There’s a creepy scene in the Matrix where a little boy is bending spoons with his mind and he explains, “it’s not the spoon that bends, it is us.” It’s somewhat amusing because that sums up the nature of human beings so well, we’re always bending spoons. We cling rather tightly to our own perceptions and declare them to be truth, reality. Than we build an entire empire upon them, one false thought upon another.
I found myself lost in the Matrix the other day speaking of immaculate conception with some Catholics who were not thrilled with my bent spoon. For those who don’t know, “immaculate conception” actually speaks of Mary’s own birth. It is a Catholic doctrine that says God protected Mary from the taint of original sin the moment she was conceived in the womb. He placed a cover on her. There is a common misconception that the term refers to the conception and birth of Jesus Christ. It does not, but if one believes immaculate conception has something to do with a child being conceived non-sexually, then it is not such a leap of logic to than conclude that “original sin,” must be a term exclusively related to sex.
So now all sex has become original sin and bad, and even in the context of marriage must be endured and suffered as an unfortunate consequence of Eve having eaten the apple. So much for the concept of sex being a lovely gift from God designed to create and build intimacy, loyalty, love, and children….
All in good humor here, but one would hope more Catholics would level up their game and become familiar with their own doctrine, so I would not find myself lost in these silly discussions, trying to gently rap them over the head with bent spoons. This is not “my doctrine,” this is the doctrine of the Catholic church. Immaculate conception relates to Mary, not to how Jesus was conceived.
These things do not really concern me, what concerns me is the way we people can take one tiny misunderstanding and proceed to build an empire of lies upon it, one false conclusion leading to the next. I am no different, much of my time and energy is spent allowing Christ to unbend my spoons, to untangle the web of falsehoods I often find myself trapped in. Metanoia, renewing your mind….bringing it back in line with the truth.
There’s a tale in the bible that drives me crazy all throughout John 7. The unbelief of Jewish leaders, the divisions among Christians. Jesus is greeted with great skepticism, accused of having a demon, thought to be deceiving people. John 7:40-44 says,
On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.” Others said, “He is the Messiah.” Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.
How can the Messiah come from Galilee? That is called a bent spoon! Jesus of Nazareth who came from Galilee cannot possibly be the Prophet because everyone who is anyone knows the Prophet will be born in Bethlehem. Besides, can any good thing come from Nazareth anyway?
So, so many bent spoons, lies built upon lies and misunderstandings, because if only those people had sat still for a moment and actually listened, they would have discovered He was actually born in Bethlehem, a lovely bit of God’s synchronicity in action.
I love the words Jesus says in John 7:24, “Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”
See, there's this thing called biology... 
Love the spoon analogy. I was actually thinking of that spoon the other day and pondering what that kid said. I never knew “immaculate conception” referred to anything other than Christ’s conception. Wow, it had never even occurred to me that it would mean anything but. And, I am still laughing about the orcs in trees. It is so true that it is more sad than funny, but the imagery gave me some good giggles.
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You make a good point about the immaculate conception. I’ve been reading Augustine lately, and (I’m sorry to say) he makes the argument that marriage is good and blessed by God, but sex is never free from sin, which is why chastity is better than marriage. Needless to say, I agree with you and not with him.
When it comes to bent spoons, I’m remembering an anecdote about Uri Geller. Footage of him bending spoons was shown to a group of physicists, who all said, “That’s amazing. I don’t know how he does it, but he’s bending those spoons. Scientifically, there’s no way to fake that.” Then the same footage was shown to an illusionist, who said, “That’s an easy trick. The spoon is already bent in the beginning, but he’s twisting the spoon slightly as he holds it to make it look as if it’s becoming bent.” J.
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very interesting way to look at life !
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Great ending verse Memi!
I said the same to my buddy Jonathan “over there” just this morning!😏
Also, Wednesday went ok, but was somewhat anti climatic. It might take the court 3 or 4 months to rule.
I’ll take any prayers you may send, with thanks!🕊😏🔥
Merry Christmas Memi!
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More wonderful food for thought; Well done IB! As a counselor, I’ve too often had to introduce this concept to my clients. “Than [then] we build an entire empire upon them, one false thought upon another”. These form ‘false belief systems’ that threaten our ability to be objective, constantly forced into defending our perceptions, naively resisting truth.
