A friend of mine asked this question the other day:

Are "Faith" and "Reason" mutually exclusive?

I replied:

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Not at all.

However, our understanding of what "reason" means determines the relationship between it and faith.

I think most people in "our" culture consider Rationalism and Logic to be synonymous, and so both are seen as interchangeable tools in the process of "reasoning".

However, when we have children we quickly discover that the two processes are at odds with each other.

For the parent's rules and guidance are primarily logical:

* "If you do this then that will be the result"

* "If you don't do this then you will get a different result"

(and perhaps most compelling)

* "Because I said so!"

Children, on the other hand, quickly learn to respond to parental logic with rationalism (do you really need an example ;^)

The sage parent must decide at what point and to what extent they will loosen their logical boundaries so that their child can develop into a person who is something other than a robot.

The underlying logic of Orthodox Christian faith is expressed as a reality which is both presumed:

* "In the beginning was The Word and The Word was with God and The Word was God" The Gospel according to The Apostle St John The Theologian 1:1 (NKJV))

and mystical:

"Come now, and let us reason together," says The Lord, "although your sins are like crimson, I shall make them white like snow, and although they are as scarlet, I shall make them white like wool..." Isaiah 1:18 (LXX-St Athanasius Academy Septuagint-SAAS)

The author of The Book of Hebrews put it this way:

"...And faith is of things hoped for a confidence, of matters not seen a conviction..." Hebrews 11:1 (Young's Literal Translation)

Robert Pirsig in "Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values" says virtually the same thing regarding a presumption of that which he called "Quality", something he believed under-girded the pre-sophist Greek paradigm.

Now, rationalism CAN (and, I think, SHOULD) function within a logical paradigm, in order for faith to mature.

However, rationalism without a logical foundation becomes the enemy of the faith-based process, and true, honest reasoning is tainted.

I have resisted commenting on this subject because it's such a tar baby (and NO, that's NOT a subtle racial slur).

However, I keep hearing the same numbers being regurgitated over and over and over again.

Here is MY take on them.

It is said that "70%" of the population wants "health insurance/care reform" and elected President Obama & Congress to enact sweeping "change".

I agree.

???

Allow me to clarify:

I agree that 20% of the population has NO insurance, and they want insurance.

I also agree that the 20% includes a significant amount of younger people who simply choose not to pay for insurance they could have, because they choose to bet that they don't really need it.

However, for the sake of this discussion, let's say that the oft-quoted 20% figure is totally made up of totally helpless folks who do not have a choice in the matter.

That still leaves 50% of the population who have insurance yet still want health insurance reform.

I'd guess that part of that 50% are people such as myself who empathize with those who have no care, even though I have what I think is one of the best health care plans in the world.

It also includes some people who could afford to subsidize the health care costs of someone else.

We know that many people send "just $20.00 a month" to feed and/or educate the poor and starving children of the world, and by now there could have been a successful movement to send "just $20.00 a month" to collectively provide health insurance for an American citizen who has none.

However, that's just a bit too close to home for the comfort zone of many people.

Besides, most people have greater faith in relief societies in 3rd-World countries than they have in the insurance industry and hospitals and health care providers of the U.S.

You know how the spokesperson for the relief organizations will tell you that "85 cents out of every dollar is spent on direct aid to 'your child'"?

With the U.S. health care system, those figures would likely be reversed, and who wants to spend one dollar for the sake of someone else's health care insurance if they know that only 15 cents out of that dollar will be applied to the actual health care needs of that person?

But, again, for the sake of this discussion, let's simply say that the 50% of the population that has health care insurance wants to see their own plan fixed.

There's the rub.

Those people do, honestly, want Health Care/Insurance Reform.

However, that means different things to different people, and most of their concerns are very personal.

They want their doctor to be able to provide care without HMO approval.

Will the health care "reform" being debated improve their plans in that respect?

Doubt it.

More likely the HMO will simply be replaced with a bureaucracy who will allow or deny such requests from the health care provider.

I don't know about you, but as hard as it is to deal with an HMO (a company), I'd rather be dealing with them then a government bureaucracy.

At least with the HMO you do have some ultimate legal leverage, should you be willing to go that route.

