An Eye Opening Experience

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had been posting and collaborating on hitrecord.org, an art collaboration hosted by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. A lot of times, he presents a challenge. In this challenge he sets parameters for what the topic is or how he wants it presented.

One of his challenges was RE: The Bible.

I know, unique and interesting. I had to look into it. One of the challenges was to “remix” a story from the Bible and tell it from a different point of view. That sounded like a great idea to me, so I decided to do it.

So this is it. DTRAiN’s remix of the Gospel of John Chapters 7-8.

Again, I gave a song that I thought really set the scene. I hope you really enjoy this one. 
I enjoyed writing it for you.

RegularJOE made the call. The Bible was the topic.

I have heard from many people that they try to read the Bible, but the can never understand it. Or, sometimes, I have heard people say, “Yeah, the Bible is OK, but I can’t relate to it. Nothing in it has anything to do with me.”

So, I decided to tell a story. Actually, a story that was already told. I would like to mention that in popular culture and opinion, the woman in this story is depicted as Mary Magdelene; however, that is not mentioned. The woman in this story is nameless, so I am not going to buy into popular culture depictions of "characters" in the Bible. I am am going to tell the story as it is presented. That being said, as many of you know, I do enjoy showing illustrations with text, so I tried to use the best ones possible.

The Gospel of John, Chapters 7-8 (a creative narrative)

It was the day after the Festival of Tabernacles. The city was already stirring for what had occurred yesterday. There was doubt. There was dissension. But for Eliezer, there was hope.

There was word that someone had disturbed the festival the day before, but rumor had said that he had left. Why were the High Priests against him so much? Many people called him a good teacher, who taught from the scrolls with knowledge and authority. Certainly, he was a learned man. A Levite? Certainly, a rabbi. Regardless, this man had left the Temple courts, and going to listen to the teachers in the Temple was one of Eliezer’s favorite things to do.

It was not because he was a very religious person, but more because he took a lot of joy in hearing the teachers and rabbis talk of Moses and the prophets, especially during the Festival Sukkot. In many ways, he felt that it was his favorite holiday. His father had told him that he was named in honor of the festival, “my God has helped.” Eliezer had also known firsthand and seen with his own eyes how the God of Jacob and Moses had helped him and his family through the years, especially in these difficult times of the Romans.

Eliezer’s grandfather had told him many stories of how cruel and wicked Babylon was to Israel many years ago, but grandfather had never seen anything to compare to the atrocities that Caesar was doing to God’s people. Israel had been crying out for many years for Messiah to come and rescue them from this existence and restore her to the glory of King David, but Messiah had not come.

It was for these reasons that Eliezer found comfort in going to the Temple courts this day.

As usual, it was crowded. Many groups of people surrounded various rabbis that were reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes, which was common for the Festival and the upcoming Sabbath during Sukkot. There was, however, one particular teacher that was commanding a large amount of attention off to the left side. Eliezer decided to see what the commotion was about. As he approached, he heard the rabbi reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes as well, but something was different. Usually when a holy man read in the Temple, most people would sit quietly and listen. With this man, people where whispering and pushing to get closer to him. It was very distracting.

That’s when it happened. The crowd opened up so quickly that Eliezer almost fell over. A small child was shoved to the side and pushed to the ground.  Eliezer quickly kneeled to help her up. As he was down on his knees, he looked to his left and saw the mob. It was a large group of officials and the teachers of the law pushing their way through the crowd dragging a woman by her hair. She was stumbling and crying out in pain. The tears had created smears on her face from the dust in the commotion. Still by her hair, they threw her forward to the ground in front of the entire group of people that had been dispersed.

He looked to his right, and noticed the rabbi who was teaching. It appeared to Eliezer that this mob had intentionally brought this woman to the Temple courts specifically to be in the presence of this man. The man put down his scroll slowly. He didn’t seem angry that he was interrupted. The man had an incredible peace and love about his very presence that could not be described. Then he stood up and looked at the mob. Something in the man’s eyes gave away the truth.

He knew. The man knew!

He knew that they were trying to trick him or force him to make a judgement!

He then looked down at the woman.

Eliezer watched this entire scene unfold. It was completely silent in the Temple. All teaching had stopped. All whispering had ceased. The only sound was the woman horribly sobbing on the ground.