This election season has witnessed glaring evidence of this. Whenever ‘what about me’ becomes more important than ‘what’s the truth?’ the human psyche melts into insanity, grasping at straws, followed by strong delusion.
Unless the very foundation of their false belief system is exposed and credibly proven to be false, they are doomed to blindly keep building upon it. A prime example recently surfaced when certain information came to light regarding Hillary. Those who had already formulated as fact that she was above reproach COULD not accept the alternative reality.
Children, lacking emotional maturity, frequently exhibit uncontrollable whining when they can’t get their way. The physiological reasons for exhibited frustration stem from the false assumption that the world centers around them (or at least they think it should). While the emotional mature person understands and accepts empathy. But those hopelessly bound to false belief systems are unable to appreciate any opinion that challenges theirs.
Good humor aside, I emphatically hope more Catholics will “level up their game and become familiar with their own doctrine”; not only them – but everyone who names the name of Christ, and then proceeds to proclaim false doctrine. I share your concern – “The way we people can take one tiny misunderstanding and proceed to build an empire of lies upon it, one false conclusion leading to the next”.
Regarding your consternation over John 7, I applaud your conclusions and add to them this: Jesus had warned them that His intervention into human history would be divisive- on purpose.
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household” – Mt.10:34-36.
Peace and continued blessings, sister.
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Thank you for that comment, you make some really good points.
“Whenever ‘what about me’ becomes more important than ‘what’s the truth?’ ”
Words of wisdom there! The truth shall set you free! I suppose sometimes it can be scary, but that’s where faith and love come in. “Perfect love casts out fear.” It could be politics, or perhaps some scriptural truth, but whenever we start to fear how this is going to impact ME, there’s something going on within that feels compelled to block the truth.
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Sts Augustine and Hildegard both concur on the subject of human sexuality. That Eve’s sin corrupted the original means by which God intended for humanity to be fruitful and multiply. In essence, our current means was not what was created but rather was a fallen product.
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Didn’t Augustine wrestle with sexual issues his entire life? Didn’t he have a son with a woman he lived with? I believe he may have even said he was a total slave to sexual sin.
Just the same, in spite of all his negativity, he did manage to say that there may be a legitimate outlet for sexuality in marriage.
Augustine has clearly shaped some Western perceptions of sexuality and not necessarily in a good way. I think such views are not biblical and that they have done a great deal of harm.
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IDK…I’ve seen solid Biblical arguments for St Augustine’s position. All have sinned and fall short. But there is no saint without a past 😉
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Of course there is no saint without a past.
Just the same, so many of these ideas are downright wrong, harmful to people, and not even rooted in actual doctrine.
I’m simply going to have to insist you go straighten everyone out for me. 🙂
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I’m Anglo-Catholic so I agree with St Hildegard and St Augustine 🙂
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Wasn’t St Hildegard nun? Where in the world did she learn anything about sexuality?
I’m just giving you a hard time. 🙂
Actually, I’m not convinced either Augustine nor Hildegard said anything of the sort. As I’ve already said, Augustine stated sex in marriage could be a positive thing and as to Hildegard, well, she wrote some downright steamy stuff and it sure doesn’t sound as if she were describing, “original sin.”
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Sex in marriage is the only thing that redeems it again!
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Thank you! Now go forth and shout that from the rooftops, some people have not yet heard the message 🙂
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Thanks for the explanation about the meaning of “immaculate conception,” IB. I didn’t know it referred to Mary. And it finally makes sense of the misconception that the fall had something to do with sex. I’ve never got that. I mean, naked man and woman, and God telling them to be fruitful and multiply–how could anyone think God’s idea was that sex was bad?
I’m afraid I don’t buy any of the notion in this discussion about the fall tainting sex (any more than it tainted anything else having to do with our old nature). I mean, it seems to me sex is still the means to procreation, and God’s command to be fruitful and multiply was also to Noah (Gen. 8:17) and to Abraham (Gen. 35:11) and the remnant of Israel (Jer. 23:3). I’m not seeing anywhere in Scripture the notion that sex is sinful or that God didn’t want humans to engage in it. That’s a twisted–uh, yes, a bent spoon–understanding.
