happy boxing day

go visit family and loved ones, today is boxing day.

or, you could always skip church to make it to the post xmas sales.

we are in the northwest corner of louisiana, living out family drama.

yeah for family drama and the new year.

posted by Jeremy at 9:17 AM

when we bought a subaru

little did i know that we were buying a stereotype. well, i knew. but i didn't KNOW. ya know?

i mean, i knew that the "blinded by the left" professor had bought one, but i didn't assume that it was because of what the subaru symbolizes. i knew i'd seen a lot of pretentious and pompous bumper stickers (which i happen to agree with) on the backsides of subarus (the one about the PBSmind in a FOXnews world; the one about re-electing the Eron/Halliburton ticket; the Bomb Texas. They have oil! one; the Don't Re-Elect a Son of A Bush!, etc.). but, we are not bumper sticker people and if we were, ours would be simple (READ, or something like that). plus, we live in a liberal bubble, a blue blight in a red state. so these bumper stickers are on almost any kind of vehicle.

we needed a bigger car. not only do we travel with our dog, we travel frequently and will soon have a child in tow and even those of us who will try to resist the baby worship of modern american society cannot get around child-safetly laws. our 50 mpg, diesel bug is just too small. our moral opposition to suburban assault vehicles though would not let us venture into those behemoths (and our budget can't afford one of those SUV-hybrids...which goes a long way towards redeeming them...they are still road-hogs though). disliking the way minivans ride, we had no option but go for the wagon. we bought it because the price was right.

and with it came the confirmation of the stereotype. another blinded by the left colleague laughed when i told him we'd bought a subaru outback...he called us very vermonteese. my old college roommate, a very right-leaning, wealthy stock broker, fell out of his chair when i told him we'd bought a subaru. he didn't know i was politically left until very recently...we never talked politics in college. i was a freshman, he a senior. yet, he assumed because i am xian i lean right. since then, when we talk he refers to me as a tatoo wearing, volvo driving, latte drinking, new york times reading liberal. i had to correct him and say, "no, we drive an outback wagon." he thought this "too rich." the same thing happened when we told a few of our very right, very, very right, so right that despite bush's utter lack of fiscal conservatism still voted for him (i still don't get that one). they said, "ahh, yes, the car fits you."

yes, i am a granola eating, ganga smoking, new england lesbian. AND PROUD OF IT.

posted by Jeremy at 1:41 PM

xmas shopping pedantry

Yes, by now we all know about how men xmas shop, we are hunter-gatherers.

Here, I submit for your reading a little soap-box. This is a misnomer.

Let me caricature: Here in 21st century USA, we often use the term “hunter-gatherer” to speak about typically “male,” or better, “masculine, macho, football watching, 5 minute shopping” behaviors. It expresses the idea that “Men” (what is man? who are men?), are practical, objective oriented individuals, who know what they want (big, loud, powerful toys),b ut who don’t know what their partners want (typically petit, blond women who like pink, have fake boobs, and like to spend just as many hours shopping as they do primping, crimping and fussing over their looks).

Yes, Men are from Mars, Women from Venus.

Men are survivalists that can’t be bothered with the beautiful details of life, especially not tea-time (unless it’stee-time) with its delicate sandwiches, paper thin porcelain cups, and least of all with having to sit and wait for the water to boil and the tea to steep. When it comes to shopping, whether for food (and this is beer, chips and steaks) or for gifts intended for their S.O.’s (and this is usually either something that a really bathetic commercial has told them she will want, or one of those display cases filled with cheap chintz that they don’t have to think about) some primordial, Paleolithic instinct kicks in and it’s all about getting in and getting out after having purchased the first glittery object to bedazzle them. The appeal to instinct seems to be something that both explains and excuses this type of behavior: or so the plethora of psyco-popologists tell us. And, to be fair, in a way it seems to explain the American male (or at least it provides a convincing, and for some compelling, stereotype; but, we must not forget that this is avery situated male, it is a male from a certain socio-economic background, and from a certain age rangemetrosexuals are, of course, excluded from this category).

