WEEKLY SOUTHERN ARTS
"Sometime the boogaloo 
  • Home
  • From The Publishers
  • Summer 1970 - Fishing with Alligators
  • The Fire-Starters
  • Jimi Hendrix Was The Roy Buchanan of Rock & Roll & Other Rural American Stories
  • Real Genius
  • Guns, Faith and Murder
  • A Blue World
  • Nova Explains
  • Satan's Jr. High
  • The Million Dollar Store
  • The People Who care
  • Jesus and The Red Words
  • Sniffing Out White Supremacy
  • Artistic Con-cepts
  • “The Word From The Streets”
  • A Voice from the Crowd
  • How a White-man Became a Black-man In Order To Find His Whiteness—His Alright-ness.
  • Camille Bertault: 2 Views of a Secret
  • Judy Garland - "Soul Singer"
  • Robert & Jimi and the Twenty Seven Blues
  • The Last Vestiges of Mueller’s Collusion Case Just Died...and Nobody Noticed
  • The Great Pretenders
  • Imagine
  • Me and Junior Parker
  • The Republican
  • "Kill The Pigs!!!"
  • "Another of Trump's Henchmen Falls!!!"
  • Saving ISIS, Killing America
  • Cyrus The Great Strikes Again
  • The Big Lie - "Fear Russia Love China"
  • “The Russians are Coming!” (again)
  • "Impeach This!"
  • “Trump Backs Turkey Down”
  • Congressman Elijah Cummings Died last night at the age of 68.
  • Sweet Home Chicago (The Obama Shakedown)
  • Blind as a Bat
  • "I cannot Tell a Lie"
  • If Only Obama Was Still President, Syria Would Be Swell
  • Impeachment Fever
  • The Ballad of Hunter & Joe
  • "God Will Do It!"
  • Jeffrey Epstein & The Mysterious Case of The Infinite Pedophile Monkeys
  • The World is Insane: pt 4095 - “What is Less Than Zero?”
  • The Magic Bullet and The Lonely Death of Jeffrey Epstein
  • The Facts about Illegal Immigration
  • Chicago
  • Liz Warren Hits The Road
  • Traitors & Lies
  • “If The World Was Fair”
  • "The Few, The proud, The Insane: The Democrats"
  • "GOD & UNCLE SAM"
  • A Minor Complaint
  • Murder in The Meantime
  • The 22-yr-old Bottle Blonde
  • “Jerry “The Toad” & other Sesame Street Lessons”
  • "Riffing in Tongues"
  • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence Revisited
  • The Few The Brave The FBI
  • Jesus and Liz Warren Want to Forgive You
  • The Witch Hunt Ends? Not Even Close.
  • Divine Guidance
  • The Crocodile & The Politician
  • Uncle Joe Apologizes
  • Why I Hate, Hate Crimes
  • It's Only a Matter of Time
  • Let It Rain
  • Dumb & Dumber
  • ....of Poets & Scientists
  • Goodbye Pork-Fried Rat
  • Hearing Duane Eddy
  • Is It Alright...To Be White?
  • "Hell is Real!!!"
  • Mauled by Reality
  • The Cult of The Secret Unknowing Marxist
  • Resist the Devil and He Will Flea
  • The Unwitting Socialist
  • Personal Stories
  • The Magula Report 2019
  • "The New Blood & The New Deal"
  • “The Wall"....and other, mostly silly conversations.
  • The War for the Soul of Mankind: “Stan Getz vs Eric Dolphy”
  • The "Others"
  • White Cracker-Ass Niggas
  • New York Gives The Thumbs Up To Mass Genocide
  • Rudy & Nat
  • A Close Shave With The Well-Intended Bigot
  • This is What Happens When My Favorite Band “The Mellow Herb” Comes To Town
  • The Hemispherical Brain Activity of a Wayward Somnambulist
  • Gun "Race With The Devil"
  • “Half Of All Millennials Think Barack Obama is More Important Than George Washington!!??”
  • "The Dow Posts The Biggest One Day Gain In History."
  • Good Morning Comrades
  • Sharks, Zombies & God
  • A Road Home
  • You're Getting Sleepy....Very Sleepy
  • Stupid People
  • Jezebel and Ahab Make a Comeback
  • Stevie Ray Vaughn: Derivitive Hack or Genius
  • Music & Reminiscence
  • “The Giant Facebook Id-Monster Attacks”
  • “Bullshit...it’s a Damned Invasion!”
  • Bobby-Jack
  • Lowell George searching for authenticity
  • For The Love of Krazy Kat
  • How I Came To Understand That Fighting The Power Was Useless. Unless...You Fight The Power By Giving Power to The Power To Fight The Power
  • Within the Lifetime Of The Average American...The U.S. Population Could Realistically Exceed That of China & India
  • The Problem of Blasphemy In a Secular Society
  • The Waitress and The Power
  • A Message From The Democrats After The 2018 Midterms
  • On This Day Before Election Day, These 5 Things Should Be Remembered As You Vote
  • A Lie Is As Good As The Truth....as long as it's a good lie
  • "Evil Republicans Suppress The Minority Vote"
  • The Enemy of Mankind
  • The Mob
  • Why Chinese Tariffs?
  • A Caravan To Nowhere
  • Ant Farm
  • “They’re Coming For Your Social Security!”
  • The Witchfinder Speaketh
  • Eating Sawdust & Voting Democrat
  • Muslims Kill Washington Post Journalist”...and other stories best left untold
  • Orwell's Nightmare
  • The Sobbing Walrus
  • A Telling Lie
  • Tribal Marxism
  • A Pimp and His Stable of Political Whores
  • "Evidence?.... I Don't Need No Damned Evidence!"
  • A Post Modern Lynching
  • Talkin’ Blues: A White Social Justice Warrior Meets a Bluesman
  • Pocahontas Wants To Impeach President Trump
  • A Belated Tip of The Hat To John McCain's Funeral
  • "Colin Kaepernick Fights The Power. My Brothers!"
  • Jack Ryan: Promoting Jihad & The Brotherhood of Man
  • Rediscovering Willie "The Fruitbat" Johnson
  • The Allegation
  • Message in a Bottle
  • A Coven of Witches
  • The Communist & The Exalted Cyclops
  • America vs Satanic Goat Worshipers
  • Forcing Transgender Penis Cakes on America
  • The Iidots Lament
  • Irritating Post: no. 529
  • Irritating Post: no. 642
  • My Brain is a Liar
  • My New Rap "Alligators"
  • Helpful Hints in Logic
  • The Unredacted News
  • A Loss of Composure
  • The Myth of Objective Fact Checkers
  • Surviving Politics
  • The Pit or The Pendulum
  • Do Not Forsake Me. Not For a Dollar. Not For a Dime.
  • Repeller of The Amorites
  • Sometimes I feel Like a Motherless Child...but only sometimes
  • Welcome To The Freakshow
  • Part One: The Monster Is Summoned
  • A Sideways Glance at Reality....
  • The Ballad of Trey Gowdy
  • Lies, Spies, and Thighs at The FBI
  • The Ballad of Charlie Crockett
  • Children in Cages
  • A Poem For Clifford Odets
  • Anthony Bourdain
  • Like Billy Eckstein Singing to an Empty Club at 1:00 AM on a Saturday Night in 1975.
  • A Letter From The Democratic National Committee
  • Bent
  • "There Were No Spies in The FBI and Other Fictional Tales"
  • The New Rules For Radicals
  • Blood In The Water
  • "3000 American Businesses Colluded with Russia For Profit"
  • I Spy (For The FBI)
  • Free Shit—and Bears
  • Cute Dog Videos
  • How The Press Aided and Abetted Terrorists
  • The Iran Deal Myth
  • The Scouts
  • Pinko Muthafuckas
  • Kelly Joe Phelps
  • Johnny Winter and, 1970
  • Happy Days Are Here Again
  • RAGe Against The Machine
  • Carlos and Buddy
    • How The Bird & Darwin Took Flight With a A7#9 Chord
  • Just a Few Glaring Examples Of Media Scummery
  • They Call it Stormy Monday
  • "I Gotta Take A Wiz" or, "How Starbucks Destroyed the World"
  • Who Needs War?
  • Why The Devil Don't Come Around No More
  • 2+2 Really Does = 4
  • The Tangled Web
  • Shadow Banning
  • What Changed?
  • Oblivious But Concerned
  • "Give Up!"
  • Jesus: The Spirit of Man and God That Illuminates The Darkness
  • Mickey Baker: Goin' To Kansas City
  • "Washington Saves America from Pot-smoking Mass Murderers"
  • Nontraditional Thoughts
  • Attack of The Trillion Dollar Omnibus Bill
  • Hearing Junior Wells “On Tap'' one more Time
  • Just Words
  • Muddy and Me
  • Racist Debtaes About Terrorsim
  • Fidel's Utopia
  • Unwitting Hypocrisy is The Best Kind of Hypocrisy
  • Excess Baggage
  • Excess Baggage pt. 2
  • Fake News Is The New Real News
  • The Death of Billy Graham and Manufacturing Consent
  • American Youth: The Rise of The New Media
  • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Talk About Slavery and Shit
  • Just Smoke
  • Monkey in a Box
  • How The Children of Sal and Dean Destroyed The World
  • On This Cold Winter's Morn
  • The Crime of the Century
  • Evidence: What The Hell Is It?
  • They Were Pissed: America, Jack Kerouac, and the Beats
  • Negotiating The Maze Of Life and a Blues Shuffle.
  • Everyone Is Hitler (In their own Way)
  • The Mystery of The Giant Balloon Shark
  • Subterfuge and Its Discontents
  • God Debunks Global Warming
  • Day Two: God Continues To Debunk Global Warming
  • Strzoking Russia
  • The Al Franken Effect. Or, How to Destroy America and Lose Elections
  • The Big Maybe
  • The News Apocalypse
  • The Guitarticle (Guitar article)
  • The Nation of Lucifer
  • Slurring Pocahontas
  • Why Everything Good Said About Net Neutrality is a Lie
  • .....and behold, The Cause of Your Demise Is Upon You
  • The Trans-boy That Cried Wolf
  • Believe Nothing
  • Donald Trump Blasts The Heads Off Of Tiny Woodland Creatures
  • The Problem of Hypocrites
  • Roy Moore: Serial Pervert
  • I'm So Frustrated
  • The Devil's Whisper
  • Science Can't Dance
  • You're Gonna Have To Serve Somebody
  • Louie C. K.
  • Common Sense
  • Hunting For Witches
  • Living in The Age of "tRump"
  • The Devil is a Hustler
  • The Skinny
  • Eric Dolphy
  • ISIS Rode in On a Donkey
  • "The Manafort Indictment"
  • The Truth About the Middle East
  • Dennis Budimer's "Alone Together" Revisited
  • The Halloween Edition
  • The 20th Century Was Groovy
  • The Salesman
  • The Dossier
  • Elmore James
  • Isle of The Poor
  • The Patriarchy is Alive and Well
  • Moving Napoleon
  • Guns and Guerrillas
  • Playing Four
  • Hollywood and Scumbags
  • Why Everything You Think, Is Wrong
  • Killing Yourself With Terrorism
  • Being Liberal
  • Laced With Hate
  • A Message From Occupy Democrats
  • A Taxing Dilemma
  • What Really Happened with Aid in Puerto Rico
  • Colin Kaepernick and BeyoncĂ© are geniuses. Part 1
  • When the Levee Breaks
  • The Second Coming of Anthony Weiner
  • How to Never Lose a Fight
  • Creating Chaos out of Meaning
  • Crime and Punishment
  • The Man in the Mirror
  • Guitar Gods of the Sixties
  • Entopy: A Play in One Act
  • The Ragged Tale of a Poverty Stricken Economic Genius
  • The Dreamers
  • Hey There Georgy Girl
  • This Is Not a Defense of Joel Osteen. Or is it?
  • The Ballad of Poindexter Glockenspiel
  • The Big Dummy
  • More Florida in Pictures and Text
  • How Do I Hate Thee
  • Florida in Images and More Images
  • "How To Solve The Healthcare Crisis and Why It's So Damned Hard To Fix"
  • The Big Lie
  • The Demise of the West
  • “Good Times! Good Times! You know, we talkin’ bout Good Times!”
  • "Justice My Ass!"
  • Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
  • The Coming Apocalypse and How to Avoid it: a Historical/Biblical Perspective.
  • "Muthafuckin' Chains!"
  • Lies Our Father's Told Us
  • Poetry and Politics - a few mixed verses
  • The Inner Man
  • The Vampire and The Carpet Salesman
  • Comey Speaks!
  • A Word From Nostradamus about the Comey Hearings
  • The Towering Babble
  • Chain of Fools
  • I Got Ramblin' on My Mind
  • Telling Ourselves Stories
  • Shit! Make Me Wanna Holler!
  • Even More Reasons Why The Paris Accords are Total Horseshit.
  • When Life Imitates Satire
  • Jethro and Becky Sue Come To America
  • Random Apocrypha
  • Why The Paris Climate Accords Are Total Horseshit
  • Urban Stories
  • The Kingdom of God: a personal rant
  • Urban Week @ South Beach
  • Serpico Revisited
  • The Road To Surf-dumb. Or, is it The Road To Serfdom?
  • This is Not a Political Article
  • My Hometown
  • What Does This Mean?
  • We're All Fools Sometime
  • One Pill Makes You Larger
  • "What a Maroon!"
  • Secrets and Lies
  • A Tale of Wine and Murder
  • "White House Under Siege!"
  • The Amateur Narcissist
  • Like a Rock
  • The Greatest of Ally of a True Idiot is.....
  • How To Prove someone's a Witch
  • Jesus Was a Sly Dog
  • An Open Letter From The Democratic National Committee
  • The Power of Language
  • The Existential CroĂ»ton
  • Random Facebook Thoughts
  • A Play "The Poverty Racket"
  • The Demise of the 4th Estate
  • Love To Hate My Enemies
  • Feelings, Oh, Oh, Oh, Feelings
  • Art or Reality
  • The Prison Yard Blues
  • Who is Richard Spencer and Why Does He Matter?
  • __an excerpt from "The Power of Voltron "
  • A Plea From a Progressive
  • ANTIFA - The Anti Fascists, Fascists
  • Conspiracy Theory
  • 4 More Poems, 4 More Pictures
