Melting Pots, Mosaics, and the Body Politic

/ Dennis A. Gray / Leave a comment

When I first watched this video and listened to our Prime Minister discuss the difference between the ‘melting pot’ in the U.S. and the ‘mosaic’ here in Canada my thoughts immediately went to Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians…

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. [1 Cor. 12:12-14]

Politicians spend a lot of time trying to express society and the nation with various metaphors that speak to the unity or solidarity of its citizens. Family is a common one, so is team, which I always thought had a real us vs them vibe. But there is one metaphor that they seem to avoid these days, the human body. As Paul points out when referring to the body of believers, each part of the body serves a different purpose but they are all part of the same body, working toward the same goal, the healthy survival of a whole being.

Now, I need to point out that this idea did not begin with Paul of Tarsus. The idea of society functioning as a healthy human body, as far as we know, is first found in the Hindu Rigveda, explaining the caste system by comparing societal roles to different parts of the human body (e.g., mouth, arms, thighs, feet) about 1500 BCE. Plato refined the concept in Republic and Laws in the 4th century BCE, emphasizing that a state’s well-being relies on all its parts functioning properly, while illness represents societal dysfunction. We call this concept the body politic.

Why would Paul draw on a political metaphor to expound on Christian unity? Simply because using common cultural imagery is a habit of his writing. For example in Titus he quotes the Cretan poet Epimenides: “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” Again, in 1 Corinthians 15 he quotes Greek playwright Menander: “Evil company corrupts good habits. So it is no surprise that he uses what, for an educated Roman citizen, would have been a common image of the structure of a society.

So why then, do we so seldom hear politicians today use the body politic as a metaphor in their appeals for unity? I think it’s to avoid the obvious question, “If you think the nation is a body, then why don’t you take better care of it?“

Indeed, regarding the body of citizens as functioning like an actual human body would, quite naturally, imply that one has a responsibility to maintain that body. If your ankle hurts, you try to ease the pain. You might start with a salve or ointment. You might wear a brace of some kind. If the pain persists then you would seek medical attention, but regardless of the strategy, the goal is the same, ease the pain, deal with the issue, restore the body to a healthy condition.

If you’re a politician, using a metaphor that highlights your responsibility to listen to the pain of the parts of the body and actually do something about it, is something you might understandably want to avoid.

That was the point of a publication called The Body Politic published in Toronto from 1971 to 1987. It was a monthly newspaper and magazine that became the anchor for Canada’s gay liberation and lesbian feminist movements, playing a foundational role in queer journalism, activism, and community building. The various columnists and writers that created and maintained the publication were quick to point out that a large part of Canada’s body politic was in pain and needed serious attention for the nation to be whole.

Of course the LGBTQIA2+ part of Canada’s body are not the only ones suffering. The various members of the aboriginal community, immigrants, women, teenagers, we could go on. Governments of all levels in Canada struggle to adequately listen to and address the pain that each of these groups feels, so again, it no surprise that they avoid using imagery that highlights their lack of action, or even acceptance of the responsibility to the nation’s well-being.

But let’s get back to Paul because the church has missed the larger point of the metaphor as well. While an argument can be made that the church, in all it’s various incarnations, has a somewhat better track record than many levels of government, there are still members of the body of believers who are in pain, who are feeling ignored, even criticized and attacked, and are in desperate need of medical attention.

We talk a good game, but have a long track record of finding more reasons to exclude people from the body of Christ than for including them. We shut people out for not living in the manner we think they should, or for being born just a bit different from us. We amputate parts of the body of Christ over points of theology and dogma that, from my point of view, amount to gnat straining and camel swallowing. (I’ll let you look that one up, but a lot of you get my meaning.)

I think we need to revive the body politic as a common metaphor for the society we live in, not just in Canada, but everywhere, because we need to be reminded that we have a responsibility to do better, as a church, as a society, as a nation, and even, as a species.

Some thoughts on AI in Canada

/ Dennis A. Gray / Leave a comment

I’ve been thinking about AI, like a lot of you, and I’ve come to a few conclusions.

