Salim Furth

You know, there's something great about seeing your name in print. And yes, my editorial was published (under the headline "Protecting Human Life"). And there's something slightly depressing, but mostly amusing, about seeing your name misprinted as "Salem". I can't say my respect for the Northeastern News staff is skyrocketing, but it's not plummeting either, despite their interpolation of small grammatical errors into my piece. I wish I could tell everybody that it's journalism majors, not social conservatives, who lack an iron grip on their language.

I've Been Blessed

I don't normally pray for extra time. Really, I've mostly come to grips with the whole 24-hours-in-a-day thing. But things can get desperate. And yeah, I spent 6 hours last night doing this stupid, 3rd-grade level poster project, and didn't study more than half an hour for a 30% exam in Macroeconomics! I was pretty much overwhelmed, and almost glad that I'd done the project instead of the exam, since the exam would be over this morning and neither would be hanging over my head.

So anyway, I got up at 6 this morning, abbreviated my quiet time to make sure I'd get to my exam in plenty of time. And God had blown a major fuse or something in the school, and classes have been canceled all day because of a power outage and coming snow. So we had a half-lit review session instead of class, and now instead of 4 classes, 4 meetings, and 1 seminar, I have FREEDOM! It's a great feeling, and I really send the praise up to God for de-stressing my week. I'm really needing this time; with 17 hours of scheduled non-work on the weekend and two exams, major homework, an outline, and a presentation due on Monday and Tuesday.

So off I go to redeem my time!

Third Grade Again

I'm doing a 3rd-grade-level poster project for "Jewish Religion and Culture" ... I can't believe that this is my biggest grade in a 4-credit college course. I mean, seriously, they wouldn't do this at Harvard, would they? Only at NU do I have to do a poster project on the international relations of the Judean state around 650 B.C.E. (don't forget that "E", you dirty Christian!) Now, I'm not complaining about the dearth of thought that has to go into this, but all the team meetings this quarter are draining my time, and the anti-intellectual atmosphere is stullifying. We are obligated to walk the politically correct, multiculturalist, Jewish party line on pain of patronizing comments by the jappy professors!

Good News from the Middle East

Yes, you read that correctly - I actually found some good news in the Arab-Israeli peace process. To wit:

JERUSALEM, Jan. 28 -- More than 60 Israeli army reservists, half of them officers and all of them combat veterans, have publicly refused to continue serving in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on the grounds that Israel's occupation forces there are abusing and humiliating Palestinians. "We will no longer fight beyond the Green Line for the purpose of occupying, deporting, destroying, blockading, killing, starving and humiliating an entire people," declared a petition signed by the reservists and published in Israel's best-selling daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth. The Green Line refers to the border between Israel and the West Bank.

Of course, the Israeli military isn't going to allow much dissent to go unpunished. But the fact that "real" Israelis are beginning to object to the occupation in greater and greater numbers means there's a little hope for peace. If a voice for withdrawal within Israel can survive, perhaps a political dialogue can be established. Someday.

Published!

Yippee! My editorial letter is to be published in tomorrow's NU News! See the text of it below under "Letter To The Editor". I'll see what kind of response it provokes in person and in the editorial pages.

Now Showing At Foxboro Cinemas

"Cinderella", starring Tom Brady, Jermaine Wiggins, and David Patten. Directed by Bill Belichek. Will be aired tomorrow for the public at 12:30 EST. Depending on the success of this show, we may offer a rerun next week for those of you who just can't get enough of the New England Patriots!

Apologies

Please direct any complaints about the frequency of Instant Replay's updating to Professor Dan Burnstein. He dumped hours of extra work on us all just days before our first class in 2 weeks (it's a Monday night class), so I'm scrambling.

Search (and Destroy?)

I'm proud to announce that this site is 7th ranked by Google on a search for "reactions on divorce in the philippines", but only 15th ranked on the more understandable "Opinions on Instant Replay. Speaking of which, I do have an opinion on instant replay - I like it. I think it should be instituted on a once-per-game basis in baseball, at least for playoffs, because sometimes the umps/refs just get it wrong, and they know it the minute they see the picture. And no, this has nothing to do with my being a New England Patriots fan.

Letter To The Editor

This is the draft of a letter I'm planning to submit to the Northeastern student weekly newspaper. My friends at BU and BC are doing the same, since last year David, at BU, got quite a reaction from eloquently joining a editorial-page fracas in BU's daily. What do you think? Post comments on anything that should be tweaked or trashed before submittal. Thanks!

