PANTHER -> Site news -> The way we were: Anglican England
by Ysabel Howard - Sunday, 18 December 2011, 12:28 AM
  So there was this God chap whom you praised, not because he demanded it or would punish you if you didn't, but because you wanted to, it welled up out of you, especially if you were a river, mountain or other geological formation. After 12 years of a sort of (wholly orthodox1) animism presided over by a wholly benevolent Creator, you left school. You might have gone to church. Unless you were totally thick, you'd picked up the gist at school. You didn't necessarily go to church in 18512 and you didn't necessarily go to church in 1951. You'd been given the view that God/Jesus loves you unconditionally, no matter, whatever, that they were there for you. So intense in popular hymns is the sense of the personal relationship that it's almost surprising anyone went to church at all. This probably didn't mean overmuch to you unless your life hit a rocky patch. Anglicanism may have struck noisier denominations and faiths as shallow, having been outwardly manifest as a few predictable remarks by the Archbishop of Canterbury at Christmas and Easter and on occasions of national joy or sorrow. If you did go to church, the vicar pointed out to you that you had sinned and would be forgiven if you admitted it in the standard Order of Morning Prayer DEARLY beloved brethren, the Scripture moveth us, in sundry places, to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness; and that we should not dissemble nor cloak them before the face of Almighty God our heavenly Father; but confess them with an humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart; to the end that we may obtain forgiveness of the same, by his infinite goodness and mercy. And although we ought, at all times, humbly to acknowledge our sins before God; yet ought we chiefly so to do, when we assemble and meet together to render thanks for the great benefits that we have received at his hands, to set forth his most worthy praise, to hear his most holy Word, and to ask those things which are requisite and necessary, as well for the body as the soul. Wherefore I pray and beseech you, as many as are here present, to accompany me with a pure heart, and humble voice, unto the throne of the heavenly grace, saying after me;
You weren't just there to wallow in how ghastly you were. The Church of England was the church of anyone who wanted one. From Low to High it catered to most interpretations of Christianity. If you wanted to be difficult, you could go and be a Catholic or a Non-Conformist. You could have a generally positive view of religion whether you believed or not. You could even think religion was pretty. You were not afraid and should not be because the Lord your shepherd was with you. Then all the shit underneath rose to the surface, thanks to the Movement for the Ordination of Women. 1974: Three bishops of the Episcopal Church, USA irregularly ordained eleven women. Massive outrage surfaced in the Church and throughout the rest of the Communion.
1975: The Anglican Church of Canada authorized female ordination.
1976: The Episcopal Church, USA passed a resolution declaring that "no one shall be denied access" to ordination into the three orders of ministry: as deacons, priests or bishops, on the basis of their sex.
1978 Lambeth Conference: The situation had degenerated into a crisis. Some wondered if the Communion could survive intact. That's 1978 not 1878. Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister the following year. If the Anglican Communion was going to fall apart, the Anglican Communion clearly had the sort of problems normal people couldn't solve. Some would say feminism is about basic human rights and that it's just a modern social movement. The truth is, the feminist movement is neither modern nor social in its origin. At its roots are ancient, highly religious elements that are rarely, if ever, mentioned. Feminist leaders easily fit what the apostle Paul warned about ... saying false teachers can often be identified by their opposition or indifference to the essential truths of the gospel. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth--men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone." [2 Timothy 3:1-8] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The false teachers of feminism teach a false lifestyle of unrighteousness. They prey on weak-willed women - unstable women who are guilt ridden because of their sins, torn by lust, and victims of various false teachers ("always learning," but never coming to a saving knowledge of Christ). A large number of feminists are victims of childhood abuse and are bitter toward men. Their 'guilt' is associated somehow with the false belief that they are responsible for their abuse. Rather than receiving the forgiving grace of Jesus, most of these women have bought into the lie perpetrated by false teachers that they are 'emancipated' and as a result are unable to function in a healthy relationship with a man. Is it any surprise the majority of women in NOW are lesbians?
Then they started to haemorrhage over gay priests too, apparently oblivious to the fact that most people probably think they're out of it. 1. The 'animism' is wholly orthodox, not just enthusiastic hymn-writers Benedicite, omnia opera.
ALL ye Works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Angels of the Lord, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Heavens, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Waters that be above the firmament, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O all ye Powers of the Lord, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Sun and Moon, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Stars of heaven, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Showers and Dew, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Winds of God, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Fire and Heat, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Winter and Summer, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Dews and Frosts, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Frost and Cold, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Ice and Snow, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Nights and Days, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Light and Darkness, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Lightnings and Clouds, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O let the Earth bless the Lord : yea, let it praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Mountains and Hills, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O all ye Green Things upon the earth, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Wells, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Seas and Floods, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Whales, and all that move in the waters, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O all ye Fowls of the air, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O all ye Beasts and Cattle, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Children of Men, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O let Israel bless the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Priests of the Lord, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Servants of the Lord, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Spirits and Souls of the Righteous, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye holy and humble Men of heart, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son : and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be : world without end. Amen.
Got that, all ye Green Things? The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Holy Children is a lengthy passage that appears after Daniel 3:23 in Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles, as well as in the ancient Greek Septuagint translation and it's listed in Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England[1]. The passage is omitted from Protestant Bibles as an apocryphal addition. The passage includes the prayer of Azariah (Abednego in Babylonian; see Daniel 1:6-7) while the three youths were in the fiery furnace; a brief account of the angel who met them in the furnace; and the hymn of praise they sang when they realized they were delivered. Book of Common PrayerThe "Song of the Three Holy Youths" is part of the hymn called a canon sung during the Matins and other services in Orthodoxy. It can be found in the Church of England Book of Common Prayer as the canticle called the "Benedicite."
2. Queen Victoria...cared little for 'extreme views' in religion, and in teaching her children...chose to dwell not on 'the supernatural features of the Christian religion, but rather upon the pure and comprehensive morality which it teaches us as its essential and indestructible element; Dickens's morality owed nothing to Evangelicalism or Tractarianism. Much religion, he suggested, was a 'vent for bad humours and arrogance' and there was no authority for the Murdstones in the New Testament; David Copperfield's opinion that 'we can all do some good if we will' was far more appealing. Dickens's obituary notes in Fraser's Magazine (July 1870) rightly seized on the point that 'he spent no thought on religious doctrines or religious reforms but regarded the Sermon on the Mount as good teaching, had a regard for the village church and churchyard, and quarrelled with nothing but intolerance' Asa Briggs: The Age of Improvement The Religious Census of 1851 demonstrated what Christians had long feared, that a large proportion of the population of England were neither Church people nor of any other religion. Although the exact figures must be treated with great caution, it seems clear that at least one-half of the people who might have been expected to go to church or chapel in 1851 did not do so. Most of the non-attenders came from the working classes...'the population having been till recently all but destitute of church ordinances, has relapsed into a state of semi-heathenism', wrote a vicar in a new parish near Oldham.

