Tag: church

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W.W.J.D.?

So, Pastor Paul mentioned a month ago when Brooke and I visited Columbia that he’s looking for people to talk to the 9th grade confirmation class about “what Jesus means to you,” and as I understand it, in the context of where your life has gone since the 9th grade. He was shooting to get a relatively wide range of age groups represented, and needed someone in their mid-20s. Somehow, I got asked… 😛

Anyway, I’ve been contemplating how exactly to go about this. In all honesty, I’d never really thought about the issue, certainly not in recent years. It is further complicated by the fact that I’ve got that whole “go to church on Sunday” thing and then “do science and research” for the rest of the week – two things that don’t necessarily jive well with everyone, but is still certainly doable. There are certain things with Christianity and science that tend to not mix, but are rather key… For example, while one could argue that “Creation” occurred, the specifics behind how that came about would be looked at very differently if you asked someone on the street and if you asked someone with a heavy science background (i.e. me). Or, the immaculate conception…or many of the miracles talked about in the Bible.

Therefore, for the purposes of the discussion on Sunday, I think I’m going to steer away from those issues, but still acknowledge that it’s something that I struggle with frequently, even as I get older and learn more about life. It’s something that it’s O.K. to struggle with and, in my opinion, it makes your beliefs stronger when you feel that you can question them and that it’s alright to really think hard about the Bible and how things should be placed in the context of those that were writing it back nearly 2000 years ago…

So, I guess I view Jesus himself (as that’s really what I’m supposed to talk about…not Christianity as a whole…) as a representation of who we all should strive to be. Someone that taught by his actions. If someone was sick, he healed them. If someone needed defending, he defended them. It didn’t matter who you were, you deserved the same treatment as everyone else. And, at least according to the Bible, he didn’t scold you for being who you were, either.

The man lived by example, and that’s the thing that many Christians don’t do today, in my opinion. Many of them go to church on Sunday and then on Monday return to having the same prejudices against Arabs and homosexuals and unwed mothers that they had earlier. It’s as if many of us today took that message and forgot the “forgiveness” part, and that’s the key. Whether you believe Jesus actually turned water into wine, or died and rose again is a plus…but for me, it’s more important to know what he stood for and how he stood for it, rather than all the “neat stuff” he did, too.

So “What Would Jesus Do?” He’d show his beliefs by his actions, not by telling you you’re wrong. He’d lend his help to anyone that needed it, including his enemies.

And that’s what Jesus means to me.

Any thoughts?

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Grounded

Well, Grounded was last night… Since I haven’t mentioned this on el blog really, I’ll give a brief description:

We go to church at Webster Hills UMC win Webster Groves, MO… There are two “traditional” services and one “contemporary” service every Sunday, the latter of which Brooke and I play music for and/or set up the altar, make food, organize stuff, etc. Being there for over 2 years now, we’ve noticed that people our age (i.e. ages 20-30) are somewhat hard to come by. Therefore, we decided to try something along the lines of a “coffee house” on Saturdays at 6:30 and called it “Grounded.” Again, we wanted acoustic music, some eats, and some fellowship, so the format was essentially 30-40 min of music and no lyrics projected, so everyone could chit-chat with each other, or play some board games that we had dispersed amongst the tables. The idea is to be in a “worshipful environment” yet encourage interaction amongst the attendees, rather than sitting in a seat and following along with a service. This allows for everyone to get whatever they want from the experience, rather than have it spoon-fed to them. From my perspective, that general mentality seems to connect more with people of that age group moreso than sitting in rows, singing with the bouncing ball on the screen, and listening to a 20 min. sermon…

Well, we didn’t advertise all that much (but we’ve got some nice flyers, and a neato logo, designed by the little sister…thanks!), but we’ll get on that more for the next one (October 20th!). We’ll be having it once a month on the third Saturday, so this way, we can rotate musicians and activities as much as possible. Yanela and I did the music, which included about 40 minutes worth of Switchfoot, Waterdeep, Ginny Owens, Relient K, etc…songs that are a bit too complicated for Sunday morning, but work well in a “coffee house” feel. We’ve also got coffee, tea and cocoa from Latin America (Fair Trade, yo…), all of which are quite good!