Yet hunting and gathering is radically different than this gendered vision of blokes and beauties. We forget that the term hunter/gatherer refers to both the male and femalethe men hunt large game, the women gather fruits, nuts and vegetables and hunt/trap small game. We forget that in these societies thinking pragmatically and objectively about survival is carried out by both men and women; that both need an intimate knowledge of the world around them to carryout their duties; that a number of these societies were (are), if not, matriarchal then non-heirarchical. We forget that there is an unsuspecting, sublime beauty to hunting and gathering…unsuspecting because it is often only with the wrecking and trampling of ancient ways where the beauty of this form of life and knowledge is seen and understood (Bruce Chatwin’s"Songlines," is a breathtaking portrayal of this lossand the attempt to recover it or fight against itsdisappearance), sublime because life and death depend on the appropriate putting into practice of traditional knowledge. There is, in fact, an awesomeness; this beauty produces a fear and trembling because it is knowledge made practice.

posted by Jeremy at 2:53 PM

40.

40. Most any time I would rather sit and daydream than to do anything else.
False. There are many other things I would rather do.

Do we want to buy a domain name for this place? For $9, we can buy a domain name at godaddy.com, and we can find a free host to host us. (I know b/c I just set up a couple of sites for people with real .com domain names and free hosting. I am undecided. I see the charm of the port5 subdomain. I see the charm of our own little .com domain.

posted by Chris at 10:11 AM

37., 38., & 39.

37. I have never been in trouble because of my sex behaviour.
False. I have been in trouble for sex behaviour, in many of the senses of the term.

38. During one period when I was a youngster I engaged in petty thievery.
True. In junior high school, I used to steal pointless things, like a single letter from a word on a school bulletin board.

39. At times I feel like smashing things.
True. At times I have smashed things.

posted by Chris at 11:05 AM

Sermon on a decongestant

As per my tradition of posting sermons, I offer to you my latest. I will probably follow my other tradition in a few days and remove it from these pages out of sheepishness. For introduction's sake, for the month of December we have been presenting themes to offer to the congregation as forks in a mission statement. I like to call it the 4e's: Embrace, Equip, Evangelize, and Exalt. I wasn't actually supposed to speak on any single one of these. I was supposed to present the rationale at the end for a mission statement as a whole. But the guy who was supposed to do "Evangelize the Lost" backed out, and I stepped in. I would have picked any of the others ahead of this one. I don't cotton to evangelism as it's traditionally framed, so I spoke what follows. It's not illustrated enough, and there are great leaps in logic that should be made smaller. Nevertheless for your pleasure?:

To evangelize the lost is to bring the lost to Christ. And that duty begs two questions: First, what does it mean to evangelize? And second, who are the lost?

The traditional answers to those two questions are simply put. Traditionally to evangelize means to bring those who are not churchgoers to church. Some define it more specifically and claim that it also means to bring those who may be churchgoers elsewhere to church here. Both of these traditional definitions of evangelism also imply what it means to be lost. Most will agree that those who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior are lost. Many will disagree whether those who accept Jesus via Baptist doctrine or Methodist doctrine versus those who accept him in the Church of Christ are lost or whether they are just different. Such debates, however, are often beside the point. Consider our two parables from this morning [Luke 15:1-10]: a sheep wanders from her fold; a coin escapes from its purse. In each parable the thing that is lost is lost because it has become separated both from things it is like. Let us, then, define what it means to evangelize by rediscovering what it means to be lost. To evangelize is to offer to those who are alone a place where they fit in.

Do you remember Grimms’ story of Hansel and Gretel? Once upon a time, a family was very hungry, and the step-mother had an idea that she would save them all by abandoning the children to the woods. Her idea broke the father's heart; however, he did not resist his wife, and so they led the children away. The first time it happened, the boy Hansel dropped pebbles on the ground to make a path which would lead he and his sister home. Again the step-mother took the children into the woods. But this time Hansel had no stones to throw. Hansel instead threw bread crumbs, but birds ate the crumbs, and the children had no way to return home. They were alone in dark woods. You can imagine the shadows creeping over them as dusk fell. The trees loomed taller. An owl hooted mysteriously in the shadows, and creatures rustled the leaves. Two hungry children huddled together while darkness fell.

