Go Bears!

As I always say, I don't really care about sports, and more specifically I don't really care about American Football, but I do love the Chicago Bears!

photo | Photography Of Photography

These were taken near Todtnauberg im Schwarzwald, Summer of 2005.







These were taken in Barcelona, España, Summer of 2005.

[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Photography]

politics | Communicating With A Senator

I'll post a follow up if I receive one, but I received an email today from the office of Senator Dick Durbin:

---

October 19, 2006


Mr. Daniel Morehead
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXX, XX XXXXX


Dear Mr. Morehead:

In light of your past correspondence about the agenda of the Bush Administration and the United States Congress, I am writing to provide you with an update.

As the 109th Congress draws to a close, I remain deeply concerned that the Administration and the Majority in Congress have misjudged the priorities of the American people. The Senate Majority established a light working schedule and devoted significant portions of that schedule to matters such as same-sex marriage and flag desecration. While these issues are not insignificant, our nation faces a host of more urgent concerns that are a higher priority for the American people and require Congressional attention.

We should have used precious Senate workdays to address other issues. Congress has so far failed to pass 10 of the 12 appropriations bills needed to keep our government funded for the year ahead -- specifically the 10 bills that fund domestic programs. The Senate has failed to provide desperately-needed oversight of the war in Iraq and war contracting. The minimum wage has been stuck for nine years and still needs to be increased. Legislation to authorize lifesaving stem cell research was vetoed by the President and has not become law. We still lack a sensible, sustainable energy policy that will address high gas prices and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. We have yet to enact the comprehensive reforms our broken immigration system needs. We must do more to provide Americans with access to affordable health care and assistance in covering the cost of college tuition. And we must exercise Congressional oversight to ensure that the federal government protects the American people while preserving the civil liberties that have helped to make our country the greatest and most enduring democracy in the world.

These are difficult issues facing our country, but the Congress has an obligation to take them on. In my capacity as the Senate Assistant Democratic Leader, I have worked to develop and advance proposals in these areas. Sadly, the agenda set by the Administration and the Congress has not even allowed significant debate on many of these urgent priorities. As we approach a new year and the start of the 110th Congress, I will continue to work to address these and other important issues, and I will continue to keep your concerns in mind.

Thank you again for your correspondence with me. I hope you will continue to stay in touch.

Sincerely,

Richard J. Durbin
United States Senator

RJD/ds

P.S. If you are ever visiting Washington, please feel free to join Senator Obama and me at our weekly constituent coffee. When the Senate is in session, we provide coffee and donuts every Thursday at 8:30 a.m. as we hear what is on the minds of Illinoisans and respond to your questions. We would welcome your participation. Please call my D.C. office for more details.

---

My response:
Dear Senator Durbin (or staffer who reads these--and bravo to you, as I know how hard it can be to work on the Hill):

I'm writing this to respond to the message I received from you today. Thank you for your message and if you are interested, here are things I think are needed and which I'd like to see you and Senator Obama pursue. There is no need to send a form letter/email responding to these points. I've received a couple of the same letters on multiple occasions.

1. Decrease military spending. The military machine will always want more money and there will always be a better weapon to buy. [See link below.]
2. Decommission all nuclear weapons as part of plan to provide credibility when we isolate countries for pursuing nuclear weapons. (I should note, I think possessing nuclear weapons makes all military activity of a country necessarily unjust as there is no way that a nuclear weapon can discriminate between combatants and non-combatants and the possession of such weapons signals the possibility and therefore willing consent to at minimum their theoretical use. This, of course, assumes one follows just war theory which I take to be our nation's most compelling conceptual framework since I assume political realism is not a viable social option for a government that cares about the virtue of its citizens.)
3. Increase the retirement age of social security by five years starting no later than 15 years from now.
4. Increase the minimum wage 20%.
5. Decrease federal taxes and delegate more fiscal responsibility and taxation to the states.
6. Actively and vocally work towards eliminating abortion. This doesn't mean making it illegal!
7. Pass legislation to end the ongoing exploitation of immigrants.