1: It’s not going anywhere. It’s too powerful, too easy to use, and no amount of legislation is going to put this genie back in the bottle. So what does this mean?

2: If we don’t develop a plan, as a society, as a nation, and as a government, to develop and control how and by whom AI is used some other country will do it for us. Likely either the US or China. We’ve made that mistake before, we can’t afford to make it where AI is concerned.

3: Fear of AI is counter productive. The reason Canadians, including our policy makers, are so afraid of AI is because most of the tech bros that control or are trying to control AI are horrendous caricatures of Bond villains. Musk, for example. The ones who aren’t, aren’t in the public eye. We need to focus on them.

4: The thing is those same Bond villains will solve AI’s problems for the same reason they want to own AI to begin with – to make money. Cooling AI is expensive, figuring out how cool data centers efficiently, with as little water as possible, will cost less and thus improve profits. The same with energy usage, size of buildings, everything. Solving these issues will increase profits so they will solve them – eventually.

5: Therefore, the way to control AI is NOT to make it illegal. It’s to speed up that process by making it even more expensive. Make using water to cool data centers expensive enough to encourage R&D into using less but not enough to drive them out of the country. Same with energy, land, and everything else. Just banning it will not stop it. We’ve tried that before too.

Conclusion: As I said before, if we don’t have a plan for AI use and development one will be imposed upon us because trying to make it illegal simply won’t work. We need to make Canada a profitable place to invest in AI that makes doing in a responsible way the most profitable of all.

Beware the Ides of March

/ Dennis A. Gray / Leave a comment

“Beware the Ides of March”

This past Sunday was the 15th of March. As expected, my various social media feeds were inundated with Ides of March memes, some good, some not so good, some downright vicious. But they all got me thinking about betrayal, and not surprisingly I wound up going down a bit of an Ides of March rabbit hole. It’s now Thursday, and in an attempt to bring some closer to this exercise I’d like to share a few thoughts with you.

For the three of you out there who aren’t familiar in the phrase, if you were a citizen of Rome in the heyday of the Roman empire, the ‘ides’ was a fairly important day for you. The Romans didn’t number the days like we do; they relied on the various phases of the moon and counted forward or back from there. The ides marked the appearance of the full moon, regarded as the middle of the month, falling on the 15th in March, May, July, and October, and on the 13th the rest of the year. These days were dedicated to the worship of Jupiter, and the Ides of March, being the first full moon of the new year, held a great deal of spiritual, social, and even economic importance, not only being a sacred day for the worship of Jupiter, but also the annual feast of the goddess of the year – Anna Peranna, and the day on which rents were paid and debts were traditionally settled.

For us March 15th has become synonymous with misfortune and betrayal due to events which culminated in the assassination of Julius Ceasar by numerous members of the Roman Senate on that date in 44 B.C. It’s an event which would likely only be a footnote in history if it weren’t for William Shakespear, whose play “Julius Ceasar” was first performed 1,642 years later in 1599.

In that play the phrase “Beware the Ides of March” entered into popular culture along with “Et tu, Brute!” (You too, Brutus?) as Ceasar’s best friend joined the others in stabbing him twenty-three times. Historians aren’t sure these were actually Julius Ceasar’s last words, or if he said something else entirely, or even anything at all. Never-the-less it has become what is likely the second most famous act of betrayal in history.

Why did they kill him? Well for a number of reasons, but mostly they were fed up with the crazy things he kept doing, many of which seemed completely out to lunch, but listing them here would be a rabbit hole I’m going to avoid. However, one of their complaints has ramifications even today.

Julius Caesar’s support for the Jewish people is well-documented, primarily through the writings of the 1st-century historian Flavius Josephus, who recorded numerous decrees and letters issued by Caesar and the Roman Senate in 47–44 B.C. Among other things they were allowed to worship their own god, and had their own king, even if he was mostly a Roman puppet. These measures were largely a reward for the crucial military aid provided by Jewish forces, led by Antipater and supported by High Priest Hyrcanus II, during Caesar’s siege in Alexandria. 

