The Importance of Forgiveness

Forgiveness is a central theme and virtue in the Christian faith and Christians are expected by the Church to forgive others, harboring no personal grudges against anyone, before they are allowed to commune with their brothers and sisters in taking the Lord's Supper. It also plays a central role in the Lord's Prayer "...forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." In fact it's hard to imagine a Christianity without forgiveness. It just wouldn't be the same religion at all. Not even close. Writes St. Paul in his letter to the Church in Ephesus:

"And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."

"St. Paul At His Writing Desk" - Rembrandt

Why is forgiveness so important? Because as C. S. Lewis said, "We are all fallen creatures and all very hard to live with.” We constantly wrong God, ourselves, and each other because of the frailty of our condition as fallen beings and through willfully uncharitable acts. This creates division and undermines love and community. Without forgiveness there can never be any reconciliation between ourselves and those who trespass against us or between ourselves and those against whom we trespass.

If there is no reconciliation between people, then there is no community. Every time we alienate someone by wronging them and every time someone alienates us by wronging us, yet another line would be drawn and another irreparable division would be made until in the end, we would all end up isolated from one another, alone and harboring for all eternity our seething anger against those who have wronged us. Sounds sort of like a description of hell, doesn't it?

So that's why we need forgiveness: Forgiveness is necessary for reconciliation, which is necessary for community, which is necessary for love. Community is the seat of love. Love by definition cannot exist outside of community. Even God Himself, who is Love personified, has been revealed to the world through His Church as a community, the Holy Trinity who are three in one, which is one of the greatest and most cherished mysteries of the Christian faith and one that explains so much and fits so well the Christian understanding of love.

So as a necessary precondition for love, which is the greatest of the Christian virtues and the Christian's highest calling, there must be forgiveness because we live in a fallen world. Forgive others as Christ forgives you, and if you struggle with forgiveness, ask God daily to heal your soul and make it possible for you to forgive others.

Christian Blog Review: The Evolution of God

Photo from RepublicDomain

This week's featured website is a new Christian blog (to which David directed my attention) entitled: The Evolution of God. Is its author, Tim Kurek, claiming that God "evolves" or changes? No! He writes:

No, God does not change, but He evolves in the hearts of his followers. With every day that passes we change, and our faith brilliantly adapts. Faith is fluid, a shape-shifter, a dialogue and not a debate, a series of questions that lead to a single answer. A truth impervious to the arrows of a lie. I am a shape shifter, and so are you. How will our shapes change in the future? This is the story of my evolution and the evolution of my God.

In other words, "The Evolution of God" is a succinct way of saying "The Evolution of My (or Our) Conception(s) of God." It is not the reality itself that changes, but our conception of it, our view of it. And why should it change? To conform more and more to the shape of the Thing Itself. Summarized in this short title and its disclaimer are many, many profound truths. Besides that, the juxtaposition of "Evolution" and "God" is catchy, clever, and cute (kind of like alliteration). As I read through it, here are the truths that I'm getting out of this short self-description of his new blog's purpose:

1. Theology- God does not change.

Excellent. Solid Christian teaching. It is not fitting or logical that the Divine should change because It's perfect. If It changed, It wouldn't be perfect anymore, now would It?

2. Metaphysics/Epistemology- The Correspondence Model of Truth:

The idea that truth is that which corresponds accurately to the reality it describes. God and our view of God are two different things. Our view of God is correct if it accurately describes God.

3. Philosophical Anthropology- Man's Fallibility:

Why is there a need for our view of God to change and be fluid? Well, duh! Because it's not perfect. Why? Because we're not perfect (or infinite). And that's okay. In the meantime we strive for perfection and for a deeper understanding of (and more importantly, deeper communion with) God.

4. Dialectic- The Futility of Debate:

Dialogue, earnest questions, and charitable conversations have as their aim the goal of finding truth. Debate is more about winning the argument and tripping up your opponent. Dialogue is so much better.