  • "Are You Freaking People Insane?"
  • 4 Pictures 4 Poems
  • The Ballad of Carlos Slim
  • Pretending What's in Your Head is True
  • The Cognitive Dissonance of a Faithful Democrat
  • The Human Snakepit
  • George Freeman - Unsung Master of the Jazz Guitar
  • The Price of Milk
  • Suspicious Minds
  • Bill O'Reilly Sexual Predator?
  • The New Soldier
  • Orwell Revisited
  • Larry Coryell - The Godfather is Dead
  • A Tiger Beat
  • South Florida - HOT & COOL
  • Jean Paul Sartre & the Existentialist Mojo
  • Culture Matters, Immigration Matters, Sharks Matter
  • Thomas Sowell
  • A Tree Falls In Central Park on a Gay Banker
  • Black Codes From The Underground
  • Does an Idiot know they're an Idiot?
  • A Poem for Pooh
  • It's All or Nothing Baby!
  • Racism is Alive and Well
  • "Shut the Hell Up!"
  • Jerry Seinfeld - Social Pariah
  • A Man Must Nurture His Pet Peeves
  • Not the Usual Immigration Article
  • Man Talk, with Donald Trump pt. 1
  • Man Talk, with Donald Trump pt. 2
  • The Bad Seed
  • Dogma Never Sleeps
  • Trump and Clinton Debate
  • Was Jesus a True Pacifist?
  • Brexit Was the Shot Heard Around the World
  • Obama, How Great Thou Art
  • War is Good
  • The Willful Ignorance of Intellectual Children
  • What about All Those Peacful Muslims?
  • Terror! What Terror?
  • Biff and Shorty Play The Blues
  • Forty Miles of Bad Road
  • How Obamacare Became the law of the land: And Other Fairytales for Adults
  • Genteel Republicans vs The Alt-Right
  • Should Drugs be Legal?
  • The Prophet Speaks
  • The Dream Sequence
  • Voting 3rd Party and the Moral Low-Ground
  • Sayonara America
  • What does Never Trump Mean?
  • Barack Obama is the Most Brilliant Man Ever to be President?
  • If God Created War, Does That Mean That War is Good?
  • Never Let Your Enemies Define You
  • Facebook, Science & Religion
  • Bullshit by the Numbers
  • Bullshit by the Numbers - part II
  • The Heated Quest for the "No Information Voter"
  • I Love The Dead
  • Those Who Lurk
  • Battered, Bruised and Beaten
  • Trump and Hitler
  • America in Black and White
  • Trans-Athletics
  • Playing a Rigged Game
  • Who was that Mass Murderer?
  • The Kidnappers
  • The Game
  • Terror in Nice: A Variation on a Theme
  • The Idiots Guide on How to Destory the World
  • Terror in France
  • A Fictional Conversation Between a Pastor and a Historian About the Bible
  • The Immoral Necessity for Scapegoats
  • Who Really Shot Those Eleven Cops? Was It Donald Trump?
  • Killer Cops and Cop Killers
  • Happy 4th of July
  • How Do You Cast Your Vote When You've Only Got a Few Bullets Left?
  • "Yes, She's a Lying Sack of Shit....but She's our Lying Sack of Shit."
  • All Apologies
  • Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up
  • Goodbye Scotty Moore
  • If a Bluebird Plays the Blues Why Can't it Play Free Jazz
  • Terror in Turkey
  • When David Slew Goliath
  • The Life & Death of a Global Fat Cat
  • Intentionally Censoring the News
  • The Brits Leave the EU
  • Chick, Christian, Roy & Kenny G
  • Who Really Committed Mass Murder in Orlando
  • The Tale of the Prince and the Shrew
  • A Dying Father's Last Father's Day
  • Mass Murdering, Terrorist's Father is Obama and Hillary's Best Friend
  • Why Cream still Matters 50 Years Later
  • Misguided Anger and Partisan Politics
  • The Deep Guilt of the Religious Left
  • Radical Islam! What Radical Islam?
  • Denial is a River in Egypt
  • A Response to all the Haters
  • Why Muhammad Ali was my Hero (in spite of being a Racist)
  • Why Trump Matters
  • The New Progressive Racism
  • A Tragedy in Cincinnati
  • The Evil that Men do (Women too.)
  • Differences? What Differences?
  • Racism Revisited
  • Battling Immigration Straw Men
  • Blood Quantum
  • Fighting Transgender Straw Men
  • Logical Fallacies about God and Money
  • Progressive Straw Men
  • Everybody is Robbing You Blind
  • On The Road To El Donaldo
  • Dear Mark: About Donald Trump
  • Identifying the Enemy
  • Why I Will Vote For Trump
  • I Totally Agree With Myself
  • Teaching Americans Where to Pee
  • Goodbye Lonnie Mack
  • Bernie Wants You To Pay His Fair Share
  • Bruce Springsteen vs. North Carolina
  • Mr. Smiley Is an Idiot
  • Why Does College Cost So Much?
  • Black Power and Bad Vibes At Whiteness History Month
  • How Facebook Showed Me That We're Doomed
  • Muslims kill Muslims by means of White People
  • The Slap
  • America Wants a 3rd Party Candidate
  • Jesus Loved Everybody
  • Call it what it is.
  • Belgium vs. Turkey. Which One is Worse?
  • Barack, Fidel and Che
  • How He Gonna Get His Money pt. 2
  • How He Gonna Get His Money
  • The Turn of The Screw
  • Dear America: Now, about Trump....
  • The Attack of the Anti Trumpers
  • Did You Know that America is Socialism....and boy, ain't it Swell
  • Trump - Prophet or Blowhard?
  • Black Lies Matter, All Lies Matter
  • The Donald and the Debate
  • Leonardo and The Bear
  • The Thunder Rolled and the "Trump" Blows em all to Hell
  • Fragmented Fairytails
  • Cars That Never Were but Should've Been, Part 6
  • Building The Perfect Beast
  • America: A Tale of Two Cities, Part 1
  • Uncle Bernie in New Hampshire
  • The Big L
  • The Diary of a Former Leftist
  • Free Speech not Hate Speech?
  • State of the Union
  • Losing My Religion
  • Don't Take Our Guns Away Until We Kill Those Honky Bastards
  • Bye Bye Europe
  • "Trump is a Racist!"
  • "Hell Yeah! I've Got Obama Care!
  • Trumponomics
  • Woman of the Year
  • Malicious Intent and the Art of the Microaggression
  • Muslim No-Go Zones - Myth or Reality?
  • Donald J. Trump and the Muslim Migration to America
  • There Is No God But Allah?
  • Roadhouse - The Reboot
  • Sometimes You Just Can't Win
  • A Few Thoughts Regarding Trump
  • Cars That Never Were But Should've Been, Part 5
  • You Can Have My Steering Wheel When You Pry It From Cold, Daed Hands
  • The Great Debate
  • Al, Thomas and Paul - Malthusians Then and Now
  • A Prophet Debates Global Warming and other retated Dogma
  • Memes, Scapegoats, Propaganda
  • Little Hillary and Her Monsters
  • A Prophecy for America
  • The Basketball Metaphor
