04.28.05
Posted in blogvention at 2:21 pm by
Well, kids. It’s official. Less than a year until blogvention. I’ve been giving it a bit of thought for the past few days. Here are my thoughts in no particular order:
1. It’s official, blogvention is going to happen.
2. I’m not sure but I’m thinking it will happen concurrently with the Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
3. The only reason I say I’m not sure is that I don’t know if the one day Sunday blogvention gala (after the festival of faith and writing concludes) can be a reality. Some people will need Sunday to be a travel day. Thusly, I’m thinking blogvention may be best experienced as an expanded event that takes place concurrently with the Festival of Faith and Writing. (Read: we’ll go out drinking after the festival events take place…and eat together sometimes…and hopefully us Grand Rapidians could be willing to cook a meal or donate some beer or something.)
4. Currently the costs of airfare into Grand Rapids look like this (though, they’ll probably change)–based on a sample trip flying in on Thursday and out on Sunday (and honestly these numbers seem a bit on the high side to me):
–LAX to GRR : 379 r/t
–OKC to GRR : 388 r/t
–MSP to GRR : 294 r/t
–SEA to GRR : 491 r/t
–QSF to GRR : 367 r/t
You get the idea. If you fly in, we’ll work something out so you get picked up. Of course, I’d expect driving to be the most popular option, and I can get you directions if you need them.
5. Long story short, basically you’d be coming to go to the Festival of Faith and Writing and you’d get to hang out with your blogfriends with the goal of turning ‘blogrelationships’ into full-fledged ‘drinking buddy’ relationships. We’d hang out share a few meals, talk about how much we like/abhor substitutionary atonement, chat about Church horror stories, you know–standard fare.
6. I’ve gotten a preliminary count previously, but now that we’re a little closer I’d like to take another preliminary count as to who’s in for our little shin-dig. If you’d be so kind, please comment here if you’d like to take part. (Of course, your response doesn’t obligate you to attend, it’s just so I can start to get a figure on about how many of y’all we should prepare for.)
7. If you needed futher incentive to come…it’s just been announced that Don Miller (the author, I believe, of Blue Like Jazz) will be speaking.
8. Party on.
ADDENDUM: If you don’t know what blogvention is, click the blogvention category on the right side bar and start reading the posts from the bottom.
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04.26.05
Posted in politics, life at 12:30 pm by
I’ll admit. I’m pretty happy about the overall outpouring of support for Africa Malaria Day. I’m glad that so many folks have taken the initiative to educate themselves about this and other issues of poverty. So, to all who’ve taken part in my little ‘poverty challenge’ over the last few days, thank you.
I’ve got some other ideas in the works as we speak to mobilize our little corner of cyberspace to be proactive about issues of poverty. Keep reading and I’ll keep you posted about them.
I also must admit, though, an unexpected dynamic arose because of my stated support of the ‘one.org’ campaign. Some folks were upset and voiced their concerns about the campaign. I was and am shocked by this response.
The most prevalent argument against the one campaign has been (and I’m paraphrasing here) “Liberals do the same thing all the time. It’s always governmental aid and that always gets botched. What about personal responsibility?”
I am flabergasted by this response. The ONE.org campaign, while it is in part about encouraging governmental aid, it is also about people joining together regardless of their political label–conservative or liberal. Folk who are conservative on most issues should remember that Pat Robertson is a spokesperson for this campaign.
Of course, it’s easy for a person who is liberal on many issues (although, I question the value of any of these labels) to buy into this campaign. It does, as these folks suggest, operate on fundamentally progressive principles of encouraging governmental aid. BUT, it also is about getting individuals to contribute. It’s about enabling individuals to get educated about issues of poverty. ONE likely realizes that by getting individuals nominally involved by contributing their voice, they’re also likely to get individuals to contribute their time and money in the future.
I posit that the folks who are blindest to this are those who aren’t really interested in ending poverty. These folks are in love with pinning labels to things and being able confirm their stereotypes about liberals or conservatives. They’re so selfish that they’ve been blinded by hate of humanity–they can no longer see with the eyes of love. That’s true of both conservatives and liberals. I’ve been guilty of this like many others.
