Francis Berger's Blog, page 89
August 22, 2021
Humility and Obedience Have Turned Into Something Evil
The old experience of humility and obedience has turned into something evil. And it is necessary to enter the way of religious disobedience to the world and the evil of the world when the spirit of death is sensed in the fruits of obedience.
Man is to face the world not with humble obedience but rather with creative activity. Even the experience of communion with God comes into the world as an act of creativity; for the once-revolutionary asceticism has turned into the conservative guardianship of the past.
- Nikolai Berdyaev, The Meaning of the Creative Act
Thoughts:Some Christians have extolled the necessity of humility and obedience in light of everything that has transpired since 2020. The logic driving this line of thinking stems from the conviction that man has strayed too far from God, mostly through pride and disobedience. The only way to right this errant course is through humility and obedience. Man has to stop thinking so highly of himself and begin to listen to God once again. Fair enough, but I very much doubt that a steady diet of meekness and thinking oneself to be unimportant coupled with passive law-obeying will lead anywhere good in this time and place. For starters, man is important, but his importance is only evident if he is aligned with God. A hubristic, arrogant, non-God aligned man is an evil buffoon, but a self-effacing, self-deprecating God-aligned man that remains trapped in a mindset of humility and obedience without striving for creativity may very well become a spiritual dead end. Repentance and asceticism were the bedrock of sainthood when Christianity was still new - when a humble, obedient, repentant, ascetic consciousness was indeed heroic and revolutionary, especially when pitted against older forms of consciousness. Repentance and asceticism are still necessary, but they they must now lead to creativity. Repentance and asceticism alone cannot overcome the world; only creativity can. Humility and obedience to external secular and religious authorities is no longer spiritually viable. This is not accidental and it very much appears that Divine Wisdom has revealed itself here. Obedience must be internal; it must emanate from within, from the communion of the Divine Self and the Holy Spirit. Obeying God is no longer simply a matter of following scripture, churches, ceremony, or dogma. Humility is no longer simply a matter of belittling before God. Obeying God involves becoming that which God wants us to become - and we should not be timid about what God wants us to become.
Man is to face the world not with humble obedience but rather with creative activity. Even the experience of communion with God comes into the world as an act of creativity; for the once-revolutionary asceticism has turned into the conservative guardianship of the past.
- Nikolai Berdyaev, The Meaning of the Creative Act
Thoughts:Some Christians have extolled the necessity of humility and obedience in light of everything that has transpired since 2020. The logic driving this line of thinking stems from the conviction that man has strayed too far from God, mostly through pride and disobedience. The only way to right this errant course is through humility and obedience. Man has to stop thinking so highly of himself and begin to listen to God once again. Fair enough, but I very much doubt that a steady diet of meekness and thinking oneself to be unimportant coupled with passive law-obeying will lead anywhere good in this time and place. For starters, man is important, but his importance is only evident if he is aligned with God. A hubristic, arrogant, non-God aligned man is an evil buffoon, but a self-effacing, self-deprecating God-aligned man that remains trapped in a mindset of humility and obedience without striving for creativity may very well become a spiritual dead end. Repentance and asceticism were the bedrock of sainthood when Christianity was still new - when a humble, obedient, repentant, ascetic consciousness was indeed heroic and revolutionary, especially when pitted against older forms of consciousness. Repentance and asceticism are still necessary, but they they must now lead to creativity. Repentance and asceticism alone cannot overcome the world; only creativity can. Humility and obedience to external secular and religious authorities is no longer spiritually viable. This is not accidental and it very much appears that Divine Wisdom has revealed itself here. Obedience must be internal; it must emanate from within, from the communion of the Divine Self and the Holy Spirit. Obeying God is no longer simply a matter of following scripture, churches, ceremony, or dogma. Humility is no longer simply a matter of belittling before God. Obeying God involves becoming that which God wants us to become - and we should not be timid about what God wants us to become.
August 20, 2021
End Times Confirmed
For reasons I cannot even begin to fathom, I find I like the Justin Bieber pop song linked below.
I know this isn't an official sign of the coming apocalypse, but in my shame-filled mind it should be.
I'm going to spend the next few days repenting. Therapist recommendations are welcome.
