humor | . . .

article | A Letter From André Gorz

"I was amazed that my leaving the journal, after 20 years of collaboration, was neither painful to myself nor to others. I remember having written that, at the end of the day, only one thing was essential to me: to be with you. I can’t imagine continuing to write, if you no longer are. You are the essential without which all the rest, no matter how important it seems to me when you are there, loses its meaning and its importance. I told you that in the dedication of my last work.

Twenty-three years have gone by since we went off to live in the country, first in ‘your’ house, which radiated a sense of meditative harmony. A harmony we enjoyed for only three years. They started building a nuclear power station nearby and that drove us away. We found another house, very old, cool in summer, warm in winter, with huge grounds. It was a place where you could be happy."

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[André Gorz (February 1923 – September 22, 2007) was an Austrian and French social philosopher, who supported Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialist version of Marxism after the War, and was influenced by the Frankfurt School through his friend Herbert Marcuse. His central theme was work: liberation from work, just distribution of work, alienated work, etc. Sartre once claimed that Gorz had the "sharpest brain in Europe". He died last month at the age of 84 after meeting his wife's terminal illness with the choice to commit suicide with her in his home in Vosnon. His last book Lettre à D. Histoire d'un amour (Galilée, 2006) was dedicated to his wife, and was his way of penning his love.]

theology | Hauerwas On The End of Religious Pluralism

"I regard the Religious Right as a representative of a truncated if not idolatrous form of Christianity. Indeed, I think that the Religious Right is a desperate attempt of Protestantism to make sense of itself as a form of civil religion for America. That it why the Christianity represented by the Religious Right is one so strident and pathetic."

--Stanley Hauerwas

Thanks to Dan Greeson for the link to this lecture that Dr. Hauerwas gave last year at Boston College. If you have an hour free, give it a listen.

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

politics | Encourage Congress

"America should do what it takes to support our troops and protect our people."
-- George W. Bush, October 22, 2007

George Bush and I agree when it comes to the above statement. However, I also agree with those that see each bullet fired in Iraq as a bullet fired at America's poor. Our resources are limited as we were reminded when Mr. Bush vetoed an expansion of a children’s health insurance program costing $35 billion.

[We should also remember what Bush said in 2004 at the Republican National Convention: "America's children must also have a healthy start in life. In a new term, we will lead an aggressive effort to enroll millions of poor children who are eligible but not signed up for the government's health insurance programs. We will not allow a lack of attention, or information, to stand between these children and the health care they need."]

Not only are the poor overwhelmingly represented among our soldiers, but each additional dollar spent on the wars is a decision to underfund pressing needs at home. Poverty makes each of us less safe. Mr. Bush is right, protecting our people is something to which we should be committed. People matter. So, when he asks congress for $46 billion over the $150 billion already requested this year for the 'wars' in Iraq and Afghanistan, we can stand together to protect the well-being of our people by asking the men and women of the congress to support our soldiers and protect our people by saying no to this funding increase.

Write to your Senator...
Write to your Representative...

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

article | For Fuck's Sake

I enjoy language, grammar, and poetry. In the last week I've had several conversations with friends which bordered on questions of impropriety of speech: one about the somewhat odd [though common in Scotland] phrase -- for fuck's sake, one where a friend described her desire to swear less commonly, and another while sitting on the beach in Ocracoke, NC about the place of taboos in our culture. Having had three such conversations in a week, I enjoyed the article "What the F***?" by Steven Pinker in The New Republic:

Fucking became the subject of congressional debate in 2003, after NBC broadcast the Golden Globe Awards. Bono, lead singer of the mega-band U2, was accepting a prize on behalf of the group and in his euphoria exclaimed, "This is really, really, fucking brilliant" on the air. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is charged with monitoring the nation's airwaves for indecency, decided somewhat surprisingly not to sanction the network for failing to bleep out the word. Explaining its decision, the FCC noted that its guidelines define "indecency" as "material that describes or depicts sexual or excretory organs or activities" and Bono had used fucking as "an adjective or expletive to emphasize an exclamation."

Cultural conservatives were outraged. California Representative Doug Ose tried to close the loophole in the FCC's regulations with the filthiest piece of legislation ever considered by Congress. Had it passed, the Clean Airwaves Act would have forbade from broadcast

the words "shit", "piss", "fuck", "cunt", "asshole", and the phrases "cock sucker", "mother fucker", and "ass hole", compound use (including hyphenated compounds) of such words and phrases with each other or with other words or phrases, and other grammatical forms of such words and phrases (including verb, adjective, gerund, participle, and infinitive forms).