One of the main officials stepped forward. He was so proud and pious. No longer did Eliezer see a holy teacher of the law. No, he saw a man that was filled with hate and anger. With sin.

He spoke in a voice that shattered the silence in the room, “Teacher! This woman was caught in the act of adultery.” He spat on the ground as he finished the sentence. This disgust in his voice was obvious. The disdain that he held for this wretched woman was noticed by everyone surrounding the area.

“In the Law,” when he started up again, he pointed at the scroll that the man had just placed down, “Moses commanded us to stone such women! Now what do you say?”

It became clear to Eliezer. This was the man. This was the teacher that had caused the commotion yesterday. This was the man who people were talking about. This was the man who said, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

People called him The Prophet.

People called him Mashiach.

He was Yeshua - Jesus of Nazareth.

The teachers of the law stood before Jesus smug, demanding an answer. If he said the wrong thing, they would surely say he was blaspheming the name of the God of Jacob. The room stayed silent.

There was no sound, save the silent weeping of a woman who was aware of her pending death, a death that by all rights of the law would be well deserved. Her adultery was explicitly talked about in the law, and her sentence was clear.

Jesus knelt to the ground and began writing in the sand. Eliezer could not see what was being written, but it was obvious that there were words being spelled. Eliezer pushed forward to catch a glimpse of what was written.

This silence infuriated the Pharisees even more and they began to push the issue. They demanded a ruling on this issue, and still Jesus wrote in the sand saying nothing. Until he stood.

When he did, it felt as if all of the air was instantly sucked out of the room. Even the woman stopped crying. Eliezer glanced at her. There was terror in her face, as she knew that this teacher was about to pass judgement on her. Then Eliezer glanced at the faces of the Pharisees. Their faces betrayed their true emotions, and they were ready to condemn anything that Jesus had to say.

When Jesus spoke, Eliezer instantly felt his heart beat quicken. He felt tears in his eyes. He felt his mouth dry up. He was torn in the sense of wanting to look away, because this man was so different than any other man – and yet, Eliezer couldn’t look away. He was captivated by this man’s voice.

People called him The Prophet.

People called him Mashiach.

He was Yeshua - Jesus of Nazareth.

“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her,” Jesus said.

It was that simple. He knew the law, and he knew that the Pharisees knew the law too, but what did he just say? He told them to stone her if they too were without sin! Eliezer could not believe his ears. There was no one in the room that could throw a stone. Eliezer knew that every sin written in the Torah required a punishment, and yet, these Pharisees were only pointing out the sin of this woman.

Jesus kneeled down again, and began writing in the sand again. At this time, Eliezer was not interested in what was being written; he was focused on the mob that had dragged this poor woman into a public shaming, ready to kill her. The older men in the mob began exiting the area. The Temple courts began to clear out. Many of the men ready to stone her turned and walked away. They could not say that they were without sin. Not a one of them. As the crowd emptied, Eliezer slowly walked away as well, but he stepped slowly to the wall so that he could see Jesus with this woman.

As he finished writing, Jesus touched the hand of this woman, and she looked into his face. They both stood up together. Her clothes were dirty and torn in areas. Her head covering was nowhere to be seen, and her hair was uneven and torn from being pulled and dragged by the men. It was at this time, that Eliezer began to silently weep. He too knew that he could not throw a stone at this woman, and yet, Jesus stood next to her and spoke.

“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you,” he asked.

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Jesus turned to where he had put the scroll down, and rolled it back up. Many of the people who had been listening to him returned, and many more joined. Eliezer turned and walked out of the Temple courts. He heard Jesus begin teaching again, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life…”

Eliezer began to run home. He needed to tell his family about Jesus. He needed to tell them the wondrous thing that he had just witnessed. He needed to show them where Jesus was teaching.

People called him Mashiach.

He was Yeshua.

Jesus of Nazareth.

Intravenous Drugs and the Battle for the Iron Throne

For the most part, I would have to say that I truly despise blogs that end up being used as a device for sharing feelings, or just ranting with no general focus what-so-ever. I have tried to keep this blog constrained to a few topics; however, I did include a “Personal” tab on this page in the small chance that if I ever wanted to share anything about myself, it would be there. As many of you have noticed, the only content on that particular tab is a thank-you to my close friends and family who are supporting me in this venture.

Wow, that sure was long winded.

