In November of 1999, the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church issued a joint statement on the nature of justification, which stated that salvation was by "[God's freely given] grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving work and not because of any merit on our part." The Methodists signed on to this declaration in 2006, noting that the consensus reached in 1999 did much to mend "a major cause of the split in Western churches in the 16th century."

What's remarkable about the consensus is that it had always existed; Catholicism did not suddenly and fundamentally shift its views, nor did Lutheranism. The joint statement is not a form of doctrinal compromise or shift on the part of any party to it; it is simply an affirmation that despite the fact that the different denominations spend too much of their time talking past each other, we all believe the same basic thing: salvation is by God's grace alone.

And while the Church doesn't formally articulate the Luteran doctrine of sola gratia, they can agree with it in the broad strokes, in as much as it states that God's grace is what is salvific; no human work can save.

Which brings to mind an interesting question regarding sola fide -- the statement that salvation is by faith alone. Most of the various Protestants and non-denominationals I have debated on this issue are quick to hide behind a statement much like the following: "salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone...", but one wonders what that even means.

After all, the notion of salvation solely through the grace of God, wholly apart from any human work, implies a certain...exclusivity -- either we are saved only by God's grace, or we are saved by some combination of God's grace and other factors...which is certainly what sola fide would seem to suggest. The problem, as I see it, is that faith -- human faith -- is imperfect, and subject to the same flaws that human beings are. Human faith wavers, it doubts. How can this -- and only this -- weak thing be salvific? And how is it that we are saved only by God's grace, but also only by faith? One wonders if Luther ever heard of the concept of mutual exclusivity.

What will really bake your brain, O Reader, is to consider that faith is not an abstract thing; it is something a human being chooses to express and consciously decides to work after. In a certain sense, faith is a work, although not of a physical nature. And since we are saved by the grace of God alone, wholly and completely apart from any work we undertake, how is it again that our faith is also an exclusive means of salvation?

That's my question, then: within the framework of the five solas, how is salvation even possible, and by what means does it arrive? I challenge any would-be responders to respond only in their own words, drawing from no commentaries written by other authors. I also challenge any would-be responders to use only those verses of Scripture which specifically contain the words "faith alone" in their response: indeed, if sola scriptura is also a correct doctrine, it must be possible to defend sola fide in that way.

Let any honest man or woman respond as stipulated.

Grace and I took her sister to see Pixar's latest last night, and I have to say, O Reader: if you haven't gone and seen it, go and see it. For my money, it's probably the best Pixar film yet, and I wonder if it would be all that hyperbolic to say that it will hold that top spot in my mind for a goodly while. It's rare enough to find a movie that is genuinely uplifting at a spiritual level, especially in the sci-fi/action genre of film (BSG often fits the bill, although it is a TV series rather than a motion picture), but Wall-E delivers that and more.

Don't be fooled into thinking this is a kid's movie, either; WALL-E is age-independent. Because the characters are primarily robots (humans appear as well, but only in a supporting role), there is little in the way of dialogue — most of the comedy is physical/scenario-driven in nature, and will appeal equally to the young and the old (in fact, I suspect adults may enjoy it more than kids, in the same way that Looney Tunes are way more funny to me now than they ever were when I was ten).

It would also make for one heck of a date movie; I don't think I let go of Grace's hand for more than five minutes in total during the entire length of the movie. Not only is WALL-E a well-executed sci-fi story with equal parts comedy and well-paced action sequences, it is also a very romantic movie, and the budding relationship that emerges between EVE and WALL-E is amazing for its depth, the sweetness that characterizes it, its innocence, and how very real it feels, right down to how WALL-E makes a point of proudly showing EVE just some of the many trinkets "he" has collected in his 700 years of garbage compaction. Gents, I think (hope!) we can all recognize that little ritual?

(I remember showing Grace some of the many things — model planes, Lego constructs, books — I had collected when first we met.)

