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01:34 0504.28
The Lemonated Deed The title of this entry comes from a footnote in my SPAN 402 book. One of the poems by somebody from la Generación de 27 or roundabouts has a line that ends 'el limonado hecho' -- the lemonated deed. Yeah, something that was done in a manner similar to a verbal form of lemonade. I really need to read the poem to see what the heck is going on-- I've caught the note out of the corner of my eye in the last couple of classes, but never tried to see what the whole thing is about. Tomorrow is really busy. American national government test, spanish test, some sort of florence meeting, dorm dinner, int law meeting, (I think these last three overlap timewise) and something else I'm sure I'm forgetting. And then this weekend is nuts too. Knights retreat all weekend. I got out of one of my cross-conflicts (moved to next weekend where it can interfere with me packing up! YES) but I think I have at least one more I'm going to have to do something about, because, honestly, the retreat is one of the best times of the year and I'm not freaking missing it. All of a sudden everything got so busy. I'm so tired and just want to go home and I'm fighting against the urge to just let everything slide because there's nowhere for it to slide! Everything's breaking-- first my headphones and then I bent my glasses and I almost just now broke my newest Mayer CDs that I haven't digitized and I'm irrationally afraid that somebody's going to hit my car or something since it's obviously next. Further, I don't feel like I have anything to show for this semester-- I haven't had any big projects or anything like that. I don't feel like I've learned very much-- I can't really say anything about my classes besides decent. There's just nothing outstanding that has happened in any of them, or to me, or that I've done, or I don't know. I do know that my room's a total mess. I'm going to be glad when I don't have a roommate when I get back to campus next spring-- If I actually have a place to put stuff I don't think I'd be very disorganized. Individual Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) 23:26 0504.20 Thoughts on the New Pope This originally started as a comment on Matt's blog, (link here). I know this is really long, but I'd appreaciate it if people read the whole thing. [[EDIT: Maybe this is way too long and involved and boring for people that don't have to deal with words like exegesis and hermeneutics on a regular basis. Sorry about that. ]] [...] I was watching the thing [the election of the Pope] on TV while it was happening, and the first thought that I had when I saw Benedict XVI emerge on the balcony was that he didn't look much like my preconcieved notion for the next pope would. Not being a catholic, I don't know a great deal about ex-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, but apparently he was in charge of enforcing Catholic Doctrine or whatever, and that his own personal stances on whatever aren't necessarily the same. Then again, this is crap spouted by the likes of commentators on Fox News and MSNBC, who have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. Anyhow, the whole priestly marriage / role of women in the church is always an odd one. As a protestant, I'm obviously used to the whole idea of the guy giving a sermon (whatever one deigns to call him) having a wife and kids, but the women leading worship has always been a sticking point. The Anglican Communion and some charismatic low protestant groups have females in worship-leading positions. Instead of just coming up with my own opinion on fiat, I decided to ground this in all the scholarly concepts I've been getting from my hours of Theology classes here at Harding. POORLY-EXECUTED THESIS PARAGRAPH, I CHOOSE YOU! So, based on exegesis from the New Testament Epistles and other early sources, how are women depicted in the early church? Are they ever explicitly given any sort of worship-leading positions? Are they ever specifically denied from attaining these posititions from a theological standpoint? From a cultural standpoint? What's the big deal about them leading worship, anyhow? The two primary mentions of women in a worship service are Pauline in nature-- that is, [the Apostle Paul / St. Paul / Saul, later called Before I actually get to those, though, let me cite something written by Pliny the Younger in corrispondence to Emperor Trajan. It's pretty cool, and is actually relevant. I have asked them if they are Christians, and if they admit it, I repeat the question a second and third time, with a warning of the punishment awaiting them. If they persist, I order them to be led away for exectution; for, whatever the nature of their admission, I am convinced that their stubbornnness and unshakable obstinacy ought not go unpunished.... So, we can see that outside evidence shows that less than a century after the Crucifixion there were women with the title of deaconness. What's that, deaconness? Well, it's the English -ess form of deacon, from the Greek "diakonos", meaning servant, waiting man. Deacon in the New Testament sense is a title of a person in the church, which Paul defines in 1 Timothy 3:9-13 thus: 8 Deacons likewise must be serious, not double-tongued, not indulging in much wine, not greedy for money; 9they must hold fast to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. 