Interconnectedness

Discernment

2011-12-30T15:06:00.008-05:00

"The word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so that you may obey it. See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction ... Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life." Deuteronomy 30:14-15,19-20

What am I called to become? I feel broken in many ways over the last few months. I'm realizing that I cannot keep growing as a Christian if I don't develop a regular prayer life. It's amazing that I've been able to last this far in my spiritual journey (10 years now as a Christian) without daily prayer. I've been praying before meals for most of those years, yet that's the only prayer I usually do.

During my first year of medical school, me and several other devote Christian medical students, made it our goal to get deeper into prayer. My thought has always been, "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world (medical education, career, family, health, etc) and lose his soul?" I would rather fail out of medical school than let my spiritual life not grow. God has blessed me with academic success, yet I've been feeling a growing barrier in my relationship with God. I'm feeling as if my freedom to follow God's will is continually challenged and undermined.

My greatest challenge during that year of prayer was loneliness. I never learned how to fill my loneliness with God. Instead, I desired a spouse to fill it, thinking that if I would get married, my loneliness would disappear. This resulted in a lot of unnecessary pain and I'm still having a hard time seeing anything but my selfish will during my second year of medical school, although my loneliness was temporarily gone.

"Historically, the majority of people born into this world marry and have children. It is the default vocation of the natural order. Rare is the vocation to the priesthood, religious life or (even rarer) consecrated single life. The confirmed bachelor is none of those things. He is simply in the state he arrived in from his mother’s womb; an unmarried man. Too many men waste a tremendous amount of time because they are not sure what God wants."
http://www.6stonejars.com/index.cfm/2011/6/4/Confirmed-Bachelor-Why-Good-Men-Stay-Single

Now, I'm giving control to God in this department. I do not know if God desires for me to be married or have a consecrated single life. All I know is, "Christ is enough." I am simply trying to wait on His counsel for my life, for every vocation: relationship status, career, location, etc.

"Vocation does not come from a voice 'out there' calling me to become something I am not. It comes from a voice 'in here' calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God." Parker Palmer, Quaker minister

"The place that God calls us is that place where the world’s deep hunger and our own deep desire meet." Frederick Buechner, Protestant minister

Find God in all things and constantly work to gain freedom to cooperate with God's will.

Find God in all things
Besides church, the Bible, prayer or Christian groups, you can find God in:
1) Work
2) Difficult Relationships
3) In Our Failings
4) In Loneliness
5) In Pleasure

Examen of Consciousness:Finding God in All ThingsA POPULAR METHOD OF PRAYER FROM ST. IGNATIUS AND HIS FOLLOWERS
3 Minute Retreats

Organic

2011-12-05T19:43:00.007-05:00

"Their grapes are filled with poison..." Deuteronomy 32:32

The Environmental Working Group [Harvard Healthwatch June 2003] urges consumers to consider buying organic versions of these fruits that have the Highest pesticide levels: "Peaches, apples, strawberries, nectarines, pears, cherries, red raspberries, imported grapes" and "Spinach, bell peppers, celery, potatoes, hot peppers".

Interestingly, these are also foods that harbor food-born infections in developing worlds: "Thin-skinned fruit (e.g. peaches) or fruit you cannot peel (e.g. berries and grapes), and Salsas and leafy green salads."

Heidi Kenney’s Dirty Dozen Cheat Sheet

On the other hand, lowest pesticide levels are in "Pineapples, plantains, mangoes, bananas, watermelons, plums, kiwi, blueberries, papaya, grapefruit" and "Avocados, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, radishes, broccoli, onions, okra, cabbages, eggplant." Fruits, nuts, and vegetables with thick skins or shells (such as cucumbers, peanuts in shells) that you remove or peel yourself are relatively safe to eat in developing countries.

Burns

2011-10-06T21:11:00.004-04:00

"I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God." Job 19:25-26

Severe burns are a worldwide problem especially in rural areas. Aside from the immediate loss of life, the potential for long-term disability is great. In sub-Saharan Africa, young children under the age 15, lose seven times the number of productive years from fires than from war.

"He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire. Be still, and know that I am God." Psalm 46:9-10

In South Asia, more years of healthy life are lost for people between the ages of 0-29 due to fire (burn injury) than from TB, malaria, or HIV/AIDs. In this region, as distinct from the rest of the developing world, women are disproportionally more affected than boys, with almost 72% of these burn injuries afflicting young girls and women.

Patient 1: A 3 year old boy who burned the palm of his hand over a year earlier when he grabbed a hot pot. The burn was not life-threatening, but due to lack of treatment, his fingers are now contracted and literally stuck into his palm- this child’s hand is essentially useless.

It doesn’t take fancy equipment or special skills to prevent these terrible outcomes.

Application of splints while the burn wounds are healing will help to prevent contractures. You want to keep the hand and fingers in neutral position (wrist in slight extension, MP joints in flexion, and IP joints straight).
In addition, regular physical therapy during the healing process will keep the joints mobile. Encourage the patient/patient’s family to help them exercise their fingers several times a day.
And particularly for burns that cross joint creases, early excision of the burned tissue followed by skin grafting can prevent or lessen the disability than can results from these injuries.

Source: Practical Plastic Surgery

Simple Meals: Healthy Foods Under One Dollar

2011-10-05T18:39:00.022-04:00

"They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war any more. Every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig-tree, and no-one will make them afraid." Micah 4:3-4

"Having access to one’s own source of food and drink was, as it is today, a great source of security. Yet the image of every person with a vine or fig tree is not one solely of self-reliance. Vineyards and trees, more than other crops, require years and even decades to reach their full potential. Wars, which destroy homes and scatter families, and the threat of war make such long-term investments in a piece of land impossible. In addition, in order for everyone to have the ability to grow food, a community must share its resources—water, suitable soil, etc.—equitably. As it is today, an ideal food system is linked both symbolically and literally to much larger international and local relationships." Mennonite Central Committee: Simply in Season

I've heard some people say that it's expensive to eat healthy and cheap to eat junk/fast food. Not true! One serving:

1. Brown rice 10 cents – half cup
2. Pearl barley 12 cents – 2 ounces dry
3. Lentil 14 cents – 2 ounces dry
4. Oats 18 cents – half cup
5. Baby carrots 19 cents – half cup
6. Green peas 25 cents – half cup
7. Canned tomatoes 28 cents – half cup
8. Canned beans 28 cents – half cup
9. Egg (cage free) 30 cents
10. Organic milk 44 cents - 1 cup
11. Broccoli 45 cents – 1 cup
12. Banana 45 cents
13. Sweet potato 50 cents
14. Yogurt 60 cents – 8 ounce
15. Spinach (fresh) 80 cents – 1 cup
Source: Healthy Foods Under $1

Notice: Bread and wheat cereals are not included because they are NOT HEALTHY and highly processed. Oat and Barley are supreme! Also, dried beans are superior to canned beans (because of Bisphenol A [BPA] in canned food liners) if you have the time and foresight to cook them.

"Live simply, so others may simply live!"

History Repeats

2011-08-30T18:34:00.004-04:00

Two years transpired since I last blogged. Medical school has dominated my life. I've been looking over my old posts. Some posts are fascinating and others embarassing. Actions are more powerful than words, so why waste time blogging?

"If some are still dominated by their former bad habits, and yet can teach by mere words, let them teach. For perhaps, being put to shame by their own words, they will eventually begin to practice what they teach. " - St. John of the Ladder

Instead of God dominating, bad habits dominate me. While my medical school journey has been successful by the World's standards, I could be glorifying Christ daily seventy times seven times more. Love, forgiveness and Jesus are replaced by vasa previa and late decelerations (ob/gyn rotation now). Obsessions about memorizing facts, "being a good doctor" and pleasing my superiors predominates. Hopefully my confessions will humble me to action!

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other." John 6:21-24

My spark to proclaim Christ in the Wards and Clinics is dwindling. Several months ago I was organizing and doing spiritual care outreaches. Now, I am fearful of discussing faith because it would be seen as "a waste of time" and "slowing down efficiency." Doctors who work fast are venerated. The anti-spiritual culture is more powerful than I surmized. Fortunately, Christ Community Health in Memphis, Tennessee with Dr. Rick Donlon is like an oasis in the spiritual desert I find myself. I might be joining them next summer for a community/family medicine rotation for one month!!! :-)

"The LORD is my light and my salvation -- whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life -- of whom shall I be afraid?" Psalm 27

Specialities in medicine has been a stronghold instead of God for the past two years. I've listened to things like, "the waning interest in family medicine is likely due to several factors, including the lesser prestige associated with the specialty, the lesser pay, and the increasingly frustrating practice environment in the U.S." - Wikipedia. The lure of Anesthesiology caused me to overlook my call to humble family medicine. Dr. Rick Donlon helped me to see that last Spring, but I resisted it until last week.

"He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things -- and the things that are not -- to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God -- that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: Let him who boasts boast in the LORD." 1 Corinthians 1:28-31

2007-03-21T13:49:00.000-04:00

I’ll be in the top 2.44% richest people in the world when I start working next year for NYCTF ($42,500 annual income).

$8 could buy you 15 organic apples OR 25 fruit trees for farmers in Honduras to grow and sell fruit at their local market.

$30 could buy you an ER DVD Boxset OR a First Aid kit for a village in Haiti.

$73 could buy you a new mobile phone OR a new mobile health clinic to care for AIDS orphans in Uganda.

$2400 could buy you a second generation High Definition TV OR schooling for an entire generation of school children in an Angolan village.

See how rich you are at globalrichlist.com.

Are wealthy Christians called to Relocation, Redistribution and Reconciliation? Do Christians follow Christ?

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness

2007-03-13T00:19:00.000-04:00

In 1994, two Americans answered an invitation from the Russian Department of Education to teach morals and ethics (based on biblical principles) in the public schools. They were invited to teach at prisons, businesses, the fire and police departments and a large orphanage. About 100 boys and girls who had been abandoned, abused, and left in the care of a government-run program were in the orphanage. They relate the following story in their own words:

It was nearing the holiday season, 1994, time for our orphans to hear, for the first time, the traditional story of Christmas. We told them about Mary and Joseph arriving in Bethlehem. Finding no room in the inn, the couple went to a stable, where the baby Jesus was born and placed in a manger.

Throughout the story, the children and orphanage staff sat in amazement as they listened. Some sat on the edges of their stools, trying to grasp every word. Completing the story, we gave the children three small pieces of cardboard to make a crude manger. Each child was given a small paper square, cut from yellow napkins I had brought with me. No colored paper was available in the city.

Following instructions, the children tore the paper and carefully laid strips in the manger for straw. Small squares of flannel, cut from a worn-out nightgown an American lady was throwing away as she left Russia, were used for the baby’s blanket. A doll-like baby was cut from tan felt we had brought from the United States.

The orphans were busy assembling their manger as I walked among them to see if they needed any help. All went well until I got to one table where little Misha sat. He looked to be about 6 years old and had finished his project. As I looked at the little boy’s manger, I was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger. Quickly, I called for the translator to ask the lad why there were two babies in the manger.

Crossing his arms in front of him and looking at this completed manger scene, the child began to repeat the story very seriously. For such a young boy, who had only heard the Christmas story once, he related the happenings accurately - until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger. Then Misha started to ad-lib. He made up his own ending to the story as he said, "And when Maria laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no mamma and I have no papa, so I don’t have any place to stay. Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I couldn’t, because I didn’t have a gift to give him like everybody else did. But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift. I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good gift.

So I asked Jesus, "If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift?" And Jesus told me, "If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave me." "So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him—for always."

As little Misha finished his story, his eyes brimmed full of tears that splashed down his little cheeks. Putting his hand over his face, his head dropped to the table and his shoulders shook as he sobbed and sobbed.

The little orphan had found someone who would never abandon nor abuse him, someone who would stay with him-FOR ALWAYS. I’ve learned that it’s not what you have in your life, but who you have in your life that counts.

From Christian Stories

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2007-03-12T23:58:00.000-04:00

A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.

When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war [as a medic]. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.

About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands.

He said, "Sir, you don’t know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art.

The young man held out his package. "I know this isn’t much. I’m not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this."

The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture. "Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It’s a gift."

The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.

The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection. On the platform sat the painting of the son.

The auctioneer pounded his gavel. "We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?" There was silence. Then a voice in the back of the room shouted. "We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one." But the auctioneer persisted. "Will someone bid for this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?" Another voice shouted angrily. "We didn’t come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Goghs, the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bids!" But still the auctioneer continued. "The son! The son! Who’ll take the son?" Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. "I’ll give $10 for the painting."

Being a poor man, it was all he could afford. "We have $10, who will bid $20?" "Give it to him for $10. Let’s see the masters." "$10 is the bid, won’t someone bid $20?" The crowd was becoming angry. They didn’t want the picture of the son. They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections. The auctioneer pounded the gavel. "Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!" A man sitting on the second row shouted, "Now get on with the collection!"

The auctioneer laid down his gavel. "I’m sorry, the auction is over." "What about the paintings?" "I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The man who took the son gets every thing!"

God gave his son 2,000 years ago to die on a cruel cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is, "The son, the son, who’ll take the son?" Because you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.

From Christian Stories
Contributed by Gods Work Ministry Inspirational and Encouragement E-Mail

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2007-03-05T17:45:00.000-05:00

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on Friday, March 2nd, 2007 was declared the winner in a competition to design the nation’s first hydrogen bomb in two decades, a major step in restarting production of nuclear weapons.

The Bush administration said the program would improve the U.S. stockpile’s reliability, security and safety and would allow for a reduction in the thousands of weapons held in reserve for a potential war.

Critics reacted sharply, saying the program sent the wrong international message when the U.S. was trying to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.

Key members of Congress said the program was moving too fast.

From Livermore lab to build hydrogen bomb, Los Angelos Times

Would Jesus create a new hydrogen bomb? Would God create a new hydrogen bomb? Would Christians create a new hydrogen bomb?

