Libertarianism

Freedom for me and only for me.

If your freedom is going to cost me anything, then you can just stay in your chains.

Libertarianism

Would anyone ever put their lives on the line for any entity, be it a corporation or a country, where no one really belongs, where there are no citizens in the usual sense of that word, but only paying customers?

I think not.

The Central Force Driving So Much of American Politics These Days Is ...

... frightened white people.

Happy VD!

Photo by Pierre & Giles

A New Day in a Very Old Land

Sunrise from the Great Sphinx at Giza




The Great Sphinx at Dawn.


I have no idea how all of this will turn out. Who knows what will happen in the end. But for the moment, the Great Sphinx watches the sun rise for the first time ever on an Egypt without an absolute ruler. While optimism is way too strong a word for Egypt's future, there are plenty of grounds for hope. Who would have imagined, even a few weeks ago, that the autocratic ruler of the largest Arab country could be brought down by a mass, leaderless, unorganized, non-ideological, non-theological, largely peaceful revolution? This was the sort of revolution we are used to seeing in Eastern Europe, in places like the Czech Republic, Poland, and in Ukraine; and in Asia in countries like the Philippines and Indonesia. But in the Middle East? It's hard for anyone who doesn't live there or isn't from there to imagine politics in that region as anything other than brutal and cynical. Apparently the Egyptians, and lots of them, imagined just such a thing, and (so far) made it happen. I think this is a tremendous accomplishment, and that the Egyptians deserve their celebrations.

Recorded history began in Egypt. The first event in recorded history is King Narmer's conquest of the Nile Delta (Lower Egypt) and his unification of Egypt under his rule about 3100 BC. He is the first recorded Pharaoh of a united Egypt. Egypt was history's first nation state, and its longest lasting. Egypt ended as an independent state only in 30 BC with the death of Cleopatra. It became part of the Roman Empire and would not be a fully independent state again until the 20th century.

The ancient Egyptians were keenly aware of the antiquity of their country and deeply proud of it. We can see how they thought about their history at what was once the holy city of Abydos (the name given by Greek historians to Abdju), today a site on the Nile several miles north of Luxor. Abydos was the sanctuary of the god Osiris, god of the dead, of regeneration, and of green plants. Osiris was the most popular and widely revered of all of Egypt's gods. Huge mounds of ancient pottery in the surrounding desert are what remain of the offerings of many generations of pious pilgrims to the place. There is so much broken pottery around the place that the locals call it Um el Qa'ab, "Mother of Pots."

The Egyptians remembered their dead and their history at Abydos. In the temples to Osiris built by Pharaohs Seti and by his son, Ramses II, there are the famous king lists. Seti's is the most complete. It is a list of Egypt's kings beginning with Seti and going backward all the way to Narmer, then to the Creation and the gods.


The Temple built by Pharaoh Seti I at Abydos, built ca. 1290 BC.




The columned hall of Seti's Temple at Abydos





The Osiris Chapel in Seti's Temple at Abydos





The Osireon behind Seti's Temple at Abydos; a mysterious structure that was once underground, under a high earthen mound planted with trees.





The King List in Seti's Temple at Abydos showing the king and the then Crown Prince Ramses II worshiping their predecessors.




A detail of Seti's King List; for scholars, this list is a far greater treasure than any gold from Tutankhamun's Tomb. This is the most complete list of Egypt's kings to survive from ancient times showing them in order of succession.




A drawing of the complete King List of Seti; the List is carved on the wall of a narrow passage making it difficult, if not impossible to photograph in its entirety.


A surviving fragment of the King List of Ramses II from Abydos, now in the British Museum.


The lists show an unbroken succession of kings going all the way back to the beginning. That's how the Egyptians saw their history, or wanted to see it anyway. In that sense, the lists are misleading. They are not unabridged lists. They are selective. Certain kings (like Akhenaten and Hatshepsut) were left off the lists deliberately. The lists create the illusion that Egyptian history was a long uninterrupted orderly succession. It certainly was not. Egypt's history was as filled with upheaval and turmoil as any other country's. But that's not what they wanted us to remember. What the Egyptians saw fit to record were not the great transformative events of their past, but what continued, what didn't change over time. The ancient Egyptians hated change. To them, change threatened chaos. At best, change was a necessary adaptation to new circumstances, but it was not to be sought out for its own sake. The Egyptians had only to look over at their Mesopotamian neighbors whose kingdoms and city states were always at war with each other or with successive waves of foreign invaders to see what change meant. Change to the Egyptians was a gamble that never paid off. The ancient Egyptians saw the continuity of their state as its greatest success.

I'm not so sure that we are all that different, or that the ancient Egyptians were entirely wrong to see things that way. Change is a gamble, for nations and individuals. I remember our own leaders in this country (born in revolution and itself a creation of momentous change) fretting about "instability" as waves of "People Power" revolutions swept through Eastern Europe from 1989 to 1992. The ancient Egyptians proclaimed "stability" in huge stone monuments that buried the memory of past turmoil. Seti's temple at Abydos was just such a monument, proclaiming the triumphant return to tradition after the long recovery from the traumatic disruption of Pharaoh Akhenaten's heresy. The ancient Egyptians, just like ourselves, tried to control history, to minimize risk, and to eliminate the element of chance.