It is no surprise that one of the most enduring symbols of what it means to be lost is the experience of children. For you children, the world is very small. You know your parents; you know your brothers, your sisters. Some of you know aunts and uncles and grandparents, although such extended families are less common these days. Moreover, most of the people who are part of your child's world love that child very much. On the other hand, we world-weary adults know both friends, enemies, and the indifferent. Our world is large, and it is therefore difficult to escape its edges. But when your world is small, it is also easily taken away. Hansel and Gretel are lost because they are impossibly separated from the one person, their father, who loves them. Not only are the separated from him by distance, but also they are separated from him by the greed and jealousy of their step-mother. And Hansel and Gretel are profoundly lost because they are dearly loved by only one person.

To be lost means to be separated from those we are like—from our family—and it means that we are separated from those who love us. To be lost is to be alienated. To be lost is to be exposed. To be lost is to be at the mercy of those who would harm us. To be lost is to be helpless. Why did the woman rejoice when she found her own coin? Two weeks ago, I found a twenty-dollar bill underneath a vending machine at school. I was excited! I ran upstairs and I sent kl an email to tell her. That night, at the courtesy of someone else’s lost money, we ate Pagliai's pizza. But imagine how much more excited would have been the person who lost the twenty. Would she have spent it at Pagliai’s simply because it was found again? Rather, I suspect she would have held it close to her heart—for a while, anyway—because it was so nearly lost forever to people who care about it less than she. When we are lost, we are liable to be picked up and spent by anyone.

Paul defined the nature of being lost as being focused upon flesh rather than spirit. His list of fleshy activities is long: in Galatians 5:19-21 he lists, "fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissentions, factions, envy, drunkenness, [and] carousing" as fleshy activites. But notice that he adds that there are other activities as well such that his point seems to be less about these specific sins and more about what these specific sins do to those who commit them. Each in its own way causes strife and creates separation not only from each other, but also from God. Each in its own way sends us deeper into the woods with only a path of crumbs to show us home. Contrast that list with the list of Spiritly activities in the next sentence. "Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control": Each is a way to bring us together, to reintroduce me to you as a man who cares for you. Each is a way to show each other, to show the lost that we are alike and that we are all loved by one who cherishes us.

To evangelize the lost, in other words, is to recognize the lost not as the generic masses who fritter away their Sunday mornings when they should be sitting in the pews. Rather, to evangelize the lost is to recognize the lost as kin. It is to see them as sheep crying woefully for their shepherd. Finally, it is to remember in what direction the other sheep live, and it is to guide the lost there to the loving arms of the shepherd. We acknowledge the lost are those who are helpless, who are separated from their families, unaware that they have friends in the world. To evangelize the lost is to show the lost home.

I have only touched briefly both on what it means to be lost and what it can mean to evangelize. There is much more to investigate. What of the ones who do not know they are lost? Consider that there is a television commercial playing now which shows a hip middle-aged African-American woman wandering among a classroom of artists. "Today you are going to draw a self-portrait," she explains. She offers suggestions that are supposed to be inspiring. "Show me what’s inside you!" she says. Finally, she walks to the canvas of a young woman who is busy painting expressively. The teacher exclaims, "Now that's what I'm talking about!" The woman's self-portrait, we discover, is her Jeep. Finally, she stuffs her portrait in her Jeep and drives away.

It's a strange moment if you think about it: the woman is most happy when she clambers inside what is inside her. And isn't it strange that it's a Jeep? Jeeps are the cars that we always see on mountaintops, plowing through streams, and driving through the dark forests. It would seem that in the end, it's not really the Jeep that is inside of her. The Jeep is just a story she tells herself out of convenience. The woman paints her Jeep because she herself is lost, and she can no longer tell the difference between the step-mother that took her to the woods and the father who waits impatiently for her return home. The worst part of being lost is when we can no longer tell the difference between those who love us and those, like the witch that Hansel and Gretel meet, who wish to eat us whole.

posted by Greg at 8:48 PM

36.

