Scripture and sex: semiotics, simulacrum, synesthesia, Sapir-- skubala or shekinah?

People sometimes ask me if all the violence in "The Matrix" doesn't bother me.

Part of my answer is "What violence?"....because I tend to translate it all to spiritual warfare (which is appropriate on one level and problematic on another).

No one has yet asked me if the steamy sex scene  between Neo and Trinity in the second Matrix film bothers me.

  So thanks for asking.

Part of my answer would be "it does"  (and it was a cheap grab for ratings).
But again I tend to see it as also  a spiritual representation (Neo=Jesus or EveyChristian  and Trinity  as Trinity, Holy Spirit  or church).



But if Bell's definition of sexuality is at all close, then  everything is sexuality....especially spirituality.



Of course, everything is also inevitably semiotics.

In a great book about semiotics (that strangely doesn't mention Leonard Sweet, who  literally wrote the book on evangelism and semiotics), Crystal Downing , in a section called "Sex and the Simulacrum," writes:

the change in sexual signs has been noted...in one college textbook: 'sexual desire is no longer a response to a person whom we meet and  know face-to-face.  Rather, sexual desire is stimulated by images promulgated by the media, and we strive to remake our bodies to fit these images." People have this substituted imaged for reality, submitting themselves to what cultural critic Baudrillard calls 'simulacra': copies of reality for which no original exists...Ironically, our culture's obsession with the body often leads to a denial of the body, offering simulacra instead. -p. 276

T-Bone Burnett  (or at least his image) might suggest that
                    all sex is image to image.

All sex is semiotic simulacra..virtually virtual..really

It doesn't take much trainspotting to catch the simulacra references in The Matrix:

.

The Matrix makes many connections to Simulacra and Simulation. Neo, is seen with a copy of Simulacra and Simulation at the beginning of the story. He

uses the hollowed book as a hiding place for cash and his important computer files, however, Neo's hollowed copy of the book has the chapter "On Nihilism" in the middle, not at the end of the book, where it is in reality.  uses the hollowed book as a hiding place for cash and his important computer files, however, Neo's hollowed copy of the book has the chapter "On Nihilism" in the middle, not at the end of the book, where it is in reality. Morpheus refers to the real world outside the Matrix as the "desert of the real", a reference to Baudrillard's work. In the original script, Morpheus specifically referred to Baudrillard's boo link

  Ironically, the Matrix's use of Baudrillard may be an "copy of which the original no longer exists." The same article notes

 however, in an interview, Baudrillard said "The Matrix" has nothing to do with his work. 




If everything is creative analogy, 
         and everything is sexuality, 
                                       then there will of course be a 
                          sex and synesthesia (which itself is all about  creative analogy) connection.

Downing on the tendency to  semiotcally gnostisize sex and the body

Marcion, the second century bishop..went so far as to denounce the incarnation calling it a 'disgrace to God' because the human body is 'stuffed with excrement'

Huh? Skubala  disqualifies incarnation?  That itself is skubala!

Let's instead consider things holistically and pursue the sexuality and SHEKINAH .interface.



And the fact that language about sexuality is semiotic and  sign-ificant:

Western culture today seems obssesed with the body, especially the sexualized body.  The popularity  of 'sexting' has   lead to a new kind of crime, "sextortion"...-Downing

New words create  new realities (Sapir-Whorf).

Since new words can create new  crime, and new crime words..

..can't they also   creative creative language and creative inkingdomedness?

Where does this all lead: obsexxion?

Or to Jesus,

  Pepsi, Sex, Elevation...& Mission Trips That Are Actually Missional

..and asking ourselves why we can't at least ask  'banned" questions?

Most readers here will be familiar with Len Hjalmarson's important blog:

..if the new earth is really a restoration and renewal — a new paradise — this time a garden city –

a place of peace, fulfillment and new creation –
a restoration of paradise and innocence (in the best sense) –

How could it be all this apart from new creation in humans and animals? In other words – is there no sexual union in the kingdom? No children? No new people, just we resurrected or restored ones?  -sex and the kingdom 

three more reasons to love N.T. Wright: his Cockburn and "skubala" references, and fearlessness about acknowledging he speaks in tongues

It should be no surprise that N.T. Wright has heard of Bruce Cockburn, let alone considers some of his songs "remarkable" (I'll bet his good friend Brian Walsh is responsible).  I hope you know that God  is "especially fond" of Bruce.  NT:

"..the remarkable songs of Franz Shubert, or indeed of Bob Dylan

 or Bruce Cockburn.." -p. 25, The Case for the Psalms

And it IS no surprise that he would be familiar with the "S-word of biblical Greek"--skubala (see this and this)
but that he would include it in an off-handed,   almost

Buy the T-shirt here

"some of you trainspotters will get the reference" winking kind of way..in his masterwork on Paul... just tops it off:

 ...Or (yet another voice from a different wing of the same house) how can we
continue to celebrate the deeply Jewish theological message of Paul if we have
to study the Stoics, the emperor-cult,all that pagan Religionsgeschichte which
we threw out as so much skybala?... p. 69, Paul and the Faithfulness of God

Bonus:  How about mentioning..in passing, as if it is no big deal, that has been known to speak in tongues,
somewhere in the middle of this presentation (sorry, can't find it now; I think it's Part Two, I will add precise time stamp when I do...Hey, can't go wrong watching the whole thing).  Whatever your take on the charismatic gifts, you should honor Wright's unassuming fearlessness and honesty.  If you want his  definition of tongues, see this; his overall take on tongues, see this.

partly right, but not even wrong

"In the face of silence...,we are left with theories."
-St. Cathleen Falsani / The Dude Abides


Peter Woit's working conclusion about string theory is hugely helpful to church/culture shift.
No surprise, as God has been speaking to us in ekklesia about ekklesia, from the parellel and dovetail discipline of physics (see

"Christianity as a branch of physics").

The whole modern-postmodern pregnant parenthesis wer are in is basically the same story as the relativity>quantum; Newtonian>postNewtonian morph.

The conclusion is basically that string theory is inevitably partly right (that is if it exists)...
but, as in his title, "not even wrong."

From the back cover (emphasis mine):

Peter Woit shows that what many physicists call "superstring theory" is not a theory at all, but an unrealized hope that a theory exists. In his view, superstring theory has departed the realm of testable hypothesis and now resembles something like speculation, even theology--it makes no predictions, even wrong ones.

I also love the New Scientist review of the book from (emphasis mine):

"A call to arms for physicists to pursue multiple paths in search of truth, not funding."

If we only realized that Emergent/emerging, emergissional, or whatever we are and tend to trust in is not the Final Answer; the coveted Theory of Everything (see Mike's rude toejam here)...
...at least in its perfect form).
It may not even be a theory yet..if ever.
They/We may not even be predicting predictions.

Yet we intuit we are partly right in this wineskin; as any means of mixing/mashing small and large worlds/groups/networks is a Kingdom thing. Just as Sexy String Theory as currently defined seems to be the best model we have for making sense of small/micro (quantum) and large/macro ), so the creative forms and norms many are testing these days (cell and celebration; house church and city church, etc) are good places to be.

Maybe we don't need an emerging string theory; we just need a Spirited "whack on the side of the head."

Woit even addresses

the set of units sometimes revered to 'God-given' units, or 'natural' units...(which) are chosen to take advantage of basic features of special relativity and quantum mechanics, getting rid as much as possible constraints..(5-6)

All I want to do is take holy and wholly advantage of all things "naturally" or literally "God-given." Eschewing a reductionist version of Hegelian synthesis; or an old school mainline
line of skubala ("The millenium/heaven-on earth has arrived, and we have created it."). We might even have enough to work from if all we have is Jesus...and a sur-theoretical/pre-theorectical predilection for praxis and liminality.

If only we really did pursue multiple paths in search of truth, not funding. Mammon (and his twin Aphrodite) may be the only false god we ultimately wrestle with. Hmm, money and sex. Isn't that prostitution?
Ask Eugene Peterson sometime about pastors "whoring after other gods."

new (to me) music:The Velvet Teen/ a "man with body and soul, moments of ecstasy, and who sang with burning sparks."