When it comes to History with a capital "H," I must confess to being a complete atheist. Sorry Herr Doctor Hegel, I just don't see history as anything so tidy as "thesis"+"antithesis" = "crisis" which leads to "synthesis." I don't see those over arching reasons and laws behind the "workings" of history. I don't believe in "cycles" of history. I believe in the zeitgeist like I believe in the tooth fairy. As far as I'm concerned, history is always a roll of the dice. The future is always a big blank "not yet" in which anything can happen. I think that "historical inevitability" is an illusion of memory. Nothing was ever "inevitable." There are countless occasions when things as absurd as a sudden illness, a lost letter, or a missed phone call have completely altered the course of history. History is not a machine that imprisons us all in its great impersonal workings. History is ours to make or break. Nothing is inevitable and nothing is forever.

Perhaps the element of chance is not only a cause for anxiety, but for hope. The Egyptians are taking a chance and may well teach us another lesson in history, that anything can happen.

Mubarak Goes

Brand new Vice President Omar Suleiman announces Mubarak's resignation in a short statemet. The crowd in Tahrir Square in Cairo erupts.

Amazing.

Bishop Christopher Senyonjo's Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury Concerning the Murder of David Kato.

Here is the full text courtesy of Leonardo Ricardo:

Dear Archbishop Rowan Williams, Primates and fellow bishops, clergy and people of our diverse Anglican Communion.

Peace from God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I give thanks on behalf of the family and friends of David Kato for your love and prayers at this difficult time. All over the world, human beings are longing for liberation, love, respect and the dignity to have meaningful lives. This week alone, we witnessed it in Egypt .We also see this longing in the struggle for human rights for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people (LGBT) through the sacrificial life and death of David Kato. As human beings, we must respect our differences and be united in our call for listening and sharing with each other. To understand God, we are all called to understand the mystery of each other, including our sexualities. God has given us this gift and to defame, condemn, imprison and kill human beings because of their God-given nature, is a great human error. The church has a tragic history of condemning Jews, Moslems, scientists and LGBT people. Our teaching and theology has a causal effect and if we do not learn from our own historical mistakes, we will repeat the same sinful destruction of lives, families and communities.

When European churches failed to protect minority communities during World War II, people were sent to the gas chambers and concentration camps. Many religious people in Europe emerged from that experience to help create the Declaration of Human Rights. We now have sixty years of building an internationally recognised framework for the protection of human rights in every country. If Anglicans in one country dehumanize, persecute and imprison minorities, we must be true to the Gospel and challenge such assaults on basic human rights. They key to our ministry must be to educate our people and encourage LGBT people to tell their stories and the impact of homophobia in their lives. Listening to the stories of LGBT people was the beginning of my own transformation. This work of understanding the phenomenon of human sexuality should be taken seriously in our theological seminaries and schools. The clergy should be well equipped to serve and not to ignorantly repel the people of God. A required course in Human Sexuality should be required of all seminarians and clergy.

Many African countries imprison LGBT people because of who they are. As a bishop in the midst of those countries, I am now a shepherd caring for the lost sheep that are persecuted by the Church and threatened by a pending anti-homosexual draconian bill in Uganda. I preach the new covenant of Jesus Christ sealed in love as we read in John 15:12. This is the heart of the Gospel-the Good News. This sacrifice of Love is mocked when sister churches tolerate or promote the violation of basic human rights. Life and liberty are at risk and we must hold each other accountable. A loving Anglican Communion should not keep quiet when the Rolling Stone tabloid in Uganda openly supports the “hanging of the homos,” including a fellow bishop who pleads for their inclusion and non-discrimination! Silence has the power to kill. We have witnessed its destruction this past week in the tragic and cruel murder of David Kato.

We African Anglicans have a rich and powerful history of speaking out on human rights in the most difficult of situations. Bishop Colenso worked with Zulus to establish an indigenous church while being fought by his fellow English bishops. Bishops Trevor Huddleston, John Taylor and Desmond Tutu resisted Apartheid. We must not demean our great tradition by oppressing LGBT minorities under any circumstances, even to maintain Anglican unanimity. The criminalization of homosexuality remains the greatest state and church sanctioned violence perpetrated against LGBT people and their allies in many countries. We must agree to demolish all forms of institutional homophobia beginning with the removal of all laws that punish human beings for being gay or living in loving relationships. This will be the first step in providing basic human rights to a largely invisible international community who live in daily fear of their lives.

So in thanksgiving for the unity and commitment we have together, let us continue to listen to one another, to protect the vulnerable and marginalized within our own societies and to bring our collective wisdom to the work of repairing the world and correcting the great injustices in our local communities.

+Christopher

Rt. Rev. Christopher Senyonjo