The twenty-ninth anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in the case Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973) seemed an opportune time to bring up in a public forum the ever-controversial issue of abortion. I will make my own position no secret - I disagree with the Court's decision in Roe v. Wade, and I believe that abortion is unconstitutional. Without rehashing too much of this seemingly endless debate, allow me to address the most important issue at hand: humanity. The United States Constitution was written and amended to protect people, first and foremost. Compared to other nations, the U.S. was early to recognize the centrality and importance of the individual; contrast America's quite civil revolution with France's, just a few years later. In fact, look at any abhorrent ideology, be it Nazism, religious extremism, or recalcitrant nationalism - I posit that you will find that none of these respects individuals, but rather dehumanizes its enemies or those it deems unworthy of life, with tragic consequences. Since 1973, upwards of 40 million abortions have been performed in the U.S. alone. If any regime killed 40 million unarmed civilians in 29 years, would we hesitate to condemn it? Would we regard another country as a democracy if it allowed genocide when approved by national referendum? Killing is not justified by power, nor is it justified by majority decision: hence the Constitution, protecting the basic rights of all. Thus, the crux of the issue is the humanity of the pre-born. If they are indeed human, then we have committed a grave error, and must strive to mend it. If they are not human, what are they? Babies who are delivered at as little as 24 weeks can now survive, thanks to medical technology. What is the difference between a fetus inside his or her mother's womb, and a newborn in an intensive care unit? The latter, not the former, is more dependent on adults for survival, and is more of a "burden on society." Yet we rightly recognize the full humanity of the very young, understanding that the right to life is natural, and not bequeathed on an individual by others. Will we extend this right to our nation's youngest members, or will we continue to put our own convenience and comfort first, reserving ourselves a place on the blacklist of history?

Religion v. Philosophy

Does our educational understand that the above are not synonyms? Given their worldview, I doubt it. To set the record straight:

A philosophy is a set of ideas. Those ideas may be right, value-neutrel, or wrong. Those ideas are often designed to function within a certain religion, but in many cases are used in the context of another religion. An indeterminate number of philosophies may be correct.

A religion is a set of ideas and beliefs about the nature of the physical universe and/or things spiritual. Religions usually claim to be inspired by a higher being and to be absolutely correct. Most religions are mutually exclusive; very, very few can be correct at one time.

Tolerance is respect for others' beliefs, both philosophical and religious. Pluralism is a branch of secular humanism - which is a religion - and is also a facet of many philosophies. The fundament of pluralism is the idea that most religions are equal in their correctness. That sounds nice, but if you look at it logically, it's self-contradictory. Traditional Islam, for instance, states that there is One God, and those who are enemies of God will be punished in the afterlife. That belief is radically different from, say, Hinduism, and is not pluralistic. IF the pluralist philosophy is correct, then Islam would be equally true. However, Islam's own unacceptance of other religions means that they both can't be right! So pluralism essentially rejects any religion that does not accept pluralism as a facet of its own.

Some will object to my use of the two main terms, and will define them differently. The terminology is not important - so change the words if it's giving you an ulcer. But for all the rejection of objective truth in our intellectual culture, really they are just rejecting some notions of objective truth and replacing the latter with their own objective notions. Whether the universe exists in a void, a multi- or uni-theistic sphere, or something entirely different, things are, and must be in some context. Saying there is nothing but the universe is a positive statement of religion as well as of philosophy and is contradictory to theistic religions as well as others.

I hope I'm making some kind of sense here... in the past two quarters I've witnessed the intellectual bankruptcy of Northeasterns Philosophy and Religion Department. I know I probably have a lot of the technical terminology wrong, but I also know when I am and when I am not pushing my own religion. My professors don't seem to understand that their belief system is the equal to my mine in religiosity, and they are extremely condescending to anyone who holds a different set of religious beliefs. If I did that when explaining Christianity I would probably be burned at the stake of political correctness, here in the People's Republic of Massachusetts!