Pray for me. Note added: I don't know much about Justin Bieber, but in this recent interview he says some interesting and apparently sincere things about following Jesus. Take it for what you will, but at times his insights and confessions make more sense than what most church leaders are spewing these days. As difficult as it is to digest, it very much appears the Beebs is on the right side. In any case, the interview makes feel a little less guilty for liking his Peaches tune - not guiltless, but a little less guilty all the same .
I know this isn't an official sign of the coming apocalypse, but in my shame-filled mind it should be.
I'm going to spend the next few days repenting. Therapist recommendations are welcome.
Pray for me. Note added: I don't know much about Justin Bieber, but in this recent interview he says some interesting and apparently sincere things about following Jesus. Take it for what you will, but at times his insights and confessions make more sense than what most church leaders are spewing these days. As difficult as it is to digest, it very much appears the Beebs is on the right side. In any case, the interview makes feel a little less guilty for liking his Peaches tune - not guiltless, but a little less guilty all the same .
Glimpses From The Garden
As summer winds down, I am happy to report that the garden has been a surprising success this year. The tomatoes have been spectacular . . . 
The squash, zucchini, pumpkin, and watermelon are all currently conquering my backyard . . . 
And the greengage plums are so plentiful that they sag the branches (the photo is a bit out of focus, but you get the idea) . . . 
The potatoes, onions, peppers, eggplants, and beets also turned out well. The only crop that hasn't lived up to expectations this year are the raspberries. The lack of rain in a hotter than normal June appears to be the cause of the low yield this year.
The squash, zucchini, pumpkin, and watermelon are all currently conquering my backyard . . . And the greengage plums are so plentiful that they sag the branches (the photo is a bit out of focus, but you get the idea) . . . The potatoes, onions, peppers, eggplants, and beets also turned out well. The only crop that hasn't lived up to expectations this year are the raspberries. The lack of rain in a hotter than normal June appears to be the cause of the low yield this year.
August 19, 2021
Am I The Only Person . . .
. . . who isn't all that interested in what has happened in Afghanistan?
Roof Nearly Complete
I finished putting the shingles on the new roof yesterday for my little brick outbuilding project and will now turn to plastering the exterior walls. I will put the finishing touches on the fascias and soffits a little later when I install the gutter.
The roof was not all that difficult to complete, but in hindsight I wish I had stuck to my original plan of framing out the roof as one large rectangle rather than following the contours of the building.
I uploaded the second photo for Michelle who was curious to know how I managed to incorporate the chimney into the new roof. As I mentioned to her in a comment, I wish I had done it differently, but all in all it worked out well all things considered. The part of the chimney below the roof line will be plastered over. The old, intact plaster on the wall reveals where the building's previous roof line had been, while the exposed brick shows where and how much I raised the walls.
The roof was not all that difficult to complete, but in hindsight I wish I had stuck to my original plan of framing out the roof as one large rectangle rather than following the contours of the building.
I uploaded the second photo for Michelle who was curious to know how I managed to incorporate the chimney into the new roof. As I mentioned to her in a comment, I wish I had done it differently, but all in all it worked out well all things considered. The part of the chimney below the roof line will be plastered over. The old, intact plaster on the wall reveals where the building's previous roof line had been, while the exposed brick shows where and how much I raised the walls.
August 17, 2021
System Christianity Will Exempt None From The System's Inclusion Agenda
Predictably, the Roman Catholic Church has declared it will not provide religious exemptions from the peck. Granted, there are some bishops here and there that have taken a stand against this, but it appears the majority within the church are ready and willing to deny their followers any exemptions from what the pope himself has deemed "a moral obligation."
Citing Aquinas's common good and the injunction of loving one's neighbor, the church seems committed to doing exactly what it did during the lockdowns and church closures of 2020 - namely, obsequiously obeying and parroting the anti-God global dictatorship and its diktat of none are safe until all are safe.
Other System Christian denominations are either already on the same page or will shortly be on the same page regarding peck exemptions.
Also, in a most serendipitous turn of events, Cardinal Burke - who is adamantly and vocally opposed to the totalitarian agenda and the peck - has apparently caught the birdemic bug and is reported to be on a ventilator fighting for his life. Needless to say, the System's media wasted no time drawing attention to the sweet irony of the 'conspiratorial' cardinal's supposed medical misfortune.
