For this week we are to focus on how our implementation for our project is going and so far my project isn\’t really seeing results. Wait, that is not a fair statement because I have not been dedicated to it like I should be or should I say I am not dedicated to my project like I should be because of my school work schedule. The amount of work that I have among all my classes takes up most of my time and any extra time I have I deem as free time to relax and lower my stress levels by hanging out with friends. Let’s take the last few weeks for instance.

Since the semester is coming to a close a lot of teachers are assigning more work and giving tests in order to get back on schedule due to time missed for Hurricane Ivan. The amount of work I have is ridiculous in terms of what I actually do versus all the work that I am supposed to complete. I read on average about three hundred pages or more per week in course material for six courses. All of which is not evenly distributed. I would say about two-thirds of my reading comes from biblical studies alone. My point is that my school work has kept me from expanding my project of critical thinking to elementary, middle, or high schools so that our future generations of young adults can think for themselves instead of being zombies that can be easily manipulated and controlled more than any generation of Americans in history. The result of the election is a big example of how much our country needs minds that think critically.

The country chose President Bush for a second term and a lot of people were left scratching their heads wondering how it happened. With the major voting campaigns geared toward registering the post civil rights generation of young adults and the major acknowledgement of Bush making some questionable calls regarding the well-being of Americans, one would think that Senator John Kerry was a shoe in for the Presidency of the United States. But since George W. Bush won the Presidency again why did he win this time? Bush \”represents\” Christian morals by being opposed to abortion, gay marriage, and stem cell research. Kerry is in favor of abortion, gay marriage, and stem cell research. What Bush\’s victory represents is that Americans yearn for a divine reality that is rooted in morals instead of hypocrisy. America is supposed to be a Christian nation, but we are the first ones to invade a country in the name of God and kill innocent people. America is one of the few countries that allow civilians to carry firearms, whereas in most European countries only the police have firearms. America was built on a market economy that is about competition, exploitation, and the suffering of minorities. The people do not want to suffer anymore, but why is it that they cannot see that the problem with our society or country lies within the social construction of the government or the system we live in and not the person leading the system. If the system exploits people with a leader who can do a better job of hiding the exploitation, it still is not in the interests of the people. When people say that they voted for Kerry because he was the lesser of two evils it shows how controlled Americans are in their actions and their way of thinking. If Bush being elected was such a crime in many people’s eyes why haven\’t I heard anything about a march on the White House or people refusing to go to work? If Americans were critical they would not have voted because they know the problem lies within the structure that is the government or they would have a revolution that is about restoring the power to the people. But since none of that has happened I see that Americans are very much afraid of the master. The master, the government, controls the people instead of the people controlling the government, which is how a democracy is supposed to be. The fact that people simply voted and afterwards said at least we tried is very sad and frightening because that lets me know that the government can do anything it wants and the people of the United States will be passive and learn to live with being screwed over. Also many Americans feel our communities are falling apart day by day faster and faster. I feel as though people are acknowledging a need for a return or a true sense of caring for the human person.

Unfortunately, many people across this country blame the wrong people for problems within our American society. If anyone is to blame it is each person individually or the people as a whole not taking responsibility for their actions and their duty as a Christian nation. If you blame others all the time when something you do causes things to go wrong it shows that you have no sense of self worth because you cannot take credit for something that you have done and give it to someone else. It says that you are not worthy of having any credit for any actions in your life. If the whole of the American people do not agree with what has been going on in Iraq we would come together as one voice to address the problem instead of constantly pointing fingers and never addressing the problem. This dynamic may not necessarily be Americans having no sense of self worth, but only having a value of the self. American culture is very much about individualism or self interests so the disliking of what is happening in Iraq may only be related to those people who have a loved one in the war or have had a loved one killed in Iraq. I say this because most people who do not have a loved one in Iraq do not care about what is going on in Iraq. Either way whether Americans do not have a sense of self worth or only value themselves individually, Americans are not living up to the Christian roots that started this country that is supposed to be about caring about others, loving thy neighbor as thy self, and loving your enemies. If American were doing these things, we would not let the Iraq War continue and demand that our fellow human beings be brought back home. We would demand that the war be over because the Iraqi people are human beings to and are being killed just like Americans. We would not just sit by passively when something the government does bothers us like passing the Patriot Act. The American people are lacking an understanding of what it means to be Christian and this is something that needs to be addressed and thought about. I may have not been engaging in an active manner within the community for my project, but I have been engaging in discussions with friends that are of critical nature.