Please leave me a comment.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2007-03-05T15:25:00.000-05:00

Dema, a 26-day-old male Sumatran tiger cub, and Irma, a 5-month-old female orangutan, cuddle at the Taman Safari zoo in Cisarua, Indonesia. Two tiger cubs and two baby orangutans, all abandoned by their mothers, became close friends and playmates sharing a room in the zoo’s nursery.

CNN.com

A female monkey fondly cuddles a puppy at a shop in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, 9 May 2002. The pet monkey, bought from an animal trader, "adopted" the puppy and spends many happy hours hugging it. Hunting and selling of monkeys are prohibited under Bangladesh laws but they are seldom enforced.

Reuters photo credit Rafiqur Rahman

Animals "adopting" and caring for each other speaks much about the Kingdom of God. After realizing their abandonment, the baby tiger and orangutan saw past each others’ differences. We are all abandoned orphans. We have a hard time realizing this sometimes. That’s why God wants to adopt us.

"He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless in His sight, even above reproach, before Him in love. For He foreordained us to be adopted as His own children through Jesus Christ." Ephesians 1:4-5 (Amplified Bible)

God does not abandon people; people abandon people. People abandon. God adopts.

As we grow older we notice more differences. Prejudice is something we learn. A child’s faith is a blank slate without prejudice. "Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it," Mark 10:15. This type of faith allows Hosea, the Prophet, to marry Gomer, a prostitute, and have a child with her. It is easy to talk about reconciliation generally, but when people start marrying across different races, economic/social backgrounds and education levels, then the conversation becomes more tense. When reconciliation in the church becomes real, people in the church will be comfortable with their children marrying children of prostitutes, thieves and murderers.

People kill. God saves. Thinking you are better than someone else is the root of all conflict.

There is nothing wrong about eating from the Tree of Knowledge. It is wrong how Adam and Eve respond once they gain knowledge. New knowledge made them proud, causing them to blame each other for the "misdeed." Gaining knowledge without love brought/brings death into the world. God told them to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge, because God knew: Truth without love kills.

National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., January 8th, 2006

If Adam and Eve were the same gender, would they be ashamed of their nakedness? Could differences between their composition cause conflict? It may be tempting to say everyone is the same for the sake of unity. By overlooking differences, it would create a "Utopia" based on blind comfort and happiness. Struggle purifies. Our job is to recognize difference when necessary and overlook differences when needed. Love without truth lies.

The Bible is the Tree of Knowledge. The Pharisees who valued the Torah more than anything else were some of the most depraved people according to Jesus. When we study the Bible, we eat from the dangerous Tree of Knowledge. This creates "Christians" who know their Bible, but blame others for conflicts in the world, just like Adam and Eve did. Some may say, "This is a fallen world. That’s why there is sin, violence, lies and Satan in this world." This statement evades personal responsibility and blinds you of reality.

The Tree of Life, the source of love, is blocked with the flaming sword after Adam and Eve are unable to handle knowledge without becoming prideful.

Genesis 3:22-24
And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

God did not block the Tree of Life, as some people think: "The flaming sword is sheathed, but not before its blade was bloody with the blood of our Kinsman Redeemer, the second Adam," (http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/nl143.htm). Instead, humans block themselves from the Tree of Life. Knowledge brings pride. Pride creates a wall between us and love.

"The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Ephesians 6:17

"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." Hebrews 4:12

The flaming sword is the Bible. The Bible (the truth) separates people. Love brings people together. The person who overcomes differences by loving others gains eternal life (the paradise of God):

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." Revelation 2:7

These two passage advocate that love without truth lies, not violence or abandonment.

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn
   " ‘a man against his father,
      a daughter against her mother,
   a daughter-in-law against her motherinlaw—[Micah 7:6]
a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:34-39)

"I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life." Luke 18:29-30 (Mark 10:29-30)

Truth without love kills our relationship with God and people. Love is more important than truth. Killing is worse than lieing. Truth and love are both necessary, because both the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life are present in the garden. God says that eating from the Tree of Knowledge, "the man has now become like one of us." The perfection God teaches comes from discarding knowledge that puffed us with pride and embracing God’s love for all people (e.g. orphans, widows, murders, prostitutes, thieves) by humbling ourselves before these people.

"External religious worship [religion as it is expressed in outward acts] that is pure and unblemished in the sight of God the Father is this: to visit and help and care for the orphans and widows in their affliction and need, and to keep oneself unspotted and uncontaminated from the world." James 1:27 (Amplified Bible)

P.S. If Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Life, rather than the Tree of Knowlege, first, then they would be far better off, since killing is worse than lieing. God said that, "you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." God does not have any prohibitions against eating from the Tree of Life. The serpant is crafty to lead Adam and Eve away from the Tree of Life, and toward the Tree of Knowlege.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2007-03-05T15:23:00.000-05:00

CNN.com

Reuters photo credit Rafiqur Rahman

God does not abandon people; people abandon people. People abandon. God adopts.

People kill. God saves. Thinking you are better than someone else is the root of all conflict.

National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., January 8th, 2006

The Tree of Life, the source of love, is blocked with the flaming sword after Adam and Eve are unable to handle knowledge without becoming prideful.

"The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Ephesians 6:17

The flaming sword is the Bible. The Bible (the truth) separates people. Love brings people together. The person who overcomes differences by loving others gains eternal life (the paradise of God):

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." Revelation 2:7

These two passage advocates that love without truth lies, not violence or abandonment.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2007-02-22T18:08:00.000-05:00

I got accepted to New York City Teaching Fellows today! I interviewed on Saturday, January 20th, 2007. I’ll start per-service training in NYC on Monday, June 18th. I’ll take the MCAT Friday, June 15th. I’ll move to NYC that weekend. Kamil might be moving to NYC too!

Plan for the future (my plans change often):

If I am a good teacher and God willing, after completing NYCTF, I will become a pastor.

If I am not a good teacher or God willing, after completing NYCTF, I’ll go to medical school and do Christian medical relief.

Either way, educating people and working to provide education for children will be an endless goal for me. I’m so thankful for this opportunity.

Acceptance letter:
Dear Mikhail:

Congratulations! On behalf of the New York City Department of Education, I am pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to the NYC Teaching Fellows June 2007 program to teach Biology/General Science. The subject you have been accepted to teach was determined by the staffing needs of the schools and a review of your teaching eligibility and preferences.

The Fellowship is one of the most competitive programs of its kind in the country. Fewer than 20% of candidates who apply are accepted, and this year was no exception, as we received a record number of applications for a limited number of spots. Your acceptance to the Fellowship recognizes your achievements to date, your demonstrated teaching potential, and your commitment to the children of New York City. We have great confidence in your ability to succeed in the classroom. You will be receiving a Welcome Packet in the mail with more information about becoming a Fellow, and we encourage you to review this information as you make your decision.

If you wish to participate in the June 2007 program, you must complete online enrollment and sign and submit the Fellow Commitment Form within three weeks. Your participation in the Teaching Fellows program is also contingent on a satisfactory reference and background check, possession of U.S. citizenship or a valid green card, and—before the beginning of pre-service training—our receipt of your official transcripts, and proof of conferral of a Bachelor’s degree. Any candidate who has reported inaccurate or incomplete information may have his/her acceptance rescinded. Additionally, you must pass both the LAST and the Biology CST before the start of the 2007-2008 school year in order to remain in the Teaching Fellows program and begin teaching.

Once again, we congratulate you and welcome you to the Fellowship. As a teacher, you will be assuming a critical role in the lives of the children of New York City. We look forward to working with you to help these students succeed.

Sincerely,

Vicki Bernstein, Director
Office of Alternative Certification

P.S. View the NYCTF June 2007 Enrollment Guide. There are a lot of ways to get kicked out of the program.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2007-02-20T23:34:00.000-05:00

To Jim Wallis, Sojourners and friends:

I am a huge supporter of Sojourners: I read it, distributed the pamphlets about "God is not a Democrat or Republican," and passionately share the message of social justice and nonviolence with my Christian and non-Christian friends. It is refreshing to read the God’s politics blog by Jim Wallis and friends.

Please hear my concern as if a friend with the most heart-felt compassion were talking with you.

I am a Christian who values the Bible greatly and naturally sees the call to social justice, nonviolence and love come through the entire Biblical narrative. All the wisdom for social justice, nonviolence and love are present in the Old Testament. Jesus uniquely interprets all of the Scriptures to bring the message of reconciliation intended from the beginning. Jesus is the new Adam.

The term "Red-letter Christian" does not seem to reflect the value of the whole Biblical narrative, which hinders Christians from proclaiming that social justice, nonviolence and love come from a relationship with the God of the Judea-Christian Bible. This is very troubling for me, because I deeply desire to follow socially conscience Christianity as proclaimed by Sojourners, but I also desire to value the authority of all Scripture. I do not see a contradiction between valuing all Scripture equally and proclaiming the social gospel.

The term "Red-letter Christian" is often explained as taking the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) seriously. The following quote is from the primary essay of René Girard from girardianlectionary.net. (René Girard is a core figure in explaining Christian nonviolence.)

"Is the teaching in the Sermon on the Mount the core of Jesus’ faith and teaching? The ultimate test must be the focus of the Gospels themselves, namely, Jesus’ act of going to the cross. Jesus came not primarily as a didactic teacher of principles to live by, but as a prophet who came to incarnate God’s Word through faith and action. When considering fundamental issues such as a nonviolent response to violence in light of the New Testament, the Cross itself is the center. For the Cross of Jesus Christ is essentially God’s nonviolent response to human violence."

We are immensely blessed to have Sojourners and many Christian leaders uniting around the social gospel message. Doesn’t "Red-letter Christian" seem to alienate itself from Jesus’ Talmudic Jewish heritage? Would Sojourners and friends consider shifting to a term like "Social Justice Christians"?

Shalom,
Misha

P.S. Paul Versluis is the pastor at my church, Shalom Community Church, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Paul Versluis helped start Sojourners.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2007-02-17T17:54:00.000-05:00

About a week ago on Thursday, February 8th Rob Bell came to the University of Michigan for the Sex God tour as I posted before. I asked the question I planned, "What do you think about nonviolence? If you favor nonviolence, how do you reconcile it with violence in the Old Testament?" His response was more amazing than I ever expected. He explained in detail what Jesus meant by turning the other cheek and going the second mile. Read a complete explanation of Matthew 5:38-41by Walter Wink. He explained that Jesus said ‘It is enough!’ with the violence from the Old Testament.

Rob Bell invited Craig Spencer and me on stage to demonstrate what it means to turn the other cheek.

I gave Rob Bell a copy of the primary article from the Girardian Lectionary and an abridged version of the Kingdom of God is Within You by Leo Tolstoy. This made him really happy and he gave me a hug.

P.S. If you are wondering why I am patting my leg during the video, it is because my Bible and planner are always in my left pocket, and they are drum-like. There is something attractive about using miscellaneous objects as musical intruments.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2007-02-16T19:07:00.000-05:00

As you can see from the "Christian Peace Bloggers" link above, I joined a group of Christian bloggers who write about Christian nonviolence. It’s great to be part of a community. I hope it provides access to me and others to more ideas about Christian nonviolence, especially from a Biblical basis. I already found a great story from a Christian at war from Chris Baker (sandalstraps.blogspot.com) and a person similar to me, Mark Van Steenwyk (jesusmanifesto.com). Visit sitemaker.umich.edu/globalnonviolence to see the 3 documents I have been distributing about Christian nonviolence (René Girard; Leo Tolstoy; conservative Christian). I think about Christian nonviolence all the time.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2007-02-04T03:27:00.000-05:00

Rob Bell seems to support Christian nonviolence! Since my "rebirth" in understanding my faith in light of nonviolence, I feel I’ve been fighting to proclaim Christ’s message all by myself. It helps the cause that Rob Bell is considered the #10 Most Influential Christians in America. (http://www.thecronline.com/mag_article.php?mid=875&mname=January). However, this list should be taken with a grain of salt considering the other people on the list.

I first learned about Rob Bell from Nooma videos at Bible study with Chris Shoemaker et al. Rob Bell is coming to campus this Thursday, Feb. 8th, 8pm, Power Center for a Q&A session about his new book "Sex God" and show a new Nooma video. I read the first chapter of this book called "God Wears Lipstick." As I read the book, I was amazed. Here are some excerpts. You can find this at sexgodtour.com.

"A concentration camp is designed to strip people of their humanity. It’s anti-human. And in the Scriptures, anything that’s anti-human is anti-God. Genesis begins with God creating the world and then creating people “in his own image.”"

"I just received an email asking if I would sign a petition protesting the use of torture to get information from enemy soldiers caught in battle. The email said this issue is being debated among politicians right now and that the public needs to speak up on the matter. There’s a debate about this? The issue isn’t just what torture does to the person being tortured, it’s what torturing does to the person doing it. We’re already in trouble when people debate the use of torture as if it’s only about what it does to the enemy. Our own humanity is at stake."

"When a human being is mistreated, objectified, or neglected, when they are treated as less than human, these actions are actions against God. Because how you treat the creation reflects how you feel about the Creator. To be a Christian is to work for the new humanity. Jesus commands his followers to feed and clothe and visit and take care of those who need it. They’re fellow image-bearers, they’re just like us, and when we love them, we’re loving God."

He is explaining the heart of the Greatest Commandment exactly. This is what I did not understand before understanding nonviolence. Basically, I did not understand the Gospel until my Junior year in college.

Since Rob Bell was saying all this, I started wondering if he supports nonviolence. Behold, on the Mars Hill website (http://www.marshill.org/teaching/index.php), he recently gave a three sermon series called "Calling All Peacemakers." The last sermon is "A Brief History of Non-Violence." He explains Matthew 5:38-42 in breath-taking detail. I recommend it to everyone (it is only available for a while; I downloaded it, so I have a copy if any needs one). I’ll be at the Q&A session on Thursday and will be sure to ask Rob Bell, "Do you support nonviolence? If you do support nonviolence, how do you reconcile nonviolence with violence in the Old Testament?" I want to know how deep his faith in nonviolence goes.

