Censored! October 21, 2008

I have a problem.  Norwegians are beginning to read my blog.  For the past couple weeks, I’ve had friends here make a passing comment in conversation on something I had written on Eeper, like, “I know you like brown cheese…I read it on your blog.”  And suddenly, I feel very exposed.  What once was a place to vent my reactions to this new culture is now being accessed by those who make up a huge part of said new culture!  Crap.  What can I write about now?  Can I complain about the food or the weather or the way it feels when half the dinner table is speaking in Norwegian and I have to pretend I have better things to do than be part of the conversation?  I will be either an object of scorn or an object of pity.  Oh, and on top of all that, these are YWAM-ers…what if I say something “unChristian”?  Damn.

Bah, this sucks.  Oh well.  I think I’m just going to keep pretending that no one reads this and hope for the best.

Patriotism is Out July 7, 2008

At church last night, during the worship portion of the service, the congregation was led in singing “God Bless America” in honor of Independence Day last Friday.  As the band played and the backup singers belted out the tune, I felt uncomfortable.  I didn’t want to sing, and I wasn’t sure why.  Maybe because I wasn’t in a baseball stadium or sitting on a picnic blanket at a fireworks show. 

Embryo or Jew: Which Bleeds More? June 10, 2008

“I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions [...]? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die?”

I came across a really interesting section in Brennan Manning’s The Wisdom of Tenderness today.  He expounds on the idea that reverence for God, the Father of all Creation must result in a reverence for life.  Which, of course, brings up the abortion debate.  When I saw it coming, I almost wanted to skip ahead in the book.  I feel like I’ve heard every Christian argument for the pro-life debate.  I think I was supposed to like the movie Juno because it was discreetly pro-life and not because it was hilarious yet heartwarming.  And, as a Christian (and someone who wants to fear God and thus revere life), I oppose abortion.  However, I remember in high school I felt I ought to feel a fiery rage against this abomination…but I didn’t.  I wondered why it had become such a pet battle for so many Christians when there was so much else going on in the world, injustice being done to people who were already alive. 

In The Wisdom of Tenderness, Manning expounds on these faint musings that flitted through my head, but in a mature, thought-out, and intellectual manner.  He points out that “the Christian community’s pro-life posture is selective, inconsistent, and vulnerable to unbiased criticism.”  The most glaring piece of evidence is Joe Republican Christian’s contradictory stances on abortion and the death penalty.  We don’t have the right to play God and take an embryo’s life!  Oh, but a man who has lived and loved and screwed up and achieved and failed?  Sure, give him the shot in the arm he deserves.  

However, Manning unpacks three large suitcases of evidence against the inconsistency in the Christian community’s “reverence for life.”  His first argument blew me away, and filled me with a passionate and angry cry against injustice ten times stronger than I ever felt about the abortion issue.

He courageously drags into the spotlight the ugly atrocities, hatred, and even cold indifference to Jewish life that has been displayed by Christians since the Ascension of The Jew, Jesus.  Once His body left this earth, things became pretty twisted in the minds of many Christians.  Manning reminds us of the anti-Semitic Christian’s main argument: the Jews killed Jesus, thus rejecting Jesus and therefore God; becoming a cursed people.  This evil lie has stood dangerously behind every ghetto, concentration camp, Crusade, synagogue and beard-burning.  Even the church fathers and saints got in on the party.  Augustine, Martin Luther, and John Chrysostom all have anti-Semitic remarks, treatises, or sermons in the books.  Chrysostom is quoted as saying that Jews are “impure beasts” who “God has abandoned [...] What hope of salvation have they left?”  His prescription is to “turn away from them as from a pest and a plague of the human race.”

