THE VENTRILOQUIST Issue 2 March 2011 The Ventriloquist is an independently-run, independently-funded student publication at Cedarville University. We accept well-written articles from anybody in the Cedarville community and publish them anonymously in hope that the reader will give each piece fair consideration. Article ideas, questions and comments can be submitted to ventriloquistpaper@gmail.com.
With All Our Minds:
Critical Thinking at Cedarville University
“C
ritical Thinking” is a phrase most people like the sound of but are unable to define when pushed further. In this article I would like to answer three questions: what is critical thinking and what does it require? What does an environment in which critical thinking is cultivated look like? And ultimately, why is it uniquely important for us as Christians to try to be critically thinking people? First, true critical thinking requires familiarity with concepts, philosophies and ideas ‘other’ to one’s own for the purpose of harsh and very real evaluation of one’s own ideas. This practice can quickly become difficult at a Christian university because real exposure to ideas is potentially problematic. A Christian university, like all other universities, is a business. What separates Cedarville from other universities (why you are paying significantly more money to come to Cedarville rather than somewhere else) is that the Christian university specializes in culture, marketing faith and a place where like-minded Christian believers (in Cedarville’s case, believers that seem to lean toward the more conservative side of a political spectrum) come together. Cedarville University lists as its fifth mission and objective: “To enable each student to develop sound critical and analytical reasoning.” Cedarville may value the idea of critical thinking, but maintaining the image of a conservative Christian culture of believers can harm a critically thinking atmosphere. At Cedarville, we often confirm our already established viewpoints and religio-cultural ideas instead of legitimately challenging them. Our academic curriculum demonstrates protruding biases that wouldn’t be acceptable at other institutions (for example, psychology students at Cedarville are required to stand up and proclaim “Freud is a pervert” before they begin their lectures on his theories in Human Lifespan and Development. This proclamation has no real academic value, except for automatically jading the student’s perception of the thinker before they truly and openly consider the ideas). Our chapel speakers can misquote and mischaracterize movements and ideas (see ‘The Politics of Chapel’ for a more in-depth analysis). Our library circulates books like The Roots of Obama’s Rage (a completely inaccurate book of terrible “scholarship”), but because these sentiments agree with our cultural norm, its assumptions and our market, they go unchecked and uncorrected. On the other hand, things that deviate from our cultural norm are stifled: our professors know they cannot sound too deviant or introduce their students to certain ideas and philosophies (and if they mention alternative view points, they know not to present them too favorably) or else they could be terminated. Our university newspaper is heavily censored, and those deemed too radical are not allowed to speak in our chapel (recall Shane Claiborne in 2008). If Cedarville sees conservative Christians as their niche market in order to run their business, which it does, these actions and reactions are unsurprising. But this harms our critical thinking abilities because sometimes ‘the other side’ is not
given a fair chance to represent itself accurately and so our knowledge of ‘the other side’ is more than often caricature. How can true critical thinking flourish in an environment like this? And does it even matter if it cannot? Why is critical thinking even important? Critical thinking is important for us as Christians because it will help us better understand the world we live in and demonstrate respect for ourselves, for our Creator and for non-Christians. Larger American culture’s opinion of Christianity is made obvious if you watch a night of television: Christians are characterized as illogical, offensive and ignorant. Now: let’s not give ourselves too much credit and nurse ourselves by saying they are persecuting us. Many people dislike Christians because they act in those ways--illogical, offensive, ignorant--and they are also apathetic about it. They remain judgmental, condescending and overconfident in their own experience. The Bible does not justify this posture. If we are to be “hated by the world” let our shocking, counter-cultural message of love and redemption be what is audacious, not our
disrespect for others. The way we can prove this stereotype wrong is by familiarizing ourselves with ideas and conceptions different than our own and striving to bring these new ideas to the Cedarville community ourselves, so that when we someday go out into the world and interact with ideas other than our own, we know how to be tolerant, respectful and accurate in our response. Critical thinking is also important because by searching for truth and wisdom, we show respect to our Creator. St. Augustine said “if all truth is God’s truth, we must affirm it where we find it.” When we search actively for truth, we demonstrate that we really want to know about God and the ways in which His world works, and that we have faith that His Spirit will guide us to knowledge. One potential problem with exposing ourselves to different ideas and allowing different viewpoints to engage each other on campus is that new opinions may form and exist in the community, which may lead to a lack of ‘unity’ on campus, a reason many Christians are initially uncomfortable with any sort of controversy or dissent. We need to be honest with ourselves: complete unity among Christians is a beautiful and incredibly unattainable idea (see 1 Corinthians 13:8-13). Sometimes we are quick to assume that a person who deviates from the norm deviates because she is not obedient enough to God’s word, but even Bible scholars are not of one mind and they have spent lifetimes studying the scripture. It seems that differences are inevitable... Continued on back page
PERSPECTIVES I am just a Christian who happens to be gay.