However, poverty transcends the liberal / conservative boundaries. It’s an equal opportunity killer. Every second we spend labelling and deriding one person’s solution–another 3 children die. Here’s a novel idea about how to move forth. If you don’t like one campaign because of some political ideology that you don’t espouse (or don’t think you espouse), here’s what not to do. Don’t write about what a bad idea it is.
But here’s my suggestion about what to do: Get off your lazy fucking ass and come up with your own idea about how to fight poverty; find a cause you CAN support and support it.
Come up with something that is truly going to make a difference rather than bitching about how bad conservatives are or how bad liberals are. We don’t have time for your commentary that demonizes the other side. That’s misspent energy. I should know, after all, much of the time I’ve spent writing this blog has been name calling. Frankly, it hasn’t accomplished much. I’ve got some readers, I’ve worked through some issues, I’ve honed some opinions, but in the end one must take the next step.
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04.25.05
Posted in life at 10:55 am by
Today, Monday, April 25th is the fifth annual Africa Malaria Day. Malaria claims 1.1 million lives worldwide, over 80% of those lives in sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of those deaths are children. For those of you not inclined to do the math, that works out to mortality rates of approx.:
2411 deaths per day
100 deaths per hour
1.67 deaths per minute
All in sub-Saharan Africa alone.
I don’t care what your political, religious, or any other sort of persuasion is; that’s wrong. I also don’t care what the characteristics of your solution is–personal or governmental–because, frankly, both are needed.
The only thing there’s not time for is caution or patience. Because every minute of caution, a person dies. There are a host of GOOD and ethical foundations out there. The time to act is NOW. Find an organization that you can get behind and start helping.
For more information on Africa Malaria Day check out these great posts and groups:
Under the Acacias (a series)
From the Salmon (a series, as well)
ONE (an organization)
The Gutless Pacifist
The Big Lowitzki
Prone to Wander
World Wide Wanderer
Two and Two makes Five
And, that’s just a beginning. You can raise awareness, too. Do some research, get informed. But most importantly, get active. Do something. Write about poverty. You have the luxury of time, but the 30 or so people in sub-Saharan Africa who died of Malaria while I wrote this post do not.
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04.23.05
Posted in faith, politics, culture, life at 10:16 am by
A few comments have been made in response to my poverty challenge–that people take the time to learn about and comment on issues of poverty–that I’d like to take a few moments to respond to.
E finished up her comment with this thought:
The solution to the issue is ONE. Not only ONE percent of the U.S. budget, but each ONE of us making a committment to affect the life of at least ONE person in poverty by donating ONE percent of our income and - why not - ONE percent of our time. The difference that each ONE of us would make in this world would be staggering. What an incredible opportunity each ONE of us has.
Couldn’t agree more. One percent of the U.S. budget won’t solve the problem. Each of us needs to step up and take steps to make a difference. This was actually my point in writing the referenced post. To provide people with an opportunity, beyond yacking about the problem, to have an outlet at which to pour their passion.
What I disagree with, was E’s tact in delivering her message. Here’s what concerned me about her message:
My concern about what I’ve read on the one.org web site is that it, in typical liberal fashion (if you can excuse my generality) looks to government to solve the problem. Where is the call for individuals to donate 1% of their income to fight poverty?
What is the purpose of playing the liberal / conservative game at this point? Who cares if the founders of the ONE campaign are liberal? I certainly couldn’t care less if they were conservative. This is in no way about liberalness or conservativeness. It’s about justice. People are dying, more of them every day. In fact, statistically since I wrote my first post on Malaria, over 6000 people have died of Malaria alone. Every 3 seconds a child dies.
I draw the comparison with the war in Iraq. Whether or not you agree with the war in Iraq, is not the point. What IS the point is that the US went to war with the goal of ousting Saddam Hussein. Why? Well, WMD’s–and when those weren’t found–the purpose of the war became humanitarian. Saddam Hussein was a brutal evil man. (I’m trying hard to be balanced about a war I didn’t support, so cut me some slack on my rhetoric here.)
