Testing, testing.

After missing it two weeks in a row, I remembered to watch BSG last night. I know that there have been complaints that the show was lacking in it’s previous luster, but I think last night had the right formula – a mix of character drama and action; man vs. self and man vs. nature (in the case of last night, at least.)
So last night was Admiral Adama’s turn for self-reflection and growth; with the memory of his ex-wife, his son, and his possible new love interest. All very well done and convincing. Interspersed with this is an action story of sorts, Kalli and the Chief getting stuck in the airlock and having to go out the back way. So a good balance of character development, and harrowing adventure to keep the show from becoming a soap opera. I think that as long as they don’t stray too far to either side for too many consecutive episodes they’ll be good.

I think when they finally wrap up Lost, I’ll be hitting myself on the head, and saying, “Oh! Why didn’t I think of that?” After last night’s episode, I’m totally out of ideas as to how this whole thing will come together in the end. If they take some “Who shot J.R.?” plot twist ending and say this was all in someone’s head all along, though, I may just have to find out where J.J. Abrams lives so I can egg his house.

Anywho, I’m not sure if all the six degrees of separation and such are important to the end plot or just something for the audience to “geek out” to, but this website manages to show all kinds of screen caps of interesting Easter eggs you might have missed on first glance.

It’s weird how random elements often come together around the same time and coalesce in us as revelation. While some might see this as coincidence, I see this as providence. The latest gift I’ve received of providence has to do with Joseph Campbell, Pierre Abélard, C.S. Lewis’ four names of love, Garret LoPorto’s revelation that much of modern Christianity focuses on logos while all but abandoning eros, Jesus’ command to “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and the old truism that we hate in others that which we hate most in ourselves.

It starts with the marginally related elements. I’ve been thinking of Pierre Abélard recently, as I have a situation similar to one for which he is most famous, but that’s not something I’m going to go into. Anyway, to soothe myself I’ve been listening to an interview of Joseph Campbell, where he speaks of love in western mythology, specifically Christianity’s doctrine of agape, which is of course one of the four loves identified by C.S. Lewis. I was reading up on Lewis’ The Four Loves because I’m organizing my music according to them. Let me paraphrase Lewis’ definitions so everyone is on the same page:

• philia – brotherly or friendly love; generally love for another person devoid of sexual interest
• eros – sexual love, or as Campbell describes it, “the zeal of the organs for each other.”
• amore – what we traditionally think of love, or romantic love. The love reserved for spouses/partners.
• agape – love of God, but also love for others that is both unconditional and voluntary. It is the love of which Jesus spoke when he commanded “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

So having both the definitions of love from Lewis and the assertion that agape is the ultimate tenet of Christianity rolling around in my head, one or both of them must have bumped into my memory of LoPorto’s assertion that many modern Christians focus on the logos or logic, dogma, rules, of the faith almost to the exclusion of its eros (which in this context refers to love, compassion, forgiveness, and understanding). Put another way, many Christians are acting in an Old Testament fashion to the exclusion of New Testament action. It’s the type of behavior that turns so many off to religion; that has so many people sneer and scoff at the sound of the word “Christian.”

The question is, “why?” Why do so many feel that judgment and condemnation are Christian virtues? The answer I think is in the old truism: we hate in ourselves that which we hate most in others. Now that I’m divorced, the distinction of ‘person who most easily gets under my skin’ is my dad. Why? Because we’re so alike. I see his sheepishness, his lack of self-confidence, and his social awkwardness and I get angry with him. I get angry because those are all things that I wrestle with in myself. Those are things that I hate in myself.

So why are so many Christians so quick to condemn others when the second-highest commandment in Christianity is to “love your neighbor as yourself?” Why do so many Christians disobey that penultimate command?

Maybe they don’t. If you look at the command, it states that Christians should love their neighbors as much as, as well as, they love themselves. But if you don’t love yourself, then that pretty much dictates that you’ll be a big jerk to everyone else, too. And from what I’ve experienced, much of modern Christianity may give lip service to self-love (agape in Lewis’ definitions, not eros), but in fact promotes self-loathing. We are such bad people that Jesus had to sacrifice himself as a scapegoat for our sins.

But I agree with Abélard’s understanding of the crucifixion that it is not a ransom paid or a penalty applied, but an act of at-one-ment (atonement) with all humanity. The crucifixion illustrates the suffering inherent all our lives, and removes our minds from commitment to things in this world in compassion for Christ. It is in this capacity that the wounded becomes the savior. Humankind yearning for God and God yearning for humankind on the Cross in compassion met.

Which is what we need, compassion. We need unconditional and voluntary love – agape – first for ourselves, and then for others. We must truly and without self-deceit love ourselves first, and then we can do so for our neighbors. When we can pluck the beam from our own eyes and can forgive ourselves for having imperfections in the first place, we will not mention the mote in another’s because of our common unity (community) in imperfection and common passion (compassion) for life, suffering and all.

Too bad I didn’t find this link yesterday–it would have fit in well with the unofficial theme of the day.

Every Jedi vs. Sith Lord lightsaber battle from the entire Star Wars series in chronological order.

Yes, I really do excel at procrastination. If only they gave out medals…

Pimp’s last post got me thinking about why some ideas get taken to extremes. He also got me wondering about the Girls Gone Wild stuff, and what prompts that kind of behavior.