Finally, don't but into the manufactured controversy that this is basically just with a cute face. Yes, it does depict a spoiled and desolate Earth, and yes, there is an environmental message at its core. But it ultimately is, I think, a message about stewardship of the Earth (c.f. Genesis 1:28-31), about the need for humanity to use (not abuse) Nature and the many resources of the world, and to make effective and responsible use of the technology at hand…in such a way that both humanity and Nature benefit. The message in WALL-E's narrative is very much in favour of human development and the individual spirit, and praises the virtues of "get your hands dirty"-****hard work.

Now, after the jump, we'll get into greater detail. If you don't want spoilers, O Reader, do skip this next part.

The backstory of WALL-E is that Earth is too polluted to sustain life (or so it is thought), having been overrun with garbage. It might be easy to mistake this as just another "go green" message, but Pixar and writer/director Andrew Stanton doesn't go there. Instead, he presents a world that appears to have fallen into rule by a form of "soft" corporate fascism, in which a megacorporation (Buy N' Large) had taken over pretty much every aspect of society, including government. Indeed, even the "liners" that humanity used to escape the planet were built and branded by "BNL". It's basically as though Wal-Mart ran the world, with food services outsourced to McDonald's.

If anything, WALL-E is less a commentary on environmentalism as it is on overdependency and perpetual adolescence, which the film's director has noted:

…when I started outlining humanity in the story, I asked myself: What if everything you needed to survive — health care, food — was taken care of and you had nothing but a perpetual vacation to fill your time? What if the result of all that convenience was that all your relationships became indirect — nobody's reaching out to each other? A lot of people have suggested that I was making a comment on obesity. But that wasn't it, I was trying to make humanity big babies because there was no reason for them to grow up anymore.

Initially, according to the story, humanity evacuated Earth as part of a five year plan (would it be too much to read a subtle jab at Soviet economic policy into that?) to clean the place up again. Unbeknownst to the human captains of the various BNL starliners, however, was a second directive given shortly after the initial exodus, direct from the President (both of BNL and, presumably, the world) to the autopilot computers of said starliners. Directive A113 stipulated that Earth was too toxic to ever sustain life again; no return was to be attempted or allowed.

The initial clean-up plan involved leaving a quantity (presumably hundreds, if not thousands) of robots behind to compact and organize the garbage, presumably so that it could be disposed of in an orderly manner later on. The WALL-E robots (Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth ****, which seem to be a cross between Number Five and a turtle, went about their task, and appear to have constructed massive skyscrapers of neatly compacted cubes of garbage. However, as is made apparent in a scene of WALL-E's daily trip home, all the other robots seem to have failed for various reasons. WALL-E makes a point of salvaging what parts he can from these other robots, replacing his treads in one subtly comic scene.

WALL-E has also befriended a small cockroach, which he treats with care and attention, and which appears to follow instructions given to it by WALL-E. As he goes about his daily task (which Rod Dreher calls "Sisyphean" in nature), WALL-E also collects trinkets — Zippo lighters, lightbulbs, bobble-head dolls, bubble wrap, a Rubik's Cube, and anything else that catches his eye. These he stores in an old Coleman cooler that he carts around with him on his garbage compacting excursions. For seven hundred years, he has been the sole archivist of humanity's history on Earth, if unwittingly. This is especially interesting when one considers, as Dreher also noted, that WALL-E's programming likely did not include the ability to differentiate between trash and treasure.

Somewhere along the line, his adaptive programming became something more, for WALL-E is perhaps one of the most "human" characters Pixar has ever introduced to us. Possessed of an insatiable curiosity and a humble desire to serve, WALL-E seems to treat every day with the same sense of ordered purpose, and also treats every trinket he finds with a sense of child-like wonder. Above all, he is a genuine innocent…and yet he understands that in some way, he's missing something. In some fundamentally irrational way, he understands that there is something higher than his programming and his "directive" (a theme in the movie). In repeatedly watching an old video tape of Hello Dolly, he sees in the characters therein glimpses of love (expressed especially in the theme of holding hands), and something inside him desires to love as well.

