I’m taking an overview of World Religions class right now to satisfy a G.E. religion requirement.  The class is taught “from an LDS perspective.”  Interestingly enough that perspective seems to come more from the students than the Professor.  It’s kinda like a comfort blanket.

Anyway, in class today we studied Christianity (Catholicism and Protestantism), and something that Professor Keller taught resonated with me.  It was something that I had started thinking about on my mission but that I had not been thinking about lately as my thoughts turned to what I felt were bigger fish that needed to be fried.

The coming of the Son of God, and with Him the New Testament, brought a new revelation to the Old Testament.  The Old Testament had only dealt with one Being, Jehovah, who was God.  Suddenly they were dealing with a man named Jesus who was the Incarnation of God, the Son of a Heavenly Father.  Most people interpret this new message as being a revelation that God had a Son.  But Jesus is God!  He is Jehovah!   How can that make sense?  Perhaps we are looking at it the wrong way. The message of the New Testament is not so much that God had a Son, but that God had a Father.

That resonates with me.  It excites me, it feels right to me, and it uplifts me.  From the New Testament and our God Incarnate we learn that God—the Creator, the Law giver, the Eternal Judge—has a Father, which thing the people at Christ’s time had never before supposed.  Christ came as an Incarnation of Deity to reveal a Heavenly Father—His Father and Our Father—because they didn’t know the Father.  As He prayed before His apostles, Jesus said,  “O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me” (John 17:25).
 
The question is why the world didn’t know of the Father.  It is because of the fall.  When Adam and Eve and subsequently all mankind were removed from the presence of God in the Garden of Eden, they were removed from the Father.  God then appointed His Son to be our Intercessor and to act in His place.  So when Abraham prayed to God, he was praying to Jehovah God, the Son of a Father they didn’t know.  When our God came down to Earth in flesh as Jesus of Nazareth, He came to reverse the effects of the Fall—to resolve it with His atoning sacrifice.  It then became appropriate to reveal the Father to the world.

That’s as far as I’m going to take that thought, because that’s as far as it resonates with me right now, but I just wanted to share that.  I haven’t shared many spiritual things as of late, and I just wanted to let you all know that I still think about spiritual things and I still get pricked in my heart when there is something that God wants me to think about, to do, or to believe.

I saw the Dark Knight a few days ago and have been meaning to blog about it.  I thought the movie was extremely well done (how can you go wrong with a $180 million budget).  There were so many things I liked about it, but there were also several things that really disturbed me about it.  As a whole, though I enjoyed the movie, it would take a lot to convince me to see it again, and I don’t think that I could recommend the movie to everyone.  Here’s what I liked, and what I didn’t:

Good Point #1
Chicago is a beautiful backdrop for the movie.  The reason that I wanted to see Batman so bad is because it features the city I am so proud of and still have my roots in.  Though distinctive landmarks are blurred, the overall style and atmosphere of Gotham City is clearly Chicago.

Bad Point #1
It is too violent.  There is a disregard for life from the very beginning all the way to the end.  Bad guys kill bad guys; good guys kill good guys.  Though I appreciate the fact that the actual dying moments and the blood that entails were omitted (it is not a bloody movie), psychologically the deaths are there and the head count is ridiculous.

Good Point #2
Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman are amazing actors.  Their roles are dynamic and convincing and really enjoyable to watch.

Bad Point #2
Katie Homes didn’t come back to play Rachel Dawes.  I have to admit that I didn’t like her performance in Batman Begins, but if you are going to replace her, replace her with someone who fits the role.  Rachael is supposed to be optimistic, full of integrity, and beautiful.  Because the new Rachel doesn’t fit that description, it is hard to believe that there are 2 men in love with her.  There is no chemistry between Gyllenhaal and Christian Bale or between her and Aaron Eckhart, and the result is that there was absolutely no sexiness in the movie.  I missed that.

Good Point #3
The plot keeps moving throughout the movie, keeping you on the edge of your seat.  The movie appeals to your intellect, your emotions, and especially to the thirst for action.  I thought it was well-developed, sophisticated, and appropriate for contemporary America.   I liked the fact that no one was completely good or, with the possible exception of the Joker, completely evil.