Great post.
Becky
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To make sex a bad thing…when in the context of marriage the Bible teaches it is a good thing…is something.
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It’s sure is something, alright.
I’m rather astounded by the contradiction of Western values, we’re very repressed and yet we’re culturally flooded with sex 24/7. That’s a recipe for total disaster. What happens is that something like sex in marriage becomes shameful, sinful, whereas the porn culture becomes okay because that’s all on the down low anyway. I see evidence of this playing out all around us within society.
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I’m not Catholic, know enough from reading to be dangerous. I think I could bend a few spoons without intention. I wonder where in the scriptures this detail is of Mary’s birth is found?
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Meredith, I’m not Catholic either. I’m pretty sure the Bible doesn’t give any information about Mary’s birth, But Catholic doctrine, as I understand it, is as dependent on church tradition as it is on Scripture.
If that’s in error, maybe someone can correct me on that.
Becky
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Becky that wouldn’t be me😄.
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If scripture does not answer the issue of the conception, then any raw emotion and reasoning will do. Fortunately it does answer.
Unfortunately, people will cling to emotion without the reasoning of God’s word. I like to say that yes, Mary was indeed the mother of the Lord’s humanity, but not His divinity.
Unfortunately, one group reveres her too much, elevating her to the fourth person of the trinity…………….and equally with impropriety, those on the other side give her not the regard as ‘blessed among women.’
But well done msb, tackling a serious and sensitive issue.
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Great points and good clarification of the misunderstood “immaculate conception.” I would also proffer that the reason the “immaculate conception” was invented (along with others, like “sin” passed through the father, etc.) was because of the dilemma that the invention of “original sin” poses. The problem is, the doctrine of original sin is also a “bent spoon.”
Augustine came up with his doctrine of original sin, mostly, from a mistranslation of Romans 5:12. He could not read Greek (admitted a distaste for it in his writings), only Latin. I don’t want to get technical here, but the Latin Vulgate translated the end of vs. 12, “in whom all sin”, which would be an acceptable translation, if the original text were in Latin. But it wasn’t, it was written in Greek. The end of the verse should be translated, “because all sin,” which is what most modern translations have rendered it. In other words, it’s the difference between being called a sinner because you were born vs. being called a sinner because you sin. The latter would be the better understanding. This would mean that babies are not born in sin, damned to hell. It also means that the virgin birth did not require Mary herself to be sinless. Furthermore, Jesus was born in “sinful flesh” (Rom.8:3), although He did not actually ever sin. Hence, He was not a sinner.
It’s interesting how a doctrine can be a whole lot simpler and more consistent when we get rid of the faulty premise.
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Thank you for your words, that’s a wonderful explanation. I can let go of these things, simply trust God, but others are really driven away from Faith itself by some of these false ideas that grow and fester. Before you know it there are all these people refusing to have anything to do with Christ, because someone has convinced them babies are sinners by virtue if having been born. If a cute little baby is condemned, then there’s certainly no chance for the not so cute. None of these things are accurate of course, but we people have a way of running off into wilderness.:-)
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Very true. Most, if not all of the “ugly” things thought about the nature of God are actually doctrinal bent spoons. Unfortunately, our human tendency is to cling to the confident security of what people have told us (whether they have an “St.” in front of their name or not) rather than living in the mystery of Christ that keeps us growing through faithfully questioning our assumptions (called renewing our mind). As Sam Soleyn once said, “Longevity legitimatizes absurdity.” This particular one is 1,600 years old!
And, btw, on your discussion about Augustine and sex, I had to laugh. No wonder we Christians are some of the most repressed and relationally messed up people on earth! 🙂
But, seriously, the danger of all this, as you pointed out, is that a potential relationship with Christ too often gets jettisoned as soon as our cultural assumptions about God get exposed as some Santa Claus fiction. This is why this type of discussion is important, being unafraid to peel back the layers, and it cannot not be about whether one is Catholic or not. We all have room to grow up in Christ!
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Hopefully you know how much I truly appreciate you and the wonderful way in which you convey the obvious active personal faith in God you share. As we all share a tendency for “running off into wilderness.:-)” it is reassuring to know that even there, Christ delivers us!
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