Social Thought

There is a blog out there called “Mirror of Justice” that I have taken to reading a lot lately. It is in short, a blog about the development of Catholic legal theory. Professionally, I have been immersed in Catholic legal and social thought for the past several months and I have to say that it has been much, much more enjoyable and edifying than I would have thought. In fact, the other day I heard and interesting quote from a protestant about why it was possible to have robust theological debate in the Catholic Church that doesn’t happen in Protestant (or Evangelical) churches. “When we disagree we start a new church,” he said simply while explaining that there is a long history in the Catholic Church of people on many sides of a particular issues remaining loyal to the key tenets of the church.

I’m not sure any of that would matter much to me, but I have found myself increasingly drawn to those key tenets. I am currently reading the Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching and I find that the keys to the faith as recorded in that book are compatible with what is being taught as essential in 90% of the evangelical churches out there. In the end, what it boils down to are the inerrancy of the Bible, the literal person and atoning sacrifice of Jesus, and the inherent dignity of each person that God has ascribed to each person. It is fascinating stuff, particularly how many of the things I thought were true about Catholicism as a whole were in error.

These past few months I have seen faith in a much newer light, and I’m starting to understand more and more that as “Evangelical Christian” becomes some kind of demographic to be owned, it loses its power. I am particularly challenged by the fact that we are warned as Evangelicals to be wary of any church that says, “Christ plus anything else is to be avoided.” We are saying that from pulpits with denominational statements of faith that are sometimes 10 or more articles long and in membership classes we teach that all must agree with these things to become members of the church. I wonder what Luther would think about the church his revolution has wrought.

Does all this disturb me? Strangely no. It is a liberating feeling to understand more about social justice and to know that those tendencies which I have in my own theology are in fact not foreign to the gospel.

Both ways

Early post this week. I will be spending the next two days on a school retreat which probably also shapes todays post which is somewhat theoretical and academic in nature. In preparation for the retreat I have been reading severeal legal journal papers and the Compendium of Catholic Social Thought (which I highly recommend).

Early this week I read the NY Times review of Al Gore's new book. The reviewer indicates that in the book he argues that in America we no longer use reason appropriately. Without having read it, I hate to take my argument too far, because on the basis of it I agree with him. As an orthodox Christian (my new term) I would say that the modern era is defined by style or substance. However, Al Gore definetely has a problem with that position unless he is willing to take a hard look at the Clinton presidency and how it furthered the careless use of rhetoric to get where it wanted to go. Bill Clinton was not a great leader, but he was a great communicator and they are not the same thing. It appears to me that Al Gore is accusing the Bush administration of many of the same things that went on during the Clinton administration.

I have posted about this before, but there are a lot of things in society that we can't seem to have both ways, and we have gotten so afraid of definitions that the language is becoming more and more vilified. You are either right or left, and to go further and try to explain some incongruity within that it is very difficult. I think this is the problem faced by Republican candidates like Rudy and McCain but is also faced by a number of Democrats who are either pro-life or pro-death penalty or pro-war. Our rhetoric is very fast and very careless. As a society we paint with broad brushes.

In the end we have far too much information and far too little knowledge.

Good Burger

I had written a post before I went to lunch that was probably more than a bit negative. I have two lessons I learned from the experience. First and foremost, you should never put anything on the internet before you have given it some thought. Secondly, there aren't many things that good cheeseburger can't solve. Sorry to any vegetarians in my audience of one, but I just don't think a Boca Burger would have helped clear my head - though my wife is trying to convince me it would.

The picture is of the new building where I work. Of course the flowers don't look that good yet, but I'm sure they will soon. You see - a good cheeseburger can change your whole way of looking at things.

Graduations and such

Tonight could be interesting, or it could be incredibly boring. That pretty much sums up everyday at 1:55 p.m. but tonight has some more interesting possibilities. Their will be ten girls at the house for an 11 year old birthday party. I’m incredibly outnumbered as I think the only other boy is headed for a sleep over at a friend’s house. So, I will either have to manage the chaos or be completely ignored – I would suspect the later.