The point is, Saddam Hussein, not in his wildest evil dreams could’ve dreamt of murdering as many people that poverty has claimed in Africa. Now, I’ll be gracious and grant that the purpose of the war in Iraq was noble; however, isn’t the cause of ending poverty in Africa just as noble.
The US is about to spend an estimated 207 billion dollars on the war in Iraq by the end of 2005. As a liberal, even though I don’t support the war, I have no choice about this. All the ONE.org campaign seeks is 25 billion dollars (approximately 1 percent of the annual US budget.) This would certainly not solve the problem of poverty, but it’d be a pretty good start.
The rest of the world is poised to take part in campaigns like ONE.org. People in the UK, for example, are much more proactive about their government’s involvement in debt relief, poverty assistance, etc. If we’re willing to contribute 200 billion dollars to ‘do what is right’ why not take part in this campaign that takes even less money and requires no guns, no bombs, no accidental civilian deaths.
This isn’t about liberal or conservative. It’s about what’s right. People are dying. Every second. Caution seems frighteningly to me like arrogance of the worst kind. We have the luxury of caution without the penalty of facing the horrors of poverty. We’ve got rich privilege in that regard.
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04.21.05
Posted in faith, politics, culture, life at 10:15 pm by
You all may not know this, but next Monday, April 25th is a holiday. It’s not so much a happy holiday, though. Next Monday is Africa Malaria Day. This day was established to raise awareness about the malaria epidemic in Africa. Malaria is preventable and treatable, yet it kills 1.1 million people each year.
America is a great nation. I take great pride in some of the things this nation has done. I personally find our involvement in the overthrow of the third reich noble, the ensuing Marshall plan to help europe back onto its feet, this country has helped its own and others time and again; we should be proud of these things.
The time to help is here again. However, this time help may just have a bit different face. You see, in the past our military might or our industrial strength was the impetus in our aid. This time around, every woman, man, and child in this country has the opportunity to personally be a very real and tangible part of what makes America great.
This time around we don’t need guns to be great. This time around the blood of our young people needn’t be needlessly shed. This time around proving America’s greatness is an equal opportunity event. There are no rules about who can participate: Republicans, Democrats, Independents, people with disabilities, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Jewish; Asian Americans and Native Americans; black people, white people, tall people, and short people; children, parents, and grand parents alike can all make a difference.
How can you make a difference? (AKA - Brandon’s Poverty Challenge)
1. Get educated about the problem of poverty. Start by learning about Africa Malaria Day. You’ve got the internet at your finger tips. Start with the link I’ve posted above. Then, google it.
2. Tell your friends. If you have a blog, write about what you’ve learned about Africa Malaria Day. Talk to your friends and parents and children about the problem of poverty. Tell them that they can make a difference, too.
3. Join Bono, Michael W. Smith, Jamie Foxx, and I by signing the ONE.org campaign to make poverty history. By doing so, you’ll add your voice to the growing number that are committed to ending poverty by encouraging our officials to contribute one percent of the US budget to people in great need.
4. Include a link to ONE.org on your website or blog.
Now, normally, I would sort of make these requests and not expect people to really do them. But this time is a little different. I’d like to add a little accountability to this little charade. I think it’d be really cool if y’all who take ‘Brandon’s Poverty Challenge’ would post a link to your Africa Malaria Day posts, or trackback. Tell your stories about telling your families and friends about Africa Malaria Day and ending poverty. I’d love to hear them.
Now, for those of you who have been reading this post thinking, “hey, yeah, this is for me, I can do those things.” Good; now, go do them.
For those of you who are thinking, “That’s nice that he’ll get some people to care about poverty, someone needs to do those things.” Wake up.
Wake up. Yes, you, dammit. That ’someone’ is you. That someone is all of us. Together we really can make a difference, but complacency and apathy are no excuse. I don’t care if you’ve never been an activist for poverty before. Frankly, neither have I.