I feel like I finally understand the entire Bible message. The only consistent message I find in the entire Bible is the issue of scapegoating. Scapegoating starts from Adam/Eve, Cain/Abel, Joseph/his brothers, Noah/humanity, Isaac/Ishmael, Jonah/fishermen, etc and ends with Jesus and his disciples. Some may object, "Isn’t faith the overarching theme." Yes, faith is the overarching theme. It is the faith in the vast difference between us and God that saves us, because this difference causes us to repent from our violence. Every act of violence or preference (scapegoating) is a reflection of human, not divine, nature. Humans kill, God brings life. Christ died for our sins, not God’s sins because God does not sin. "Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death." Hebrews 11:19. Abraham believed that God’s desire to create would overpower all human power to destroy. This is the promise that Christ has overcome the world.

The entire Bible story is a gradual enlightenment about the holiness of God versus the depravity of humans. The climax comes when Jesus, the lamb of God (the scapegoat God uses to show us our own depravity in the greatest way), comes to earth and humans kill him. It is God’s way of saying Nietzsche’s phrase, "God is dead." It is obvious to God that humans are depraved, but humans cannot see this and need this revealed before we can change. Fortunately, God does not leave us with Nietzsche’s pessimistic view, and resurrects Christ to show God’s creative force and a hope that humans can overturn our culture of death.

It is a reflection of human, not divine, nature to kill an innocent person. When we all realize the innocence of each individual person and our own tendency to bring death, then we will know the Gospel message: peace through forgiving all.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2007-01-12T18:09:00.000-05:00

Even before the time of Jesus, Jewish teachers had discussed the Law of Moses and whether there were one or more commands that summarized the whole law. This debate is easily seen in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. The debate also seems to be behind Luke’s account, which immediately precedes the parable of the Good Samaritan. We will look at examples of how some Jewish teachers proposed to resolve the question.

Not all teachers agreed that some commands might be more important than others. Because of the Jewish belief that all of the Torah (written and oral) came from God, most believed that all of the Torah was equal in importance. Yet some commands were thought to be more comprehensive than others. To keep those commands would mean keeping the whole of the Law of Moses.

The Talmud calculates that the numerical value of the Hebrew word "Torah" is 611. Thus, Moses’s 611 commandments combined with the two directly from God (the first two of the Ten Commandments commandments; they are phrased in the first person) add up to 613. 248 are mitzvot aseh ("positive commandments" commands to perform certain actions) and 365 are mitzvot lo taaseh ("negative commandments" commands to abstain from certain actions). 365 corresponded to the number of days in a year and 248 was believed by ancient Hebrews to be the number of bones and significant organs in the human body. Three of the negative commandments can involve yehareg ve’al ya’avor, meaning ‘One should let himself be killed rather than violate this negative commandment’, and they are murder, idol-worship, and forbidden relations.

In Leviticus Rabbah 24:5 (i.e. the homiletic midrash [Jewish commentary] to the Biblical book of Leviticus), Rabbi Levi taught that all the Torah is summarized in one chapter, Leviticus 19, and he shows how all of Exodus 20—the Ten Commandments—is included in this chapter. In subsequent discussion, Rabbi Levi and Rabbi Tanhuma saw that in three chapters Moses gave all of the Torah [Exodus 12; 21; Leviticus 19] because each one contains sixty specifications of religious duties (or some say 70 in each chapter). Then Rabbi Simlai says that David comprehended all the commands in eleven commands (in Psalm 15), Isaiah in six (in Isa 33:15), and Micah in only three (Mic 6:8, also noted by Jesus in Matt 23:23). Then Isaiah 56:1 is said to have comprehended all the commandments in just two: “Observe justice and do righteousness”; and finally, Amos 5:4 and Habakkuk 2:4 in just one statement. (Habakkuk 2:4 is, of course, also important for Paul in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11)

This is mostly from wikipedia and http://www.bibleresourcecenter.org/vsItemDisplay.dsp&objectID=C9EFF70C-8099-43F7-B740B4AFAB3A329F&method=display

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-12-12T15:07:00.000-05:00

Geez magazine expresses my feelings entirely.

On who is right
by Will Braun, Editor of Geez Magazine
http://www.geezmagazine.org/issue4/onwhoisright.html

Evangelical Christians gravitate toward clear divisions, even stark polarities: saved-unsaved, heaven-hell, right-wrong, good-evil, God-Satan. Just keep things nice and simple. Either you’re for us or against us. Homosexuality, abortion and terrorists are bad – period. End of discussion. Justice shall prevail.

This is somewhat of a caricature of course, but indulge me for a moment, if you will.

In this world of black and white, notions like forgiveness and love of enemies tend to get lost. And next thing you know they’re dropping bombs on the other side of all those clear-cut lines of division. The killing of innocent people turns into "fighting the forces of evil" – fighting, always fighting, opposing, righteously resisting.

They love their enemies alright – that is, they love to have enemies. The more the better. Bring ‘em on. Discernment turns into demonization. Violence becomes a divine calling. Love of God and hatred of enemy become one.

And to seal the deal, they will walk the mansion-lined streets of gold while everyone else will literally burn for a literal eternity in a literal lake of sulphur-stenched fire. An absolutely impassible chasm will separate the two.

Okay, that was the fun part to write; now comes the other part, because we, in turn, demonize evangelicals for their demonizing ways. We hate them for their hatred. Or is our hatred okay because we are right and they are wrong?

The tendency to categorize and divide and simplify and do something other than love our enemies is in us all. We have the tendency to recount with self-satisfaction the scandals of a particular political party, to soothe our righteous egos by reading (or writing) nasty things about the Christian Right, to let ourselves feel good that we’re not stupid like them. (And I only had to look at the last three days of my own life for those examples.)

Rather than seeing the spark of eternity in each person, or loving those who might qualify as our enemies, we nurture negative feelings toward them. We create distance between us and them. It feels really, really good. We’re not like them.

We all live in an increasingly binary, polarized, dichotomized, polemicized, divided world; a world of east vs west, Christianity vs Islam, Republicans vs Democrats, good vs evil, freedom vs tyranny, us vs the terrorists. Language and images are used and misused to solidify the sides and entrench the divisions.

But maybe the goal is not to refute the Religious Right or the Bush Administration or whomever we most like to sneer at. Maybe the point isn’t to be more right than them. Maybe there is something more important than being right.

Maybe the goal is to love our enemies, to blur lines of division, to forgive with relentless abandon, to disallow ourselves feelings of superiority, to look within, to act in such a way that if the Donald Rumsfelds in our lives had complete transformations and wanted to associate with us, we would not have to apologize for any past actions or thoughts toward them.

Here at Geez, we are perhaps prone to make sport of the excess and blessed sentimentality of the Jesus-in-my-heart-and-I’m-on-my-way-to-heaven-’cause-the-Bible-says-so Christians. So, for this issue, we are taking a deep breath, steeling our belief in tolerance and engaging our evangelical neighbors in sincere dialogue. Forgive us if we slip from time to time.

In it all, I suppose we are suggesting the possibility – though we still don’t totally have the stomach for it – that human redemption grows in a field of fearless, irrational inclusivity.

Evangelical Christian typologies from http://www.geezmagazine.org/issue4/anevangelicalbody.html

1. Fundamentalists (or Conservative Evangelicals)

These are usually what the press is referring to when they talk about "evangelicals" – or who they think they’re referring to. Like many evangelicals, conservative evangelicals are those who "insist on some sort of spiritual rebirth as a criterion for entering the kingdom of heaven, who often impose exacting behavioral standards on the faithful, and whose beliefs, institutions, and folkways compromise the evangelical subculture in America," says Balmer. They are also known for their defense of the Bible as unquestionable, for their "proselytizing zeal" and for their belief in a "sudden, instantaneous, dateable experience of grace." The term Fundamentalism can describe any literalistic, moralistic, pietistic – and these days militaristic – way of interpreting faith, explains Balmer.

2. Pentecostal Charismatics

To experience it first-hand, I recently attended a Pentecostal church for the first time in years. After getting over my initial difficulty breathing, I appreciated pastor Don Noble’s sermon about the Holy Spirit. Pastor Noble explained how he grew up as part of a very eccentric group of Christians – in his words, "I didn’t know they were crazy until I was a teenager."

Noble gave a good example of what many liberal Protestants worry about – a woman in his congregation explained to him how the Holy Spirit guides her in everything she does, including telling her to turn left or right when she’s riding her bicycle. Noble explained how guidance from the Holy Spirit means living like Jesus, but it also means using your God-given brain.

3. Liberal Evangelicals

This kind of evangelical is popularly associated with street preaching, Christian campus groups, missionary work and evangelism. Although both liberal and conservative evangelicals contain Bebbington’s four evangelical attributes (conversion, the Bible, activism and the cross), a liberal approach to life, politics and faith can differ so radically from that of a conservative that Liberal Evangelicals take deep offense at being lumped together with conservatives.

What makes them so different? Liberal evangelicals move away from "born again" Christianese, and are less likely to hold altar calls (though it’s not unheard of). Liberal evangelicals can be distinguished from the above types by their less offensive evangelistic tactics as well as the notable absence of war imagery and militancy in their discourse.

4. Emergent Church (and Vintage Church)

The shift into what some would call the postmodern age has uprooted these Christians and sent them scrambling to find new ways to make their Christianity "relevant" (a key but sometimes nebulous term).

The issue for Emergent types is to assert Christianity in a time when binary ideas like heaven and hell, Christian and non-Christian, spirit and body, male and female are being challenged and seen as too dualistic. Emerging Christians value individual stories more than ascribing to one grand overarching and possibly oppressive "metanarrative." This allows emergent church Christians to have a new openness to different ways of interpreting the Bible – everyone’s perspective is relevant and should be expressed.

As with so much post-structural and postmodern theory, the emergent gospel tends to come from the top down, drawing analysis from academic discourse surrounding postmodernity. Adherents tend to be internet savvy and have a heavy presence in the blogosphere, which could be deemed inaccessible.

5. Social Justice Folks

In an article in the New York Times, "Rebels with a Cross" (March 2, 2006), John Leland confuses the perspectives of new monastic radicals like Shane Claiborne and The Simple Way in Philadelphia with pop-culture Christians who dig Christian clothing lines (like souldog.com) and skateboard Bible studies.

Although these trends may have in common a young face and a rad new look, social justice Christians are distinct from any old "rebel with a cross" in that they challenge secular (and Christian) capitalist society. These Christians can be found in evangelical communes like Jesus People USA, in small queer-positive emerging church communities, in Catholic Worker communities, in conservative and pacifist Mennonite communities, or in new monastic communities. Despite their varying influences – from liberal, emerging, evangelical or contemplative – what brings this group together is a commitment to living the "social gospel."

6. Christian Leftists

Although Christian Leftists would not be considered "evangelical" by themselves or the rest of the church, I’ve included them in this typology as a group commonly misrepresented as "evangelical," much to their and everyone else’s horror.

Most of the people who are referred to as Christian leftists are known for barely hanging on to traditional Christian doctrine.Other than these heretical sound bites, Christian leftists of this sort tend to put major emphasis on social gospel and environmental issues. For example, the recently established Network of Spiritual Progressives represents the spiritual or Christian left in the States. Its vision is to be, in part, "challenging the misuse of religion, God, and spirit by the religious Right" (see spiritualprogressives.org).

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-12-08T20:02:00.000-05:00

If our faith is maintained by the sword, it will also parish by the sword. Our possessions and lives are God’s; they were bought by the price of Christ’s blood, not the blood of our enemies. A soldier’s job is not to sacrifice his/her life for our country, but to make the enemies sacrifice their lives for our country. John 15:13 says, "There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends," not, "There is no greater love than to make another person lay down one’s life for your friends." Christ brought the reign of the spiritual, not physical, Kingdom. He showed it by stressing that we should arm ourselves with the armor of God instead of physical weapons (Ephesians 6:10-18), value treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21), become born of the Spirit (John 3:1-21), grow in a family of believers instead of blood lines (Luke 8:21), call no place on earth our homeland (Matthew 8:20) and love our enemies for us to "be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:43-48). Who would Jesus kill to protect our family, land or liberty?

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-12-06T18:00:00.000-05:00

The command to obey state authorities is sometimes taken to mean complete obedience to a ruler on the part of a Christian. Peter and other apostles had no hesitation disobeying the Sanhedrin by teaching in Jerusalem and saying, “We must obey the laws of God, not men,” (Acts 5:29). The apostles boldly defied the Sanhedrin’s command to stop proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ and were flogged or killed for it. Daniel continued to pray to God even after King Darius decreed that anyone who prays to any God or man other than the king shall be thrown into the lions’ den. Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den and was delivered by God out of the ordeal unharmed. Obedience to God was a higher priority to the apostles and Daniel than obedience to the state.

How then do Christians relate to state authorities? When the Sanhedrin handed Jesus over to Pontius Pilate, Jesus answered Pontius Pilate’s claim to power, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above,” (John 19:11). It may seem Jesus handed power to state authorities solely for the purpose of his mission of crucifixion, but the power given to state authorities does not end with Jesus as Paul later wrote, “The authorities that exist have been established by God,” (Romans 13:1). The Roman government threatened Jesus and Paul’s life more than anything else — eventually killing both of them — yet Jesus and Paul still respected the physical, but not moral, existance of state institutions. How can we reconcile Jesus and Paul prioritizing obedience to God, yet openly sacrificing themselves before state power?

