Trip to Spokane

Want to experience a city in one day, and on foot too? Go to Spokane.

This city, nestled in the hills of eastern Washington, boasts all the conveniences of city life, but without the traffic, the noise, and the expenses, of big city living. My eyes widened with excitement as I noticed the large wide sidewalks, which will be perfect for my road bike. The best part though, is the cost of rent, which is as good as $500 for a 2-bedroom in downtown!

Of course, Spokane will be a big adjustment for me. It is definitely not Seattle. Everyone I saw was Caucasian, there were no Thai or Pho restaurants on every street, and I was, apparently, the only one in sight that had any sense of fashion. I was, however, surprised and overjoyed to see many Obama signs around town, which assures me that I will have some peers in regards to political allegiances. So, the changes will not be bad, and I’m sure that I can acclimate myself to Spokane and learn to fit in (without a flannel shirt and shotgun of course).

Seeing downtown Spokane was fun, but my main purpose for being in Spokane was to familiarize myself with Gonzaga University, which will be my new home in the fall. The campus is stunningly beautiful, with a great mix of both old and new architecture. I met several professors from the philosophy department, and I felt warmly welcomed and was even given a nice campus tour by a philosophy student. I was also impressed with the size of the Library, and the fact that there is a philosophy study room filled with books and journals right beneath the philosophy offices

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The campus is also right on the Spokane river and close to the famous river park, which is home to it’s large clock tower and, also, Spokane Falls. The apartments I was looking at were close to the park and, thus, only a 15 minute walk from the campus, so with my bike I am sure that I will be a happy commuter. Overall I am excited for this upcoming change, and in only a few months August will be here and I will be packing up and heading to “Spokane-istan.”

Craig’s Top 10 Songs

I have for the first time produced a list of favorite all-time songs. Included below is my top-10 and a few honorable mentions.

1. Black – Pearl Jam

2. Where the Streets Have No Name – U2

3. Glosoli – Sigur Ros

4. Disarm – The Smashing Pumpkins

5. Heart-shaped Box – Nirvana

6. Alive – Pearl Jam

7. Pride – U2

8. Everlong – The Foo Fighters

9. Losing My Religion – R.E.M.

10. Glycerine – Bush

Honorable Mention: Black Hole Sun (Soundgarden), High and Dry, (Radiohead), There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (The Smiths), Little Things (Bush)

Roskolnikov and I

Given all the free time that I have had recently, I decided to pick up Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and devour it. After only a few chapters I noticed that Raskolnikov, the protagonist, and I share some of the same personality characteristics. This block of text is what first caught my attention:

It was remarkable that Raskolnikov had hardly any friends at the university; he kept aloof from every one, went to see no one, and did not welcome any one who came to see him, and indeed every one soon have him up. He took no part in the students’ gatherings, amusements or conversations. He worked with great intensity without sparing himself, and he was respected for this, but no one liked him. He was very poor, and there was a sort of haughty pride and reserve about him, as though he were keeping something to himself. He seemed to some of his comrades to look down upon them all as children, as though he were superior in development, knowledge and convictions, as though their beliefs and interests were beneath him (62).

Scary. I do not think, however, that I am quite the extreme introvert that Roskolnikov is, but we are a lot alike in the way that we think and operate. Hopefully though, I will not kill anyone in the future (:

Of Graduation and Nonsense

Today is my final day as a student at Northwest University. In anticipation of the new changes in my life I decided to try something new for my blog, meaning, writing something non-critical. I need a break from my usual linear logical lit, so the following is the most non-argumentative collection of loosely associated prose that I could possibly produce.

Graduation. Yes, I am graduating. It means that I am no longer technically a student, and that is a scary thought. A dear professor of mine recently challenged me to come up with some non-academic activities that can ease my transition from being at school or thinking about school all the time, to the activities of life that will come.

So, besides reading and thinking, what else do I enjoy? I am a runner, though I don’t run anymore, which means I need to start running soon if I want to maintain that adjective. I think running will be good for me because it will allow me to be aggressive, and, yet, not hurt anyone else. I have a slightly intense personality and sometimes it manifests itself and sometimes it doesn’t. When I am relaxed I listen to Norah Jones, but when I am in an intense mood I listen to Anberlin. When I am a little of both I listen to Sigur Ros.

