Signs of an OSU Spring

Yes, spring is in the air! The robins are singing, birds are making nests in the trees, the trees are budding and we actually had our first real day where it was too hot to wear my coat. But these are your normal everyday signs of spring. At Ohio State, we have a few extra signs of spring:

1) The half naked overly fit twenty-somethings running around the oval

2) The half crazed overly angry fundamentalists standing on the oval telling people they have AIDS and are going to Hell.

And yes, these signs of spring have already reared their ugly heads this year. Since I have to cross the oval several times this quarter, I'm sure that it will be the source of many amuzing anecdotes of sex and condemnation. I can't wait to share.

Oops!

Uh...somehow the comment moderation got turned on and I don't know exactly how. So if you've tried to comment on something here and weren't able to, it's not because I hate you...it's because blogspot does. Sorry! All is fine now.

Funding!!

I just received the letter last night offering me a fellowship for OSU! I was planning on being a TA for some of the Bible classes, but I was offered this instead, and I can't do both. So I had a choice:

1) free money without having to do any work, just go to school and read books

or

2) go to school and read books plus put together classes, grade papers and deal with fundies distracting from the point by arguing about if it rained or not before the flood, or if they were literal 24 hour days or if they ate an apple....

hmmm....I think I'll go for the first choice.

Yay for funding!!

Eventgelsim

I am becoming increasingly wary of using events as forms of evangelism. Actually as of right now I think "evangelism events" might be down right wrong. This is happening for a couple of reasons:

1. Practically, it takes up so much time and energy that they often drain energy and time from people to do real evangelism (building relationships with people; and physically showing them Christ's love)
2. It's not the Kingdom building that Christ emulated

The first is really just that if we spend too much time focused on planning and structuring events, and just move from one event to another to another, we will, eventually, be ineffective because we'll stop knowing people outside the church. This is a part of what Jaime and I experienced in our last Church. It spoke of building relationships, but the people were never allowed to take the time to build them. People were given a three-four week window to get to know an "un-Churched" friend and get them to an event. If they didn't come to one or two events it was because they weren't interested and it was time to drop them and move to another "friend."

What sort of time table does God give His people? Often hundreds or thousands of years!! How long did Jesus walk with the 12, and even at the end of Jesus' life they still ran away! But did Christ run away from them because of that? No, when He was raised from the dead, He went right back to them!

Events often take so much time and energy that we can't or don't allow ourselves the freedom to build relationships with people. To keep going back to them even when they've said "no thanks." To let them know that we love them, period. The love I'm developing for my friends right now, is regardless of what they believe. I would love them to come to Christ, and I am bold in my faith as I talk to them, but they know they don't have to be Christians or even "Christ-like" for me to spend time with them and be their friend. This is a new experience for me, and I really feel like God is blessing me! Not only does it give them the freedom to be who they are, it also gives me the freedom to be who I am.

My main problem is that Christ didn't wait for people to come to Him. He went walking all around the place. He went to Zacheus'. He went to Simon the Leper's house. He went to where the people were. There was no real "event" as we think of them. The closest thing I can think of is the feeding of the five thousand which was spontaneous. When Jesus sends out his disciples in Matthew 10 they're to go into peoples homes and talk to them that way. So for Jesus, the good news of the Kingdom of God is relational focused in their homes and not primarily our homes. It's outward focused.

I guess, the main problem I have with events right now is that it takes the Great Commission that Jesus gave to us to "go" and turns it into a Great Invitation to them to "come." This is what really makes me wary of events. Maybe we should change our focus from inviting them to come and instead accept the commandment to go.

I'm re-reading this and it sounds like, I've got it all figured out, and have been doing just what I've been talking about all along. But really this is the Holy Spirit convicting me of my sin, and me wanting to share that with others, but not really knowing how to say it! I would love some feedback on this, any criticisms or concerns especially.

Where's the Middle?

The Other Paper, my local "alternative paper," just ran an article this week called "The Dwindling Religious Middle." Apparently it is becoming nearly impossible to be religious and politically neutral in this day and age. This is troubling for me. I see most everything that has ever gone wrong with Christian history as a result of mixing politics (or political power) with the religious.

