When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor... and Yourself

This past fall, Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, MN did a sermon series entitled "Compassion by Command". Greg Boyd taught most weeks, but others contributed valuable insight throughout the process. It really got me thinking about poverty alleviation, and also made some significant connections with my dissertation. I would strongly encourage you to take the time to listen/watch to these sermons online at the link provided above.

One of the resources that kept being mentioned was this book, When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. I decided to pick it up, and after reading it, I believe it is an essential resource for any organization that works with the poor in any way, shape or form.

The basic thesis of the book is that poverty alleviation is "the ministry of reconciliation: moving people closer to God by living in right relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation" (78) and that material poverty alleviation is "Working to reconcile the four foundational relationships (God, self, others, rest of creation) so that people can fulfill their callings of glorifying God by working and supporting themselves and their families with the fruit of that work." (78)

When poverty alleviation is defined in these terms, it is clear we are all in poverty, in need of poverty alleviation. We are all broken in our relationships. We need each other to help through this process. Recognizing our poverty is one of the keys to bringing about poverty alleviation for ourselves and for those around us. Poverty is more than a lack of resources, education, or money. It is a lack in your relationships, which undermines you and your self-confidence. This is a large part of why poverty alleviation is found in rebuilding relationships with other people and with God.

The authors say that there are three responses to any situation of involvement: relief, rehabilitation, and development. Most churches and organizations respond in the manner of relief in every situation, although only a handful of situations actually call for relief. Relief should be used in situations where there has been some kind of disaster and used to "stop the bleeding". Rehabilitation is trying to move from the post-disaster situation to a level similar to the pre-disaster situation, while development is moving people beyond their present or previous situations into a better place. Development is what is typically needed, but it is the most inconvenient one of the three. Development cannot happen by throwing money at a situation, or material goods, or even simple education. Those are more appropriate for relief than development.

Development requires building relationships with people. Development is not about telling people what to do, but helping them decide for themselves what to do and working with them as they work toward that goal. They strongly advocate for Asset-Based Community Development, where instead of going into a community and asking "What can we do to help?", you go into a community and ask "What are your gifts?" Asking this question not only informs you what the community is capable of doing, but shows them what they are capable of doing and being, empowering them to move in that direction. When the community takes initiative for themselves, that is when poverty is most likely to be alleviated. This process is often unappealing to churches and organizations because it is a slow process that often lacks any kind of immediate return, but the authors argue that working through development is where true poverty alleviation occurs.

The authors include many stories of failures and successes, addressing issues both domestically and overseas. There is an especially direct chapter about the damage that often occurs because of short term mission trips, while also giving suggestions for how to make short term missions trips successful for both those who go on the trip and those that are supposed to be helped on the trip.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I think that everyone who is at all involved in attempts at poverty alleviation needs to read this book. The book is set up in a way that is incredibly conducive to small groups going through this book together. This book (and the Compassion By Command sermon series) challenged me to reevaluate my belief about the way to approach poverty alleviation and affirmed the role that treating one another with human dignity must play in our relationships. Please, read this book. Of the books I have reviewed to this point, there has not been a book that I feel so strongly about the need for people to read it. If reading this book stops people, churches and other organizations from the destructive behavior in which they typically engage (with the best intentions) when it comes to poverty alleviation, it will help things out immensely. If it actually leads people to act in these difficult, but helpful ways, true poverty alleviation could start.

Justification

Some people write books to present ideas that they have. Some people write books to critique the ideas others have. Yet others write books to respond to critiques that others have of their ideas. Justification by N.T. Wright would be primarily the third kind of book, yet displays the first two kinds as well.

In 2007, John Piper wrote The Future of Justification in which he heavily critiqued Wright’s view on justification, by taking things Wright has said throughout his corpus of work and showing why he finds them to be incorrect. Upon the release of this book, Wright got to work on this book, as an attempt to clearly state what his views on justification are and to argue why his view is more correct than Piper’s.

It is probably good to ask the question, “What does it mean to be more correct when it comes to one’s view of justification?” There are multiple ways this question can be answered, all of which should carry some weight. Among these answers are: faithfulness to Scripture, faithfulness to tradition, coherence across both Scripture and tradition, faithfulness to a certain interpretation of Scripture, etc. Both sides of the debate would claim faithfulness to Scripture as one of the main standards of their “correct” answers. However, given that both sides are working from within certain traditions and perspective, the question may actually be, which of these perspectives is the better of the two in giving an answer that presents a cohesive, coherent picture of all of Scripture.

As one can imagine, this question cannot be answered in a blog post. Wright tries to do it in a 250-page book, with a reasonable level of success, in part, because he often points to other writings he has done for further reference, or promises to deal with them in a forthcoming book on Paul. In other words, the 250-page book doesn’t really answer this question either.

With that being said, Wright was clearly frustrated in writing this book. He felt that Piper had presented Wright’s view in a less than charitable manner with misunderstandings throughout Piper’s book. Wright wrote this book, in part, to lay out his view on justification in a single source in an attempt to make clear what his view is on justification and to prevent future critics to cherry pick from his great corpus of work to construct of straw man of Wright’s position. In the process he turns critiques back on Piper and makes the case for his position.

To make a long story short, for Wright, justification is a global concept. Justification is not just about individual humans, but instead, is about all of creation. As Wright continually notes throughout the book, justification is about God’s covenant with Israel. It is his “single plan to put the world to rights” and to do so through Israel. God’s goal from the beginning to was to bring the world to rights through Israel. Justification is not about moral righteousness, but about God’s faithfulness to that covenant. Wright spends the first half of the book establishing this idea, while explaining the first century world in which Paul was writing these ideas and exploring different motivations for different interpretations. The second half of the book becomes a case study where he goes through the main passages in the Pauline epistles and shows how a fuller understanding of the context surrounding the typical proof-texts of the opposing position actually makes the case for his interpretation of the idea of justification, rather than the other perspective. He ends by taking an extensive look at Romans, showing the arc of the entire book to be that of a global justification, rather than particular justifications for individual humans. The final 30 pages of the book moves from the theory to the practice, connecting themes that one finds in other of Wright’s writings with the concept of justification in a way that brings new life and meaning to both.