What else do I enjoy? I love reading, but wait, I can’t say that. I love good coffee, and I love really good beer. I dislike unintelligent people, you know, the kids who place a question mark after every verbal sentence. Their speech is an amalgamation of interrogatives with “like” and “yeah” used after every three words. Oh, and I find the entire hip-hop culture repulsive. I loathe seeing those guys with stickers on their hats and long dress-like shirts with denim shorts that are so long that they only expose a rough two inches of leg skin. I can’t stand rap music. I don’t think it even qualifies as English.

Phobias? Ok, this list is definitely sad. I am afraid of those drive-thru things. You know, the ones at the bank or at Starbucks. I feel awkward talking to the little box. I wonder what my voice sounds like in their little headphones? What if they are giving me the finger through the wall or something? I hate it. It is not personal enough for me. Speaking of personal, I hate making phone calls to people I do not know. I would rather drive to an office so I can talk to someone in person, than call them on the phone. What else? Well, I have a fear of food that is not properly cooked, which is why I avoid fast food locations and most meat products. If someone gives me any reason to doubt the condition of the food I am eating, I will definitely think that I am going to die. I am not really afraid of dying, but I am afraid of pills. I hate pills.

I like computers, but I hate mostly all other forms of electronic technology. Phones are evil, especially those blue-tooth ones that look like flash drives attached to an ear. Cars are probably the most evil entities in existence right now. I am not sure where I stand on i-pods. I have mixed feelings. I do like the idea of being able to carry that much music with me, but I despise seeing people walking around with an i-pod all wired up to their ears. They look like robots. Sometimes I think that if I pull out their wires then they will shutdown, or switch to screen saving mode. TV is definitely evil, for it is a total waste of time. I am not a big fan of movies either. I just recently doubled my movie collection, which gave me a new total of 6 DVD’s.

Well, I think that is enough.

I’m Published!

That’s right. I am now officially a published critic. My own words appeared in the extremely academically reputable “Talon Journal.” I’m sure that even Jacques Derrida longed for his writing to catch the attention of such a prestigious entity. Click here to view the journal in full. You can see my wonderful words about Northwest University on page 3. Enjoy.

Top 5 Memorable Chapel Moments

I’m sure that many of you were waiting for something like this. While preparing to finish my last semester at NU, and consequently approaching my last few chapels, I decided to take some time to reflect on the years of chapel and produce a short list of favorite chapel speakers and moments. Enjoy.

#5: Castleberry telling everyone to get married (we’re at Northwest, why bother?)

#4: Dumb youth pastor claiming that women are saved through having babies

#3: Judah “Christ” Smith preaching on cheese (do I hear “honorary doctorate” yet?)

#2: P. Phil citing “Derek” Bonhoeffer (how’s that grad degree coming?)

And finally…

#1: Weird superintendent from Cle Elum singing “You Raise Me Up”

“I Produce, Therefore I Am?” – Why I Am Very Wary of Castleberry

I must confess that I felt an unusual excitement, an anticipation of sorts, as I walked into chapel last Wednesday. I say “unusual” because I normally expect chapel to be discouraging, and usually that expectation becomes my experience. Wednesday was phenomenologically different. Dr. Castleberry, who is the new NU president and deliverer of a stimulating message during the convocation chapel, set me up for a shocking disappointment.

I did find his premises to be sound. He basically asserted that young people today lack vision and purpose, and waste their young age through extended college years, late marriage, and poor investments. His conclusion, however, seemed to come straight from the mouth of a 1960’s capitalist. I can picture such a man right now giving a lecture to his son saying, “Boy! Get a haircut, get a job, and get a wife! You get out there and work hard. Make America great and defeat those damn commies!”

Castleberry told us that every year we delayed our careers we were losing $100,000 in compound interest. How do you think one of my best friends felt, who is a single 28-year-old guy and thinking about graduate studies? I’m sorry Dr. Castleberry, but your advice is downright wrong. I don’t want to pastor the old because I’m a foolish young arrogant man who needs the counsel of the elderly (I’ll take the biblical advice). I don’t want to make $100,000 a year, or have a high paying career, or an early marriage. I don’t want millions of dollars waiting for me at retirement. Production is not at the heart of my being, and neither is it going to drive my future!