PANTHER -> Site news -> The Stone Table cracked
by Ysabel Howard - Sunday, 17 July 2011, 12:54 PM
  The law was overthrown. Consequently there has always been a tension in Christian societies between love and the law. Consequently popular Christianity contained an immovable layer of hymns which, whatever their failings from a Marxist and more broadly a social justice perspective in making the poor content with their lot, were utterly non-aggressive, non-vicious, dealing as they do with sheep and a Shepherd, healing streams and other pastoral elements (pastoral verging on pantheist - pastoral verging on pagan: 'The hornèd moon that shines by night/Mid her spangled sisters bright'), a babe in a manger, green hills far away and of course divine love. Of course we all became hippies, we were educated to become hippies! All creatures of our God and King,
lift up your voices, let us sing:
Alleluia, alleluia!
Thou burning sun with golden beams,
thou silver moon that gently gleams,
Refrain:
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! Thou rushing wind that art so strong,
ye clouds that sail in heaven along,
O praise him, Alleluia!
Thou rising morn, in praise rejoice,
ye lights of evening, find a voice, (R) Thou flowing water, pure and clear,
make music for thy Lord to hear,
Alleluia, alleluia!
Thou fire so masterful and bright,
that givest man both warmth and light, (R) Dear mother earth, who day by day
unfoldest blessings on our way,
O praise him, Alleluia!
The flowers and fruits that in thee grow,
let them his glory also show: (R) And all ye men of tender heart,
forgiving others, take your part,
O sing ye Alleluia!
Ye who long pain and sorrow bear,
praise God and on him cast your care: (R) And thou, most kind and gentle death,
waiting to hush our latest breath,
O praise him, Alleluia!
Thou leadest home the child of God,
and Christ our Lord the way hath trod: (R) Let all things their Creator bless,
and worship him in humbleness,
O praise him, Alleluia!
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son,
and praise the Spirit, Three in One: (R) The classic of course is the reworking of the 23rd Psalm   The Lord's my Shepherd, I'll not want.
he makes me down to lie
in pastures green; he leadeth me
the quiet waters by. My soul he doth restore again;
and me to walk doth make
within the paths of righteousness,
even for his own Name's sake. Yea, though I walk in death's dark vale,
yet will I fear no ill;
for thou art with me; and thy rod
and staff my comfort still. My table thou hast furnished
in presence of my foes;
my head thou dost with oil anoint,
and my cup overflows. Goodness and mercy all my life
shall surely follow me;
and in God's house forevermore
my dwelling place shall be. Love divine, all loves excelling,
joy of heaven, to earth come down,
fix in us thy humble dwelling,
all thy faithful mercies crown.
Jesus, thou art all compassion,
pure, unbounded love thou art;
visit us with thy salvation,
enter every trembling heart. Come, almighty to deliver,
let us all thy life receive;
suddenly return, and never,
nevermore thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
serve thee as thy hosts above,
pray, and praise thee without ceasing,
glory in thy perfect love. The nation's favourite hymn is How Great Thou Art Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works thy hand hath made,
I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed; Refrain:
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art! When through the woods and forest glades I wander
and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur,
and hear the brook, and feel he gentle breeze; Refrain And when I think that God his son not sparing,
Sent him to die - I scarce can take it in,
That on the cross my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin: Refrain When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home- what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration
And there proclaim, my God, how great thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art! "One feels that hymns will survive even if the organised Church falls apart, because they are the people’s tunes and the people’s words," he said.
The nation’s top 10 hymns are:-
1. How great Thou art
2. Dear Lord and Father of mankind (tune: Repton)
3. The day Thou gavest (tune: St Clement)
4. Be Thou my vision (tune: Slane)
5. Love divine, all loves excelling (tune: Blaenwern)
6. Be still, for the presence of the Lord (tune: Be Still)
7. Make me a channel
8. Guide me, O Thou great redeemer (tune: Cwm Rhondda)
9. In Christ alone
10. Shine, Jesus, Shine
I really liked all the ones (sigh) about nature. Yup, Morning Assembly turned me into a pantherist. I don't think that was quite the idea. Morning has broken,
Like the first morning,
Blackbird has spoken
Like the first bird;
Praise for the singing,
Praise for the morning,
Praise for them springing
Fresh from the Word. Sweet the rain's new fall,
Sunlit from heaven,
Like the first dewfall
On the first grass;
Praise for the sweetness,
Of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness
Where his feet pass. Mine is the sunlight,
Mine is the morning,
Born of the one light
Eden saw play;
Praise with elation,
Praise every morning,
God's re-creation
Of the new day. Hills of the north, rejoice;
river and mountain spring,
hark to the advent voice;
valley and lowland, sing;
though absent long, your Lord is nigh;
he judgment brings and victory. Isles of the southern seas,
deep in your coral caves
pent be each warring breeze,
lulled be your restless waves:
he comes to reign with boundless sway,
and makes your wastes his great highway. Lands of the East, awake,
soon shall your sons be free;
the sleep of ages break,
and rise to liberty.
On your far hills, long cold and gray,
has dawned the everlasting day. Shores of the utmost West,
ye that have waited long,
unvisited, unblessed,
break forth to swelling song;
high raise the note, that Jesus died,
yet lives and reigns, the Crucified. Shout, while ye journey home;
songs be in every mouth;
lo, from the North we come,
from East, and West, and South.
city of God, the bond are free,
we come to live and reign in thee! What of course is notably lacking is any allusion to the Old Testament. It might as well not have existed. There were things called Bible stories we learned, Moses in the bullrushes, Daniel in the lions' den, good stories but nothing to do with anything that mattered.
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/survey.of.nation.favourite.hymns.reveals.modern.and.ancient.mix/4387.htm

PANTHER -> Site news -> 'A Hymn of Thanksgiving for the final overthrow of Death'
by Ysabel Howard - Sunday, 17 July 2011, 02:46 AM
  The Libretto of Handel's Messiah. It's probably not a good idea to think you can walk over the Christian tradition without first understanding what the Christian tradition is. That half the 'Christian priests' are Death-Eaters, servants of the Dark Lord, should not confuse the issue. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 1 Corinthians “Supposing you’re a soprano,” said Shavli. Sarat looked a bit surprised but did his best. “You hit all the top notes. That’s fine. That’s cool. Your voice dominates the stage. But what you need to do is go higher, beyond the range of the human voice.”
“Now, Sarat, if you will just tell our viewers, and remember, there must be a hundred million tuned in worldwide, exactly what you think about death. Shall I tell them about the throne too?”
“Now you come to mention it…” said Shav. Dear people, I thank you. I shall not say in my worst dreams I never imagined but of course the reality. Some have called us heedless, foolhardy. We pay then for our folly? We do not skulk, cringe before Death the Great Master – “ The contempt in his voice was palpable. “And so some will say is this devastation we experience, is this ceremonial we conduct, not in obedience, obeisance to Death.” Oh Sarat, breathed Mitch. “We are human. To be human is to love. We grieve because we love, but love must conquer our grief, our fear. We feel the pain and pass through it into love. We are here today in love to love, to affirm the triumph of love. Love endures. We are here because we love Maya, not because we loved her, an ephemeral state, soon forgotten. This flame symbolizes that love. It is no feeble thing, readily extinguished. It is Light. It is power. It is all power. Death has no power over us. And so there is not an ending but a change, as every atom in the flame changes from moment to moment. Once more things are different but also they are the same. There is no faltering in our resolution, no dent in our love. “‘They came, the skull-faces, but we laughed.’ This Narulis wrote in his Journal – “ When a very large number of people gasp, it makes a noise, however quietly they try to do it. Sarat continued. This I say to you today. They cannot destroy laughter. Today we feel far from it, I perhaps most of all, but all sorrow must pass. Sarat: 'This most terrible of days'

