The Psychology of God: From James Garfield to Jimmy Carter, From Graham Greene to Natasha Richardson

Periodically this Blogger is guilty of slipping into a Graham Greene Lite mode, and discussing the Psychology of God.

The last time this Blogger did that was his 2015 Christmas Message: A Christmas Message about Absurdity Saving Mankind from Derangement......... http://themaxeychronicles.blogspot.com/2015/12/a-christmas-message-about-absurdity.html.

In that devout Christmas message, this Blogger proclaimed that God was deranged, and that "THE BIBLE is the Psychology of God as told to Mankind by God.”

Surprisingly the Message brought a number of remarkably kind and inquisitive emails from divinity students concerning its contents and conclusions.

They all desired further Graham Greene Lite insight into the Psychology of God.

This Blogger hesitated, because: How much more Graham Greene Lite can one get after one writes that God is deranged?

Then this Blogger watched a PBS television program about the assassination of James Garfield, America’s 20^th President, and the Psychology of God came back into focus.

First, why is the Bible dictated from God in Biblical Hebrew or Biblical Aramaic(the Book of Daniel)? And not Sanskrit? Which is a more epic language than Hebrew.

The reason is simply elementary Divine; there is no word for IRONY in Sanskrit. IRONY--"an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been expected."

On the basis of that criterion, it is best to explore the Psychology of God in English. God may dictate in Hebrew, sermonize in Aramaic, codify in Latin, but he tips his hand in English. The English speaking peoples have  put a lot of effort into discerning the psychology of God.

Currently the two most virile and vigorous English speaking attempts to figure God out are English Atheism and English Catholicism. English Atheism has figured God out by declaring there is no God, a natural impulse and consequence of losing an empire and devolving into a country which only exports Elton John and Sam Smith.

Which brings us to Graham Greene, an English  Catholic writer. " Catholic religious themes are at the root of much of his writing, especially the major Catholic novels: Brighton Rock, The Power and The Glory, The End of the Affair, The Heart of the Matter.”

While Greene was being a good Catholic , he was banging another man's wife, Catherine Walston.

While banging Mrs. Walston, he wrote his final and greatest Catholic novel, THE END OF THE AFFAIR, and in it he stumbled on how God does his business, God's business model, or if you will, the psychology of God.

Before we lay out the plot of THE END OF THE AFFAIR, some tidbits, Greene was a writer in London during World War II, he owned a home, he was having an affair with another man's wife, and his home was destroyed in a German bombing raid during the Blitz

The following is the plot of THE END OF THE AFFAIR:"The novel focuses on Maurice , a rising writer during World War II in London, and Sarah Miles, the wife of an impotent civil servant. Maurice and Sarah fall in love quickly, .... When a bomb blasts Maurice's flat as he is with Sarah, he is nearly killed. After this, Sarah breaks off the affair with no apparent explanation.....Maurice decides to go to a private detective to discover Sarah's new lover. Through her diary, he learns that, when she thought he was dead after the bombing, she made a promise to God not to see Maurice again if he allowed him to live again.

Thinking MAURICE was dead in the Blitz, SARAH asked for a miracle and got one, but at a terrible cost, separation from MAURICE and a bitter, consumptive death.

"Greene describes Sarah's struggles. After her sudden death from a lung infection brought to a climax by walking on the Common in the rain, several miraculous events occur, advocating for some kind of meaningfulness to Sarah's faith. By the last page of the novel, Maurice Bendrix may have come to believe in a God as well, though not to love him.The End of the Affair is the fourth and last of Greene's explicitly Catholic novels."

Greene understood two things: the whole purpose of Jesus is to give the people a piece of the Divine which can be loved. Be afraid of God, love Jesus; and God deals in Irony. Irony,  which precludes Sanskrit as the divine Language.

The PBS program presented James Garfield as a man with the potential to be one of America’s Greatest Presidents, a Teddy Roosevelt and JFK combined. He was born dirt poor, yet had risen to be a scholar, General, Congressman, friend of Frederick Douglass, and fighter of Corruption.

When Garfield was a young man, he was working on a river boat, even though he could not swim. He fell overboard, and was drowning, when a mysterious rope appeared, which he climbed to safety. No one claimed to have thrown the rope to Garfield. Garfield thought it was a Miracle; to him, the rope had been sent by God, to save him for great things, such as stopping Jim Crow in its tracks( Garfield was a great believer in Civil Rights).

Garfield was assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau, a psychotic writer, who wanted to be appointed Consul to Paris. When Garfield disappointed him, Guiteau heard a voice from God telling him to slay Garfield.  Guiteau was once a ship’s passenger, on the Long Island Sound. His ship collided with another ship. Guiteau was thrown into the water, and started drowning, when a ship mysteriously appeared, and he was saved. Guiteau thought that the ship was sent by God, saving him for great things in Life, such as killing James Garfield.

