Iota Kappa Epsilon

Bob and I have decided this is a more fitting name for IKE. Since the news keeps using all CAPS to name Ike, we figured the Greek was more appropriate. Makes it sound like a scary fraternity now! Raarrr. Iota Kappa Epsilon, raaarrr!

Hurricane Ike: Hurricane Theology

I read this great post over at my friend's site and thought I'd pass it along. It's a good read for anyone concerned that natural events, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and the like, are God's method of punishment for sin.

A Christian View of Hurricanes

Hurricane Ike

Bobby and I made it through Hurricane Ike ok and thought we'd share
some pictures of our area -- they're only in the area where we live.
If I said I wasn't scared while it was going on, I'd be lying. When
the winds first started at our place they were coming from the Northeast.

For those that don't know, our apartment faces due east. We have an open
lawn between us and the adjacent building that runs north-south.

Looking east (as the storm is beginning to come in)

Looking northeast (as storm is coming in -- winds from northeast)

As I said, the winds were first coming from the northeast and there was one window in our apartment that was feeling the strain and growning. I was really concerned about this window because it seemed really stressed in the early stages of our wind development --- Ike still had not made landfall.

Well, around 2am Bobby and I went to lie down for a little while because we were getting really sleepy. Up to this point the wind really wasn't that strong, maybe 30-40 mph.

So, then around 3:30am or 4am -- I'm not quite sure the precise time because our electricity had gone out shortly after we lied down -- I heard this loud bang against our window and then I heard the wind. I'm not quite sure what the bang was, we think it may have been a bird or something. The wind however was running from north to south and was flowing pretty strongly through our open lawn. Bobby being the more brave ventured outside periodically and I would pull him inside when I thought it was unsafe -- which means he was eventually grounded inside. :) While we were watching we'd periodically see bursts of green light as transformers were bursting around town. It was truly the darkest I'd ever seen Houston.

By around 6am or so the wind shifted again so that it was blowing east to west, and about this time Bobby began to see debris flying off our roof and I began to grow concerned about the front windshield on my car. Of course, there wasn't much I could do about it because I was unwilling to allow Bobby to go outside and we had parked our cars so that the they would be protected from north winds -- which we felt would likely be the strongest. So as we're hanging out and we here the wind flowing through our corridor that is open east to west, our apartment began to shake. It wasn't the entire complex that was shaking, just the wall and floor immediately adjacent to the corridor. Since we were pretty sleepy, we figured it was a good time to retreat to the bedroom and take a nap.

I was woken up around 8am to the power coming back on and with the dawn of a new day I thought I'd take a look to around to see what had gone on under the cover of night. Here are the pictures:

Neighboring Apartment (wall faces east)

Lawn near apartment that runs north to south (roof tiles)

Showing roof of apartment across the way

Toppled tree

My car -- it's OK! Just a little covered in leaves :)

Drain that luckily didn't hit my car (or Bobby's)!

My roof looks bad!

Looking down from our balcony

Our door -- death by leaving

Another picture of drain

Another picture of our downed tree

More downed trees

Bushes torn apart

Bark ripped away from tree

Debris clog in pool

Neighboring complex that is missing siding

Overall, we got off lucky compared to the stories I've heard from around Houston. We are very thankful that our apartment was facing the best way to minimize effects from Ike. It's not completely over yet, but we're hopeful that our good fortune will continue. :)

New Testament Course: Part 3

After much reflection and concern that I would never be able to pass a course in which I disagreed so fundamentally with the instructor (and finding the class highly illogical) I decided to drop the course. It wouldn't have transferred anywhere anyway, so ultimately it was more stress than it was really worth.

In leiu of dropping this course, I thought I might take my mother-in-laws advice and actually go take a class from a local church. I went to Christ the Redeemer Monday night and I found it -- well, far and above the course I was taking. Unfortunately, my understading of Catholicism was a little too weak to completely follow along, so I think I need a more intro level course that explains some of the theology so I can merge that with what little I know of history. We'll see.

Yummy Cereal

I absolutely love this cereal. Try it - you'll thank me.

Kashi Cereal

New Testament Course, Part 2

So, after talking with the dean and the dean visiting our class, it appears that the instructor has moderated his tone a bit -- at least now he's not blatantly telling me I'm wrong,  he just alludes to it.