What astonishes me is that these were scholars and theologians.  Surely they must have at one time read Romans 9-11, where Paul presents a lengthy discourse on the plight of Israel, after they rejected Jesus as the Messiah.  He clearly states that all hope is not lost for Israel, and hints that God might have a glorious master plan still coming to fruition, taking into account the present rejection by the Jews of Jesus as the Messiah.  How can one misinterpret statements such as “[...] God has not rejected His people, has He?  May it never be!” (Rom. 11:1)  

I gobbled up these chapters today, underlining verses and scribbling notes in the margins of my Bible as I became less angry with the confused Christians “whose anti-Semitism is Christian spit on the face of our Jewish Savior” and more and more hopeful about the exquisite promises for the people of Israel, laid in the text of Paul’s God-breathed letter to the Romans like precious gems.  For “if their [Israel's] transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be! [...] For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?”  (Rom. 11:12, 15)

It’s such a crazy plan that only God could come up with it.  Which is why, after Paul lays it all out there, he bursts into exclamations of wonder, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!  [...] For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.” (11:33, 36)

I may never picket in front of an abortion clinic, but this issue and these lives, so close the the heart of God, make me so excited that I want to hop on a plane to Israel right now and love my fellow Jews and plant myself right in the thick of that promise.

Taking It Literally May 13, 2008

Today I read a very interesting article on Relevant, which you can read here.  The author, AJ Jacobs, recently published a book called The Year of Living Biblically which chronicles his 12 months following ALL of the rules in the Old Testament.

Based on the gained insights he shared in the article, the book should be a good, thought-provoking read.  He followed everything from the Ten Commandments to laws forbidding him from trimming his beard or wearing mixed fabrics.  After reading his piece, I don’t think one could approach the book with the expectation of scholarly, informed ideas about the Old Testament.  He apparently did some research on the reasons behind the different laws, although his findings seem shallow.  When he discusses five of the “most baffling rules” and gives possible explanations, the explanations are his own speculation and not the result of even cursory study.  This kind of bugs, since I have a degree in Biblical Studies and it’s kind of like, Dude, know the basics before you pubish this ish, but whatever.

The book definitely brings up an important question though: which laws or rules from the Old Testament should we follow, and which should we chalk up to culture-specific guidelines or the “old covenant”? 

Ant Bully September 5, 2007

 

Hey, remember how I wrote that post about Disney movies making me attribute emotions, personalities, etc. to animals and even insects?  Well, once again that problem is manifesting in my life.  Due to the recent crazy high temperatures (I heard it was 117 degrees in Santa Clarita on Monday!) we’ve had a little ant invasion in our house.  And I feel SO guilty when I kill them. 

Guilty Pleasures August 15, 2007

• Greek

 I’m pretty embarrassed to admit that I like this show, but I totally do.  It’s even more embarrassing that it’s made for the ABC Family channel.  But it’s so lighthearted and fun, and has just the right combination of ingredients like bad acting, silly plotlines, hit-and-miss wardrobes, good-looking cast members, and the occasional cleverly-written line to have me adding ”Greek” to my list of addictions, right up there with Golden Spoon frozen yogurt and Vallarta tortilla chips.  My favorite character on the show has to be Cappie, president of the Kappa Tau fraternity.  He’s a total slacker, and not off-the-charts cute, but totally charming.  I’m telling you boys, charm will give you two points on the ten-point scale.   Little known fact: Casey, the show’s main character, is Frasier star Kelsey Grammer’s daughter.  Watch the show and let me know what you think!

Bad Samaritan May 24, 2007

The other day on my lunch break I drove past a Chinese restaurant, and in the parking lot in front it looked like a bag of dry rice had spilled all over the place.  There were about five pigeons pecking around it, really chowing down.  Then a thought crossed my mind: don’t birds’ stomachs explode if they eat dry rice?  Something about the rice grains expanding in their tiny digestive systems or something.  That’s why people don’t throw rice at weddings anymore.  But who wants to be covered in birdseed on the dash out of the church.  Not very romantic.  Anyway, as I was thinking this, I also wondered for a split second if there wasn’t some kind of Good Samaritan law regarding animals.  Like, should I have slammed on my brakes, hopped out of the car, and shooed them away from certain death?  Surely if I saw a group of humans participating in an activity that would, unbeknownst to them, result in their gastrically explosive demise, I would say something, right?  Maybe next time.