Flourishing

How do your faith and politics mix? Take the quiz

Jeff — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:10:50 +0000

The Summer 2008 issue of Leadership features an article by Following Christ 2008 track chair Amy Black. “The Church and Politics Quiz” allows you to answer a series of questions which will let you know whether you’re a thumpin’ theocrat, a private patriot, a quiet critic, or a radical reformer (or somewhere in between!). Take the quiz.

Amy is associate professor of Politics & International Relations at Wheaton College. She earned her Ph.D. in Political Science at M.I.T. A specialist in American Government, her current areas of research include religion and politics, mass media, and Congress. Dr. Black served as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow, working in the office of Rep. Melissa A. Hart (PA-04).

Her books include Beyond Left and Right: Helping Christians Make Sense of American Politics (Baker Books, 2008), From Inspiration to Legislation: How an Idea Becomes a Law (Prentice Hall, 2007), and Of Little Faith: The Politics of George W. Bush’s Faith Based Initiatives (Georgetown, 2004). She and her husband, Dan Treier, live in Wheaton with their daughter, Anna.

The Faith of Barack Obama

Jeff — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:16:19 +0000

Several week ago I mentioned that I would be reviewing Stephen Mansfield’s The Faith of Barack Obama. I decided to publish this post during the week of the Democratic National Convention in Denver. So, here it is.

Thanks to Michael Hyatt of Thomas Nelson for the opportunity to see a review copy of this fine book. I’m interested, has any of you read Mansfield’s book. Is so, what did you think?
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The Faith of Barack Obama Stephen Mansfield. Thomas Nelson, $19.99 (156p) ISBN 978-1-5955-5250-1

Pundits tell us that this years’ Democratic Convention is about introducing Barack Obama to the American electorate. If this is true, then Stephen Mansfield’s The Faith of Barack Obama is required reading.

In 156 quick-reading pages Mansfield manages to not only to sketch Obama’s life, but also to place him in context with his political contemporaries.

We meet a young man who came of age on Chicago’s South side. Nurtured in the faith of the black church, with its unique commingling of Gospel as personal and societal conversion, there emerges a political liberal whose convictions spring not from strictly secular assumptions, but from theological convictions formed in church and community.

Mansfield re-introduces us to Jeremiah Wright. He helps those unfamiliar with black theology to place Wright in a stream of the church influenced profoundly by systemic oppression. His writing is charitable and balanced, offering much more than the caricatured preacher of YouTube clips.

In depicting Obama to an audience largely unfamiliar with him and distrustful of his politics, Mansfield models charity. More than that, he offers an understanding of this moment as an opportunity for Americans (evangelical and otherwise) to grow in mutual respect and understanding toward a new future.

Getting that dissertation done… on time

Jeff — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:01:33 +0000

Merlin Mann at 43folders has an interesting post about The Planning Fallacy. I hear you asking, what is the planning fallacy?

You know what it is. It is that internal bias that causes you to, say, think that it will take you three years to write your dissertation. Reality…we’re talking 6+, right? Seriously, in one study on planning bias students were asked to identify how long it would take them to complete an undergraduate thesis. The average response was about 33 days. In reality, only 30% of participants completed their thesis on time.

What to do? Start by adding at least 20% more time to your estimate, uh, 40% is probably more like it. According to Mann

In my days as a project manager (and in another life as a freelance designer), I got into a habit that has served me well to this day: get the best estimate of both job requirements and time-to-completion that you can find. Then add 20%. Then, when nobody is looking, add another 20%. Then pray.

Read it here first folks, The Faith of Barack Obama by Steven Mansfield

Jeff — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 21:57:45 +0000

Today is the official publication date of Steven Mansfield’s book, The Faith of Barack Obama. I’ll be reviewing the book in the next week or so, once I get my copy from Thomas Nelson.

Faith is playing a role in election 2008, but not in the ways it did in 2000 and 2004. I’m sort of glad about that. And, honestly, I’m still not decided about who will get my vote. For the record, I am registered in the state of North Carolina as “unaffiliated,” and according to the Political Compass app on Facebook, I’m moderate. And so…you guessed it…this election is all about guys like me.

Stay tuned!

[John Terrill] Is “being green” always so clean?

Jeff — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:28:11 +0000

The following is cross-posted from John Terrill’s blog, Apprentice Place. John is Associate Director of InterVarsity’s Following Christ 2008 conference and Director of Seattle Pacific University’s Center for Integrity in Business. Read more about John here.

I’ve become increasingly concerned about the well being of our planet. I wish I could say I’ve been a long-term champion of environmental stewardship, but in reality I am a recent convert. My own journey of earth care coincides with my deepening faith journey, as well as the pinch I feel in my pocketbook every time I pull into my neighborhood fuel station.