That's a start. I think there are solutions, but few exhibit courage to pursue them. Will you touch the social security issue? Will you attempt the minimize the scale and the resulting inefficiencies of the federal government? Of course, some would say that to do so would be political suicide. Courage is exemplified by adequately loving one's own life but entering into the fray knowing that one may loose it. I don't see a lot of courage in your seemingly one-sided list of needs. You'll have my undying support when you show yourself worthy of it.

Daniel R. Morehead
Political Theorist, Christian Ethicist

I thought you might enjoy this piece I wrote in May:

http://americasyoungtheologian.blogspot.com/2006/05/art-dada-eisenhower-and-exasperation_06.html

[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Politics]

article | The Pitchfork Effect

Wired Magazine
Issue 14.09 - September 2006
"The Pitchfork Effect"
by Dave Itzkoff

I expected to like this article more than I did, finding it too superficial for anyone already up on the current trends and trendsetters in the craft and business of music or music criticism/journalism. But, if you're still reading Rolling Stone, this is a good article for you (The same could be said for Spin, Itzkoff's former employer. I still unhappily subscribe to Spin, a periodical that finds itself in a similar position to Rolling Stone five to seven years ago). That being said, this article is an enjoyable, if not general read with some interesting information on Pitchfork.

"Even if Pitchfork's exhaustive and in-depth reviews can be overwrought and hard to understand at times, the site's genuine enthusiasm is infectious. It treats the unheralded Pittsburgh cut-and-paste artist Girl Talk as importantly as old-guard arena-rockers Red Hot Chili Peppers. 'The priorities of the mainstream media are to give the audience what they believe they want,' says Matthew Perpetua, who writes about indie rock at Fluxblog.org. 'Pitchfork goes for things that are not obvious, or aren't on the radar at all. They write about things simply because they're interested in them.'"

Read the entire article...

[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Music]

blog | Strange Connection Of The Week

"The Dude" over at Questionable Answers linked to my recent post: On Walton. I commented on his blog saying that I was glad that he enjoyed the piece. His mother logs on that week and proceeds to email him saying, "We used to live across the street from the Morehead's." His family moved when we were in elementary school; his older brother was a year behind me in school. How's that for a blast from the past?

[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Friends][Blog]

theology | Meditation on Matthew 5:5

See also:
Meditation on Matthew 5:3
Meditation on Matthew 5:4

"How honored are those who do not use force,
for they shall receive the earth."

+ + +
Lord, being gentle, refusing force or manipulation, is terrifying. I'm quite convinced that I can take, I'm good at it, but waiting to receive requires a level of vulnerability which I'm not always prepared to render. What if I wait in vain? I suppose I doubt sometimes that you provide. I doubt that things can operate as you suppose, which is the same as doubting that this is in fact your world. Do you not know that we live in a dangerous violent world which might just roll over me if I let down my guard? I know it a foolish question. You know the violence personally. All violence is personal to you. I may be imprisoned behind my walls which I construct as a show of strength in a hostile world, but at least I am safe. Is this really safety? Being locked behind an impenetrable wall sounds more like death than safety. But a freedom, true freedom, that comes as I learn to be loving rather than forcing myself on the world is, as I said, terrifying. It puts before my face the reality from which I normally avert my eyes, the reality that I am a creature, contingent, and feeble. Of course, hiding behind these walls, walls like intellect, youth, and privilege, doesn't make me less a creature, less contingent, less feeble, but does give a sense of confidence. This confidence, however, is at its root fear. This fear keeps me separated from the earth, others, and you, Lord. Even my beloved gifts, which I use to shield myself from the world, are corrupted in this act. I cling to them as my safety instead of receiving them as something to be shared. They become instruments of separation instead of communion. Though able, you did not resort to using force to claim the earth for yourself. In your supreme act of meekness, you opened yourself to the world and in so doing reconciled the creation to yourself. My knee jerk reaction is to say, "yes, but I don't want to die." Avoidance of death, however, is not an option and our relation to death often structures how we live. So Lord, help me to receive my life as a gift, help me to increasingly learn gentleness and to refuse engaging the earth with force. Teach me how to inherit the earth as you have already done through your perfect love which drives out fear. Amen.

