All For You
Sister Hazel
Finally I figured out,
But it took a long long time
Now there's a turnabout,
Maybe cause I'm tryin'
There's been times, I'm so confused
Down my road, will it lead to you?
Just can't turn and walk away
It's hard to say what it is I see in you
Wonder if I'll always be with you
Words can't say it, I can't do
Enough to prove, it's all for you
And I'd thought I seen it all,
Cause it's been a long long time
Oh bothered that we'll trip and fall,
Wonderin' if I'm alive
There's been times, I'm so confused
Down my road, will it lead to you?
I just can't turn, you walk away
Its hard to say what it is I see in you
Wonder if I'll always be with you
Words can't say, and I can't do
Enough to prove it's all for you
Rain comes pourin' down,
Fallin' from blue skies
Words give out a sound,
comin' from your eyes
Finally I figured out,
But it took a long long time
Oh now there's a turnabout,
Maybe cause I'm tryin'
There's been times, I'm so confused
Down my road, will it lead to you?
Just can't turn, you walk away
Its hard to say what it is I see in you
Wonder if I'll always be with you
Words can't say, I can't do
Enough to prove it's all for you
Well it's hard to say what it is I see in you
Wonder if I'll always be with you
Words can't say, I can't do
Enough to prove, it's all for you
Hard to say
Hard to say, it's all for you
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Friday, March 30, 2007
Holocaust
I've never read something that so succinctly explained what I feel about the Holocaust, and why it just represents the extent to which men can be evil.
"One of the most important outcomes of the experience of World War II is the scale of human atrocity. The most visible, if not morally paralyzing, aspect of the atrocities of this period is capsulated in the term 'the Holocast.' The Holocaust, seen in the context of the World War II experience, provoked serious reappraisal of the adequacy and morality of the forms of human governance on a global basis. The Holocaust was an event involving a self-conscious policy on the part of the Nazi Herrenvolk to use the apparatus of state power to systematically extinguish whole groups of human beings on the basis of group labels of identity. It was a process facilitated by the technological capacity of an industrial state waging an industrial form of total war. Hidden under the veil of political and judicial sovereignty, the Holocaust represented complete denial of people's right to existence, subject to Nazi dominance. A form of governance based on apparently limitless sovereignty it raised a profound question about the fundamental rights of persons caught in the web of sovereign omnipotence."
-Winston P. Nagan & Vivile F. Rodin
Racism, Genocide, and Mass Murder: Toward a Legal Theory About Group Deprivations
"One of the most important outcomes of the experience of World War II is the scale of human atrocity. The most visible, if not morally paralyzing, aspect of the atrocities of this period is capsulated in the term 'the Holocast.' The Holocaust, seen in the context of the World War II experience, provoked serious reappraisal of the adequacy and morality of the forms of human governance on a global basis. The Holocaust was an event involving a self-conscious policy on the part of the Nazi Herrenvolk to use the apparatus of state power to systematically extinguish whole groups of human beings on the basis of group labels of identity. It was a process facilitated by the technological capacity of an industrial state waging an industrial form of total war. Hidden under the veil of political and judicial sovereignty, the Holocaust represented complete denial of people's right to existence, subject to Nazi dominance. A form of governance based on apparently limitless sovereignty it raised a profound question about the fundamental rights of persons caught in the web of sovereign omnipotence."
-Winston P. Nagan & Vivile F. Rodin
Racism, Genocide, and Mass Murder: Toward a Legal Theory About Group Deprivations
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
It's About Time!
So this is my preacher back in Abilene. This video is HILARIOUS for those of you who get the CoC jokes :-)
What Would A Human RIghts Theorist Do?
In God and the Constitution I read that politics is actually far more entrenched in a Christian ethic now than we realize, and that there is a place for a human rights theology within that ethic. This leads me to wonder, what exactly a foreign policy guided by this ethic would look like.
The analysis is made, when discussing the Cain & Able story, that all injustices that go unanswered appeal directly to God. However, as an intermediate step to this appeal, after the covenant with Noah and all creation, men were to exercise a judicial function and to protect rights. So what happens when the judicial system of a state fails? What exactly does the role of the Christian government to intervene and protect look like? Is this theology mean to imply that the existence of a judicial system of any kind, no matter how ill-equipped, represents the human responsibility to maintain justice? So for example, if a country like say the Philippines, is incapable of providing a higher level of justice then their current infrastructure allows, do we just chalk that up to human development and allow their justice system to develop as it will? Do we, in other words, accept this lacking justice system as a good faith effort toward intervening on behalf of the oppressed? Or, do we assume that it is our duty to ENSURE that all cries of oppression are met with justice?
