Sunday, June 12, 2016

Day 83 of MUC and day 36 of MOC, and walking past the Tower of Babel reminds the pond of Adam, Eve, and the way complimentary women can become equitable companions ...

Every so often the pond gets nostalgic for the good old days when Jensenists ran the Anglicans and the Pellists strutted in the Sunday Terror ...

Those days are long gone, though the pond's walks frequently take it past the building of the Anglican Tower of Babel at the northern end of King Street in Newtown ...


Sorry, it's a little hard to pick them apart, the pond always gets mightily confused ...

Never mind, after a walk yesterday and a chance to catch up on the exciting progress at Babel, the pond couldn't resist a visit to the Sydney Anglican site where Jensenists once ruled the roost.

After all, such is the boredom with the election campaign that only one tree-killer Sunday paper led with the election this day - the Sun-Herald, and that with a marginal seats poll which will be as irrelevant as a can of soda that's lost its fizz by lunchtime ...

Oh sure there's Peta and there's Miranda the Devine in the Sunday Terror, but the pond was compelled by a newcomer to the angry Sydney Anglicans ...

Now ostensibly the subject was the right of humans to kill gorillas - and who can argue with that? The pond loves a little gorilla killing on the weekend. There's nothing like the slaughter of animals and the gutters running red with animal blood to invigorate the soul.

But what charmed and entranced the pond was the way that scribbler (and pastor) Stuart Starr from a brand new church in Oran Park seized the branding opportunity by reverting to the first book in the bible.

Now the Catholic church long ago accepted that Genesis contained plenty of myths, useful for the persecution of women, but not much else.

But the angry Anglicans love their old Testament - as in Glenn Davies' blathering on about rainbows in Visible mercy.

What excited the pond was that Starr had discovered a new word, a new way of putting women in their place.

It takes a little time, and first we must do a detour through some fine dominionist thinking. 


The logic unfolds ...

The pond can't get enough of this sort of stuff on a meditative Sunday, and now we've established the dominionist caper, and contemplated the transcendent dignity and worth of God's image bearers - on view in a couple of world wars and sundry holocausts doing a Noah, we can move forward ...


Now apart from the refusal to quote at length from the King James version - it seems tradition and heritage means nothing to these modern angry Anglicans - what a delightful reading of the biblical constitution, whereby naming each creature can be extended to the notion that humans are to work and care for the garden.

Why if naming is all it takes, the pond's got one word for that. Mynah birds! Or should it be "first kill all the mynah birds!"

Not to worry, the thing that got the pond really excited was the notion that Eve would be "truly an equitable companion."

Equitable.

What an exciting word.

Now the notoriously angry Sydney Anglicans have long got into trouble for their devoted addiction to the notion of complementarianism.

Some women object to the notion of being a complimentary afterthought, a bit like a decorative bag of nibbles handed out by Virgin to prove they can be as vile as Qantas ...

Equitable is surely the new way forward. Can we have a second mention please?


Equitable companions! Dominionists together.

But who would rule the roost in this equitable companionship?

It forced the pond to race off to the dictionary to see what it might all mean ...

1. Showing or characterized by equity; just and fair. 
2. Law a. Of or relating to rights historically enforced in courts of equity. 
b. Resolved not simply according to the strict letter of the law but in accordance with principles of substantial justice and the unique facts of the case. 
3. impartial or reasonable; fair; just: an equitable decision.
4. (Law) law relating to or valid in equity, as distinct from common law or statute law 
5. (Law) law (formerly) recognized in a court of equity only, as claims, rights, etc
[French équitable, from Old French, from equite, equity; see equity.] (more here).

And the thesaurus offered a few more examples:

equitable - fair to all parties as dictated by reason and conscience; "equitable treatment of all citizens"; "an equitable distribution of gifts among the children" 
fair, just - free from favoritism or self-interest or bias or deception; conforming with established standards or rules; "a fair referee"; "fair deal"; "on a fair footing"; "a fair fight"; "by fair means or foul" just - used especially of what is legally or ethically right or proper or fitting; 
"a just and lasting peace"- A.Lincoln; "a kind and just man"; "a just reward"; "his just inheritance" impartial - showing lack of favoritism; "the cold neutrality of an impartial judge"

Phew, for a moment there, the pond though equitable companions might just be meaningless blather, but that last bit of the thesaurus shows what it really means - no, not that bit about an equitable distribution of gifts among the children, though really that's what it sometimes feels like when your average Sydney Anglican has to deal with his vexatious complimentary women ...

No, it was that last satisfying bit about the cold neutrality of an impartial judge.

The pond understood immediately: your average Eve should sit demurely and accept the cold neutrality of an impartial angry Sydney Anglican Adamistic judge ...let there be dominion over animals and women ...

One of the pond's favourite lines in the Bible, King James version of course, is much quoted ...

