Kethuvim: May 2008

2:20 PM

Culpability

Posted by Brad Polley |

I was watching a video clip of Bill O'Reilly today (I'm not sure why, because he's an idiot) and he was talking about the YouTube video of those girls beating up that other girl, and then he was talking about the recent pictures of the polygamist poster-boy Warren Jeffs kissing young girls. He was having a debate with someone over whether or not we should watch or look at these things, or whether we should just ignore them. As he's wont to do, he disagreed with the person, and then totally flip-flopped his view once the other guy handed his butt to him in the argument (this, however, is not the point of this post).

O'Reilly said something that just made me want to shout, "No! You've missed the point!" He said, "The Internet's not going to police itself, it's simply not going to do it. They're going to exploit every crack in the society they can." Did you notice what he did there? He referred to the internet like it was its own physical entity. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is. It's a very subtle wording, yet it's loaded with meaning.

What he just did was take any responsibility away from people, and put it onto a network of information that makes its way onto computer screens. If I watch something on the internet that contributes to my downfall or the downfall of society (like porn for instance), that isn't the fault of an interconnected series of wires which transmit information onto my computer screen. The internet itself can not bear any responsibility for anyone's downfall or the downfall of society, because wires and information don't have a soul or the ability to make decisions. They are slaves to a person that tells them what to transmit.

The line of reasoning O'Reilly used there (in all fairness, probably unknowingly) was on par with a drug addict that blames the needle for his addiction, or the person who commits murder and says, "The devil made me do it," as if that somehow exonerates then. It's all garbage. We are the only ones who bear responsibility for our actions, no one else. To me, it seems that this line of thinking is actually what's damaging our society. No one takes responsibility for their actions. We're becoming a culture of people who want all praise, and no responsibility for our failings. This is dangerous because it just leads to endless finger-pointing without any solutions. Only when a failure is admitted to can it be remedied. Without an admission of guilt and responsibility, we live in a never-ending cycle of blame, in which the problems that face society never get fixed. A society with all problems and no solutions seems to be doomed.

comments (2)

8:28 AM

Adventures in being jaded

Posted by Brad Polley |

I know that we see a lot of change in our lifetime. I know that we've been inundated with information and new technology to the point where we're numb to it, but seriously, we landed a rover on FREAKING MARS! The thing I find incredible is that pretty much no one is talking about it. There's a story here and there about it, but it isn't even front page news.

It seems to me that a culture who can't see the wonder of landing something on the surface of Mars, and having it send pictures back to earth, is doomed. Really, it's okay to be amazed by stuff, you have my permission.

Jesus gave a warning about this when he said, "Unless you become like little children, you will never see the Kingdom of God." This passage is loaded with meaning. One of the aspects of children is that they have an incredible sense of wonder. All I have to do is watch my boys for a minute and I see it. Ezra will hold up a seemingly useless object with a "dude, look at THIS" look on his face. That's wonder. These words of Jesus have nothing to do with going to heaven of hell. What he's saying is that until we see like little children, we'll never see where he's moving and working. In a modern day context it may sound like this, "If you can't see the wonder of landing something on the surface of Mars, you'll never see where God is working in this world."

I'm reminded of a favorite worship song of mine which has these words:

O God, give us new eyes to see

Give us new skin to feel

Give us new lungs to breathe the wonder underneath

The New Testament speaks extensively of Christians being a "new creation." This means completely new; new eyes, new skin, new lungs to breathe, everything renewed in Christ. Maybe Jesus had this in mind when he told a man that he needed to be "born again."

comments (1)

9:21 AM

Naked

Posted by Brad Polley |

The Bible can be tricky. The thing about it is that there's almost always something more going on below the surface. Here's an example. In the book of Genesis (Hebrew meaning, "in the beginning") we read the story of our world's origins and the origins of the first cognizant humans. The text calls these people Adam (from the Hebrew "adama" meaning "earth" or "dirt") and Eve (which in Hebrew means, "living"). These two are born into a land of perfection, a land of sunshine and farts, as I'm fond of saying. God lays everything at their feet and says, "It's good, take it." The only prohibition he gives them is to refrain from eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He kind of hints that if they eat from that tree, things will go downhill pretty quick. Of course they decide to eat it, because hey, don't we always like to do the one thing we aren't supposed to do?

