Oh, I’ve been tagged friends. Tagged not once, but twice! Both Adam and Kevin have done an incredible job of coming up with post titles that I could see myself writing. I laughed at both of them for a good five minutes. So, here are the rules for this meme.

1. Tag five Biblical studies bloggers.
2. Invent fictional posts that they might have written over the last month.
3. Link to the original meme post at Lingamish.

Earl Barnett at earlbarnett.com - “I’ve read another book by Alister McGrath, and you should too!”
Art Boulet at finitum non capax infiniti - “How [insert recent happening with the Red Sox] sheds light on Louis Ginzberg’s classic collection Legends of the Jews.”
Dr. George Snyder Jr. at The Rabbi - “I, Jeremiah…”

That, I’m afraid, will have to do. I don’t know any other Biblical studies bloggers who have not already been tagged.

A few disclaimers before I begin. First, my candidate didn’t make it past the primaries. As for which of the two viable candidates (yes, two. I may have some libertarian ideals, but they have no chance at this presidential election) I’m leaning towards, I think it makes little difference to this discussion.

CNN has an article regarding some things Dobson has said about Obama. Personally, it sounds to me like Dobson is raving. His arguments and jabs are half-baked at best. That works for Ice Cream, but not so much for logical discussion. I try to keep politics off of my blog. But I really can’t stand aside at this point.

First, Dobson criticizes Obama for saying that we can’t use the Bible as the sole document regarding how we govern. As evidence for this Obama puts forth Leviticus and Deuteronomy. To be sure these are some tired arguments. Obviously, a proper understanding of those two books makes them far less offensive than they might appear at first glance. But that is neither here nor there. Obama is right we can’t govern based solely on the Bible. Our world is not the Ancient Near East. It’s not even the modern middle east. Obama is also right when he says, “So before we get carried away, let’s read our Bible now. Folks haven’t been reading their Bible.”

Dobson’s response to this? According to CNN, “Dobson said Obama should not be referencing antiquated dietary codes and passages from the Old Testament that are no longer relevant to the teachings of the New Testament.” Now, this isn’t a direct quote. So one must be careful. But I really, really hope that Dobson didn’t say anything remotely close to “[certain Old Testament books] are no longer relevant to the teachings of the New Testament.” If that’s the case then I don’t think it is Obama who has no clue about how to read and interpret the Bible. CNN also reports that Dobson said the following (direct quote): “‘I think he’s deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own world view, his own confused theology,’ Dobson said, later adding that Obama is “dragging biblical understanding through the gutter.’” Again, I don’t think Dobson has any clue here, nor does he have any business being the arbiter of what is or isn’t “biblical understanding” or “confused theology.”

CNN reports that Obama also asked a, in my view, legitimate question concerning what brand of Christianity one might govern by. In this case the Senator from Illinois actually mentions Dobson, “Even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would we go with James Dobson’s, or Al Sharpton’s?” I think that is exactly the issue. Now, of course, Focus on the Family came back with some argument that Obama was calling Dobson a racist. I don’t think that’s what Obama was doing at all. I think he was legitimately pointing out that we have Dobson on one extreme and Sharpton on another, and they will probably never agree on which brand of Christianity should be taught in schools, or which brand should be used to determine policy. He wasn’t comparing the two of them, he was contrasting the two of them. It’s a common practice, in rhetoric.

The solution? Christianity should stay out of politics and instead focus on helping the poor, blind and lame. After all, what could be more pleasing to God than taking care of widows and orphans? I hardly agree with everything Obama has ever said about faith, but I certainly find myself agreeing more with him than the self-appointed arbiter of Evangelicalism.

I’m still alive, in case anyone is wondering. I wanted to link to some really excellent thoughts on sermons over at Wezlo’s blog. Well worth spending a few minutes reading.

Of course, I should add the caveat that I wouldn’t mind getting rid of sermons all together, but since that isn’t going to happen…

Chris is on to something over at a New Kind of Youth Ministry. I highly recommend you read this post. This is exactly what we need to be doing in youth ministry. Now, if I could only find a way to help the churched students in my youth ministry to realize that its okay to do these things it would be absolutely wonderful.

Today I received my Theology of the Pentateuch final in my box. I already knew the grade for the course, but it was nice to be able to look at the graded final. In fact, in induced a significant amount of mirth into my day. In a question on Adonai’s “warfare” against Pharaoh/the gods of Egypt I had made mention of Ramses II, “who ruled in the 13th Century B.C.E.” My professor circled B.C.E. and wrote the following note:

“This is a liberal abbreviation which avoids acknowledging the centrality of Christ (B.C.). Do you want to make such a statement by using it?”

Putting aside for the moments the veracity of such a claim, I laughed for a good five minutes upon reading that note. I had not realized that there were such things in the world as liberal abbreviations. In fairness, another professor here at GCTS encourages students to use B.C.E.. Still, the term “liberal abbreviation” will always hold a special place in my heart.