Constantine endorsing Christianity, and the chaotic power struggles that happened as a result of that decision immediately after, are typical of what happens when the devout gain political clout. Much of the suffering of the Medieval period were less the result of religious sincerity as political maneuvering. Protestants cannot ignore the power struggle that laid behind much of the splintering of the Catholic Church. Throughout all of this people were being killed by "devout" Christians, not realizing that Jesus taught to love and not kill.

In my mind, Jesus himself went out of His way to be apolitical. Challenged by all the political parties of the day to endorse their movement, He essentially called for another way: love your neighbor. In the challenge from the Herodians where Jesus famously says, "Give to Caesar that which is Caesar, and give to God that which is God's" isn't He essentially saying, "Don't worry about the government, worry about your neighbor"?

The most political act He could have made within Judaism at the time, was to publicly say, "Look, I'm the Messiah! Follow me to God's Kingdom!" But He never did. He walked away from political power and trusted in God's power instead. He worried about feeding the poor, clothing the naked, healing the sick and not about legislating morality. That's what those Pharisees who Jesus challenged wanted to do. I find it so completely ironic that those of the religious right who are so tied to politics, money and influence will do the same thing while jealously defending some outdated unimportant doctrine like the rapture.

Yes, I lean liberal and I would be equally critical of any religious movement that is closely tied to the Democratic party, but there isn't any really. For some reason conservative religiosity (Pharisees, the Fundamentalists, etc) seem to be more connected with politics. Why is that?

Spring Break?

So a sunny update from the fabulous beaches of Ft. Lauderdale! Yes, yes. While everyone is cold, wet and miserable in my home town of Columbus, Ohio, I'm enjoying the fun in the sun atmosphere of Ft. Lauderdale. . . . Really!

Whatever you may think, I did not spend my spring break sitting at work in front of a computer, with the phones ringing off the hook...by myself...with no one to talk to....and too busy to really read anything.

No, No! I was enjoying endless sandy beaches, good times and good friends. Wow, what sunsets! Look!


I know we're cast in shadows and you can't see our faces, but here's me and Jaime enjoying a wonderful sunset...really! I've gained about 75 pounds and Jaime's into hats now. That's us allright. We're not experiencing the gray, dismall cold and snowy weather in Columbus; we've got sun and 70's all week. Doing nothing but enjoying the spring weather of Florida....Not the winter weather of Columbus. . . Really. . .

What to write about?

I've had a sort of writer's block for the past few days. Mostly because I've been thinking too much. I have so much I want to talk about and I don't know how to say it. I'm afraid that I come across as thinking that I have all the answers, because that's how you write a position paper. But I don't think I have all the answers, I don't even think I have all the questions. So whenever I argue something, please take it with a grain of salt, because, on most things, I'm willing to think I was wrong.

That being said, let me present an argument. Something that bothers me in Christian circles is the low self-esteem (for lack of a better term) they place in humanity. Often times, man is presented as unable to do anything worthwhile on their own. Thus, Calvinists talk about people being radically corrupt (or corrupt to their root) and unable to respond to anything that God commands. The taint of Original Sin has become so overwhelming that, even from birth, God considers us guilty of sin, so when a child dies they go to Hell, unless they have been baptised and redeemed.

Let me put it bluntly: I don't believe in Original Sin as anyone has tried to explain it. (Let me qualify it: I may change my mind tomorrow.) I fail to believe that God would require of you something that you could not possibly accomplish on your own, withhold His help and then punish you for not doing what you couldn't do in the first place. Just because some guy in a garden screwed up a long time ago.

The story of Adam and Eve is an illustration of humanity's rebellion against God (man choosing his own way over God's way). But the break between God and man is not complete. God still continues his relationship with man, even face to face at times. Without going too deep into all the meanings and implications of the story (I'll do that later, I'm sure), I will say that too much is made out of Adam's sin. Adam's sin is not genetic, and his decendents are not so depraved that they cannot obey God.

The Bible teaches that when God says to feed the poor, He meant it, and we can do it.
The Bible teaches that when God says to love our neighbor, He meant it, and we can do it.
The Bible teaches that when God says to love the Lord with all your heart with all your soul and with all your might, He meant it, and we can do it. There are no caveats to these commands. We make things far too complicated, and when we do, it is so often the simple commands that fall to the wayside.