+ + +
[The photo comes from a small chapel in Gegenbach, Germany which graphically depicts the various beatitudes from Matthew. The chapel was a stopping point for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.]

[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Politics][Matthew 5]

friends | News From The Far Country

Reno is back in action and picks up on the story in the Independent: 655,000: The toll of war in Iraq. The story begins:

"The human cost of the war in Iraq could be far higher than previously thought. A new survey says more than 650,000 Iraqis have lost their lives as a consequence of the invasion by the United States and Britain, with an estimated 200,000 violent deaths directly attributable to Allied forces."

Reading stories like this make me want to do something rash, like quote a bumper sticker: Fighting for Peace is like Fucking for Virginity. However, as I've tried to demonstrate the decent into bumper sticker politics would only further polarize ourselves and miss the real conversations that need to be had.

[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Politics]

poem | Bob Dylan on Woody Guthrie

I promised my friend Julie that if I came across a poem that came up in conversation that I'd pass it along. So, here is the audio of Bob Dylan reading his spoken word poem entitled "Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie."

...

No but that ain’t yer game, it ain’t even yer race
You can’t hear yer name, you can’t see yer face
You gotta look some other place
And where do you look for this hope that yer seekin’
Where do you look for this lamp that’s a-burnin’
Where do you look for this oil well gushin’
Where do you look for this candle that’s glowin’
Where do you look for this hope that you know is there
And out there somewhere
And your feet can only walk down two kinds of roads
Your eyes can only look through two kinds of windows
Your nose can only smell two kinds of hallways
You can touch and twist
And turn two kinds of doorknobs
You can either go to the church of your choice
Or you can go to brooklyn state hospital
You’ll find God in the church of your choice
You’ll find woody guthrie in brooklyn state hospital

And though it’s only my opinion
I may be right or wrong
You’ll find them both
In the grand canyon
At sundown

Bob Dylan - "Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie"

[America's Young Theologian][Music][Poetry][Bob Dylan]

friends | The Sweet Sound of Speculation

Jeni has taken my lead and produced a good story for the newspaper at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN. I'm glad something useful has come out of my frequent attempts to get people to comment on songs.

===============

Entertainment
The Sweet Sound of Speculation
'Love, Love, Love'

Discussing: King Saul, Sonny Liston, Joseph,
Raskolnikov, pious prostitutes, phantom
punches, prolepsis, 1 Corinthians 13:12, tiger
balm, faith, hope and love, love, love.

By Jeni Falkman
M.Div. Middler

What is it about a song that carries us through a moment, through a movie, through a life? Why do couples have “their song,” one that conveys a memory, a meaning and a promise? And why does the rain in Spain stay mainly in the plains? I don’t know; I just know that I love music. I wake up in the morning with a song on my mind and it carries me through the day. Between classes and a busy work schedule music is a three-and-a-half minute repose that allows me to breathe, focus and abstract myself for just a moment before jumping back into the chaos. Music helps me to create order.

I find in music what I find difficult in class: the articulation of a thing. One can find sermons in songs, and not even Christian songs. One can find brief summaries on human sin and despair in songs, even in Christian songs. Songs, music and melody can help to convey our collective and individual experiences, theologies and heresies.

As a brief introduction to this feature, I’d like to note that knowledge of the songs here discussed is not necessary. I believe that the theological outsights (not so much insight) can be understood without hearing the song. However, let this also be an introduction to some music you might just enjoy. I know I sure do.