T
he winter of 2004, I was sitting somewhere in the vast Pennsylvania wilderness for my school’s annual “snow camp”—a week where several fundamentalist Baptist schools came together to bring spiritual revival into the lives of their students. This was done by making the teenagers in their charge feel a transitory emotional response to their messages of guilt and fear. The particular session which I found myself in was led by a very passionate preacher who was trying to explain how one becomes a “real” man to his awkward, gangly audience of teenage boys. As he whipped his audience into a frenzy of righteous zeal by decrying worldly influences such as cologne and hair products, he came to the climax of his message. “You know what the greatest danger to masculinity is in America today? Those homosexuals. Unless we get some real men to rise up and take our country back, those prancing fairies are going to flood our streets with their perversions.” All around me, the audience erupted in cheers. I mimicked my peers outwardly. Inwardly, it felt like another piece of my spirit had died. Ever since the wave of hormones that mark the beginning of puberty arrived one year earlier, I had known that I was not attracted to women as I felt I should be. Instead, while my male friends discussed the intricacies of feminine anatomy, I found myself becoming more and more drawn to the broad shoulders and the rough faces of the men around me. My whole life had been within the walls of the church, and I knew what the church had to say about what I was experiencing. Men who were attracted to other men were evil, degenerate and bound directly to hell. Fearing the reactions of my family and friends, I buried my feelings of same-sex attraction hoping that if I ignored them they would eventually dissipate. They didn’t. For five years, I lived like this: hiding my inner thoughts and feelings while pretending to be the good, Christian little boy who those around me had always known. This double life completely wrecked my mental, emotional and spiritual health. By the time I was a freshman at Cedarville, I was a self-identified agnostic who was starting to exhibit signs of depression and anxiety disorders. Some days I would be unable to sleep for extended periods of time. I would wander around town early in the predawn morning experiencing moments of sheer panic as I thought about what would happen if people figured out my secret. Other days, I couldn’t get myself out of bed. I would lie there missing classes and other social obligations as I tried to gather up the strength to make myself move. Throughout this, I experienced a raging anger towards the being whom I thought was the cause of all my misery—G-d. I had asked him to change my sexuality; I had begged and pleaded with him to make me into a person which would be accepted by the mainstream church. If he hadn’t answered these prayers, then all the internal pain I was experiencing was G-d’s fault. It felt like I was stuck with an abnormal sexual identity and a G-d who didn’t care about me. Fortunately, I was able to find friends, both Christians and non-Christians, whom I was able to share my hurt and pain with. They did not judge me, but instead offered listening ears as I poured out years of pent up fears and anger. Through the help of this community, the many broken parts of my spirit and psyche began to heal and eventually, I was Continued on next page able to reevaluate Christianity through a new perspective...
Ricky’s Story I
n 2006, Soulforce Equality Rider Vince Pancucci challenged Cedarville University to ask how her thoughts, words, actions, and biases harm her LGBT brothers and sisters. Pancucci joined Michael “Enku” Ide to illustrate the spiritual violence which well- intended Christians so often inflict on the lives of the LGBT community. Ide explained how hostility and narrow-mindedness drove him away from the Church, and that only the authentic, unconditional love of a handful of Christians he later met brought him back. “Their faith was alive,” Ide said, “you could see it in their lives.” Let us, almost a year later, accept Pancucci’s challenge. In what ways do our thoughts, words, actions, and biases harm our LGBT brothers and sisters? To answer this question, we turn to Ricky Smith and his Cedarville experience. Ricky was an enthusiastic, highly involved Cedarville student. He was a small group leader and class officer. As a communication major, Ricky enjoyed working for Resound Radio. He led a ministry and poured himself into the lives if his friends. Like most students, Ricky came to Cedarville nervous, yet excited, about his college experience. Ricky is also gay. Despite his enthusiasm about Cedarville, Ricky transferred to Ohio State University last semester; being a gay student at CU, Ricky said, had grown too difficult. Ricky’s story begins early his freshman year. “Freshman year,” Ricky said via telephone interview, “the deans had reason to believe I was gay.” Ricky met with a Dean Smith, Associate Dean of Campus Life, and together the two discussed same-sex attraction at Cedarville. “Dean Smith told me that many people at Cedarville struggle with homosexuality. He said there’s at least one homosexual guy in every hall.” Pursuant to Dean Smith’s suggestion, Ricky attended counseling for two semesters. “Nothing he said, nothing he gave me to read, and no one he asked me to talk to made me change at all. I quit counseling after freshman year.”
