S-s-s-s-snow Day!

After living all of my life in the Evansville area, I've become pretty familiar with the local climate. There's one thing that you can always count on: the snow ALWAYS disappoints. It is never nearly as fantastical as the forecast says, and you can never, ever count on it to get you out of school.

Case in point: today, we were supposed to get like eight inches of snow overnight, so one of my roommates thought it would be cool to stay up all night watching movies, counting on classes being canceled today. It turns out that that wasn't such a good idea, and he's hurting for it now.

Then during my 9:00 this morning, I got a text message from the University saying that classes after 3:00 are canceled. Well that's just great. Cancel classes after everyone that will be going to them is already on campus. Good stuff. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to enjoy it; I'll make some snow angels or something.

Talking Jesus

I know this may be a little late for Christmas tales since Christmas was over a month ago, but this year I received a present that blows every other gift ever out of the water. It was handed to me in a pretty standard-sized and -shaped package, wrapped in pretty standard Christmas wrapping paper by a dear friend who never got a gift from me in return. I tore open the wrapping and what did my eyes fall upon but a fully poseable, talking action figure of Jesus, God's Son, in all of His sweet plasticky glory. Hallelujah!

He was zip-tied into His display box, complete with a backdrop of the streets of Nazareth. "I come to life with just the push of a button!" said the box. And so the button was pressed. "John 3:16... For God loved the world sooo much that He sent His only son to die, so that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but will have eternal life,"

I find it comical that someone somewhere at some point had the very serious (although entirely ludicrous) idea that creating a talking Jesus doll would somehow further the kingdom of God here on the earth. Someone had to make the design for the thing, someone had to program the computer chip that controls the speaking, and someone had to manually place his little velvety sandals on his little feet. My guess is that most of the people involved were laughing to themselves as they did it.

And as much as I love to laugh about the silly idea of talking Jesus, at some point, I have to face the sad commentary that talking Jesus implicitly provides about the nature of religion in Western culture. We put Jesus in a plastic cast, give Him poseable appendages so that we can control Him, boil His teachings down to four sayings on a computer chip, make Him white, give Him a rock-hard six-pack, put Him in a box, and sell Him at Wal-mart. I'm not so sure I should be laughing.

Wwll anyway, I'll let you all do the rest of the analysis on that topic. In the meantime, I need to make a quick run to Wal-Mart. I need to pick up the talking Virgin Mary action figure.

Inaugoramation

I suppose that it would be an extreme travesty to pass up a presidential election in a blog that is supposed to focus on issues of the twenty-first century or something like that. And I do suppose that it was a momentous occasion in world history. Forget the fact that Barack Obama is our nation's first African-American president. Forget the fact that for millions of Americans, he is a symbol of hope and change in a country that desperately needs it. Forget that he is leading one of the biggest shifts in American politics - a shift that runs from Pennsylvania Avenue to Capitol Hill, through Wall Street, and all the way to Main Street. This inaugoramation is a milestone in American history not because Barack Obama is the first black president, but because he is the first president that I have seen without a shirt on!

Ok let's face it: the reality of the situation is that I really don't care about the election at all. I have long since lost hope in the American political system as a medium for positive change in the world. I understand that government and politics are a very necessary part of any functional society, but I believe much more strongly in a change that comes in the attitudes of the people rather than in a campaign slogan. Because in the end, power is corrupting and politicians go crooked. It's a fact of life. You don't get to a position like president without breaking a few promises. Which is not to say that I'm some kind of Obama-hater. I wish him well - I really do - and there is nothing that would make me happier than if he proved me wrong. I'm simply saying that history has shown us that we can't depend on a politician to make good on promises. I believe the real solution lies not in any political agenda, but in the heart of every American.

I believe change is coming. I believe that it will arrive as soon as people begin to make the change in their personal lifestyles. I believe change is people helping people, looking out for one another, and working to make the world a better place. That is change that we can believe in.

Getting stoned is bad for your health

Here's an interesting little tidbit that just popped up in my news ticker a few days ago (I've been meaning to write this blog for a while): 2 men stoned to death in Iran, third escapes. It sure is nice to be reminded that as a world, we are still stuck in the stone ages. It really is barbaric to mete out capital punishment for such menial crimes... and I'm not just talking about Iran here. Capital punishment is an awful relic of times that we should have let pass long ago; yet we still cling to it in a society that pretends to be advanced and affluent and cultured.

It may be true that some people really deserve to die... but what of the person who thought up the idea of capital punishment, who is almost certainly responsible for more deaths than any serial killer or rapist in history? In the U.S. alone, 4,955 persons have been executed since 1930 (according to the Department of Justice website). If anyone deserves execution, it's that guy.

But here's the thing: killing is not the answer. No person alive today has any right to decide the fate of another human being's life. A law degree does not qualify one to play with someone's life. To sentence a person to death is to abandon all hope in the good of humanity. Who is to say that the victim of capital punishment can't change their life around. As a Christian, I must believe in the redemptive power of Jesus Christ. To say that a criminal deserves to die, we first need to tear out or ignore all of the New Testament books written by the apostle Paul (which would be about half of them), who was a terrorist and a murderer.

Now I don't mean to say that we should open up every prison gate in the country and let all of our captives go free, trusting that Jesus has made all of them perfect saints and good writers. I'm simply saying that we cannot continue to kill people under the guise of capital punishment. Redemptive violence does not work. As Jesus said, if we operate with an eye-for-an-eye philosophy, it won't be long before the whole world is blind. And I like my eyes.

Why I Love My News Ticker

Old people can basically be broken into two categories: there are those that are endlessly fascinated by the advancement of technology, and there are those who despise it and do everything that they can do to fight the slow creep of progress in their lives. If I were an old person, I believe I would fall into the former category. Although I've only been around to witness eighteen years or so of technological advancement, I still manage to happily occupy myself with any gadgets I can get my hand on. I distinctly remember sneaking into the kitchen to play with the turkey baster as a child, and as I've become older, I've graduated to more advanced and fascinating technology. I've always wanted a Roomba, and my eyes light up every time I get a text message.

The pinnacle of technology, possibly the single greatest achievement of mankind, is unquestionably, absolutely the news ticker. Everything that I could ever possibly need to know about the world is delivered directly onto my desktop. It's got everything that I need -- politics, world events, sports (sarcastically my favorite), culture, crime, and really, really stupid news. The novel has not been written that can top the crap that comes across my news ticker. Nothing makes my day like waking up in the morning to headlines like "Man wants estranged wife to pay for kidney," "Somali pirates drown with ransom money," and 'Couples wed fast-food style." It does my heart good to know that no matter how crazy my life gets, it can't possibly be as weird as the rest of the people in the world. Thank you, news ticker, for keeping me informed about the world, reassuring my confidence, and giving me an endless supply of people to laugh at.