5. Eschatology- The Victory of Truth:

Kurek claims that Faith and Truth are "impervious to the arrows of a lie." They will, therefore, endure and survive the falsehoods and nonsense of this fallen world. They are what is real, and they are what will stand. Notice he uses arrows as a metaphor for lies, alluding to the very real warfare between truth and lies, right and wrong, good and evil.

Cool huh? I am amazed at the brevity with which he packs in such a comprehensive review of his beliefs and purpose. If I am incorrect in any of my interpretations, Mr. Kurek, you are welcome to correct me in the comment thread.

I will definitely be following this blog closely. I am very interested to see what Mr. Kurek has in store. I have already added his blog to my blogroll and because it is the current featured website, I've put a link to it at the top of my links page until I feature the next one. I want to end by leaving you with a quotation. Kurek seals the deal with this quotation in his sidebar, emphasizing above all things- Love:

“Love thy neighbor, too, albeit that he be of a different religion. Thou thinkest thyself to be of that sect which is the nearest to the truth, and thou hast hope that thou and thy compeers who think so well, shall certainly be saved. Thy neighbor thinketh differently. His religion thou sayest is unsound and untrue; love him, for all that. Let not thy differences separate him from thee. Perhaps he may be right, or he may be wrong; he shall be the rightest in practice, who loves the most. Possibly he has no religion at all. He disregards thy God; he breaks the Sabbath; he is confessedly an atheist; love him still. Hard words will not convert him, hard deeds will not make him a Christian. Love him straight on; his sin is not against thee, but against thy God. Thy God takes vengeance for sins committed against himself, and leave thou him in God’s hands. But if thou canst do him a kind turn, if thou canst find aught whereby thou canst serve him, do it, be it day or night. And if thou makest any distinction, make it thus: Because thou art not of my religion, I will serve thee the more, that thou mayest be converted to the right; whereas thou art a heretic Samaritan, and I an orthodox Jew, thou art still my neighbor, and I will love thee with the hope that thou mayest give up thy temple in Gerizim, and come to bow in the temple of God in Jerusalem. Love thy neighbor, despite differences in religion.” (Love Thy Neighbor- Aug. 9th, 1857) -Spurgeon

Would you like your blog featured here? Feel free to ask. If I like it, I'll say yes.

What's Right With Your Life?

Jonathan Mead over at the Illuminated Mind asks the question: "What's right with your life?"

Photo by Gecko

He prefaces his query with the observation that many of us are struggling to fix all the things that are wrong with our life and to overcome our problems, and that it can bring a lot of contentment to contemplate the things that are right with our life- to look back and see how far we've come and how much we've been given. Mead is calling us to a spirit of humble thankfulness for what we have. He challenges other bloggers to post on this subject and list things that are right with their lives.

Here goes for me:

1. I am incredibly lucky to have been born a middle-class American at the end of the 20th century. The time, place, and context of my birth, which were beyond my control entirely, placed me into the wealthiest, most privileged class of people to have ever lived. The luxuries and technologies I have enjoyed would be the envy of even the highest royalty in past times. I have never known what it is like to suffer hunger or lack of any kind. I have never seen warfare, riots, or civil unrest first-hand. I have grown up in a place and time of peace and prosperity. I have also had more access to all the world's knowledge than any human being had in any past time.

2. I am healthy and strong. I have never suffered major illness. I was born without any deformities. I have never even broken a bone (which is a wonder, as many stupid risky things I did as a boy). I have been so blessed and fortunate to have such great health in a world plagued by epidemics like AIDS and filled with children who suffer deformity or genetic diseases that kill, maim, or greatly hinder them. How it is that I have been so lucky, I can barely fathom. This too, is something beyond my control. I doubt that I have used it as well as others might have who are not so privileged- a humbling thought.