Despite leaving counseling, however, Ricky desired, as he always had, to fight the same-sex attraction he felt. It wasn’t until April’s Soulforce visit that Ricky’s approach to his sexuality began to change. “When I heard that Soulforce was visiting, I decided to read a lot of their material. After praying about it, I sincerely believed that nothing was wrong with me. The problem was with Cedarville.” Despite his skepticism towards Cedarville, however, Ricky did not intend to leave. It wasn’t until last semester -- when Ricky’s church and family learned about his sexuality -- that things began to change. “When my pastor called, he labeled me a filthy sodomite and questioned my salvation.” The following week, Ricky’s church voted him out. A week later, Ricky withdrew from Cedarville. Today, Ricky is a junior communication major at Ohio State University. Within his first few weeks at OSU, Ricky joined the Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy group working to end LGBT oppression. Looking back on his Cedarville experience, Ricky is disappointed at the manner in which students treated both him and the question of same-sex attraction. “People emailed me explaining that they have homosexual friends that are sleeping around, going to clubs, getting AIDS, and dying alone. They told me that no one goes to their funerals. These are the stories people told to ‘quote’ change me.” “One girl,” Ricky said, “suggested that, to overcome my homosexuality, I try to act more masculine. The ignorance floored me.” Ricky further explains that his hallmates talked about him and his sexuality behind his back. “Everyone talked about me,” Ricky said, “but no one talked to me.” Ricky suggests that LGBT students at Cedarville begin by speaking with someone they trust. “You shouldn’t have to be alone.” LGBT students at Cedarville are encouraged to visit CedarvilleOut.com for further information and support.
Editor’s Note: Written by a CU alumni to be published in Cedars, CU’s former student newspaper, on April 17, 2008. Cut by university officials.
“I
’ve been thinking about it for a while, and I think I need to make my faith my own.” “I’m just seeking God’s will for my life.” “God is in control.” “It’s such a God thing.” These are a few examples of the phrases you’ll hear around campus when we speak of God and how He relates to us humans. As most of us already know, phrases like these often become rote and somewhat mundane. I’ve heard many Christians call these phrases cliché, criticizing them for their meaninglessness and lack of definition. Many wonder what it means to say that, “God knows His will for my life.” Is God predetermining every step that I take? Do I just stumble around in the dark looking for that unknown “will of God” until He chooses to give it to me? As you can see, the statement “God knows His will for my life” actually leads us to ask many more existential questions, some of which can lead us into unnecessary anxiety and worry. Am I looking in the right place for God’s will? How do I know if I’ve found it? Is God going to wait to show his will to me until I have the right mindset? Asking these kinds of questions is a fundamentally good thing to do. When we ask questions about God and “His will for our lives,” we indicate that we care about how we should live. We show that we want to be faithful to God. However, I want to suggest that many of our “Christianese” phrases need to be done away with. Why? Too often, those phrases don’t accurately imitate how the biblical texts speak of God. In fact, upon a close reading of many biblical texts, one will find that most of the Christian jargon we throw around really has no anchor point in the biblical texts as we have them. While I don’t have the space to develop a critique of all the phrases I listed at the beginning, I want to spend time looking at the phrase “God’s will for my life” and raise a few questions for us to think about as we talk with others about God. Before we talk about how to speak of God, think for a moment about how you learned to talk when you were young. Yes, how you learned to talk. How you learned words for the first time. When you think about it, you realize that you didn’t come up with the English language on your own. You learned it from a variety of sources: parents, teachers, Sesame Street, and storybooks. When you grew older and went to college, you began to learn new words. These words undoubtedly came from sources within your own