It's too early to say if this band, The Velvet Teen, is going to be a life-changer for me.
All I can say is I'm intrigued.

Thank God for Rasputin.
Not the bizarre Russian mystic/televangelist, but the record-store chain named in his honor.
Racks and racks of CDs for 50 cents means one can find classic gems amidst the skubala..
and risk something indie, gulty pleasure or new..... based only on the CD cover, a  holy hunch,  a sign of God-hauntedness and/or a quick googling or in-store listen.

So I grabbed what turned out to be The Velvet Teen's first CD.
Any of the following factors would've been enough to sell me (at even twice the price!):

• -Amazon reviews suggesting fans of Radiohead, Athlete, Jeff Buckley, The Postal Service and Yes (harmonies) might like them; a synthesis of indie, emo, prog and....Ok, I've read enough to buy!
• -A C.S. Lewis reference in the song title (not always enough to guarantee quality, lol) and other cues to spirituality
• -Each song was linked to a painting on the back cover, and the concept of this concept album felt a bit like The Violet Burning's "The Story of Our Lives" opus (Like The Violets, the band is largely the project of frontman Judah Nagler)  I find out later all three members on this album are graphic artists by day.
• the Henry Miller quote  (from Tropic of Cancer) featured inside: "I am one who was lost in the crowd, whom the fizzing lights made dizzy, a zero who saw everything about him reduced to mockery. Passed me men and women ignited with sulphur, porters in calcium livery opening the jaws of hell, fame walking on crutches, dwindled by the skyscrapers, chewed to a frazzle by the spiked mouth of the machines. I walked between the tall buildings toward the cool of the river and I saw lights shoot up between the ribs of the skeletons like rockets. If I was truly a great human being, as she said, then what was the meaning of this slavering idiocy about me? I was a man with body and soul.  I had a heart that was not protected by a steel vault.  I had moments of ecstasy and I sang with burning sparks."

They have three  albums (and one in the can) each quite different from the other;

kudos and abrazos for the risk and leap:

• -"Out of the Fierce Parade": indie, Radiohead, fairly brooding art-pop
• -"Elysium":  NO GUITARS..often called baroque!
• -"Cum Laude " : "noise-rock" ish..New drummer who has been called a new Neal Peart!

There are no neatly representative songs from each album/era...but this may get you started, one from each:

the albums:

-------------------------------------------------------

The Velvet Teen - New Album 2014

www.thevelvetteen.com/

New album coming 2014. 11 brand new songs, digital + vinyl. Release date and details announced soon. No Star by The Velvet Teen. Cum Laude! by The ...

You visited this page on 5/23/14.

The Velvet Teen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Velvet_Teen

Wikipedia

The Velvet Teen is an indie rock trio from Sonoma County, CA. Contents. 1 History; 2 Discography. 2.1 LPs; 2.2 Singles & EPs; 2.3 Imports & re-releases.

‎History - ‎Discography - ‎References - ‎External links

The Velvet Teen (Official) | Facebook

EPs:

Pansexual trapeze act or bass-playing doulos?

• "I'd rather be a doorkeeper, dude, than be in pansexual trapeze act." -Psalm 84:10, very paraphrased..explanation below
  

  • "Just go low. Don't worry about getting up" -Brian Dodd

  • "Nobody recognizes apostles when they walk in the room"..Wolfgang Simson
    

Three American jobs nobody wants, per St Stephen:

Pottery teacher: Feel like throwing yourself in front of a train? Throw a pot instead! The one word that will best describe your students is "desperate-middle-aged-woman-looking for a creative-outlet-after-the divorce." A word that won't describe them, however, is "talented." There are only so many ways of patiently asking "What are you trying to make?" before you finally snap and use the kiln to make a car battery.

High School Guidance Counselor: You wake up every morning thinking "If I'm so good at finding careers, how did I wind up with this one?" At least you're not the Vice Principal.