Or, do we say that the unsuccessful efforts of other nations to fight injustice represent an example of a cry to God, and that God’s intervention and answer is the use of human servants to carry the day [much like the people in Egypt cried out, God speaks to Moses, Moses and Aaron go with God’s protection]?
And if we decide that we must intervene when justice systems fail to meet a specific standard of justice, how do we determine what standard will govern our interventions? Do all justice systems which persecute Christians require intervention? What about those which persecute women? Homosexuals? Are all justice systems which allow detention without access to a lawyer to be condemned, unless they are American military tribunals? From what text shall we draw this standard?
Additionally, if we have an obligation to fight back against unrighteous treatment, where does that belong in a hierarchy of rights? Do we intervene to provide justice as a foreign policy? Can that be allowed to trump other foreign policy objectives?
What about a situation like the Darfur or the situation in Northern Uganda? If I am a Christian subscribing to a human rights ethic somewhat like the one we’ve discussed in this class [as for instance seen in God and the Constitution] what do I do about the Darfur? Do I say, for instance, that I have a duty as a Christian to use the resources at my disposal to answer cries of injustice? Does this obligation trump, for instance any domestic obligations I may have to my constituents?
The analysis is made, when discussing the Cain & Able story, that all injustices that go unanswered appeal directly to God. However, as an intermediate step to this appeal, after the covenant with Noah and all creation, men were to exercise a judicial function and to protect rights. So what happens when the judicial system of a state fails? What exactly does the role of the Christian government to intervene and protect look like? Is this theology mean to imply that the existence of a judicial system of any kind, no matter how ill-equipped, represents the human responsibility to maintain justice? So for example, if a country like say the Philippines, is incapable of providing a higher level of justice then their current infrastructure allows, do we just chalk that up to human development and allow their justice system to develop as it will? Do we, in other words, accept this lacking justice system as a good faith effort toward intervening on behalf of the oppressed? Or, do we assume that it is our duty to ENSURE that all cries of oppression are met with justice?
Or, do we say that the unsuccessful efforts of other nations to fight injustice represent an example of a cry to God, and that God’s intervention and answer is the use of human servants to carry the day [much like the people in Egypt cried out, God speaks to Moses, Moses and Aaron go with God’s protection]?
And if we decide that we must intervene when justice systems fail to meet a specific standard of justice, how do we determine what standard will govern our interventions? Do all justice systems which persecute Christians require intervention? What about those which persecute women? Homosexuals? Are all justice systems which allow detention without access to a lawyer to be condemned, unless they are American military tribunals? From what text shall we draw this standard?
Additionally, if we have an obligation to fight back against unrighteous treatment, where does that belong in a hierarchy of rights? Do we intervene to provide justice as a foreign policy? Can that be allowed to trump other foreign policy objectives?
What about a situation like the Darfur or the situation in Northern Uganda? If I am a Christian subscribing to a human rights ethic somewhat like the one we’ve discussed in this class [as for instance seen in God and the Constitution] what do I do about the Darfur? Do I say, for instance, that I have a duty as a Christian to use the resources at my disposal to answer cries of injustice? Does this obligation trump, for instance any domestic obligations I may have to my constituents?
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Eyah asher Eyah
Moses then said to God, `Look, if I go to the Israelites and say to them, “The god of your ancestors has sent me to you,” and they say to me, “What is his name?” what am I to tell them?
God said to Moses, `I am who I am’.
-Exodus 3:13-14
Is a human rights framework an inherently religious creation, or can it be conceived absent Christianity? This question does not, I believe, evoke a need for an intense discussion of complicated cosmologies. Instead, it simply leads us backwards, watching a flower bloom in reverse to the original question of life on earth [and everywhere else]: is God the beginning and end of all? Is Yahweh the Alpha and the Omega?
The Psalmists tell us that God is known by His justice. And we are given the responsibility as humans, to live a life of stewardship, as it says in Genesis 1:28: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.’”
When the Queen of Sheba hears of the fame of King Solomon and comes to see him with her own eyes she says to him: “Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in your and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king, to maintain justice and righteousness.” I Kings 10:9. And what might this justice - the Lord’s justice - look like? In Psalm 72, the writer asks God to “Endow the king with your justice, O God,...He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy; he will crush the oppressor.” Psalm 72:1,4.
What is it exactly that God is rescuing his children from? The terror from who’s hands God will snatch his children is not unlike modern Human Rights litigation. Job 5:4 says “His children are far from safety, crushed in court without defenders.” Ecclesiastes chapter 1 notes that nothing is happening now that has not been happening, or has not happened before. And the Old Testament would seem to confirm that such horrors have been plaguing man for quite some time. Psalms 10:2 says “[i]n his arrogance, the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises.” Ezekiel 22:29 observes “[t]he people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the alien, denying them justice.” Joel 3:3 says “[t]hey cast lots for my people and traded boys for prostitutes; they sold girls for wine that they might drink.” Isaiah tells of worker abuse, and slavery, Amos tells of merchants cheating the poor, and Psalms further tells us about trafficking of persons - weaving tales of the wicked who lay in wait and capture the innocent and drag them from the village.