Submission to state authorities can be viewed in two ways. The first way is the main argument the Jews used to crucify Jesus by stating, “Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar,” (John 19:12). The Jewish community defied God and used the state as a vehicle for performing their disobedience. The Jews corrupted Jesus’ teaching of giving onto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s to justify the killing of an innocent person. The second way is a spiritual struggle or ‘holy tension,’ which Paul explains, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms,” (Ephesians 6:12). Christians are called to put the spiritual and ethical above the physical and temporal. State authorities can only be obeyed if their requirements are in accord with the ethical teachings fulfilled in Christ. If authorities ask for disobedience to God’s teachings, it is commanded to put God first, and notably, not allow a spiritual battle with the government to become a physical battle. Jewish zealots were waiting for a physical battle lead by a Messiah who would drive the Roman occupiers into the sea, and rejected the inward spiritual transformation Jesus preached. Moreover, it is necessary to equally honor authorities established in our country as in all other countries since all authorities are established by God. By submitting to all authorities, Christians are not allowed to take part in overturning their own government with a revolution or another countries’ government with a war. Whereas the first way of submitting to authorities honors neither God nor man, the second way honors a Christian’s servant role to everyone and allows our means to be as pure as our ends.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-12-06T17:51:00.000-05:00

There seems to be a shift from supporting militarism and morality based issues to supporting peace and social justice issues within the Christian evangelical community! Bill Barnwell is an Evangelical pastor from the "Antiwar Christian Right" and wrote an eye-opening Biblical exegesis about War, Christians and the State at http://www.lewrockwell.com/barnwell/barnwell41.html. I’m trying to print and pass out copies of this article to many of my Christian friends. Also, Rick Warren, who I haphazardly lambasted in a previous entry, infuriated many conservative evangelical Christians by inviting Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, to speak at the Global Summit on AIDS at his megachurch. "The fact is the evangelical realm of the church has failed in this area [AIDS aid]. They’ve put it off too long, they didn’t care," Warren told ABC News last year: http://www.abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=2691952&page=1.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-12-05T22:49:00.000-05:00

The Old Testament (OT) should never be used for making ethical standards for Christians. The OT consists of only one principle: do whatever God commands by any means necessary. No ethics can exist based on an ‘ends justify the means’ philosophy. In the OT, God commands "thou shalt not kill (murder)", but then commands harem warfare genocide. God was trying to teach people faithfulness, not ethics, in the OT. In the New Testament (NT), Jesus fulfills God’s will by valuing the spiritual over the physical: armor of God instead of physical weapons, treasures in heaven instead of wealth, God dwelling in us instead of the Temple, and family of believers instead of blood lines. Jesus established a spiritual kingdom in the NT, whereas it was mostly physical (geographically and ethnically) in the OT. The spiritual kingdom is upheld with ethics based on the Greatest Commandment to love God and everyone.

When it comes to ethics, we should not go for avoidance ethics. Avoidance ethics asks, "How can I avoid sin?" Instead, we should be asking, "How can we best live for the cause of Christ?" The question should be in the positive, not negative. "Whatever you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31). This dramatically changes how we look at our actions. Instead of scrupulously looking for verses to defend our every action, we should ask, "Does this action help the cause of fulfilling the Great Commandment?"

No verses in the Bible definitively command against slavery or support the right for women and minorities to vote, yet most believe these are ethical and loving ideas. Moreover, these are human rights. The Greatest Commandment is the fundamental principle for perfect living, which is the Golden Rule: "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." Matthew 7:12. In other words, it is the categorical imperative of Kant and all rationale moral philosophy, "Live your life as though your every act were to become a universal law."

P.S. Sunday, February 4, 2007: I provide a different (gradual ethical enlightenment) interpretation of Old and New Testament ethics in the last three paragraphs at http://www.interconnectedness.net/2007/02/04/rob-bell-nonviolence-and-scapegoating/

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness

2006-12-04T19:59:00.000-05:00

What you’re experiencing is the result of our individualistic culture. Your work and "play" time does not have to be black and white. Being in a "cushy" job and living in suburbia will not provide you with more intimacy with your close friends. Too much luxury demeans the cost of life. Likewise, becoming a workaholic and coming home to an "empty apartment" will not be a great benefit to the world. Too much work values programs over people. Everything is meant to be in community.

In modern American culture, individualism has grown to such an extent that it is advised to "not bring your work home with you" and to "not bring personal issues into the work place." This estrangement of work and personal life translates to how people view political and social issues. Rich people, even so-called liberals, feel fine taking part in campaigns to help poor people, but are themselves unwilling to become poor in solidarity with the people they aim to help. Compassion comes from understanding, and understanding comes from solidarity.

Solidarity requires investment of all parts of your life to living for a cause. It makes the political personal, because you are not merely working for others, but your own survival depends on the success of the community. People are often ready to make commitments, but are hesitant in surrendering and disarming themselves. God asks us to surrender ourselves to Him and to others, and acts of surrender, not commitment, is what matters in relationships and in all causes.

Social change comes from breaking down walls of wealth, power, privilege, etc. that separate us. We cannot expect to change the world if we do not learn how to break the walls that keep us from living in community here at home.

There can be fear of community not being as professional has corporations and being less efficient than the factory model. Community and professionalism are not exclusive. The main reason the factory model seemingly works well is because not enough people understand community living. Instead of community, some people focus all their interests on themselves or their family, which promotes individualism. Three reasons exist for what people live for: 1) for themselves, 2) for their family, 3) for everyone. Each one of us will continue to live a fragmented life until we start living for the third reason, which is identical to living for God.

To see a real-life example of what I mean, you can read this article on The New Monasticism and simple living at http://www.interconnectedness.net/newmonasticism.pdf

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-11-22T19:02:00.000-05:00

Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves. You lust for what you don’t have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn’t yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it.

You wouldn’t think of just asking God for it, would you? And why not? Because you know you’d be asking for what you have no right to. You’re spoiled children, each wanting your own way.

You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way. And do you suppose God doesn’t care? The proverb has it that "he’s a fiercely jealous lover." And what he gives in love is far better than anything else you’ll find. It’s common knowledge that "God goes against the willful proud; God gives grace to the willing humble."

So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet.

Don’t bad-mouth each other, friends. It’s God’s Word, his Message, his Royal Rule, that takes a beating in that kind of talk. You’re supposed to be honoring the Message, not writing graffiti all over it. God is in charge of deciding human destiny. Who do you think you are to meddle in the destiny of others?

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-11-15T11:40:00.000-05:00

You can read the Michigan Daily article about Anti-War Action! here Fighting Apathy: not your parents’ protest. There is some information about me in the article.

There are some corrections. I became a Christian when I was sixteen; I’m not a "life-long Christian." I used to be an atheist. Also, I read "The Kindgom of God is Within You" by Leo Tolstoy during my junior year Christmas break, not freshman year.

My t-shirts saying, "Love your enemies" and "Who would Jesus bomb?" represent the Sermon on the Mount, not Christian Anarchism. I do not know how to represent Christian Anarchism succinctly.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-11-09T22:12:00.000-05:00

The purpose of Make Affluence History is to encourage individual awareness and action so that, ultimately, global resources will be distributed in a manner that respects the needs of all humans as well as the planet that supports us.

A campaign called Make Poverty History (MPH) has focused on lobbying creditor governments to convince their bankers to offer debt relief to debtor governments. In contrast, Make Affluence History campaigns for lifestyle awareness and personal change through voluntary simplicity, self-reliance and down-shifting, with the goal of enabling a more equal distribution of global resources.

We agree with the overall objectives of MPH with regards to resolving poverty related issues arising from lack of access to nutritious foods, medical attention, clean air and water, and acceptable shelter. However, we do not believe that these issues are in any way intrinsically linked to access to money or to a lack of industrial development. In fact, we feel that many of the demands put forward by the Global Campaign Against Poverty are potentially counter-productive to the ultimate aims of poverty reduction.

We propose that the best solutions to these issues do not lie with governments, bankers or development agencies. Overwhelmingly it lies with us, and our choice to be global ‘consumers’. We believe that the lifestyles in "developed" nations are unsustainable, and that those of us living those lifestyles must change them and simplify our own lives. We believe that affluence hurts the planet, animals, and people and that it is a very poor example to the world, a lifestyle that no one should be encouraged to attain.

“Live simply so that others may simply live.” - Gandhi

Sponsor a Rich Kid.

From makeaffluencehistory.org, which currently does not work.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-11-05T00:22:00.000-05:00

Here’s my biography by Dana for her sociology class. Enjoy. I like it a lot.

By Dana Christensen
Sociology 455: Religion & Society
Fall 2006

A Spiritual Shaping of a Life

Misha’s faith is the current stage of a personal spiritualization that has been evolving for the last seven years of his life. A pre-med student in his final year as an undergraduate, Misha plans to pursue a medical degree because it provides a means for him to “unite evangelism, social justice and science around curing the consequences of violence and overpowering future violence with love today.” (Misha: 2006) Having known Misha by means of the American Civil Liberties Union, I have come to learn that he is a Mennonite because of their commitment to non-violence, which he sees as the core of Jesus’ teachings, along with social awareness, which he concludes is the natural progression from non-violence. His belief and relationship with God is of an “intellectual and experiential” nature, developed over time to shape his social and political consciousness; inspiring him to be vegetarian, anti-war, anti-Bush administration, and interested in Christian anarchism, communal living, and asceticism. (Misha: 2006)

Misha’s story of finding faith and social awareness incorporates many of Lofland and Skonovd’s means of conversion and Heirich’s transcultural aspects of religious experience, along with the modern phenomena of exploring and searching for one’s best religious fit. (McGinn: 9/7/2006) The way that Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU) and the Mennonite church carry out different roles in his religious and spiritual life is a demonstration on how Heirich’s transcultural aspects of religious experience can be bet by the compliment of more than just one institution. (McGinn: 9/7/2006) This may seem like “Sheila-ism,” or a “conscious attempt to forge ones own,” coined by Robert Bellah to “tailor one’s faith by drawing from other resources,” but Misha firmly identifies with the Mennonite faith and is aware that CRU is not a denomination but a means to provide a culture for Christians. (McGinn: 9/21/2006) Because Misha grew up atheist, found God at sixteen years old, and has only started attending the Mennonite church in Ann Arbor a year ago, CRU serves as his religious community, for he has only started to form roots with his intellectual and theological community with the Mennonites. Misha shares with many college-aged students the experience of awakening and desire to change the world for the better, with his faith being his inspiration and momentum.

Finding God: the Teachings of a Community

Growing up in communist Russia by scientist parents who “believed that religion was for stupid people,” Misha was atheist due to his government, education, and family when he moved from Moscow to Ann Arbor at the age of seven. (Misha: 2006) (McGinn: 9/7/2006) Upon arriving to America, his parents became friends with a few Christian families who sought them out and would host bible studies with them. While they appreciated the company and kindness of their new friends, Misha admits that his parents, although “sympathetic” to his and other people’s faith, “still haven’t come to God.” (Misha: 2006) It was these families that recommended two summer camps to Misha’s mother for him to go and learn values and be outdoors; an example of Robert Wortworth’s idea of parents indoctrinating or at least exposing their children to religion as a means to learn “right from wrong.” (Misha: 2006) Although he complied, he was still a non-believer. These two camps would have opposite and life changing effects on Misha.

The first camp Misha went to was a Russian Orthodox camp that he describes as “like Boy Scouts” with an “emphasis on the white soldiers” and old nationalism focused on the Czar. (Misha: 2006) Going into the camp not believing in God at thirteen years old, Misha came out unconvinced and turned off by the rigid structure of the camp. Not having known anything about religion, Misha’s impression based on his first camp experience was that it was all based on traditions and practice and not the meaning and integration of the scripture. He was not drawn to the people either, feeling that activities like lining up like soldiers and singing Russian patriotic songs to the Czar were more strange than spiritual. The camp was lacking nearly all of the five transcultural aspects of religious experience in Misha’s case: encounter, transformation, meaning, and relationships. What was left for him was the judgment of the Orthodox tradition, with the constant reference “to God’s laws,” and the consequences there of, without the theological meaning to support the claims. (Misha: 2006) He was open about his atheism at the camp, which was met with disapproval and further alienated him from the rest of the community. After two summers, Misha gave up on the camp, but decided to go to another camp recommended by one of his mother’s Christian friends at the age of sixteen.

This time, Misha went to a Christian Russian Baptist camp in Connecticut, and his experience was “completely different” and positive. (Misha: 2006) Instead of enforcing the traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church and the legacy of the Czar, the Baptist camp focused on “what the Bible has to say,” and had church, meditation, Bible studies, and evening devotions multiple times a day. (Misha: 2006) For the first time, Misha learned about the teachings of Jesus, something he claims was completely ignored at the Orthodox camp. The constant exposure and study of the Bible, and the support of the camp community that did not make an issue of him not believing in God, which made him comfortable listening and taking to heart what was taught at the camp. Coming back to Ann Arbor after weeks there, Misha decided that he believed in God.

Conversion: A Change, an Ongoing Search

When asked how he came to accept God, Misha states that “it made sense. I learned about Jesus’ teachings, and he said he was God, so I believe that. It is like believing in any other truth.” (Misha: 2006) With exposure to the Bible, Misha related to a Christian message not translated at the Orthodox camp, and could make a logical connection between the “truth” of Jesus and the presence of God. (Misha: 2006) This type of intellectual change in belief falls under Lofland and Skonovd’s conversion principles, and has been the driving force of Misha’s spiritual development since his first “leap of faith” at sixteen years old. (McGinn: 9/19/2006)

Misha’s original conversion to becoming a believer was brought on in large part by the change in spiritual community provided by the open and biblically-focused orientation of the camp. Along with what Heirich would call a “change of heart” and a personal push away from Atheism to Christianity, Misha’s stay at the Baptist camp provided him a means to experience religion and “pulled” him to faith with God. (McGinn: 9/19/2006) “My belief in God is intellectual and experiential,” Misha said, based on Jesus being his mentor and “exercising/experiencing Jesus’ teachings,” which demonstrates the dual personal/social aspects of how Misha approaches his faith. (Misha: 2006)

His spiritual growth ran parallel with a new-found appreciation of learning and thinking, fostered in an advanced-level high school humanities class that taught world history from a four perspectives: world literature, history/philosphy, art history and music history/theory. Before, Misha was not interested in learning, just getting good grades, having fun, and “not getting into trouble.” (Misha: 2006) He had started to experiment with girls and drinking, and was not convinced by his parents that his actions had negative consequences. It was only after camp and finding God that he “understood right from wrong,” with his family noting a striking but positive change in him. (Misha: 2006) “My parents said that I became more loving, displayed more kindness to people,” he said. (Misha: 2006) His parents were supportive of his newfound faith, because he says that “they did not need to convince me that what I was doing was bad. I stopped doing it.” (Misha: 2006) But as a result of finding faith in God and denouncing his previous ways, Misha lost many of his friendships with those who shared his old pursuits of girls and other debauchery.

