Wright or Wrong?

In 1961, a young African-American man, after hearing President John F. Kennedy's challenge to, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," gave up his student deferment, left college in Virginia and voluntarily joined the Marines.

In 1963, this man, having completed his two years of service in the Marines, volunteered again to become a Navy corpsman. (They provide medical assistance to the Marines as well as to Navy personnel.)

The man did so well in corpsman school that he was the valedictorian and became a cardiopulmonary technician. Not surprisingly, he was assigned to the Navy's premier medical facility, Bethesda Naval Hospital, as a member of the commander in chief's medical team, and helped care for President Lyndon B. Johnson after his 1966 surgery. For his service on the team, which he left in 1967, the White House awarded him three letters of commendation. What is even more remarkable is that this man entered the Marines and Navy not many years after the two branches began to become integrated.

While this young man was serving six years on active duty, Vice President Dick Cheney, who was born the same year as the Marine/ sailor, received five deferments, four for being an undergraduate and graduate student and one for being a prospective father.

Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both five years younger than the African-American youth, used their student deferments to stay in college until 1968. Both then avoided going on active duty through family connections.

Who is the real patriot? The young man who interrupted his studies to serve his country for six years or our three political leaders who beat the system? Are the patriots the people who actually sacrifice something or those who merely talk about their love of the country?

After leaving the service of his country, the young African-American finished his final year of college, entered the seminary, was ordained as a minister, and eventually became pastor of a large church in one of America's biggest cities.

This man is Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the retiring pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ.

thanks to Cathi for the find!

What Is Emerging?

The New Religious Landscape:



this is from the blog over there in the bar called Emergent Village, a great source. Tony is a great source and expert on all the different types of "emerging." I really enjoyed this. Tony asks his own stunning (rhetorical) question: “What do we do with the robots when they show up at the church doors?!

I consider myself a emergent. Get the context and then dialog with others about. Gather around the tribal fire and tell stories and try to figure out one another's lives. Great video! Check it out!

Life Lessons in a Flower Pot

thanks to all the pollsters who want to hear more personal experience... great suggestion! i'll have to start covering that more in my blog posts. now i shall begin my third post for this week, sorry if i'm overwhelming y'all out there...

i operate on the assumptions that there is no such thing as secular and there is no such thing as coincidence. i'm really into synchronisity. being attuned to the ever transmitting divine help you see the world as illuminated.

here's personal experience that highlights this: Last night someone stole a clay flower pot that i had decorated. i painted it and dremelled out a design in the clay and WOW was it awesome. i spent a lot of time on it and now it's gone. well such is life as well. you spend a lot of time in life only to have it be gone all too soon. i miss that pot. i storm off and pray and then start to feel strangely humbled that someone else saw the beauty in it! i'm sad that the person couldn't ask me to make them one but will be happy to offer that if i ever find out who took it.


a traditional route would be to declare that person a sinner and a thief and actively hunt them down for retributive violence.. directly ignoring the life and teachings of Jesus. this is mimetic theory in action, the retributive violence that only perpetuates and reciprocates, never solving anything.

now as i walk around i am looking for this pot. i'm noticing a lot of cool stuff too! the trees in bloom, the layout of garden'n, and other ppl's pots (OPP?). I'm out noticing God's good work, how people beautify their environment, and i'm considering the lilies. i also recognize that i had a pot to plant it in the first place (Just read Jessica's post about those who don't even have that!)

hope this rant is of some light and some coherence on how i see the world. i hope this helps you, dear reader, to recognize that the water in which we swim is divine.

;-) keep rawk'n out!

I Serve no Priestly Role

Kate's family has been going to the Flying ~E~ ranch since the late-70s.
This year was my 5th venture forth and it was just as awesome as the others.

but it was different. why?

we usually go the week after easter, but because of seminary, i had to go the week before.. so our family and friends weren't there as in past years. PLUS it was the first time at the ranch as a future pastor.

i didn't think it would have been as big of a deal as it was. people came up to me and would ask me about what i believed about this or that. what they really wanted to do is talk about what they believed, so i wouldn't answer and pose the question back on them. this worked great as they already had the answer! now most of these answers were the exact OPPOSITE of what i believed.

but i wasn't going to tell them that.

i listened nicely. added where i could, questioned where i should, and then let it ride. i learned that when it comes to meeting people, it's best to listen and be mush.

there's a King of the Hill Episode where Hank (the Dad) sends Bobby (the son) to Cotton’s (the crazy grandpa who was WWII) old military academy, where Cotton tries to break the boy’s spirit.

HANK: I told you it wasn't easy. You didn't believe me, did you?
COTTON: I guess he was just born a pile of mush.
HANK: Well, I guess you could say that, but maybe mush isn't so bad. You can keep stomping on it, but it's all give. It just stays mush. You can't build it up, but you can't break it down either. In a funny way, mush has the edge.






mush gets all the chicks.






Mush also doesn't have stress nor does it judge others for holding particular views. Mush bids its time, listens, and if people want to actively investigate their theology, tell ask you. Kate and I made some great friends who did just that. they bid their time and asked as well and didn't get hyper or offended.

imagine a world that didn't get hyper, didn't draw boundary lines, that listened to each other's wisdom and views on the world. imagine, it's easy if you try.

Mimetic Theory in Action

Hey y'all, remember that scary Mimetic Theory i talked about in this post and this other post?

Well since I will now point out daily applications of what i post about, i figured i'd start here. The best instance of Mimetic Theory can be found the best show on TV today... BATTLESTAR GALACTICA!

Remember when Lee gives an empassioned speech in defense of Baltar? That's Mimetic Theory!

Lee points out a string of incidents, some involving himself, where people were forgiven for serious crimes, and defends those decisions, arguing that humanity is not a real civilization anymore. Adama thinks that executing Baltar for actions that he couldn't really prevent is not justice, and that Baltar is just the Fleet's scapegoat for everyone's misdeeds and failures on New Caprica. The speech plays a major role in Baltar's subsequent acquittal.

I couldn't find a video of Lee's speech, but you can listen to it here!



GO WATCH BATTLESTAR! IT'S THE BEST, MOST RELEVANT SHOW ON TV!!!!

The Wife Says...

i need to write shorter posts. sorry for the long one's y'all... i have a poll up on the site here to the left of your screen, let me know what you want to know more of! or if you have a suggestion, email or post a comment here on the blog.

i look forward to your suggestions, dear readers. i'm thankful for the dialogue we've generated and hope you all are as enriched as i am.

thank you from the deepest chambers of my heart.

The New Testament Class

Dudes.. seriously.. you gotta get a book called The New Testament; A Historical Introduction to Early Christianity by Bart D. Ehrman. Bart also wrote "Misquoting Jesus" which i also highly recommend. why do i loooove this book/class so much? well it really helps bring into focus the historical world of Jesus. Here are some thoughts from the book:

Many christians today think that there was once ONE christianity in the first century and that the splits (i.e. the many denominations) of christianity are a modern invention. NOT so. There were at least 4 types, if not more. we had the Jewish-Christian Adoptionist that thought Jesus was not himself divine but his message was. Calling Jesus God was a blasphemous lie. They liked the gospel of Matthew and thought Paul was a heretic.

The Marcionite Christians on the other hand LOVED Paul and thought that Jesus was Divine and NOT human. Marcionites believed that the Jewish god was evil and Jesus came to save us from this god. Marcion (the leader) actually went further and put together a "canon" or standard books. Their bible was a shortened version of Luke and ten truncated letters of Paul with NO Hebrew Scriptures.

There were the Gnostics who believed that there was a special knowledge that is necessary for salvation. Salvation meant escaping from this material world. Jesus was fully human but yet was entered into by another entity known as the CHRIST at his baptism. therefore jesus was two beings. Gnostics were also polytheists believing that there were at least 32 different gods and some even believed there were 365 gods and each one controlled one day. They had their own writings, namely the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Mary, Gospel of Truth, and the GOSPEL OF JOHN. Yes, that's right, John is a Gnostic gospel.