Of course, there is much greater detail than what I am giving, but I am assuming that most people reading this blog who are interested in this book will be reading it themselves and that those who are not interested are skimming this blog to see if I see anything interesting. Let me say that Wright makes a very compelling case for his view of justification and answers questions that have always lingered in my mind. However, it is clear that your commitments will determine how convincing you find his arguments to be, which leads back to the question I raised earlier about what commitments should determine our reading of Scripture, which are far too big to answer in a single post.

On a final note, if you’re looking to read N.T. Wright and you’re not a scholar, I would highly recommend that you read his book, Surprised by Hope. In that book he addresses the role of a physical, bodily resurrection in relation to Christianity, and finds it to be a core tenant of our faith that is far too often ignored and also gives us far more hope and meaning to our Christianity than we have without it. If you’re looking to get into Wright, I would start there and after that book, maybe move on to Justification, although Wright has written so prolifically, you can really move in many directions depending on your interests in theology. Although this review is the first on N.T. Wright, I can guarantee it will not be the last.

SuperFreakonomics

I recently finished the sequel to the first book reviewed in the most recent instantiation of this blog. SuperFreakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner is an enjoyable read, but is a sequel in a real sense of the word.

This book feels more like a set of case studies than the first book which had more emphasis on theory and motivation. By reading the first book, one gets the direction they are going and can see more clearly what is going on in this second book. The case studies are more interesting (and controversial) than the first book for sure, but let me strongly encourage you to read Freakonomics before embarking on SuperFreakonomics.

As you can see on the cover, the subtitle presents us three of the interesting case studies they consider in this book. All of the information in the book is, at the least, thought provoking, but for the sake of brevity (and to keep from ruining the book for you), I'm going to stick to the subtitled ones. I'll touch on these in reverse order.

After the multiple terrorist attacks (and attempted attacks) around the globe, governments have become much more concerned with trying to stop terrorists before they attack. They have tried to come up with a logarithm that will accurately determine who is and is not a terrorist before they perform an act of terrorism. Among the different things considered in the logarithm is whether or not the individual has life insurance. Common sense would tell us that if you knew you were going to kill yourself, there would be little point in owning life insurance. Come to find out, this is a key indicator as to the likelihood that someone might be a terrorist. So if you're a terrorist and want to be successful, buy life insurance. Now, before you think that they've just disclosed a huge national security secret, they make it clear that there is an indicator that is by far the most reliable indicator to determine whether someone is a terrorist or not, and they do not even think of disclosing it. But, it is true that if you are a suicide bomber and you don't want to get caught, buying life insurance is one way that may make it a bit harder to catch you before you do it.

Now one may legitimately wonder, what in the world is going on with patriotic prostitutes? Sadly, the idea of a patriotic prostitute was minimally explained, just pointing to the fact that in a park in Chicago, the number of prostitutes available during the Fourth of July weekend is drastically increased (as are the prices) over a normal time. Basically, when there is a greater demand for prostitutes and a greater amount to be earned, these incentives lead to some women being a prostitute for one weekend of the year and making out really well. Once again, the drive of incentives that we saw in the first book comes up here. They say some other really interesting things about prostitution (and the correlation--not causation--between the decrease in the number of women prostitutes and the decrease of American education), but I'll let you read the book to learn those things.

The last part of the subtitle is by far the most controversial. They are not arguing that the earth is cooling and working with the assumption that the earth is warming and humans are behind it.* They are talking about possible ways (if needed) to help cool the earth temporarily in order to allow time to develop efficient alternative fuel sources and fend off the rising oceans and destroyed coastline that would come about from that happening. Needless to say, the solution offered is incredibly interesting, quite affordable (it is projected to cost significantly less than Al Gore's foundation spends each year just on trying to educate people on global warming), apparently safe for the environment, could quickly be completed, temporary, adjustable, and easily reversible. I won't ruin it for you, but it really caught me off-guard why I had never heard of this as a possibility, particularly given how bad the situation we're in is explained to be.

Much of this book focuses on rethinking conventional wisdom, or at least encouraging us to be willing to question things that we do not understand. The heavy emphasis on incentives found in the first book is weaker in the sequel, but still underlies a lot of the thinking. However, the ultimate focus is that we should be willing to question the status quo, but question in a way that digs for something deeper, not just simply to be contrarian, as some have accused these men as being.

I think both Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics are books that would be good to read along with a book like The Sacredness of Questioning Everything by David Dark, particularly in an Introduction to Philosophy class. I'm in the process of putting final touches on a syllabus for Introduction to Philosophy that would be called "Questioning Questions" or "Doubting Doubt", but the focus would be on searching for truth, and the role that questions and doubt play in coming to truth. We would read Dark's book, some Platonic dialogues, Descartes' Meditations, something from Kierkegaard or Nietzsche, and end by looking at some controversial issue, encouraging the students to work through the issue of that semester from a questioning mindset, rather than as an attempt to prove what they already think or disprove what they already disagree with. I think a chapter or two from either Freakonomics or SuperFreakonomics would fit perfectly into a class like that.

Regardless, I recommend that you read Freakonomics, and once you've read that (or if you already have), to read SuperFreakonomics. You may not agree with everything they say. You may not change your mind on anything. But at the very least, you'll be challenged to at least reevaluate why you see the world as you do.