36. I seldom worry about my health.
False. I think I have arthritis, which runs in my family. I don't stay up nights worrying about it, but it does kind of eat at me sometimes.

Have a good weekend!

posted by Chris at 9:59 AM

35.

35. If people had not had it in for me, I would have been much more successful.
False. If I had not had it in for me, I would have been much more successful.

posted by Chris at 10:26 AM

34.

34. I have a cough most of the time.
False. Nor do I have syphillis.

posted by Chris at 10:05 AM

Hermits Rock! - Love...Ameri-Belgian Style

33. I have had very peculiar and strange experiences.
True. But who hasn't? Which raises the question: If everyone has peculiar and strange experiences, are peculiar experiences really that peculiar? Maybe they are peculiar in an individual sense but not in an absolute sense?

posted by Chris at 9:22 AM

30., 31., 32.

30. At times I feel like swearing.
At times I swear successfully. Like yesterday. When my hard drive failed. And I realized that I lost the final exams I wrote all weekend to give today and tomorrow. And all of Rose's birthday pictures.

31. I have nightmares every few nights.
False. Very, very rarely do I remember having nightmares.

32. I find it hard to keep my mind on a task or job.
True. But only if it is the task I am supposed to be doing at the time. I have no problem keeping my mind on the tasks that I would rather be doing.

posted by Chris at 10:26 AM

Plugging my class

this past thursday i get an email from my chair telling me that i need to go and visit a profs class and plug my MA class. the enrollment was low and it looks bad on me and the department if it gets cancelled. needless to say, i was a little put out. but, maybe i should give some history.

this past semester was baptism by fire. and, if that's the case, and this grad course flies, next semester will baptism by nuclear meltdown. aside from the much anticipated arrival of our first born child (19th of february), i will teach my first, fully designed by me, undergrad lit course and my first MA course. but, i digress...back to this semester. i have already been the second reader on one MA thesis; sat on the admittance committee for incoming MAs; read 4 written MA exams; sat through 6 MA oral exams, i chaired the last two of those. but all of this is fine; it's to be expected.

i didn't expect, though, students setting up appointments with me 2 weeks before the exams for me to tell them what i expected of them, as students; how to best prepare for them, the exams; what kinds of questions i was going to ask; etc. what i expected even less were students taking the exams, in Colonial Latin American literature, no less, and never once, not even once, coming by to speak with me and ask me how to best prepare for the exam in said area. it seemed especially strange given the fact that they haven't had a colonialist since the garfield administration, and he offered his course back during reconstruction. but, given that there are only 7 authors on the colonial reading list, as of the moment, things are about to change, and a total of maybe 200 pages, if we don't count one of the authors, it makes perfect sense to an MA student. what? i can read only 200 pages and not even have to worry about taking the exam with a specialist? sign me freakin' up!!

still, since there was a new, baby-faced sheriff in town, i expected the students to drop by, just to see if i can shoot straight. (some did, some didn't) oh, well. i thought. people, once they know that a colonial course will be offered, they will want to take it because they, the student's, 've been clamoring for one since Roger Williams fled the Mass Bay Colony. i had told about 8 different students what the course would be, thinking maybe they will tell their peers...but, i didn't worry too much because i thought that they would be responsible and find me out and ask me (especially since only 2 grad lit classes are being offered next semester, mine and someone else's) ...but no.

so, i found myself going to speak to them. i told them it would be on the rhetoric of mestizaje (crossbreeding, race mixingmiscegenation, though the corresonding"technical" word for this in english, is really too harsh; the cultural baggage of the two words is rather different), xenophobia, and misogyny in the literature of the first two hundered years of the spanish colonies. the actual title is mestizaje, xenofobia y misoginia: The Rhetoric of Strangeness and Uniqueness in Colonial Latin American literature.