Tomorrow it will be time to get up and experience commencement at my new place of employment. The room is set and it looks pretty spectacular. Tomorrow, my thoughts will be at a graduation a few thousand miles away as my brother gets his doctoral degree in Spokane. At any rate, by the time that mothers day rolls around I would suspect that all the mothers in my life would be smart to have low expectations. That point of view has served them well thus far. That’s probably not fair by a long shot. I’m having an unusually busy week and I suppose this is more par for the course for mothers.

Parent Trap

Being a parent there are a lot of things to complain about. Most of them come down the to the fact that you don’t really captain your own ship anymore. Even early in a marriage a guy can trick himself into thinking he sets the agenda, but kids change that pretty quickly.

Having said that, I can’t complain a bit because the highs are so high. Today I rode the train down to the MOA (Mall of America) to watch a jr. high band performance, and afterward my son said it would be fun if I stayed and had lunch. It was fun. There are few places on Earth I would avoid more than the MOA, but on a quiet day with a son and a few buddies it was great.

Families and friends for all kinds of reasons complicate our lives. They drive our agendas and they drive us nuts, but in the end few of us can imagine life without them. In the bigger and smaller things that have come along lately I can see that.

I know that as I have struggled for freedom over the years, it hasn’t really brought much satisfaction. It is in the collective of a great family, great co-workers, great teammates where the most satisfying things have come from. Right now I’m part of some great groups, I have great family, a good place to work, and a great church. What I notice everyday though as I come and go to work is that their isn’t a lot out there. It makes me feel both blessed and motivates me to try and get involved in more things that build the community that is lacking in so many lives.

Politics as usual

It is easy to get disillusioned with politics. Having been around and through more than one legislative session even in my thirties I realize that much of what is going in is just more of the same. Due to term limits and the passing of time the faces change and to some extent the tactics get more and less nasty, but the brawl is the same.

What gets lost is the simple fact that we deserve better. This was pointed out to me this week in several weeks at the national and local level. Maybe it hit me most when I was reading the Billings Gazette this morning and noticed a particular news items about politics that came with a warning label about bad language.

Some would say that it is easy to look at it from the outside and criticize, but I’ve been there in one role or another and like I said, it doesn’t change much. On top of that is the fact that perspective makes a lot of things more clear. A person can appreciate summer more in the depth of winter.

Somehow we have allowed ourselves to reward the worse behavior in politics. That’s not to say that politicians themselves are bad people. They are not. It is just that we have fed good people into a system that rewards them for their worst behavior. Great legislators that seek compromise are seen as soft. Those that don’t follow a strict party line are abandoned politically and socially, and maybe worst of all those that sometimes speak from a deep conviction are accused of a variety of intellectual crimes.

As a final note, this is not at all about party. Republicans and Democrats are coequal in the blame and there is plenty to go around. A third party – improbable at best. It is going to take a reformer internally who can stand alone. Someone with dare I say the communication skills of Bill Clinton with the conviction and willingness to buck convention of George Bush Jr. Crazy – probably.

Wrangling

Sometimes, often times, as Christians I think in the modern era we are focused on the wrong stuff. Professionally and personally I came into contact with two court cases that have added to that mental wrangling.

This week I had the opportunity to talk with someone legally connected to the partial birth abortion decision handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court. It basically upheld the ban on partial birth abortion. I won’t debate the facts of the case. However, I will point out that I read the opinion on the U.S. Supreme Court website and I will say that it is graphic and does make one rethink the theoretical nature of the debate. I will also say that it was seen as a victory for conservatives and in this case, conservative was closely tied to Christian conservatives.

In my expatriate state of Minnesota there has been a legal uproar over the possible installation of foot washing stations for Muslim students at the Minneapolis Technical and Community College. Again, without debating the merits the debate has largely centered on the term, “accommodation” and what is good for one religious group has to be provided for another. This time it is conservatives who seem to be blocking progress on this one and not making many friends in the Muslim community along the way.