PANTHER -> Site news -> Sarat: The Matter of Kadun (inner and eso): life, death, eternity and Gaia (2)
by Ysabel Howard - Wednesday, 8 February 2012, 10:10 PM
Tar and Saski arrived back and were frankly relieved to find Mel and Cantilip lounging in The Room looking healthy and normal, a relief which lasted about five seconds.
“There is this recurrent image,” said Mel. “The eight of us are walking hand in hand into the Light.” But then he said: “It’s like a flashback.” He paused. “The thing is, none of us can any longer keep a lid on what we are.”
“Then you must return to the Denzines and learn,” said Tar briskly.
Sure, Dad, sure.
“Even Hass?” asked Tar.
Mel didn’t answer directly.
“What I understand is that everything I have been taught since I first managed to stammer why? was directed at keeping my feet on the ground. Nothing is whole!”
“Everything is whole.”
“The healing lies in the balance? Papa – “ which Mel hadn’t called him since he was about ten. “ – how is it possible to be both alive and dead?”
“Darling,” said Saski, “you do not appear to be doing badly so far.”
“Do you understand that – that in earthpower I am Master of Kadun or more exactly - ?”
“Of course, darling,” said Saski.
He’s going to say it, thought Tar. He said it.
“What does it all mean?”
“I want my sons home,” said Tar.
Mel realized it was an order.
“Shall Essa order his son home!”
“Where,” said Tar softly, “is home?”
But Cantilip said: “You leave with Sarat Maya, Karula.”
“And Mitch of course,” said Mel.
She didn’t seem to think Mitch mattered.
And Fal, thought Mel. Is that it, only women can heal Kadun? Then death returned and said: Then Shavli must rule Kadun.
“No!” said Mel, then realized he had spoken aloud.
Tar looked alert. Mel explained.
“You become obsessed with death,” said Tar.
And Mel said: “That is the matter of Kadun?”
Cantilip cried out: “Don’t you see! No-one foresees our deaths because we’re dead already. It IS a flashback. Maya was right, we’re dead and we don’t even know it.”
“This is madness,” said Tar.
“That,” said Mel grimly, “is why we’re going to sane it.” No-one laughed. He turned to Cantilip. “We’re packing.”
“You return to Azt?” Tar kept his voice level.
“Great heavens, no! We are going to Fidub.”
“Wring his neck for me,” said Tar.
“We’re putting our own gloss on it,” said Mel. “We understand that. Or we are putting Azt’s gloss. Refracting it through what we think we know. What are we seeing?”
“It was illusion,” said Cantilip. “Karula and I weren’t there.”
“Unless of course,” snapped Mel, “you were dead.”
As the door closed behind them, Saski lay back in an attitude of complete collapse.
“Appalled beyond belief,” said Tar. He held her, then stood back and laughed. “Get packing. We, my lady, are going to Azt.”
“I shouldn’t have said that,” said Cantilip. “Total loony.”
“True-untrue,” said Mel. “Not true-true.”
“Catharsis,” said Cantilip.
There’s a heli-pad on the roof, drop you in Cho’s back garden in an hour.
But Por reported that they hadn’t left.
“They’re just sitting up there, talking.”
“Stop calling it death,” said Mel. “The part that’s there not here, the part we can no longer keep down. Death is a gloss and a corruption. We’re not seeing it as it is.”
“Because it’s been kept down, it – it isn’t properly integrated, That’s why it’s so erratic.”
“No balance.”
“Yes,” said Cantilip. “No. Mel, we’re doing this to ourselves.”
“We know that.”
“Why are we doing this to ourselves?”
He rested his head on her shoulder.
“I guess because we’re scared shitless.”
“We’ve brainwashed ourselves. There is no choice. No choice but to wander round Azt bare-headed, no choice but to behave as though Azt had been at peace for a thousand years. Do you not think the rational part of our minds rebels?”
“Thinks we’re suicidal,” said Mel.
“Think of a prey-animal, Mel. A rabbit. If rabbits had human consciousness how long d’you think they’d last before going psycho?”
“Simply as a result of existing,” said Mel.
“We’re not built for it.”
“Except we are,” said Mel.
“The ‘there’ part to which – to whom?”
“Nit-picker!” said Mel.
“To what the fear is meaningless, says, hey, man, it’s cool, what’s the hassle.”
“You’re dead already,” said Mel.
“What is the one thing our – hah! – uncensored selves have not experienced?”
“Total terror,” said Mel.
“Of losing you,” said Cantilip.
“Of losing you,” said Mel.
“Because,” said Cantilip.
“Because,” said Mel.
“It’s not terror at one’s own demise,” said Cantilip.
“It’s absolute powerlessness to prevent,” said Mel.
“Anything happening to any of us,” said Cantilip.
“Love is destroying us,” said Mel.
“Nobody told us,” said Cantilip.
“What could they have said?”
“Imposed detachment!”
Mel gave a little start, then turned and kissed her gently on the cheek.
“We have been so stupid. What is not whole?”
“What is forced apart. Oh Mel.”
“Love, they told us, love with all your heart and soul, become one.”
“It only works,” she said.
“When nobody wants to kill your beloved!”
“Grubby little rational minds. We understand the risk. We accept it.”
They looked at each other in horror.
“Letting go.”
“Of each other.”
He took her hand and began slowly to recite.
“I who am One, who am One with the One, and You who are all, Protector and Preserver, Creator and Destroyer, in whom all are One, give peace to this house and all within.”
It began to rain, but they didn’t mind. Finally two wet little rabbits descended and found Tar and Saski gone,.
We want to talk to a grown-up.
“It’s the opposite of everything we’ve been taught!” shouted Mel. Am I shouting? “Sorry.”
“No,” said Por. He ploughed on. “Cantilip leaves you? Is she not free? You let go.”
“That’s different. She has choice.”
“Here – the here part of you – accepts totally she is – discrete.”
“But there we are One – “
“What is time?” asked Cantilip. “It doesn’t matter. We shall meet again and then it will be for ever.”
“That is faith,” said Mel. “Must we cross in real time to know!”
“You do not trust?”
“What?”
“Love.”
We are dead and do not know it. It is as simple or as sophisticated.
“What Fal is doing is projecting – realizing, real-izing, making real.”
“Must we suffer the terror and the loss?” asked Cantilip.
“For what?”
“To be free.”
“It seems to me,” said Por, “your little minds are doing a pretty good job so far. Feel it.”
Cantilip lolled across the Plaza, half her head blown away. Mel’s mind shut down. “Feel it.”
Mel walked slowly through a hostile, jeering crowd. They’ll kill him, said someone helpfully. Cantilip retched. “Feel it.” Mel stared at him blindly. “Feel it.” Cantilip sprinkled earth on Mel’s grave then screamed No!. Mel alone in bed turns, reaches for empty space. Desolation overwhelms him.
“Poor little rabbits,” said Mel. “Such complicated minds.”
“Or,” said remorseless Por.
“I am walking behind your coffin,” said Mel steadily. “But the sun is in my hair and I am laughing. It doesn’t matter. What is in the coffin is not you. It has nothing to do with you, with us. Because you are beside me, clutching my hand. So why am I crying?”
“Do we have to make up our minds!” shouted Cantilip.
“No,” said Mel. Immediately it flashed into his mind: time is foreshortened. Oh shut up! he said to his mind. “We’re dragging ourselves under, aren’t we. How do we get out?”
“Only by turning our backs on the whole thing.”
“Not.”
He wrote at length to Sarat.
How can I be this stupid? thought Sarat. There’s one thing we didn’t do. How can I be this thick? We didn’t sit on it together!
Once more he approached the throne, his mood much OK buster, now you get your come-uppance. He sat firmly and with what the tabloids would have called a very male gesture of possession sat Maya on his lap. She snuggled against his chest and put her arms around his neck.
Well? asked Sarat. They surrendered their minds to each other, melded.
Er, yes, well.
I/we look around. Where are we? In the dream, if it is a dream, there is the distant sound of hammering. We follow it, taut, aware of being defenceless in a dream, if that makes sense. We seem to be in a tunnel. Under the earth? Under the Palace? The fault. We do not find these terribly comforting thoughts. Our feet are getting wet. A trickle of water from behind has reached us. The trickle becomes a steady flow. This is a very uncomforting thought indeed. Shall we outrun it? Did we not proclaim we wished to cleanse the sewers of Azt! Er, yes. Not with us in them. At least we know where we are. Must there not be a moment of unspeakable terror? Feel it. I have led you to your death! That is clearly not an ‘us’ thought. At least we’ll go together. But the water levels out at waist-height. We’d better swim! This is clearly the maddest trip yet. We begin to strike out for land. The beaches of Fidub appear before us but recede with each stroke. The fault.
We’re so convinced we are shaping the trip we don’t try to shape it. But then what’s the point. Think, think, think ourselves onto the beach. Here we are, vigorously towelling our backs as the sun beats down and the earth cracks beneath us. We cling to the edge of the fault. Steps appear, worn by many weary climbers. We begin our descent to the centre of the earth.
For a moment they clung to each other taut.
“Why,” demanded Maya, “did it stop when it was just getting interesting?”
Sarat’s mobile rang.
“Oh,” he said. “Another kind of disturbance in the ether.”
Tar and Saski surveyed the plotters.
“You are all mad or only Mel and Cantilip?”
“Darlings,” said Saski, “you didn’t finish growing-up. Now you must grow up on the job. It is hard.”
“Oh, is that what happened?” said Sarat.
“You don’t look too bad,” allowed Tar.
“Smile for the camera,” said Sarat. “It’s probable I went mad when I was 17. I may just be getting over it."
“Cho,” said Tar, “if you took a break.”
Sarat smiled wanly.
“D’you think he could cope?”
“What has Mel said?” asked Hass.
“I have said I wish my sons home. Perhaps all five of them for a short while.”
“I thank you,” said Sarat.
“You are not here,” said Tar.
“Something else has happened,” said Sarat.
“We are feeling just a little fragile,” said Maya.
Tar caught up with the missing episodes. He put his head in his hands.
“Mel and Cantilip must sit.”
“We’d got there,” said Sarat.
Mel had got hold of a graphics program. He sat back from the monitor.
“There! I thought I’d externalize it.”
Cantilip looked at the eight of them walking hand in hand into the Light and began to cry.
“I did that,” admitted Mel. “Then I thought – supposing – “
He opened another image.
“Oh Mel!” She laughed and cried at the same time.
“First I put silver blur round each of us, which I found rather cheering. No change of state. Then of course the blur all joined up and the blur is what joins us. So in the end I had the beginning of a solid block of silver blur and then I thought paint out the people, because the people are the blur. But in the middle of the people.”
In the middle of a shimmering radiant block of silver were eight tiny rabbits.
“What is it that our little brains are screaming at us that we cannot begin to accept because it’s so sick, so crazy?”
“There is no difference between life and death. But we know that or we shouldn’t be as we are.”
“Poor little rabbits. Then I thought something else. I thought we’re going through the Light.”
“That’s a bit scary,” said Cantilip. “But it’s still a flashback.”
“How do I know what time does? Does it ask me? Except maybe it’s something we’ve done. We are at the interface.”
She looked around Mel’s old bedroom and began to giggle.
“Cosmic, man!”
“I know, I know! But mentally we’ve taken ourselves over the top and that’s what we don’t know.”
“Because it’s we who are calling the shots. Our little brains are squealing that there’s something we need to let hang out here…”
“Life is death. It only sounds so repulsive because time programmes us to see it linearly.”