Anyway, we ended up with a relatively decent turn-out of 14 for that hour period, three of which were from Hannibal and knew Brooke years ago…she invited them via Facebook, not really expecting them to come, but they did anyway… Nice people! Kinda funky how that worked out, but rather cool, just the same. Either way, once we get our advertising together, we expect to get more people there. We’ve already got a musician lined up to play next month, and I think I’ve got another one ready for November (after I call him… ;-).

So yeah, it was a good time. If you’re in the St. Louis area and wanna stop by next time, it’ll be 6:30 pm at Webster Hills UMC on October 20th. If you have questions, ask Brooke… 😛

Grounded

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A good weekend for one and all…

…well, hopefully… 😛

So yeah, Yanela was out of town at church this weekend (our Worship Leader), so I got to run the show this weekend…and as I got to be in charge, I got to recruit the people I wanted to…and Mom and Kristen got the call (Dad, you would have too, but you don’t play the recorder all that well…sorry! ;-)). Brooke played bass (of course), I played guitar, Mom played piano and Kristen sang. We did some old songs and some new ones, all of which seemed to turn out pretty well! Thanks, family!!

Otherwise, Mom and Dad left on Sunday (after a lovely brunch at Norton’s…great place…we should go again sometime…), and then Kristen, Brooke and I tried going to Fast Eddie’s in Alton, IL. This place, apparently, Alton Brown went to in his “Feasting on Asphalt” show on the Food Network. Well, they’ve got really cheap eats and a nifty biker atmosphere (where I don’t exactly fit in, needless to say…). And, they were rather packed. As in, not a seat available in the house. And a long line for food. And lines of people watching for empty tables. We ended up leaving, unfortunately, so we’ll have to try going back some other time. We ended up just going to Joanie’s (after we tried going to Ferraro’s Pizza…which wasn’t open, dammit…).

We went to the zoo the next morning, saw the penguins (w00t!), and then Kristen went home… And today, of course, we’re back to the real world…

Guess I’d better prepare my lecture for this Friday… I’ve gotta shape young minds!

Edit: Oh yeah, and by the way, the Kansas City Royals have a better record than 9 other teams in Major League Baseball. Just wanted to throw that out there…. 😛

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Ridiculous…

Yeah, so I woke up from my nap to this article in Newsweek that polled Americans about a variety of things, one of which was evolution. 91% of Americans believe in God, which isn’t terribly surprising, however 34% of college graduates believe in the Biblical account of creation. When asked “‘Is evolution well-supported by evidence and widely accepted within the scientific community?”, 48% of Americans said no.

As I’m sure my views on this are pretty clear, I won’t go into an extended rant. Let me just say, however, that this is very disturbing. It’s disturbing primarily because 48% of people believe in a lie (yes, the vast majority of credible scientists believe in natural selection) and also that 34% of college graduates believe that women were created when a rib was taken from Adam, and that it’s more likely that we came from mud rather than monkeys. I’ll quote a comment off Slashdot, because I think he said it pretty well:

“America continues to worry about losing its edge in the high-tech industry. But that couldn’t possibly be related to poor science education, could it?

“Note: I’m referring specifically to the 48% who believe that evolution is not well-supported by scientific evidence and that it is not widely accepted within the scientific community. Well, and the people who think the universe is less than 10,000 years old, despite all the evidence to the contrary. You can believe in God and have an understanding of science, just like you can have morals without being religious. But thinking that evolution isn’t supported by evidence, or isn’t widely accepted by scientists, is just plain ignorance.”

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Evil more fundamental?

So, an intriguing perspective, as pointed out by “ST: Voyager” in an episode titled “The Darkling“… The episode basically centers around a malfunction in The Doctor such that he goes all Jekyll and Hyde on the crew and attacks people…

…anyway, here’s the important part… The Doctor goes on this rant about evil, essentially describing evil as more “fundamental” than good. The argument went from a physics perspective such that light involves photons, which is made up of particles (yes, light has mass…weird, eh?), yet there is no corresponding particle for dark. So, if there were no particles of light, there would only be dark. There is no corresponding force to go against light, at least as far as particle physics goes.