Catacombs

Is a top-notch worship service every Sunday night, 10-11pm, at Gordon College in Wenham, Mass, near Beverly. A few of my good friends (shout out to Bekah and Stacey!) go there, and I'd heard good things about this service even before they went there. So I finally made it up in December, and again last night. Excellent both times, worth the 45 minute drive, and catching up with friends is always rewarding as well. But aside from telling the world that I had fun, a few observations I made at Catacombs last night:

- This is obvious, I know, so please excuse me for reinventing the wheel. Any mature Christian has experienced how much God cares about even our insignificant little problems and troubles, and that fact is stressed to children and new Christians who are not sure how to approach the all-powerful but all-loving God. But anyway, this thought came to me as I stressed in worship about my own minutiae: If the omnipotent God is concerned with my life and concerns because He wants to have a relationship with me, how much more should I reciprocate to His love and show concern for what's on His heart! How selfish of me to think God only wants to focus on me - what a one-sided relationship I have built with my Father and Creator! He deserves 100 percent of the attention in our relationship, but in His grace and love He wants to deal with my troubles, and lets me be blissfully ignorant of many of His weighty concerns. By being selfishly unreciprocating I cement my status as a child too immature to be entrusted with the matters of his Father. Lord, help me to grow up!

- This second observation is more specific to Catacombs, which is held in the main chapel, with all the lights off and a somewhat solemn atmosphere. Silence is maintained in all but worship and prayer. Now, I'm generally critical of American Christianity, which buys heavily into the culture of individualism. A few years ago in a daily worship meeting of 8 or 10 people we were reprimanded by a teacher for holding individual quiet times there instead of corporate worship. Her reprimand was well taken - there was something lacking. And that was NOT lacking at Catacombs. Somehow, though we could not see each other much, we were unified. God showed me that such unity is possible because we are most unified with other people when we put our focus on God. Thus, proper corporate worship is neither introspective nor extraspective, but deispective, so to speaktive.

Hope?

Does anybody have any reason to believe there is hope for the Middle East? I'm losing mine, and I need a serious infusion! Ariel Sharon's policies are not going to cause a desirable, pro-peace reaction among Israelis, who undoubtedly will oust the controversial figure for his belligerence in a year or two. Much more likely, the increased cycle of violence will cause a greater rift among most than existed already. Can I find some hope? Somewhere? Is there no one willing to stand in the gap and intercede for Israel and prevent the coming despair and war? Is no one righteous, even one?

Pittsburgh, Here We Come!

Anybody who is not a Patriots fan missed one of the greatest games in NFL playoff history last Saturday! Really a terrific matchup, well-played in bad weather. I won bragging rights at my friends' house by coming the closest to predicting the final score (I said 14-14, with a Patriots field goal in overtime. In fact it was 13-13 with a Patriots field goal in overtime). The best thing about winning in the postseason is that you get to have another party next week!
As far as next week is concerned, the Patriots are still cinderella underdogs, but I don't think the Steelers will dispose of the Pats very easily, and with a few lucky breaks New England could be in the Super Bowl.

Why Don't We Burn Bathing Suits For Electricity

OK, so au naturelle energy and regular natural energy aren't the same thing. But the reaction of many Cape Cod residents to the idea of building a large wind-power park on the Cape would make you think wind energy was as controversial as public nudity. And they have nude beaches on the Cape anyway. But in all fully-clothed seriousness, environmentally friendly, domestic energy is an absolute must in this day and age, and the unabashed NIMBYism on the Cape should show clearly that Barnstable is actually allied with the Terrorists. Did I say "but seriously"? Oops. Channel 5 and Yahoo's local news site is reporting that "Cape Wind hasn't convinced Barnstable Town Councilmen Gary Blazes and Carl Riedell. They're all for wind power, just not on Horseshoe shoal." That's NIMBY in its most barefaced form.

I wonder what the Kennedy Dynasty will say, if anything? They pack a big political punch around here. And what would/will the President say? I think he's pretty clearly gotta come down on the side of Cape Wind - the Cape beaches aren't more precious than the Alaskan wilderness. At least, I hope not. And wind power - enough to power the whole Cape and the Islands - is clean as well as domestic, and won't run out as long as we have politicians in this country.

A Few Blogisms

Some of these are already in use, the others ought to be.

• Imblogster - someone who pretends to be someone else on their blog.
• Blogaholic - anyone who is addicted to reading and writing blogs. Anyone who updates more than 5 times a day.
• Lifer - a blogger who has no life outside of blogging.
• Bloghopping - following links from blog to blog.
• Gone Fishin' - actively looking for blogs to link to.
• Blogadocio - arrogant self-confidence in one's blog.
• Imbloglio - an entanglement or scandal related to blogging.
• Party - a bunch of blogs that all link to one another, as in ("an A-list party", or, "that whole socialist party".)
• Red-Lighting - using a lascivious name or description to generate hits for an otherwise average blog.
• Ping-pong - a conversation across two or more blogs; bouncing memes back and forth.
• Checkers - an argument (friendly or otherwise) between two blogs.
• Chinese Checkers - an argument between three or more blogs.
• Comment-blogging - using a comment system to the degree that it becomes a blog of it's own.
• At bloggerheads with - fighting against useless software, unfriendly servers, or anything else that's expressed primarily in zeros and ones.
• Service - anything free for your blog. Comments, counters, illustrations.
• Blogism - a coined or adapted term relating to weblogs, such as all of the above.

Yes, this is all original material... I am not plagiarblogging!.

This Is What I Do Instead Of Work

But it's funny.

Resume

I wrote my resume today. I'm trying to get a co-op job with the U.S. State Department. If I get the job it'll be a "God thing", as the cliche goes, because they have people fighting over their unpaid positions, let alone their paid ones! So don't hold your breath, but I sort of am.

Meltdown

Colin Powell, whose poll-popularity in the U.S. just passed the Pope's (what the heck does that mean anyway? Somebody has a serious case of apples and oranges!), is visiting Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal this month. Fun. His main concern? "What we have here [Nepal] is a government that is trying to survive a period of turmoil caused by the events of a few months ago," Secretary Powell said. "This really is the kind of thing we're fighting against throughout the world."

In the last century, the 'free' states fought the communist states. They had a lot of unsavory allies. Think that's a thing of the past? Now it's the states fighting the non-states. No pretense at free this time. So our unsavory allies probably won't just be authoritarian allies - most of those are states in good standing. Unsavory will be one non-state organization (terrorist, liberation, etc) which is willing to do our dirty work in fighting other groups of the same type.

Drop me a note if something changes, but say you heard it here first: post-Cold War, mankind is still sinful.

Planning

Yeah, I've been planning. Well, not exactly planning, not yet. But I'm in the early stages. In all likelihood next year (starting in June) will involve all or almost all of the following: School, Study Abroad, Work, Internship in DC. The when-where-how's are all up in the air. So last night I made a nice little Excel document that lists all the attractive study-abroad/intensive Arabic and DC internships in my field that I've run across so far. I'm going to tap Northeastern's (hopefully) formidable resources on the latter this afternoon, I think.

India, Russia, et al

I'm reading Yossef Bodansky's Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War On America (written back in the late 90's) for the first time, for a class. I highly recommend it. The name is misleading - while it weaves Uncle Osama in, it is really an account of an entire movement, not a biography - and is the better for that.

If this Mr. Bodansky is correct (not wrong, and not intentionally misleading us), there is a tacit, quiet alliance from North Korea to Sudan and beyond, bringing together such historical rivals as Iraq and Iran, among others. The Taliban was a lynchpin of that alliance, originally, though it (and sponsor Pakistan) had a bad falling-out with Iran, an important rift. But if this guy is correct, there could be a complete realignment of forces from the Cold War. Our new natural allies are going to be India and Russia - both enemies of China & Pakistan, both important nuclear powers with large populations. What's really interesting - and potentially devastating is the redrawing of the geopolitical lines to divide the Christian world from the fabled 10/40 Window. I'm sure the Enemy would love it if every Western or Korean missionary was subject to suspicion or exclusion simply because of their nationality!

The spiritual warfare brain trusts were right a decade ago when they predicted that the unprecedented opportunities for missions were a window that would not necessarily last. Of course, if my geopolitical logic holds true Russia and India will be open like never before, and we need to take those opportunities to try to expose large portions of those populations to the Gospel of Peace. Japan should be considered a tragedy of missions - no one yet has a truly successful approach, and the spiritual defenses around those wealthy islands are very strong. In China, on the other hand, there are more evangelical-charismatic-pentecostal Christians than in the U.S.! That has a lot to do with China's size, but yes that means an easy 100 million Christians in the world's largest nation. The Japan-China paradox just goes to show that no door is closed to God, and politics can't determine spiritual things, though it can influence them.

Sharon's Madness

Maybe it's not Sharon. Maybe it's all of Israel. But he certainly helps. Anyway, here's the latest from the New York Times online:

Later the militant group Islamic Jihad said it was abandoning an agreement not to mount attacks inside Israel, because the Israelis were still attacking Palestinians. The group, which said it had abided by the call by the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat last month to halt such attacks, said in a statement, "We will maintain our right to continue the jihad and resistance until the last drop of blood in our veins." Asked if that meant it would resume its attacks, one of the group's senior officials in the West Bank was quoted by Reuters as saying, "Not necessarily."

