{"id":6192,"date":"2015-10-28T21:36:53","date_gmt":"2015-10-28T15:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intelligent-torvalds.74-208-171-134.plesk.page\/?p=6192"},"modified":"2019-10-06T18:59:12","modified_gmt":"2019-10-06T12:59:12","slug":"romans-part-63","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/?p=6192","title":{"rendered":"Romans, Part 63"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am considering Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer<\/em>,[1]<\/sup><\/a> as a description of love rather than as rules to obey.\u00a0 The story of the Levite and his concubine in the book of Judges qualifies as \u1f00\u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u03af\u1fb3<\/a> that love is not glad about<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 In the previous essay I wrote, \u201cDear God, I hope she was dead,\u201d of the Levite\u2019s concubine as she was sprawled out on the doorstep of the house<\/em>.[2]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 The problem with that hope is that the text doesn\u2019t specify exactly when she died.<\/p>\n

If my Mom found dog pee on the carpet she would rub the dog\u2019s nose in it.\u00a0 If that poor woman didn\u2019t die from her injuries during the night I feel like my nose is being rubbed in the stench of the religious mind.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m trying to be mindful of our differing socializations, the Levite\u2019s and mine.\u00a0 John Wayne<\/a> and Clint Eastwood<\/a> would never send a woman out to face a pack of rapists.\u00a0 \u201cWomen and children first<\/a>\u201d is second nature to me.\u00a0 The Levite never heard Jesus\u2019 teaching, What defiles a person is not what goes into the mouth; it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person<\/em>.[3]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 I\u2019ll give him the benefit of the doubt that he could not know that sending his woman out to a pack of rapists defiled him infinitely more than any pack of rapists could ever hope to do to him (Matthew 15:18-20a NET).<\/p>\n

But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a person. \u00a0For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality (\u03c0\u03bf\u03c1\u03bd\u03b5\u1fd6\u03b1\u03b9, a form of \u03c0\u03bf\u03c1\u03bd\u03b5\u03af\u03b1<\/a>)<\/em>, theft, false testimony, slander. \u00a0These are the things that defile a person\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cGet up, let\u2019s leave!\u201d<\/em>[4]<\/sup><\/a> the Levite said the next morning to the woman sprawled out on the doorstep of the house<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps his apparent coldness to the one who saved his ass\u2014literally\u2014is just my misunderstanding of an ancient Hebrew idiom.\u00a0 I thought Jesus was terribly rude to his mother when He said, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come<\/em>.[5]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Jesus, his mother Mary and his disciples attended a wedding in Cana.\u00a0 All Mary had said to Him was, \u201cThey have no wine left.\u201d<\/em>[6]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 My mother argues that I\u2019m wrong to hear rudeness in Jesus\u2019 response, rather that I should hear the crosscurrents of the obligation an eldest son felt toward his widowed or abandoned mother, and a godly mother\u2019s sense of obligation to push him out the door to accomplish whatever God had sent Him to accomplish instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever he tells you, do it,\u201d<\/em>[7]<\/sup><\/a> Mary told the servants.\u00a0 Jesus did this<\/em> [turned water into wine] as the first of his miraculous signs, in Cana of Galilee.\u00a0 In this way he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him<\/em>,[8]<\/sup><\/a> and his quiet life, and hers, changed dramatically overnight.<\/p>\n

If the Levite put the woman\u2019s unresponsive but still breathing body on the donkey and went home<\/em>,[9]<\/sup><\/a> his negligence alone made him culpable for her death.\u00a0 Even a Samaritan, a pseudo-Jew, had more compassion on a total stranger who fell among robbers (Luke 10:34, 35 NET):<\/p>\n

He went up to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. \u00a0Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. \u00a0The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, \u2018Take care of him, and whatever else you spend, I will repay you when I come back this way.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This became the meaning of the law, love your neighbor as yourself<\/em><\/strong>,[10]<\/sup><\/a> when Jesus asked an expert in religious law, \u201cWhich of these three<\/em> [the priest or the Levite who passed by on the others side<\/em>,[11]<\/sup><\/a> or the Samaritan] do you think became a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 The expert in religious law said, \u201cThe one who showed mercy to him.\u201d \u00a0So Jesus said to him, \u201cGo and do the same.\u201d<\/em>[12]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