The time is now. Right now. Help make poverty history.
Take ‘Brandon’s Poverty Challenge’ and start making a difference.
ADDENDUM: I’ve decided to ‘up the ante’ a bit. For the first eight posts written about Africa Malaria Day, I’ll personally mail you one bracelet from the “one.org” campaign. You can support one.org to the tune of a dollar by simply making a post about poverty. For all you dutch people out there, you heard right. A free braclet…FREE! No shipping, no handling, no cost to you other than your time.
So far, Zalm and Keith (though Keith already has a bracelet, so he graciously donated his to the next poster) have stepped up to the plate. I’ve got at least seven more bracelets to send out after Zalm’s. All you need to do is make your post and email your mailing address to me at: brandon@badchristian.com . You should be the next. Make a donation, all you have to do is spread the word.
Also, if anyone would like to make a donation to the cause of buying more bracelets so that more than eight can be offered in response to posts about poverty, email me at brandon@badchristian.com to discuss that opportunity. 100 percent of the proceeds donated will be contributed to the purchase and distribution of these bracelets.
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Posted in faith at 2:24 pm by
When they expend more energy fighting Harry Potter than poverty.
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04.19.05
Posted in culture, life at 10:58 am by
This thought is a short takeoff on the one I had last night, about the hyperpersonal nature of the blogosphere. I think that lots of us out in cyberspace take lengths (some even great lengths) to preserve a sense of anonymity on our blogs.
In a sense, this anonymity is a good thing. It allows us to write without quite so many strings attached to our content. And, we believe, it allows us to fully reveal our inside self to the outside world in just the way we perceive our inside selves to be.
This, of course, allows all of you to know me as I perceive myself, as well as the way I perceive truth. But, here’s the rub:
You see, the way we perceive ourselves is seldom, if ever, the way that we are perceived by others. The self cannot be fully realized by itself. Humans need community to be completed. For example, if you were to be one of my face to face (FtF) friends, you would perceive a different Brandon than the one who writes a bit on badchristian.com. Certainly, there would be similarities between that Brandon and the one standing before you; however, there would be differences, too.
There are things that a community sees in individuals that an individual cannot see in themselves. Some of these things are good things. Some are not so good. Either way, they’re things that it is good for individuals to know about themselves.
The medium is fallen, I’m afraid. This, of course, doesn’t mean I’ll stop writing, quite the contrary. But I think that it’s good to know the forum to which you speak…and perhaps…this is a call to each of us to better understand that the face that we all put forth is at once fully real, and incomplete.
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04.18.05
Posted in fun at 11:19 pm by
Indeed, this is the time-waster of the day:
Your Linguistic Profile:
65% General American English
15% Upper Midwestern
10% Dixie
5% Midwestern
5% Yankee
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Posted in life, grad school at 9:08 pm by
Well, friends, my semester is on the downswing. Finally. And, frankly, I’m exhausted. I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard at anything as I have at school in the past 3 or 4 weeks. Thus, I’m the satisfied version of exhausted. The kind of exhausted you feel after you rake some older person’s lawn for free.
I was supposed to write about the festival of faith and music, and Christian higher education. I’m sure that those posts will come out someday, but honestly, before I can think about those things I need to recoup some of my stamina. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got some posts in mind, but I just need to breathe a bit before I endeavor to head off into such heady topics.
What I’d like to write about today is about the blogosphere. I went to a colloquium this weekend by a fellow by the name of Joe Walther. Joe is a pioneer–though if you could see through his beard when you called him that, you’d probably find him blushing. Of particular import is Joe’s work in Computer Mediated Communication. Joe has studied the phenomena of hyperpersonal interaction.
Hyperpersonal interaction, simply explained, is basically the premise that individuals engage in an extrordinary level of attachement when given enough time in a virtual environment. I think the blogosphere, for me at least, provides a community to which I (and research shows that I am not alone here) become quickly and amazingly attached.