Finding the right religious community and identity was a process that lasted up until this past year for Misha, as he tested churches and youth groups in hopes of finding what was right for him. His “quest,” or an attempt to find experience where others are “inadequate,” is discussed by N.J. Demerath, III as part of the compensatory or “alternative commitments and communities” that one seeks in regards to the sacred experience. (Demerath: 1999) One of ongoing themes in Misha’s religious story is his journey—interacting with varying denominations, Christian social groups, and exploring a variety of theology and philosophy.

Identifying as non-denominational throughout high school and into college, Misha started off going to a Baptist church, but it did not feel the same atmosphere or make the inter-personal relationships that he did at the Baptist camp. He was baptized at a Pentecostal church and became involved there for the rest of his high school there. He still felt that he had not found a place of worship that felt right to him, so he continued to study his faith on his own, which led him to explore Christian existentialism and other philosophies, along with Bible study. By the time Misha arrived at the University of Michigan, he was still looking for a more defined religious identity and a community of Christian peers that he could develop meaningful relationships. Very soon into his freshman year, he became an active member of Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU).

Two Communities Make a Whole Experience

CRU became Misha’s religious output while he continued to experiment with the many denominations in the Ann Arbor area, for he was able to participate in weekly Bible studies with other Christians. Having not bonded well with Christian peers in high school and often feeling on his own, Misha took great comfort in the supportive environment of CRU. After his freshman year, he went on a CRU sponsored mission to the Ukraine, where he practiced Russian and communicated the teachings of Jesus that inspired him to people with a similar history as him, and went through “big change in maturity.” (Misha: 2006) He was discipled by an older CRU member who became his mentor, and is currently a Bible study leader for the organization, as well as the webmaster. He plans to continue his involvement in CRU while studying to be a doctor and beyond.

When asked how CRU has changed his life, Misha reflects on the spiritual and social benefits that he has gained from his involvement in the organization. While he has a deepen “understanding of Jesus and his teachings” thanks to CRU, he also developed close friends within the Christian community, along with learning how to organize events, gain more people skills, and get a message across “in a friendly way.” (Misha: 2006) People skills development is a common trait found in religious organizations, especially those driven by evangelism, because they teach their members how to communicate in order to spread the word of Christ and conduct group meetings. Timothy Steigenga observed an increase in self-confidence and leadership and organizational ability in those who participated in voluntary, predominately Protestant interdenominational organizations, much like Misha and CRU. (Steigenga: 2001) Misha says that CRU made him “a strong Christian,” and by providing overlapping educational, social, and spiritual opportunities, it has also made him a stronger person. (Misha: 2006)

While CRU succeeded in providing Misha a social network and a cultural realm to further his Biblical studies, it did not—because of its limitation as a parachurch and not a distinct denomination—settle his need to find a church that fell in line with his more developed religious and social beliefs. For his first two years of college, he researched and visited a few denominations, “shopping around” for Christian organizations that supported non-violence, the main issue that would decide Misha’s religious affiliation. (Misha: 2006) As he puts it, “if they don’t (support non-violence), Jesus’ teachings don’t make sense. How can you love and kill your neighbor at the same time? You can’t.” (Misha: 2006)

Although searching for a community that identified with his beliefs, Misha also looked for some degree of structure and authority in the denomination, which became apparent when he turned down the peace-loving but freewheeling local Quaker church. The church did not have a pastor, and Misha did not relate with the informal structure of everyone sitting in a circle and saying what he saw as random things. He was most put off by the inclusiveness of atheist thought in the Quaker church. “People didn’t believe in God,” he explained in what he viewed as the flaw in their church religious logic, “you have to believe in Jesus’ divinity, they come together. If you don’t believe that Jesus was God, then a lot of his teachings would be insane or lies.” (Misha: 2006) It was this particular Quaker church’s acceptance of self-tailoring of beliefs, associated with Bellah and “Sheila-ism” that turned Misha away, realizing that his church needed to have more than non-violence at its core for him to be in intellectual agreement. (McGinn: 9/21/2006)

It was after the Quaker church that Misha went and soon identified with the Mennonite church, saying that “they (Mennonites) are a lot like hippies, but also have some tradition;” most importantly a pastor and an unified belief in God, along with the prerequisite of having non-violence at the core of their mission. (Misha: 2006) The particular congregation Misha attends does not adhere to some of the more conservative Mennonite customs, like dress codes, and has a large representation of people involved in scientific research and the University of Michigan. He has not made too many personal relations within or done too much with the church, but now feels like he has found a denomination that is in sync to the intellectual orientation of his religious conversion, and plans to get more involved and know more people within the church. The socially-charged sermons and an environment conducive to intellectual discussion have only helped to further the connections Misha has made between the Bible and living a righteous life, from leading him to pursue medicine as a way to heal and evangelize to buying local food as a way to live a simple life that Jesus preached.

These two communities of faith are not at odds with each other, but create a harmony of belief, support, and identity for Misha. Together, the Mennonite church and CRU covering many of the transcultural elements of religion, with the Mennonite theology supporting and enriching the message of Christ and covering the characteristic of “meaning.” (McGinn: 9/7/2006) But before Misha arrived at choosing to become a Mennonite, he had a deep understanding of the meaning of the Bible and Jesus influenced by personal pursuit and Bible study with multiple spiritual communities, including the Baptist Russian camp and CRU. Misha’s transformation—noticed immediately by those who were closest to him when he was sixteen years old—came from the acceptance or encounter with Jesus’ teachings at the beginning of what would be Misha’s ongoing “relationship with God.” (Misha: 2006) Heirich’s “encounter” and “transformation” aspects did not come from CRU or the Mennonite church, but Misha’s exposure to Jesus by means of the religious environment and structure of the summer camp. (McGinn: 9/7/2006)

Misha’s religious journey, while intellectually-rooted, has also been fueled by the need to find another aspect of the religious experience—relationships in based in a sacred commonality. This is where CRU fills this role in Misha’s life, having provided a spiritual community throughout his college years where he had none as a child and weak and unsupportive as an adolescent and beginning Christian. As Misha becomes more involved and integrated in the Mennonite church, he hopes to develop relationships on the same level as those he has made at CRU, but does not see any potential social problems between the two religious communities. He plans to find spiritual fulfillment from both entities, each contributing their religious, social, and personal dynamic to his overall experience as a Mennonite-identified Christian.

Conversion and Experience

Starting with his initial conversion to become “a pupil of Jesus’ teachings,” Misha’s religious experience has been one of intellectual pursuit for truth and community. (Misha: 2006) How the two intersect and inspire each other confirm sociology of religion principles on conversion, and what defines the religious experience. Misha’s story shows that conversion can be a moment of change and part of a larger experiment of searching, that relationships and community can be both religiously and personally enriching and a sustainable spiritual support—especially for the individual looking for the perfect denominational fit. As Misha becomes more socially aware and active from his membership in the pacifist-orientated Mennonite Church, he will continue to be driven by a relationship in God, which he describes as “the closer two people are, the more similar the two people become,” and from that, he hopes he “will continually grow more Christ-like.” (Misha: 2006) Believing that love, non-violence, and social consciousness are the keys to living as Jesus preached, Misha will continue to grow religiously and reach out—within the Christian community and larger society.

Works Cited

Demerath, N.J. III, Presidential Address: Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. Department of Sociology: University of Massachusetts: Amherst, MA. 6 Nov 1999.

McGinn, Terence. Lecture Material from Sociology/Religion 455.001. Fall, 2006.

Misha. Interview (In person) 18 Sept. 2006.

Steigenga, Timothy J. The Politics of the Spirit: the Political Implications of Pentecostalized Religion in Costa Rica and Guatemala. Lexington Books: 2001.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-10-31T19:32:00.000-05:00

Every time you use a credit card, the merchant is charged 1.5% to 5% "merchant discount fee" that helps pay for the bank’s services and for the credit card system. This means every time you use a credit card, you help support a corporation that does not have your or most peoples’ interest in mind. Credit card corporations vehemently fight against legislation to cap interest rate limits and other methods to keep vulnerable people from ruining their financial security. Every time you use a credit card, you support the exploitation of poor and uneducated people. Stop using credit cards! Credit cards are only useful in rare situations and should never be used on a regular basis.

"Virtually all credit card holders are being taken advantage of under the present circumstances. If you’re a responsible person of middle-class or upper-middle-class means, and you act totally responsibly by paying off your balances every month, doing it on time, you are not being rewarded for that. In fact, you can be penalized for doing that. If you are very poor, if you are older, and if you’re very young, very vulnerable, three very vulnerable constituencies, you’re being exploited by this process. So virtually everyone who holds a credit card one way or the other, under existing laws today and provisions, can be completely taken advantage of by the credit card industry." Chris Dodd, senior Democratic member of the Senate Banking Committee.

More at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/interviews/dodd.html

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-10-28T16:49:00.000-04:00

I don’t want to live if others have to die for me to live.

"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." Matthew 7:12

Love is the Golden Rule and greatest purpose for life.

Would purposefully dieing to donate all your organs and tissues be loving if it would save many peoples’ lives?

I would not want another person to die for me to live. Purposefully dieing to donate my organs is not loving.

Is killing to save another person’s life loving?

No, I would rather die, then have someone killed to save my life.

Would setting yourself on fire to protest war be loving?

"To burn oneself by fire is to prove that what one is saying is of the utmost importance…. The Vietnamese monk, by burning himself, says with all his strength and determination that he can endure the greatest of sufferings to protect his people…. To express will by burning oneself, therefore, is not to commit an act of destruction but to perform an act of construction, that is, to suffer and to die for the sake of one’s people. This is not suicide." (http://www.geocities.com/tcartz/sacrifice.htm).

Self-Immolation awakens the conscience of people, helping to foster peace. I would desire for the social conscience to live even if a person willingly dies. "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." Self-Immolation is loving. It’s a baptism of fire.

It is only loving to die to change people’s minds, not to save people’s lives. It is only loving to die for "bad" people (i.e. sinners, enemies), not "good" people (e.g. family, your country).

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-10-26T20:45:00.000-04:00

Anyone who thinks the Bush administration is on the side of Christian conservatives should read this

Notable quotes

In his days as a notorious "hatchet man" for President Richard M. Nixon, before he had allowed Jesus to transform his life, Chuck Colson used to oversee outreach to the religious community. "I arranged special briefings in the Roosevelt Room for religious leaders, ushered wide-eyed denominational leaders into the Oval Office for private sessions with the President," Colson later wrote. "Of all the groups I dealt with, I found religious leaders the most naive about politics. Maybe that is because so many come from sheltered backgrounds, or perhaps it is the result of a mistaken perception of the demands of Christian charity … Or, most worrisome of all, they may simply like to be around power."

"George W. Bush, the man, is a person of profound faith and deep compassion for those who suffer. But President George W. Bush is a politician and is ultimately no different from any other politician, content to use religion for electoral gain more than for good works. Millions of Evangelicals may share Bush’s faith, but they would protect themselves–and their interests–better if they looked at him through the same coldly political lens with which he views them." David Kuo, ex-deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-10-22T13:55:00.000-04:00

While trying to decrease the number of U.S. nuclear warheads, the White House administration proposes making new nuclear warheads and is waiting on "an expected decision in December by the NNSA on a design for the new "Reliable Replacement Warhead" (RRW). The nation’s two nuclear weapons laboratories, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore, are competing for the new warhead design. Before going ahead with any new warhead, however, the NNSA would have to get Congress’s approval to move into actual engineering development."

More information at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/19/AR2006101901863_pf.html.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-10-16T17:36:00.000-04:00

The government’s Faith-based Initiative is not what it seems. While the faith-based initiative has allowed religious social service groups to have access to federal grants, there has been less money available for social service groups in general than before. "The faith-based initiative has been used largely as a political tool to attract support from religious communities." Amy Sullivan. The White House could "can add another few billion to insure every American child has health care. It could launch a program to simply eliminate hunger. Groups like America’s Second Harvest have the plan. Bump up the Compassion Capital Fund to $500 million a year and be marveled by change." Instead of working to provide social services, the White House favors money for almost everything but this.

"No administration since LBJ’s has had a more successful legislative track record than this one. From tax cuts to Medicare, the White House gets what the White House really wants. It never really wanted the "poor people stuff." Not only were the tax items dropped from the 2001 tax relief bill, they were also ignored on numerous occasions when they could have been implemented. In December 2001, for instance, Sen. Daschle approached the Domestic Policy Council with an offer to pass a charity relief bill that contained many of the president’s campaign tax incentive policies plus new money for the widely-popular and faith-based-friendly Social Services Block Grant. The White House legislative affairs office rolled their eyes while others on senior staff yawned. We had to leave the offer on the table."

This is from the ex-Special Assistant to the president and ex-Deputy Director of the Faith-Based Initiative, David Kuo, http://www.beliefnet.com/story/160/story_16092_1.html .

