Uncle Matt's tids and bits

Showing posts with label spirit. Show all posts

In the late 1970s I was taken by my parents to go see that "Rapture Movie" that seems to have exerted a great deal of trauma on many other children of my generation who's parents were in one way or another linked to the evangelical/charismatic protestant tradition. Our elders may have been able to watch the hoekie special effects and not be scarred for years by the sight of a stick of butter dropped on the ground by a suddenly raptured "holier than thou" - or holier than me at least, B grade actor. But kids are very literal. So there i waited through he mid and late 70s for mom andf dad and granny and all to suddenly disappear one day and leave me and my sinful (or what a child imagines to be seriously sinful at least) ways behind to face the UN and it's Antichrist president's demon forces all alone.

But alas, that "late great planet earth" awaited by the Jesus Freaks and friends never occurred.

Pat Robertson resurrected the theme with new scenarios and dates to fill my still immature mind with throughout the 80s that then involved either Russian or Chinese or Arab (it depended on the latest news cycle) boogie men that were identified as either Gog or Magog etc etc.

then a brief break that was the post cold war. no nightmare images of nuclear fires raining down from the sky or robot/demon soldiers in blue UN helmets.

Ah, but then came Y2k. And for all the buildup and all the millennial hype nothing - nothing - nothing - occurred. Again...

On the heals of that "alert" the left stepped in to fill the end times void that the right temporarily abandoned and global climate catastrophe became the apocalypse d'jour.

That seems to be taking place surely, and slowly enough based upon my own observations of the winters here on the east coast during my short enough lifetime. But none the less, the global warming terror peaked with Gore and has begun the downward slump that the Malthusian prophecies calling for world wide famine in the 1960s took along with all the other end of it all alarms before and after have taken.

As the threat of imminent and immediate flooding begins to lose its currency it is now time for the next cycle - this time around it's the Mayans and their calendar and maybe some planets or earthquakes or stars aligning or alien coming down (again? harmonic convergence? hale bop? it becomes exhausting to try to keep track of all the theories over the years!) or something or other.

so, lets have a quick little look at what the hubbub is all about this time around:

"The apocalypse is "a very Western, Christian" concept projected onto the Maya, perhaps because Western myths are "exhausted."
If it were all mythology, perhaps it could be written off.
But some say the Maya knew another secret: the Earth's axis wobbles, slightly changing the alignment of the stars every year. Once every 25,800 years, the sun lines up with the center of our Milky Way galaxy on a winter solstice, the sun's lowest point in the horizon.
That will happen on Dec. 21, 2012, when the sun appears to rise in the same spot where the bright center of galaxy sets."

full article here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113714011

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Iran is one of the few true Theocracies, where scripture is law...

11/12/2008 at 11:41 AM Labels: censorship, freedom, gay, spirit, yikes

Be careful what you wish for. If the American government were to become "bible based" lets hope it's based on the beatitudes and not Leviticus, eh?

"Focused on Sharia or Islamic law, key to the initiative will be to carry the message that gay sex is illegal, immoral and legitimately punishable by death.

Iran is reported to have executed at least six juvenile offenders so far in 2008. More than 130 other juvenile offenders are currently sentenced to death. These are all boys averaging 15-16 years of age.

Iranian human rights campaigners estimate that 4,000 gay men have been executed since the Islamic revolution in 1979. -from PAYOR"

Then there is the state of Israel, they are also a biblically based nation. You must be Jewish to gain citizenship there, either a convert to Judaism or the child of a Jewish mother. They do not use the new testament as the basis for their laws, culture or attitudes politically. And yet they are one of the few (if any?) nations in the middle east where Homosexuality is not illegal, despite Leviticus and friends. they do not force menstruating women to stay at home. They do not stone adulterers. Even though the Jewish scriptures demand such actions. Why hasn't Isreal, the darling of a certain wing of American evangelical Christianity, enforced these scriptures as secular law? Because, among other reasons, the modern Israeli state, like the United States of America, is the product of the European "age of enlightenment" and all that came thereafter until at least the 1930's. A vast majority of the Jewish population of Israel is of European background and relatively recent immigrants and they have brought these European values with them.

The state also has to deal with a multiplicity of religious views, from Reform Judaism to Ultra Conservative Judaism and as such, in order to maintain a cohesive modern society, have needed to incorporate a respect for these varied religious views in to the law of the state. In order to preserve crucial unity in the face of great external threats they have adopted religious and social freedoms that do not exist elsewhere in the middle eastern world.

It is not America's heritage, nor in America's interests to become divided politically over matters that are fundamentally an issue of faith. America will not become stronger if her government is given over to the hands of one particular religious group, even if said group considers itself the "chosen ones" of God.

I write all of this because, the only reasonable argument left against employment rights for gays (one can be legally fired in many states based upon their sexual preference), marriage rights, etc in America is a faith based argument that is founded upon the particular interpretations of a particular set of very limited Scriptures by Christians of a particular outlook. Should we follow the example of Iran and attempt to impose faith based arguments onto the entire population via governmental decree? Or should we follow the example of Israel and, though acknowledging the common cultural reality that religious history has given us, choose, for the sake of unity and perhaps one day, the survival of our culture, freedom and mutual respect even if various groups disagree over a handful of faith based issued?

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The Passion of SS. Serge and Bacchus and the ancient Christian rite of same-sex union

10/27/2008 at 12:12 PM Labels: church, gay, gender, history, spirit

INTRODUCTION:

This service is a rite of the Eastern Orthodox Church (it also exists in Latin translations implying it was also used in the western Roman Rite churches as well) dating from very early times and assuming its present form between the fourth and ninth centuries A.D.

This service is translated from the Euchologion of Jacobus Goar, which was printed in 1647 and revised in 1730. this rite ceased to be practiced widely and was largely forgotten or ignored except in isolated areas, most notably Albania and other areas in the Balkans, where it flourished throughout the nineteenth century and up to at least 1935.

Both men and women were united with this rite or similar ones. These soldier saints were tortured and martyred late in the third century A.D. when they refused to worship the emperor's idols. In their biography by Simeon Metaphrastes (available in J.P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, vol. 115, pp. 1005-1032) they are described as sweet companions and lovers to each other." [Personal Note [From A. Franks]: I have vetted these comments and another article I aquired at the same time against the MG 115 ed. Sergius and Bacchus, indeed, are h^eteros and erotik^as, companions and physical lovers.]

Same Sex Union - RITE TEXT PRIEST:

Blessed is the kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us. (3 times).

Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. All-Holy Trinity, have mercy on us. Lord forgive our sins. Master, pardon our transgressions. Holy One, visit and heal our infirmities for your name's sake. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

(After this, the priest says the Troparion.) Save, O Lord, your servants, and bless your inheritance. (And the two who are about to be joined together in brotherly unity place their hands on the holy Gospel book, which has been prepared and placed on the table. And they hold in their hands lighted candles.)

(And the priest says the following, so that it is heard from above: Save, O Lord, your servants. Followed by the Troparion of the day) Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Holy Apostles, intercede with the merciful God to grant our souls forgiveness of sins. Now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. Through the intercessions, O Lord, of all the saints and of the Theotokos, grant us your peace and have mercy upon us, only merciful One. THE GREAT SYNAPTE.

(The responses of "Lord, have mercy" are understood.) In peace let us pray to the Lord. For the peace that is from above, and for the salvation of our souls, let us pray to the Lord. For the peace of the entire world, the welfare of the holy churches of God, and the union of all of them, let us pray to theLord. For this holy house, and for those who enter it with faith,reverence, and fear of God, let us pray to the Lord. For our Archbishop, the honorable priesthood, the deacons in Christ, and all of the clergy and laity, let us pray to the Lord. For the servants of God who have approached to be blessed by Him, and for their love (agapesis) in God, let us pray to the Lord. That they may be given full knowledge of the apostolic unity, let us pray to the Lord. That they may be granted a faith unashamed, a love unfeigned, let us pray to the Lord. That they may be deemed worthy to glory in the honorable Cross, let us pray to the Lord. That both they and we may be delivered from all affliction, wrath, and distress, let us pray to the Lord. Help us, save us, have mercy on us and keep us, O God, by your grace.

PEOPLE: Amen.

PRIEST: Having called to remembrance our all-holy, immaculate, most blessed, glorious Lady Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, with all the Saints, let us commend ourselves and one another, and all our life unto Christ our God. PEOPLE: To You, O Lord.

PRIEST (quietly): O Lord our God, whose might is beyond compare, whose glory is incomprehensible, whose mercy is infinite, and whose love toward mankind is ineffable; in Your tender compassion look down upon us Yourself, O Master, and upon this holy house, and grant us and those who pray with us Your rich mercies and compassions.

