Hi Banjo,

Yes, it looks like it’s just the two of us here remaining. I think we just may have some things in common. The beauty in communication.

Amazing Grace is a beautiful song, and We Shall Rise!

The Carpenters – that’s a bit coincidental – in primary school, me and my girl friends had a band and The Carpenters were our inspiration (I was the drummer).

“El Paso” - I actually went to a square dance there once.

http://www.vevo.com/watch/jeffbuckley/Hallelujah/USSM20701508
(48,975,263 views!)

Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah - Live In Chicago 1995
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8c5Tk1RrYs
He tragically died too young.

You live in Parish, don’t you?

Banjo,

Mad World - Gary Jules (Tears for Fears sang the original)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N3N1MlvVc4

Hope you’re into films. There is an excellent film called “Donnie Darko” which says it all about today’s world. It is highly innovative and raises some serious concepts. It has been on the HSC curriculum and has a large cult following.

Please see it. Also has some great songs in it. “Mad World” is the theme song. All set in the 80’s.

Peter Vexatious,

You make a lot of sense. Your knowledge of Western legal history is commendable. Life is a constant battle. The Marxist Academics in the West deny the positive significance of our Christian heritage in the Western World so now we have self loathing. It is unfashionable to be Christian these days. Oh the shallowness of it all.

McCarthyism in the USA occurred out of necessity. They still haven’t learnt the evilness of Communism. And all the Hollywood celebs denounced poor old Elia Kazan (one of the greatest of US directors - interestingly of Greek heritage and an ex Communist who saw the STEALTH) who had the courage to separate himself from the herd. A few years ago when he won an honorary life achievement award, trendy actors like Tim Robbins and Susan Saradon remained sitting in protest. Before this, the American Film Institute, had gone out of its way to ignore Mr. Kazan in its yearly awards.

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/crucible/context.html
http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/kazan-award-flap.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/13/movies/kazan-snubbed-by-some-to-get-honorary-oscar.html
Arthur Miller's, "The Crucible"
“At the time of its first performance, in January of 1953, critics and cast alike perceived The Crucible as a direct attack on McCarthyism (the policy of sniffing out Communists). Its comparatively short run, compared with those of Miller’s other works, was blamed on anti-Communist fervor. When Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were accused of spying for the Soviets and executed, the cast and audience of Miller’s play observed a moment of silence. Still, there are difficulties with interpreting The Crucible as a strict allegorical treatment of 1950s McCarthyism. For one thing, there were, as far as one can tell, no actual witches or devil-worshipers in Salem. However, there were certainly Communists in 1950s America, and many of those who were lionized as victims of McCarthyism at the time, such as the Rosenbergs and Alger Hiss (a former State Department official), were later found to have been in the pay of the Soviet Union. Miller’s Communist friends, then, were often less innocent than the victims of the Salem witch trials, like the stalwart Rebecca Nurse or the tragic John Proctor.”

Public Image Limited – Rise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq7JSic1DtM

John Lydon 'I'd like to kill Jimmy Savile' [1978]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjy8oLVOvi4

Public Image Limited - Bad Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwD7_iQ5S6Q

Public Image Limited - Cruel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuFhqPN4qCc

Anyone who's skimmed the Bible loosely or studied it deeply will quickly know that Christianity's central focus is Jesus' death on a Roman cross and his bodily resurrection. It's on this premise that Christianity stands or falls.

Is Christianity true? It is if and only if Jesus rose from his tomb. There's much in the way of ethics, customs and theology that many wish to discuss, but if Jesus rose from the dead, then the essential question is resolved. As C.S. Lewis said, Christianity is either true or it's false, but can never be described as a little bit true.

Does Peter Sellick believe Jesus rose from the dead, the central kernel of the faith? I don't know. Though he theologises here perhaps once every month, I haven't worked how he might answer this straight forward question.

Yet to answer in the affirmative does require much faith. Obviously, the idea of someone rising from the dead after so many days is scientifically or biologically absurd in any normal sense of how we understand the world. But that might be the point.

Jesus' resurrection is other worldly. It requires a God fully capable of miracles, fully willing to enter into this world. That doesn't seem to me the God that's popular in academic or intellectual circles. But that happens to be the God talked about throughout the Scriptures.

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Dear Constance,

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Thanks for the PIL clips. I get the message - disappointment - but not so keen on the tunes and antics. Not the sort of thing I could sing under the shower. “Mad world” resonates better with me.

“Hallelujah” is familiar, but a French version.

Your enthusiasm for “Donnie Darko” intrigues me. I have never seen any sign of it here in Paris. I’ll watch out for it. My interest is mainly limited to intellectual and artistic films, usually in off the beaten track cinemas with few spectators.

I see you mention Elia Kazan. That takes my mind back to Ronald Reagan. As long as you’re not considered a traitor I guess you’re OK.

Thanks for opening up the doors of your cultural world to me, Constance. I really do appreciate it. It’s an inestimable treasure.

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