Well, to anyone who is still following my blog, it’s been a crazy couple weeks. How I manage to keep a fairly consistent blogging schedule during the semester, and then fail to do so during a summer class is beyond me. Here’s a rundown of what I’ve been doing:

-Relaxing. For the first two weeks after the semester ended I just relaxed, played games, hung out. It was wonderful.
-Mass Effect is quite possibly the best RPG currently available for the Xbox360. Bioware has managed to produce yet another worthwhile RPG. I don’t know if I’ve yet played a game by Bioware that I didn’t like. Maybe I’ll do a review of Mass Effect at some point.
-Movies! I saw Iron Man (very good) and Prince Caspian (good). Mandy and I will probably take in the new Indiana Jones film in the next week or two. We both really want to see it. We also had several students over to our apartment and watched The Count of Monte Christo and The Prestige. Both very good movies.
-Intermediate Greek has been going okay. I have my midterm on Friday. I’ve decided I really dislike summer courses. They are more about a grade and less about learning (not that actual semester courses are much different, but at least there is more opportunity to learn). So far the class has been going okay, though it has confirmed that diagramming alone is enough to make me never want to touch Greek again. The feeling will pass, I’m sure.
-Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits has won out over blogging in the little bit of free time I still possess. I’m looking forward to finally being done with school (two weeks!) so that I can take a breather. I just wanna catch my breath and refocus on Hebrew. It’s been too long since I had a course in Hebrew Bible (Theo. of the Pentateuch doesn’t count. I guess Aramaic partially does, but only partially).

At the end of last summer I posted a review of Tales of the Abyss. Playing ToA caused me to become extremely interested in the Tales Series. The Anime FMV, the character development via skits, and the fun battle system all combine to make a unique RPG experience. Tales of the Abyss is easily in the top 5 RPGs I’ve ever played. I was listening to the soundtrack just today and was reminded about how incredible it was.

Tales of Symphonia doesn’t beat Tales of the Abyss in my book, but its still an excellent game. It was originally released on the Gamecube, and I picked up a used copy to play on my Wii. I’m extremely glad I did. Having never owned a Gamecube I could have easily missed out on this little gem. In many ways I feel like Tales of the Abyss was the natural evolution from this game. Everything was just a little better: the story, the character development, the battle system, etc. But Tales of Symphonia still comes out as a great game, even when compared to Abyss.

I spent around 40 hours playing through the game. There was a plot twist I didn’t see coming, which is always nice. The main problem with doing a review of Symphonia, after I’ve played Abyss, is that I feel like I’m just going around saying, “It was good…but Abyss was better.” If you’re a fan of the Tales series you’ve probably already played this game. If you’re fan of JRPGs I highly recommend Tales of Symphonia. If you’re a one of those new gamers the Wii is bringing in, why not try a “hardcore” game like Tales of Symphonia. It’s certainly fun, and worth the $20 to pick up a used copy. Besides, it’ll prepare you for Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, the direct sequel that is releasing exclusively for the Wii this November.

So, I’ve been having a blast this past week. I finished Tales of Symphonia, and I’ll probably post a review of it at some point soon. Having this week just to play games, kick back, read fiction, and otherwise do nothing that resembles actual academic work has been extremely refreshing. This week I plan to actually do some work on my Semlink, start in on vocab for intermediate Greek, and hopefully continue to relax before Greek starts next week. Mandy and I have also dutifully spent our economic stimulus check, in order to do what American Patriots do…buy stuff.

I’ve read a variety of blog posts over this past week, and I’ve avoided commenting on many. However, at least one deserves a mention. Earl has been doing a series on Autonomous Churches, and his most recent post is available here. Take a look, I’m sure Earl would love your thoughts.

I’m taking this week off from thinking (aside from work related things), so don’t expect blog posts of any substance unless I get a sudden and unexpected urge to actually use the gray matter contained inside my cranium. Much like Eric I intend to read fiction (currently the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn cycle by Tad Williams), play games (specifically Tales of Symphonia, and if I finish it I’ll possibly start Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits), drink coffee (which isn’t really a departure from normal. I’m currently brewing a fine Harrar and will probably crack open some Kona by the end of the week), and conquer the world with Mandy in Civilization IV. I’ll perhaps emerge from this cocoon of hedonism in roughly a week when I begin preparing for my Intermediate Greek class in Summer I, and finish up my Semlink.

But that’s not the reason that I even began this post. In my meanderings this morning I found this article on CNN.com. Roland Martin often has some interesting things to say, in my opinion; I thought his take on the whole Rev. Wright thing was fascinating (that, and I’m a karma whore).

Yesterday I took my last two finals. It’s wonderful. I need to finish up some paperwork for Mentored Ministry, and then I’ll be busy with church responsibilities that didn’t get taken care of earlier this week because of studying. Still, it’s a great feeling to be done, or near enough that it doesn’t matter.

Also, I took a “Reformed Theology Quiz” on facebook, which Len sent me. I scored as a five-point Calvinist. How does that happen? Those of you who know me will know that I don’t play those games. Five-point Calvinist. Honestly. I like the Pope! I said the Westminster Confession should be amended! How do I come out a five-point Calvinist? Oh well, it was a fun way to blow off steam while it lasted.