Rant for Khephra and nostamj

A little grotesque, but I think they'd dig it.

Walking to work this morning, I remembered this goofy episode from the 20th century, which now seems so long ago. A prominent snake-oil salesman with a Bible, name of Oral Roberts, announced one day that he had been granted a vision of Jesus. In his miraculous visitation, Jesus was 900 feet tall. He apparently insisted that the Lord needed Brother Oral to build another television transmitter, or some such thing, funded of course by your generous contributions. And if this did not come to pass, Brother Oral pleaded, then Jesus was gonna "call me home!"

It occurred to me at the time that Oral Roberts in heaven would be a win-win for all concerned. Jesus could embrace His faithful servant, and we on this plane of existence wouldn't have to put up with him any more.

But it reminded me of this odd doctrinal contradiction. On the one hand, there's the idea that Jesus visibly rewards His true believers with wealth and stature on earth. There's a lot of reinforcement for this notion, not least from the preachers on television, who present themselves as proof. In distinct contrast, however, are the words of the Gospels, which pretty clearly state that the ultimate reward for living in virtue and piety is in Heaven. And there are other texts, such as the book of Job, that describe life on Earth as a place of trials and tribulations, whereby God tests your virtue and strength of character, to decide if you're truly worthy. And there a lot more saints who died horribly for their faith, or turned their backs on worldly success, lived in poverty and/or agony, than there are those who did the Lord's work while living out the fullness of their days in comfort. (And most of those latter were Popes.)

In Ecclesiastes it is written: "The last shall be first." Clearly, then, the optimal strategy for Christian existence is to die as soon as you possibly can, once you've attained a state of grace. Given the logic of it, the Church had to make it very clear that suicide was a mortal sin-- especially once all the slaves had been baptized and Christianized.

Anyway, we here on earth lament the passing of so many good souls on our side, important people like the Kennedys and Martin Luther King and Paul Wellstone as well as more approachable people like Frank Zappa and Khephra and nostamj, while social irritants like Brother Oral and his ilk continue to walk the earth, while Richard Cheney survives four heart attacks to weasel his way into the levers of power and turn the greatest country the world has ever known into a wholly-owned subsidiary of Halliburton. (One of the most difficult texts in the Bible reports Jesus saying, "I come not to bring peace but a sword." Perhaps this is what He meant.)

Those of us who are believers (which does not include me) could take some comfort in the idea that Jesus really does mean to reward Zappa and Khephra and nostamj, despite that they didn't identify as Christians or preach the narrow version of His message. It would be easy for me to believe that the work they did was consistent with God's law in the higher sense of maximizing the potential and fulfillment of creation. The fact that it'll be harder for the rest of us to carry on without our brethren is a problem, of course...

But anyway, Scott and Jeff, if you're reading this, and if you give a shit about another pipsqueak poster on DU who clearly wasn't in your league, and if you've managed to get the ear of anybody who's really in charge, you might suggest that the Swiss guards should arrest Georgie and Condi while they're in their jurisdiction and pack 'em off to the Hague...

and don't deprecate yourself by saying you're not in their league.

:yourock:

But I'm not. They worked hard, writing and performing, getting the word out. I'm a lazy sod, and I haven't written so much as a letter to the editor in over a year. (Actually I write good ones in my head, but I don't actually get around to sending them before the issue has slipped beneath the media horizon.)

And complaining like I do is trivially easy anyway. The hard work is in (a) thinking up a better way to do things, and (b) then building a consensus to get things done in that better way.

So part of what I'm saying is, I may not be on the ball myself, but I recognize and salute people who are. The fact that so many of them are no longer in a position to do the work saddens me greatly today.

Well there's something you don't say everyday. ;-)A beautiful piece. We are all thinking about them today.

Scott and Jeff, if you can hear this, can you tell Jesus to talk to the devil and have them both stop bothering Oral Roberts? Every few years, Oral comes back from Palm Springs to Tulsa to let us know that he woke up in the middle of the night, and there was Ol' Scratch at the foot of his bed mocking Oral and telling him to turn from God to get rid of his pain, and when Oral refuses, Jesus shows up and praises Oral for being faithful and takes away some (but not all) his pain.

I just find it unnecessarily cruel especial on Jesus' part.

Rest in peace.

TlalocW

Your thoughtful post reminded me of something I heard Gurumaya say once.

Am paraphrasing here. . .

When she first replaced Muktananda and became Swami Chidvilasanda and the throngs of followers would approach her for blessings, she saw some of them carrying a brilliant light and some of their lights were not so bright. Being a fair minded individual, she did not want to discriminate acknowledging the people any more or any less based solely on their brilliance.

She meditated long contemplating how to best differentiate without being discriminatory.

Her guidance showed her the metaphor of the night's sky and how some of the stars are brilliant and some of the barely visible at all. She became aware that there was no way to determine visually whether that brilliance had to do with the inherent light generated or mere proximity.

They were all stars nonetheless.

Perhaps some of their spiritual sources were just very simply further away and thusly appeared to be more focused.

Also. . . had the exact same fantasy about the Swiss Guards.