All of this comes about because I've been reading Emerging Churches and noticed this low self-esteem. (I really wish I had a better term for this.) Everything else, I have loved in this book, and I can barely contain myself from talking about it! This one tidbit though really bugs me. Something that is said a lot in there is that they're not building the kingdom or taking God to the people, but they're finding where God is already working in people and becoming His partner. I understand what they're saying, but the great commission didn't say, "Go out and find where I'm at and make those people disciples." It did say "Go out and make disciples..." You do it. You are the body. You are Christ in this world. It's up to you. (Whether we own up to it or not.)

God has chosen to work through humanity. We are his ambassadors, made in His image. If Christ is God incarnate, then we, as Christians, are Christ incarnate. Things don't get done without us. If the world is a horrible place, it's our fault. The doctrine of Original Sin agrees with this. But I say, if the world is a horrible place, it's our fault, and it's our responsibility to repair it.

There's a story (I don't have a text to back this up) that a cynical reporter once stuck it to Mother Teresa and asked the dreaded "Where was God" question. "Where was God when that child died alone in the gutter?" And she replied, "Where were you?"

I Am An HTML Genius!!!

Okay, I'm not. But I tweaked some things and now I feel pretty darn accomplished. Notice the "Reading" section on the right (Fine! Jaime is reminding me that she set that up first), BUT I figured out how to put the pictures to the links and the oh so sexy hover text.....Ooooo! Thank you for your appreciation and support during this character building experience. I'm a better man now because of it *sniff*. Thanks guys!

Um...Normal posts will resume soon.

Why can't I get any work done?

Or, as a sign on a very cluttered desk, in a very cluttered office of the Jewish Studies Library at OSU reads:

If a cluttered desk reflects a cluttered mind,
what does an empty desk reflect?

Hochma

Is it a bad sign when your reading for school and your reading for pleasure are the same thing?

I help out in a little cafe area at church and don't always get to make it into the service the nights I'm volunteering. So I usually take some reading material just in case. This last weekend I brought The Mekhilta De Rabbi Ishmael. Kim, who was working with me that night, saw it and said "Awww, you have to do school work?" And I foolishly said, "No, this is pleasure reading."

Then several minutes of good hearted mockery followed. (I must say that Jaime, my loving and supportive wife, was right there enjoying every second of it.)

But I had my moment of glory that night. Yes, I showed them. Because the pastor was talking about wisdom that night and kept mispronouncing the word in Hebrew. (I was actually in the service and cringed every time he said "hochma" as "hawchma.") I'm usually very laid back when it comes to stuff like this. But then I imagined1,800 people (that generally attend services over the weekend) going around town saying "hawchma" and I just couldn't take it. Is this anal of me? Absolutely. Did I decide to let it slide? Absolutely not!

After service I was once again in the cafe and Pastor Drew came walking up to the counter. The first thing I said was not "Hi, Drew. How are you," it was "DREW, IT'S HOCHMA!" Everyone laughed and he acknowledged that he was going to ask me about the pronunciation before service but forgot. Then it seemed like every person from that service was coming up to the counter asking "Now, how do you say it?"

So maybe it wasn't a moment of glory, but at least at that moment a lot of people were appreciating my nerdiness--even if it was just for help with pronunciation.

(Does this story make me seem desperate for attention? Maybe that's why scholars write books.)

It's Contagious

Jaime's been lusting after my blog since the moment I started it. (Actually, she was gut-wrenchingly nervous and neurotic about it. "People are going to see this!?!")

But now she's gotten over it and has started her own. No joke.

Dude, That's so Old Testament

Over the past couple of weeks I've run into people and churches using "Old Testament" as a derogatory term and/or as a way to write off parts of the Bible they don't want to deal with.

A couple of guys from my church were talking about someone who hasn't been around for awhile and one of the guys said, "He's so Old Testament." My first reaction was, "What the heck does that mean?" The second was "You'd probably consider me Old Testament!" Of course, I didn't say either of those because a) I don't know them that well and b) I'm a coward.

