Me, Myself, and I

Making An Entry

2006-03-11T22:05:42Z

"Moshe has the same kind of faith that Avraham had: he believes the Voice and is willing to put his trust in it. Throughout all the ups and downs of the many years to follow -- as the Israelites escape and wander, seemingly without end -- Moshe remains full of hope, hope in the Promise, hope for the future -- that it will be something truly new, something full of surprise. Under the surface events of this tribal story, new ideas are developing: time is becoming real; a real future is possible. And because of this, the choices I make individually are important: they make a real difference to a real future. And because all outcomes have not been predetermined in advance, the present is full of adventure and the freedom to make choices that will profoundly affect the outcome."
-Thomas Cahill

So I'm basically making this post under duress, after another AIM request to post. I don't understand why people keep asking me to post as though I somehow had a duty to. I don't try to pressure everyone to do the on-line stuff that I do like Nationstates or Digichat. I'm really just not that in to LJ and I wish people would accept that. If people feel they're really that out of touch, they could always call or visit and spend time having real human interaction with me. I doubt these entries let people know me much better anyway. Anyway, it's just been annoying me for awhile.

Paying Work

2006-01-30T22:36:05Z

"A printed, bound copy of the New Testament that readers can hold in their hands is a relatively modern development. Until the fourth century C.E., the New Testament did not even exist as a coherent entity -- a single volume containing the twenty-seven books in its now familiar table of contents. Before then, believers, and even church leaders, had access to individual Gospels or subcollections, such as compilations of Paul's letters, but not to a comprehensive edition of the entire text."
-Stephen L. Harris

I find it amazing (or just indicative of enormous ignorance of history) that so many fundamentalists types believe that God will punish people for not believing in the literal truth of documents that most people, even most professing Christians, didn't have access to for the great bulk of Christian history. It also amazed me how different the world is today because of the printing press and widespread literacy, which was itself a result of the printing press. It really gives meaning to freedom of speech, to democracy, to everything which is best in the modern world.

That's one of the reasons why I believe so strongly in what they do at Reading Connections, which I'm learning more and more about as I work there. In fact, right now the main task my boss is having me do is to look up information about literacy work so that I'll be made conversant in the field. I think that illiteracy really excludes people from our society and certainly from the political process and public discourse and it also deprives the rest of society of the thoughts of plenty of very smart people who never had the means to express their thoughts to more people than they could talk to or to access the full scope of political discourse. Not to sound too preachy, but the work being done there is for human dignity, democracy, etc. Of course, the work I'm doing there is just photocopying. But I'm really starting to respect a lot of the people I work for and with.

Anyway, as the title of this entry indicates, I also got paying work. It's just for a few hours a week, as a hired hand. It pays eight dollars and hour and it's very close to my house.

New Journal

2006-01-25T12:01:06Z

"I think it is only fair to readers of this book to say at the beginning what my own convictions are regarding certain points that are disputed within evangelical Christianity. I hold to a conservative view of biblical inerrancy, very much in agreement with the 'Chicago Statement' of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy (chapter 5 and appendix 1, pp. 1203-6), and a traditional Reformed position with regard to questions of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility (chapter 16), the extent of the atonement (chapter 27), and the question of predestination (chapter 32). Consistent with the Reformed view, I hold that those who are truly born again will never lose their salvation (chapter 40). With regard to male-female relationships, I argue for a view that is neither traditional nor feminist, but 'complementarian'' -- namely, that God created man and woman equal in value and personhood, and equal in bearing his image, but that both creation and redemption indicate some distinct roles for men and women in marriage (chapter 22) and in the church (chapter 47)/ On church government, I advocate a modified congregational form of government, with plural elders in governing positions (chapter 47). I argue for a baptistic view of baptism, namely, that those who give a believable profession of personal faith should be bnaptized (chapter 49). I hold that 'baptism in the Holy Spirit' is a phrase best applied to conversion, and subsequent experiences are better called 'being filled with the Holy Spirit' (chapter 39); moreover, that all the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the New Testament are still valid for today, but that 'apostle' is an office, not a gift, and that office does not continue today (chapter 52, 53). I believe that Christ's second coming could occur any day, that it will be premillennial -- that is, that it will mark the beginning of his thousand-year reign of perfect peace on the earth -- but that it will be post-tribulational -- that is, that many Christians will go through the great tribulation (chapters 54, 55)."
-Wayne Grudem

It annoys me how complementarians still think of themselves as occuppying some kind of middle ground. That might have been true fifty years ago but complementarianism is really the furthest to the right it's acceptable to go in mainstream Protestantism these days with regard to gender questions. Complementarians are the conservatives. I want to say complementarians are the sexists but I'm trying not to strawman. Anyway, as you can probably tell, the above quote prefaces a book I'm reading now. It's a little more liberal than I'd hoped for but I'm still rather excited. It's my first real foray into formal, systematic theology.

Anyway, this is my new live-journal. I hope you'll enjoy reading. I'll try to update this one more regularly than I have past live-journals. I did promise Sarah I'd update at least once every two weeks so I guess I have to do that. I plan to update more often than that though.

Today is the first day of my internship over at Reading Connections. I'm very excited, very nervous, and far sleepier than I'd like to be starting something new. It's not a grown-up job that comes with independence and it does mean several more months of depressing dependence at home. However, it is a big step forward. I'm hoping the opportunities at Reading Connections will help me get work. In the meantime, I'm doing good and helping adult literacy in this country.