the response: one student said that he had heard the class wouldn't make...i told him, it won't if you don't sign up. another student, a 40 plus lady, raised her hand, she actually raised her hand, and had the gall to ask me, in front of the other students and the other professor, if there was to be a lot of reading in my class because she had a lot to do for her other classes.

now, i realize that a terminal MA is not a Phid; but, there are questions that you simply don't ask. even moreso, there are attitudes, that, as a student, you might share with and amongst other students, but that you don't express in front of the professor. even moreso, moreso to the point, why even go through the charade of getting a post-baccalaurate degree if you aren't going to actually work for it? (i say this realizing that she may have a family...but part of graduate school is learning how to balance, or at least how to prioritize things and coming to class, sometimes without being fully prepared).

posted by Jeremy at 9:17 PM

Muskrat love

I am not especially intellectually stimulating. (Which, let me add, I was thinking when I posted this. I am writing my class's final exam this weekend, and I am working on the assumption that it will be laughably easy.)

posted by Greg at 11:53 AM

29.

29. I am bothered by acid stomach several times a week.
False. I never take acid more than once a week.

posted by Chris at 8:42 AM

28.

28. When someone does me wrong I feel I should pay him back if I can, just for the principle of the thing.
False. I feel I should pay him/her back because he/she is a punk. Not really. I am often too meek.

posted by Chris at 11:04 AM

nothing like occasional poetry

here is the last poem written for the poetry group. we were to write poems about each other. you should know that all professions are professions she has either had or has.


Lisa Axelberg...
legal secretary...
fact checker at a magazine...
produce-market checkout girl,
these are the jobs from which poetry is made.

It doesn't really matter which came first,
reporter, farmhand, copy editor or French teacher
bon jour, bon jour ça va?
they all, in the end, require patience, perseverance
and trust that this, what ever it is, matters.

This,
whatever it is,
matters so much that the demonstrative article
will be excised and reinserted no fewer than twenty times
before the piece is shown to anyone.

This,
what ever it is,
will, in one iteration,
remain vague and abstract,
simply this,
and in another,
it will precede labor, task, toil,
even quotidian chore,
because she likes the sound of the fricatives piling
one on top of the other,
after all, she is a sesquipedalian,
and relishes the pleasure of polysyllabic words
that fill one's mouth like a rich chocolate mousse.

Copy editing is no different
than planting and weeding:
this comma, that period,
even the ever more lonely semicolon
placed with care,
with understanding
at the appropriate place
on the black furrow
before the line turns
down and back
on itself, another verse.

Words sown together
so that the fruit, perfected,
will show itself
and not the labor
of the farmhand girl.


_________________________

for good measure one more poem

La Maison

There are a thousand reasons to visit Paris,
a thousand and one to leave:
not the least of which are
the nights spent in smelly hostels,
with their lumpy, pest ridden beds,
the cheap house wine
and lonely walks along the Seine;
not the least of which are
days spent remembering the Crescent City,
reliving Tennessee Williams' line about being
lost in this city...passed around
like a dirty postcard among people.

posted by Jeremy at 9:55 AM

27.

27. Evil spirits possess me at times.
False. Other stuff possesses me, though.

posted by Chris at 9:03 AM

26.

26. I feel that it is certainly best to keep my mouth shut when I’m in trouble.
True. Why do I not do it, though?

In a related note, this Friday I am teaching about the psychology of police interrogation. One thing that I have learned from my research into this topic is that no one should EVER submit to police questioning without a lawyer if they are even close to being a suspect for the crime. You are NOTgoing to clear your name that way, and the police have almost all the power in the interrogation situation. For example, did you know that the police are within the law to present you with fabricated evidence while you are being questioned? While you are being questioned, they are within the law to say, "We found your DNA in the victim's bedroom" or "We found the knife in the trunk of your car" even if they did not. Obviously, this can be very disorienting and confusing, even if you know (or used to know) that you did not commit the crime.

posted by Chris at 8:38 AM

Selling my life?

X-Mas Time is here! And what do you know, but I've added a few commodities to the HOLIDAY SHOPPING XTRAVAGANZA that is the month of December. Let's hope sombody buys...