  • Vladimir Putin: An American Hero
  • Little Things
  • The Democrats Debate
  • It's All Ablout da Benjamins
  • Remember When?
  • Mass Shooter
  • Cars That Never Were But Should've Been: Part 4
  • Should A Muslim Be President in America?
  • The Strange Case of Ahmed Mohamed
  • Debt and Other Devious Angels
  • Bernie Sanders is Caesar not Jesus
  • An inconvenient Truth
  • Who's really a Native American?
  • The Rebirth of the Silent Majority
  • Money That's What I Want!
  • The Syrian Crisis and the Memeing of America
  • Why Societies Have Generally Valued Men More than Women
  • The Problem of Evil
  • A few Thoughts on a Few Things
  • The Authentic pose of a Black White Man
  • Sweden: Socialist Utopia or Progressive Madhouse?
  • Why Dogs Matter
  • Guilty Until Proven Innocent
  • Was Jesus a Socialist?
  • "The Donald" A Man for the Ages
  • Harvesting the Wheat - or - Karma's a Real Bitch
  • Cecil The Lion
  • Cars That Never Were but Should’ve Been, Part 3
  • Secrets and Lies
  • Can Minorities Be Racist?
  • I Was Just Thinking....Hmm?
  • Iran Deal - Good or Bad?
  • Jihad or Not Jihad? That is the Question.
  • "Let's Do Lunch" with Planned Parenthood
  • America The Contemptible
  • Marriage, Bigotry and Cooties
  • The Things We Care About
  • The Simplicity of it All
  • A Dissenting Opinion
  • Cars That Should've Been, But Never Were: part II
  • Live Now, Pay Later
  • I Am, Whatever I Say I Am!
  • Bernie Sanders is the Dumbest Bastard on Earth
  • Cars That Never Were But Should've Been
  • Bruce Jenner
  • The Good Society
  • A Personal Jesus For My Own
  • Take a Ride on a Hell Bound Train
  • Requiem For a Car Show
  • Obama Channels Neville Chamberlain in Dealing with Iran
  • The Short Life of a Political Lemming
  • The Strongman
  • The Broken Window
  • The Selective Outrage of The Anti Israel Left
  • When the Blind Lead the Blind
  • Top Brass With Class
  • Living In A world On Fire
  • Lying Liars and the Lies They Tell
  • What The Hell Is Esotericism?
  • Unicorns, Free Healthcare and other Mythological Creatures
  • Heroes and Dunces
  • A Few Thoughts On a Few Things
  • The Return Of Super Fly
  • Should You Ever Bet On A dead Horse?
  • Money For Nothing
  • Across The Great Divide
  • Tom, Jerry, Eddie & Sydney
  • The Folly of Foibles
  • Who really killed Eric Garner?
  • The Art of The Sale
  • Political Bullshit and All That Jazz
  • Oh, The Horror of It All
  • To Torture or Not To Torture, That is The Question
  • Selective Justice
  • Executive Action
  • Give Us Your Tired, Poor and Ambitious
  • Johnny Winter, Ahhh-Yeahh!
  • Homeless and Transgender "Let My People Pee!"
  • Are We Insane? You Betcha!
  • Ebola and Racism
  • You're a Racist, Just Admit It!
  • To Discriminate or Not to Discriminate, That is the Question
  • The Life of an Imaginary Historian
  • Why Most Debates About The Minimum Wage are Bullshit
  • The Return of the Infinite Monkeys
  • Politically Correct Genocide
  • Language and the illusion of Meaning
  • Obama vs. Reagan
  • Is Barack Obama our Most Successful President Ever?
  • White Racism Black Racism
  • The Race
  • Should People Be Free to Discriminate?
  • Science, Religion and Brother Neil
  • Welcome To America
  • The Reincarnation of Jimmy Carter and the Return of Scarface
  • SCOTUS, Condoms and Collateral Damage
  • The American Dream
  • Attack of the Bloated Leeches or "Why Does the Economy Suck pt. II"
  • Why Does the Economy Suck?
  • Jaco Pastorius - A Passage in Time
  • How can we save the world, from people who want to save the world?
  • A Short Political rant: pt I
  • Jerry Reed, Tom Jones and the Original Guitar Heroes
  • Part Two: The Politics of the Eloi and the Morlock
  • Angel: part 7
  • Wayne Cochran "Going Back to Miami"
  • Blessed Assurances and other Iron Clad Guarantees
  • James Brown & the Art of the Indefinite Rhythm
  • If the Bible Say's it, I believe It!
  • Go For a Jog, Go to Jail
  • Life as Theatre and The Well-Intended Sociopath
  • Rory Gallagher & Taste
  • Utopia and the Militant Socialist
  • Matt Damon & the Teachers Union vs. the Capitalist Pigs
  • The Fight of the Century
  • The Last Damned Healthcare Article You'll Ever Need
  • The Gospel According to Mark
  • You Might Be an Idiot if.....
  • How To Interpret Political Speech and other Forms of Gibberish
  • Polygamy and the Search For Morality
  • The "Big" Gulp
  • When a Lie is the Truth and the Truth is a Lie
  • Jim Hall - The Subtle Radical
  • Making Deals With the Devil in Iran
  • Dennis and Mary
  • Thank You Lord For the Good Things You have Done
  • Excersise In Futility
  • Is Obama The Antichrist?
  • The Case for Limited Government (and that includes a limited military)
  • The Weekly Southern Blog
  • Angel: part VI
  • The Esoteric Agenda
  • Ted Bundy & The Hunt For The Devil
  • Things I wish the President Knew Pt. 3
  • Really Now, I'm Syria
  • What Will You Do?
  • Charlie & Clint: Dead & Deader
  • God Loves Me and Has a Plan For My Life...Right?
  • Trayvon & George : An American Hate Story
  • Is God's Grace Ecclesiastical White-out?
  • Jury Duty
  • The Left's Contradictory Love Affair With Gays & Muslims
  • Hee Haw and Grandma and Grandpa
  • Little Tommy & The Blues Kings
  • Gay Marriage: Part II
  • Kayaking "The Big Cypress" with Crocodlies
  • The Birth of The Jazz Guitarist
  • Running With The Bullshit In Pamplona
  • Divided By Abortion
  • Gay Marriage
  • Life on the Fault-line
  • Out of the Wild
  • A Generation Out Of Touch
  • Morning Faith with a Cup of Joe
  • For The Children
  • Made up Facts & True Beliefs
  • The Unforgettable - Nat 'King' Cole
  • Slavery Was Big Business....and It Still Is!
  • Garage Band - The 1960's
  • A Man's Best Friend is his Dogma
  • Voting With Our Private Parts
  • Investors of the World, Unite
  • Good Intentions...bad results
  • The Plural of "You"
  • How to Get God to Give You What You Want: Redux
  • We Have Not Yet Begun To Fight
  • Polls–Divination or Manipulation?
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King Arthur, Pelagius and Original Sin