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

It would possibly help the citizens of Oran Park if the angry Sydney Anglicans could at some near future time put away their addiction to the old Testament, Adam and Eve in particular, the Genesis myth, camel- and goat-herding derived nonsense that it is, and with it all the wretched accompanying guff about complimentary women.

Dressing it up as' equitable companionship' just makes a nonsense of a decent hard-working word trying to make a fair average living in the legal and social justice dictionary.

And so to a final burst of nostalgia. Was it only last Sunday that the pond was walking amongst a sea of black in Smith street?

Oh to be cast out of Valhalla, Eden if you insist, but the pond came away with a reminder that there's an upside for dominionism, even for hipsters ...






14 comments:

  1. If I remember my Sunday School lessons DP, God only gave man permission to be carnivores after Noah's flood inconveniently wiped all the vegies from the face of the earth (mere collateral damage after wiping out the human race)

    So God in her wisdom declared this in Genesis 9 ""Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything."

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    1. Well remembered Anon and the pond stands or sits chastened, having wagged Sunday School far too many times to be suitably complimentary

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  2. "Every moving thing ...". Hmmm, that would include cane toads and crown of thorns starfish, wouldn't it ? And tsetse flies too, I guess, but let's not mention them.

    Oh no, hang on, Leviticus says only water creatures that have fins and scales may be eaten. Phew. I wasn't looking forward to roast cane toad or starfish stew.

    But how come pigs got taken off the list ? Sure, they don't have scales or fins, but then they're not sea creatures either, are they.

    {PS: Punchline to an old joke about a priest and a rabbi: "It's a lot better than pork, isn't it."]

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  3. "Now the Catholic church long ago accepted that Genesis contained plenty of myths, useful for the persecution of women, but not much else."

    Aha, so that's where Trump learned his tricks. Just like the good old Catholic Church, it doesn't matter what he says or what it means or even if he contradicts himself, the believers will follow him anyway. So, can we call that the "Trump wager" ?

    "Every so often the pond gets nostalgic for the good old days when Jensenists ran the Anglicans and the Pellists strutted in the Sunday Terror ..."

    Oh say on, DP, say on ... never will such joyful salad days return and we'll have to make do with dunderbums like Stuart Starr.

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  4. Where is the "Kill the Mynah birds Party" when you need them? They would win hands down in Melbourne. Michaela Cash would be a natural leader for the Party,for sure. I'm convinced she shares Mynah DNA.

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    1. I dunno about that, Anony; apparently we Melbumians went to some trouble to import "minahs" from India alongside their sparrow mates.

      You might like to read: http://theconversation.com/city-sparrows-came-to-australia-via-india-59730

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  5. Oh dear, Dorothy - those fine looking slabs of protein are definitely off the menu: "Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, "Ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat." And Moses spake unto the Lord, saying "Fuck off, that's the best bit!"
    Leviticus 7:25, King James version (revised).

    GB - piggies (along with the closely-related bunnies) are covered in Leviticus 11, just before the "no starfish" bit; I think Lev 11 is my favourite book of the bible; with stunning scientific accuracy, it classifies bats as a type of bird, claims insects have four legs, and dwells on the very real-world problem of what to do should a chameleon fall into your pot*.

    Sage words to live by..


    * it shall be unclean and ye shall break it.

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    1. Oh yes, the "divided hoof but doesn't chew cud" bit. I'd clean (ha ha) forgotten that, FD, so thanks for the pointer.

      And I can see why Leviticus would appeal, but personally I favour Ecclesiastes, especially 9:11:

      " I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all." (KJV)

      Very perceptive poetry, that.

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  6. "The race is not always to the swift, not the battle to the strong, but that's the way to lay your bets."
    Damon Runyon (attributed)
    (but vide Abraham Lincoln on the accuracy of internet-sourced quotes)

    Seriously, yes Ecc. has some lovely lyricism. Shame it's buried in the welter of bigotry and stupdity that is most of the rest of the OT.

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    1. Concurred absolutely, FD. No matter how hard John Wycliffe (and Tyndale et al) tried, the underlying rottenness could not be disguised.

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  7. Gen 3, particularly 3:22-24, seems quite peculiar to us, come to think on it.

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    1. Oh I dunno, Anony, it's really quite ordinary for the powerful not to want rivals, or even just equals. Trump will tell you quite forcefully that there's simply nobody, now or ever, who could rival him or approach equality.

      But what did seem just a little puzzling was the bit in G 3-22 where Yahweh says "...the man has become one of us ...". Us ? Now all I know is that at that time there was Yahweh and his Ghost which is also him and vice versa. So who is this us ?

      I can only postulate that He is referring to the angels and the devils - but surely they were not part of an "Us" with Yahweh and his Ghost ?

      Oh its all so confusing ... is there a Jesuit in the house ?

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    2. The royal we, GB?

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    3. Which will always rain down upon "Us", Merc ?

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