Taps - In Honor of a Fallen Pioneer

This past weekend was fall break for the University of Georgia, and as so many people, I joined the mass exodus from campus to return to my old watering hole, Leavenworth, Kansas. During the three days before break began, I had received some saddening news: a graduate of my high school, only three years older than myself, had been killed in action during the War on Terror. I had attended school with his brother. I knew people he knew. His name was still mentioned by my friends.

The viewing was held at Leavenworth High School and members of the LHS JROTC served as ushers. The funeral director had requested four cadets to hold doors and direct people with in the school, and being an important task, the call went out to senior cadets. However, more than four cadets showed up. There were twelve, all in uniform, with six others in civillian dress asking if they could help out. Ater the viewing, the funeral director asked the cadets to carry the flag-drapped casket out to the hearse. Never before has the LHS Corps of Cadets performed such an honourable task, and they did it with great professionalism.*

The next day was the funeral. There was a request that the members of the military community line the streets of the Fort for the procession. The turn out was astounding. As the hearse drove slowly by, not a sound was made, but the point was made clear. This was one of our own. He died that other may live, the least we could do would be to show up in support for his family.


Rest in Peace, Corporal Unger.

*This portion of the account is second hand and provided by LTC (ret) David Black, SAI of LHS JROTC.

Giving - The College Edition

2 Corinthians 9:6-15

When I first read "You will be made rich..." I immediately checked my wallet, hoping to find a $5 bill (or, preferably, larger) I had forgotten about. No such luck.

Many of us, especially college students, think that we can't give back to God because we don't have enough for ourselves. I mean, we are in college and facing new expenses. At least $300 on books per semester, food, toiletries, and laundry. All of this was provided before and we have to buy it now. Plus, there's "entertainment expenses". New CDs, movies, going out to eat.

And forget about time. If we want to go to class, get our work done, sleep, eat, keep clean, and spend some time with friends, then we have no time to give back.

Of course, all of these are nothing more than excuses. Half of my"entertainment budget" for this semester could feed a starving child in Africa for over two months. And time? I have a problem. I can't find the time to do anything. That doesn't mean that it's not there. I just haven't found it. This is because I refuse to wake up more than thirty minutes before class and spend time I should be working on my favorite addiction: Facebook.

Now what does this mean? Is every single disciple called to take a vow of poverty? No. But all disciples should be very careful with their resources.

The Lord will provide something for you to give back to him. You just have to find it.

Rock on.

Post Script: Yea, it's been a while since I've posted on the Bible. Why? Because I planned on doing my quiet time in the mornings. However, as I've said, I sleep in the mornings. So please bare with me as I try to wake up in time to spend some time in and with the Word. And prayers are always appreciated.

The Ultimate Simulacrum

It started with epic poetry, I think. Yeah. Using fiction to escape reality. No matter how bad things got, you could always escape to the accounts of Gilgamesh or Odysseus. From there, it spread to plays (why imagine what happened when you can see it?) After plays come movies. With movies, you can see the exact same play multiple times. And the dawning of VHS, DVD, and downloads allow you to see it whenever you want to.

Somewhere along the history of fiction comes the game. Little kids heard a story or saw a play and decided to make it their own (every kid has been there at some point). These games advanced, slowly at first, with role playing games, where you got to build the character up over time, making your own little world with your friends. These eventually gave way to computer games (the first games were RPGs where you typed in commands). These led to Sim City, which, like plays, kept the player from having to imagine the setting. And then the game the very quickly swept the nation: The Sims. You could create a character, give him a job, let him go on dates, or anything you imagined. After a few years, the game became available online, so that you could play with people across the globe.

And now: the final stage. A simulation so far removed from the original, from real life, that it has become the original, that it actually affects real life. Second Life. It is The Sims, only it is played with real money. You exchange US dollars for virtual money and with that, you can open a virtual business, sell virtual realty, or buy virtual clothing. There are over one million players. People make six digit salaries playing this game. Congress is even debating whether or not to tax income made playing it.

