Marvin Conner Weblog

Jesus made an emphatic distinction between wealth and spirituality when He drove the money-changers  from the Temple.  He also distinguished religion from politics when He told Pilate that God’s kingdom is a  “kingdom of Heaven and not of this earth”.  Spiritually mature people understand that, by setting the  marketplace and the assembly hall apart from God’s house, Jesus makes us responsible for our own  collective and individual life in this world.  He does not and will not become directly involved in, let alone  sanctify, human wealth and power, and the consequences of their exercise and accumulation are on us.  We are hardly forsaken, however, because Jesus gifts us, through His life and teaching, with a model of  thought and behavior that guides us in our responsibilities and orients our hearts toward the sacred.   The guidance provided by Jesus’ example must surely, then, include the respectful acknowledgement and  obse...

(Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz" updated for the twenty-first century) Lord won't you buy me a great big SUV. My friends all drive'em and look down on me. I wanna ride up high, "Closer to Thee". Lord won't you buy me a great big SUV. Lord, won't you buy me an HDTV. Ain't got no resolution on this little screen, And I'm missing clues on CSI: Miami. Lord, won't you buy me an HDTV. Lord, won't you buy me a cellular phone. With no one in my ear, Lord, I feel so alone. I you will, Lord, from you I never shall roam. Lord, won't you buy me a cellular phone. Lord, won't you buy me a shiny new gun. It's my right by you and the Constitution, To have and hold a piece of American freedom. Lord, won't you buy me a shiny new gun.

A single, precise iron-bar blow, To the jaw, just below the ear. To seize the maw, and dam the spew. And maybe, Our speaker will taste The spite-incite-ful significance.

Consciousness is not an unending state of self-congratulation.

    The recent release of the initial results of the investigation into the shooting in Las Vegas confronts us  once again with the senselessness of that act.  As he announced the report’s publication, Sheriff Lombardo  of the LVMPD stated that it “is not going to answer every question or even answer the biggest question as  to why he did what he did.”  And the report itself matter-of-factly states that “nothing was found to  indicate motive on the part of Paddock”. Thus, in spite of their obvious wish to facilitate some  understanding of that horrendous event, the investigators have been unable to shed any light on the aspect  which, as the sheriff rightly pointed out, troubles us most.       This disappointing lack of a plausible, let alone definitive, motive seems to confirm the point made by  Elif Batuman (“Searching for Motives in Mass Shootings”,The New Yorker, 11/27/17) with regard to the  mo...

    Some months ago, I was sitting in a coffee shop downtown when a gentleman entered in a rather excitable state.  It turned out that his property had been burglarized and, even as he seemed to almost admire the thief’s brazenness, he complained with understandable bitterness about the rising level of crime.  After mentioning his military service in the Middle East, he demonstrated his advocacy for carrying guns by directing attention to the automatic on his hip, but he was surprised by the cool reception his comments received.  Another customer spoke up and said that, although she agreed with him, many people in town still regarded the possession of firearms in public with some disapproval. The gentleman expressed dismay at this critical attitude and encouraged everyone to arm themselves because he was certain that the plague of violence is “headed this way”.     Since that day, I have regretted my failure to engage in that ...