Many grew to resent the Jews because of their special status and the fact that they refused to assimilate into Roman culture; not eating pork, not celebrating Roman holidays (such as the feast of Anna Peranna), and refusing to worship the emperor along with their own god. Some even suggest that this might be where the global Jewish conspiracy theories had their start, since they had it so good, they must have paid Ceasar for these privileges, etc. etc. etc.

Which brings me to Lent (really, stay with me a moment).

It has always been of some note to me that the Ides of March usually falls within Lent, the 40-day period leading up to Easter, during which much of the world remembers and contemplates the most famous act of betrayal in history, that of Jesus of Nazareth by one Judas Iscariot. I know, the purpose of Lent is to contemplate Jesus’ death and resurrection and what this means spiritually for all mankind, but can you really do that without at least considering Judas’ role in those events? I think not.

And so, I found myself looking once again into the various speculations about why exactly it was that Judas betrayed Jesus. Was it just for the money, for 30 pieces of silver? We aren’t sure exactly which silver coins it was but assuming they were shekels then this was likely about 4 months wages for the average labourer, or the average price of a slave at that time. Not a small amount of money, and John’s gospels tells us that Judas had a habit of dipping into the till (John 12:4-6) so it seems plausible.

Others point primarily to Luke 22:1-6, which some consider proof that possession by Satan was an overwhelming influence on him. John makes mention of this as well (John 13:27). Could Judas be held fully accountable if his actions were the result of demon possession, or is the phrase simply a reflection of what was in Judas’ heart from the very beginning given the testimony of his embezzlement?

However, there’s a third reason often cited for which there is no direct reference in the New Testament but seems to be the most popular in some circles. It is well known that the Jews at the time looked to the promised Messiah as their deliverer from the oppressive heal of the Romans. After Julius Caesar’s death the special status of the Jews was never fully withdrawn, but Roman pressure on them to conform increased substantially.

It has been suggested that when Jesus started making it clear that he wasn’t there to set up an earthly kingdom, but had more ethereal goals in mind, Judas, like many others, was deeply disappointed. Looking for a way to force Jesus’ hand he accepted the priests offer in the hope, that when Jesus was confronted with the soldiers of the High Priest and brought before the authorities, he would ditch the ‘meek and mild’ persona, call down the armies of heaven, and kick the Romans out of Palestine once and for all.

Of course, that didn’t happen. Rather than rally the heavenly troops, Jesus was fully submitted to his fate, and in that sense Judas’ betrayal was revealed, in a way, to be part of the plan. Eventually, remorse kicks in hard for Judas, he throws the money back in the priest’s faces, then goes out and hangs himself. His name is now forever a label for traitors of all stripes. That’s why you don’t see a lot of baby Judases out there any more.

And now the rabbit hole continues, because the story doesn’t end there, unfortunately.

All throughout the church’s history there have been those, like Judas, who have tried to force God to do things their way. Or at the very least tried to make it look like their way was God’s way and to oppose them was to oppose God himself. The Crusades of the 11th through 13th centuries are a prime example.

Motivated by a combination of religious fervor, a desire to aid the Byzantine Empire, and (surprise, surprise) economic pressures, Pope Urban II launched a series of military campaigns designed to recapture the Holy Land from the heathen hordes and fulfill the “will of God” for Jerusalem and the church. It was not an easy win, if a win at all, and the fight would last for centuries. In fact, it would be fair to say it continues still.

Which brings me to the events that started me down this betrayal rabbit hole and prompted this post.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has reported receiving over 200 complaints from members of the American military that their Christian Nationalist commanders are telling them “the Iran war is “part of God’s divine plan” to usher in the return of Jesus Christ.”

MRFF Founder and president Mikey Weinstein was quoted on CNN as saying,

“We look exactly like a ninth version of the eight prior crusades, from the 11th through the 13th century. To Boko Haram, ISIS, the Taliban, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, whether they are Shia or Sunni, we’re just attacking a huge Muslim nation, and all this does is serve as an immeasurable propaganda bonanza for those that we are fighting.”