I find myself in a vulnerable spot right now as I write this, reflecting on a great many things. One of those things is: What should I write about on my new blog? How ironic, I start to include content on my blog that I despise while deciding on content. Don’t be discouraged dear reader, I don’t plan on having too much of this drivel on a regular basis, but I find myself in a vulnerable spot…

At least I'm warning you.

Around the age of 30 or so, I got diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that manifests itself through arthritic symptoms and gastrointestinal bleeding. Google image search “Ulcerative Colitis,” it cannot be unseen.

It can be safe to say that I spend at least 1/3 of my life in chronic pain, coping with pain or just flat out medicating myself to a certain degree with NSAIDs or steroid therapy. There are many biopharmaceuticals prescribed to treat autoimmune diseases such as this by inhibiting what is called TNF or tumor necrosis factor.

By my best understanding, and without getting tooooooooooo boring, TNF is a group of proteins that cause cell death. In a normal conditions, these are the proteins that help knock out infected cells to allow healthy cells to replace them. Well, for a person who has a disease such as mine, those TNF are killing healthy cells, not infections; therefore, a TNF inhibitor or immune suppressant has to be introduced to stabilize the immune system.

That was a mouthful.

The one I take is called infliximab or commonly called Remicade. I have an IV infusion of Remicade every two months. A good description of it would be an artificial antibody recently reclassified as chemotherapy that effectively lowers the immune system to allow affected areas of inflammation a chance to heal.

I'm not an infusion patient, but I play one on TV.

Just in doing a bit of research on this as I write it, the side-effects include:

More common
Abdominal or stomach pain
• chest pain
• chills
• cough
• dizziness
• fainting
• fever
• flushing of the face
• headache
• hives
• itching
• muscle pain
• nasal congestion
• nausea
• runny nose
• sneezing
• sore throat
• tightness in the chest
• troubled breathing
• unusual tiredness or weakness
• vomiting
Less common
• Back pain
• bloody or cloudy urine
• cracks in the skin at the corners of the mouth
• diarrhea
• difficult or painful urination
• frequent urge to urinate
• pain
• pain or tenderness around the eyes and cheekbones
• skin rash
• soreness or irritation of the mouth or tongue
• soreness or redness around the fingernails or toenails
• vaginal burning or itching and discharge
• white patches in the mouth or on the tongue
• Rare
• Abscess (swollen, red, tender area of infection containing pus)
• back or side pain
• black, tarry stools
• blood in the urine or stools
• bone or joint pain
• constipation
• falls
• feeling of fullness
• general feeling of illness
• hernia (bulge of tissue through the wall of the abdomen)
• irregular or pounding heartbeat
• pain in the rectum
• pain spreading from the abdomen or stomach to the left shoulder
• pinpoint red spots on the skin
• stomach pain (severe)
• swollen or painful glands
• tendon injury
• unusual bleeding or bruising
• weight loss (unusual)
• yellow skin and eyes
Incidence not known
• Area rash
• bloody nose
• burning, tingling, numbness or pain in the hands, arms, feet, or legs
• change in mental status
• clay-colored stools
• continuing vomiting
• convulsions
• dark or bloody urine
• difficulty with speaking
• difficulty with swallowing
• fast heartbeat
• general feeling of tiredness or weakness
• heavier menstrual periods
• hoarseness
• inability to move the arms and legs
• itching, puffiness, or swelling of the eyelids or around the eyes, face, lips, or tongue
• light-colored stools
• loss of appetite
• loss of bladder control
• lower back or side pain
• muscle spasm or jerking of all extremities
• noisy breathing
• painless swelling in the neck, armpits, or groin
• pale skin
• red, scaling, or crusted skin
• redness, soreness, or itching skin
• seizures
• sensation of pins and needles
• severe abdominal or stomach pain
• severe muscle weakness, sudden and progressing
• slow or irregular breathing
• sores, welting, or blisters
• stabbing pain
• sudden loss of consciousness
• sudden numbness and weakness in the arms and legs
• unpleasant breath odor
• upper right abdominal or stomach pain
• vomiting of blood

Me after I read that list.

Mine are always, always, always soreness, aches, headache, sneezing, fever and sore throat.

O hey! Higher chance of tuberculosis and lymphoma with Remicade too! Awesome!                        
(I actually did know that.)

Not to mention, I have zero ability to fight off viruses or infections. It’s always a fun time, especially during cold and flu season. After my infusion this last Sunday, I had company over for my normal Game of Thrones get together, and I am certain that I picked something up from someone.

