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Re: poptarts with a twist of lennon




>From: "Peter T. Chattaway" <petert at interchange_ubc.ca>
>Reply-To: "Peter T. Chattaway" <petert at interchange_ubc.ca>
>CC: Over the Rhine List <Over-the-Rhine at actwin_com>
>Subject: Re: poptarts with a twist of lennon
>Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002 10:33:39 -0700 (PDT)
>
>


Ryan:

First off, I think John Lennon got at least one thing right and that is we 
must first imagine what the future could be like before  we can ever even 
hope to change the conditions of this world.  By the way, I think the great 
tragedy of our time is the loss hope due to lack of vision after the failure 
of the the West's humanistic utopian dreams.  An even greater tragedy may be 
a certain sect of the Christian church's escapist mentality via hopes of 
dissappearing off the face of the planet.  From what sense I can make out of 
Lennon he was orginally a Communist in a basic sense.  That he in the end 
turned out to have accumulated a personal fortune of 75 million dollars 
causes me to question anyone who would still take his ideas seriously.  
Never the less, he was right that imagination is first and foremost in 
making change happen.  (It's also the key component of religious experience 
according to G.K. Chesterton).  Anyhow, it saddens me when people say things 
like "it'll never happen" because that is complete futilism and goes against 
my basic belief that the church is supposed to usher in the Kingdom of God 
onto this planet.  That's what the ministry of Jesus was all about and those 
of who claim Christianity as their religion of choice are supposed to be 
carrying out the work.  I personally can envision a world where people and 
nations cooperate with one another for the sake of each others well being.  
After all, at this point it's the only way we are going to possibly survive. 
  The really cool thing from my perspective is that some of us do have a 
kind of ready made vision of utopia as prophesied in the Bible.  You know, 
the lion lying side by side the with the lamb and all that (which I think is 
a definate metaphor and not literal which is maybe why some people can't 
imagine it happening in the world that we know).  In fact, if you believe in 
the Bible you pretty much have to believe in a future utopia.  And if you 
believe in Jesus then you have to believe that the Kingdom of God is within 
you.  So what I can't figure out is why are people keeping it inside when 
they could be letting it out and effecting change in there own communities 
and world HERE and NOW?



a bug with yet some hope



Recommend listening:  Eva Cassidy- Songbird

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