discipline: communication terminology for communications majors, anatomical references for nursing majors, and theological terminology for theology majors. The point is that we never stop learning new words and how to use them rightly. We always learn the right words to use from others – we don’t learn them in a vacuum. In the same way, we never enter the world without the shaping and guiding of our teachers, including the words of Scripture. Both the Scriptures and our teachers help us learn appropriate Christian speech. The Scriptures are one of our divinely appointed teachers through whom the Holy Spirit speaks to us about the truth. Therefore, if it really is the case that the Scriptures are given to us to teach us the right words to use to speak of God, then it follows that God’s people should use the language of the Scriptures itself to speak of God. Now, let’s consider the phrase “God’s will for my life.” When most of us hear this phrase, our minds immediately jump to our speculations about the future and what God foreordains for us. “What job does God have for me? What’s his will for my life after I graduate? Whom does he want me to marry?” I don’t wish to suggest that God doesn’t foreordain these sorts of things. No one can really know if he does or not, for the Scriptures themselves don’t really tell us. Thus, it’s wise for us to suspend judgment about these kinds of questions and consider what the Bible might suggest about “God’s will for our lives.” Although I’m only offering a commentary on the Scriptures here, I want us to consider an example of “the will of God” in the New Testament in Matthew 7. In 7:21, Jesus warns those listening to him: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” In the context of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is warning people about judgment
that will come to those who don’t live by the words he has taught them. He’s essentially saying, “You can’t take part in the new reality of God’s kingdom when you’re doing all the church-y activities, saying all the pretty, flowery religious things to say, while not changing your manner of life from the ground up.” Thus, to “do the will of God” is to seek God’s kingdom and commit yourself to living by the words of Jesus’ Sermon. Thus, it’s clear now that “the will of God” in this particular passage has little to do with my future or my plans to get married or go to camp for the summer. It has everything to do with our obedience to the words that Jesus has taught us in the Sermon on the Mount. Now, I’m not saying that we should not pray for the Spirit to guide us as we make decisions. I certainly believe that the Spirit does guide us in those processes. However, when we speak of “the will of God,” we must ensure that we’re doing it in the same way that Scripture does as best as we can tell. As faithful Christian disciples, we must allow our words and common speech to take its shape from the way language is used in the Bible itself. I don’t claim to have all the answers figured out. If I did or if any of us did, then we really wouldn’t be living within the Christian religion that demands our faith and trust in God. The great theologian Karl Barth once said that our ability to speak of God at all is a privilege that God gives to us, and therefore we must seek Him first if we’re going to learn how to speak rightly of him.
Every day. This pseudo-ecclesial ritual is one of Cedarville’s so-called “distinctives,” a feature of campus life integral to every student’s schedule, every visitor’s tour, every alumnus’s fading remembrance. And though the pants worn and songs sung have changed over the past decades, the core of chapel has remained relatively static; speakers now reference “the facebook and tweeting,” but the form and content of chapel carry on more or less immutable. Indeed, its constancy – 10:00 to 10:47, give or take a minute, Monday to Friday – is precisely what makes it such a central part of Cedarville. It, more than any other feature of campus existence, can justly be called “so Cedarville.” Yet in spite of its constant presence – or perhaps because of it – we, as students, often find ourselves unable to articulate what chapel ‘is.’ Is it church? Pep rally? Nap time? Extracurricular learning environment? Extra-ecclesial worship experience? The authors of the student handbook describe chapel as “one of the most powerful factors in building a sense of community and family at Cedarville.” Maybe they have a point: putting everyone on campus in the same room every day for an ostensibly higher purpose must lead to some degree of solidarity (if only by renewing our awareness of the existence of 2500 other people in our vicinity). Some students would say that it provides a time of intentional spirituality. To others, chapel is an opportunity to worship and be Christian in community. For others still, chapel is just something we do, at best a break from class, at worst a reason to have to get up before lunch. But does that really explain it? After all, Cedarville has plenty of other mechanisms that develop community outside of chapel. And, if the purpose of chapel is just to build the student community, why do we broadcast it internationally and advertise it to our visitors (online and on campus)? Further, if chapel were solely intended to function as a means of spiritual growth for students, why don’t we see a wider variety of speakers? Wouldn’t we benefit from hearing speakers outside our own conservative baptistic traditions? Surely, if we’re allowed to watch (some) R-rated movies and if we take classes featuring Marx and Nietzsche, then we can handle the occasional Claiborne with minimal risk of mass apostasy.
