Blog Archives - OLD CHATHAM QUAKERS

1The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world. (Psalm 19, NIV)

Sixty years ago, my friend Jack Burns and I went stargazing with my 6-inch Newtonian reflector telescope. On a crisp, cold night we saw Saturn’s rings, Jupiter and its moons, the reddish disc of Mars, and the white spheres of Venus and Mercury. We were elated by these celestial sights and the warmth of our friendship. In retrospect, I think we experienced the presence of God.

Well, I recently purchased an inexpensive 70 mm refractor which will reveal very similar images. Of course, the sky above Sherman is polluted by the light of the numerous towns in the area, but—by driving 75 miles north into rural Oklahoma—I should have a dark enough sky for stargazing that’s comparable or better than what Jack and I had in the 1970’s. And, sometime in the future, I MIGHT buy an expensive, large aperture scope and drive to Big Bend National Park, camp out, and set up the telescope for some serious viewing under the absolutely dark sky of this remote, desert area. Of course, the telescope couldn’t be so big that it wouldn’t fit in my wife’s SUV! Moreover, our retirement income may not be sufficient for such an expenditure.

Actually, it’s not necessary to have a large telescope to see God if you’re in Big Bend. Even with the naked eye, these dark skies are a stunning panorama of constellations, planets, and the Milky Way. Of course, those who are not religious see this celestial spectacle as the result of the laws of physics and chemistry, not the creation of God. Nevertheless, both theists and non-theists are almost always united by a sense of awe at this cosmic mystery in which we live.

~ Richard Russell        

In this country, don’t accidentally drive into a stranger’s driveway. Don’t walk up to the front door of a stranger’s house. Don’t absentmindedly open someone else’s car door. You might get shot. You might be wounded or killed as in recent “one-off” shootings.  And then there are the mass gun murders at Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Columbine, the Aurora movie theater, the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, the El Paso Walmart, Parkland, Las Vegas, Binghamton, San Bernardino, Sutherland Springs, Thousand Oaks, Virginia Beach, Monterey Park, Santa Fe, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Uvalde, the Covenant School in Nashville, and Louisville.   

I usually attribute all this violence simply to the easy availability of guns in the United States. In fact, we have more guns than people in this country. However, after reading the first few pages of The Heart of Man by Erich Fromm, I agree with Fromm’s contention that American culture is a “culture of death,” in which human beings are regularly reduced to the status of things that may be readily disposed of with an AR-15.  

From argues,
…the bureaucratic-industrial civilization…(in) America has created a new type of man; he can be described as the organization man, as the automaton man, and as homo consumens. He is, in addition, homo mechanicus; by this I mean a gadget man, deeply attracted by all that is mechanical (like guns?), and inclined against that which is alive…. he becomes indifferent to life, fascinated by the mechanical, and eventually attracted by death and total destruction. Consider the role that killing plays in our amusements. The movies, the comic strips, the newspapers, (TV news networks), are full of excitement because they are full of reports of destruction, sadism, brutality. Millions of people live humdrum but comfortable existences—and nothing excites them more than to see or read of killings, whether it is murder or a fatal accident in an automobile race (or a deadly mass shooting?).
 
Fromm was writing in the 1960s. So, I have updated the quote above with my comments in parentheses. There is nothing parenthetical, however, about the gun killings which plague today’s society in the U.S. When I read of or hear about another mass murder, I want to scream, “Stop it! Stop it now!” But the mass shootings don’t stop and will no doubt continue for many years to come.

 ~ Richard Russell
 

It’s time to see how spiritual the Bing ChatBot can be. I told it, “Write an
original prayer that includes the sentences, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”
This was the result:

Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.
You are the source of all truth and grace,
The giver of every good and perfect gift.
Forgive me for doubting your promises and power,
For letting fear and worry cloud my vision of you.
 
Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.
You are the healer of all wounds and sickness,
The restorer of every broken and lost soul.
Forgive me for seeking other remedies and comforts,
For ignoring your presence and your peace.

Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.
You are the king of all glory and majesty,
The ruler of every nation and authority.
Forgive me for following other lords and idols,
For compromising your will and your ways.
 
Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.
You are the savior of all sinners and rebels,
The redeemer of every cross and grave.
Forgive me for trusting in my own works and merits,
For neglecting your grace and your love.
 
Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.
Increase my faith and strengthen my hope,
Fill me with your Spirit and your joy.
Amen.
 
Well, the ChatBot prayer is quite good. I can imagine a Catholic priest, hard-pressed for time, requesting a ChatBot prayer on his smartphone and immediately using it in some situation where he was supposed to offer a public prayer. But is the ChatBot prayer really prayer?

While prayer may be expressed in words, words are not the essence of prayer. Prayer, in its deepest form, is simply drawing close to God and feeling God’s presence. Clearly the ChatBot cannot do this. Artificial Intelligence is incapable of praying “with groans that cannot be expressed in words.” (Romans 8:26) Prayer requires a real person and a real God, together in real time.

~ Richard Russell

To test the Bing ChatBot’s literary ability, I instructed it to “write an original poem about finding God in Nature.” This was the result, produced within seconds by artificial intelligence.

In the stillness of the morning,
When the world is quiet and still,
I find myself drawn to nature,
To the mountains and the hills.
 
For in the beauty of creation,
I see the hand of God at play,
And in the majesty of nature,
I find my soul’s true way.
 
The trees that reach up to the sky,
Are like fingers pointing to heaven above,
And the flowers that bloom at their feet,
Are like prayers of gratitude and love.
 
The birds that sing their sweet songs,
Are like angels sent from above,
And the wind that whispers through the trees,
Is like a message of peace and love.
 
So when I’m feeling lost and alone,
And my heart is heavy with care,
I turn to nature for comfort and hope,
And find God’s presence everywhere.
 
While no great work of art, the poem is actually not bad. I can imagine it getting an
“A” or “B” in a college poetry class. It might even be publishable. Hmm, I wonder if the
ChatBot could write a State of the Society report.  

~ Richard Russell
 

It’s been 50 years since the U.S. withdrew from Vietnam and nearly 30 years since the restoration of diplomatic ties between the two countries. Vietnam and the U.S. have become trading partners, and it’s not uncommon for American veterans of the War to return to Vietnam and literally embrace former enemy soldiers, sharing bitter-sweet memories with them.

As a counterbalance to China, the U.S. is strengthening ties with Vietnam. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently spoke of how the two countries “can advance a free and open Indo-Pacific, one that is at peace and grounded in respect for the rules-based international order.” And the U.S. is building a new $1.2 billion embassy compound in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, once a prime target for U.S. bombers. Formerly bitter enemies have become partners, and I’m reminded of Abraham Lincoln’s famous dictum: “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.”

By the way, those interested in remembering or learning about the protests against the War in Vietnam should read Norman Mailer’s account of the 1967 March on the Pentagon, The Armies of the Night. The book ends with a group of Quakers thrown into jail because of their participation in the March. Refusing food and water, refusing to wear prison clothing, they suffered naked in cramped, cold cells. Mailer asks himself,

                Did they pray, these Quakers, for forgiveness of the nation? Did
          they pray with tears in their eyes in those blind cells, with visions
          of a long column of Vietnamese dead, Vietnamese walking a
          column of flame, eyes on fire, nose on fire, mouth speaking flame,
          did they pray, “O Lord, forgive our people for they do not know….”
               
So, today, it would seem that forgiveness and trust have replaced retribution and fear in the relations of the two countries. The United States and Vietnam are friends and—possibly—future allies. (This post was partly inspired by Heather Cox Richardson’s April 16 newsletter.)

~ Richard Russell           

The following quote from Isaac Penington, selected by Brian Drayton, is provocative:

Q. ...In a case of doubt or difference, which shall be the judge; the measure of life within, or the testimony of others without? Shall I judge as I feel the thing in the measure of my own life? Or shall I submit to others against my own sense and judgment, because I have an esteem of them, as being much above me in the growth, sense, and understanding of truth?

Ans. It is a great matter to judge aright, and to discern and know the measure of truth (the voice, motion, and judgment thereof) from all the enemy's false appearances, and from all the deceits of the heart. This is most certain; Jerusalem (the heavenly building, the church of the first-born) is at unity with itself. Truth is pure, eternal, unchangeable, always the same; the same in every member, in every vessel, throughout the whole body.
 
