The End of the Line

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for riding the Key City Railroad. We are coming to our last stop, the end of the line. If you wish to continue on your journey, please go to harryconner.wordpress.com.

I am leaving blogger for wordpress, and changing my emphasis upon writing. No longer am I going to pontificate on what I feel is wrong in the world alone. This kind of writing is not necessarily constructive and does not really get us anywhere. I want to focus instead upon what God is doing in the world, and explore how we can join him in his work of re-creation.

Random thoughts had while working the computer lab in the College of Business Administration

All hail the disease of Capitalism,

which reduces the value of human beings to the quantity of their production
rather than than the quality of their soul.

which sells the poor to the lowest bidder
and oppresses the powerless to make the strong more powerful.

which sees the environment as an asset to be consumed
and gives no thought to future generation.

which abhors the virtuous life in favor of the vices of greed, lust, and avarice.

All hail our diseased economic system!

Turning the Other Cheek

Yesterday was not a good day for me. Yesterday, I found out that someone had used my cell phone to make over $200 worth of phone calls to Nigeria. I called my cell phone company to report the fraud and they were less than helpful in resolving this problem. Evidently they are able to take off half the charge, but not the entire charge. I am grateful for the half, but still very disenchanted with CINGULAR WIRELESS :-( over the entire process.

Even more so than my less than helpful wireless provider, I found myself with large amounts of resentment, anger, and even rage toward my defrauder. At that moment of blissful, righteous anger I remembered Jesus' words from the sermon on the mount. "If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." At that moment the only turning I wanted to do was turning my cheek as I threw a devastating right hook into my opponent's face. Righteous anger is a fairly enjoyable place to be, and it was very difficult to want to take Jesus seriously.

The Sermon on the Mount is a very difficult piece of teaching to put into practice. In many situations, it is counter to human instinct.

The Lamentable Lapse of Public Discourse

Today is election day. I am increasingly grateful for election day because it signals an end to the campaign season. This is because it means an end to campaign television advertisements. Television is the primary medium by which candidates address issues, their opponents, and the voters. As part of this, television has become the primary vehicle for slandering or belittling one's opponent in order to gain a few percentage points in the polls. This type of discourse marks those who use it as unintelligent, and lowers the collective IQ of all who hear it.

Politicians, and consequently the electorate, are driven by their own interests. They believe that it is in their (and therefore the nation's) best interest to be (re)elected and will therefore pursue this goal at all costs. Their sole interest is gaining, maintaining, or increasing the power one wields. Legitimate public discourse is contrary to self-interest driven politics because it locates the public interest outside the personal interest.

It is precisely Christianity's assertion that the other's interest is MY interest that gives me hope for Christian participation in the public arena. Christians are uniquely equipped to participate in political speech because if they are serious about their convictions they will not driven by self-interest, but by concern for others, especially those disenfrancised and marginalized by the current system.

Terrorists and Patriots

Remember, remember the fifth of November,

The gunpowder, treason and plot,

I see of no reason why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, 'twas his intent

To blow up the King and the Parliament.

Three score barrels of powder below,

Poor old England to overthrow:

By God's providence he was catch'd

With a dark lantern and burning match.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, make the bells ring.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

Hip hip hoorah!

Thus goes a song celebrating the foiling of the Gunpowder plot which had planned to blowup the Parliament building with King James I and most of Parliament in it. After detonating the British government, they also planned to install a new Catholic monarch in the place of the Protestant James I.

I guess how one views this event, and others like it, depends upon one's perspective. For Protestant England the conspirators were traitors to the crown, and were justly executed for their crimes. For those Catholics, oppressed by the Protestant crown, they were freedom fighters or patriots.

The world is not as black and white as we would like to to be. Our current "War on Terror" must surely seem like terrorism to those who suffer for our foreign policy. Very justly should we remember, remember the 5th of November for one man's terrorist is another man's patriot and who is to say which one is right.

Friday Open Thread

This afternoon, while slurping some tasty chicken and dumplings in the Graduate Commons, I was reading from a back issue of Newsweek. In one of them, I read an article about the recent shooting of 10 girls at an Amish school in south eastern Pennsylvania. I have read about this event and the reaction to it several times and each time I have been moved by the grace shown by the Amish community to the family of the man who did the shooting. They have set aside some of the funds coming to help with medical bills for the widow and 3 children he left behind when he took his own life that day. They have extended forgiveness to him, and opened their closed funeral ceremonies by inviting his widow to attend, and by attending the ceremony of the man who did the shooting. The Newsweek story recounts how their non-amish neighbors came to their aid to drive them to hospitals where their children had been taken, and by protecting them from the prying eyes of the media by blocking driveways and roads so that they could morn in peace. Each time I read about this event, I feel the urge to weep at the beauty of the Amish response. Their actions speak a better word for Christ than any other.

What would happen if we took our Christian convictions as seriously as the Amish in this time? What would happen if we as a nation chose to respond to violence with forgiveness?

A Change in the Wind

The prevailing winds in this part of Texas are from the south. This means that for most of the year we have hot relatively dry weather. This also means that for large parts of the year, women walk around with very little clothing on. Yesterday the wind changed. A front moved in from the north bringing with it cooler weather and a north wind. I rejoice when this happens because women begin wearing less revealing clothing.

I understand that I am making some broad generalizations about male and female behavior patterns.

I have to believe that women wear what they wear largely in ignorance of what occurs in guy's heads when they see women thusly attired. I have to believe this, because if they are not acting in ignorance, then they are acting maliciously, and I am reticent to believe that a large percent of the female population is simply cruel.

I want to take a moment to confess my complicity in creating an environment where women feel the need to wear what they wear. One of the reasons for this is because we men look. Culpability lies on both sides of the modesty issue. If men did not look, women would not be as pressured to to dress immodestly.

Granting the double guilt implied in this "chicken or the egg" scenario, I would like to argue for modesty. Modesty is attractive. A girl who dresses revealingly leaves little to the imagination. There is no mystery, there is no quest. In short, immodest apparel does not actually achieve it's desired end.

Okay, I'm done ranting. You may now feel free to lambast me for my ignorance.