PRIEST (aloud): For to You are due all glory, honor, and worship; to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. PEOPLE: Amen.

PRIEST: Let us pray to the Lord. Lord our God, who has granted us all things for salvation, and who has commanded us to love one another and to forgive each others' transgressions; now You Yourself, Master and Lover of mankind, to these Your servants who have loved each other with spiritual love, and who approach Your holy temple to be blessed by You, grant to them a faith unashamed, a love unfeigned. And as You gave Your holy disciples Your own peace, also grant these all the petitions for salvation, and eternal life. For You are a merciful and loving God, and to You we ascribe glory, to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Let us pray to the Lord. Lord our God, the omnipotent, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, who made man according to Your image and likeness, who was well-disposed to Your holy martyrs Sergius and Bacchus becoming brothers, not bound by the law of nature but by the example of faith of the Holy Spirit; Master, do send down Your Holy Spirit upon Your servants who have approached this temple to be blessed. Grant them a faith unashamed, a love unfeigned, and that they may be without hatred and scandal all the days of their lives. Through the prayers of Your immaculate Mother and of all the Saints. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages.

(And with the table made ready in the middle of the church, they place the holy Gospel upon it. And they kiss the Holy Gospel, and each other.)

THEN THE PRIEST SINGS: By the union of love the apostles join in the praying to the Master of all; themselves committed to Christ, they extended their beautiful feet, announcing the good news of peace to everyone. PRIEST: Have mercy on us, O God. (And continues the Liturgy.)

matt: it is especially interesting to me that the word for erotic love as opposed to the other greek words for love is used - and also that the right of same sex union was considered an impediment to heterosexual marriage later.
also:

the Church of Greece with its encyclical of 11 June 1859 banned fraternization. (matt: a rather late date i must say) This ban was repeated with two more encyclicals of the Church on 26 September 1862 and 11 January 1863 (Tom. Egkykl. Giannopoulon 466-469).

Let it be said though that even today in some areas of the country such as Epeirus fraternizations are taking place. Various persons still become "vlamides" in front of the Priest in Epeirus as I have been informed by Priests in Epeirus. A special Service is read.

the PASSION of Sergious and Bachuss: Translated by John Boswell from the Greek "Passio antiquior SS. Sergii et Bacchi Graece nunc primum edita," AB 14 (Brussels, 1895), 373-395. This text is apparently the Greek original of the Latin passion beginning "Imperante Maximiano tyranne, multus error hominum genus possederat," printed in the Acta sanctorum, October 7, 865-79, and is more ancient than the more common account of "Metaphrastes."

Under the rule of the emperor Maximian gross superstition held sway over the human race, for people worshiped and made sacrifices to stones and wood, the devices of human beings, and they consumed obscene offerings. Those unwilling to sacrifice were subjected to torture and harsh punishment and compelled to serve the demons. A decree [to this effect] with severe threats was posted in the markets of every city. The purity of the air was defiled with the diabolical smell from the altars and the darkness of idolatrous error was reckoned a matter of state.

It was then that Serge and Bacchus, like stars shining joyously over the earth, radiating the light of confession of and faith in our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, began to grace the palace, honored by the emperor Maximian. The blessed Serge was the primicerius of the school of the Gentiles, a friend of the emperor and who had great familiarity with him, so that Maximian promptly acceded to his requests. Thus the blessed Serge, having a certain friend Antiochus, was able to arrange for him to become the governor of the province of Augusto-Euphrates.

The blessed Bacchus himself happened to be the secundarius of the school of the Gentiles. Being as one in their love for Christ, they were also undivided from each other in the army of the world, united not by the way of nature, but in the manner of faith, always singing and saying, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" They were adept and excellent soldiers of Christ, cultivating assiduously the inspired writings to combat diabolical error, and fighting vigorously in battle to defeat the enemy.

But the malicious and evil spirit afflicted with envy some of those who had been brought to the school of the Gentiles, and they, seeing [the saints] so honorably received in the imperial chambers, so advanced in military rank, and on such familiar terms with the emperor, and being unable to bring any other instrument of malice against them, accused them to the emperor of being Christians.

Waiting for a moment when the saints would not be standing near the emperor, and finding him alone, they said to him, "Such zeal for the cult of the holiest and greatest gods has your immortal majesty that in those holy rescripts of yours which are everywhere disseminated you have commanded that all unwilling to honor and worship them, and in submission to your righteous doctrine, should perish in great torment. How is it then that Serge and Bacchus, the directors of our school, enjoy such familiarity with your eternal power, when they worship Christ, whom those called Jews executed, crucifying him as a criminal; and by persuading many others they draw them away from the worship of the gods?"

When he heard this the emperor refused to believe it and said, "I do not think you speak the truth that Serge and Bacchus are not devoted to the veneration and worship of the gods, since I have such a pure affection for them, and they would hardly be worthy of it it they were not truly faithful in their piety toward the gods. But if, as you say, they belong to that unholy religion, they shall now be exposed. Once I have summoned them without their knowing of the charges that have been brought against them, I will go with them into the temple of mighty Zeus, and if they sacrifice and eat of the holy offerings, you yourselves shall bear the risk of the slander of which you are guilty. If they refuse to sacrifice, they shall incur the penalty appropriate for their impiety. For the gods would not have the shield-bearers of my empire be impious and ungrateful."

"We, O Emperor," replied the accusers, "moved by zeal and affection for the gods, have brought before your undying majesty what we have heard regarding them. It is for your unfailing wisdom to discover their impiety."

Straightaway the emperor sent for them. They entered with the customary retinue of guards and imperial pomp. The emperor received them and went in their company to the temple of Zeus. Once he had entered, Maximian offered libations with the whole army, partook of the sacrificial offerings, and looked around. He did not see the blessed Serge and Bacchus. They had not gone into the temple, because they thought it impious and unholy to see them offering and consuming unclean sacrifices. They stood outside and prayed as with one mouth, saying, "King of Kings and Lord of lords, who alone possess immortality and inhabit unapproachable light, shed light on the eyes of their minds, because they walk in the darkness of their unknowing; they have exchanged your glory, uncorruptible God, for the likeness of corruptible men and birds and beasts and snakes; and they worship the created rather than you, the creator. Turn them to knowledge of you, that they may know you, the one true God, and your only-begotten Son, our Lord ]esus Christ, who for us and for our salvation suffered and rose from the dead, that he might free us from the bonds of the law and rescue us from the folly of vain idols. Preserve us, God, pure and spotless in the path of your martyrs, walking in your commandments."

While this prayer was yet in their mouths, the emperor sent some of the guard standing near him and commanded them to be brought into the temple. When they had entered, the emperor said to them, "It appears that, counting on my great friendship and kindnessÑfor which the gods have been your defenders and advocates Ñ you have seen fit to disdain imperial law and to become deserters and enemies of the gods. But I will not spare you if indeed those things spoken of you prove to be true. Go, then, to the altar of mighty Zeus, make sacrifice and consume, like everyone else, the mystical offerings."

In reply the noble soldiers of Christ, the martyrs Serge and Bacchus, answered: "We, O Emperor, are obliged to render to you earthly service of this corporal body; but we have a true and eternal king in heaven, Jesus the Son of God, who is the commander of our souls, our hope and our refuge of salvation. To him every day we offer a holy, living sacrifice, our thoughtful worship. We do not sacrifice to stones or wood, nor do we bow to them. Your gods have ears, but they do not hear the prayers of humans; just as they have noses but do not smell the sacrifice brought them, have mouths but do not speak, hands but do not feel, feet but do not walk. 'They that make them,' as the Scripture says, 'are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them because Thou are with us.'''

The emperor's countenance was transformed with anger; immediately he ordered their belts cut off, their tunics and all other military garb removed, the gold torcs taken from around their necks, and women's clothing placed on them; thus they were to be paraded through the middle of the city to the palace, bearing heavy chains around their necks. But when they were led into the middle of the marketplace the saints sang and chanted together, "Yea, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, Lord"; and this apostolic saying: "Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and putting off the form of the old man, naked in faith we rejoice in you, Lord, because you have clothed us with the garment of salvation, and have covered us with the robe of righteousness; as brides you have decked us with women's gowns and joined us together for you [or: "joined us to you"] through our confession. You, Lord, commanded us, saying, 'Ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake.... But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.' Rise, Lord, help us and rescue us for your name's sake; strengthen our souls that we may not be separated from you and the impious may not say, 'Where is their God?' "

When they reached the palace Maximian summoned them and said, "Most wicked of all men, so much for the friendship which I had bestowed on you, thinking you to have proper respect for the gods, and which you, confident of my openness and affection, have despised, brazenly offering me in return that which is against the law of obedience and subjection. But why should you blaspheme the gods as well, through whom the human race enjoys such abundant peace? Do you not realize that the Christ whom you worship was the son of a carpenter, born out of wedlock of an adulterous mother, whom those called Jews executed by crucifixion, because he had become the cause of dissensions and numerous troubles among them, leading them into error with magic and claiming to be a god? The very great race of our gods were all born of legal marriage, of the most high Zeus, who is thought to be the most holy, giving birth through his marriage and union with the blessed Hera. I imagine that you will have also heard that the heroic and twelve greatest labors were worthy of a god, those of heavenly Hercules, born of Zeus."

