. It was then that I realized that I was getting the hang of exegeting. Believe me, its hard for me not to put some funny (offensive) stuff in there because whenever I feel I'm not getting somehing out of the text, humor seeps in.

I was used to reading the Bible at the textual level, I never bother to search for what is inside, behind, above or below the text, but with the discussions in he class I'm beginning to realize that there's something more to the Bible than theologizing (and philosophising, permit me to add)...

I can't find the word but when the professor is discussing, its like the feeling one gets when one is preached upon...hmmm...beautifully.

Corinthians is an emotional book. There was a discussion on emotional manipulation. And, just like the careless me, I asked the stupid question: "So, how do you share the gospel without emotional manipulation?
There's silence; killed the discussion right there and then. How careless of me.

Here is the conclusion of my exegesis paper. Maybe not be much, but I spent hours on it. I'll do this more often. (Pray...pray...)

My grammar didn't kill the professor...praise the dictionary!

___________________________________

Exegetical Paper on 1 Corinthians 10:23 ff.

III.Conclusion
“All things are lawful—but not everything is…”

This is Paul’s admonition to the Corinthians when he was rebuking them for sexual immorality. (6:12 ff) Paul is telling the Corinthians that body is not meant for sexual immorality. But these same words became the Corinthians slogan to justify their conduct. “Possibly they have derived (the Corinthians) it from Paul’s teachings when he was with them.” (Tyndale, p.99) Thus, Paul is forced to qualify “what is probably a misinterpretation of his teachings on Jewish laws.” (Ruef, 103)

How Paul did correct this misinterpretation?

1. By equating freedom with the welfare of the others and the self; and, by putting the welfare of the others above the self. “Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.”(10:24) The Corinthians are known for their hedonism; a legacy of their pagan background and the product of the diversity in their society. Hence, their immediate interpretation of Paul’s word is that it abrogated the law; granted them freedom to engage in the “Corinthian ideal”.

In the word of Dobschutz:

The ideal of the Corinthian was the reckless development of the individual. The merchant who made his gain by all and every means, the man of pleasure surrendering himself to every lust, the athlete steeled to every bodily exercise and proud in his physical strength, are the true Corinthian types: in a word the man who recognized no superior and no law but his own desire.

2. By saying that freedom should build up or should be edifying. Although stated negatively, Paul is reminding the Corinthians that freedom is “wrong” freedom when it does not contribute to the welfare of an individual or of the church. One is enjoined to built up others, to continually bring them closer to Christ “…do not...for the sake of the other man” (v 28), Paul admonished the Corinthians; “Do not cause anyone to stumble”. Freedom should build up the church by continually edifying others to come to Christ by being Christlike. “For I am not seeking my own good but of the many so that they maybe saved.” (v. 33)“Follow my example as I follow Christ.” (11:1)


Paul’s point is that freedom is not predicated upon what is lawful (Patterson, p 170) but freedom should be governed by selflessness the way Christ showed it, it is freedom that is freedom from and that it is not a freedom that is freedom to…

This is what the Corinthians missed and this is what Paul stressed.
Eat anything for “The earth is the Lord’s…but whether you eat or drink, do it for the glory of the Lord.” "Follow me as I follow Christ".

Bibliography
1. Leon Morris, The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, Tyndale, 1958
2. J. Stanley Glen, Pastoral Problems in 1st Corinthians,Westminster Pres, 1964
3. John Ruef, Paul’s First Letter to Corinth, Pelican, 1971
4. Charles Hodge,An Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians,C.C. Armstrong and Sons, 1894
5. Paige Patterson, The Troubled Triumphant Church, Criswell Publication, 1983

Country Music/Exegetical Head Ache/Fragmentation

I'm posting this from an internet cafe (there's no coffee and the computers are slow motion) near the seminary. One thing I like about Baguio City is the music; they love country songs here. Hmmmm....country songs are spiritual. They mention a lot of Jesus and the Father and the Holy Ghost and all those stuffs about the relationship of a broken heart and faith and family relationships and faith...and the three part voice harmony, slide guitar, the narrations, the poems ...I'll ask my pirate friend to burn me a CD of country essentials. (Suspend bio-ethics...err...I mean techno ethics for a while. We all know who the real pirates are.)

-

When one gets older one starts to appreciate slower, gentler, sweeter, and emotional music. Why, I even missed Johnny Mathis and his version of "Misty". (Mathis was one of my father's favorite singer, that's why.)

