{"id":1431,"date":"2008-08-14T08:19:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-14T08:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/08\/good-evil-and-the-dance-of-life\/"},"modified":"2011-11-01T15:12:54","modified_gmt":"2011-11-01T19:12:54","slug":"good-evil-and-the-dance-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/08\/good-evil-and-the-dance-of-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Good, Evil and the Dance of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe>\n<\/p>I notice how today is the 445th anniversary of Michael Servetus\u2019 arrest in Geneva based upon thirty eight allegations of heresy drawn up by Geneva\u2019s spiritual leader, John Calvin.<\/p>\nAn interesting case. No player is particularly attractive. Servetus appears by all accounts to be a complete jerk, full of himself, and certain of his ideas. And, why, after dodging the Roman Catholic death sentence, he would put himself in Calvin\u2019s hands who had promised to put an end to his heresy mongering if ever he could, is beyond me. Now, Calvin, the pure one, he subsisted on a single meal a day, once he had control over the heretic didn\u2019t want Servetus burned alive, a truly horrific death; but merely to have his head cut off.<\/p>\nAnd like a badly written play the event played out from arrest to trial to execution by flame\u2026<\/p>\nOne interesting defense of this event is that Servetus was the only person condemned to death for his religious opinions during Calvin\u2019s theocratic dictatorship in a time when such deaths were all too common elsewhere on the continent\u2026<\/p>\nSomehow all this reminds me of Graham Green\u2019s meditation <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Power_and_the_Glory\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Power and the Glory<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\nThe conflict between the whisky priest and the lieutenant echos from history and, perhaps, from our human hearts.<\/p>\nAll the lieutenant wants is to serve. He lives austerely, he is uncoruptible. And the children fear him\u2026<\/p>\nThe priest is unworthy of his vocation, he is an alcoholic, he has had illicit affairs, he was among the first to plan to leave when things got bad.<\/p>\nBut he stays, putting God into people\u2019s mouths.<\/p>\nAlways planning on leaving.<\/p>\nBut he stays.<\/p>\nPutting God into people\u2019s mouths.<\/p>\nFor me what makes the novel particularly compelling, and haunting over the many years, is the third story of the plaster saint weaving through these other two stories, like a Greek chorus\u2026<\/p>\nLife is so complicated.<\/p>\nWhen is the bad one really the harbinger of truth? And when is the good and honest a servant of evil? And what stories unrelated to reality are we telling ourselves about what is going on?<\/p>\nAnd what does that mean to me about me and about my choices?<\/p>\nAnd, perhaps, about you?<\/p>\nPerhaps it\u2019s time to return to the pillow, to sit a bit<\/p>\nand to find the dance of the heart<\/p>\nwhich might be nothing less than<\/p>\nthe dance of the cosmos\u2026<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/33904114-7000136773567216909?l=monkeymindonline.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I notice how today is the 445th anniversary of Michael Servetus\u2019 arrest in Geneva based upon thirty eight allegations of heresy drawn up by Geneva\u2019s spiritual leader, John Calvin. An interesting case. No player is particularly attractive. Servetus appears by all accounts to be a complete jerk, full of himself, and certain of his ideas. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Good, Evil and the Dance of Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I notice how today is the 445th anniversary of Michael Servetus' arrest in Geneva based upon thirty eight allegations of heresy drawn up by Geneva's\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/08\/good-evil-and-the-dance-of-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Good, Evil and the Dance of Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I notice how today is the 445th anniversary of Michael Servetus' arrest in Geneva based upon thirty eight allegations of heresy drawn up by Geneva's\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/08\/good-evil-and-the-dance-of-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Monkey Mind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/james.ford.1029\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-08-14T08:19:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-11-01T19:12:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/33904114-7000136773567216909?l=monkeymindonline.blogspot.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Ford\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Ford\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/08\/good-evil-and-the-dance-of-life.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/08\/good-evil-and-the-dance-of-life.html\",\"name\":\"Good, Evil and the Dance of Life\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-08-14T08:19:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-11-01T19:12:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/3f37f475fb5078d1e7faa93a63a0fddb\"},\"description\":\"I notice how today is the 445th anniversary of Michael Servetus' arrest in Geneva based upon thirty eight allegations of heresy drawn up by Geneva's\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/08\/good-evil-and-the-dance-of-life.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/08\/good-evil-and-the-dance-of-life.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/08\/good-evil-and-the-dance-of-life.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Good, Evil and the Dance of Life\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/\",\"name\":\"Monkey Mind\",\"description\":\"Easily distracted...\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/3f37f475fb5078d1e7faa93a63a0fddb\",\"name\":\"James Ford\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa18971b225a3bb79f0c4c381a5fae20?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa18971b225a3bb79f0c4c381a5fae20?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James Ford\"},\"description\":\"James Ishmael Ford is a writer and spiritual director. 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