The noble soldiers of Christ answered, "Your majesty is mistaken. These are myths that ring in the ears of the simpler men and lead them to destruction. He whom you say to have been born of adultery as the son of a carpenter, he is God, the son of the True God, with and through whom was all made. He established the heavens, he made the earth, the abyss and the great sea he bounded with sand, he adorned the heavens with the multitude of stars, the sun he invented for the illumination of the day and as a torch in the night he devised the moon. He divided the darkness from the light, he imposed measure on the day and limits on the night, in wisdom he brought forth all things from nonbeing to being. In these last days he was born upon the earth for the salvation of humankind, not from the desire of a man, nor the desire of the flesh, but from the Holy Spirit and an ever-virgin girl, and living among humans he taught us to turn from the error of vain idols and to know him and his father. He is true God of true God, and in accord with an unknowable plan he died for the salvation of the human race, but he plundered hell and rose on the third day in the power of his divinity, and he established incorruptibility and the resurrection of the dead to eternal life."

Beside himself with rage on hearing these things, the emperor ordered that their accusers be enrolled in their positions in the army and said to them, "I am sending you to Duke Antiochus, thrice-cursed ones Ñ the very man you were able to promote to such rank because of the friendship and familiarity you had with me Ñ so that you will realize how great is the honor you have lost by speaking against the gods and how trivial a court you merit for the worst punishments, since the greatness of the gods has apprehended and brought your blasphemy to the judgment seat for justice."

Immediately he sent them to Duke Antiochus, ordering that their entire bodies be bound with heavy chains, and that they be sent thus to Eastern parts through a succession of officials. He also wrote a letter along these lines: "From Maximian, eternal emperor and triumphant ruler of all, greetings to Duke Antiochus. The wisdom of the greatest gods is unwilling that any men should be impious and hostile to their worship, especially shield and spear-bearers of our empire. Wherefore I commend to your severity the vile Serge and Bacchus, convicted with apposite proof of belonging to the unholy sect of the Christians and plainly deserving of the worst punishment, whom I consider unworthy of the administration of imperial justice. If they should be persuaded by you to change their minds and sacrifice to the gods, then treat them with their own innate humanity, free them from the prescribed torments and punishments, assure them of our forgiving kindness and that they will receive back immediately their appropriate military rank and be better off now than they were before. But if they will not be persuaded and persist in their unholy religion, subject them to the severest penalties of the law and remove from them hope of long life with the penalty of the sword. Farewell."

The same day the offficials took them out of the city as far as the twelfth mark, and when evening overtook them they stopped at an inn. About midnight an angel of the Lord appeared and said to [the saints], "Take courage and fight against the devil and his evil spirits, as noble soldiers and athletes of Christ, and once you have thrown the enemy put him under your feet so that when you appear before the king of glory we, the host of the army of angels, may come to greet you singing the hymn of victory, conferring on you the trophies of triumph and the crowns of perfect faith and unity.

When morning came they rose and took the road with great joy and alacrity. There were also some of their household servants with them, united with them in longing for the love of Christ, and in true love for their corporal masters, on account of which they would not leave them when they were in such straits. They heard them discussing with each other the appearance of the angel in the night.

Taking the road, the two chanted psalms together and prayed as if with one mouth, thus, "We have rejoiced in the way of martyrdom, as much as in all riches. We will meditate in thy precepts and search out thy ways. We will delight ourselves in thy statutes: we will not forget thy word. Deal bountifully with thy servants, that we may live and keep thy word."

As the emperor had commanded, the soldiers of Christ were sent from city to city through a succession of changing officials with great security along the road of martyrdom laid down for them, until they were brought to the eparchy of Augusto-Euphrates, which was on the borders next to the people of the Saracens, to a certain fortress called Barbalisus where Duke Antiochus had his seat.

Appearing promptly before him around the ninth hour, their custodians handed over the emperor's letter and also the holy martyrs Serge and Bacchus. Antiochus rose from his dais and accepted the emperor's rescript in his purple general's cloak; when he had read it he summoned privately the official in charge and told him, "Take the prisoners and secure them in the military prison, seeing that apart from the usual constraints they do not suffer anything, and do not place their feet in full manacles of wood. Bring them to the bench of my justice tomorrow, so that I can hear them at the prescribed time, according to the law." The official took them and bound them as the duke had commanded him. When it was evening, they sang together and prayed, as with one mouth, speaking thus: "Thou, Lord, brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters; thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood; thou hast set all the borders of the earth. Cast thine eye upon us, O Lord, for the enemy hath reproached us, and the foolish people have blasphemed thy holy name. Deliver not the souls of those confessing thee to men more savage than beasts, forget not the congregation of thy poor forever. Have respect unto thy covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. Let us not be returned humbled, ashamed: so that we, thy humble servants, may praise thy name. Forget not the voice of thine enemies: the pride of them that hate thee ascendeth continually against us, thy servants, and in vain have the people hated us. But do thou, O Lord, rescue us and free us for thy name's sake."

Then, while they slept for a while, an angel of the Lord appeared to them and said, "Take heart, stand fast and unmovable in your faith and love. It is God who aids and watches over you."

Rising from their sleep and reporting to their household the apparition of the angel, they were encouraged and began to chant again: "ln my distress I cried unto the Lord, and he heard me from his holy mountain. I laid me down and slept; for the Lord sustained me. We will not be afraid of thou sands of people, that have set themselves against us round about. Arise, Lord, and save us, O our God: for salvation belongeth unto the Lord: thy blessing is upon thy people."

On the following day, when the duke was seated on the bench of justice in the praetorium, he summoned the commentarius and said, "Bring in the prisoners." The latter responded, "They are at hand before the righteous bench of your authority." When the saints appeared, he commanded the emperor's letter to be read. Once this was done, Duke Antiochus, prompted by his associate, announced, "It is incumbent on you to obey the orders of the glorious emperor, our lord, and to sacrifice to the gods and become worthy of their benevolence. Since you were unwilling to do this, you have forfeited great glory, and having made yourselves unworthy, were discharged from the military and deprived of all your former wealth. Nonetheless, if you will now obey me and sacrifice to the gods to earn their goodwill, you could earn even greater honor and glory than before, and receive back your military rank and more besides.

"This was prescribed in the letter sent to me, as you yourselves have heard. Being humane, the most holy emperor has disposed that if you repent of those things you have rashly done, and now sacrifice to the gods, you may yet enjoy his favor. Wherefore I, feeling compassion for you, and mindful of your friendship and kindnessÑespecially yours, my Lord Serge, for I myself have benefited from your generosityÑadvise you that if you will not do this, you force me to obey our lord the emperor and to see that his orders concerning you are strictly observed."

In reply the saints declared, "We have left all and followed Christ, so that heedless of earthly and temporal honor, we may become rivals of the angels in heaven, and ignoring terrestrial and corruptible wealth, we may heap up treasure in heaven. What profit would it be if we gained the whole world, but lost our souls? Do not, therefore, so advise us, Antiochus. For your tongue is forked, and the poison of adders is under your lips. You will hardly be able to change our minds while God himself encourages us. Do, therefore, what you will; we will not sacrifice to wood, nor worship stones. We serve Christ, the son of God, the eternal ruler, before whom 'every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth,' and whom every tongue should confess. Your gods are man-made idols: if they were divine, they themselves would command humans, and would not [need to] be avenged through human design on those who decline to serve and worship them."

The duke rejoined, "We do not avenge the gods. It is through their disposition that all the powers of our enemies have been subjected to us. But we call you to justice because of your accursed and unholy superstition."

To which the saints responded, "It is you who are accursed and unholy, and all those persuaded by you to sacrifice to demons and worship insensate stones and wood. All of them will soon be cast eternally into flames, and you also will be punished with them."

In a great rage the duke commandel that the blessed Serge be taken from the praetorium and returned to prison; the blessed Bacchus he ordered held for flogging. The henchmen went at this until they collapsed exhausted and near dead on the floor. When they could go on no longer, he directed that [Bacchus] be turned over on his stomach to be beaten with four whips of rawhide, saying to him, "Let's see if your Christ will free you from my hands." From the first hour until evening they wore away his flesh; blood flowed everywhere; both his stomach and liver were ruptured.

