I was reading a blog...

and thought I would share it with all you lost fanatics out there. Namely Mom and Dad because I don't think many other people really pay attention to this blog.

neverseenlost.wordpress.com

I went on a run...

And was repeatedly amazed about how latent thoughts connect when you give them room to roam. In the past year I have increasingly found myself spending more and more time in front of my TV, Xbox, and computer, commanding the world to entertain me in every moment of free time. I have made a conscious effort to minimize this, and it has been highly beneficial.

So on my run today I wasn’t thinking of much at all, I was just putting one foot in front of the other and enjoying the smell of the fresh rain. Then on my way back this article came to mind. I read it while in my Jeremiah Exegesis class. It has nothing to do with Jeremiah, but honestly, I am not finding the prophet to be too enthralling at the moment.

I was first rather offended by the article, writing the author of as an arrogant asshole at the time, and still think that he/she was at the least an obtuse provocateur who immediately isolates half the population in his language. Further, I highly disagree with his argument that highly intelligent people will go against biological urges of paranoia and in turn embrace atheism (which resembles more a series of assumptions more than anything), largely because he bases this upon an IQ difference of 103 to 97. Yet, it has been proven numerous times that IQ testing varies by as much as 15 points depending on a variety of factors. In this study the author makes extremely broad assumptions on 6 points?

Yet, despite this, it is interesting to note his findings concerning intelligence creating novel values which overcome biology. Essentially what he is arguing is that “humans are evolutionarily designed to be conservative, caring mostly about their family and friends, and being liberal, caring about an indefinite number of genetically unrelated strangers they never meet or interact with, is evolutionarily novel.” The author goes on to explain a variety of novel beliefs and behaviors which s/he identified in the studied population, but what struck me most was its correlation with the Biblical narrative.

Upon thinking about the Biblical Narrative I began to see many of what the author proclaims as “Liberal” views. Namely, the narrative is repeatedly calling the people of God to be a liberal community beyond race and creed. While tribalism was certainly present in ancient Israel, a necessary aspect of cultural constriction which I was thinking about last time, they were repeatedly called by God for something greater. God was not calling them to enclose within themselves, to care for only one another and their genetically related offspring. I mean they were to be a light to the world. The entire Promised Land was hinged upon them taking care of the widow and orphan! This sounds pretty “Liberal” to me based upon the authors definition.

As the narrative continues, Jesus pushes the community more. While his ministry was effectively for only the Jews, which some may claim to be a “conservative” movement. He was essentially rallying a community into which his Apostles could invite the world. While the functioning of the early church has repeatedly been idealized, there was certainly a “liberal” desire in their attempts to sell everything and provide for all who had need. They were impressed to care for those beyond their families and to love their enemies.

Further, the narrative as a whole testifies to the felt presence that biology is not the final determining factor. With the narrative expressing the feeling of a “broken humanness” it is not necessarily arguing for the platonic dualism of a sinful flesh and a heavenly purity. Instead, it appears to be arguing that there is something more; that there is some “novel existence” beyond biology. There was a felt presence even in the ancient Israelite community that our biological drives were not the complete story. Instead we were capable of something greater.

Jon, correct me if I am wrong in reading this authors argument, but it seems the Biblical narrative can be read in a correlational way, suggesting that there is much more room for dialogue than the author suggests.

So I was reading the news this morning...

...and realized that if I took the book of Revelation literally I would probably be pretty scared right now.

I went on a run... and skipped class....

and was thinking about adoption and how odd it is that so many people will get so worked up over the “pro-life” movement while leaving countless children without parents, hoping to get adopted. I mean, if this movement is so pro-life, why is there so much life not cared for in our world? To me it seems that the life which already exists is just as much, if not more valuable than the unborn, especially at the embryonic stage. It isn’t that I have something against pro-lifers, it is just that I believe the argument is hinged upon the wrong issue.

All too often it comes down to legislature, attempting to convince the courts to bend the will of the other to one’s own. Further, it seems that many pro-lifers don’t really think of the consequences if abortion was illegal, namely the huge influx of children into the foster system. The system is already strained almost to the breaking point, with children getting trapped within the beast of bureaucracy.

So now what, abortion is illegal, life is born, and life is left without care.

Some may argue that the people would step up, save those who are left in the system. But this is hardly the case today, with thousands of children left without families. Further, when the budget gets tight it is the social services for such marginalized populations that get cut first. I wouldn’t want to birth my child into such an environment, is it that much of a surprise that abortion continues to be viable alternative?

Many argue that it is a woman’s choice to be protected; others argue that one should choose life. I believe it is hardly a choice at all. The notion of free will is so overblown at times. Circumstances always constrict our options, hardly presenting the freedom of choice which we ideologically create in these political debates. Many times abortion presents itself as the best possibility for the health of the child, to prevent the certain abuse and neglect.

Yet, what if we created an environment which countered this, one which presented a viable option of possibility for the child. What if there was certainty that the child could be brought into the world with the hope of being loved and cared for? What if there were so many people waiting to adopt that it was certain that the child would be given an immediate loving home? It seems to me that it would make life a much more persuasive argument.