• One Hat,
• Two Scarves,
• One Dish.

posted by Greg at 11:17 AM

23., 24., & 25.

23. I am troubled by attacks of nausea and vomiting.
False. Most of my troubles are existential and not digestive.

24. No one seems to understand me.
False. I talk to hundreds of people a week and am fairly transparent. The problem is more likely to be that I am too easy to understand.

25.I would like to be a singer.
True. The truest of all. I would love to be a singer or musician or composer of music. Unfortunately, I play guitar crappily and sing worse. On the bright side, this does leave room for improvement. Moreover, I might have an even stronger desire to be a visual artist than a musician, so I am not completely devastated.

posted by Chris at 11:06 AM

22.

22. At times I have fits of laughing and crying that I cannot control.
False. I laugh a lotbut not in uncontrollable fits. I rarely cryprobably I should cry more.

Uncontrollable fits of anything doesn't sound good. On the other hand, we probably all exaggerate the extent to which our behavior is volitional (in the sense of moment-to-moment control). But that is another topic for another day.

Have good weekends. Maintain your illusions of control.

posted by Chris at 8:18 AM

21.

21. At times I have very much wanted to leave home.
True. But I've never gotten too far...unless you count Massachusetts and Belgium. I don't think I'm in any danger of leaving home these days, though.

posted by Chris at 8:35 AM

a letter i will soon send out

I am about to send this letter to our pastor. I would appreciate any comments per structure, solecisms, etc.

[open requisite praise, that is heart felt, but more so that the letter will be heard, before transitioning to]

However, recent sermons have disquieted me and I feel that I must write this letter and share my concern with you. In the past three years, your sermons have often included anti-Islamic comments. I can only hope that they are meant to edify my faith. Yet, I am disconcerted that they consistently mischaracterize Islam. As Christians we claim to be adherents to the Truth, and a people who proclaim nothing but the Truth. Because we witness to the Truth, with a capital T, when we misrepresent truths, with lower case ts, we undermine our message. Given the boldness of our claim, what we say in our pulpits should be factual (at least). Of equal concern to me, I find your anti-Islamic statements, instead of strengthening the claims of Christ and Christianity’s uniqueness, weaken them; they are anti-apologetic. Last of all, but not at all least, to the degree that we mischaracterize and fail to try to understand accurately the religion of other peopleour neighborswe do not love them. In the end, these three reasons have led me to write you this letter.

First I would like to address what appears to be a mischaracterization of Islam. Recently you have taken to describing Islam as a "pagan" religion, in fact, as little more than thinly veiled moon-worship. I had never heard this theory and so I went and did some independent research on the matter. This assertion is quite in vogue among Christians. As I can gather from my research, it is largely based on Robert Morey’s “The Invasion of Islam.” I don’t know if you are using him specifically, but your statements seem to echo his claims. Unfortunately, from what I can gather, he misquotes his sources; he makes claims that the anthropological and archeological data do not seem to support; and, he ignores the teachings of the Qu’ran itself. Regardless of what we may believe about the Qu’ran, it is Islam’s holy text and, if we want to take a stand against Islam, we must take their scripture seriously and treat it with the reverence we would want from those who would critique our faith. Thus, we cannot ignore that the Qu’ran itself states:
"Among His Signs are the Night and the Day and the Sun
and Moon. Prostrate (adore) not to the Sun and the
Moon but prostrate to God, Who created them, if it is
Him ye wish to serve." (Qu’ran, 41: 37).
Clearly, in this scripture, the reader is admonished to worship a creator, not the creation.

In a recent sermon, you have, in fact, stated that Allah is nothing more than the Arabian moon god, adducing the crescent moon and the fact that Islam’s religious calendar is set to the lunar cycle as proof (most notably the festival of Ramadan), but you have not provided any linguistic proof. “Al,” “Allah,” “Il,” “Iloah,” “El,” “Eloh” are all variations of the Semitic LH, the generic word that is used to refer to the deity. Linguistically, “Allah” and “Eloh” (“Elohim,” being the plural form) are the same word. In fact, etymologically, most scholars of the language believe they share the same origin; at some moment of the remote past they both became disengaged from the local deity to which they referred and became the word that was used to designate the deity, much like “ho theos” in Greek, and “deus” in Latin.