If the woman was still alive when the Levite took a knife, grabbed his concubine, and carved her up into twelve pieces<\/em>,[13]<\/sup><\/a> the reeking stench of the religious mind boggles the imagination, for she had become too tainted in his sight to serve any longer as his sex slave.\u00a0 If this is the understanding I am meant to perceive from the text\u2019s reticence to state with any precision when the woman died, I will suggest that law<\/a> is required to create a religious monster of this magnitude.<\/p>\n

Before the law Judah was told, \u201cYour daughter-in-law Tamar has turned to prostitution, and as a result she has become pregnant.\u201d<\/em>[14]<\/sup><\/a> \u00a0The charge was true.\u00a0 Tamar had removed her widow\u2019s clothes and covered herself with a veil.\u00a0 She wrapped herself and sat at the entrance to Enaim which is on the way to Timnah<\/em>.[15]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 She did this so that men, one man in particular in fact, would think she was a prostitute<\/em>.[16]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Judah said, \u201cBring her out and let her be burned!\u201d<\/em>[17]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

While they were bringing her out, she sent word to her father-in-law: \u201cI am pregnant by the man to whom these belong.\u201d \u00a0Then she said, \u201cIdentify the one to whom the seal, cord, and staff belong.\u201d<\/em>[18]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

They were Judah\u2019s, given in pledge to what he thought was a cult prostitute<\/a><\/em> seated by the side of the road.\u00a0 Judah recognized them and said, \u201cShe is more upright than I am, because I wouldn\u2019t give her to Shelah my son.\u201d\u00a0 He did not have sexual relations with her again<\/em>.[19]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a complicated tale involving Tamar\u2019s social security, Judah\u2019s superstition<\/a> and Onanism<\/a> (like Ananias and Sapphira-ism, e.g., lying<\/a> to the Holy Spirit<\/em>).\u00a0 But before the law it was that easy for Judah to confess his own guilt and acquit Tamar.\u00a0 After the law this Levite earned his place in a fiery hell. \u00a0And my own deliberations<\/a> were so alarmingly like his.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t exactly grab my daughter and throw her out of the house to a pack of ravenous men.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t exactly fill her with the confidence that she could be loved by one man for an entire lifetime either.\u00a0 I had my own \u03c3\u03ba\u03ac\u03bd\u03b4\u03b1\u03bb\u03b1 (a form of \u03c3\u03ba\u03ac\u03bd\u03b4\u03b1\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd<\/a>; stumbling blocks<\/em>) as he had his.\u00a0 The Levite had Lot, a righteous man in anguish over the debauched lifestyle of lawless men<\/em>[20]<\/sup><\/a> as his example.<\/p>\n

Look, I have two daughters who have never had sexual relations with a man<\/em>, Lot had said to a pack of ravenous men of Sodom. \u00a0Let me bring them out to you, and you can do to them whatever you please. \u00a0Only don\u2019t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof<\/em>.[21]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 The Levite\u2019s host did essentially the same thing to save him: Here are my virgin daughter and my guest\u2019s concubine<\/em>, he said. \u00a0I will send them out and you can abuse them and do to them whatever you like. \u00a0But don\u2019t do such a disgraceful thing to this man!<\/em>[22]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

God spared Lot and his virgin daughters: So the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house as they shut the door. \u00a0Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, from the youngest to the oldest, with blindness<\/em>.[23]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 In his own story the Levite played the role of the visitor.\u00a0 He knew his host and his host\u2019s daughter should be spared.\u00a0 He knew he could not strike men blind.\u00a0 So he did the only thing in his power to do: the Levite grabbed his concubine and made her go outside<\/em>.[24]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

My own deliberations<\/a> during my second divorce, predicated largely on my own experiences during my first divorce, shared the Levite\u2019s \u00a0myopia.\u00a0 Not once did I consider, much less wait for, God\u2019s miraculous intervention.\u00a0 I deliberated and acted with only my own abilities in view, never considering the possibility of God\u2019s graciousness, believing instead that I probably deserved to be punished with another divorce, and so, living up to that expectation of my religious mind.<\/p>\n

