NT Wright - The War on Terror

NT Wright is the Bishop of Durham in the Church of England and a leading British New Testament scholar. His words and books continue to astound me in their brilliance and insight.

Recently, he gave a lecture in England to a bunch of young evangelical students about the "War on Terror." His scathing indictment of the way that elected officials have responded isn't the only brilliant thing about it: his diagnosis for healing is spot on.

You can read the lecture here

Purple Spandex Super Heroes

Editor's Note: The following essay was emailed to me by a Christian comedian named Charles Marshall. This essay struck me as funny. You can check him out here

My vote for the lamest super hero of all time would have to go to the Phantom.

The Phantom lived in the jungle and didn’t have any super powers at all. Instead he had a purple Spandex costume and a gun, which might explain why he had to ply his trade in the jungle. A few natives might’ve been impressed with a purple man and his bang-stick but it certainly wasn’t going to cut it with the League of Justice.

I think his best chance of having a super power lay in the fact that he wore Spandex in a tropical climate. Odor like that could’ve felled an attacking tribe at about fifty paces. You would think that at some point he would’ve picked up a few clothing tips from Tarzan.

Nevertheless, it was probably the influence of those two guys that inspired me to become a super hero myself. Thus, one summer morning when I was about 9 years old I put on a mask, a cape, and my swimsuit and ran into the woods behind my house to begin my life as Jungle Boy.

I wish I were just kidding.

There I engaged in super hero-type activities such as climbing trees (very painful in a swimsuit) and running through the woods (also painful because of the abundance of briar patches). I also engaged in other super hero activities such as spying on the neighbors in search of crime and practicing throwing sticks, which I thought might come in handy in case I encountered any bad
guys.

Rumors soon abounded in my neighborhood about a skinny, albino monkey that had apparently escaped from the local zoo and was now terrorizing the local woods. While vigilante teams were organized, debate raged from yard to yard about whether the monkey should be shot on sight or whether an effort should be made to capture the poor beast.

So, after skulking around in the woods for a couple of days, I decided that my neighborhood was crime-free and it was time to hang up my cape, lest I find myself dead or locked up at the zoo.

I then turned my attention to the creation of my own comic book. The hero of my story was the intrepid Tornado Man, whose archenemy was the Gas Wizard. In addition to the more obvious problem of my villain’s name — whose super powers were not what you might suspect — was the problem that he was just way cooler than Tornado Man.

Tornado Man looked something like an inverted traffic cone and only had one super power. He could spin around really, really fast. That’s it. Nothing else. Just spinning around really, really fast. But in defense of Tornado Man and his creator, you need to understand that we’re talking about really, really fast spinning here.

The Gas Wizard, on the other hand, was wispy and stylish. He could fly and possessed a vast arsenal of poisonous gases that he used for sundry evil purposes.

In my debut (and final) comic book edition, the Gas Wizard used his paralyzing gas to, well, paralyze Tornado Man, but Tornado Man was able to free himself by spinning around really, really fast.

In a dramatic final battle sequence, Tornado Man dissolved the Gas Wizard by, you guessed it, spinning around really, really fast.

You can see why Tornado Man never made it to a second issue. There just didn’t seem to be that much to him. He may just as well have been running around in the woods wearing a swimsuit and cape.

The problem with real-life heroes is that they aren’t easily identified. They are never the flashy types you would see on the silver screen or in a comic book.

Take Jesus, for example. He was nothing like anyone expected. The Bible says, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” Isa. 53:2B (NIV)

His life was anything but glamorous. He came in the form of a baby in a manger and died as an accused criminal on a cross.

I find it encouraging that in God’s eyes the measure of a hero isn’t looks, ability, or strength, but simply the willingness to follow him in obedience, wherever that path might lead.

Unfortunately, I can’t spend any more time exploring this subject because I’ve got to do a load of laundry. I’ve had my Spandex costume on for about a week now and it’s starting to crackle when I walk.

In the meantime, look for me in the woods behind your neighborhood. Jungle Boy lives!