3. I have had a good life. It's been short by some reckoning (I turn 22 this February), but it has been rich in experience and joy (as well as grief, but that's part of it too). I could not have asked for a much better childhood than I had. I grew up with some excellent neighborhood friends and had all kinds of adventures and fun. We are still the closest of friends, and they matter to me most in this world, being as much a treasure and joy to me as in our childhood. The fact that I have such close friends would in itself be enough if I lacked all the rest of it. After my childhood, I have seen and done all kinds of amazing things, travelled to exotic places, and really made much of life.

4. I know what my dreams and aspirations are and I am actively pursuing them. Most of the other things I have listed are comforts, but without any comfort, this would be plenty. This is what I live for, not the comforts. Those are nice, but this is the substance of life, to become the best possible "me" I can, to live out my function and role in this universe.

If you'd like to tackle this question on your own blog, let me know and I'll link to your answer from here.

The Octagram and Christian Symbolism/Numerology

An updated version of an old post:


Firstly, I am very nearly obsessed with symbolism, so you can bet that anything which looks symbolic on my blog probably is and has probably been thought through very thoroughly. Symbolism is so powerful because it can pack so much meaning into such a simple thing. Maybe it should be called "simplism" (cheesy, I know... sorry).

Now as for the Octagram, it happens to be one of my favorite symbols, and eight happens to be one of my favorite numbers. Eight is an extremely significant number in the Judeo-Christian religion, representing rebirth, renewal, and salvation. There were eight survivors of the great flood: Noah, his wife, their three sons, and the sons' three wives. The flood story is a redemption story, one where all of humanity is baptized. Because of the fallen nature of this world, in order for anything of this world to truly live, it must first die and be reborn. Baptism should not be thought of as a nice, ceremonious event, but as drowning flood waters that kill and purify in order that something might live anew. Very little of the Christian faith for that matter should be considered merely "nice." Hence the failure of so many modern Churches to remain either relevant to us today or true to Christian orthodoxy.

You'll also find the number eight present in Jesus' death and resurrection (note that in his famous Sermon on the Mount he enumerated eight Beatitudes): he rose on the first day of the week, which is also the eighth day, in much the same way the first note in a scale is also the octave or "eighth." You start with a "C" and play D, E, F, G, A, B, and when you get to C again, it's the eighth note in the C major scale. (By the way, the strong presence of octaves in Western tonal music is another reason I happen to love eight.) In Christianity, baptism (which I've already explained relates to the number eight) is the rite of initiation into the Church. The pre-Christian, Jewish equivalent is circumcision, which is used to initiate newborn males into the Jewish faith. Circumcision is performed on the eighth day after the child's birth.

The Humble Libertarian

If you've noticed that post frequency here dropped noticeably over the past week and a half, don't panic ;)

I've been busy getting together a second blog, and there is usually a large initial time investment in setting things up. I'll be back to posting about every other day here.

If you used to mostly read Slaying Dragons for its political content or at least enjoyed that as much as you did the religious posts, you'll be happy to know that after narrowing this blog's focus to Christianity and spiritual development I have started a second blog that will be just as (if not more) active, and its purpose is to discuss politics and current events from a (sane!) libertarian perspective as well as keep you up to date on hot news headlines.

I'm very excited to announce the birth of The Humble Libertarian. Feel free to pass on the announcement to your readers and include the new blog on your blogrolls. E-mail me or leave a comment if you want to be added to mine at The Humble Libertarian.

Thanks and happy reading!

The Meaning of Noah's Drunken Nakedness and Ham's/Canaan's Curse

Print by Gustave Dore

This is a follow-up to the preceding post entitled "Learning Christian Humility." Now you may have objected to the first point in that post that we can't possibly go around ignoring everybody's flaws because they are a part of reality and we ought not to ignore reality. Besides, how on earth are we supposed to help them to get better? May it never be said of me that I encouraged people to ignore reality! To clear things up, let me refer you to a perfect model for correctly dealing with another's sins in an obscure passage of ancient Scripture that many people find a little strange and puzzling (bizarre interpretations abound):

Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father's nakedness.