Bass Player: It's like you made a poorly worded deal with the devil to be a rock star. Instead of fame, fortune and groupies, you stand in the shadows plucking one note for 90 minutes while the lead singer picks out a trio of coeds from the front row for a post-show pansexual trapeze act. Even worse, you're expected to room with the drummer.

-p 185, "I Am America and So Can You"

This, of course, got me thinking, about how delightfully "Kingdomed" (Tom Fuller's word) each of these callings actually are; what better training for ministry...nay, what better ministries. I long to capture the servant heart and "help others find their gifts and place" that the best of the apostolic high school guidance counselors (Amber Blodgett is queen here..if I had had her as high school counselor, I might have been spared five years of unnecessary skubala and wandering in the wild-erness) and bass players (name some, Ryan) so naturally have.

Bass players may well be best positioned to answer "WWHSD?" ..What Would the Holy Spirit Do?...That is, keep the vital rhythym alive; and let the spotlight/floodlight) fall on the Someone Else (J.I. Packer's image of the Spirit in relation to Jesus, in "Keep In Step with the Spirit").

And a pottery teacher..how close to the Kingdom do you wanna get? That's the King of King's only day job.

Len weighs in on the recent wake-up/shake-up call from Todd Bentley and Lakeland:

...Peter C Wagner unwisely hosted a recent gathering to bring apostolic covering to Todd and Fresh Fire Ministries. During a publicized gathering on June 23rd Wagner said, “This is a ceremony celebrating the formal apostolic alignment of Todd Bentley.” Wagner said that this was a formal “commissioning” equivalent to offering the the right hand of fellowship as the apostles did to Paul in Jerusalem.
He continued by proclaiming, “This commissioning represents a powerful spiritual transaction taking place in the invisible world. With this in mind, I take the apostolic authority that God has given me and I decree to Todd Bentley:

* Your power will increase.
* Your authority will increase.
* Your favor will increase.
* Your influence will increase.
* Your revelation will increase.

By now I hope the leaders who participated in this gathering are reflecting on 1 Cor.13 in the context of chapters 12-14. Perhaps a future commissioning will offer a different kind of decree:

* Your love will increase
* Your humility will increase
* Your generosity will increase
* Your love for Jesus will increase
* Your troubles will increase (1 Cor.4:7-16)
so that the life of the Son of God may be manifest in your mortal flesh..

-Len Hjalmarson, link

I sometimes think I learned how to pray at the "real" seminary I attended: scrubbing 284 toilets a week for Christian campers at RCP, in between years of official "seminary."

I recently found a great book at Dollar Tree:
"The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker." It challenges perceptions of "lower class/lower caste" blue collar jobs. From the sleeve:

"A bridge is only as strong as its weakest weld..You're like a surgeon, but working on metal. You're taking two separate entities and making them one. So take it to heart"
-Lisa Legohn, welder and teacher.

Why isn't that in the bibliography of Church Planting 101?

The real heresy of "The Shack"movie revealed!

Photo credit

Yes, I have  actually seen the movie...and read the book.

I try to follow Bell's Theorem of reviewing, and "only review books and films I've actually seen."

And so many are Tweeting, blogging and Spacebooking to call out alleged heresy in one or both.

I enjoyed both book and film, but I do feel compelled to expose the real and horrific heresy of the film.

  It's not the items most bloggers are highlighting.  

It's actually a heresy that wasn't in the book, but the film changed two words of a sentence that was pretty much infallible gospel and wasn't to be tampered with.  With two words, the filmmakers introduced an unholy heterodoxy.... and as the Holy Heteroclite, it is core to my calling and blogdom to publicly expose such skubala.

Of course, it's always risky to bring a book to film, and it is inevitable that changes will be made.

BUT this one may be almost the unpardonable sin...

Ready?

In the book, God the Father  (Papa) sings a bit of a Bruce Cockburn song while serving breakfast, and  confesses: "I love that child's songs!  I am especially fond of Bruce."  (pp. 122-123).

This was such a huge win for the book, and a great plug  for Bruce, who (unlike in his native Canada), is not well-enough known in the US. etc. Of all people, followers of Christ should be aware of this prophetic troubador.  Heck, you can even ask (British) N.T. Wright!

