Friday, March 03, 2006

Whew!

Well I got to talk to my mentor today and she was just as pissed at the professor for his attitude and remarks the other night. I was very relieved that I wasn't overreacting. He just totally did not do what he was supposed to, which was to respond to the drama then "invite dialogue with the audience." His remarks shut down dialogue, and instead of leading discussion, he sat down quite full of himself and left the rest of us unable to proceed in any meaningful way (since we'd been informed anything hinting at faith in anything was stupid).

So at least everyone agrees that he was being a jackass. That makes me feel better. I like there being some rules of engagement, even for people who don't believe in anything. We have a very great relationship with the campus Secular Alliance, which does fall under the auspices of the Office of Religious Life. And they send a rep to our Interfaith Council and I find him to be a lot of fun.

Tonight I get to see the Soweto Gospel Choir. I hear this is supposed to be excellent and not like American (and/or African-American) Gospel music, which I don't much care for.

Then the rest of the weekend will be spent agonizing over this paper that has to be the best one I've ever written (this per my professor). I'm trying to write about the similarities between early Christian rituals and Greco-Roman pagan rites. They are actually quite analogous, although of course that doesn't necessarily imply direct connections. But it does help us see how Gentiles would have been able to understand and incorporate this Jewish sect so readily, because so much of the devotional practice was familiar to them. And one can't help but admit that surely the ethos of the time led to such similarities.

Anyhoo, that's that. Wish me luck.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tonight, I sat down, and for the first time in a long time, I looked at my Bloglines feeds, and read your posts over the last few days. And I must say, I am very touched by your thoughts. I so appreciate your honesty and transparency in dealing with your recent "tough crowd" experience. You handled things much better than I think a lot of people (myself included) would have.

I like to think of myself as being good with words, but in those kinds of situations, I often have found myself speechless.

And I come from a Pentecostal background (I'm now a United Methodist Young Adult Minister), which has seen its share of a lot of fundamentalist wrath-preachers that have ruined it for so many of those people (including the arrogant professors), unfortunately. We can only pray that the Holy Spirit would give us wisdom beyond the mind of Man.

Thanks for your thoughts. And I hate to be forward, but would you be so kind as to add a link to my site? I could really use some traffic as well. Thanks.

Stasi said...

Bryan you might be having trouble because when I clicked your name blogger couldn't find your site. I'll be happy to list you if you get me a working link.

Anonymous said...

So I've read the prior posts, and the 18 arguments from the article. My thoughts...

Argument no 2 is very important(People have had revelations of God: "Subjective. Hearsay. Could be delusions.")

We can't become angry with Atheists because they don't know God. It's kind of like getting angy with someone because they don't know Tom Hanks. God is a person - I know this person. I have spoken to him and he has spoken to me. I have entered his service and have seen the results of his commands. I have made requests and seen answers beyond the possibility of coincidence. I have seen and experienced the supernatural.

Now, of course, none of this will convince anyone else, but it is the PRIMARY reason I follow Christ. This is great news! It means possibly that the primary reason someone else will follow Christ is not because of my clever words but because they will at some point meet God (which I can pray for, and possible I can introduce them to Him, what he's like) - God proves his own existence, and it makes sense that since he wants a relationship with each of us, that he will personally make acquaintance with each of us.

Also we must always attempt to become the person to whom we're speaking. If I don't appreciate the spiritual journey of the person talking to me, why should I expect them to respect my journey? But if I can say, "Yep - if I had that person's background, I'd be arguing the same way," - that is love. And it is greatly to our advantage, because now we can argue from THEIR perspective, we can anticipate how they might answer our questions and save ourselves a lot of embarrassment.

One last thought...if God's purpose for you was to represent his knowledge, you would have received words from the Spirit. As it stands, you were humbled, and you received passion. Both good things.

I could go on for hours, but this isn't my blog :)