These cries, much like those from the abandoned villages in Northern Uganda or Burma or Guatemla that we hear today magnified through the megaphone of Human Rights NGOs like Restore International or the International Justice Mission, are lonely and loud, but do not escape God’s ears:
“Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the Lord. “I will protect them from those who malign them.” Psalm 12:5
Interestingly enough, God is not adding to the pool of rights or entitlements of the poor or the down-trodden. Rather, he is in the business of restoration - he is restoring them to the state they were in, a state of human dignity. God is in the business of returning the dignity of human beings, made and crafted in His image, to its condition before oppression. He is making right the wrong done in their name, “For he who avenges blood remembers; he does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.” Pslam 9:12.
But what is the justice he is bestowing upon them? Where does the inherent dignity come from? The answer to that question, I believe, lays squarely within the debate on the existence of God himself. When Moses asked God “Whom shall I say sent me?” God responded “Eyah asher Eyah,” a biblical play on words if you will. God responded I Am he who is called I Am. For the Christian who truly believes God is El Shaddai, the Lord must be the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. If the justice and dignity the Lord were restoring to his people was not originally derivative of His being, than justice would be a concept existing outside of God. It would be a value or value cosmology if you will, which exists outside God that God may and ought to be judged against.
The explanation for the Christian cannot be that God can be judged against a standard of justice which man has created. It is God who is the justifier. At the end of the book of Job, after God has heard Job complain for what will be the last time, it is written:
Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm: “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you and you shall answer me. Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself? Do you have an arm like God’s and can your voice thunder like his? Then...unleash the fury of your wrath,...crush the wicked where they stand. Bury them all in the dust together; shroud their faces in the grave. Then I myself will admit to you that your own right hand can save you.” Job 40:6-14
Either the Lord is right all the time, or we are. Either we can save ourselves, or we cannot. And if we can, then we are the justifiers and the dignity of all human beings comes from what we award ourselves. If not, then he is the Justifier, the King, El Shaddai and the source of justice forever, amen.
God said to Moses, `I am who I am’.
-Exodus 3:13-14
Is a human rights framework an inherently religious creation, or can it be conceived absent Christianity? This question does not, I believe, evoke a need for an intense discussion of complicated cosmologies. Instead, it simply leads us backwards, watching a flower bloom in reverse to the original question of life on earth [and everywhere else]: is God the beginning and end of all? Is Yahweh the Alpha and the Omega?
The Psalmists tell us that God is known by His justice. And we are given the responsibility as humans, to live a life of stewardship, as it says in Genesis 1:28: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.’”
When the Queen of Sheba hears of the fame of King Solomon and comes to see him with her own eyes she says to him: “Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in your and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king, to maintain justice and righteousness.” I Kings 10:9. And what might this justice - the Lord’s justice - look like? In Psalm 72, the writer asks God to “Endow the king with your justice, O God,...He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy; he will crush the oppressor.” Psalm 72:1,4.
What is it exactly that God is rescuing his children from? The terror from who’s hands God will snatch his children is not unlike modern Human Rights litigation. Job 5:4 says “His children are far from safety, crushed in court without defenders.” Ecclesiastes chapter 1 notes that nothing is happening now that has not been happening, or has not happened before. And the Old Testament would seem to confirm that such horrors have been plaguing man for quite some time. Psalms 10:2 says “[i]n his arrogance, the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises.” Ezekiel 22:29 observes “[t]he people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the alien, denying them justice.” Joel 3:3 says “[t]hey cast lots for my people and traded boys for prostitutes; they sold girls for wine that they might drink.” Isaiah tells of worker abuse, and slavery, Amos tells of merchants cheating the poor, and Psalms further tells us about trafficking of persons - weaving tales of the wicked who lay in wait and capture the innocent and drag them from the village.
These cries, much like those from the abandoned villages in Northern Uganda or Burma or Guatemla that we hear today magnified through the megaphone of Human Rights NGOs like Restore International or the International Justice Mission, are lonely and loud, but do not escape God’s ears:
“Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the Lord. “I will protect them from those who malign them.” Psalm 12:5
Interestingly enough, God is not adding to the pool of rights or entitlements of the poor or the down-trodden. Rather, he is in the business of restoration - he is restoring them to the state they were in, a state of human dignity. God is in the business of returning the dignity of human beings, made and crafted in His image, to its condition before oppression. He is making right the wrong done in their name, “For he who avenges blood remembers; he does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.” Pslam 9:12.
