I came across an L.A. Times article today about anti-Mormon protests resulting from the LDS church’s involvement in getting Prop 8 passed in California. This proposition amended the state constitution to specify that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” Many call it the “Same-sex marriage ban” proposition. Though that’s one of its effects, it’s more accurate to call it the “Definition of marriage” proposition. Oh well. I’m not quite sure why the Mormons were specifically targeted for these protests. They contributed a lot of money, but so did other groups, religious and otherwise. Apparently some think that religious people should not participate in politics? What’s up with that? Churches are permitted to (and I would say “ought to”) speak about political topics from the pulpit. It’s the endorsement of specific candidates that’s not allowed. The article is a good read, though.

Here’s the story: Prop. 8 protesters target Mormon temple in Westwood

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I highly recommend reading a well-researched and well-written article by Dr. Robert George, who is a Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He’s also a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics and previously served on the United States Commission on Civil Rights. The guy’s making carefully thought-out arguments on the extreme position Barak Obama takes on abortion: Obama’s Abortion Extremism

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T-shirts I found funny, in descending order of their appeal according to my tastes:

Nature Abhors a Vacuum
http://store.cottonfactory.com/cf-597.html

Pie 3.14
http://store.cottonfactory.com/cf-070.html

Stud Muffin
http://store.cottonfactory.com/cf-091.html

Adopt a ninja
http://store.cottonfactory.com/cf-283.html

Please don’t separate us… we share vital organs.
http://store.cottonfactory.com/cf-430.html

Trust me I’m a ninja
http://store.cottonfactory.com/cf-272.html

Without you I’m nothing.
http://store.cottonfactory.com/cf-345.html

California!
http://store.cottonfactory.com/cf-012.html

My other ride has a flux capacitor.
http://store.cottonfactory.com/cf-487.html

I’m Hungary for Turkey.
http://store.cottonfactory.com/cf-041.html

I got Greece on my shirt.
http://store.cottonfactory.com/cf-046.html

Written at 1:56 pm         ||         4 Comments

This is a quote from chapter five of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s book “The Brothers Karamazov.”

“I shall be told, perhaps, that Alyosha was stupid, undeveloped, had not finished his studies, and so on. That he did not finish his studies is true, but to say that he was stupid or dull would be a great injustice. I’ll simply repeat what I have said above. He entered upon this path only because, at that time, it alone struck his imagination and presented itself to him as offering an ideal means of escape for his soul from darkness to light. Add to that that he was to some extent a youth of our last epoch — that is, honest in nature, desiring the truth, seeking for it and believing in it, and seeking to serve it at once with all the strength of his soul, seeking for immediate action, and ready to sacrifice everything, life itself, for it. Though these young men unhappily fail to understand that the sacrifice of life is, in many cases, the easiest of all sacrifices, and that to sacrifice, for instance, five or six years of their seething youth to hard and tedious study, if only to multiply tenfold their powers of serving the truth and the cause they have set before them as their goal such a sacrifice is utterly beyond the strength of many of them.”

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I was complaining recently about a midterm that I took in a theology class. The class is lecture-based and we have outlines given to us of all of the lectures. So some days it feels very passive. And for the exam we just had to spit back out some of the lesson materials we’d been given. So I was frustrated, feeling like the class wasn’t much use. But this morning I got to thinking about how little I’ve been putting into the class. If I get little out of it, that’s likely because I’m not dwelling on the material. I’m not wrestling with the questions the professor is presenting. I’m not making an intentional effort to do unassigned readings to see what others have to say about these issues. When I come to class, I bring nothing with me. Sure, a laptop and notebook and pen, but nothing contributory.

There’s also another class I have that I’ve been complaining about. It’s a class that’s designed to teach students how to do research, especially in theological fields. Since 1) I’m primarily studying Philosophy and 2) I feel that I am already competent in my ability to do research, I feel that the class is a waste of my time and money.

But I’m going about this all wrong. My focus is too narrow. Why am I complaining about these classes? What is important is not whether I’m personally benefiting from every hour I spend in class, but whether I am becoming more educated by my experience here at Talbot. There will always be nit-picky details to complain about. Get over it, James. Stop whining. Grow up. Spend less time belly-aching and more time doing what’s important, like actually learning and drawing closer to Jesus and blessing other people.

I want to re-read some missionary biographies in order to help shift my focus from the immediate to the long-term. God, grant me vision, a holy ambition, a place to set my sights and run toward. Let my life be more than the mundane, even in the midst of the mundane. Give me eyes to see the enormity of your work in this world and the magnitude of your glory.

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