Largely, parents who pay thousands of dollars to ensure their children have a good Christian education and donating alumni who pay thousands of dollars so long as the Cedarville they remember stays that way. Cedarville, then, has a vested economic interest in maintaining its image as a theologically and politically conservative institution. To be fair, every academic institution which relies on donor and tuition dollars must keep its supporters happy, and even a casual glimpse at most schools’ alumni magazines – Christian or otherwise – reveals this fact. Such an interest is not, in itself, a bad thing. The problem for Cedarville arises when the institution conflates spiritual and economic interests. Chapel can and should serve as a tool for Cedarville’s growth as a Christian community, while Cedarville’s branding serves to guarantee its financial wellbeing. But when these two priorities lay claim to the same activity – and when that activity is one which is so central to the daily life of every student – there is a significant risk of conflicting interests. If the set of criteria for the administration’s approval of chapel content – speakers, messages, etc. – involves not only chapel’s spiritual value but also its implications for Cedarville’s image, then the ground for the institution’s moral and spiritual authority is seriously compromised. What is compromised? Diverse voices (voices with theological, political, or social views differing from those of the majority culture at Cedarville) are excluded from the chapel podium for fear of people associating them with Cedarville. Inversely, potentially harmful voices, strongly identified with certain very conservative segments of the Cedarville donor base, are allowed to speak in ways which only serve to reinforce the university’s majority opinion while alienating other voices and communities. We saw this occurring last semester when one speaker made inflammatory political statements referencing the current US president’s “cold, soulless eyes,” and again when the stage was given to the president of a pseudoscientific organization known for alienating the secular scientific community from American evangelicals (scientists or not) through its failure to effectively interact with the larger scientific community on the question of origins. Both speakers were received warmly and, more troublingly, uncritically.
The Politics of Chapel
A
hoary and paternal man gazes from the stage, waiting for those in his idly socializing audience to direct their attention to his dual twenty-foot visages. He begins to pray with twofold purpose: supplication before the Almighty, and tactical acoustic cover for the carefully selected team of ninja-minstrels who, like so many phantasmal Tomlins and Zschechs, stealthily move into position behind Korg, Zildjian, Martin & Co. Voices and arms rise and fall in accord with the brightly projected text on backgrounds of vaguely dynamic geometry (at yuletide, snowflakes). The speaker speaks, the students sit, then leave for lunch.
I am not claiming that chapel speakers are selected out of purely economic or political interests or that chapel is inherently a bad thing. What I am saying is that the institution, by placing such a high priority on chapel as a branding tool, has created an environment in which the primary purpose of chapel – the growth and edification of the student body, whether intellectually, spiritually, or otherwise – no longer informs the selection criteria for chapel content.
Continued from “I’m just a Christian who happens to be gay”
Suppose, though, that there is more to chapel than meets the eye. As a major component of Cedarville’s brand image, chapel and the internationally-available radio broadcasts thereof function as a mode of Cedarville’s daily self-description and self-representation. And who does Cedarville have in mind when it tailors its brand image through chapel?
...I knew that I would never be able to get rid of my same-sex attractions.
If there is a dichotomy between being gay and being a Christian, then it seemed like I had been predestined to not be a Christian. Having those feelings of same sex attraction had never been a choice and after several years of attempting to purge them from my life, they continued on unabated. If this was incompatible with a Christian lifestyle, then it seemed I could never be a Christian. Fortunately, I have met many gay Christians since then who have shown with their lives that the divide between a Christian identity and a gay identity is a false binary. Throughout my life, I had seen the church as a hostile, unwelcoming institution which wielded G-d’s holy wrath upon the world. Slowly, I began to see that instead the church is meant to be a community of diverse individuals who are lovingly trying to restore this broken world towards G-d’s kingdom. G-d does not hate me because I am gay. The church has a place for those who do not identify as a heterosexual individual. There is a place in G-d’s kingdom for everyone who loves G-d, loves others and works to actively bring that love to the world in a concrete way. In this paradigm of the church, I could be a part of G-d’s community without purging myself of my sexual identity. While I still have many barriers of bitterness and anger to overcome in my spiritual life, I have come back to the faith of my youth. I am not a pervert. I am not a debaucherous miscreant. I am just a Christian who happens to be gay.