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After a long, long day of earning my keep (Yes, dear readers, I must make a living. Weekly Southern Arts simply doesn’t pay the bills!), I was relaxing at home. My wife had already gone to bed and I was flipping channels on the TV when I came across the Clive Owen flick, “King Arthur.” The movie is a re-telling of the Arthurian legend with Arthur portrayed as a half-Roman, half-Briton centurion defending Hadrian’s Wall against the “Woads” (the native Picts) at the time of Rome’s abandonment of Britain on or around 457 AD.

I had seen the movie before, which was a reason to watch it again. I don’t know about you but, when I’m tired, I don’t want to watch something that requires me to pay too much attention!

So, I was watching the movie and was reminded that Clive Owen’s character, Arthur, was supposedly taught by the Briton Monk, Pelagius. This, of course, could not be true, since Pelagius probably died sometime between 418 and 425 AD. However, it did cause me to think about Pelagius for the first time in a while—and what I wanted to write about.

Pelagius was Briton, which means that he was a Celt from Britain who lived in the Roman-controlled area south of Hadrian’s Wall. He was well educated and lived for some twenty-five years in Rome where he may have gone to study law. However, he had a radical conversion experience while there and became a Christian ascetic. Although apparently a compelling figure who collected many followers, he was never an ordained minister, rather, he was a pious layman.