The church is the ultimate vehicle of production for Castleberry. Para-church organizations are merely on the “sidelines,” and of course we all know that God only cares about institutionalized Pentecostalism anyways. “The Supremacy of Pentecostalism” is the proper title for his Friday message, and the two chapel services work together to formulate his capitalist success plan. He supplements the “Church” in for “America,” and makes glossolalia the methodological catalyst for effective success in the competitive market of “purpose-drivenness.”

Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, and myself are all second-class Christians of course because we didn’t get the gift of tongues (which by the way apparently lowers brain activity – I always thought that Pentecostals had a monopoly on the underdevelopment of the intellect, and now there is even scientific evidence). Sorry Dr. Castleberry, but I don’t think that tongues makes the Christian stronger. It makes one a stronger Pentecostal I guess. If it really did make a difference then I think that such a difference would be reflected by the literature of Pentecostal Christians. Unfortunately, Pentecostal literature is empty, shallow, trite, and intellectually dulling. Why is it the case that the writers who have moved me the most never had this tongues gift? Would tongues make Lewis write any better? Would it make Augustine think any deeper, Wesley preach any stronger, Mother Theresa have more empathy? Can it make a married couple love each other more?

My advice to young people? Listen to the people who are older than you more. Go to Europe. Watch less TV and read more literature. Climb a mountain. Kill your cellphone. Ride the bus for a year. Go to graduate school. Don’t go to school to get a better job, go to school to become a better person. Pray more, cuss less. Drink a little bit, but not too much. Buy a piece of artwork. Go to a shopping mall with a sign saying, “Satan was a consumer.” Read Marx, and then read more Marx. Go to a liturgical church. Do not go to a church that has big screen TVs or a Starbucks inside. Drink real coffee. Drink tea too. Always share your possessions. Memorize poetry. Hug a tree. If you see a televangelist, give them the finger. And most importantly, become close friends with quality people.

Is the Bible Oppressive?

I was reading Sandra M. Schneiders today whose work was in a short book called Postmodern Theology: Christian Faith in a Pluralist World. She raised the issue of liberation theology, and in particular the contemporary issues in feminist critique. At the core of this text is a concern for the survival of the Bible as a “revelatory object,” that is, as an entity that one can go to for objective and absolute truth. Concomitant with that issue is the problem of the patriarchal content of the biblical text. What should we interpret as prescriptive and what should we interpret as descriptive?

I think we should dispense with the revelatory-object approach to the Bible. I think that we have assembled those texts into one unified object, and this reality has created a commodification of the Bible through which we can manipulate it and submit it to insurmountable amounts of higher criticism. Thus, while I don’t want to reject criticism as a hermeneutical reality, I think that we must rethink our views of both the text and of revelation.

The Bible was written by men (tentative on certain positions regarding the author of Hebrews), and we must remember that these men were fallen beings who tried to theologize about God through their fallen language and with metaphors and analogies that came from a patriarchal world. Thus I don’t think that patriarchy is God’s way of doing things. I don’t think I serve a masculine God because I think he transcends gender. Thus I am very concerned with recent pro-masculine propaganda that tries to demonize feminine men and establish Christ as some sort of William Wallace figure. Fortunately for me I don’t serve William Wallace – I serve Jesus Christ. Perhaps I’m just not “wild at heart,” but I don’t think God is either.

So how should we think about the Bible? How do we address the oppressive content that is within it? How do we love hurting women and oppressed persons that are in need of liberation? I don’t want to dump a bunch of neo-patriarchal chauvinism on them. I don’t want to argue for a masculine truck-driving Jesus. So how do we face these issues and resolve them? I find that most Christians are either ignorant of this issue, pro-patriarchal, or so far left that I can’t even find them. Thoughts?

Churches, Cars and Commitment

Well this is the first blog post that I have written with a title similar to a sermonn that might be heard at some evangelical youth group, but I guess there is a first time for everything.