A couple of months ago I read a fascinating article in WIRED Magazine (June 2008), entitled Screw Organic. The graphics and the title caught my attention. In this piece, the authors offer ten counter-intuitive illustrations of how best to cut carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses. In their own words, “The war on greenhouse gasses is too important to be left to the environmentalists.” Here are several of their conclusions:

Live in Cities: Urban living is gentler on the planet. “A Manhattanite’s carbon footprint is 30% smaller than the average American’s.”
Organics Are Not the Answer: “A single organically raised cow puts out 16 percent more greenhouse gasses than its counterpart.”
Farm the Forests: “Over its lifetime, a tree shifts from being a vacuum cleaner for atmospheric carbon to an emitter.”
Carbon Trading Doesn’t Work: Despite all the attention, the Kyoto carbon reduction projects will only slow the increase in greenhouse gasses by 6.5 days by 2012.
And my personal favorite, Used Cars, Not Hybrids: “Pound for pound, making a Prius contributes more carbon to the atmosphere than making a Hummer, largely because of the nickel in the hybrid’s battery.”
This last one hit close to home, when just a few days ago my aunt called to ask me advice on whether or not she should buy a new hybrid Toyota Highlander. The non-hybrid Highlander gets 18 mpg in the city and 24 on the highway. The hybrid gets 27 city and 25 highway, only a slight advantage over the non-hybrid, yet it demands a long waiting period and a $10K premium. Since at least half her miles are driven on the highway, I told her that if she remains sold on this manufactuer and make it was a “no brainer” from my perspective . Given her years of projected ownership, she’d be a better environmental steward and save some money to boot by going with the non-hybrid. From my back of the envelope calculations, she’d be more green by doing the non-green thing. As we continued to talk, I pulled out the above-referenced article and began to quote some of the author’s claims.

“If the new Prius were placed head-to-head with a used car, would the Prius win? Don’t bet on it. Making a Prius consumes 113 million Btus, according to sustainability engineer Pablo Päster. A single gallon of gas costs about 113,000 Btus, so Toyota’s green wonder guzzles the equivalent of 1,000 gallons before it clocks its first mile. A used car, on the other hand, starts with a significant advantage: the first owner has already paid off its carbon debt. Buy a decade-old Toyota Tercel, which gets a respectable 35 mpg, and the Prius will have to drive 100,000 miles to catch up.”

I am a novice when it comes to really understanding these important tradeoffs, but as a person trained in business and a Christian concerned with the flourishing of our planet and the well-being of others, I am determined to pay attention. One place where this conversation will take place in earnest is InterVarsity’s Following Christ 2008 Conference. The theme of the Conference is human flourishing, which certainly includes the care for creation on which human well-being closely depends. One of the interdisciplinary tracks at the Conference will be God’s Green Kingdom, directed by Resource Economist, Dr. Lowell “Rusty” Pritchard. The track will challenge Christians to think holistically and biblically about issues of globalization, architecture, zoology, conservation, climate change, and everything in between. It will be a mix of teaching and discussion with field reports from people working at the growing edge of creation care, environmentalism, and sustainability. I don’t know if they’ll talk about the advantages and disadvantages of hybrids, but I do know that they’ll provide important frameworks and case studies to make wise and faithful choices for God’s creation.

I want to be a better environmental steward, making choices that are guided by what is actually best, not just what conventional wisdom suggests. I commend the Evangelical Environmental Network and Creation Care Magazine to you, as well as the God’s Green Kingdom track at Following Christ 2008. Care of Creation is another great organization and resource. They’re three good places to get started on the path of understanding.

Writers: Three Reasons you must read The War of Art

Jeff — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 13:02:12 +0000

I’m a big fan of Steven Pressfield’s little book The War of Art. I know there are a bunch of people reading this blog who write for a living, from pastors to doctoral students. Here are ten reasons that you absolutely must get this book and read it.

You have a dissertation or a book or a sermon to write…reading this book will allow you to put that little project off! (Kidding)

If you don’t read this book, you might be tempted to kid yourself that writing that dissertation shouldn’t be hard. You’ll question whether you have what it takes. You do. But it’s a battle and battles usually draw blood.

If you don’t read this book, you might be tempted to go it alone. There are very few areas of life where a community isn’t necessary or beneficial. Writing requires allies, friends who will help you through when the words won’t come or, worse, when you feel like you don’t have the strength to even try.

…I’ll post more about this helpful little book. Chew on these thoughts and, please, read the book.

A nation of semi-literate technicians?

Jeff — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 19:55:05 +0000

I’ve posted before on emerging trends in reading. Scot McKnight at Jesus Creed links to a New York Times dealing with the same topic. As I’ve noted before, Americans aren’t reading less. If anything, we’re reading more. Only, we’re not reading books. The National Endowment for the Arts reports that declines in readership mirror declining standardized test scores. Not that this matters, since universities are beginning to make such tests optional. See for example Wake Forest University. I wish they had done this about fifteen years ago!

Precisely what this portends, I know not. It’s tempting to think that we will become a nation of semi-literate technicians. People who have skills, but no particular creativity or insight. I’ll spare you my lament. You can read it here.

