govern point

ATLANTA, January. 31 /Newswire/ — Govern Point launches blog with Religious content focused on providing informational content and balanced views in a non-denominational way.  Sample Topics To Be Covered:

• How do science and religion fair as constructs
• Darwinism
• Mysticism
• Religious Education Views
• The Bible
• Various Religions

“The topic of religion has always been intriguing, but even more so as a Parent, so this is here” J. David, chief content kid.  “Hopefully the topics of religion, science and belief as interesting for you the reader as well.”  Govern Point will provide fact based information as available and will at times just take a leap of faith in some content.

Articles of Interests

• Should Creationism Be Taught in Public Schools? (usnews.com)
• Why This Jesus? (justanotherclaypot.blogspot.com)
• Bible Stories Your Parents Never Taught You (nonfictionaudiobooks.suite101.com)
• TIME.com: How to Get Teens Excited About God — Page 1 (time.com)

I hope REM isn’t right. There are too many people that believe. Find your path and do good.

One of the the biggest losers in this financial crisis is Bernard Madoff.  I mean LOSER!  He even scammed multiple charities such as Steven Spielberg’s Wunderkinder Foundation & people like Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, who committed suicide. In this scam, investors are provided with a consistently high percentage of returns for their money from the contributions of newly recruited investors. If the inflow of new investors falters, however, the scam ends.  Has kind of an investment banker feel in general in light of the latest financial crisis.

Madoff belongs to a religion that highly regards tzedakah – charity. Knowing this, Madoff he could easily approach Jewish charities, including Speilberg’s foundation, the Chais Family Foundation (which has now shut down completely), Yeshiva University, and the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. The immeasurable damage these charities felt when they lost so much was accentuated by the pain of betrayal in a close-knit community, in which Madoff had played the “I’m a member of the tribe” thing.

65-year-old Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet lost more than 1.4 billion dollars. Villehuchet was found dead in his office. He slashed his wrists & bled to death out his office. From his note: “I have to fight for my clients and myself. It’s a complete nightmare.”

Suicide, as historian of religion David Chidester reminds us in Salvation and Suicide, his seminal study of the People’s Temple, is frequently a religious act. The Jewish zealots at Masada, for instance, facing death at the hands of the Romans in 70 CE took their own lives as a way of escaping with their religious identity and dignity intact. More recently, well at list in the last 100 years, the community at Jonestown drank kool-aid in 1978, a ruling interpretation among those who participating willingly was that this act of suicide was in protest of “the conditions of an inhumane world.”

Suicide presents a means of remaining fully human in the face of a society defined by race, class, and gender divisions and, thus, intent on dehumanization. It is worth considering Villehuchet’s bloody end in the light of such examples of religious suicide like the Japanese Samurai. revenge suicide amongst the Yoruba, and Sati traditions amongst Hindu female widows.

Villehuchet’s death, has similarities with these acts, all of which are meant at least in part a final statement for the public. This act exemplifies the pain and fear that all of the Madoff investors felt when their money was ntaken. I guess there are victims in white collar crimes, so what is different with this than the overall financial crisis?

Banks vs. People.
Corporate buyouts vs. Suicide
Religion vs. Legal Systems
Integrity vs. Dishonesty

Related articles:

• Charities: the foundation of Madoff’s scheme?
• Slate’s field guide to financial scams.
• Some Fear Madoff Case Stirs Anti-Semitism
• Sunny Hostin: Ponzi Schemes and How to Spot Them

About apocalyptic writings:

Revelation is the final entry in the bible – basic the whole world ends art. It describes a coming period of great danger, destruction, and transition. “The apocalypse…used a symbolic or allegorical language to convey the message about the imminent End…Christian apocalypses are thoroughly frightening for the sadistic punishments inflicted on the inhabitants of hell, for the inventions of extreme torture and dismemberment. The descriptions of Heaven are scarcely less awesome, with pictures of angel servants in the Heavens, singing eternal hymns of praise to a bejeweled Lord whose face is too bright to be perceived.”

Apocalyptic literature has been found throughout the Middle East. The first examples of this theme is found in the ancient writings of Babylon and Persia. According to theologian and author Tom Harpur, “British orientalist Gerald Massey wrote that Revelation itself…is really a Christian version of the Mithraic apocalypse ‘Bahman Yasht.’ Massey says the latter has the same drama drawn out as in Revelation and that all ancient Parsee or Persian sacred books referred to the original scriptures as apocalypses.” 2

Apocalyptic literature typically includes a number of concepts:

• Time is divided into 2 ages: the present age is ruled by Satan and his demons and the age to come will be ruled by God.
• the transition will occur very quickly
• the end of the present age will happen in the very near future
• the transition will include wars, plagues, famine, earthquakes and other natural disasters
• A general resurrection of the dead.
• A final judgment.
• Satan’s supporters will be annihilated.
• God’s supporters will enter a period of peace and happiness.

The first suggestions of an apocalypse within the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) is found in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and  Micah. They discussed the coming “day of Yahweh.” Many dozens of apocalyptic books appeared during the period 165 BCE to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 CE. One well known example is the “War Scroll” found among the Dead Sea Scrolls and probably written by the Essenes.  Another example is preserved in the Hebrew Scriptures as the book of Daniel.

Old Testament Apocalyptic Literature: The Book of Daniel

Chapters 1 to 6 describe Daniel’s interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream; the attempted execution of Daniel’s three friends in the fiery furnace; the handwriting on the wall of King Belshazzar‘s banquet hall, Daniel survival in the den of lions, and Belshazzar’s feast. Chapters 7 to 12 describe a series of visions that he experienced: a dream about  4 beasts (a lion with eagles’ wings, bear, leopard, and a terrible beast); a vision of a ram and  goat; a prayer of confession to and trust in God, and a momentous vision of Israel’s future, leading to the end of the age.

Conservative Christians generally believe that Daniel was captured by the Babylonians circa 605 BCE, spent the rest of his life in Babylon, and wrote the book circa 540 BCE. Much conservative Christian prophecy concerning the second coming of Christ is based upon this book and in particular upon King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and Daniel’s dream of 4 beasts. The four empires in both dreams refer to the Empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. The Roman Empire exists in two parts. The first is the historical Roman Empire which has faded from the scene. The second phase has not yet risen to power; its foundation can be seen in the European Common Market. As we approach the year 2000 CE, many sermons by conservative Christians interpret the book of Daniel as predicting the end of the world as we know it. This book is one of the most important books in the Hebrew Scriptures to Evangelical Christians, next to Genesis.

Liberal Christians generally believe that the book of Daniel was written by an unknown person circa 169 BCE. It was based on stories probably transmitted orally from the time of the Babylonian exile until the 2nd century BCE. The 4 beasts in Daniel’s dream (Chapter 7) refer to 4 ancient civilizations:

• the lion/eagle vision is a blending of the most powerful land animal and the most powerful bird; it represented King Nebuchadnezzar’s Neo-Babylonian empire.
• The bear represented the Median Empire.
• The leopard is the Persian Empire.
• The terrible beast represents the Seleucid Empire.

Since the book was written after the rise of the final empire, the author had the advantage of hindsight; the book is a history of past events, not prophecy of the future.