Christians need to enter these debates thoughtfully. Clearly, Christ is on the side of life and since there is no other way than through Christ the foot washing stations are not Christian. However, what Christians need to be thoughtful about is how they use the courts and how they rely on the state as an entity.

I read this morning in Acts and I thought about how it was the persecution of the state that propelled the gospel into new areas, and I thought about how even Christ directed to give unto Caesar. Christians should be involved in the courts, politics, and other arenas. That is a great way for Christian to provide influence and leadership. However, Christ has to be bigger in our lives than our professions, no matter how noble those professions are. We must also be careful that we act in a way that promotes the justice that Christ himself promoted for all people in love so that they may see Christ in us and turn toward him. To what extent we as Christians let ourselves become a demographic, we do a disservice to the name of Jesus Christ and what he came to earth to do, which is to save individuals – not nations.

Deepish thoughts

I remember in high school sitting around and watching Saturday Night Live and one of my favorite sketches was “Deep Thoughts, with Jack Handy”. Played to a background of new age music and fields of flowers, the soft spoken announcer would read pseudo inspirational messages like, “Nothing tears a family apart – like a pack of wild dogs.” It was funny stuff.

As I have gotten older every once in a while I have deep thoughts, but anytime I acknowledge them as a deep thought I realize how polluted my mind is because I immediately think of Jack Handy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. (There are many sources of pollution.) So this week seemed to be dominated by a number of deep intellectual thoughts that came from many directions.

This blog really isn’t about any of them, only a recognition that I don’t tend to do a lot of that kind of thinking anymore, and I think I’d feel better about life if I did. I tended to be more philosophical in my late teens and twenties. Is that loss of mental, philosophical rambling a sign or age, or would I in fact be a better thinker about many things if I exercised my brain more.

Bus Ride Fun

I like the riding the bus. It’s almost a treat. I get to spend 25 minutes of uninterrupted time where I can read, close my eyes, do whatever. Besides, my bus route runs right along the lake for half of it, what’s not to like.

I like the energy of working in a downtown area to. It’s fun to be able to walk just about anywhere I need to go and get anything that I need (or want). All in all, the move downtown has been pretty positive.

The only thing that I notice is that there aren’t a lot of happy people walking around. You don’t see many smiles on either the bus or walking around downtown. Everybody seems to be headed somewhere, but they are not happy about it. Occasionally you see people walking together and they seem to be enjoying themselves, but that is the exception.

My Twin Cities travel tip of the week is that if you ever need seafood in the center of the country and have a spare $100, Oceanaire is wonderful. It was a great meal and great way to celebrate the new job.

One week down - 259 to go

I spent my first week riding the bus, working downtown, and trying to figure out exactly how a large, private University works. It has been great. I like the bus, I like the work, and Spring is the in the air.

The fun moment of the week was having lunch with Garrison Keilor. Alright, so we didn’t actually have lunch but he did walk into the small deli where I was having lunch with a colleague on Wednesday. By the way, lunch was great.

I say I have 259 to go because my goal is to be in this job for at least five years, and the feeling after week one is that it is possible. Everyone here is very focused on the mission. They seem to all be working together toward excellence and it is both challenging and invigorating. I’m trying to figure out why they hired me. There are a lot of smart people here and they seem to genuinely like each other.

I’m having a blast.

Seasons End

I just played my last “noon-ball” game, and its funny how my life and basketball have coincided over the past several months. In the last few weeks my son, my daughter, and my coaching and playing lives have all ended a season.

I realize more today than ever what I enjoy about playing. Its not the games, it’s the teammates. It was a pretty normal lunch time basketball game, but I’m glad for some of the guys that were there. Some of them started playing about the same time I did, and we have shared a lot of things outside the court. Other guys have been playing here forever, and will be playing for a lot of years to come. Then there was that group that I thought about. The only thing that would have been better is if I would have gotten to pick a final team with Chip and Kelly who left awhile ago.

I hope somehow at the basketball banquet next Sunday and in my kids careers I can do a better job of communicating that it really is more about who you play with and how you play the game. While I might have sometimes envied teams with more talent, in retrospect there is not a team I played on our coached that I would have traded for another – and I’m pretty lucky to be able to say that.