The blessed Bacchus said to Antiochus: "The devil's servants, your torturers have failed; your impudence is overthrown; the tyrant Maximian is conquered; your father the devil has been put to shame. The more the man without is ravaged by your blows, the more the man within is renewed in preparation for the eternal life to come."

After he said this, there was a great voice from heaven: "Come, rest henceforth in the kingdom prepared for you, my noble athlete and soldier, Bacchus." Those standing by hearing the voice were stupefied and struck dumb. He himself, having borne the blows so long, gave up his spirit to the angels.

The duke, frustrated by his defeat, ordered that his remains not be buried, but thrown out and exposed as meat to the dogs, beasts, and birds outside the camp. Then he rose and left. When the body was tossed some distance from the camp, a crowd of animals gathered around it. The birds flying above would not allow the bloodthirsty beasts to touch it, and kept guard through out the night.

In the morning, some of the monks who lived nearby in caves came and liked up the body the animals Ñ as if they were rational human beings Ñ had been mourning. They buried him in one of their caves.

Meanwhile the blessed Serge, deeply depressed and heartsick over the loss of Bacchus, wept and cried out, "No longer, brother and fellow soldier, will we chant together, 'Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!' You have been unyoked from me and gone up to heaven, leaving me alone on earth, bereft [literally, "made single"], without comfort." After he uttered these things, the same night the blessed Bacchus suddenly appeared to him with a face as radiant as an angel's, wearing an officer's uniform, and spoke to him. "Why do you grieve and mourn, brother? If I have been taken from you in body, I am still with you in the bond of union, chanting and reciting, 'I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou hast enlarged my heart.' Hurry then, yourself, brother, through beautiful and perfect confession to pursue and obtain me, when finishing the course. For the crown of justice for me is with you.'' At daybreak when he rose he related to those who were with him how he had seen the blessed Bacchus in the night and in what sort of garb.

The next day the duke planned to go out of the fortress of Barbalisus to that of Souros, and commanded that the blessed Serge follow. He enjoined him to sacrifice, but the latter, with noble judgment, refused his blandishments. When they reached the castle of Souros, Antiochus took his seat in the praetorium, summoned the blessed Serge, and told him, "The most sacrilegious Bacchus refused to sacrifice to the gods and chose to die violently; he got the death he deserved. But you, my lord Serge, why give yourself over to such misery by following that deceptive and impious cult. Mindful of your kindness to me I am disposed to mercy; and it embarrasses me that you were the cause of my having obtained this authority, since now you stand in the dock as the accused, and I sit on the bench as the prosecutor."

To this Christ's witness answered, "Antiochus, this very suffering and present disgrace will stand as a patron for me of great eloquence and eternal glory with the king of heaven and of earth and of every living thing, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. If only you would now heed me and recognize my God and king, Christ, and be as circumspect in regard to the heavenly ruler, Christ, as you are in dealing with earthly kings, you would provide yourself with power unending and perpetual glory. For earthly rulers pass quickly, as the psalm says: 'Ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.' And again, 'I have seen the wicked highly exalted, and lifted up like the cedars of Libanus. And I passed by, and lo, he was not: and I sought him and his place was not found.' "

The duke replied, "Spare us this idiocy and ignorant foolishness; sacrifice to the gods in obedience to the holy command of our ruler, the emperor Maximian. If you will not, know that you force me to forget all that has come to me through you and to subject you to the most rigorous punishment decreed by law."

Serge answered, "Do as you will. I have Christ to preserve me, who said, 'Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.' The body is subject to you: torture and punish it if you wish. But bear in mind that even if you kill my body, you can not dominate my soul Ñ neither you nor your father, Satan."

The duke responded angrily: "It appears that my patience has served only to prod you along the path of willfulness." He summoned the official in charge and told him, "Fasten long nails in his boots, sticking straight up, and then put them on him." Once the boots were on, Antiochus sat in his carriage, directed that the animals be driven fiercely all the way to Tetrapyrgium, and ordered the blessed one to run in front of him. Tetrapyrgium is nine miles from Syrum. While he ran, the blessed one sang, "I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me. He brought me up also out of a horrible pagan pit, out of the miry clay of idolatry, and set my feet upon a rock, and establishes my goings."

When they reached the castle of Tetrapyrgium the duke said, "It amazes me, Serge, that having first been kept in such confinement you can now sustain these bitter torments." The most holy martyr answered, "These tortures are not bitter to me, but sweeter than honey." The duke got out of the chariot and went in to breakfast, indicating that [Serge] should be retained in the soldiers' custody.

In the evening [Serge] sang psalms. "Those who did eat of my bread hath lifted up their heels against me, and with the cords of hideous torture they have laid a net for my feet, hoping to trip me up. But rise, Lord, outrun them and cause them to stumble, and rescue my soul from the wicked." About midnight an angel of the Lord came to him and healed him, restoring his feet completely. In the morning, mounting the bench, the duke ordered him brought in, thinking he would be unable to walk and would have to be carried, on account of his feet. When he saw him coming, walking a considerable distance and not limping at all, he was astounded, and exclaimed, "The man is a sorcerer. This must be how he managed to enjoy such familiarity with the emperor: he accomplished it through sorcery. What I am seeing is the proof of what they said about him. I would have thought it wholly impossible for him to walk on his feet after having been disabled by the torture inflicted on him yesterday. By the gods I am confounded at seeing him now walk as if nothing had happened!"

When the blessed Serge stood before the bench Antiochus addressed him. "Come to your senses even now, sacrifice to the gods, and you will avoid further torture. I will spare you out of respect for your kindness. If you will not, know that the witchcraft with which you devised to heal yourself will not avail you."

To which the blessed Serge replied, "If only you could escape the intoxication of diabolical error. I am in my senses in the Lord who has trampled the weapons of your father the devil under the feet of his humble servant, and has given me victory over you, and sent his angel to heal me. It is you who are the magician, and those who worship demons. It is the cult of your nameless idols that invented every sorcery, that is the beginning and cause and conclusion of all evil."

Antiochus sat down on his carriage even angrier, and commanded [Serge] to run before him wearing the same boots as far as the castle of Rosafae, another nine miles from Tetrapyrgium. When they came to the castle of Rosafae, the duke said to the blessed Serge, "Has the agony of the nails untied the knot of your idiocy?' Are you prepared now to sacrifice to the gods, or will you persist in this insane obsession?"

The noblest martyr rejoined, "Know this, Antiochus: with this foolishness I will dissolve and undo your malicious and wicked strength. Do what you will: I will not worship demons, nor sacrifice to idols. Blameless in this, I strive to offer sacrifice only to my Lord."

Seeing that he remained steadfast and immovable in his faith and confession of Christ, the duke pronounced sentence against him: "You have rendered yourself unworthy of the favor of the gods, Serge, and become a member of the unholy sect called Christians, injuring the great good of our ruler, the emperor Maximian, by refusing to comply with his holy decree and sacrifice to the gods. For this the law requires that you suffer the penalty of the sword." A number of those present shouted out that the sentence issued against him was just. The guards came immediately and gagged his holy lips, took him out of the courtroom, and led him away to be executed.

A great crowd of men, women, and children followed, to see the blessed one meet his end. Seeing the beauty blooming in his face, and the grandeur and nobility of his youth, they wept bitterly over him and bemoaned him. The beasts of the region left their lairs and gathered together with the people, doing no injury to the humans, and bewailed with inarticulate sounds the passing of the holy martyr.

When they reached the place where the holy martyr of Christ was to meet his end, he called on the guards to allow him a little time to pray. Extending his hands to heaven, he said, "The beasts of the field and the birds of the sky, recognizing your dominion and rule, Lord, have gathered together for the glory of your holy name, so that you will incline and wish of your goodness to turn through their unreason the reason of humans to knowledge of you. For you wish all to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth. When you lay death upon them, accept their repentance, Lord, and do not remember the sin of ignorance which they have perpetrated against us for your sake. Enlighten the eyes of their minds and lead them to the knowledge of you. Receive, Lord, my spirit, and give it rest in the heavenly tents with all the others whom you have found acceptable. To you do I commend my soul, which you have rescued from the snares of the devil."

Saying this and signing himself, he knelt and was beheaded, giving up his spirit to the angels. A voice from heaven said, "Come, also, Serge, soldier and victor, to the kingdom prepared for you. The hosts of angels, the ranks of patriarchs, the choirs of apostles and prophets, the souls of the just all await your coming to share with them the wonderful things in store for you there."

The place that received the holy martyr's blood became a great chasm; God arranged this so that those who wallow like pigs in the mire of paganism, terrified when they saw the abyss, would not dare to approach or trample in this spot the blood of the holy martyr. That was the reason this great chasm came into existence, and the spot has remained so up to the present day, bearing the signs of great antiquity at the command of God, to establish the miracle visually for unbelievers, so that they may build on it a firm foundation of faith.