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*Disclaimer: I personally believe that whether the earth is warming or cooling, and whether humans had anything to do with that, we were created to be stewards of God's creation, regardless whether there are or are not negative consequences for irresponsible action and whether we can or cannot make a positive difference on the problem of climate change by changing the way we live. In other words, as Christians, whether the problem of climate change is real or an illusion, we should always be living in a way that takes our original role in creation seriously.

Eat for Health

For Christmas, Jess got a set of books entitled Eat for Health by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. She started reading the books and quickly became convinced that both of us needed to read the books and that we needed to start taking some of the steps that are talked about in these books. Initially I was skeptical that these books were setting us up for a fad diet, but to humor my wife, I decided I would read the books.

Once I started reading Book One - The Mind Makeover, I became hooked. Dr. Fuhrman explains clearly the method behind his plan. It is not a diet, in that, you eat a particular way in order to lose way. Instead, it is a lifestyle change. This way of eating is based on the idea that our bodies are built to take care of many of the physical problems we have. The reason we end up needing medication or surgery is largely because we don't give our bodies the nutrients they need to take care of themselves.

Dr. Fuhrman makes a distinction between macronutrients (calories, proteins, and fats) and micronutrients (think vitamins). We give our bodies far too many macronutrients and far too few micronutrients. The lack of micronutrients is due largely to the lack of fruits and vegetables in what we eat. He argues that our focus should be on eating nutrient dense food, that is, food that has many nutrients per calorie. Fruits and vegetables are the most nutrient dense food that we can eat. Because these foods are so dense, Dr. Fuhrman allows you to eat as much of these foods as you want. Although some may be concerned with calories, 300 calories of fruits and veggies will fill your stomach, whereas 300 calories of chicken barely fills a quarter of your stomach and 300 calories of oils barely fills any part of your stomach. In other words, you can eat your fill of veggies and will consume so few calories and so many nutrients that it will not work against you.

Dr. Fuhrman would like to see people eating 90% of their daily calories from fruits and veggies. However, he has a four phase plan to help people adjust. He makes it clear that you can stop at any phase and it will help your body out from the way you are eating now. The first phase he wants you to eat a half a pound of veggies a day and a half a pound of fruits a day. This may seem like a lot, but if you spread it out over multiple meals or munch on some fruits and veggies as snacks, you hit the half pound marks really quickly. Additionally, he advocates that you eat till you liquify your food, as many fruits and veggies often do not give us the nutrients they have as we do not break them down enough. The second phase increases the fruits and veggies to a pound a day each, while the final phases focuses much more on reducing animal products, oils, and non-fruits/veggies. Again, you don't have to make it to phase four. If you do, you'll see drastic changes in many different areas of your life. However, making it to phase one or two will still do good things for you. Phase three and four only become necessary when you start dealing with things like diabetes and heart disease, for you can help your body deal with these diseases without having to become dependent on meds for the rest of your life.

The thing to keep in mind in this process is that you can still eat other things. If you want to eat the birthday cake and ice cream, you can. If you want a steak, you can. However, the idea is to focus on making sure your body is getting the micronutrients, because here in America, we have no problem at all getting our macronutrients. (I was surprised to find out the protein and calcium content of many fruits and veggies!) If you try to get the bulk of your calories from fruits and veggies, you'll go a long way toward accomplishing that goal.

The second book is basically a cookbook full of recipes that help implement the kind of lifestyle needed. We haven't tried many of the recipes, but look forward to bringing more and more into our supper rotation.

I've been trying to eat more fruits and veggies and reducing some of my animal products. I'm somewhere between phase one and two on my fruit and veggie intake, but lagging in the animal products, although I've accepted that I love my milk and cheese too much to ever get to phase three or four. Over the last month (while being somewhat inconsistent due to traveling), I've dropped 6 pounds, while doing nothing in the way of extra exercise. Both Jess and I are trying to add more physical activity to our lives. However, the focus is not on losing weight, but rather on eating healthier and being healthier people. Thanks to Dr. Fuhrman, I think we're on our way!

I highly recommend this set of books if you're looking to find a way to eat healthier in a way that is not a fad diet. I made a vegetarian chili tonight that turned out incredibly well and will be cooking with eggplant for the first time tomorrow night. It's changing the way we look at food and encouraging us to try to live healthier lives. I hope it can do the same for you!

The Book of Basketball

For Christmas, I received The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons, of ESPN.com. I have been looking forward to this book for some time, as I am a big fan of Simmons' writing and podcasts.

The book is pretty much what it sounds like. It covers all aspects of basketball. It tells the history of the NBA from its origins to present day. It discusses 31 different "What Ifs?" about how a trade here or there or a draft pick or an ownership change or other things each changed the landscape of the NBA or significantly altered the career of a player. It sets up the Pyramid of Fame (replacing the Hall of Fame) in which different players are on different levels of the pyramid, with the top 12 players of all time being at the top and are referred to as "The Pantheon". The book discusses the top 10 champions of all time, as well as the team you would put together if you had a time machine and had to construct a team to play Martian invaders who are set on destroying our planet if we lose. Basically, Simmons gives his thoughts on many parts of the NBA.

The thing that makes this book different than most sports books is that Simmons blends his humor, knowledge of popular culture, and personal bias with the facts about sports. This blend makes a 700 page book a very enjoyable read. I found myself alternating between audible laughter and the noise made when you learn something new. The book is written in a way that you can read a lot at one time, or you can use it for a bathroom reader (which he encourages in one of his columns, I believe).

If you enjoy basketball and you enjoy pop-culturally informed writing, I highly recommend this book. As I mentioned, it's 700 pages, but the read goes quickly given Simmons' wit.

Freakonomics

I'm going to do much more writing this year. I am also going to do more reading. I hope that these two statements would be true, even if I wasn't writing my dissertation this year. On this blog, I want to write up thoughts about what I'm reading, things that might show up in my dissertation, and things that have nothing at all to do with my dissertation.