10And let them first be tested; then, if they prove themselves blameless, let them serve as deacons. 11Women [or "Their wives", or "Women deacons"] likewise must be serious, not slanderers, but temperate, faithful in all things. 12Let deacons be married only once, [Greek: "be husbands of one wife"] and let them manage their children and their households well; 13for those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. Yeah, okay, what does this have to do with anything? Well, it has everything to do with that thing in Romans 16. "Συνίστημι δὲ ὑμι̂ν Φοίβην τὴν ἀδελφὴν ἡμω̂ν, οὐ̂σαν [καὶ] διάκονον τη̂ς ἐκκλησίας τη̂ς ἐν Κενχρεαι̂ς [....]"3 See? Okay, for those of you that can't read koine Greek, that says "I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon [or "minister"] of the church at Cenchreae [...]" (ed note: this doesn't correspond with Greek brackets; καὶ means "and", the "minister" bracket is a NRSV footnote). Right here we have some evidence of Phoebe doing something that may be her conducting worship services. Well, then, where does the male-only thing come from? 8 I desire, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument; 9also that the women should dress themselves modestly and decently in suitable clothing, not with their hair braided, or with gold, pearls, or expensive clothes, 10but with good works, as is proper for women who profess reverence for God. 11Let a woman [Or "wife"] learn in silence with full submission. 12I permit no woman [Or "wife"] to teach or to have authority over a man [Or "her husband"]; she is to keep silent.Oooh, this is tough. Paul says starts this off stating that what he is about to say applies universally. But there's obviously stuff in here that only applies to Hellenistic culture at the end of the 1st century-- braided and jewel-encrusted hair was the sign of conspicuous consumption at the time; certainly it's reasonable to believe from the context of the rest of the sentence that Paul is exhorting the women to refrain from ostentatiousness, not that having braided hair and the like is inherently unchristian. This is just basic hermeneutics, here.1 Timothy 2:8-12, NRSV What about the meat of the text, though? this is certainly the place where most protestant churches (and assumably the Roman Catholic Church) get the no-women-priests doctrine. Well, as the NRSV footnotes show, there's some alternate considerations that should be made to the historical English rendering of the text (that women in general must not have any authority over men in general). What would the reasoning be behind this? I think it's best to consider Hellenisitic culture at the time. If Athens is any example (and it is), women, especially married ones, didn't ever leave the house (excepting a few special holidays), and didn't recieve any sort of formal education. Submssion of wives to their husbands is a common theme in Paul's works (with the husband having coequal obligations to the wife!), and the combination of this with the idea of not having uneducated individuals (in this case, women) who weren't versed in basic Hellenistic concepts such as rhetoric or public speaking is a sensible explination for this passage, especially due to the fact that it wouldn't jive if Paul is commending a woman leader at one point and completely outlawing them at another. This is just my current little thought-expiriment on the subject. I don't claim that I have all the answers, or even very many. I think that in addition to being a religious text for me, the Bible is also an interesting document for historical and literary study, which is why I enjoy writing essays about stuff like this so much (and is the reason why what was originally going to be a few sentences in comment to something Matt said turned into a de facto essay). Finally, I'm not the Pope-- I don't have a hearts and minds of a billion people and 1500 years of doctrine that may or may not jive with the core of Christianity to deal with. The one final thought I would like to leave with-- I hope that this pope, like John Paul II, is the kind of person who, when it comes between choosing to do [what he believes to be] the right thing, and choosing to do something that pleases people, he chooses the former. If he makes a decision on something like this, I really hope for everybody -- Catholics and Anglicans and Church of Christies and the Amish and Zen Buddhists and those people that marked "Jedi" as their religion on the last UK Census -- that the prevailing opinion of progressive minds or whatever isn't a factor in making these kinds of decisions. 