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I love google searches, because they are so random. For example, a recent search that google brought to my website was "5 places where there is no snakes."
Honestly. Like I'd ever talk like that.

The question posed to LU English majors

The debate among the LU English majors

    Flannery O'Connor, Catholic author of short stories such as "A Good Man is Hard to Find" summarizes a prevailing viewpoint-- that Christian literature sucks. "Poorly written novels-- no matter how pious or edifying the behavior of the characters-- are not good in themselves and are therefore not really edifying." To counter the immediate objection that some Christians will have, she adds that "we have plenty examples in this world of poor things being used to good purposes. God can make any indifferent thing, as well as evil itself, an instrument of good; but I submit that to do this is the business of God and not of any human being."

    One of my professors, Dr. K Prior, supports this and claims that "developing a taste for aesthetic goodness helps to develop a taste for moral goodness." She even goes so far as to ask, "Is bad taste a sin?" She cites as a reference the fact that in the Bible, the word God uses for "good" includes both aesthetic and moral goodness.

    All the really smart English majors who are hippy and scornful and wear hair accessories like bandanas and braids agree with O' Connor. I, who have no distinct style and employ sarcasm frequently and wear my hair in a ponytail and read all the time, do not know if I agree. You see, just like some of you like bad music and know it's bad, I will read a poorly written book and still enjoy the experience-- not necessarily the story line or the poorly written character but the mere experience of reading. I do find myself enjoying this less and less, and prefer to read of experience outside the realm of Christian lady and Christian man finding each other (because it's never that easy-- as my friend Melissa said to me the other day, "I've stopped searching for the mature, sincere Christian man because every time I've found one, he disappears when we leave church.") Maybe I am developing my aesthetic taste at a more increased pace....

   A debate is going on at ragamuffinsoul.com about something sort of similar. Click here to read it.  As I read through all the comments and replies to this letter, one thing kept sticking out to me: the author does not appreciate Christian praise and worship songs for several reasons: 1) Christian praise and worship is birthed from a narrow viewpoint and appeals to a narrow audience, 2) employs cliches and remains unoriginal, 3) is not culturally relevant, 4) is poorly written. (Disclaimer: I read the letter and debate once, am now unable to access it, and have therefore quite probably infused my own color into the author's opinions) Personally, I share Stephen's linguistic aspirations and am also quite sensitive to words. I, too, find many contemporary worship songs unappealing because they don't say anything. When I express myself to my Creator in and through music, I want to tell Him something, and I want to tell it well. 

    This really makes me consider the question.

    "Is bad taste a sin?"

     Possibly. What do you think?

A History of my Blog

.....I have found myself asking, "why do i blog?"

sometimes i feel like blogs can be a brag book for people to write about areas in their lives. they can create a verbal picture and create an illusion that things are great. i know people out there second guess their choice of words, how they are going to type something, how they can squeeze in extra details that really are not necessary. i do it. i admit it. and it really, really bothers me that i do it. especially when i read other people's blogs and accuse them of doing it as well. just as i point the finger at someone, i have three fingers pointing back at me. i do find some blogs that i read to be pretty shallow in content, yet light-heart...an easy read...which is great when you don't want to use your brain. there are blogs specifically to create community, blogs that document a child's life, blogs that network homeschooling moms, blogs that share pics of their kids for grandparents and family to view from far distances, blogs that read like poetry, or blogs that are confessionals where people are truly transparent....


so my desire is to blog about stuff that is of importance. i don't want to post to say look at me, look at me. i often worry about if i come across as "look at what we have or look at what we get to experience." i actually ran into this whole blogging dilemma when i first started this in 2004. i had posted several entries, but stopped because i felt like i was posting for other people's expectations. i picked it back up a year later only because i felt guilty for not keeping it up after being harassed by one of my youth group kids. i didn't know who my audience was or really is. since my blog is linked to my notecards site, i haven't a clue as to who drops by and reads. i know that my former students/youth group kids read it (all ages of life). i feel like my audience is so broad that i shy away from being totally who i am. i post about things that are safe, non-offensive, and age-appropriate. i sometimes struggle with that because i want to be authentic. but at the same time, i don't want to offend.

if i want people to read my blog, then i should probably produce work consistently; however, i don't want to blog just because i haven't posted in almost three weeks. i want a reason or an event to blog about. ... i guess i say that because the only blog that i view consistently is carlos's because i know that he blogs everyday and most days, he'll post more than once. i go there because i know other people go there. it's almost like going to be a part of a crowd (hence his ability to create community via his blog) . going where others are. however, i rarely speak. i think i have only left a couple of comments at his site. but i still like going because carlos makes me laugh, and he is real.

so here's to authenticity and hopefully to future posts that will be meaty and cause one to walk away with some things to think about

for the whole posting, please visit here.