I have written a lot about the Levite and virtually nothing about the men who threatened him and raped his concubine.\u00a0 I relate to the Levite\u2019s religious mind.\u00a0 It is more difficult to relate to the men who surrounded the house where he and his concubine stayed.\u00a0 To illustrate I\u2019m reminded of a story told by artist Miru Kim<\/a> in Esquire Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She takes beautiful, evocative photographs of deserted urban landscapes and ruins with either herself or her sister as the lone figure in the shot\u2014nude.\u00a0 She was photographing herself, alone in an abandoned train tunnel, when the vagrant who lived there returned.\u00a0 A marginal man, underground, in the dark, far from any systems of social control, it was the perfect setting for a violent tragedy.\u00a0 Miru Kim continues in her own words:<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so scared. \u00a0That was probably the scariest moment. \u00a0I saw a figure coming through the tunnel, and he didn’t have a flashlight or anything, so it was completely dark. \u00a0So I see this dark figure coming toward me, then I saw that it was just this old guy who looked pretty harmless, he just lived there.\u00a0 So I dressed up and explained to him what I was doing — ‘I’m doing an art project, sorry to bother you’ — you know?\u00a0 Because it’s like his house, you know?\u00a0 So I told him, and he didn’t say much; he was just standing there like, Okay.\u00a0 So I took off my clothes again and did it in front of him and he was kind of sitting in the picture, so I was like, ‘Do you mind moving forward out of the picture, please?’\u00a0 And he was just sitting around watching, so I did my thing, then dressed up.\u00a0 It was really filthy in there, real muddy, smelled like urine, and I was wiping off with baby wipes, and the guy was like, ‘Do you want my shirt to clean off?’\u00a0 He looked probably sixty or so, I’m sure he’s younger than he looks, and really skinny.\u00a0 He was really nice.\u00a0 Afterward, we were sitting around talking about his life.\u00a0 He kept on talking about Rikers Island, and that he likes it down there because it’s quiet.\u00a0 I told him I liked that, too.\u00a0 And then he was like, ‘Let me walk you out.’\u00a0 He thanked me for treating him like a regular person.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I understand this art lover. \u00a0I relate to this lover of women.\u00a0 He is my brother.\u00a0 The mob that surrounded the house in Gibeah seems like cartoon evil to me.\u00a0 This is how old men portray the enemy to young men when they want them to fight their wars for them.<\/p>\n

I recognize the humanity of the men in Sodom primarily by their religious minds.\u00a0 Lot offended their moral sensibilities: \u201cOut of our way!\u201d they cried, and \u201cThis man came to live here as a foreigner, and now he dares to judge us! \u00a0We\u2019ll do more harm to you than to them!\u201d<\/em>[25]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 The men of Benjamin were given no such cover.\u00a0 They were like irrational animals \u2013 creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed<\/em>.[26]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

I played a week-long gig in an army town about forty years ago.\u00a0 When we finished the first night we had to excuse ourselves between two lines of soldiers wound all the way around our hotel.\u00a0 They awaited their turn for two women side by side on their backs in another hotel room.\u00a0 I had been in locker rooms in high school.\u00a0 I can at least extrapolate from that experience what kind of macho-anti-masturbatory-group-think might possess a young man to pay for the privilege to be third, fifth (?), eleventh (?), thirty-second (?), fifty-third (?) in one of those lines.\u00a0 I can\u2019t find any experience to extrapolate from to get anywhere near the vigilantes (?) enforcing social norms (?) in Sodom or the welcoming committee (?) in Gibeah.<\/p>\n

