Western Christians should not be smug about radical Islam.  John Calvin was a religious terrorist and murderer every bit as vile as the Muslim gunmen who killed twelve people in Paris on 7 January.  Today, he is revered as a saint by the Anglican Communion.

We rightly urge Islam to condemn the horrific acts done in its name, but those who continue to revere the monstrous Calvin cannot rightly join in this call.  Their hands still drip with the blood Calvin caused to be shed in the name of Jesus.

John Calvin was a sinner, like the rest of us, as deserving-undeserving of forgiveness as the rest of us, but celebrating him as a saint is one reason Christianity remains a moral joke in the modern world, with no authority to condemn the religious murders carried out by Muslims.

Incidentally, Martin Luther, even more revered than Calvin by modern Christians, did not believe in murdering people for harboring private beliefs he considered blasphemous.  He did believe in murdering them if they expressed their beliefs in public utterances.  He and the murderers of the Charlie Hebdo staff were thus on the same page, morally speaking.

I’m old, so I can say this with authority — one smile, one kiss, one hand warmly held can leave an imprint on a whole lifetime, like a watermark on a sheet of paper.  In the end it won’t matter what’s written on the paper, scribbled records of ecstasy or despair — the watermark will endure as a faint reminder of what’s eternal.

Female beauty is a problematic subject.  Men will become interested in or fall in love with women they wouldn’t be interested in or fall in love with if the women weren’t exceptionally beautiful.

There is deep biology at work here.  Studies have shown that conventional attributes of beauty in women deliver messages of evolutionary import — signs of health and vitality in a potential reproductive partner.

There is social conditioning at work here.  Possessing conventionally beautiful women confers social status on a man.

There are aesthetics at work here — a physically beautiful woman is one of God’s highest achievements, one of the glories of nature.

Beauty is only skin deep, they say, but this says little, because much of life involves interactions of skin with skin.

The subject is impossibly complicated, but there are a few guidelines through the thickets of it.  Intelligence in a woman, courage in a woman, generosity in a woman are reflected in her physical persona.  They inflect her beauty.  Men who are blind to this phenomenon — and there are many — have only the crudest concept of what female beauty is.

The intoxication of female beauty for men can be regulated by having exceptionally beautiful female acquaintances who are friends and not the objects of erotic ambition.  The ability to appreciate female beauty with joy but without the desire to possess it creates its own kind of delight.  Many men are incapable of friendships with exceptionally beautiful woman because they mistrust their ability to regulate their admiration of beauty.

To say, however, that female beauty can become irrelevant to a man, that he can see past it, that he can be neutral in the contemplation of it, is madness.  He must pay it its full tribute, must worship it, before he can give it its due place in a humane intercourse between the sexes.

Click on the images to enlarge.

The cross is supposed to be the center of Christianity — it is the expiation for sin which redeems humanity, the cosmic turning point of history.  That may be, theologically speaking.  But if this redemption doesn’t take us all back to the stable in Bethlehem, to the hillside where the shepherds heard the angels sing, to the joy of the first Christmas — what the hell good was it?

If the cross was just a last-minute reprieve, a back-stop catching us up slightly short of the abyss, it might be worthy of eternal relief, but not of eternal enthusiasm.

The cross is not the center of the moral universe — the cross places the stable in Bethlehem at the center of the moral universe.  When a man or woman of faith sees a cross, he or she should ask, “Which way is that manger I’ve heard about?  Can I still get there in time for the big event, even with a change-over in Denver?  What are the chances of picking up some myrrh in the airport gift shop?”

Suffering marks out the road to Heaven, sure, but as Blake said, gratitude is Heaven itself.  Gratitude is the destination.  Hit the trail to Bethlehem and bring a gift.

. . .  there is no male or female.

— St. Paul

The most radical statement of any religious tradition.

For the muse who hovers in the air beside my head and whispers stories in my ear, which I write down and send out into the world.

For the rivers of America.

For the new vinyl pressings of the Beatles albums in mono.

For Bob Dylan and The Basement Tapes Complete.

For Rabbi Jeshua bar Joseph, a kind teacher.

For a girl who kissed me, just once, in 1968.

For family and friends, of course, the roof over my head, enough food to eat, a good supply in hand of cigarettes and alcohol.

But really, today, most of all, for a girl who kissed me, just once, in 1968.

This is an interesting word.

In the conventional usage of organized Christianity it means passed (as in passed the test) or elected (as in elected to the club) or distinguished (as by a celestial diadem).

In everyday life it means rescued from disaster, which sort of rescue was the everyday business of Jesus.  Passing, election, distinction — he didn’t have time for that shit.  He had actual work to do, still does.

Organized Christianity, get the fuck out of his way — we don’t need you, he doesn’t need you . . . your time has come and gone.

Christian militia groups in the Central African Republic are now engaged in a killing spree, murdering Muslims, including women and children, at an alarming rate.

67% of white evangelical Christians in the U. S. support the death penalty — the highest percentage of any group in the population.

American evangelical Christians have sent representatives to both Russia and Uganda to proselytize for harsh laws against homosexuality — with marked success.

We have passed the stage where “Christian” is a meaningless term — it now has a very specific meaning to millions of people around the world . . . unmitigated evil.

It needs to be retired for a few thousand years.