He makes a pretty good point.

History is replete with Christians who, tired of waiting for General Jesus and the glorious armies of heaven to arrive and drive out everyone they disagree with (which is pretty much everybody) and establish the “new heaven and new earth”, decide to try to force God’s hand and “hasten the day of his return.”

Now, I’m not saying that this is the primary, or even secondary, motivation of the current U.S. administration, frankly I doubt it. But the idea that some commanders in the armed forces with strong ties to certain sects of the Evangelical church are pushing this particular button is completely unacceptable to me, and borders on heresy.

Jesus himself makes it clear that manipulating God’s hand in this, or even predicting the time of Jesus’ return just isn’t an option (Matt. 24:36). And if Jesus can’t foretell the day, then it’s for certain that Pete Hegseth and his capitulating commanders can’t either. As with a whole string of Popes before them, it’s just a nice Biblical smoke screen for greed and power.

It’s hard to watch, because it is in itself a betrayal of what Christians should be about.

Jesus said, “They will know you are my disciples by your love” (John 13:35) not by your military might or your ability to rain righteous fervour down upon your enemies.

He also said, “go and learn what this means, I desire mercy not a sacrifice.” (Matt. 9:13) Far too many Christians spend their time sacrificing relationships, reputations, family members, and neighbours with very few displays of mercy.

If we wish to bring about the manifestation of the kingdom of heaven here on earth these two verses are, for me personally anyway, where we should begin. Feeding the poor, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, healing the sick, and visiting the prisoner; these are the things Jesus says will make the difference in this world that matters into the next. (Matt:41-45)

But then, history usually isn’t written by the merciful, is it?

The Doctor, Clara, and the Power of Grace

/ Dennis A. Gray / Leave a comment

I have never fully understood the speed with which some people, Christians especially, completely cut other people out of their lives. Oh, I get that there are toxic individuals that you are better off not spending your time with, in fact it would be dangerous to ones’ mental health to do so, and there are those individuals who seem to never learn that they themselves are the source of all their relationship woes. But for the one who claims to follow Jesus there is a wee bit of a problem with the concept of a “deal-breaker” when it comes to relationships.

Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. (Matthew 18:21-22 NKJV)

For the three of you that have no idea who he is, The Doctor, is the central character in a British sci-fi series called Doctor Who. He is also, by far, one of the most enduring Christ-figures in all of science-fiction. A being from another world, inexplicably enamoured with humanity, willing time and time again to put himself in mortal peril for the sake of the ones he loves. And in the clip above we have the Doctor at his Christ-like best. Through all the years, and all the incarnations of the Gallifeyan time-lord, this is my favourite moment.

“Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?“

If we are to follow Jesus’ example and “love others the way He has first loved us” there is little room for deal-breakers, at the very least it should be a last-resort kind of option. Oh, I may well decide not to spend time with you, or choose not to absolve you of the consequences of your actions, but I will not stop caring for you, I will not stop loving you.

It’s important to note here that forgiveness is not a “get out of jail free card” as some have been led to believe. It is an un-deserved, compassionate, loving response born out of grace (unmerited favour). It is why God continues to love us, though we betray Him and let Him down time and time again. Though we fail to follow His precepts, though we totally suck at following Jesus’ example, through grace forgiveness and love remain. It is the bedrock, the foundation of the Gospel message.

Now, the Doctor is not God, so his response to Clara is not the result of his divine nature, quite the opposite. I think he refuses to hold Clara’s betrayal against her because he knows who he is. He is all too aware of his character flaws, his immense short-comings, he has had thousands of years to contemplate his inner-self, and is fully aware that he has committed far greater sins than Clara could ever possibly imagine. Which brings us to another moment in Matthew’s gospel.