The song I have selected for this issue is “Love, Love, Love” by The Mountain Goats. It is found on the 2005 release The Sunset Tree. The song examines the motivation of love, the work of love, and the promise of love:

King Saul fell on his sword when it all went wrong
Joseph’s brothers sold him down the river for a song
And Sonny Liston rubbed some tiger balm onto his glove
Some things you do for money,
and some you do for love, love, love

We first see the outcome of actions that are not motivated by love. King Saul, fleeing from the wrath of God and afraid of David’s ascension to power, falls on his sword in a cave, eventually killing himself (1 Samuel 31:4). Joseph’s brothers hated him for the dreams they feared to be true, first conspiring to kill him, but later deciding to sell him to a passing cohort of Ishmaelites (Gen 37:5, 27) only later to fulfill Joseph’s dreams. Charles “Sonny” Liston cheated in both of his fights against Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali. In their first fight in 1964 Liston rubbed tiger balm onto his glove blinding Clay; Liston would eventually pull up lame and end the fight. Second, in 1965, Liston feigned a knock out in the opening minutes of the match while Ali threw the infamous phantom punch, which may or may not have landed across Liston’s jaw.

Raskolnikov felt sick, but he couldn’t say why
When he saw his face reflected in his victims twinkling eye
Some things you do for money, and some you do for fun
But the things you do for love
are gonna come back to you one by one.

Next we see the trump of the power of love on those who would hope to transcend it. Robbing and murdering two women in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov hoped to escape any sort of judgment, as if he were above the law. Despite Raskolnikov’s attempt to ignore his sin, thus making it inapplicable, his guilt would not let him. Raskolnikov’s guilt drove him mad. It was the love of the pious prostitute Sofya whose love not only forced his confession, but also rehabilitated his life. He loses everything, but love does not lose him.

Love, love is gonna lead us by the hand
Into the white and soundless place
Now we see things as in a mirror dimly
Then we shall see each other face to face

Is love then what we search for; is our love redemptive? Indeed, love is what we are called to do, but love is also what we are looking forward to; love is what we are hoping for, but, “Now we see things as in a mirror dimly,” now we have love only in faith, only in hope, we do not yet see love face to face. Even so, “We shall see face to face.” This does not mean that we hold off on love, by no means! It means that what we see now, our generation’s malevolence, like those before, is not the ultimate epitome of love and it is not all that we get in Christ: “Faith, hope and love abide and the greatest of these is love.” This is not the trite stuff that weddings are made of, but rather a confession that when we see God face to face we will no longer hold God in faith and hope but will see God, we will see love, the greatest of all things as reality. But I proleptically digress.

Way out in Seattle, young Kurt Cobain
Snuck out to the greenhouse, put a bullet in his brain
Snakes in the grass beneath our feet, rain in the clouds above,
Some moments last forever,
and some flare out with love, love, love

I find the order of the song, that this verse immediately follows the Pauline reference, crucial. We, as Lutherans, as Christians, as people, are never above what we see currently. We do have the peace that passes all understanding, but this peace does not mean that we are sheltered from strife. Nor are we to shy away from it. The song ends in reference to Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of the ground-breaking grunge band Nirvana, who killed himself with a sawed-off shotgun at the age of 27. He was young; he was talented; he was a lot like a lot of people we will encounter in our congregations. We are called to preach, teach, care for and minister to these very people because of and out of love, love, love.

[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Friends][Music]

tech | AYT Gets New Power Supply

In order to protect the identity of the power supply discussed in this post, the picture to the right does not depict AYT's old power supply, but does adequately represent it.

Most people never get a good look at a computer power supply. Rather, it's simply part of the back of the computer. Most people could tell you that there is a place where you plug in the power cord into the back of the computer and could tell you that there's a power switch on the back. But, for most people, if you started talking about PSU's, they might quickly add that they had a friend that went to Penn State. This story may explain why in some ways, it may be better to be "most people."

