Doofus

            Ever since Ian Cron spoke on addiction in chapel on November 9^th, I’ve been thinking about addiction (you can watch it at http://tinyurl.com/gp34npr ).  We as humans typically confine addiction to very specific cases such as addiction to substances, gambling, sex, and many other things.  Mr. Cron pointed out that we are all addicted to several things whether we know it or not.  St. Augustine writes about his personal experiences with this in his work Confessions.  The goal of the honors class is to consider what it means to be human.  Based off of the reading for this week, I would venture to say that being human means to be addicted to sin.

            I’ll be the first to admit that the statement that I made above makes me uncomfortable, but I think that it a good thing.  I would hope that this doesn’t sit well with anybody.  St. Augustine wrote on his experience with this idea.  To briefly summarize for those who are unfamiliar with the text, Augustine recalls stealing pears from his neighbor, when he himself already had better pears.  He did not steal “so as to enjoy the fruits of my crime, but rather to enjoy the theft itself, and the sin.” (Augustine 36).  There is a French phrase, L’appel du vide, that references this idea.  The phrase translates to “the call of the void” and refers to self-destructive impulses that one experiences in their everyday life.  These both point to the natural human tendency to sin and act destructively.  The Bible also supports this in its claim that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 ESV).  But a tendency to sin is not the same as an addiction to sin.

            In chapel this semester, the overall theme has been considering what we are “hungry” for.  We all have a longing for something that this world cannot satisfy.  Seeking to satisfy his hunger, St. Augustine writes “Such were the empty shadows on which I then fed, and was not fed.” (Augustine 52).  He sought relief from this hunger in sin to the point that he felt sick of “the foods that do not perish… because the more empty I was, the more nauseating I found them” (Augustine 45).  He lost the desire to obey and follow God, which in turn, led him to seek satisfaction in sin.  This is how we all develop an addiction to sin. 

Throughout writing this blog post, I thought of the song “I Have a Problem” by Beartooth.  I would not recommend the song, but I feel like it relates to the topic.  The lyrics say “God I wanna call you my father / I'm sick of drinking my life away / I can't remember anything / This isn't fun anymore”.  This part of the song relates to many ideas that were brought up, such as seeking satisfaction in God and sin and being addicted to destructiveness and sin.  It may have been St. Augustine’s rhetorical skills, but his writing helped me to realize addiction to sin as a part of human life.  I’m not saying that it is a good thing, or that we will ever be able to totally overcome it, but we need to try.

Title note:  When I sin, I often imagine God looking at me and asking “Why would you do a stupid thing like that doofus?”

Punk Monk

            The Rule of St. Benedict was an interesting reading and I found myself disagreeing with a lot of it.  I understand that it was not written for a college student to read.  It was written to serve as a set of rules for monks (I think.  We didn’t receive any background information on this text and I was too busy to spend my own time sifting through the internet to find some rare nugget of information that would help me understand this better).  After reading, I concluded that I would make a bad monk.  Nevertheless, the two major issues that I had were the authority of the Abbot and lack of individuality among the monks.

            The Abbot is basically the leader and overseer of a monastery.  He is responsible for “the welfare of the souls entrusted to him” (Benedict, 6).  This shows the amount of responsibility and authority that comes with being the Abbot.  Where I start to disagree with St. Benedict is when he writes on humility and obedience.  He wrote that “As soon as anything hath been commanded by the Superior they permit no delay in the execution, as if the matter had been commanded by God Himself” (Benedict, 10).  This seems dangerous to me.  In Romans, it says that “None is righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3: 10b (ESV).  Man is naturally sinful.  To blindly obey a man in authority as if what he commanded was from God seems like a bad idea.  St. Benedict later explains that the Abbot is elected based on the “merit of his life and the wisdom of his doctrine” (Benedict, 72) but no man is perfect (except for Jesus, but he is not the Abbot).  The amount of trust placed in the Abbot alone scares me a bit if I’m being honest.

            The second part of the reading that left me feeling uneasy was the lack of individuality among the monks.  St. Benedict writes against the monks doing what they have not been told to do, speaking without being spoken to, being quick to laughter, and many other things.  There are even rules about what they can wear.  I think that these rules strip the monks of their individuality.  This doesn’t sit well with me.  God has made every person different.  There has never been anyone like me or you and there never will be.  It reminds me of the show Veggie Tales when it would say, “God made you special, and He loves you very much”.  We were never intended to be robotic God-worshiping machines.  We are unique for a reason.

            Overall, I disagreed with a lot of The Rule of St. Benedict, but I think that’s okay.  Unlike the monks, I don’t think I should listen to and obey a man as if he were God.  To me, it seems like a lot of the honors students are afraid to disagree with the readings that we go through.  This makes me think of a quote by George S. Patton.  He said, “If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking”.  This quote encouraged me to write about what I thought of the text, even if most other people disagree.

Heated Blankets Save Lives

I was excited yet nervous to read selections from the Quran this week.  I had heard that it was like the Bible in some ways, but I had also heard that it was radically different.  I was interested to find out for myself what was in it and how it compared to Christianity and the Bible.  While there were some similarities, there were differences in how man is to relate to nonbelievers and how man relates to God.

The intolerance of nonbelievers in the Quran was almost shocking to me as a Christian.  It is rather straight forward with its stance on this issue when it says “Thou canst not… love anyone who contends against God and His Apostle” (Surah 58, Page94).  Again, at the end of Surah 60, it says “Be not friends with people whom God has condemned!” (Surah 60, Page 979).  This is drastically different from the Christian perspective on this issue.  During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says to “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5: 44 ESV).  This is a difference that cannot be overlooked by either side.

In both religions, man is called to love God.  However, the Bible and Quran can help provide insight to the motivation behind this love.  The Quran mentions the men and women who “offer up unto God a goodly loan” and expect to “be amply repaid, and shall have a noble reward” (Surah 57, Page 954).  To me, this sounds as if man is motivated to serve God out of selfish desires, to be rewarded for their love.  Can this actually be considered love?  I would say no as I have never seen anyone truly love another for the sake of gaining something.  The converse of this can be seen in the Christian’s motivation for loving God.  The Bible says that “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4: 19 ESV).  Christians don’t love God for a reward.  Christians love God because of who He is and what He has done.  I was recently reminded of what God has done for me when I visited The Shrine of Christ’s Passion with a friend this past weekend.  The Shrine of Christ’s Passion has many life-sized bronze statues that depict Jesus’ journey from the last supper, to his death on the cross, to his resurrection.  The life-sized statues really helped to remind me of what God has done for me and the rest of humanity, even before we loved him.  Therefore, the Christian loves God.

The interaction between man and man and man and God is critical to both religions discussed in this blog post.  These relationships impact the way that others perceive and interact with these religions and their religious texts.  For both religions, it is important to know who to love and why one should love.

           

Title note:   I found comfort in my ignorance on the topic of the Quran.  Much like one finds comfort in a heated blanket.  However, it is sometimes necessary to leave our comfort zones as we cannot grow or accomplish anything in comfort.