Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Review of Frank Schaeffer's "And God said 'Billy'" by Ron Dart

Frank Schaeffer, AND GOD SAID, “BILLY” (Outskirts Press, 2013).

Frank Schaeffer is, probably, the most prolific Christian writer in the last two decades who has, directly and clearly, addressed the dysfunctional nature of the conservative evangelical family in the USA and beyond. Schaeffer has employed a variety of genres, in a gimlet like manner, to make it abundantly clear why the conservative evangelical mind is toxic in a variety of crude and subtle ways. Schaeffer knows why this is the case----he has dwelt in the tents of the clan for many a year—in fact, he often appears to be a traitor to the tribe---dirty laundry is hung out for one and all to see.

It is one thing to suggest, in a literary way, what an authentic spiritual seeker should be wary of and free from. It is quite another thing to articulate, in a convincing and persuasive manner, to a generation of skeptics and new atheists, why the spiritual quest is worth the doing. Schaeffer has, in The Calvin Becker Trilogy, made it limpidly obvious, how good and naive spiritual intentions can be bent and twisted to serve questionable and destructive ends. It is significant that Schaeffer has used “Calvin” as his metaphoric portal into such a journey----Calvin’s family tree from the 16^th century to the present is a questionable heritage. The Calvin Becker Trilogy clarified, in a variety of ways, what a discerning spiritual seeker should be wary of and free from. What, though, should a person with deeper longings and hungers be free for? Such is the underlying myth and theme of And God Said, “Billy”.

The Stream: a Parable - by Steve Bateman

The Stream

Once there was a young boy who went walking and came upon a small creek bubbling down a hillside. It appeared to form a large and fast flowing stream rushing into the valley where it disappeared in the distance. The boy, being thirsty, dropped to his knees and drank. The water was pleasing to his taste and refreshed him as no other water ever had. After going home and sleeping a sound and deep sleep he returned the next day. The water drew him. This time it was not enough to drink it, he climbed into the stream, immersing himself in it, drinking it deeply, playing in it and enjoying it. Again, he was refreshed as never before. He knew he had found something special.

For days he explored the stream, walking up and down its banks, and was amazed. In places it thundered through narrow gorges of granite, steadfast and immovable. Here the stream was seen in all its power and majesty. In other places where the ground was level and the valley wide, it separated into many smaller streams, each watering a different part of the land. Each branch was unique and beautiful and he longed to explore them all. It was on these explorations that he realized that he was not alone on the stream. There were countless others spread out both up and down its length.

A Message from the Movies - Ashley Collishaw

Following in Christ's Steps - Fr. Michael Gillis

Immediately after the Apostle Peter recognizes Jesus as the Christ (something revealed to him from heaven), Peter rebukes Jesus for saying that He must be rejected and killed, (something inspired in Peter by satan).  Even the Apostle Peter, even immediately after a heavenly revelation, could not accept that the way we enter into the Father’s Glory, the way we experience the Resurrection, is through suffering and death.  Jesus, however, assures us that it is the way.  We see the Kingdom of God coming in power by taking up our cross and following Christ (Mark 8:27-9:1).
     I am so like Peter.  I am sure that there is another way, another way to enter into Glory, a way other than asceticism, a way other than suffering, a way other than the Cross.  But Jesus tells us that there is no other way.

      Asceticism and suffering are ubiquitous.  Life on the earth is often referred to as a valley of tears because suffering is universal.  Atheists, Moslems, Christians, agnostics, Jews… It doesn’t matter.  Everyone suffers.  What then is the difference?  What is this mystery that transforms suffering into Glory and Resurrection?

Click here to read the rest of this article: 

http://holynativity.blogspot.ca/2013/09/following-in-christs-steps.html

The Unfathomable Openness of the Trinity in Christ - Gustave Martelet

The follow is an excerpt from Martelet's article, "Hell" in The Encyclopedia of Christian Theology, ed. Jean-Yves Lacoste (Routledge, 2004). To read the whole article:

Download Hell, Encyclopedia of Christian Theology

The Unfathomable Openness of the Trinity in Christ - Gustave Martelet

Our creation in Christ has made us, by vocation, into beings to whom the Father is as essential as he is, by paternity, to the Son himself. But we should not forget the other face of this mystery, whereby we appear, in Christ, as eternally irreplaceable to the Father as the Son is to him. Confronted with the suicidal decision to reverse into hatred the love for which we have all been created, and which makes us, in the Father's eyes, inseparable from the person of his Son, could God, even out of respect for our freedom, abandon forever the person who destroys himself in the self-torture of his aberration? How could he do so, this God who, in Christ, wishes to raise us by pure grace to his likeness, and promises to share with us the life of his uncreated Son? Such is the choice in the unfathomable depth of his love for us. Henceforth there is no human rule, no safeguard of morality that can prohibit God from loving madly the madman who believes that in order to exist he must refrain from loving him who is love itself! God's remedy for madness consists then in bringing into play all the resources of his love to help the rebel overcome his insane refusal to love. For what kind of God would he be who, despite being declared all-powerful, was forever incapable of releasing from his mortal spell a freedom that was received without being requested, and that could become a snare of pain and hatred to its recipient for all eternity? 

Faced with the lights of the Kingdom of heaven in the night (in itself hopeless) of hell, we are therefore empowered by faith to throw ourselves naked into the love of God. As worthy descendents of Abraham--"In whom he believed against hope" (Rom. 4:18)--we hope that the bottomless depths of God's fatherhood, of Christ's passion, and of the resources of the Holy Spirit will allow us to escape from the fiery prison that is hell. We can say nothing of how this might be; but we must trust absolutely in the reserves of love, grace, and glory, whose only measure is God's love for the Son in the Holy Spirit, a love in which we are forever included. Moreover, since God has revealed to us in his Son that we are saved and savable by pure grace, and never by our works (Rom. 1-4), how could it be otherwise when the eschatology of every creature is decided, at the crowning moment when the mystery of grace, in which we have been established for all time by God himself, will be fulfilled?

In this light, hell becomes, with regard to a boundless faith, the locale of choice for God's victory over the most incomprehensible rejection--victory that could be called humanly unexpected and that is for the prayer of the spiritual and for the thought of the theologian, 'able to be hoped for.' 

DOCUMENTARY - CHICKEN MANURE FIASCO - Kevin Miller

HELLBOUND? DIRECTOR KEVIN MILLER LAUNCHES UNIQUE FUNDRAISING 

CAMPAIGN FOR DOCUMENTARY ABOUT ABBOTSFORD’S HOMELESS CHICKEN 

MANURE FIASCO

Vancouver, Sept. 17, 2013 – Hellbound? filmmaker Kevin Miller has

launched a unique crowd-funding campaign to finance post-production 

on a new film called The 5&2, which  he shot last summer amidst 

the City of Abbotsford’s questionable attempt to disperse a homeless 

camp by dumping chicken manure on the site. The film takes its 

name from an innovative ministry to the homeless and other 

marginalized people in Abbotsford called  “The 5&2.” 

Calling the film an “accidental documentary,” Miller says he 

just happened to be filming a profile of 5&2 founder Ward Draper 

when news of the chicken manure situation broke. 

Operating as a one-man crew, Miller followed the story as it 

developed over the next several weeks, which included a class 

action lawsuit against the City of Abbotsford, an internal investi-

gation into police actions against homeless property and a 

heated battle between the Abbotsford Downtown Business Asso-

ciation and Abbotsford Community Services, which is seeking 

to build a low-barrier, transitional housing facility for men who 

struggle with addiction. As it turns out, two of the leading 

spokespeople advocating on behalf of the homeless during 

this time were the very people Miller set out to profile—Ward 

Draper and Jesse Wegenast of the 5&2.

Download 5&2PR to Read the Rest of this Article 

Determinism or Indeterminism, That is the Question - by Henry Smidstra

Determinism or Indeterminism, That is the Question

As a 17 year old, I dropped out of school and became a mechanic’s apprentice in a shop owned by a Dutch-Canadian immigrant serving a largely Dutch-Canadian, largely Calvinist, clientele. Of course we also served clients of other religious orientations. It was here, in the practicalities of diagnosis and auto repair that my Calvinism was tested and broadened, recognizing also that Calvinism is not a monolithic entity. Regarding the failings of their cars the customers often provided their own diagnosis and my Boss had instilled in me that the customer is always right, even when they are wrong; I was just to ignore their diagnosis and do my own, but I did store some of their peculiar attributions in my memory.  Consider the time when called out to do a service call on a customer, a regular Church going Calvinist, whose car would not start. Sometimes I might hear something to the effect that it was God’s will that the car would not start since ultimately nothing happens without God’s sovereign will. “Maybe God wants me to suffer so I can become a better person; or perhaps to avoid some unknown greater calamity”; or I might hear, “Everything happens for my good.” I would meekly query, “You really want me to try and start your car?” To myself I would silently consider the fear that for me to try to get that car started might just be contravening the will of God, or perhaps futile anyway since it was fated not to start. Alter all it is not nice to meddle with Mother Nature, as some more secular customers might phrase it. If it’s God’s will that the car won’t start; who am I to meddle with that! “Yes, see if you can get it running,” the client might say; so I usually could get the car running, pointing to some determining causes other than God’s will; but I kept my adolescent theological reflection to myself.