Yes, you heard right, Islamic Jihad is coming to the point where they will respect the Green Line, and only attack Israelis outside of Israel proper. That's a serious compromise!! But Sharon is so big-fisted and nationalistic that he had to go and wreck any understanding that there may have been by bulldozing houses. OK, it would be one thing if 4 Israeli citizens inside of Israel had been killed. But it was 4 soldiers, armed men, who were killed in what can only rightly be called a war. Israel does not kill anyone this time, but he bulldozes civilian homes! Don't they realize that now a dozen house-fulls of Palestinians (between 150 and 300 people, I'd guess) are Israel-haters for life? Sure one or two enlightened and blessed among them might forgive, but forgiveness is not a tenet of Islam (or Judaism), and this collection of morons apparently is insisting that it will go on retaliating until the whole Middle East is blind and toothless, as the saying goes.

If at first you fail miserably...

Stick with the same strategy! At least, that's what the Texas Rangers are doing. We thought they had a formidable lineup last spring... just look at 'em now! OK, they did add Chan Ho Park and some relief help, but still. If their abominable won-lost totals last year proved that good hitting can't carry a team, this year they'll put that hypothesis to test - and I bet will confirm it beyond the shadow of a doubt. Pitching and defense don't slump the way hitting can, and there's nothing that puts a damper on a rally like watching your pitching fall apart.

But maybe I shouldn't be so quick to judge... on a team with both Carl Everett and John Rocker anything can happen!

Shout Out

Yo! Yo! Any of you folks who were at Looeyville who check this out please drop me a comment on the conference, or my summary or whatever. Peace! And while we're on the subject, anybody else who wants to drop me a note is more than welcome...

Luavul Part II

If you didn't read the first big post about my recent trip to Luhvul Kentucky, scroll down and check it out: it's labeled Take Three

I left off after Friday, summarizing some of the important teachings, and how they affected me, but I neglected to mention one message, on Friday afternoon. We split into guys and girls groups. The girls learned about modesty and stuff. We learned what's not manly, and any guy who was in Loovl can tell you that the following are NOT manly:

Parakeets,

Leotards,

Bible carrying cases with big long handles,

Little boys in sailor suits,

Skinny guys in tight shirts,

Wearing curlers in your mohawk (honest I didn't!)

Yes, you're right, that's not all we were told. The young guy who was preaching was awesome! He excused his lack of politeness ahead of time, and then lambasted us as a generation for not living as godly men. Again, God spoke through the speaker to show me and many others where we were rebelling against God, and where we weren't giving Him His due. Much of the sermon was based on an old book, "The Godly Man's Picture," which I purchased but haven't begun yet. If it's anything like the sermon, however, I'd give it a recommendation before even reading it!

Anyway, a lot of you are probably quite bored of sermon sumarries - sorry, it's hard to convoy spiritual conviction, enlightenment, and motivation on paper. I know in my writing the social life, physical aspects and stuff are much more lifelike, but you'll just have to take my word for it that the spiritual aspects were even better. The next day's teachings were an exhortation to commit to and be involved in the local church. The main thing I got out of that message, as most of it I'm already following, was that education and subsequently work are not the most important things, as the culture tells us. Really having a close family and church can make a person much happier and more productive in things eternal than making $10,000 more a year somewhere else. The afternoon message spoke again to focus and what really matters. Author Randy Alcorn was the speaker, and exhorted us to live for eternity, not for our lifetimes, and shared how he has been blessed through diabetes and losing an $8.4 million lawsuit - health and money aren't as important as learning to depend on God and living by His grace. Josh Harris closed out with a recap on Sunday morning.

For the Christians out there in blogland, you guys know what a really pumped up worship service is like. Well, each session was more so than the last - and it started out in pretty high gear anyway. I got a real workout twice a day, and really have felt renewed all this week still from some very passionate, powerful worship.

Another side note is the drama team they had - the best I've ever seen at any Christian event. Watching their first sketch was an epiphany for me as an off-again on-again drama team leader: drama is best used in Christian settings, as anywhere else, for comic relief! Too often we try to spiritualize it, and the sketches we put together never get across the point as well as a good speaker can. Kids' ministries are the exception here. But anyway, they both had the whole place in stitches, and took the hard edge off some logistical rules and stuff by putting it into humor. Much better than if a speaker had simply explained that they'd make sure that every small group would not contain too many members of one sex or a bunch of old friends and an outsider, and that cliches and interrogations are discouraged.

