Meaning Of Stones

Christianity infuses our Western culture

The sort of atheist who sues over the placement of the 9/11 cross reminds me of the type of Christian who smashes stained glass windows if they do not fit his theology. Neither man will spare beauty or meaning others see under the tyranny of his ideology.

The 9/11 cross was formed by nature in the rubble made by evil men. Better men and women saw it and gave it meaning. That is what souls created in God’s image do. He creates the Cosmos and gives life deep meaning. We create art from the cosmos and echo His beauty in our little creations.

Two thousand years ago Roman injustice killed a good man to placate elites fearful of losing power. They used the cruel cross and like any terrorist, rejoiced in the ruin of the good man’s body. His followers refused to allow injustice to stand and over centuries transformed the sign of torture, the cross, to a sign of compassion.

Whenever the Red Cross acts, it confirms that powerful artistic transformation.

If I were not a Christian, I would not be so sorry a soul as to fail to see the human greatness in this change. It is no different than when here in England I see great standing stones built by pagan people long ago. I marvel at what they did and I strive to find the meaning they placed in it and learn from it.

It is barbaric to see the pure piety behind the 9/11 Cross and to want it banned from a public space. If an atheist finds beauty and creates meaning in a public space, I too would glory in it.

My faith teaches me that all beauty is God’s beauty, all meaning an echo of His voice.

Most Americans are and have been Christian. Anyone living in this culture can see it is shot through with art and meaning those Christians have created. If ever a work of music, art, philosophy, and politics shaped with Christian symbolism in mind were stripped from our public square, it would be denuded and left naked like a West Virginia hill after strip mining.

The useful, but artificial public-private distinction cannot stand when brave men die. Citizens will become men facing death and try to see meaning beyond the merely civic. Graves are private spaces that the public must see, but to denude them of meaning the dead and living see in them is to dishonour the dead.

Most of our holidays and public events would be incomprehensible if we ignored the Christian roots that inspired them. We would have to forget the very origin of the word holy-day, but atheists can go on holiday, enjoy Handel’s Messiah, put religious Rembrandt in public museums, and quote the beautiful poetry of the Bible in public speeches without bringing on theocracy.

The Minimalists | Singing Stones: Finding Life's Beauty & Meaning

Near the Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay tri-border, there are two wonders of the world.

The first is the world-famous Iguazú Falls , which pours 1.5 million liters per second over a system of 300 waterfalls.  The immense, three kilometer system attracts millions of jaw-dropping visitors every year. Rightly so: it makes “poor Niagara,” in the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, “look like a kitchen faucet.”

The second is a “modern wonder of the world”: the Itaipu Dam . The 68-story megalith was constructed in the early 90s, with 50 million tons of rock and steel—enough material for 300 Eiffel Towers, and it produces enough energy to power most of California.

During my last visit, I asked a few people if they were going on the “Itaipu Dam Tour.” “No way!” was the common response. “Dams are boring.”

Indeed. I generally don’t travel, explore and hunt to see things that are ‘ practical ’—made efficiently, and to serve a purpose. There is too much practical in our everyday. Raw, artistic, less practical wonders are more likely to quicken our pulse and take us into a an experience of what James Joyce called “aesthetic arrest,” than a giant dam.

But I think someone with artistic sensibilities can enjoy both Iguazú Falls and Itaipu Dam:

Our universities divide the humanities and the sciences (whether to get a BA or a BS was a crisis for me during college). I went to the way of the Iguazú Falls instead of the dam—choosing to focus on the humanities rather than focusing on a more practical trade that would lead to a more  practical : ”medicine, law, engineering—these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love—these are what we stay alive for” (Robin Williams’ Mr Keating). I tend to believe that we live for romance and beauty–but that romance and beauty is laced throughout all human experience and endeavor. There is a place in every vocation—in every human heart—for aesthetic and functional wonders.