Saturday, November 27, 2010

A time for thanks

Of course, this is the time of year where we reflect on the many things we're thankful for. I'd like to submit my own list, as personal as it is, to thank so many I'm grateful for.

* For my wife Terri puts up with me and believes in me. Thanks, Terri, for your support in making our move
* For my children, who did not complain even though I took them out of their comfort zones. And I believe they're all better for it.
* For Bill and Tammy, who helped make going full-time into ministry possible. Without your support, this would have never worked.
* For dozens of friends and family members who are financially supporting us as well as providing prayer covering. It wasn't for them, too, this would have just been a dream instead of reality;
* For others on the MRM team: Aaron, Randy, Sharon. I look forward to what God will do through us
* For my parents for raising me and loving me so very much. No matter what, they are behind me, and I'm grateful
* For computers, because how did we ever get anything done before them?
* For my next door neighbor Kevin and his wife Renee, good people and very supportive even though we don't share the same spiritual views
* For my friend Craig, who has made sure I didn't just believe something in a lazy manner but was always challenging my thinking process
* For my students, many of whom I've kept in contact with over the years, and a number of have helped us financially in our move to Utah--I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to have taught more than 2,000 individuals during the past two decades
* For this nation, where we have so many freedoms we just take for granted. Just being able to worship in freedom is something I definitely cherish
* For my teachers whom I have learned much from over the years. Sometimes I disagreed with their conclusions, but I've appreciated the interaction. A special shout-out to Dr. Gordon Johnson, who has been a great encourager to me over the years. The way I preach sermons comes directly from your instruction
* For my dogs, who make me feel like I'm the most important person in the room. Yes, you may get into trouble and chew up library books, but hey, we've all got issues, don't we? You have taught me to be faithful, 100%
* For Don Freeman, who wrote Corduroy, a book that explains the gospel better than anything else I have seen, and it's done in such a simple way (the way it was meant to be shared)

And I thank you for reading my views about Life in Utah. Have a blessed Christmas (holy-day) season!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Anonymous posters on my blog site

This blog site is a place for me to share my personal opinions and give insight into what I'm thinking. It's open for anyone to visit, and even if you disagree, I hope it challenges your way of thinking. For me, it's a fun outlet, as I'm not much into Facebook but still like to have a forum to lay out my thoughts.

With that as a background, I want to make a comment about those who have been commenting on my posts. Many of these comments have been anonymous. Let me just say that I appreciate people leaving comments, but when I visit other sites, I normally leave comments with my real name. I believe that if I'm not willing to support my view with my name, then I'm more likely to be more mean-spirited because I have nothing to lose. I can offend with no consequences. But this is chicken.

This week, one blogger (who apparently has read my blog) deleted my comment to his site, despite the fact that it was kindly written. He wrote about my friend Bill McKeever and how much he apparently hates him. I left a comment, inviting the writer to lunch if he was ever in the Salt Lake City area, as I sincerely desire to sit down with him and find out what Bill has done to so offend him. As the Bible says, "Come, let us reason together," and I have found putting a face with a person can quell the hostility someone may feel. However, he took my comment down within the hour. Why? My name was on  it, I said nothing offensive, and I merely invitedhim to lunch. If he made such an invitation for me to come when I was in his Arizona city, I would take him up on the offer the first time I was in the area. I just don't understand his rationale.

I ramble, but here is my challenge to you lurkers out there: If you want to leave a comment, could you please tell us who you are? If you insist on posting anonymously, and you cannot provide reason in your post why the need to do so (as there are certainly appropriate times) or provide a private confidential email to me (eric@mrm.org), then I probably won't be publishing it. I only ask to know who's publishing, even if it means you let me know privately,  While this might not be the rule everywhere, it's something I'm requesting.

Labels:

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Is everything just an “opinion”?

During the first week of a seminary class that I am teaching, one of my on-line students wrote the following in a class-required discussion board. The student’s grammar has been left as it was written:

“…there is no such thing as a good writer. There just isn't. Writing is all opinion based. If you say an essay,book, ect. was "bad" or "good" that's simply your opinion. There's no fact there. "Mark Twain was a good writer." is a statement many people would agree with but it's not true or false, it's just someones opinion of him. There is no "right" or "wrong" way to write an essay, book, poem, just simply ways that most people follow. I don't believe you can "learn to write better" because you can't be "bad" at writing in the first place.

I decided to write him back with the following post:

"*****, it’s good to have you in the class. I'll be praying for a job that you need.

Regarding your view on writing, I'm curious: Would you say everything is based on opinion? What I mean is, could it ever be said that Michelangelo was a good artist? That the sermon we just heard was good, as it was well-organized with good exegesis and delivery? That this particular Bible passage means one thing to me but it could mean something else to you? (i.e. homosexuality is moral for today, even if it wasn't at Sodom and Gomorrah)  In other words, is everything really left to personal opinion?