Some of those who had come to witness the death of the holy martyr, seeing that they shared a common nature [with him], gathered up his remains and buried them handsomely where the holy one had died. After a great while some religious men from the castle of Souros, prompted by zeal for the service of Christ, but pious in a somewhat piratical way, tried to steal the body from the spot, as if it were some precious treasure. The saint would not suffer his body, which had been dragged around, whipped, and triumphed so publicly in the faith of Christ, to be moved in secret, so he asked of God that a fire be set in the spot, not to seek revenge on those attempting the theft or to burn them, but so that by lightening the gloom of night he would reveal the robbery to those in the castle of Rosafae, which is just what happened. Once the fire was burning in the place where the saint lay, some of the soldiers living there saw the flames reaching to the sky, and thought that the great blaze had been set by some enemy, so they came out armed and pursued those attempting to steal the saint's body. They prevailed on them to remain there a few days and to build from stones and clay a tomb where he lay. Once they had honorably covered the body of the saint, they went away.

After a time, when the religion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Chrisr had begun to flourish, some very holy bishops Ñ fifteen in number Ñ gathered together and constructed near the castle of Rosafae a shrine worthy of [Serge's] confession, and moved his remains there, installing them in the shrine on the very day he was martyred: the seventh of October.

Many miracles and cures were effected wherever his holy relics were, especially in the tomb where he had first lain. For it is a quality of the place of his death that the saint is able to prevail upon God to heal all those who come there with any sort of disease, and to cure those possessed of unclean spirits, and to render savage beasts completely tame. The animals, in fact, observe the day of his death every year as if it were a law, coming in from the surrounding desert and mingling with the humans without doing them any harm, nor do their savage impulses move them to any violence against the humans who come there. Rather, they come to the place in gentleness out of reverence for the holy martyr, at the command of God, to whom be glory, honor, and power, now and for ever. Amen.

more info on these saints and early same-sex union or Adelphopoiesis here:
http://andrejkoymasky.com/liv/mar/mar01.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelphopoiesis

http://syntheosis.org/Synod_Greece_1982.htm

Roman Catholic NOVENA TO SAINT SERGIUS AND SAINT BACCHUS

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barack's catholic bishop

10/14/2008 at 9:40 AM Labels: mccain, obama, politics, spirit, stereotype

Of course I believe that abortion is wrong, that it’s killing innocent life. I also believe, however, that those who are against abortion should be consistent.

If my choice is between a person who makes room for abortion, but who is really pro-life in terms of justice in the world, peace in the world, I will prefer him to somebody who doesn’t support abortion but who is driving millions of people in the world to death,” Onaiyekan said.

It’s a whole package, and you never get a politician who will please you in everything. You always have to pick and choose.

- Bishop Onaiyekan, widely seen as a spokesperson for Catholicism in Africa.

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The Charter of Privledges, granted by muhammed to the monks of the mount sinai monestery

10/11/2008 at 11:09 AM Labels: spirit

it dates to 655AD and the monks of the monastery of Saint Catherine maintain that muhammed himself signed the document. if i were working for the American government to win the hearts and minds of muslims in the middle east i would make good use of this document. for full text and intro from wikipedia click below (photo - Orthodox Cleric hanging out with bedouin muslims who protect the monastery):

The Charter of Privileges is a historic document, granted by the Prophet Muhammad to the monks of Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai. It was from the year 628CE, and consisted of several clauses covering certain aspects of human rights including such topics as the protection of Christians living under Islamic rule, freedom of worship and movement, freedom to appoint their own judges and to own and maintain their property, exemption from military service, and the right to protection in war.

Here is an english translation of the entire text:

This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them.

Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them.

No compulsion is to be on them.

Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries.

No one is to destroy a house of their religion church, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses.

Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.

No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight.

The Muslims are to fight for them.

If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray.

Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.

No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day of the world."

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how many people has God killed?

10/06/2008 at 10:35 PM Labels: spirit

i think it's a legitimate question:

here is an estimate from http://dwindlinginunbelief.blogspot.com :

God drowns everyone on earth (except Noah and his family)	Genesis 7:23, BT	30,000,000?	30,000,000
God rains fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, killing everyone.	Gen.19:24, BT	1000?	30,001,000
Lot’s wife for looking back	Gen.19:26, BT	1	30,001,001
Er who was “wicked in the sight of the Lord”	Gen.38:7, BT	1	30,001,002
Onan for spilling his seed	Gen.38:10, BT	1	30,001,003
7th Egyptian Plague: Hail	Exodus 9:25, BT	30,000?	30,031,003
God kills every Egyptian firstborn child.	Ex.12:29-30, BT	500,000?	30,531,003
God drowns Egyptian army	Ex.14:28, BT	1000?	30,532,003
God and Moses help Joshua kill the Amalekites	Ex.17:13, BT	1000?	30,533,003
For dancing naked around Aaron’s golden calf	Ex.32:27-28, 35, BT	3000	30,536,003
Aaron’s sons for offering strange fire before the Lord	Lev.10:1-3, Num.3:4, 26:61, BT	2	30,536,005
A blasphemer	Lev.24:10-23, BT	1	30,536,006
God burned to death an unknown number for complaining	Numbers 11:1, BT	100?	30,536,106
God sent “a very great plague” for complaining about the food.	Num.11:33, BT	10,000?	30,546,106
God killed those who murmured with a plague.	Num.14:35-36, BT	100?	30,546,206
A man who picked up sticks on the Sabbath	Num.15:32-36, BT	1	30,546,207
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (and their families)	Num.16:27, BT	12+	30,546,219
Burned to death for offering incense	Num.16:35, 26:10, BT	250	30,546,469
For complaining	Num.16:49, BT	14,700	30,561,169
Massacre of the Aradites	Num.21:1-3, BT	3000?	30,564,169
For complaining about the lack of food and water, God sent fiery serpents to bite the people, and many of them died.	Num.21:6, BT	100?	30,564,269
God delivers the Bashanites into Moses’ hands and Moses kills everyone “until there was none left alive.”	Num.21:34-35, BT	1000?	30,565,269
For “committing whoredom with the daughters of Moab”	Num.25:9, BT	24,000	30,589,269
Midianite massacre (32,000 virgins were kept alive)	Num.31:1-35, BT	90,000+	30,679,269
The slaughter of the Anakim, the childen of Esau, and the Horim	Deuteronomy 2:21-22	5000?	30,684,269
God hardened the king of Heshbon’s heart so that the Israelites could massacre his people. (included several cities)	Dt.2:33-34, BT	3000?	30,687,269
God delievered the king of Bashan so that the Israelites could massacre his people.	Dt.3:3-6	60,000?	30,747,269
Massacre of Jericho	Joshua 6:21, BT	1000?	30,748,269
God tells Joshua to stoned to death Achan (and his family) for taking the accursed thing.	Joshua 7:10-12, 24-26, BT	5+	30,748,274
God tells Joshua to attack Ai and do what he did to Jericho (kill everyone).	Joshua 8:1-25, BT	12,000	30,760,274
God slaughters the Amorites and even chases them “along the way” as they try to escape.	Joshua 10:10-11, BT	1000?	30,761,274
Joshua kills 5 kings and hangs their dead bodies on trees	Joshua 10:24-26, BT	5	30,761,279
Massacre of 7 cities	Joshua 10:28-42, BT	7000?	30,768,279
God delivers the Hazorites.	Joshua 11:8-12, BT	1000?	30,769,279
Massacre of the Anakim	Joshua 11:20-21, BT	1000?	30,770,279
God delivered Canaanites and Perizzites	Judges 1:4, BT	10,000	30,780,279
Ehud delivers a message from God: a knife into the king’s belly	Jg.3:15-22, BT	1	30,780,280
God delivered Moabites	Jg.3:28-29, BT	10,000	30,790,280
Massacre of the Canaanites	Jg.4:15, BT	1000?	30,791,280
God forces Midianite soldiers to kill each other.	Jg.7:2-22, 8:10, BT	120,000	30,911,280
God delivered the Ammonites to Jephthah to slaughter.	Jg.11:32-33, BT	1000?	30,912,280
The Spirit of the Lord comes on Samson	Jg.14:19, BT	30	30,912,310
The Spirit of the Lord comes mightily on Samson	Jg.15:14-15, BT	1000	30,913,310
Samson’s God-assisted act of terrorism	Jg.16:27-30, BT	3000	30,916,310
“The Lord smote Benjamin”	Jg.20:35-37, BT	25,100	30,941,410
More Benjamites	Jg.20:44-46	25,000	30,966,410
For looking into the ark of the Lord	1 Sam.6:19, BT	50,070	31,016,480
God delivered Philistines	1 Sam.14:12, BT	20	31,016,500
God forces the Philistine soldiers to kill each other.	1 Sam.14:20, BT	1000?	31,017,500
God orders Saul to kill every Amalekite man, women, and child.	1 Sam.15:2-3, BT	1000?	31,018,500
Samuel (at God’s command) hacks Agag to death	1 Sam.15:32-33, BT	1	31,018,501
God delivers the Philistines.	1 Sam.23:2-5	1000?	31,019,501
“The Lord smote Nabal.”	1 Sam.25:38	1	31,019,502
God delivers the Philistines to David (again).	2 Sam.5:19, 25	1000?	31,020,502
Uzzah for trying to keep the ark from falling	2 Sam.6:6-7, 1 Chr.13:9-10	1	31,020,503
David and Bathsheba’s baby boy	2 Samuel 12:14-18	1	31,020,504
God sent a three-year famine because of something Saul did.	2 Sam.21:1	5000?	31,025,504
Seven sons of Saul hung up before the Lord	2 Sam.21:6-9	7	31,025,511
From plague as punishment for David’s census (men only; probably 200,000 if including women and children)	2 Sam.24:13, 1 Chr.21:7	70,000+	31,095,511
A prophet for believing another prophet’s lie	1 Kg.13:1-24	1	31,095,512
Baasha killed everyone in the house of Jeroboam “according to the saying of the Lord.”	1 Kings 15:29	1000?	31,096,512
Zimri killed everyone in the house of Baasha “according to the word of the Lord.”	1 Kg.16:11-12	1000?	31,097,512
God delivers the Syrians into the Israelites’ hands	1 Kg.20:28-29	100,000	31,197,512
God makes a wall fall on Syrian soldiers	1 Kg.20:30	27,000	31,224,512
God sent a lion to eat a man for not killing a prophet	1 Kg.20:35-36	1	31,224,513
Ahaziah is killed for talking to the wrong god.	2 Kings 1:2-4, 17, 2 Chr.22:7-9	1	31,224,514
Burned to death by God	2 Kg.1:9-12	102	31,224,616
God sends two bears to kill children for making fun of Elisha’s bald head	2 Kg.2:23-24	42	31,224,658
Trampled to death for disbelieving Elijah	2 Kg.7:17-20	1	31,224,659
God calls for a seven year famine.	2 Kg.8:1	10,000?	31,234,659
Jezebel	2 Kg.9:33-37	1	31,234,660
God sent lions to kill “some” foreigners	2 Kg.17:25-26	3+	31,234,663
Sleeping Assyrian soldiers	2 Kg.19:35, 2 Chr.32:21, Is.37:36	185,000	31,419,663
Saul	1 Chronicles 10:14	1	31,419,664
God delivers Israel into the hands of Judah	2 Chronicles 13:15-17	500,000	31,919,664
Jeroboam	2 Chr.13:20	1	31,919,665
“The Lord smote the Ethiopians.”	2 Chr.14:9-14	1,000,000	32,919,665
God kills Jehoram by making his bowels fall out	2 Chr.21:14-19	1	32,919,666
God delivered the Israelites into the hand of the Chaldeans.	2 Chr.36:16-17	1000?	32,920,666
Ezekiel’s wife	Ezekiel 24:15-18	1	32,920,667
Ananias and Sapphira	Acts 5:1-10	2	32,920,669
Herod	Acts 12:23, BT	1	32,920,670