So, I’m sitting here thinking about my last infusion, and even though I am lucky and blessed in my life, I can’t help but sometimes feel sad. It was a lifestyle change that I was not necessarily ready to make 10 years ago. At the time, it was just misdiagnosis, one after another. Finally, a treatment plan was decided on, and here I am.

This last one was the worst. I had told the nurse that I preferred to not have my IV placed in my wrist, because my veins there tend to move. She, however, had different plans. She must have stuck me three times, and that vein rolled every time.

Insert.
Roll.
Retract.
Pinch.
Repeat.

The bruise on my wrist is a lovely shade, I must tell you. By the time it was placed in my forearm, I just wanted to go home, but all I had was that old familiar burn and waves of nausea. I just wanted to sleep once it finally ended.

I know that the grammar on this has been reprehensible, so I apologize.

In the Apostle Paul’s letters to the early church in Corinth, as well as Galatia, he speaks of a condition that he has to deal with. In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 12, he uses emotive words such as Thorn, Infirmities, Weakness.  In Galatians 4, he wrote (paraphrased) that he was sick with an ailment the first time he visited them. There are many theories out there concerning this. Some same it was a spiritual attack, others agree that it was truly a physical disease that he had to manage while traveling.

Inspiration.

I have always held true to the latter. It has always given me a sense of hope and peace knowing that the man who God called to reach “the ends of the Earth,” had to deal with a condition that may have been like mine. It gives me strength in knowing that God wants to use us all, regardless of our physical conditions or how we view ourselves.

It is those times that I recollect my head and keep moving forward.

Psalm 26:2 – “Examine me, O Lord, and try me; Test my mind and heart.”

There is no point to this, dear reader. I am normally not like this, but I am this time.

I promise that either later this week or next Monday, there will be something more entertaining to read.

The Gloves Come Off

Over the last couple of days, I have been really trying to formulate my approach on this subject, and in the process, I have garnered a little bit of popularity from general frivolity. Here comes the test then.

Pamela Geller. A month ago, you could have mentioned her name to me and I couldn’t have told you who she was at all.

“I don’t know, was she a cousin of Ross and Monica from Friends?”

Just a quick intro, for those of you who may not know. She is the co-founder of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, an “extreme-right” political activist organization that has been recently labeled as an anti-Mulsim hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (full list of SPLC hate groups here). Full disclosure, I am not going to go down the road of supporting Pam Geller’s point of view, nor am I going to argue against it. It is clearly pointed out on my profile that I am a Christian, but I am not a bigot, racist, or xenophobe. Today I want to talk about the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

As many already know, on May 3, the AFDI held an art contest in Garland, TX, offering a $10,000 prize for the best depiction of Islam’s prophet Muhammed. It should be noted that, according to the rules of the contest, “While engaging in criticism of and mockery of Muhammad and the belief system and ideology that underlies global jihad terrorism, they must not be threatening or libelous or contain any content that is inappropriate, indecent, profane, torturous, slanderous, discriminatory in any way, or that promotes the denial of human rights to any group or person, or otherwise does not comply with the theme and spirit of the Contest.” (full rules) It should also be noted that according to the rules, the picture should not violate any local, state, or federal laws. The contest was to follow the Law of the Land, working within the parameters of the First Amendment.

During this contest, two gunman approached to commit a heinous act of terror against American Citizens expressing their Freedom of Speech in a free country. These artist were not breaking any local, state, or federal laws, but according to Islamic Law, or Sharia, they were committing a blasphemous heresy punishable by death. Specifically, depicting any “Prophet of Allah” in a graven form.

Thanks to brave local law enforcement, these barbaric terrorists were stopped before any serious problems could arise. The terror group, ISIS has taken responsibility for this action, and has not only threatened future attacks, but has put out death threats on Pam Geller.

OK, current events class is over.

So, before we continue, let’s look at the First Amendment specifically:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

According to the Legal Information Institute (LII) out of Cornell University, the Establishment Clause at the start of the Amendment prevents the government from not only creating an official religion of the Nation (i.e. COE or Islam), but it also prevents the government from favoring one religion over another. Let’s stop and talk about the second part of this clause.

According to Sharia, it is unlawful to depict their prophet; however, it is not unlawful to do so in the United States, because of this clause in the First Amendment.

