Traveling Thoughts

These are the ruins of a place known as the Temple of Baal Berith. It was a major religious and political center because it controlled the trade routes into and out of Jerusalem. Not much is known about this place, even though it was a major power for centuries. It’s mentioned in chapters 8 and 9 of the book of Judges, where we learn a little something about the site. We also learn that it came to a fiery end.

Obviously, the temple of Baal Berith was dedicated to worshipping the god Baal. Baal was the storm and rain god of the ancient Canaanites (and maybe some Floridians who have angered him). His consort, Ashera (or Ashtaroth), was the goddess of fertility. An agrarian society depended on both fertility and rain for survival. A large and complicated cultic system of worship developed around these two gods, and others. Unfortunately, it always seems like religious beliefs eventually develop into large and complicated organizations. But to be fair, when vast numbers of people are involved in some activity, organization is necessary to prevent chaos.

The religious worship of the Canaanites involved great feasts, drunken revelry, and a lot of immoral sexual activity. It sounds a lot like college spring break, actually. When the Israelites entered and began to conquer the land of Canaan, they quickly became tempted to worship Baal and Ashera. The book of Judges illustrates this in fairly graphic detail. It was a cycle that repeated itself. Israel would lapse into pagan worship. God would stop blessing the people, and foreign powers would subdue and abuse them. The people would cry for help. God would send someone to deliver them. The people would have peace and prosperity for a period of time. Until they would lapse into pagan worship again and the cycle repeats itself.

My first reaction to this situation is to shake my head and wonder why the Israelites kept falling back into sin. But it doesn’t take long to look at myself and recognize that I have done the same thing during my life. That does seem to be the point of Judges. We move from periods of peace and faith to periods of disobedience and sin. Yet, no matter how bad the Israelites behaved, God always delivered them. They just had to cry for help. That’s exactly what we have to do. Our sin generally ends up causing us to avoid God. We try to hide from him almost like Adam and Eve in the garden. But we need to stop hiding and call to him for help. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can move back into a period of peace and faith.

The Lindisfarne trilogy concludes here on a high note.

After the Viking raid on Lindisfarne monastery, the surviving monks soon resumed their religious business as usual. There are numerous archaeological relics dated to the time period. The most well-known is the Lindisfarne stone. The partly destroyed stone is actually a tombstone which portrays the Viking raiders. The monks of Lindisfarne continued their ministry for 80 more years before ongoing Viking raids finally forced them to abandon the location. The Viking/Dane invasion is quite complicated (all of history is more complicated than we think), but eventually the Northumbrian kingdom collapsed under the relentless attacks. The monks relocated to the southwest, bringing Cuthbert’s body with them.

Fast forward 200 years to William the Conqueror. William regained political and military control of Northumbria and quickly appointed William of St. Calais as bishop of the area. Yes, two guys named William can be confusing, but it’s England. The new Bishop appropriated lands in the Durham area, including the island of Lindisfarne. Eventually, Lindisfarne castle and priory were rebuilt and business as usual resumed. Except for one tiny thing. A larger priory had been established at the city of Durham, and the powers that be decided St. Cuthbert’s body would remain there instead of being returned to Lindisfarne. Why would they do this? To draw pilgrims to Durham instead of Lindisfarne! The Bishop of Durham was worried Lindisfarne would again become the most important religious location in England. I think Heinlein had it right when he said, “Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.” 

Lindisfarne priory continued for another four centuries. Then came Henry the 8th, who broke away from the authority of the church in Rome. Those darn kings and emperors, always interfering in the realm of religion! In any case, Lindisfarne monastery was shut down. Shut down, but not completely shut down. People kept coming on pilgrimage to the site. Even as the buildings fell into ruin over the centuries, people kept visiting. Today, at Easter time, there’s an event called the Northern Cross pilgrimage where people make a week long journey to Lindisfarne. There’s now a cenotaph (empty tomb) where St. Cuthbert was originally buried. There’s a museum. And I suspect there’s a souvenir shop!

One last thing to note. The back side of the Lindisfarne Stone is a counterpoint to the Viking raiders portrayed on the front.

The other side of the stone shows people worshipping at the cross of Christ. Some scholars say this is a scene of the last days, the apocalypse referred to in Revelation. I can see that from the sun and the moon portrayed, and from the idea that every knee shall bow. I prefer to think of it as a counterpoint to the front side. Despite the evils of the world (Viking raiders), Jesus remains in power over the world. It may be as hard for us to believe that today as it was for the Northumbrian Christians to believe it when the Vikings devastated Lindisfarne and occupied their country. But we must believe it.

I mentioned in my last post that Lindisfarne was a key location for the spread of Christianity in Northeastern Britain. Lindisfarne also has the distinction of being the location where the Vikings first invaded western Europe. The ‘pagan’ Vikings raided the Lindisfarne monastery in 793, killing many of the monks and destroying large portions of the abbey. This was a psychologically devastating attack as one of the holiest shrines had been sacked and St. Cuthbert had not intervened to prevent it.

I should mention two things. First, St. Cuthbert had died some 100 years previously. It seems peculiar that anyone would have expected a dead man to stop the Vikings. However, when Cuthbert died, his body seemed not to decay. He was placed in a coffin shrine and venerated as a saint. Soon, miracles began to be attributed to being in the presence of Cuthbert’s body. Lindisfarne became a major pilgrimage site. Kings and nobles supported the monastery financially, making it a place of Christian learning and scholarship. The famous Lindisfarne Gospels were one of the products of that community.

Thus, it came as a great shock that St. Cuthbert had not protected this site from Viking raiders.

There’s one other thing I need to mention, to be fair to the Vikings. (Do the Vikings need to be treated fairly?) The attack on the Lindisfarne community wasn’t just ‘random Viking violence.’ King Charlemagne had destroyed numerous ‘pagan’ Viking shrines during his many campaigns of war throughout Europe. The Vikings were sending a message back to Charlemagne. Unfortunately for the Vikings, they went down in history as heartless marauders. Charlemagne went down in history as the man who united western and central Europe and became Emperor. Charlemagne may have killed far more people than the Vikings ever did, but history isn’t always fair.

Christianity in England survived the ‘failure’ of St. Cuthbert. People had to adjust to the reality that God doesn’t always do what they expect him to do. This problem is ongoing even today. People get disappointed, and even outraged, that God doesn’t behave the way they expect him to. The main reason people leave Christianity is because they become disappointed, even angry, with God for ‘not doing a better job at being God.’ That’s a complicated subject that I can’t really address in this short post. However, I would like to suggest to the Christian world at large that we need to do a better job teaching believers about the nature of God and the realities of the fallen world we live in. It’s good to believe in, and pray for, miracles. But when we don’t get the miracle, it shouldn’t destroy our faith in God.

Lindisfarne Castle is located on a tiny island off the northeast coast of England. By tiny, I mean 3.5 miles long and 1 mile wide. That’s about 1000 acres. The same size as actor/director/celebrity Tyler Perry’s mansion estate in Georgia. However, with respect to Tyler Perry, Lindisfarne has a critically important place in the history of the world. Okay. Let me be fair. Lindisfarne Castle has been around 1400 years. Tyler Perry has been around maybe 40 years. He has some catching up to do!

In the year 635, the Northumbrian king, Oswald (reigned 634–42), summoned an Irish monk named Aidan to be bishop of his kingdom. Oswald granted Aidan and his companions the small tidal island of Lindisfarne on which to found a monastery. This location was essentially in the political heart of the kingdom, giving Christianity great missionary access to the vast northeast territory of England. Some 40 years later, a monk names Cuthbert arrived at the monastery. Cuthbert eventually became Prior of the area and instituted changes to religious practices. At the time, Christianity in England was split between two sets of practices (how very modern of them). First, there were the practices established by St. Patrick and the early Irish believers. Second, there were practices that the church at Rome had put into place.

Explaining the complexities of these various differences would require a textbook. However, I can give a simple example. The earlier practices and the Roman practices had established different dates for celebrating Easter. This meant there were also different dates for Lent. Imagine if you were still fasting during Lent but your neighbors were feasting after celebrating the Resurrection. Imagine a family where Mom was fasting and Dad was ready to eat! Dad is probably always ready to eat, but that’s beside the point. In any case, when Cuthbert became Prior, he chose to standardize religious practices. In doing so, he chose the Roman practices over the earlier version. This did not go over well with many.

Although Cuthbert was able to effectively get the kingdom to make the switch, he was on the receiving end of much negativity from those who opposed the change. Eventually, he simply retired to an even tinier island to be a hermit. Apparently, you don’t need social media to harass a person to despair. In any case, Cuthbert didn’t escape for long. The king simply promoted him to Bishop and forced him back into the world. Cuthbert proceeded to travel the country performing good deeds and healing illnesses.

I think this happens a lot in modern day ministry. People are called to accomplish something for God’s kingdom. They work hard at it, succeeding in spite of the difficulties and resistance. But often those people are overcome by the battle. They step back from God’s work because they’re exhausted or they’re overcome by resistance. But God doesn’t let anyone sit on the sidelines for long. It reminds me of the story of Elijah. After proving God’s supremacy over Baal, Elijah is hounded by Jezebel so badly he finally runs off into a self-imposed exile. But God doesn’t leave him there for long. God lets him rest then gives him strength and encouragement to continue his ministry, which included training his successor.

The photo here portrays the entrance to the Bom Jesus Da Lapa Caverns. These man-made caverns are located in Bahia, Brazil, and have become a pilgrimage site. They began as a small indentation in the rocks of a hill and might have remained that way except for Francisco de Mendonça Mar.

In the mid 1650s, Francisco was born into a goldsmith’s family (they would have been billionaires ten times over today) and eventually set up his own shop in Salvador. Francisco quickly achieved local fame for his amazing work with gold and precious jewels. The Governor of Brazil heard of him and invited him to decorate the walls of the newly built Governor’s Palace in the area. Promised a hefty payment for the job, Francisco accepted. (I think I would have too.) He quickly went to work, using much of his own money to finance the project. (That I would not have done.) When the project was completed, Francisco officially presented it to the Governor. Instead of the promised payment, the Governor had Francisco flogged and thrown into prison. Apparently, the untrustworthiness of the government is not a modern invention.

Francisco languished in prison for awhile. Eventually, he managed to get a letter sent to the king of Portugal outlining his misfortunes. In time, he was granted his freedom. I remind everyone that getting a letter from Salvador, Brazil to Portugal required a lengthy ocean voyage from an available ship and then another lengthy voyage back with orders from the king. Francisco waited a long time to gain his freedom.

One might think Francisco would have then used his fortune for revenge on the Governor. He did not. (I might have). First, he stripped himself of all his belongings and riches. Second, he set off into the Brazilian wilderness on a long solitary journey carrying an image of Senhor Bom Jesus (Lord Good Jesus) and another of Nossa Senhora da Soledade (Our Lady of Solitude). Finally, after much wandering, Francisco came upon the Lapa hill and discovered rock outcroppings where he chose to settle and become a hermit. Over time, he carved out a large grotto and then small chambers. He placed the two images he brought with him in the grotto, where he began to worship. Yes, Francisco was Catholic. But he was a true believer.

In time, word spread of the crazy hermit living in a cave. People began to come out to Lapa Hill to see for themselves. Some were so impressed by Francisco’s faith and devotion, they chose to stay with him. Francisco ministered to the local tribes. He was charitable to local villages. He took in the sick and homeless, many of whom stayed with him in the grotto. His fame spread across the country and eventually the Catholic Church trained him and made him a priest. His solitary life ended up with an impact on Brazil that no one could have expected from an ex-prisoner. I guess it’s a riches to rags to riches story.

Francisco’s impact is still felt today, some 450 years later. Tens of thousands of people pilgrimage to the grotto in search of spiritual wisdom. The caves have become a church where the faithful worship. A small rocky indentation has become a church. A betrayed goldsmith changed his life and sought to live out the message of the gospel. These things should encourage us to always look at our lives as an opportunity to change things and to serve God wherever and however he calls us.

This is a rather famous photo that you might not recognize. It was taken in 1937 by Frank Smythe, a world-famous mountaineer. It is purported to show the footprints of a Yeti. Normally, I would discount something like this, but Frank Smythe was a well-respected climber. He made three attempts to ascend to the summit of Mt. Everest. He took hundreds of photographs of flora and fauna in the Himalayas. He has written dozens of books. When a man as accomplished as Frank Smythe makes a claim, I take it seriously.

Those who have read my past blog entries know that I don’t believe in legendary creatures of any type. When I examine this photo, all I can really conclude is that, yes, those are footprints in the snow. There’s no way to determine what actually made those footprints. If you research Frank Smythe, you’ll find that he did think these were Yeti prints. When the photo was published in a magazine, experts determined these were bear prints. Frank Smythe accepted their judgment. But a lot of other people did not.

The abominable snowman became popular in modern culture. Sightings began to increase. Some individuals started going to the Himalayas to find the Yeti instead of to climb Everest. Eric Shipton and Dr. Michael Ward were surveying the Himalaya area to find possible routes up to the summit of Mt. Everest. They came across some intriguing prints.

These prints still remain unidentified. Many claim the prints are a hoax. There’s really no way to prove it one way or the other. Sadly, there have been many people who have tried to fake Yeti and Sasquatch footprints. All I can say for a fact is that people are seeing a creature that they know isn’t a bear. Or seeing unusual footprints that sometimes can’t be identified. The creatures could be out there. I try to keep an open mind although I’m extremely skeptical.

There is one yeti that I love, though.

In the country of Lithuania, you can find the Hill of Crosses. It’s currently a well-traveled pilgrimage site containing at least 100,000 crosses as of 2006. Probably a lot more now, but people keep adding crosses so quickly it’s difficult for the country to keep track. Lithuanian cross crafting is so popular that UNESCO has placed it in its lists of good safeguarding practices and intangible cultural heritage. I didn’t even know UNESCO had such lists.

The hill had its first crosses place after an unsuccessful attempt to break free from Russian rule back in 1831 (yes, almost 200 years ago). As the story goes, many families could not locate the bodies of fallen rebels. In order to remember them, they put up crosses on the hill. Over the years, more crosses continued to appear. Then things changed in 1944. The Soviet Union began occupying Lithuania at that time.

The Soviet Union was fanatically atheistic. They began oppressing the clergy and banning all religious publications. The hill became symbolic of faith to the Lithuanian people and the number of crosses skyrocketed. The Soviet Union eventually caught on to the significance of the hill and destroyed it. But people kept coming and placing new crosses. Three times, the hill was bulldozed and destroyed. People caught bringing crosses were arrested and punished. Yet the people kept coming with crosses. Every night they came. For decades they came. Then things changed again. The Soviet Union was dissolved in 1990. The Hill of Crosses still stands, larger than ever before.

I have to ask myself if I would have had the courage to stand up against religious persecution and carry a cross to that hill. The Gospel of Matthew quotes Jesus as saying, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” The passage goes on, emphasizing that in trying to save our lives we can inadvertently risk our souls. The cross of Christ is symbolic of the sacrifice Jesus made on his cross. We all have our own crosses to bear. Can we do so even unto death?

My journeys have taken me to some strange places. The Sasquatch Outpost is one of my favorite strange places. Mostly because I went there with a friend. I told him there was someplace in Bailey, Colorado I wanted to see and would he come. He responded, “What the %$#$ is in Bailey, that place is in the middle of nowhere.” I laughed and said, “Just someplace I want to visit.” To which he replied, “This better not be some bull$#$@.” But he agreed to drive us in his truck.

It was a nice drive that meandered slowly upwards until it plateaued around 8,000 feet. We came to a sign that announced we were entering Bailey, after which we promptly exited Bailey. “You missed the turnoff,” I complained and my friend grumbled, “There’s nothing $%#@ing here, dude.” Yes, my buddy likes to swear. Anyway, he U-turned in someone’s parking lot and we headed back. Slowly. Until I pointed a driveway and pointed at it. He pulled up, looked at Sasquatch and the sign, looked back at me, and swore some more. But then he laughed.

The outpost is small but contains two parts. The front half is a store dedicated to selling all things Sasquatch. Pretty much anything comes with Sasquatch prominently featured. Hats. Shirts. Mugs. Keychains. Underwear. If they don’t have it they can find it or make it! The back half is a Sasquatch immersion experience. If you dare. Hundreds of documented sightings are displayed. Footprint casts are shown. Even Sasquatch poop is preserved for you to study. And no back room Sasquatch experience is complete without replicas of the creature.

It’s a fun place to visit even if you’re only moderately interested in the Bigfoot phenomenon. But what about the Yeti and the Skunk Ape? Next time.

Let me say right here at the beginning that I don’t believe in Extraterrestrial beings. Nor do I believe in Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Mothman, or any of those types of legends. However, I have watched all those movies and every variation of them. And I will watch all the new ones as well. Even more, I love to stop at off the wall places dedicated to all those creatures. So when I ended up in Roswell for a day, I was thrilled to visit the UFO museum.

This place walks you through the complete history of the Roswell incident. Reproductions of news articles, government documents, and photos are prominently displayed. There are full scale models of flying saucers and the infamous grey aliens. I had lots of pictures of these, which I would share if I hadn’t lost them in the Gulf of Mexico when my phone went overboard. But I’ll provide an example here.

Strangely enough, the city of Roswell appears normal in almost every respect. Just a small part of old downtown reflects the UFO phenomenon. In that area, there are street lamps in the shape of aliens. Alien themed shops are around, but they can be as hard to find as the actual grey aliens themselves. But I did find them and I did buy alien souvenirs. I posed for many alien themed pictures as well. Sadly, they are also at the bottom of the Gulf.

In conversations about extra terrestrials, I’ve found a lot of my Christian friends have strong feelings about their existence. Some feel that the existence of aliens is impossible because God created humans; the Bible says nothing about aliens being created. Other friends are ambivalent about the possibility of aliens; if they exist, God created them and they’re part of His purpose. Another small group believes that aliens are demonic beings and UFO sightings are the work of the devil. As I said at the top, I don’t believe in aliens. But I also don’t know the truth about aliens and UFOs. I could be wrong.

Now excuse me while I go watch Sigourney Weaver kill a bunch of aliens!