As I look at starting a new position next week, it's with high hopes that I will be able to say that with a new team off the court. I know I would say that about the team I was priveledged to work with here.

Lessons from 5th Graders

I always leave youth basketball tournaments feeling a little worse about the state of sports in America. This last weekend was my daughter’s fifth grade basketball tournament, and if it weren’t for the shear joy of seeing your daughter score a basket I don’t think I would have been able to say it was a positive experience.

One particular incident that stands out is on Sunday afternoon when a referee had to reprimand a parent, two players, and both coaches all within the span of about thirty seconds. Was the official great – probably not, but there was almost no way to call the out of control eighth grade girls game he was trying to keep control over. Whatever he was making that day was not enough.

During the fifth grade games the officials got a share of irritated fans. Coaches seemed to be the worst offenders. If they had spent as much time coaching as “working” the officials the girls would have gotten an education. For the record, I was proud of the way our girls coach conducted herself and coached our girls, but overall the adults seemed to make the experience a lot less enjoyable for the girls. Between officials on the court, screaming coaches and parents, and tournament officials looking for many ways to maximize a buck it was hard to see the love of the game. It was there if you looked, but you had to look awfully hard.

My form of protest is that I vowed then and there to put up a hoop on the driveway this summer. I’ll encourage my kids to do camp and keep playing, but I’ve decided that maybe the playground is the best place to learn. I’m grateful to the coaches I had, especially for the life lessons. As an assistant high school coach for the past two years I can see how that still happens. High school teams seem to be a little more controlled and a little more balanced with a focus on winning the right way. However it seems to me that the traveling team basketball culture has lost sense of why we play the game. The chance that any girl at this week’s tournament will make the WNBA is astronomically small. The chance that they will need the lessons in perseverance, sportsmanship, health and wellness, and confidence that basketball can teach is astronomically large.

So, for the weekend I’m glad we went 0-3 and tried to do it the right way. With a few more practices every week and teaching the girls how to play a 2-3 zone that relies on just not letting anyone come near the lane would likely have garnered us at least one win, but a few days removed I think the future is brighter for our 0-3 girls than whoever ended up winning the championship. Early success is no guarantee of future results, but early effort is.

New Resolution

My new resolution is to post every Friday, which is a good goal because with starting a new job in 8 days, I should have something to say. I've also decided to try and figure out what this blog is about and actually try to attract and retain some readers and spark some discussion.

Today's post is simply that God is good. I heard from an old friend today who helped me see that and one of the things that pointed out the most that God is good is that she found that out along the way to. I couldn't be happier than to be starting my new job on March 20. Yes, I'll still be an expatriated Montanan, but I think I have landed at a good place. Just one more indicator - they have Caribou Coffee brought in every day. I had my choice of a big office or one near the coffee. I took the one near the coffee.

Real live snowstorm

Well, we made it to March 1 but we have a snowstorm in Minnesota. We had about 6-8" in the last week and today they are predicting about 16". It seems like we will actually reach that total based on what it looks like out my window.

New Job

On March 20 I will start a new job at the School of Law at the University of St. Thomas. It's a great opportunity to work in marketing at a school I don't think I could probably get into. We don't have to move which is a huge plus and the job is really great. I will start my Ed.d sometime in the next year and continue to work in marketing higher education.

On the brighter side I will be working downtonw Mpls within 2 blocks of 2 Starbucks, a Caribou, and Chipotle. You can tell where my priorities are.

Random Abstract

I’m relatively sure I had something important to say today but for the life of me I can’t figure out what it is. A few days ago in the car I connected the dots between several random abstract items in my life and thought, “hey that would make a great blog,” but I seem to have forgotten it.

All in all, a really big few weeks though. Major financial purchases, major possible career moves, and a whole lot more.

The big Montana vs. Minnesota of the moment seems to be the battle in my head of thinking of living in a state where a former Saturday Night Live cast member is a member of congress. I can’t seem to get the voice of the SNL announcer out of my head every time I read his name.