Two men saved by miracles from drowning, to do great things, which resulted in the murder of one by the other. Talk about Irony.

Once Robert Lincoln, the oldest son of President Lincoln, was standing on a train platform; he leaned over to see if a train was coming. He lost his balance,  and fell onto the tracks. The train was indeed coming. At the last instance, he was saved by a brave man, Edwin Booth, the older brother of John Wilkes Booth, the future assassin of Robert’s father. Talk about Irony.

“Former President Jimmy Carter has cancer that has spread to multiple parts of his body, he announced Wednesday….Los Angeles Times, August 12, 2015.”

Then a Miracle:

“Former President Jimmy Carter, 91, who has been undergoing cancer treatment for a cancer that was removed from his liver but had spread to his brain, said on Sunday that he was free of the disease. My most recent M.R.I. brain scan did not reveal any signs of the original cancer spots nor any new ones,”…New York Times.”

Then the Irony:

“Jimmy Carter announced to his Sunday School class, that his 28 year old grandson,  Jeremy Carter had died.

Jeremy Carter, had not been feeling well and laid down to take a nap Saturday, Maranatha Baptist Church Rev. Jeremy Shoulta told CNN.  The younger Carter's heart stopped, the minister said, and the family tried CPR and rushed him to a hospital.

"They were trying to keep his heart going and eventually, later in the night or the wee hours of (Sunday) morning, his heart stopped," Shoulta said.”

Graham Greene, the English Catholic, believed in God but did not love him. That is the psychology of God, and none of us must make a mistake about this- God is a debt collector,a forensic accountant, a banker who forecloses without mercy, a war lord who, through disease, misfortune, and natural disaster besieges our citadels. God is constantly looking for those who believe in Him, after the sacking and looting of their hopes.

There are Miracles; and  Every miracle must be paid for:

“It's a love story that started on Broadway.

Natasha Richardson and Liam Neeson met as the stars of the 1993 revival of "Anna Christie" at what was then the Criterion Center.

The pair's chemistry electrified the stage, thrilled critics and earned them both Tony nominations……

Richardson and Neeson were married, living happily ever after, truly living happily ever after. Then in 2000.

"Actor Liam Neeson broke his pelvis and suffered other injuries after crashing into a deer while driving a motorcycle near his home in upstate New York, police said Wednesday."

It was bad, Neeson had many injuries, he almost lost his life.

"The 6ft 4ins star feared he may never walk again after he collided his Harley-Davidson bike with a deer

"Seeing her (Natasha) gave me a little extra strength each day.I could have died -- but Natasha's love gave me the strength to pull through." The Evening Standard...... 7/18/2002."

"Motorbike crash victim Liam Neeson is expected to be back on his feet again by the autumn. The star cheated death when his bike hit a deer near his home in upstate New York. Doctors at Lenox Hill Hospital have repaired his shattered pelvis and leg injuries, and according to his wife Natasha Richardson he is on the mend. She says, "Lesser mortals wouldn't have made it. He's going to be fine and make a complete recovery. He's not going to be disfigured, but it was a touch and go situation for a while. ...."

…. "I found out later they'd told her I wouldn't last the night," Neeson said. .....

But their worst fears have not been realised and Neeson is on course to make a full recovery. His wife Natasha Richardson yesterday said he had made "a miraculously quick recovery".

But as Graham Greene understood, the SARAHs of the world, who request and are granted Miracles, must always pay for those Miracles.

“The death and events leading up to the death of Natasha Richardson were highly publicized. Richardson was at the Mont Tremblant Resort in Quebec, Canada, and she was taking a ski lesson. During the lesson, she fell down and she hit her head and sustained an injury.

.... immediately following the injury, there was nothing seemingly wrong with Richardson. Of course, paramedics and ambulances were called to the scene immediately upon the incident. Yet Richardson felt fine and she also appeared fine and she was acting normally. Therefore, the emergency workers were told that they were not needed at the scene.

She was resting and she started to say that she had a headache. Three hours later, Liam Neeson's wife was taken to a local hospital called Sainte Agathe des Monts. Her condition progressed to a critical state and she was moved to Hospital du Sacre-Coeur in Montreal. She continued to get worse and the following day she was rushed to the Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, where she eventually died. She died because of a dangerous blood build up in her head due to the accident."

Natasha died in the same hospital in which Liam had survived.

Liam and Natasha are real life Graham Greene characters writ large….why do they have to suffer, after a Miracle?

Because God  is a terrifying and terrible entity,(Ingmar Bergman the minister's son thought him a giant spider). God’s only concession to mortal man has been the  grace of Jesus and his tender mercies. God without Jesus is the same God who kicked the hell out of the Israelites, time and time again.

To all those Divinity students who emailed me; the following is my message: Mankind was created by a Mad and Mean entity, and only Jesus stands between Mankind and God’s full psychosis.

THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY...Ingmar Bergman