Who is Responsible for Evil?

Last semester I took a religion course of theodicy, otherwise known as justifying a good, all-knowing, and completely loving God with the reality of evil in the world. A paradox that we didn't spend much time one but that I have always pondered is: Is there something essentially evil within humans that causes evil to take form? or Is the environment completely responsible for how "evil" a person ends up?

This is the question that two apologetics in the video attempt to answer:

I hope one day I can have a sweet story and a plethora of quotes stored up in my brain to re-sight whenever answering a question, making a

point, or convincing someone of something.

Self-Defense Lesson

It is a dangerous world. At every turn there is the unknown of impending harm.

In light of the reality of the dangerous world we live in I have collected some of the most sought after self-defense experts in the world. In just the few minutes of a single you tube video they will prepare you for whatever waits for you in a dark alley.

Enjoy.

Jamming

Here are some songs I have been jamming to lately. Some old, some new, but all jams. Enjoy!

Happiness

First off, thank God for this semester to be winding down enough that I have time to read what I want to read and to write what I want to write. I only have one final on thursday and a paper due on friday. Both of which I am not worrying about for a couple of days.

Nevertheless, Something that has been bothering me lately is ironically, Happiness. Through many conversations with people and a general observation of the world, I have been distraught by the amount of people that mention happiness as a goal to strive for or as something that makes life meaningful/worth living. In many different forms of rhetoric I have heard what seems to be the idolization of happiness.

There is something deeply wrong with thinking that happiness is something to hope for, strive for, or think of as what will make life meaningful. As Christians, we believe in a god that is ALIVE, TANGIBLE, and PRESENT. And we reject the idea that god is an IDEA, that god is a SMOKESCREEN, or that god STANDS FAR OFF.

So then... What is the Goal? 'I think' the goal is to be. Just to BE with Jesus, rather than to be concerned with secondary goals, feelings, transformations, helping people, etc.. If God is not an idea but a very real and tangible person to be connected with, than what more can be asked of us rather than just to BE with Jesus.

Thats the best I can make of it. Life is full of reactions. And the hip "idolization" of happiness and even spirituality are reactions to a dreary institution that presented a watered down version of the Gospel. What I am trying to point out though, is that the reaction may have gone to far the other way to miss the essence of Christianity. Which is not to be happy but to just be with the Creator of the universe revealed in Jesus and whose presence is known and experienced in a tangible way daily through the Spirit. Thanks only to the grace of the cross.

When Your Faith Tells You to Convert

The following is absolutely PROFOUND section from the book How (not) to Speak of God, by Peter Rollins. The questions this story and passage bring about keep haunting and convicting me.

The story within the movie goes something like this:

"The film itself explores the failure of the Catholic-Protestant Churches when confronted with the terror of the death camps during the second world war. The two main characters are s Protestant youth pastor and a Catholic priest, who both try to inform their religious leaders about the pending holocaust.

The priest is the character that most interested Peter Rollins. At one point, the priest wonders out loud to the Cardinal whether it would be possible for ever Christian in Germany to convert to judaism in order to stop the horror. His thinking is that the Nazis couldn't possibly condemned such a huge number of powerful and socially integrated people at that stage of the war. The idea is, of course, utterly rejected.

The priest believes so strongly in his thought that he himself turns from what he loves and becomes a Jew. By taking on the Jewish identity he suffers with the persecuted, voluntarily taking his place on the trains that run to Aushwitz.

For this priest, the singularity of the horror required an unprecedented action, one which cut at the heart of his tradition. It was his very tradition (or rather the interpretation of his tradition) that demanded he should give up that tradition. This is a studding exploration in the face of unprecedented horror, For most Christians, the question, "Would you die for your beliefs?" In other words, would you be prepared to give up your religious tradition in order to affirm that tradition? Can you give up the very thing you would die to protect, not because of something even more powerful, but rather because of another's suffering?