Other interesting information includes the difference between Kennedy’s and Bush’s faith. "War and hunger and ignorance and despair have no religious boundries." We should judge based on fruits, not on someone calling out to God.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-10-15T23:47:00.000-04:00

Songs of Songs is difficult to understand. It’s a musical and love song that’s been interpreted in very different ways. Some interpret Songs of Songs to be only figurative, which describes a spiritual intimacy with God, not a physical intimacy with people. Others interpret it literally to mean sexual intimacy.

In Songs of Songs it talks about three types of love:
1) Rayah - friendship love
2) Ahabah - love that is seen in commitment
3) Dowd - is the physically intimate love

Dowd is the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek Eros. The New Testament never mentions Eros. Instead the NT uses agape, storge and philia for specific reasons. You can read my blog entry on this at http://www.interconnectedness.net/2006/07/31/agape-eros-storge-and-philein/ .
(Rayah is the similiar of Philia. Ahabah is sort-of similiar to Agape.) If we interpret Dowd to mean Eros in a physical sense, then it would contradict the NT writers. Hence, if a completely literal understanding of dowd/eros was possible before Christ, Christ updated this teaching in the same way he updated other teachings, such as the verses in Matthew 5 saying, "You have heard that it was said … But I tell you …", since the use of Eros was abandoned.

Pope Benedict XVI recently addressed this issue in Songs of Songs by stating that Eros is not destroyed, but purified, by Agape, so the body and soul can live peacefully with each other. This means the NT purifies the OT. The OT serves to lay out a set of laws, which inevitably condemns humanity. Christ purifies us of this sin. Hence, the OT gives an apparent set (i.e. Torah) of unideal rules (i.e. "You have heard that it was said … But I tell you") which the Pharisees perfectly obeyed, while the OT unapparently giving a much greater path (i.e. the basis of the Greatest Commandment) that was only apparently revealed by Christ (i.e. sermon on the mount, etc.). In the NT, Christ dwells in us, so we should be perfect as God is. In the OT, the law dwells in us (i.e. Deuteronomy 6:4-9), so we should be as perfect as the law requires. Therefore, the Songs of Songs allowed eros from the Law, but was inundated by the perfection of agape from the Holy Spirit.

An interesting rebuttal to my interpretation is presented at http://www.spiritualityandsexuality.com/SnS-ViewsArticles.html . It argues against Greek/Roman stoic and epicurean teachings, and proposes we follow OT Hebrew teachings instead. This boils down to ignoring Paul’s letters [Paul was a big fan of Socrates/Plato (Jesus was like the Gadfly) and stoicism (indifference to pleasure or pain, as shown through holy joy in suffering)] and ignoring the ascetic nature of Jesus’ discipleship. There’s a lot of truth in Greek/Roman stoic and epicurean (fyi, John Piper’s Christian hedonism is Christian epicureanism) philosophy. There’s also a lot of truth in OT teaching, but some of it was updated, such as in this case. The main argument against Greek/Roman stoic and epicurean philosophy tries to tie dishonoring women with dishonoring Eros, which is a weak connection and need not be the case.

P.S. This was a response to an entry by Lisa Treumuth at http://agape720.livejournal.com/208768.html.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-10-02T19:44:00.000-04:00

The words of Hosea are upon us. The status quo Christian church has grown to love power and by doing so, spiritually destroying itself. Spiritual destruction is marvelous because a refiners fire separates the pure from the impure. It is a phoenix rising from the ashes, the plough overcoming the sword and the lamb saving the lion. "I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land, And will make them lie down in safety. … And I will say to those who were not my people, ‘You are my people’"

It is not too late, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. "For the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land, Because there is no faithfulness or kindness Or knowledge of God in the land. There is swearing, deception, murder, stealing and adultery They employ violence, so that bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns, And everyone who lives in it languishes Along with the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky, And also the fish of the sea disappear."

Why have the status quo Christian leaders "eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your way, in your numerous warriors."

Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life (a book I’ve read and support), writes in his voter guide (http://www.pastors.com/RWMT/default.asp?id=178&artid=7543&expand=1) about the five most important issues Christians must consider when voting: 1) abortion, 2) stem-cell research, 3) homosexual marriage, 4) human cloning, and 5) euthanasia. Focusing on these issues as the most "crucial issues" of "the most important election Americans have had in 50 years" is misguided at best and complete rebellion against Jesus’ teachings at worst.

Rick Warren is not at fault for this, nor the proverbial religious right; instead, it is the entrenched wolves in sheep’s clothing of the materialistic/militant Greek/Roman culture that overpowers Christian love. Many Christian leaders are oblivious to this and become "blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!," as seen with Rick Warren’s proposal.

Why is his proposal so bad? All over the globe, 1.1 billion people live in extreme poverty, which means they live under $1 a day. Billions more live in poverty without adequate health care, nutrition, safety and a loving home. Countless children die of preventable diseases. The environment is continually destroyed and we could face a global climate shift. Weapons are endlessly manufactured and traded across the globe (with the U.S. being a major supplier). HIV/AIDS, poverty, abuse, malnutrition, disease, war, racial reconciliation, health care, welfare, education, diplomacy, alternative energy, the environment, research, the U.S. industrial infrastructure, prison reform, human rights and economic accountability are important issues too.

Why are these issues more important? Because Jesus would care less about the "moral" issues Rick Warren presents, and would feed his sheep. The hungry sheep number and die in the billions! Are we going to be so concerned with "morals" as to ignore the call to feed the sheep? In summary, a candidate could perfectly fit Rick Warren’s points, yet completely ignore Jesus’ call to feed the sheep. Worst of all, these points apply not only to priorities for voting, but covertly outline the social role of "ideal" Christians as moralists, not humanitarians. "If you judge people, you have no time to love them." Mother Teresa

The goats care for ‘the least of these’ with bombs, indifference, hostility and "morality." We must first become powerless as the sheep to care for the sheep, or else, unwittingly, we become wolves in sheep’s clothing. Are you ready to disarm yourself and walk in the naked boots of peace with us?

Matthew 25:22-46
All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

34"Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37"Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40"The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

41"Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

44"They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45"He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-10-01T22:10:00.000-04:00

When I think of this new community, I think about people from all over the world reaching out to each other in total vulnerability. In my mind’s eye, I see a worldwide network of men and women so totally disarmed that they not only have given up the power of weapons but also religious concepts, symbols, and institutions. I see them moving over this world, visiting each other, binding each other’s wounds, confessing their brokenness to each other, and forgiving each other with a simple word, an embrace, a touch, or even a smile. I see them walking alone or together in the most simple clothes, caring for the sick, feeding the hungry, comforting the lonely, and waiting quietly with the dying. I see them in apartment buildings, farm houses, schools and universities, hospitals and office buildings as quiet witnesses of God’s presence. Wherever they are they bring peace, not as much by what they say or do, but mostly by their connectedness with those others with whom they form a new community of hope.

Jesus’ way is the way without curses, weapons, violence or power. For him, there are no countries to be conquered, no ideologies to be imposed, no people to be dominated. There are only children, women and men to be loved. And love does not use weapons. Love is not made manifest in power but in powerlessness. Jesus challenges all his followers to take this way, the way of disarmed, nonviolent, powerless resistance.

This was taken from http://www.johndear.org/articles/henri_nouwen.htm and written by the late Henri Nouwen.

This is happening now! A movement of young and old are coming together in abandonment of childish dreams, in solidarity with the poor, to overcome the gates of oppression with endless love today. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven! Check out The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. You cannot serve both Caesar and God. Make a stand. Live love.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-09-16T14:24:00.000-04:00

Since I haven’t taken the MCAT yet, I have to wait atleast one year after graduation before going to medical school. I have three options on what to do after graduating.

1) One year to get a Masters in Cellular & Molecular Biology at U of M
2) Two years to get a Masters in Public Health
3) Three years to go on The World Race (theworldrace.org) and get a Masters in Public Health

I’m confused. I’m praying on what God wants. I’m talking with different people on this subject. God’s voice can be heard in many ways. Option number three seems to weigh the heaviest on my heart, because it is the most internationally social active.

My parents vehemently support opition number one, because they want me to start working sooner. It’s difficult for me to see why God would want me to work sooner. The World Race is working for God in one of the purest senses, because it’s a 11-month missions trip around the world where I minister in 11 countries (Mexico, Guatemala, China, Tibet, Thailand, India, Bosnia, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, and Lesotho) for one month each, working to share the Gospel, help orphans, plant churches and reach the nations. Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all that you do, and he will direct your paths."

Tom Davis describes World Race participants like this,

They live in community and work by teams. They are initiated into life in the Kingdom and know what it is to celebrate and minister on a daily basis.They have been deeply discipled and have experienced the walk of intimacy with the Father and the flow of ministry thru their fingers to broken people in their community and around the world.

They have been broken by the world’s pain and have abandoned the idols and adolescent amusements that used to keep them numb and ineffective. They have connected with widows and orphans in war-torn and AIDS-devastated places and understand what it costs to bring Jesus there. They have laid down their lives.

They have sold their earthly treasures for the pearl of great price, living simply and unencumbered so they can travel light. They are scattered across America and around the world. And in those places, they have awakened to their Kingdom identity and call. They have learned how to incarnate Christ in places where Hell had established a stronghold. They are building churches and orphanages. They are transforming their communities.

They are a generation that will cross over the Jordan to the promised land. They have their eye on the prize and are running hard after it.

If you know me well, you’ll know that simple living, evangelism and helping orphans are passions of mine. Please share your thoughts with me.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-09-16T14:22:00.000-04:00

Since I haven’t taken the MCAT yet, I have to wait atleast one year after graduation before going to medical school. I have three options on what to do after graduating.

1) One year to get a Masters in Cellular & Molecular Biology at U of M
2) Two years to get a Masters in Public Health
3) Three years to go on World Race (theworldrace.org) and get a Masters in Public Health

Tom Davis describes World Race participants like this,

They are a generation that will cross over the Jordan to the promised land. They have their eye on the prize and are running hard after it.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-08-19T02:09:00.000-04:00

My GRE experience ended propitiously. Next, MCAT in May/June 2007.

Future plans:
Backpack Mt. Rainer in Washington with my parents until Saturday, September 2nd
Graduate May 2007 with a B.S. in Cellular & Molecular Biology
Maybe attend Public Heath and Medical School as well as something else

Why M.D. instead of Ph.D.?

An M.D. provides more freedom than a Ph.D., because I can do basic science or clinical research, practice medicine and work abroad. Furthermore, medicine allows integration of the social and evangelical gospel. Both words and healing were pivotal in Jesus’ ministry. Feeding the hungry and ending violence are my passions, because they are Jesus’ passions. A Ph.D. would cloister me in academia. Compassion does not come from atop the Ivory Towers of American academies, but from the nadir of solidarity with the forgotten people. "The last will be first, and the first will be last." Healing people is not enough; the violence creating patients must also be cured. Medicine cuts through social barriers unlike anything else. Medicine provides a tangible way for me to unite evangelism, social justice and science around curing the consequences of violence and overpowering future violence with love today.

Why M.P.H.?

Since I’m interested in integrating social issues along with medicine, an M.P.H. will give me access to the realm of public policy. An M.D. provides temporary curative care and an M.P.H. works for long-term preventative care. It’s not enough to cure an individual, but the individual’s environment must also be cured of violence, hunger and disease for a lasting impact.

Becoming a Public Health Physician, such as Michael Van Rooyen, is my goal. However, Van Rooyen doesn’t do Christian ministry. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the key to a peaceful and loving world. All glory to God under who’s stainless banner we should rally for every loving cause!!!

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-08-03T21:22:00.000-04:00

I’m subjugating my proclivity to write to prepare for the onerous GRE. Goodbye for about three weeks.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-08-03T20:52:00.000-04:00

This is taken from AskRealJesus.com. It explains the heart of Jesus’ teachings better than ever, especially about nonviolence.

The warrior is marching down the road, his sword sharpened, his mind set on battle. He meets a Master and his disciple. The Master says, “My son, where are you going with such fierce determination?”

The warrior answers, “The enemy has attacked our nation. He has destroyed two of our tallest buildings and taken away our peace. I go to destroy the enemy and bring back peace!”

The Master asks, “My son, if the enemy took away peace through violence, how can more violence bring back peace?”

The warrior declares, “There is no other way. When the enemy is destroyed, peace will return!”

The Master replies, “My son, I perceive that your heart is troubled. It is filled with anger and hatred towards the enemy. Might it be the anger and hatred that has taken away peace?”

The warrior says, “The enemy created the anger. Once the enemy is destroyed, the hatred will be gone and my peace will return!”

The Masters tries again, “My son, if the enemy caused your anger, then the enemy must rule your inner world. Perhaps you should conquer the enemy within before you do battle with the enemy without? Perhaps you should find peace in your heart before you attempt to bring peace to the world?”

The warrior declares, “I cannot find peace until the enemy is destroyed!” Then he marches on without looking back.

The Master smiles gently and walks on. His student exclaims, “Master, he did not understand your wisdom and is headed for his own destruction. How can you seem so unconcerned? Let us run after him and save him from himself!”

The Master replies, “My dearest student, if I preach inner peace, how can I let my own peace be disturbed by someone rejecting my message?

Besides, while his body might be destroyed, his soul will live on. One day the soul will tire of trying to bring peace by fighting outer enemies. It will discover the enemy within, and eventually it will discover the inner source of peace.

While we can seek to help others learn their lessons, we must never seek to force them.

Peace cannot be brought through force. Conflict is the absence of peace. Peace cannot be brought by removing conflict. Outer peace can be brought only through inner peace. The only way to bring peace is to BE peace wherever there is non-peace. Begin with yourself, my dear student!

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-08-03T20:10:00.000-04:00

Two views seem to exist on Christian living
1) live the minimum necessary for salvation
2) live perfectly as Christ is

The Catholic church defines this paradox quite well in the Evangelical Counsels. They state living perfectly is not for all Christians, only a select few who vow to follow poverty, chastity and obedience. "The love of riches is opposed by the counsel of poverty; the pleasures of the flesh, even the lawful pleasures of holy matrimony, are excluded by the counsel of chastity; while the desire for worldly power and honour is met by the counsel of holy obedience." I would also include nonviolence in the counsel of holy obedience.

The resolution to this paradox is in Luke 7:31-35
"To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other:
   " ‘We played the flute for you,
      and you did not dance;
   we sang a dirge,
      and you did not cry.’ 33 For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ‘ 35 But wisdom is proved right by all her children."

John the Baptist was separate, whereas Jesus live in community with society. Both were poor, chaste and obedient. It doesn’t matter how much you know, do, have faith or give up, but how much you love.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

John the Baptist and Jesus both satisfied the Evangelical Counsels. kdf dfjd hfjdhf dfhdsj fhsdkfh sdjfhsd jfhsdjfhs d jldkf sjdklfjsd

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-07-31T14:19:00.000-04:00

1) Don’t come to lab meetings
2) Don’t come to talks your boss asks you to go to
3) Arrive at work later than planned
4) Make mistakes
5) Don’t discover "anything new" after two part-time semesters and three months of full-time research

How do I know? Guess.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-07-31T01:18:00.000-04:00

Due to discussing love in context to the Greatest Commandment as well as marriage and other relationship, here’s the best explanation of agape, eros, storge and philia I’ve ever found. It’s from The New Testament Words by William Barclay. This is probably some of the most worthwhile four pages you’ll ever read!

Note: Part 1 (cut off) "The noun eros and the verb eran are mainly used for love between the sexes. They can be used for such things as the passion of ambition and the intensity of patriotism; but characteristically they are the words for physical love. … Christianity could hardly have annexed these words [eros and eran] for its own uses; and they do not appear in the NT at all."

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-07-26T19:20:00.000-04:00

For the people who came to my talk, after giving the talk, I realized I missed and wasn’t clear about some points. For people who missed the talk, here’s a synopsis.

Yesterday night I gave a 48 minute talk about ‘Nonviolence: the Gospel and the State.’ I was only supposed to talk for 30 minutes but I got carried away. It was my first time giving a talk in front of people. Some key thoughts:

1) the greatest commandment is the purpose for our lives,
2) we should obey the government but not become part of the government or else we’ll become violent (assuming the government has a military),
3) early century Christians were nonviolent, but when Christianity become the State religion in the 4th century, violence became part of Christian teaching,
4) during the reformation, both protestants and catholics persecuted another reformation, The Radical Reformation (Anabaptists), that was going on at the same time where nonviolent Christians were trying to separate from the State,
5) the puritans from the Puritan reformation, which happened after the Protestant reformation, came along with Catholics to America slaughtering Indians, enslaving Africans and further persecuting nonviolent Anabaptists in America because the Anabaptists wanted to be peaceful,
6) still to this day, the theology of violence and non-separation of Church and State, which come together, are prevalent, but are in contradiction to the Greatest Commandment.
7) Furthermore, I argued against objections to nonviolence, such as the end times wars being ‘descriptive, not prescriptive’ and Jesus establishing a new covenant with all people, not only Israel, meaning that God wouldn’t authorize wars like in the Old Testament because God loves everyone equally, both the righteous and unrighteous.
8) We can’t love and kill enemies at the same time.
9) It’s OK to discipline children to reform them, but if you kill the child, you can no longer reform him/her.
10) By being nonviolent like Jesus, Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi you respect everyone, even the government (praying for the government as we pray for our enemies; obey our enemies), because you allow everyone to have their voice by not killing, imprisoning or kidnapping your opposition.
11) Our enemies have needs and if we obey, not ignore or rebel against, their needs while still obeying the Greatest Commandment, we will be the brightest light of God’s love.
12) God calls us to nonviolence, because it respects human dignity, humbles us and is the truest expression of love to everyone, just as God perfectly loves us.

Nonviolence Presentation

P.S. I answer objections to Christian Biblical nonviolence in the comments at http://www.interconnectedness.net/2006/12/05/biblical-ethics/

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness

2006-07-22T20:10:00.000-04:00

I’ll be speaking at Cru this week on Tuesday, July 25th. Cru starts to 9:00pm in Michigan Union Anderson D. I’ll be speaking about Nonviolence: The Gospel and the State. I’ve been thinking about this topic for the last 6 months. If I’ve talked with you about this or you’ve read my entries about this, this talk will include many things I’ve never shared. Also, in the past I’ve said some wrong things. The entire Bible is true without contradictions. Praise God!!! I hope to see everyone there. I’ll try to make it entertaining (art), educational (history) and edifying (Biblical), but more Biblical than anything else!

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-07-16T01:26:00.000-04:00

Many Christians who oppose homosexuality aren’t homophobic, but rather against unrepentant sin. However, there’s a double standard with that view, because masturbation, not forgiving, getting drunk and even overeating are also unrepentant sins, but they don’t seem to get people in trouble as often.

The issue of whether homosexuality is a sin isn’t Biblically very debatable: "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Many Christians who support homosexuality either regard Scripture as errant, have interesting alternative explanations of Scripture (http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibc1.htm) or try not to judge because they believe some people are created homosexual for a reason.

Based on my understanding of Scripture and following Jesus’ teachings in real life, I believe the early Christian orthodox teachings were against homosexuality. Jewish teachings were very strict in sexual relations and there’s no indication Jesus changed our understanding in any way in regards to homosexuality; whereas Jesus did change our understanding in regards to many other teachings about food, the Law, the State, the Greatest Commandment and established a new covenant with all people of the world, not only Israel.

However, the issue of ‘Is homosexuality a sin’ is not the main point. The main point is the purpose for sexuality altogether. Reproduction is the only meaningful purpose I can find for sexuality. Heterosexual sex and reproduction were inseparable in Biblical times, but not anymore. In our culture, sexuality is used for many other purposes, which all boil down to hedonism. Sexual hedonism is least destructive in marriage, because marriage contains love that usually overpowers hedonism. All your actions must be done out of love, not hedonism. If you’re not trying to reproduce, don’t have sexual relations. Be celibate.

These are difficult teachings to accept, especially in our culture, which is heavily influenced by Roman/Greek philosophy more than most realize. Based on these teachings, if I get married, I don’t want to reproduce because I want to adopt as many orphans as possible, hence I don’t plan on ever having sex even if I get married.

This type of ascetic teaching is practically impossible to follow unless your heart is fully behind it, or else you’ll resent the teaching. It’s worth following, because it allows you to love others to the utmost.

Some Christians feel fine pursuing pleasures (i.e. hedonism). They say, "If God didn’t want me to have sex, why would He make it so pleasurable?," which is akin to, "If God didn’t want Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, why did he make it so tempting?" Or "God created sex for us to enjoy." We should do all things out of love, not enjoyment. They can continue to say, "Sex is holy." However, sex is never inherently holy; love is holy. Sex is a lure for people to have children who would otherwise never have children; hence, sex is a lure to learning about sacrificial love, which helps us understand God better. Notice, sacrificial love from sex does not come from sex, but from raising children.

The logical outcome of this is we shouldn’t have sex for pleasure, period. This has actually been the Christian teachings for the greater part of Christian history. It doesn’t matter whether it’s heterosexual or homosexual. Many people who condemn homosexuals are hypocrites.

We shouldn’t judge others. The Bible says we should only judge believers or those in the Church. However, I feel no church is completely holy in its teachings, hence, I don’t judge anyone.

In conclusion, don’t focus on sexuality. God calls us to celibacy unless we’re reproducing, because this way, we can love others most purely.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-07-13T13:48:00.000-04:00

I don’t feel any less worthy in God’s eyes based on HOW I was created. My worth is based on WHY I was created. The Bible tells us the purpose for our lives, whereas science tells us the mechanistic details of life. God loves worms like us for a reason: we are able to reflect the love of God unlike any other creation.

Natural science gives purely mechanistic, not moral, explanations. Some people try to extend physical laws (e.g. opposite charges attract = people with opposite personalities attract) to social ‘laws,’ and even worse, some people use biological variation to support deterministic views (e.g. eugenics). My understanding of evolution doesn’t make humans any more or less worthy of love, but my understanding of evolution helps me to better know how to manipulate nature to show the greatest love possible through medicine and other research. Excellent medicine is based on excellent science, and excellent love is based on excellent faith.

God is Truth, but Truth is not God, because God is greater than physical AND non-physical laws, since God frequently breaks physical laws in the Bible and God is beyond understanding. Would God create a law He can’t break? God seems to be the greatest law breaker of all. Maybe the idea of laws is flawed, but that’s not the point.

We need to do everything out of love, as the greatest commandment (i.e. love God and your neighbor) instructs. God reveals to us how to do this best. Since knowledge allows me to know how to love better, I value knowledge. However, if I value knowledge alone, my knowledge becomes worthless, because I will use my knowledge without love. The Bible allows us to realize the salvation promised in Jesus Christ, which frees us from sin and gives us the freedom to love everyone without end. Knowledge does not need to interfere with this and can be a valuable supplement to loving others. We can believe in all of the Bible and in all of science, because ALL OF IT IS GOD’S CREATION. At certain times, we need to humble ourselves because it may be difficult to understand how God can create contradictory things, but in the end, there are no contradictions in the Bible and in science, only our transient understandings are contradictory.

Communion is both the physical blood and flesh of Christ and bread and wine. In the same way, I believe in the physical six days and a billion-year-old universe. What’s important is God is the creator and does anything He likes irrespective if our fleshy brain can understand it. We need to be faithful and humble to everything, and most importantly love everyone.

"The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing." (John 6:63)

John 6
52Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

53Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." 59He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Many Disciples Desert Jesus
60On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"

61Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? 62What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-07-10T17:57:00.000-04:00

Blessings are feelings. The same event may be a blessing for one person and a curse for another. For example, Saturday afternoon, I over-extended my left knee when I crashed into Kamil while playing soccer. I’ll be limbing for one to two weeks because of it. This is a blessing for me, especially when it first happened. In the greatest pain, I cried out to God and He comforted me. I’ve been longing to pray more, and this gave me the opportunity.

Prayer is words. We pray best when the Word of God is fresh in our minds. Jesus even gives us perfect words of prayer in the Lord’s prayer.

Worship is actions. Faith without deeds is dead. "I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings" Hosea 6:6. We acknowledge God the greatest when we act with the most love.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-07-10T17:42:00.000-04:00

I returned from my Russian Baptist camp in Ashford, Connecticut on Friday night. The one week at the camp was amazing.

I learned to appreciate the Bible, love others, pray and worship more than ever before. I wish I could stay there and not work, but that option doesn’t seem feasible.

My heart for missions has been opened even more. I don’t know what the future holds, but if I feel like God is leading me into the mission field, I’ll have some contacts in the Russian Evengelical Community.

It’s also amazing how close the history of the Russian Baptist church and the Mennonites are. Many Russian Mennonites became Baptist, but still held their views on nonviolence by not serving in the Russian army. Even though I haven’t met any Russian Baptist for nonviolence in the U.S., they may exist in Russia or other ex-soviet states as well as in independent churches in America.

It’s difficult for me to start working again. I don’t know if I’ll be able to ever enjoy work as much as before, because I don’t know if I’m merely mentally exhausted or disinterested in academics. Probably both. It may be difficult for some people to believe I’m disinterested in academics, but since I started valuing relationships more, academics have steadily been lossing ground. It’s difficult for me to imagine how someone can study anything without having an innate curiosity about a subject, but it seems many people are able to do this. Grades used to me my chief motivator, but after my senior year humanities classes, curiosity has been a large motivator too. It’s difficult to lose my curiosity, but I’m afraid I’m losing it in terms of my major.

It’s more fun to wash dishes at camp than do molecular biology back home. When I was washing dishes, I felt like I could do it with love, but I don’t know how to do molecular biology with love. Washing dishes occupied only my hands, allowing my mind to fly free, my heart free to burn with love for those around me and my tongue to spread beautiful words to others. Molecular biology consumes all of me. I have to focus every fiber of my body in order to not fail. Now, finally, I can understand why my parents said they’re misanthropes.

I know I can be a doctor with love, but can I do research with love?

Update, Wednesday, July 12th ~2pm: Yes, I can do research with love, because a researcher, especially a professor, spends a lot of time teaching, going to seminars, conferences, giving talks, etc. Talking is highly encouraged for researchers. Also, researchers have more flexiblity with their time than doctors, for better or worse depending on the person. However, maybe being a psychologist would be a better option for me. I wanted to be a psychologist originally, but decided against it because I wanted a more detailed biological understanding of a person if I were to help treat people. Now, I’m overqualified in biology and underqualified in psychology for a clinical psychologist. It’s not too late yet, I can still be a psychology major if I drop biochemistry. I wanted to be a doctor and psychologist, but psychiatrists focus too much on drugs. I want to be a pastor doctor, like a shamen but with the Gospel of Jesus. Today, society is so specialized that it’s almost impossible to treat both the mind and body. You’re either not serious enough about the body or not serious enough about the mind. I enjoy helping a person in their entirity. That’s what Jesus did. Jesus didn’t need medicine, but medicine is from God and of God if used rightly, right? The most feasible option is to do M.D./Ph.D and become a trained missionary. However, maybe we shouldn’t care so much about our bodies, but care more for our souls?

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-06-23T19:15:00.000-04:00

I feel unimaginably happy now that the weight of my Physics class as been taken off me. I’m so happy that I can’t repeat "I’m so happy" enough to the people I talk with. Working 40 hours a week is ten times easier than taking Physics. Working is like a vacation compared to taking Physics. When I leave work everything is done and I can relax. When I’m taking classes, I can never study enough. It’s probaby that way because I’m disorganized in my studies, but I have a hard time changing that. Now I can think, do, exist without worrying about exams or online homework. This is paradise.