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12 NIV)

He looks at Clara and sees a person who is actually a better being than he is, and so, though he can never forgive himself for the things he has done, he likely yearns for someone to forgive him… so he forgives her. His love and compassion for her overrides anything she could ever do to him. When he says they have work to do, it’s not just about saving Danny, I think it’s also about saving their relationship. He doesn’t want her guilt or his bitterness to destroy it, he cares for her too much to let that happen. If he kicks her out of the Tardis that can’t happen, so once again he forgives.

And so it is with Jesus. He came into this world with the express purpose of saving us from ourselves, from our short-comings, from our sins. Sin is a loaded word, a lot of people struggle with it. My personal theology defines sin as any action or inaction that interferes with my relationships. If what I have done, or left undone inhibits our ability to be friends then I have sinned against you, if it inhibits my relationship with God, then I have sinned against God. If I have done something that makes it hard for me to like myself… well, you get the idea.

Jesus did what he did so that His grace and forgiveness would allow the relationship to continue, to grow, not just between God and ourselves, but between ourselves and others. It’s up to me to follow that example and do what I must to allow my relationships to continue to grow. This starts with grace towards others, it starts with forgiveness. It gives me closure so that guilt and bitterness do not get in the way. In short, I have work to do.

Where Have All the Monarchs Gone?

/ Dennis A. Gray / Leave a comment

This morning, as I was walking through Margaret Greene Park with Roberta, we took note of all the little white butterflies that were fluttering around us. When I was a kid at Paisley Road School, we were told they are properly called Small Cabbage White Butterflies, but we all just called them Cabbage butterflies. As we walked, we admired them and enjoyed the cool of the shade along the path.
Then it hit me… those were the only butterflies I had seen all this year, anywhere!
At least in the city anyway. Again, when I was a kid (do I sound old yet) we regularly saw Dustywings (several varieties), Skippers, and, best of all, Monarchs! We used to catch them with homemade butterfly nets and put them in jars to take to school and to put in the terrarium. We’d grab the striped caterpillars as well and place them in a glass case with some milkweed, watch them pupate and form a chrysalis, then finally emerge as an adult, marveling at the transformation. It was pretty much a rite of passage for grade school kids in the 1960s.
Today however, I can’t remember the last time I saw a Monarch butterfly in the wild, adult or caterpillar. You know what else I haven’t seen? Milkweed.
Not a one. Used to see them all the time down at the Bullfrog Pond across from John F. Ross C.V.I. Of course, it’s the Bullfrog Plaza now, along with the Bullfrog Pond Park behind it with its concrete creek. The ponds at the top end (west) of Paisley Rd. are gone now too, filled in and paved over for condos and Costco.
No ponds, no milkweed. No milkweed, no Monarchs.
And no tadpoles, insect nymphs, or the hundreds of other tiny creatures we observed in our science lessons at Paisley Road. We collected all kinds of life at school and at home, examining them with our magnifying glasses and sometimes even microscopes. It was easy to do, what with the culvert at the bottom end of the playground, between the school and Knight Lumber. I first learned to really draw making sketches of what we saw in those simple microscopes.
But now the culverts are fenced off, where they haven’t been buried. (Did you know there’s a buried creek under downtown Guelph?) The ponds are filled in, paved over, or lined with concrete. It feels like we took the Biblical exhortation to take stewardship over Creation and, seeing the word “dominion” decided to focus on the dominate part.
And so we excavate it, clear-cut it, pound it, suck it dry, and bend it to our will despite generations of pollution, and the desperate cries of scientists, native elders, rangers of all kinds, and even Boy Scouts, trying to encourage us to follow a less destructive path.
When we do manage to section off a little belt of green across the landscape, others, more focused on reaping instead of sowing, undo it all with a wave of an administrative hand because, well, they have a “mandate” you know. Which is ironic because ‘mandate’ comes from the Latin root mandare which basically means “to give responsibility for” as in to care for and protect. But again, we chose to focus on the “rule over” aspect of the meaning because there’s more money in that.
Funny how meanings change when we want them to. God gave us a mandate to care for creation and to protect it, and all of creation is desperately waiting for us to fulfill that mandate before it’s too late.