For Lent, I’m going to lead a book study of “The Last Week” by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan. I highly recommend this book. It taught me a lot about the Easter story. The book uses the Biblical book of Mark to walk through the 8 days of Holy Week (Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday). Just the first chapter alone is worth the price of the book as it gives new meaning to Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem on what we know as Palm Sunday. I’m looking forward to discussing the book with my church community.
Seminary classes start again for me one week from today. Four classes this semester.
People & Faith of Israel II
Systematic Theology
Intro to Pastoral Care
Worship and/as Transformative Art
I hope it will be an interesting semester. Hopefully I can figure out this semester if this is really the path I’m supposed to be on. I’m not at all convinced as of yet. Classes last semester were fun and interesting and I’m missing the good people I’ve met there, but on the other hand I kind of would like to have a normal job again and be earning a paycheck too. Finances are unfortunately going to be a part of upcoming decisions. In any case, though, I think this has been a worthwhile experience.
Finally got grades from last semester and I did pretty good for being back in a formal classroom for the first time in 17 years. I was happy with the results.
It’s been a while since I posted anything. Haven’t really been inspired. I’m on break from school until February. I had lots of things I wanted to get done during this time, but I’ve not worked much on the big things. I’ve made some progress on mundane things from my to do list. They seem easier. But, for one, I had wanted to do some writing. It doesn’ t seem to be happening. Maybe I will blog some of the things I wanted to write instead of the more formal way I had wanted. I’m not sure. Nothing will happen until next week because the next couple of my days is booked. Who knows? My frame of mind has not been very good for accomplishing anything of significance. I have nothing legitimate to complain about, really, but I spend too much time worrying about where my life is or isn’t going. It’s tiring, but I haven’t been able to snap out of it totally. Feels all very existential. Seems like I need to focus on something but just can’t find that something. What I’m going to do is take a break from stressing by reading a good fantasy novel just for fun.
I just finished reading the book “Soulfully Gay” by Joe Perez. I had started it this summer but then didn’t touch it after school started. Now that the semester is done, I picked it up again. Perez has had an interesting journey. The subtitle of the book is “How Harvard, Sex, Drugs, and Integral Philosophy Drove Me Crazy and Brought Me Back to God.” The book was alternately fascinating and boring. And the ending of the book was just a weird fantasy based narrative type thing. I certainly didn’t get the point of it.
When Perez talks about his life in a straightforward way, I was interested. However, he too often veered off into discussions of Ken Wilber’s Integral Philosophy. It’s interesting on some level I guess, but Perez seems to think every problem in life is a result of the level of consciousness one is at. It got to be overkill. For example, at one point Perez addresses the question of why so many people base their worldview in opposition to homosexuality. He then spends a couple of pages giving an answer based on people not having evolved to a higher level of consciousness. There may be some truth to that, but it seems to be over-analyzing to me. I think there is a simpler answer – humans crave security and order and homosexuality threatens their view of how things should be. Thus, they live in opposition to it. Fear of otherness is also at the root of racism, nationalism, and probably a few other -ism’s. This may all be explainable in terms of level of consciousness, but doing so, I think, makes the problem too distant and doesn’t offer practical answers. What sounds more addressable – helping people overcome a fear of the other or helping people raise themselves to a higher level of consciousness? Maybe I’m just not advanced enough to “get it.” If I had to grade this book, I’d give it a C+.
One more essay and my first semester of seminary will be done. It has been a good experience so far. All of the classes were interesting, but especially the Hebrew Bible and Theories of Change classes. I feel like I’ve learned a lot, but I can’t say I’m any closer to knowing where my life is headed 🙂 Although, I am going to do a second semester, at least.
I’m going to do four classes next semester, People and Faith of Israel II, Systematic Theology, Introduction to Pastoral Care, and Worship and/as Transformative Art. I’m hoping the Pastoral Care class will help me discern once and for all whether ministry is for me. Right now, I’m thinking not…
In any case, I’ve got lots to think about… do I stay in school past this next semester? If so, MA or MDiv degrees? Where will my funds come from? What are my ultimate goals? If I don’t stay in school, what do I do then? Look to go back to computer work? In school or not, where will I live, Kalamazoo, Chicago, elsewhere? Lots of questions…
Frankl, who is the subject of my class paper, was a psychologist and the founder of Logotherapy. He taught that humanity’s basic drive is to find meaning in life. This happens in one of three ways:
1) through a work (book, art, etc.) or deed
2) an experience or encounter (beauty of nature, love for another, etc.)
