This article is by Dr. Russell D. Moore is the Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice-President for Academic Administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In fairness, I think it is important to note that not all Mormons support Glenn Beck. For example, see this article and these comments from the Deseret News; and read this thorough analysis in Sunstone Magazine.
Nevertheless, Moore makes an important point: by not "cultivating a Christian vision of justice and the common good" we have left ourselves open to all sorts of demagogues and their false teaching. Of course, I would argue that in order to cultivate that Christian vision of justice and the common good, evangelicals need to repent of their nominalism. If we are to understand and avail ourselves of Christ's sacrifice, we need to take it beyond just ourselves. But then we might actually discover that Catholics might have something to teach us. And imagine what would happen then! ; )
God, the Gospel, and Glenn Beck
A Mormon television star stands in front of the Lincoln Memorial and calls American Christians to revival. He assembles some evangelical celebrities to give testimonies, and then preaches a God and country revivalism that leaves the evangelicals cheering that they’ve heard the gospel, right there in the nation’s capital.
The news media pronounces him the new leader of America’s Christian conservative movement, and a flock of America’s Christian conservatives have no problem with that.
If you’d told me that ten years ago, I would have assumed it was from the pages of an evangelical apocalyptic novel about the end-times. But it’s not. It’s from this week’s headlines. And it is a scandal.
Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, of course, is that Mormon at the center of all this. Beck isn’t the problem. He’s an entrepreneur, he’s brilliant, and, hats off to him, he knows his market. Latter-day Saints have every right to speak, with full religious liberty, in the public square. I’m quite willing to work with Mormons on various issues, as citizens working for the common good. What concerns me here is not what this says about Beck or the “Tea Party” or any other entertainment or political figure. What concerns me is about what this says about the Christian churches in the United States.
It’s taken us a long time to get here, in this plummet from Francis Schaeffer to Glenn Beck. In order to be this gullible, American Christians have had to endure years of vacuous talk about undefined “revival” and “turning America back to God” that was less about anything uniquely Christian than about, at best, a generically theistic civil religion and, at worst, some partisan political movement.
Rather than cultivating a Christian vision of justice and the common good (which would have, by necessity, been nuanced enough to put us sometimes at odds with our political allies), we’ve relied on populist God-and-country sloganeering and outrage-generating talking heads. We’ve tolerated heresy and buffoonery in our leadership as long as with it there is sufficient political “conservatism” and a sufficient commercial venue to sell our books and products.
Too often, and for too long, American “Christianity” has been a political agenda in search of a gospel useful enough to accommodate it. There is a liberation theology of the Left, and there is also a liberation theology of the Right, and both are at heart mammon worship. The liberation theology of the Left often wants a Barabbas, to fight off the oppressors as though our ultimate problem were the reign of Rome and not the reign of death. The liberation theology of the Right wants a golden calf, to represent religion and to remind us of all the economic security we had in Egypt. Both want a Caesar or a Pharaoh, not a Messiah.
Leaders will always be tempted to bypass the problem behind the problems: captivity to sin, bondage to the accusations of the demonic powers, the sentence of death. That’s why so many of our Christian superstars smile at crowds of thousands, reassuring them that they don’t like to talk about sin. That’s why other Christian celebrities are seen to be courageous for fighting their culture wars, while they carefully leave out the sins most likely to be endemic to the people paying the bills in their movements.
Where there is no gospel, something else will fill the void: therapy, consumerism, racial or class resentment, utopian politics, crazy conspiracy theories of the left, crazy conspiracy theories of the right; anything will do. The prophet Isaiah warned us of such conspiracies replacing the Word of God centuries ago (Is. 8:12–20). As long as the Serpent’s voice is heard, “You shall not surely die,” the powers are comfortable.
This is, of course, not new. Our Lord Jesus faced this test when Satan took him to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the earth, and their glory. Satan did not mind surrendering his authority to Jesus. He didn’t mind a universe without pornography or Islam or abortion or nuclear weaponry. Satan did not mind Judeo-Christian values. He wasn’t worried about “revival” or “getting back to God.” What he opposes was the gospel of Christ crucified and resurrected for the sins of the world.
We used to sing that old gospel song, “I will cling to an old rugged cross, and exchange it some day for a crown.” The scandalous scene at the Lincoln Memorial indicates that many of us want to exchange it in too soon. To Jesus, Satan offered power and glory. To us, all he needs offer is celebrity and attention.
Mormonism and Mammonism are contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. They offer another Lord Jesus than the One offered in the Scriptures and Christian tradition, and another way to approach him. An embrace of these tragic new vehicles for the old Gnostic heresy is unloving to our Mormon friends and secularist neighbors, and to the rest of the watching world. Any “revival” that is possible without the Lord Jesus Christ is a “revival” of a different kind of spirit than the Spirit of Christ (1 Jn. 4:1-3).
The answer to this scandal isn’t a retreat, as some would have it, to an allegedly apolitical isolation. Such attempts lead us right back here, in spades, to a hyper-political wasteland. If the churches are not forming consciences, consciences will be formed by the status quo, including whatever demagogues can yell the loudest or cry the hardest. The answer isn’t a narrowing sectarianism, retreating further and further into our enclaves. The answer includes local churches that preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and disciple their congregations to know the difference between the kingdom of God and the latest political whim.
It’s sad to see so many Christians confusing Mormon politics or American nationalism with the gospel of Jesus Christ. But, don’t get me wrong, I’m not pessimistic. Jesus will build his church, and he will build it on the gospel. He doesn’t need American Christianity to do it. Vibrant, loving, orthodox Christianity will flourish, perhaps among the poor of Haiti or the persecuted of Sudan or the outlawed of China, but it will flourish.
And there will be a new generation, in America and elsewhere, who will be ready for a gospel that is more than just Fox News at prayer.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Of Sausages and CDO's
via Ann, my friend who spent some years on Wall Street and left because she knew making Subprime Mortgage Sausage was poisonous, both to the economy and our spiritual health. It's no coincidence her blog is entitled "Restoring Soul Through Community."
Here is NPR and Pro Publica's story
"I'm going to cut to the chase and tell you our conclusion first.
We believe we can show that some Wall Street bankers had evidence, a year or two before the financial crisis hit, that there were serious problems with subprime mortgage investments.
Rather than wind down this business, they sped it up using financial trickery. These people earned huge bonuses for their actions. They also made the crisis considerably larger and more damaging.
The folks we're talking about work in the CDO department of big Wall Street banks — "the sexiest place to work on Wall Street," in the words of Jake Bernstein, one of the ProPublica reporters who worked on this story.
CDOs — collateralized debt obligations — were the primary way that big banks turned those subprime mortgages into what we now think of as toxic assets. But back in 2006, they were just the hot new part of the industry. The people working on CDOs could make millions of dollars a year, but their income depended on how many CDOs they sold.
I think of a CDO like a sausage. Take meat nobody wants, toss it in a grinder, and out comes something delicious.
With CDOs, you buy a bunch of unattractive bonds backed by subprime mortgages, put them all together, then sell off pieces of this new structure. And, like sausages in a diner on Sunday morning, CDOs were incredibly popular.
"CDOs, they are the heart of the American boom," says Jesse Eisinger, the other ProPublica reporter on the story. "Everyone wants them. Pension funds, insurance companies, small banks around the world."
For about five years, during the housing boom, CDOs grew dramatically. Then, in the summer of 2006, the market started to cool. For the first time, lots of customers started saying no to the bankers selling CDOs. Customers like Peter Nowell, with the Royal Bank of Scotland.
