Introduction, Traditional Service, February 19, 2012
St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Florissant, MO

 All of scripture leads finally to fulfillment. 
 All of human history leads to the Kingdom. 
 With every twist away from the path, 
 with every wrong, 
 so it is with the story of our lives. 
 
 When you have injured others, you are forgiven. 
 When you have fallen, you are lifted up. 
 
 When you are filled with fear, doubting yourself, 
 when you look inside 
 and see no value to your life, 
 you are loved by the Creator of all there is, 
 and the hand of Jesus is on your shoulder. 
 
 All of your life has been a preparation. 
 The Christ who died for you still lives for you, 
 and walks with you on your journey home. 


Found on Line:
The Old Rugged Cross by Acapella

John Myste offers a combination of wit and enlightenment that is only his. When his target is my faith, it seems a shame to respond. There is no way to top his intellect, no way to match his gentle humor. The most I can hope is to avoid detracting from poetry with mere prose.

This week John submitted a question that was a little too short to transform into a post. So it was allowed to stand as is. It is worthy of more consideration.

Why are you a Methodist? Why do you not belong to a Unity Church or something that seems closer to your thinking?

Is it that you believe that God is a living Entity, greater than humans, Who loves us and Who will one day cradle us in His arms and keep us from harm?

It is because you have a long nurtured relationship with the Methodist Church, that probably no longer fits that well, but you keep wearing it because you remember how good you looked when you did, twenty years ago?

You have told this story before, and I think it is a very good one. I sincerely believe that most people who oppose gay marriage today will be embarrassed twenty years from now. I just wonder if they will still wear keep their opposition out of habit more than out of emotional belief, just because they remember how good they felt when they did, twenty years ago.

How can anyone not love that "remember how good you looked" twenty years ago? He notes a bigotry that may be embraced for the same reason. That just might be enlightening.

If childhood faith plays a part, I am not aware of it. I was raised a Methodist, but the connection with my adulthood is tenuous. My family went away from Methodism before I became a teenager, I think. Evil in the world, seemingly endless pain without healing, was a frequent theological problem and a center of discussion. An emotional witness for the prosecution can be found in "Why I am an atheist – Andreas" by PZ Myers at Pharyngula. Myers offers wrenching personal experience, a series of heartfelt prayers that went unanswered during the progression of cancer that eventually robbed him of his father.

The traditional answer to such suffering is some reference to the mysterious ways of God. We don't know the reason, but we must have faith that there is a reason. It is no answer at all. Myers is worth reading, if only to reduce the weight of arrogance that faith is burdened to carry.

More real to me, even as a teen, was the inverse problem of evil within. I am certainly capable of harboring evil thoughts. I am capable of committing evil deeds. I can be guilty of the sin of omission, not preventing or mitigating suffering around me. How can one such as am I be a creature of God, and in particular be deserving of that Creator's love.

A pastor friend listens and agrees. Those are the twin challenges to any reasoning faith: "evil in the world and evil in myself."

My Methodism, at least for now, comes through fortuitous accident. I happened to be invited to a wonderful church in Florissant Missouri and continued to attend. I had questions about evil in the world, about evil within me, about smug exclusivity within the church, and about policies that seemed immoral to me. In those days a prohibition of active homosexuality with the clergy was an active issue. My questions were discussed with the pastor in several hand-on-shoulder sessions. She has since gone to another Methodist congregation in another part of St. Louis County.

I still don't reject or dismiss those questions. PZ Myers' one time anger, current rejection, of God seems almost a reincarnation of a great man I once knew, and whose loss still affects me.

On a purely intellectual level I can understand and appreciate the logic of atheism, or agnosticism, or forms of faith that differ from my own.

A materialistic view is beyond my emotional understanding. I relate to other human beings, I look to what I find within myself, in a way that does not easily fit that view. I cannot reconcile my personal experience with a definition of consciousness as the evolutionary result of subatomic particles and energy impulses. I appreciate John Myste in a way that I appreciate someone who can, in some unusual mental alchemy, visualize the world in five or six or more dimensions. I appreciate the model, but I do not experience it. Perhaps John is just more advanced than I.

I did, in fact, explore the Unity Center of Christianity, and I found much of value. I took the famous Course in Miracles from the Foundation for Inner Peace and found it enlightening. Unity is tolerant of a multitude of theological approaches. They advance a view they see as uniting every religion. I could never get my arms around a visualization of God as a cosmic principle beyond the anthropomorphic metaphor we have in our heads. It was, to me, akin to worshiping a spiritual form of gravity. I am grateful to them. I wish them well. May the force be with them.

Many of us believe we are part of God's plan to manifest the Kingdom of Heaven here on Earth and, through prayer and study, within some part of ourselves. I suppose, in the end, it may indeed be a massive illusion. It may simply be a way of reconciling belief with those unanswerable twin problems, evil throughout the world, and evil within the human soul. It could be we simply want to change the world and ourselves to make it safe for God to exist without cosmic contradiction. But I don't think so.

The late great Jesuit theologian, Teilhard de Chardin, seemed amused by the debate as he saw it develop in the early part of the twentieth century. The almost bullying intellectual argument that consciousness itself was an illusion found its jujitsu answer in de Chardin. He agreed that consciousness was a simple manifestation of molecules and electricity. This proved that all molecules and electricity possessed a sort of primordial consciousness. That entertained me long after de Chardin went on to whatever awaits us all.

The Polish Jewish writer, Isaac Bashevis Singer, once commented on the theological issue of free will. "We have to believe in free will," he said. "We've got no choice."

I have no compelling polemic designed to advance my faith.
I believe because I cannot help believing.

"Back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their knees and it wasn't that costly."

- Foster Freiss, interviewed on MSNBC, February 16, 2012

It has been a thunderous few days. Republicans, having vowed to put aside cultural issues to focus on the economy, focused once more on ... well ... you know.

Foster Freiss, THE major financial backer of Rick Santorum, contributes heavily to other causes as well. He is a six figure level donor to Republican Governor Scott Walker's efforts to avoid a recall effort at the hands of outraged constituents in Wisconsin. But mostly he boosts former Senator Santorum. Mitt Romney is forced to battle for conservative souls by raging against any effort to interfere with employers who merely wish to exercise their religious freedom, standing against the immorality of women employees who may want to use birth control.

You would think the latest effort of Foster Freiss on behalf of Santorum, an appearance on MSNBC to joke about the promiscuity of modern women who use birth control, would produce a tidal reaction that would last for weeks. It still might. But, for now, there are other amazing events that eclipse it.

For one thing, the Honorable Darrell E. Issa (R-CA), Chair of the Congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing on the entire contraceptive controversy. You can kind of get the tone by the official title of the hearing: Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?

If you wonder toward what opinion the Chairman is disposed, you are just the movie goer to pay top price for the best seats at the premier showing of Rocky 9, just to find out who will win the final round.

Representative Issa had an impressive line of witnesses. Religious leaders and conservative college professors. They all had in common a disdain for the administration compromise that would provide contraceptives to women employees without requiring church related employers to do the providing.

That the witnesses were all men was a fact not lost on Democratic members of the committee. They asked that one lone woman be included. Their prospective counter-witness was a college student prepared to testify about serious health effects among her classmates because of denial of contraceptive coverage. One cancer victim lost an ovary. Contraceptives are a major part of treatment for ovarian cancer.

Issa and other Republican committee members insisted the issue does not concern contraceptives. They narrowed the focus to religious objections by their witnesses to contraceptives for women employees. The woman proposed by Democrats as a witness was turned away. She was not allowed to testify. Several Democrats boycotted the hearing.

Public opinion is so far away from conservatives on this issue Sarah Palin can't see mainstream America from her window at Fox News. It is the political equivalent of The Producers, the Mel Brooks musical about efforts to embezzle financial backing by making a Broadway production fail. "Springtime for Hitler" becomes a shocking hit in the fictional account. This new effort at GOP self-immolation does not seem destined for similar success.

It's like some sort of Mack Sennett silent film. A Republican sets his hair on fire. A conservative supporter helpfully hands him a hammer.

In response to Burr Deming's Religious Freedom and Contraceptives

For conservative legislators, freedom of religion means freedom for financial providers of salaries and benefits. They should control the extent of group benefits. If you want to violate the private beliefs of your employer you ought to pay for it yourself, without the benefit of group membership.

- Burr Deming, February 14, 2012

The question of what health insurance covers should be determined, first and foremost, by its effect on one’s health.

If I belong to a religious sect that teaches that we should not use medicine, but that we should let God treat our children, and then my child falls off a house and dies because I did not call an ambulance, should this be allowed in the name of religious freedom? If so, who else should we kill in the name of religion?

Should any religious fanaticism be a factor when deciding a health matter?

Catholic companies are free to deny their patrons coverage via religious authority. They should not be free to opt out of coverage based on religious doctrine. Their religious authority means they can forbid the use of birth control. Any employee that agrees with the backward concept, will obey, and will not use birth control. Any employee that disagrees with the notion will use her health insurance and will use birth control. She was not bound to Catholicism because she works for company X, so there is no conflict of interest.

Backward Company X did not buy her birth control by providing part of her insurance that provided birth control any more than they would have if they had paid her salary directly and she used her earnings to purchase birth control. There is no difference. Either way Company X provided funds for her birth control.

This entire debate is complete political hypocrisy. The Catholic Church learned a long time ago that the masses that follow it are easily duped, easily told what to think, and easily convinced what not to think. This is what they label “Freedom of Religion.”

What’s next? Should we start drowning witches again?

John Myste also writes for his own site, where religious freedom is more than a label.

Please visit John Myste Responds

Introduction, Traditional Service, February 12, 2012
St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Florissant, MO

 We see a world of oppression and pain, 
 where hatred is lifted up and love is mocked, 
 and we dare to dream. 
 
 We dream the dream we learn from faith. 
 We dream the truth we read in scripture. 
 We dream the vision 
 God has placed on our hearts. 
 
 That suffering will be healed. 
 That hatred will surrender to peace. 
 That justice and mercy will come to every land, 
 and compassion will live in every soul. 
 
 Until the kingdom that reigns in God’s heaven 
 will come to pass for all the world, 
 the dream will never die, 
 the dream will never die. 
 
 God’s vision will live in us. 
 We will carry the flame. 
 The dream will never die. 


Found on Line:
"Bless the Lord"
Gospelchor Lingenfeld
Gospel Choir of Lingenfeld, Germany

We do what we know is wrong, and we enter into a world of hypocrisy. A friend whom I admire once rejected my invitation to go to worship services. "I do not wish to be a part of organized hypocrisy." I answered, and we both laughed. "That's not fair. We're not organized."

We do what we do not know is wrong, and we sometimes are caught, awkwardly realizing in an epiphany that we are wrong, and have been all along.

As Christians, my fellow worshipers and I do have reason for hope: not only for forgiveness, but for redemption. We look to examples from the past. Fearing for his own safety, Simon Peter denied even knowing Jesus. Later on, Saul of Tarsus was widely known and feared for his relentless persecution of Christians. He was on his way to hunt them down when he was struck with ... something.

Simon Peter became the Apostle Peter.
Saul of Tarsus became the Apostle Paul.

More recent examples are not hard to find. "Amazing Grace" was written by John Newton, a slave trader who hunted and took people into captivity, transporting them to a lifetime of slavery. He became an outspoken opponent of slavery.

Those of us who live with the crushing knowledge of lesser wrongs can take some comfort in those who recovered from worse.

Sometimes I wonder if, in their dreams, such icons were still haunted by memories. Was Paul awakened in the night by the vision of Stephen, stoned to death, as a younger Saul held the cloaks of the killers, cheering them on? Was Newton's sleep ever troubled by the faces of those he delivered into a life of servitude?

Forgiven as they were by God, they never had the chance to experience any expression of forgiveness by their victims.

Amid the countless private wrongs committed toward others, those of my generation share a common wrong. We were complicit in the cultural flaws of our upbringing. Accidents of geography or family upbringing gave some of us an unfortunate head start on racism. That mitigates. It does not excuse. Some of us still embrace the sadder teachings of our youth, when experience and history should have given us better.

Almost all of us were part of a more general attitude toward those who had a different sexual orientation. They were not "gays" in those days. They were perverts. We referred to them with casual epithets that we generally don't use today. Yet many of us find our upbringing intruding in unguarded moments. Others continue to embrace a bigotry that traces back to those terrible days, nostalgic for the past. I sometimes recall my reaction as a teenager.

A small article in a 1960s newspaper had reported on the trial of a man arrested in a restroom for soliciting sex from an undercover police agent. The solicitation was the suspect tapping his foot under the wall of an adjoining stall. Police said this was well known by homosexuals as a sexual signal. The judge found the man not guilty. Tapping a foot under a stall did not meet the standard of proof required for a guilty verdict. The man went free.

I remember agreeing with the reasoning and the verdict. How awful that an accusation of something so shameful was based on something so innocent. The poor fellow could have been tapping as some tune ran through his head. Who among us could be the next to be falsely arrested?

It did not occur to me at the time, or for many years thereafter, that the awful crime for which the accused was arrested was not awful and ought not to have been a crime. I did not reject the thought, exactly. It was not even that I did not give it a second thought. I did not give it a first thought. Rejecting homosexuality as perversion seemed at the very core of normalcy.

Many of us like to think we are beyond all that. Growth in mind and spirit sometimes does come with the experience of history. Consciousness is raised. Old bigotries are challenged. Those of us with a faith in redemption are helped by a personal hope.

And yet, there is not much we can say to those who experienced our unthinking rejection in a less enlightened youth. Except, perhaps, to point to the mitigation of growing up in the middle of unexamined bigotry. We should know that mitigation does not excuse.

We can promise to do better. We can try, in little ways and, when opportunities arise, in large ways to stand with our brothers and sisters. We can look to protect today's children from the bigotry that still survives, looming large, threatening young lives.

And we can ask of those we joined in hurting the same as we ask of our Creator: an understanding we did not extend, a forgiveness we do not deserve.

From the San Francisco Police Department:

Introduction, Traditional Service, February 5, 2012
St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Florissant, MO

 There is hope for us. 
 
 Our words this morning were written by a man 
 who lived by capturing and enslaving others, 
 but who found Jesus in his heart, 
 and devoted his life to fighting for freedom. 
 
 There is hope for us. 
 
 When we act and speak and think 
 in ways we know to be wrong, 
 we become slaves to a way of life. 
 But we are the spiritual descendents of those 
 who were led through the desert to freedom. 
 
 There is hope for us. 
 
 We stand with them, 
 we stand with that slave trader, 
 we stand with a Savior who always stands by us, 
 as we look in the mirror 
 and say the one we see there: 
 Let - my - people - go ! 
 
 Thank God Almighty, there is hope for us. 


Found on Line:
"Amazing Grace"
Sung by very young Rhema Marvanne

Introduction, Traditional Service, January 29, 2012
St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Florissant, MO

 In times of stress, or grief, or temptation, 
 we often do not live up to God’s plan for us. 
 
 Like Peter, we deny Jesus. 
 Jesus never denies us. 
 
 Like Thomas, we doubt 
 the resurrection and the life. 
 Jesus never doubts the value 
 that God has placed in us. 
 
 Like Saul of Tarsus, 
 we hate those whose faith is strange to us. 
 Jesus sees a deeper good waiting in our hearts. 
 
 When we rebel against 
 God’s love for all his children, 
 when we deny the value of any human soul, 
 Jesus still walks with us. 
 His healing hand reaches out. 
 Be still my soul, the Lord is on your side. 

Found on Line:
"Be Still My Soul"
Sung in Memory of the Holocaust
by Liberia, Boys Vocal Band from South London

In response to T. Paine's Do Not Invalidate the Sacrament of Marriage

To broaden the term “marriage” to include any other iterations of involved people in the ceremony is to invalidate the meaning of the word and the sacrament that the word describes.

- T. Paine, January 27, 2012

I think some readers may not appreciate the wisdom of T. Paine’s message. Just in case, I wish to ally myself with his opinion, and clarify it, lest any ambiguity remain.

I have to agree with T. Paine about the “backwardness or unenlightened thinking” of the anti-gay marriage movement. However, backward and unthinking though it be, I and T. Paine are still on board.

“The fact of the matter is that marriage was intended for procreation and the perpetuation of our species in the most stable form possible.”

I agree with T. Paine that we should not allow women over the age of 50 to marry. Like T. Paine, I think it’s perverted, almost nasty.

“To broaden the term 'marriage' to include any other iterations of involved people in the CEREMONY is to invalidate the meaning of the word.”

Right. We are mostly talking about ceremony, or rather, the protection of a word that describes a ceremony. With more words becoming endangered every day, it is time for someone to stand up and say enough! Protect words, for God’s sake. If oppression of homosexuals is the cost of our preservation efforts, then so be it. It is a small price for me to pay.

It is true that the poor embattled term “marriage” has both a secular (legal) and a scared (my God’s) meaning. We should not commit a fallacy of complex question by marrying the discussion of one with the other. The right to marry that some seek is the right to participate in a legal marriage, first and foremost. I do accept that if homosexuals want a right to participate in a marriage granted by my God, they must petition my God, not the U.S. government, for that. However, like T. Paine, I think that the right I define as My God’s, should supersede, and wholly consume, the legal question. My God’s law is paramount.

If I were a homo, my first concern, and my only concern until it is addressed, would be for legal secular marriage. Obviously, if my God prohibits homosexuality, He would prohibit marriage between homosexuals. However, I would like to note that my God would prohibit marriage between homosexuals, not just to save the endangered word, as T. Paine’s article suggests, but because my God thinks it is immoral to engage in homosexuality, and marrying a homosexual comes perilously close to violating my God’s rule.

T. Paine and I think “It should be left up to houses of faith to marry folks.” However, we both realize that this refers to my God’s marriage, not a government contract. The legal secular question is irrelevant, and a poor excuse for violating my God’s law.

I and T. Paine say:

“My [our] Catholic faith is one that can ONLY be fulfilled by the union of one woman and one man together under God. It is a matter of natural law and God's law.”

Let me paraphrase for clarity:

“Homosexuals, like natural law, are bound to my Catholic faith, just as God Himself is, and I don’t want homosexuals to marry.”

Do you hear that homosexuals? Do you hear that God? Good. I don’t want to have to tell you/You again!

John Myste also writes for his own site, where Natural Law has been successfully amended to allow Gay Marriage.

Please visit John Myste Responds

In response to Burr Deming's Gay Marriage Opponent from Missouri

Eventually, the argument against tolerance of gays was lost. The struggle turned to gay marriage. The astonished indignation at the very idea still spawns a stream of incoherence. It's hard for opponents to get past the how-dare-you stage into any sort of cogent presentation.

- Burr Deming, January 26, 2012

It is my humble opinion that the government really should not be involved in issuing or denying marriage licenses to ANYONE. It should be left up to houses of faith to marry folks, even when some various Christian faiths have found a way to justify the marrying of homosexual couples somewhere in the scriptures or their traditions. For those good folk that don’t proclaim a faith, I suppose a civil union can be enacted just like any other legal contract would be.

My personal take on the issue is that in this day and age many folks may argue the point with pseudo-legalities and pop-culture attitudes towards the subject, but that doesn't in any way change the FACT that marriage is supposed to be a sacrament, and as such in my Catholic faith it is one that can ONLY be fulfilled by the union of one woman and one man together under God. It is a matter of natural law and God's law.

To misappropriate the term “marriage” for such non-sacramental unions only further cheapens the meaning of the word and further deteriorates our language.

People can decry my backwardness or unenlightened thinking on the topic if they wish, but the fact of the matter is that marriage was intended for procreation and the perpetuation of our species in the most stable form possible. To broaden the term “marriage” to include any other iterations of involved people in the ceremony is to invalidate the meaning of the word and the sacrament that the word describes.

T. Paine occasionally contributes to FairAndUNbalanced.com in valiant but hopeless attempts to catch up with and correct Burr Deming's various liberal errors.

Although retired from his own conservative site, he remains well known as an opinion leader in his own right.

Introduction, Traditional Service, January 22, 2012
St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Florissant, MO

 Every member of the human family 
 has known pain. 
 We have all walked 
 through the valley of shadows. 
 We have lived times of unspoken despair. 
 
 But we are lifted. 
 Every day we experience God’s love. 
 And we have learned of the irreducible value 
 that is hidden deep in us, 
 and in every human soul. 
 
 In a world of darkness, 
 we carry a beacon of Truth. 
 To every child of God, 
 we bring the message of Jesus. 
 
 You are worth dying for. 
 God is worth living for. 
 
 We know pain. 
 We also know love. 
 We are each a descendant of Abraham. 
 We cannot help but become a light to the world. 

Found on Line:
"Hymn of Promise" by Natalie Sleeth
Sung by TCCAT Choir
Taiwanese Christian Church Association in Toronto

Introduction, Traditional Service, January 15, 2012
St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Florissant, MO

 We look outward. We search the scriptures. 
 We yearn for knowledge 
 that we may grow in God’s love. 
 And the knowledge that comes to us is humility, 
 that God is beyond what we can know. 
 
 We look inward. We search the human soul. 
 We yearn for wisdom 
 that we may grow in God’s love. 
 And the wisdom that comes to us is humility, 
 that God is beyond what we can imagine. 
 
 We look upward. We pray with heart and soul. 
 We yearn for the strength to grow in God’s love. 
 And the strength that comes to us in our humility, 
 comes from love beyond what we can hold. 
 
 Our strength is renewed. 
 And we continue the journey home. 

Newer Version by John and Andrew Eastmond,
also based on Isaiah 40:31

An exuberant reader forwards this to Burr with enthusiasm:

This should cheer you up

Celtic music was the foundation that American country music was built upon. The Scots and the Irish brought their simple instruments with them to the hills of Appalachia and entertained themselves with the music they remembered from their homelands. I hope this entertains you.

...

GUARANTEED to make your toes tap.

If it doesn't, I'm thinking you are DOA.

The Aussies and Brits are fun folks and a blast, but I think the Irish might just have a slight edge on them. I know my mom is watchin' and toe-tappin'.

Watch this and see what you think!

It was a tragic killing, the culmination of a tragic life. His friends called him Bob. He and his family lived in Texas.

He could never quite get it together financially. He found employment with a mortgage company, so it seemed things might be looking up. But Bob lost his job when real estate collapsed.

His wife was barely holding things down financially. Bob had never approved of her working. But her cosmetology license finally came in handy. She held two jobs. Last year, she and Bob separated.

He showed up at a Christmas morning family gathering dressed as Santa Claus and stayed a while. Then he pulled out two guns and shot everybody there. He killed his wife and their two teenaged children. Three relatives were visiting. They were his wife's sister, brother-in-law and niece. He killed them all.

It looks as if he planned to incriminate the murdered brother-in-law. One of the guns was placed in the dead man's hand. Perhaps Bob realized he couldn't pull it off.

The sequence is a little disjointed. Reports are still a little sketchy. Sometime during the shootings, police have a 911 call recorded. It's hard to make out much through the labored breathing, but investigators have used to special equipment to separate the noise. A voice is heard. "I am shooting people." In the background other voices seem to be calling for help.

Bob's last act was to kill himself.

The community is just northwest of Dallas. The mayor issued a statement.

This is obviously a terrible tragedy. The fact that it happened on Christmas makes it even more tragic. This appears to be a family situation and anyone who has a family will be incredibly saddened by that happened.

There are two additional facts that have some Christian activists talking.

• Bob was a Muslim. Bob was a nickname. His real name was Aziz Yazdanpanah.
• His 19 year old daughter, home from college, was dating non-Muslims.

Well, that would mean some sort of ritual honor killing, right?

It may strike some as grasping at anti-Islamic straws, excepting those who envision an honor killing ritual that involves Santa Claus, attempted framing of a relative, and suicide. Such details do not deter the fevered accusations of extremists, who see connections not obvious to the rest of us.

This comes from anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller, but it is representative of some on the Christian right.

The mainstream media has reported this as the "Santa killer." No mention that it was an Islamic honor killing until this Dallas Morning News story. Our daughters and granddaughters are going to be the ones who will suffer because of this obfuscation and excusal of barbarism.

Charles Johnson leads a bit of resistance to the attacks. "Same bigotry," he writes, "different day." He's right. So now he's becoming the center of attack.

It is a common human failing, I suppose, to ascribe every tragedy to characteristics of which we disapprove. Christian conservatives merely take that failing up a quantum level. Still, it is cringe worthy when, on occasion, hate talk is presented as representative of the Christian faith.

We mourn, of course, the tragic deaths of so many in a Texas family.

And, within the Christian family, we mourn those lost souls who substitute an ideology of hatred for the authentic message of the Prince of Peace.

Text from designboom

san francisco-based obscura digital developed the sheikh zayed grand mosque projections project, conducted for the 2011 united arab emirates national day. forty-four projectors with a combined brightness of 840,000 lumens covered the 600 x 351 ft high surface area of the architectural landmark of abu dhabi. the three dimensional mapping created an series of bright, stylized architectural projections that illuminate the façade, four minarets and twelve domes of the mosque.

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