Scattered thoughts...

Hey everyone! The post is a little late today, because the movie "Kundun" was playing on the "tele." It's a Scorcese film, one of my favorites... yes Filo, even with the Phillip Glass soundtrack ;) The story of the Dalai Lama is very interesting. If anyone's seen it, feel free to leave your reaction.

So, I have lots of things I could talk about and I plan to talk about, but it seemed like people liked the pictures last week, and I got some more cool ones when we had a lot of fog, so I'll stick with that for now. I hope you enjoy them.

The weather here is so crazy, I think because of high-speed winds in the upper atmosphere. The other morning it was sunny and we had the window open, when all of a sudden we heard a strange noise; looking outside, we saw it was hailing! Ten minutes later it was back to sunny again. We're still waiting for snow...

Ann heard that Thanksgiving was this week, and suggested we have a big turkey dinner together. Unfortunately, she didn't come home as early as she expected, and so it was too late to cook a whole bird. But she did have some turkey pieces, and we made mashed potatoes and stuffing and squash, so it was a good meal. Ann insulted my "mass catering" skills, but I'm over that now... besides my hurt ego, it was nice.

Melissa starts her job tomorrow! She's very nervous. Maybe she'll give you an update after the first few days.

I have to go for now, we're making an apple crumble! Yum. Enjoy the pictures, keep commenting (there's been some good discussion, so keep reading the comments too). It's good to know I have an audience to write home to at the end of every week. So, Thanks!

Changing Seasons...

Well, it's the end of November, and we're finally starting to feel the chill. The locals say that it doesn't usually get this cold this fast, but it doesn't feel too different from Pennsylvania.

The strangest thing is the path of the sun. Today it rose 20 minutes before eight, thanks to daylight savings, but it set one minute after 4! Having only 8 hours of daylight is kind of a shock, and we're not at the bottom yet. The sun stays so low that I'm surprised it's not colder than it is. We're reading Jules Verne's "Journey to the Centre of the Earth," and we can appreciate the setting. :)

On the positive side, it's been sunny for over a week, and might stay that way for a few days more.

For your enjoyment, I took a few pictures outside our place. I hope you enjoy them.

The Big M

No, it's not MacDonald's, although there are plenty of them here as well. It's the Minster!


We got a good look at it from the outside when we first got here, but we finally shelled out the pounds to see the inside of this amazing building.











There's so much history in this place that it's hard to know where to begin! But I'll try to summarize the main idea, interspersed wih pictures that may or may not have any relevance...






It all started out with a Roman structure that dates back to who-knows-when. Like most Roman buildings, it was square and practical. Parts of a wall from that building still exist, and it shows paintings of a mediterranian scene, perhaps to make them feel better in the cold north. Unfortunately, it's in the basement/crypt where pictures aren't allowed.







After the Romans, York was Christianized and populated by the Normans and the Saxons and whoever else, during which the Minster was built. One interesting bit: while the Roman structure was built according to the lay of the land, the custom of Cathedrals is to go long-ways from East to West. So the Roman ruins intersect the Minster, but they're oriented 45 degrees apart.




Every couple hundred years, the people decided that their cathedral wasn't as good as the Jones's next door, and so over the centuries, it kept getting bigger and bigger! In a pre-modern mindset, this was tangible evidence of God's providence in the city... amazingly similar to the ancient Jewish connection to the glory of the Temple. In the absence of any tangible relation between Biblical Jews and European Christians, it seems that mentality must be a basic part of human nature. I wonder what today's post-christian, post-modern counterparts would be? Hm...





They still hold services in the Minster; Anglican, of course. Another interesting bit, the church next door (which is like an extension of the Minster) hosts an Alpha program. If you're not familiar, it's an informal social get-together/Bible study that tries to introduce people to the ideas of the Bible without the cultural trappings of "church." The contrast between the deep, rich cultural tradition of the Anglican church and their apparent willingness to step outside that tradition in order to relate to a post-christian world is very striking.



Honey Lou, if you're reading, this last picture is for you!




I've only said a little bit, but hopefully enough for you to see how amazing the Minster is. Leave a post if you feel so inclined (and sign it if you want us to know who you are!) And, as always... thanks for reading!

November 5th and the Problem of Religion

There exists a very interesting holiday here in England on the 5th of November called Guy Fawkes Night that commemorates the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

If you want more information you can read this, but here's a short summary. King James I was the Protestant King of England, and Catholics felt that they were being treated unfairly. A group of extremists planned to rectify the situation by exploding 2.5 tons of gunpowder underneath the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament, killing everyone in the immediate vicinity. This was intended to ignite (no pun intended) a revolt in the Midlands.

No one knows exactly how the Protestants discovered the plot, but they arrested Guy Fawkes, who was acting as the suicide bomber, in the early morning of the fateful day. After lengthy torture he revealed the names of his co-conspirators, all of whom were hanged, drawn and quartered; a process which is so gruesome I'm not going to describe it here.

There's a strong push here to undergo willful amnesia about the origin of this "celebration," to rename it as "Fireworks Night" and reduce it to an excuse to satiate our collective pyromania. But I want to go the other direction: not to reduce it, but to enlarge it, and to reflect on it as an example of a more general phenomenon.