However, when individuals meet their computer mediated pals in a face to face setting, there is almost always some level of disappointment. Reality cannot live up to the fabricated reality we’ve created in our minds. This all just makes me ponder about this medium of which I am so fond. Is it true?
I don’t really have any answers–although, I’ve been speaking with Joe, and he and I have some interesting speculations as to what may be happening to facilitate such effects. Regardless, our speculations don’t really deal with what is true.
Nonetheless, this is a curious phenomena, no?
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04.15.05
Posted in life at 11:25 am by
I got a comment a while back. It was, once again, about my virtual mouth. This response, though, was different. I really believe that the writer of this comment had at empathy rather than condemnation at the cutting edge of her or his thoughts. Indeed, I think it is an example of a kindly offered dissent.
Now, I roundly disagree with some of the points raised (and my comments are interspersed with our commenter’s thoughts) but the viewpoint was ethically shared–and that, I appreciate.
Here it is (albeit an edited version), for your reading pleasure:
You said that words were very important to you. That is good to hear you say that. I believe they are too.If I understand the Bible, it says that Jesus was God’s word. So words seem to be extremely important. And anyone who has read the Bible must surely understand that the story of Jesus is the most important story in the Bible. One of the responses to your blog mentioned the fact that Jesus might have cussed at the moneychangers. I don’t know if he did or not , but I believe He was mad enough. What He did say was probably not pleasant. I also think that whatever He said in anger was directed specifically at someone and not just at things in general. But, I don’t know of any other time Jesus was this angry. I think I remember reading about times when He rebuked people, but I wouldn’t say that He cursed them.
In reading your blog it seems that your cursing is not directed at anyone in particular or even said in anger so you wonder, where is the harm. You sound like a good hearted individual with a great deal of intelligence so I hope you would consider this.
I would tend to agree that any words Jesus shared with the moneychangers were probably not rosy ones. And, I also agree that we don’t know for sure that Jesus ever used words that would’ve been considered to be vulgar in Aramaic. Thus, I’m not about to make an argument from silence; frankly, it probably wouldn’t be that helpful.
I’m not sure I understand your argument here, though, about me and my virtual potty mouth. Are you saying there is an ethic of vulgarity and that ethic is anger? I think that I’ll keep reading to better understand your point before commenting further…
Most of the words that our society considers cuss words describe something negative, and most of them have to do with bodily functions. While bodily functions are a normal fact of life, the products of our bodily functions are mostly negative, such as urine and feces. And lengthy or repeated discussions about bodily funtions are considered by most people to be immature. Just think of all the jokes we laughed at as kids that had something to do with farts, or shit, or sex. In no way am I trying to say that you are immature, but I do believe that the words that a person uses, says a lot about that person. It sounds like you use cuss words because of the shock that it probably gets from many closed minded christians. Perhaps it’s your way of rebelling against this closed mindedness that causes stagnation in many churches. You use the words fuck, damn, shit, ass,piss,etc. Most of them have only one meaning, and that meaning has probably been the same for a long time, even if the words are derived from other older languages. Shit and damn are two words that I know of only one meaning for. To damn someone or something is to wish bad things on someone or something. And most of the time the word is used in anger. Even if it is not used in anger, it still is used to describe something in a negative way. Bible quoters will tell you that a good christian should be positive in there speech and demeanor, not negative. Bible quoters bore me but they do have a good point on the positive speech part. If I am a christian, and I am supposed to tell others about Jesus I think I should use mostly positive words.
Meaning, my friend, is a rather malleable construct. (See this post for a further discussion of meaning in the context of semantics.
Also, if I follow your logic, you are arguing that to share the good news you cannot engage in negative speech. My response: but what about truth? What is true? For the years of modernity, the Church has continuously spit out the lie that once you become a Christian, all the crap associated with the day to day grind with melt away. Well, that’s just not true. Are Christians to simply remain ignorant of the shadows, to forget about life’s gray areas?