Speaking of my dissertation, I'm defending my prospectus next Wednesday afternoon, so a week from now, I plan to be ABD (All But Dissertation)!

The first write-up of the year is Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner's Freakonomics. This book originally came out in October 2006, but was a gift this year for Christmas twice.* I thoroughly enjoyed the book, as the writers search to question conventional wisdom on a range of topics. They are great writers, writing in a fun, accessible way, while dealing with topics that are normally considered unaccessible by non-academics.

They state that conventional wisdom (according to a guy named Galbraith) "must be simple, convenient, comfortable and comforting." If you look closely at that definition, the word "true" is nowhere to be found. It was interesting to watch them address some of our ideas (like a house with a gun is more dangerous than a house with a pool) and show how conventional wisdom is not based on facts as much as it is on risk avoidance. Risk is defined as "hazard + outrage", in that when we think of risk, we're not just thinking about the hazard involved, but also the outrage that is felt if that event were to occur. So when we think about a child drowning in a pool, we feel sad, but not necessarily outraged. However, when we think about a child dying in a gun accident, the horror drastically increases the outrage we feel. So even though a child is 100 times more likely to drown in a pool (about 1 in 10,000 chance) than in a gun accident (about 1 in a million), we work much harder to increase gun safety and feel much more leery about sending children to a house with a gun than we do to institute things that would drive down the number of children who drown in a pool each year. The authors argue not that taking a stand against guns in houses is wrong, but rather, the reasons most people hold for taking such a stand are misguided.

The authors are very careful to discuss the difference between a strong correlation and causation, and tend to stick to strong correlations more often than not. However, time and time again we see that conventional wisdom, while it may feel good, is not always true.

I'm wondering how (or if) this book could fit into an Introduction to Philosophy class. I'm presently looking at using David Dark's The Sacredness of Questioning Everything in a class next spring as a way of encouraging students to realize that we must be willing to ask questions, even questions that may initially seem ridiculous, if we are going to arrive at truth (and that we should always work to arrive at truth). It seems like Freakonomics would be a book that could do a similar job.

Regardless, Freakonomics is a great book that I would recommend to most anyone! The authors published a sequel (Superfreakonomics) that came out this past fall (and which I ordered for myself on Amazon.com today for $12). If you want a book that will make you think and laugh at the same time, Freakonomics is for you.

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*My wife and mother-in-law both independently came up with the idea of getting it for me for Christmas. However, by the time my mother-in-law gave it to me, I was almost done with the copy from my wife.

I'm really bad at this blogging stuff...

Well, it's been over 2 1/2 months since I last wrote. In that time I've:

• Successfully run a half-marathon
• Gotten a dissertation topic approved
• Presented a paper on Nicholas Wolterstorff's work in front of him
• Finished teaching at UMHB
• Starting lifting weights again after a shoulder problem prevented that for a couple months
  
• Had a paper accepted for the Evangelical Philosophical Society conference in November
• Received an Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award for Baylor University

I think that's the bulk of it. I give my last final of the year at Baylor on Monday. Then I'll be fully devoted to getting my dissertation prospectus ready for defense, hopefully this summer. I'll also be working on my syllabus for the Existentialism class I'm teaching in the fall. Between those two things, I'm sure I'll have things to write about this summer.

Right now, my "fun" reading consists of:

• Satan and the Problem of Evil by Gregory A. Boyd
• The Sacredness of Questioning Everything by David Dark

I think the latter of the two has potential as a textbook for an Intro to Philosophy class. I've really enjoyed the books by David Dark, and especially enjoyed his wife's music (Sarah Masen).

The former is the second book in a "trilogy", and I had read the first one, God at War, at the beginning of this year. I've been listening to Boyd's podcasts for awhile, and realized that he treats spiritual warfare with a seriousness that I have not typically encountered. For awhile, I've believed in the reality of spiritual warfare but it didn't actually fit anywhere in my intellectual or practical scheme of life. These books have definitely helped change that, particularly in the intellectual realm. I'm still figuring out how this works out in my life, but think that these books are definitely worth looking at. (The third book in the "trilogy" is actually a forth-coming work that is presently projected to be two volumes, roughly a thousand pages in each.)

As far as music to check out, I've recently become aware of the band Obadiah Parker (fronted by Mat Weddle). They're most famous for an acoustic cover of Outkast's "Hey Ya" but I've enjoyed all of their stuff I've heard. I definitely recommend them. I also recommend the new Kelly Clarkson album, but that's another story.

Ok, that's enough writing for now. Hopefully I can do better with writing and actually get into some ideas worth discussing soon.

Running for....

This year I got ambitious.

I decided working on a dissertation wasn't enough.

I decided working on a dissertation while teaching two classes wasn't enough.

I decided that in addition to that, I was going to run the Bearathon at the end of March. For those of you who don't know, the Bearathon is a half-marathon (13.1 miles) that Baylor puts on each year that runs through Waco and Cameron Park. This has added a new element to my life to say the least. Before about a month ago, I had never run 5 miles at one time, let alone 13.1.

Today was a significant step on that journey. Today I ran 11 miles. I was only supposed to run 10, and Baylor has a trail that is 2.25 miles, so I had decided to do four laps and throw in a little extra loop on each lap, which came out to be 11 miles. I really should have mapped this out beforehand, I guess.

Regardless, I feel a sense of accomplishment. I mean, if I run at that speed in 5 weeks, they'll shut down the course before I finish, but still, I ran 11 freaking miles today. I'm not too worried about the race, as it's still 5 weeks away and I wasn't THAT far off pace and there'll be more frequent refreshment stops AND my dear brother Jared will be joining me for the race!

I've been keeping a running log on-line throughout this process and it's fun to see the miles add up. I'll keep you all (those are two separate words, not one) informed as I progress through this trek!