Of course, none of the above should surprise anyone. We are currently in what I have described as the "siege" stage of the peck program. The main goal of the siege is to convince everyone to consent to the peck via the System's "think, feel, do" campaign - and religious leaders play a big role within the campaign's framework.
I believe all of what I have briefly outlined above - which is but a fragment of the siege and the Establishment's overarching goal to peck the entire world - is directly connected to the development of consciousness and the unfolding silent schism between System Christianity and Non-System Christianity.
I am under the impression that Christians who continue to obediently follow their church leaders regarding the peck and other litmus test issues will remain grounded in "obedience" consciousness, in which they will continue to surrender freedom to an external authority for the purpose of providing for the greater good.
Christians at this level of consciousness generally do not and will not regard freedom as a high value, and will freely and willingly surrender it in exchange for other values they perceive to be higher than freedom - values such as safety, health, security, comfort, and convenience.
Christians possessing obedience consciousness interpret divine-human destiny largely as a matter of submission to the supreme authority of God via the external institutions that represent this supreme authority in the world. The institutions themselves are seen as the only meaningful way through which an individual can relate to God. The role of the divine is to dictate; the role of a good Christian is to obey.
Non-System Christians, on the other hand, are likely to nurture a consciousness attuned to freedom and love. Not freedom to do or love whatever the individual wishes, but rather freedom and love that is based on successful alignment of the divine self with God and the successful distancing of the objectification and determinism of the given world. Unlike obedience consciousness, "freedom" consciousness is at once autonomous, meaning it emanates primarily from the self, and also theandric, meaning it works jointly with the divine.
Simplified, System Christians believe man does not possess the potential or the capacity to become a co-creator with God. The best a Christian can do is to accomplish "good works" via obedience to the external, given world of the System.
On the flip side, Non-System Christians recognize that most of the "good works" accomplished via obedience to the external, given world of the System are anything but "good" and understand that the current push to incorporate everyone and everything into the System is inherently evil. The true path of Christianity for Non-System Christians lies in freedom and love - that is, in the freedom to be "with" God, and in the love needed to be able to co-create with God.
System Christians ultimately regard the inclusion agenda as vital to their faith whereas Non-System Christians know the inclusion agenda to be akin to spiritual death.
Note added: The difference between System and Non-System Christians does not boil down to churchgoing and non-churchgoing, denominational or non-denominational, liberal or traditional. The difference boils down to motivation and thinking.
Citing Aquinas's common good and the injunction of loving one's neighbor, the church seems committed to doing exactly what it did during the lockdowns and church closures of 2020 - namely, obsequiously obeying and parroting the anti-God global dictatorship and its diktat of none are safe until all are safe.
Other System Christian denominations are either already on the same page or will shortly be on the same page regarding peck exemptions.
Also, in a most serendipitous turn of events, Cardinal Burke - who is adamantly and vocally opposed to the totalitarian agenda and the peck - has apparently caught the birdemic bug and is reported to be on a ventilator fighting for his life. Needless to say, the System's media wasted no time drawing attention to the sweet irony of the 'conspiratorial' cardinal's supposed medical misfortune.
Of course, none of the above should surprise anyone. We are currently in what I have described as the "siege" stage of the peck program. The main goal of the siege is to convince everyone to consent to the peck via the System's "think, feel, do" campaign - and religious leaders play a big role within the campaign's framework.
I believe all of what I have briefly outlined above - which is but a fragment of the siege and the Establishment's overarching goal to peck the entire world - is directly connected to the development of consciousness and the unfolding silent schism between System Christianity and Non-System Christianity.
I am under the impression that Christians who continue to obediently follow their church leaders regarding the peck and other litmus test issues will remain grounded in "obedience" consciousness, in which they will continue to surrender freedom to an external authority for the purpose of providing for the greater good.
Christians at this level of consciousness generally do not and will not regard freedom as a high value, and will freely and willingly surrender it in exchange for other values they perceive to be higher than freedom - values such as safety, health, security, comfort, and convenience.
Christians possessing obedience consciousness interpret divine-human destiny largely as a matter of submission to the supreme authority of God via the external institutions that represent this supreme authority in the world. The institutions themselves are seen as the only meaningful way through which an individual can relate to God. The role of the divine is to dictate; the role of a good Christian is to obey.
