Nothingness Without End

I have been a fan of actor Ryan Gosling in recent years and believe him to be one of the finest young actors in Hollywood today. His versatility extends to playing a Jewish Neo-Nazi to a buff young man who sleeps with a different woman every night to a man in a troubled marriage to a political staffer to a mentally challenged man in love with an inflatable doll. Yesterday I watched The Believer about the Jewish Neo-Nazi. The plot resolves around a hater who is searching for a theology in which he can believe.

The problem, as Dan Balint sees it, is that the Jews as a culture were too docile and unmanly from the beginning. When Abraham is asked to sacrifice his son Isaac, he obeys God's voice without question. When the Jews suffered atrocities in World War II, they do not fight back against the Germans. Dan is rebelling against his religious heritage that asks him to obey the laws of the faith and to do good for others. There is no promise of eternal life after this one, just "nothingness without end." He longs for a faith he can understand, and he believes he finds it in the far right group to which he becomes attached. As the movie progresses, however, he finds his childhood teaching cannot be so easily shed.

I too have longed for some freedom through the years regarding the faith of my childhood, Southern Baptist theology, which like Judaism demands strict adherence to a set of do's and don'ts. While we give lip service to the idea that Jesus replaced the law with grace, we live as if we don't really believe it. In my search for more freedom I have moved to the Episcopal faith. I have found all the freedom I could ever want there, but it is a stretch to say there is a set of beliefs I can adhere to. Some have even joked that "Episcopal theology" is an oxymoron. Once more I find myself like my mother who continued to refine her faith until her death. I am now re-evaluating my membership in the Episcopal faith since I find it perhaps too intellectual--too much in the realm of the scientific, humanistic, and atheistic. The final straw could be the promotion of a concert Sunday night at the church which will feature witches and warlocks. I am still too much of a Southern Baptist to believe in the appropriateness of such an event within the church.

Can I too believe in "nothingness without end"? Thankfully not.

"It's On"

Last week a fourteen-year-old African-American boy in South Little Rock was in the wrong place, as we say, at the wrong time. He was caught in gunfire while standing in his neighborhood innocently. When interviewed by a person from a local television station, his sister described him as a boy who just loved to watch cartoons all the time. Since the bullets he received were in both legs, his life was not in danger. He sat surrounded by large stuffed animals on his sofa. His brother, however, was sure in his answer to the interviewer's question, "If you could say something to the ones who shot your little brother, what would it be?" The older brother did not hesitate before he answered, "It's on" while looking straight into the camera. The interviewer asked, "What do you mean by that?" to which the older brother responded, "They will know what I mean."

Once more it appears that the gang violence within our city (and others throughout the country and world) will continue.

Apple Bites

The world has been mourning the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs in the past couple of days. Tributes involve numerous Internet postings on a special web site created for that purpose, along with other Facebook and YouTube memorials. Our son has been in San Francisco for the week and reports that the Apple Store close to the site of his conference has been inundated with flowers, candles, pictures, and other mementoes. Unfortunately, here in Little Rock the tribute was of a different variety.

The new (and only) Apple store opened just recently in the Promenade Shopping Center in West Little Rock. Yesterday someone ran into the store and stole several laptops and IPads. At this point the suspect is unknown. Hardly a tribute to the founder of Apple Inc.

Yes, the times are tough for many people, yet that does not preclude the need for honesty.

The Poverty Experiment

Our granddaughter who is turning thirteen next week is privileged. Saturday night as we were "kid sitting," we marveled at her schedule of activities for the evening--Cotillion in her new red dress I bought her last week followed by two junior high parties at homes. She then planned to spend the night at a girlfriend's house with six or so of her friends. When I picked her up Sunday afternoon, she told me of the poverty experiment she was to participate in the next two days.

She and her classmates were planning to go to Heifer Farms in order to attempt to understand what being poor actually means. They were to be given one food item for their team (each representing evidently a third-world country) for the entire time. Other teams were to be given another food item. If the participants wanted variety in their diet, they would barter and trade with another team. They would sleep on the floors of the huts they were occupying for the one night. I asked her to write about her experience so that I could read her account later and see what she learned from the trip.

Upon her return to her school the next day just before lunch, the poverty experiencers would likely eat a hearty meal. That night privilege would be returning to her once again as she was to attend a Taylor Swift concert here in Little Rock with her girlfriends. Privilege--poverty--privilege.

I am concluding already that this experinment in poverty will likely be the closest she ever gets to really experiencing what the non-privileged endure each day. No amount of talking to her about my own poverty in childhood would ever be as effective I am sure.