Teaching reflections

Today is the end of the semester for me. My logic students are taking their final as I write.

This semester has been one of the most rewarding semesters of my life. It was so rewarding largely due to the fact that I was teaching three classes; one logic class at Baylor, and two classes (Intro to Philosophy and Philosophy of Religion) at Mary Hardin-Baylor. The joy of teaching students, especially students who want to learn, is something I find incredibly fulfilling. Seeing the light bulb turn on as a student understands something after much struggle. Watching students realize for possibly the first time that some questions don't have as easy of answers as they thought they did. Having those same students really wrestle with the issues, determined to come out on the other side. Receiving complements from students, explaining that they appreciated both the material covered in class as well as the presenter. All these and so much more made this semester so wonderful.

I've also done a lot of reflection, thinking back on the professors who shaped me, both as a person, and now I realize, as a professor. I find quirks in the way I go about things in the classroom that remind me of Stump, Meister, Erdel, and Petrik, whether it is in the way I teach, how I explain something, how I respond to something, the interaction with the students outside of class. I've long known that these men have had a profound impact on me as a person, and I am much better because of it. Now I realize, they too have shaped me as a teacher. I've had students respond to my teaching in ways much like I responded to theirs. This has affirmed that I am going down the right path, and hopefully I can continue to grow to become like these men who have taught me so much, both in and out of the classroom.

Starbucks = Cheers

This post could be alternatively titled "How you know that you've spent too much time at one Starbucks "

Today, like most days, I'm at Starbucks to study and do lesson planning. I just went up to order, and ordered "the Normal", and the barista at the register rang up my order, I paid, and eventually my drink came, and all was good.

A couple minutes later, I look at my cup, in the area they write the order, and the barista at the register simply wrote "JOEL" and the barista making the drink knew exactly what to make.

Sometimes the manager just brings me my drink for free without me having to order or pay.

I think I need a new drink... or a new place to study.

Then again, "You wanna be where everybody knows your name".

Academic New Year's Day

Monday was the beginning of yet another school year. However, it was a new experience for me, for this semester marks the shift from being primarily taking classes to primarily teaching classes and working towards a dissertation. My time of being a student has nearly come to an end, and now I'm seeing the steps of transitioning toward being a professor.

This fall, in addition to working on my dissertation prospectus, I'm teaching an Intro to Logic class at Baylor and an Intro to Philosophy class and a Philosophy of Religion class at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, about 40 minutes away. The latter option came up in the last month, and is a great opportunity to teach in a small Christian liberal arts university and get some experience in that setting, as I hope to one day be a professor in that kind of institution.

I've done a little reflecting while doing the commutes about my life as a student. I've thought about all the great moments in my life and all the great people who have helped shape me into the man I am today. I've thought about the things that I think I'd probably do differently if I could. I've thought about the classes that I learned the most from, and thought about the times in life I learned the most. It makes me appreciate my past and motivates me to make sure I don't lose the connection to that past. It also makes me anticipate the future and the shaping that will occur and the ways I will be able to help shape the people and students I encounter. And, although it is incredibly cheesy, I also celebrate this present time as the intersection between the past and the future... and the fact that I'm really happy where I am right now.

On Behalf of the Cubs

Frankly, I'm a little tired of the media bashing the Cubs. I mean, it's a subtle bashing, but it's a bashing nonetheless. The Cubs are 31-21, the best record in the National League by half a game, and 1/2 a game from the best record in the majors. However, whenever you see a power poll, it is likely to mention that 12 of the Cubs games have come against the Pirates, as though the Pirates were a team that EVERYONE beats on. The Cubs went 9-3 in those games. The Pirates are presently 24-27 (a half a game worse than the Yankees, for the record). If you take away those 12 games from the Pirates' record, they are actually 21-18, which is a winning record. It seems hard to bash the Cubs for winning 75% of their games against a team that would have a winning record if they didn't have to play the Cubs.

The Cubs don't get the respect they deserve. Maybe one day soon, they'll shed their "lovable loser" image for a World Series title.

Coming Attractions

The semester is over... but the summer studying for comps has begun.

This summer I have roughly 4300 pages of primary source reading to do, covering philosophical history from Descartes to Plantinga (and other living philosophers). While I'm reading up for comps, I hope to have time to write a few posts that I've been inspired to write. Some potential ideas are:

• A review of Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright.
• "The Constipation of Philosophy" - a realization of the misuse of philosophy to serve our own ends rather than to pursue truth
• Thoughts on the movie adaptation of Prince Caspian
• A review of Mario Kart Wii
• Thoughts about using Facebook as a professor/instructor

There are other ideas, but those are a few of the "highlights" if you can call them that.

However, for the time being, it's back to Spinoza.

Random Thoughts

I'm in the home-stretch for the semester. Two more weeks of classes and then final papers are due. I'm nearly done with my paper for philosophy of science. I'm using Michael Polanyi to argue for the rejection of the traditional understanding of objectivity as well as a conception of 'sobjectivity'* to replace objectivity such that it can still be usable without having the difficulties of traditional objectivity. My paper for Hume is looking at the possibility of sympathy producing sentiments in us that will lead to actions similar to justice in situations where justice is not expected. This paper has a solid outline that needs to be filled in now. My final paper is for my independent study on Wittgenstein and Iris Murdoch. It'll be something great and interesting, I'm sure, probably involving religious belief or something along those lines.

In other exciting news, this semester is my final semester of coursework. This summer will be my second set of comprehensive exams, and in the fall I'll be teaching and working on my prospectus for my dissertation. Things aren't really slowing down, which is probably good.

Mario Kart for Wii comes out this Sunday. I'm not sure there is a worse time for it to come out, personally. This week will be a full week of studying in hopes of being able to justify getting it, but it is quite possible that the fun will have to wait a couple weeks till the papers are done.