Non-System Christians, on the other hand, are likely to nurture a consciousness attuned to freedom and love. Not freedom to do or love whatever the individual wishes, but rather freedom and love that is based on successful alignment of the divine self with God and the successful distancing of the objectification and determinism of the given world. Unlike obedience consciousness, "freedom" consciousness is at once autonomous, meaning it emanates primarily from the self, and also theandric, meaning it works jointly with the divine.
Simplified, System Christians believe man does not possess the potential or the capacity to become a co-creator with God. The best a Christian can do is to accomplish "good works" via obedience to the external, given world of the System.
On the flip side, Non-System Christians recognize that most of the "good works" accomplished via obedience to the external, given world of the System are anything but "good" and understand that the current push to incorporate everyone and everything into the System is inherently evil. The true path of Christianity for Non-System Christians lies in freedom and love - that is, in the freedom to be "with" God, and in the love needed to be able to co-create with God.
System Christians ultimately regard the inclusion agenda as vital to their faith whereas Non-System Christians know the inclusion agenda to be akin to spiritual death.
Note added: The difference between System and Non-System Christians does not boil down to churchgoing and non-churchgoing, denominational or non-denominational, liberal or traditional. The difference boils down to motivation and thinking.
August 15, 2021
An Interesting Take On Narcissus
I have always found the Narcissus myth baffling. I mean, what kind of man cares about, let alone falls in love with, his own beauty the way Narcissus did?A strong streak of effeminacy permeates the whole story - I believe Gyula Benczúr captured this streak rather well in his own take on the mythical character.
August 14, 2021
Victory Over Evil Is Not Enough
Up to now Christian consciousness has not known the creative revelation that man's task in the world is to create what has not yet existed, to supplement and enrich the creative work of God.
The world-process cannot be only the experience of sin and redemption from it, only the victory over evil. The world-process is the eighth day of creation, it is continuing creation.
All the mysteries of God are revealed in the cosmogonic world-process; the mysteries of creation and creativity. The world process is a creative process of revelation, in which both the Creator and the created being equally participate. In the creativity of the created being the Son of God and the Spirit of God are revealed.
The creating man partakes in Divine nature; in him the divine-human creation is continued.
- from Nikolai Berdyaev's The Meaning of the Creative Act
Thoughts:Traditional Christianity has generally overemphasized redemption from sin as a core purpose of religious living and has under-emphasized the core purpose of religious creativity. Victory over sin and evil is essential, but viewed in isolation it limits meaning in life via negative purpose. The sheer existence of your mortal life in the world is already a declaration of the immense power and potential of spiritual creativity. The world was not the same before you came into it, and it won't be the same after you leave it. Why not take advantage of this immense opportunity God has given you and make the effort to create, to really create that which has not existed - to create something that God alone could not create on His own?It is becoming increasingly evident - at least to me - that true communion with God is only possible through the spiritually creative act. True communion with God via the external channels of Traditional and conventional Christianity are dissolving and breaking apart. The obedient church-going, Bible-reading Christian no longer participates in Divine nature in any deep and meaningful sense. On the contrary, he is being stultified by Old Testament views of God as sole creator and/or is being led astray by church leaders, the vast majority of whom have committed themselves, either actively or passively, to spiritual destruction.Most Christians appear incapable or unwilling to even rise to the challenge of the experience of redemption from sin or victory or evil. Creativity remains a mystery to all but a few.We live in uniquely evil times, but we should not allow ourselves to fall into the trap of focusing exclusively on how to "beat" evil because the path to victory over evil lies in creation. Awareness of evil is vital, but it should not eclipse the aim of creation.
The world-process cannot be only the experience of sin and redemption from it, only the victory over evil. The world-process is the eighth day of creation, it is continuing creation.
All the mysteries of God are revealed in the cosmogonic world-process; the mysteries of creation and creativity. The world process is a creative process of revelation, in which both the Creator and the created being equally participate. In the creativity of the created being the Son of God and the Spirit of God are revealed.
The creating man partakes in Divine nature; in him the divine-human creation is continued.