The episode highlights one of the many paradoxes that surround swearing. When it comes to political speech, we are living in a free-speech utopia. Late-night comedians can say rude things about their nation's leaders that, in previous centuries, would have led to their tongues being cut out or worse. Yet, when it comes to certain words for copulation and excretion, we still allow the might of the government to bear down on what people can say in public. Swearing raises many other puzzles--linguistic, neurobiological, literary, political.

The first is the bone of contention in the Bono brouhaha: the syntactic classification of curse words. Ose's grammatically illiterate bill not only misspelled cocksucker, motherfucker, and asshole, and misidentified them as "phrases," it didn't even close the loophole that it had targeted. The Clean Airwaves Act assumed that fucking is a participial adjective. But this is not correct. With a true adjective like lazy, you can alternate between Drown the lazy cat and Drown the cat which is lazy. But Drown the fucking cat is certainly not interchangeable with Drown the cat which is fucking.

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

misc | Video Of The Week

HT: STP

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

books | Three Reviews

I like fiction, but I don't read a lot of fiction. I don't think this means that I simply like the idea of fiction, the idea of storytelling, etc. Certainly, narrative, storytelling, story, have all had an impact on the theological and philosophical ecosystems in which I swim, but I don't think that's it either. I love a good story. Now I suppose the reason that I don't read a lot of fiction is because I read slowly and feel cramped by the academic work I do. Maybe that's why I like film more than fiction. Still, I thought I'd take a moment to write about three works I've enjoyed this year, each of which succeed in providing characters that are neither overwrought nor unbelievable, neither glossing over complexity nor getting lost in it.

First is Blankets by Craig Thompson. Blankets is a graphic novel which captures well the quandaries of a high school student: quandaries of family, faith and love. It has an acute appreciation for the relationship between brothers, the exuberance of childhood, how those who are well meaning when it comes to nurturing one's faith can also be destructive, and how the inflexibility of the rule-based ethics of conservative Christianity limits its own flourishing. There are wonderful vignettes that take place at a church retreat, in the room shared by young brothers, and lovely reflections on a faith which seemingly had to burst given the unnecessary constraints that it embodied. I found the book meaningful as I always felt a little disillusioned with the church in which I was raised. I felt that most of the spiritual reflection that went on was simplistic and led to black and white answers. Myself, a person who wonders a lot and wrestles with complex questions, never fit in well in a world of simple answers. You can finish the six hundred page book in a couple hours and will be rewarded with a tender look at the fragility and courage of youth. The beautiful illustrations are paired with an equally beautiful story.

Second is Nick Hornby's latest novel, Slam. The book is narrated by Sam, an 18 year old skater who is the only child of a single mother. Sam meets a girl and not long after is becoming a father himself. Unlike About a Boy or High Fidelity, I don't see this book being made into a movie, but I wouldn't mind. Generally teenagers in film are turned into uninteresting clichés. Admittedly, it is difficult to handle children or teens well, since their lives are relatively simple, often [but not always] lacking the responsibility of adults which naturally lends gravity to a story. On the other hand, teens do occupy a liminal space involving its fair share of fear, immaturity, and foolishness which is interesting precisely because adults are never too far removed from it. Hornby captures the complexity of the world seen through a teen's eyes, aptly articulating it through the diction and concerns of youth. When Sam's mother suggests that they go see a movie, Brokeback Mountain, Sam points out the simple truth that if he went and saw that movie he'd likely get beat up at school. Overwhelmed that the girl he had been dating might be pregnant, he runs away from home and throws his cell phone in the sea. This, of course, lasts only a day, but Horby's writing adeptly traverses this liminal space where the future is a burden because there is so much of it and it is so easily changed. Sam gleans wisdom from his frequent conversations with the Tony Hawk poster on his bedroom wall and dispenses plenty of his own:

I was going to tell you to avoid ever going out with anyone who says she wants to be a model, but let's face it, that's sort of what we all want, really, isn't it? Someone who looks like a model, but without the flat chest. In other words, if you're with someone who says she wants to be a model you probably aren't interested in me telling you she's bad news. Definitely avoid going out with ugly girls who say they want to be models, not because they're ugly, but because they're mad.