I'm still reading the N.T. Wright book Surprised by Hope and hope to finish it here in my moments of relaxation the next couple weeks, after which I'll post some sort of review up here on it. I'm really enjoying it and would encourage people to take a serious look at it.

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*I learned from Chad Meister that anytime you want to reform a concept in such a way that it closely resembles the previous concept, simply add an 's' to the front of the word for the concept you're reformulating. I know this is an old philosophical move, but I never saw it used as much as I did by Chad in class.

Big Dreams

Today, I happened to be at Starbucks on campus at the end of the Kansas/Davidson game. As the game was ending, I walked across the room to Chili's Too to watch the end of the game, as Kansas emerged victorious, making it the first time since the field expanded to 64 teams that all 4 No.1 seeds advanced to the Final Four. Off to the side, I hear a funny comment:

Some girl in America is living my dream; picking all four of the Final Four teams.

Sadly, he's right, as most people who follow basketball never pick all 4 No. 1 teams to the Final Four, because of the history. Even more sadly, if his dream is to pick all four Final Four teams, he really needs bigger dreams.

Resurrection

This week is Holy Week, with tomorrow being Easter, the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. This week I bought a book that I'd had my eye on for awhile. I bought Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright. The inside cover flap says something to the effect of:

For years, Christians have asked the question, "If do died tonight, do you know where you would go?" Turns out they have been giving the wrong answer. It is not heaven.

His argument appears to be based on the idea that we have hope of resurrection when we die. It is not a matter of dieing and immediately going to heaven, but rather waiting in hope of the resurrection of the dead. He has hinted that he will be arguing against the idea that heaven is a disembodied state, but rather a new creation, or fulfillment of creation, a joining together or heaven and earth. When taken in this context, it makes a lot more sense why Paul commends us to take care of our bodies and this earth. However, our mindset typically is the opposite. We see little need to take care of our bodies for a spiritual purpose or to take care of the earth for such a purpose. Rather we see no need to oil the squeaky wheel of the cart that is about to go over the cliff.

I am only a couple chapters into the book, but it is forcing me to evaluate my thoughts on death and life after death. I had done some initial wrestling with the issue a few years ago, but had not come to any well-reasoned conclusions. I was leaning towards some of these conclusions, but now it's time to figure things out a little more.

I think our church is onto something with the celebration of Easter. Throughout Lent, the sanctuary has been decorated using gray primarily. On Good Friday, the decorations are turned to black and left that way till the service starts on Sunday morning. One of the first things in the service that happens is we sing "Christ the Lord is Risen Today", and as we sing, people come down the aisles carrying lilies, white cloth, and other "life-signifying" things and the sanctuary is transformed from death to life as we proclaim the resurrection of our Lord. It is a very moving time.

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On other things, I'm getting to be a "bachelor" for the weekend. Jess is up in Michigan visiting her family. She had Good Friday and the day after Easter off, so she flew back to Michigan Thursday evening. She flies back on Monday evening. My parents are coming next Thursday, so I'm using the weekend to get ahead in some classes and work on some papers... and cheering on Purdue this afternoon. I'm also getting a "guys night" tonight, which will be fun too. However, I'm already anxiously awaiting the return of my wife on Monday.

A Dilemma

This coming weekend is one of my favorite weekends of the year, every year. The NCAA Tournament begins play on Thursday morning and continues through Sunday evening. It is an extravaganza of basketball, with great upsets along the way.

This afternoon, I watched the selection show, waiting for my two teams to be named to the bracket. I kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting... and the last game they announce involves both of my teams. Purdue and Baylor in the first round. Now, although Baylor will be giving me a degree in a couple years, my allegiance still lies with Purdue. It's just too bad that both of my teams can't make it past the first round.

To further complicate things, the game is on Thursday. I have class till 2 PM (3 EST) on Thursday, and then I'm taking Jess to the airport in Dallas at 4 and won't return till 8. So not only are both of my teams playing each other in the first round, but there's a 50% chance that I won't be able to watch the game.

Four positive notes though: 1) There is only one game that I have to watch in the first round. 2) One of my two teams will be playing on Saturday. 3) Since Purdue is playing Baylor, if the game happens while I'm driving Jess to the airport, at least it'll be on the radio. 4) After the first round, there is no possibility of divided allegiance... especially since cheering against IU is a part of being a Purdue fan.

Top 25 of 2007

I know it's a couple days after the new year, but I saved the list of the 25 most played songs on my computer/iPod in 2007, and present it to you today. Where there were ties, I have taken the liberty of ranking them to my own liking. The number of plays of each song on this list ranged from 28 to 84. An asterisk beside the title means that it is a repeat from the previous year's list where you can find more thoughts on the song.

25. No Signs of Life - OK Go
After developing an interest in the band OK Go because of the treadmill video, I purchased the album on iTunes when it was on sale, and I was not disappointed. The album was a fun blend of songs, with this song being the highlight for me (at least from the last 12 months).

24. Letter from an Occupant - The New Pornographers*
This song is the first of many repeats from 2006's top 20 list, but it is a very deserving song. I still find it to be an incredibly catchy and fun song, and one that I very rarely skip when it comes up.

23. Jacob and 2 Women (The World Best as I Can Remember It) - Rich Mullins
I think this song is one of Rich's most beautiful and poetic... even if I don't always get exactly what he's getting at in the song. 2007 was the 10 year anniversary of the passing of this wonderful man. I'm grateful for the songs he left us.

22. That Kind of Love - Sister Hazel
I first heard this song at my brother Josh's wedding in May in the slideshow of him and Stacy. I really liked this song, and Jess really liked this song, so we downloaded it and it got plenty of listens. It is a semi-sappy love song, but as you all know, those songs have quite the soft spot with me.

