I go to church on a regular basis. I belong to an organized denomination. In fact it is probably the oldest Christian denomination around. But I must confess to some confusion: why are the teachings of the church; any church, any temple, any masjid; so mysterious? I accept the idea that the godhead itself is mysterious. That's why He, She, It is the godhead. Indeed, I accept that the ways of God are mysterious understand. What I don't accept is how mankind manages to screw up its approach to the godhead.

I belong to a denomination which used to have a plethora of Irish clergy. Indeed it had a plethora of clergy; Irish or not. Not so much any more. One of the things that used to bother me was the response of some of the clergy to my schoolboy questions, "Ah, well now my son. That's one of the great mysteries of the Church." I would think, "You don't know the answer either," and marvel at the stupidity of the clergy. They weren't really stupid, most of them, but the ability of an organization to wrap itself up in language it does not understand is beyond me.

I once worked as a technical writer for a very large organization which produced electric power. I was editing a "Policies and Procedures" manual and came across a sentence which made no sense. It was a pretty substantial error: it had no subject or no verb, both of which, as we all remember from our 5th grade English teacher, are vitally important to a sentence in English. I struggled with this sentence until I finally, I thought, figured out what it meant and I asked my supervisor if I should change it. Now this particular sentence was not within the purview of changes to be made to the particular policy and/or procedure that I had been given to edit. My supervisor, (An idiot if ever there was one. No I must be fair: he wasn't just an idiot. He was a complete and utter idiot.) replied and I quote, "It may not make any sense, John, but it's a carefully thought out policy and procedure."

Well, that's the way I sometimes feel about the church I attend. Yesterday was Holy Trinity Sunday. We were having a sermon on the Trinity. All Christian denominations recognize the existence of the Trinity. Well, maybe not members of the Universalist Church. They recognize two of the three: Sir and/or Madam. I'm not really sure if they count as Christians or not. I'm just saying... We all know that "The Trinity" is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible, but that there was an acceptance of it from the beginnings of the church. Case closed.

Well not quite. The Catholic Dictionary defines The Trinity as:

A term used since A.D. 200 to denote the central doctrine of the Christian religion. God, who is one and unique in his infinite substance or nature, is three really distinct persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The one and only God Is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yet God the Father is not God the Son, but generates the Son eternally, as the Son is eternally begotten. The Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, but a distinct person having his divine nature from the Father and the Son by eternal procession. The three divine persons are co-equal, co-eternal, and consubstantial and deserve co-equal glory and adoration.
http://www.therealpresence.org/cgi-bin/getdefinition.pl

A Political Circle Jerk and Political Jerks

This is old news to some, but I have found that nothing works in politics. I was listening to the radio and heard about the "Spin Room." It's where politicians and/or their toady lackeys try to put the best "spin" on whatever they have or haven't been up to. I have, of course, heard of the Spin Room before. It's just that after the Monday debate in New Hampshire, in which the current crop of Republican Presidential candidates and their staff tried to pontificate on what had happened just a short while before, I realized that neither the candidates, nor their staff, nor the press interviewing them believed a single word they said.

I don't think that the candidates, their staff, or the press were under any impression that they were actually telling the truth or had some kind of warped sense of reality. I mean if they were all on crack cocaine or large amounts of cheap scotch whiskey it would be one thing. But they weren't, I don't think. So all that is left is to conclude that they were lying through their perfectly polished teeth.

"No kidding," you gasp. Politicians only lie when their lips are moving. Everyone knows that. So why do we put up with it? Is politics about who has the best hair? or who has the whitest teeth? or who has the most money to spend? And before Democrats get on their high horse, it is estimated that Mr Obama will spend somewhere north of $1 billion on his reelection bid.

So why put up with it?

Well we have a situation in this country where party politics is far more important than actually getting anything done. First of all, we have a two-party system. I would like to remind people that it is only one party more than the communists in the former Soviet Union and the current mainland China. Are we seriously trying to say that every political thought or ideology is nested within the Republicrat and Dumbpublican parties? I sometimes say that in America we have a single party with a right-wing and a righter-wing.

Now call me liberal, or call me conservative, but I don't think this is what the Founding Fathers of this nation had in mind when they drafted our "checks and balances" within the framework of the Constitution. In facts our first President, George Washington, said during his farewell address after his second term:

However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

Farewell Address, Sep. 17, 1796

So what's next?