Other than having the joy of being able to call up Bobby after class to gleefully state that "it's demons," this took on a very different tone compared to last week's. Most notably after the dean left the class, we watched a short on the Spiritual Freedom Church, and their exorcism's of demons (hence the demons comment). Now, I don't believe in demons, so my disparaging remarks - yes I made them in class - is not surprising. So, while I knew that everyone else in the class believed in demons, because I was the lone desenter when the question was posed, I felt obligated to to provide an  alternative view otherwise the class comments would have sounded as though they were taken from some political party convention - it's no fun if everyone is in agreement. Here's my take on the Spiritual Freedom Church:

You need to consider the purpose of this individual. He's a Televangelist. That means he's in the business of selling God. He's about hype and encouraging people to not accept responsibility for their choices in life. This guy [the one that had the demon in him] clearly is torn between fulfilling his mother's desires to go into ministry and his own wishes to do something else.

I know it's not a popular view, but there it is. I think this one girl in the class attempted to make a point so as to prove demons existed by quoting something from 1 Peter 5 -- I'm not sure how this was really supposed to relate, because I didn't see any reference to demons. If anyone knows, please let me know. I probably should have asked her after class, but the only reason she mentioned the book and verse was because she knew I'd ask -- and she said it so dismissively that I dared not actually talk to her.

So, the other exciting event that occured in the class -- at least for me, was what I will always refer to my gift from God. As I noted before, I'm not keen on the New King James Bible and have held steadfast to my Catholic New American Bible even though he requested we all use the New King James Bible. As I mentioned in my previous post, one of my biggest concerns with this course was the instructors presentation of these alternative dates of authorship of the New Testament that placed them prior to the Fall of the Second Temple in 70 CE. Well, right after the dean had questioned him on his dates of authorship he selected a parable from Matthew for us to read and try to interpret. His statement concerning the dating of texts centers around his belief that there are no references to the fall of the Second Temple in the Gospel and that this lack of information alludes to the fact that the texts must have been written prior to it. Ok, so back to Matthew -- well, of all the Gospel parables he could have selected he chose Matthew 22:1-14.

I'm going to let that sink in a minute because the significance of Matthew's The Parable of the Wedding Feast at that exact moment, I mean right after he said there was no reference to the fall of the Second Temple... it was just perfect.

So, part of the beauty of my NAB is the footnotes, so I'll include here an excerpt of the footnote for Matthew 22:1-14:

22, 1-14: This parable is from Q; see Lk 14, 15-24. It has been given many allegorical traits by Matthew, e.g., the burning of the city of the guests who refused the invitation (7), which corrsponds to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70. ....

Beautiful. Of course, he disregarded it -- but at least he didn't say I was wrong.

New Testament Course

New Testament Course
Category: Religion and Philosophy


I began taking a course on the New Testament from one of the local community colleges this past week and was horrified to discover the course was more suited for my sister's church than an institution of higher education.

While I do not have a quarrel with my sister's faith, I do with teaching a class on the basis of Biblical infallibility and speculation of dates of authorship*. Not only does this class suggest infallibility it outright rejects Biblical criticism and skips over this section in the text in an effort to present only an Evangelicals viewpoint. In an effort to minimize any attempt at noticing these chapters were skipped, the instructor has presented a second book for us to usein the course that minimizes any discussion on literary criticism. Overall, at first glance the class appears to be setup for the purpose of religious indoctrination, rather than religious scholarship instruction.

So, like any bad student, after questioning the instructor in class and being scoffed at for not knowing the Bible, I notified the dean of my concerns with the course. Noting that I had taken other courses that did not reject alternative points of view, such as my Old Testament course during the summer -- while it spent a lot of time on Biblical criticism, at the end of the day the instructor gave us literary samples that both rejected and supported literary criticism.

And, while I do have humility in my scholarship of the Bible and relish understanding alternative points of view, I am not interested in a course that presents only one -- particularly that, that one is fact.



*Note: While I do not begin to suggest that we should blindly follow Biblical scholarship on any, much less the dating of the New Testament books, I do question the agenda of an instructor that presents the more controversial view. Nor do I believe that an introductory course should dive head first into realm of religious discussion but should gain a base knowledge of the current status of scholarship -- then as they progress in their studies they should delve in discussion. While I hold this view for infallibility and the dating of the New Testament books, I do not hold this view for Biblical criticism -- as at its most fundamental level, this is what Biblical scholarship is about. And if it were the instructors opinion that this topic was just as controversial, I would hope that they would hold to teaching neither rather than selecting one as superior to the other as scholars studying the Bible are more closely split on this topic.