This time from Australia.

Now if you wonder why I’m linking this I’ll explain. People, I believe, are naturally “messianic” that is they’re attracted to people who they perceive are larger than life or larger than themselves or who they see as the solution to their problems or providing some other kind of solace.

This can be fairly harmless as in kids pretending to be their favorite football player or even positive as in our Orthodox openness to embracing and emulating Saints as they model Christ. There’s a line, though, sometimes nearly invisible, between a normal human admiration and transcendent veneration and as that line is crossed danger is not far behind. The danger is rooted in our own human brokenness and the reality that both we, and those we consider heroic, are still human and transcendent veneration will always bump up aganst that humanity and sometimes with horrible effect.

In the article linked above the author contemplates what may happen if a surge of people actually propel Sen. Obama into the presidency only to discover that this larger than life image, skillfully crafted, disappears into the real world of actually running a government. What will happen when they discover that this person, so eloquent in front of cameras, is, in actuality, a person and not the “one” who will change everything they think is wrong with this country and usher in a new shining era? After all could anyone be? Where will all that affection go? Where will the emotion of the moment travel? It might be something even the Senator should contemplate.

And less you think this is just about Sen. Obama and the current fascination of the political left one only needs to recall the kind of adulation spent on Ronald Reagan during his term and after with some even suggesting his visage be placed on our Mount Rushmore! Even today his memory is cited by the political right and his veneration continues. We all do it, and we all need to be careful as well.

We humans know we need a savior. Instinctually inside of us we, whether we are religious or not, are convinced there must be something, someone, outside of us with the capacity to deliver us from our nagging doubts, our sense of futility, the awareness of our brokenness. But to give that kind of veneration and power to a fallible human of any kind, including clergy, is fraught with peril. Perhaps the rule for we as Christians should be to not give anyone that kind of worship unless and until they die and rise again.

The Archbishop of Catnerbury is beginning to feel a little heat for his remarks on the inevitability of Islamic Sharia law in Britain. It appears all hope is not yet gone. But as I’ve said before perhaps one of the greatest benefits of the rise of radical Islam in the world is that Christians will realize the value of Christian influenced culture on their lives. Sometimes we forget what we’ve got until it’s gone.

Imagine a world ruled by the likes of Osama Bin Laden or any of a hundred would be caliphs and you’ll quickly understand that actually all religions don’t teach the same thing but they do matter and the trajectory of a culture and all who inhabit it often hang in the balance.

Now if we could just get our politicians to wake up and smell the coffee…

The doctors report is in, chronic sinusitis with a deviated septum. Prescription? Levaquin for ten days and then a visit to an ENT to check things out. Thank you Lord.

An interesting article here. People without a messiah will create one because they still have that inherent need. And therein lies a lesson.

One of the things Christians, I believe, have to remember is that politics is always about choosing the best option among a group of persons who are, like us, sinners. Sometimes we get more, sometimes we get less, but we never get perfect, should never ask for it, never expect it, and certainly never place our trust in any person as if they were.

The Archbishop of Canterbury says that implementation of some aspects of Islamic Sharia law in Britain is “unavoidable”. With that attitude thank goodness he wasn’t serving in the late 1930’s.

It’s sad to see that some in the Church seem to be unable to stand up for the values that underline Christian civilization. Quite frankly we’ve seen so many examples of the harshness and brutality of Islamic Law that I can’t imagine why anyone who could avoid it doesn’t or what possible value or benefit it would be to any society where it is now not present. The larger irony is that many things of value in countries where Sharia Law predominates, from electric lights to airplanes to oil wells, are the result of importing the fruit of predominantly Christian cultures. Can anyone even imagine someone living in traditional Afghanistan inventing television?