The most powerful way to affirm his Christianity is to lay it down- symbolized by the incongruous image in which he remains in his cassock while wearing the star of David. Here, the beliefs and practices which have served him daily are placed into question by the terror that faces him and the demands for a response. Amidst the fires of the Jewish persecution his Christian beliefs are subverted by the belief that Christ gave up all for the powerless. And so the priest gave up his Christianity precisely in order to retain his Christianity. It is the very narrative that he loves which requires this exodus narrative-losing his soul while perhaps, unintentionally, finding it. " -Peter Rollins

Proud to be a Bulldog

If you would have told me that three years ago, when I first decided to attend Butler University that our basketball team would have reached the Final Four my junior year, I would have told you to take a hike! A really long hike to think about what you just told me. Don't get me wrong from the second I came to Butler I fell in love with the basketball program because it was unlike any athletic program I had ever seen and it was starkly different than what I was use to, and saw on TV. Growing up I was a fan of the University of Cincinnati bearcats. I cheered on young men tattooed from head to toe and watched a coach (whom I respect) be caught for a DUI and be so intense and angry that he eventually gave himself a heart attack. More importantly the graduation rate of the players was atrocious.

But the second I was around the Butler basketball program I finally was able to be proud of a team for not just winning games but transcendently for the entire program's integrity. In an era where coaches like John Calipari are having past NCAA tournament wins removed for violations and completely burying their past two programs ten feet deep in violations, sanctions, and torn down banners the Butler Way stands out. Only under the shadow of this era do we truly notice how amazing the Butler Way is. Who knows, maybe other teams have similar montages that they supposably build their program on. Fact is, if they do, their actions in recruiting and running their program do not reflect the reality of what actually HAPPENS. Thats what makes the Butler Way special, that they are not standards that the coaches and players recite but that are actually lived and made real by everything from who and how the coaches recruit to a press conference after a final four victory displaying team over self. Sounds obvious, but this steadfast integrity and relentless approach to be exactly who the Butler Way says the team wants to be is unique.

I am proud to be a Butler Bulldog because I have watched our team pour its heart out onto the floor for four straight games. I don't think this is a lucky Cinderella run. Because of this goofy hat I have been wearing to all of the viewing parties at Butler I have been interviewed each time by some news station. Some guy asked me about my hat and I said that I am kinda superstitious and I have been wearing it for each game. He asked, "So are you the good luck charm?". The question made me angry and I may have reacted kinda harshly, "Heck no!" I said, "This has nothing to do with luck, its just us playing better basketball and wanting it more than the other team." Sure, we may not be AS athletic or talented as say Kentucky, Kansas, K-State, or Syracuse but not by much and hey! look who is left in the tournament. Again, in era where up and down athletic fast pace athleticism is seen as the way to cutting down nets the Butler style of play stands out: team over self, pass over shoot, defense over offense, and diving on the floor over watching someone else get the loose ball. I watched the Tennessee game and watched one of the players, last name Prince I believe, salute the crowd each time he made a good play. There is no room for that on Butler's squad. I am certain that "Stone Cold Stevens", as I like to call him, would sit that player down and make him think long and hard about what this program is about: a glance and cheer at our team's bench over a cocky arrogant salute to the crowd.

If I was in charge of a athletic team or program, (which will never happen) there is no doubt that I would build and model the program just like Butler has. I cant imagine any program that has been more successful (real success, not Calipari success) from top to bottom like Butler has been. That is why this is not a Cinderella run, but just an run that embodies and exempflies years and years of building from Tony Hinkle to Barry Collier to "Stone Cold Stevens" all men who did not sacrifice integrity for the momentary feeling of hanging a banner stained with violations, sanctions, DUI's, and terrible graduation rates. I cant wait to hang that banner from this years succes and be proud for the entiriety of a program. Because we all know that the ghost of Tony Hinkle would wait to we were all gone to tear down a banner out of the rafters of his gym that wasn't up to his standards.

Proud to be a Bulldog more than ever.

Butler to the Final Four