"By this sign, conquer." And ever since, people have been using the power of the cross to establish the power of Rome. Not that the problem is unique to Christianity of course. Islam has proven a fertile ground, and Judaism has been on both sides of the phenomenon more times than anyone can count. Hopefully the critique of my own tradition is enough to acquit me of insensitivity towards any other in this area.

Secularists have picked up on this phenomenon, of course, and they like to call it The Problem of Religion. The Problem, they say, is that when people become really convinced of spiritual principles, they can be motivated to commit acts that the rest of the non-fanatical world can easily recognize as immoral and unjust. The Solution, then, is straightforward: if you have religious beliefs, keep them to yourself. You can think whatever you want, as long as you promise not to let your thoughts influence your actions. The intended result of this Solution is that society will be guided by Reason instead of Religion, or more precisely, Human Thought instead of Divine Revelation. Surely, they say, it is religion which convinces people to commit these acts, and if they were left to their own devices, they would recognize how wrong they were! Interestingly enough, this attitude is also adopted by Christians in light of modern terrorism. Surely, they say, Islam is the problem.

Are they right? Is religion the culprit that turns ordinary people into perpetrators of heinous acts? I'm not so sure.

First, Secularism itself is not exempt from the Problem. If the French Revolution teaches us anything, it's that Reason produces its own fanaticism. Consider also the Nazi Regime. It would appear that a Darwinian philosophy is as dangerous as any religion.

It seems then that religion is not the source of the problem.

This is a very freeing realization: Muslims do not have to be condemned for belonging to a "violent religion," because adherents of all religions are violent. Christians do not have to be ashamed of their faith in secular societies, because Secularism is no more likely to lead to a less fanatical society. And atheists and agnostics can stop being afraid of their religious neighbors, because it is not religion that makes people violent.

It is also an extremely disconcerting realization: If not religion, then what? Religion, like any institution, is easy to blame, because it is easy to label. It seems that any system of thought or philosophy one could choose to subscribe to has been used to justify evil. Is there any escape? Wherever we go, we will find ourselves sharing our bed with a villain.

If we can't find the solution in external factors, we must conclude that evil comes from within.

There is substantial evidence to support this claim. In the right context, most "normal" people will participate in persecution and genocide - without religion, without any philosophical manifesto. Nothing but the right opportunity.

What lessons can we take from this example of 400-year old "Christian" terrorism? Only that evil doesn't operate according to our labels and generalizations. Evil does not reside in the Middle East, and so it can't be conquered by Western democracy. It doesn't reside in Hollywood, and so it can't be conquered by the Bible Belt. It doesn't reside in Religion, and so it can't be overcome by Secularism. It resides in the individual, and therefore it can only be conquered by the individual. Let's stop rooting out extremism in other people, and start rooting it out of ourselves.


Comments? Extensions? Contradictions? Post it as a comment...

Good News!!!

Hi everyone it's Melissa, a few people said that I should make a post to the blog, so I decided I would. Life has been pretty good, but I have been very bored without a job. I turned in many applications but alas no interviews. So this one job I applied for was a part-time temporary job for 6 months. I said well its better than nothing. I applied and they sent me the normal "sorry you suck" letter. But on Monday night I got a phone call from this lady saying they had to redo the application process and even though we sent you the "you suck" letter we changed our mind and we want you in for an interview. I said what the heck, I have nothing else. My interview was today and I thought it went well. They gave me a computer test which was pretty easy. They said they would contact me by the end of the day. Soooooooooo at 5:30pm I got a phone call saying "Mrs. Bryan I am calling to offer you the job." Hallelujah I got the job!! Of course I took it. I am not sure when I start, they have to do all the paperwork junk, but I am very pleased.

The job is with the York City Council Family Learning Center. Basically I will be an admin support type role and help keep the office organized and running. I think it is right up my alley. Thanks for all your prayers. God really answers prayers in mysterious ways sometime huh? Anyway I was feeling kind of depressed earlier in the week so Chris bought me a new suit for my interview. Don't I look cute?














So the weather here is so weird. I think it is warmer here than in PA. We have had nothing but sunny warm days for the past week and a half. Of course after I told Michele that it is never sunny here we get like 4 days in a row :) Oh well, I think it is getting a bit colder now. On Sunday it started raining halfway to church (we were cycling of course) and we were soaked by the time we got there. After church this really nice lady invited us to her house to wait out the rain. We had nice conversation and she told us to "come round" for tea whenever we wanted. We have been blessed by nice people. So by the time we left her house it was sunny and beautiful and you would have never known it rained.

Ever since we got here, I have been looking for iced tea. I really miss my mother-in-law's home made tea :) Apparently England doesn't have Iced Tea. No restaurants have it on the menu, I can't find it at grocery stores or in gas stations. It is so bizarre. Last week Chris and I were having lunch in a cute tea room and they had iced tea on the menu. So I ordered it. I took a picture of it because I was totaly baffled at what I got......


I don't know if you can tell what it is, but it is a cardboard container of tea. They didn't serve it with ice and the container wasn't even that cold! It was really weird. Have any of you seen anything like this before?

I don't think I have anything else to say right now, so thanks for reading and talk to you soon

Melissa