Richard Thompson is a genius. Now if he could revert to Christianity from Sufism… But the first version of the song is from the Songwriters Circle with Suzanne Vega and Rufus Wainright
I share Richard’s twisted and bleak sense of romance. He truly writes with a spare beauty. Younger son, however, tells me it is repetitive, and I should listen to more classical music.
But I like this so much I found a version by Shaun Colvin and Buddy Miller. Punk Country does not get better than this.
Alte wrote that she was bruised and battered by her experiences from the manosphere. Men are angry, and (particularly when they have been through a divorce, and look at what’s out there) come to a conclusion that most if not all women are selfish harpies.
Clearly wrong. Not all women are like that. But you don’t generally find the other type of women in a bar, which is where the Pick up artists who write much of the manospew live.
This is Alte from the comments.
At least at this blog I have a powerful disinfectant called the Spam Bin.
via How the Manosphere made me miserable « Traditional Christianity.
I have now found there is trackback spam. WordPress has a feature called pingbacks… this post will automatically be pinged to Alte’s site. It means that one automatically does the polite thing and links to the person you are quoting.
But my spam queue is full of this stuff. I like meanies, I read all the comments, and particularly relish the nasty ones. (you all are so nice that almost every edit I have done in the last two months has been supportive not correcting). The banhammer is always there, but I prefer to not use it.
Israel are best seen as a people of a covenant, made in Ancient times, when Moses was on Mt Sinai… Moses following a series of covenants made with Abraham and the patriarchs. Part of that was that Israel was to be separate.
For Jews, there is no difference between covenant, faith and race. To be a Jew is to be subject to the covenant and law. It is not for other people. But the Jews were commanded not to intermarry.
Today the lectionary looks about one of those parts of scripture many feminists do not like. The Jews of the restoration had married locals. Now they divorced them to keep the covenant.
Ezra 9:1-15
1After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. 2For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons. Thus the holy seed has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands, and in this faithlessness the officials and leaders have led the way.” 3When I heard this, I tore my garment and my mantle, and pulled hair from my head and beard, and sat appalled. 4Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles, gathered around me while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice.5At the evening sacrifice I got up from my fasting, with my garments and my mantle torn, and fell on my knees, spread out my hands to the LORD my God, 6and said,“O my God, I am too ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. 7From the days of our ancestors to this day we have been deep in guilt, and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been handed over to the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as is now the case. 8But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the LORD our God, who has left us a remnant, and given us a stake in his holy place, in order that he may brighten our eyes and grant us a little sustenance in our slavery. 9For we are slaves; yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to give us new life to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judea and Jerusalem.10“And now, our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments, 11which you commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land that you are entering to possess is a land unclean with the pollutions of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations. They have filled it from end to end with their uncleanness. 12Therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, so that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.‘ 13After all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this, 14shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you destroy us without remnant or survivor? 15O LORD, God of Israel, you are just, but we have escaped as a remnant, as is now the case. Here we are before you in our guilt, though no one can face you because of this.
via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.
The covenant trumps love. Moses said that if a person tells or preaches that you should abandon God, you should cut them off, e they your wife who is your desire or your children who are your love.
But I am not a Jew. Some have applied this to races — thinking that they should not inter marry. (I note that the two places in the west where there were such laws last century were Germany under the Nazis and the United States). However, miscegenation is not part of the faith, and race politics (currently disguised as the Human biodiversity movement is not consistent with us all being equal in Christ.
This is wrong. The covenant we now have is in Christ. and we should marry within those of faith. This has been the teaching of the church since the beginning: Paul had to teach on divorce around unbelievers (and argued that one should remain with your pagan spouse — “for many wife has converted her husband without saying a word”. — but allowed divorce if the pagan man chose to do so, giving her freedom to marry within the church).
I think this teaching is going to become more important. We are living in an increasingly pagan world. The colour of our skin will matter less than the depth of our faith. The current dating and marriage scene is driven by anything but faith. The church as to reclaim this.