Here's the thing I find fascinating. The text says that Adam and Eve are naked and they don't care. It literally says that they aren't ashamed. Think about that for a minute. Can you imagine what it would be like for everyone to be walking around naked. I don't even like being naked in front of a mirror, mainly because I'm afraid that the dashingly handsome man looking back at me might start hitting on me. This whole thing is why our first sexual encounters are so awkward, weird, and, to use a charming phrase, "clunky." We generally don't like to be naked in front of people.

The text then says that after they ate of this fruit, their eyes were opened and they immediately realized they were naked. We then read of the saddest words in the entire Bible; God asks them, "Where are you." Here's where if you study the Hebrew approach to Scripture (and not the Greek way like we approach it), you see that there's so much more going on here.

When you're naked, you're vulnerable. Everything is laid out there for everyone to see. Far from this text speaking of only a lack of clothes, it's deeper meaning is speaking of our desire (and now lack of desire) to be vulnerable and authentic. There's nothing to hide when you're naked, but we hide things all the time, and not just with our Fruit of the Looms and Abercrombie crap. We hide things all the time. We have secrets that we refuse to expose for fear that someone might see the real us. We all have a past, and very few people may know of it and how it continues to affect us.

The whole point of Christianity and all of this Kingdom of God stuff that Jesus spoke of, is to return the world to Eden before humans screwed it all up. We are living in a giant cycle, which you can see in the story of the Bible. The story begins in a garden, Jesus is mistaken for the gardener near his tomb, and at the end of Revelation, everything ends in a beautiful paradise where the world is put to rights. This is significant for this discussion because it tells us that we called back to nakedness. In the world as God desires, we are called to be naked before him and before one another. This means that secrets and blemishes are a thing of the past. The question, "Where are you?" is to be answered by each one of us with a resounding, "Here I am, warts and all. This is who I am, accept me for what I am."

Jesus calls his followers to be naked. Read the stories in the New Testament of the early Church. Talk about a group of people who were naked! They were constantly called upon to care for one another and be transparent with one another. The call remains today. So...who's tired of all this clothing?

comments (0)

11:45 AM

This looks terrifying

Posted by Brad Polley |

Alcohol had to be involved with this in some way.

Slingshot.

Enjoy.

comments (4)

10:00 AM

My boys

Posted by Brad Polley |

I haven't written about my kids in awhile, so I thought I would give an update. So here's an update on each kid individually.

Ezra - He doesn't stop talking...ever. This is a good thing, unless you're looking for a spare three seconds of silence, in which case, you're floating up Poop Creek without a paddle (where is Poop Creek anyway? Probably in Mississippi.) Having him around is like having a painfully adorable parrot around the house. You really have to watch what you say around him, luckily IU basketball season isn't starting again until the fall.

He has the cutest little voice and he does some pretty adorable things as well. Every day when I get home from work, he runs down the hallway, hugs my legs, then looks up at me with his arms outstretched and says, "Hold you." How can I resist that? He's starting to articulate things better, which is good from a developmental standpoint, but bittersweet because it isn't as cute. For instance, he used to call monkeys "monk-mees," which, anyone would agree, is adorable. Now he calls them "montees." Not quite as cute.

He loves his little brother, affectionately known as, "beebee Ebroom." He loves him so much, however, we can't keep him out of his face, which poses a bit of problem when it comes to sharing germs (Abram has already inherited a cold from his big brother).

In closing, he's pretty much the cutest kid ever.

Abram - Huge. Fat. Adorable. Gassy. That kid farts louder than I do. He likes to lay on his stomach, which is apparently equivalent to Gas-X. He smiled at me this morning, which was a first. It made my day.

He spends his day eating, crying because he can't poop, eating, sleeping, eating, and eating. Seriously, my wife can't take much more of this. She feels like a dairy cow, as you can imagine.

In closing, I'm lucky. I have two beautiful kids. I'll post some pictures as soon as I can find the USB cord for my camera.

comments (2)

9:15 AM

Umm...Hillary...

Posted by Brad Polley |

It's over. It's been over for a long time. I know that your last name is Clinton so you feel you're entitled to a victory, but...yeah...it's been over for about two months now. I'm sorry to break this news to you, but the only way you're getting into the White House is if you're invited for dinner.

Sincerely,

America

comments (2)

7:28 AM