I like building things. That can be mountain bikes, computers, or theological systems. In 2003, I built a killer desktop computer, which still out-performs most new computers that one would buy off the rack at Dell. I hate Dell, by the way, in the same way and for the same reasons that I hate Chili's Bar & Grill, namely, for their mediocrity. Don't get me wrong, a Dell and a Chili's meal are servicable, but they are also mass produced and are therefore more connected to the craft of making money than the craft of technological design or anything approximating the culinary arts.

When I built my compter in 2003, I had two main goals: performance and silence. I wanted to use my compter, but didn't want to listen to a high-pitched whir. So, when it came to purchasing a power supply, I went with the Enermax Whisper II EG465P-VE, so I could manually control the speed (and therefore noise) of the PSU's cooling fans.

Fast forward three years and I'm moving to Scotland. I ask myself, "What's the easiest way to get my desktop to the UK?" I answer, "Take it apart. Leave the case behind and buy a new case when you get there." And so, after having this little conversation with myself, I took my advice.

My new (and slightly aestheically-challenged) computer case arrived a few days ago, and I decided to go to work reassembling the various parts at 1 a.m. I quickly realized that I didn't have a screw driver, but decided that I would not be deterred. After rummaging around the flat, I found that our vegetable peeler would suffice as a philips-head screwdriver. In retrospect, perhaps I should have understood that the use of a vegetable peeler as a screwdriver was in fact a sign (and not altogether different from a BRIDGE OUT sign).

About the time I have the ATX motherboard screwed in, and various other pieces installed, I decide to see if the power supply is working. I switch the orange switch so that it will now happily accept a UK current. I plug it in and nothing seems to happen. I flip a few switches to make sure everything is set up correctly. Inadvertantly, however, I flipped the orange switch back to 120v. The beast comes to life for split second and coughs before a handgun like explosion brings it to an early death. A small trail of smoke rises as it gives up the ghost. I was left without a power supply and a terrible ringing in my left ear.

Well, time stops for no man, so I promptly marched over to campus to get on the internet and order a new power supply. I research for a while and decided to go with a power supply made by Hiper Group.

Tom's Hardware Guide ran a Hiper model through a bunch of tests last February and liked they saw. I decided to go with a Hiper Type R 530W. The folks at Tom's Hardware even noted:

"If we awarded a prize for design, Hiper would walk away with it hands-down with its Type R power supply. This power supply, with its cable management based on modular avionics-style connectors, will be sure to raise the pulse of any case modder."

So after being reassured that I'll soon have a "sexy" power supply and with my hearing now restored, I walked home and climbed in bed at 5:15 a.m.

When your thumb looks like it was attacked by razor blades (thanks to using a vegetable peeler as a screwdriver), and you're rolling into bed at five in the morning, the label "most people" starts to look more attractive.

[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Tech]

photo | Seaton Park - Aberdeen, Scotland

This is the park that is across the street from my flat. In the background you can see St. Machar's Cathedral - the building was begun in 1378.

[America's Young Theologian][Photo][Aberdeen]

books | Novels To Karl Barth's Taste

Karl Barth "once put down what he expected from a modern novelist in these terms:

I expect him to show me man as he always is in the man of today, my contemporary - and vice-versa, to show me my contemporary in man as he always is. I expect the novel to give evidence on every page that its author not only knows this man properly and sees right through him, from the depths of his heart to his outward manners and mode of speaking, but also treats him honestly, i.e., loves him as he is and as he is not, without regret or contempt. Furthermore, it should tell me what its author finds special in this man - that and no more. In other words, it should have no plans for educating me, but should leave me to reflect (or not) on the basis of the portrait with which I am presented. Finally, its form should correspond to the portrait of the man whom it presents; its form should be necessary, strict and impressive to the extent that I do not forget the man I have been shown in his temporal and timeless aspects. I should be able to live with him, and indeed perhaps to live with him, again and again." [1]

==========
[1] Eberhard Busch, Karl Barth: His life from letters and autobiographical texts (London: SCM Press, 1976), 312-13.

[America's Young Theologian][Writing][Karl Barth]