The law that was overthrown was of course death, however you may wish to interpret that.

Broadly, she said cautiously, with level of intelligence and education key factors, people evolved a personal path that no, wasn't a religion, didn't involve worshipping anyone or anything, sought that which has many names, self-realization, wholeness, union, roughly the Tao with Jesus as mentor plus or minus Buddha.  Jesus I think is alive and well and hanging out with us publicans and sinners.  No, well, you wouldn't find him in church.  
5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. 7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Sermon on the Mount.

He was of course a Kabbalist.

And the NT of course is one of the great mystic texts of the world, which certain people, they know who they are, have assiduously dedicated 2000 years to making legalistic, oppressive.
We who knew Jesus and heard his discourses say that he taught Man how to break the chains of his bondage, that he might be free from his yesterdays.
But Paul is forging chains for the man of tomorrow. He would strike with his own hammer upon the anvil in the name of one whom he does not know.
The Nazarene would have us live the hour in passion and ecstasy.
The Man of Tarsus would have us be mindful of laws recorded in ancient books.
Kahlil Gibran: Jesus, Son of Man
The line continued through the early Christian era, and there is no doubt that Joshua ben Miriam, or Jesus, was well acquainted with the hidden Jewish tradition. His whole outlook and frame of reference is Kabbalistic; thus, for example, his term ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ directly refers to the Malkhut of Beriah.
Zev ben Shimon Halevi: The Way of Kabbalah
Truth nailed upon the cross compels nobody, oppresses no one; it must be accepted and confessed freely; its appeal is addressed to free spirits...A divine Truth panoplied in power, triumphant over the world and conquering souls, would not be consonant with the freedom of man's spirit, and in the mystery of Golgotha is the mystery of liberty….Every time in history that man has tried to turn crucified Truth into coercive truth he has betrayed the fundamental principle of Christ.
Nicholas Berdyaev
…all legitimate religious study must lead to unlearning the difference, the illusory differences, between boys and girls, animals and stones, day and night, heat and cold.
JD Salinger: Franny and Zooey
Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water/and he spent a long time watching/from a lonely wooden tower/and when he knew for certain/only drowning men could see him/he said, All men must be sailors now/until the sea shall free them/but he himself was broken/long before the sky would open/forsaken, almost human/he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone/And you want to travel with him/you want to travel blind/and you think maybe you’ll trust him/because he’s touched your perfect body/with his mind. Leonard Cohen: ‘Suzanne takes you down….’