There is a music band out there called Christian Death (lovely name right?). One of their albums is “Sex, Drugs, and Jesus Christ,” and the album cover of this record is a depiction of Jesus Christ wearing a crown of thorns shooting up heroin. As a Christian, this is not only offensive to me, but as functioning part of society, I find it vulgar and tasteless. However, I am not going to go to the record company’s headquarters and gun down a bunch of record execs because of that image. Furthermore, if I did, I would be condemned for infringing the band’s freedom of speech if I did so. I would also be looked at as a murderer and terrorist if the act was successful.

As well I should.

The disturbing societal tone concerning the incident in Garland is how the American citizens who were potential victims of terror are being vilified for hosting the art contest in the first place. They are well within their rights as Americans to host the event, and yet they (not the terrorists) are receiving inflammatory comments, because of how insensitive they are to the Muslim faith.

Huh???? WHAT?

Check out this video…

I can’t even begin to understand the logic behind this. The wave of political correctness, which has permeated our cultural identity, has reached a tipping point so much that we have created a protected class for anything, including certain religious groups. This goes in direct opposition to what the Framers intended for this country, and this is specifically why they put the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment.

Both of the television shows of South Park and Family Guy have irreverent depictions of Jesus. Where is the uprising from the media saying that it is insensitive to Christians to have these shows? Moreover, just by Googling the phrase “Jesus cartoons and depictions,” I get tons of blasphemous and irreverent images of Jesus too numerous to count. One in particular shows an image of Jesus kissing what appears to be a Muslim man (presumably Mohammed) on the mouth with the caption “Road to Tolerance.”

Here’s what is funny, only Jesus’ face is shown, with only the back of the head of the other man being shown.

Now, because of the sensitive nature of this subject, I’m not going to show some of the things I Googled. This is because I don’t want to offend any religion, including Christians, with tasteless or crass things that aren’t necessary to prove my point.

Just know that overwhelmingly, it seems to be perfectly acceptable to offend Christian iconography, yet, this art contest is deemed inflammatory, racist, insensitive, and xenophobic to depict Muslim iconography as a political cartoon.

So, on to the second part of the First Amendment, “or abridging free speech.” Cornell’s LII outlines the various ways that abridging, or limiting, free speech is actually permitted (read more here). One of the ways it can is through the term Obscenity, and quite frankly folks, that is what we are talking about here, something that is deemed to be obscene by a group of people.

So, here is what the LII states obscenity judgments are based on:

“Currently, obscenity is evaluated by federal and state courts alike using a tripartite standard established by Miller v. California 413 U.S. 15 (1973). The Miller test for obscenity includes the following criteria: (1) whether ‘the average person, applying contemporary community standards’ would find that the work, ‘taken as a whole,’ appeals to ‘prurient interest’ (2) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law, and (3) whether the work, ‘taken as a whole,’ lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”

Without getting to “lawyer-esque,” because (a) I am not a lawyer, and (b) because it’s boring, obscenity is not protected free speech. I didn't know that, to be quite honest. However, let’s go back to the rules of the art contest.

The depictions were to adhere to local, state, and federal law, as well as not be… promot(ing) the denial of human rights. If you want to read them again, just scroll up…

Right?

Obscenity is determined by state law. Obscenity has to do with sexual content. Obscenity has no literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

The picture in question, the winner of the contest (which can be viewed here) by this legal definition, was not obscene. Was it political? It most definitely was, but under our laws, not obscene.

Another standard for basing free speech upon is something that is referred to as the Brandenburg Test. This relates to inflammatory speech that is intended to advocate illegal action. The definition falls as such: The standard developed determined that speech advocating the use of force or crime could only be proscribed where two conditions were satisfied: (1) the advocacy is “directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action,” and (2) the advocacy is also “likely to incite or produce such action.”

Remember, it would be inflammatory if both conditions were satisfied.

Sure, the contest may have been “likely to incite” illegal action, but it was not designed to “directly incite or produce imminent lawless action.” Now, I am not a lawyer, law student, and certainly not a judge. I am an educated person though. I hold two degrees, and would like to consider myself well read. As I read this, I see no violation by this art contest that shows that it was blatantly created to incite the terror attacks.

See…I’m already fading away on all this law speak.

I would really like to explore this topic deeper. When has the protection of a certain religion’s belief system superseded the First Amendment? Tell me.

I would like to hear your comments.

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