_________________________

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This is day 2 of my historical (big word), theological (bigger word), and exegetical (not only the biggest word so far, but also the most exotic one) study of the Corinthians correspondence (or the 1 and 2 Corinthians). I am supposed to write a paper, but just like one of those days when I can’t get my head to think and write, what I am inclined to do is to write about how I feel and what I think and why can’t I think and all those stuffs that is supposed to jumpstart my head into thinking that the class that I’m attending is a condensed class that will tackle a one term subject into a two week period accelerated class, so this means that I have no time to meander needlessly and write about inane things because I don’t have the time. I need to write four papers, plus a final paper in a period of two weeks. The problem is the papers are formal papers.

But, how does one write an exegetical paper?

So…the via dolorosa has begun. I’ll try my best to write an intelligible paper, that’s how far I can go. I just hope that my grammar will not kill my professor.

_______________________

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Fragmentation of Theology and Spirituality

“The long history of human intellectual engagement is more often told in fragmentation than synthesis. The case of Christian theology may serve as an example. The modern period has seen the emergence of both a distinction and separation within western Christian thinking between the two disciplines of ‘theology’ and ‘spirituality’. It is a development which owes much to both social and academic pressures—such as the professionalization of the disciplines, the demand for detachment on the part of academically ‘neutral’ theologians, and the general trend towards diversification within the academy. Yet it has not always been so. For writers such as Evagrius, such distinction was impossible: theology and prayers belonged together, and as a matter of both theory and fact could not be separated.


Alister E. McGrath’s A Scientific Theology: Nature p. 28

A Science of Theology/Beginning chapters

PBTS' (PHil. Baptist Theological Seminary) library is one of the reasons why I like doing summer institute. I am overwehelmed at their collection of theological books that I know in my entire life I will never be able to decipher. But here and then I find books that are rewarding (difficult though as they maybe). I am now reading Alister McGrath's "A Scientific Theology" and so far the book is still understandable. I am still on the first chapter and the question of the relationship (or the conflict) between philosophy and theology is being discussed. I am posting Augustine's defense of the use of philosophy in theology as quoted in the book.

(It's a good thing I skipped the preface of this book. If you're a nontheologian and you got a hold of this book, my advice is to avoid the preface.)

If those who are called philosophers, particularly the Platonist, have said anything which is true and consistent with our faith, we must not reject it, but claim it for our own use, in the knowledge that they possess it unlawfully. The Egyptians possessed idols and heavy burdens, which the children of Israel hated and from which they fled;however, they also possessed vessels of gold and silver and clothes which our forebears, in leaving Egypt, took for themselves in secret, intending to use them in a better manner (Exo. 3:21-22; 12:35-36)...In the same way, paganb learning is not made up of false teachings and superstitions. It contains also some excellent teachings, well suited to be used by truth, and excellent moral values. Indeed, some truths are even found among them which relate to the worship of the one GOd. Now these are, so to speak their, gold and their silver, which they did not invent themselves, but which they dug out of the providence of God, which are scattered through out the world, yet which are improperly prostituted to the worship of demons. The Christian, therfore, can seperate these truths from thgeir unfortunate associations. take them away, anmd put them to thgeir proper use for the proclamation of the gospel...What else have many good and faithful people have done for us. Look at the wealth of gold and silver and clothes which Cyprian...brought with him when he left Egypt...Lactantius...Marius Victorinus....Optatus...etc, and look at how much the Greeks have borrowed! And before all these, we find that Moses, that most faithful servant of God, had done the same thing;after all, it is written of him that " he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians' (Acts 7:22).

What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? Tertullian asked.

Summer Studies

I am at the Phil. Baptist Theological Seminary (http://pbts.net.ph/ ) doing my annual summer studies that my sister encouraged me to join four years ago, and that I have been doing on a regualr basis 'til the seminary awards me a doctorate in Summer Theology (a sub-subject of Systematic Theology. Nah, just kidding.) . Every summer the seminary offers subjects in theology, ministry, music, counselling and other church related studies to regular students, ministers and church workers. I find the subjects and the discussions and the questions and the mental acrobatics puzzling and challenging but most of all I find the studies wonderful because they only point to one thing (or three things) : the majesty, mystery, and the grace of God.









One theologian describes theology as not the study of God but the study of man studying God.
He's right.
(I think the guy is Tillich.)