REVIEWS
The Truth I Learned About Immigration in
Helena Miria Viramontes’s Under the Feet of Jesus When the bleakness of poverty and political degradation vie with the comforts of home, many people feel they are forced to leave their own countries for “something better” in America. Over the past centuries, immigration to the United States has been called anything from a blessing to a dire problem, depending on the speaker. South Americans fleeing over the border to the United States have been a particular point of contention among U.S. citizens. Many argue that these people provide a valuable labor force in conditions that are still better than their previous lives. Others contend that these illegals, or legals for that matter, are taking jobs from U.S. citizens and draining our government of its resources. The issue has greatly influenced both government and business politics in the past twenty years or so. Helena Maria Viramontes’s novel Under the Feet of Jesus should offer a new perspective in terms of struggling immigrants as very real people who are lost and besieged in a very big world that seems to be turned completely against their happiness and well-being. Despite the perceived problems in the political realm, a Christian perspective on immigration as a moral issue should be based on understanding the people. A Christian response is not one of malcontent but rather of loving those who are impoverished and who need the grace of Christ just as much, if not more, than many other people groups. The characters in Viramontes’ novel offer clear pictures of real people working through their hard lives in the fields of the southwestern United States, quite literally scraping a living from the ground. The cousins Alejo and Gumecindo are forced to sell stolen fruit so they can go back to school eventually. Petra and her family are constantly on the move and just getting by with the help of another man after Petra’s husband took off for the “something better.” These characters are not malicious interlopers trying to leech off the prosperity of America. They are hard workers who only want to get by with their relative freedom and enough to survive but tend toward failure, as stereotypes and their working conditions dictate. Viramontes does an excellent job of constructing relatable characters who face the realistic problems of immigrants in the United States. As Christians, we should not view these people as commodities or as disposable lawbreakers. We ought to be aware of the stereotypes that harm these people and then reject these stereotypes in favor of offering love and grace. This is not to say that laws may not be necessary and basic rules essential, but immigrants themselves are not just products of rules and regulations. They are people of Christ who need to be offered the same love that we as Christians would desire to offer anyone of our “own kind.” We are all children of Christ; when we do not treat others as His children, we commit a heinous offense in the eyes of God no matter our political standing. It is wrong to play into the hateful stereotypes of larger society when faced with the reality of these people and we ought to be fighting this type of passivity. I don’t pretend to be involved with the politics surrounding immigration. It is obvious our immigration policies do need some reform, but I can’t speak with an informative tone pass that. One thing I do know, and can at least understand to an extent, is people, and to me one of the most appealing aspects of literature is its ability to convey human experience through its characters. I appreciate Viramontes’s successful attempt at delineating real-life circumstances in a meaningful way that merits a response from Christians and prompts rethinking of political issues as personal opportunities to show the love of Christ.
A Review of
Radiohead’s “The King of Limbs” On Monday the 14th, the British alt-rock band Radiohead announced unexpectedly that their eighth studio album, The King of Limbs, would be released digitally the following Saturday. Billing it cryptically as “the world’s first newspaper album,” the band announced that a special edition of the album would be available in May, containing “two clear 10-inch vinyl records in a purpose-built record sleeve, a compact disc, many large sheets of artwork, 625 tiny pieces of artwork and a full-colour piece of oxo-degradeable plastic to hold it all together.” According to the Radiohead website, a team of fair-trade sherpas will then transport the album from a warehouse in Oxfordshire, England, to the Central American wildlife reserve of your choice, where it will be tied with organic hemp twine to the delicate talons of a well-trained Burmese rescue pigeon who will proceed to carry it the remainder of the distance to your local microbrewery and/or Urban Outfitters, to which you may ride your fixed-gear bicycle for pickup during normal business hours. One lucky purchaser who preorders this limited-edition package will also receive a signed copy of lead singer Thom Yorke. To the squealing delight of fans the world over, the band released the album Friday instead, giving this reviewer a chance to listen to the album several times through. At the time of this article’s writing, however, the musicoblogosphere region of the hipsterverse had yet to officially review The King of Limbs. Since neither Paste nor Pitchfork has posted a review, I’m not sure what I think of it yet. I think it’s probably good. It does have eight songs, and the album art is pretty cool. I’d just hate to start liking it as a result of listening, only to find out that it got poor reviews from actual websites. I’d feel silly at that point, so if it’s OK with you all, I’ll hold off making any judgments until they’ve been made for me. In the meantime, you can watch a neat video of Thom Yorke sortof-dancing on YouTube. In other news, analysts are expecting Pitchfork’s review of the new Radiohead album to give Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy another perfect 10.0 rating.