Hearing Pelagius’ name mentioned in the movie reminded me of the epic theological battle waged by Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, and Jerome, the author of the Latin Vulgate Bible, against Pelagius in the 4th and 5th Centuries. Although Augustine noted that Pelagius was a pious, holy man, he vigorously attacked Pelagius’ theology as it pertained to Augustine’s notions of Original Sin and Predestination. (To be fair, Pelagius made the first move when he denounced Augustine’s theology as being akin to that of the pagan Manicheans.)

The Manicheans, dualists who saw the world as being divided into the competing kingdoms of Light and Darkness, believed the spirit of man to be divine and the rest of man to be utterly corrupted by “Darkness.” Its primary feature was salvation through knowledge, a concept which it shared with the much older Gnostic religions. Because of this shared concept of salvation, I thought the Manicheans to also share the Gnostic’s oft-held belief that, since the spirit of man was holy and the flesh was corrupt, the flesh could seek after its own lusts while the spirit was engaged in divine pursuits. This feature of Gnosticism is alive and well in our culture today and is, perhaps, best evidenced by the popular, if simpleminded, clichés spouted by movie stars and others who trade on celebrity. “Hey, I’m spiritual, man.” they assure one and all while doing whatever they want with whomever they want. However, the Manicheans, in fact, esteemed a rigorously ascetic lifestyle, at least for their holiest adherents, the “Bearers of Light,” eschewing all manner of sexual relations and, apparently, even restricting speech.

What got to Pelagius was a statement read by one of Augustine’s disciples, “"Give me what you command and command what you will." This statement is from Augustine’s “Confessions” and Pelagius, apparently, believed this and other Augustinian teachings contradicted the traditional Christian understanding of grace and free will, that is, such a verse turned man into a mere robot. This prompted him to write his “Commentary on the Pauline Epistles.”  In his commentary, Pelagius laid out his objections to the Augustinian doctrines of the inherited guilt of original sin, rigid predestination, and the necessity of baptism to spare infants from hell.