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Interesting article on `sworn virgins', a traditional ancient gender alternative in Albania

10/05/2008 at 1:19 PM Labels: freedom, gay, gender, hacks, history, outside the states, psychology, spirit, travel

below an article from: http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/world/2008/10/05/D93KDETG0_eu_albania_sworn_virgins/index.html

(also if u want more info :The social role of the "sworn virgin" in the Balkans from wikipedia)

Oct 5th, 2008 | SHKODRA, Albania -- Drene Markgjoni spent 12 years in a hard-labor camp, punished for her fiance's attempt to flee Albania's regime, then one of the world's most repressive and isolationist. She swore she would never suffer like that for somebody else again.

She pledged to forgo sex and marriage for the rest of her life, and declared herself a man.

That was six decades ago. Now 85, with close-cropped white hair, dressed in a man's blue striped shirt and black trousers, she greets visitors with a manly handshake. The way she walks, her confident gestures, everything about her is masculine.

Only her voice — soft and feminine — reveals her to be one of the last sworn virgins in Albania: Women who dress, act and are treated as men.

"I am happier like this," she says. "I don't regret it at all. Not a hair on my head does."

In this strongly patriarchal society where for centuries women had virtually no standing, sworn virgins enjoyed the same rights and respect as men. They could inherit property, work for a living and sit on the village council, although without the right to vote.

The privileges came at a price. They took an oath of celibacy and could never have sexual relations. And they could never go back to being women.

There are no official figures, but Antonia Young, a research fellow at the University of Bradford in Britain who has studied the practice for more than a decade, estimates that Albania had about 100 sworn virgins in the early 1990s. That number is now almost certainly much lower, as the practice and the women die out.

The reasons for becoming a sworn virgin can be practical — the head of the family dies with no male heir. Or they can be emotional — the woman does not want to marry the man chosen for her.

In Albania, particularly in the impoverished rural north, it was practically inconceivable for a woman to remain single and live alone.

But by becoming a man, Markgjoni was free. She could earn a living and eat and drink with men instead of being restricted to the kitchen. And she could adopt two habits denied to a traditional Albanian woman: smoking and wearing a watch.

She says she has worked in carpentry and farming, and in construction in her youth when, she proudly exclaims, she carried concrete slabs with the strength of two men.

Markgjoni still works, though now her job is less physical: making rosaries for her Catholic church in the northern town of Shkodra.

"I have had much more respect with my people, my family," she says.

The practice of sworn virgins stems from the Kanun, medieval laws handed down orally for generations before being codified in the early 20th century. It transcends religion, with sworn virgins found among Albania's majority Muslim community as well as the minority Catholics and Orthodox Christians.

In Albania's male-dominated society, a woman had virtually no rights: According to the Kanun, "a woman is known as a sack, made to endure as long as she lives in her husband's house." She could not inherit property, and work was limited to child-rearing and household chores.

Anthropologists stress that the tradition of sworn virgins, with its emphasis on celibacy, does not equate with homosexuality, which did not become legal in Albania until the 1990s.

"It's kind of the opposite extreme," says Young. "In one way, sworn virgins support patriarchy, because they support the feeling that you've got to have a man at the head, and this woman can be a man."

On the other hand, Young notes, "this would be a way round for a woman who had homosexual inclinations."

Traditionally the decision to become a sworn virgin turned on social reasons like not having enough men in the family, but recently it has become more a matter of the woman's choice, Young says.

With a deep rumbling voice and a distinctive swagger, Diana Rakipi, a security guard at a clinic in the seaside town of Durres, explains she always had a masculine outlook.

Rakipi, 54, who trades her security guard's cap for a military beret when not in uniform, never felt much like a girl.

"I have never worn a skirt," she says during a break at work. "It was not imposed by anyone for me to do this, nobody made me wear these clothes. I chose it."

Her Christian Orthodox family accepted her decision, and she has enjoyed the respect of her relatives and community ever since, she says, with nobody questioning her right to earn a living as she chooses.

"Nobody dared to ask me why don't I get married," she says. "I am considered No. 1 in my family."

This is the last generation of sworn virgins, according to Aferdita Onuzi, a professor at Tirana's Cultural, Anthropology and Arts Research Institute. In Albania these days, women enter parliament, government ministries, and the police force.

When Qamile Stema was a child, there were two sworn virgins in Barkanesh, a village perched in the hills above the northern town of Kruje. Stema, the youngest of nine girls, decided to stay and take care of her mother when her three surviving elder sisters married and moved away.

Now 88, dressed in baggy pants with a black waistcoat over her shirt and sporting the traditional white woolen cap of northern Albanian Muslim men, Stema is Barkanesh's last sworn virgin. She has lived a freer, if lonelier, life, she says.

"I have talked with other men, traveled with other men, even teased the women," she says. "Even when I went to dances, I danced as a man."

She has the unwavering respect of her family, she says. She has no regrets.

"I decided never to marry and I don't complain for that decision," she says. "Especially nowadays, all the old people are alone. I am alone. I don't complain. Because their children have left, and they are not different from me, the couples."