I also ran into a church's web site that described large worship gatherings with singing, etc as relics of the Old Testament Temple service and should be avoided. They also said (and they weren't the first people I've heard this from) that since Jesus only endorsed two commandments (Love God and love your neighbor) the other 611 commandments in the Torah/Pentateuch/5 Books of Moses are inapplicable. Obviously to someone majoring in Jewish Studies and going on to Grad school studying Hebrew, to throw out the Torah is a bit. . . shall we say. . . troubling.

Ironically, the Talmud has a story that gives nearly the exact same teaching as Jesus did, from a forerunner to the rabbis who lived around the same time as Jesus. The story goes something like this: A Gentile came to Hillel and said, "I'll convert if you can teach me the entire Torah while I stand on one foot." Hillel agrees to the terms and says, "That which is hateful to you, do not do that to your neighbor (i.e. love your neighbor as yourself) The rest is commentary. Go and study." For the Rabbis (and I'd like to point out that the Pharisees of Jesus' time agreed with him according to the New Testament) this law was only the beginning not the end. I propose Jesus meant this very same thing, because he came "not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it."

I know the Torah is scary, there are parts that don't seem to make much sense to someone in the 21st century, but it is still there. And, at the risk of being labelled "Old Testament" there's more to the Old Testament than prophecies pointing to Jesus, pithy proverbs and psalms that Christians don't use because they're too busy singing about being "madly in love" with God. There. I'm finished. Thank you.

Still Procrastinating

I'm depressed. I have too much to do and I don't want to do it. And to make matters worse, I discovered that I have RPD. Research Perfectionism Disorder.

If I'm researching something, I don't feel satisfied until I've completely exhausted all avenues of research. (Thus, the household tension regarding library books.) But for one paper I'm currently writing I haven't done a lot of research. I found out that there isn't much academic discussion on the topic I chose, so I don't have many sources. I've done sufficient research to write the paper but not sufficient research to satisfy my RPD.

It's a vicious cycle. I'm depressed because my paper won't be as in depth as I would like, so I procrastinate on writing it, which further ensures that it will be a rush job and a less than satisfying paper, thereby increasing my depression and creating more procrastination.

I'm depressed.

Sociology Without a License

Wow! 6 days without a post! You might think this means I have a life. But no, my friends, no; it’s just the end of the quarter. This means I have three papers due all at the same time and two finals to get ready for, which means no life for me and no time to post. Actually, as I’m writing this, I am skipping my Prophets class, but that’s not so bad because I’m just auditing it. But anyway, I’m glad this quarter is almost done.

Of course, it’s not like I’ve actually been doing any school work either. I’ve been dutifully procrastinating with Muppet movies, Lord of the Rings and reading books that are unrelated to school. I’ve discovered that ignoring your school work doesn’t make it any easier the night before it’s due, and the resulting depression just makes things even worse.

But through this procrastination I have made some interesting sociological insights into my family.

1. Evie cannot comprehend Muppets. (Heck, she can’t even say Muppets. She keeps talking about Muffins.) She was introduced to the Muppets via the Great Muppet Caper. We were at a Hebrew class party at Jessica’s house and, being good parents, we were downstairs playing Trivial Pursuit while she was upstairs watching a DVD by herself. Well, not really by herself, because she kept yelling downstairs “I need you!” and one of us (actually mostly Jessica) would run upstairs to support her in her Muffin watching. During one of these “I need you times” we had a touching father-daughter talk about Muppets.

Evie – “I scared.”
Me – “They can’t get hurt. They’re just puppets.
Evie – “No, them like cartoons, but them real . . .
Me – “No, they’re puppets; people’s hands are inside moving them—like this (insert very well done impression of moving a puppet)
Evie – “But I can see all of them. I can see them legs.”
Me – “Well, they’re puppets, they’re not real, so you don’t have to be scared.

(Here’s where I can’t explain something so, after a little more comfort time, I just pat her leg and walk away. How can you see all of them move anyway? Jim Henson, that evil wizard!)


2. Moira doesn’t like Muppets. Something deep in the core of her being says that talking animals are weird, just weird. She was close to being won over by Miss Piggy’s synchronized swimming scene. And she was sucked in by the escape from jail and showdown with the bad guys stealing the Great Baseball Diamond. But still there are lingering doubts. She just needs time.