\u201cWarm Bodies<\/a>\u201d is an interesting movie.\u00a0 It might have been a great film if it weren\u2019t narrated from the wrong point of view with unnecessary voiceovers.\u00a0 A zombie eats a man\u2019s brains. \u00a0This allows him to see the man\u2019s thoughts and feel his feelings.\u00a0 He falls in love with the man\u2019s girlfriend.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a sexual or romantic love, though there is a humorous bit where he attempts to comb his hair before assuring her in labored speech and pantomime that he will not eat her.\u00a0 \u201cKeep you safe,\u201d is his constant refrain.\u00a0 And he lives up to his word, not eating her himself and defending her from other zombies who would.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Eventually the mob in Gibeah came face-to-face with a woman.\u00a0 Like the vagrant in the abandoned train tunnel or the zombie in \u201cWarm Bodies\u201d they had an opportunity to see themselves in her frightened eyes and repent, but they gang-raped her instead.\u00a0 To say that they deserved to die implies moral reasoning and social systems of adjudication.\u00a0 The instinct to exterminate these men is more basic than that.\u00a0 It is the<\/em> instinct, perhaps, which binds us together as a brotherhood of men. \u00a0And the Levite\u2019s macabre missive mustered four hundred thousand of the brotherhood.<\/p>\n

A town in which most people are filled with the fruit of the Holy Spirit can afford one fat, lazy sheriff.\u00a0 The image and meaning of the good in that town will be some aspect(s) of the citizens\u2019 love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness or self-control.\u00a0 A town in which most people are not filled with the fruit of the Holy Spirit must fund at least three shifts of virile nazis.\u00a0 The image and meaning of the good in that town will be those virile nazis.\u00a0 As Robin (Anne Heche<\/a>) in \u201cSix Days Seven Nights<\/a>\u201d replied to Quinn (Harrison Ford<\/a>), who thought women preferred a man who was in touch with his feminine side: \u201cWell, not when they\u2019re being chased by pirates.\u00a0 They like them mean and armed!\u201d<\/p>\n

Romans, Part 64<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Back to Romans, Part 65<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Back to Romans, Part 66<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>[1]<\/sup> Romans 12:12 (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[2]<\/sup> Judges 19:26 (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[3]<\/sup> Matthew 15:11 (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[4]<\/sup> Judges 19:28 (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[5]<\/sup> John 2:4 (KJV)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[6]<\/sup> John 2:3 (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[7]<\/sup> John 2:5 (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[8]<\/sup> John 2:11 (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[9]<\/sup> Judges 19:28 (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[10]<\/sup> Leviticus 19:18 (NET) Table<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>[11]<\/sup> Luke 10:31, 32 (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[12]<\/sup> Luke 10:36, 37 (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[13]<\/sup> Judges 19:29 (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[14]<\/sup> Genesis 38:24a (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[15]<\/sup> Genesis 38:14 (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[16]<\/sup> Genesis 38:15a (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[17]<\/sup> Genesis 38:24b (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[18]<\/sup> Genesis 38:25 (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[19]<\/sup> Genesis 38:26 (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[20]<\/sup> 2 Peter 2:7 (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[21]<\/sup> Genesis 19:8 (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[22]<\/sup> Judges 19:24 (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[23]<\/sup> Genesis 19:10, 11a (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[24]<\/sup> Judges 19:25b (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[25]<\/sup> Genesis 19:9a (NET)<\/p>\n

<\/a>[26]<\/sup> 2 Peter 2:12a (NET)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am considering Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer,[1] as a description of love rather than as rules to obey.\u00a0 The story of the Levite and his concubine in the book of Judges qualifies as \u1f00\u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u03af\u1fb3 that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1736,3116,3118,20,2719],"tags":[2386,2993,2992,2972,2770,2971,2989,2988,2990,2983,2981,2980,2982,2969,2970,2976,2979,2987,2991,2985,2986,2984,1407,2977,2978,3505,3504,2914],"class_list":["post-6192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chapter-12","category-love","category-rejoice-in-hope","category-romans","category-section-three","tag-1-corinthians-136","tag-2-peter-212","tag-2-peter-27","tag-genesis-1910-11","tag-genesis-198","tag-genesis-199","tag-genesis-3814","tag-genesis-3824","tag-genesis-3825","tag-john-211","tag-john-23","tag-john-24","tag-john-25","tag-judges-1924","tag-judges-1925","tag-judges-1926","tag-judges-1928","tag-judges-1929","tag-judges-3826","tag-leviticus-1918","tag-luke-1031-32","tag-luke-1034-35","tag-luke-1036-37","tag-matthew-1511","tag-matthew-1518-20","tag-movies-six-days-seven-nights","tag-movies-warm-bodies","tag-romans-1212"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6192"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13035,"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6192\/revisions\/13035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}