I guess it’s just an interesting idea, ’cause I’d always heard the argument that you can’t have good without evil, and vice versa, because our notion of “right” and “wrong” requires that opposing force. How can one define “evil” without a “good” to counterbalance it? Our notion of “evil” requires that you know what is bad and what isn’t, and to know what isn’t, you have to have a sense of “good”…confused, much?

Well, using the argument from physics, actually, light (i.e. “good”) is the force encroaching upon what would be there otherwise (i.e. “evil”). If there were no light, there would only be dark. You can’t not have dark (w00t!, double-negative). But you can not have light.

So, thusly I ask: is evil more fundamental than good?

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Disturbing-ness…

“Has any human being always been there? As any scientist always been there? Who’s always been there? God! Who should you always trust first, God or the scientist? God!”

The quote above came from a guy speaking to a stadium full of young children, asking the kids questions and having them yell responses back. And yes, they were the responses you expect.

So, Crooks and Liars, an admittedly left-wing blog, highlighted a documentary on HBO called “Friends of God.” Sadly, as I don’t get HBO, I haven’t seen the documentary, but Crooks and Liars linked to a downloadable video (“right-click” and choose “Save Link As…”) of a 7 min section of it that is a bit disturbing to me. I mean, these are things that I knew were going on, but to actually hear and see it is…well…”disturbing” is the only word…

The scary part is, and as this video highlights, what the kids are being taught, and how they’re being taught to think. One kid says he wants to get a Nobel Prize becoming a Biochemist and working for the Institute for Creation Science. Sure, a noble pursuit (hah! so “punny”…), but at the same time, the blindness that I see in the next generation is frightening. Another teenager referred to how “one-sided” public education is, and there is some definite truth to that…but at the same time, if the sides were reversed, would it be any different? Shouldn’t the separation of church and state be protected?

I guess I’ve tried telling myself that “things will change” once the current generation in power ages on, and once my generation and later ones take over…but things like this make me think it’ll be more of the same. And it’s not something I look forward to…

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Submitting Sheep vs Doubting Sheep

So, I listened to an On Point podcast from NPR, where Tom Ashbrook was interviewing Andrew Sullivan, author of “The Conservative Soul.” Sullivan, an Englishman, came over to the US years ago and supported Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan-era Conservativism, not the form that has been in politics more recently (i.e. small government, less control over the people vs big government, big spending, more control over liberties). The crazy thing is that he said that Bill Clinton was actually more of a conservative than the people in power now (i.e. balanced budget, smaller government). More specifically, something Sullivan said struck me as interesting:

“The capacity to doubt yourself, to question yourself, is a critical element of Western liberty. My view is that it’s also a critical part of faith. If you’ve never doubted something, you’ve never really believed it. You’ve just submitted to it. You haven’t allowed yourself to question something, and faith for me is a journey between doubt and faith. It’s a dialogue within yourself and with others as to what the truth is. It isn’t this acceptance of the truth and then the imposition of it on the world, and the claim that God justifies everything.”

Most key to that quotation is: “If you’ve never doubted something, you’ve never really believed it. You’ve just submitted to it.” I think this is a really important point that isn’t made very often, or that many people don’t connect with. You can’t simply believe something because you were told to. You can’t simply listen to Pat Robertson and James Dobson and believe that they’re infallible (even though they both think that they are). That goes for both sides of the political spectrum.

I guess I’m just thinking that, in today’s day and age, we tend to go along with things without questioning them. Without questioning ourselves. I think even some of us believe that we must be unquestioning of faith in God (or any other religious belief), in believing that His words are infallible.

But we forget that doubt and faith are completely intertwined. I think Sullivan made a very good, and interesting, point in putting it the way he did. We must always question our beliefs, whether in faith or politics. We must not abide with listening to campaign ads without looking at the evidence ourselves. We must not think that just because my church endorses a political ideology or policy, it’s correct. We must have doubt before we can believe.