Secondly I would like to address the way that accusing Islam of paganism opens us up to the same criticism. If we follow the logic used by Morey that links the preponderance of moon worship around a deity named “Il,” “Iloah,” “Allah” (despite the problematic nature of his etymology) and thus claim that Islam is little more than moon worship, Judaism likewise suffers the same fate. In fact, “Sin,” as opposed to “Allah,” was the moon god of the Arabian peninsula. Mount Sinai (“Sinai” a form of “Sin”) was a place, a high place no less, associated with the worship of the lunar god “Sin.” What is more, the Hebrew religious calendar, like the calendar of Islam, is itself lunar. Cultural factors, such as names and religious calendars, cannot be used to accuse Islam of paganism without condemning Judaism of the same sin.

This accusation seems even more problematic given the pagan remnants in Christianity itself, pagan remnants, in fact, that our church fully embraces and has not disavowed. We carve Halloween pumpkins on the lawn; we deck our halls at Christmas with icons of pagan sun worship; at Easter we talk of lilies, hunt Easter Eggs and celebrate renewal. The dates of these holidays (Easter being the least problematic in terms of dates) and the corresponding iconology are all overtly and patently pagan, much like the accusation made by Christians about Ramadan and the crescent moon.

The point is, to accuse Islam of possessing a pagan past or being little more than pagan moon worship does little more than open Christianity up to the same attack. In fact, there is much more sound and easily accessible research demonstrating that Christianity is equally syncretistic and pagan in nature.

Finally, this accusation seems to me to show a lack of love and respect for our neighbors. If we truly care about them, if we truly want them to see the truth of Christianity we must treat their religion with the respect and care that we would want from others. We should know what the Qu’ran says and respect this before making claims about it. Otherwise, they will, as I have seen many do, accuse us of lying. There is a whole strain of Islam apologetics that notes how the modus operandi of Christianity when it comes to evangelization is one based on dissembling, mischaracterization and lies.

As a means of summary, let me reiterate. One, this attack mischaracterizes Islam; to the extent that it distorts the teachings of Islam and its history as a religion, it undermines our ability to be witnesses to the Truth of the Gospel. And, it provides Christians faulty information. Two, it opens Christianity up to same criticism of containing pagan remnants in its own practice. This seems to be to very dangerous in that it offers non-Christians an opening that they are all too willing to pick at and it provides weak Christians with the possibility of seeing Christianity as a disingenuous, pagan religion. (I do not, however, think that we should avoid this topic. In fact, we should address these pagan remnants in our practice all the more. They should make us study Christianity’s relationship to the cultures around it and emphasize that we should be about transforming the world instead of conforming to it.). Three, it shows our lack of understanding and love for our neighbor.

To conclude, I became a Christian largely because I was born into a Christian family. I have remained a Christian, in the face of many challenges, because I believe the message of Christ and his cross. I believe that Christ and his cross are a sign of the power and wisdom of God to save us from ourselves and show us a better way. I see this “better way” in all that is good about Christianity: when we are patient, self-sacrificing, and thoughtful about the needs of others; in short, when we are everything the “world” is not. As Christians we should call each other to acts of love and faithfulness. Instead of attacking Islam, we should turn our eyes toward Jesus, toward “Christ crucified.” “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamations were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on the power of God.” (2:2-5).

[insert conclusion with requisite praise, once again so that the letter will be heard]

posted by Jeremy at 11:28 AM

20.

20. My sex life is satifactory.
Truebut probably only relative to people who are physically unable to have sex. My wife and I are both biologically capable, but with the baby around, the frequency is perhaps lower than we might like. However, to paraphrase Annie, there is always tomorrow. (Annie + sex in same non-pornographic post + not referring to "It's a Hard Knock Life" = 15 bonus points)

posted by Chris at 9:42 AM