I could list other specific reasons that people want health care reform, but the bottom line seems to be "I don't like what 'I'm' getting and I want 'My' plan to be forced to treat me better by the federal government".

So, you have 70% of the population wanting health care reform, but most of them NOT having altruistic motives for such change.

Congress has been getting THAT message from its constituents for a while now, and the media has delivered the same message to President Obama.

Has anyone published figures on how many protesting calls, letters and emails have been sent to The White House?

So, let's look at these numbers from a different perspective:

30% of the American people DO NOT want health care/insurance reform.

50% of the American people DO NOT want the health care/insurance reforms being suggested by The President and Congress.

So, spin the numbers all you like.

Well over 50% of the population does not support current proposed legislation, even though most of them voted for some type of change.

However, do not loose hope.

The Supreme Court will certainly change the system for us.

After all, isn't that where all the REAL legislation is coming from these days?

Glory To God!

Closing on October 5th.

Only the green truck is mine.

Every now and then someone asks me if I have my music on the internet.

In addition to my Facebook profile, I have a FB "page", exclusively for my music and people who like it.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gordy-Thomas/66736939411

It includes music from my CD, Gordy Thomas: Keepers plus some additional recordings.

The events of Palm Sunday (see following scripture) are so very rich in theological importance, I thought it might be good to try and put them in perspective.

That may sound quite presumptuous on my part, but I am aware that many people do not tie the different events of the day together.

There is a preface to the events of Palm Sunday in The Gospel according to Apostle Saint Matthew 20:17-19:

Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.”

Note:

Jesus is to be betrayed TO the chief priests and TO the scribes. While this is obviously a reference to the act of betrayal of Judas, it is--in a larger sense--Christ's prophecy of a much more massive betrayal.

For Christ does not say, "The Son of Man will be greeted with cheers of 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of The Lord'. For Christ knew that those (the multitudes) who would greet Him as King would turn against Him in His hour of need before the chief priests and Pilate.

This is an integral part of understanding how Christ allows Israel and Rome to convict themselves.

Also, Christ answers the question of the ages: "Who killed Jesus?"

For it is those IN AUTHORITY who hand Christ over to "the Gentiles" (The Romans) to MOCK, SCOURGE and CRUCIFY Him.

Not only are Israel and Rome "co-conspirators" in BLASPHEMY, TORTURE and MURDER, but THE MULTITUDES take an active part in crying out for this to happen...the very same multitudes who had cheered His entry into Jerusalem are now those who JEER.

Virtually EVERYONE killed Jesus.

So, can anyone conceive that Christ Jesus took any joy from the greeting of the multitudes, except for the fact that their praise was perfected by The Father?

NEXT we see Christ in The Temple, and He is NOT there to win popularity points.

Anyone who understands anything about politics knows what a great force money can be in the decisions of politicians.

So, as Christ chased the money changers out of the temple AND then began healing the blind and the lame, He made himself an enemy to "the monetary powers" which the money changers represented AND the religious leaders OF AUTHORITY who had now ceased being religious and instead embraced POLITICS.

Certainly Christ (from what He prophesied) knew that these forces would quickly turn the good will of the multitudes against Him.

Still, just as Christ submitted to The Father, the hand of St John the Forerunner and His own creation (the waters) at Theophany, Christ also submitted Himself to the very praise which would eventually seal His fate.

Thus we can see that, as much as we rejoice on Palm Sunday, we are also remembering the beginning of the end, an end which Christ knew to be a certainty even before He entered the gates of the city.

Palm Sunday: The Triumphal Entry

Matthew 21:1-17 NKJV (also Mark 11, Luke 19, John 12)

Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them,

“Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her.

"Loose them and bring them to Me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”

All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:

"Tell the daughter of Zion,

‘ Behold, your King is coming to you,
Lowly, and sitting on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.

They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them.

And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:

“ Hosanna to the Son of David!

‘ Blessed is He who comes in the name
of the LORD!’

" Hosanna in the highest!”

And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?”

So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”

Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.

And He said to them,

“It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”

Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.

But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant and said to Him,

“Do You hear what these are saying?”

And Jesus said to them,

“Yes. Have you never read,

‘ Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?'"

Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.