The reason I ask these questions is that I believe the postmodern worldview encouraged in today's culture is to leave everything up for grabs. Using the first question above, a person could say, "For you, Michelangelo is a good artist. In my opinion, he's not." But aren't there objective ways to determine good art from bad? Of course, not everything may mesh with my personal tastes. It's certainly legitimate to say, "Perhaps Michelangelo was a good artist, but personally, I don't like his art." But if you leave everything open to opinion, then there really are no absolutes. Everything really is left up to what you think, and by golly, while most art experts say Michelangelo was the stud, frankly, someone with no art experience could say he was terrible, and we're supposed to call both opinions equal? 

This would also be a problem in religion, for a person could say, "Christianity is true for you, but for me I'll stick to my Agnosticism because it's right for me." See, I believe Christianity cannot be true for one person but false for another. Either it is true (and Jesus really is who He said He was, having risen from the dead) or it's not true (and Jesus was the biggest deceiver this world has ever seen). Just as it's not left up to opinion whether or not someone is pregnant, so too either Jesus is the way, truth, and life, or He is not. There is no middle ground.

I disagree with the idea that there is no such thing as good writing. For example, there are objective standards that we can use to determine a good essay from bad, including the quality of grammar and spelling, thesis statement (clear, not too broad, not too narrow), topic sentences and organization, specific supporting details, etc. I believe it really is possible for me to say, this essay is an A and this other one is a D and not have it based on mere opinion.

Let me give a specific example about what I am saying. For eight years, twice a year, I got together with 50 other professors at Grossmont College and we graded freshmen essays that were written at the end of the year. It was a 6-hour grading affair. (Fun!) We anonymously graded all the essays in the first round, then went through them again in the second round, as each grader was only given papers he/she hadn't already graded. If an essay received two "P" grades, it passed. An essay that received two "F" grades failed. Those that received a P and an F would have a third reader. These "tweeners" were the toughest to grade, as it was very painful trying to determine the P from the F since my decision was final. These were definitely papers that could have been graded as high as B- or as low as an F, but probably were C and D in nature. Do you know the number of papers left for this third read? We had to grade fewer than 10% because the other 90% were clearly P or F. (Note: the second readers didn't know what the first reader's grade.) 

Anyway, I rattle on, but I just want you to know that I believe good writing is much more than opinion. The limitations of an on-line class are that we can't discuss in real time, or at least very easily. Feel free to disagree, but I just wanted to show you where I stand since I will be grading your papers in a standardized and, I believe, in a fair, way. 

Blessings,

Eric Johnson"

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Mormon Missionaries at our Door

The other day, I was at Bill’s house doing some work when the doorbell rang. At the door were two spiffy Mormon missionaries, a Book of Mormon in hand. Apparently somebody wrote Tammy’s name down at.s a temple visitor’s center, so here were these two young men, ready to deliver.

Bill invited them inside, and soon we were in a full conversation. They asked if we had read the Book of Mormon (we had) and what we thought of it. Bill responded, “I tell you what, why don’t you sell us on the Book of Mormon.”

For us, there are just too many problems with this work of fiction for it to be considered authentic or life-changing. While the missionaries did their best to explain why they have entrusted their lives to the story of this book, I thought to myself, “They know nothing else.” A question I like to ask missionaries is if they grew up in the faith. I don’t believe I’ve ever met a missionary who had been converted to the faith. My experience has been that they have grown up in the church and they’ve never taken the time to research other possibilities.
When they asked if we had prayed about the Book of Mormon, we both said that we had not. “If I asked you about praying for whether or not you should steal your neighbor’s car, what would you say?” I asked. 

The more experienced missionary said, “I wouldn’t do it.” “Why not? “ I probed. “Because that would be silly.” “Ahh, and because God tells us in His word that we are to test everything (1 Thess. 5:21) and to ‘try the spirits’ (1 John 4:1), I believe God never wanted us to pray about the truthfulness of a religion.” After all, I continued, if prayer can help us determine which religion is true, then perhaps we ought to pray about the Qur’an and the Bhagavad Gita. (Neither one had ever considered praying about Islam’s or Hindiusm’s scripture; in fact, neither had taken the time to pray about whether or not the Bible is true.)

After two hours of an interesting conversation, it was time for the missionaries to leave. When we invited them to return for dinner the following week, they jumped at the opportunity and we made an appointment. When they left, Bill said, “They’ll never be allowed to come back.” I was hopeful, as they said they really enjoyed the conversation and didn’t feel threatened. Unfortunately, the McKeevers received a phone call two days before the planned dinner, with the main missionary saying they couldn’t come because the McKeevers' home was “out of their mission zone.” Of course, they were allowed to deliver the Book of Mormon there in the first place, but I guess that doesn’t matter.

We are only seed planters. I pray that something said that night stuck with them and they begin to do some additional research. You just never know how God will work. Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for our first missionaries, as we’ve lived here for five months. I’m sure the time is coming.

Labels: , ,