{"id":48283,"date":"2016-01-19T23:52:24","date_gmt":"2016-01-19T23:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=48283"},"modified":"2016-01-19T23:54:19","modified_gmt":"2016-01-19T23:54:19","slug":"politics-as-a-cabinet-of-curiosities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=48283","title":{"rendered":"Politics as a cabinet of curiosities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[ by <strong>Charles Cameron<\/strong> &#8212; see for yourselves &#8212; with a theological chaser, for what it&#8217;s worth ]<br \/>\n.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been amused, educated, annoyed and entertained by political videos this week. Samples of what&#8217;s out there:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ted Cruz<\/strong> endorsed by a <strong>Wild Man<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0i-9D92bzu8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>How <strong>Donald Trump<\/strong> talks, #1 &#8212; edited for emphasis:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BOAxA4b2sHE\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>How Trump talks, #2 &#8212; analyzed for (Fascinatingly efficient)  technique:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_aFo_BV-UzI\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>** ** **<\/p>\n<p>And perhaps most bizarre of all, <strong>Ted Cruz<\/strong> critiqued by <strong>Kathleen Parker<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nS3fuu5aSz0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Cruz had said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If we awaken and energize the body of Christ\u2013 if Christians and people of faith come out and vote our values\u2013 we will win and we will turn the country around.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Parker comments:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>One observation. I don\u2019t know\u2026 this seems to have slipped through the cracks a little bit but Ted Cruz said something that I found rather astonishing. He said, you know, \u201cIt\u2019s time for the body of Christ to rise up and support me.\u201d I don\u2019t know anyone who takes their religion seriously who would think that Jesus should rise from the grave and resurrect himself to serve Ted Cruz. I know so many people who were offended by that comment. And you know if you want to talk about grandiosity and messianic self-imagery I think he makes Ted Cruz makes Donald Trump look rather sort of like a gentle little lamb.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>For the record, Paul makes it explicit in I Corinthians 12. 27 that the members of the Christian community have become the &#8220;body of Christ&#8221;:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Parker exposes an ignorance of basic Christian doctrine, and in her lack of cultural awareness betrays the weak point of a journalism that lacks religious insight &#8212; a topic near and dear to me.<\/p>\n<p>**<\/p>\n<p>It is clear that the Christ of the gospels anticipated the breaking of his body and spilling of his blood at the crucifixion, breaking bread which he termed &#8220;my body&#8221; and sharing a cup of wine at the Last Supper, inviting his disciples to eat and drink and thus partake of him, with a poetic precision that entailed their <em>corporately<\/em> digesting him and incorporating himself and his mission, body and mind, in themselves. <\/p>\n<p>Yet while this is the record given in the three Synoptic gospels at Matt. 26. 26-29, Mark 14. 22-25 and Luke 22. 17-20, and indeed the foundation of the Eucharist, John&#8217;s gospel makes no mention of it. In its place, John offers the great prayer of union &#8212; this is my personal reading: I can&#8217;t speak for others, and I&#8217;m a poet first and foremost &#8212; which says in high poetry (John 17. 21-24) what the synoptics have expressed in metaphor:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.<\/p>\n<p>And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Thus as <strong>Alan Watts<\/strong> puts it:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>When there is dismemberment in the beginning there is remembrance at the end &#8212; that the fulfillment or consummation of the cosmic game is the discovery of what was covered and the recollection of what was scattered.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Thus the body is broken, blood spilled &#8212; but not before body and blood have been shared, ingested, digested &#8212; and where his single physical body was, the church &#8212; body of the bodies of his followers &#8212; remains, to perpetuate his task.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ by Charles Cameron &#8212; see for yourselves &#8212; with a theological chaser, for what it&#8217;s worth ] . I&#8217;ve been amused, educated, annoyed and entertained by political videos this week. Samples of what&#8217;s out there: Ted Cruz endorsed by a Wild Man: How Donald Trump talks, #1 &#8212; edited for emphasis: How Trump talks, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[526,497,1072,139,1090,187,533,251,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-charles-cameron","category-christianity","category-lapido-media","category-media","category-media-literacy","category-politics","category-religion","category-republican-party","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48283"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48305,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48283\/revisions\/48305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}