Last Friday, I was discussing with my friend Carlos the matter of believing in the Bible. Carlos believes that as a true Christian you must believe in the whole Bible and not question its authority. Carlos does not agree with those who question the Bible\’s legitimacy as a creation of God. Carlos believes the Bible is the word of God and that in order to be a true believer you must believe in the entire Bible and not pick and choose what you want to believe. I believe that the Bible is a creation of man that was inspired by God. I believe that the Bible was inspired by an encounter with God or the divine, but I do not think that the Bible was from God himself so it should be questioned because it is a manifestation of man. The main reason why I question the Bible is that the Bible is mostly told from a man\’s point of view. If God created man and woman, I think that God would also value a woman\’s point of view. I do not believe that God would intentionally want women to suffer from domination, manipulation, and control that men have timelessly justified with the words in the Bible. Human life is human life regardless if it is male or female and that is the way I believe God thinks of men and women. I do not believe God would have women in the Bible being remembered for their willingness to be controlled by men. If the Bible is truly the word of God then I believe that men abuse the word in order to justify much of the inhumanity that has occurred throughout history. In the Bible is says that women are supposed to be submissive to men, serve men, and take care of children while men work. Many men take this excerpt from the Bible in order to justify the reasoning for why women should be in the house all the time with the children and never go out like men. Many men use this excerpt for justifying why they can go out all hours of the night and put themselves in situations where they can cheat or think about cheating. I do not believe that God wants men to do as they please and for women to support it. American men from day one are encouraged to sleep with as many women as they please and not think twice about it. Men are also encouraged to search for the ultimate trophy wife that is the most beautiful woman in the world. Men are also taught that women are supposed to accept their flaws, but they do not have to accept women’s flaws. These views are one sided from a male’s interests and looks as women as objects instead of human beings. I must question something that is at the root of such inhumane acts such as slavery, war, and women’s submissive role.

I have also engaged in discussions with another friend by the name of Ariane. My discussions with Ariane have been ongoing since the beginning of the semester. When I first returned to Xavier for classes Ariane asked me why I was still at Xavier. I was supposed to transfer schools as a part to the next step of completing the Dual Degree Engineering Program at Xavier and I was going to transfer to University of Maryland College Park. When I told her that I stayed at Xavier because of my interest in Theology, Ariane was interested in learning more about my thoughts about religion and God. We had a few talks, exchanged numbers, and discussed certain issues in religion such as the Bible being the word of God, the Trinity, and prophecies. We have not talked in a while so the entire discussion is not fresh in my mind, but I do remember that she believes that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are three separate entities whereas I believe that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are one entity. I believe that Jesus is the human incarnation of God and that in order to create Jesus; God had to give a part of himself so that the human Jesus could be divine and be able to abstain from sin. If Jesus was not of God then how could Jesus abstain from sin? Jesus was human, but because Jesus had the powers of God, Jesus himself was God in the flesh if not a part of God. The Holy Spirit is of God too because God determines what is holy and what is not. God also determines who is overtaken by the Holy Spirit so how can the Holy Spirit be a separate entity from God? If God did not exist the Holy Spirit would not exist because anything that is holy is associated with God. In passages of the Bible it says that the Holy Spirit overcame men only after God said that it would happen. I am not happy that I have not been as active with my project as I would like, but at least I can say that I have been engaging in critical conversations that possibly may lead to other critical conversations and lead to Americans becoming more critical about what goes on in their everyday lives.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 28th, 2004 at 6:15 pm and is filed under Project Progress, Week 09: Implementation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.