“Why a Whitworth Student Might Reject Christianity”
Naturally, when I saw this post by Grady Locklear pop up on the Whitworth Forum, I was intrigued. I restrained from contributing for a while, mostly because I could already (from this previous post and the accompanying discussion) tell that a real dialogue would be impossible given the cast of characters already involved.
I can only show so much restraint. Here is the original comment, reproduced here for your convenience:
(Text after the Jump)
The Next Phase…
In a few days I will have had this blog for an entire year. I don’t know if I will continue blogging after that date passes. Having experimented with the medium, I have found that there are some good things to be said about blogs… but whether or not this is really worth my time I cannot say for sure.
One thing to be said about this venture is that it has allowed me to write outside of the structured form I typically adhere to for school. Within my major I have few opportunities for open-ended creativity, and this blog is full of commentary, criticism, anecdotes and even some poetry. That being said, I will likely post here on occasion in the future, but it will be sporadic. If the mood strikes me to write I might do so randomly, but consistency has never been my thing.
Anyway, I thought I should throw something up here because it has been a while. Hopefully you have enjoyed reading my blog thus far and will check back here occasionally for new content. No guarantees, though!
The Musical Stylings of Buble and Other Easter Musings
Michael Buble is quintessentially the Thomas Kinkade of music. Like many others — notably Jason Mraz and Ryan Darbonne — Buble seeks to project a Sonatra-esque big band sound with an adorable pop kick. However, what is so astounding about Buble is that somehow he has managed to progress past the level of ground-floor lounge singer into mainstream fame. Granted, he is a talented vocalist — partially explaining his appeal — and demonstrates amazing pitch and volume control.
The problem is that pipes do not necessarily mean palatable music (pipe dream, anyone?); lucid songwriting and convincing instrumentals (if any) are equally, if not more important, than mechanically-perfect vocals. This is evident when his music is digested — it ultimately constitutes little more than pretty, poppy bullshit. Fortunately, there are myriad more innovative songwriters and bands for the audio[music-]philes among us. Despite our fortune, it is saddening to see the musical sheep repeatedly following this mimicry into sonic purgatory, considering the veritable bounty of harmonies available in lyrical heaven; perhaps a few listens of OK Computer makes the best indulgence.
And a couple of ideas developed at the Mug Nug this evening:
www.queefmyquiver.org — Queef on your friends!
> www.assed.org (pronounced “ac-id”) — Moon your accomplices! (A subsidiary of queefonmyquiver.org)
The Trouble With Twitter — an upcoming docudrama
www.baconpeople.org — a social networking site for baconeers on the fringe; all about bacon counter-culture
> www.fakenforum.org — for veggie baconeers everywhere; part of the baconpeople.org network
Ah, inside jokes. They never fully translate!
Bring ‘em Back Home
Blue Scholars “Back Home” Music Video from Zia Mohajerjasbi on Vimeo.
And It Begins like…
And it begins where we left a brother chased after by death until he catches his breath
We embarked upon a long march too weary to rest
Now tell me who would ever have guessed that at the top of the west
A party rocker and a poet might collectively have written another chapter in this fight against this self-described Right, but not righteous
Its highly unlikely we’ll take it lightly when 1000 of my compatriots are evacuating nightly,
From one ave to another, University to Beacon,
The body was never meant neither to last to be beaten,
But Buddhas in the streets teachin’ a lesson to kids in the cold,
And if i tell all of mine there’s other stories to be told, had a lot of good brothas either my age or younger,
Who copped the 1st album when it dropped now gone under,
And they say progress but the fact is, Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy lookin like the street we named after him Permanently under construction, the people hustlin’
Despite the pain and sufferin’ The energy we’ve mustered in
South Side Seattle there’s a whole lot happenin’,
Where so called soul mates are stabbin’ each other’s scapula’s,
Melancholy hopeful I capture the present moment we concimated the marriage of beats, rhymes, and atonement,
In each mind resides a potential so potent they make us think that we ain’t got it,
If we did then we control shit
Organize and prioritizin whats important
I’m just tryin’ to raise the scene while the homies have abortions
No distortion to the static,
I hold the mic and pass it to the future schools in session but there won’t be any classes,
Happy to see family back, from ten months in Iraq,
For fallen comrades rockin’ a black wrist band,
It’s just a glimpse of what you missed when you gone,
We held you down and kept chanting now;
Bring ‘em back home,
for my brotha’s and my sista’s who been gone too long we say;
Bring ‘Em Back home, and I don’t want to have to keep singin’ this song,
We say; Bring ‘em back home, for my brotha’s and my sista’s who been gone too long we say;
Bring ‘em back home, and I dont want to have to keep singin’ this song.
And somewhere a soldier kissed his family goodbye,
And he was walking like a warrior the water in his eyes,
He left in late September said he’ll be back in july,
Now the child is asking mommy “Why did Daddy have to die?”