New Study: College Kids Drink, Smoke Weed

In the news today, a new study reveals that college kids are drinking more and doing more drugs. First off, I'm pretty surprised that someone actually studied this. I mean, isn't that like scientists publishing a report: New Study: Rhinos gigantic, heavy.

With all that freedom at college, most people don't know what to do with it, so they do what they want and what they see other people doing. It's the new hedonism, everybody. Jump on in.

But, the report by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, argues substance abuse isn't an inevitable rite of passage for young adults. Rather, it argues a particular culture of excessive consumption has flourished on college campuses, and calls on educators to take bolder stands against students and alumni to combat it.

I agree with the study, but my point is that I'm not sure there's much that professors and universities are going to be able to do about this problem. Kids are going to be kids, unless other kids step up to the plate and start trying to influence their friends to be different sorts of kids. You remember: who had more of an influence on you in college. Professors and University officials? Or your friends. Exactly. This is why campus ministries like Campus Crusade are crucial.

You can read the entire article here

19 Ways to Maintain a Healthy Level of Insanity

Editor's Note: Thanks to Ryan Roberts for forwarding me this list. Normally, I try to avoid forwarded emails in the same way that I try to avoid movies with the words "Deuce" or "Bigalow" in the title, but this one was funny.

19 Ways to Maintain a Healthy Level of Insanity

1. At Lunch Time, Sit in Your Parked Car with Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer at Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.

2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice.

3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with that.

4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It "In-Box."

5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.

6. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write "For Smuggling Diamonds"

7. Finish All Your sentences with "In Accordance With The Prophecy."

8. Don't use any punctuation

9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.

10. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.

11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go."

12. Sing Along At The Opera.

13. Go to A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme

14. Put Mosquito Netting around Your Work Area and Play tropical Sounds All Day.

15. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You're not in the Mood.

16. Have Your Co-workers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, Rock Bottom.

17. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream "I Won!, I Won!"

18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot, Yelling "Run For Your Lives, They're Loose!!"

19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner. "Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go."

Funny Posts for Your Friday

Okay, maybe it's just my mood today, but I found these videos really, really funny.

The first is a parody of the song Do I Make You Proud by American Idol's Taylor Hicks done by Weird Al, animation done by Jib Jab. You can watch it here

The second is a song that is totally confusing and yet hilarious. You might need Windows Media Player to view it. Bonus points for anyone who maps this out geneologically. You can download that one here

The third is a debate between Steve Carrel and Stephen Colbert from the Daily Show about religion. These two guys are just plain funny. You can watch the debate here.

Donald Miller's Blog

Donald Miller looking pensive

So as you may know, one of my favorite authors out there is Donald Miller, author of "Blue Like Jazz" which was really good and "Searching for God Knows What" which I thought was even better.

So, he has a blog in which he responds (sort of) to a book I am reading called The God Delusion by famed athiest and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. Dawkins is a really powerful mind, and I first heard about his new book from an article in Wired magazine called The New Athiests .

But I first met Dawkins (yes, I said met) accidentally about 9 years ago at DePauw University. He came to speak about a new book he was writing called Unweaving the Rainbow which further advanced his theory that

1. The idea of God is really dumb
2. Humans are entirely motivated by the desire to reproduce (sex) and that the sheer force of that desire drives all human behavior and civilization.
3. Religion is even dumber than the idea of God

By the way, if you've ever been on a college campus, the idea that humans are entirely driven by the desire to reproduce does seem to hold up. But even in the midst of that, I remember thinking during his presentation that when he posited his claim that the basic, foundational truth about humans is that we want to preserve our our life and that this is the most fundamental evolutionary trait - I remember thinking, "Yeah, that can't be right."