I was thinking about a conversation I had with someone after I left The City Church, and this person said something like, “Well you will never find the perfect church.” Also, in dialogue with others I came across a perspective that goes something like, “If you leave a church because of a few problems then eventually you will leave the next one.” While I don’t doubt that there is some truth in that – namely, being hypercritical isn’t always a good orientation, I don’t buy it’s full logic.

I’m rethinking that experience because I am beginning to question how committed I am to my current quasi-home church of Mars Hill. Am I thus doomed to fall into a regress of church-leaving just like the admonition foreshadowed? I think, however, that the solution to the problem is finding a good metaphor for my experiences. Instead of construing my situation as a collapse of church commitment, I think I am simply struggling with a particular kind of church framework. A good way to think about this is using a vehicle as a metaphor for church. My problems with City Church and Mars Hill, although very different, are showing me that I am struggling with a certain model – like going through a few cars and finding that none of them were what you wanted. Do you then give up on vehicles all together? No, you get a truck.

The problems that I am having with the churches that I have participated in are showing me that perhaps it is time to try a new model. Granted, this is a consumerist sort of metaphor, which I loathe the thought of, but still  it seems effective as a heuristic tool.

I long for something more Catholic, more ancient – liturgical, creedal, and confessional.  Something where every particularity evokes not only the mystery and grandeur of God, but also the personal aspect of our Triune God. Instead of a sermon-driven “propositional” approach to church, I long rather for something relational. Instead of hearing just rhetoric about repentance and the absolute Truth of Christ, I will want to see repentance and the Truth that is Christ. The only way to envisage such a church is to reflect on tradition and history, anticipate eschatology and consummation, and synthesize both aspects through contextualization with careful consideration of community and culture (forgive the alliteration).

So I am not looking for the “perfect church,” but I am optimistic that the growing movement of emergant thought and the rejection of extreme polarities like liberalism and fundamentalism will aid in transition that must be made.

The Secret: Where Capitalism Meets Metaphysics

I just viewed the free 20 minute version of “The Secret” because I wanted to make sure that the entire movie would be worth purchasing; after only seconds I realized that this film does not even deserve to be purchased. Apparently “The Secret” is not supposed to be a comedy, but I that didn’t stop me from laughing out loud… wait, I wonder if laughing hyenas will be attracted to me now… ha ha ha.

I can refute this joke of a system by simply thinking… right?

1. Thoughts cause things
2. “The Law of Attraction is nonexistent” is a thought

Therefore the “Law of Attraction” does not exist.

Great. I can’t believe that these people even tries to pull out the science card. Think of an experiment where they would place someone in a concrete cell for a year and ask him to think about one thing the entire time. Do you think that material thing would somehow appear in the cell? Sadly, I find this sort of metaphysical belief in a lot of churches. Theologically, “The Secret” becomes the god who gives you everything that you want.

Now that I have clearly demonstrated the impossibility of such a system I think I can make a suggestion regarding how such a myth was created. Once again I reach into my philosophical toolbox and pull out my “Marx tools.” In our Capitalist driven culture producers have been alienated from products and thus we become consumers to relieve this alienation. The types of products that we desire are, however, nothing more than what the Capitalist business owners want us to have – and they tell us that we should have it. They tell us what success looks like. Thus the “Law of Attraction” allows us to have those things.

Instead of a reductionistic view of reality, common sense tells us that the important things in life – family, friends, love, legacy – all are built and maintained through pain, suffering, and loss, which are things that the “Law of Attraction” (to the goods of Capitalism) tells us not to desire or think about. I could not, however, have the relationships I have with my friends if I did not go through all the hard and negative things.

The “Law of Attraction” is the inevitable metaphysics of late Capitalism. It is a system of pure consumption… we are now absolutely free… to consume. Yet this freedom that is offered by “The Secret” is actually bondage, we are slaves to the products of a Capitalist driven economics.

In the end, “The Secret” is just another way of placing the human in the place of God. It is idolatry. It is our desire to manipulate the world by our totally free will – it is the goal of Enlightenment. A true depiction of reality is given to us in Scripture. Jesus never promises us the goods of Western economics. What he promises us is friendship, and relationality is something that we can not manipulate – we must suffer for it, but in the end it is more than we ever thought it would be.