Videoke and Election

I say this, and I will say this, again and again and again. I will say this with the sincerity of a sincere concerned patriotic citizen of the Republic of the Philippines my beloved country that Ninoy Aquino declared is worth dying for. I am saying this with the seriousness of a Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declaring she did not talked with Garci, with the same seriousness of a Mirriam Defensor Santiago saying that she’ll jump out of a plane (I lied, the fungus said), with the same seriousness of a Tessie Oreta Aquino apologizing when she danced the cha-cha during the Erap trial (I’m sorry, with tears induced by sinusitis), and I am saying this with the seriousness of a Tito Sotto trying to justify his turncoatism by saying that Eat Bulaga has changed channels so why can’t he, it’s for the people anyway….yeah…Agalub Tae…Itaktak mo muka mo.

As I was saying, what I’m trying to say is that the government ought to regulate those experimental Japanese psychological weapons, the Videoke machines. I don’t know if the Philippine National Police will admit this, but statistically speaking Videoke machine related crimes far outnumbered drug related crimes. The tabloids report that Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” alone is directly (by stabbing or shooting the singer) and indirectly (by throwing the videoke machine at the singer killing the singer and his/her companions) responsible for an average of three deaths and fifteen injuries a night. I am sure that if we include the songs of April Boy Regino, Air Supply, Scorpion, Imelda Papin, Eva Eugenio, Jaya, Regine, Tom Jones, Matt Monroe…etc. The figure would be staggering; genocidal, may I say.

I will vote for a candidate for national office who will promise to enact a law regulating videoke machines.

These are my suggestions: Licenses should be issued with restriction like those of a driver’s license. Restrictions 1-2 mean that the holder of the license is allowed to sing songs in 1-2 octave voice range. Restrictions 3-4, for the 3-4 octave voice range songs. Restrictions 5-6, for the 5-6 octave voice range songs. etc. Anyone found violating the restrictions would be fined with not less than fifty thousand pieces of peanuts, then the peanuts would be eaten on the spot. Then the offender would drink three glasses of milk and a pint of beer, do a jumping jack thirty times, and then the offender would then be interned in an air-conditioned room without a toilet for four hours. Or the offender could opt for community service hunting down Abu Sayafs in Mindanao armed with a videoke machine gun.

I think it is also time for the Philippines to file diplomatic protests and to sue for reparations against the Imperial Japanese Government for this insidious machine that’s killing Filipinos and causing emotional, psychological, spiritual and anal damages—collateral damages—to innocent Filipinos.

And now these machines are being used in the election campaign. I was passing by our purok hall when I heard someone singing a Lemon and Oranges’ song but the lyrics is “Joric Gcaula for Mayor….blah, blah, blah, Joric Gacula for mayor…blah, blah, blah…”

Mu gulay...

Local Campaign

The 45 days local election campaign has begun and candidates are now busy wooing the electorate of their precious votes. Just this morning I saw the incumbent vice-mayor of Taytay, Rizal, now running for the mayoralty, busy shaking hands, smiling, exuding an aura of sincerity that could put the Dalai Lama and the Pope to shame while his insectus de alipores were busy putting posters and banners of people we never even knew existed on our street.

The unemployed, the gamblers and the good for nothing good people of our neighborhood were smiling and talking how these chitinous faced people would only appear during campaigns and once elected would be as difficult to find as an onion-skinned armadillo. But still they would go along with drama, yalking with the candidates, smiling and shaking hands and when these campaigners went past hearing distance, then the curse of Montezuma and Kulams would fell upon them. If cussing could kill people, these candidates would have died a million deaths—painful, slow deaths.

I’m sure these candidates are also cussing, with the same intensity and quantity, the people they’re wooing. So, I guess through the law of negation, the death inducing cusses spewed balances by the end of the day. Nobody dies. Sad, may I say. Err…I mean, good, may I say.

(If I am God (sorry) I would make cussing fatal; for every cuss spewed a person above the age of 25 dies. I was thinking of my neighbor. If ever me (as God) (sorry) put the one cuss one death policy in effect, my neighbor could depopulate the Philippines in matter of minutes. Whatever topic she’s discussing it will not be complete if not punctuated by cusses; she uses a lot of ellipsis (those three periods) too.

Hmmmm….I just realized this. The way she talk, her animated hands move, the way she captures her audiences’ attention, I just realized that she’ll make a good preacher.)

Anyways, these politicians are just acting out roles that that electorate expects them to play and in the end everybody is happy with the comedy.