So we have gone from reality, through a complete cycle of simulacra (a copy of a copy), to a hyperreality ("The simulation of something which never really existed." - Baudrillard) so real that it has an impact on the economy and the government.

We are now faced with a question. Not "Where is the line?", as I think we noticed the line when we crossed it (when people started waiting in lines a week long and getting in fights for the latest gaming systems). The real question is "How do we get back over the line?" Or are we so far gone as a nation that our culture will move from Hollywood (itself a simulation of the royalty of Europe, sans bloodlines) to online?

Rock on.

Paul Rusesabagina

On Thursday, October 5, I had the chance to see Paul Rusesabagina (the inspiration for the movie Hotel Rwanda) speak at Georgia Tech. Having both seen Hotel Rwanda and read his autobiography, An Oridnary Man, I jumped at the opportunity to hear one of my heroes speak.

Most of his speach was a condensed version of his book. But at the end of his speech, he said something that stuck with me. He said that his book and his speech were his message, his insight into the failure of humanity in all regards to Rwanda. The audience, being college students and the future leaders of the world, were his messengers. It is up to us, the rising generation, to step up to the plate and carry out the promise Never Again.


"A sad truth of human nature is that it is hard to care for people when they are abstractions, hard to care when it is not you or somebody close to you. Unless the world community can stop finding ways to dither in the face of this monstrous threat to humanity those words Never Again will persist in being one of the most abused phrases in the English language and one of the greatest lies of our time." - Paul Rusesabagina, An Ordinary Man

All Hallows' Eve

All Hallows' Eve, or Halloween as it is commonly known, is a day of remembrance. It is not the devil's birthday (I don't know where that rubbish came about) nor is it a harvest festival (We already have one. We call it Thanksgiving). Many churches boycott this holiday, saying that it has pagan roots. Yes. Yes it does.

The Celts of the British Aisles celebrated a day they called Samhain on what is now known as October 31 (they used a solar calendar, so the date is pretty exact). It was the day on which the god of the dead ushered those who had died over the past year (you see, it is also their equivalent to New Year's Eve) to the realm of the dead (The seasons of autumn/winter coincide with this. Make sense?). As part of this celebration, many of our modern Halloween traditions (costumes, gourds with lit interiors) get their start.

To combat this, the Church created it's own celebration to commemorate all saints on November 1 (All Hallow's Day, or All Saint's Day). The day before is, of course, All Hallow's Eve. So, yes, churches, it does have pagan roots. But so do Christmas (Why else would the celebration be in the winter? It was originally the Celitc celebration of the solstice.) and Easter (The Jews use a lunar calendar. Easter doesn't even always follow Passover. The timing coincides with the Celtic celebration of rebirth and Spring. They call it Ostara.)

Interestingly enough, one of the most important holidays of the Church (Easter) and one of the most shunned (Halloween) are nothing more than the life cycle celebrated by the Celts (Life and Death, Fall and Spring).

So what about celebrating these holidays? I firmly believe in remembering the dead. Do I need a special holiday to do that? No. But I have no objection to setting aside November 1 to be thankful for the believers who came before me. Christmas and Easter? Remember the birth and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ always. Do you need a special holiday? Again, no. But does it hurt to lay aside one day of the year?*

Now the economic take over of these holdiays is something different. Trick or treat? The Easter bunny (a Celtic tradition as well)? These are pointless, but fun.

As for churches? Harvest Fests (or, as at certain military posts, the Halelujah Fest)? You're not fooling anyone. By wearing costumes and carving pumpkins, you're avoiding the Christian aspect of the holiday and embracing the pagan roots (Irony, thy name is fundamentalism).

Rock on.

Edit: *Oddly enough, Christmas and the feast day of Saint John the Baptist fall on or near the equinoxes, two other major pagan holidays, to symbolize John's saying of the Christ, "He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30) Just so, light begins to decrease on John's feast day, and increase just before the mass of Christ's birth.