The early Church Fathers understood this passage as an important parable for how we are to deal with another's sins. Ham went into the tent and looked upon his father's nakedness, i.e. looked at his father's sin and then went and told his brothers about it. The context makes it clear that this is not how one ought to behave. There is a difference between noticing another person's flaws and "grabbing" onto those flaws with your consciousness and actively dwelling on them. There is still more difference between knowing someone's flaws and gossiping about them to others as Ham did.

Shem and Japheth knew and were aware of Noah's nakedness, which is why they kept their heads turned away as they covered him with a garment. They represent the person who does not dwell on someone else's sin, but keeps his head turned away and covers the sinner's "nakedness" with their prayers, love, and good will. We would do better to behave as these two brothers and not Ham, to keep ourselves from condemning or laughing at another's sin and misfortune and to pray for them and extend loving grace to them as much as possible. Then when they repent and recover from their stumbling, they will bless us as Noah blessed Shem and Japheth, rather than curse us as Noah cursed Ham.

Learning Christian Humility

Painting of St. Seraphim of Sarov

"Humility is a funny thing- once you think you've got it, you've lost it." Isn't that the truth? It's an amusing proverb that I've heard now and then and it always brings a smile to my face, but the truth is that humility can be really, really hard to attain for the very reason given in the proverb. That may be one of the reasons that it's a virtue which seems so absent from many people today who go by the label Christian. So I have compiled a list for you of five practical ways to deal with pride and attain to humility, without- I pray- making the comically ironic mistake of claiming personal expertise in the practice of this virtue:

1. Don't dwell on other people's flaws. It is a hallmark of humility, that the person who truly practices it will not allow him or herself to indulge in criticizing, discussing, or even bothering to notice another person's personal flaws. This is a prerequisite to true humility because judging another person assumes that you are better than and above them. One judges from a position of superiority, operating on the assumption that he or she is better than the person being judged. The humble wouldn't consider themselves worthy or high enough to do so. Additionally, it doesn't help the person being judged. Its motivation is usually not love, but some ugly shade of anger, pride, or envy. On a practical level, this means no negative talk about others. And when you begin thinking negative thoughts about others, as soon as you notice that you're doing it and remember that you shouldn't be, immediately make a conscious decision to turn your attention to something else- like your own flaws...

2. Take account of your own flaws. Time wasted dwelling on other people's flaws is time that we could be spending taking account of our own flaws. It makes more sense to look at our own flaws because the one person I have the most influence over changing and improving is me. To put a new twist on an old prayer: "God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the people I can, and the wisdom to know that that person is me!" By reviewing our own flaws, we contemplate the problems of this world upon which we have the most opportunity to make a huge impact. When your blood starts boiling at that person for being such a hypocrite, for lying, or for being so selfish, immediately focus your attention on the times you have been a hypocrite, less than honest, or self-centered. Resolve yourself to act better in the future, and humbly ask God to help you, admitting in humility that you are not good enough to do so without active help from the Divine.

3. But don't dwell on your sins or hate yourself. It's a really fine line to walk. There are at least a dozen ways that you can get tripped up in your effort to be more humble. I'm not claiming that it's easy or that following these steps is easy. It is good to focus on your own sins, but it is bad to dwell on them. It is best to focus on and contemplate the Divine. If you are constantly replaying and mentally punishing yourself for past mistakes and present vices (something I am personally very predisposed to doing), you are indulging in a sort of vanity. The operating premise behind such mental behavior is that you're too good to have messed up in this or that way. "How could I?!" Well easy- "I'm not perfect." If you know and humbly admit that you are an imperfect human being, you shouldn't be surprised by your mistakes. If we put too much emphasis on our sins, we are essentially putting too much emphasis on ourselves, and this is a form of pride. It is best to turn our eyes heavenward and contemplate the divine mysteries.