But what is the justice he is bestowing upon them? Where does the inherent dignity come from? The answer to that question, I believe, lays squarely within the debate on the existence of God himself. When Moses asked God “Whom shall I say sent me?” God responded “Eyah asher Eyah,” a biblical play on words if you will. God responded I Am he who is called I Am. For the Christian who truly believes God is El Shaddai, the Lord must be the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. If the justice and dignity the Lord were restoring to his people was not originally derivative of His being, than justice would be a concept existing outside of God. It would be a value or value cosmology if you will, which exists outside God that God may and ought to be judged against.
The explanation for the Christian cannot be that God can be judged against a standard of justice which man has created. It is God who is the justifier. At the end of the book of Job, after God has heard Job complain for what will be the last time, it is written:
Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm: “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you and you shall answer me. Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself? Do you have an arm like God’s and can your voice thunder like his? Then...unleash the fury of your wrath,...crush the wicked where they stand. Bury them all in the dust together; shroud their faces in the grave. Then I myself will admit to you that your own right hand can save you.” Job 40:6-14
Either the Lord is right all the time, or we are. Either we can save ourselves, or we cannot. And if we can, then we are the justifiers and the dignity of all human beings comes from what we award ourselves. If not, then he is the Justifier, the King, El Shaddai and the source of justice forever, amen.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Into Africa Day #2 - I Hate London
We arrived in London around 2 in the afternoon (London time), today. We poked around Heathrow, got something to eat, and then pretty much parked it outside our gate.
Because I had already sat for far too long, I decided to poke around the shops. You'll never BELIEVE what I found - that's right folks, A DR. PEPPER!! I bought the last two in all of Heathrow [and I'm willing to believe, all of London - sine I hate London. If we were say in Croatia or some other place I actually liked I might be willing to go ahead and give it the benefit of the doubt and say there may still be Dr. Pepper dwelling somewhere within the geographic bounds therein...]. I am now drinking one, and the other is tucked up inside my cute little bag for later. I also procured Cadburry White Chocolate...
On the tram over to this terminal we met a guy who was on our plane over from LAX who is also going to Uganda. He is from USC and grew up in SoCal and has all these wierd connections with Matt. I would like to take this time to note I have had it UP TO HERE with the whole soCal thing. Moving on...he's also a Xtian, and he's looking at a job opening with some missionaries as a teacher. Astounding how God works through those who praise him, no?
Well, I'm up for some much needed rest - but we've reached that place: the Point of No Return. Let's just say that when I wake up, I'm GETTING ON THAT PLANE!!
Because I had already sat for far too long, I decided to poke around the shops. You'll never BELIEVE what I found - that's right folks, A DR. PEPPER!! I bought the last two in all of Heathrow [and I'm willing to believe, all of London - sine I hate London. If we were say in Croatia or some other place I actually liked I might be willing to go ahead and give it the benefit of the doubt and say there may still be Dr. Pepper dwelling somewhere within the geographic bounds therein...]. I am now drinking one, and the other is tucked up inside my cute little bag for later. I also procured Cadburry White Chocolate...
On the tram over to this terminal we met a guy who was on our plane over from LAX who is also going to Uganda. He is from USC and grew up in SoCal and has all these wierd connections with Matt. I would like to take this time to note I have had it UP TO HERE with the whole soCal thing. Moving on...he's also a Xtian, and he's looking at a job opening with some missionaries as a teacher. Astounding how God works through those who praise him, no?
Well, I'm up for some much needed rest - but we've reached that place: the Point of No Return. Let's just say that when I wake up, I'm GETTING ON THAT PLANE!!
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Into Africa Day #1 - And They're Off!
Today Matt & I caught our plane from LAX to Heathrow in London. Our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 8:30 but it was at LEAST an hour behind. Either way was good for us though as it provided us the opportunity to get our affairs in order.
We drove to Ira'as house in BelAire and left my car there, in his trust, and he drove us to the Tom Bradley International Terminal. We had checked in online so gettin' our bags in was easy - we just went and dropped them off without incident.
The plane was really cramped, because there was barely enough room to breathe. Somehow that doesn't matter to me though.
Here Am I Lord, send me! [I don't read a qualifier there... I don't think Isaiah would've turned around if the camel was crowded...]
We drove to Ira'as house in BelAire and left my car there, in his trust, and he drove us to the Tom Bradley International Terminal. We had checked in online so gettin' our bags in was easy - we just went and dropped them off without incident.
The plane was really cramped, because there was barely enough room to breathe. Somehow that doesn't matter to me though.
Here Am I Lord, send me! [I don't read a qualifier there... I don't think Isaiah would've turned around if the camel was crowded...]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)