And this I may say concerning its appearance in this our age, Was ever the like unity known and brought forth since the days of the apostles? How hath the Spirit been One, the demonstration and testimony of truth One, the doctrine One, the conversation and practices One in us all! Why, or how so? Because we have had our begetting, birth, and teaching from the same life, the same Spirit; the same fountain springing up, and opening in us all, that have been gathered into its nature and power. Now from this fountain, from this spring of life, never issueth any thing that is contrary to the life in any. Therefore if there appear a contrariety, there must be a waiting to feel who is erred from, or at least not yet fully gathered into, the measure of life. And such as are of an inferior stature and growth in the body, are (in an especial manner) to watch and wait in sobriety and fear, till the Lord clear up, and make things manifest; and likewise in the mean time to take heed of a hasty concluding, according to what riseth up in the understanding or judgment (though with ever so great a seeming clearness and satisfaction) as if it must needs be of and from the life in the vessel.
 
Well, Old Chatham Monthly Meeting is a liberal Quaker meeting—not liberal in the political sense, but liberal in that its members hold a diversity of spiritual beliefs with no dogmas or doctrines to which we must conform. How, then, is our Spirit one? Where is the Unity that Penington speaks of? Have we fallen away from the Truth that is “pure, eternal, unchangeable, always the same.”

I think not. Diversity of belief there may be at Old Chatham, but—in our best moments—we are united in Love. The Truth Penington speaks of is not, fundamentally, a belief. It is what the Ancient Greeks called ἀγάπη (agape), the love of God for humankind, our reciprocal love for God, and our selfless love for one another.

But what about those among us who don’t believe in God? Well, atheism or agnosticism are beliefs, no better or worse than beliefs about Jesus or the Buddha. The unity between Jesus and Buddha is their exemplification of agape love. May we always strive to live in that Love which transcends belief!

~ Richard Russell       

Cocaine Bear is a film with a strange mixture of comedy and violence.  When a pilot jettisons packets of cocaine he’s smuggling, they fall into a national forest and are discovered by a black bear who promptly eats and sniffs the drug. The bear becomes violently aggressive and kills eight people before the movie ends.

While the bear rampages, the human characters engage in verbal repartee that tends to produce smiles as opposed to belly laughs. Of course, there’s really nothing funny about the blood and gore we see. The violence blunts the force of the comedy, and this viewer at least was left with a disorienting anomie.

The film did hold my attention; and it was technically well-done, but it wasn’t worth the $25.00 I paid Amazon to own and view Cocaine Bear. Why did I waste my money? In an episode of The View Whoopi Goldberg and company interviewed the director, Elizabeth Banks, born in nearby Pittsfield, Massachusetts.  Banks, a successful actress, is trying to establish a new career as a director in a male-dominated field. Although I think Cocaine Bear was a directorial success, it’s a pity that Banks had to follow her male colleagues in making such a commercial film.  

By the way, there was a real Cocaine Bear, but the animal died a few minutes after ingesting a prodigious amount of the drug. In fact, the carcass of the bear is on display at the Fun Mall in Lexington, Kentucky.

In reality, deadly bear attacks are rare. In all of North America from 2000—2017 there have been 48 fatalities from such attacks. Mass shootings in the U.S. alone have claimed over 200 lives in the 3 ½ months of 2023. There are so many that I personally can’t even recall the major incidents. It appears that going to the local Walmart or a U.S. elementary school is far more dangerous than trekking in the wild.

~ Richard Russell      

          …the doubt about God…is universally human, and God would not be God if we could possess Him like any object of our familiar world, and verify His reality like any other reality under inquiry. Unless doubt is conquered, there is no faith. Faith must overcome something; it must leap over the ordinary processes that provide evidence, because its object lies above the whole realm where scientific verification is possible. Faith is the courage that conquers doubt, not by removing it, but by taking it as an element into itself. I am convinced that the element of doubt, conquered in faith, is never completely lacking in any serious affirmation of God. (from The Eternal Now by Paul Tillich)

~ submitted by Richard Russell