3. Although Jaime likes Muppets, she does not like Fantasy. No one should ever watch a fantasy movie with Jaime. Perhaps she was scarred by her obsession with fantasy and science fiction in her early years, I don’t know, but I do know that watching Lord of the Rings with her was NOT fun. Some comments included “This is so stupid--It’s just a ring, people!” “Why can’t wizards fly? What’s the point of being a wizard if you can’t fly?” “I thought elves were little. Aren’t elves supposed to be little?” “This movie is so racist. All the “good” people are white and all the evil things are dark skinned. What is this—some sort of Nazi propaganda? Aryans conquering the evil less than human indigenous monsters who would take over the world if we don’t stop them?!?” (Actually, I was starting to think the same thing before she said that. I was a little worried that we were on the same wavelength.)
She basically talked through the whole thing. Now we have the next two of the trilogy and I think I’ll tie her up and gag her. (And, yes, this is the FIRST time we have seen Lord of the Rings. This is also due to Jaime and her everyone-else-is-doing-it-so-why-should-I attitude. This is usually something I love about her, but when I want to watch a movie, it gets annoying.)


Wow, after all that I just realized that when I’ve run out of movies and books to procrastinate with, I can always write an overly long, pointless post for my blog. Life is good.

Why We Homeschool and Why You Shouldn't Ask

Yesterday Jaime was talking to a friend of a friend. She had known this person for about 5 minutes. Those first 5 minutes after meeting someone have become agonizing because in that first 5 minutes these polite social questions are asked--"What are your girls' names?" "How old are they?" "What grade is Moira in?" "What school does she go to?" Then the person finds out we homeschool and 9 times out of 10 the conversation takes a turn for the worse. Things go from polite to probing to annoying to (sometimes) infuriating.

"Why do you homeschool?" "How do you know what to teach?" "Do you have a teaching degree?" "What curriculum do you buy?" "How do you know you're staying at grade level?" "Does the state monitor what you do?" "Who checks your portfolio?" "Doesn't she miss being around her friends during the day?" "Do you put her in outside classes?" "How long do you think you'll do this?" "When do you think you'll reach your limit on what you can teach?"
In between these questions come the opinions (and everyone who asks these questions has a lot of opinions).

During these interrogations we politely answer the questions. We are not rude. We do not ask questions like "Why do you put your children in public/private school?" "How long do you intend to keep them there?" "What are the class sizes?" "In what colleges or universities were the teachers educated?" "Do the teachers all have Masters degrees?" "What kind of continuing education is required for the teachers?" "How do you make sure your children are being taught to their potential?" "How many times a week do they have gym/music/art class?" "What kind of field trips do they take?" "Do you enroll them in outside classes?" "How long do you think you'll be able to help them with their homework--when will you be over your head?"

No, we do not do that, because that would be absurd. That would be invasive, rude and downright strange. AND YET this is what we get ALL THE TIME. And this is what Jaime got yesterday from the friend of a friend who thought that because we homeschool we must explain ourselves to her and to the rest of the world.

We decided a long time ago that this sort of thing must stop, but we've never been able to create that one sentence that says "we do not need to explain ourselves to you" in a nice, polite, friendly yet firm way. We scratched the "Why the hell do you care?" response. We thought "What is wrong with you?" was a little aggressive. And "Do you even realize how rude you're being right now?" could be alienating. So we're up for suggestions.

It's important not to make this some sort of defensive attack because most of the people asking these questions aren't mean people; they're just oblivious. Jaime genuinely liked this friend of a friend after they got beyond the homeschool gauntlet. We don't want to blow people away, we just want to lovingly shut them up.

And don't get me wrong, I don't want to make homeschooling an off limits subject. Feel free to ask me questions about it, just not in the first five minutes. I'd love to have an actual discussion about it if you're really interested and if we actually know each other. But save your questions if you're just using them to express your prefabricated opinions.

(Oh, and the title of this post suggests that I will explain why we homeschool, but, after all I've said, I really don't need to answer that question, now do I?)