We get the leadership we get. My advice to my country men this election: Between two evils, choose the lesser one. Between the immoral and the amoral, always choose the lesser one; between the comedian and the comic, always choose the lesser one; between the inane and the insane, always choose the lesser one; between two evils, always choose the lesser one.

We have few good men. Most of them are dead, some are in jails, and those who run in the election rarely made it past the filing for candidacy stage. Sad.

Meet the new Allergen

This is our new Rottweiler puppy, Alexis. (He Reminds me of Donald Sutherland.)

I don't know what it is with my brother, Why can't he just get one of those toy dogs like a Chuihuahua or a Shih Tzu or a rabbit or a rat...any animal that will not produce poop as humungous as a Rottweiler's.

We now have five dogs in our house; there are more canines than humans in there now.

And the sneezing continues unabated...

How to beat the summer heat on a ten pesos budget

Get an empty barrel, fill it with water, and voila! You're cool! Beats the beach anytime. (Pun not intended.)

Summer Books

These are the (used) books I’m reading this summer.

1. Christian Theology by: Millard J. Erickson. This is my brother textbook during his seminary days; he is now a missionary in Thailand. I’ve been using this book as a reference for my bible doctrine study. But this summer I plan to read it from cover to cover. (I plan, I plan, I plan….)

2. Church Leadership by: Lawrence O. Richards and Clyde Hoeldtke. This is also one of my brother’s theology books.

3. The Norton Reader Ninth Edition edited by: Linda H. Peterson, John C. Brereton and Joan E. Hartman. I’ve been reading a few selections from this reader but this summer I plan to read more of the essays in the collection.

4. The Conscious Reader Second Edition edited by: Caroline Shrodes, Harry Finestone and Michael Shugrue. Essays collection from some of the best essay writers.

5. Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America Sixth Edition by: Leronne Bennet Jr. An eye opener. I always thought of black or Africans as a backward people (how ignorant and prejudiced of me, must be all those slave movies I saw). But I read in this book that there were African civilizations that used whites as slaves. Of course during those times slavery is not an issue of color but of spoils of war and this is the difference between the slavery practiced by blacks and the one practiced by the whites. A very good book.

6. Robert Frost Reader edited by: Edward Connery Lathem and Lawrence Thompson. I admit, I bought this book with the thought that it could add a “little” culture along with my eclectic collection of sci-fi, mystery, techno and what have you books in my shelf, but, I think this time I made a mistake. I can’t relate to most of the poems in here. But… it never hurts to try…poetry is an acquired taste…hmmmm…sleeping therapy?

Good Friday

Today (April 6, 2007) is Good Friday. Filipinos traditionally celebrate this day by fasting and reflecting on the crucifixion of Christ. Some, as an act of contrition, flagellate themselves (penetensya); while others, as an act of gratitude and for realization of pledges (panata) made after miraculous healings or answered prayers literally reenact the crucifixion by allowing their selves to be nailed on the cross. The Catholic Church does not officially sanction this kind of activity; but since this is tradition, the practice is allowed.

For the evangelicals, self flagellation and crucifixion as an act of repentance and gratitude is considered wrong. In fact, some even say that it is a mockery of what Christ has done on the cross. I, for one, consider the practice unnecessary but to say that it mocked what Christ has done on the cross may be too much. I believe that there are people who practice these things out of gratitude, unconventionally expressed as it maybe, and out of faith, as theologically deviant as it may be. It’s a case of right intention, different expression. God looks at the heart; may I say.

-

I remember Pastor Saulon, one of our church’s pastors and a missionary to the indigenous people, shared a story of a native who upon hearing a pastor (I can’t remember if it was Pastor Saulon himself) preached on how one should give himself to the Lord sat on the offering plate and literally gave himself as an offering to God. I remember me and the people who heard the story laughing. But today, at my age, the humor is replaced with awe at how the power of the love of Christ can move people to respond differently (but not necessarily erroneously) as they maybe from what we call the “correct and proper” way. The same with gratitude for what Christ had done, it is expressed differently.

-

Of course, it cannot be denied that these practices are becoming, or is already, commercialized.

I was on my home from our church’s traditional seven last sayings service, when I noticed that the pomp and the noise of the traditional penetensya (or the street presentation of the passion of Christ) was not as it was as last year’s. The traditional pasyon (the singing of the passion) is also fast disappearing. As child, I remember how pasyons drew devotees from the young to the old singing atonally how Judas betrayed the savior. I also remember how the penetensyas jam our street because of the horses, the actors and the people watching. And, I also remember how scared I am of Barabas who grabs children while the people laughed at the struggling, crying children.