A Canadian Prayer For Syria - Paul E. Ralph

And so, a Sabbath sun takes flight.
As night is laid to rest.
The best of which is held not just for we.
Who strain to see His art writ large across the newborn sky.
And why we choose to trade this peace is our condition.
A rendition of the garden flight from Edens sod.
O God, I pray.
Today, stay close and set the world aright.
While nights darkness has no cover.
Help us see you hover once again, across the deep.
And send your sleep in Sabbaths rest.
Not just for we.
But for all to see, the Sabbath Son take flight.

de la Roche interview - Ron Dart with Lazar Puhalo

The Mystery of Mazo De La Roche: A film by Maya Gallus - Review by Ron Dart

Mazo de la Roche was one of the most successful and prolific women writers of the 20^th century. Her novel, Jalna, the dramatic story of a family dynasty, skyrocketed to international fame and fortune in 1927. By the time she died, 11 million copies of her books had been sold in  93 languages—she remains one of the country’s bestselling authors to date.

The most important thing is her (Mazo de la Roche’s) work. -- Marie-Claire Blais

The task of discussing a fine writer can go in two directions or a combination of these directions: 1) faithfully reflect upon the novels, poems, short stories, dramas of the author--healthy literary criticism or 2) delve into the life of the author--C.S. Lewis calls this the personal heresy. The Mystery of Mazo De La Roche is a fine film in some ways, but it tends to veer in the direction of the latter approach (the personal heresy).

De La Roche had written and published some probing and insightful literary works before the success of Jalna in 1927. Most who have heard of De La Roche know about her because of the many novels she wrote about the Whiteoak’s family of Jalna (16 to be precise). Needless to say, De La Roche distinguished herself by writing and publishing many other books of equal or greater worth and note than the Jalna series.

WITHOUT THE SHEDDING OF BLOOD? Heb. 9:22 - by Santo Calarco

WITHOUT THE SHEDDING OF BLOOD THERE IS NO FORGIVENESS OF SINS? Hebrews 9:22

Santo Calarco

What does Hebrews 9:22 mean when it says that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness”?  Is God mandating that blood be shed before he can forgive?

I will demonstrate in this paper that this statement has been used out of its context. This verse does not speak to the issue of the forgiveness of personal sins at all.  Rather it refers to the role of blood in the inauguration of priestly ministries; earthly and heavenly. In other words, blood and forgiveness are discussed in the setting of Christology, not Soteriology. 

Nearly all things are cleansed with blood.  For the sake of argument let’s take this verse in the popular way it is understood nowadays.  Let’s assume that Hebrews is insisting that blood must be shed for forgiveness to take place.  If this is what it is saying then we are presented with theological problems.  Why?  First of all when we read the whole verse we see that the writer is not presenting a rigid rule. “According to the law we can almost say … that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” NASB.  Almost, but not all the time!

The truth is that in the law we read of many cases where sins are forgiven without the shedding of blood!

The Glance - George Herbert

THE GLANCE.
by George Herbert

       When first thy sweet and gracious eye
Vouchsaf'd ev'n in the midst of youth and night
To look upon me, who before did lie
                         Weltring in sinne ;
       I felt a sugred strange delight,
Passing all cordials made by any art,
Bedew, embalme, and overrunne my heart,
                         And take it in.

       Since that time many a bitter storm
My soul hath felt, ev'n able to destroy,
Had the malicious and ill-meaning harm
                         His swing and sway :
       But still thy sweet originall joy
Sprung from thine eye, did work within my soul,
And surging griefs, when they grew bold, controll,
       And got the day.

       If thy first glance so powerfull be,
A mirth but open'd and seal'd up again ;
What wonders shall we feel, when we shall see
                         Thy full-ey'd love!
       When thou shalt look us out of pain,
And one aspect of thine spend in delight
More then a thousand sunnes disburse in light,
       In heav'n above.