Category: Jesus

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin’: Greenland Gap

7/21/2021

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin': Kennedy Grogan

Part VIII of XIII

“… Here’s a part of me: Kennedy Grogan, C.S.A.”
“In memory of.”
“Killed at Greenland Gap, West Virginia.”
“Where’s that Johnny?”
“About a hundred miles west.”
“Grogan was killed April 25th, 1863.”
“Aged 20 years.”
“There’s no date of birth.”
“Might have been his birthday.”
“The day a Yank …”
“Right.”
“How’d we get here Johnny?”
“What do you mean?”
“Where ‘Mericans like me are killing ‘Mericans like Grogan.”
“Calhoun.”
“Where’d Calhoun learn usurpin’?”
“Yale.”
“A Northern connection.”
“Still.”

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin': Greenland Gap

“What do you know about Greenland Gap?”
“Yanks heard us Rebs were on the move, so they guarded the mountain gaps.”
“Grogan?”
“Why you being so formal?”
“Kenny then.”
“Kenny was riding with about fifteen hundred Confederate cavalry.”
“How many Yanks held the gap?”
“Around ninety.”
“Ninety?”
“Yank infantry fortified a few houses and a two-story, made of oak timbers, German church.”
“Turned it into a fort.”
“We assaulted the church after nightfall.”
“Kenny?”
“His unit, the 35th, was part of the assault.”
“Kenny was killed assaulting a fortified church?”
“Looks like.”
“Hear them crows?”

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin': Grumble

“Do.”
“The assault?”
“With the church aflame, and out of ammunition, the Yanks surrendered.”
“Who were the Yanks?”
“Illinois Irish and Virginians who supported the Union.”
“Grogan is Irish.”
“Yes.”
“Irish killing Irish and Virginians killing Virginians.”
“Correct.”
“Got to keep my sense of humor Johnny.”
“We were mad at the surrendered Yanks.”
“What happened?”
“It was becoming a scene until Grumble Jones showed up and put a stop to it.”
“Grumble?”
“The general in charge, a nickname.”
“Grumble said?”
“They fought like brave men and did their duty. They shall have honorable treatment.”
“Let’s step Johnny.”
“Sure …”

Next Up: 21 August and part IX of the series Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin’: Obelisks and Things.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin’: Memorials

5/31/2021

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin': Jesus Art

Part VI of XIII

“… Whoa.”
“It’s art.”
“Pretty sure it’s Jesus Reb.”
“A representation.”
“So Art looks like Jesus?”
“Sometimes.”
“Wears flowing robes?”
“On occasion.”
“Did Jesus really look like that?”
“All Jewish carpenters dress that way.”
“Reb.”
“Their robes have pockets in the folds for tools.”
“Sacrilege.”
“Hammer at will.”
“You just sinning now Johnny.”
“Jesus has a sense of humor.”
“He’d have to.”
“Flag.”
“Tree …”

Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin': Lastingness

“… Reb, this ain’t skirmishing.”
“You don’t want the point?”
“This is homer time for you.”
“Right Gus.”
“I sense there are Johnny Rebs here.”
“Yes.”
“What’s that feel like?”
“I don’t feel much.”
“Think then Johnny.”
“As a composite spirit, there are too many particulars; it’s not that I don’t feel, it’s just that there’s too much to feel.”
“All the campfires roll into one.”
“Lastingness.”
“In changing something-ness.”
“Let’s visit a Johnny, one of me, and move on.”
“Got one in mind?”
“Do.”
“How about the thirty Thousand?”
“An update, yes …”

Next Up: 21 June and part VII of the series Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin’: A Coalition of the Constitutionally Willing.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Usurpation Day 2020: Jesus, George and Tyranny

4/9/2020

Grace is an attribute of Jesus.

The I Ching describes grace as: inside, the strength of simplicity and self-knowledge, outside, the beauty of acceptance and gentleness.

On 9 April 1792, the US House of Representatives couldn’t override President Washington’s veto, so they usurped a right of We the People.

On 9 April 2020, the usurped right to representation according to numbers effects all We the People.

If one uses sex, females are the most underrepresented in the House, composing 51 percent of We the People and only 23 percent representation.

If one uses economics, the middle and lower classes are the most underrepresented.

If one uses constitutionalism, representatives of We the People supporting President Washington and the thirty Thousand are the most underrepresented.

We are no longer a republic: this is tyranny.

End the representation usurpation to become a republic again.

*Next Up: Constitution Day 2020 with Johnny Reb and Gus Yank Berryvillin’.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

2020: Jesus of Nazareth was a liberal, and so was George Washington

1/3/2020

Jesus of Nazareth, son of Marium, was a liberal.