DEAR PRUDENCE Dear Prudence, I have a hall mate who won’t quit coming into my room. She’s been bothering me all semester, but I can’t bring myself to tell her to leave my room.... and pretending i’m not in the room when she wants to come in doesn’t always work. What should I do to stop this? Dear Person, First, know that there is nothing wrong with your desire to be alone, productive, or simply not with this specific person-it’s just very important to know the appropriate ways of communicating your desires without crushing (or even maiming) the feelings of another. First, know that passive aggression is very 2009. In fact, studies show that many individuals are keen to inauthentic or ambiguous signs given by others who are lying to “people please” or ameliorate an otherwise awkward situation. I would encourage you to focus on one reason why you don’t want her company-is it that your valuable and limited personal space feels disrupted? Does she focus on issues you don’t wish to talk about? Is she demanding? Messy? Repetitive? Either way, consider asking her (and other hallmates) to give you a specific window of time each night/week/ whatever where you can be uninterrupted in your studies-if you can show consistency, she probably won’t be offended. Even a simple sign on the door could be helpful when you just want alone or roommate time; if you want company other than hers, just shoot a text or email that lets a friend know you’d like her company. If you feel dishonest and want her gone specifically, consider giving this beautiful person the attention they desire in another forum-offer to walk together, do chapel together, or grab a meal-she obviously wants your friendship (or cute clothes/wheat thins/superior internet connection), so meet in the middle and hook her up with other friends or through other, less intrusive social venues. If you see this friendship as a total no-go, then I would encourage you to step back and consider this person’s role in your life. And above all, be honest! Trust me, a dorm room is a terrible place to hide… especially when you need to use the powder room and she’s still knocking. Most people have many times when they prefer to be alone or with specific people-this is not an impractical or impolite request to make. Finally, if this friend reads this article (or calls your bluff) and confronts you, I would encourage you to use “I” statements (I appreciate my space, so when you come in without knocking I feel confused and frustrated) to explain why this has become an issue-apologize for your silence, but be honest about your needs and open to her responses. Rejoice that your company is desired, set healthy limits, and don’t be ashamed to admit that you are a human being with unique preferences-God made you that way!
Dear Prudence, I think I have an unhealthy crush on my professor. What does this say about me? Is there something wrong with me? Dear Person, Don’t feel judged-there’s nothing “wrong” with you- because it is an unavoidable truth that we will all have inappropriate crushes from time to time (see my long-term obsession with Johnny Depp, but only as Captain Jack Sparrow). It is, however, very important to hear some tough love statements on the issue. One, it is statistically likely that your professor is one of three things: 1) married, 2) in a serious or committed relationship, or 3) completely uninterested in people below the age of 23 as dating material. It’s ok to acknowledge that another human being is attractive or has desirable qualities, and college is a bizarre life stage in which we are separated from many people that would typically gain our admiration (friends, family members, peers). The “unhealthy” aspects come about when we idealize someone based on a shadowed view of them, desire to be noticed, or even a low view of oneself. Sadly, I would advise you to pull aside a trusted friend or family member and ask them to honestly remind you (privately) that you have no future with this individual, and that secretly harboring lustful or deeply romantic feeling towards them shows disrespect for yourself and the object of your desire. You yourself deserve beautiful, healthy relationships with an (emphasis: attainable) high-quality person that knows you fully and that you know as well. Remind yourself that you probably won’t even share real quality time with this person, that they have an entire (and very meaningful) life off-campus that does not involve thoughts of you and finally, that your college degree and personal integrity are way sexier than that special professor’s musical voice or Banana Republic wardrobe. In all seriousness, if you find yourself going the extra mile (or 5) to impress the professor or see them outside of class contexts, consider talking to a university counselor or that same tough-love friend-no assumptions here, but any romantic obsession should be investigated as the root of a deeper emotional or physiological issue. And of course, if the professor seems to return the feeling in way that makes you uncomfortable, RUN (don’t walk) to counseling services or your RD.
