Why I'm an Activist Who Can't Stand Activists

I'd like to create a discipline of writing more, particularly after speaking about it with an old friend and mentor this week. Often though, I fear I am not so good at maintaining disciplines. This one, in specific, I have failed at many times.

Tonight I was thinking about my dislike for activists in spite of my own activism. It's like that Mitch Hedberg joke "I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it." I have been moved to writer particularly in light of the current 'Occupy Wall Street' movement, my sympathy with the cause yet disinterest in joining anyone on the street coupled with how the effect of the media and how they have or have not been involved up to this point. Christian communities, as well as politically active communities of either side, will warn the public of evil media influence. We hear of there being too much sex or violence and media bias swaying elections. Sensationalism gets in the way of real news.  These things do bother and affect me, but I'm sick of hearing and talking about them.

Are you not sick of dwelling on everything that is wrong with the world? Is it not exhausting?

"Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" Philippians 4:8 (NRSV - New Interpreter's Study Bible)

 The book of Philippians is beautiful to me. In this book Paul is doing much less scolding and directing, he's pleading and he's encouraging. The major issue I have with Paul is when he speaks of the role of women in the church, sometimes suggesting they should just keep quiet. But this verse is actually in response to an argument between two women Euodia and Sytyche who Paul is pleading with to stop fighting, to stop looking so closely at each other's faults. He respects them because they "Struggled beside me in the work of the gospel." They weren't silent. So here Paul is asking us to look for the best in one another. It's real easy to get together and complain but until we can find something good, is there any way forward?

In spite of all the complaints we do have plenty of good messages in our media and we don't have to look that hard for them. What in modern media do you find worthy of praise? What is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable or excellent?

If you are prone to only consume media of one type (e.g. "I only listen to 'Christian' music.") I challenge you to look for this good in unexpected areas.  I once read a beautiful story about Martin Luther King Jr. The story was told to Bono by Harry Belafonte:

The Civil Rights Movement had hit a wall, Bobby Kennedy had been elected Attorney General. No one in the movement had anything good to say about him. He was an Irishman, and the Irish were racists.  Culturally the Irish were just one step above Blacks on the social ladder and they were sure to exercise that power because it was all they had.

Eventually Dr. King got angry. He would not reconvene the meeting until they had one redeeming thing to say about Bobby Kennedy because until then they couldn't move forward.  Soon they learned that Bobby Kennedy was close to his Bishop, so they befriended him.

When Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, in Harry Belafonte's words "There was no greater friend to the Civil Rights Movement. There was no one we owed more of our progress to than that man." (paraphrased from Bono in Conversation with Mitchka Assayas)

We cannot continue to only point out what is wrong with the world and think that it will change. Things change when the best is appealed to, not the worst.  History has proven that change is better, more effective, and (best of all) more desirable when we seek the light in (of?) the world. Has anyone out there caught sight of a really bright star worth following recently?








Silver Lined Heart by Taylor Mali

It's Tolkein, NOT Lewis

I like C.S. Lewis, I do.  I have however noticed that an abundant number of people are reaching my blog because they use the search terms "not all those who wander are lost cs lewis" IT IS NOT A LEWIS QUOTE, it's J.R.R. Tolkein.  They were friends and all, and both great writers but the poem comes from Lord Of The Rings.

I just got a bit testy reading through my visitor results realizing the sheer volume of people searching for that phrase assuming it was written by C.S. Lewis and thought I should be clear, though I'm thinking the fact that I attribute it to Tolkein at the top of my blog should be enough.

Love Wins

Because I'm on twitter and a couple weeks ago I saw, and was distressed by, the furor that erupted over the book Rob Bell was about to release I decided that I would be reading that book.

There are three chief complaints that emerged over this book Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived
1. It was claimed that Rob Bell's ideas were Universalist
2. It was claimed that Rob Bell suggested Hell does not exist
3. It was claimed that Rob Bell suggested Hell is empty

If you're following along, yes claims 2 and 3 are contradictory in that 3 would suggest that Hell at least exists.  In any case, NONE of these are true claims.  I have only one simple suggestion, if you've read any C.S. Lewis, most specifically The Great Divorce, The Chronicles of Narnia, and A Grief Observed. Nothing Rob Bell has to say should be in any remote way "new" and if what Bell has to say is heresy then so is the work of Lewis. Bell's gift is that he's a great communicator and so it may be easier to understand in his book, but it has been said before.

I'm not going to give you my review of the book, read it for yourself, don't try to find out more before you read it, that's silly. Trying to find out what conclusions he comes to at the end of the book by reading blogs is like searching blogs to find out who committed murder in a mystery novel, and some of the bloggers made up their own ending. So, read it for yourself, and decide for yourself.  While you're at it, read a little Lewis too.

Theodicy in a Groaning World

Theodicy: In essence this is the question of why bad things happen to good people.

Last year at this time I was working on my senior thesis on St. Thomas Aquinas’ literal exposition on the book of Job. Several people I talked to, mostly at church, were intrigued and told me that they would be interested in reading my thesis as they had always been interested in that question of theodicy.  The problem is that I was writing a history paper on Aquinas’ work, and theodicy is a theological question, I suppose I could write on the changing perspectives in theodicy with an emphasis on Aquinas, but the other problem is that Thomas Aquinas genuinely didn’t seem to care about theodicy, and best I can tell people can ask that question of Christianity all they want but it happens to be the only religion that won’t give them an answer. Aquinas approached the book of Job as a question of Divine providence in that God throughout the whole book clearly was watching and had a hand in what was happening, though ‘the Adversary’ conducted many of the trials they were only permitted because God allowed them. So here’s a man whom God is actively allowing “bad things” to happen to, and Aquinas’ response is this:

    For good things do not always befall the good nor evil things the wicked. On the other hand, evil things do not always befall the good nor good things the wicked, but good and evil indifferently befall both the good and the wicked. (Prolog to the Exposition on Job)   

Mind you, this all falls into Aquinas’ argument relating to Providence which I am not discussing in this blog, I didn’t even discuss it in my thesis.  The paper I wrote ended up being a feminist piece on Aquinas’ effect on the role of Women’s Ordination. Also not my topic for this blog.

So why am I even breeching the subject of theodicy now?  For starters a magnitude 8.9 Earthquake hit Japan tonight and portions of the U.S. West Coast are under Tsunami Warning/Advisory only 14 months after a devastating Earthquake in Haiti, and 12 after an Earthquake of similar size in Chile. Recent floods in New Zealand and Australia not to mention earthquakes there in the last year.  My church is currently doing a study on suffering and Wednesday marked the beginning of lent.  Accidents, natural disaster and unpreventable incurable diseases kill our loved ones.

First, now that I have named these things, I want to make a simple point: As an island nation Japan will probably have more damage than Chile, however the damage done in Haiti will still be found to have been worse. A small island nation which was forced to maintain a state of poverty due to brutal dictators and poor international policy of the world powers had, and still has little infrastructure to keep it a float without any natural disasters.  The earthquakes in Japan and Chile were both 8.9, Haiti was a 7.0. I only draw this distinction to say that much, though certainly not all, the devastation in Haiti was preventable. It was already going to be bad, but it didn’t have to be that bad.

The only subject in Science that I’ve really had much interest in was Geology.  Seismic and volcanic activity is something I find interesting.  The shifting of tectonic plates and, quite frankly, the vast devastation that that can bring.  The idea of Harry Truman in his cabin on the side of the mountain telling off the bearers of bad news saying that if St. Helens really is gonna blow then he’ll go down with the mountain, David Johnston doing that last bit of research before he’s trapped and shares Truman’s fate.  Photos of the San Francisco earthquake are interesting to me as well.  One of the major things I learned in my geology classes is simply that none of us are safe.  Right now there is something seriously messed up with the very place that you are sitting and something could happen at any moment, an earthquake, an eruption, a sinkhole, any number of things.  So when people start asking why God would allow an earthquake at this one specific point, be it Haiti, Chile, or Japan I simply feel as though, if they were truly outraged enough, they would be asking why the planet is so broken.

Then, we might be getting somewhere. 

Why is the planet one big powder keg? 
Why do we all have to die? 
Why does it seem that the physical, natural attributes of this planet and our bodies mimic the fragile state of our human relations?

I don’t believe that I will know this side of heaven, and I’m not a “Pie in the sky when you die” sort of believer. Faith must have real application here and now.  I am the sort of believer who thinks Jesus is the Muslim man or woman being marginalized, the homeless man I step over on the street, the undocumented worker who chooses not to report a rape for fear she will get deported.  I’m the sort of believer who believes that God weeps with me and the rest of his children even when he already knows how the situation will be redeemed because he feels our pain. 

I’m the sort of believer who stood at the foot of the steps while my pastor put ashes on my forehead while saying “Remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return” this past Wednesday. You have to admit that puts life in perspective for a moment.

The truth is other religions have some form of karma, what you do will come back to you.  The problem, in my view, is that that is not always true. It seems like it would make sense and often it does but plenty of people live their entire lives without consequences which is why theology of reincarnation or heaven and hell help, because then we think that maybe they’ll eventually pay.  Christianity however, doesn’t have karma, stuff happens and we’re all broken people in a broken world and that brokenness isn’t just spiritual it’s physical. You want to blame God for such shoddy design.  Not long after his wife died (I believe of some illness, possibly cancer) C.S. Lewis wrote a journal that was later published under the name N.W. Clerk because some of the things he had to say and some of the anger he had to express toward God he was concerned to have directly associated with his name in public on particularly compelling passage reads:

        If God's goodness is inconsistent with hurting us, then either God is not good or there is no God: for in the only life we know He hurts us beyond our worst fears and beyond all we can imagine. If it is consistent with hurting us, then He may hurt us after death as unendurably as before it.
        Sometimes it is hard not to say, 'God forgive God.' Sometimes it is hard to say so much. But if our faith is true, He didn't. He crucified Him.    

I hope what Lewis is saying there isn’t lost, that last paragraph is short but wordy.  The point he makes in the midst of his anger is that God deemed that someone did need to suffer for the brokenness evident in the world so he chose to do it himself. Of course at this point in the book this paragraph does little to reconcile Lewis’ struggle with God’s goodness I still find it to be an interesting thought to spring forth in the midst of his grief.

Following the Haiti Earthquake a particular high profile Televangelist (who shall not be named) blamed the people of Haiti for what he claimed was a deal they made with the devil.  Mind you I do believe that the god they were presented with by their French oppressors was a god worth rejecting, who wouldn’t choose to turn to what they had been taught was the opposite of what kept them in bondage?  Following this man’s declaration he received a great deal of media attention, though I continue to be a fan of the Daily Show With Jon Stewart, after playing the video clip of this man’s words Stewart pulled out a bible and asked incredulously if, out of such a large book, that’s all this man could come up with.  Stewart then quoted a few verses:

•    The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18   

•    Fear thou not; for I [am] with thee: be not dismayed; for I [am] thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isaiah 41:10   
•    Thou who hast made me see many sore troubles wilt revive me again; from the depths of the earth thou wilt bring me up again. Psalm 71:20  

•    Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the Lord, who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:10  

I can only pray that someone won’t, once again, make such a heartless statement that will require a comedian on a fake news show to do his job for him. Our faith doesn’t teach karma, sometimes things will come back to bite you in this life but sometimes they won’t. An earthquake is not God’s punishment and it’s not God randomly doling out suffering. The world is broken but healing has already begun and we can join together to make the kingdom “on Earth as it is in heaven.”

For closing, I've found a new favorite song: Jon Foreman lead singer of Switchfoot singing "Instead of a Show"

A Million Miles in A Thousand Years

It's out in Paperback!
Here's a link to it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Million-Miles-Thousand-Years-Learned/dp/1400202981/ref=tmm_pap_title_0



What story are you telling? from Rhetorik Creative on Vimeo.

Gsus Saves: My fondness for music and love/hate relationship with religious kitsch collide

I managed to grab a ticket to see Lifehouse play at the Showbox SODO here in Seattle tonight (for those of you who sleep at midnight rather than go to work read "last night").  Openers for the night were Mindhead a band from Mt. Vernon, Wa they were quite good and I picked up a CD after the show.  I had a blast, I've been a fan of Lifehouse for over a decade. It was very strange seeing so many teenagers at the show, perhaps as strange as when I profess my love of U2's Joshua Tree album... the one that came out the year I was born.  I was very excited to see a guitar tech wearing a t-shirt with a chord chart and the words "Gsus Saves" on it. I like that kind of thing, either mocking cliched religious phrases or the old religious kitsch passed down by very religious relatives that most consider too gaudy and weird to display. I currently have a magnetic Jesus on my fridge (a gift to my roommate) that can be dressed in various outfits, from business suit to pope to sheep costume. I take my faith seriously which is why I think I do it a disservice if I can't have a laugh at the cliches and misuse of it. Thus, the Gsus Saves shirt simply had me in a better mood for the show, I had a stupid smile on my face the whole night, it did dim a bit when I had to run to catch a bus to get to work on time tonight but it was an awesome night nonetheless.

Jason Wade - Lead Vocals, Guitar

The set was awesome, they took requests and played a lot of the songs from the album that came out when I was a teen.  There's also something wonderful about the base and the driving rock in the louder, faster paced songs. I don't just like to hear the music I like it to shake my ribcage.

An oddly placed older gentleman (he looked much older than my dad, I'm guessing a healthy 70s?) next to me seemed a little surprised when I would get really excited about the obscure requests people would make from the band's early work but he seemed to be quite familiar with most the music himself.  One song, a cover of a song originally recorded by Sue Thompson and written in 1952, "You Belong to Me" (1,000,000x better than anything Taylor Swift has ever dreamt of writing but then I'm partial to 1950s music) Jason Wade- Lifehouse's lead singer- said he had only played a couple times before (I assume he meant live).  He recorded it for the Original Shrek film and I distinctly recall recognizing his voice when I saw the movie back in the day and scanning the credits until I saw his name.  [The things we had to do before "google it" entered the modern lexicon.]  I do prefer Wade's rendition but I love the song whenever I hear it played.  Someone also requested Storm, another OLD OLD favorite, it does appear on the Who We Were album but back in the early days of peer sharing I was an aspiring hipster looking for the obscure stuff, perhaps the best sort of music downloading fan in those days.  I bought the albums that were available but anything out of print I hunted for on Napster.  Back in those days I was in love with music in general but listening to Lifehouse felt like something different all together.

Ben Carey - Guitarist

One major event in my life coincided with the arrival of Lifehouse on the scene.  It was the moment when I finally decided to make my faith my own, I was raised in the church but this was the time when I really became a Christian.  Nowadays I still have a very real, very tangible faith and no one I spend time with can deny that I take it very seriously yet religious language makes me cringe.  Sometimes I cringe because it's cheesy, mostly because of the Christian music industry and the commercialization of my faith.  I personally like Jon Forman's (lead singer of the band Switchfoot) response to the unsettling debate over whether or not his band was still a "Christian Band" when they broke out of the Christian niche market (I prefer to call it a self-imposed ghetto) and hit the main stream, he has written and said so much about it that I hate to limit it to one quote but I encourage you to google "Jon Foreman Christian Band" in any case here is just the beginning of my favorite bit that Foreman has written on the subject

"To be honest, this question grieves me because I feel that it represents a much bigger issue than simply a couple [of my band's] tunes. In true Socratic form, let me ask you a few questions:

Does Lewis or Tolkien mention Christ [by name] in any of their fictional series?

Are Bach's sonata's Christian?

What is more Christ-like, feeding the poor, making furniture, cleaning bathrooms, or painting a sunset?

There is a schism between the sacred and the secular in all of our modern minds. The view that a pastor is more Christian than a girls' volleyball coach is flawed and heretical. The stance that a worship leader is more spiritual than a janitor is condescending and flawed. These different callings and purposes further demonstrate Gods sovereignty. Many songs are worthy of being written. Switchfoot will write some, Keith Green, Bach, and perhaps yourself have written others. Some of these songs are about redemption, others about the sunrise, others about nothing in particular: written for the simple joy of music. None of these songs has been born again, and to that end there is no such thing as Christian music."

(Brackets represent my slight edits to aid reader understanding)
Truth be told however I think the first time I heard someone say something to the effect of "We're Christians in a band, not a Christian band" May have been in an interview with Jason Wade. To those of us who truly appreciate music we need to be ready to acknowledge that maybe, just possibly (and by this I full intend you to read "definitely") "Christian Music", that is to say the kind of music that is produced in the "Christian Music Industry" and sold exclusively in "Christian Stores" with no hope of escape, well... it sucks.  Any band on an exclusively Christian label that turns out to be any good usually gets a record deal in the main stream and, if they weren't already, bombarded with accusations and questions relating to them "selling out".  Good bands seldom start, and NO good band ever stays, on Christian labels- nor should they.

I love music from a variety of genres, the older I get the more I learn that my tastes in music are not as eclectic as I once thought they were.  Living in Miami I realized that I don't like latin music, that's not a slight to latin music I just don't like it.  I have learned to appreciate most music, that which is vulgar and demeaning I will not appreciate, 4'33" as a statement about the music around us is beautiful, 4'33" as an actual song is a waste of 4 minutes and 33 seconds, and honestly songs that say Jesus a lot for the sake of filling some sort of quota or a rock band at a Christian festival whose cred is judged on how many times they pray rather than how hard they rock is... well.. "a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal" noise, cacophony.  I have found that I more deeply appreciate songs of struggle and wrestling with God.  I think, even before I was aware of it, that's why I love Lifehouse's song "Storm". I love the Psalms of Discontent in U2's Pop and Achtung Baby, the ones the general Christian community seems to turn from.  I had my zealous phase in which the world was only painted in black and white shades of morality that centered on eloquent lists of don'ts and high judgment.  Music, starting with Lifehouse never became subject to that rigid world.

Regardless of any particular faith background - or lack there of- I like music, and I still LOVE Lifehouse.  I've always been somewhat fascinated by group dynamics and how members come in and out of a band, Lifehouse doesn't have the same make up that they had when they started which isn't typical for the bands that usually land on my playlist but I like the dynamic, I liked the old dynamic too but life changes a year ago I was primarily concerned with feminist interpretations of Thomas Aquinas' work, and comparative genocide with an emphasis on the Holocaust all in a place about as geographically disparate from my current location as one can manage within the continental United States. Considering my inclinations as an avid concert goer I'm simply disappointed that this was the first time I was able to attend a Lifehouse concert in all these years.

And so, to close out my love letter to my favorite band (well, at least in terms of Longevity, as you may be able to tell from this post "favorite band" is a fairly long list) I would like to offer a small humorous story of waiting in line for the concert:

Upon getting into line I discovered I was immediately behind a pair of teenagers who had no shame in telling me all about the meet and greet they had with the band and how "Jason is SO cute", but "he was pretty cocky".  Mind you, having been an adolescent girl once myself, to a fifteen year old girl an attractive older man who doesn't engage in flirting at their teenage level seems cocky. Not long after having been informed of the attractiveness of various band members one of the girl's fathers slipped into line, I must tell you he cannot be old enough to have a teenage daughter that's crazy.  Also the man was drop dead gorgeous (not even kidding, wish I could've covertly taken a non-blurry picture) but, you know... he was pretty cocky.  ;)

EDIT:
I found a couple videos from last night that someone posted.  They're of "You Belong To Me", "Simon" and "Storm".  "You Belong to Me" and "Simon" are pretty shakey but the audio is good, and then "Storm" has good video and audio although there's a girl near the person recording who seems to want to have a running dialogue with the song that almost comes off as heckling, granted I suppose I understand the excitement.  I couldn't hear her last night so all was well.

ONE Campaign Urgent Notice:

Subject: Bad news

Hi,

The House just voted to make huge cuts in this year’s budget. Poverty-fighting priorities--which make up less than one percent of the US budget--were sharply cut.

Now it’s the Senate’s turn to weigh in on the budget--and we’ve got to tell them to preserve this life-saving funding. Cuts to these life-saving programs will have a real, immediate, and devastating impact on the world’s poor.

I just signed this petition asking the Senate not to make cuts. Will you sign it, too?

http://one.org/us/actnow/2011budget/index.html?rc=senatebudget2011paste

Together as ONE we can make a difference.

Thanks!
Maggie

Twenty-Four

Twenty four oceans
Twenty four skies
Twenty four failures
Twenty four tries
Twenty four finds me
In twenty-fourth place
Twenty four drop outs
At the end of the day
Life is not what I thought it was
Twenty four hours ago

Still I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
And I'm not who I thought I was twenty four hours ago
Still I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You

Twenty four reasons to admit that I'm wrong
With all my excuses still twenty four strong

See I'm not copping out not copping out not copping out
When You're raising the dead in me
Oh, oh I am the second (wo)man
Oh, oh I am the second (wo)man now
Oh, oh I am the second (wo)man now

And You're raising these twenty four voices
With twenty four hearts
With all of my symphonies
In twenty four parts
But I wan to be one today
Centered and true

I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
You're raising the dead in me
Oh, oh I am the second (wo)man
Oh, oh I am the second (wo)man now
Oh, oh I am the second (wo)man now
And You're raising the dead in me

I want to see miracles, see the world change
Wrestled the angel, for more than a name
For more than a feeling
For more than a cause
I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
And You're raising the dead in me
Twenty four voices
With twenty four hearts
With all of my symphonies
In twenty four parts.
I'm not copping out. Not copping out. Not copping out.

"I wrote this song near the end of my 24th year on this planet. Wherever we run, wherever the sun finds us when he rises, we remain stuck with ourselves. That can be overwhelming. Sometimes I feel like my soul is polluted with politicians, each with a different point of view. With all 24 of them in disagreement, each voice is yelling to be heard. And so I am divided against myself. I feel that I am a hypocrite until I am one, when all of the yelling inside of me dies down. I've heard that the truth will set you free. That's what I'm living for: freedom of spirit. I find unity and peace in none of the diversions that this world offers. But I've seen glimpses of truth and that's where I want to run" - Jon Foreman

Today I turn 24. Also, today George Burns would have been 115. That's right, I have the same birthday as "God".

In one of my history courses at FIU we were discussing what age one truly becomes an adult in the US in the current era.  It was agreed, despite how the law may read, that that age was certainly not 18.  At YouthCare (where I now work) we provide services in various capacities for "Youth" the setting I work in is ages 12-17 but YouthCare provides services for older youth that accept clients from 18-21 and they can remain in program up to the age of 24. Coincidentally that's the age we agreed upon in class. Many factors go into that number. Some factors suggested were marital status, sexual activity, whether or not one had children and depending on the culture one arises from and the time period we are discussing these are all reasonable factors but then as a contently celibate woman (for now, I still need to find an attractive, intelligent Irishman to marry) in our current era, not only am I some what of a weirdo, I wouldn't qualify for adulthood.

Consider however that I haven't lived with my parents (much less within 240 miles of them) for five and a half years. I have a college degree, I now pay my own bills, my job provides my health care as well as a 401k plan and because I don't pay my own car insurance I don't drive.  By the way, car insurance just got cheaper, most insurance companies drop their rates when a person turns 24, some still hold out until they turn 25.  I hurt my back a few months ago and it still aches from time to time, I have a cane and a mug that reads "Sexy Grandma" I prefer hymns to contemporary music at church and like liturgy, my roommate (who is older than me) calls me "Grandma Maggie." I even broke my first bone a few weeks ago in a losing battle with a bookcase (my poor little pinkie toe) which I got x-rayed using my health plan.  I make plans, appointments, and go to meetings.

Taking into account all those things...

I just thought I'd let you know that you shouldn't let all of that fool you. I have no intention whatsoever of growing up. Even if I make it to 115 and I think George Burns would have approved.

http://xkcd.com/150/

What I do now without Facebook

As you may or may not know, I deleted my facebook account a little over a week ago.  If you didn't know you're either not on facebook, not my friend on facebook, or missed the myriad of warnings I posted.
Since leaving facebook I have developed some new hobbies:
Oil Painting: A Work In Progress inspired by my nightly walks to work

I'm also starting art classes (mostly drawing, not paint) tomorrow which is super exciting.

I've also started volunteering with the youth group at my church, I started out working with high schoolers but they need more help with the middle schoolers so I'll be working with them starting Wednesday.

Finally I'm getting to an extensive reading list of books I WANT to read, versus the school kind.  You can check out that list here: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4706470

Learning From a Terrorist

It would seem unthinkable in America to, rather than execute a man responsible for numerous terrorist or extremist actions, elect that man to public office.  Those in the US might find such a concept unthinkable in the Western World, and that the only way this could be possible in ANY country is if that country were some sort of evil totalitarian regime.

So I would like to introduce you to a government the locals call Stormont.  This government is led by two men with equal power, the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (The FM represents the majority population and the DFM the minority population however, as stated, they share equal power).  The FM in the 80's led about 500 people in a protest that involved attacking police and police stations in its wake.  During a trial involving another violent incident the judge described him as an extremist.  The DFM was involved with terrorist activity at a young age having led the youth wing of a major terrorist organization.  Later this man was in a major leadership role withing that organization and was arrested while possessing hundreds of pounds of explosives as well as several thousand rounds of ammunition.  The difference is that these two men were, and in some ways still are, on different sides of a centuries old conflict.  The difference is that because they are in Stormont they are fulfilling a part of a powersharing agreement that is bringing peace to their region.

Naturally if you know anything about me you know I'm talking about Northern Ireland but I think it deserves to be said that while that region still isn't all sunshine, puppies, happiness and rainbows it is getting better and not because the terrorists and extremists were all killed, but rather because they went into politics.  Don't let the photo above of them smiling with the President fool you, they still don't get along but they know that violence won't solve anything because they've tried it.  I'm not some American with head in the clouds romantic ideas of hands across the baricades rhetoric, I've spent a good deal of time learning about Irish history and simply feel that such a history, as well as such a present, has a great deal to say about the human condition.

I recently started reading Killing Rage by Eamon Collins in which Mr. Collins writes of his time in the Provisional IRA, the spirit of being caught up in this greater cause that began to feel like it may not be so great afterall.  I found several quotes in his introduction striking, but this one particularly so:
(contents of brackets and change of typeface for emphasis were added by me)

"... I do not want to see another death in pursuit of this[/an] abstract concept.

I no longer believe in Utopian solutions to complicated and intractable problems. One person's Utopia usually means another person's hell.  We live in a state of uncertainty, not just in Northern Ireland, but by virtue of being human. What I have tried to do over the last decade is to subject my former beliefs to ruthless scrutiny. Instead of searching for ways to confirm my beliefs, I have searched for ways to prove them false. When, after dispassionate examination, you cannot prove your beliefs false, then perhaps you are on the way to discovering some sort of truth." (pg 6)

Earlier on the page Collins comments specifically referring to the Catholic and Protestant populations of Northern Ireland though it can easily be applied in a more universal manner to simply say that

'violence separates us from those with whom we have the most in common- those with whom we are placing ourselves in direct opposition.' 

Think of all those stories of people who grew up in segregated areas whether it was racial, religious, class, etc.  Why is it that the seeming concern of a prejudiced parent is not that something bad might happen to their child if they mixed with the other side, the concern more frequently seems to be that their child might actually like "those people" and we just can't have that now can we?  Maria Elena encountered racial and religious tension when she married Buddy Holly, Bono's parents encountered the Protestant/Catholic tension.  Isn't that terrifying? What if a Cougar fan isn't all that different from a Husky fan... worse yet what if a Yankees fan has something (other than baseball) in common with a Red Sox fan?  Republicans could get along with Democrats? (or... gasp! Marry one another? Heavens no, that might produce a child like me, it's highly unrecommended.) What if one who espouses a Pro-Life ideology finds out that a person who espouses Pro-Choice positions does so because they see it as a way to actually reduce abortions and despise the thought of abortion just as much as the most ardent Pro-Lifer?

Goodness!

We might have dialogue.

Why on earth would we want that?

My Seattle Scene: Part 1 of... who knows.

Why I believe in God:

I've recently been trying to spend some time exploring my new neighborhood and doing my best to do so on foot.  Just about a mile away from my new place is this cool little new and used bookstore that has a pub downstairs and inside is a Greek restaurant (that's Seattle for you).  Of course I wanted to go in and check it out and while browsing in the Religion section I came across this book: 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a god. I was curious.  There is a certain sort of person that can drive me up a wall, and many may think I am actually thinking of two different types of people but I assure you that to me they are the same.  There are those who are particularly reliant on apologetics as a way to prove their faith to others - trying to find an answer to every question a person critical of their faith might ask.   Every little piece of their faith must be literally true or the faith cannot exist and so they must be able to prove all their reasons for believing.  The other kind of person is not religious, they may be a militant atheist or simply critical of organized religion.  They spend their time finding a way to break down all of the answers that apologetics provides to the first group.  However they may define their perspective they place themselves at a point in opposition to religion. The only thing that separates these two groups is that the second has managed to pull the one thread that causes faith to unravel and because every single tiny little piece of that faith cannot be proven to be literally true it all falls apart at the seams, but if in fact one small piece can be disproved then the faith must entirely cease to exist.  These people believe the same things about faith, I simply think that one has just followed those beliefs through to completion.

While I was in the bookstore I picked this book up because I was skeptical as to its purpose.  Was it trying to give people reasons to take up faith, or more likely prove the silliness of those who hold it?  I must confess I never looked at it long enough to find out, and while I posted links so you could find the book on Amazon I myself never looked further than the table of contents.  I became disinterested when I discovered that my reason for believing is God never made the list.  There certainly were items listed among the 50 reasons in the table of contents that I absolutely believe, please don't misunderstand me on that point.  For instance one in particular has to do with God sending his son to die for my sins, I DO believe that, but it's not WHY I believe in God it is part of what I believe about Him.  There were lots of mentions on the list having to do with science and evolution and again, I found these to be silly reasons to believe in a god, if my God is all powerful and created all things then whatever science is it is of Him and so my faith is not dependent on how complete or incomplete our understanding may be of the scientific world.  Some reasons seemed to deal with "fire insurance" (believing in God so one doesn't go to hell) and believing because I'm afraid not to, entirely regardless of my theology of heaven or hell, also seems ridiculous and indeed a very shallow faith.  There were also reasons to do with how many believed in the reason giver's particular religion, the silliness of this being that any one person from any number of world religions could boast of the thousands or millions of others who also believe.  I could go on summarizing the list but you might as well just check it out for yourselves, you can use the Amazon "look inside" feature to look at the list in the table of contents.

The man who wrote this spent a great deal of time asking a lot of people why they believe in their god.  The first reason given is "My god is obvious".  Perhaps I should have titled this blog "The moment I realized I might be a Calvinist after all" because obvious as the reason giver's god may be, there are plenty of people who are oblivious.  I was, on the whole, disappointed with the list.  I have one little answer to this question that didn't make it, and I know that I cannot be alone I just think few of us are ever really honest enough with ourselves to give this response. We take on the defense and try to give reasons that may prove God to the world but that's not what the question is asking.  I think maybe Donald Miller has a point, maybe it's not a pure Calvinist predestination that decides whether or not I believe in God but it isn't all my choice alone either, in his book Blue Like Jazz Mr. Miller says "Believing in God is as much like falling in love as it is making a decision. Love is both something that happens to you and something you decide upon."  Both parts are necessary for the whole, for lack of a better term the "thing" has to happen, and you have to decide to believe, just one or the other cannot constitute believing.  Of course no decision can exist without this "thing" happening, but if it happens and a choice is made against it or no choice is made at all then belief could not exist.  You have to be chosen before you can choose.  Of course in suggesting this then I suppose there would be the question of selective or universal election which, aside from acknowledging the elephant, I am going to avoid like the plague for right now.  Then of course there is my ever favorite Bono quote from Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas in which he says "When I look at the cross of Christ, what I see up there is all my s*** and everybody else's. So I ask myself a question a lot of people have asked: Who is this man?... And no one can talk you into it or out of it."

All of this is to say that my reason for believing in God doesn't come as some piece of proof, from extensive study of apologetics or the fact that as I drove on I-5 today on a clear day in Seattle I saw the Olympic mountain range and was awestruck.  These things can perhaps be helpful in their proper context, but if asked why I believe in God, the only answer I will choose to give is this:

Because I just do.

Almost there...

The last time I made a post I was still in school in Miami and working on the hunt for a post-graduation job.  I intentionally didn't post anything because not only did the last post refer readers to my resume website but it also spoke to how I view youth ministry and I figured it was a good one to leave up while I was in the process of looking for a job.

Naturally an update is in order as to what I've been up to since then.  I graduated from FIU and after staying with my parents for a few weeks applying for jobs I was offered a position working the night shift at a shelter for homeless youth in Seattle.  After roughly a week-long road-trip that included stops in New Orleans (just for the night), Lubbock, TX, the Grand Canyon, and Walla Walla I arrived in Seattle a week ago.  I found an apartment right away but stayed with a friend (who also helped me out getting the job in the first place, I probably owe her my first born child now) for several days before I could move in earlier today.  My first shift starts tonight (technically Friday AM) so I've been pulling an all nighter to adjust to the sleep schedule and I'm almost there.  I get to sleep at about 9am (12pm EST) so that I can be up by 5, around the time my new roommate will be getting home from work and then we may go check out the art walk downtown before we come back here and I get ready to head to work.

In spite of how crazy this schedule will be I am very excited to be back in the Northwest, my new roommate is really cool and I think this next year will be a blast.

Pieces of Magic

First of all I launched a website advertising the fact that I am hunting for a job, most specifically relating to Youth Work, but hey who knows, just check it out. http://www.maggiealmalee.com


As to my actual blog: Pieces of Magic


Several months back I gave a sermon at the Lighthouse in which I mentioned some of my greatest passions: Music- most specifically the band U2, Baseball-the Seattle Mariners, and Movies- almost any of them but I love historical dramas and anything with an Irish or Celtic bent.  Of course that sermon came only a couple weeks after seeing the M's play in Tampa immediately followed by an amazing U2 concert at Raymond James Stadium, also in Tampa Bay (it's good to have family up there!)  The particular movie I mentioned in my sermon was The Departed in which Leonardo DiCaprio's character is being asked by the undercover unit "Do you want to be a cop or do you want to appear to be a cop?" My text was from James' Epistle regarding true religion and my question was "Do you want to be a Christian, or do you want to appear to be a Christian." Some people who like to play up the 'persecution complex' might argue that people wouldn't want to "appear" to be Christian, it's not that popular.  I would argue that they should ask a politician about that.  Appearing to be a Christian gets you elected, it implies you have values whether you do or not, in *America* it makes you look good.  What I wanted to ask, was do you actually want to *BE* a Christian.  So, using Music, Baseball, and Movies I made my case.


I love these things because I find magic in them.  Not the "Oh no, demons!" sort of magic that hyperactive uptight Christians worry about, but a kind of beauty, love, joy, and maybe even hope.  They're all art to me.  Yes, even baseball.  A player's swing, pitch, catch or throw are all an art form that he perfects.  An aging player- once a legend- steps up to the plate, hoping that maybe this time he can prove that he's not washed up and that *this* time will show everyone that he's still got "it" whatever "it" is.   Baseball does this like no other sport, it's why they wrote the book and made the movie "For Love of the Game" although I think Brett Favre in his refusal to retire also embodies this sentiment.  Legends are better than rookies even if rookies are better players in this moment.  I love to see Michael Saunders play well but to see him hit a home run means nothing next to seeing Griffey do the same, Saunders hasn't earned it yet I suppose.  So I'll watch game after game and hope my boys win and I'll take that any day over a sure thing like the Sox, Rays and certainly over the Yankees.  Though I must admit after the Mariners, I am a bit of a Rays fan and am glad to see them do well I would still have preferred for *MY* boys to have won this last series when they visited Tropicana Field.  Throughout juicing controversies and player strikes over salaries  I still believe in this game, it still holds magic for me.  Maybe it's because I got hooked watching Edgar Martinez play, or maybe it's because I remember listening to the audio book of "For Love of the Game" on a road trip with my dad.  Nonetheless I believe in this game and the unifying effect it has on communities.  Consider what it meant to Seattle the day we were told that not only was it decided that our team would try to trade for Griffey but that he wanted to come back after that roller-coaster ride he put us on with Atlanta.  What about when that book came out claiming Boone was juicing?  Sure, I guess it's possible but I choose not to believe it.  But what if he was? we've learned that A-Rod was and like all Seattle fans I'm proud to say it was after he left us and it serves him right for getting caught.  Then there's McGwire, and Bonds and whoever else you care to name... and we start to ask the question... has it lost the magic? Has baseball lost the magic it once had?


No, it has failed, it has lost its way but it can be redeemed.  A number of players decided they wanted to "appear" to be baseball players, but they didn't want to be actual baseball players- they didn't want to work for it.  Baseball still has magic, there's still Edgar, Griffey, Ichiro, and Randy Johnson... pardon me if I just name off a handful of amazing Mariners and former Mariners.  There is still magic in the game, the good guys just need to reclaim it.  Maybe there's even room for the bad guys to redeem themselves but if they want to do it they'll have to admit that they were wrong in the first place, no more of this "but I didn't know" stuff.


Movies and music? Well they're a different story.  I recently wrote my senior thesis on how St. Thomas Aquinas viewed women and how that has affected the role of women in the church ever since.  It wasn't a great paper, I got a "B" which was suitable.  My area of history is much more in the Modern or Contemporary eras and yet the best senior seminar available to me last semester focused on Medieval Classics, so I took what I could get.  Aquinas, I argued, had a view of women as inferior not only physically but spiritually and intellectually as well.  This was disappointing because if he wasn't talking about women he had some profound and beautiful things to say.  Alas what I wrote about was Aquinas, Women and the Church.  So to movies and why that has anything to do with Aquinas and what he thought about women, I recently saw 'Robin Hood' and not only loved the strong Character of Maid Marion as played by Cate Blanchette, but loved the respect given her by Robin Longstride (Robin Hood as played by Russell Crowe) and simple dignity as should be afforded any human being.  I have similar sentiments toward the portrayal of Guinevere in 'King Arthur' by Keira Knightly (Arthur portrayed by Clive Owen) these are strong women who support strong men, not some distressed maidens in need of saving.  These are women like Ruth and Esther, Jesus' mother (need I go on?) Women who accept their call alongside or in spite of the men in their lives (who ultimately also take up the call if they haven't already).  I also recently re-watched "A Good Year" another Russell Crowe film.  In this movie Russell Crowe plays the epitome of a selfish jerk.  He's a risky and successful banker who trades stock in London.  He learns of the death of is beloved Uncle who lived on a beautiful vineyard and chateau in France.  Max (Crowe's character) must go to settle details with the estate and in the process rediscovers the simple life.  When people complain about the values pushed by Hollywood I tend to wonder if their lens is far too narrow.  Sure, there are problems to worry about with the exploitation of sexuality, but what about commercialism?  Isn't over consumption and greed also a problem?  Does Hollywood not deal with such issues appropriately? All of the sudden we see the transformation of a man from extreme greed, to simplicity and an appreciation of humanity.  Is such a transformation not to be celebrated?  I love this film, I find it beautiful and it makes me want to learn French, although it also makes me want to revisit German even though there is only one German word spoken in the whole film.


I also seem to have an extreme love for linguistics which is perhaps why I have yet to master any language other than my native tongue.


Music... I have the same problem with learning instruments that I have with learning languages... I love them all and want to learn them all at the same time.  Thus I can play a handful of notes (speak a handful of words) on a handful of instruments (in a handful of languages) but I have mastered none.  When I listen to music or go to a concert after appreciation I feel envy.  One of these days I will find the art form in which I can express myself like others do.  Bono talks about how he wakes up every morning with a melody in his head and while he can almost get it out with the help of his band (without which he finds himself helpless) it is never quite the same as what he hears in his head.  I know the feeling but at the moment I don't even have a mode of expression much less a band to help me.  Thus far I seem good at rambling in a blog. :-P
A recent song I've been enchanted by is by "A Rocket Summer" it's called "Do You Feel" and the lyric is beautiful, the Music Video to accompany it perfectly accents a quality not as common in the current music industry.  The song is about  our responsibility to change our world, to make it better in some way, but we have "our own things" our own problems and because we have "our own things" we can just push aside the rest of the world. It's fine, we can't deal with the weight of the world anyway. "Do you feel, the weight of the world singing sorrow?  Do you? Or is it just not real? Cause you got your own things, yeah we all got our own things I guess."  I have ADD (and *I* do) so I forget, and the world isn't my problem, I didn't start this "I guess my mind wanders off, from time to time, Sometimes I convince myself that all is fine, and the world It's not mine. Why should I have to try to fix things I didn't create or contrive?" Another question is asked "Can you feel the souls behind what's going on?"


What strikes me as important behind these words comes in the final line of the song, following the chorus "Do you feel, the weight of the world singing sorrow?  Do you? Or is it just not real? Cause you got your own things, yeah we all got our own things" is the line "And I can't get past these things."  Quite often what brings change in our society are the young people, and this is their cry.  The church tends to look at the youth and say "They are our future" which is SAD.  The youth are in the church NOW, they're right here and they need the body.  These are youth who can't see beyond "their own things" and it is the duty of the church to help them "past these things" so they can fulfill what God has called them to.  Does their mind wonder off? They could have ADD all that a kid with ADD needs is someone to remind them what is important, someone to keep them on task, a kid with ADD who can stay on task (especially without the aid of a drug) has a mind that is open to beautiful and creative things but by nature of their condition they cannot do it alone and their parents can't do it all the time AND put food on the table, can you help them?  What about the kid with a rough home life?  The one who doesn't fit in?  This IS NOT just their parents' job, or their youth director's job, it is YOUR job too!  It takes a village remember?  Maybe they need another brother, sister, parent, maybe they need another grand parent... what are *YOU* going to do about it?  Doe you have "your own things"? Or can you help?


Is it enough that they are financially successful?  Is it even enough that they married well and raise their 2.5 children properly?  Shouldn't we be here for more than money and procreation?  If you can access a computer and read my blog (even if you have to read it from a borrowed computer) then you are privileged and have a responsibility to the world because you are called to it.
True religion is this: To care for widows and orphans in their distress and to remain unstained by the world. - James.

A Different Rap...

I enjoy rap music, but lets be honest my taste in rap is probably detestable to a true fan. Who are my favorite rappers? John Reuben and Will Smith. However I don't understand why people get down on Will Smith, he did win THE First Rap Grammy... it kind of does make him more legit than anyone else, but whatever. John Reuben on the other hand is a Jewish-Christian White Guy... he's pretty much the opposite of your basic rapper stereotype. The truth is I like them because they have some lines that resonate with me and I really don't care whether or not anyone else considers them to be good, I like them so I listen to them.

These lines are from the end of Will Smith's song "Why?" a Song about Will trying to explain to his kids not only why planes were flown into the twin towers, but also why we chose to bomb middle eastern countries later:

Can't explain it baby, life is just really crazy
I mean if it's world wars or the life of a little baby
We got more stores than they got rice under Buddha lazy
You live four scores an' still it be driving you crazy
But for me I try to see the bright side
Sometimes it'd be like the goodness be tryin' to hide
Then try to flee, but it can't it's deep inside
Sweetie, you be the light for others, make 'em believe in God

[BRIDGE - Mary J. Blige:]
Mmmmm, souls are captured
Dreams are stolen, hearts are broken
Evil blatantly rewarded
Hate surrenders, Love exalted
Hope elated, negativity is shorted

My favorite John Reuben album is the Boy vs the Cynic and the album is a balance between his boyish playfulness and his cynicism the title track has these lines that have been stuck in my head for a while:
Don't mistake innocence for ignorance
Don't mistake purity for inexperience
Don't mistake humility for weakness
I sincerely mean this
You understand more than you know
There's no goal like peace of mind
So what else are you trying to find
What's left except regret and heartache
And yes your heart will break and go numb lots of times before this life is done
You'll look for answers but there's just one
Patience one day it will make sense
But waiting is a pinch waking you up from the worlds you've made up
The one where you dream and the one where you gave up
Time to create a new atmosphere where the boy and the cynic can both play fair

Another favorite off the album is "What about them?" a song about how as American Christians we get tunnel vision as if we're the only ones here the whole song is worth reading:
(chorus)
Puff the magic Jesus
Floats around the universe
The United States is His favorite place on the whole entire earth
So sing your songs and wave your flag
And thank the Lord for all you have
But what about them?
Did you forget about them?

We came we conquered never speak of this again
Life Must go on let's not think of them
Things are comfortable now the pioneers have settled in
A perfect blend of progress and pale skin
For our sake and those to come
We'll rewrite the text so you can forget where you came from
Tell it in a way that will build your self esteem
Repackage the product and sell the American dream

(chorus)

History is best forgotten and even better rewritten
And since there's no forgetting let's remember it different
Commit to it so strongly till you believe it
The truth is there but you aren't able to receive it
You need to know you're safe here
Hide your face here cuz you found your faith here
But four walls with no windows doesn't mean you're it
Four walls with no windows doesn't mean they don't exist

(chorus)

What a prosperous, wondrous place
Remember to say grace before we scrape our plates
And ignore the crying outside the door sure
You'll pray for their burdens but you don't want to make it yours
Thin lines divide but there's a world of difference
So crawl back into your happy existence and feel the bliss of ignorance keep you warm
Blessed are those who mourn but it's so foreign
The more you have the less you care
The less you care the more you become unaware
And sure life's not fair but it favors us apparently
And how are we to interpret this excess
Is it God's favor, ill-behavior, or simply man's modern progress?
God bless us as we sweep this mess under the rug
Don't want to walk barefoot on the tile and step in the mud
Out of sight out of mind and pushed to the side
Left for someone else to rationalize and justify

YYH4HS2SK2B2

So... I Saw Desmond Tutu Last Night....

Um, the man's awesome, what can I say?  It was amazing being able to see him in person last night.  One of the most powerful times I have heard him speak was the night he was on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Yes, that's right, the guy that's on at 12:30am after Letterman.  I wanted to share that here:















And a later comment from Ferguson (7 months later I think) about "The Guest who Changed His Life":

'God is near to the brokenhearted'

In the last couple months, friends and even a family member have experienced a loss in one capacity or another. Be it death, or the disintegrating of a relationship. At this moment I feel so removed from that sort of grief.  There was a season in my life where that sort of grief was not preeminent, but it was ever present.   I mean to say that the losses were not my best friends or immediate family though they were, of course, still significant and seemingly constant.


I've heard that we don't truly start processing death until our thirties, as if the possibility becomes more real then. Maybe that is true, but when I was in high school it felt pretty real.  Just about once every month (or so it seemed) I would be donning the dark clothing and heading off to someone's funeral.  I can tell you this, death does not care how old you are, what you have done with your life, if you are ready, if your family and friends are ready, it just does not care.  The idea of someone dying too young is simply ridiculous, we die when we die.  Not to diminish the hurt or the loss, but the reason we measure infant mortality rates is because such a rate exists.  During that time in my life it could have been anyone. The guy who would say 'hi' to me every morning that I would just ignore because I was trying to act all 'holier than thou', until one day he wasn't there because he collapsed on the football field and never woke up.  My friend's younger sister who always just seemed really annoying.  An old babysitter, a teacher, that sweet lady I always talk to in church but can never remember her name - even though she felt like a grandmother to me.  All the way through my sophomore year of college when my own grandmother died along with two women who had been like grandmothers to me right at home.


Open caskets are the worst.  I remember going to two funerals in which parents chose to have open caskets for their teenage daughters who had been undergoing chemo when they died.  Who does that? Who wants everyone to remember their child as that weak, frail, hairless body? At best the undertaker makes them look like plastic as little old ladies file by muttering to each other "Well, she looks nice, doesn't she?" all the while you want to scream "NO! She doesn't look nice, she looks DEAD!"


Truth be told, the people who had cancer or leukemia were easier to handle.  It's the random aneurysm and freak accident that get to you.  The healthy athletic guy who sits next to you in 6th period having a sudden heart attack.  By chance he actually lived, to tell the truth, but I'm under no illusions that it would not have been possible for him to die.


Then, for someone else, there is the girl of his dreams who has a dark secret her family never told him about because they thought, with him, she was turning over a new leaf. Sadly, they were wrong. (Wait are we still talking about death?) To quote P.S. I love you there's a Mother/Daughter conversation between Holly (Hillary Swank) and her mother Patricia (Kathy Bates):

Holly: "My husband died. He was taken. He didn't wanna go, he didn't wanna leave."

Patricia: "Yes, my husband wanted to leave. And it's so much easier being abandoned by choice, is it?"

I recall a man I knew in church opening up during a meeting when we were asking for prayer requests asking for prayer while he was in grief over his divorce. It was a long time coming, but as he expressed the finality of the ending of the marriage felt a lot like a death. While death may not care about age, grief doesn't care whether the person is still alive, or if they betrayed you.  The loss still hurts, and you still grieve.

What is important about loss and grief, is who you become on the other end. How do you intend to let that shape you?

I grew up to learn that that guy who collapsed on the football field was someone who, as a Christian, I should have sought to emulate rather than looking down my nose at him. I learned that even the annoying kids are worth something, and how important names are not just to the people they belong to. My "other grandmothers" taught me the value of adopting others into my family. Though it was regrettably through their passing, I learned a great deal about my teacher's lives that had far more value than academics, rather I learned about living life as a responsible and loving human being.

When the pain subsides, that guy will meet woman and wonder how he possibly could have thought that other girl was the girl of his dreams - and even so, that he prefers the concept of the woman of his dreams to the girl of his dreams. In order to heal however, the grief has to take place and so, during that grief be consoled:

Psalm 34:

17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. 

18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Diversity of the Christian Sphere

This week has brought about an odd conglomeration of faith perspectives for me.  My week started with watching Lord of War for the third time and suddenly being reminded of how sick the subject matter makes me. The story is about gun trafficking but I don't want to get too much into its plot, you just need to watch it.  The question comes up, how do I reconcile these practices - and the complicity of my government in them - with my faith? On Monday I brought this up at a discussion/Bible study that we have with a Methodist campus ministry and we discussed violence, and the public role of the church.

Most people in the group are from the Miami area, a few of us are from other places.  These perspectives bring to light the differences geography has in our faith. Religion and church in Miami is not religion and church in the Bible belt is not religion and church in the Pacific Northwest. Religion and church in the western hemisphere is so far from religion and church in the eastern hemisphere.

Last semester I visited a couple seminaries, both were technically located in the Bible belt, but one seemed far more a stereotype of the Bible belt than the other.  While the Bible belt is believed to have the most churches per capita the Pacific Northwest is considered to be the most "un-churched" region of the country.  I seem to be much more at home in a town in which church attendance, much less belief in God are not assumed. http://www.usatoday.com/life/2002/2002-03-07-church-free.htm .  Naturally I found the seminary with the less "Bible-belty" feel to be a better fit.  The thing is while Jesus is my savior, and I uphold the authority of the Bible, there's something about the associated language that makes me cringe.  Again, perhaps it's a Bono quote that sums it up "Even though I'm a believer, I still find it really hard to be around other believers. They make me nervous, they make me twitch."

With this same ministry in which we have this discussion/Bible study we've been putting on what we call "The Love Campaign" (http://www.fiulovecampaign.com/ <--- Check it out. essentially God is love and we are endeavoring to show that love) coincidentally one of those crazy traveling preachers that likes to yell at everyone and tell them they're going to hell decided to show up on campus Wednesday and Thursday.  Generally I get the impression from the crowd he attracts that the non-religious amongst the crowd are fully aware that this man in no way represents the Christian faith.  On Wednesday however the situation seems to have been different.  What I have been told from a number of sources is that this time around there was a lot more hate in the air, not just for the man shouting but for the God he claimed.  While I don't take issue with this so much because if these people claim to hate crazy preacher man's God who doesn't sound much like the God I was raised to believe in, or read about in my bible then fine.  Truth be told these people probably weren't even yelling about his God either they were yelling about an oppressive god that was forced upon them.

In response to our professors comments about the preacher one of my fellow students in my senior seminar asked our professor what she believed assuming that she was an atheist.  The reality is that there is little she *doesn't* believe in.  Apparently the concept that Jesus is "the Way, The Truth and the Life" as he claimed and Hellenistic revival are silly, everything else is fair game.  She believes in a supreme deity following the spirituality of Judaism and Islam, but also in minor deities such as, and I quote, "Hindu gods and Catholic saints" yes, the saints that are not even meant to operate as deities in their own religion.  Not to mention that the concept of other gods is incompatible with Judaism and Islam.  I fully respect people who come to educated decisions regarding faith or the lack there of, but I guess I just fail to see how this is an educated decision.  By that token, fair is fair. She seems to find my faith silly, I find hers silly.  Perhaps what I found silliest about her faith is this insistence on rejecting a particular aspect of reality.  I suppose I cannot fault her, many a Christian that buys into the prosperity gospel accepts a religion that rejects this same piece of reality.  It is a truth we learn of in The Princess Bride... yes, the Princess Bride (Oh, the bible too - but I'm watching the Princess Bride right now).

Buttercup: "You mock my pain!!"
The Dread Pirate Roberts/Wesley: "Life is pain Highness! Anyone who says differently is trying to sell you something."

Unless we're talking about someone preaching the prosperity gospel ('you've been trying the square peg of sex, drugs, and rock n' roll but the only thing that's going to fill that hole is the round peg of Jesus' sort of junk) Christianity is not about suddenly having perfect happiness and "the good life".  If it were, can you imagine how Peter, Paul and Stephen would try to sell that? There were all Martyred, John was boiled in oil and Paul was routinely beaten and jail hopping prior to his conversion was when he had the good life which also happened to be when he helped out with Stephen's stoning.  Peter was crucified upside-down.  Now there's an ad for "the good life".  No, the gospel is about suffering, suffering with joy to be sure, but suffering.  Ideally Christianity should be seeking to bring about heaven through their suffering ("Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.") it's never going to be perfect on earth, but we are to take the vision of a better world and run with it fully realizing that it's going to hurt in the process.  My professor is in fact completely aware of this, and she doesn't like it.  Since she doesn't like it it couldn't possibly be realistic.  The faith she has adopted is much more happy and pleasant.  The more power to her, I don't think I could suspend reality like that. When she described this I genuinely wanted to stand up and shout "LIFE IS PAIN HIGHNESS!" but I kept it to myself.

In Washington sometimes my mere acceptance of a deity paints me to be "too conservative", in the bible belt I could come off looking like a hippie and then in Miami I would say that I live in a very little inhabited limbo - my theology can be too liberal and too conservative for many.  Yet I feel the equal tension of not wanting to be "lukewarm".  The weird part of Miami, for me, is that religious background is assumed.  I don't know many atheists or agnostics in Miami, but the ones that I do know were at one point raised in the church and potentially forced to go, their rejection of the church is more out of pain it caused.

My roommate asked me the other day if apologetics were more important in the Northwest because they tend to take the more intellectual approach.  My personal opinion is that apologetics aren't that important... ever.  Which perhaps isn't all that true, they're good for you.  Apologetics can help you understand what you believe and why you believe it, however they're never going to defend the faith to someone else because once you bring it into argument you've lost.

I'm open to being wrong on this, but I feel like what I learned from growing up in the environment of the Pacific Northwest is that I don't need to try to defend the faith, it can take care of itself. Whether someone believes or not is on them there seems little value in trying to intellectualize faith. Jesus doesn't need us to argue with people, he needs us to serve them.