Fun morality & Molech, illustrated

"You went to Molech with olive oil and increased your perfumes.
You sent your ambassadors far away; you descended into Sheol itself.
You were wearied by all your ways, but you would not say, 'It is hopeless.'
You found renewal of your strength, and so you did not faint.

Whom have you so dreaded and feared that you have been false to me,
and have neither remembered me nor pondered this in your hearts?

Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear me?
I will expose your 'righteousness' and your 'works,' and they will not benefit you.
When you cry out for help, let your collection of idols save you.
The wind will carry all of them off, a mere breath will blow them away.

But the man who makes me his refuge will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain."
-Is. 57

Here's a gem of cultural analysis on the American cult of individualism/consumerism, resonating deeply with the supernatural perspective from Isaiah:

"The effectiveness of the mass media, however, as the key agent of psychological totalitarianism is not based on political or religious ideology. Rather it rests upon a base that I have described elsewhere as the myth of technological utopianism. Unlike religious myths in which meaning was spiritual—nature or the gods —this myth is thoroughly materialistic. Technological utopianism substitutes the perfect health and happiness of the human body for the spiritual well-being of the human soul. This meaning is ineffective because it is based on individualistic consumerism. For meaning to be effective it must be shared meaning that binds people together in common responsibilities and reciprocal moral relationships. Consumerism is a shared belief but it leaves one psychologically isolated, for it is based upon freedom without responsibility. The attempt to create meaning in consumerism, to spiritualize consumerism, fails because its utopian promise of perfect happiness and health cannot be achieved in this world, and therefore happiness and health remain transitory, as anxiety, suffering, and death constantly remind us."

-Richard Stivers, from Ethical Individualism and Moral Collectivism in America
(go read the whole thing; listen for the echoes of Ecclesiastes)


Along with the contemporary fragmentation of our selves (Stivers' description of what a Biblical scholar might see as the sundering of community in the Fall---resulting in distrust of other people and fear of manipulation), our "collection of idols" has become equally fragmented, and as such, far more insidious and difficult to specifically identify. Perhaps it is not too far a stretch to say that our Molech is consumerism, and that which we fear is simply isolation as punishment for non-conformity to public opinion. The lie that real freedom is "freedom from responsibility" directly undermines the promise of a restored, redeemed community which results from taking responsibility and laying down one's life in purposeful sacrifice---the essence of true Freedom is a Choice, yes, but more specifically, it is the ability to choose that which is Good (permanently) versus that which is pleasing or pacifying (transiently). It is this dream of mutuality through sacrificial exercise of moral agency, in purposeful community, not mindless collectivism, that the words in Isaiah hold out to us: "inherit the land and possess my holy mountain."

Post-tour listmaking

(7/31 in SLC, thanks to Conor)

Gratitude:
landscape
kindness of strangers (& being put to shame by it)
'spacious place' (cf. Ps. 18)
manna
variety in creation
common grace
developing empathy & compassion
the scattered community
recognizing faces from the internet in real life
coming out of the shell
Ecclesiastes
learning to live together in hardship
mountains / oceans / deserts / forests
finding out how little I actually need

Curses:
meaninglessness / 'vanity'
people as commodities (especially women)
'dishonest gain'
alcohol
postmodern conception of travel
social anesthetics
experiences as currency
greed

Tour 10

"The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure."
-Ecclesiastes, Chapter 7, verse 4

What grieves the wise?

"The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone?"
-Chapter 6, verse 11

The tour is being cut short. I will be coming home on August 7th, and would like to sit with you, my Philadelphia friend, and tell some stories. Some are good and some are bad. The summation of this journey is that there is much more destruction and brokenness in this nation than I could ever have imagined, but that God is more faithful, just, and good than I can possibly express or understand. This is the first time in my life that I have ever prayed with a truly excited gratitude and surprise over a meal served to me --- understanding that it literally came from heaven. There is no entitlement anymore, only abandon.

Receiving such daily bread, I grow continually more disgusted with privilege and its requisite opiate hedonism [the house of pleasure]:
"Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless. As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them? The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep."

-Chapter 5, verses 8-12