21. For the Actor - Mates of State
A friend of mine introduced me to this song near the beginning of the year, and it was very catchy and enjoyable. A friend in Texas told me more about this band, and I became more intrigued. I haven't found anything by them that I like as well as this song, but given that this song was the 21st most played song of 2007 midst a collection of almost 5000 songs, that's nothing to sneeze at!

20. Hard to Get - Rich Mullins
Lyrically, this song is my favorite of Rich's. It was recorded just a few days before he died on an old tape recorder with him and a guitar. It was restored best it could be for the Jesus Record released the following May. Rich asks so many sincere questions of God, questioning if He really understands our pain, but ultimately realizes that He's working for our best, even if we can't see it. One of the best lyrics in the song is "I can't see how you're leading me, unless you've led me here, to where I'm lost enough to let myself be led." I agree that God is often hard to get... but He loves us.

19. It's On - Superchick
Here is the first song I'm embarrassed to have show up on this list. Jess and I have attended a few Lady Bears basketball games (as they are a perennial top 10 team in the nation) and last year, this song kicked off the introductions for the game. It's a peppy song for sure and good for getting the adrenaline going. Apparently, I had many times last year that I needed to get the adrenaline going.

18. What You Wish For - Guster
My freshman year at Bethel, I had a roommate that LOVED Guster and played their album all the time. I liked it at first, but hearing it that often sorta turned me off to them. Last year, I encountered them again, and upon giving them another chance, I found that I liked them, especially when I didn't have to hear it 10 times a week. This song was the most enjoyed song of the Guster downloads I made after that reintroduction.

17. Making Love Out of Nothing at All - Air Supply
This song may be the standard of sappy, emotional love songs from the 80s. Need I say more?

16. Seasons Always Change - Sarah Masen*
I love Sarah Masen. This is the only song to actually move up from last year's spot. I think the message of love and growth means even more the longer I'm married, and I hope that I continue to grow and love in all areas of my life, but especially my marriage.

15. One Headlight - The Wallflowers*
Even though the band never recovered from Springsteen's collaboration, this song remains as one of the great songs of the 90s. I remember hearing this in high school and wondering what the "something better than in the middle" could be. I knew it had to be there, but wasn't quite sure what.

14. We Are the Champions - Queen
This is the first of a number of Queen songs on the list. My wife got me Queen's Greatest Hits cds for Valentine's Day, and I immediately went on a 2-3 week kick where all I listened to was Queen. This song in particular holds the memories of winning International Bible Quizzing finals in 1999... and sadly, it also contains memories of Mighty Ducks (I think) 2 when they sing this song at the end. Why did Disney have to ruin this song?!?!

13. Against All Odds - Phil Collins
I think that this is one of the all-time semi-pathetic love songs... and that's why I love it! I love the passion you can hear in Phil Collins' voice as he longs for the return of his lover, but knowing it is against all odds that she'll return. It's sorta pathetic but the patheticness is so beautiful in a pathetic sort of way.

12. My Little Corner of the World - Yo La Tengo
My first encounter with this song came nearly four years ago during the finale of the most wonderful show of all time, Ed. They played this song during a montage at the end of the wedding between Ed and Carol, and I instantly fell in love with this song. I think it is a really sweet, soft and subtle song, and I finally refound it and downloaded it this past year. Long live Tom Cavanagh and his wonderful characters!

11. I Don't Feel Like Dancing - Scissor Sisters
A friend recommended this song to me after I sent the youtube link to the #1 song on this list, as it is similar. I really enjoyed it. The irony of this song is that even though it's about not feeling like dancing, I can't help but want to get up and dance in the song. Just thinking about it makes me move in my chair.

10. First Time - Lifehouse
I have been a fan of Lifehouse for many years now. With each album, it seems like they reinvent themselves a little bit, and their most recent album was no exception. This song was the most radio friendly hit and got played more than any other song from the album, but I recommend the entire cd to anyone!

9. For You I Will (Confidence) - Teddy Geiger*
Another Tom Cavanagh show inspired song in the countdown. This song was from the short-lived show LoveMonkey. Teddy Geiger played the character Wayne for whom this was a debut, break-out single, much like it was for him in real life at a similar time. It is a shame that both of Tom Cavanagh's shows have been far too short-lived.

8. Take a Chance on Me - ABBA*
Although this song will always be associated with Mike and Mike in the Morning's coverage of the NFL Draft, a new great memory of this song was formed this year. On The Office, Andy tries to win Angela's heart through a conference call serenade with a few of his former singing buddies. It is well-worth youtubing it. The music video for this song is quite classic as well.

7. Just Want You to Know - Backstreet Boys
This is a good song that becomes an amazing song thanks to the music video. Yet another clip worth youtubing. I am not typically a fan of anything boybandish, but I'll take this song any day!

6. Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy - Queen
I think this is such a fun song. Freddy Mercury's vocals on this (and every Queen) song are memorable. I also like to think that I'm a good old-fashioned lover boy, at least in my attempts to be romantic with my wife... and to those who were present at New Year's, nowhere in the song does it make any mention of flowers!

5. Irreplaceable - Beyoncé
"To the left, to the left" With this start, the song moves into an infectious groove about lover taken for granted, letting her former beloved know that he's not irreplaceable. My wife thinks I have a thing for songs by females with attitude... but not completely over the top attitude like Avril. I think she's right.

4. Somebody to Love - Queen
This year I have fallen in love with the genre of rock opera. Between Queen and Meat Loaf (who showed up in my collection too late in the year to make a serious run for the top 25 of the year), many of my favorite songs added to my collection in the past year are in this genre. I think it comes from my love of pop/rock music combined with my love for the stage. With that being said, this song exemplifies what a rock opera song should do.