Noah (Nuh) was a conservative, someone who said thou has strayed and chastisement will follow.

George Washington was a liberal.

So here We the People are: Jesus and George, our guiding liberal spirits for a blessed and constitutional 2020.

*Next Up: Usurpation Day.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

We the People and Others: What Would Jesus Do… Deport the Catholics?

3/1/2018

Romans 12:17-21, The Book of the Is (page 40)

Reductio ad absurdum

Sure, the Jesus reference in the title is absurd, but there are defining similarities between Jesus and the Dreamers: because of their parents, both were born somewhere and then live somewhere else.

A Roman Immigration Officer might have asked Jesus some interesting questions, like:
“Who is your father?”
“Immaculate conception?”
“Where is your papyrus showing a Bethlehem birth?"
“You say ‘Three Wise Men’ were witnesses?”
“And what kind of work are you doing in Nazareth these days?”

Or one could read Romans for a Jesus-inspired Christ-like teaching that a constitutional We the People might try to enact; others, Martin Luther for example, have found inspiration and reverence in Paul’s counsel.

There is also the parable Jesus told about The Good Samaritan: this parable supports The Great Commandment (how one should live).

So what would Jesus do?

The teachings of Jesus are a political goal not represented by usurpation. Something like “The Good ‘Merican,” given the Great Commandment, seems the logical goal of a Christian United States of America. By representing We the People in Congress according to numbers, that is, by the law, we would find out what Jesus-inspired ‘Mericans would do … good and/or otherwise.

*Next Up: 9 April and Usurpation Day 2018, Ex Falso Quodlibet / From a Falsehood, Anything (Follows).

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

2020 Update: Movement

2/1/2018

Movement 2020

Movement is a noun.

1. An act of changing physical location or position or of having this changed.

2. A group of people working together to advance their shared political, social and artistic values.

*Next Up: A commentary on 1 March, We the People and Others: What Would Jesus Do… Deport the Catholics?

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Thereat: Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb, On Our Way Johnny Rebs

12/3/2017

Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb Thereat Camped

X of XIII

“Nice landing Gus.”
“Quite a trip.”
“Quite.”
“Was that Gettysburg we flew over?”
“Right.”
“You said something, but I couldn’t hear you over the noise.”
“Music.”
“If you say so.”
“You showed some footwork.”
“All that marching Reb.”
“The music varies Gus.”
“Well there’s something to look forward to.”
“I was pointing to the Gettysburg ‘fish hook.’”
“Saw that: formidable.”
“And then Washington DC.”
“Inspiring.”
“Up the Potomac …”
“We passed Harper’s Ferry.”
“… And to Shepherdstown.”
“The Johnnies? – Where are they Reb?”
“Camped a hundred yards over the tree-line.”
“Heard that before.”
“You ready Yank?”
“Sure … just jesting to calm down.”
“Say when.”
“When.”
“This way …”

Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb Thereat Unknowns

“… Here Gus.”
“Camped?”
“Permanently.”
“Reb?”
“Sorry.”
“An Unknown.”
“Many actually.”
“There are people over there.”
“This is a memorial service.”
“Can they see us?”
“They’re not looking.”
“What if they did?”
“If they look, it’s not likely they’ll see.”
“Some see?”
“Some.”
“Oh.”
“How about you: did you see spirits Gus?”
“What kind of question is that?”
“What kind of answer is that?”
“Not a very good one.”
“Sounds a little like maybe.”
“Maybe … Shepherdstown is near Sharpsburg.”
“Across the Potomac, about two miles.”
“Soldiers buried here from Antietam?”
“There are.”
“Lots of Rebs Reb.”
“Parts of us.”
“Us?”
“What’s a Reb without a Yank?”
“Alive.”
“Interesting.”

Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb Thereat In-Formation

“You look to be in-formation.”
“Especially up left.”
“Men at parade rest.”
“Right.”
“Are these flags always up?”
“No, just for the memorial.”
“Feels nice, the remembrance.”
“Not everyone would agree.”
“Why?”
“Contentious.”
“Why?”
“You tell me.”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you see?”
“‘Mericans.”
“Most just see flags.”
“Christians.”
“What else?”
“Looks like an American and Confederate flag at the base of that monument.”
“I see them.”
“Let’s go there.”
“After you Yank.”