HT: Scot McKnight

[Letterman] Top Ten Reasons Obama is Over-Confident (Updated)

Jeff — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:08:53 +0000

We’ve delved a little into politics here at Flourishing. I wrote about James Dobson’s sort of unfair words about Barack Obama and his view of the Bible. We talked a little bit about the Jesus for President tour. In the future we might talk about some more political topics as well, who knows?

I did want to embed David Letterman’s Top Ten List from last night. Why? Well, because it marks an interesting development political comedy for election 08.

Here it is:

Until now, comedians have struggled to find a good comedic angle for Barack Obama. McCain has been made fun of for his age and for his temper (in past primary seasons).

Comedians generally look for an angle to work when parodying politicians. As noted above, McCain is the angry old man. George W Bush is the imbecile. Bill Clinton was the philanderer and the cheese-burger eating jogger.

Gerald Ford was clumsy. Bush senior was the president who lost his lunch at a state dinner. You get the picture.

I think perhaps there are two reasons that Barack Obama hasn’t really been made fun of … yet. First, he doesn’t have much of a record (as a first term senator) and, two, he’s a pretty serious guy. As the campaign rolls on (three more months folks), there will be more ammunition for comedians. For now, like Letterman, comedians will have to take their cue from the meta-narrative provided by the mainstream media, namely that Obama is so far ahead that the election is all but decided.

What to do with Radovan Karadzic?

Jeff — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:03:50 +0000

C S Lewis has an interesting article by the title, “The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment” in his volume God in the Dock (1979). The central argument of the piece is:

“…[W]hen we cease to consider what the criminal deserves and consider only what will cure him or deter others, we have tacitly removed him from the sphere of justice altogether; instead of a person, a subject of rights, we have an object, a patient, a case.” (p. 497)

He goes on to argue that by removing the connection between crime and desert (consequence) we make the sentencing of criminals something other than a moral question. Sentencing becomes an experiment for technical experts (who decide on its effectiveness as a cure and/or a deterrent). The maxim Cuiquam in sua arte credendum, rules the day (”we must believe the expert in his own field”). There no longer is room for the public conscience to make value judgments. The public, Lewis points out, is not viewed as having sufficient technical knowledge to make such judgments. What is more, such judgments as are made by these experts rarely (if ever) employ the categories of moral theology.

This is interesting to ponder in the case of someone like Radovan Karadzic. Finally, after some twelve fugitive years, Karadzic awaits trial by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Karadzic’s indictment concludes that there is reasonable evidence to conclude that he committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Bosnian War (1992-1995) when he was the political leader of Republika Srpska.

What to do with Karadzic?

Allow me to state this as affirmatively and succinctly as possible. When the ITCY tries and (presumably) finds Karadzic guilty of one or more of the counts specified in the prosecution’s case, the sentence should be retributive. That is to say, its first goal should be to make this man pay for the grave moral evil over which he presided.

Certainly, we may hope that over the years of his imprisonment (there is no death sentence in the ITCY) he may come to some degree of genuine repentance (in both the non-theological and theological senses of the word) and an alteration of character. We may also hope that somehow his punishment may serve as a warning to other wicked men.

But, in the end, we must hope that he will be made to pay for his wrongdoing. He may, one day, find mercy. But as Lewis rightly points out, mercy only has any real meaning when found in the context of (retributive) justice.

What would a just sentence look like? This is a difficult question. I do, however, have a difficult time finding anything particularly just about allowing such a man to idle away his remaining years (he is 63) in the (relative) comfort of prison. Of course, I also find a spectacle such as the hanging of Saddam Hussein to wholly without justification. Hussein was a wicked man, but even wicked men ought not be mocked in the hour of their death.

I’m open to suggestions, but I wonder if there isn’t something redemptive about hard labor. It is, after all, in the midst of hard labor that Dostoevsky’s Raskolnikov finds the beginnings of renewal and regeneration:

“…[T]he beginning of a new story - the story of the gradual renewal of a man, the story of his gradual regeneration, of his passing from one world into another, of his initiation into a new unknown life…”

Ten ways to tell that you’re a grad student…

Jeff — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:50:47 +0000

We’re among friends here, so we can share a laugh about life as grad students…can’t we? Thanks to the folks in computer science over at the University of Maryland - Baltimore for this list. They had a longer list, but I redacted it down to my favorite ten (so you could get back to that chapter!).

See the complete list here.

Here goes…

you are startled to meet people who neither need nor want to read

you find the bibliographies of books more interesting than the actual text

you have given up trying to keep your books organized and are now just trying to keep them all in the same general area

you rate coffee shops by the availability of outlets for your laptop

you have ever discussed academic matters at a sporting event

you have accepted guilt as an inherent feature of relaxation

you actually have a preference between microfilm and microfiche

you look forward to summers because you’re more productive without the distraction of classes

professors don’t really care when you turn in work anymore

you frequently wonder how long you can live on pasta without getting scurvy

You know it’s true!