thoughts after class

We talked in class today about how the catholic church says that “protection” in married sexual relationships is a sin. That seems to even apply to Brazil where people can have 18 kids (like the example in class) and then the guy’s wife can’t safely have any more…Should she keep having kids even though it might kill her?

The issue (apparently) lies in the view that God created sex for procreation…makin’ babies. So if we stop that it’s sinning. I don’t think that this is a very great way to look at it. I think it’s somewhat over simplifying the issue. Yes, sex makes babies. I think that’s mostly why it’s there, but I think at the same time we have to think about what having babies means. Hopefully when people have babies they would be ready to have them. That means in a position in life where having children is a good idea. (not in a place where your children aren’t going to get enough food because you have too many children already). What we learned is that catholics (and I think everyone should) think that babies are a gift from God and that more than one baby is more than one gift from God…although…it occurs to me that telling people to not use protection may be essentially dooming a child to death in some cases. It’s like telling people not to wear seatbelts because it’s God’s will whether or not they die in a car crash. It’s a bit fatalistic. “If God wills it” has been used to justify too much crap. Maybe God wills good decisions based on rational thought too…

Plus, even if you disagree the result in Brazil without approved birth control was a drastic rise in abortions. In their minds, you can be forgiven by a priest for an abortion…but living in sin (using condoms) results in you getting banned from communion. Apparently what the women in Brazil say is that “if the Pope was a woman we would have birth control.” Hmmm…

Other thoughts I have:

I’m getting wicked tired of class. I want to be done for the summer so I can celebrate the end of another year with a summer marked by almost every afternoon spent by the lake…As waterfront director at camp. I’m getting more exctied for this by the moment.

My shampoo bottle has said “Hello good-lookin” to me every morning this quarter. It’s written on the bottle. I think that if I ever get married I hope my wife says that to me in the morning…maybe in the shower…Anyhow, I would like to take this moment to thank Pert-Plus for the wonderful compliment I recieve every time I shower. 

Sometimes I look at my room and am glad it’s messy. It makes me feel better to have a part of my life messy. Sometimes it reminds me of how real life is usually messy. If I live in real life I should have a messy room…as a symbol of the reality that we all experience…or I’m just lazy and don’t care about my room being clean.

Sometimes I go to Ballard Market and buy Leninade. It’s named after the soviet dicator…but it tastes good. My friend Alexa and I went last night. She thought it was good. See? You should too.

Lots of Christian people dislike communism. I think they’ve got room to do so, I mean honestly Marx does call God “the supreme Illuision”. That’s somewhat offensive. But in general we, as Christians, might want to think a bit more leniently. I learned in class (Classical Sociological theory) that essentially Marx “Cribbed the Christians’ notes”. Really he did. When you read Marx his goals are essentially the New Jerusalem, but without God. So what he wants is what we want (the Kingdom of God), but he leaves out the significant part of the equation. In other words he leaves out what makes it all work and be worthwhile at the same time. Maybe instead of hating him as a “commi” we should pity him as a man who misdiagnosed the problems of society and the means of changing it. I believe that the problem we face as the human race is a problem of the human heart (brokenness) as opposed to a problem with the material development of society. I think Mr.Marx saw the symptom and called it the disease. Us American Christians really dislike Karl Marx for people misinterpreting what he meant (communism comes out of the collapse of capitalism…not by itself), but we give Christopher Columbus a special day for going the wrong way to “India” and causing the extinction of an entire group of people…Let’s maybe rethink a few things. Maybe we could read the things that are “bad” to learn and see how these things are or are not affected through the context of our relationship with Christ…

I watched Donnie Darko last night. I’ve heard people rave about it for YEARS at this point. I’ve heard them say time and time again “Man, that is such a great movie!”…At this point I say to all you people who have told me that it’s so good: I disagree. Your movie was a dark, depressing waste of my time. Really, I don’t care if I’m in a “tangent universe”. I have way better things to think about and spend my time thinking about. As I’m sure you do. Tell me about better movies next time.