i just returned from a great long weekend beach trip with my fam (great except for one day of rain and the sunburn i inevitably was left with), but i've already dived right back in to non-vacation life. in no way do i feel quite so stressed and thinly stretched as i did during the year, but babysitting jobs, papers, reading, even a test (eek!) have cropped up within this two-week period, so i have to actually time-manage (eww).
so, now that i have a minute, a few thoughts from this past week...
- i hope you'll let me know your own thoughts on this one. my Hebrew Bible teacher made a comment in class that i have been pondering ever since he said it. he said that orthodox Christianity professes belief in a triune God--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (Okay, we're good so far, i thought, where is this going??) Then he took me aback when he said that he thinks today many Christians profess belief in a four-part God: the Father, the Son, the Spirit, and the book. and it's made me wonder, when did the sanctity of the bible really get its start? i know Martin Luther probably had a lot to do with it, and perhaps the folks at the council of Nicaea before that--but is that it, or is there more, something significant, in the text itself that paved the road for the belief in biblical inerrancy? i've been having a lot of thoughts along these lines over the past year--certainly a product of my courses in the reli dept--and maybe this comment from my teacher is just another one-sided remark that should be taken with a grain (or teaspoon) of salt. but it made me think.
- i know everyone loves to laugh at those church signs you see on the side of the road with some witty saying that catches your attention. just type in 'funny church signs' in google search and plenty of them come up. my favorite from doing that: "be ye fishers of men--you catch them, He'll clean them" and "prayer is the ultimate wireless connection". but this weekend as we were driving down to the beach, i saw one that said this: "you may party in hell, but you'll be the BBQ"--how clever, memorial day-themed! i'm not going to lie, i did laugh when i read it. but then i immediately thought, how is a non-Christian going to read that? does anyone really think someone would read that and think, oh yea, that sign is right. i don't want to burn, let me go in and ask about Jesus. i mean, maybe that was the original intention of such signs--but let's get real. i imagine someone like my atheistic sister reading that and hating the christian church even more. and is that kind of response really worth the chuckle we get out of it? DEFINITELY not.
- ok on a less theologically-charged issue: i had a very weird out-of-body/Halloween-ish, type experience last week when i was babysitting. i took my little 4-month old on a walk last Wednesday afternoon. here's the thing--i sit for him on campus. so taking him on a walk involved pushing the stroller around south campus, which is totally different than pushing a stroller around a neighborhood. i felt like EVERYONE was staring at me--almost like, aww, that poor girl, trying to do school and raise a little baby. like they were afraid to look me in the eye because i was in a pitiable situation. it was so weird to role-play for half an hour as a unmarried young mom. i really took on the role, put myself in those shoes, and it was weird. maybe next time i'll just wear a sign that says "just the babysitter"
and a thought from the paper i've been working on tonight...
as a religious studies major, do i just write papers based on what i know my teachers want to hear, even if i don't agree with what i'm saying? okay, i think i can easily answer yes to that question, so my real question is this---is that bad? does it make me two-faced? am i living a double life with one foot in academia and one in faith? i don't entirely disbelief everything that i have written on papers or tests, but a lot of that stuff certainly wouldn't align with what they teach you in sunday school. and i think that's okay--if we were a bunch of believers who only knew as much as our sunday school teachers taught us (Lord love them--heck, i've even been one of them for kids at my church) we'd probably be in trouble. but where do i draw the line between the skeptical (at best) scholarly approach of my professors and department and the faith if profess? i hate to feel like i am 'letting God down' by writing papers that unapologetically slash at my Christian beliefs, but i also fear that i'm letting my professors down if i'm writing papers that they want to hear but i don't actually support the claims i make.
gotta run--watching hairspray with the summer roomies :) too much laughing and singing to keep up the typing
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