Anywhere, America 2007

They're building.
all of America heaves at once,
their dreams manifesting
into forests of concrete and steel.
They won't stop until they
can piously worship at
altars of consumerism on every corner.

They pray the only prayers they know:
red tag sale, buy one get one free,
half-off everything Saturdays before noon,
sign up now for a Buyer's Card and save.

They're building.
They're squeezing America into a single strip mall,
That way we can all be sure our clothes are in fashion
and our coffee tastes the same.
We want to be certain we're getting real bargains
on the things we buy irrespective of how
useless or wasteful they might be.

London, 1802.
If my master's world
was a fen of stagnant waters then,
what odors would oppress his nostrils
If he walked with me today?

Un alumno escogido

Olvídate la Malinche.
Hijo de la Chingada no veo aquí.
Mas bien hijo afortunado,
Y heredero escogido de un legado doble
Y repleto con nobleza: legado del toro y del jaguar.

Bastardo jamás,
Sino hijo legítimo de
La sabiduría de Nezahualcoyotl,
Su canción de amor y filosofía
Corriendo en tu sangre,
Tanto como el humanismo de Cervantes,
O los romances del Cid que fueron
Los heraldos de tu fuerza.

Toro y jaguar, animales orgullosos y fuertes,
Estremeciendo a sus pares
Con su voluntad invicto.
Sube a nacer de nuevo, entonces,
Llevando en la corazón el poder
Y amor de tus antepasados.

Faith and Reason

Why, the atheist asks, if God so loved the world did he wait almost 100,000 years (we all know through science that the modern human brain has existed for that amount of time) to tell human kind through the sacrifice of Christ? Did he not care about the people who lived and toiled before the time of Christ? Allow me to conjecture for a moment. If, as the atheist so ardently believes, Darwinism is the tool of design that has brought about the rise of man, would that not also make sense as a mode of God's creation? If God did design through evolution, wouldn't He wait until the mind of man evolved to the point where he could communicate verbally (circa 50,000 years ago BTW) and moreover until he could conceptualize and at least partially understand the concepts of love and hope and freedom that were the Message that Christ conveyed to the world. If the Messiah had shown up at the start of things like Christopher Hitchens seems to think He should have, the Message of God's love would have fallen on ears that never could have come to understand it.

My response, ex post facto

It's true, Nietzsche.
I will cede that in some places
in this world God is most certainly
dead.

And the denizens of these hamlets:
London and Paris, Vienna, Moscow, New York,
and even in Rocken where your father
extolled the hope of Christ
they share the fruits
of your philosophy of despair.
They walk with fearless footsteps of defiance,
And thump their chests in pride, thinking
how cosmopolitan their
cosmology of disbelief has become.

But at night, and in sober reflection
They wail because in their hearts
they believe they are alone.
They believe this because
you told them of the Death of God,
and assured them this time
there was no chance
Of finding an empty tomb.

And since they are alone
They do not hope,
They do not dream,
They are not fruitful and they do not multiply.
Why love if God is dead?
For what is love if it is not forever,
A brilliant strand of light that burns and
shoots forth from the mind of man
to join itself to the eternal
light of love and peace with God?

Strength to them, your students,
those who know, like the Other who sought to
hunt God from His throne, that the field is lost.
And now with feckless faith they
turn to study of revenge and deathless hate.

Buoy them up with dreams of the unconquerable Will.

But know it was not glory
Christ sought while dying in agony
upon the Cross,
nor to extort from you submission
to His inexorable might and wrath.
He bled, dreaming a dream of love,
The same love of life and hope of peace that
you spurned in thought, word, and deed.

Rendición

Imagen de luz,
pura luz entrando por
las puertas permeables
de los ojos.

Algo me mueve
a pensar en
las palabras de Tomas Aquino,
algo animándome a reconocer
el poder de Dios
en la creación que me envuelve

D'Souza-Hitchens Debate "Is Christianity the Problem?"

It's up on youtube, and it is fantastic. They go after each other with history, philosophy, and even some really good humor. The best line of the debate comes when Mr. D'Souza calls on Dostoevsky for support: "If God is not, then everything is permitted." He brings that up to corroborate his assertion that atheistic, not Christian regimes, are responsible for the great crimes of history (think Crusades and Inquisition versus Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Fidel Castro, Kim Jong-Il, all who would wipe out Christianity if given the chance). I also love Mr. D'Souza's line that atheism is not an intellectual, but a moral rebellion. Another great moment came when a man from Tonga asked Mr. Hitchens how religion can poison everything when Christianity brought his country out of the dark ages of cannibalism, poverty, and abject despair.