The story of Job is that one day God and Satan are having a conversation, and they’re saying, “Have you checked out Job? I’m really proud of Job. He believes in me and he trusts me so much, and he has such great faith in me.” And Satan is like, “I bet I can change his mind.” And so Satan systematically destroys Job’s life. Takes away his wife his children, all his material possessions. What follows is this ongoing conversation between Job and his friends about, why does this happen? Why does God allow this to happen? Only then does God speak up and say, “You’re going to question me?! Who are you?” My point is, sometimes when we ask the why in the face of profound evil, I kind of wonder if what we’re doing is that we’re daring God to show himself. And I think what we want out of the why is meaning to life, to reveal itself in a way that restores order and gives us hope that all of this isn’t just meaningless chaos.
Duke professor wants to replace term papers with blog posts.
Having written both myself, this is totally absurd. The academy exists to teach people how to think critically and express those thoughts in a clear, nuanced way. Blogs exist to persuade and convince through rhetorical force. Clear and nuanced arguments can contribute to this end, but rarely constitute the core of a post. From the article:
Because, say defenders of rigorous writing, the brief, sometimes personally expressive blog post fails sorely to teach key aspects of thinking and writing. They argue that the old format was less about how Sherman got to the sea and more about how the writer organized the points, fashioned an argument, showed grasp of substance and proof of its origin. Its rigidity wasn’t punishment but pedagogy.
Exactly right (aside from the strange reference to Sherman, which doesn’t make sense even in the full context of the article). But there’s no reason blogs and papers can’t coexist. From a professor at Standford:
Professor Lunsford is playing to student passions. Her writing class for second-year students, a requirement at Stanford, used to revolve around a paper constructed over the entire term. Now, the students start by writing a 15-page paper on a particular subject in the first few weeks. Once that’s done, they use the ideas in it to build blogs, Web sites, and PowerPoint and audio and oral presentations. The students often find their ideas much more crystallized after expressing them with new media, she says, and then, most startling, they plead to revise their essays.
I like this approach, which helps to ensure that the arguments being made in those blogs and tweets are well-considered. But, then, I didn’t compose a 5-page paper before writing this post, so I could be wrong…
A “Strongly Worded Letter” to Bank of America
From maryschmidt, written to BofA the day before the auction of a house her parents had owned for 23 years. It was taken by the bank after her father suffered a stroke, and they couldn’t refinance the mortgage:
When you enter the house, you will notice the colorful walls and vibrant tiles. We call that my mom’s “mid-life fiesta.” Enjoy that. It was a labor of love. Each colorful tile was made by mom and laid by my dad. Those bookshelves, that mantel, the fence in the front yard…my dad built those. You are welcome.
Meanwhile, banks got a trillion dollars in bailout money from the government. How is this just? Full letter on Mary’s site.
Wherever the early Christians appeared, spreading Christ’s doctrine of love, the resident power structure accused them of being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators.” But the small Christian band continued to teach and exemplify love, convinced that they were “a colony of heaven” on this earth who were missioned to obey not man but God.
Good idea: Democracy doesn’t stop on election day. We need to #occupy the agenda.
The officer repeatedly punched the left side of my face for long enough that I had time to pray that the crunching sounds I heard were not damaging my brain.
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From an interview this afternoon with my friend Dave Woessner, one of the founders of the Occupy movement’s Protest Chaplains:
“What do you think it looked like when Jesus was roaming the Judean countryside with a couple hundred people—a ragtag bunch? Who refused to identify himself, “Who do you say I am?” People are like, “What’s this occupy movement about?” This is exactly the same conversation they were having about Jesus of Nazareth. I don’t know why it’s so difficult for people to see, but I suppose it is.”
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I'm a master's student at Harvard Divinity School, a former Democratic campaign consultant, and here to share my insights on religion and politics. I am not The Dude—though I am a huge fan.
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