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Baptism of infants, by the way, always has struck me as a particularly stupid thing to do. I don’t suppose that it hurts babies, but an unthinking, unknowing dunking or sprinkling is of no more value than a bath. However, if you think like Augustine, that all of mankind is born into sin, and if you also believe that baptism is essential to salvation, then you would simply be irresponsible if you didn’t baptize your child as soon as possible.

I am neither an historian nor a theologian; I’m just a guy who tries to live a Christian life in a world of conflicting pressures. Being raised, as I was, in Baptist and Pentecostal churches, I absorbed a generally Augustinian view of the fall of man, original sin, etc. without actually thinking too much about it. My focus was mostly on the practical application of Christ’s teachings on my life and that of my family and church community. However, over the years, I have had many speculative discussions with friends and family members regarding these “larger” issues affecting the Christian faith and it was during those discussions that I first became aware of Pelagius, and even older, patristic understandings of these topics.

My first attempt to gain understanding of the church’s historic foundations was, ironically, to read Augustine some years back. Augustine, of course, is a seminal figure in the modern church. In his battle to overcome Pelagius’ objections to his theology, he not only prevailed, but actually succeeded in having Pelagius declared a heretic. For this reason, much of the Christian Church, at least in the West, has remained ignorant of Pelagius’ teachings for the last fifteen hundred years. As I read Augustine, I became troubled by the notion of original sin, as he explained it, but I didn’t immediately know why. After all, this notion of mankind being fundamentally flawed seemed, by observation, to be pretty accurate!

When I looked for those offering an alternative to Augustine, an alternative that I sought merely to get both sides of the issue, it was then that I discovered Pelagius, Origen and other early teachers who did not, in fact, share Augustine’s views. I now find Pelagius’ notion that Original Sin is irrational to be compelling; however, it took some time to overcome my natural tendency to adhere to the unthinking “absolutes” of my youth. Again, I am no theologian, but this is what I have come to, as a result of reading these earlier fathers of the faith:

First, Original Sin, as espoused by Augustine, was a new concept not found by earlier Jewish and Christian theologians. Pelagius thought this notion of Augustine’s to be a holdover from Augustine’s pre-Christian Manichean beliefs. Even though Augustine brilliantly opposed the Manicheans after his conversion to Christianity, Pelagius saw in Augustine’s teachings a tendency towards an irrational system of belief—a belief system that said God created man in holiness, permitted the first man to become a sinner, then cursed all of mankind to be held to that sin, was prepared to condemn all men for that sin, offered a way out for those whom He chose (predestined) through the saving work of Jesus Christ, and punished everyone else for having been born into sin.


This is, of course, an overly simplified version of Augustine’s beliefs. However, what becomes clear in this version of events is that God is a monstrously unjust figure. He sets up mankind for failure and then saves those whom He favors. Nowhere in this account is man actually able to act on his own free will.

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Pelagius, by contrast, believed in a rational approach that said, in effect, God made man to be holy. It is within the capacity of man to, in fact, live a holy life, as witnessed by the Biblical Patriarchs and any number of moral, generous, loving pagans. Because of the fall of the first man (Adam), innocence has been lost and a sin nature has entered into humankind. However, each person has the capacity to make moral judgments about their behavior and can, however theoretically, lead a holy life. I admit that, at this point, such a holy existence seems entirely theoretical. As the Apostle Paul said, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” I would not dispute this statement! Nonetheless, for man to have a free will, the capacity to live a holy life, quite apart from any knowledge of the bible would, it seems to me, have to exist.

Examining this concept further, it becomes apparent that the fall of man described in Genesis 3 does not pertain to a moralistic failing, as imagined by Augustine. Rather, Adam and Eve’s disobedience is a relational failure. They have willfully separated themselves from the living relationship that they enjoyed with God and their spirits have withered as a result, since their spirits were imparted to them by God who is the Living Spirit. It is this separation, this breaking of fellowship with God, that leads to death and it is death, according to Paul, that is the power of sin.

Let’s look at the other primary scripture used by Augustine, Romans 5:12-14, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.” Notice that Paul declares sin to not be imputed without the existence of law. However, death continued unabated with or without the law. Clearly, the spiritual death experienced by Adam as a result of sinning continued as his descendants also experienced the same spiritual death and separation from God’s spirit and, as a result, continued to sin.

Sin came first, but it is death that empowers sin in this world. God intended us to enjoy a destiny of loving relationship with Him and loving relationship with our fellow man. As a result of sin, death has been given power over mankind and, indeed, the entire world. The God-ordained destiny for mankind has been perverted to one of self seeking after security and comfort rather than selfless love for others. This is quite different from the moralistic, Platonic vision of Augustine. He sought to explain the fall of man in terms of a moral duality, right and wrong, and missed, in my opinion, the relational aspect of the fall.


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Further, Paul makes quite clear that there is another, active agent who willfully and cleverly seeks to deceive mankind and keep him from relationship with God. That agent is the Devil, Satan. Although created by God, he chose to rebel against his Creator and, having lost that battle, defeated but unbowed, has continued to attempt further disruptions of God’s Kingdom. It was he who deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden and it was he whom Paul spoke of at length as the enemy of man.

Given this formidable enemy, given that our spirits were dead in sin, we were in desperate need of assistance. It was for this reason that Jesus humbled himself and came to earth in the form of a man, receiving in himself the failings of all men and it is because of His victory over death, the power of sin, that sin no longer holds sway over those who trust in Him. We needed help and He gave us His only begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him will be saved from the spiritual death that for so long has separated man from God. Through Jesus, the means of reconciliation to our Creator has been provided.

