On Tyranny: The Christian Responsibility to Resist (2022), particularly focussing on
Dorothy Day (1897-1980)
Dietrich Bonhoffer (1906-1945)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1969)
-- an excellent talk given by Chris Erdman at
Davis Community Presbyterian Church,
which also highlights the
The Barmen Declaration or the Theological Declaration of Barmen 1934 (Die Barmer Theologische Erklärung)
-- a document adopted by Christians in Nazi Germany who opposed the Deutsche Christen (German Christian movement). In the view of the delegates to the Synod that met in the city of Wuppertal-Barmen in May, 1934, the German Christians had corrupted church government by making it subservient to the state and had introduced Nazi ideology into the German Protestant churches that contradicted the Christian gospel.
***
The Barmen Declaration includes six theses:
The source of revelation is only the Word of God — Jesus Christ. Any other possible sources (earthly powers, for example) will not be accepted.
Jesus Christ is the only Lord of all aspects of personal life. There should be no other authority.
The message and order of the church should not be influenced by the current political convictions.
The church should not be ruled by a leader ("Führer"). There is no hierarchy in the church (Mt 20, 25f).
The state should not fulfill the task of the church and vice versa. State and church are both limited to their own business.
Therefore, the Barmen Declaration rejects (i) the subordination of the Church to the state (8.22–3) and (ii) the subordination of the Word and Spirit to the Church.
***
The Belhar Confession (Afrikaans: Belydenis van Belhar) --s a Christian statement of belief written in Afrikaans in 1982.
***
According to the Belhar Confession, unity is both a gift and an obligation for the church.[1] This unity originally referred to non-segregation between Christians of different races, but after the formation of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA) in 1994, the word "unity" came to refer to administrative unity within the managerial structures of the denomination.
Another key theme of the Belhar Confession is the dichotomy of reconciliation and the justice of God. According to the confession, God is the God of the destitute, the poor, and the wronged, and for this reason the church should stand by people in any form of suffering. It claims that individual, racial and social segregation is sin, and that all forms of segregation always lead to enmity and hatred.
***
and the prescient namesake of the lecture -- Timothy Snyder(b. 1969)'s On Tyranny (2017),
its 20
ominous chapters
presented (OK the private life violated but the stand out attempted),
on this 36th-annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day (signed into law 1983, first observed in 1986, always 3rd Monday in January, King's actual birthday being 1/15), with a fine speech by Joe Biden,
appropriately champoning passage of the stalled voting rights bills.
This being the 17th day of spring,
high up 1 to 63,
exploring the realm of Harriet's handiwork,
and
the
greenspace
beyond,
then
back to work, finishing
Book of Dreams, 2022, Op. 376 (2022)
II. January 2 - I6am Hypnotism, Psychology, Religion / 9am Dodging a Very Slow Man-Buffalo
(5 pages total)
and adding the day's additional text-component to overall piece with
January 16-17
2am Megan Declining Healthwise...
3am George and Bette, California Wedding Anniversary....
8am Total Re-Organization of Living Space, with Harriet,
Part of Our Area Shared by a School Cafeteria, Use of Her Red-Brown Screens, Beds Moved,
Desk Space, Boxes, 20th/21st-Century Music Files,
Decorations which Bette Has Left on Screens, Students Coming and Going for Lunch,
Impacting [!] on Space, Desk View, Security, Questionable Literature Re-Organized,
a Piano That Looks Like a Lunch Grill, Views, Warmth, Angles... A Sleek Hunting Cat --
Caracal? Domestic Altered?...Lines of Students Around Piles of Our Stuff,
Trying to Make Delineations Clearer...
these and other labours in conjunction with
listening to all of Ralph Vaughan Williams's 9 symphonies (glad to see a score finally online for Symphony No. 4 [1934], but a little late to include in academic repertory),
plus more news delivered by many including Janet Yellen,
Dana Nessel, and
The Bulwark's scoop of the scope of the Fake Electors Fraud (one of so many horrors that can be ultimately blamed on the Lying Psychopath), as well as a
nice Rick Steves documentary on Turkey's
Cappadocia,
with
absolutely
absolutely
wild,
errosive
landforms --
all as the world turns on its axis, and
once
more...