*Next Up: Sunday 10 December and Thereat part XI, Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb On Our Way Memories.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

Jesus of Nazareth, Miracles and Faith in Arendt Footnotes #9

11/21/2017

Arendt Footnotes #9

The power of faith was the crux of the argument between Martin Luther and Rome. In this passage and footnotes from Arendt’s The Human Condition, the teacher (didaskalos) Jesus of Nazareth is honored; Arendt compares the insights of Jesus to that of Socrates: Socrates for teaching “the possibilities of thought” and Jesus for teaching that “action is, in fact, the one miracle-working faculty of man.” Arendt highlights scripture, as Luther did, to show that Jesus taught a human power (faculty) “to perform miracles in faith.”

Hannah Arendt
The Human Condition
Section 34: Unpredictability And The Power Of Promise
(246-7)

“In the language of natural science, it is the ‘infinite improbability which occurs regularly.’ Action is, in fact, the one miracle-working faculty of man, as Jesus of Nazareth, whose insights into this faculty can be compared in their originality and unprecedentedness with Socrates’ insights into the possibilities of thought, must have known very well when he likened the power to forgive to the more general power of performing miracles, putting both on the same level and within the reach of man. (footnote #84)”

Footnote 84
“Cf. the quotations given in n. 77. Jesus himself saw the human root of this power to perform miracles in faith – which we leave out of our considerations. In our context, the only point that matters is that the power to perform miracles is not considered to be divine – faith will move mountains and faith will forgive, the one is no less a miracle than the other, and the reply of the apostles when Jesus demanded of them to forgive seven times in a day was: ‘Lord, increase our faith.’”

Footnote 77
“Matt. 18:35; cf. Mark 11:25; ‘And when ye stand praying, forgive, … that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.’ Or: ‘If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses’ (Matt. 6:14-15). In all these instances, the power to forgive is primarily a human power: God forgives ‘us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.’”

*Next Up: Sunday 26 November and Thereat part IX, Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb On Our Way Now.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

2020: The Four Orders of Reality in a Baudrillardian Nativity

7/12/2017

The Immaculate Preconception

Simulations, Jean Baudrillard (1983)
Translated by Paul Foss, Paul Patton and Philip Beitchman
“The Precession of Simulacra,” pages 11-12

This would be the successive phases of the image:
            -it is the reflection of a basic reality
            -it masks and perverts a basic reality
            -it masks the absence of a basic reality
            -it bears no relation to any reality whatever: it is its own pure simulacrum.

In the first case, the image is a good appearance – the representation is of the order of sacrament. In the second, it is an evil appearance – of the order of malefice [evil enchantment]. In the third, it plays at being an appearance – it is of the order of sorcery. In the fourth, it is no longer in the order of appearance at all, but of simulation.

Baudrillard was harder to explain before our current political situation: now the first through fourth orders of the image (this is the “I m age” / ego) can be clearly discerned.

Imagine “We the People” as an image.

Is “We the People” a first order reality, one based on the constitutional representation ratio found in Article 1? Or is “We the People” a simulation of the usurpation and therefore a fake representation?

Perhaps the nativity scene is a useful image for understanding Baudrillard’s four orders. To begin with, to understand there is a baby Jesus missing, one has to know of the first order, of a complete Jesus nativity. Take Aspasia or Socrates, for example, individuals living 400 years before Jesus; they would have difficulty imagining the setting; even more difficult, meaning for the bottomless manger, absent baby Jesus and the third wise man represented as an ass. A Socrates might also see the angel more as a guiding spirit, a daemon, more than we allow ourselves to see directing signs and spirits.

Baudrillard also noted, to quote in paraphrase, that nostalgia assumes its full meaning when the real is no longer what it used to be.

We the People: to be or not to be first or fourth order? – To be constitutionally real or constitutionally fake?

The answer is on the horizon we call now.

*Next Up: Wednesday 19 July and a 2020: In High Spirits, a Seven-Twenty Preamble.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

2020: Jesus was poor and said a few things about being rich

7/5/2017

Beijing 1879

Jesus, son of Mary, was a poor man overflowing with riches.

The Gospels, in Matthew, Mark and Luke, report Jesus being asked by a rich man what actions lead to eternal life.

Follow the commandments Jesus said.

The rich man said he did: what else?

Sell all your possessions and follow me Jesus said.

The rich man was distraught, the disciples confused.

Jesus continued: How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God / Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.

The disciples asked: Who can be saved?

What is impossible with man is possible with God said Jesus.

Possible.

Jews, Catholics, Muslims and Protestants agree; Jesus was a teacher of being rich in things other than worldly riches: someone poor in materialism, yet rich in material.

Citizens gathered in a US House according to numbers would represent our beliefs ~ the beliefs of We the People, poor and otherwise.

*Next Up: Wednesday 12 July and a 2020: The Four Orders of Reality in a Baudrillardian Nativity.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner