Can you Pass The Welsh Rarebit test?

In the 1960's Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters passed out fliers at "Happenings" asking: Can you pass the Acid Test? In fact the first electric kool aid acid test was held at the Canoga Park, CA, Unitarian church. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test: by Tom Wolfe was penned during this period.



Can you Pass The Welsh Rarebit test?

What is Welsh Rarebit you might ask?

Welsh rarebit is a traditional Welsh snack, comparable to toasted cheese.
Traditional rarebit is made by grating cheese, a little milk and butter, adding seasoning (particularly mustard), and spreading the mixture onto hot toast; the whole is then heated briskly from above A modernized representative recipe:

1 oz. butter; 1/4 cup all-purpose flour; 1/2 tsp. dry mustard; room temperature; 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce; dash of hot-pepper sauce; 3 cups aged Cheddar cheese, shredded.



In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat; stir in flour & mustard. Slowly stir in the ale and bring to a soft boil; cook, stirring, for 3 minutes, or until thickened and smooth. Stir in Worcestershire and hot-pepper sauces. Gradually add the cheese, stirring briskly until the cheese has melted. Immediately remove saucepan from the heat. (Boiling can cause cheese to curdle). Serve over toasted bread slices.

The Oxford English Dictionary states that it can also be "simply, slices of toasted cheese laid on toast"; though Welsh Rarebit is much, much more!

Welsh Rarebit is a dream-inducing dish sometimes even causing Vivid, lucid nightmares that are famously attributed to overindulgence in Welsh rarebit. This phenomenon was immortalized in Dreams Of A Rarebit Fiend, a series of comic strips written and drawn by Winsor McCay beginning in 1904. McCay began his most Freudian strip. Each strip portrayed a nightmare experienced by a person, a "rarebit fiend" who had made the poor choice of consuming too much rarebit before bedtime. Satiric and sardonic, with Freudian overtones The Dreams strips are not generally meant for children. Rather, they often are surrealistic looks at what could happen if a person gets caught up in a bizarre situation--only to awaken from a nightmare brought on by overindulgence in Dream of a Rarebit Fiend.






There is also a 1906 Edison film based on McCay's comic strip named "Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend" a special effects-filled journey through rarebit-induced nightmares.



This film went on to inspire a Welsh rarebit-fueled nightmare sequence in the Douglas Fairbanks film of 1919 film "When the Clouds Roll By".



There was also an episode of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. in which the Welsh Rarebit that Gomer consumes causes him to sleepwalk and verbally attack Sergeant Carter, causing uproarious results.





font>
~Monsignor Mike Murphy

The Jesuits and Me!

A very kind note from my favorite priest! See Pics!

Hello Mike
Recently I was home in India to celebrate 25 years of my priestly ordination. 1/4 of those 25 years in spent with you all in Hollywood, a wonderful 1/4 and so I hope you have a piece of this cake and share in my joys.

All my brothers and sisters came and with them, the cousins, nephews and nieces and neighbors that I grew up with we were 250 wonderful people
And we did celebrate!
Thank you for being a part of my life
I cherish it immensely,
e c sebastian SJ (Jesuit) Current assignment, Treasurer of Nepal.

My Backyard!

with my daughter Angelina, who was Baptized alone during our RCIA retreat at Loyola Marymount.

 RCIA PARTY! 2006

Our RCIA class with Cynthia; the anointment of the sick, She beat the Cancer.

God Bless him, he is very missed. But is doing a wonderful job in Katmandu, Nepal. The only Catholic, in a mandatory Hindu country. But sometimes you just have to call in The Jesuits. The Jesuits are a CatholicSaint Ignatius of Loyola, was a knight before becoming a priest. They started the University system, Ignatius of Loyola, They educated the highest courts in Europe, developed the Scientific Method. 16 craters on the moon are named after Jesuits, religious (soldiers of Christ) because the founder, Jesuit priests and brothers are engaged in ministries in 112 nations on six continents.They are best known in the fields of education (schools, colleges, universities, seminaries, theological faculties), intellectualmissionary work and direct evangelization, social justice and human rights activities, interreligious dialogue, and other 'frontier' ministry. research, and cultural pursuits. 

Ignatius was chosen as the first superior-general. He sent his companions as missionaries around Europe to create schools, colleges, and seminaries. It takes 16 years of college to become a Jesuit 8 years of Philosophy and then "after" 8 years of Theology. It was the Jesuits who kicked the renaissance into high gear. First, they founded schools throughout Europe. Jesuit teachers were rigorously trained in both classical studies and theology. For it was them along with the Irish monks who saved all but 2 Greek manuscripts from the dark ages, if not for them all of Greek and roman history, philosophy and art would have been lost so the world. Ignatius and the early Jesuits did recognize, though, that the hierarchical Church was in dire need of reform, and some of their greatest struggles were against corruption, venality, and spiritual lassitude within the Roman Catholic Church.

Ignatius's insistence on an extremely high level of academic preparation for ministry, for instance, was a deliberate response to the relatively poor education of much of the clergy of his time, and the Jesuit vow against "ambitioning prelacies" was a deliberate effort to prevent greed for money or power invading Jesuit circles.

As a result, in spite of their loyalty, Ignatius and his successors often tangled with the pope and the Roman Curia. Over the 450 years since its founding, the Society has both been called the papal "elite troops" and been forced into suppression.

St. Ignatius and the Jesuits who followed him believed that the reform of the Church had to begin with the conversion of an individual's heart. One of the main tools the Jesuits have used to bring about this conversion has been the Ignatian retreat, called the Spiritual Exercises. (From which all 12-step programs owe their steps)

In Bill Wilson's own words:

"Then Father Ed and his Jesuit partners commenced to ask me questions. They wanted to know about the recently published A.A. book and especially about AA's Twelve Steps. My new Jesuit friends pointed to a chart that hung on the wall. They explained that this was a comparison between the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, that, in principle, this correspondence was amazingly exact. I believe they also made the somewhat startling statement that spiritual principles set forth in our Twelve Steps appear in the same order that they do in the Ignatius Exercises. There seems no doubt that this singular and exact identification with the Ignatius Exercises has done much to make the close and fruitful relation that we now enjoy with the Catholic Church." (The 'Blue Book', Vol.12, 1960)

By the time of Ignatius' death in 1556, the Jesuits were already operating a network of 74 colleges on three continents. A precursor to liberal education, the Jesuit plan of studies incorporated the Classical teachings of Renaissance humanism into the Scholastic structure of Catholic thought.

In addition to teaching faith, the Ratio StudiorumLatin, Greek, classical literature, poetry, and philosophy as well as non-European languages, sciences and the arts. Furthermore, Jesuit schools encouraged the study of vernacular literature and rhetoric, and thereby became important centers for the training of lawyers and public officials. emphasized the study of

Under the notion that God can be encountered through created things and especially art, they encouraged the use of ceremony and decoration in Catholic ritual and devotion. Perhaps as a result of this appreciation for art, coupled with their spiritual practice of "finding God in all things", many early Jesuits distinguished themselves in the visual and performing arts as well as in music.

The Society today is characterized by its ministries in the fields of missionary work, human rights, social justice and, most notably, higher education. It operates colleges and universities in various countries around the world and is particularly active in the Philippines and India. In the United States alone, it maintains over 50 colleges, universities and high schools. A typical conception of the mission of a Jesuit school will often contain such concepts as proposing Christ as the model of human life, the pursuit of excellence in teaching and learning and life-long spiritual and intellectual growth. In Latin America, Liberal Jesuits have had significant influence in the development of liberation theology, a movement which has been highly controversial.

Under Superior General Pedro Arrupe, social justice and the preferential option for the poor emerged as dominant themes of the work of the Jesuits. On November 16, 1989, six Jesuit priests (Ignacio Ellacuria, Segundo Montes, Ignacio Martin-Baro, Joaquin López y López, Juan Ramon Moreno, and Amado López); their housekeeper, Elba Ramos; and her daughter, Celia Marisela Ramos, were murdered by the Salvadoran military on the campus of the University of Central America in San Salvador, El Salvador, because they had been labeled as subversives by the government. The assassinations galvanized the Society's peace and justice movements, including annual protests at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security CooperationFort Benning, Georgia, United States, where the assassins were trained under US government sponsorship."

Noam Chomsky wrote in

The Crucifixion of EL SALVADOR:

In February 1980, the Archbishop of EI Salvador, Oscar Romero, sent a letter to President Carter in which he begged him not to send military aid to the junta that ran the country. He said such aid would be used to "sharpen injustice and repression against the people's organizations" which were struggling "for respect for their most basic human rights" (hardly news to Washington, needless to say).

A few weeks later, Archbishop Romero was assassinated while saying a mass. The neo-Nazi
Roberto d'Aubuisson is generally assumed to be responsible for this assassination (among countless other atrocities). D'Aubuisson was "leader for-life" of the ARENA party, which now governs El Salvador; members of the party, like current Salvadoran president Alfredo Cristiani, had to take a blood oath of loyalty to him.

Thousands of peasants and urban poor took part in a commemorative mass a decade later, along with many foreign bishops, but the US was notable by its absence. The Salvadoran Church formally proposed Romero for sainthood.

All of this passed with scarcely a mention in the country that funded and trained Romero's assassins. The New York Times, the "newspaper of record," published no editorial on the assassination when it occurred or in the years that followed, and no editorial or news report on the commemoration.

On March 7, 1980, two weeks before the assassination, a state of siege had been instituted in El Salvador, and the war against the population began in force (with continued US support and involvement). The first major attack was a big massacre at the Rio Sumpul, a coordinated military operation of the Honduran and Salvadoran armies in which at least 600 people were butchered. Infants were cut to pieces with machetes, and women were tortured and drowned. Pieces of bodies were found in the river for days afterwards. There were church observers, so the information came out immediately, but the mainstream US media didn't think it was worth reporting.

Peasants were the main victims of this war, along with labor organizers, students, priests or anyone suspected of working for the interests of the people. In Carter's last year, 1980, the death toll reached about 10,000, rising to about 13,000 for 1981 as the Reaganites took command.

In October 1980, the new archbishop condemned the "war of extermination and genocide against a defenseless civilian population" waged by the security forces. Two months later they were hailed for their "valiant service alongside the people against subversion" by the favorite US "moderate," Jose Napoleon Duarte, as he was appointed civilian president of the junta.

The role of the "moderate" Duarte was to provide a fig leaf for the military rulers and ensure them a continuing flow of US funding after the armed forces had raped and murdered four churchwomen from the US. That had aroused some protest here; slaughtering Salvadorans is one thing, but raping and killing American nuns is a definite PR mistake. The media evaded and downplayed the story, following the lead of the Carter Administration and its investigative commission.

The incoming Reaganites went much further, seeking to justify the atrocity, notably Secretary of State Alexander Haig and UN Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick. But it was still deemed worthwhile to have a show trial a few years later, while exculpating the murderous junta-and, of course, the paymaster.

The independent newspapers in El Salvador, which might have reported these atrocities, had
been destroyed. Although they were mainstream and pro-business, they were still too undisciplined for the military's taste. The problem was taken care of in 1980-81, when the editor of one was murdered by the security forces; the other fled into exile. As usual, these events were considered too insignificant to merit more than a few words in US newspapers.

In November 1989, six Jesuit priests, their cook and her daughter, were murdered by the army. That same week, at least 28 other Salvadoran civilians were murdered, including the head of a major union, the leader of the organization of university women, nine members of an Indian farming cooperative and ten university students.

The news wires carried a story by AP correspondent Douglas Grant Mine, reporting how soldiers had entered a working-class neighborhood in the capital city of San Salvador, captured six men, added a 14-year-old boy for good measure, then lined them all up against a wall and shot them. They "were not priests or human rights campaigners," Mine wrote, "so their deaths have gone largely unnoticed"-as did his story.

The Jesuits were murdered by the Atlacatl Battalion, an elite unit created, trained and equipped by the United States. It was formed in March 1981, when fifteen specialists in counterinsurgency were sent to El Salvador from the US Army School of Special Forces. From the start, the Battalion was engaged in mass murder. A US trainer described its soldiers as "particularly ferocious....We've always had a hard time getting them to take prisoners instead of ears."

Ignatian spirituality

Like all Catholic spirituality, the spirituality practiced by the Jesuits, called Ignatian spirituality, is based on the Catholic faith and the gospels. Aside from the "Constitutions," "The Letters," and "Autobiography," Ignatian spirituality draws most specially from St. Ignatius' "Spiritual Exercises," whose purpose is "to conquer oneself and to regulate one's life in such a way that no decision is made under the influence of any inordinate attachment." In other words, the Exercises are intended, in Ignatius' view, to give the exercitant (the person undertaking them) a greater degree of freedom from his or her own likes, dislikes, comforts, wants, needs, drives, appetites and passions that they may choose based solely on what they discern God's will is for them.

In the words of Kolvenbach, the Exercises try to "unite two apparently incompatible realities: exercises and spiritual." It invites to "unlimited generosity" in contemplating God, yet going down to the level of many details.

Ignatian spirituality (see any connection to the 12 steps?)

Ignatian spirituality can be described as an active attentiveness to God joined with a prompt responsiveness to God, who is ever active in people's lives. Though it includes many forms of prayer, discernment, and apostolic service, it is the interior dispositions of attentiveness and responsiveness that are ultimately crucial. The result is that Ignatian spirituality has a remarkable 'nowness,' or Zen, both in its attentiveness to God and in its desire to respond to what God is asking of the person now.

The Ignatian ideal has the following characteristics:

Self-awareness

Ignatius recommends the twice daily examen. This is a guided method of prayerfully reviewing the events of a day to awaken an inner sensitivity to one's own actions, desires, and spiritual state through each moment reviewed. The goals are to see where God is challenging the person to change and growth, where God is calling the person to deeper reflection (this is particularly apt when discerning whether one has a jesuit vocation in life), and where sinful or imperfect attitudes or blind spots are. The general examen, often at the end of the day, is, as the name implies, a general review. The particular examen, often in the middle of the day, focuses on a particular fault identified by the person to be worked on over some days or weeks.

Spiritual direction (sponsorship?)

Meditation and contemplation, and for instance the aforementioned examen, are best guided, Ignatius says, by an experienced person. Jesuits, and those following Ignatian spirituality, meet with their spiritual director (traditionally a priest, though in recent years many laypersons have undertaken this role) on a regular basis (weekly or monthly) to discuss the fruits of their prayer life and be offered guidance. Ignatius sees the director as someone who can rein in impulsiveness or excesses, goad the complacent, and keep people honest with themselves. If the director is a priest, spiritual direction may or may not be connected with the Sacrament of Penance. Ignatius counseled frequent use of sacrament and while some directors see them as integrally linked, others hold them to be Effective love

The founder of the Society of Jesus put effective love (love shown in deeds) above affective love (love based on nice feelings). He usually ended his most important letters with "I implore God to grant us all the grace to know His holy will and to accomplish it perfectly." True and perfect love demands sacrifice, the abandonment of tastes and personal preferences, and the perfect renunciation of self. This can be taken together with the prayer for generosity, which asks for teaching to be generous, to serve God as God deserves without counting any cost or seeking any reward except knowing that one is doing God's will.

Detachment

Where Francis of Assisi's concept of poverty emphasized the spiritual benefits of simplicity and dependency, Ignatius emphasized detachment, or "indifference." For Ignatius, whether one was rich or poor, healthy or sick, in an assignment one enjoyed or one didn't, was comfortable in a culture or not, etc., should be a matter of spiritual indifference—a modern phrasing might put it as serene acceptance. Hence, a Jesuit (or one following Ignatian spirituality), placed in a comfortable, wealthy neighborhood should continue to live the Gospel life without anxiety or possessiveness, and if plucked instantly from that situation to be placed in a poor area and subjected to hardships should simply cheerfully accept that as well, without a sense of loss or being deprived.

Prayers, efforts at self-conquest, and reflection

Ignatius's little book, the Spiritual Exercises is a fruit of months of prayer, and it is through prayer that one gets to understand Ignatian Spirituality. Jesuits stress the need to take time to reflect and to pray because prayer is at the foundation of Jesus's life. Prayer, in Ignatian spirituality, does not dispense from "helping oneself," a phrase frequently used by Ignatius.

Upon his recovery from battle wounds, St. Ignatius of Loyola hung his military accoutrements before the image of the Virgin of Montserrat. Then he led a period of asceticism to found the Society of Jesus.

Finding God in All Things

The vision that Ignatius places at the beginning of the Exercises keeps sight of both the Creator and the creature, the One and the other swept along in the same movement of love. In it, God offers himself to humankind in an absolute way through the Son, and humankind responds in an absolute way by a total self-donation. There is no longer sacred or profane, natural or supernatural, mortification or prayer - because it is one and the same Spirit who brings it about that the Christian will "love God in all things - and all things in God." Hence, Jesuits have always been active in the graphic and dramatic arts, literature and the sciences.

Examen of Consciousness

The Examen of Consciousness is a simple prayer directed toward developing a spiritual sensitivity to the special ways God approaches, invites, and calls. Ignatius recommends that the examen be done at least twice, and suggests five points of prayer:

• Recalling that one is in the holy presence of God
• Thanking God for all the blessings one has received
• Examining how one has lived his day
• Asking God for forgiveness
• Resolution and offering a prayer of hopeful recommitment

It is important, however, that the person feels free to structure the Examen in a way that is most helpful to him. There is no right way to do it; nor is there a need to go through all of the five points each time. A person might, for instance, find himself spending the entire time on only one or two points. The basic rule is: Go wherever God draws you. And this touches upon an important point: the Examen of Consciousness is primarily a time of prayer; it is a "being with God." It focuses on one's consciousness of God, not necessarily one's conscience regarding sins and mistakes.

Discernment

Discernment is rooted in the understanding that God is ever at work in one's life, "inviting, directing, guiding and drawing" one "into the fullness of life." Its central action is reflection on the ordinary events of one's life. It presupposes an ability to reflect on the ordinary events of one's life, a habit of personal prayer, self-knowledge, knowledge of one's deepest desires and openness to God's direction and guidance. Discernment is a prayerful 'pondering' or 'mulling over' the choices a person wishes to consider. In his discernment, the person's focus should be on a quiet attentiveness to God and sensing rather than thinking. His goal is to understand the choices in his heart: to see them, as it were, as God might see them. In one sense, there is no limit to how long he might wish to continue in this. Discernment is a repetitive process, yet as the person continues, some choices should of their own accord fall by the wayside while others should gain clarity and focus. It is a process that should move inexorably toward a decision.

Service and humility

Ignatius emphasized the active expression of God's love in life and the need to be self-forgetful in humility. Part of Jesuit formation is the undertaking of service specifically to the poor and sick in the most humble ways: Ignatius wanted Jesuits in training to serve part of their time as novices and in tertianship (see Formation below) as the equivalent of orderlies in hospitals, for instance, emptying bed pans and washing patients, to learn humility and loving service. Jesuit educational institutions often adopt mottoes and mission statements that include the idea of making students "men for others," and the like. Jesuit missions have generally included medical clinics, schools and agricultural development projects as ways to serve the poor or needy while preaching the Gospel.

One of the happiest days of my life, becoming a Lay Jesuit, Becoming head Catechist and facilitator to Adults converting to the faith. Under Father Sebastian!

Lux and I

.




The Masque

I tried to deny it all day; I could not believe it was true. There have been many hoax’s in the past and I assumed this was another. But I just left Glendale Memorial And Lux Interior has passed on.


Don’t worry I wont get religious here, Lux wouldn’t have approved, he cautioned me about my choice of Catholicism the last time we spoke.
Lux and me, at the Palamino



That was almost 8 years ago. I never had the chance to make amends for my behavior at the time. Now I just feel sick. I 1st saw the Cramps in 1978 at the Whiskey a go go, when Bryan Gregory was in the band. That’s when I stopped listening to Led Zeppelin and even Dylan and became a Cramps “Fanboy” I am not ashamed to say. I had seen Johnny Thunders, The Dead Boys and others but it was that summer night that…changed my head. Maybe it was Nick Knox’s Big Beat, or Ivy’s cool leads, or Bryan’s flippin’ cigs and wailin’ on Fuzz guitar.
Bryan at one of Tav’s fish Fry’s in Memphis! 1980



But it was Lux’s wild hicupin’ rockabilly vocals that blew me away. I was 16.


2 years later in 1980 I was 18and stationed in the Navy in Memphis, where The Cramps had just recorded their first full LP, Songs “The Lord Taught us” with Alex Chilton whom I became instant friends with, Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, Ross Johnson, William Eggelston.

Ivy, Lux, Chilton and Nick… 1980 Memphis



Alex and I Memphis 1981


Tav Falco and I 1984, Peabody Hotel Memphis






Memphis embraced me, I was never so happy in my life with the exception of my last trip there, 2 months ago where Ross Johnson Married Mitra and I! Our lives seemed so intertwined, Lux had also been in the Navy, believe it or not and was also stationed in Memphis years earlier, we were both AQ’s. Aviation weapons specialists! We were both also stationed in Lemoore, Ca. We became friends, Cheryl, my 1st wife and I and Lux and Ivy.

We went to San Diego, Vegas, Frisco, NYC, and even to London and Paris with The Cramps and Alex Chilton. After Lux and Ivy 1st met us, they asked Alex Chilton who I had known much better, about us, Alex told them, "They just Love you too much" I supose he was right....



Ivy playing in our bedroom one X-mass, on a guitar Alex Chilton picked out for Cheryl, once belonging to Cordell Jackson.


Christmas with the Cramps at our place! They always sent out cards!



We went to San Diego, Vegas, Frisco, NYC, and even to London and Paris with The Cramps and Alex Chilton.

Alex Chilton and I in Paris 86, Opening for the Cramps!



NYC 1983 backstage.



Photo by Ivy, of Joey and me.



Were in Cramps Video’s. My daughter would sleep over their place after late nights at the Jabber-Jaw seeing fireworks or something. My Mom just called to see how I was doing she saw the Cramps six or seven times and loved Lux! He was very kind to my whole family and when I was in Cri-Help they would visit and bring sweet cards an amazing cassette tapes for me to listen to in my “current Entombment” as he put it. When I was stationed in the Philippines I would send them Tiki Stuff, our favorite bar was The Tiki Ti on sunset. And I would send pics about how popular they were there.


They were always so kind, we were in their Ultra Twist Video and always kept us up to date. Keep your eyes pealed! Im wearing black and white checks shot from above!


In the front row for Tear it UP!




Though I lost track in the last few years, I will never forget their influence on my life, nor the kindness they showed me.



I took my daughters to see them at Sunset Junction a few years back! Lux sang a song right to Angelina, and Mystery Plane to Corrina, who used to sleep on their day bed.



You can see Corrina and I in right by his face.

I will miss Lux perhaps more then anyone since my Grandfather. He tried to give me good advice when he saw me slipping after my divorce, they both did. I love them both and am just so sad, like a part of me is gone.

Stay Sick Turn Blue,
Mike Murphy
Legion of The Cramped member since 1980!

Forever your Friend and Fan!


Miss you already; rest sweet prince!

Ross Johnson’s, “MAKE IT STOP! The Most of Ross Johnson.”

“I’m the aural equivalent of a carnival geek. I make unlistenable 'rant' records where I bellow incoherently over an instrumental backing track. I’m usually severely intoxicated when I do this and the recorded results are uniformly cringe inducing to me”. ~ Ross Johnson


It had been a while… a very long time. When was my last assignment? Was it with Psychotronic Video magazine? The Timothy Carey Interview? Jeez, I been out of circulation that long? Too much R&R (Rest and Recuperation, not rock &Roll) and geeze-balls I guess, all the while, the man in the black pajamas, was out there, growing stronger. How do I write about Ross Johnson, Memphis’s rebel Icon, to a jaded hipster LA crowd, concerned with only the latest rehash of more and more obscure punk/new wave or now this no wave? I say No way! EMO? I say E, NO soldier! When did all that happen? And to think, on my watch, why didn’t anybody wake me? Or perhaps I lived on the wrong avenue. Don’t get me wrong I like the Yes, yes, yes’s, but for all the wrong reasons, from the Briefing that told me why I was supposed to not like them, and like DNA, flux information sciences and the LIARS, nope, sounds like counterfeit reconnaissance, now maybe Boston’s The Lyres / DMZ with Mono-man, now you’re talking about a worthy adversaries! But hear it was, and handed to me on a silver platter. I’m guessing they picked me because of my Memphis Education. I knew the inhabitants, the customs, and the cuisine. Apparently a member of the band Panther Burns, had gone off and made a record of his own. “Make It Stop! - The Most of Ross Johnson” on Memphis’s Goner label. Just 2 clicks east of the river, the river, ha yes, we shall meet again! I was a huge fan of Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, attending barge concerts and counter-fests on the River, in the basement garage of the Holiday Inn, Prince Mongo’s Planet, and various Cotton Lofts on Front Street, oh and of course The Antenna club. And now Ross, who had worked with everyone from Alex Chilton In the summer of 1978 Ross played with Alex Chilton in a band called the Yard Dogs, Then on Chilton’s swampabilly masterpiece, ‘Like Flies on Sherbet” to Jim Dickinson, Peter Buck, Jim Duckworth, The Gibson Brothers, Monsieur Jeffrey Evans and Jon Spencer (who based his entire career, and sound on Chilton’s, “Flies on Sherbet” as far as I’m concerned)

But then The LA Record showed me the quote at the top of the page. What had happened? Then they asked me, in a very covert manner if I would be willing to head out, locate Ross in Memphis and interview him. I hadn’t even been to Memphis in a good 10 years! Yet I found myself saying yes before I could think about it. The next day found me loading my 65’ Thunderbird with notes, Compilations and this new CD of His. What little money we had for the trip was blown away like a fart in a wind tunnel, in Las Vegas by my tagalong sweetheart. You never know when a gal is a gambleholic till the chips are down, Hell I should’ve known by her hooking up with me.
Thankfully she was a truck-stop lot-lizard so while I hustled pool we recouped some of our nest egg. We did that all across America, while at dusk going over Ross’s dossier in the back seat of the Bird. He played on a very impressive list of recordings, But unless you abided in Memphis, Tennessee from 1978 to present, or heard the opening track on Alex Chilton’s, “Flies on Sherbet” with Ross singing and adlibbing, spurt of the moment lyric’s to “Baron of Love part II” or his astounding drumming on the Chilton classic “Hey Little Child.”, or been a fan of Tav Falco’s Unapproachable Panther Burns, or are familiar with various Memphis based musicians like Jim Dickinson, Peter Buck, Jim Duckworth, The Hellcats, The Modifiers, Monsieur Jeffrey Evans or Jon Spencer (who based his entire career and sound, on Chilton’s, “Flies on Sherbet” So put that in your chalice and raise it) perhaps you read about him in Robert Gordon's It Came From Memphis (which just skimmed the surface of the 80’s Memphis scene), or heard the soundtrack with Ross performing "Wet Bar" with Bukowskish/ leaving Las Vegas eloquence, if you haven’t done any of this, then the name Ross Johnson might not mean much to you, but for those of us who are initiated into the weird world of Ross, it’s like a secret brotherhood! Like the first Beats to hear Lenny Bruce or Lord Buckley or among the first enthusiasts to “get” Andy Kaufman. Or the first kid to play “I am the Walrus” backwards. Johnson played with Chilton, but his best work was when Alex, Tav and Ross founded The Panther Burns! His stylized drumming can be heard on songs like “Pass The Hatchet” “Blind man” “Brazil” and “Cuban Rebel Gurl” Their first long sot after single’s “Drop your Mask”/ “She’s the one to blame” (Reissued on Long Gone John’s Sympathy Label) and the live single “Red headed Woman” “Train Kept a rollin” on Frenzi. Also of Note are the albums “The World we knew”, “Suger Ditch revisited” the vary esoteric “Red Devil” and Larry Hardy’s, “In the Red” release of “Pantherphobia” which explored a more bluesy Panther, all of which we listened to non-stop as we crossed the Rockies.
The psychological summary on file had him labeled him as “Rockabilly” with slight “Psychobilly” tendencies.

As we entered Texas we played AMF(American Musical Fantasy) Theme from a Summer Place/Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying 7” (Sympathy for the Records Industry) Also on the Goner Release and one of my fav’s! As we entered Arkansas the native land of Ross, we grooved to comp’s of Jeff Evans/Gibson Bros./’68 Comeback/AMF

I put on this new record, from Little Rock to Memphis I-40 E….It felt as if the river was sucking me towards it, it already started to feel like Memphis … at least in my mind. True there is a ten-year nonattendance in my life, and a bit of 2K tardiness, But Alas, I’m alive and well to hear something, well something I always hoped for, but never ever thought would come about.
Something truly amazing! Beyond a doubt: Original, Funny, Rocking, Beautiful, Scary, and more then anything honest. We laughed, I cried, we rocked and most importantly we connected with the Artist.
Something I thought was long gone.

Now I could make more crude and silly comparisons like I’ve seen in other reviews to Hasil Adkins, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, The Dancing Outlaw “Jesse White”, Jack Star, King Uszniewicz, or the latest craze The Devil and Daniel Johnston. (Listen there’s no Devil in that boy, trust me, I’m a god-damn Bona fide lay-Jesuit Exorcist, The only devil in that boy is deviled ham) But those guys god bless em, are mostly one-dimensional and fit into the Novelty bin. Shit do they still have novelty bins? The bin where they put Allan Sherman records, “My Son, The Nut!” LOL, that one still cracks me up…Ross is not Novelty and not insane, actually he’s probably one of the smartest, funniest people I know, sure he has his demons as we all do. Now let me tell you about his drumming, make some casual comparisons…. say the Ventures' first drummer, General George T. Babbitt, Jerry Lee Lewis’s Tarp Tarrant! The late & larger-than-life Country Rockers drummer Gaius “Ringo” Farnham, The Cramps Nick Knox, The Gun Club’s Terry Graham and Sandy Nelson, Let There Be Drums! Another possible title for this would be “Let there be Ross.” But there is more to Ross then any of the aforementioned. He’s only 50% drummer, and the rest is insightful, outlandish, idiosyncratic Ranting! The results are Rockin’, funny, a tad fearsome and well scary. Or what Ross describes on the record as a sense of uneasiness and discomfort, that’s why I used the Kaufman comparison earlier. I like that feeling, it makes me feel alive. But not until now can you hear what was going on between and behind the songs and albums, and in the background, during the course of the last 30 years that Make It Stop! covers.
We were about to cross the bridge into Memphis; you could smell the river and see the city on the bluff.
Wow and only 21 hours since Las Vegas, that bump of somethin’ we did off that strippers butt really feed the kitty. It just goes to show you, don’t leave before the miracle happens!

Ok, so back in 1981 Andy Kaufman and I came to Memphis. (Johnny Legend the rockabilly Rasputin was wandering around here too.) I was given a ticket for an Aero-plane by the US Navy to attend Memphis State and get me some electronic book learning. Now I was Boo Hoo-ing about having to leave LA during its punk heyday, the 80’s were going to be far-reaching!!!!!! (I thought) boy was I off beam; but little was I to know I would stumble into one of the coolest counter-culture scenes going on; I wouldn’t call it punk rock. Cause nobody dressed like inbred limeys, or talked with fake British accents like the LA poseurs I’d left behind did, no Mohawks, maybe a safety pin or some glitter in a beard. Just crazed southerners, who’d been inscribed or marked in ‘78 by the Sex Pistols and The Cramps playing and recording there, the result was Memphians gone 2000 maniacs, and working themselves into frottage frenzy. It wasn’t like LA there or even NYC. Memphis was poor, had racial tension, in the Bible belt, all the things the Clash were singing about was happening in Memphis, and not on Melrose. So I hunted down the first Punk venue, the newly christen Antenna Club, formally know as The Well. There I witnessed the real deal, The Modifiers were on stage, an amazing blend of MC5 and country and Iggy Pop, and the lead singers name was Milford. It was bring your own booze and you only had to be 19 to drink. Next up was The Panther Burns with Tav Falco and Alex Chilton who I knew from producing The Cramps! A strange man named Ron Miller on upright bass and Ross Johnson wearing a strange hat with little balls hanging from it on drums, I knew his beat, It was Rockabilly, in fact they were playing smokestack lightnin’, which is “Primitive” by the Cramps. During the bands many stops and starts for broken strings and what Tav called “tuning our guitars, a decadent European concept that we sometimes indulge in.” Then it was Ross’s stage, ranting or striking up a riff with Chilton, or later Jim Duckworth, (who went on to play with The Gun Club a bit) then Ross threatening to give an audience member a suppository, it was brilliant. And everyone seemed to get it. The place was filled with characters, I was introduced to a guy named Bill who did all the Big Star cover album covers, it was years before I realized it was William Eggelston. Tav introduced me to Charlie Feathers the king of Rockabilly, and said, “Yeah, the Cramps even do his songs.” And people like Cordell Jackson. Then before you knew it Charlie, Alex, Ross and Bubba would be up there playing “one-hand loose” “Wild Wild party” and the creepiest version of “Knoxville girl” that would have sent goose bumps down Bryan Gregory’s ass. As they say in Memphis, “it was a stone grove”.

Ok….Now the songs on this collection span ’79 to present, Ross’s work with Chilton, Panther burns, The Gibson Brothers, 68 comeback, the hot rod gang, Jon Spencer and more, yet there is no discontinuity cause it’s all Ross. From the opening track Barron of Love about Elvis’s death in the bathroom, with Chilton yelling, “get in here before this stuff coagulates”. “The Wetter the Better” speaks for it’s self with its “Tramp” riff. And Ross’s constant reminder of the dangers of women; The Anti-Jonathan Richman of Relationships. Then the Hasil Adkins/stardust cowboy track “Monkey faced Rockabilly Girl” But I doubt very much Ross was imitating either artist, it’s more Crampish, infact “Rockabilly Monkey-Faced Girl” and “My Slobbering Decline” are some of Buck's first work outside of R.E.M. (Amazingly, when the tapes were discovered in late 2007, Buck had total recall of the sessions and the songs; Ross has no recollection of recordings whatsoever).

Also one thing I forgot to mention is Ross is a Librarian at Memphis State, now Memphis University. He has rarely toured, he played LA once to my knowledge at the Lingerie club in 82? Anyway he stayed with my wife and my mom and I, my mom cut his hair and she still asks about that polite gentleman to this day. “Nudist camp” is a kinda coming of age story put to RL Burnside’s Snake Drive, a Panther Burn Favorite. “Mr. Blue” is a side-splitting back and forth between Ross and Jeff Evens, dealing with racism and dog biscuits.

A southern sissy/ Theme from a summer place, is my favorite cut….

“Yea, I went to a summer place once,
had on a 2 piece bathing suit as I recall,
The boys and Girls laughed at me,
You know why?
Because I was weak and afraid,
People can kinda sense that stuff you know,
When your weak and afraid.
I guess I still am and always will be,
It’s the essence of the man; I’m weak and afraid,
Weak and Afraid, look in my eyes you’ll see it; Fear.
Weak and Afraid, it’s a lifestyle I live by”

The Beautiful instrumentals on the record provided a much-needed relaxing recess from the next bombardment.
A Cover of The Gentrys’ hit “Keep on Dancing,” which Ross turns into a reflection on the embarrassing nature of ass whoopings.

“Shall We Pop-A-Top?” A riotous Evans/Johnson monologue.
Then:
“Signify,” is a showstopper! Not since Saint Augustine penned his, “Confessions” Has a human being bared his soul so honestly.

The compilation’s liner notes alone, thousands of words penned by Andria Lisle, John Floyd, Jeffrey Evans, Robert Gordon, Tara McAdams, and Johnson himself, are a must for anyone interested in the secret history of Memphis’ underground music scene of the past three decades.

Ross like me had his bouts with Alcohol, “I’ve been going back to AA over the past year and a half, and I’m having fewer and fewer binges. I drink a lot less these days. My problem with AA is that it’s too political and too religious; I don’t go for those reasons. What I go to AA for is to keep a bottle out of my mouth. The good doctor has put me on Campral, a drug that decreases cravings.”
Strange I thought to myself, in Silverlake where in AA, Johnny Thunders and Keith Richards were mentioned more then God.

My gal and me were getting close; we could feel him pulling us up Madison Ave.
The smell was in the air; I knew he was here, but where? All my Memphis cronies were now living in exile in Europe, or scattered by Katrina down in New Orleans. I could probably write Goner and find out. Memphis had changed very much indeed. The old Antenna club was closed. Beale Street was all gussied up like a New Orleans/ Disneyland/ brothel. But even in the short time I was there, I saw a very cool scene. There was Goner Records on Young Avenue, the old Shangri la records was still there on Madison, near the old Antenna club. The Hi-Tone Café on Poplar looked like a pretty good venue, I drowned my woes with a Dr Pepper, actually it was a substitute called, “Mr. Skipper”, that night a guy named King Louis or something was playing. So after a majestic full slab of “Dry Ribs” at The Rendezvous’ and a good nights sleep at The Peabody, we went out looking. I hit up my old pal Disco Felix (the huggy-bear of Beale Street) and he told me where to find Ross. I made a call and there he was at The Buccaneer (Midtown) on Monroe, effortless as that, and we both sat down and knocked back some Iced Tea’s.

(MMM) - Well Ross, Congratulations on the new CD are you happy with the way it turned out?

(Ross) - I don’t care much for the aural portion of my record, but I do genuinely like the liner notes though. Wish we could market them separately from that horrible sounding CD or start leaving out the disc entirely.


(MMM) - It’s a shame more people have never seen you play live with Panther Burns or anyone outside of Memphis, do you want to talk about that?

(Ross) - I rarely went on the road because I had/have a fulltime job as a smalltime academic librarian at The University of Memphis and was unable to take enough leave to do the really long tours. I did part of the first European tour in 1987, but I usually opted out of the jaunts that lasted more than a few days. Mostly it was my job that kept me out of the van, but I must confess to being a rather comfort loving bourgeois kind of guy who did not like sleeping in station wagons or on the floors of fans next to the cat litter box in the kitchen. I always admired the SST bands for forging that touring circuit and hardly ever spending money on motel rooms. However, I liked sleeping indoors and eating cooked food, and a lot of Panther Burns tours were not for the faint hearted or delicate. I always joked that the band that started a Burns tour was never the same one that finished it. Someone always seemed to opt out on the road rather suddenly and then Tav would have to scramble to find a replacement. He always did. I look back now and often wish that I had quit my crappy library gig and done all the tours, awful and otherwise, but I knew at the time that I was simply not up for the rigors of the road with Tav. I’m glad I didn’t lose the job because I have so much child support to pay these days. I doubt that I would like seeing the inside of a Memphis jail for nonpayment of child support to my two exes. Such a sensitive, delicate flower then and now, oh yeah.


(MMM) – Do you ever think you will do another project with Alex?

(Ross) - About Alex, just let my few words about his git player prowess stand. No, I don’t think he and I will ever work together again. The last time we did a decade ago in New Orleans I was almost too drunk to drum and we started playing around noon at an art museum! I blew that friendship and musical partnership years ago. Just another familiar regret.

(MMM) - If it’s any comfort I had an akin incident with Alex and I don’t think our paths will cross anytime presently. Kinda sad, I learned by no means to get too close to your idols, it can be heartbreaking.


(MMM) - Anywayz, since you hardly went on the road, did it ever bother you when Tav would play Memphis with other drummers? I remember once he had brought Jim Sclavunos of Lydia Lunch, Jesus and the Jerks, and “Bad Seeds” fame down from NYC to play drums and you just set up your drum kit in the audience pointed right at him and played along, was that planned? I know I felt a bit of tension in the air. I also saw a recent video of Panther Burns in Memphis and there you were again just playing along with the new drummer, did you ever feel at all jilted?

(Ross) -The double drumming thing, that was me in my stage invader guise. Oh, I did feel jilted when Tav would bring in another drummer, but I would weasel my way in front of the stage and play along (or sometimes just show up and play w/out being asked). I was/am such a desperate performance junkie that I would do anything to be in front of an audience. I could justify it by saying that I liked to do something vaguely performance art styled by setting my kit up guerilla style in front of the stage and thereby confound audience expectations and blur the boundaries between performer and audience or some horseshit like that, but I’d be lying. I was jealous at being replaced and wanted to be a part of the band in the only way I knew: to just show up and drum along whether I was welcome there or not.


(MMM) - Tell us about the new Jim Dickenson project? He’s played with Dylan, the Stones, produced Big Star, The Replacements. How did that all come about? And what musicians would you like to have playing on it?

(Ross) - My new project came about due to the efforts of my “project manager,” Greg Roberson, former drummer of the Reigning Sound among other things, who set up the sessions at Jim Dickinson’s Zebra Ranch Studio just across the state line in Mississippi. Jim produced quite a few of the early Burns records and did a fair amount of live gigs with us too so I jumped at the chance that Greg set up for me. He also handpicked the band: Jon Paul Keith on guitar, Jeremy Scott on bass (also ex-Reigning Sound), Adam Woodard on piano and organ, and Greg on drums. Greg says that my first solo record took almost thirty years to complete while my follow-up took only a little over three hours to do. Dickinson redid “I’ve Had It” at my request and it sounds great to my ears in spite of my presence on the track. Of course, I ranted on this one too, but I also attempted to “sing” on several tracks. Not sure how I feel about that, but I hope it’s mildly amusing. Hell, it’s probably just pitiful.


(MMM) - How would you compare it to “Make it Stop!” on Goner?

Most of the Goner record was done live in the studio with me playing drums and yelling at the same time. A handful of the later tracks were done as vocal overdubs to a previously recorded track. I don't work with text very often. I have stock phrases and favorite theme areas, but my standard approach is to open my mouth and see what oozes out when I'm recording. When I get tired of talking then the "song" is finished. On the new Dickinson produced record, I did not play drums (Greg Roberson did and very well), but I did cut all my vox tracks live with the band (now known as Snake Eyes with Dickinson performing with them too). I consider this a collaboration with a band, Snake Eyes. I actually tried to listen to what the musicians were doing (a difficult feat for me) and reacted to their playing. I'm very happy with the music portion of the new recording, especially since I didn't play on it. I like not playing on my records. Wait, I did play maracas on one track like my real idol, Jerome Green. In fact, there's a great instrumental record by Snake Eyes there if you leave off my raving and slobbering.


(MMM) – Any Tours in the foreseeable future? I know you changed a few heads at South by Southwest.

(Ross) - No tours that I can foresee with my kid care schedule being what it is for next, oh, ten years or so. Looking for a label at the moment for the just completed Dickinson session.


(MMM) – Ross, could you talk a tad about Memphis in the late 70’s / early 80’s?

Memphis in the 70s and 80s...my, my, my, my...the place was/is cursed. There's something heartbreaking about this dump. You get stuck here. You get ruined here. Ruined in a way that's somewhat comparable to what happens to folks in New Orleans, except less heroin in Memphis. Plenty of self-induced personal tragedy...wait, you want to hear about the music scene during those years and there I was going all self-indulgent mythical and personal. Let's see, the music...like any other music scene at the time, it was full of folks aping national and international trends, but there was ultimately no hope for reaching any audience outside the city limits. Which made it insular as hell but hopelessness has its own rewards. Things seemed very important (like getting a shitty record deal and touring the toilets of America and Europe), but ultimately it was for naught. I like unhappy endings, by the way.


(MMM) - Well Thank you Ross, it’s been great seeing you again.

(Ross) – Likewise, Thank you Mike, for letting me wax self-indulgent all over the place.


As we said goodbye and as I prepared for my “On the Road” journey home, a little bit wiser, with my Gal. Then I’d discovered she’d run off. Unhappy endings, indeed.

Catholicism and Science

Popular lore, movies, and children’s stories hold that in 1492 Christopher Columbus proved the world is round and in the process defeated years of dogged opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, which insisted that the earth is flat. These tales are rooted in books like A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom, an influential reference by Andrew Dickson White, founder and first president of Cornell University. White claimed that even after Columbus’ return “the Church by its highest authority solemnly stumbled and persisted in going astray.”
The trouble is, almost every word of White’s account of the Columbus story is a lie. All educated persons of Columbus’ day, very much including the Roman Catholic prelates, knew the earth was round. The Venerable Bede (c. 673-735) taught that the world was round, as did Bishop Virgilius of Salzburg (c. 720-784), Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), and Thomas Aquinas (c. 1224-74). All four ended up saints. Sphere was the title of the most popular medieval textbook on astronomy, written by the English scholastic John of Sacrobosco (c. 1200-1256). It informed that not only the earth but all heavenly bodies are spherical.
So, why does the fable of the Catholic Church’s ignorance and opposition to the truth persist? Because the claim of an inevitable and bitter warfare between religion and science has, for more than three centuries, been the primary polemical device used in the atheist attack on faith. The truth is, there is no inherent conflict between religion and science. Indeed, the fundamental reality is that Catholic theology was essential for the rise of science—a fact little appreciated outside the ranks of academic specialists.
Recent historical research has debunked the idea of a “Dark Ages” after the “fall” of Rome. In fact, this was an era of profound and rapid technological progress, by the end of which Europe had surpassed the rest of the world. Moreover, the so-called “Scientific Revolution” of the sixteenth century was a result of developments begun by religious scholars starting in the eleventh century.
Even in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the leading scientific figures were overwhelmingly devout Catholic’s who believed it their duty to comprehend God’s handiwork. Studies show that the “Enlightenment” was conceived initially as a propaganda ploy by militant atheists attempting to claim credit for the rise of science. The falsehood that science required the defeat of religion was proclaimed by self-appointed cheerleaders like Voltaire, Diderot, and Gibbon, who themselves played no part in scientific enterprise AT ALL! —A pattern that continues today. I find that through the centuries (including right up to the present day), professional scientists have remained about as religious as the rest of the population—and far more religious than their academic colleagues in the arts and social sciences.
It is the consensus among contemporary historians, philosophers, and sociologists of science that real science arose only once: in Europe. It is instructive that China, Islam, India, ancient Greece, and Rome all had a highly developed alchemy. But only in Europe did alchemy develop into chemistry. By the same token, many societies developed elaborate systems of astrology, but only in Europe did astrology lead to astronomy. And these transformations took place at a time when folklore has it that a fanatical Catholic Church was imposing a general ignorance on Europe—the so-called Dark Ages.
The progress achieved during the “Dark Ages” was not merely technological. Medieval Europe excelled in philosophy and science. The term “Scientific Revolution” is in many ways as misleading as “Dark Ages.” Both were coined to discredit the Catholic Church. The notion of a “Scientific Revolution” has been used to claim that science suddenly burst forth when a weakened Catholic could no longer prevent it, and as the recovery of classical learning made it possible. Both claims are as false as those concerning Columbus and the flat earth.
First of all, classical learning did not provide an appropriate model for science. Second, the rise of science was already far along by the sixteenth century, having been carefully nurtured by religiously devout scholastics. Granted, the era of scientific discovery that occurred in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was marvelous, the cultural equivalent of the blossoming of a rose. But, just as roses do not spring up overnight, and must undergo a long period of normal growth before they even bud, so too the blossoming of science was the result of centuries of intellectual progress.
From Ockham through Copernicus, the development of the heliocentric model of the solar system was the product of the universities—that most Catholic invention. From the start, the medieval Catholic university was a place created and run by scholars devoted entirely to knowledge. The autonomy of individual faculty members was carefully guarded. Since all instruction was in Latin, scholars were able to move about without regard for linguistic boundaries, and because their degrees were mutually recognized, they were qualified to join any faculty. It was in these universities that European Catholics began to establish science. And it was in these same universities, not later in the salons of philosophies or Renaissance men, that the classics were restored to intellectual importance. The translations from Greek into Latin were accomplished by exceedingly pious Catholic scholars.
It was the Catholic scholastics, not the Greeks, Romans, Muslims, or Chinese, who built up the field of physiology based on human dissections. Once again, hardly anyone knows the truth about dissection and the medieval Church. Human dissection was not permitted in the classical world (“the dignity of the human body” forbade it), which is why Greco-Roman works on anatomy are so faulty. Aristotle’s studies were limited entirely to animal dissections, as were those of Celsius and Galen. Human dissection also was prohibited in Islam.
With the Catholic universities came a new outlook on dissection. The starting assumption was that what is unique to humans is a soul, not a physiology. Dissections of the human body, therefore, have no theological implications.
Science consists of an organized effort to explain natural phenomena. Why did this effort take root in Europe and nowhere else? Because Catholicism depicted God as a rational, responsive, dependable, and omnipotent being, and the universe as his personal creation. The natural world was thus understood to have a rational, lawful, stable structure, awaiting (indeed, inviting) human comprehension.
Catholic’s developed science because they believed it could—and should—be done. Alfred North Whitehead, the great philosopher and mathematician, co-author with Bertrand Russell of the landmark Principia Mathematica, credited “medieval theology” for the rise of science. He pointed to the “insistence on the rationality of God,” which produced the belief that “the search into nature could only result in the vindication of the faith.”
Whitehead ended with the remark that the images of God found in other religions, especially in Asia, are too impersonal or too irrational to have sustained science. A God who is capricious or unknowable gives no incentive for humans to dig deeply into his essence. Moreover, most non-Catholic religions don’t posit a creation. If the universe is without beginning or purpose, has no Creator, is an inconsistent, unpredictable, and arbitrary mystery, there is little reason to explore it. Under those religious premises, the path to wisdom is through meditation and mystical insights, and there is no occasion to celebrate reason.
In contrast, Tertullian, one of the earliest Catholic theologians (c. 160-225), instructed that God has willed that the world he has provided “should be handled and understood by reason.” The weight of opinion in the early and medieval church was that there is a duty to understand, in order to better marvel at God’s handiwork. Saint Augustine (354-430) held that reason was indispensable to faith: “Heaven forbid that God should hate in us that by which he made us superior to the animals! Heaven forbid that we should believe in such a way as not to accept or seek reasons, since we could not even believe if we did not possess rational souls.” Of course, Catholic theologians accepted that God’s word must be believed even if the reasons were not apparent. In matters “that we cannot yet grasp by reason—though one day we shall be able to do so—faith must precede reason,” stated Augustine.
Note the optimism that reason will reveal more and more truth as time accumulates. Saint Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) attempted in his monumental Summa Theologiae to fulfill Augustine’s optimism that some of these “matters of great importance” could be grasped by reason. Though humans lack sufficient intellect to see directly into the essence of things, he argued they may reason their way to knowledge step-by-step, using principles of logic. This is the methodology of science.
The great figures of the heyday of scientific discovery—including Descartes, Galileo, Newton, and Kepler—actively professed their absolute faith in a Creator God, whose work incorporated rational rules awaiting their discovery. Far from being a rejection of religion, the “Scientific Revolution” was led mostly by deeply religious men acting on religious motivations.To sum up: The rise of science was not an extension of classical learning. It was the natural outgrowth of Catholic doctrine: Nature exists because it was created by God. In order to love and honor God, it is necessary to fully appreciate the wonders of his handiwork. Moreover, because God is perfect, his handiwork functions in accord with immutable principles. By the full use of our God-given powers of reason and observation it ought to be possible to discover these principles. These crucial religious ideas were why the rise of science occurred in Catholic Europe, not somewhere else.