In My Time of Dying Led Zeppelin
Produced by Jimmy Page Album Physical Graffiti

In My Time of Dying Lyrics [Verse 1]
In my time of dying
I want nobody to mourn
All I want for you to do
Is take my body home

[Chorus]
Well, well, well
So I can die easy
Well, well, well
So I can die easy
Jesus got to make up
You know
Jesus going to make up
Jesus going to make up my dying bed

[Verse 2]
Meet me, Jesus, meet me
Ooh, meet me in the middle of the air
If my wings should fail me, Lord
Oh, please meet me with another pair

[Chorus]
Well, well, well
So I can die easy
Oh, oh
Well, well, well
So I can die easy
Jesus going to make up
Somebody, somebody
Oh, oh
Jesus going to make up
Jesus going to make up my dying bed
[Verse 3]
Oh, Saint Peter
At the gates of heaven
Won't you let me in
I never did no harm
I never did no wrong
Oh, Gabriel, let me blow your horn
Let me blow your horn
Oh, I never did no harm
Did no harm
I've only been this young once
I never thought I'd do anybody no wrong
No, not once, oh no

[Bridge]
Oh yeah!

[Verse 4]
Oh, I did somebody some good
Somebody some good, yes, oh
Oh, did somebody some good, yeah
I must have did somebody some good, yeah
Oh, I believe I did
I see the smiling faces
I know I must have left some traces, oh

[Bridge]

[Verse 5]
And I see them in the streets
And I see them in the field
And I hear them shouting under my feet
And I know it's got to be real
Oh Lord, deliver me
All the wrong I've done
Oh, you can deliver me Lord
I only wanted to have some fun
Oh, hear the angels marching, hear them marching
Hear them marching, hear them marching, the marching

[Verse 6]
Oh my Jesus, oh my Jesus, oh my Jesus, oh my Jesus
Oh my Jesus, oh my Jesus
Oh my Jesus, oh my Jesus
Oh my Jesus, oh my Jesus, ah, oh
Now my Jesus, hey, yeah, it's got to be my Jesus, oh
It's got to be, it's got to be my Jesus, it's got to be, oh
It's got to be my Jesus, oh, gonna take me home
Come on, come on, I can hear the angels singing
Oh, here they come, here they come, here they come
Bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye
Oh, it feels pretty good up here, pretty good up here
Oh Georgina, oh Georgina, oh Georgina, oh Georgina, oh Georgina
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh yeah
Oh I'll see you again, come on
Oh, don't you make it my dying, dying, dying
Bed


PANTHER -> Site news -> By all means get us wrong, Father
by Ysabel Howard - Sunday, 12 February 2012, 08:26 PM
  Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ,
Who are you? What have you sacrificed?
Jesus Christ Superstar,
Do you think you're what they say you are? Did you mean to die like that? Was that a mistake, or
Did you know your messy death would be a
record breaker?
Don't you get me wrong.
I only want to know.
Jesus Christ Superstar By all means get us wrong, Father. We still do not think he was what you say he is. Furthermore, fond though you are of sneering that we think he was just another good man, I should guess - and it is a guess, against which I actually live in the world of the C21st - we actually think he was rather special. Just not your kind of special.