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here comes "religulous" - and here comes trouble

10/01/2008 at 12:57 PM Labels: politics, psychology, spirit, stereotype, trailer, video

I've always liked Bill Maher. He's hilarious and usually very perceptive. I even didn't think the quote from the 911 era that got him fired from his show at the time wasn't particularly untrue or offensive. He has never been one to skirt controversy but with his new movie he is darn near begging controversy to run him over with a bus.

he's go the usual movie website with the trailer:
http://www.lionsgate.com/religulous/

and then he's also got this site http://www.disbeliefnet.com/ - a parody of beliefnet.com, which is actually quite a moderate forum for believers of all sorts that i think makes a real effort to balance the fundies and the liberals and ration them out equal space. for instance i always really liked this post on beliefnet - 'I Prayed for Their Souls Since I Could Do Nothing for Mine'
The story of a Russian Orthodox priest with a drinking problem--and a special ministry.
By Kyriacos C. Markides

expect to hear tons and tons of controversy over this film, espescially as talk radio and Fox News will end doing their usual service as free advertising in the name of moral outrage.

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Trenton Man Declares Backyard a Sovereign Nation

at 8:06 AM Labels: freedom, history, inspiration, new jersey, spirit

Trenton Police say a man who calls himself Emperor El Bey must get rid of the two horses he's keeping in his urban backyard. El Bey says his half of the duplex is an embassy for the sovereign Abannaki Aboriginal Nation and immune from Trenton ordinances.
http://www.wcbs880.com/pages/2933151.php?

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below is a blog about my friend ray foster from williamstown - many might remember him - he is gone now

9/30/2008 at 12:22 AM Labels: death, earth, freedom, joy, life, matt, personal stories, spirit

he impacted me in many ways. maybe later i will share some stories from him and me in this post. most of him is now in the grand canyon:

here is ablog dedicated to his memory:

http://rayfosterjr.blogspot.com/

this is the final resting place of most of his remains - i have heard some remains are still in reserve waiting for a proper pine barrens burial.

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Robert Thurman Doesn't Look Buddhist

9/29/2008 at 5:42 PM Labels: pop culture, reincarnation, spirit

From The New York Times Magazine

Wanna know all about uma thurman's cool dad? check it out below:

By RODGER KAMENETZ

TALL AND IMPOSING, IN A DARK BLUE SUIT and bold red-and-yellow tie, Prof. Robert A.F. Thurman, a former Tibetan Buddhist monk and New Yorker to his bones, marched to center stage at Carnegie Hall. Thurman, who is also the president of Tibet House, was introducing the organization's annual benefit concert. He announced to the sold-out house, with a certain wry hilarity, the Tibetan New Year of the Fiery Rat. He praised the evening's performers, Michael Stipe and Emmylou Harris among them, for "putting a shield of poetry around the heart of a suffering people." Later on, Thurman kicked and shuffled his way across the stage, eyeing his feet nervously, arm in arm with the singers Natalie Merchant and Patti Smith as Dadon, an exiled Tibetan balladeer, led them in a Tibetan New Year's dance. After the concert, Thurman rushed upstairs to introduce reporters to one of his daughters, the actress Uma Thurman, and to Harrison Ford, hosts of the late supper party to come. There, Thurman held forth energetically, in a swarm of rock stars, models, movie stars and other wealthy patrons of Tibet House.

When I asked him how a meditative Buddhist type could handle so much action, Thurman said, "There's a stereotype that Buddhism is quietistic: leave the world, drop out -- drop dead basically." Then he laughed and talked about how meditation can also release enormous amounts of energy. Thurman enjoys his contradictions. To him, Buddhist enlightenment is "the tolerance of cognitive dissonance, the ability to cope with the beauty of complexity."

Cognitive dissonance is Thurman's way of life. Though a highly respected scholar -- he is the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University -- Thurman can also come on like a dharma-thumping evangelist. In fact, he has emerged as the most visible and charismatic exponent of Tibetan Buddhism in America: he is a prolific translator and writer ("Essential Tibetan Buddhism," an anthology of key texts in translation, was just published by HarperCollins), a powerful advocate for the liberation of Tibet and the Dalai Lama's cultural liaison to America.

In San Francisco recently, he talked four hours straight over lunch until a vacuum cleaner made it clear that the restaurant was completely empty. We then raced across town in his rented red Mustang, and he spoke for another three hours on dharma, the Buddhist teachings, at the California Institute for Integral Studies. His lectures are multivocal psychodramas. Prof. P. Jeffrey Hopkins of the University of Virginia, Thurman's colleague and fellow translator, calls him "the Red Skelton of Tibetan Buddhism."

Thurman's large head is framed with wavy, reddish blond hair, which curls back over his ears in wings. After a while you notice that his right eye roves, while the left stays fixed. Ask one question and Thurman's booming, reedy tenor rises off at odd angles and zooms into open rhetorical space. Speaking about the Buddha after his enlightenment, for instance: "He was a seething energy field. His skin was all gold. You know this little tuft of white hair, this third eyebrow that he had? It came into its own finally, like a transistor -- zzzzzz -- and light rays would beam out all over the place."

Thurman, at 54, seethes with energy himself. Natalie Merchant, a family friend, remembers Thurman singlehandedly clearing a huge boulder from his country house in Woodstock, N.Y.; his son, Dechen, recalls his father shimmying up a tree with a chain saw, cutting off a limb that was threatening to crash into a window. "He was a monk, and monks take 252 vows," says Thurman's wife, Nena von Schlebrugge-Thurman, who serves as the treasurer for Tibet House. "And a lot of those vows have to do with not thinking about yourself and being there to help other people. He has developed a bad tendency to say yes to everything. So the entire family is joined together in a desperate effort over all these years to get him to cut down on these things, and he's become much, much improved lately."

Well, maybe. In the past two years, Thurman published a new translation of "The Tibetan Book of the Dead," wrote the text for a picture book called "Inside Tibetan Buddhism" and published "Essential Tibetan Buddhism." Another book, on Tibetan politics, is in the works. A few years ago, he helped mount a major traveling exhibit of Tibetan art, "Wisdom and Compassion."

Thurman says he believes that the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism -- as lived by the present Dalai Lama -- can help save us all. Among Thurman's greatest passions is Tibet House, which he, along with the actor Richard Gere and two others, founded in 1987 at the Dalai Lama's request. It serves as a cultural embassy for an occupied nation; among other projects, Tibet House is creating a museum without walls -- a library and an archive of artwork and ritual objects -- that could eventually be returned to Tibet, and is sponsoring a peacemaking conference in California, to be attended by the Dalai Lama.

In his earlier years, Thurman felt little obligation to support the Tibetan political struggle. "I thought, Tibet had done me the kindness of preserving the dharma from ancient times in India and handing it to me," he says. "I woke up to how callous that was about 15 years ago and decided that I could try to repay their kindness, by helping to get the world's attention focused on this massive injustice."

Thurman, with his intellect, savvy and high-profile connections, is particularly qualified to undertake such a task. Yet as a young man, he spent years as a celibate monk. As he tells it, in his 20's, Thurman was as intensely set on leaving the world as he now seems to be on changing it.

THURMAN GREW UP IN A HOUSEHOLD shaped by romance and drama. His mother, Elizabeth Farrar, dropped out of college to pursue an acting career; his father, Beverley, left his doctoral studies at William and Mary to follow Elizabeth to New York, and wound up working as an editor for the Associated Press. Augustin Duncan, the dancer Isadora's brother, conducted weekly dramatic readings in the Thurmans' home, where Robert and his brothers read parts alongside guests like Laurence Olivier. But Thurman also sneaked comic books inside his Shakespeare folio. In April of his senior year at Phillips Exeter, he ran off with a friend to enlist with Fidel Castro. Fortunately, Thurman says, for the revolution's sake, the boys were turned back at Miami. Exeter expelled him for that adventure and he waited out a year in Mexico before entering Harvard in 1959.

That spring, he married Christophe de Menil, heiress to a considerable fortune and fine-art collection. In the late spring of 1961, while Thurman was changing a flat on his car, the tire iron slipped and destroyed his left eye. It was a turning point; Thurman realized he did not want to waste his life "drinking Champagne and staring at Rouaults." He made a young man's vow -- fed by his readings of Nietzsche and Buddhist texts -- to act on his highest aims. "I was ready to go to the East," he says, but "my wife was nervous, scared of the whole thing. I then started identifying with Buddha, left my wife and child and went over there. I was very sad about that, but I felt -- even as a father -- what's the use of not being enlightened?"

Dropping out of Harvard, Thurman wandered toward India through Turkey and Iran, "like a beggar." His mother thought he was crazy, but his father, for whom St. Francis was a spiritual ideal, defended him. "You're doing what I always wanted to do," his father said.

"I was already by about that time like St. Francis," muses Thurman. "I had an empty socket, long hair and a scraggly beard. I wore black baggy Afghani pants, a T-shirt with a white shawl thrown around me and leather sandals." In India, he was hired to teach English to exiled tulkus -- young reincarnated Tibetan lamas. "I was in heaven, because the minute I met the Tibetans, I knew they had what I wanted."