There’s a very big difference between being a simple follower, and being an active believer.

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Ahem…

As stolen from Tom Yonker’s Facebook profile:

“However dominant in terms of numbers, Christianity is only a thread in the American tapestry – it is not the whole tapestry. The God who is spoken of and called on and prayed to in the public sphere is an essential character in the American drama, but He is not specifically God the Father or the God of Abraham. The right’s contention that we are a ‘Christian nation’ that has fallen from pure origins and can achieve redemption by some kind of return to Christian values is based on wishful thinking, not convincing historical argument.”

–Jon Meacham, NEWSWEEK Managing Editor, author of “American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation”

Indeed…

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Happenings…

So, sorry the site’s been down (to all 2 of you who read it regularly… :-P). Yahoo! Domains has been rather obnoxious in keeping the IP address updated of my server…oh well…

Regardless, things have been good recently. A quick run-down:

1). Last Monday was my last day of rotating through Dr. Macarthur’s lab. Seeing as I had a good time whilst there, I’ve decided to stay there on a permanent basis for the remainder of my Ph.D. Therefore, I’ve added a new page to the site dedicated to the shenanigans that will be my research and related experiences. I plan on keeping it updated with what I’m up to on that front, for those who care…otherwise, for now, I’ve got a basic description of what I was up to during the rotation posted; after I figure out what exactly I’m doing for my project, I’ll get that up there…

2). We went up to Louisiana, MO this past weekend after finding out that Brooke’s grandma was moving. She’s moving from the house that Brooke’s Mom (and Aunts…) grew up in into a trailer in a nice park (not a “white trash” park…a nice park…). Overall, it’ll be a lot easier to maintain and to get around in, so it’s probably a good idea. Ma’s gonna have back surgery this coming Thursday in Columbia, so B and I are going there on Friday to see how she’s doing.

3). I’ve got an exam this coming Friday…thankfully, I’ve got my afternoons off, so I’ve got plenty of time to study. This exam is over pharmacology and neuroscience, so it’s most definitely along the lines of nifty things I want to be learning. On the other hand…I’ve got a lot of memorization to get done before then…grrrrrrrrr…

4). Anything else? Not that I can think of… Oh, the band at church is making me sing now. Hopefully not often. …’cause I suck, certainly when compared to my younger sibling… 😛

Yeah, that’s good for now. w00t. Actually…one last thing:

5). Officially, Brooke, Sharon, Missy and I are coming up to Kirksville for Maundy Thursday…primarily so we can go to the Dukum, ’cause we miss it terribly and none of us have anything to do on Good Friday. They’re still doing the $5 deal, yes?

Alright…for real…nothing else going on…really… 😛

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So, I was driving on I-64…

…and I saw a billboard.? I’ve actually seen a similar billboard somewhere else (I-44, I think), but it was this one that caused me to go by their website.

“Question homosexuality,” says their slogans.? “Freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ,” says their website title. Their website continues to explain their position as such:

“…Christ offers a healing alternative to those with homosexual tendencies. EXODUS upholds redemption for the homosexual person as the process whereby sin’s power is broken, and the individual is freed to know and experience true identity as discovered in Christ and His Church. That process entails the freedom to grow into heterosexuality.”

So, overall, what have we learned here?? This group, Exodus, says there’s a “cure” for homosexuality.? They say that homosexuality “is a choice” and that homosexuals can be “reoriented.”

Well, geez, while we’re at it, do you think Exodus could “cure” the Communists?? How about the Jews, or Muslims, or Hindi, or any other religion that isn’t Christian?? Why not Cubans, Iraqis, Chinese, Bosnians or Mexicans?? I mean, these are all “choices” that take them “further from Jesus Christ” and that “reorientation” toward Christianity will solve all our world’s problems.

…pity there isn’t a “cure” for so-called “Christians” that persecute people they don’t understand, rather than simply trying to promote Christianity as the loving and understanding religion it’s supposed to be…