Of course we in cultures significantly influenced by Christianity have made mistakes, sometimes terrible ones, and continue to do so (we also have, because of Christianity, the mechanisms of positive change). But does anyone with a shred of common sense think the world should look less like the European / American democracies and more like Saudi Arabia or Iran? Why can’t the Archbishop of Canterbury crawl out of his multi-cultural relativistic mind hole and think that perhaps the reason his country is being flooded with Muslim immigrants is precisely because they’re fleeing such places for something better, the very place he thinks will be improved by importing the ideas that turned those places into cultural rubble centuries ago.

Perhaps its only at the first beheading, sadly perhaps his, that he’ll understand.

I was listening to the radio on the way in to work today and there was an ad for a sale on seafood. It brought up a question.

Why is it on sale and does a person really want to eat discount seafood? Every once in a while I see people selling shrimp, for example, out of the back of a truck on a hot summer day and I have to tell you that while the price is good there’s something about shrimp in the summer sun that’s less than enticing.

Just a thought.

In a few hours I’ll be paying a visit to a new doctor. The new year apparently is the time when your HMO gets changed and so I have to start all over again with an unknown doctor and he, in this case, with me.

It’s about the pesky headaches that arrived the day after Christmas and still seem to be lingering around. I’ve had the chiropractic work done and its helped some. I’ve treated the sinus infection and that has made things a bit better. I’ve even stopped the meds. Yet they’re still there, bearable by their familiarity but still a nuisance.

The truth is I’m not a big fan of the medical industrial complex even though I’ve made my living within its embrace for many years. To get to the bottom of this we’re going to have to question, poke, and prod. All along the way there will be forms to fill out and rooms in which to wait. In the end we still may fing no immediate answer or worse yet the doctor will give up and say “It’s all in your head”, which, of course, it actually is but there’s no comfort and no resolution in that. Regardless I’ve brought a book to pass the time.

I’ve thought about all the scary options like “What if it’s a tumor?” and that seems so unreal it would take me a moment of two to focus if I actually heard those words, some seconds to absorb it as something other than abstract. I suppose if that were the case I’d at least have a target to shoot at, a direct cause and effect and in some sad sort of way an answer. These things happen and why should I be exempt?

But in truth the chances are slim and what’s more likely in store for me is the presence of a new malady in my life. When I talk about this with the folks who live where I work they tell me of a lifetime of migraine headaches and how it impacts their life. I remember having these headaches occasionally as a child. I would call them “light headaches” because I just wanted to close my eyes and stay in the dark hoping for some relief. Perhaps they’re back to stay, given a new lease on life by virtue of old accidents and injuries, new stresses, and who knows what else. I suppose I have Adam and Eve to thank for this, welcome to the mortal world.

The one blessing in this is that it has drawn me closer to God. I’m not saying I’m some sort of saint or anything like that. I’ve got a long way to go. But illness has the power of clarifying things, of providing focus, of shedding all that is less and directing the heart to all that matters. At two in the morning when I’m awakened by my head hurting very few things other then prayer make sense and the realization that, whatever the diagnosis, I truly am mortal and subject to all the laws of age and decay that temporarily rule this world really does set my sights on higher things. I wouldn’t want the pain if I could help it but it seems that this kind of insight and pain somehow are part of the same package and so the trade, for now, seems at least sort of fair.

That all being said it’s a pretty good day today, no splitting headache and just the usual sort of pressure feeling that’s been my companion now for over a month. My eyes are a little out of focus but not so bad that I can’t drive or work. In a little while the search for answers begins. I’ll have my book ready for the waiting room and my prayer rope if things get rough.

I’m always cautious when the State offers the promise of security for just a BIT more survelliance.

Does anyone really think that a convinced terrorist will say “I’m sorry they have an iris scan of me so I guess I can’t blow myself up?” Meanwhile a whole bunch of folks who had background checks because they wanted to be Scout leaders and such will have loads of personal information just sitting there for what???

There are risks that come with being free people, sometimes dangerous people can manipulate freedom to their own ends, but they are small compared to the burdens of those who live with the all seeing eye of the State. God help us if this is a lesson we’re going to have to learn for ourselves.