1: As quoted in Strobel, Lee: The Case for Christ, pp 83-84. Latin text at Perseus. Alternate English translation of 10.25ff (Chapter 10, section 25 and following) here. 2: The Bible, New Revised Standard Version. (Online here.) Bracketed text is from footnotes. 3: Greek NT texts from Perseus. Individual Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0) Today was wierd Instead of trying to form this into nice little prose like I normally do, I'm just going to turn all the things that happened today into little snippets with LSRS numbers next to them-- you know the drill, -7 = mommy make it stop, +7 veritable adjective explosion. I guess you could say I'm taking a cue from the new-format televsion shows of which VH1 is the primary promogulator. + 4 Woke up on time - 3 Realized no one had cleaned the bathroom and today was roomzech; did it in a shirt and tie + 3 Second day in a row that chapel was led by people from 3rd Floor Allen (Knights HQ) + 4 Chapel was also Senior speech week this week, and the speaker was one of the Knights queens (the best one, actually) ± 0 missed my easy POLS 205 class because the cashier in the student center was slow and Olree doesn't want people coming into class late. But, he doesn't take attendance. + 3 Watched Price is Right instead. - 2 Forgot it was chili day at the Honors House. + 2 French lab was out on the lawn today. - 1 It was extremely windy. + 3 Everyone likes my tie. + 2 Had a long conversation with one of my fellow Polisci majors. - 2 We both really wonder why in blazes we're at Harding. + 2 We pretty darn sure we're going to totally destroy the prosecution in the mock trial for POLS 353 + 3 Hung out with Steven and Tim and Shaner for a half hour; a rare orccurance during the daytime. - 4 Went to the caf and immediately realized I was due to take an entrance test for my semester abroad. + 6 BREEZED THROUGH A TEST OVER MATERIAL I HADN'T LOOKED AT IN OVER A MONTH AW YEAH VAVY - 2 Had to pay 6.60 to get back into the caf. + 1 Fortunately I had sufficient debit balance on my school card to cover it. - 2 Between the time I had left the caf the first time and came back, they had run out of sweet, sweet lemo. + 4 Had a good time in there as always, even though the food sucks. Josh Hollis and his girlfriend Holly are by far the best people to sit with in the caf. - 3 Went back to the room and accidentally fell asleep in my clothes. + 3 Woke up in time to walk to the site of the A Team large club softball games; I hadn't damaged my tie or wrinkled my shirt. + 5 We won, and move on to the finals. + 3 If we beat the meathead ankle-biting mouthbreather club twice in a row, we apparently win the all-sport championship. The club that has won this title for all of recent history (the sportly collar-popper club) isn't even a contender. OWNED. - 3 Didn't get the chance to say hello to even half the people there. + 1 Student Council President Jimmy Huff paid me back the 10 dollars he owed me. Tee-hee. - 5 Totally didn't make the usual Tuesday ritual of going to Quizno's with Cara. She broke her cell phone and I have no way of getting in touch with her, I hope she doesn't just think I totally blew it off. I at least thought about it before going to the caf the first time. I promise. Okay, that's a raw score of +22, and, as there just so happen to be twenty-seven points of interest (serendipity I assure you!), that's a median score for today of +.81, or the "okay" (±0)side of "decent" (+1). Individual Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0) 21:42 0504.8 Blah The connecting arm on my headphones broke. These were the best headphones ever created by man. Some idiot stepped on them or something when they fell off the hook I keep them on. I'm not very happy. Individual Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0) 17:08 0504.3 Word from our sponsors The two of you that actually may read this site propably are wondering about the lack of updates. Well, it's because the management here at iaatb.net has been in heated negotiations with cell-phone ringtone and download giant JAMSTER as a new sponsor for our website. So, without further ado, here's a gereat ad from this fabulous company! TO GET THE "STRAIGHT BLING SPINNER" BACKGROUND, TEXT "LOL" TO 455! TO GET "CANDIES FEAT PETEY PABLO" AS YOUR NEW RINGTONE, TEXT "I AM AN ADOLESCENT, POPCULTURE WAGE-SLAVE OF THE CONSUMERIST FASHION-MEDIA COMPLEX" TO 455! JAMSTER! AMERICA'S FAVORITE WAY TO SHOW THAT YOU ARE A TOOL. Individual Post | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0) |