Christian Carnival LXXI

The latest Christian Carnival is up at TechnoGypsy.

This week, an interesting rundown of Christian reactions to the new Star Wars movie, with lots of links. I have written of George Lucas' essentially innocent-but-annoying New Age silliness several times before. Making fun of George is easy and it brightens up the day. And he cries all the way to the bank, I'm sure (often carrying some of my money...)

The theme around which this week's carnival is structured is the teaching of the 4-7th century "Desert Fathers," some of the earliest bishops among the Copts and Arabs. This is an unusual subject, but makes for interesting reading. Here's an extract:

Abba Nonnus was visiting the great city and, standing with other Christians, saw the prostitute Pelagai riding by in a litter barely dressed and all made up on her way to a client. The other christians averred their eyes, but he did not. Instead he wept. When asked why, he said: "Two things make me weep. The first is loss of the woman to hell and the other is that I am not as concerned to please Christ as she is to please her lover".

This is truly amazing, because it almost exactly parallels some of my own earlier hermetic musings:

Major Monkius was visiting a great air base and, standing with other bluesuiters, saw a large transport flying by barely marked and all closed up on its way to perform a PNAF mission. The other bluesuiters averred their eyes, but he did not. Instead, he trembled. When asked why, he said: "Only two things really frighten me. The first is nuclear war." When they asked what the other thing was, he said, "carnies. Small hands. Smell of cabbage."

Monk