 If you're reading this blog, you are among the select and elect, and you likely know about him, and have noted he  deservedly has his own listing under blog topics (Bruce even sent us ..me...some autographed product).

William Paul Young, author of The Shack, if you'll pardon the inappropriate but accurate reference, is man of wealth and taste.  Not only does he insert St Bruce Cockburn  ("What can I say…  [I am a] huge fan of Bruce Cockburn. As far as I am concerned, one of the greatest lyricists alive..and an incredible guitarist to boot." ... link) into the book (on the lips of God, no less), but in the acknowledgements section gives credit to the following for inspiration:  "U2, Dylan, Moby, Paul Colman,  Mark Knopfler, James Taylor, Bebo Norman, Matt Wertz (you are something special), Nichole Nordeman, Amos Lee, Kirk Franklin, David Wilcox, Sarah McLachlan, Jackson Browne, Indigo Girls, the Dixie Chicks, Larry Norman and a whole lot of Bruce Cockburn." (link)

But the movie version?

I was wondering if the Cockburn reference would make the cut.  I knew I would be thrilled if it did, but assumed it would be fodder for the  cutting room floor.

When I recognized the breakfast scene, I held my breath..

...and heard Papa singing a tune by...


wait for it...

 Neil Young!!!

She followed up with the familiar line:

"I love that child's songs!  I am especially fond of Neil Young."


Boom!  The heresy duck should have dropped right then.

Now, I love Neil Young as much as you; and he even has merited several posts on this here blog.
But he doesn't need the Holy Spirited PR that Bruce does.

Somebody  made a bottom line decision that was about the  film's economic bottom line.
It was bad decision  about a good observation : "Hey, not many people will recognize Bruce Cockburn; let's change it to someone already famous." Non-sequitur city; this would've been great reason and vehicle to introduce a lot of people to a little-known singer who could change their lives.

Okay, I'm kidding about this being a real heresy....I think. (:
And  when I lamented about this to Michael Bells , he had a point : "At least they are both Canadian.:-)"   Kudos and touché, we USAmericans really need to learn about the musical treasures God has embedded  in Canada.

But since I trust that this lil ol' blog has at least some influence, please check out the Bruce.

God loves him..
and as He (She) said in The Shack book:

"I have no favorite?  Bruce, I mean?"
"I have no favorites." I am just especially fond of him."
"You seem to be  especially fond of a lot of people.  Are there any you are not especially fond of?"
"Nope, I haven't been able to find anybody."  (p. 123).

Fair enough..
but one last dig..
Compare the spiritual depth of the Neil Young song Papa sang in the movie to that of the song of Bruce's that  she sang in the book version.  I could've nominated 50 better Godhanunted numbers from the Young canon/catalog/hymnal.  Gee, how about this?  .Or these?  Or the two (here and here, the second one I filmed here in Fresno) that Bono has taken it upon himself to call our prayer/attention to?

Get back to me..

my pet S-words

This is no skubala: several of my areas of study are "S-words"
I bet no one has ever preached a sermon with an alliterative outline like this:

• simulacra
• semiotics/signs
• synesthesia
• set theory
• Sephardic
• sound theory
• Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
•  
• string theory
• Spirit Christology
• Spanish Language and Culture (my major)
• Second Corinthians
• Second Timothy
• Sermon on the Mount
• self-disclosure
•  
• sexuality/spirituality
• subversion
• structure of Matthew
• subversion
• Second Temple Judaism

Extra Dimensions of Ttme, Travelling salesmen/forerunners, and "monumental restructuring of our intuition"

They say that confirmation  (or rejection) of string theory as the fundamental "Theory of Evrything"
will not likely happen in our lifetime..

...but anything can happen, and may likely be likely.
Sometimes suddenly and

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Brian Greene
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election March to Keep Fear Alive

serendipitously.

And who are the "they"of "they say"?
I hope they, of all people, know that if anything can happen, anything can happen.

And often that "anything" is predicted and prophesied by those branded as heretics or populists...or just plain nut cases.
That is the point to point out.