Fences and Good CDs

For those who haven't heard, congress approved the building of a seven hundred mile long fence along the Mexican border. It reminds me of an old joke. A Frenchman and an Englishman find a genie, who grants them one wish. The Frenchman asks for a ten-mile high wall surrounding France. He doesn't want anything to be able to get in or out. The genie grants it, then turns to the Englishman. "Nothing can get in or out?" he asks. The genie says, "That is correct." "And there are no gaps in the wall anywhere?" the Englishman continues his inquiry. "That is also correct," the genie replies.
"Well, in that case, I want the wall to be filled with water."


Building a wall is possibly the biggest waste of tax money ever. Should we contact the builders they used in Berlin?

Also, everybody go out and get the new mewithoutYou ablum, Brother, Sister. It's amazing.

Shalom

AUGH!

I got back from class this morning to find a massive puddle of water by my fridge. Never a good sign. I figured it was my ancient AC system, so I cleaned it up and went about my life. Neither my roommate nor I noticed a trail of water leading to the AC system, which we figured was weird, but meh.

As I finished cleaning it up, I noticed it was coming from my fridge. I opened my fridge to find it hissing at me. Not good.

It's leaking coolant.

Am I gonna die?

On American Culture

It has recently been said that the wave of immigration from Mexico is destroying our culture.
This cannot be further from the truth.

When a person speaks of American culture, he shows his true ignorance. America has no culture. At least not one to call its own. America was founded on immigrants from all over the world. English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Czech, China, Korea, Laos, Nigeria, South Africa, whereever. After some tension at the initial influx, there cultures were embraced and have become integral to that of America.

There are things that are unique to America, to be sure. Various forms of music and food come to mind. But each of these drew from the cultures that surronded it, like a crystal drawing from the material around it to create a unique color.

It seems that many of those who are upset about this sudden influx of foreigners are Irish-American. In the nineteenth century, the Irish represented the largest number of immigrants coming into the nation. They were asked to leave their culture behind. They refused. Today, Irish culture is one of the most celebrated in America. Everything from the local pub to Saint Patrick's Day to the rise of celtic punk are owed to that refusal.

Many nations face a "problem" with defending their cultures. France has passed various laws to protect what they see as unique about them. Now, they face the issue of the large number of north African Muslims coming into their nation and the resulting xenophobia. Canada faces the issue of the Quebecois trying to protect their culture. It is threatenting to rip the nation in two.

America has always stood out among nations, asking for the weak, the poor, and the huddled masses. We have taken the cultures of many and made them one.

Why stop now?

Rock on.

Life In Exchange for Life

Isaiah 43: 1-13

As I have previously mentioned, Jewish Messianic tradition poses two views on the Messiah. One is that he will be human. The other holds that the Christ will be God himself. This passage from Isaiah makes it fairly clear that God will be Isaiah's only Savior.

He does, however, say that he will trade the lives of others for those of the Israelites. This can certainly be seen in history, with God favoring the Israelites over other nations. It can be seen more dramatically in the death of the prophets, who were given to Israel to show them the way, but were in turn killed. But once again, all is not as simple as it first appears. We once again arrive at a point where a prophecy has multiple fulfillments with one crowning fulfillment.

Jesus' death on the cross for our sins (and therefore, our lives) was the ultimate fulfillment of the prophecy.

Rock on.

Godly Sorrow

2 Corinthians 7:10

Regret is a bear. Every time someone stumbles, they go through a moment of reckoning in which they realize the mistake they made. And it hurts.

There are two ways to deal with this. The first is to spend a while in self pity and hate yourself, but then to get on with your life.

The second way is to repent. This means that you realize your mistake, turn it over to Christ, accept his grace, and let him help you change. Some argue that to not spend time dwelling on the fact that you sinned belittles Christ's death on the cross. CS Lewis argued that to do otherwise is the true belittlement of the Sacrifice. After all, "It is finished."

Rock on.