But Thurman was called back to New York by his father's sudden death. He visited the Lamaist Buddhist Monastery of America, in Freewood Acres, N.J., and met his first guru -- a 61-year-old Mongolian monk, Geshe Ngawang Wangyal. (Geshe is a monastic title indicating years of advanced study.) Thurman was moved by the monk's quiet intensity and began to study with him. "That was a rebirth for me," he says. "I learned to speak Tibetan fluently in 10 weeks."

Thurman helped his mentor build a temple. He meditated. "I'm not saying I attained nirvana -- I still don't know what that is -- but I attained a sense of relief," he says. "I still had many of my bad egocentric habits, and one of them was that I fanatically wanted to be a monk, because I wanted to live like this for the rest of my life."

Geshe Wangyal advised him against this career move, but he agreed to take Thurman with him to Dharamsala, India. "Since you are so stubborn, I'll tell the Dalai Lama you want to be a monk," he said. "Maybe he'll think that's not a bad idea."

THUS BEGAN AN EXTRAORDINARY relationship. Thurman was 23, the 14th Dalai Lama, 29.

"You don't really study with the Dalai Lama," Thurman says. "If you're under his protection in the community, he assigns this or that teacher. He wanted to see me a lot. I soon found out it wasn't to teach me but because I spoke Tibetan. Basically he got my Exeter and Harvard education over that year and a half. We met once a week. Every talk I'd say, 'What about this problem in madhyamika thought?' And he'd say: 'Oh, talk to blah blah about that. Now what about Freud? What about physics? What about the history of World War II?' "

Thurman was personally ordained by the Dalai Lama in 1965, becoming the first Western Tibetan Buddhist monk. He returned to the United States with a shaved head and maroon robe: "Uma said recently, after seeing a photograph of me in my monk phase, 'Oh, look at Daddy -- he looks like Henry Miller in drag.' " That phase lasted only about a year. Geshe Wangyal asked Thurman if he thought the world truly needed -- or wanted -- a white geshe. "He convinced me that the alternative was to become a Protestant monk," Thurman says. "That is, a professor."

Thurman met Nena von Schlebrugge, Timothy Leary's former wife, at a party in New York, and they were married in 1967. (They have four children and now live in Manhattan near Columbia. ) Thurman returned to Harvard, completed his degree and enrolled in graduate work at the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies. "I created the field of Buddhology," he says. "I just wrote it down on the form and they said, 'We don't have this field here, but I guess it's all right.' "

Tibetan, Zen and Theravada are the three most popular forms of Buddhism among Westerners today. Of the three, Tibetan Buddhism is probably the most difficult and exotic path, with its emphasis on prostrations, visualizations, guru worship and deity yoga, in which the practitioner identifies with Tibetan deities as a path to higher states of consciousness. Tibetan Buddhism now has four main groupings, of which the Geluk, the Dalai Lama's order, is considered the most philosophical and scholarly.

Thurman's major contribution to understanding Tibetan Buddhism is his translation of "The Essence of True Eloquence" (now published as "The Central Philosophy of Tibet"), by the 14th-century Tibetan sage Jey Tsong Khapa. Thurman had returned to India in 1970 to work on this project, spending hours with the Dalai Lama, who provided the benefit of his personal notes. Thurman speaks of translation in Tibetan terms as lotsawa -- "a world eye," or window on a new world.

To some observers, a tremendous opening of the Buddhist "world eye" has occurred in the West over the past 30 years. Tibetan Buddhism in particular has been well served by pioneer professors like Thurman and Jeffrey Hopkins, both of whom have established successful graduate programs. A new generation of Tibetan textual scholars has come forth, and mainstream publishers produce a steady flow of translated Tibetan dharma texts.

Much of the interest must be attributed to the tremendous appeal of the Dalai Lama. But other Tibetan teachers have influenced the West, including Chogyam Trungpa, who founded the Naropa Institute, in Boulder, Colo., and Sogyal Rinpoche, author of the best seller "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying." The success of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, a slick magazine devoted to contemporary dharma and profiles of prominent Buddhists, has also contributed to the movement.

But no wave arrives without some froth. Donald S. Lopez, a professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan and the author of "Prisoners of Shangri-la," a forthcoming study of the effect of Tibetan Buddhism on the West, refers to a recent J. Peterman catalogue as a case in point: "They're selling something called a Tibetan shaman's jacket. The first line of the ad said: 'It's official. Crystals are out. Tibetan Buddhism is in.' "

Tibetan Buddhism has also attracted its share of celebrities, most notably Richard Gere, who serves on the board of the International Campaign for Tibet, a political action group in Washington. Gere is a frequent visitor to Dharamsala and a serious student of the Dalai Lama's. On the other hand, few of the celebrities who attend Thurman's Tibet House benefits are actual Buddhist practitioners, as they made clear. "Just because people want to help Tibet," Thurman says, "doesn't make them Buddhists."

As a scholar, Thurman is especially critical of fuzzy thinking in popular Buddhism. As an example, he cites a 1992 article in Tricycle by Helen Tworkov, the magazine's editor, in which Tworkov acknowledges strong anti-abortion teachings in Buddhism but also writes that "dharma teachings can be used to validate either pro-choice or anti-abortion politics." To Thurman, "that's simply incorrect. It's the taking of life. The fundamentalists do have it emotionally right -- the killing of fetuses is a mass massacre from the Buddhist point of view. It is not a fuzzy issue in Buddhism."

Some of the confusion among Westerners has arisen, Thurman says, because Buddhism was introduced in this country primarily as a meditation technique. "Western people who were anti-Christian or anti-Jewish were thinking of it as a system that seemed religious but didn't have a lot of rules," he says. "That is simply wrong. In Buddhism, the foundation of meditation is a strong ethical system."

To Thurman, Buddhism is primarily an educational program, and the monastery remains the Buddha's great social invention. The monastery made spiritual seeking a credible alternative to the military ideal and fostered a nonviolent religious revolution in India. When Buddhism was wiped out there during the Muslim invasions of the 8th through 12th centuries, the monastic ideal and its philosophical curriculum found refuge in Tibet.

As Thurman sees it, the ultimate triumph of Buddhist monasticism came with the rule of the fifth Dalai Lama, known as the Great Fifth, who assumed power in 1642. "For the first time in Buddhist history, a monastic took the throne of a nation," Thurman writes in "Essential Tibetan Buddhism." "The military was gradually phased out, with three centuries of relative peace, a unique, mass monastic, unilaterally disarmed society." While some scholars, including Donald Lopez, see a danger in overidealizing Tibetan history, Thurman remains unabashed. He says he believes the current Dalai Lama is taking Buddhist teaching onto the world stage.

Thurman and the Dalai Lama share a relationship whose warmth and depth is palpable. I saw them together in 1990 in Dharamsala at a meeting between the Dalai Lama and a group of Jewish rabbis and scholars. While the Tibetans treated their leader with extreme reverence, Thurman openly teased him, laughing and making him laugh, tweaking the Buddhist master for being too modest.

Thurman feels that the Dalai Lama, in his continuous nonviolent struggle for Tibetan autonomy, provides a new definition of heroism. Humans have succeeded on this planet in the past, Thurman argues: "because people have been heroic enough to sacrifice their lives for a group. At this moment, with the development of nuclear weaponry and technology, heroism has to be redefined as developing the power not to blow up in hatred." That, Thurman asserts, "is the Dalai Lama's teaching to the planet."

Presenting the concert at Carnegie Hall, Thurman passionately echoed this idea of "cool heroism": "We who claim we want peace should not reward violence. We should reward those who insist on making peace their method as well as peace their goal."

Still, while the post-concert party was raging around him, I thought of the young man who set off for India in Afghani pants and returned as a Buddhist monk. With so much lecturing, writing and advocacy, does he miss the quiet, contemplative life?

"There are things you can't develop in yourself if you just meditate apart from people. . . . " Thurman shouted above the din. "You have to get out there where people annoy you and injure you. Then you have to take and tolerate that injury. As the Dalai Lama would say, If there's no enemy, then you can't develop tolerance. And if there are no people who need gifts, then you can't develop generosity."

A Tibet House donor approached, and Thurman turned to greet him. "Being a Buddhist does not mean leaving the world," he called over his shoulder, "it means. . . . " And whatever else he wanted to add got swallowed up in the crowd.

Rodger Kamenetz is the author of "The Jew in the Lotus," a best-selling account of Jewish-Buddhist dialogue. With the film maker Laurel Chiten, he is working on a documentary based on the book.

From The New York Times Magazine

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Robert Thurman Doesn't Look Buddhist