- from Nikolai Berdyaev's The Meaning of the Creative Act
Thoughts:Traditional Christianity has generally overemphasized redemption from sin as a core purpose of religious living and has under-emphasized the core purpose of religious creativity. Victory over sin and evil is essential, but viewed in isolation it limits meaning in life via negative purpose. The sheer existence of your mortal life in the world is already a declaration of the immense power and potential of spiritual creativity. The world was not the same before you came into it, and it won't be the same after you leave it. Why not take advantage of this immense opportunity God has given you and make the effort to create, to really create that which has not existed - to create something that God alone could not create on His own?It is becoming increasingly evident - at least to me - that true communion with God is only possible through the spiritually creative act. True communion with God via the external channels of Traditional and conventional Christianity are dissolving and breaking apart. The obedient church-going, Bible-reading Christian no longer participates in Divine nature in any deep and meaningful sense. On the contrary, he is being stultified by Old Testament views of God as sole creator and/or is being led astray by church leaders, the vast majority of whom have committed themselves, either actively or passively, to spiritual destruction.Most Christians appear incapable or unwilling to even rise to the challenge of the experience of redemption from sin or victory or evil. Creativity remains a mystery to all but a few.We live in uniquely evil times, but we should not allow ourselves to fall into the trap of focusing exclusively on how to "beat" evil because the path to victory over evil lies in creation. Awareness of evil is vital, but it should not eclipse the aim of creation.
August 12, 2021
Still Enjoy Working With My Old Man
Working on some sort of renovation/construction project is what my dad and I inevitably end up doing whenever we are together for any extended period of time. This summer has been no different.
My father and I are both a little older and both a little slower, but the joy of working together remains (even during the disagreements and heated debates about measurements and angles).
My father and I are both a little older and both a little slower, but the joy of working together remains (even during the disagreements and heated debates about measurements and angles).
The Hanging Bird
I experienced something exceptionally peculiar this morning. It was about eight or so and I was out in the yard getting my tools ready for the day when I heard a fluttering sound behind me. I turned toward my neighbor's house, the back of which ends on my lot line, and saw a small sparrow furiously flapping its wings just below the eave.
Now, there is nothing strange about seeing a sparrow beneath my neighbor's eave. I've noticed sparrows nesting in that place ever since I moved into my own house. What was strange, however, was that sparrow was suspended in the air just below the last row of roofing tiles. It kept flapping its wings, but it didn't really go anywhere. It just stayed in one spot in the air. Even stranger, it remained suspended in the air even when it stopped moving.
I drew closer to the bird and noticed it was hanging by its neck. It had somehow got itself tangled up in a long strand of grass from the nest and when the bird tried leaving the grass must have tightened around its neck like a noose, tethering the unfortunate creature and leaving it dangling under the eave like some kind of living Christmas ornament.
The sparrow reacted to its predicament the way any animal would - with panic. It oscillated between hysterical escape attempts and short pauses during which it resembled a creature condemned to death by hanging. I grabbed my step ladder and quickly made my way up to the eave where I managed to get the bird into my hand with surprising ease. As I gently unwrapped the grass from the bird's neck, I noticed it was a young bird and I attempted to place it back in its nest under the eave. After three failed attempts, the sparrow took advantage of my loosened grip and flew away out of sight.
Now, there is nothing strange about seeing a sparrow beneath my neighbor's eave. I've noticed sparrows nesting in that place ever since I moved into my own house. What was strange, however, was that sparrow was suspended in the air just below the last row of roofing tiles. It kept flapping its wings, but it didn't really go anywhere. It just stayed in one spot in the air. Even stranger, it remained suspended in the air even when it stopped moving.
I drew closer to the bird and noticed it was hanging by its neck. It had somehow got itself tangled up in a long strand of grass from the nest and when the bird tried leaving the grass must have tightened around its neck like a noose, tethering the unfortunate creature and leaving it dangling under the eave like some kind of living Christmas ornament.
The sparrow reacted to its predicament the way any animal would - with panic. It oscillated between hysterical escape attempts and short pauses during which it resembled a creature condemned to death by hanging. I grabbed my step ladder and quickly made my way up to the eave where I managed to get the bird into my hand with surprising ease. As I gently unwrapped the grass from the bird's neck, I noticed it was a young bird and I attempted to place it back in its nest under the eave. After three failed attempts, the sparrow took advantage of my loosened grip and flew away out of sight.