I don’t think the majority of individuals choose to abort. The majority are frequently forced to abort as a result of constricted cultural context. Whether that be abuse, rape, or the view that neglect and abandonment are all but certain in their current circumstances. Abortion becomes the best of the options. Rather than making laws without changing the system, we need to change the system and make the laws irrelevant. If we were able to create a system which so favored adoption we would deter abortions to much greater extent than by any legislative means. Yet, this would require us to do something rather than just say something.

So pro-lifers, start changing the system. Go adopt. If you find yourself in a position unable to adopt, then find another way to care for these abandoned children. If not, stop calling your movement pro-life, because there doesn’t seem to be much pro-life when we leave behind the life that already exists.

So I went snowboarding...

and it was awesome!! The Vandriels put in some solid time teaching me how to carve the slopes, and I sucked. It was rough, but I enjoyed it none the less. Ron and Janna graciously sent us some cash for the wonderful day known as my birthday and Janelle and I spent it in less than 24 hours by purchasing lift tickets and heading for the mountain. It was amazing. We were in Christmas, got snowed on, I highly improved my boarding ability, and then we returned to 80 degree weather. I don't have anything really important to say about it, but here are some pictures.

Janelle picked me up some sweet snow pants so I would at least look skilled before I started.

Also, notice the quality Canadian tuke which made me more Canadian than Janelle that day. I also had a quality Olympic Canadian scarf which gracefully flowed in the wind as I tore down the slopes!! Booya.

The ride up one of the lifts. It sure didn't feel like we were only 40 minutes from LA.

We stopped on our slope and just took in the view of the rest of the runs. Beautiful.

Well thats it.

See ya later.

So I got back from a run...

and showered only to notice that Janelle had unclogged our drain. I am excited because I can now once again pee in my shower.

So I went on a run...

And began to think of how theology is music. Good music has an effect, it stirs the soul. It somehow strikes the listener as rich, meaningful, creative, and worthwhile. It is an interpretive exercise, and that is part of the beauty. I often judge music based upon how it effects me, I do the same with theology. I don’t really find much point in theology unless it effects me in some way, unless it translates into some form of action, whether than be physical or emotional. I think that is a large part of what I meant in my previous post when I was talking about a dead eschatology. It mutes action, it prevents us from taking initiative, from mimicking the divine creator. What is more dead and boring than a lack of creativity? We should be constantly creative, constantly striving to create a world of difference, something more beautiful, something more meaningful, something which we want to hold on to. Not something we hope will soon be thrown away.
This is just how I judge theology, by what effect it has upon me. I don’t care much about the theology nearly as much as its effect. That is all I really have to say on that.
But music, that is beautiful. It is creative and dynamic, and I love images which I previously had not thought of before. Today I was listening to Wilco on the last leg of my run, and in their song “Jesus, etc,” one line strikes me as especially relevant to this conversation.
“Our love, Our love is all we have,
Our love, Our love is all of God’s money
Every one is a burning sun.”
What if that is it. What if our love is all of God’s money. What if our love is all God has to use in the transformation of the world. I don’t know about you, but the thought makes me happy. It makes me realize that we have a purpose beyond some divine tragedy. We are the transformative agents, and rather than theology being the straight jacket of our faith, it is merely that which compels us to action. Theology too can be beautiful. We just have a tendency to prefer the jacket.

So I went for a run…

And began to think of how our eschatology is dead, and the church is soon to follow. I believe that eschatology drives faith and deed. We are all too frequently driven by a belief in the after life, and all too often we use visions of puffy clouds and fiery torment to manipulate action and control the masses. We have become content with a belief that heaven is cut off from our world completely, and as a result nothing we can do affects its creation, and therefore we must just save our own skin.
We have therefore created an apathetic Christianity in which what one does matters naught except to receive a heavenly reward. Some will counter that it is faith and not action which is necessary to receive the ticket to heaven, but in reality what is faith but mental action? We have all too often traded the difficult life of obedience of the First Testament for the life of “faith” in order to avoid such annoyance.
The First Testament testifies to something much different, and you therefore find a community of individuals possessed by a spirit of creative eschatology. They were a community which truly believed that their actions could usher in the heavenly dream, the Promised Land. True, they understood God as the final powering force bringing their creation to fruition, but they were to be the people who were to act a certain way, retain purity and social justice, care for the widow and orphan, and follow the way of the LORD. It was after doing this that the LORD would usher them into the Promised Land, in the here and now! They even touched their dream under David, understanding his son to be the Son of God.
This Promised Land was not in the distant future, it was not upon the clouds of heaven. They understood their actions as directly contributing to their promised eschatology. A golden age when the law of the LORD would be written on the hearts of every person, and they themselves were creative agents!
We have lost this and exchanged it for a dead and dreamless theology. Rather than understanding our actions as directly contributing to the goals of God so as to usher in the Promised Land, we have understood ourselves as cut off, only responsible for our own entry into some platonic celestial city. We need to revive an eschatology of immediacy, one in which our actions directly contribute to its fruition. Only then will our faith once again matter, and only then will it once again transform a community so they can become a light to the world.