3) one’s attitude in the face of suffering (being able to see it as opportunity for growth, test of dignity, etc.)
Frankl himself was a Jew who survived four different concentration camps during World War II. His book “Man’s Search For Meaning” recalls his experiences there.
A couple of quotes from that book on the subject of Love:
“Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deepest meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self.” (p. 58)
“Love is as primary a phenomenon as sex. Normally, sex is a mode of expression for love. Sex is justified, even sanctified, as soon as, but only as long as, it is a vehicle of love. Thus love is not understood as a mere side-effect of sex; rather, sex is a way of expressing the experience of that ultimate togetherness which is called love.” (p. 134)
Now, what got me thinking about these quotes was a political issue I mentioned below – gay marriage. Any argument I’ve heard against gay marriage has been in terms of religion. Most of those arguments are pretty weak and amount to some Christians declaring “the Bible says being gay is bad”. Well, plenty of Christians also support gay marriage, including the United Church of Christ, which as a denomination has voted to support gay marriage (even though individual UCC churches may still oppose it). I don’t even want to get into a Biblical argument – I probably won’t be able to convince anyone that way and they won’t be able to convert me to their view either. People will believe what they want to believe (especially when the beliefs are grounded in fear of otherness).
For me, marriage comes down to love (hence why I started thinking of the Frankl quotes). Why should some group of Christians dictate that I can’t marry the person I love? Frankly, my own Christian church would (and has) performed a same sex marriage. So, if my church recognizes such a marriage, why does the government refuse to recognize it in favor of opposing religious beliefs? What is the non-religious reason to deny gay marriage? I suppose even if you remove the Bible from the equation, people will still argue that recognizing gay marriage will destroy moral order and cause societies to collapse. Funny, though, that Canada, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Massachusetts still seem to be standing and have not fallen into the general moral chaos that some would predict. So, why? Why is my love less worthy than the love of a conservative Christian? Well, of course, it isn’t.
In a previous post, I said gay marriage wasn’t a major issue. But, I think it really is. If a candidate isn’t supporting gay marriage then, for me, they are supporting one religious view point over others because they think it will get them votes (unless someone can give me a non-religious reason to deny same sex marriage). And in the process of endorsing government favored religious view points, they are not recognizing the worth of my love – my very humanity.
Some random thoughts…
Political issues of importance… to update my list…
Health care
Peace (as opposed to “defense” or “terrorism”… I’m not a pacifist but we’ve gone way beyond justifiable force…)
Global Warming
GLBT issues (marriage, ENDA, etc.)
Economy
Next… went shopping this morning… I generally don’t go for the after Thanksgiving sales, but $3 DVDs? Had to pick up a few new movies at that price, less than the price of a rental.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, what am I thankful for? Family, friends, … that really seems to be the most important thing in life… which is funny since relationships can often be so difficult.
I also made a facebook page yesterday while procrastinating on a paper I’m supposed to be writing for school. Not sure why I need a facebook page but it seems to be what everyone is doing these days 🙂
The paper I’m writing is on Viktor Frankl. What an incredible man he was. I like a lot of his ideas… they seem very appropriate to my experience of life. I just wish the paper was going faster 🙂 If you don’t know anything about Frankl, go read “Man’s Search For Meaning.” It’s the book he is most known for.
Now that we’re actually getting close to 2008, it’s probably time to start paying attention to the Presidential race. It started unbelievably early this time around. Campaigning for an election two years in advance just seems so wrong. Frankly, I think it detracts from what our leaders should be doing…. which is what? What are the big issues we should be caring about?
Health care
Defense / Iraq / Terrorism
Economy
What else?
Not a “major issue” but perhaps a litmus test… gay marriage. There’s no non-religious reason to deny it.
What else? Not sure, but I guess it’s time to start thinking about it.
How women get treated in Saudi Arabia
Sickening is the first word that came to mind. Why does our government condemn countries like China for human rights abuses but Saudi Arabia is our best buddy? $$$ oil $$$
Again, what the heck is our government doing about this? Or, why isn’t it doing something?
This is exciting and positive. Respected world leaders banding together to try to make a difference.
Ok, I’m not sure if I should plug products or not, but I came across this shareware at http://bruji.com/. I bought the bookpedia and dvdpedia programs to inventory my books and movies. I really like the programs. They’re perfect for what I wanted. If you have a Mac and you’re a little anal and want to easily inventory your crap, then I’d recommend taking a look at them.