Odds and Ends #4

1.  "BOOK REVIEWS":  "Majestie", by David Teems, is a fascinating look at the life of King James (VI of Scotland and I of England) as well as the monumental effort that went into the King James translation of the Bible.  It deals more fairly and sympathetically with the foibles and defects of King James than some other recent accounts, and it provides a fascinating description of the brilliant scholars who translated the bible, and their methods.  It explains the reasons behind the sonorous, poetic, lyrical and majestic tone of this Bible translation in addition to its reasonably good accuracy (at least for its time).  The side notes regarding earlier Bible translators such as John Wycliffe and William Tyndale are also quite interesting.  A must read if you're curious about any of these subjects, or if you just want to read (or listen to) a historical account that makes for an interesting story.

   An autobiographical work by Frederick Douglass, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave" is a classic, and an eye-opener to the horrors of slavery.  Douglass recounts his life as a slave and his eventual escape from slavery to become a leading abolitionist, orator and social reformer.  Douglass sadly recounted that the most brutal slave masters he encountered were also the most religious.  Perhaps this was an inevitable effect of their hypocrisy and self-deception; i.e., owning slaves and being  "Christians" at the same time, they apparently were more likely to look upon their slaves as subhuman in order to justify their ownership and poor treatment of them, in their own minds.  There was, of course, a powerful economic incentive that warped their thinking--they saw their non-slave-owning neighbors who were dirt poor by comparison.  Asked what it was like to have escaped from slavery, Douglass said "...There is scarcely anything in my experience about which I could not give a more satisfactory answer. A new world had opened upon me. If life is more than breath, and the 'quick round of blood,' I lived more in one day than in a year of my slave life. It was a time of joyous excitement which words can but tamely describe. In a letter written to a friend soon after reaching New York, I said: 'I felt as one might feel upon escape from a den of hungry lions.' Anguish and grief, like darkness and rain, may be depicted; but gladness and joy, like the rainbow, defy the skill of pen or pencil."

2.  "HERETICS":  What did groups such as the Albigensians/Cathars, Waldenses/Vaudois, Wycliffians/Lollards and Hussites all have in common?  First of all, these were names the Catholics gave them; they did not refer to themselves as such.  More importantly, they were all labelled as "heretics" by the Catholics and severely persecuted for centuries; and sometimes even massacred in great numbers.  They refused to adhere to Catholic doctrines and practices that were not biblical.  Since most surviving accounts of these groups were by their Catholic persecutors who saw them as a threat, they were often viciously maligned and their beliefs described inaccurately, resulting in some confusion as to exactly what their beliefs actually were and how much they varied.  Many would, in hindsight, label these groups as having been true Christians and the Catholics as having been the heretics.  In general, these groups believed in making scripture accessible to the people and using it as their authority rather than the pope.

   Wycliffe, for instance, aimed to do away with the existing hierarchy and replace it with the "poor priests" who lived in poverty, were bound by no vows, had received no formal consecration, and preached the Gospel to the people. These itinerant preachers spread the teachings of Wycliffe. Two by two they went, barefoot, wearing long dark-red robes and carrying a staff in the hand, the latter having symbolic reference to their pastoral calling, and they passed from place to place preaching the sovereignty of God.  Thirty-one years after his death, the "Council of Constance declared Wycliffe a heretic and banned his writings, including his English translation of the New Testament. The Council decreed Wycliffe's works should be burned and his remains exhumed and burnt at the stake.  While they were at it, they burnt Jan Hus and Jerome of Prague alive at the stake also, men who had been influenced by Wycliffe.

3.  "MADE BY MAN":  Some people question whether mankind's activity can possibly have any significant effect on our earth.  Can we--by our 7 billion little old selves--really cause global warming and hasten the "end of the world"--changing our weather and climate patterns?  Our response is either "Pshaw!!"  "Perhaps" or "Definitely", often depending on our political persuasion or level of familiarity with these issues.  So what about other signs of the "end of the world"--like, for instance, more earthquakes?  What about (mud) volcanoes?  Or Floods?  Or desertification?  Or mass extinction?  (And to think that all we used to have to worry about was a man-made nuclear apocalypse.)
    3400 years ago, when the world's population was estimated to be a mere 10 million, a desert tribe was commanded to "cover up your poo-poo" (Deut 23:13) and, even during an all-out war, to spare the trees (Deut 20:13-19).   For what it's worth, leaving your poop on the ground and cutting down a few trees is nothing compared to what we are doing to our environment today...and we could end up being the losers for it if we're not careful.

4.  Of all the thousands of news articles regarding the George Zimmerman case, these three articles about the prosecuter, a court employee and the news media are most instructive.