"There were a lot of things that were being relaxed on a credit perspective over that time as people wanted to push out more and more deals," he says. "Too many California mortgages. Too low credit scores."
Customers kept saying: We'll buy parts of the CDOs, but not the risky parts — the worst 10 percent or 15 percent.
"This is a big problem for Wall Street, because Wall Street has the assembly line going," Eisinger says. "Any hitch is going to be a big problem. It's going to stop the fees and those bonuses at the end of the year."
At first, Nowell says, CDO sales people tried to convince him: Don't leave, buy some CDOs.
"It was definitely the hard sell," he says. "Frequent calls. Wanting to take you out for dinner. And encouraging you to invest early and invest often."
The hard sell wasn't working. No matter what they did, the investment banks were stuck with the least attractive bits of their CDOs.
"What's happening is it's piling up and piling up," Eisinger says. "So they have this big problem. They've got it all coming in through one end and it’s harder ... to get it out the door. So they need to figure out how to sell this. How to move it out of there."
This is where the trickery comes in. To explain it, let's go back to the sausage analogy.
Say I'm a sausage grinder. My sausage is selling great. Until one day, my customers say they don't want the ends, the ones with those nasty knots.
Pretty soon, I've got all these end bits piling up on my counter. I'm worried it's going to turn off customers.
So I shove the end bits back in the grinder and make new sausages. Brilliant. Of course, customers don't want those end bits either. So, I throw them back in the grinder.
This works for a while. But eventually, I'm making sausages that are made up entirely of nasty end bits.
"So, this is exactly what happens with subprime CDOs," Bernstein says. "The investment banks take the worst parts of the CDO and they put it into new CDOs, recycling it again and again, until pretty soon, the CDOs that you're left with are made up of the worst parts of the stuff."
With Wall Street, when they recycle a CDO and shove a nasty bit back in the blender, they mark it as a sale. As if they found a real customer.
"In fact, a lot of the business is an illusion," Eisinger says. "The CDO guys are orchestrating the demand."
What we're describing didn't cause the crisis. We already were well into a housing bubble that was surely going to burst and cause financial pain.
But, by delaying the onset of the crisis, and allowing another year of bubble expansion, this financial trickery all but certainly made the crisis bigger and more painful.
We asked the banks involved for comment. A spokesman for Merrill Lynch said the company has a new owner, Bank of America, and they wouldn’t comment on actions taken under previous ownership. A Citigroup spokesperson told ProPublica that they cannot comment because the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating.
Here is NPR and Pro Publica's story
"I'm going to cut to the chase and tell you our conclusion first.
We believe we can show that some Wall Street bankers had evidence, a year or two before the financial crisis hit, that there were serious problems with subprime mortgage investments.
Rather than wind down this business, they sped it up using financial trickery. These people earned huge bonuses for their actions. They also made the crisis considerably larger and more damaging.
The folks we're talking about work in the CDO department of big Wall Street banks — "the sexiest place to work on Wall Street," in the words of Jake Bernstein, one of the ProPublica reporters who worked on this story.
CDOs — collateralized debt obligations — were the primary way that big banks turned those subprime mortgages into what we now think of as toxic assets. But back in 2006, they were just the hot new part of the industry. The people working on CDOs could make millions of dollars a year, but their income depended on how many CDOs they sold.
I think of a CDO like a sausage. Take meat nobody wants, toss it in a grinder, and out comes something delicious.
With CDOs, you buy a bunch of unattractive bonds backed by subprime mortgages, put them all together, then sell off pieces of this new structure. And, like sausages in a diner on Sunday morning, CDOs were incredibly popular.
"CDOs, they are the heart of the American boom," says Jesse Eisinger, the other ProPublica reporter on the story. "Everyone wants them. Pension funds, insurance companies, small banks around the world."
For about five years, during the housing boom, CDOs grew dramatically. Then, in the summer of 2006, the market started to cool. For the first time, lots of customers started saying no to the bankers selling CDOs. Customers like Peter Nowell, with the Royal Bank of Scotland.
"There were a lot of things that were being relaxed on a credit perspective over that time as people wanted to push out more and more deals," he says. "Too many California mortgages. Too low credit scores."
Customers kept saying: We'll buy parts of the CDOs, but not the risky parts — the worst 10 percent or 15 percent.
"This is a big problem for Wall Street, because Wall Street has the assembly line going," Eisinger says. "Any hitch is going to be a big problem. It's going to stop the fees and those bonuses at the end of the year."
At first, Nowell says, CDO sales people tried to convince him: Don't leave, buy some CDOs.
"It was definitely the hard sell," he says. "Frequent calls. Wanting to take you out for dinner. And encouraging you to invest early and invest often."
The hard sell wasn't working. No matter what they did, the investment banks were stuck with the least attractive bits of their CDOs.
"What's happening is it's piling up and piling up," Eisinger says. "So they have this big problem. They've got it all coming in through one end and it’s harder ... to get it out the door. So they need to figure out how to sell this. How to move it out of there."
This is where the trickery comes in. To explain it, let's go back to the sausage analogy.
Say I'm a sausage grinder. My sausage is selling great. Until one day, my customers say they don't want the ends, the ones with those nasty knots.
Pretty soon, I've got all these end bits piling up on my counter. I'm worried it's going to turn off customers.
So I shove the end bits back in the grinder and make new sausages. Brilliant. Of course, customers don't want those end bits either. So, I throw them back in the grinder.
This works for a while. But eventually, I'm making sausages that are made up entirely of nasty end bits.
"So, this is exactly what happens with subprime CDOs," Bernstein says. "The investment banks take the worst parts of the CDO and they put it into new CDOs, recycling it again and again, until pretty soon, the CDOs that you're left with are made up of the worst parts of the stuff."
With Wall Street, when they recycle a CDO and shove a nasty bit back in the blender, they mark it as a sale. As if they found a real customer.
"In fact, a lot of the business is an illusion," Eisinger says. "The CDO guys are orchestrating the demand."
What we're describing didn't cause the crisis. We already were well into a housing bubble that was surely going to burst and cause financial pain.
But, by delaying the onset of the crisis, and allowing another year of bubble expansion, this financial trickery all but certainly made the crisis bigger and more painful.
We asked the banks involved for comment. A spokesman for Merrill Lynch said the company has a new owner, Bank of America, and they wouldn’t comment on actions taken under previous ownership. A Citigroup spokesperson told ProPublica that they cannot comment because the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Just Wondering: Shouldn't we be careful about what we wish for?
(TOP) St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, sits immediately across from the World Trade Center site.
(BELOW) Trinity Episcopal Church near Ground Zero
what's to keep the churches that are even closer to the World Trade Center from being shut down, if we protest too loudly about the so-called "mosque?" There's at least two, one Catholic, and one Protestant, that are even nearer to the site than the Park 51 complex.
Christians need to be very careful. Separation of church and state can come back to bite us. It may be that the Christian right protests so loudly that the only fair thing to do will be to prohibit all religious organizations within a specified area. Is this really what they want?
One of my friend's friends posed the question of whether the Catholic church could build in Oklahoma City since Tim McVeigh was Catholic. "Imagine the uproar!"
what's to keep the churches that are even closer to the World Trade Center from being shut down, if we protest too loudly about the so-called "mosque?" There's at least two, one Catholic, and one Protestant, that are even nearer to the site than the Park 51 complex.
Christians need to be very careful. Separation of church and state can come back to bite us. It may be that the Christian right protests so loudly that the only fair thing to do will be to prohibit all religious organizations within a specified area. Is this really what they want?
One of my friend's friends posed the question of whether the Catholic church could build in Oklahoma City since Tim McVeigh was Catholic. "Imagine the uproar!"
Thursday, August 19, 2010
A Dialogue on the Mosque/Islamic Center
I've been involved in this dialogue on Facebook. I imagine it mirrors many others that are occurring. All names have been changed, except mine. I also strongly suspect this sort of reasoning is what eventually led to the Japanese internment camps during World War II.
Abe: I wonder if the same people who show sympathy towards the mosque near ground zero would support a Nazi "community center" near Auschwitz...?
Jed: I would, but the difference is that the holocaust never actually happened.
That was sarcasm for those of you easily offended.
Abe: Haha! I would've known that, but it would've been fun to see how people responded!
Jed: That's one of the many reasons that I love you.
Bill: Here's an interesting perspective if you have 12 minutes:
Dan: Listen to the youtube comentary by Keith Olbermann that Bill gave the link to.. Lets think before we act.
Bill: Otherwise, this may hurt my friendship with my Muslim neighbor.
And my Jewish neighbor is across the street and my Mormon neighbors a couple houses down. Really.
Abe: I probably won't get the chance to sit down and watch without distrations until tomorrow, but I will do it!
Bill: Thanks. I think you'll be glad you did.
Abe: I will definitely let you know!
Beth Do it Abe, it's worth it. And then read Matthew 5 (and Luke 6)
7Blessed are the merciful, ...
for they will be shown mercy...
9Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
38"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth."But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor[h] and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies[i] and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Jack: I wonder what the sediments about building anything Muslim there would have been on 9/12? I'd feel better about it if maybe the "religion of peace" would help rebuild the Christian church that was destroyed on 9/11.
Abe: First off, it's interesting to me that no one has directly answered my original post.
Secondly, "Park51 will grow into a world-class community center, planned to include the following facilities:.
a mosque, intended to be run separately from Park51 but open to and accessible to all members, visitors and our New York community". This can be found at the planners website.
Like I said originally... to me this is akin to Nazis wanting to put a Nazi community center near Auschwitz. I am not Jewish, but even the thought of it angers me.
I think we have shown mercy, we have loved, and we have shown peace towards the American-Muslim community. I just think the placement is distasteful. The arguments seem somewhat contradictory. One side says "As Americans we should respect the Muslim community"... shouldn't the opposite be the same? If it is so offensive to so many people, shouldn't the Muslim community respect the Americans? Then this leads to morals, how do you decide what's right; is it majority rules... on and on...
Sounds like a good philosophical discussion for this year Beth!
Well, this is something that I could spend WAY too much time on right now, and I need to fire up the grill!
Bill: I didn't answer your original post because I didn't equate Nazi philosophy with overall Muslim philosophy. But then I would separate Muslims from Muslim terrorists just like I would separate Germans from Nazi terrorists.
Beth: Thanks for making this important distinction, Bill. I wouldn't want anyone to confuse the Ku Klux Klan or the Church of Jesus Christ-Christian or any other Christian Identity group with Christianity. In the same way, I know some Moslems who are dismayed that so many in the U.S. identify Islamic extremists with Islam.
Beth: Abe, regarding "distasteful" placement: again, listen to Olbermann, 5:56 to 8:24. Thanks for the good philosophical discussion we're having now, Abe! Enjoy your dinner... : D
Abe: I guess what it boils down to, for me, is that if the situation was reversed and I was in their shoes, I would back off. It doesn't matter that I think I should (and do) have the right to build there. The fact is that there are some very ...real hurts that people still have. If something offends your brother, truly, then don't do it! That's how I try to live, but maybe it's silly for me to expect others to at least TRY to do the same. For example, I would not knowingly drink around an alcoholic. Is it my fault that he's an alcoholic? No! Is it my duty to not add temptation to his life? That could be debated but I would say, as a Christian, YES!
I don't think it should be forced to move somewhere else, but if they truly care for those that are hurt by it, then they should do it on their own. Like I said... if Christian extremists had done something similar and were now wanting to build a church (even though the church is not for extremists) I would say that the tasteful thing would be to move elsewhere. And as an addition to show good faith, I would do what Jack recommended above.
Jack: First of all, "Islam" is more a society than a religion. Their world view more racist than Hitler ever dreamed of:
"When people talk as if the Crusades were nothing more than an aggressive raid against Islam, they seem to forget in the strangest way that Islam itself was only an aggressive raid against the old and ordered civilization in these parts. I do not say it in mere hostility to the religion of Mahomet; I am fully conscious of many values and virtues in it; but certainly it was Islam that was the invasion and Christendom that was the thing invaded." ("The Way of the Desert" The New Jerusalem)
Lisa: Amen its so wrong and just plain disrespectfull on so many levels!
Jack: “The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.”
Beth: @ Jack: Then God must be pretty naive! ; )
Jeremiah 31:34
No longer will they teach their neighbors,
or say to one another, 'Know the LORD,'
...because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,"
declares the LORD.
"For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more."
Isaiah 43:25
"I, even I, am he who blots out
your transgressions, for my own sake,
and remembers your sins no more.
Hebrews 8:12
For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more."
Jed: I think it would be more Muslim is to Muslim Terrorist as Nazi is to Nazi Gestapo. There were plenty of Nazi fanatics that wanted nothing to do with the persecution of the other groups. They just wanted to undo the terrible treaty they were under from the first world war. That said, I doubt you would ever get the chance to see a Nazi store in any town that was near a death camp.
That said, I'm all about smaller government and I personally think that the only permit that you should have to get is one stating a building is safe to inhabit. Or let the neighborhood vote on it. It would be more just and fair if they decided rather than us.
We could always do a straight trade. We'll allow Muslim proselytizing if the Muslim states allow Christian Proselytizing. I love things that are fair...but I would allow that we don't have to kill a bunch of innocent civilians in their work place in their most populous city before we build a YMCA on that spot. That would be ridiculous.
Jack: Too many of us have bought into the PC propaganda on Islam; that it is a "religion of peace". Please take the time and study it's violent history and what Sharia law really means, especially to women.
Oh, and Beth, you are absolutely right, God does completely forgive and forget, we however are not God and should be wise as serpents but gentle as doves. If my daughter is abused by a babysitter, I will forgive the babysitter but wisely not forget that sitters name or ever let that person near my daughter again.
Bill: So, Jack, should we also study Christianity's violent history?
Jack: Sure, but study it correctly; compare Jesus' teachings and actions compared to Mohamed's teachings and actions. Then study those who faithfully followed each.
Bill : OK, Jack, I will. Also, I haven't really weighed in on what my opinion of the mosque/cultural center is. While I believe it is completely legal and allowable, I'm not sure it is the wisest thing, considering the emotions running rampant in our country since 9/11.
I know this is somewhat out of context, but I think it could apply. 1 Corinthians 10:23-24 "You say, 'I am allowed to do anything'—but not everything is good for you. You say, 'I am allowed to do anything'—but not everything is beneficial. Don’t be concerned for your own good but for the good of others."
We all should be careful in our use/display/playing out of our freedom.
Jack: Agree.
Beth In our fallenness, each one of us tunes into a different wavelength that the Word is broadcasting, and even then we "miss the mark." Some of us are tuned to Matt. 10:16, and the command to be shrewd, but we can be suspicious or fearful in... response. Others of us tune in to 1 John 4 , and the ideal that perfect love casts out all fear, but we become careless or rash. God has placed us together in His kingdom, and uses each of us to sand away the imperfections of the other so that we might be balanced, whole and perfected.
My goal is not to be God, but to be like His Son, whose courage and shrewdness took him even to the Cross. (cf. Augustine, the cross as the devil's mousetrap). As I read scripture, I often see Christ's love overcoming fear and hostility. I see his wisdom as a divine rather than worldly prudence, so that his shrewdness never capitulates to alarm.
"A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master...So do not be afraid of them... Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny[d]? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows... Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matt. 10)
These are hard words for us all.
Jack: You're right, I'm not that spiritual and not really sure I want to be. My job requires me to be very "shrewd" and vividly remember the sins of others or I do not come home to my family (I am a corrections officer at a IL. state prison and a...m around humanities worse everyday). I'm willing to die for my faith, just not willing to die for being naive so some Chicago gang-banger can impress his homies. I can forgive each one of the inmates, treat them with more dignity and respect than they deserve (and have for themselves), but I NEVER forget why they are in prison and what they are capable of doing. You know, I don't feel any conviction for thinking this way, sorry.
Abe: This is interesting...
Jack: Here's to everyone that refuses to drink the PC kool-aid!!!!!!
Beth: I hate kool-aid, PC or any other flavor. ; )
Abe, who is the fellow who is speaking on this YouTube clip? What are his scholarly credentials? I'm just curious. Why should we accept him as an authority? Consider: a Moslem might have read a lot of Bart Ehrman and Marcus Borg and written as if those voices expressed what all Christians believe; but you would (I expect) challenge such a position. Could the same thing be happening here? I am not in a place to evaluate, only to ask questions.
Does it strike anyone else as strange that comments have been disabled for this clip, when the group that has it up claims to be doing apologetics? The speaker seems to be a better polemicist than apologist.
He makes great use of that image of the Moslems overtaking New York, (5:09-5:32) and it is quite powerful. But what would a Moslem think of this image? Two wrongs don't make a right...
How would you respond to this discussion?
Abe: I wonder if the same people who show sympathy towards the mosque near ground zero would support a Nazi "community center" near Auschwitz...?
Jed: I would, but the difference is that the holocaust never actually happened.
That was sarcasm for those of you easily offended.
Abe: Haha! I would've known that, but it would've been fun to see how people responded!
Jed: That's one of the many reasons that I love you.
Bill: Here's an interesting perspective if you have 12 minutes:
Dan: Listen to the youtube comentary by Keith Olbermann that Bill gave the link to.. Lets think before we act.
Bill: Otherwise, this may hurt my friendship with my Muslim neighbor.
And my Jewish neighbor is across the street and my Mormon neighbors a couple houses down. Really.
Abe: I probably won't get the chance to sit down and watch without distrations until tomorrow, but I will do it!
Bill: Thanks. I think you'll be glad you did.
Abe: I will definitely let you know!
Beth Do it Abe, it's worth it. And then read Matthew 5 (and Luke 6)
7Blessed are the merciful, ...
for they will be shown mercy...
9Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
38"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth."But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor[h] and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies[i] and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Jack: I wonder what the sediments about building anything Muslim there would have been on 9/12? I'd feel better about it if maybe the "religion of peace" would help rebuild the Christian church that was destroyed on 9/11.
Abe: First off, it's interesting to me that no one has directly answered my original post.
Secondly, "Park51 will grow into a world-class community center, planned to include the following facilities:.
a mosque, intended to be run separately from Park51 but open to and accessible to all members, visitors and our New York community". This can be found at the planners website.
Like I said originally... to me this is akin to Nazis wanting to put a Nazi community center near Auschwitz. I am not Jewish, but even the thought of it angers me.
I think we have shown mercy, we have loved, and we have shown peace towards the American-Muslim community. I just think the placement is distasteful. The arguments seem somewhat contradictory. One side says "As Americans we should respect the Muslim community"... shouldn't the opposite be the same? If it is so offensive to so many people, shouldn't the Muslim community respect the Americans? Then this leads to morals, how do you decide what's right; is it majority rules... on and on...
Sounds like a good philosophical discussion for this year Beth!
Well, this is something that I could spend WAY too much time on right now, and I need to fire up the grill!
Bill: I didn't answer your original post because I didn't equate Nazi philosophy with overall Muslim philosophy. But then I would separate Muslims from Muslim terrorists just like I would separate Germans from Nazi terrorists.
Beth: Thanks for making this important distinction, Bill. I wouldn't want anyone to confuse the Ku Klux Klan or the Church of Jesus Christ-Christian or any other Christian Identity group with Christianity. In the same way, I know some Moslems who are dismayed that so many in the U.S. identify Islamic extremists with Islam.
Beth: Abe, regarding "distasteful" placement: again, listen to Olbermann, 5:56 to 8:24. Thanks for the good philosophical discussion we're having now, Abe! Enjoy your dinner... : D
Abe: I guess what it boils down to, for me, is that if the situation was reversed and I was in their shoes, I would back off. It doesn't matter that I think I should (and do) have the right to build there. The fact is that there are some very ...real hurts that people still have. If something offends your brother, truly, then don't do it! That's how I try to live, but maybe it's silly for me to expect others to at least TRY to do the same. For example, I would not knowingly drink around an alcoholic. Is it my fault that he's an alcoholic? No! Is it my duty to not add temptation to his life? That could be debated but I would say, as a Christian, YES!
I don't think it should be forced to move somewhere else, but if they truly care for those that are hurt by it, then they should do it on their own. Like I said... if Christian extremists had done something similar and were now wanting to build a church (even though the church is not for extremists) I would say that the tasteful thing would be to move elsewhere. And as an addition to show good faith, I would do what Jack recommended above.
Jack: First of all, "Islam" is more a society than a religion. Their world view more racist than Hitler ever dreamed of:
"When people talk as if the Crusades were nothing more than an aggressive raid against Islam, they seem to forget in the strangest way that Islam itself was only an aggressive raid against the old and ordered civilization in these parts. I do not say it in mere hostility to the religion of Mahomet; I am fully conscious of many values and virtues in it; but certainly it was Islam that was the invasion and Christendom that was the thing invaded." ("The Way of the Desert" The New Jerusalem)
Lisa: Amen its so wrong and just plain disrespectfull on so many levels!
Jack: “The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.”
Beth: @ Jack: Then God must be pretty naive! ; )
Jeremiah 31:34
No longer will they teach their neighbors,
or say to one another, 'Know the LORD,'
...because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,"
declares the LORD.
"For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more."
Isaiah 43:25
"I, even I, am he who blots out
your transgressions, for my own sake,
and remembers your sins no more.
Hebrews 8:12
For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more."
Jed: I think it would be more Muslim is to Muslim Terrorist as Nazi is to Nazi Gestapo. There were plenty of Nazi fanatics that wanted nothing to do with the persecution of the other groups. They just wanted to undo the terrible treaty they were under from the first world war. That said, I doubt you would ever get the chance to see a Nazi store in any town that was near a death camp.
That said, I'm all about smaller government and I personally think that the only permit that you should have to get is one stating a building is safe to inhabit. Or let the neighborhood vote on it. It would be more just and fair if they decided rather than us.
We could always do a straight trade. We'll allow Muslim proselytizing if the Muslim states allow Christian Proselytizing. I love things that are fair...but I would allow that we don't have to kill a bunch of innocent civilians in their work place in their most populous city before we build a YMCA on that spot. That would be ridiculous.
Jack: Too many of us have bought into the PC propaganda on Islam; that it is a "religion of peace". Please take the time and study it's violent history and what Sharia law really means, especially to women.
Oh, and Beth, you are absolutely right, God does completely forgive and forget, we however are not God and should be wise as serpents but gentle as doves. If my daughter is abused by a babysitter, I will forgive the babysitter but wisely not forget that sitters name or ever let that person near my daughter again.
Bill: So, Jack, should we also study Christianity's violent history?
Jack: Sure, but study it correctly; compare Jesus' teachings and actions compared to Mohamed's teachings and actions. Then study those who faithfully followed each.
Bill : OK, Jack, I will. Also, I haven't really weighed in on what my opinion of the mosque/cultural center is. While I believe it is completely legal and allowable, I'm not sure it is the wisest thing, considering the emotions running rampant in our country since 9/11.
I know this is somewhat out of context, but I think it could apply. 1 Corinthians 10:23-24 "You say, 'I am allowed to do anything'—but not everything is good for you. You say, 'I am allowed to do anything'—but not everything is beneficial. Don’t be concerned for your own good but for the good of others."
We all should be careful in our use/display/playing out of our freedom.
Jack: Agree.
Beth In our fallenness, each one of us tunes into a different wavelength that the Word is broadcasting, and even then we "miss the mark." Some of us are tuned to Matt. 10:16, and the command to be shrewd, but we can be suspicious or fearful in... response. Others of us tune in to 1 John 4 , and the ideal that perfect love casts out all fear, but we become careless or rash. God has placed us together in His kingdom, and uses each of us to sand away the imperfections of the other so that we might be balanced, whole and perfected.
My goal is not to be God, but to be like His Son, whose courage and shrewdness took him even to the Cross. (cf. Augustine, the cross as the devil's mousetrap). As I read scripture, I often see Christ's love overcoming fear and hostility. I see his wisdom as a divine rather than worldly prudence, so that his shrewdness never capitulates to alarm.
"A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master...So do not be afraid of them... Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny[d]? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows... Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matt. 10)
These are hard words for us all.
Jack: You're right, I'm not that spiritual and not really sure I want to be. My job requires me to be very "shrewd" and vividly remember the sins of others or I do not come home to my family (I am a corrections officer at a IL. state prison and a...m around humanities worse everyday). I'm willing to die for my faith, just not willing to die for being naive so some Chicago gang-banger can impress his homies. I can forgive each one of the inmates, treat them with more dignity and respect than they deserve (and have for themselves), but I NEVER forget why they are in prison and what they are capable of doing. You know, I don't feel any conviction for thinking this way, sorry.
Abe: This is interesting...
Jack: Here's to everyone that refuses to drink the PC kool-aid!!!!!!
Beth: I hate kool-aid, PC or any other flavor. ; )
Abe, who is the fellow who is speaking on this YouTube clip? What are his scholarly credentials? I'm just curious. Why should we accept him as an authority? Consider: a Moslem might have read a lot of Bart Ehrman and Marcus Borg and written as if those voices expressed what all Christians believe; but you would (I expect) challenge such a position. Could the same thing be happening here? I am not in a place to evaluate, only to ask questions.
Does it strike anyone else as strange that comments have been disabled for this clip, when the group that has it up claims to be doing apologetics? The speaker seems to be a better polemicist than apologist.
He makes great use of that image of the Moslems overtaking New York, (5:09-5:32) and it is quite powerful. But what would a Moslem think of this image? Two wrongs don't make a right...
How would you respond to this discussion?
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Stretching their Wings
Tomorrow J. takes her son off to school, and her nest will be officially bare. The R.'s will be taking their son off in another couple of weeks, and in another month our nest will be empty as well. I am trying to console myself by focusing on good things, a la Philippians 4:8-9
So this is the University of Chicago, where our daughter will be studying, eating, studying, sleeping and studying some more. They say it is where "the fun comes to die," but she is eager to go. For J., being at the Hogwarts of the Midwest will be fun. They divide up the students into "houses," just like in Harry Potter. She has been sorted into "Coulter" House, and thanks to the miracle of Facebook, has already connected with some of her classmates.
If you are reading this, and know of any Christians on campus--students or faculty--please let us know. Of course there will be InterVarsity; but the church situation will be tricky. The evangelical churches appear to be a) Presbyterian, and not open to women in leadership, which would be a step backward for our daughter, or b) rather "happy-clappy," which doesn't much suit her; or c) too far away.
So I trust that the One who has begun a good work in her will be faithful to complete it.
And in me, as well.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Get De-baptized and Have a Blowout
via Ship of Fools: "US atheists, who are leading the way in debaptism ceremonies, are now offering a two-for-the-price-of-one debaptism plus hair styling service, as demonstrated in this promotional video for American Atheists. Submit to the hair dryer of heresy and experience the hot air of secularism for yourself! Thanks be unto Ruth Gledhill for this FruitTube clip."
The Mindset of the Class of 2014
Here it is, folks: The Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2014.
Most students entering college for the first time this fall—the Class of 2014—were born in 1992.
For these students, Benny Hill, Sam Kinison, Sam Walton, Bert Parks and Tony Perkins have always been dead.
1. Few in the class know how to write in cursive.
2. Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail.
3. “Go West, Young College Grad” has always implied “and don’t stop until you get to Asia…and learn Chinese along the way.”
4. Al Gore has always been animated.
5. Los Angelinos have always been trying to get along.
6. Buffy has always been meeting her obligations to hunt down Lothos and the other blood-suckers at Hemery High.
7. “Caramel macchiato” and “venti half-caf vanilla latte” have always been street corner lingo.
8. With increasing numbers of ramps, Braille signs, and handicapped parking spaces, the world has always been trying harder to accommodate people with disabilities.
9. Had it remained operational, the villainous computer HAL could be their college classmate this fall, but they have a better chance of running into Miley Cyrus’s folks on Parents’ Weekend.
10. A quarter of the class has at least one immigrant parent, and the immigration debate is not a big priority…unless it involves “real” aliens from another planet.
11. John McEnroe has never played professional tennis.
12. Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry.
13. Parents and teachers feared that Beavis and Butt-head might be the voice of a lost generation.
14. Doctor Kevorkian has never been licensed to practice medicine.
15. Colorful lapel ribbons have always been worn to indicate support for a cause.
16. Korean cars have always been a staple on American highways.
17. Trading Chocolate the Moose for Patti the Platypus helped build their Beanie Baby collection.
18. Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.
19. They never twisted the coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone.
20. DNA fingerprinting and maps of the human genome have always existed.
21. Woody Allen, whose heart has wanted what it wanted, has always been with Soon-Yi Previn.
22. Cross-burning has always been deemed protected speech.
23. Leasing has always allowed the folks to upgrade their tastes in cars.
24. “Cop Killer” by rapper Ice-T has never been available on a recording.
25. Leno and Letterman have always been trading insults on opposing networks.
26. Unless they found one in their grandparents’ closet, they have never seen a carousel of Kodachrome slides.
27. Computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive.
28. They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day.
29. Reggie Jackson has always been enshrined in Cooperstown.
30. “Viewer Discretion” has always been an available warning on TV shows.
31. The first computer they probably touched was an Apple II; it is now in a museum.
32. Czechoslovakia has never existed.
33. Second-hand smoke has always been an official carcinogen.
34. “Assisted Living” has always been replacing nursing homes, while Hospice has always been an alternative to hospitals.
35. Once they got through security, going to the airport has always resembled going to the mall.
36. Adhesive strips have always been available in varying skin tones.
37. Whatever their parents may have thought about the year they were born, Queen Elizabeth declared it an “Annus Horribilis.”
38. Bud Selig has always been the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.
39. Pizza jockeys from Domino’s have never killed themselves to get your pizza there in under 30 minutes.
40. There have always been HIV positive athletes in the Olympics.
41. American companies have always done business in Vietnam.
42. Potato has always ended in an “e” in New Jersey per vice presidential edict.
43. Russians and Americans have always been living together in space.
44. The dominance of television news by the three networks passed while they were still in their cribs.
45. They have always had a chance to do community service with local and federal programs to earn money for college.
46. Nirvana is on the classic oldies station.
47. Children have always been trying to divorce their parents.
48. Someone has always gotten married in space.
49. While they were babbling in strollers, there was already a female Poet Laureate of the United States.
50. Toothpaste tubes have always stood up on their caps.
51. Food has always been irradiated.
52. There have always been women priests in the Anglican Church.
53. J.R. Ewing has always been dead and gone. Hasn’t he?
54. The historic bridge at Mostar in Bosnia has always been a copy.
55. Rock bands have always played at presidential inaugural parties.
56. They may have assumed that parents’ complaints about Black Monday had to do with punk rockers from L.A., not Wall Street.
57. A purple dinosaur has always supplanted Barney Google and Barney Fife.
58. Beethoven has always been a dog.
59. By the time their folks might have noticed Coca Cola’s new Tab Clear, it was gone.
60. Walmart has never sold handguns over the counter in the lower 48.
61. Presidential appointees have always been required to be more precise about paying their nannies’ withholding tax, or else.
62. Having hundreds of cable channels but nothing to watch has always been routine.
63. Their parents’ favorite TV sitcoms have always been showing up as movies.
64. The U.S, Canada, and Mexico have always agreed to trade freely.
65. They first met Michelangelo when he was just a computer virus.
66. Galileo is forgiven and welcome back into the Roman Catholic Church.
67. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has always sat on the Supreme Court.
68. They have never worried about a Russian missile strike on the U.S.
69. The Post Office has always been going broke.
70. The artist formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg has always been rapping.
71. The nation has never approved of the job Congress is doing.
72. One way or another, “It’s the economy, stupid” and always has been.
73. Silicone-gel breast implants have always been regulated.
74. They’ve always been able to blast off with the Sci-Fi Channel.
75. Honda has always been a major competitor on Memorial Day at Indianapolis.
Beloit College - 700 College St. - Beloit, WI 53511 - 608.363.2000 - webmaster - Copyright © 2009
For these students, Benny Hill, Sam Kinison, Sam Walton, Bert Parks and Tony Perkins have always been dead.
1. Few in the class know how to write in cursive.
2. Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail.
3. “Go West, Young College Grad” has always implied “and don’t stop until you get to Asia…and learn Chinese along the way.”
4. Al Gore has always been animated.
5. Los Angelinos have always been trying to get along.
6. Buffy has always been meeting her obligations to hunt down Lothos and the other blood-suckers at Hemery High.
7. “Caramel macchiato” and “venti half-caf vanilla latte” have always been street corner lingo.
8. With increasing numbers of ramps, Braille signs, and handicapped parking spaces, the world has always been trying harder to accommodate people with disabilities.
9. Had it remained operational, the villainous computer HAL could be their college classmate this fall, but they have a better chance of running into Miley Cyrus’s folks on Parents’ Weekend.
10. A quarter of the class has at least one immigrant parent, and the immigration debate is not a big priority…unless it involves “real” aliens from another planet.
11. John McEnroe has never played professional tennis.
12. Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry.
13. Parents and teachers feared that Beavis and Butt-head might be the voice of a lost generation.
14. Doctor Kevorkian has never been licensed to practice medicine.
15. Colorful lapel ribbons have always been worn to indicate support for a cause.
16. Korean cars have always been a staple on American highways.
17. Trading Chocolate the Moose for Patti the Platypus helped build their Beanie Baby collection.
18. Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.
19. They never twisted the coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone.
20. DNA fingerprinting and maps of the human genome have always existed.
21. Woody Allen, whose heart has wanted what it wanted, has always been with Soon-Yi Previn.
22. Cross-burning has always been deemed protected speech.
23. Leasing has always allowed the folks to upgrade their tastes in cars.
24. “Cop Killer” by rapper Ice-T has never been available on a recording.
25. Leno and Letterman have always been trading insults on opposing networks.
26. Unless they found one in their grandparents’ closet, they have never seen a carousel of Kodachrome slides.
27. Computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive.
28. They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day.
29. Reggie Jackson has always been enshrined in Cooperstown.
30. “Viewer Discretion” has always been an available warning on TV shows.
31. The first computer they probably touched was an Apple II; it is now in a museum.
32. Czechoslovakia has never existed.
33. Second-hand smoke has always been an official carcinogen.
34. “Assisted Living” has always been replacing nursing homes, while Hospice has always been an alternative to hospitals.
35. Once they got through security, going to the airport has always resembled going to the mall.
36. Adhesive strips have always been available in varying skin tones.
37. Whatever their parents may have thought about the year they were born, Queen Elizabeth declared it an “Annus Horribilis.”
38. Bud Selig has always been the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.
39. Pizza jockeys from Domino’s have never killed themselves to get your pizza there in under 30 minutes.
40. There have always been HIV positive athletes in the Olympics.
41. American companies have always done business in Vietnam.
42. Potato has always ended in an “e” in New Jersey per vice presidential edict.
43. Russians and Americans have always been living together in space.
44. The dominance of television news by the three networks passed while they were still in their cribs.
45. They have always had a chance to do community service with local and federal programs to earn money for college.
46. Nirvana is on the classic oldies station.
47. Children have always been trying to divorce their parents.
48. Someone has always gotten married in space.
49. While they were babbling in strollers, there was already a female Poet Laureate of the United States.
50. Toothpaste tubes have always stood up on their caps.
51. Food has always been irradiated.
52. There have always been women priests in the Anglican Church.
53. J.R. Ewing has always been dead and gone. Hasn’t he?
54. The historic bridge at Mostar in Bosnia has always been a copy.
55. Rock bands have always played at presidential inaugural parties.
56. They may have assumed that parents’ complaints about Black Monday had to do with punk rockers from L.A., not Wall Street.
57. A purple dinosaur has always supplanted Barney Google and Barney Fife.
58. Beethoven has always been a dog.
59. By the time their folks might have noticed Coca Cola’s new Tab Clear, it was gone.
60. Walmart has never sold handguns over the counter in the lower 48.
61. Presidential appointees have always been required to be more precise about paying their nannies’ withholding tax, or else.
62. Having hundreds of cable channels but nothing to watch has always been routine.
63. Their parents’ favorite TV sitcoms have always been showing up as movies.
64. The U.S, Canada, and Mexico have always agreed to trade freely.
65. They first met Michelangelo when he was just a computer virus.
66. Galileo is forgiven and welcome back into the Roman Catholic Church.
67. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has always sat on the Supreme Court.
68. They have never worried about a Russian missile strike on the U.S.
69. The Post Office has always been going broke.
70. The artist formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg has always been rapping.
71. The nation has never approved of the job Congress is doing.
72. One way or another, “It’s the economy, stupid” and always has been.
73. Silicone-gel breast implants have always been regulated.
74. They’ve always been able to blast off with the Sci-Fi Channel.
75. Honda has always been a major competitor on Memorial Day at Indianapolis.
Beloit College - 700 College St. - Beloit, WI 53511 - 608.363.2000 - webmaster - Copyright © 2009
The "Aims of Education"
The Harper Library, University of Chicago
In his discussion of Josef Pieper's slim but significant book, "Leisure, the basis of Culture," Roger Kimball writes: (New Criterion)
In his discussion of Josef Pieper's slim but significant book, "Leisure, the basis of Culture," Roger Kimball writes: (New Criterion)
Josef Pieper did not dispute the importance of training. We cannot do without “the useful arts”—medicine, law, economics, biology, physics: all those disciplines that relate to “purposes that exist apart from themselves.” The question is only whether they exhaust the meaning of education. Is “education” synonymous with training? Or is there a dimension of learning that is undertaken not to negotiate some advantage in the world but purely for its own sake?
Abott gives some wise advice to the students:
"...you are here offered an unparalleled set of resources for finding the flash of enlightenment that kindles education within you. But it is your decision whether you seek that flash. You can go through Chicago and do nothing. Or you can go through like a tourist, listening to lectures here and there, consulting your college Fodor’s for “important intellectual attractions” that “should not be missed during your stay.” Or you can go through mechanically, stuffing yourself with materials and skills till you’re gorged. And whichever you choose, you’ll do just fine after you leave. You will be happy and you will be successful.
Or you can seek education. It will not be easy. We have only helpful exercises. We can’t give you the thing itself. And there will be extraordinary temptations—to spend whole months wallowing in a concentration that doesn’t work for you because you have some myth about your future, to blow off intellectual effort in all but one area because you are too lazy to challenge yourself, to wander off to Europe for a year of enlightenment that rapidly turns into touristic self-indulgence. There will be the temptations of timidity, too, temptations to forgo all experimentation, to miss the glorious randomness of college, to give up the prodigal possibilities that—let me tell you—you will never find again; temptations to go rigidly through the motions and then wonder why education has eluded you.
There are no aims of education. The aim is education. If—and only if—you seek it…education will find you. Welcome to the University of Chicago.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Academic Bankruptcy, Shteyngart, Berlin and Barbarians
Mark Taylor writes about a serious problem in his article, "Academic Bankruptcy"
WITH the academic year about to begin, colleges and universities, as well as students and their parents, are facing an unprecedented financial crisis. What we’ve seen with California’s distinguished state university system — huge cutbacks in spending and a 32 percent rise in tuition — is likely to become the norm at public and private colleges. Government support is being slashed, endowments and charitable giving are down, debts are piling up, expenses are rising and some schools are selling their product for two-thirds of what it costs to produce it. You don’t need an M.B.A. to know this situation is unsustainable.
With unemployment soaring, higher education has never been more important to society or more widely desired. But the collapse of our public education system and the skyrocketing cost of private education threaten to make college unaffordable for millions of young people. If recent trends continue, four years at a top-tier school will cost $330,000 in 2020, $525,000 in 2028 and $785,000 in 2035.
He proposes the following idea to help stem the cost:
The competition between Columbia and N.Y.U. is an example of what educational institutions should not be doing. Universities should be looking for new ways to provide high-quality education to more students at a lower price. In today’s world, it no longer makes sense for every school to cover every subject.
For example, it is absurd for Columbia and N.Y.U. to be have competing philosophy departments at a time when there are few jobs for philosophy academics. Instead, they could cooperate by forming a joint graduate and undergraduate program, which would reduce costs by requiring fewer faculty members and a more modest physical presence, while at the same time increasing course choices for students. And in our wired world, universities on opposite sides of the globe could find similar ways to collaborate.
I'm for this, but only if we apply it fairly, across the board. Isn't it absurd for MIT and Harvard both to have competing engineering and biology programs? Sure, there are more jobs for academics in the sciences than for those in philosophy (or any of the liberal arts) but consider how much could be saved by avoiding the reduplication of labs and equipment. After all, these are not inexpensive programs to run. Same for Tufts and Boston University with their competing dental schools. (Hey, this is fun!) Why not combine the MBA programs at the Harvard Business School and Brandeis? Oh, and here's a real opportunity to save: form a mega-law school combining the previously separate law schools of Harvard, Columbia, NYU, Boston University and Boston College! Mass production worked for the model T: why can't it work for higher education?
For what its worth, I predict that in the near future, live-interaction with professors will be possible only for the wealthiest students, much like it was in the ancient world. But unlike the ancient world, all the rest of us will be teaching and learning online. Liberal arts classes will be so marginalized that they will eventually only be offered by modern "monastics," who will perpetuate their areas of study as part of their vocation. B.A. degrees will eventually fade away.
Maybe Gary Shteyngart is prescient. In his satirical novel, Super Sad True Love Story, he is said to write about a world where college students can "major in Images, minor in Assertiveness," and where the most prestigious occupations are "Media and Credit, followed at a discreet distance by Retail." (Slate)
Isaiah Berlin once wrote, "Only barbarians are not curious about where they come from, how they came to be where they are, where they appear to be going, whether they wish to go there, and if so, why, and if not, why not." In a democracy, the answers to those questions are unable to be standardized. Will that fact eventually cause them to be ignored in the future, sealing the direction of our society?
I refuse to encourage barbarism. I have been given a vocation. God help me to use every means possible--offline and online--to fulfill it.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Has Ray Stevens been reading "Rules for Radicals?"
I saw this video on Brad's blog and was dumbfounded. I agree with Brad: "Ray Stevens is helping feed the irrational fear and suspicion." Later, on Roger Ebert's blog I came upon his discussion of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. (see below.) It sure seems to me that Stevens has been reading and profiting from that playbook...
* Rule 1: Power is not only what you have, but what an opponent thinks you have. If your organization is small, hide your numbers in the dark and raise a din that will make everyone think you have many more people than you do.
* Rule 2: Never go outside the experience of your people. The result is confusion, fear, and retreat.
* Rule 3: Whenever possible, go outside the experience of an opponent. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.
* Rule 4: Make opponents live up to their own book of rules. "You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity."
* Rule 5: Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It's hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.
* Rule 6: A good tactic is one your people enjoy. "If your people aren't having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic."
* Rule 7: A tactic that drags on for too long becomes a drag. Commitment may become ritualistic as people turn to other issues.
* Rule 8: Keep the pressure on. Use different tactics and actions and use all events of the period for your purpose. "The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this that will cause the opposition to react to your advantage."
* Rule 9: The threat is more terrifying than the thing itself.
* Rule 10: The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. Avoid being trapped by an opponent or an interviewer who says, "Okay, what would you do?"
* Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don't try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Celebrity Ayn Rand Fan: President Ronald Reagan
I wonder when Christian conservatives will wake up to the fact that libertarianism and theism are contradictory? We've either been asleep at the wheel, or woefully ignorant. Or worse...
From The Ayn Rand Lexicon: (note: Rand referred to her philosophy as "objectivism." She resented Libertarians, but they adored her. You can substitute "libertarian" for "objectivist" without loss.)
“Conservatives”
Objectivists are not “conservatives.” We are radicals for capitalism; we are fighting for that philosophical base which capitalism did not have and without which it was doomed to perish . . .
Politics is based on three other philosophical disciplines: metaphysics, epistemology and ethics—on a theory of man’s nature and of man’s relationship to existence. It is only on such a base that one can formulate a consistent political theory and achieve it in practice. When, however, men attempt to rush into politics without such a base, the result is that embarrassing conglomeration of impotence, futility, inconsistency and superficiality which is loosely designated today as “conservatism.” . . .
Today’s culture is dominated by the philosophy of mysticism (irrationalism)—altruism—collectivism, the base from which only statism can be derived; the statists (of any brand: communist, fascist or welfare) are merely cashing in on it—while the “conservatives” are scurrying to ride on the enemy’s premises and, somehow, to achieve political freedom by stealth. It can’t be done.
--Ayn Rand, “Choose Your Issues,” The Objectivist Newsletter, Jan. 1962, 1.
From the Atlas Society website:.
A new collection of the former President's private letters reveals that Ronald Reagan was a fan of Ayn Rand's work. On pages 281-82 of Reagan: A Life In Letters (New York: Free Press, 2003; edited by Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson, and Martin Anderson), we find the following passage:
In a May 23, 1966, letter William Vandersteel, president of the Ampower Corporation, expressed confidence that Reagan could win the presidency in 1968 and enclosed a pamphlet by Ayn Rand titled "Conservatism: An Obituary" written after the 1960 presidential campaign. In the essay Rand argues that many conservatives are opposed to statism but don't seem to realize the only good alternative is capitalism.
Willam Vandersteel
New York, New York
May 23, 1966
Dear Mr. Vandersteel:
Thanks very much for pamphlet. Am an admirer of Ayn Rand but hadn't seen this study.
Sincerely,
Ronald Reagan
In other words, capitalism is the only alternative to statism, but the only way capitalism can flourish is if it is not hindered by "mysticism" (i.e., belief in supernatural realities like God and souls), "irrationalism" (only what is natural--that is, what is material--is rational) or "altruism" (that pesky Christian belief that one should do unto others as one wishes others to do to him.)
Was Reagan oblivious, confused or devious? Actually, I think his deepest devotion was not to the Christ and His Kingdom (Rand's "mysticism," "irrationalism," and "altruism,") but to a pragmatic and utilitarian ethic, which permitted him to ignore "the base [upon which ] one can formulate a consistent political theory." Unfortunately, I fear that this is the still the case for many, many Christians.
Someone mades this acerbic observation on Facebook:
"Funny how the 'Christian' right supports the Randians when Rand and her disciples espoused atheism. Milton Friedman, Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernancke - all Randians, all atheists and all Republican appointees. Acts 2:44-45, Luke 3:16 and many other Bible verses and parables all preach the opposite of what Randians preach. But then, the 'Christian' Right has denied Christ and elevated Rush, Sean, and Glenn to the new Trinity of God."
Friday, August 06, 2010
65 Years Today: Hiroshima
If one is a utilitarian, it was doubtless the right thing to do. But in terms of Christian virtue ethics, I cannot see how it could be condoned. What kind of persons would cause such death and destruction? And what kind of persons would such an action cause them to become?
From the History Channel, "This Day in History:"
On this day in 1945, at 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world's first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout.
U.S. President Harry S. Truman, discouraged by the Japanese response to the Potsdam Conference's demand for unconditional surrender, made the decision to use the atom bomb to end the war in order to prevent what he predicted would be a much greater loss of life were the United States to invade the Japanese mainland. And so on August 5, while a "conventional" bombing of Japan was underway, "Little Boy," (the nickname for one of two atom bombs available for use against Japan), was loaded onto Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets' plane on Tinian Island in the Marianas. Tibbets' B-29, named the Enola Gay after his mother, left the island at 2:45 a.m. on August 6. Five and a half hours later, "Little Boy" was dropped, exploding 1,900 feet over a hospital and unleashing the equivalent of 12,500 tons of TNT. The bomb had several inscriptions scribbled on its shell, one of which read "Greetings to the Emperor from the men of the Indianapolis" (the ship that transported the bomb to the Marianas).
There were 90,000 buildings in Hiroshima before the bomb was dropped; only 28,000 remained after the bombing. Of the city's 200 doctors before the explosion; only 20 were left alive or capable of working. There were 1,780 nurses before-only 150 remained who were able to tend to the sick and dying.
According to John Hersey's classic work Hiroshima, the Hiroshima city government had put hundreds of schoolgirls to work clearing fire lanes in the event of incendiary bomb attacks. They were out in the open when the Enola Gay dropped its load.
There were so many spontaneous fires set as a result of the bomb that a crewman of the Enola Gay stopped trying to count them. Another crewman remarked, "It's pretty terrific. What a relief it worked."
From the History Channel, "This Day in History:"
On this day in 1945, at 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world's first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout.
U.S. President Harry S. Truman, discouraged by the Japanese response to the Potsdam Conference's demand for unconditional surrender, made the decision to use the atom bomb to end the war in order to prevent what he predicted would be a much greater loss of life were the United States to invade the Japanese mainland. And so on August 5, while a "conventional" bombing of Japan was underway, "Little Boy," (the nickname for one of two atom bombs available for use against Japan), was loaded onto Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets' plane on Tinian Island in the Marianas. Tibbets' B-29, named the Enola Gay after his mother, left the island at 2:45 a.m. on August 6. Five and a half hours later, "Little Boy" was dropped, exploding 1,900 feet over a hospital and unleashing the equivalent of 12,500 tons of TNT. The bomb had several inscriptions scribbled on its shell, one of which read "Greetings to the Emperor from the men of the Indianapolis" (the ship that transported the bomb to the Marianas).
There were 90,000 buildings in Hiroshima before the bomb was dropped; only 28,000 remained after the bombing. Of the city's 200 doctors before the explosion; only 20 were left alive or capable of working. There were 1,780 nurses before-only 150 remained who were able to tend to the sick and dying.
According to John Hersey's classic work Hiroshima, the Hiroshima city government had put hundreds of schoolgirls to work clearing fire lanes in the event of incendiary bomb attacks. They were out in the open when the Enola Gay dropped its load.
There were so many spontaneous fires set as a result of the bomb that a crewman of the Enola Gay stopped trying to count them. Another crewman remarked, "It's pretty terrific. What a relief it worked."
Thursday, August 05, 2010
QUOTES: "Love is always about the particular"
"But everything that is real has a defined nature....One cannot have a relationship with something abstract...To be spiritual but not religious is akin to following sports, but without choosing any one sport in particular. It is not possible to play sports in general. Or to love music, but no particular piece of music. Or to plant a garden, but no particular flowers. Novels cannot be read in general; you are either reading an Anne Rice book or you are not.
How much easier it would be to love a family in general, and not this particular spouse, and these particular children. Yet love is always about the particular." --Fr. Raymond de Souza
How much easier it would be to love a family in general, and not this particular spouse, and these particular children. Yet love is always about the particular." --Fr. Raymond de Souza
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Dear Anne Rice,
(As if you need any more responses..!)So you're ready to leave Christianity? Welcome to the club. It happens (or ought to happen!) to every Christian. As Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living," (Apology 38a) and that applies to the Christian life as well.
However, please don't miss out on the teaching moment that God has prepared for you. Here are two wise voices to consider:
Eugene Cho, "Why I am not quitting Christianity"
Keith Drury, "Beheading Christ"
A friend recently said to me, "The reason Noah stayed in the ark, with all its stench and filth, was because there was a flood going on outside." Anne, please don't jump ship; look before you leap. But if you leap, and discover that the waters are too rough, don't hesitate to call for help. Someone will surely complain about it, but I'll be happy to throw you the Anchor.
Yours in Christ,
Beth
Words to ponder: John 6:66-71
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67 "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve.
68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God."
70 Then Jesus replied, "Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!" 71 (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)
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