Influence

It’s a funny thing, influence. It can come in any form, from any source, and what is a source of influence today may not have been a source of influence 10 years ago. I was doing some thinking tonight about what has influenced me (in any direction) over the last few years.

Title: “The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway”

Author: Ernest Hemingway

Reason For Influence: If I could write like any author, it would be Ernest Hemingway. His stories are so simple, so straight forward, but at the same time the characters are rich, deep, seem to have history, seem to be alive. Most of this life is achieved through dialogue no less – a literary technique that I have the most trouble with. Maybe that’s it … his skill in writing seems so far out of reach that it is admirable. So, I try my hand at short stories.

Title: ‘Wicked’, Character Elphaba

Author: Gregory Maguire

Reason For Influence: I think if Elphaba wasn’t green, I probably would have fallen in love with her during her pre-castle days. There was something about her. Confident, secure, intelligent. Underneath it all she was hurt and maybe even a bit scared, scarred for sure. Maybe it is in all of our nature to want to reach out and rescue those who seem to be hurting – pull a Jack Shepherd and fix everything.

The book itself helped to open my eyes and see that religious and political views are largely cultural, passed down by parents and deeply rooted in the depths of who people are. People are who they are. They should be. People are who they are and others should not force them, coerce them to change just to conform to who others think they should be. People are valuable as-is.

Title: ‘Age of Reason’

Author: Thomas Paine

Reason For Influence: Has given me a fresh (fresh to me) look at religion. Paine raised a number of philosophical issues and questions. It gave me the philosophical push to reach out for answers. Asking these questions have lead to a bunch of differing answers and telling conversations. Regardless of where I land in terms of my faith, this book is responsible for the begining of this new  quest to better understand myself, my beliefs.

{In Review} “The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind” by Mark A. Noll

Front Cover

I’m reading a book a friend loaned me entitled, “The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind”, by Mark A. Noll. It is a very interesting read, and I’ll have to apologize to my friend upfront – it has taken me far too long to read this!

I’m approximately two-thirds of the way through and have just just finished a couple of chapters of note: the first, “The Intellectual Disaster of Fundamentalism”; the second, “Political Reflection” (en-light of the previous chapter).

Let me say this: this author is about 1.5 notches above me when it comes to being smart and, even more critical, when it comes to articulating his points. So, I’m not even going to pretend to reconstruct any of his arguments and just say that he has hit-the-nail-on-the-head with the frustrations that I’ve felt toward the church. I find it interesting that he points the blame not only at fundamentalist, but at pre-millennial dispensationalists in particular (the dogma, the theology I was taught). And why not, so many of our politicians have acted in ways according to such teachings, to such apparent biblical prophesies that have been ‘foretold’ to occur in our lifetime (I have ALWAYS been skeptical, let me say this) – and when have they ever been right?

I digress. At the end of the chapter “Political Reflection” he says,

“Both prophetic speculation and conspiracy thinking depend preeminently on the mind of the observer for their understanding of the world. Prophecy buffs apply a grid from Scripture to their understanding of the world; conspiracy theorists bring a similar grid from what they know to be true in general to what they are experiencing about the world. Neither takes seriously the information presented from the world itself. Both have much more confidence in their minds than in the evidence of their sense. This situation, however, reverses the scale of confidence communicated by Scripture, where we are taught, first, to respect God and what he has done (including his creation of the world, his guidance of all human affairs, and his preservation of the human ability to learn something about the world) and, second, to mistrust our own deceiving hearts.”

I would go a bit further and say that not only does this apply to ‘prophetic speculation’ and ‘conspiracy thinking’, but also those who wrote the Bible in the first place, and to those who taught this author, Mark A. Noll, about the ‘scale of confidence communicated by Scripture’. The words of the Bible were written by men who claim their understanding of god is the accurate understanding. Furthermore, these writings originated as oral stories passed down from generation to generation. They were finally carefully written, and later copied by men, translated by men into languages foreign to the source language. In these words the faith of so many is placed. In these words the understanding of god is for so many found. Those speculating about prophesies and conspiracies have always gotten it wrong – they used the same text, the Bible. Who is to say that others do not fall into the same erroneous thinking about god when using the exact same text, the Bible? The difference is, unlike time and events, god apparently has chosen to not reveal himself and therefore the true standard of who god is remains veiled.

I grow more and more confident that I know less and less about god. Do not misunderstand me, less and less is a good thing.

{Conversations} Single-Malts and Regrets

The room is dimly lit and the air, musty. It is late, and most patrons have either shuffled home for the night or were wrapping up their tab. As the night comes to a close, the noise, the hustle and bustle slowly die. Jack stands behind the bar wiping down the various glasses and hangs them in their proper places. The bells hanging off the door clang as the door opens, and along with the blowing snow, in drifts a man.

“Got any single malts?” The man takes his coat and hat off.
Jack pulls a glass from the shelf, places it on the bar and pours.
“One of my favorites,” Jack assures. “You look like you could use it.”
“I see your place is emptying. Are you closing?”
“Not anytime soon.”
The man takes a drink, holds it in his mouth, then lets it run down his throat.
“That is good.”
“It’s been a better friend to me than most.” Jack pours another shot.
“Most are not friends. Most leave when it is convenient or when it becomes inconvenient.”
The man sits in silence for a while and takes another drink.
“I had a girl once,” he continues.
… and another …
“She was damn good to me.”
“I think we’ve all had one of those,” Jack chuckled.
“Not like her, not like her. She wasn’t a leaver.”
“What happened? She’s just not around?”
“Nah. It isn’t her.” …and another … “I’m the one that isn’t around. Couldn’t handle it. Life grew up too damn fast.”
“Ran out on her, did you?” Jack starts wiping the bar.
… and another …
“Life grew up too damn fast.”

Jack hangs the last glass and wipes the bar shiny, clean, new. The granite is clean and is ready for another night. The man stands up, drops some money down, puts his coat and hat on. He tips his hat and stumbles out, and the door clangs shut.