Hornby captures well the texture and complexity of an 18 year old, neither making the narration too articulate nor too childish. This balance makes the book a delightful and easy read. [Slam will be out in bookstores at the end of the week.]

Third is On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. McEwan spins a novella length drama set on a wedding night in the early 1960's. The novels surrounds two young people approaching their wedding bed as virgins in a time when their thoughts about sexuality and their sexual misgivings were simply unspeakable. As a shorter book which spans a short amount of time, McEwan beautifully describes the reactive nature of relationships. Communication may be the only bridge between two vastly differing internal monologues about their impending sexual encounter, so McEwan's reserves all dialog for the climatic scene on Chesil Beach. McEwan provides a gentle, perceptive, nuanced account of the fragility and awkwardness surround sex, especially one's first encounter. [I've often seen too many newly married couples who have remained virgins for Christian reasons encounter a similar situation as presented in this book. If I were involved in providing some form of premarital counseling, I might make couples read this book as a place to start conversations about sexuality.] Here are a couple videos where McEwan discusses his book:

[America's Young Theologian][Books][Nick Hornby][Ian McEwan][Slam]

life | Three Sleepless Weekends In September

Weekends are for relaxing, right? A chance to sleep in, catch up, etc.? Perhaps. However, September found me "sleeping" in airports, cars, and parking lots for three weekends in a row.

Weekend #1: Saturday it is up at 6am, airport by a little after 7am, headed to Dallas by 8am. Land in Dallas, walk out to the car that is picking me up. Late morning beer, wings and football with a dear friend. Then it is back to the airport to be in Houston by 3pm. Plane lands, I throw on a tie, and take a cab to Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church. One may recall the last time I was in Houston, but this time we're celebrating a wedding. The reception follows the wedding: a lot of beer, conversations ranging from philosophy to music, and a little dancing. After the reception, we all go to La Carafe overlooking old Market Square. The dark wine bar is said to be the oldest bar in Houston and is a great place to sit on the balcony at the end the evening and polish off a couple bottles of wine.



Around 2 or 3am, I have a friend drop me off at the airport. I now have three hours to work on a Kant paper for Monday before getting on a 6am flight back to RDU. Hours of sleep in Houston Hobby Airport: 0.

Weekend #2: Friday around one in the afternoon we jump in a car. We drive four hours west to Asheville, NC. The four of us check in to our hotel, change into wedding attire and are off to Candler, NC. Wedding. [Since both bride and groom are ministers, they preside over the Eucharist, each serving their respective side of the church. Eucharist as greeting line...a existentially meaningful touch.] Then it is off to the reception, which was the only time I've eaten s'mores in a suit.



Wake up the next day. Brunch in Asheville at the Over Easy Cafe, a little shopping, and a shake at the old Woolworth's. We spend a couple hours reading at the Grove Park Inn and then off to the rural home of some friends to continue the wedding reception in a more informal "beer's in the barn, pork's on the table" setting.



After a lot of bonfire conversation, music, and kickin' the keg, I realized that everyone in my tent had already gone to bed. In order not to wake everyone up, I decided to try to sleep in the car...try being the operative word. The next morning we wound through the misty country roads and were headed back to Durham. Hours of sleep in a car: 1.

Weekend #3: It all starts around 7pm on Friday and goes until around 7am on Sunday. Of course, I'm talking about the graduate student campout for Duke Men's Basketball tickets.



Think tailgating stretched over 36 hrs. Friday night is a party...lot of dancing and debauchery perforated only by the relentless check-in's which ensure that you've not gone home. Beer-pong record: 2-0. Saturday the whole campout is a little slow, a little hungover, and far too hot. I manage to find a poker game and relieve some engineers of their money. Saturday night Coach K comes to give us a pep talk and buy pizza for all of the graduate students. I suppose I could say I slept, but when someone is blowing an air horn every two hours signaling that you have to check in within the next 10 minutes, it's not clear how much sleep one is getting. Hours of [uninterrupted] sleep in a glorified parking lot: 0.

[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Travel][Life][Houston]

politics | What Makes You Feel Safe?

MLK, Jr. saw our war in Vietnam as a war on our country's poor.
Is Iraq any different?

For more, see: American Friends Service Committee

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