I think, though, that you have something there about positive words. Christians should sharing positive words. Christians should be sending a message of redemption, of renewal, of new life through Christ. I just don’t see how they can do that without bracing the topic of darkness, without knowing the dark? In fact, I would argue that there’s nothing particularly negative about words commonly concieved as vulgar–we’ve got much bigger words to worry about.
If I am around other christians, even ones that cuss, I prefer to be around the christians who don’t use so many negative words. Shit is the other word that seems to have only one meaning, and it is definitely not a positive one. The word shit is also often used in anger or to wish something bad on someone. Like “shit on you.”
It seems the word fuck might have several meanings in todays culture and one of the meanings could be positive. If fuck means having consentual sex and the matter of pregnancy and disease is considered, then that’s gotta be a positive. But as with damn and shit, fuck can be used to wish something bad on someone. “Fuck you” is often said in extreme anger. The person saying “fuck you” usually means that they wish you to have unconsentual sex because unconsentual sex is not a good thing. It is sometimes considered rape. So if I hear some say “fuck you”, then I assume they are meaning “rape you.” The word fuck can also be used to describe some people. Someone can be called a “dumb fuck” or a “dumb fucker” (both negative things). Someone can be a “fuckhead” which is the same as an “asshole”. Someone can be a “motherfucker” and this does not mean they are having sex with a mother.
And, this is exactly why I try not to derogate other human beings with my words. I’m pretty sure there’s a post in my back issues dedicated to this very topic…hang on…here it is.
As I said earlier, the words a person uses says alot about that person. People who use alot of negative words sometimes come across as angry or rebellious. Anger and rebellion are not necessarily negative. They can motivate good hearted people to change things. But I believe that anger and rebellion can be expressed in words that are not swear words. The swear words usually come out of a person when their emotions are controlling their mouth. Their reasoning is being overcome by their emotion and that emotion is almost always anger. Anger is usually accompanied by bitterness and bitterness makes for a lousy christian.
The cussing you do seems to say you might be somewhat irritated not
angry. Or that you cuss because its your way of rebelling against the
closed minded christians you have met. There are plenty of those.
So, is anger acceptable or not. You say it’s okay, but in the same paragraph you’ve got anger as a causal snowball rolling down the hill of bitterness, and slipping and sliding on down that slippery slope to the valley of the lousy Christian. If you’re really arguing that anger is bad, I couldn’t disagree more, and a whole Old Testament full of prophets agrees with me.
You’re making a common misconception, I think, here. It’s the old Anger = Evil argument. I prefer to think of what you describe not as Anger, but rather as discontentment. Perhaps often, even ‘Holy Discontent.’ I’d like to think that discontent is quite a telling mark of grace. (And, here I can think of four or so Irishmen in a little rock band based in Dublin who agree with me.)
All I am trying to say is that most of our swear words imply something negative and that just seems to go against the “good news” in the Bible.
Those closed minded people are not going to read your blog if they see all those cuss words and they just might be the ones who should read your blog. If cussing is your thing then I say go for it. Just remember the power that words can wield.
In all honesty, I don’t care if fundagelicals don’t get much out of this blog. A writer must find their voice, and I’m on the path to finding mine. I can’t say for sure that my path will never be to speak to the greater fundagelical Christian community, but I can say for right now that my path doesn’t really seem to be heading in that direction.
My voice is to speak to the disenchanted, the disheartened, and the hurt. I just can’t go changing that voice, because some fundagelicals don’t like it. How much more dishonest would it be for me to write with a voice that was not my own?
However, you’ve written out of empathy. And, you’ve expressed a desire for the greater community of the ‘frozen chosen’ to participate in a sort of ‘dethawing’ process. You seem to have the heart to see that community come alive. I humbly suggest that it your critique would best be turned inward toward yourself. Not because you swear, or have a potty mouth; I don’t condemn you, at all. That is not my intent. Rather, I think you have a heart for good. Perhaps it’s time to find your own voice? I think it’s needed.
But, I’m afraid I’m not the voice you’re looking for.
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