Al Franken is a funny guy who is no doubt smart. It was his wit that made him funny. However, the more I watch politicians the more I’m willing to back men and women who seem to be great collaborators, and he is a polarizing figure.

The basketball season is over on Tuesday. This has been a really, really enjoyable year with the 9th grade girls. They have played hard most of the time, and rarely make me want to jump in front of a bus. Plus, I’ve learned a lot the current state of affairs in the American high school, and having this experience this year makes me less worried knowing that my son will become a high school student next year.

Three generations of poets

I remember finding out at some point in my young life that my Dad had written poetry. In a box my Mom was going through she found a poem and I remember thinking two things. One was, “That is pretty weird.” Two was, “That’s not half bad.” Not that I was probably qualified to judge because I was less than ten, but I remember it was a poem about Wilt Chamberlain.

This fall, my son cruised to a student council election victory on the strength of his election speech which he put in the form of a poem. Yesterday, he read part two as part of announcement to encourage his school to read more to reach a school wide goal. Apparently it was a big hit with the school with the exception of the eighth graders who my son said gave him a “pity clap”. I think he was joking.

The funny thing is that we have never talked about my poetry writing or his grandfathers, yet he has picked up the pen. It is more for fun than fame, and it seems that poetry in daily life has disappeared even more than when I was in school, but somehow he found his way to it. It brings about a lot of nature and nurture thoughts in me, but more than that I think it shows a generational connection. There is some thread within families that cannot be explained but is evident in the strangest ways from the way we talk to the things we like. My son is a lot different from me, and I am a lot different than my Dad. But as I get older, I appreciate more and more those times that God reveals a way that I am the same, connected in ways that I don’t understand.

I wonder to if this is not partly how God sees us. We are his children, and every once in awhile we do something where he looks at us and is pleased because we have displayed some trait of his.

Native non native

Having moved around a lot I think a lot about what it means to be "from" some place. When we are in Montana, I still feel like it is "home" and that somehow it is a part of me and I am a part of it. What is ironic is that I often find myself in Bozeman or driving past million dollar homes and I think, "These people don't really get Montana." Then I'm faced with the question, but what if the place has changed and I just didn't change with it.

In Seattle it seemed like we were natives right away. Nobody was from Seattle so we all helped each other create a culture. In North Dakota, we could have lived their ten more years and people would still have introduced us as newcomers. In Minnesota, we are somewhere in the middle.

What brought these thoughts to mind this morning was an article in the NY Times on the artistic revival in Butte, Montana. It sounds like the Butte I know, but it also definetely sounds like it is changing. I remember in college being in some of the houses that the article talks about when they were pseudo dorms for Tech students where 8 people could live together for $75 a month. No that was not in the 60's - it was in the 90's.

Good reads

Two good articles I have read in recent days that are to a large degree unrelated, and to pull them together in my head would be time consuming and a disservice to both writers.

Typically, I stay away from any book that starts with “the Gospel according to. . .” unless those name following is Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. However, Christianity Today had a really interesting excerpt from the Gospel According to the Beatles. It shows in the end that everyone, no matter how creative or successful is searching for something, and I think helps Bob Dylan’s point that you have to serve something.

The other article was by Frank Deford in Sports Illustrated. I really like his writing and I think he sums up the state of college athletics pretty well in this short article. I only wish I would have had a chance to listen to him deliver it on his regular Wednesday NPR spot.

"Yo Rock"

I hate to see people dogging my favorite film of all time.

Rocky is a great film. Despite what CNN had to say, calling it disgraceful that it won the Best Picture Oscar in 1977 versus Taxi Driver, All the President’s Men, etc. I’m here to say that Rocky as Best Picture was not a disgrace, but rather a deserving win.

Sure it’s an old story, but what about some of the great characters and the fact that in the end (spoiler alert) he doesn’t actually win. Film critics would have us think that we are somehow mentally deficient if the think a film we actually enjoy is also good. That seems to be part of art that gets missed. Good art can be unpleasant and challenging, but good art of any type can also make us smile and restore our hope.