Everybody told me taking Physics and working full-time was a bad idea, but I had no other choice, since I needed the experience of working full-time and I needed to take Physics. If I was going to fulfill both goals, I could only do it now. It’s behind me. I’m taking classes all spring and summer next year, but I’ll only work part-time. Life is complete bliss now. (italics because of the excessive triviality of these words)

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-06-22T18:56:00.000-04:00

Nobody can imagine how happy I am that my Physics 240 E&M class is over. This has been the most brutal semester ever, because it’s difficult to work full-time, take a difficult + accelerated class and have hardly any motivation all at the same time. I’m motivated to do research, but not study Physics. I have one month more of my research fellowship. After that, I’m going to camp in Ashford, Connecticut. The camp I became a Christian at and haven’t been able to go back during my college years. I’m super excited about camp. I’m going to be a counselor for the teen boys. I talked with Ruth, an amazing elderly woman of God who is helping organize things at camp, this morning and ordered my plane tickets afterwards. After being at camp from July 21st to July 28th, I’m coming back to study for the GRE hardcore until I leave on August 19 (or 20)th for Mount Rainer, Washington to go backpacking with my parents. I’m really looking forward to having a lot of time to talk with them about life and maybe we’ll be able to do some Bible studies or the equivalent too. Now, that my hellish class is over, I’m going to be able to spend more time with people. I’m exhilarated about that too. OK, now I’m going go back to doing a transformation and some restriction digests in the lab. Wow, this is one of the few entries I didn’t try developing any ideas. How do you feel about entries like this? Interesting or not? Peace and love to everyone.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-06-17T03:47:00.000-04:00

My coping mechanism is based on the optimism, love and truth found in Jesus’ teachings.

As I’ve been growing older, it becomes more evident what’s more important in life. It’s all about relationships. Right relationships.

As a student, it is very easy to have academic success be the primary purpose for life. For other people, their purpose alongside academics is having fun. Both academics and having fun are important goals which are a blessings in our lives; however, as the purpose for our lives, these goals are not enough and transient at best. Many people realize this and start believing their purpose is "to help others." Still others, realize marriage and having children is also their purpose.

All these goals are noble and serve important roles in our lives. However, after realizing these goals, a question remains, ‘Is there something more?’ This question ultimately goes to ‘What’s the leading purpose for all your actions.’ Is each action guided by isolated reasons or a larger unified reason? Are we powered by love, comfort, beauty, pleasure, knowledge, or something else, or a combination of everything? At this point, many people abandon their curiosity, falling back on their previous goals without probing deeper in the reasons for their goals. This happens for many reasons, such as a lack of confidence in ideas impacting their actions, no Truth existing, the business of life, or simply not valuing reasons for actions. The problem with not having a questioning and open outlook and settling with your previously established goals, lies in having contradictory views without you noticing them. Your goal may be to "help others," yet without deeply thinking about the reasons for a goal, you may actually be doing the opposite of your intended goals. Or you may believe you’re trying to find love, but are doing the opposite. This is where the idea of Pharisees (read my blog entry Pharisees for more about this) comes in. These people are confident with their understanding to the extent they don’t need to deeply question their views anymore, because they’ve ‘already found enough truth for now.’ These people don’t change much, because they’re ‘good just the way they are.’ Once a person is ready to abandon everything they previously understand for a newly discovered Truth, he/she ceases to be a Pharisee.

So, ‘What happens after I open myself to dramatically change?’ By being truly open, you’re on a great adventure and truly living life: discovering and living the Truth. It’s a dangerous adventure with many false guides, hence you should neither get too comfortable with a single guide, nor abandon a guide who’s always true to you. It’s difficult. Some people are their own guides, but based on my experience I’m neither always true to myself, nor always a good guide. Because of this, I look to a guide greater than myself and greater than anybody. This is Jesus.

One can say, ‘There are many good guides. What makes Jesus so special?’ I could go through what I understand from different guides and the many truths I have learned from them, pasting together a unified eclectic philosophy, but miraculously all the truths I learn from other guides are always uniquely present in Jesus’ teachings in one form or another. And most importantly, Jesus provides not only the true goals to pursue, but also the prime purpose for having any goals: love. Love is the unifying theme of Jesus’ teachings, as evolution is the unifying theme of biology. While there are many different reasons we can have goals, love is the only reason that can renewably sustain everyone and create a peace that transcends all understanding. It is in relationships where this power of love is expressed the greatest. Jesus, unlike anyone, had a particularly unique way of relating to others and seeing peoples’ hearts for what they are. When someone can see what’s truly inside your heart and reflect it back to you, it’s one of the greatest ways to understand the Truth, ultimately motivating you to change for the better, which is the greatest thing that could ever happen.

As to your question, ‘How do I cope? Do I have a small circle of friends?’ A small circle of friends is only as helpful as I am at peace with myself; when I’m at peace with love. Simply having friends does not help coping and can even be a source of disturbance. Being in community with God through Jesus provides amazing guidance in how to love, which helps my relationships with my friends be the best possible. Likewise, being in community with people provides experience in how to love, which feedbacks into the guidance I’m getting through Jesus. It’s an inseparable cycle of loving God and people that feedbacks on itself.

In the end, when I pursue academics, work, having fun, "helping others," falling in love, or starting a family, I try to deeply evaluate if my particular goal is done out of love. Since it’s Jesus’ unifying theme and Jesus is always a good guide, love is my unifying reason for doing everything. It’s sometimes difficult to know what love is, but by pursuing love without ceasing, it becomes more clear what love actually entails. I’ve found that loving entails many things not included or contrary to the popular status quo "helping others" perception. When I am feeling the lowest in life, the best thing to cheer me up is for me to show love to someone in need. My strength is found in helping others in their time of need. I’m coping the best when I understand this Truth and I’m passionately acting as a servant to others. The greatest blessings God has ever provided for me where moments when I got the gift of helping someone in serious need. "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." (Matthew 23:12)

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-06-13T20:54:00.000-04:00

Celibacy before marriage is interesting. Abstinence is not interesting for me, because it includes sexual relations, but only ‘permissible’ sexual relations, which misses the entire emotional idea behind abstinence: it’s not about permissibility, but physical communication. Three reasons for celibacy: 1) frees relationship from perception of commitment (i.e. true commitment is permanent, hence only in marriage); 2) frees relationship to focus on verbal communication; 3) frees relationship to continue after a ‘break-up.’ Notice, none of the reasons for celibacy include morality or fear of intimacy.

Communal living with relinquishing of private property is interesting. Being in a community teaches countless lessons on humility, friendship and service. By having common property, you are able to be in a community not only socially, but also physically since your physical welfare directly depends on the community.

P.S. I have only noted the bare-bone reasons for these views. My treatises usually come verbally (when I’m less sleepy) or when I have more time to write (when I don’t have exams, or when I’m not focusing on relationships but abstracting about them which is useful but only to a small extent).

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-06-10T23:44:00.000-04:00

The Federal Reserve System is controlled by private interests (i.e. factions in terms of the Federalist Papers), not by the government (i.e. the People). In the 1982 case Lewis v. United States, the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals stated that the "Federal reserve banks are not federal instrumentalities for purposes of a Federal Torts Claims Act, but are independent, privately owned and locally controlled corporations." The leadership consists of a board of 7 governors appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate for 14-year terms (12 U.S.C. § 241) with 14 regional banks. In the Constitution, only Congress had power to print money and set its value; however, Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 establishing a new independent branch of power to control the printing and value of money. A few years after, Woodrow Wilson wrote,

"I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."

To read what presidents before Woodrow Wilson had to say about a private national currency controlling system go to The Money Masters.

The existance of the Federal Reserve System means that when the government needs extra money, it has to loan it from the Federal Reserve with interest, rather than printing the money itself. The Federal Reserve has the power to print United States dollars, not the United States government! This is the reason we have such a huge national deficit, which is currently around $8 trillion, meaning about $27,000 of debt per US citizen. If the United States government did not give the power to control money to a private, independent, highly secretive, albeit slightly monitored by Congress, organization, then the government would not need to pay about 40% of the national debt (in 1998 40% of national debt was attributed to paying the Federal Reserve or other government accounts).

National Debt as of December 1998

John F. Kennedy tried to fix this problem by passing Executive Order 11110.

Executive Order 11,110
AMENDMENT OF EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 10289

AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE PERFORMANCE OF CERTAIN FUNCTIONS AFFECTING THE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code, it is ordered as follows:

Section 1. Executive Order No. 10289 of September 19, 1951, as amended, is hereby further amended-

1. By adding at the end of paragraph 1 thereof the following subparagraph (j):

(j) The authority vested in the President by paragraph (b) of section 43 of the Act of May 12,1933, as amended (31 U.S.C.821(b)), to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury not then held for redemption of any outstanding silver certificates, to prescribe the denomination of such silver certificates, and to coin standard silver dollars and subsidiary silver currency for their redemption

and –
2. Byrevoking subparagraphs (b) and (c) of paragraph 2 thereof.

Sec. 2. The amendments made by this Order shall not affect any act done, or any right accruing or accrued or any suit or proceeding had or commenced in any civil or criminal cause prior to the date of this Order but all such liabilities shall continue and may be enforced as if said amendments had not been made.

John F. Kennedy
The White House,
June 4, 1963.

It allowed the US government to print money independently of the Federal Reserve and backed it with silver (the Federal Reserve did not back their money notes with any commodity, thus they had fiat or fiduciary money), which would help repay the national debt and undermine the power of the Federal Reserve. This reintroduced the United States Note (red seal and serial code), rather than the Federal Reserve Note (green seal and serial code). Printing of the United States Notes began, but a few months later John F. Kennedy was assassinated and printing/circulation of the United States Notes stopped under the new leadership of Lyndon B. Johnson. Future presidents ignored this idea for reasons unknown to me. People, such as Congressman Ron Paul, have tried working to change this, but nothing seems to have come out of it (speech to House of Representatives).

If there was no Federal Reserve, there would be no inflation. Our government would raise money solely through taxation without inflation. This would restrict the amount our government could spend, thus putting its financial policy in real-world terms. It would make it more difficult for the government to quickly spend massive amounts of money (binge spending), because it would have to just as quickly cut spending in other programs, similiarly to how normal budgets work. Why don’t people change the system? Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. explains thus, "What keeps the gold standard from becoming a reality again is the love of big government and war. If we ever fall in love with freedom again, the gold standard will once more become a hot issue in public debate." To learn more from him, read Our Money Madness, which enlightened me to how much sense it makes to use gold coins (or gold-backed money) rather than fiat money.

Federal Reserve Notes are green, United States Notes are red and Silver Certificates are blue

It seems hardly anybody knows about this. The public needs to know. What do you think?

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-06-05T00:58:00.000-04:00

In The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Zosima’s young brother, Markel, comes down with deathly sickness and experiences a complete transformation. He begins to have loving madness. I first experienced this on Friday, June 2nd, 2006 and wrote about it. This is one of the greatest and most meaningful experiences I have ever had. This is the reason I became a vegetarian. I pine to keep experiencing this continuously. It’s very difficult to keep having this feeling and especially acting on it. Prayerfully, with time, I will be able to draw closer to loving like this. This is my meaning of life: to wake atremble with love.

"Light it, my dear, light it, what a monster I was to forbid you before! .. do not weep, life is paradise, and we are all in paradise, but we do not want to know it, and if we did want to know it, tomorrow there would be paradise the world over. … Why do you serve me, am I worthy of being served? If God were to have mercy on me and let me live, I would begin serving you, for we must all serve each other. … each of us is guilty in everything before everyone, and I most of all."

At that mother even smiled, she wept and smiled: "How can it be," she said, "that you are the most guilty before everyone? There are murderers and robbers, and how have you managed to sin so that you should accuse yourself most of all?"

"Dear mother, heart of my heart," he said (he had then begun saying such unexpected, endearing words), "heart of my heart, my joyful one, you must know that verily each of us is guilty before everyone, for everyone and everything. I do not know how to explain it to you, but I feel it so strongly that it pains me. And how could we have lived before, getting angry, and not knowing anything?"

Thus he awoke every day with more and more tenderness, rejoicing and all atremble with love.

…

"My dears, why do we quarrel, boast before each other, remember each other’s offenses? Let us go to the garden, let us walk and play and love and praise and kiss each other, and bless our life."

"He’s not long for this world, your son," the doctor said to mother as she saw him to the porch. "From sickness he is falling into madness."

The windows of his room looked onto the garden, and our garden was very shady, with old trees; the spring buds were already swelling on the branches, the early birds arrived, chattering, singing through his windows. And suddenly, looking at them and admiring them, he began to ask their forgiveness, too: "Birds of God, joyful birds, you, too, must forgive me, because I have also sinned before you." None of us could understand it then, but he was weeping with joy: "Yes," he said, "there was so much of God’s glory around me: birds, trees, meadows, sky, and I alone lived in shame, I alone dishonored everything, and did not notice the beauty and glory of it at all."

Book Six, Chapter 2, Part A: Of the Elder Zosima’s Young Brother

Translated from the Russian by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

2006-06-04T01:24:00.000-04:00

The truth of loving everyone is in knowing that EVERYONE IS BETTER THAN YOU. Everyone is better than me. Everyone, please forgive me for hurting you. I hurt people all the time. Everyone reading this, please forgive me for hurting you. Even if we’ve never met, please forgive me for hurting you. You are better than me.

How can I be in a romantic relationship with anyone. I am no one’s equal. You are better than me.

Please forgive me gnat for killng you. Please forgive me cows, chickens, pigs and lambs for killing and abusing you. You are better than me.

Please forgive me for not working hard enough, ignoring you or not helping you. I want to love you.

Please forgive me everyone. I am so sorry. I love you all.

This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize

First entry

2004-08-03T20:00:00.001-04:00

To see my old blog posts from interconnectedness.net go to this link at Internet Archive.