3. Don't Stop Me Now - Queen
Another great song from Queen. This song is nice and peppy, while also having a performance in the song that is more than what a typical rock song does, but has a theatrical element, even in just the audio. I love it.

2. Love Today - Mika
Although this is a great song, it greatly benefited from being discovered in the first two weeks of the year, being the only song available when what I really wanted to listen to was the #1 song on the chart, and a kick where I listened to Mika for a solid week. Regardless, it is a catchy song that encourages everyone to love people in many different ways, although he wants much of that love directed at him. If I were to rank the songs by my personal opinions rather than the play count, this would probably be about 15-20 spots lower. However, that's not how this works, so it remains the #2 song of the year.

1. Grace Kelly - Mika
I will never forget the day I first heard this song. Jess and I were eating breakfast in the living room last January, celebrating the ice day (which in Texas means a really really thin layer of ice on most things, so we cancel EVERYTHING). MTV was actually showing music videos at this time of the morning and this artist we did not know came on, and we kept it on. By the end of the song, I knew this was a song that I would enjoy for a long time. The music video is loads of fun (with the cast made up entirely of his friends and family), but the song is just great. Mika's voice receives many comparisons to Freddy Mercury of Queen, which in this song are totally appropriate. Go youtube this song. I really think you should download it from iTunes, but I'll let you go watch it first and then let you decide for yourself that you really should download this song.

Newcomers to Watch for Next Year:
I thought I'd add a few artists that didn't make the list this year, likely because the cds became a part of the collection too late in the year, but are showing great promise to make next year's list.
Sara Bareilles
Ingrid Michaelson
Meat Loaf
Cobra Starship
Caedmon's Call (with the return of Derek Webb)

Traveling Adventures

Yesterday, Jess and I left Indiana after a wonderful time with our families. Seeing as Jess had to work this morning, we set out from my parents' house at 5:15 am, with the hope of arriving here soon after 8:00 pm. These expectations are reasonable provided there are no weather or traffic problems. You could say that we had both yesterday.

The 36 hours before we left were filled with snow and wind. We were hoping that both would have ended before we left, but neither had. So we took off, driving into a headwind from the west, driving about 30-40 miles an hour on a state highway. Upon reaching the interstate, the roads were pretty fully cleared, and the speed of traffic increased to 50-60 miles an hour, but now the wind was blowing from the passenger side, with the gusts trying to push the poor Civic. After being on the interstate for about 20 miles, while it was still dark out, I hit a patch of ice, coupled with a gust of wind, and started to fishtail. Thankfully there were no other cars nearby, as after a valiant attempt, the car still went into the ditch.

Both of us were not injured in the least, and I hadn't hit anything with the car. I got out to examine the situation to see if there was any way to get the car out without calling a tow truck. I tried to push while Jess put it in reverse, but no such luck. Someone stopped and then we had two of us pushing, but still no luck. We were in too far by about a foot, so our back tires couldn't get any traction. I was fortunate enough to get both of my feet absolutely drenched, as well as mud on my pants. We waited about 45 minutes for the tow truck to arrive, and when he did arrive, it was about 5 minutes (and $75) until we were on the road again.

By that point, people realized that the roads may have looked clear, but were not really clear, as no one was driving over 55 (and I was keeping it around 40, just for good measure). Thankfully, the sun started to come out and it stopped snowing, and we got far enough south (and started going west again into the wind) that the snow wouldn't have really bothered anything. We were able to stop and get some dry socks for me and I changed into them and my dry pair of shoes. We were a bit concerned when things picked up and the car started to shimmy around 60. However, I think we just had some snow mashed up in the car somewhere because over the next 1000 miles, the shimmy disappeared, and everything ran fine.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, and we arrived in our apartment about 10:30 pm, 18 1/2 hours after we left (as we gain an hour coming back). For the first time, I don't miss snow. I will definitely be enjoying the 75 degree weather this weekend.

Holiday Media - Book One - Slaughterhouse-Five

The semester ended last Friday for me, and now I'm on my Christmas Break. I'm going to try and read a number of books and watch a number of movies particularly between now and next Thursday when we leave for Indiana and from January 3-14, before classes start for me. I will try and give updates about each piece of media I consume (including CDs if I receive any for Christmas).

Slaughterhouse-Five
by Kurt Vonnegut

I received this book as a gift for my birthday from my wife. I have been told by many people that I would really enjoy Vonnegut, and so I thought I'd ask for a book of his for my birthday. I didn't have a chance to start reading it till this past weekend and finished it this morning. It is a dark, humorous novel that is a retelling of the Allied bombing of Dresden, Germany in World War II. As one who was present for this event, being held as a P.O.W. in Dresden, Vonnegut gives us a perspective of that event (and war in general), that runs contrary to how many would speak of it. This book is a reminder that war is not glorious. It is a gruesome thing in which we must dehumanize our enemies in order to make it glorious. War seems to be inevitable. However, Vonnegut paints a picture of a man who comes to accept the war through the means of seeing the world and its events as completely determined and always existing, so we do not have any sort of say in how things turn out. Through this acceptance, Billy Pilgrim lives his life, jumping about from moment to moment of his life (skipping about many years in an instant), for there is no now, but everything always has been and always will be.

Although I disagree with the way that Pilgrim comes to accept the evil in the world (and the world in general), I thought this was a wonderful book. It is a great commentary on the war and the unnecessary slaughter of humanity (particularly civilians) that occur in most wars. It is a very dark book with moments of humor that might make you chuckle a bit. When you finish the book and reflect on it, the idea makes you want to laugh until you are reminded that the idea of the book is found in reality. This book was my first Vonnegut read, but I already look forward to the next chance I'll get to read another one of his books!

Currently Reading: Ludwig Wittgenstein - The Duty of Genius by Ray Monk
Faith, Film and Philosophy - eds R. Douglas Geivett & James S. Spiegel