So, leaping off from this point, I find that I believe the following: If man does have a free will, and is NOT burdened by original sin, then it is man’s responsibility, not God’s, when he sins. Man could have avoided sin, but under fear of death, made the choice to pursue it. As such, man has come under the burden of sin and is in need of a savior. God, by His grace, has made a way for us to return to that place of holiness through the sacrificial atoning actions of Jesus Christ. Jesus has become the mediator of reconciliation between God and His creation.

We are free to recognize our need for assistance, and are free to accept the salvation offered by God through Jesus Christ. However, the act of justification is not ours. When we recognize our need for a savior, it is the Holy Spirit who brings us to that place of conviction. When we find that we believe in the salvation provided by Jesus, it is the Holy Spirit who gives us that measure of faith, and when we repent of our sins and confess Jesus as our very necessary Savior and Lord, it is the Holy Spirit who declares us justified. We do not make ourselves justified by our own actions. God alone is sovereign and He declares us justified on the basis of our accepting His gracious gift of salvation.


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I think that this version of Christian theology offers the advantage of rationality—something that I believe God desires in us and something that He exemplifies in His Word. Does this change our experience of sin and salvation? No, not really. What it does change is our understanding of the nature of God and the freedom that He bequeathed to us. He is NOT an irrational judge who set us up for a fall and then condemned us for it. He is a loving and merciful Father who desires that we come to Him of our own free will. (Nonetheless, He is willing to accept our decision to reject Him if that is our wish.) What a difference this makes in understanding His great love! How He yearns for us to come to Him. He, who is love personified, desires that we have an intimate relationship with Him, as a child to their father, and like a loving father, has made provision for same through Jesus Christ.

Hallelujah!

As I read the surviving works of the early church fathers, I am struck at the wide variety of views provided on the subjects of sin and salvation. At this point, two thousand years removed from the church’s founding, it is easy to assume that whatever is said of a Sunday in church must be so. After all, if it was wrong someone would have fixed it by now, right? However, these issues are, in fact, not as settled as one might think.

There is, I believe, a growing restlessness within the nominally Christian culture of the West and a consequent challenge to the status quo in churches. People of good character, earnestly seeking truth, read the Nicene Creed, Augustine’s works, or simply the “statements of faith” at their local church and come to the conclusion that their God is an irrational brute condemning them to Hell for simply having been born. If the church won’t face up to the irrational aspects of their traditions, they will lose these people. That would be a tragedy for all concerned. Lost people really do need Jesus as their Savior and the church needs to present the faith in a compelling and rational manner. “God is not a God of disorder” people often say. If this is so, and I believe it is so, then a pre-Augustinian theology would seem to be in order.

While I have noted some things that I think are problematic in Augustine’s work, I cannot point to much criticism of Pelagias’ work since most of it was destroyed as a result of him being declared a heretic. Nonetheless, reading what Clement, Origen and others who preceded him had to say it becomes clear that the position reportedly held by him was more in keeping with the early church beliefs than was Augustine’s invention of Original Sin.

Clive Owen’s character, Arthur, may not have actually learned from Pelagius, but I am grateful to him for reminding me of this early church pioneer.

Thomas A. Hall



Addendum:

A week or so after having first published this article, my father, who was concerned enough about what I stated as my position to quiz me about it, sent me an email noting a recent controversy in Southern Baptist circles (He is a deacon in a Southern Baptist Church). That controversy resulted from a “Statement of Belief” authored by several prominent leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention and may be found at this link:  http://theaquilareport.com/non-calvinist-southern-baptists-issue-statement-of-beliefs-by-staff/

If the reader does follow this link, they will find that the “Statement of Belief” is explicitly rejecting Calvinism—or Augustinianism, if you will.

As it turns out, and I had no idea of it when I started this investigation, the Southern Baptist view has been generally that of a “Semi-Pelagian” nature for quite some time. Having read the “Statement of Belief” and also having read an excellent discussion of it at this site: http://whytheology.wordpress.com/tag/baptist-faith-and-message/ , I find that my hard work of discovery was merely to define a theology that has been a major theme of Baptist thought for centuries. Oh well, however one gets there, it is good to get to an understanding of these matters!

It appears that my article describes, more or less, a “Semi-Pelagian” point of view. This term, “Semi-Pelagian” has been used to dismiss anything that is not Augustinian in perspective for nearly 1,600 years. Augustine, himself, opposed both “Pelagianism” as described by Coelestius, a disciple of Pelagius, and “Semi-Pelagianism” as the same thing. As a result, any position that might be, in any way, identified with Pelagius has been summarily dismissed and its adherents subjected to ad hominem attacks in much of Western Christianity ever since. I believe this to be a great wrong against God and His people. 



I do not agree with all of the beliefs of Coelestius, as described by Augustine, but I do agree with the Semi-Pelagian position, as stated by the Baptists now and many other Christians through the ages. Here is a link to a great website that I’ve just discovered addressing some of the Pelagian issues: http://www.libraryoftheology.com/pelagianismwritings.html  I wish that I had found this site when first researching this article!

If you’ve read this far, I salute your perseverance. We “Semi-Pelagians” believe in the free will of the believer and commend you for exercising yours.   


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