-

The times are changing.

“Don’t take a bath during Good Friday you’ll get sick. Your wounds will not heal because God is dead. Don’t eat meat. Don’t play loud music.” Etc. These are some of the superstitions surrounding Good Friday. Of course today no one takes them seriously , the same way (almost) no one takes the cenaculos and the singing of the passion seriously. As an evangelical, I should not be sad about the loss of this traditions. But, why is it that this ole sentimental heart of mine feels unhappy at the gradual disappearance of these traditions. Maybe, it’s because the gradual disappearance of these traditions, superficial as they maybe, indicates a gradual loss of the significance of the passion of Christ for the common Filipinos.

Sad, may I say.

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Click here for my kuya's article on lent: http://joeydelapaz.blogspot.com/

Orchids and Bonsai

This is one of my mother’s orchids. (Behind is my father’s old waterpump. I’m thinking of having it sold for scrap but my mother told me to leave it alone. “It is your father’s monument”, my mother said. Anyway, it blends; so be it.) It is a common orchid in our (I don’t know if you can call it that) garden but I have never seen it flower before. Maybe it’s because I never paid attention to my mother’s plants. But when my mother left for Baguio City to become my nephews babysitter (or to become my nephew’s grandmother), and my mother's plants left to my care, I began to get acquainted with her plants and get to know them. I love plants myself, but I was not a flower guy; that, is until I came to realize that flowers can relax tired eyes.

What I used to with this orchid is to cut its stem when it becomes too long and touch the ground-- it’s ugly. I thought that by constant cutting, the orchid will flower. How ignorant of me. I should have done otherwise. I should have left it alone.

I never thought that those ugly, evil looking, varicose vein like stems produces flowers like these. I was waiting for the wooden antennae like stems that would sprout from the center of the plant that would hold the flowers like some of the other orchids that my mother has, but this is orchid is not like them.

I learned my lesson; I will not cut those ugly, varicose veins like stems. I’ll just wait.

I also planted roses . Roses are beautiful especially when you open the window and the first you see are their flowers.

I also planted hanging plants and cactuses.

I took my daughter to a bonsai show and I am surprised to find out that bougainvilleas can be bonsaid too.

I am thinking of doing some bonsai myself. I’m thinking of something original, a bonsai that will be an epitome of a bonsai. A bonsai so tiny yet so detailed. I am thinking of a tree that will be unique…yes, I will bonsai a coconut tree. Beat that!

Pimples

Tis painful to feel
To part with thee
To eject thee from me
For thy have felt like part of me

Though thy presence
Gave my face
(And sometimes even my back)
Itch and Tenderness
I cannot help
But crave
To press and press
Till thy inner essence
(The rice like white matter)
Escapes like a volcano
Releasing pus and blood
Like pyroclastic matter
and molten magma
Spewing out of Mt. Etna
To splat on our mirrors
Forming images
Like those of a diviner’s
Searching for messages
Through cloud patterns

Now I know
That not only did thy
Created abstract art pattern
On our mirrors
But also thy created
Abstract art
Out of my face

Pampams

Our dog Shan Cai gave birth to four puppies. I gave away two, one died and one got lost. My daughter loves the puppies, and she was forlorn when she learned that none will be left for us. I told her that we already have three dogs, and their hairs is making me sneeze--their hair are trigerring my allergies.

She was on her way back home when she found our lost puppy. She found the puppy being kicked by our neighbors kid. She was emotional when she told me what happened.

I christened the puppy Pampams.

One day while I was watering the plants, Pampams suddenly dropped on all fours and crawled like a reptile on our concrete pathway. I was puzzled and so was my daughter and our neighbor. Pampams was crawling, and it looked like that she lost control of her front limbs. I was thinking of polio, or muscular atrophy or something like that. Then to make things more strange, Pam was bobbing her head up and down while crawling. Now, this could be distemper or worse, rabies. Then all of a sudden she ran, then crawled while bobbing her head, jumped to the left and then to right, then ran, then crawled, then...we were laughing. Finally, we figured it out; Pampams was just scratching her tommy on the pathway. She's one smart puppy.

My sister in law lent us her digital camera. I was in school and left the camera on the table. My daughter was smiling when I came home. I checked the digicam, and this is one of the picture in there. Pampams was on our matress! My daughter knew that it is house policy that no dogs is allowed inside the house.