Proto-Orthodox christians claimed that it's views had always been the majority position and that it's rivials (meaning all you've just read about) were heretics. They later became the dominant form. They accomplished this by taking everyone else's major gospels, namely matthew, mark, luke and john and claiming that these held the real authority. these christians argued that jesus was both divine and human and was one being instead of two. by accepting all scriptures as authorities they were able to claim that both perspectives were right and showed their emphasis was correct and that argue'n that Jesus was ONLY human or ONLY divine was a perversion of the truth.

so that's how the New Testament emerged, namely out of conflicts from these groups. and we've been debate'n the acceptance of what books should be in the bible ever since. there were some popular ones like the shepherd of hermas that didn't make it. Revelation was the MOST disputed book, but somehow made it in. It was not until the year 367 C.E. (almost two and a half centuries after the last n.t. book was written) that the 27 book N.T. canon was accepted.

another thing to think about is the gap between writing. Mark was prolly the first Gospel written about Jesus... it was written 30 to 40 years after the death of Jesus. This would be like having the first written record of the Eisenhower presidencey appear today. There is also NO written reference to Jesus or his followers in pagan literature toay from the first century of the common era.

crazy facts for a crazy world. now we don't have to say "i wanna go back to that one time christianity" when we never had it. even the early church set up was split between 5 major ancient cities. gotta love history, it's so crazy interesting!

Who did I see this past Monday?

you betcha!

Pearls before Swine

Importance of Context

Postcolonialism is one of those university words... it deals with cultural identity in colonised societies: the dilemmas of developing a national identity after colonial rule; the ways in which writers articulate and celebrate that identity (often reclaiming it from and maintaining strong connections with the coloniser); the ways in which the knowledge of the colonised (subordinated) people has been generated and used to serve the coloniser's interests; and the ways in which the coloniser's literature has justified colonialism via images of the colonised as a perpetually inferior people, society and culture.

I am a postcolonialist. The short of this translates to: i'm trying to renounce my white priviledge. "Hi i'm luke! what's your favorite color?! i see your skin is different than mine, do you identify primarily through this medium or do you prefer i deal with you on an individual level?" There are no inferior people, just people in different contexts. The point is to dialog about those context and see the similarities! imagine what we could learn! imagine the different ways of viewing the world that we could learn and in turn use these to help solve problems in our own contexts! awesome huh?

the opposite of this view is colonialist. no one will identify as this, but i see a TON of this popping up recently. a colonialists believes that their country is the greatest and all other countries must measure up to their standard. for example, US colonialism would hold that white, male, middle to upper-class capitalist that is religiously nondenominational Prostestant is the standard to be measured by.

the biggest instance in current events is the whole blow up on the Barack Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright's 2001 comments where he stated "God damn America!" people are jumping up and down about this.. people are asking me what my thoughts are.. here they are:

someone claimed that Obama is “as a man and member of the Elite social-economic class Senator Obama has no sense of what working class men or women suffer, survive, and live through daily”

he’s not. please read his background. he's actually quite poor compared to every other politician out there...

as for the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.. please listen to his whole speech in context and read what Black Liberation Theology means. it mainly means that it is Afro-centric but not Afro-supremists. Why don't we have White Liberation Theology? Because we don't need it in this country! The majority of theology in America is white. What would we be liberated from? Keep that in mind while you view the whole speech! enjoy!



Do you see the postcolonialist message in here?

This whole mess is started because a man, Obama, was raised by a white mother and self-identifed as a black man and went to a progressive black church. this is what it is. what we’re dealing with is race issues on both sides and white priviledge is being confronted. white people don't like having to remember the fact that they were generally shitty to people of color despite the fact they had "All Men are Created EQUAL" in the bill of rights since the late 1700s and still haven't lived up to it yet (although there have been some improvements).

now that you have the context... what do you think?

Wook at dat Face

hey y'all! we're off in AZ for vacation, i'll see ya on the 24th. i leave you with this moral: Don't Be Evil.

Rawk!

Not Playing God

from Dietrich Bonhoeffer Life Together:
"God did not make others as I would have made them. God did not give them to me so that i could dominate and control them, but so that i might find the creator by means of them... God does not want me to mold others into the image that seems good to me, that is, into my own image. Instead, in their freedom from me, God made other people in God's own image. I can never know in advance how God's image should appear in others and two others. That image always takes on a completely new and unique form."

Bonhoeffer points something out here vitally important to us, esp. to ministers. this is something i should have tattooed over my heart and on my forehead. others aren't a roadblock to God, they're the super highway. I've seen recently too many "christians" say things like "I just hope you find the true Christ." or "i hope you're striken to your knees and find christ as we've found him" or "there is only one way"...

how many people are on this planet? a few billion. good. each one is a different way to God. you can learn something different from each. take away the notion of "only those who actively come in the name are the only ones worth paying attention to" because that's just short-sighted. God isn't the most obvious, infact God is very subtle. there are better ways than a sunrise to let people know that you're there, but that's the method i see God reminds us everyday that God's there... discard notions of secular.. there's no such thing. God is everywhere. The trick is to be atuned to seeing God and finding God in unexpected places.

We do not have control of one another.. as a pastor i don't WANT control over others. i want to enter into dialog and see how that reflects back on us both... let's look at the strange feedback loop we've created.

BUT it's ALWAYS been done that way

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, all of the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result, and all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon the monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be attacked.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth.

Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey. After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana.

Why not? Because as far as they know, that’s the way it’s always been done.

Do you believe that story? Would you tell it to someone else as true? I asked my source if the experiment had been ever done, and she did not know. So far as she knew, it was just a story that makes a lot of sense. If repeated enough times, soon "everybody" will believe it, and it will become part of the culture. Is that the way popular acceptance of the litany came about?

If you had lived in Caesar's time (d. 44 BCE), would you have believed in Roman gods because "everybody" did? (Actually, not everybody did).

If you had lived in France in 1572 (Bartholomew Massacre), would you have believed that everyone had to adhere to the same religion, or the nation would fall apart?

If you had lived in Italy in Galileo's time (1564-1642), would you have believed the sun moves around the earth?

If you had lived in Salem, MA, in 1692, would you have believed in witchcraft?

So, what's different about 2001 to present?

this was to present a myth in modern language.. we here in the modern world tend to equate fact with truth.. this study never has happened but it relays a truth about the world. so the follow up question is can something be true but not factual? for more on this, just check out the tag-link: Truth NOT Fact.

The First Day of Your Life

This is the first day of your life, but i just thought that you should know.... i could go anywhere with you and i'd be happy, these things there's no telling, we'll just have to wait and see.

but i'd rather be working for a paycheck than waiting to win the lottery.



Happy Birthday Reverse Babe! 2-28-80 to 2-28-08

Let's Not and Say We Did

From We Make the Road by Walking by Myles Horton and Paulo Freire page 29:

(A missonary came in)... who was telling how many souls he saved in africa and i was impressed with that. i thought that was great, saving souls, until he says the ones that i didn't save are going to hell. i said wait a minute. somethings wrong with this kind of thinking. he said if they're told about christ and don't accept him, then they go to hell but if they aren't told, they don't go to hell because they aren't responsible. so i did a little mental arithmetic, at which i was very poor but good enough for this purpose, and figured out how many people he was damning to hell.

The more i thought about that the more incensed i got at this whole procedure, damning these people to hell. The missionary had a discussion period and all these people were asking theological questions. So i asked him an arithmatic question. I asked, "How many people have you sent to hell? According to your analysis, for every person you've saved, you've sent hundreds to hell. Why, wouldn't it have been better if you'd stayed home, there'd be more people in heaven if you had stated home?"

Well, the people were furious.

+++++++++++++++

This book is the coolest! Go out and get it! Anyone who is a teacher, knows a teacher, or has ever been taught by a teacher! great read!

i was once like this missionary. from ages 12-16 i was very zealous and fundie in my doctrine. hard to believe now, but i believe this was out of my fear and ignorance of the world outside my catholic, smalltown context.

over the past few months i've been in a convo with a guy who still holds the fundie doctine. due to my christian leanings of "witnessing" and also thinking of my own faith journey, i thought that this dialogue would show ignorance and fear and maybe get this guy to convert, or at the very least, check out something outside of where he was looking.

the convo lasted until kate read it and found that this wasn't a dialogue at all but a pissing match. it was as if i was talking to a wall. him as well! i'm not blameless here either! it was an air of "screw the facts, my mind is made up!" on either side. i saw him as an ignorant fundie who just didn't know better and he saw me as a know-it-all agnostic who is trying to be a christian. well i'm a christian, i know that. as for a know-it-all, i hope i don't come across that way on here.. i'm just sharing cool stuff i've learned here. i'm still very much struggle'n and learning and always will be!

this convo proved fruitful however. i've learned a lot and here are some lessons i hope to share:

1. never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups reading books by authors designed to get stupid people to buy them and make a profit. Ann Coulter, James Dobson, and Richard Dawkins come to mind.