Now, not being omniscient, any and all theories I have are subject to a bias of my experiences, and a lack there-of. That being said, my best guess is that somebody will always figure more is better. If moderation of alcohol is good, then abstinence must be better. Or, if moderation of alcohol is good, then total immersion must be better. If my parents were too harsh, then I should be far too lenient. What kids need today is a good ass-whipping. The solution imagined is often more of the same. As I’ve heard people say, “if violence doesn’t solve the situation, then you aren’t hitting hard enough.” It’s rare to hear someone suggest balance.

And why is balance so often neglected as a solution? Because it requires more of us. We have to make constant judgment calls, rather than make a single decision and apply it to every situation. Balance requires us to analyze every situation individually. And what if we’re not good at doing that? Well, rather than admit it and try to learn how, we often simply yell louder, hit harder, drink more, or become stricter.

Now, as for the Girls Gone Wild stuff, I actually don’t know. I do know that I’ve known plenty of girls who would do things at 20 that they wouldn’t do at 25 or older. I don’t know if it’s an age + culture thing, and I never will – I’m a dude. I do know that every woman that I’ve known personally who had ‘relations’ with another woman at one point has also been promiscuous with men. And, they have had abusive or neglectful childhoods, usually heavily the fault of the father. I guess what I’m stumbling towards here is that often the joy and wild abandon you see on the late night commercials might come more from an attempt to salve a sorrow than anything else.

Or maybe I’m way off. I don’t know.

As most of you know, my church upbringing as a child was in the Southern Baptist denomination. Overall, I think this was a relatively good foundation from which to build my personal views of ethics and values, but in some ways the stereotypical Baptist conventions can also be viewed as too restrictive and judgmental. Perhaps the most controversial of these tenets is that absolute abstinence of alcohol is required in the eyes of God.

I understand the principle behind this the context of alcohol reducing one’s inhibitions to the point of acting upon ones baser desires instead of focusing on the path of the Lord. And watching any edition of Girls Gone Wild or hanging out at a typical frat party in college would certainly support this view. Proponents of a complete abstinence from alcohol typically cite numerous passages from the Bible warning about its dangers. They’ll say that the “wine” used in biblical times was merely a way to sanitize water, and probably didn’t even have near the amount of actual alcohol today’s versions of wine have. From my recollections, though, the passages from the Bible that “forbid” alcohol, merely warn against drunkeness, or drinking to extremes. I’m not sure it explicitly addresses moderate drinking.

I would argue that drinking amongst friends in moderation can be a good thing, as some of the inhibitions we have aren’t necessarily there for good reasons. A little alcohol sometimes helps to “loosen things up” a bit, at least to the point that one can feel comfortable enough to share some deep inner thoughts without the brain being fearful that whatever comes out will be overscrutinized and judged in a negative way. This is not necessarily related to the direct biological effects alcohol has on the brain, but perhaps may simply be a result of sharing in a social activity that promotes hanging out and having a conversation. Central to a church is a sense of community, and being able to discuss issues honestly and openly with each other in a lucid manner is perhaps what’s lacking in some of the more strict Christian communities these days. In other words, sharing a beer or a bottle of wine amongst friends can actually be a good thing.

I wonder if the Southern Baptist Convention sometimes loses sight of these things. The fear of alcohol at times is so engrained into their being that they’ll shun anything even remotely related to alcohol, as was done with water donations from Anheuser-Busch during hurricane relief efforts. It seems that it’s human to delve into territories that are potentially dangerous, but may say a lot about man’s self-control and connection with God when he can enjoy these things in a responsible manner in a way that treats such pleasures as gifts to be thankful for rather than sinful delights to be shunned out of existence.

With that, I wasn’t sure what to think about this article recently in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Picnics and coffeehouses used to be the typical gathering places outside of the church, but it seems one church here in town is making the brewpub the new location for ministry:

Theology at the Bottleworks is run by a wildly successful congregation of young St. Louisans called The Journey. The Schlafly program is part of the church’s outreach ministry. And it works.

Every month dozens show up at the brewpub to drink beer and talk about issues ranging from racism in St. Louis to modern art controversies to the debate about embryonic stem cell research. First-timers are invited to check out the church on Sunday, and Journey leaders say many have. Theology at the Bottleworks is just one of The Journey’s ministries, but it has helped the church grow from 30 members in late 2002 to 1,300 today.

The Missouri Baptist Convention donated $200,000 to this church to help them buy and renovate an old Catholic church to be their new home, so you can guess there’s a bit of friction in regards to their “beer ministry.”

It’s an interesting idea, and one that would at least make me a bit more curious about this church. Tolerance is never a bad thing (and Schlafly beer isn’t too shabby either).

I came across this story on The Seattle Times website today about the possible deployment of Navy-trained sea lions and dolphins to Pugent Sound to bolster security of the naval station up there. I was aware that a U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program existed, but always thought this was more of a research-only group. Apparently, though, these animals have been deployed all over the world and do a pretty effective job of locating sea mines, divers, and other suspicious objects.

Now if only I could borrow one of them to help find all that loose change I dropped in the pool last summer.

Often times it is easy to get discouraged, and to let your dreams just fade into the background. Once that has happened for me I just sort of wade through life until something inspirational stirs my soul and awakens the dreams again. So to keep this from happening, I am making a list of the things that I find that wake my soul up and get it excited so that I can resort to them when I get discouraged. A few from my list would include the movie Braveheart (as well as the soundtrack), staring at campfire, and reading Hebrews 11. The list goes on, but I would like to know what inspires you? What stirs your soul awake?