Naturally, then, WALL-E is all but smitten when EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) arrives on a sleek, gleaming space ship. Snow-white and sleek "her"self, she can perhaps be likened to the dove sent out from the Ark. That said, she seems to take delight in plasma-blasting everything that twitches. In spite of this, WALL-E follows her around as she follows her own directive — to search for evidence of plant life on Earth.

As it happens, WALL-E — in the course of his daily duties — has found a plant, which he keeps in an old work boot (a none-too-subtle commentary on the life-giving value of honest work, methinks). After a few mis-steps in his attempts to attract EVE's affections, WALL-E ends up giving shelter to her during a dust storm. In his "home" (which appears to be some kind of heavy industrial vehicle) atop a broken bridge, he proudly shows her his collection of trinkets, and then shows her the plant…which throws everything into a tailspin as EVE's programming takes over. She collects the plant, stuffing it into a storage compartment in herself, and then powers down into a beacon-transmitting mode. WALL-E, distraught, spends an uncertain length of time (several seasons, by the montage) shepherding EVE around his world, protecting her from the elements and never letting her out of his sight in the hopes that she might wake again and intrude once more upon his solitude.

Finally, dejected, he resumes working, and it is then that the space ship returns to collect EVE. After warning his cockroach pet (how the heck did Pixar manage to make a realistically-modeled cockroach seem cute?) to stay put, he clambers up the side of the rapidly-ascending ship, and gets taken on a ride through space to the Axiom — the flagship starliner of the BNL fleet.

Axiom is people with humans, yes, and in various advertisments that are shown prior to the ship's actual revelation it seems to be a cruise liner. Manicured, statuesque humans in those commercials are shown enjoying many different ameneties, and it would seem that every convenience is provided for. And for every man and women, a hover-chair, to allow for speedy conveyance between destinations. And perhaps, for the five year cleanup plan that had intially been envisioned by BNL, Axiom and her sister ships might have done well. But 700 years and many generations of "all expenses paid" resort life has been almost ruinous to humanity, who are now universally obese (it is hinted, in the movie, that this is as much a function of life in low gravity as it is of diet and inactivity) and permanently plugged in to the various ameneties of their hover chairs (which appear to include, among other things, holographic instant messaging and holographic fashion layers which can be projected onto the base clothing that is worn. There is a short, heartbreaking scene in which portraits of the various captains of the Axiom are shown arrayed next to each other on the wall. The first entrant on the list is trim, but subsequent officers get progressively pudgier.

Rod Dreher puts it well:

They have been thoroughly infantilized — they look like overgrown babies — and have grown completely dependent on the BNL Corporation, the massive company that, it appears, became the government back on Earth, and whose priorities — sell crap to consumers, and make them totally dependent on their own desires — led to the catastrophe on Earth. BNL is totalitarian, but it's the softest totalitarianism imaginable: they've taken over by fulfilling every desire of the populace, a populace that (apparently) came to think of politics as chiefly a matter of ordering the polis around the telos of satisfying human desires.

Mind you, this is [ostensibly -- Ken] a kid's movie.

WALL-E innocently pursues EVE (still deactivated) through the ship, causing all manner of commotion along the way. Notably, some of his actions prompt other robots in this sterile, cruise-liner world to part company with protocol. Our loveable protagonist teaches a door-warden robot to wave in greeting, and inspires a cleaning bot named MO (Microbe Obliterator) to jump off its programmed (and illuminated) travel path in the cause of cleaning up the dirt trail that WALL-E leaves behind him wherever he goes. Seven hundred years of toil has furnished him with a plentiful supply of "foreign contaminants", the things which MO is programmed to relentlessly hunt down and scrub away.

There is a subtly disturbing element to the scenes that flash by during this pursuit. Hallways are full of robots and obese, chair-bound humans, and every open stretch of wall and air is filled up with holographic advertisments depicting human forms that probably haven't been seen on the Axiom for at least six centuries (this also seems to be an Easter Egg reference to The Incredibles, given the shapes of the figures depicted). WALL-E races past a school, and we catch a snippet of the lesson: "'A' is for Axiom, our home. 'B' is for BNL, your very best friend…" Humans speak to each other only via the holographic medium, even when they are floating in chairs beside each other. And in the finest distopian tradition, robots alert, assist, and interdict everyone with mechanical precision…and everyone obeys unthinkingly.

(Still think it's a kid's movie?)

Along the way, WALL-E inadvertently liberates two humans from the stupor of their chair-bound lives — Mary and John. Mary, in particular, has her eyes opened by the humble WALL-E, noticing for the first time the things in the world around her that are beautiful, as well as those things which are repugnant. John does not see this at first, and returns to the stupor, but is later pulled out of it again by Mary. More on that in a bit, but let me just note that as a Catholic, it was a very satisfying bit of plotting indeed.

When EVE is presented to the captain, the computer tosses a manual at him (of course, he has no idea how books even work, and has to be shown by AUTO, the ship's autopilot — a homage to HAL and shaped like a 17th-century galleon's wheel). Following the procedure outlined in the book, the captain bids EVE open, but she is revealed to be without plant. Initially, she blames WALL-E (who has followed her into the captain's command deck) for this, but it is soon revealed that AUTO is to blame; following Directive A113, AUTO has taken what measures were, in his estimation, necessary to prevent a return to Earth.

EVE is labeled as defective, and she and WALL-E (who is deemed to be in need of a cleaning) are sent to the Repair Bay. EVE is taken into a diagnostic lab, where other robots examine and prod at her to determine if she is indeed defective. WALL-E misinterprets these actions as an attempt to harm her, however, and breaks in on the diagnostic, siezing one of EVE's arms (read: plasma blasters) and blowing open the door to the Repair Bay — which Grace likened to a psych ward (full, as it is, of erratic and defective robots). The inmates flee the asylum, and much chaos ensues.

EVE, perhaps attempting to limit the damage caused, attempts to send WALL-E home on an escape pod, but he playfully foils the attempt, at first. However, AUTO's assistant bot (GO-4), interrupts them. As they hide, GO-4 places the plant in the escape pod, and AUTO's duplicity is revealed. WALL-E attempts to retrieve the plant and winds up getting shot out into space on the pod, which EVE pursues. The pod has been set to self-destruct, and WALL-E narrowly escapes, by making use of a fire extinguisher to provide himself with thrust in the emptiness of space. EVE catches up with him, relieved at his survival — and her relief turns to joy when he reveals that he has also saved the plant. A visually and emotionally astounding sequence ensues, in which two separate scenes are intercut. Axiom's captain has had his imagination awakened, and has been researching Earth in the ship's computer — he is studying the idea of a "ho-down" and the activity called "dancing", which the computer mechanistically defines…while outside, WALL-E and EVE swoop, twist, dive, and (yes) dance through space.

And it is this event that Mary is observing when she breaks John out of his stupor; seeing the beauty of the moment as the two robots soar playfully past the window she is at, she desires to share it with someone, and grabs the first passer-by she sees — John (voiced, of course, by John Ratzenberger). Dale Price thinks there might be a none-too-subtle metaphor there, and I have to admit I share his opinion:

I think there is a Jesus/Baptism metaphor in Wall-E's encounters with Mary and John, both of whom the robot wakes from their waking, disconnected slumber.

"We have a pool?"

They go to the pool and are changed. They feel real joy for the first time in their lives. They ignore the "no splashing" command from the robot supervisor. They rescue the falling children when the Axiom tilts. In other words, after going to the pool, the two of them stay in Reality — the True, the Good and the Beautiful — and never return Plato's cave (to homogenize my metaphors). Siloam, anyone?

Perhaps more interesting (and Price notes this as well) is the subtle insinuation that it is the union in purpose of man and woman that is necessary to make the world work. In safeguarding and delivering the plant, WALL-E and EVE have to work together, supporting one another both in action and in love. It's a quiet statement, but I think it speaks to the real necessity of the presence of both mothers and fathers, working together for the good of who, and what, is to come. It is on such a unity that society depends, and in the absence of that awareness there is found only ruin.

WALL-E and EVE attempt to deliver the plant to the captain, and for a few minutes are able to do so. His heart and eyes filled with idyllic images from the computer's archives, the captain demands to see EVE's recorded images from her excursion on Earth, and is shocked by the devastation he sees. This cements his desire to return to Earth, in what Rod Dreher notes is a curious, but meaningful, inversion of Genesis:

…the robot Eve is now bearing an "apple" — a temptation to the people to defy the prime directive of their false god, and to become human once again by choosing life, not mere existence.

AUTO, however, attempts to fulfill his directive, damaging WALL-E and consigning him, EVE, and the plant to the waste disposal facility of the ship. EVE, prior to this, has seen her own security footage from her inactive state on Earth, and in particular has seen all WALL-E did to protect and care for her whilst she was awaiting pick-up. Moved with love, she ignores her own directives (to secure the plant and bring it again to the captain) to care for WALL-E, attempting to repair the severe damage he has sustained. It's a heart-wrenching scene, as he struggles over to the plant she has discarded and puts it again in her care; it is more important that humanity be made free again.

A brief battle ensues between the rogue robots and AUTO's automata, as EVE and the all-but-failing WALL-E (along with MO) attempt to fight their way to a platform in the middle of the ship, into which the plant must be inserted to prompt the Axiom to return to Earth. AUTO attempts to prevent this by pitching the ship and endangering the human population (which allows for another great bit of imagery involving Mary & John, who join hands and move to save a group of babies from a plunge). To the amazement of all, the ship's captain rises to his own feet and fights back against AUTO, ultimately deactivating him and giving EVE the opening she needs to get the plant into the waiting platform, which has all but crushed WALL-E as he has attempted to hold it open against AUTO's attempts to close it.

The Axiom returns to Earth, and the humans disembark to find the world in its still-ruined state. EVE, frantic, takes WALL-E back to his "house" and attempts to repair him. When he boots up (using the Macintosh startup sound, it should be noted), however, he compacts some of his prized collections into a cube, and then sets out to go on compacting trash; it appears that he has reverted to factory spec. EVE is now in pursuit of him, trying to do something — anything!! — to re-awaken his love. Which, of course, she does, "kissing" (bumping heads and prompting a static spark) him as she hums a romantic tune from Hello Dolly. The Axiom's captain sets the plant in the ground, proudly proclaiming the act as an example of farming for the benefit of some nearby children, and the film closes (though not before showing another iconic image of Mary & John, in a shared embrace, bearing and surrounded by children — like the beloved disciple and the Mother of God at the foot of the Cross, they have become like a new Adam & Eve).

Peter Gabriel's Down to Earth is the music over the closing credits, which are a short film unto themselves, displaying images of humanity and robots working together to restore and renew the Earth. Rod Dreher notes another inversion of Genesis in this:

In the film's most meaningful iconic image, the Tree of Life on the new earth grows out of an old work boot. You'll recall that when Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden, Adam was cursed for his sin by being condemned to draw his sustenance from the very Earth from which he was drawn. God says to Adam, "In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return." (Gen. 3:19) In "Wall-E," humanity discovers that it can only complete its own given nature through labor — first agricultural labor, then the labor of building cities. You have to sit through the brilliant end credits to watch the future of civilization on Earth after the final scene of the film. You see that people renew the face of the Earth through their own labor, and by taking responsibility for themselves, instead of being passive consumers, wards of the corporate state.

It's in this last scene that the message of WALL-E becomes rather more clear. The sequence of images mirrors the evolution of art throughout history, starting with cave paintings and progressing through hieroglyphics and a few different **** of painted art, finally ending up at 8-bit graphics. The story which is told in the credits shows humanity and robots working together, at every stage, in the mission to renew the Earth — and that most iconic image of all (suggested above) is of WALL-E and EVE standing at the base of a massive tree, after which the artwork pans downward to reveal a root system that converges…into an old boot.

Technology is not the villain, nor is humanity, in this amazing movie. The villain, if any can be pointed out, is disordered desires and an abuse of technology. It is one thing, WALL-E seems to assert, to use technology in its proper place (that is: when it is used by humanity in a way that augments and assists, but does not supplant, our working and our leisure) — it is another thing entirely to allow technology to assume full control over every responsibility. WALL-E praises hard work, and rebukes laziness and sloth.

And above all, the movie is about love — real, genuine, self-sacrificing, innocent love. WALL-E's desire for love motivates him to step way beyond the bounds of his programming, and his attempts to capture EVE's affections are almost tear-jerkingly beautiful for how very real they seem; the people at Pixar have done an amazing job at putting a very realistic look at the romance between a man and a woman onto the big screen. WALL-E goes to great lengths to safeguard and look out for the slumbering EVE, and when this is revealed to her it changes everything for her — she, too, steps outside her programming and goes after this undying, powerful love.

Which is in keeping with the director's vision:

…what really interested me was the idea of the most human thing in the universe being a machine because it has more interest in finding out what the point of living is than actual people. The greatest commandment Christ gives us is to love, but that's not always our priority. So I came up with this premise that could demonstrate what I was trying to say — that irrational love defeats the world's programming. You've got these two robots that are trying to go above their basest directives, literally their programming, to experience love.

With the human characters I wanted to show that our programming is the routines and habits that distract us to the point that we're not really making connections to the people next to us. We're not engaging in relationships, which are the point of living — relationship with God and relationship with other people.

And it really is the most innocent sort of love, the sort of love that should be more common in the world than it is.

It's also a very quiet, contemplative movie. There are very few lines of dialogue in the first thirty (or so) minutes of the film, and what few lines are spoken are drawn from a pool of no more than ten words or so. And yet, the movie is never boring, and never lags. That is perhaps one more bit of magic, that in our disinterested day and age Pixar has managed to put together a movie that can hold even the most attention-deficient person captive in its nearly-silent spell for a good thirty to forty minutes, using only the gestures of a couple of robots and a cockroach to communicate potent truths.

moar funny pictures

Vote for it!

more cat pictures

Oh. My. Goodness. The irony here is just too delicious:

A GROUP of glamour lesbians who believe the world was created by an alien civilisation 25,000 years ago have criticised the Catholic Church for being out of touch.

The representatives of the Gay Raelian society yesterday staged a demonstration outside Parliament House to protest the Pope's arrival for World Youth Day next week.

Best. Opening. Lines. Ever.

Here's a few more pictures from Canada Day in Edmonton, mostly for the benefit of Mr. Bobbypin, whose internet filter evidently has been thwarting his efforts to view the complete set.

Enjoy!

I'm currently installing and configuring Windows 98 under Virtual PC 6 on my Mac G4 Powerbook, so that I can play Twinsen's Odyssey again. And also its prequel, Relentless.

I don't know why I'm doing this, entirely — Odyssey was a great game with a groundbreaking engine for its time, but it was also a rather frustrating exertion at times; there are parts of the game that I'm almost certain I won't be able to pass. It is a hard game, for the most part.

Still, the attempt may well be the reward in and of itself, and certainly there are some enjoyable parts to the game. And as I've never played the prequel to Odyssey, Relentless, the whole experience should be doubly enjoyable.

Or, you know, incredibly frustrating.

Anyhow, Virtual PC isn't exactly a speed demon (although the game is old enough that one doesn't need huge amounts of horsepower to run it well), but it's a darn sight better than DOSBox for this sort of application, and I actually don't have any problems with using it. It's a tad odd to see Windows running on what is obviously an older Macintosh computer (not one of those sweet new Core 2 rigs), but hey...for some games, it's worth it.

I finally finished editing the photos I took of the fireworks in Edmonton, Alberta, for Canada Day.

Here's a sample:

You can view all 89 photos in my personal gallery, starting here.

more cat pictures