Bad Point #3
Aside from presenting an overall bleak and dark look at humanity, the movie presents a solution to the human predicament that I find chilling.  The movie makes a clear Packeresque point that not all truth is good.  Not all truth is relevant.  Not all truth is beneficial.  In fact, to give people hope it is noble to cover up the truth and lie.  This just infuriates me.  Yes, all leaders have two faces, but covering up one face, no matter how noble the intention, is not right.  In fact, it is no different than the very mob the movie vilifies.

So that’s my review.  See it if that kind of movie suits your fancy (and if you can stomach  the killing).  I did like the movie, but unlike Batman Returns which is part of my collection and is a favorite I will watch over and over, I will leave the Dark Knight where I left it in the theaters.

Patience is a virtue I never learned.  I blame my mother. 

Today my letter to the editor was published in the Daily Universe.  I feel much better about it.  Before I felt silenced because I felt like I wasn’t allowed to speak my views.  Now I feel less silenced, because there are some things I can say, and a place where I can say them.  We’ll see what kind of feedback I get if anyone even noticed . . .

I was disappointed this morning when I read the Daily Universe.  My letter to the editor apparently didn’t get printed despite an email asking me to confirm authorship and give permission for the letter to be printed.  There was one letter printed on the same subject, but it is a letter criticizing the newspaper for publishing an article acknowledging Affirmation’s dissenting view to the letters the Church read from its California pulpits this last Sunday.  Of course that one would get printed.  Many anti-same-sex-marriage letters have been posted over the past week in the Daily Universe.  *sigh*

Thus I return to my distaste for the Daily Universe as one sided “jounalism.”

I’ve discovered the cause of inflation.  As much as I’d like to blame President Bush, it’s not his fault.  It’s obesity.  Inflation is God’s punishment for obesity.

No really, think about it.  If you were God and you saw a whole nation of your favorite people getting fatter and fatter, what would you do?  You’d want them to walk more and eat less, and what better way to get them to do that than to raise gas and food prices?  Who can afford to drive everywhere and eat all the time?  Not me!  His plan is flawless.

In all seriousness, I do foresee a drastic change in our culture, and I like it.  The transition is pretty painful, but hey, in the long run we get to be like Europe!  How exciting is that?!  We’ll be skinny and healthy (cause not only will we eat better, but we’ll have better health care coverage).  Maybe if we’re lucky we’ll even start building beautiful buildings and making delicious dark chocolate drinks.  There is a lot that we need to learn from over in Europe.  Their dollar is strong, and ours is getting weaker and weaker.  No wonder a candidate like Obama is doing well.  It’s what we need.

P.S.  I got an email requesting permission to print my letter to the editor in the Daily Universe, so pay attention to the Reader’s Forum tomorrow.

BYU students know that once a week the Daily Universe publishes a police beat describing various calls the police have responded to in the past week.  The police beat is famous for the ridiculous things it reports.  For example, this week the paper states:

“An international student reported seeing an 18-inch snake on the Maeser Hill trail.  The snake turned out to be a harmless garter snake.  The student was assured that it was not poisonous.”

“A suspicious-looking man covered in tattoos was seen in the Tanner Building tunnel area.  It turned out that he was a construction worker.”

“Witnesses reported a 30-year-old male bathing in the Provo River in the nude.  A police sergeant issued the man a citation for lewdness.”

Etc.  Many students have a goal of somehow getting into the police beat, either by doing something stupid that gets called in or by calling in something stupid.  It’s actually a much harder task than it seems.  Most students graduate without ever getting to be in the police beat.

Well.  I have succeeded in getting into the police beat this week.  The paper reports: “A loud explosion was reported from the Brewster Building.  It turned out to be a tire explosion on a vehicle outside the building.”

I am a custodian at the Brewster Building, and I heard the explosion.  I was the one who found the tire that had exploded, and when the officer arrived at the scene, I was the one who showed him that the explosion had just been a tire.  Man it was hot that day!  Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know who the anonymous hero was in the police beat.  Stay tuned into the Daily Universe tomorrow.  I wrote a letter to the editor that I hope will be published in the Reader’s Forum.