A friend of mine has me challenged to start thinking of entertainment and art as separate things. The definition that I am working with is that art is dialogical in nature. It comes from the “I thou” perspective and is trying to communicate something that goes both ways. Entertainment on the other hand is monological, and does not really care about the audience as people but only as consumers. It seeks something from the audience, but not at an emotional level. Anyway, if I ever get into a Ph.D. program in Communications I think this is going to be my dissertation.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Razzies had it right. Material Girls is terrible at best. I was glad the girls borrowed and did not pay for the film. Which by the way they immensely enjoyed.

Transcendence

As Ali turns 65 there are some great photos of his fights on si.com. Looking through them this morning I noticed the dates. The range from the 60's through the early 80's and in each one he looks like an entirely stunning athlete and champion. Back in the days, the heavyweight champion of the world meant something not only to boxing fans, but to the culture at large. In my lifetime Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan have had that affect on their sports. People care about the events that they are in, and it's far more than the fans of the sport. These figures transcend the particularly athletic skill they have and somehow become icons.
I'll take the argument that Jordan wouldn't be Jordan without Magic and Bird to pave the way right before. I'll even take the argument that Tiger Woods has not yet proven to be a better athlete than Jack Nicklaus, but somehow with three figures that doesn't seem to matter. It's not necessarily logically and you can't stack it up with stats sometimes, but at some level most people feel that it is true.

Tuition and stuff

I have been wondering for awhile about out of control tuition and the eventual effect is going to have on my career path and society in general. I realize for instance that I can't afford to send my kids to the college that I work at.

Today the news out of Montana is that the Republicans are proposing a reduction in tuition. Great idea in a headline, but this is one of those things that makes a great headline and bad policy. Over the years the lack of a coherent tuition policy in the state has led it to where it is. There have been a lot of conversations and very few solutions. This most current move is a short term fix with long term consequences, because when the surplus dries up they will not have fixed any of the essential problems that lead to higher tuition.

Which brings me to an interesting Newsweek article by Alan Sloan I read the other day about how we are headed for a crash because Baby Boomers are going to break social security. Full of great stuff, but again here is a problem we are not going to face until it is too late.

It's a hard lesson in life and hard lesson in global politics, short term solutions rarely have lasting meaning. Then again, lately it seems like even lasting meaning doesn't have much lasting meaning.

Hate the buzz

Last night a political figure (name protected so we can focus on the subject of buzz not party affiliation) one of the phrases used in reference to Iraq was “the centrifugal forces of chaos.” Now, I may have an incomplete education but that makes absolutely no sense. A force that brings things into a center would seem to be the opposite of chaos. Did the speaker or the speech writer really think that was going to help the American people understand what was happening in Iraq?

I recently saw a news segment on whether jargon was bad for business, and the answer was a resounding yes. I would say we are actually a step beyond that. We are bombarded with communication, but so much of it is bad communication. From advertising to political rhetoric often if feels like people are just taking several long words and stringing them together. I’m not sure if there is a centrifugal force at work, but modern communication surely reflects chaos.

Along those lines, the word out of Montana today is that Conrad Burns is going to work for a lobbying group. No big surprise, but I think the reason he was able to last so long is that people may not have liked what he said, but you knew with him you were never going to get jargon. He may have been plain, but he was also plain spoken which people appreciated.

Word on the street is that it is winter again in Montana. I'm still hoping for a snow day.

New Year

It has been a weird, wild, few weeks and I'm still not sure where exactly I am at.

It has been a long strange couple of weeks. My grandfather passed away shortly before Christmas, and going from funeral to Christmas to New Years has led to a kind of emotional jet lag.

The highlights of the season included getting to see possibly my oldest friend and his wife and their young daughter. It was a nice surprise to have a chance to reconnect with them, even if it was at a funeral. Food was a highlight. It’s hard to beat the meals that are prepared around the holidays, and the snacks alone are enough to make me happy.

All in all a season – a season where I’m just not sure how I feel yet.