PANTHER -> Site news -> Civis romana sum?
by Ysabel Howard - Friday, 3 February 2012, 11:55 PM
  Of course the Vatican doesn't oppose scientific enquiry of course it honours reasons, of course it all unfounded bigotry. Except it isn't. Just don't come up with the wrong answers, because as the casse of de Chardin indicates, the truth is already known. The answers or the direction to which the answers point must support the unproved and unprovable answer already given. There are a lot of words for that. Science isn't one of them. AUTHORITY
Wretched ones, whatever your clerical garb, do not ever seek to use authority where only reason applies, or accept being mocked for all time as the most impertinent of men and submit to public detestation as the most unjust. You have been told a hundred times of the insolent folly by which you condemned Galileo, and I'm telling you for the 101st and want that you make it an anniversary. I want engraved on the door of your Holy Office: "Here seven cardinals, friars minor bearing witness, had thrown into prison at the age of 70 the master of Italian thought, made him fast on bread and water, because he instructed the human race and they were ignorant." Voltaire: Dictionnaire philosophique [my translation]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         The human presumption of which these strange old men love to dribble is to think that the answer isn't known already. Suppose I formulate a hypothesis concerning how glass breaks. I happily select something about which I know nothing because the point is I know nothing and want to find out. Oh, and the other point is I have no vested interest in a particular answer. After exhausting my ability to think of different ways to break the same pane of glass, from the fracture of a high-speed bullet to stamping on it to dropping concrete blocks of different size on it from different heights, I am indeed exhausted, surrounded by a wealth of evidence to sift through. Not like that.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      As with scientific enquiry, so with spiritual enquiry, as evidenced by the condemnations of open-minded priests. All they have to say to the enquiring mind is, 'we know: believe'. No, that's not all they have to say. All they have to say is worse. All they have to say is it's better to be a narrow, petty, mindless, self-obsessed moron and Believe than be a warm, loving, thinking non-moron with no faith. Believe or be damned. That is implicit. If you do not believe, you are evil, therefore you will be damned. What century is this? In this mind-set certainly one may question, try to reason out how what they say is can be, and even doubt that it is, but that doesn't change the 'fact' that it is. What the rest of us with normally functioning open minds, not preconceived opinion, understand as doubt is, I think, simply not understood. To call the mind-set mediaeval is I think far more than to merely indicate the world has moved on. It is the mind-set of someone who, however educated he was, simply had no space in his head for any alternative version of the universe, it was not conceivable that the product was not basically as described.                                                                                                                                                    You didn't like Jesus anymore, and you wanted to know if you could call Seymour at his Army camp and tell him all about it. And you know why you didn't like Jesus anymore? I'll tell you. Because, one, you didn't approve of his going into the synagogue and throwing all the tables and idols all over the place. That was very rude, very Unnecessary. You were sure that Solomon or somebody wouldn't have done anything like that. And the other thing you disapproved of- the thing you had the Bible open to- was the lines 'Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.' That was all right. That was lovely. That you approved of. But, when Jesus says in the same breath, 'Are ye not much better than they?'- ah, that's where little Franny gets off. That's where little Franny quits the Bible cold and goes straight to Buddha, who doesn't discriminate against all those nice fowls of the air. (JD Salinger, Franny and Zooey) Believer and non-believer alike can find plenty to say about that one. The problem with the mind-set may be expressed as the pointlessness of saying anything since Jesus must have been right because he was Jesus. Sensible priests are interested in the very different views of their fellow-humans and if they are fortunate too busy with their parishes to venture into print and thus potentially incur the displeasure of the Vatican, where the priests are not sensible. They're not interested is us and we're not interested in them. They want to spout a lot of crap at us and go unchallenged. We're not interested. Rowan Williams' remark about religion as being seen as an eccentricity is both very right and very wrong, I think.               'Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory.' I Corinthians 15:54
'The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.' 1 Corinthians 15: 26. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 1 Corinthians 15: 55 Death is swallowed up in victory. 1 Corinthians 15: 54 What has it got to do with anything that matters whether Jesus literally rose from the dead? They even have enshrined in the New Testament texts that rank with the rest of the world's mystical literature and they'd still rather screech about denial of the literal truth of the Nativity. The sort of religion, call it organized for short, the public face of which is here is a book and it's true, more true than any other book, and that's cos we say so, and no-one may say a nasty word about it, because it's God's Truth, God's Word, regardless of the bits of it that are evident crap, is that not the abode of the loon? Omniscience is part of the job description. If just one line is wrong, the whole thing is called into question. It cannot actually follow that some guy with horns and a tail infiltrated the pristine whole with that line, since omniscience would instantly detect the scam, but I think we can see why they got so very antsy about The Satanic Verses.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         We want to talk about love and death and reality and illusion, time and timelessness, fear and love, self and other, about life the universe and everything in the terms these things actually exist, the terms of physics and biology, not the terms set by desert tribesmen, about the principles that inform the human condition, of course we want to talk about the human condition, thinking life always has and always will, and we'll take ideas from anywhere on the planet, and they want to talk about how women priests offend God. God wants your meat killed in a certain way, is obsessed with what you wear and even more obsessed with what you do in bed and with whom. God is absolutely certain only men can represent him. Most of all perhaps God really hates any indication he didn't know what he was talking about. Intellectual, emotional and moral inadequates for whom the only ideas in the world are those for which there is no justification and which may not be challenged and who seek to suppress anything they don't like by force, who despise language and reason and understand only power; such are religion's chosen, such are those the churches support.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           There are more interesting things in the universe to discuss, there really are, than what are clearly the fixations of the petty, the narrow, the control-freak. Do these people think of nothing else besides how they can inflict their beastly little selves on others? Religion routinely supports the petty, the narrow, the mindless, the fascist among its own and condemns the thinking among its own. Why should we think they have anything to say to intelligent people? We can read for ourselves and even think. They seem to think they're talking to mediaeval peasants For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8: 38 Or in other words the kingdom of God is within you? Of course the Vatican professed itself mystified by De Mello's emphasis on interior enlightenment. Behold the Creed: I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell [don't get me on the Harrowing of Hell, I love it, sort of re-run of all that Rude and Unnecessary turning over of tables on a cosmic scale]; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. Sure, guys, sure. Since people who enquire into these things tend to be honest people, they cannot sign up. That does not deter the priests; they got Troof and what's wrong with us is we haven't and since we don't consider not having a closed mind wrong, the hell with 'em.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The sordid creatures called politicians have somehow made the Vatican the representative of that which was previously Christendom. Suddenly the Vatican, a sexually and religiously supremacist state mentally in the Middle Ages which no-one sane would let near a plural society, is supposed to be important to England. Yer what? They assume they own Europe but the half of Europe they haven't owned for 500 years because it got fed up with them and chucked them out didn't invite them back and the rest don't seem too keen either but it only needs devout Catholics in high places to inflict this crap on us. {Aside, stage left: Let them go, Dr Williams, let them go, let all the Stone Age folks bugger off to Rome, then you might have a Church of England people are interested in. } ATHEISM Men fattened by our wealth shout, "Believe that an ass spoke, believe that a fish swallowed a man and spat him out good as new onto the shore three days later. Do not doubt that the God of the universe commanded a Jewish prophet to eat shit (Ezekiel) and another prophet to buy two sluts and make whores of them (these are the very words they make the God of truth and purity speak), believe a hundred things either evidently repulsive or mathematically impossible. If you don't, the God of mercy will burn you not just for hundreds of thousands of years but for the whole of eternity, whether you have a body or not. These preposterous imbecilities repel equally the weak-minded and foolhardy and the strong and wise. They say: "Our masters depict God as the most deranged and barbaric of beings, therefore there is no God", but they ought to say, 'Our masters attribute to God their own absurdities and their own rage, therefore God is the opposite of what they say, as wise and good and they say he is mad and bad." Thus speak the wise. But if a fanatic overhears them, he denounces them to the magistrate who puts them to torture, believing he avenges and impersonates the divine majesty he outrages. Voltaire: Dictionnaire philosophique [my translation] Possibly the Vatican assume they civilized us in the first place but they didn't even do that: the ancient Romans did. [That of course is why we all speak perfect Latin.] I feel that if the empire of Caesar Augustus had survived - or better, if it did survive in a parallel universe, it would have moved on. Its main drawbacks might be briefly listed as slavery, a penchant for crucifying people and an unhealthy obsession with the entrails of the sacred chickens, but it wasn't ruled by one damned book demanding the sacred chickens be the ultimate source of all wisdom and knowledge for ever - 20 million sacred chickens can't be wrong? - and indeed it was civilized itself by the Greeks, who of course invented democracy. Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit,eh, Father. It would, therefore, be better to have Caesar back than this lot - Catullus, Martial, Juvenal, Ovid - yes, that could be interesting - Pericles, Plato, Socrates, Aristophanes, Xenophon, Sophocles, Euripides and indeed Jesus, for did a decree not go out from Caesar Augustus - ? Perhaps in a parallel universe Rome didn't make such a comprehensive fuck-up.