My daughter with Pampam, how many times I pleaded with my daughter to dispose (give away) Pampam, but she's adamant.

Now, I have grown to love the puppy too. But together with our three dogs, their hair...is killing me. Hacchooo! Benadryl!

Frost

My younger brother gave me money. What I did was go to my favorite mall, EVER GOTESCO MALL. (I like the mall because pirated CDs abound in there.) I paid our bills and then deposited some of the money to my account which is really my kuya's (older brother) account because that's where I deposit their meager savings, the rental from their house, of around twenty dollars a month. I was thinking of buying shirts; but then, I was magnetized by my favorite second hand bookstore. New title just arrived and I was rummaging thorugh them when I found a copy of a Jonathan Swift Collection and a Robert Frost reader. I am not a classic literature buff; in fact, I think of these books as the best and most effective cure for insomnia, but as a future teacher I must read some of this stuff even just thinly so that I will not be, I hope, caught by surprise by well read students. (My course is elementary education but I have plans to go into teaching college students too.)

I was weighing whether I will buy the Swift collection or the Frost reader. I can't buy both because I have a very small budget. It's a difficult choice. It's like choosing between an asthma attack and a rhinitis attack, or like eating bitter gourd as against eating burnt rice. I mean, who reads a classic? Twain is right: "A classic is a book that everyone hopes...." , dang, I forgot the classic quote.

Anyway I need a little poetry and culture: Frost it is, and Swift is the book not taken.

Altar Call

I got this article from one of the theology blogs http://reformed-renegade.blogspot.com/index.html. I don't know how to link articles so what I did was to cut and paste. This is interesting because altar calls is normal practice in our church and I was moved several times myself to come forward and be prayed over but over time I developed a feeling of banality with the practice. This does not mean that I'm against the practice but sometimes it get to the point of manipulation and sometimes even deception. Dr. Lloyd-Jones on the Altar Call

We are to preach the Word, and if we do it properly, there will be a call to a decision that comes in the message, and then we leave it to the Spirit to act upon people Early in the 1970s Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones was the speaker at a ministers' conference in the USA and at a question session was asked the following question: Q During recent years, especially in England, among evangelicals of the Reformed faith, there has been a rising criticism of the invitation system as used by Billy Graham and others. Does Scripture justify the use of such public invitations or not? A. Well, it is difficult to answer this in a brief compass without being misunderstood. Let me answer it like this: The history of this invitation system is one with which you people ought to be more familiar than anyone else, because it began in America. It began in the 1820s; the real originator of it was Charles G. Finney. It led to a great controversy. Asahel Nettleton, a great Calvinist and successful evangelist, never issued an "altar call" nor asked people to come to the "anxious seat." These new methods in the 182Os and were condemned for many reasons by all who took the Reformed position. One reason is that there is no evidence that this was done in New Testament times, because then they trusted to the power of the Spirit. Peter preaching on the Day of Pentecost under the power of the Spirit, for instance, had no need to call people forward in decision because, as you remember, the people were so moved and affected by the power of the Word and Spirit that they actually interrupted the preacher, crying out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" That has been the traditional Reformed attitude towards this particular matter. The moment you begin to introduce this other element, you are bringing a psychological element. The invitation should be in the message. We believe the Spirit applies the message, so we trust in the power of the Spirit. I personally agree with what has been said in the question. I have never called people forward at the end for this reason; there is a grave danger of people coming forward before they are ready to come forward. We do believe in the work of the Spirit, that He convicts and converts, and He will do His work. There is a danger in bringing people to a "birth," as it were, before they are ready for it. The Puritans in particular were afraid of what they would call "a temporary faith" or "a false profession." There was a great Puritan, Thomas Shepard, who published a famous series of sermons on The Ten Virgins. The great point of that book was to deal with this problem of a false profession. The foolish virgins thought they were all right. This is a very great danger. I can sum it up by putting it like this: I feel that this pressure which is put upon people to come forward in decision ultimately is due to a lack of faith in the work and operation of the Holy Spirit. We are to preach the Word, and if we do it properly, there will be a call to a decision that comes in the message, and then we leave it to the Spirit to act upon people. And of course He does. Some may come immediately at the close of the service to see the minister. I think there should always be an indication that the minister will be glad to see anybody who wants to put questions to him or wants further help. But that is a very different thing from putting pressure upon people to come forward. I feel it is wrong to put pressure directly on the will. The order in Scripture seems to be this - the truth is presented to the mind, which moves the heart, and that in turn moves the will.