• About
  • Bio

Happy God

~ The Bible calls God happy. I wonder why?

Happy God

Tag Archives: Hal Holbrook

Me and Mark Twain

14 Thursday Nov 2002

Posted by Owen in a happy God, Hell

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Hal Holbrook, Hell, Mark Twain

Last week I had the rare great privilege of attending Hal Holbrook’s performance of Mark Twain Tonight. It had been 19 years since the last time I heard it. I noticed that Hal has become Mark Twain, and his choice of material reflected a man who is mellow and profoundly touched by the fear and hypocrisy of a world gone mad. He was especially poignant in his jokes about religious extremism, and one 10-minute monologue addressed the press, the entertainment industry, the political world, and the religious establishment without any jokes at all. Very powerful… I wish I could reconstruct what he said. One of his memorable humorous lines: “Man is the only animal with the true religion… several of ’em.”

I find myself identifying with Mark Twain in at least 3 ways: we both were blessed with 4 wonderful daughters; we both love to write, though I’m late in getting started on my book-writing; and we both have been iconoclasts who see the humor and the hutzpah in all brands of human belief and unbelief. Religion is dangerous; lack of religion is equally dangerous*. Politics is prone to corruption; cynicism and withdrawal is the ground and fertilizer of demagoguery. And there’s a fourth way I identify with Mark, come to think of it: we both struggled with severe economic hard times in our families. Mark went bankrupt, and I’ve come close. Both of us had to dig ourselves out by reinventing ourselves, and letting go of some of our pet ideas and projects. Now if I can only write something worth reading….

* A wonderful web commentary that articulates an honest view of the pitfalls of skepticism is by Judith Hayes, the “happy heretic”, in her April 2001 post: http://www.thehappyheretic.com/04-01.htm “Humorless Humanists”. She, like Mark Twain, exemplifies the wonderful qualitiies which reveal the shameful poverty of mainstream Christianity’s notion of a hell for unbelievers….

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Reddit
  • Pocket
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • November 2016
  • February 2016
  • November 2015
  • July 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • January 2010
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • November 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • May 2006
  • January 2006
  • December 2005
  • November 2005
  • October 2005
  • September 2005
  • April 2005
  • February 2005
  • October 2003
  • November 2002

Categories

  • a happy God
  • barna
  • Bible Questions
  • books
  • Brian McLaren
  • Calvinism
  • christian colonialism
  • Christian liberty
  • Christian trends
  • christianity
  • Christmas
  • Emergent Conversation
  • enjoying the universe
  • eschatology
  • evangelicalism
  • fatherhood
  • forgiveness
  • Generous Orthodoxy
  • George Barna
  • gnosticism
  • Hell
  • Jim Henderson
  • John MacArthur
  • John Piper
  • judgments of God
  • love of God
  • Mark Driscoll
  • media
  • movies
  • off-the-map
  • orthodoxy
  • Personal Observations
  • poverty and its causes
  • Promises of God
  • prophecy
  • race
  • reconciliation
  • religion
  • religion and politics
  • remnant
  • restorationism
  • revolution
  • revolutionconference
  • Rob Bell
  • salvation
  • Theodicy
  • Uncategorized
  • universalism
  • Virginia Tech
  • Zionism

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Happy God
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Happy God
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
%d bloggers like this: