"Hey You Poor Hungry People of the World--Pluto is Important!!!!!"

NASA's top climate scientist says the Bush administration is trying to censure him after he gave a lecture which included a call to use available technology to reduce greenhouse gases and stop global warming before it's too late.

I'm sure he's right, but that's not the point. The point is--what the heck did NASA ever do for the environment? They send up enormous shuttles using fuel tanks bigger than my neighborhood, they toss space trash while they're up there and they spend massive amounts of money on absolutely nothing!!!

Take Pluto for example. Someone got this bright idea--"Pluto is important. Let's explore Pluto. Let's spend 700 MILLION dollars exploring Pluto!" And other people who like to spend other people's money said "That is a great idea. We especially like the 700 million dollar part!"

Yet we have this global warming problem--not a problem, but according to NASA, a crisis! And, according to NASA, the Bush administration should do something about it! I know! How about canceling the Pluto project and spending 700 million dollars buying people hybrid cars? Or we could spend 700 million dollars making other "available energy saving technologies" actually available to the average person. Or maybe we could just spend 700 million dollars making the world we have a better place to live in. We could feed the hungry, educate the poor, create jobs and homes for the homeless... I could find 700 million better ways to spend 700 million dollars. Heck, even buying the world a coke is a better idea than exploring Pluto!

To get a different perspective on this I talked to my seven year old. She has spent hours reading about space, space missions, space stations. She wants to go to space camp when she's old enough. She's gone on fake missions on the NASA website, she knows what to do if she needs to bail out of a spacecraft during takeoff or re-entry, she knows how to find water in the desert in case that's where she lands, she knows all the stuff the astronauts have in those orange suits AND YET this is how the conversation went.

Me-- "Moira, they're spending 700 million dollars to send this probe thing way out into space to study Pluto. Isn't that cool?"

Moira--"Why? It's just Pluto. They haven't even decided if it's a planet yet."

Out of the mouths of babes . . .

Dilemma

I attend a rather main stream evangelical church. It's Wesleyan, which I like because of its emphasis on free will and other stuff. That being said there's so much that I believe from my studies in Judaism and the Bible that I know they wouldn't agree with yet. But I love the people there. They're so friendly and open and have that simple faith in God, that I wish I had sometimes, but seems to be impossible to get the more I study and learn.

Anyway, because of this, I find myself increasingly in conversations where the person is talking about something that I totally disagree with, and I find myself with a dilemma. Do I say something or not? By saying nothing, the person assumes I agree with them, but by saying something I risk hurting the person I'm talking to, or even talking over their head on something that is to me trivial, but to them very important. If I value their friendship, shouldn't I be completely honest with them? By not saying anything I feel like I'm lying to them by not being who I truly am. How do I be completely honest with them and not "blow them away"?

*sigh* I really have to figure this out if I'm going to be effective in what I want to do in life. I'll be in these positions for the rest of my life, so I can't run from them. I need some wisdom here folks! Please Help!

God's Omniscience and Time

Okay, this is going to get pretty abstract here, but hopefully not too dull. Anyone who knows me and has gotten into any kind of conversation on religion with me, knows that I'm a big fan of Freewill. It's one of the cornerstones of how I view life, Christianity, etc. There's a problem with Freewill though. If God knows everything, then he knows what you're going to do, so do you really have Freewill?

Those of the Reform movement (Calvinism, Lutheran, etc) just flat out say no. For them, God set out from the beginning everything that was ever going to happen. You're in or you're out based on divine fiat. Sorry! Nothing you can do. I have several things against this idea.

1. It's flat out unbiblical. If you look at the Hebrew Bible (aka Old Testament) you just don't get that picture at all.
2. By limiting our ability to choose, you also limit God's ability to choose. That is to say, if God pre-ordained everything from the very beginning, He can't change His mind even if He wants to. This also works backwards. If God can change His mind (and I think the Hebrew Bible shows that He can and does) then there cannot be anything really pre-ordained (i.e. you can have a choice.)

Other people then try to figure out how God is related to space and time in order to be Omniscient and allow for some sort of Freewill. I think the problem for them, and really everybody else too, is that they usually are playing around with God in relation to time and not playing around with our concept of time. If given the option of letting God be constant or time be constant, personally, I'm gonna chose God and see if I can manipulate my understanding of time to what the Bible expresses.

The standard concept of time in most Christian circles is perfectly linear. A straight line with a definitive beginning and end. From this understanding of time, of course everything is predetermined. But what if we change our perspective on time. Imagine not a perfectly straight line but say a Tournament bracket (You know like the March Madness thing that comes out every year). Only imagine the beginning of time being the finals of the bracket (one team left), and move towards the beginning of the brackets. Each division is another decision, each decision leads to more decisions.

Even this is too simple for my tastes, but you get the point. Suddenly time becomes much more complex. From this vantage point, God's Omniscience doesn't mean that he knows everything that's going to happen, instead it means that God knows everything that could possibly happen. God too suddenly becomes more complex.

Which God is more all knowing? (If such a thing can exist) The God who has set everything fixed from all time or the God who sees every single possible outcome? I'd say the second one. The second view also allows man to have free will and allows God to step in and direct things down a certain path, if He wants. There are other implications to this point of view, but it would take all day and a book to discuss them, and I'll probably get to them at some other point in time.

What the . . .?!?

Today we had a surreal family experience. There was shock, terror, surprise, revulsion, and elation all in the span of about 30 seconds.

I had just walked in the door and I see Jaime reading to the kids on the couch. Suddenly Moira lets out a gasp. Everyone turns to see her looking up with a horrified expression. Following her gaze we see, hovering in the air, a meaty looking spider slowly lowering itself from the ceiling-- directly above Jaime. Now everyone else gasps and we have one of those time-is-frozen moments where no one moves even though we really want to. Then Evie screams.

That's when Jaime comes to her senses and checks the thing out to make sure it's no Brown Recluse--that wife of mine is always thinkin'. Spider's safe so she grabs the spider silk and begins to escort the evil thing somewhere away from our precious children.

That's when things got really weird.

There was my wife holding an invisible thread, there was the spider swinging through the air, there was my dog, Stella, watching everything and then GULP! no more spider. One crunchy doggy snack.

On one hand we were glad the spider was no longer there and yet . . . that was gross. We didn't know whether to puke or congratulate her.

It was just one of those moments you walk away from shaking your head.

Just thought I'd share.

Ode to Jaime

I was talking to a friend of mine at work yesterday about love and marriage and kids and all that kinda' stuff, and I've been thinking about our conversation since then. One thing occurs to me, and, if you know me, you know I always say this, but I love my wife. We've been married for over 10 years now (for those of you doing the quick math that means I was 19 and she was 18) and every year I become more grateful for her.

Over the last 3 years I have put her probably through some of the hardest stuff we've ever gone through. 3 years ago, I was working for Bank One (now Chase) one of the largest banks in the U.S. making fairly descent money. Now I'm a student finishing up my undergrad at Ohio State....that is to say broke. But she doesn't complain (unless something happens that just emphasizes how broke we are). The other day she actually said she liked what we have going right now.

Last year we left this really small church (read 18 members) that we'd been attending for like 9 years, which was really hard and painful especially for her. She could've said, "That's it! No more!" but she didn't she stuck it out with me, and I couldn't be happier.

Part of why I love her, is that she is content to stay at home and be with our two kids, Moira and Evie. This means she home schools Moira (she's 7; Evie's 3 so she's in that Pre-school stage), tries to keep the house in some sort of order and cooks our food...she's just great! And she loves it! I tell her all the time, she can get a degree if she wants, go back to school like I did, do something else, but she loves what she's doing now (most of the time, anyway) and just laughs at me.


Also the whole Multicultural feel to our house is all about her. She's befriended a Hindi family with two great kids and a Bengali family with a household of ornery kids and hangs out with them. Can they speak English...a little bit, but Jaime is determined to teach it to them, and they want to learn. She tutors their kids in their homework, makes important English based phone calls for them. She loves them so much, it constantly reminds me how much I need to up the ante in that realm for myself.

Well, I've got to get going now. But here's a toast to my wife Jaime, "Thanks for being around for 10 years and here's to many more!" Sorry for feeling all mushy this morning.

Don't Go without the Jo

I have been such an idiot today. It's been one of those days that starts out kinda' down and then only gets worse. I was going to go to campus a bit earlier today, to talk to one of my professors about grad school and one of the classes I'm taking. This means that I have to get up early so I can catch the 7:30am bus to get to campus by 8:30.

I of course over sleep while my wife is out walking with our neighbor. My oldest daughter wakes me up at 7:18. (I know it's sad that my daughter is up before me, but, hey I tend to be a night owl. Honestly so does she, so I'm not sure what she was doing awake that early anyway.) So it's one of those running around with my head cut off mornings. When I get to campus to talk to my professor, I realize that I've left everything that I wanted to talk to him about at home. AAARRGGHH!

Oh well, I think, I can call my wife to get the syllabus so I can get a book I need for a report in that class from the great OSU Library. I must say that the OSU library is really quite good. Only a few times have I not been able to find what I needed there. Usually when I have problems I'm looking for the English translation of an article written in German and they have the German article and the Hebrew article, but not the English. But today, I'm looking for a text that was written in English, they should have it right? Wrong! I think, well maybe I can get it on Amazon or something. I sure can, if I want to pay $227.05. $227.05! That is not a typo! See!

Scratch that idea. I try to order it from an inter-library loan, but I really need it earlier than they can get it to me and I can only get it for 28 days. It occurs to me that there are several seminaries in the great town of Columbus, OH that just might carry this book. I look them up and viola! I can get it tonight and renew as often as I need it. Slight problem, though, I owe them $10 because I'm a slacker in returning things...the price I pay for convenience!

Now I'm nearly late for my 9:30 class. Yes, I spent a whole hour trying to find this book and now I've missed the office hours with my Rabbinics professor and I'm late for my class on the Prophets. Actually, I get to the Prophets class right on time. But everytime I get called on to answer a question, I totally cannot remember a darn thing! And this is an undergraduate course being taught by the man who will determine if I get to teach these courses next year in graduate school. Not looking good.

Bell rings, and I'm off to Greek! It's all good, I did the homework on the bus this morning, I'm feeling good about everything we've covered. I volunteer to do the first translation.... And then I get The Face. The Face says your close, but wrong (at least it wasn't the Where-The-Heck-Did-You-Get-That-From Face; which is the face I got in the previous class.) The short of it is that I got close to the right translation for all of the sentences but not exactly. Good enough for now.

Bell rings, off to Hebrew! This is taught by the same professor from this morning's Prophets class. At least here, I get some things right, but mostly....I'm strugling. I can't even remember that it was Titus who sacked Jerusalem in 70 CE (ala the Arch of Titus; basic 101 of Jewish History here) no...I say Timothy. Close, you know Titus is also a name of a book in the New Testament like Timothy, but close doesn't count here. This is a Graduate level course. I suck...

Bell rings...who cares? I go to work. I'm thinking to myself...what the heck is wrong with me today? Suddenly, I remember...dude, you got up way freakin' early and you didn't have time to get any coffee all day! I walk to work make a fresh pot of coffee (which I am currently sipping delightedly), and I am now reflecting on the deep, deep connection that has just occured to me:

If you have to choose between being late and drinking coffee or being on time and being idiot....my friend, drink the coffee.

Gandhi

The other day I saw the movie Gandhi again. I haven't seen it in years. But my wife and I have been reading a book by Philip Yancey called Soul Survivor and he devotes a chapter to Gandhi so Jaime wanted to see the movie. My lovely wife likes to get her history from movies even though she openly admits that the facts are usually butchered and pop culture-fied. For example, want to learn about Eva Peron? Why read a book when you can watch Evita and then memorize all the songs and play them again, and again and again . . . I hate Evita.

Anyway, in the case of Gandhi, the movie version of real life is a good thing. I saw it in high school and it literally changed my life. Gandhi's story convinced me that non-violence was the way to go. Quite a transformation considering my habit of trying to beat the crap out of people. (Notice the key word try--my victims usually got the upperhand.)

I was always an angry kid losing my temper and getting into fights. (My family has not so fond memories of me slamming my big brother through a glass storm door. I was little so it took three shoves--but I got the job done, goshdarnit!) As I got older I knew the violence was only adding to my anger, but I couldn't see an alternative. Gandhi showed me another option.

You would think growing up in a Christian environment--okay, Christian-ish (I did attend Bob Jones elementary after all) that the nonviolence thing would have been obvious. Jesus, martyrdom, forgiveness, etc. But it really wasn't. Oddly enough it took a movie about a Hindu who did pay attention to Jesus and what he taught to make this sink in. Violence only creates more violence until someone is strong enough to turn the other cheek, until someone is willing to lose the fight in order to win it--even if it means dying. I think the New Testament makes that fairly clear.

So it's pretty embarrassing when people like Mr. High-Profile-Pseudo-Christian-Man Pat Robertson starts recommending solving problems by wacking people. Somewhere along the line a portion of Christianity got off track and I'm hoping now that burning people has gone out of style these folks will catch on to what the Jesus they never knew was talking about.

Sorry . . . I'll get off my high horse now. Things always get ugly when you bring Pat into it. Shoot-- things got ugly again. *deep breath* Okay, Ben, publish post, walk away, just walk away . . .

Book Recomendations I

*ahem* A confession here....I....uh....I don't have a TV. Really. The only way I watch anything is when it becomes available on DVD at the library, and then I can watch it on my computer. Needless to say this allows me some mad amount of reading time, and since other people do movie/tv reviews and I can't necessarily do that, I thought I would give some recomendations and reviews on books that I have been reading lately. Today's topic Jewish understanding of the Hebrew Bible. So viola:

Understanding Genesis & Exploring Exodus
by Nahum M. Sarna

I loved both of these books and his other popular book On the Book of Psalms. These two however explain in detail the cosmology of the ancient world, ancient texts of the Middle East that influenced many of the stories in these books and examines them in light of what we have received in the Bible. The most enlightening part is the differences between the Biblical stories and the other various texts and Sarna is quick to point them out, and expound on them. One warning, he was an ordained Rabbi but he was also a keen academic, teaching at the Jewish Theological Seminary and eventually retiring from Brandies University where his son now teaches. All that means is that sometimes, this book gets real heavy, and you have to read and re-read sections just to understand what he's saying. But they are definately worth the effort.

The Prophets
by Abraham Joshua Heschel

If you can slog your way through the first portion, go for it. Heschel goes through each of the literary prophets and gives a sort of commentary on what makes them and the prophets in general tick. Very interesting, but the best section is the second half. And you don't need to read the first part to understand it, so skip it if you want! In the second half Heschel deals with the idea of an emotional god. That is one who creates, cares for His creation and is concerned with what goes on. He calls this characteristic Pathos (ala Greek) and shows how God can only be truly perfect with this trait and the more popular "Stoic" God (unchanging, unconcerned, kinda like a bully at best) is certainly less. It will seriously challenge your perception of God in the prophetic writings. He also is an academic and Rabbi, but easier to read than Sarna. Anything by Heschel is usually worth the effort, I also highly recomend The Sabbath, Man's Quest for God and God in Search of Man.

The Benefits of Multiculturalism (I think)

The other day my girls were doing what my girls do best—“dress up time.” However, this was at my brother’s house and there weren’t that many dress up options so out came the bed sheets. My seven year old, Moira, made her sheet an “African Princess” skirt. My three year old, Evie, was getting her head shawl or something adjusted when she said “That like a Muslim.” Muslim. Everyone just looked at each other in disbelief. How is my three year old an expert on Muslim fashion? This particular situation is still a bit of a mystery, however, thanks to my wife, who feels the need to befriend all of our neighbors who don’t speak fluent English, my children are receiving a steady multicultural, multireligious, multisomething education.

For example, Moira and Evie were playing emergency hospital with our neighbor’s little girl. These neighbors are Hindu. Diksha, age three, happened to be the doctor in charge. My wife was teasing her about being such a young doctor and wondering how she squeezed so many years of medical school into her short life. Moira had the answer—“She went to school in her past life.”

Another incident occurred at the zoo where they have placed a statue of the Hindu god Ganesha on the walkway that leads to, of course, the Asian otters and orangutans. In bad taste? I think so. But when we were there with our Hindu neighbors they didn’t see it as disrespectful zoo kitsch—they were rather pleased. My wife’s friend Anita said a prayer and then, oblivious to zoo protocol on flora and fauna, picked a big flower from the landscaping and placed it on the statue. This thrilled Evie who is very keen on picking things in general—flowers, noses, etc. and we had to rush to stop her from following suite. Meanwhile she’s yelling “That your god! That your god!” ON TO THE ASIAN OTTERS, ANYONE?


Meanwhile at our other neighbor’s house my kids drink from mugs that say I Allah and have conversations with six year old, Ariful, about God and church and mosques and why he can’t eat hot dogs because they have pork in them. “But I like hot dogs,” he yells. “You can’t eat them,” yells Moira. “AAAAAAAAAAAA,” he screams. (Maybe we should teach her about all-beef hot dogs.) And these neighbors are from Bangladesh and do not dress in burkas—thus, Evie’s comment—still a mystery.

My wife and I both grew up in basically all-white-all-the-time worlds where our cultural education depended on missionaries and the Cosby Show. So even when some of these situations give us a reason to question our sanity, it is a relief to know our kids are better off in this area than we were.

So my kids love Muslims, love Hindus, love chapatti, hate Christopher Columbus and, thanks to the movie Lagaan, are against mean British colonialists. I think it’s a good start.

Family Recognition.

*sniff* my big brother, put a link to my blog on his blog today. I am so proud. Thanks Brad, and as soon as I figure this whole html crap out, I'll try to return the favor.

Coming Out

For some reason, after being an incognito goy (non-Jew) in the Jewish Studies department at OSU it has come out: I’M NOT JEWISH!! I'm out of my own special closet of one, and the questions are flying. Why is a goy majoring in Jewish Studies? It wasn't that I was trying to hide being goy, but it just never came up. I've been operating a "don't ask don't tell policy."

The most recent exposure of being a goy came in my Hebrew class today. People were talking about going to synagogue and other fun stuff, and I admitted that I hadn't been to a synagogue in a while. (Which is true, because I have been to a couple of synagogues, just not in a while.) So one of the older students in the class asks me,

"What's a good little Jewish boy like you not going to Temple for?"

"I'm not a good little Jewish boy, I'm a good goy boy."

"You're a goy boy!?! I thought you were Jewish! Then what's a good goy boy like you studying Judaism so much?"

In all honesty it's a bit of a long story, and maybe later on I'll talk about it some more. But let me give the quickie sound bite answer.

In a previous post I listed some assumptions that I make in my religious writings. Number 4 (Judaism is at the heart of the New Testament) is probably the most important. The easiest way to describe it is a matter of perspective. It seems to me that the right perspective is firmly planted in the Hebrew Bible (and therefore the mindset of those who wrote it and were interpreting those scriptures in the first century AD) looking into the writings of the New Testament and the newly forming Jewish sect called the Nazarenes (soon to be known as Christianity). In order to get that perspective I have to be so deeply steeped in that community and mindset that it’s second nature.

Today, it seems that Christianity is starting to move in that direction, but everything I’ve seen has been “Judaism-lite:”

“Isn’t this cool? Jesus was, like, a Jew!”

“Ohmygod! Let’s all go get yarmulkes and prayer shawls with the Prayer of Jabez embroidered it!”

“That is totally cool!”

(The Prayer of Jabez on a prayer shawl is uber tacky and in my oppinion bordering on the profane. By the way, I did see said prayer shawl on sale in a Christian book catalog sent to me recently.) Anyway, some of the implications of a Jewish perspective on the New Testament take you in quite a different turn than much of what Christianity has presently traveled because much of Christian theology has been based on Greek thought and philosophy. For those of you on the edge of your seat, I’ll talk about some of those at a different time.

So that’s it, I’m out! I’ve been exposed to all my Jewish friends! Ahhhh, you know I feel better now. Do you think they have goy bars somewhere? Do you think they serve lox and bagels?

Adventures on the Oval, Episode 1

One of the great things about going to school at Ohio State is all the crazies that seem to find their way onto the oval. . . I mean the wonderful diversity that a fine public institution allows. People wanting you to sign various petitions, Brother Jed and other various fire and brimstone preachers damning everyone to hell. Really almost anything you can think of people arguing about finds it way to the Oval.




This means that whenever the weather is even remotely nice, if you have to cross the oval, you get to play cat and mouse with the various groups (one of my favorite past times!). The various crazy experiences can make for some good stories so I'm beginning a series posted only as consistently as they happen about my adventures on the Oval. ENJOY!

The other day they had EVERYBODY out there. Some fire and brimstone guys and a couple of student groups. I scout out their positions and chart my path I realize I have only two options...

1)Walk by the fire and brimstone guys

OR

2) Walk by the recycling guys.

Easy choice right? Walk by the recycling guys. WRONG. Apparently nestled in with the recycling group was another "sex education, women's rights" group which I didn't see at all. Do I get a flyer discussing the great benefits of recycling? No! Do I get offered a free condom? YES! To top it all off I still had to pass a cleverly disguised (i.e. he didn't have a big 5ft x 10ft sign) fire and brimstone guy....who told me I have AIDS.

I'm sure nothing like that could happen to me at Wheaton. Do I really want to go there and miss being offered a free condom and told I have AIDS on the same day?

The Best Excuse

Okay, the Greek homework I had the other night was so incredibly hard that no one in the class did it. But I had the best excuse for not having done it:

I spent the whole night transcribing from Moabite the stele from Dibon. Yes that’s right, I’m sure everyone is familiar with it. Dated to the 9th century BCE and written in the ancient Moabite language it is the first written account outside of the Bible of the country of Israel and the god YHWH. 34 lines long and I transcribed the entire thing for homework in my History of the Hebrew Language class. So by the time I got to my Greek homework my brain was fried. And I took one look at it, laughed then went to bed.

The actual conversation in class went something like this:

Student 1: Why didn’t you do the homework?
Ben: I spent the whole night transcribing a stele in ancient Phoenician
Everyone: Yeah right, etc.
Ben: No, really. See?
Teacher: …. ok, you win.

Of course later in the day I would find out that I only had to transcribe the first 5 lines. Doh! When I said I did the whole thing, I of course got kudos from my professor. Did I take the credit? Heck Yeah! Did I tell him it was because I didn’t pay attention to his instructions to only do the first five lines? Nah! Why does he need to know that?

So not only am I a geek, but I’m also an idiot because I can’t follow basic instructions. Oh well.

Assumptions

In everything religious, theological, etc that I write (which will be a lot, 'cause that's just the way I am) I make a few assumptions:

1. God exists.


2. There is only one God (the God of the Bible…יהוה)


3. Everything in the Bible is there to be understood. If I don’t understand something right now, it’s because I’m not looking at it right and needs to be worked out.


4. At the heart of the New Testament is the Hebrew Bible (aka the Old Testament) and Judaism. This means that to get a proper understanding of the New Testament we must be grounded firmly in the Hebrew Bible and the Jewish understanding of their scriptures.


5. There’s probably more, but I can’t think of them right now…

Hello to No One!

This is the beginning of my blog. This is me trying to figure out what the heck I'm doing here. aaarrgghh!