According to Lloyd Webber, Superstar is the best-selling double album of all time.  No, I don't think Jesus has gone anywhere.  The thing is, priests, you are surplus to requirements, since, whatever flavour you are, you appear to be entirely incapable of understanding rthat normal people don't start by assuming you got Troof and everyone else got it wrong.  There is no evidence for any of this and no reason why Lao-Tze should not have hacked it far better than Mohammed or Moses.  

PANTHER -> Site news -> Voltaire and Jesus
by Ysabel Howard - Sunday, 12 February 2012, 08:24 PM
  [29] After enjoying some time in conversation with Socrates, he went forward with my guide into a grove situated above the thickets where all the sages of antiquity seemed to be tasting sweet repose.
[30] I saw a man of gentle, simple countenance, who seemed to me to be about thirty-five years old. From afar he cast compassionate glances on these piles of whitened bones, across which I had had to pass to reach the sages' abode. I was astonished to find his feet swollen and bleeding, his hands likewise, his side pierced, and his ribs flayed with whip cuts. " Good Heavens! " I said to him, " is it possible for a just man, a sage, to be in this state? I have just seen one who was treated in a very hateful way, but there is no comparison between his torture and yours. Wicked priests and wicked judges poisoned him; is it by priests anhd judges that you have been so cruelly assassinated? "
[31] He answered with much courtesy--"Yes."
[32] "And who were these monsters? "
[33] "They were hypocrites."
[34] "Ah! that says everything; I understand by this single word that they must have condemned you to death. Had you then proved to them, as Socrates did, that the Moon was not a goddess, and that Mercury was not a god? "
[35] "No, these planets were not in question. My compatriots did not know at all what a planet is; they were all arrogant ignoramuses. Their superstitions were quite different from those of the Greeks."
[36] "You wanted to teach them a new religion, then? "
[37] "Not at all; I said to them simply--' Love God with all your heart and your fellow-creature as yourself, for that is man's whole duty.' Judge if this precept is not as old as the universe; judge if I brought them a new religion. I did not stop telling them that I had come not to destroy the law butt to fulfill it; I had observed all their rites; circumcised as they all were, baptized as were the most zealous among them, like them I paid the Corban; I observed the Passover as they did, eating standing up a lamb cooked with lettuces. I and my friends went to pray in the temple; my friends even frequented this temple after my death; in a word, I fulfilled all their laws without a single exception."
[38] "What! these wretches could not even reproach you with serving from their laws? "
[39] "No, without a doubt."
[40] "Why then did they put you in the condition in which I now see you? "
[41] "What do you expect me to say! they were very arrogant and selfish. They saw that I knew them; they knew that I was making the citizens acquainted with them; they were the stronger; they took away my life: and people like them will always do as much, if they can, to whoever does them too much justice.'' . . .
[42] " You therefore contributed in no way by your speeches, badly reported, badly interpreted, to these frightful piles of bones which I saw on my road in coming to consult you? "
[43] "It is with horror only that I have seen those who have made themselves guilty of these murders."
[44] " And these monuments of power and wealth, of pride and avarice, these treasures, these ornaments, these signs of grandeur, which I have seen piled up on the road while I was seeking wisdom, do they come from you? "
[45] "That is impossible; I and my people lived in poverty and meanness: my grandeur was in virtue only."
[46] I was about to beg him to be so good as to tell me just who he was. My guide warned me to do nothing of the sort. He told me that I was not made to understand these sublime mysteries. Only did I conjure him to tell me in what true religion consisted. [47] "Have I not already told you? Love God and your fellow-creature as yourself."
[48] " What! if one loves God, one can eat meat on Friday? "
[49] "I always ate what was given me; for I was too poor to give anyone food."
[50] " In loving God, in being just, should one not be rather cautious not to confide all the adventures of one's life to an unknown man?"
[51] "That was always my practice."
[52] " Can I not, by doing good, dispense with making a pilgrimage to St. James of Compostella? "
[53] "I have never been in that country."
[54] " Is it necessary for me to imprison myself in a retreat with fools? "
[55] "As for me, I always made little journeys from town to town.''
[56]" Is it necessary for me to take sides either for the Greek Church or the Latin? "
[57] "When I was in the world I never made any difference between the Jew and the Samaritan."
[58] "Well, if that is so, I take you for my only master." Then he made me a sign with his head which filled me with consolation. The vision disappeared, and a clear conscience stayed with me.
Dictionnaire philosophique, Religion. Translated Hanover Historical Texts Project.



Marx told his daughter a story about a carpenter killed by the rich men.  

Well, wasn't that a right waste of make-up, not that I bothered to put any on for this sick farce.  I can't say I wasn't told:  Cast ye not pearls before swine.