TGIF
Yesterday was the fourth anniversary of the death of the late, great Charles Bowden.
It is a significant date to me, in the way that the assassinations of the Kennedys and Dr. King are to many.
It was a day when we lost both someone and what that someone represented.
The loss of both effected my health and spirit and continue to do so to this day.
Bowden represented someone who pursued the truth, who loved the truth enough to die for it.
He told the truth about himself, about us, and about policy, but the process to find truth and speak it eventually took it’s toll.
Few listened, fewer cared, and he died nearly indigent.
He was a prophet and he earned the temporal reward of the prophet…scorn and isolation.
I didn’t cite the day because we live in a time when truth is a matter of taste and it matters little whether a thing is truly true, it matters only that the narrative suits us.
We have no Bowden’s, we have paid pundits whose only job is to sing the songs of their people even if the songs are one long, damned, lie.
We listened not to the prophets, but we wait breathlessly for the next dispatch from Q.
We avoid the darkness of our own souls by creating darkness in our imaginations…a nefarious deep state, an international ring of pedophiles that is run by former presidents, warehouses waiting to be filled with true believers.
It will all be ok though, because theres 45,000 sealed indictments waiting for the evil ones.
Just wait and watch the Q…
We cannot and will not see the darkness in ourselves, so we project it on to our fellow citizens.
It’s all a lie.
We ignore the truth of our real problems and create evil fantasies and fantasy heroes to save us.
The other side laughs in derision while forming their own comforting lies about how the world really works.
The name of Christ is invoked by both sides, the ways of Christ are also ignored by both.
We have the leadership we deserve.
The “prophets” too.
I miss Bowden, but I remember that I have a King and someday His kingdom will come.
That’s the truth.
Make your own application…
What a great description of our current times.
Thank you, Jean.
“We have no Bowden’s, we have paid pundits whose only job is to sing the songs of their people even if the songs are one long, damned, lie.”
It is a day for lamenting. Yes, the marking of this man’s memory but more than that … it is an era to lament.
9Â Her gates have sunk into the ground;
he has ruined and broken her bars;
her king and princes are among the nations;
the law is no more,
and her prophets find
no vision from the LORD. La 2:9.
“it is an era to lament.”
Yes, it is, my friend.
Oh my, Lamentations. A book not often taught in the church, and ignored by those looking for heady highs. Heavy sigh…
Michael
Prophets, like martyrs, like truth-tellers, are simply out of fashion. The certain man from Jerusalem on his way to Jericho fell among some thieves… now we simply debate if the thieves did a good job, while the man lies bleeding at the side of the road.
Sometimes, I despair….
Duane,
As BD said, it’s a time of lament…
It is sorrowful when a voice calling for reason and compassion is trivialized…
Perhaps Michael has given Bowden’s call a voice beyond the grave?
Sorry you are grieving, sorry for your loss, Michael – God keeo
I have had many debates in my life, but I have never debated if the theives did a good job or not. I have read many books – never have I seen that debate.
I must travel in very restricted circles without knowing it.
I puzzled over Dr. Duane’s 1:46. I’m afraid the analogy escapes me ? ? ?
The Samaritan seems to have handled the situation well, tho ?
And through his shrewdness He will cause deceit to succeed by his influence;
…
This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.
These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.
EM
The point is that we argue about the causes of the injustice, rather than actually helping the victims of injustice whom we see in front of us… As you say, the Samaritan handled the situation well.
Here I go again with the commenting…
I believe Bowden was truly a prophet, and consider who says that.
“I live in a time of fear and the fear is not of war or weather or death or poverty or terror. The fear is of life itself. The fear is of tomorrow, a time when things do not get better but become worse. This is the belief of my time. I do not share it. The numbers of people will rise, the pain of migration will grow, the seas will bark forth storms, the bombs will explode in the markets, and mouths fighting for a place at the table will grow, as will the shouting and shoving. That is a given. Once the given is accepted, fear is pointless. The fear comes from not accepting it, from turning aside one’s head, from dreaming in the fort of one’s home that such things cannot be. The fear comes from turning inward and seeking personal salvation. The bones must be properly buried, amends must be made. Also, the beasts must be acknowledged. And the weather faced, the winds and rains lashing the face, still, they must be faced. So too, the dry ground screaming for relief. There is an industry peddling solutions, and these solutions insist no one must really change, except perhaps a little, and without pain. This is the source of the fear, this refusal to accept the future that is already here. In the Old Testament, the laws insist we must not drink blood, that the flesh must be properly drained or we will be outcasts from the Lord. They say these rules were necessary for clean living in some earlier time. I swallow the blood, all the bloods. I am that outlaw, the one crossing borders. The earlier time is over.”
– Charles Bowden (Some of the Dead are still Breathing)
“We now live in an economy that is quickly becoming global, and that economy produces wealth as it annihilates work and workers. For a state this is a problem, for a corporation it is not even an issue. There is no reason to believe these tendencies will change because of new plans or international meetings or matters of state.
The changes will come from below and they will be violent changes wrought by displaced people.
People who realize they have no future can be convinced to endure their suffering.
But people who realize they have no present will kill.
I live on the killing ground. The people with no present swarm around me. They are currently lost to view and are misfiled in the giant information systems. Some are buried alive under the title of illegal aliens, others are criminals, others are simply put on hold in a limbo called job retraining.
Others disappear from view when their unemployment benefits run out and the statistical tables assume they’ve been hired somewhere.
This goes on day and night and yet their numbers grow, their bodies are real, their footsteps can be heard in the night.”
Charles Bowden: Blues For Cannibals
What a writer… no words can describe that level of clarity.