I could see how that might explain a mother's natural defensiveness. But how would it explain a fireman going into a burning building to rescue people, thereby sacrificing his life? Dawkins might say, "He is sacrificing his life for his community, which he believes will provide the best way for his seed to continue to have protection and resources." That seem unlikely. We know instinctively that's heroic, and even a higher form of action than inherent selfishness. We celebrate it. But it seems to go against every grain of our "evolutionary" genes. Maybe, I thought, that selfishness is our default mode, but there is something higher than that default mode which we all instinctively aspire to. And if that's true, then where did that come from?

The ideas of beauty and justice and truth are major questions that athiests and evolutionary biology can't figure out. They cause at least as much doubt in science as suffering causes of God.

At any point, here is MIller's post and his link to an astoundingly persuasive review of Dawkins' book. warning: I seriously had to read the article with another browser window open linked to dictionary.com. About every other line I had to type in a word I didn't know. I haven't done that in about 3 years. Which probably tells you I'm not reading as academic material as I should. Fulminating? Never heard that word in my life. Going to use it often now.

Marilyne Robinson has written a response to Richard Dawkin’s book "The God Delusion" that is worthy of a read. I’ve had problems with the arrogance of some scientists, not because these few deny God, but that they create a new God of Science and their own minds. They would accuse those of us who believe in God of doing the same with our Theology (and sadly, many do consider their ability to navigate theological concepts as evidence THEY are supreme) but there is a difference.

In Theological matters, the study humbles itself to the greater mystery of God, while the ill-informed scientist like Dawkins elevates himself along with other accidental and improbable materials to the state of myth or God. Each, alike, sees the discipline through the lens of his own abilities, and trusts that those abilities are complete. They are not. This is why I appreciate the humble writings of John Calvin, who wrestles the arrogant theologian to the ground attempting to rid him or her of their arrogance, and have them acknowledge the otherness and mystery of God. Such an understanding is difficult, because it acknowledges there are realities greater than ourselves and our ability to understand. These are harsh words, but I believe they are accurate. Robinson speaks more pointedly, and perhaps with more grace. Here is that link:

http://solutions.synearth.net/2006/10/20

One Political Scientist's List of Giant Problems that Deserve our Attention...

When I was an undergraduate student at DePauw University, of the first professors I had was a professor by the name of Dr. Robert E. Calvert. His Introduction to Political Theory class was the most intellectually engaging course I have ever taken. It was in his class that I think I first experienced the joy of intellectual rigor. I would go on to take every single class that Calvert offered. He was a big reason I was a political science minor.

At any rate, Calvert recently gave a lecture at Indiana University, and though I'm not at liberty to post his entire speech, I did want to post his introduction.

The speech was given to a small college within the general population of IU. This school is filled with students who want to go out and make a positive social change in their world. Calvert was there to cheer them on, and in the process, listed what he saw as some of the biggest problems in modern American, after spending 40 years being a political science professor. His list is interesting, and ideally will prompt discussion.

1. that the American family is said to be the weakest, least cohesive, of any in the modern, industrialized world;

2. that in this most affluent society that ever existed, there is a large and growing gap between rich and poor, with what we once called “pockets of poverty” resembling what one finds in the third-world, while our middle class is said to be disappearing;

3. that America has the largest percentage of its population in prisons of any other modern nation in the world;

4. that Americans are more and more divided between those who are religious and those who are not, with consequences that ripple throughout the rest of American life, and especially our politics;

5. that American corporations struggling to make it in a global economy are abandoning what used to be their “social welfare” obligations to their employees and their families;

6. that when it comes to scandals and corruption, the American corporate world easily matches that of politics and government;

7. that the U. S., though ostensibly democratic, is governed in most matters more and more by judges and bureaucrats than by elected officials;

8. that in the name of business and presumably privileged levels of consumption, we have become the world’s largest debtor nation, and also addicted to oil;

9. that America in the world today has lost its good reputation and is distrusted or hated by peoples elsewhere, even by some of our former friends;

10. and finally – but I could go on – there is sharp disagreement among us over whether our future as a nation is somehow already foreordained by what is called globalization, or whether we still have important choices about the larger contours of our national life.

That's his list? What's yours? Do you agree? Disagree? Let me know.