Often, when someone has suggested , or found, something so revolutionary that  it messes up our fundamental assumptions about the world, life and reality...we assume they are nutsoid.

But you  know what happens when we assume (ass-u-me)...........
that our intuited reality is ultimate reality.

"A feeling is stronger than a thought,"  the travelling salesman said.
But often the travelling salesman is right..even if accidentally so.
Especially if they don't  know the math or reason why they are right.
Just because someone is wrong about how they are right doesn't mean we are right to deny that they
are right. (:


 Let's meet two forerunners to string theory  (which, of course, if postulated 200 years ago would have been ridiculed, but now is the "obvious" candidate for The Grand Theory, implies  that "the universe, at base, is music" and that everything is made of tiny vibrating and loopy violin strings)..

These no-names are not household names, as they should be.
Luther didn't start the Reformation, either...and you likely don't know the names of his four forerunning ancestors either.

Ever heard of  Leonhard Euler?

He discovered a formula in the 1800s..the Eueler beta-function.. that seemed to work:

for  

..but no one knew how or why..so it was shunned and shelved..

Until  1968 when Gabriel Veneziano stumbled upon  its  secrets, and two dudes named  Nielsen and Susskind in 1970   officially offered solid evidence  that the crazy forerunner was right: what we see as fundamental partcles are actually tiny vibrating strings..


How about Theodor Kaluza?

In 1919 , he was bold enough to say aloud that there may well be more than three (spatial) dimensions.


...an "insanity" which now makes sense of string theory.
 In fact, string theory requires it as a given assumption.

Here's a challenge given: Challenge givens.

Extra dimensions of space?  Nine of them?  Most curled up in a little ball?

Radical enough..

But could it be that one of the secrets to confirming string theory could be another unthinkable?
Can we intuit our intuition so that we trust it enough to question it?.

Here's the thesis:

Maybe string theory requires extra dimensions of time, as well.
(hang that, and related proposals on a church door, and see if they are called theses or feces)

• And maybe the Bible, especially a theology of the Kingdom and kairos, has been consistent with this all along.
• And maybe George Eldon Ladd of Fuller Seminary was an accidental travelling  forerunner..because time running 'backwards" in these extra dimension could makes sense of Hebrews 6:1-5: "we have already, in this age/world, tasted the powers of the future age.world."
• And maybe the possible "Luther of physics" (or huge heretic,,time will tell)  is right about  Einstein being wrong: faster than the speed of light is possible...and (I don;t know if he has considered this) perhaps that includes the direction  and dimensionality of time itself

Brian Greene, in "The Elegant Universe," (embedded below, or here)  introduces the possibility  of extra time dimensions, but only covers it in two paragraphs (pp. 204-205)  It's time for someone to pick up the torch and write two tomes, and see what happens...

"Given the requirement of extra dimensions, is it possible that some are additional  time  dimensions, as opposed to additional space dimensions....[which would] clearly require an even more monumental restructuring of our intuition" (pp. 204-205, emphasis mine) 

-

Monumental restructuring of our intuitions?
So what's the big deal?
Let's test-drive  that possible impossibility (remembering the "driving in England" principle) before time runs out.

We  might even wind up with Frank Tipler:
" Christianity is a branch of physics"

Time will tell.

"Space travel," a character in Ray Bradbury's "Martian Chronicles" said,  "has made children of us all."

Maybe time travel, even extradimensionally, will make children, physicists,  and
sense  of us all, as well.

And/or maybe he...and all of us...are just travelling salespeople who are full of strings, skubala and shekinah.

See:

• Time and Time Again
• A Two-Time Universe? Physicist Explores How Second Dimension of Time Could Unify Physics Laws
• Mathematician suggests extra dimensions are time-like
• Does Time Run Backward in Other Universes?: Scientific American

• Grand Unified Theory: Wave Theory - Backward Time

• ---------------------------------------------

• "Music is time travel" or "The Quantum Physicist Neil Young and Singing Cells Walk Through Walls"
• THE KINGDOM’S RETROACTIVE RETROFUTURE: SEND ME MORE ARROWS
• Time Running Backwards

•