So this post is getting way too long... sorry folks. Well for any who endured, good job. I also met some very nice young ladies, but I don't think we'll get into that... no long-term prospects yet anyway. :) I don't see myself running back to Luavl anytime soon... unless some of the restaurants decide to open on the weekend, maybe. That would be quite a change. Or if New Attitude goes back to Loovul next year, in which case I wouldn't be anywhere else in the world. Well, actually there's a good chance of my being overseas... but anyway.

Way Too Wealthy

Some people have too much cash for their own good. Get this: my best friend was phoned by a millionaire family friend the other day. The millionaire will give my friend $10 for every email sent to both microsoft.atr@usdoj.gov and stopmicrosoft@yahoo.com (the latter as a "bcc") urging a Judge to overturn the . Now, I think it's pretty crazy that this guy is willing to part with his cash so easily, but I guess if you've got enough to go around you might as well subsidize a starving college student.

So if there's anyone out there who either (a) hates Microsoft or (b) would like to see a fool and his money parted, you could take the opportunity and subsidize my friend with an email as desribed above. And no, I'm not getting a cut... unless of course...

Take Three

OK, so I've lost all this twice. Let's see if I can continue my charmed existence. Ooh, my leg fell asleep... sitting normally, too.

Anyway, I went to Louisville, Kentucky, with David for the New Attitude 2002 Conference. Starting from the outside and going in, let's just say that Looavil isn't high on my Honeymoon Destination List. The flights to and from were quite good, actually. Props to Continental Airlines and God for being really cool and getting us through even with close connections in bad weather. Flying did take 8 hours each way, nearly half the time of driving straight, though the bad weather on the return day would have made that miserable (that's what we originally wanted to do).

Anyway, once in Loovul, we took New Attitude's shuttle to the Hyatt, where we had reservations. We stayed there the first night, but were invited to join a friend of David's (and now of mine) for the remaining 2 nights in a suite for 2 that already had 5 guys at the nearby Galt House. Actually, he didn't mention the other guys when he invited us, so it was crowded, but cheap, cheap, cheap ($12.50 a night). So we had a lot of fun crammed in there, stayin' up late, debating theology, ordering pizza, and sleeping on the floor.

The conference itself was even better than the hotel rates and the social life! New Attitude is an annual Christian event for young singles. It's led by young author and pastor Joshua Harris, of I Kissed Dating Goodbye fame. He introduced the first speaker - his own pastor, CJ Mahaney, an excellent speaker. CJ opened right up with both barrels, coming from I John 2:15-17, a passage condemning worldliness. We are not to love the world, that is, we must not participate or entertain ourselves with the world's rebellion against God. The threat to our generation of Christians in the U.S., as CJ said, is seduction by the world, not persecution. The next morning Josh picked up where CJ left off, applying the passage practically to our contact with the media. His two main points were the errant (but widespread) beliefs that "Half A Poison Pill Won't Kill You (so take one every day)" and "If You Don't Enjoy A Calorie It Won't Make You Fat," and he encouraged us to look at our media habits and give up what is hurting us. Josh spoke later that day, on the basic spiritual law of sowing and reaping. He connected the principle back to the last two, showing how our worldliness is sowing small seeds of destruction (Galatians 6:8) in our lives, and when we make habits of indulging our fleshly desires it can add up pretty quickly. And then there's the opportunity cost: we could be sowing into the Spirit's "field", and reaping a "Harvest of Holiness". That really resonated with me, and with many, many others, and I personally am revising my daily routine and mindset.

God is really cool. Looking back, I can see how He wove many themes into my life, inside and outside of me, culminating in the message at the conference. My post below entitled "Dressing Up" is one thread of that, and my long-growing realization that my spiritual life has become dry, and I have become like a stereotypical old person: more experienced, wealthier, etc, but much less alive than a young adult, despite all the latter's many flaws. I'd ceased to grow - I wasn't backsliding, but it seemed to me that my spiritual Man grew at the same pace as my physical body: hardly perceptable the last few years. As a mid-teen I was tangibly more spiritually mature - and physically taller - than I had been the previous year. Now? Well, I just don't see that much difference between now and a year ago - seriously, my education seems to be the only thing advancing, and that right slowly.

