Wackily uneven article from the New Yorker on the contemporary evaluation of the changing place of Judas in Christian/(religious) discourse. Some good analysis, but when the bulk of the article actually entertains Susan Gubar as a Biblical and religious scholar worth regarding, you've got problems.
Among several, here's the loftiest unsupported generalization, regarding the reception of the recently discovered 'Gospel of Judas': "What use could this bizarre document be to modern Christians? Plenty. Many American religious thinkers are more liberal than their churches. They wish that Christianity were more open—not a stone wall of doctrine. To these people, the Gospel of Judas was a gift. As with the other Gnostic gospels, its mere existence showed that there was no such thing as fixed doctrine, or that there wasn’t at the beginning."
woo woo!
http://bit.ly/fqo27

playlist

1. Kings of Leon - Notion
2. Taking Back Sunday - A Decade Under the Influence
3. Solomon Burke - That's How I Got to Memphis
4. Taylor Swift - Fifteen
5. K'naan - Dreamer
6. Garth Brooks - That Summer
7. Kashmer Stage Band - All Praises
8. MxPx - Dolores
9. Coldplay - Strawberry Swing (Live)
10. The Juliana Theory - DTM
11. Tom Waits - Picture in a Frame
12. The King's Singers - Loch Lomond
13. Eminem - Sing for the Moment
14. Brand New - Seventy Times 7
15. Stars - Barricade
16. Journey - When You Love a Woman
17. Electric Six - Electric Demons in Love
18. The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You

"Just as we were all, potentially, in Adam when he fell, so we were all, potentially, in Jerusalem on that first Good Friday before there was an Easter, a Pentecost, a Christian, or a Church. It seems to me worth while asking ourselves who we should have been and what we should have been doing. None of us, I'm certain, will imagine himself as one of the Disciples, cowering in agony of spiritual despair and physical terror. Very few of us are big wheels enough to see ourselves as Pilate, or good churchmen enough to see ourselves as a member of the Sanhedrin. In my most optimistic mood I see myself as a Hellenized Jew from Alexandria visiting an intellectual friend. We are walking along, engaged in philosophical argument. Our path takes us past the base of Golgotha. Looking up, we see an all too familiar sight-three crosses surrounded by a jeering crowd. Frowning with prim distaste, I say, 'Its disgusting the way the mob enjoy such things. Why can't the authorities execute criminals humanely and in private by giving them hemlock to drink, as they did with Socrates?' Then, averting my eyes from the disagreeable spectacle, I resume our fascinating discussion about the nature of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful.'"

W.H. Auden, reflecting on a quote by Charles Williams: "Our crucifixes exhibit the pain, but they veil, perhaps necessarily, the obscenity: but the death of the God-Man was both."

Jane Kenyon, "The Needle"

Grandmother, you are as pale
as Christ's hands on the wall above you.
When you close your eyes you are all
white - hair, skin, gown. I blink
to find you again in the bed.

I remember once you told me
you weighed a hundred and twenty-three,
the day you married Grandfather.
You had handsome legs. He watched you
working at the sink.

The soft ring is loose on your hand.
I hated coming here.
I know you can't understand me.
I'll try again,
like the young nurse with the needle.

10 for 4/9

Playlist : Now

1. The White Tie Affair - Take It Home
2. Kings of Leon - Use Somebody
3. K'naan - T.I.A.
4. Guns 'n' Roses - Since I Don't Have You
5. Cold War Kids - Hospital Beds
6. The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
7. Tiger Army - Rose of the Devil's Garden
8. Thursday - Telegraph Avenue Kiss
9. Johnny Cash ft. Joe Strummer - Redemption Song
10. The Eli Young Band - Always the Love Songs

Portraits of Vladimir Nabokov

Tasty Links

Ever wonder what would happen if Ann Coulter, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, or that chick from the Vagina Monologues ran the NEA? The LA Time sure does! The interviewees actually run a pretty fair polemical spectrum on the pertinent issues surrounding the government's arts agency. Most telling are: the varieties of opinions on whether the NEA should resume and increase grants to individual artists, or continue the fairly fresh policy of granting primarily to institutions and organizations. In a close second, the fearful rampancy of the delusion that rolls of benjamins can convince the American public that art has any kind of common relevance. No one trusts your voice? Buy a megaphone!

Speaking of wacky ideas, what reservation is Stanley Fish on and where the hell is he wandering?

Thanks to Slate Magazine's David Plotz, who drops the bombshell that "OMG guys I just realized the Bible is the foundation of the past 2,000 years of our Judeo-Christian Western culture!!!!"

Lastly, a pair of interesting pieces on the rise and fall of the dueling Volkschus, Adidas and Puma from ESPN's Soccernet and Das Spiegel!

Birthday Wish List

My birthday, apparently, will blossom in two days.
My wish list, for any would-be benefactors:

(1) Seersucker.
(2) A lil' ESV study time.
(3) Some verse for all seasons.

Almanac Interview

You can hear me utter the word "like" an astonishing number of times during an interview on Amanda Mae Meyncke's lovely radio show, Almanac.

Links for the Week

Four tasty links to provoke your appetites:

"Is Food the New Sex?"

Mary Eberstadt makes a tantalizing survey sketch of a hypothesized switcheroo between our food and sexual mores in the past decades. Fifty years ago, where food ethics quietly lingered in a dim broom closet, a set of cultural standards demarcating sexual boundaries enlisted the active support of the common woman. Now, Eberstadt argues, these roles have reversed...but will a persistent concern for social problems and research damn the epoch of thoughtless, convenient sex as thoroughly as the age of thoughtless, convenient food?

Battier the Outlier

Another excellent piece of NYTimes sports journalism profiles the Houston Rockets' Shane Battier as a complete anomaly in the world of professional basketball, who also ironically serves as the poster-manchild for the burgeoning effort to translate the "Moneyball" practice of statistical analysis from baseball to basketball. Beyond providing a window into the fascinating and wholly unique Battier, Michael Lewis also pushes against the fundamental ethos we have about success and perception in team sports, while obliquely begging intriguing questions about faith in ideological process and practice.

Sex, Lies, and Journalism in Portland

An uneven analysis of the controversy currently engulfing Portland's mayor, Sam Adams, who recently admitted to an improper relationship with a then-teen intern. A tired story, save for the lemon twist: Adams wasn't chasing skirts, but well-pressed and fitting trousers. How does the sexual orientation of the first openly gay mayor of an American metropolis alter our sense of impropriety or outrage? Should it? Ought standards even be consistent?

"Reading the Signs"

Lastly, an oddball little article about subway graffiti and schizophrenia with a tart moral at the finish. Particularly when read in tandem with Eberstadt's essay, Dalrymple's thoughts jab the prioritized order of individual and social ethics. What problems can _I_ change, what can _we_ change? Does the problem most personal, the problem closest to us with a human face, take automatic priority?