4. Don't watch yourself worship. Take very careful note of where your attention is during prayer and worship. I noticed not long ago that half the time or more in during church services or at prayer, my attention was focused on me. I was mentally watching myself worship or pray and glorying in my act of worship or prayer. It's like when I'm trying to impress somebody instead of actually talking with them. When I'm actually having a conversation with them, my attention is on them. When I'm trying to impress them, I'm not directing my attention to them as I talk. Instead I'm watching myself talking to them and weighing how impressive I think I sound. Does that make any sense or am I just weird? It's a subtle, but very bad habit that prevents real communication between oneself and others or worse, oneself and the Divine. Try to be aware of where your attention lies, and if you notice it resting on yourself rather than God when you are worshipping or praying, immediately make a conscious effort of will to focus back on God.

5. Serve others. A humbling thing to do is make yourself a servant to others. This is what Christ did. This is what every truly great man or woman did with his or her life. If you are currently not doing anything that serves others, then make a point of just once a month going to a soup kitchen, retirement home, or other such charitable institution and render your service and love to the people there. You might find yourself going more than once a month after giving it a few tries. While serving others, the key as explained above, is not to focus on yourself. Don't watch yourself serving others. Focus on them, their needs, and what you can learn from them. As much as possible, don't tell anyone about what you're doing. Keep it to yourself. Have fun making a secret of it. If people ask where you're going when you take off to serve at the soup kitchen, don't lie to them, but give yourself permission to be mysterious. Telling others about your service might rob you of its humbling benefits by making you feel proud.

One last quotation (by C. S. Lewis): "A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach or reading Plato in a state of pride."

A Website Review of GospelScoop.com

Photo by Do'Neil, published under the terms of GFDL

This week's featured website is GospelScoop.com. It's patterned after social media sites like Digg.com or StumbleUpon.com, but it's oriented toward Christian users. On their About Page, Digg says about their website:

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web... Everything on Digg — from news to videos to images to Podcasts — is submitted by our community (that would be you). Once something is submitted, other people see it and Digg what they like best. If your submission rocks and receives enough Diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of our visitors to see.

GospelScoop operates in the same way, but as I wrote above, it's oriented towards Christians and news related to our shared faith. By its nature, GospelScoop doesn't likely have the potential to grow as large as Digg because it's less open-ended, more specific in its focus and content, but that's okay. In fact, it's great. Having specialized sites that appeal to niche communities is one of the cool things about the Internet, and of all niches, Christianity is a rather large one!

I'd love to see GospelScoop grow and reach its "carry capacity" so to speak. So far, top scoops reach the front page of GospelScoop with only eight or nine votes (as opposed to the 1,569 votes that the top Digg article has as I'm writing this- which is low compared to the upwards of 8,000 votes the top Digg article had yesterday). On the one hand, this means GospelScoop is relatively small- top scooped stories will get you less traffic than a front page Digg story, but on the other hand it means that now is the time to join up and take advantage of the powerful marketing tool GospelScoop is offering to your Christian website or blog!

Imagine getting in good with Digg.com in its early days and becoming a top Digger! What would that be worth to you today? I would highly encourage you to join GospelScoop.com if you're a blogger or webmaster and submit good content and vote on the other great content there, to participate in the community and to promote it to other Christian bloggers and friends so that it grows. If you're not a blogger but interested in having a community similar to Digg, but focused on Christian topics, here's a great opportunity to help build one.

While you're there, I would discourage you from "gaming the system" in some way. Digg has had its fair share of issues with "bury brigades," multiple fake users, and other dubious means of controlling content flow. Your unlikely to have success with such methods because they've been observed, dealt with, and lessons have been learned in the process. You'll probably just get yourself banned from GospelScoop. I imagine with its community standards informed by the Christian faith, GospelScoop's webmaster has zero tolerance for such behavior. Just don't do it. It's not cool.

But for all legitimate content sharing and voting, GospelScoop is the place for web-savvy Christians to get their news. Oh yeah... and while you're there, be sure to scoop any posts of mine that you like ;)

Because it is Slaying Dragons' current featured website, GospelScoop.com will be featured at the top of my links page until the next featured website comes along. If you would like to be included on my links page, let me know.