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...Since controversy is going to exist, the only logical step is to learn how to discuss our different views in a Christ-like manner: by cultivating an environment that graciously considers all ideas without conflating controversy and hostility, an environment which does not write-off a viewpoint because the viewpoint differs from the majority viewpoint. We should listen to all those who offer their ideas and do so in a non-patronizing and respectful manner, but not be so concerned with “being nice” that we fail to question each other and our ideas legitimately. We should not be afraid to loosen the vice grips on our ideologies. Let us strive to challenge ourselves and our fellow community members. Let us promote a setting of openness and plurality as a community tolerant of multiple ideas. Let’s read more, talk about different things, and question each other. If Cedarville University is populated with individual students promoting what they believe to be Biblical truth, and that truth is carefully discussed and evaluated by the Christian community in their search for truth, then what but a deeper understanding of ultimate truth could result? As for our relationship with broader culture, we should not criticize other cultures and beliefs without giving those ideologies the time, effort and consideration they deserve, more time than Sunday School-style bullet points of their ideas (after all, if a writer could accurately be summed up in six bullet points, they wouldn’t write books). We should not read to find flaws and discount their theories, instead, we should honestly consider their viewpoint. Let’s not give ourselves too much credit and label the problem as just fear of controversy or relativism. Thinly veiled behind our fear is our laziness-- when you live in a community of people who profess the same religion and sign community covenants, it is easy to live on autopilot and not worry about some difficult issues. I am not saying Cedarville is an awful institution. If it weren’t for the community of Cedarville, I am not sure where I would be. Cedarville has helped me grow as a person in ways I would not have grown anywhere else. A lot of things that have really shaped me, however, I learned through friends and other people who value critical thinking too. Let’s be ‘iron sharpening iron’ to one another. If we want to love the Lord our God with our minds, we have to use them.
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Dear Prudence, I’ve started working out and I’m not sure what to think about it. My main motive in working out is wanting to look good. As a follower of Christ, is this acceptable? Dear Person, To begin, allow me to congratulate for honestly acknowledging your own motivations, as well as picking up on a habit that has proven to increase your focus, health, and mental wellness by about a billion degrees. Seriously. But let’s step back and examine this phrase, “my main motive…is wanting to look good.” What about this do you find questionable? Do you find yourself focusing on unhealthy goals of appearance? If this is case, don’t throw out this healthy activity just because you have human inclinations to look like Natalie Portman or The Hulkrather, I would encourage you to seriously examine why you’re unhappy with your current state. Is there a special someone that you think finds you too fat/thin/wimpy/ short/weak? If so, grab a friend (NOT that special someone) and work together to create concrete goals related to strength and ability, not appearance. God authentically desires our health and fitness, especially in a culture that emphasizes excess and gluttony. This, however, has NOTHING to do with your sweater size. Instead of measuring your waist each night, vow to conquer that quads machine by 20 more pounds each month. Don’t use gym apparatus that you’re not comfortable with just to show off-enlist the help of a training specialist there or look online (I suggest wholeliving.com) for realistic plans that emphasize dedication and balance, not extremism or flawless abs. If you fear a lack of faith, read your favorite theologian (or catch up on the news with a podcast) rather than listening to toned individuals like Fergie on the treadmill. As in all things, I would beseech you to seek a balance between self-gratification and well-earned self-love. God calls us to know His love and care for us and to see His providence in all things-so thank God that you have a body that works
Continued from “With All Our Minds”
and strengthens when we use discipline-but remember that our bodies, no matter how gleaming and toned, are earthly rubbish if not used completely in His service.
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ACROSS 3. Paper fragment created when holes are made in paper 4. Jack r ussell ter rier who dreams of being a classic main character 11. The volunteer state 12. Dear DOWN 1. This calls 2. Call of duty’s Tank 5. Drink more 6. Skeeter 7. House wine of the south 8. A hunter’s bedroom might be decked out in this 9. Fer tilizer 10. The quilted quicker 6 picker upper
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