2. ignorant ppl will stay ignorant no matter how many book recommendations you make.

3. i'm a fundie as well... that's right, i've said it! i'm very much a fundamentalist.. with a twist on the word of course. i believe that you should love God, your neighbor and yourself, period. you fundamentally don't have to be christian to do this. if you are currently doing this in a non-christian capacity, you're covered.

How does this work biblically?
jesus said he was the way the way, the truth, and the life. can't get to the Father without him. if you're jewish and worshipping the Father, and jesus and the father are infact one and the same, you're covered.

if you're on the WAY of loving God, neighbor or self and think God is called Allah/Shiva/or even think God is within or in others, you're covered since THE WAY and jesus are one and the same.

if you're alive and jesus is THE LIFE then you're covered if you're following said love of God, neighbor, self.

when you boil my beliefs down, this is what it is. very simplistic, just like me ;-). my fundamental creed. the rest is just doctrine.

The Possibilities of Each Word

I love my Jewish Commentary Class. This could be one of the most important classes i take here at seminary. I took the class because the weekend before registration Kate and i attended Jason and Lindsay's wedding. For those of you who don't know, J&L are jewish as many of our closest friends are. Kate and I always joke that we must have a "jewish magnetism" as we seem to be easy friends with jewish people. so i took the class mostly in respect to our friends and also to find out more about how the Jewish Tradition reads the Bible.

This class is to help build a dialogue between the Christian and Jewish Traditions and is sponsored by the Jewish-Chautauqua soceity. It is taught by a local Lancaster Rabbi, Rabbi Jack.

First off, there is no one Jewish way. There are at least 20 different theologies. As my teacher, Rabbi Jack says, "If you put 10 rabbi's in a room you'll have 12 different opinions." So when asking what Jews believe, most rabbi's will answer "Such and Such synagoge believes..." or "some jews believe..." About the only core beliefs that cross all gaps would be that
1. Jews are children of Israel/Jacob.
2. God is one and never separated and has never come to earth.
3. The Torah is very important for cultural and identity reasons.

Jews do not accept things "just because." Must have room for debate. Jews wrestle at the core.. in fact the name "Israel" means "to wrestle with God" (El being the word for God). Why wrestle? Well if you've every seen a Greco-Roman wrestling match, you'll note that wrestling is an intimate event. One must know how the opponent's body is positioned and what strategy that person is trying to use to get out of or put you into a hold. aside from sex, this is about as intimate as you're going to get. This is great for christians to learn to because a lot of christians seem to accept things JUST BECAUSE or BECAUSE THEY"VE ALWAYS BEEN THAT WAY. the world is sand. things have never ALWAYS been anyway. the world is in constant flux. The Jewish tradition seems to get that. Plus how they look at the Bible is at a much more complex level than what i'm used to looking at... here's some few examples:

what is the first commandment? well, the first one isn't from exodus.. it's from genesis where God tells Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiple. okay, what's the first one of the ten commandments? "I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt..." PROBLEM>>> IT'S NOT COMMANDING ANYTHING! The Hebrew word for the 10 Commandments is literally translated as the 10 Utterances/Sayings. Someone had to decide that God was commanding in the first place.

How does the bible begin? Christians would say "In the Beginning..." but the Hebrew words are literally translated "When God began to create..." Reason: There is NO beginning to God. God has always been in Jewish thought and creation happened when God decided to start. If you look at the hebrew word, the first word is Berashet..The rabbi's make a big deal over this because the Bible doesn't start with an "A". Why does it start with a B the rabbi's ask... Well in Hebrew the "B" looks like "]", and when reading from right to left, you'll notice that the ] creates a barrier. So the A has always been but we are cut off from it and could not possibly have knowledge of it nor could we comprehend it. What happened before creation is not for us to know.

Intense right?! I LOVE it!

The another point is that when you're reading the Bible you're reading at least 4 forms of commentary right off the bat.

1. Original biblical script had no puncuation. adding puncuation is commentary. For example Jack told a story about a Rabbi and his date going to a tennis court. There was a sign that said "STUDENTS ONLY NO VISITORS" and the date refused to play on the court. The rabbi then said, "No, No, you're reading it wrong. It says 'Students only? NO! Visitors!" Legend has it that these two played tennis and later married and lived happily ever after.

2.Original biblical script had no vowels. adding vowels is commentary. for example: GDSNWHR. let's add some vowels to make it GODISNOWHERE. How do you read that? God is now here or God is no where? problematic right?

3. Translation is commentary. In Genesis it says that God's RUAK hovers over the still waters of the earth. RUAK can be translated as spirit, wind, or breath. which one do we pick? our class voted for spirit. Jack then asked, is the S capital or lower case? our class voted for capital S. Jack then said "I'm not surprised, you're Christians and believe in the Holy Spirit with capital letters... we Jews don't, so it's a lower case s in our Torah..." which leads to the fourth level:

4. Your theology affects the way you read the bible. Throughout the hebrew bible and even in the christian scriptures we have Jesus and many others saying that "God is ONE!" (Behold, the Lord your God who has brought you out of Eygpt is ONE). Many Christians overlook these passages as it does not line up with their theology of a Trinitarian God.

On top of all of this, the Rabbi's also have developed the MIDRASH which are collections of stories to help explain the bible. this sounds like heresy to most christians as we tend just to think of what the bible says but ignore what the bible DOESN'T say. Midrash stories fill in the blanks in the bible. for example, what does Cain say to Able before killing Able in the field? my christian bible says "let us go into the field" and then Cain rises up and kills his brother. the Torah has empty quotes. it literally says Cain said to his brother, "" and then rose up and killed his brother. there are a THOUSAND Midrash stories that talk about what exactly was said between the two brothers. My favorite is the story of how Cain talks about how Able has "one up'ed" him. you see, Cain INVENTED sacrifice as a means of being thankful to God. Able, like any younger sibling comes along and steals the idea and does it just a little bit better. Cain is jealous and accidentally kills Able. you see the hebrew word used here is not the word for "MURDER" which would be killing with intent (which is the same as the commandment, thou shall not murder). the hebrew word here is for KILL which can be translated as manslaughter, accidental, which is the word used for executions and what soliders do in battle.

how cool huh? i'm going to love this class as it takes my biblical studies to a whole new level. it invites study and play within the text. the reason to look for inconsistences and invent stories about them is to help us find our own realities in the texts. something i'm looking forward to doing here this semester!

Now for something completely different...

I did this survey way back when and thought it'd be sweet to do it again! you can do it too! this is my half-assed appology for laying a heady theory on y'all... so now is time for fun! join in, won't you?

just a quick note, this is Kate and my iTunes list... so don't be surprised..

IF A MOVIE WAS MADE OF YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?

So, here's how it works:

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, etc).
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press play.
4. For every question type the song that's playing.
5. When you go to a new question press the next button.

Ready?

***

Opening Credits:
Honey, Honey- From the Mama Mia Sountrack

Waking Up:
Take a Walk by Spoon (great song to wake up to! "come up, take'n a walk with you!")

Falling In Love:
While the Cold Winter Waiting by Trentemoller (that would be one depressed love affair!)

Fight Scene:
Give my love to Rose by Johnny Cash... damn sad fight.. or at least an after fight sound.. DUDE I KILLED A GUY! EEEEKK!!

Breaking Up:
Nobody's Home by Urlich Schnauss (good one for a breakup!)

Making up:
Marching Bands of Manhattan by Deathcab for Cutie.. good one iTunes! ("i'd make your name sing, go through the alleys and bounce off of the buildings")

Life's Okay:
Chocolate Jesus by Tom Waits

Mental Breakdown:
I slept with someone in fallout boy and all i got was this song written about me by Fallout Boy ("my conscience is calling in sick again")

Driving:
It's your Love by Tim McGraw (that causes me to drive far, far away?!)

Flashbacks:
This Train Don't Stop here Anymore by Elton John (wow!)

Happy Dance:
You Give Me Something by Jamiroquai

Regretting:
The Crazy One by the Brindley Brothers ("you wonder if anyone here is on your side.. i am and i say you're not the crazy one")

Final Battle:
I'll See you when we're both not so emotional by American Football

Death Scene:
Say it Right by Nelly Furtado ("you either stand or you fall" i guess i fell)

Ending Credits:
The Impression that I Get by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones ("have you ever been close to tragedy or been close to folks who have?")

BONUS! The Sex Scene: Poor Leno (Istanbul take forever) by Royksopp from the Live Album

now what'd y'all get?! let me know and i'll check out the songs on iTunes.

The Old Way Trodden by the Victim

As Hellion stated, this theory is pretty scary. It rips the thin veil of civility off humanity and exposes a violent mechanism at work. Here's my way of remembering Mimetic Theory: People are always desire'n things. They form groups so their desire gaining is multiplied. Sole purposes of groups are to deny resources to other groups. Get it? The church role in this would be to be a group that doesn't act like a group... that acts counter to what a group is supposed to do. Groups like The Jaycees, Habitat For Humanity, OxFam, etc etc. all fight that.

So the point of Mimetic Theory is to stop violence. this would essentially put ppl like Rush, Bill O'Reilley, and Ann Dumpface Coulter out of their jobs of hating the "others" that make 'Merica bad. Can't villify the LGBT community as marriage was failing without their help, and we'd fail to see the connection between "ruining the institution of marriage" and allowing same-sex marriages. Just like the recession and unemployment being blamed on the "mexicans" who are supposedly taking all the jobs. we'd see it being more of a mix of corporations SENDING jobs away as well as Americans not wanting to do certain jobs...The picking of any victim, or "other" to solve the problem is ultimately arbitrary and the peace is short-lived.

Let's take a look at Job and Jesus through the lens of Mimetic Theory.

In his book Job the Victim of His People, Girard postulates that the story is very simple. Job was ostracized and persecuted by the people around him. He was the scapegoat of the community.

Job was once the idol of his people, a man who was successful, wealthy and powerful. He was emulated and desired. But this provoked rivalry first among his friends and then the people at large. In the end this process was mystified and Job's friends believe that he was the cause of his own misfortunes and seek his salvation. Job maintains his innocence through the whole book. He thinks God is persecuting him and thus refused to acquiesce in the process of victimage. This obsures the story then for what it really is argues Girard. The text obscures the guilt of the people and places the blame on God.

Like Job, Jesus is also made a scapegoat; an innocent who is first the admired hero of his people and then is the abject victim who is sacrificed to resolve social tensions. Like in this previous post, Jesus was subversive. Jesus endangers his society's security to the point where the leaders fear divine wrath. But unlike Job, Jesus refuses the accusations of his persecutors. The Gospels lay bare the scapegoat mechanism directly.

Jesus refuses to place responsibility for violence anywhere except on those who are its perpetrators. Did the Jews kill Christ? No. Did the Romans? It was a Roman style execution specifically for enemies of the state (the Jews would have stoned him). Jesus however, practices what he preached. He forgives his murderers and ends any furthering scapegoating (however the Church later picked up this practice!). Jesus simply enacts the logic of a God who refuses violence.

God is the victim and so cannot act as the persecutors, reciprocating their violence. God's response is completely contrary to human society and history, utterly pacific: return of forgiveness for violence.

some good references to read more on Mimetic Theory can be found at PreachingPeace.org under introductory articles... check it out! also check out Girard's library! it's fantastic and i neeeed to dive into more of it.

moving on to some personal current events, today starts the first day of the spring semester. i'm taking Intro to Education Ministries, Jesus and the Gospels, Intro OT part II, Pastoral Care, and Jewish Commentary with Rabbi Jack! I'm really excited to start! I'm also excited for spring.. it's like -5 here and Sonny's leaving little pee-sickles all over Lancaster. Can't wait until it warms up.

Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World

I've just started reading some essays by Rene Girard. I've been instructed to read this dude by a variety of sources including Bryce, whom i work with at the library. Girard is the creater of an idea, an idea so powerful that Girard finds it in the foundation of all others. But it's not really an idea, it's more a mechanism, a non-conscious working of the social body, operative everywhere in human history.

This is called Mimetic Theory. The structure of the theory goes something like this:
Desire is triangular as no one simply desires an object spontaneously, but learns the desire from another.
Conflict and rivalry then occurs over the desired object.
Death occurs. This fulfillment then is not the attaining of the object of desire but the denial of the rival.

Take for example the family. Girard basis this in the context of Freud's Oedipal desire. Freud thinks that the founding even of society was the collective murder of the father by the brothers in the primal horde. Guiltstricken by what they had done the brothers then divinized their father and denied themselves the very think for which they commited the patricide: the sexual use of the hordes females.

This is the fundamental truth hidden since the foundation of the world says Girard in his book Violence and the Sacred; the collective murder of an arbitrary victim. So the violence is then endless, obeying the simple law of mimetic reciprocation (vegeance). It was discovered somewhere down the line in this history that peace was re-established through finding and killing a single and common enemy to whom all attributed their misfortune. This simple event-killing of one by all- founds soceity, religion, and all other major social institutions. This is called the scapegoat mechanism.

Sometimes the scapegoat undergoes a transformation in death. Since the death brought peace, the murdered then becomes a saviour of the group. People then use ritual reenactments of the saving murder, which becomes the institution of sacrifice.

Such scapegoat murders can be applied to Jesus, MLK Jr., JFK, and more. Here we have the exact pattern Girard spoke of. Someone comes with a new revolutionary idea. These people are popular, fall from grace, and are then killed or assassinated. In death these people become the savior or to the least iconic.

But does this bring about a lasting peace? More on this later!

Self-Portrait

The Self-Portrait is the winner with 6 votes! Thanks everyone for voting and commenting. here's a quick run down of what it's about:

Self-Portrait
My customers at capitol were the first people to point out the resemblence not only in angular features but also in attitude between my dog and myself. sonny and i would sleep our whole lives through and be fine.. we like to play hard and when we're done, we're done. we're pretty laid back dudes. we enjoy walks and peeing on random trees.. okay maybe just sonny on the tree thing..

That cloud of craziness in the background shows all different types of groups fighting with each other not realizing that they're all connected.. even we ignore that fact and quabble over differences..

Art's meaning is in the hands of the viewer... This is just what i was trying to convey. If this doesn't match up with what you got out of the pic, then great! that's the beauty of art!

anyways.. i'm going back to posting some crazy theories and WEDNESDAY 2-6, a BIG one is gonna drop, so stay tuned for that.

Art Work

Okay readers! Now that I know I have some i'm going to ask a favor of y'alls. Right over to the right of your screen is a poll that closes next Tuesday.. just out of curiosity, i'd like to know your fav. art work of mine from the class Christianity and the Visual Arts.

The series can be viewed here, although many of you have already viewed it. Just let me know what's the favorite and then on Thursday i'll post the manifesto that goes along with all the works...

Thanks for your input.. and if you don't like any of them or if you want to prove your case of why you like/don't like the works, please please leave a comment! And you can't offend me, this is just out of curiosity on my part.

On a more personal note, this weekend we traveled back to our old stomp'n grounds in the DC area and spent time with the Jaycees, our awesome ex-neighbors, our church family, and our family in Springfield VA. It was so refreshing to catch up with everyone. We are so blessed to have such people in our lives. Our only regret is that we had such a small time to visit with everyone.

Anywho.. thanks for your input and i thank you in advance!

The Art Guild

I'm creating a new group here at the seminary... the LTS Artist Guild! You can find the blog here...

Here's the Manifesto:

In the spirit of the TH320, Christianity and the Visual Arts we seek to continue to use art as a medium to communicate the transcendent. We seek to awaken the mummified visual circuitry of the Protestant Tradition. Here is how we'll seek to do it:

Each month a theme will be given out and the members of this guild will compose an art work based on this theme. This artwork can be done in any medium and style. At the end of each month the art shall be posted here and discussed.

Pretty cool huh? Very excited to get it up and running!

Group Project

For our final group project in Christianity and the Visual Arts we had to create a worship space. We picked Lent. This is the 99.9% completed scene, the only difference being the candles were lit when everyone else walked through it. Ours was the most elaborate by far (someone even cried!). The cross is suspended and has barbed wire around it, if you can't see it in the video. The other groups did Advent, Pentecost and Easter. The Easter setup is at the end of our video that ours opened up into. I'd like to say this was planned, but it wasn't. Just goes to show there's no such thing as coincidence.

Past, Present, Future

Oil Pastel on Paper- Art based on Edward Hopper's Nighthawks

enjoy!

In The Name of Love

There once was a man who said, "Let's judge people not by the color of their skin but on the content of their character."

This man also wanted people with white skin and people with black skin to live together in peace, love, and justice.

They killed this man.

