A Change of Heart
I know this will probably come as something of a surprise--if not a shock--to regular readers of this blog, but since the conception of my future child I've gradually come to realize that many of my views are ill-considered. When this child is born, I don't want it to grow up in a moral vacuum and I want it to have some sense of the purpose of life. These are very hard things to manufacture with secular scepticism. I can hardly believe I'm saying this, but I've decided to get baptised in the Anglican Church and raise our child as a Christian. Lord know this won't be a solution to all the adversity he or she encounters in life, but it will give him or her something I never had: a firm foundation.
[Well, it's after noon now, so yes, Ian, April Fool's!]
[Well, it's after noon now, so yes, Ian, April Fool's!]
10 comments:
Nothing against anyone's church, but it is possible to raise children w/a moral sense outside of it. I've been doing it for 12 years.
Oh, and welcome to parenthood. It's an adventure.
umm, i think this is an April Fools joke
you know, I commented and had a look at that date and thought nnaaaaa
ah well, worse things to be than a fool, right?
Christ! You had me. Great piss-taking.
Bless ewe, my son. Just follow the lambs to the river.
At first I thought this was surely about you poetry reviews, then I realized what was happening.
I'm still holding out for the child to calm you like music the savage beast.
G
Dude, if I was any calmer, I'd be unconscious.
Had me going there for a sec Zach. I was about to wish you a mazel tov!
Zach,
I had the font filled and was ready to 'dip' you...you mean little bastard...what I trick to pull on a priest friend.
Eddy
P.S. I expect that a life absent theological virtue could still be a plenum of cardinal virtue of which I expect there is much in you. One just has to be prepared, with the "maestro di color che sanno" to face the self-limiting, pathetic conclusion that if the life of the gods is "too high for man," he is, non-the-less constantly aching for it.
P.P.S. I'm really not taking it all that personally.
P.P.P.S. On the topic of being "dipped," do you know Larry Gorman's famous Island satire on the Baptists of his day in West Prince? It's called "To be Dipped" and is sung to the tune of "Near the Cross" (http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/j/j103.html). The chorus and a couple of verses:
Oh stemming out the cold Navoo,
Against the wind and weather;
Are we not a jolly crew,
When we get together?...
TO BE DIPPED!
TO BE DIPPED!
'TIS ENOUGH TO KILL ONE!
TO THINK THAT WE MUST ALL BE DIPPED
IN EBENEZER'S MILLPOND!
There came to us a patron saint,
Whose name was Mr. Gordon.
Against him we'll make no complaint
For we must go accordin'
CHORUS
Oh my old aunt is aweful good,
At acting the fanatic.
But she thinks if she gets dipped,
T'will give her the rheumatic.
CHORUS
The Baptists are a nervy crew,
They think they have the right time
They rise from every bush you kick,
Especially in the night time!
CHORUS.
(That Gorman had to leave the Island, hated by his neighbors and even family, goes without saying!)
Ah, Eddy, if I were to have the job done, I'd come to you. Well, you or Tom Curran or Todd Meeker, the padre from the Ashbury College chapel. You see, I've been surrounded by so many exemplary Anglican clerics in my life that the affectionate choice of the Anglican Church for my wicked little joke was obvious. But no, I'm afraid I'm stubbornly steadfast in my Godless ways, unless, following Einstein, you count Spinoza's God, a concept with which I--and even Hitchens does, too--have a great deal of sympathy.
Thanks for the verses; they made my morning.
Cheers,
MLB (mean little bastard)
PS: Generous of you to suspect me virtuous, but like most folks with my literary predilections, I'm horribly fascinated by vice.
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