She says He fought for freedom, but she knows it’s just a lie,
Cause her father was a veteran with benefits denied,
Now the fire in her eyes burnt brighter with the passin’ of the minutes into hours and the hours into days and,
Days turned to Night, Nights turned to facce the other way, One sister strong holding down the whole family,
It’s just one in over three-thousand casualties and back home we battle with the apathy,
We chantin’ now;
Bring ‘em back home, for my brotha’s and my sista’s who been gone too long we say;
Bring ‘em back home, and I don’t wanna have to keep on singin’ this song,
We say Bring ‘em back home, for my brotha’s and my sista’s who been gone too long we say;
Bring ‘em back home, and I don’t wanna have to keep on singin’ this song,
So next time you see recruiters in your school or your crib,
Tell them thank you for the offer but you’d rather you lived,
We got more than just our bodies to offer,
So fuck a coffin wrapped in red white and blue, withdraw passed due
We disgusted with the fact we pay taxes to build tanks
Still dropping one twomp and a half to fill tanks
Got a china-mans chance to fill banks like Phil Banks
For soldiers in the future givin’ thanks in advance
We say; Bring ‘em back home, for my brotha’s and my sista’s who been gone too long we say;
Bring ‘Em Back home, and I don’t want to have to keep singin’ this song,
We say; Bring ‘em back home, for my brotha’s and my sista’s who been gone too long we say;
Bring ‘em back home, and I dont want to have to keep singin’ this song.
— Blue Scholars
Understanding My Own Pretensions
Allow me to articulate my dilemma:
I am sitting in my Monday night (three hours on the philosophy of aesthetics!) class at the moment, and my instructor is droning on about medieval aesthetics. Yet all I can think about throughout his entire lecture is how Euro-centric the study of aesthetics is in the first place, and how much I want to jump out the window.
To be fair, it’s really not the professor’s fault — like many academic disciplines, philosophy has been historically dominated (at least until recent centuries) by European thought. Art history ought to be renamed the history of European/Western art. What is missing bothers me much more than what is present.
Rethinking the War on Drugs
Read THIS ARTICLE first, then what follows here…
The above piece was written collectively by the former presidents of Brazil, Columbia and Mexico. It articulates that the drug suppression policies of the last 30 years have failed, and that it is time to take a good look at what we CAN do to limit the trafficking of narcotics, rather than relying on failed tactics of the past.
One thing I particularly appreciated was the call to differentiate between different kinds of drugs, and that “the available empirical evidence shows that the hazards caused by cannabis are similar to the harm caused by alcohol or tobacco.”
It will take a lot of rethinking and adjustment for this country to swallow that statement, but I think the consensus is moving more in that direction. Decriminalization and taxation of Marijuana is both logical and beneficial. It is another opportunity for revenue, and it will limit violence and criminality associated with “soft” drug sales.
Clearly, harder drugs such as cocaine, heroine and especially methamphetamine (the last of which has risen in use by huge amounts in recent years, and is arguably the most devastating) ought to be regulated as stringently as possible. It is simply illogical, however, to lump marijuana in with the rest.
Progress
Progress — 2/10/09
How do you get
from crazy-town
to the future?
Allow me to draw a map through
time and space, the primordial ooze of
Fate
My legend paints a symphony of rhythm
and chaos,
directed by the repetition of dreams
And upon these fraternal canvasses we
sketch god
in our own image
Mile-markers measure
the movement
of our minds
As we proceed through the rains of history
Weeping
teardrops upon withered leaves
Patiently eroding the blood
stains of our
Forebears
Hush,
Listen closely for the crash
of order into streams of consciousness
Release the caged imagery
of this voyage to progress
manifest destiny.
must be proud.
In What Medieval Kingdom?
I am fucking bitter.
Were I some outsider, someone who had simply grown up in the debauchery and frivolousness of the contemporary pagan, perhaps my rage towards Christianity would be much more tempered. In such a situation any anger would be misguided and spectral at best, and the more likely position would be of apathy.
I am not that outsider. Christianity is my abusive lover — I clung to it so desperately, fearful of what I would find in the world beyond “God”. I submitted myself to the mindless repetition of chapter and verse, and daily feeling greater inadequacy, uselessness and self-loathing. Such is the world in which the divine observes his creation with disgust. The impossibility of the situation is overwhelming.
Yet through some kind of miraculous epiphany a seed of doubt became ingrained in my consciousness. It began to pervade the theology and the bible studies. It permeated church pews and silenced sermons. With the cacophony finally quieted, I felt as though I were observing the evidence of a crime. Did I really believe that? How did I find such a thing remotely plausible?
And I sighed, for I found it all to be shit. I had left Christianity far behind me; it simply took time for me to realize it. I now face the world without the convenience of the Eternal Guidebook, but the prospect of a life lived truly stands above anything else. Life beyond “god” is one without agenda or manipulation. That is not to say these things become absent, but that at least for me I feel no necessity to act one way with one person and a different way with another. We all simply ARE.
Do not misunderstand me: I get it. I get why people turn to religion (or maintain it). There is comfort — of being part of something greater, some overarching plan, and a promise of salvation. But I do not buy it. This comes after substantial study of the Bible, and Christian history and theology, and many years of questions. My rejection of religion is probably the most thought-out thing I have ever done. I say “religion” because it is not only Christianity but the whole concept of religion which I find absurd.
Please resist the temptation to argue with me or elicit some kind of defense from me. I wish to do neither. I do not need to defend my decision, and in this I feel self-assured. I suppose this post is more an explanation of “how” than “what”. I just wanted to clear things up a bit about what exactly has been going on with me the past couple months.
Rejoice
Wouldn’t it be so wonderful
if everything were meaningless.
But everything is so meaningful,
and most everything turns to shit.
Rejoice
- Pedro