But how can you kill a dream?

And so it goes.

Christainity and the Visual Arts

Just started a class for my January term and it's all about art! yay! Coming from a Catholic background i'm used to seeing art in church... however i arrive at seminary to discover that protestants are rather unsure as to what to make of art. Protestants cited the following problems with art:
1. God revealed through words, as the Bible is just words! no pix.
2. Images are finite and cannot contain the infinite.
3. Pix are distracting.

I think this is rather strange as in my book a picture is worth a thousand words. Isn't most of our language visual anyway? It's raining cats and dogs, clean sweep, ballon payment, fragile economy, don't spill the beans, are you picking up what i'm putting down? Images convey meaning and we are visual beings before we're verbal.

We are a part of nature... we are animals. Our hearts beat, we are hot and cold, we are carbon based beings, we are effected by chemistry, we bleed, sweat, and digest our food. However we are also something else. We are spiritual beings as well. We cannot name it but there is that age-old nagging, that cosmic awareness of that Other. Other that is beyond or beneath or apart from reality. We cannot name it but we try. Augustine called it a certain restlessness. Tillich called it the depth dimension. Some call it transcendence, ultimate meaning, Truth, higher power, etc. We are driven by this mystery.

Flesh and Blood yet a Mystery that words cannot express. Art can.

Art can show the hidden. It can reveal that which cannot be explained, transcending the world not only of objects but also of facts and even ideas. This is the territory of image and symbol.

Sometimes i can't explain things.. but i could paint it for you. Like musicans can't tell you how they are feeling but they can play it on their instruments. Poets use language in much the same way. Art is our visual language that we must be conscious of. We can't stay on the margins, we must join in!

The Subversive Gospels

Let's transcend labels. Labels are useful but we too often confuse labels with the actual complex entities our labels describe. This is what i'm getting after rereading much of the Gospels. The Gospels are very shocking and subversive, and Jesus is asking us to get over our preconceived notions.

Here's an updated parable:
A Bible believing pastor of the largest church in the area meets with a confused teenage male. The pastor starts by saying "Dear Lord, thank you for this chance to witness to this young man. Thank you for helping me make up his mind."

The young man begins his own prayer, "Dear Lord, I don't know if i believe in virgin birth, bodily resurrection, or even if you exist as a personal being, but I thank you for the brain I have so that I can keep on searching for you." God heard the teenager's prayer!

This is a loose metaphor for what the Gospels are saying everytime Jesus talks to a Pharisee. The Pharisees were not the bad guys, as we think of them today, they were the ardent, honest scholars who faithfully believed. The Gospels are SHOCKING! Met to shake us out of our notions, overturn what we think is going to happen. Jesus upset the normal order! Jesus was like the teenager.

People who believe that they're already at their destination haven't even started yet. People who are humble enough to admit that they are searching are closer than they realize to the truth. Gospels original intention is to shock and overturn belief, not to reinforce it. The God of Jesus is the God of EVERYONE.

Further Reading:

The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus by Peter Gomes

Rule of Three:
Watching: 300
Reading: The Apocraphal Gospels
Listening: Jimmy Eat World: Futures

2007 was Heaven (save for that damn condo!)

1) DRINKING BUDDY OF THE YEAR-
Kate always gets this title... but the outside the marriage award goes to Jim and Linda!

2) LIFETIME SERVICE AWARD (longest friend) -
Jeremy Rober

3) NEWCOMER AWARD (newest friend)-
Dawn! Dawn gets the award cause i met her last!

3) HIGH POINT OF THE YEAR?
last day at capitol! first day of class!

4) LOW POINT OF THE YEAR?
not selling our condo...

5) BEST HOLIDAY?
Halloween

6) YOUR SONG FOR 2007?
Title Track- Death Cab for Cutie

7) MOVIE FOR 2007?
Children of Men and Stranger than Fiction

10) WHO DID YOU SPEND VALENTINES WITH?
Kate!

11) BEST RELATIONSHIP?
all of them!

12) WHAT WERE YOU FOR HALLOWEEN?
A vampire and a french horse jumping course designer (separately)

13) RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR?
Annie Bailey's

14) BOOKs OF THE YEAR?
A Walk in the Woods Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
Intro to Biblical Studies by Stephen Moiyse
God, Christ, Church, Intro to Process Theology by Marjorie Suchokie
Living Buddha, Living Christ by Nicht Naht Hann
A Storm of Swords- George R.R. Martin
Post Evangelical by Dave Tomlinson
and a ton of others i can't even think of yet!

15) BEST DECISION MADE THIS YEAR?
to go to seminary

16. BIGGEST PLANS FOR NEXT YEAR?
placement in a church and planning for a cross cultural adventure!

17) MOST STUPID IDEA WHEN DRUNK?!
pelting fellow classmates at the gala with hershey kisses

18) TV SHOW OF THE YEAR?
Battlestar Galatica and My Name is Earl

19) MOST LOYAL FRIEND?
Steve and Jim... the three amigos! Weaver

20) BIGGEST CHANGE OF THE YEAR?.
Promoted at work, quit work, went to school again! moved to Lancaster PA

21) BIGGEST RETARD AWARD?
me! here's to me drinking a beer that tasted like bananas and throwing it up the next day. i blame linda ;-)

22) NEW YEAR RESOLUTION?
transcend notions- be more understanding of where people are and learn how to interact better.

23) Best Sports Moments?
Seeing the Cavs, Indians, and Browns do really well.
Seeing Farve on an awesome team again!


24) CDs of 2007
Trentemoller's The Last Resort
The Deathcab Collection I picked up
Reggie and the Full Effect- Songs not to get Married to.
Bright Eyes- I'm wide awake, it's morning
The Dixie Chick's Taking the Long Way

here's the previous best of's: 2005, 2006

Happy Decemberween!

Love that Homestarunner!

Remember, Decemberween is inside all of us! So says all the nasty ol' puppets. But it's still not better than your hot cousin.

It's a real statement on what the season has become. Hopefully yours will be filled with friends and family and no one tell'n ya to "Shut up! To one and all o' dang y'all!"

Happy holidays to all!



how cool is that?!

Advent message from: David M. Griebner, Riverside UMC

"During Advent I have chosen to reflect on some gifts you cannot put on a credit card. Today’s message is about the gift of forgiveness. If I had the time I would love to ask each of you a question. Here’s the question: what do you do just because you are a follower of Jesus? What do you do that you really can’t explain to someone except to say, I did that because I love Jesus? It might be some act of kindness, or generosity, or perhaps could it be forgiveness? In many cases forgiveness is one of those things you just can’t explain. The world around us is much more about keeping score; forgiveness is about erasing the score. So I think forgiveness qualifies as something we might do just because we are following the way of Jesus."

What I learned my First Semester

Now that I’ve had a chance to process everything, I feel that I can truly reflect on this first semester. Like everything else in my life, I relate things to other things. In many cases, I relate things back to stories. Here I will relate my first semester with the movie The Matrix.

The film describes a future in which reality perceived by humans is actually the Matrix, a simulated reality created by sentient machines in order to pacify and subdue the human population while their bodies' heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source. Upon learning this, computer programmer "Neo" is drawn into a rebellion against the machines.

To get out of the Matrix and into the “real world,” Neo has to choose weather to take the red pill or the blue pill. Morpheus says, “You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”

The film as a whole and especially the choosing scene is deeply compelling. Why is the choice between what you believe you know and an unknown 'real' truth so fascinating? How could a choice possibly be made? On the one hand everyone you love and everything that you have built you life upon. On the other the promise only of truth. This first semester is this same invitation. We can take the blue pill and believe whatever we want to about faith, religion, and the Bible. Or we can take the red pill and wake up. Waking up presents a whole new realm of questions. We see the complexities of faith, religion, and the Bible. The red pill helps us wake up and realize that we’re in a matrix ourselves. We realize that we are in complex relationships and networks of beliefs. We are not an island, but plugged into culture and personal history. This realization is startling.

It is like the part in the movie where Morpheus says to Neo, “It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. The truth is that you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.”

We can become trapped in our assumptions about the world and react violently when they are challenged. We often make the assumption that our way is the best and only way. Seminary is causing us to look at these assumptions and realize that we filter things. We tend to hear what we want to and not necessarily what’s presented. Why take the red pill? Why then enter seminary?

The answer in short, is inquisitiveness. Many people throughout human existence have questioned and enquired. Most of them have not been scientists or doctors or philosophers, but simply ordinary people asking 'what if?' or 'why?' Asking these questions ultimately leads us to a choice. Do you continue to ask and investigate, or do you stop and never ask again? This in essence, is the question posed to Neo in the film.

So what are the advantages of taking the blue pill? As one of the characters in the film says, "ignorance is bliss" Essentially, if the truth is unknown, or you believe that you know the truth, what is there to question or worry about? By accepting what we are told and experience life can be easier. There is the social pressure to 'fit in', which is immensely strong in most cultures. Questioning the status quo carries the danger of ostracism, possibly persecution. This aspect has a strong link with politics. People doing well under the current system are not inclined to look favorably on those who question the system. Morpheus says to Neo "You have to understand that many people are not ready to be unplugged, and many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it." The system also has a place for you, an expected path to follow. This removes much of the doubt and discomfort experienced by a questioning person.

So if the arguments for the blue pill are so numerous, why take the red pill? Why pursue truth even though it may be unpalatable and the journey to it hard? In the film, Neo risks death to escape the virtual reality and discovers a brutal reality from which he cannot return. As he discovers the trouble with asking questions is that the answers are not necessarily what you want to hear. To justify taking the red pill we might ask what is the purpose of an ignorant existence? Further still, what is there in merely existing? Simply existing brings humans down to the level of objects; they might have utility or even purpose, but where is the meaning? Existence without meaning is surely not living your life, but just experiencing it. As Trinity says to Neo, "The Matrix cannot tell you who you are."

Seminary is teaching me to think in new ways. Sometimes I’m frustrated by the fact that others seem unwilling to do the same. I realize then that many people do not take joy in questions. They would rather be placated by answers, even if it were a false security. These blue pill takers may wish to seek the truth in a different way, or in a less mind jarring set of circumstances. They can choose the blue pill and not deny their consciousness, but to stop seeking the truth entirely would be to deny their consciousness.

As conscious minds we will always seek the truth. However, the choice over the red or blue pills is not solely a choice between whether to question or not, it is a personal choice on the method of discovering the truth. The question for me then is how to speak to the blue pill people from my position? How can I get people to understand that they are all plugged into a belief system, a culture, and a history? How best can I deal with my own and resist being realigned into another matrix?
These questions will drive my years here at seminary, and possibly the rest of my life.

I feel that Jesus is the Morpheus character calling us to transcend our limitations. Jesus wants to free our minds. His method is through loving God, neighbor and self. I really respond well with this message and hope to be a Neo in the cause.

CoExist comedy tour!

I gotta find out if this is coming to LTS. Maybe i can get the commitee on diversity to get these people here!

To Clarify the Mountain

i want to be completely honest with you... The last post was loooong and i mentioned a group who I don't entirely know. I don't want to come across as targeting this particular group, i was just citing an example of the opposite of my thinking and this is what i found. Events in my life have called me to take a stance on this issue and it was by no means an all out attack on Xenos... merely they had something in writing that others were verbally saying in my immediate environment. On a reread, I think i came down hard on this particular church that is doing a great good for a large amount of people in the c-bus area, one that my sister gets a lot of joy out of... i hope this clarifies why i don't share their view.

Thich Nhat Hanh, a veitnamese buddhist, wrote the last post in a much shorter and better phrased way.

"Truth has no boundaries. Most of the boundaries we have created are artificial. Our differences may be mostly differences in emphasis.

You are born into your tradition, and naturally you become a Buddhist or Christian. Buddhism or Christianity is part of your culture and civilization.You are familiar with your culture and appreciate the good things in it. You may not be aware that in other cultures and civilizations there are values that people are attached to. If you are open enough, you will understand that your tadition does not contain all truths and values. It is easy to get caught in the idea that salvation is not possible outside your tradition. A deep and correct practice of your tradition may release you from that dangerous belief."

from Living Buddha, Living Christ pages 154-155.

My good buddy Ron emailed me that to show more of the relativity of mathmatics. He states, "I did however want to let you know that 1+1 is not always 2 in mathematics. Sometimes 1+1=0 in mathematics. How you ask? It's binary addition. It's what makes the switches and electronic stuff in your house work. Thought you might like that little bit of that inside information to blow your mind some more."

how cool is that?! yeah, not only do i have a reader, but he blew my mind! that is why the world is sooo cool to me. there's so many different ways of looking at something, why can't we rejoice in it? the world is not static and boring and is proof that a divine genius placed such an abundance before us. we should never be bored with our explorations. if i have other readers that don't share this view, feel free to comment! i'm open to all trains of thought.


i shall now end with Selections From The Bahai Writings on Peace that sound pretty close to my own Christian tradition:
“…Dedicate the precious days of your lives to the betterment of the world.”

"With the joyful tidings of light I hail thee: rejoice! To the court of holiness I summon thee; abide therein that thou mayest live in peace for evermore."

“The fundamental truth of the Manifestations is peace. This underlies all religion, all justice.”

Can there be one way to God?

Sorry y'all.. you're getting two angry long posts right in a row. my last one was pretty firey and this one i fear is even worse. i never said that i would be happy ALL the time now did i? and seminary is hard and it makes my brain explode with ideas. i have trouble getting to sleep with all the thoughts my three brain cells are volley'n back and forth like some sad three way tennis match. but here it is in all it's glory! with lots of help in phrasing from a great book called The Phoenix Affirmations by Eric Elnes. it's a GREAT book and i've used most of what i remember about it here to help phrase the argument and terms...

I'm tired of being a "Christian But". Notice there is only one T in BUT. A "Christian But" is someone who says "I'm a Christian, BUT i belive homosexuals aren't evil, women are equal to men, i'm concerned with social justiceand global issues, (and the big one for me) i don't think that people who believe different from me are going to hell."

My idea is that there HAS to be more than one way to God. If God was so simple to have only one path to God, then this is a simple, black and white, and ultimately small god. This type of god is not one i'm willing to follow. To me, God is BIG! God made the earth and heavens and everything in it. God made every cell in my body as well as the stuff on Saturn or Pluto. God is universal. My belief in this is simple... it's commonly refered to as the MOUNTAIN VIEW of God. Here's the metaphor:

The major world religions are like hikers climbing up different sides of a mountain. Each tradition has discovered a unique route for reaching the top. In the case of Christianity and others, they have found a new route off of another established way up the mountain. Now while these hikers are climbing, they cannot necessarily see one another. individuals within the climbing parties may not even be aware that others are ascending the mountain. They think they alone are making the ascent. Yet when they reach the top, the climbers are surprised to find one another. Each party has reached the same goal by a different route. Here is where my deontology kicks in and says that all ethical routes reach the same moral end! the top of the mountain! all unethical routes cannot then reach the top (teleogy).

now people will try to accuse me of religious relativism. as stated in an article by a conservative columbus mega-church,
"Religious relativism is the belief that all religions are simply different perceptions of the same ultimate reality, or 'Many faiths are but different paths leading to one reality, God.' (DIFFERENT MOUNTAIN ROADS WHICH ALL LEAD TO SUMMIT)." this is found at www.xenos.org/teachings/topical/objections/oneway.htm

i really can't stand this. sure i have a bit of relativism in me... Einstein's theory of relativity generalises Galileo's principle of relativity — that all uniform motion was relative, and that there is no absolute and well-defined state of rest (no privileged reference frames) — from mechanics to all the laws of physics, including electrodynamics. To stress this point, Einstein not only widened the postulate of relativity, but added the second postulate that all observers will always measure the speed of light to be the same no matter what their state of uniform linear motion.

Okay.. even if you didn't get any of that, what it states is that where you are affects how you see things, HOWEVER, there is a truth or a constant by which to measure by. So i guess i could say that i'm a Religious Relativist through the school of Einstein. my constant then would be God.

the xenos website states: "The former (and biblical) definition of 'tolerance' made a distinction between people and their religious beliefs. It meant that people should have the legal freedom to practice the religion of their choice, and that you should personally respect and love them, even if you conclude that their beliefs are false. Today's 'tolerance' has removed the distinction between persons and their beliefs. It means that you must never call others' beliefs false or untrue, or you are an arrogant, intolerant bigot...No engineer says '8 + 32 = 40 or 8 + 32 = 53. Both answers are fine with me.' Would you want to trust a bridge this engineer built?"

I love this because it's a complete logical fallacy. they talk about what relativism is but then use strawmen and red herring tactics to defeat relativism without dealing directly, but that is another topic i could spend most of my life destroying. but let's keep to task here! A bigot, by its very definition, is a prejudiced person who is intolerant of opinions, lifestyles, or identities differing from his or her own. So yes, if you think someone else is untrue or wrong, then you are a bigot. Now you may see the double-speak here of "bigots are wrong because they call others wrong." Let me then add if one does not prove it logically invalid, then yes, a person is a bigot.

the website goes on to prove relativism is ignorant of logic by stating this funny math problem... i certainly would say that an answer is right and one is wrong due to the logic of mathematics.. now if we were talking about another situation, then i would have to look at the findings. what's the difference? well, in mathematics 1+1 is always 2. In other situations, say having a family, 1+1=3. or sometimes 1+1=2 or 3, and even 6! Depends on how many babies those two people produce, this is a question of genetics and fitness. and in Jesus' birth, these same people that shoot down relativism state that 0+1=2! seems like these people are selectively relative themselves.

now let's get on to the main bigoted statement against other faiths other than Christian from the website: "Therefore, the 'DIFFERENT MOUNTAIN ROADS WHICH ALL LEAD TO SUMMIT' analogy is simply untrue. The roads are on different mountains, they lead in fundamentally different directions and they end on completely different summits!"

last time i checked, Christianity was a monotheistic religion. meaning there is ONE God. Some people would state that there is just ONE TRUE GOD, the others are just idols. i would argue no, this argument by its very nature is polytheistic. it doesn't take into effect the gods that came before the Jewish god was ever thought of. so are those ideas of God wrong? No, our idea of God has evolved over time, due to our location and technology at hand. By this same argument, we then would still be on the losing side of the argument as our Christian God is actually the Jewish God in three parts. So who's right here? The Jewish one god of Yahweh, or the Chrisitian three-in-one God revealed through Jesus?

Could it be that God may allow for different routes, each with its own integrity? A Hindu may find a way to the top through withdrawl from the world, while a Christian may find it through immersion into the world on behalf of justice. Wouldn't God be in both places, if God is everywhere and created everything? Now a pure relativist will state "they're all just saying the same things. they're really no different." well no, they are REALLY different! The routes up the mountain engage different terrain, with different obstacles and challenges, different vistas, and different places of rest.

This illustates the fact that God's plan for the world is larger than our human minds can comprehend. Despite significant differences of approach to God, we are all included in God's love, which exceeds beyond our wildest imagination. Jesus states this in the bible as well.

JOHN 10:4-16 "I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd."

Some believe this is for the conversion of other faiths to Christianity... but let's look at what Jesus is and is not saying. He refers to other adherents of other faiths (other sheep...) who ALREADY belong to him (I have...) and therefore when he calls them they will listen. Jesus isn't calling for these sheep to change shepherds, he is trying to get us to recognize that the human family is one flock, with one shepherd. What he is NOT saying is "different strokes for different folks" nor is he saying "anyone can worship the god of one's choice, it's all good, no matter what." Which faiths? They aren't identified. We may surmise that faiths that truly follow the ONE Shephred actively promote the love of God, neighbor, and self as Jesus did. Jesus also states that people shouldn't worry about what path others are on. He demonstrates time and time again throughout the Gospels for his disciples to concentrate on walking their own path and offering hospitality to those they meet on along the way... the Good Samaritan parable is the core here. Who is my neighbor? EVERYONE!

So given this, it is naive for a practitioner of any faith to claim that theirs is the only "true" path. Religions do this to garner power over those too fearful to think in this way. Now there is a difference between BEST path for a person to take, so long as this claim is on an individual level. i would hope that these travelers up the mountain investigated other paths before choosing to climb.. there's no shame in this.

Can we claim which paths are rabbit trails or authentic? A quick test is to look at the measure of love of God, neighbor or self. But how could we really with any integrity? It would be like a climber speaking with authority about paths on the other side of the mountain that he has never been on. The climber may read about these paths in books... or have talked to another climber on the other side. This then, would prove to the climber that all paths seem to be heading to the same place. But any serious climber knows that only those who have climbed the path can speak with authority about where it leads and how it gets there. once again, to say that there are "other mountains" is a poly-mountain idea.. i'm only talking in a mono-mountain context.

If people of other faiths want to swap faithful stories of their path and journey up the mountain, then great! In fact, i get a better handle on my faith when i hear these stories. If people of other faiths with whom we are in dialogue decide to convert to our path as a result of this sharing, fine! However, conversion is not the ultimate purpose here of interfaith dialogue. Sharing the joy and wisdom gleaned from our climbing experience is.

Happy Climbing!

For the Bible Tells Me So

A 5th grade understanding of God is okay... if you're in the 5th grade!



We had an LGBT week here at LTS! I'm excited and glad to be at a place that is both welcoming and affirming. I would point to an exciting transcript of Mark Jordan's speech entitled "The Witness of LGBT Christians."

The last post was a crazy angry one.. but this is part of the deal! it's hard and lots of ideas to process. i'm still making sense of things as well.. but i'm slowly coming to a systematic theology, that is getting the vocabulary to express my belief system. that will come in time.. and a big part of the base of the belief will come next week! so i'll hope you'll stick around for that! hope all is well out there! keep rawk'n!

Struggles

I live for new ideas! I love other perspectives. I’m getting large dosages of both in and outside of class. Seminary is awesome. I really enjoy it here because I’m constantly challenged and engaged. I love MS106 because I can hear the stories of others and I absolutely love it. I go through my week giddy with all these things I’m learning.

We learn a lot of terms and concepts here but the biggest overall thing that I’m learning is responsibility. Religion, the Bible, and life in general for that matter is very complicated. It is irresponsible for people to overlook these complications to get what they want out of a text. Two groups that come immediately to mind are the fundamentalists and the atheists.

These groups are two vastly different approaches that share the same irresponsibility. The fundamentalists read the Bible literally and ignore all the other methods and even the tradition and history that spawned the Bible. They get what they want out of it. The atheists do much the same thing. They ignore all the criticisms and methods and just label all religion as “Hocus Pocus.” Both methods are irresponsible, as they take no steps away from what the groups comfort zones.
I think this is directly linked to comfort. This is a comfort that starts with a hunch and will not further explore it for fear of having to change. A dude in my class added "apathy” to this concept, and I too will add this in saying that these people do not want to challenge their worldviews and are apathetic about doing so.

Atheist i have less of a problem with however. they seem to be resisting worshipping a false idol... they have no idols! well, there's always the idol of self, consumerism, etc. but as jose miguel bonino said in his book Room to be People "Only a atheist can be a good Christian." of course both of these groups that i have problems with are presented much more simply here for brevity's sake and i realize that there's a larger more nuanced issue at hand, but this is a quick explanation of what i'm struggle'n with.

As I see it, we have a duty to study and find our way through the world, we have a responsibility to the world. I know my strong and weak points in learning. I know I’ll struggle with Greek and Hebrew as this is wrote memorization. I know my strong points are concepts and theologies. If I can play with concepts and apply them to other things, I have no problem learning. I guess I’m a process learner as I must learn through relationships. I might not have agreed with Plantinga in Theology 101, but I understand him and where he’s coming from. I cannot understand where fundamentalists are coming from.

It would be irresponsible of me to say that I do not have a comfort zone as well. I take great comfort in this seminary. I take comfort that people are looking at the Bible, are struggling and debating. I respect the work involved. I am depressed when people will not take these steps, either by literally reading (or reading into the Bible the words they want to hear) or by not reading it at all. Either way, no further steps are taken to get the story IN the text as well as the story OF the text or to put it another way, the story the text tells and then the story of how that text came about and was written. I am ready for more, keep the challenges coming.

Tastes like Liberty

Hey Y'all!

With all this reading from women's Bible commentary and thinking and such, i think i'm forgetting what it means to be a man... so i found this reminder!



happy turkey-ween everybody! remember, don't be a jerky, fry that turkey!

List 'em!

Lots of work to do... so i thought i'd post early this week and hit y'all up again on Friday or something. but here's some Head off the Neck Revelations:

TaNaK not settled in Jesus time. The TaNaK and C.A.T. were pretty settled as of the 4th Century. so the Scriptures and Testaments were settled around the same time! sorta.

The Jewish People have been ruled by another empire through most of their culture's history. There were a handful of independence periods between being ruled by the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans. This is the foundation that the Scriptures are narratives of identity not a "history" as we would think of it.

After the second Jewish Revolt around 132-135 C.E. Jerusalem was sacked. It would not be the center of religion until the 20th century, and this was a christian idea to restablish it! Not saying that the Jewish people didn't hold the area in high esteem, as every passover they pray for the return to Jerusalem... but it was the Christians who began to investigate the region around WWI. and those reasons were mainly looting dig sites as only christians can do... ;-)

After WWII, the area was resettled for the nation of Israel. The Palestinian/Israeli conflict is not ancient grudge war, but very recent! Now i still side with Israel as they've legally owned the land and have defeated many nations attacking them and to the victor go the spoils. but this is not an ancient conflict by any means.

and finally.. the Pharisees held all writtings sacred of the TaNaK. The Saducees held only the Torah as sacred. The Pharisees therefore believed in the messiah and in the ressurection of the body and soul and the Saducees didn't. So Jesus would have been a Pharisee!!! who woulda guessed

also i'm beginning to take a whole other look at the Bible and Jesus and such. if you take the historical context of when something was written, you get a much deeper meaning from the texts. like leviticus (that book everyone loves to hate!) was not written by moses! it's dated in the post-exilic Babylonian times so around 5 or 6th century BCE. that sheds a whole new meaning on these texts!

also Jesus tends to be more politically active than at first glance.. like His death for example. ppl try to say pilate was trying to get Jesus off the hook and it was the Jews that killed Jesus.. but if the Jews would have they would have stoned Jesus.. Crucifixtion is a Roman way of killing and humiliating POLITICAL enemies and pilate never hesitated to kill ANYONE! there is a historical report of pilate sending in roman centurions on a peacful sit in protest of orthodox jews. all of the protesters were tortured and their heads were put on pikes on the city wall. so when jesus says "And Jesus said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." And they were amazed at Him." in Mark 12:17.. He was prolly saying "Give praise to God and a Knife to Caesar" hense the reason ppl were amazed at Jesus's audacity to proclaim such a thing... and don't get me started on LUKE 8:30!!!! that is nothing but a political rant!

anywho.. more later!

All These Things That I've Done

So we're closing out the first semester of seminary and holy crap, what a start! I've absolutely love it here in seminary. i feel like a squirrel on crack! speaking of which, what would a squirrel preacher look like? i just get excited by the word excited anymore. and no, not in that way you sicko! so what's been happening?!

well first off Jason and Lindsay finally got married! and what a shin-dig! talk about your fancy-schmancy parties. kate and i had a blast and it was great to see all of J&L's friends!

I must say that i equate the first semester to just getting our facts straight. the whole first semester is challenge'n our base assumptions as to what the bible and religion in general mean to us as well as what we expect from both. this is happen'n both inside and outside the classroom. i'm grateful to have this challenge as complexity and change is what i live for.

some new friends include an ex-EMT, a college prof from VT, a couple of cute halloweenies like myself, a earthy-Christian, one heck of a smart library guy who shares kate's and my love of BATTLESTAR, and too many others to mention here. it is very rewarding and i don't want to think of where i'd be without these ppl.

so to sum up my experience in a video, it'd have to be this to demostrate how i feel as i go through these deconstructionalist, post-modern processes with my new friends (and Kate of course!)

CMAs, Scary Stories, and GOBLINS!

So I told my Ma that i don't like today's country and said i wouldn't be watching the CMA's. but kate and i checked it out and then barely turned the channel. we really loved carrie underwood's song "so small" i couldn't find a good copy of the song, but here's a cover.


we also liked Taylor Swift! This song really brought us back to being bf & gf!


so Ma's pretty smart! Although we still can't stand Sugarland.. sounds like the lady swallowed a cat and is try'n unsuccessfully to bring it back up. and the guy who sings "these are my ppl" is boring and i'm not a fan of these types of songs. YAY US! YOU GUYS DON'T KNOW SO QUIT ACT'N LIKE YOU DO type songs suck. so yay for the rest of country music! also Kitchen Nightmares is like TV Crack Goodness!

Here's random videos to recap some past events that i'd like to share:

Here's Kate telling me a scary story for halloween:


Just when you think that getting stairs for your dog is the best invention ever, here comes the trump card!

Kate and i have so much trouble with Zerrag, but since we got the Goblin Steps, all is well in the world!

The Doctrinal Conclusions of Process Theology

So here's the break down of where process stands on the issues.

Process Creation
Everything is related to everything else. Evolution plays a HUGE part here. This is evidence of God's urging through out history of world and specifically in the origin and adaptation of species. finally! a theology that gets that there is no real conflict b/t science and religion! gotta love that!

Process Humanity
We are just like everything else, relational, free, and changing. They have a high sense of body mind connection.. yoga, health, fitness are impt. here.

Doctrine of Sin
refusal to listen to God's urging. This stems from scared to listen as it might shake things up AKA FEAR! or just a straight counter to God's urging. Goes right along with the saying "the death you choose is often worse than the death you avoided". Plus it doesn't help that the universe has a bad past of choosing to go with God's will.

Christology
Jesus counteracts all bad-examples. He was the first human to always say yes to everything God urged him to do. So we at our best day only obey God's will like 20% but Jesus did it 100% everytime and every day.

This looks at Jesus as 100% human as well. If Jesus was already divine and didn't have sin in him, then Jesus conquering sin is really a false victory. In the traditional view, there's really nothing to write home about Jesus beating sin since he never had it to begin with... and since we're human it's really an unrealistic goal to strive for. Process ramps up this and says we too can become like Christ who was in harmony with God's will. Therefore the incarnation is affirmed not only in Jesus but also in all of us as well.

Jesus transgresses boundaries for inclusivity's sake as well. He speaks to lepers, romans, tax collectors, and women, all of which are no-no's in ancient Palestine (and not just the Jewish culture, most cultures in the area during the first century).

Another big difference to note here is that Jesus isn't a sacrifice.. God doesn't need appeasement nor substitutionary sacrifice. God loves all and wants harmony and never wanted Jesus to die. This was a scape-goat method by the Romans to silence a dangerous political usurper. So there is no atonement here, it was an unfortunate death.

Final Thoughts
The main aim is that life is an adventure and that we move from the threat of stagnation to the ever-increasing enrichment of life that change brings. Chaos is a danger as the world becomes more complex and more things can go wrong. But the prospect of increased enjoyment is well worth the risk. Humans are intuitive, empathic, relational, and embodied. Feeling produces thought and action. Jesus saves us from stagnation and transformes our lives to ones of greater relationality, freedom, and openess to change.

i am just starting down this path, so let me know if you, dear reader, have any questions. we'll explore them together!

Process continued: Wiki!

Lots of reading to do this week, so here's a cop out.. i mean more about Process Theology!!!

Here's what Wiki has as the tenents of Process Theology:

God is not omnipotent in the sense of being coercive. The divine has a power of persuasion rather than coercion. Process theologians interpret the classical doctrine of omnipotence as involving force, and suggest instead a forbearance in divine power. "Persuasion" in the causal sense means that God does not exert unilateral control.

Reality is not made up of material substances that endure through time, but serially-ordered events, which are experiential in nature. These events have both a physical and mental aspect. All experience (male, female, atomic, and botanical) is important and contributes to the ongoing and interrelated process of reality.

The universe is characterized by process and change carried out by the agents of free will. Self-determination characterizes everything in the universe, not just human beings. God cannot totally control any series of events or any individual, but God influences the creaturely exercise of this universal free will by offering possibilities. To say it another way, God has a will in everything, but not everything that occurs is God's will.

God contains the universe but is not identical with it (panentheism, not pantheism or pandeism). Some also call this "theocosmocentrism" to emphasize that God has always been related to some world or another.

Because God interacts with the changing universe, God is changeable (that is to say, God is affected by the actions that take place in the universe) over the course of time. However, the abstract elements of God (goodness, wisdom, etc.) remain eternally solid.

Charles Hartshorne believes that people do not experience subjective (or personal) immortality, but they do have objective immortality because their experiences live on forever in God, who contains all that was. Others believe that people do have subjective experience after bodily death.

Dipolar theism, is the idea that God has both a changing aspect (God's existence as a Living God) and an unchanging aspect (God's eternal essence).

The rest can be found here.

The big name in Process is Rabbi Harold Kushner and his book When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Also John Cobb, William Sloane Coffin, and Rabbi William E. Kaufman are worth checking out.

and homestarrunner's halloween toon is up! it's a 1,000 times better than last years. and katie burke is still a floozie.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!! eat your fluffy-puff marshmallows!