I'll continue this tomorrow - or, should I say later today: it's 00:03 already :-( and I have to get up at 06:00.

Wow I Have Lousy Luck!

This time the whole computer crashed, and I lost two or three paragraphs... If you ever found out about the conference it'll be an act of God!

I Hate Netscape

This stupid browser clears forms every time something minor changes on the page where I type these entries... and it just lost 20 minutes worth of writing. Explorer doesn't do that! So yeah, this is not a great welcome back from one of the best conferences I've been to, but that'll have to come later. I'm off to class :-(


I still can't believe I lost all that work... and I tried so hard to make sure I wouldn't...

Argentina

I mentioned the meltdown of the Argentine economy briefly in my last post, but it really deserves a post all its own. OK, the economy there is an absolute shambles, and it's probably to blame on overzealous austerity measures and pegging the peso to the U.S. dollar. When various Latin American countries did that in the past few years Alan Greenspan, or his spokesman, warned that the U.S. monetary policy would not take them into account and they could get burned. Now, I don't know the details of the collapse, and I'm only at the beginning of my economics training - I'll be taking Macro Theory this quarter, and hopefully we'll look at Argentina. However, my one statement would be that before everybody jumps on Argentina for not being Keynesian enough, remember that they weren't following Milton Friedman either. I think they were trying to follow him, but you can't be monetarist when you outsource your monetary policy!

This may be a loss for the Argentine pocketbook, but it's been a resounding victory so far for Argentine democracy. Imagine if this had happened 20 years ago. Would there have been 5 constitutionally selected presidents in 2 weeks???? NO! There would have been a military coup, and the political system would have collapsed. This is the crucible of Argentinian democracy, and we should all be cheering for them (and buying Argentinian). If the constitution makes it through this intact, I think we've got ourselves a very strong democracy on our hands.

Euros

I feel obliged to say something about the new high-profile currency. If not a step towards political integration and the Unites States of Europe, it's at least a step towards easier tourism and a blurring of borders, especially in non-linguistically distinct areas. I'm awaiting word from my sister, who's on exchange in northern France, on her own experiences with and take on the Euro, and hopefully she'll write something I can post here. I'm impressed with the way the EU has handled the change so far, but the real difficulties will be a few weeks from now, as stores begin rejecting francs, lira, Irish pounds, etc, and consumers have to scramble like they're in a foreign country. Nature is weeding out the procrastinators for extinction... they won't be able to buy milk!

Commentator Iain Murray of The Edge of England's Sword supports Irish economist Bernard Connolly, who fears that Ireland and other small nations on the border of the Eurozone will take a serious economic hit when the central monetary policy conflicts with the economic realities. Specifically, he fears the Argentinian virus - too strong a currency coupled with too weak an economy - could strike Ireland, which would lose business to the UK. However, I'd say that based on past performance, the British pound is likely to be more austere than the Euro in the short and medium range, giving Ireland an advantage. Outsourcing the inflation to Brussels could dull the negative political and perhaps economic effects of inflation, while Ireland would still experience a favorable shift of trade balance with the UK.

The Euro works both ways, like any currency, but Brussels knows that it must be kind to its weaker members to keep the EU strong and attract the skeptical into the Eurozone. The UK and others may catch on in the long run and allow higher inflation to gain more favorable terms of trade with the Eurozone, but in the short and I think medium run, the Euro ought to help its members.

New Link

All my loyal readers, I call your attention to the newest link in my list - it's to a blog that really impressed me and I don't really know why. As simple a layout as I've seen, and equally simple writing. But pay attention to the writing - there's more in it than meets the eye. Monica of Un-Stereotype is one of those out in blogland with the uncanny ability of very accurately transcribing thought and emotion into words. Maybe I'm the only one who likes it, but I'd be surprised.

Dressing Up

"I'm not weird, am I?" said a 40-something-year-old mother of 10, who is perfectly normal, as homeschooling mothers go, aside from her kids. Having 10 kids is pretty remarkable in Massachusetts, but her husband makes a bundle, and comfortably supports his clan, so it's not weird in that way. But what is weird is her eldest daughter, or at least, that's what she fears. The 17-year old is not smoking pot, drinking on the sly, or going Goth. She's wearing dresses. Only. I mean, she wears shoes and shirts and stuff too, but she has basically decided to never again wear pants. Yeah.

I don't know what I'm going to say to her. She doesn't know or understand any guys well besides her brothers. And I'm probably her closest (only?) guy friend, so I think I oughta say something.

Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. I talked to her very briefly in person, mostly listening, and she gave me the quicky explanation and offered to explain in detail later. She knew that her quicky explanation didn't do justice to the subject, and said as much. She also mentioned that she originally had planned to wait until leaving for college (she'll go to college in a year or two, I think) because she's not looking forward to dealing with the flak from her family. Since she doesn't really have friends outside the church, and coming to church in a dress isn't unordinary, they won't be much of an issue. Anyway, the quicky explanation was that it wasn't just modesty, but a combination of things. The foundation of the idea is her interpretation of Biblical womanhood. I won't put words in her mouth, but the idea seems pretty clear: humility, willingness to stay at home, non-dating, probably non-courting, etc. She doesn't just emphasize the feminine side of Biblical personhood, but also spends reportedly long periods of time daily in prayer and reading scripture, which by my count is certainly a virtue, and a virtue which I lack.

I want to be slow to judge and quick to listen, but I can safely say that I took much longer than any of the others who know her to come to a conclusion, and I'm not completely there yet. One of the first positive statements I made on the matter - not to her - was that she is either right or wrong, and mainstream Christianity and her cannot both be right (though they could both be wrong). While there is not one single type of Biblical womanhood in a given culture, I would say there is a limited range. Before you fly off the handlebars let me clarify: anyone with any lifestyle can be a Christian. However, if that lifestyle is in rebellion to God and is not moving towards repentance and obedience, then Christ is not truly that person's Lord. E.g. Jesus reached out to prostitutes and corrupt officials without condition. However, to follow Jesus, you have to give up everything, as the Rich Young Ruler (who lived a respectable life) found out to his chagrin. So, the "range of Biblical wo/manhood" is optimal and should be sought, but is not mandatory for salvation or church membership or anything. And I just don't think that range is wide enough to hold both mainstream evangelical Christianity and this girl.

Now, I certainly think that mainstream men and women tend toward the liberal extreme of that range if indeed they are within it - I see many Christian girls wearing clothing that is designed to be sexually appealing, and while I have nothing against good looks or stylish dress the Bible is clear on modesty as a principle of dress. Oddly enough, the whole head-covering thing doesn't get into this argument, which is kind of nice for a change, as that is a very old and boring argument. But my friend is taking it farther than modesty - she's limiting herself in what she can physically do, and in social settings. In the former, not only has she consciously given up swimming, sports, skiing, and other pastimes, she has perhaps less consciously limited her ability to do physical labor, run, use a bike for transportation, and lots of little things. Basically it's like wearing ornamental clothes all the time, never practical ones. I would be cautious about letting piety get in the way of life: God uses many means, and limiting Him without His approval is unadvisable. I know that sounds nitpicky, but remember that just as the dress-only policy is a microcosm of her wider view of womanhood, the limits arising from wearing dresses are only a small part of the limits arising from the big picture: she's taking herself out of many opportunities that have been opened to women in the last 100 years (and specifically mentioned that time frame making a reverse argument), and returning essentially to a 19th century way of life, where women avoid contact with unrelated men and have few occupations open to them. Not to say that being a stay-home Mom or a kindergarten teacher is wrong, but those options are always open; burning bridges now could make integration into America difficult if she has an epiphany down the road.

If I knew the details of other factors besides modesty I could discuss them, but I don't so I can't. I know this whole post was chaotic, but putting thoughts into writing helps me organize the thoughts, so next time I write or speak on the subject I'll be a lot better, hopefully.

Before I close, i should add a postscript. I've been cognizant of, if not acting on, the fact that I probably have more to learn from her than she does from me. If I never talk to her about this, or express an opinion, it could still be a very profitable exchange. In fact, this is as close to the classic plank-in-my-eye-speck-in-yours situation as I've ever been. Perhaps her holistic approach is a bit too zealous; my walk is far too incomplete, and I know it. Maybe when I'm praying an hour a day, never utter an insult, actively avoid crude humor, and serve quietly and frequently (as she does), I can come back to this. More likely, and hopefully, she'll work this out on her own without my "help."

There, see how much you can learn by writing? If nobody ever reads this, I'll have been greatly benefited alone - I came to the conclusions as I wrote them. However, if anybody does read this, I would be interested in what they think of either my situation as a plankeyed friend or hers as a probably overzealous conservative.

While we're on a roll...

Opinebovine's New Year's piece was quite touching. Thanks to Troubadour for pointing it out.