Miller writes, “Before I tried that experiment, I thought I was a nice person, but after trying it, I realized I thought bad things about people all day long, and that, like Tony says, my natural desire was to love darkness.” I don’t think I realize, like Miller, until I think about it all day that I think bad things about people all day long. I tried to not complain for a while and I did not realize how much I did complain until I stopped complaining. When we are so used to doing something we do not think about doing it. It is easier to love the darkness a lot of the time. “I figured I could just make myself do good things, think good thoughts about other people, but that was no easier than walking up to a complete stranger and falling in love with them.” It is very hard to just make yourself do good things when it is something like thinking bad things about other people, but I would probably be great to try to make yourself do it though.

I love what Miller writes on page 13, "I believe that the greatest trick of the devil is no to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time." This is very true. A lot of people waste time everyday. I know I waste time doing things that I do not really need to be doing instead of doing something productive. This does nothing the help me.
He also writes, "If he can sink a man's mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God." This is also so true. If a person is just going through the motions and a person does not think about what they are doing he will not engage in God. the deep relationship will not be there. I know sometimes that I am just doing something out of habit and am not thinking about engaging in God.
These two things also go together. It is easy to waste time and not think about God. Instead of wasting time, I could be doing a Bible Study or praying. It is easy to waste time, but that is falling into a trap and I need to start thinking about doing something productive instead of wasting time.
I really liked this reminder in Blue Like Jazz.

Project Update

Due to availability issues with some of the movies I was going to watch I have to change some of the movies, so here is an updated list. Ballet Shoes, Rent, Slumdog Millionaire, The Bicycle Thief, A Raisin in the Sun, Hoop Dreams, The Pursuit of Happyness, Cinderella Man, Oliver Twist (1922), Dirty Pretty Things, The Grapes of Wrath, and Pretty Woman.

Final Project Update

For my project, I have watched three movies. I have watched Slumdog Millionaire, The Bicycle Thief, and Ballet Shoes. I have started the reviews for the movies and have created the blog. I am going to use a PowerPoint and show my blog for my presentation. My blog address is http://www.moviesaboutpoverty.blogspot.com/.

I liked the story of the women not wanting to change the colors. They wanted to leave the colors red. “Won’t we be celebrating in the power of the Holy Spirit next Sunday, too? They left the color red for Trinity Sunday. When they laid the new rug, it was red. “But at least our Pentecostal red rug was laid down the center aisle in testimony to the spirit that runs through us.” I love that they saw that they were worshipping in the presence of God every Sunday. I do not usually think about that, even though I know it is true, it doesn’t come into my head. I will think about that more often now. I also like that they liked to have the color to brighten things up. The color was also helped to remind them that they were worshipping in the power of the Holy Spirit.

I really liked two stories from Neumark. I liked the story of Ernestina and Enid who walked in the walk-a-thon. Ernestina was 85 and had a pacemaker. She did not get into the van until after the fourth mile when some of the other older women got into the van. Enid had a bullet lodged in her foot from a drive-by shooting. Enid also spent her Saturdays for several months walking around the community with voter-registration forms. These two women did not care that it would be hard to walk in the walk-a-thon, they wanted to help. They did not use excuses to get out of helping, they stayed and helped. Some people would have used a lot less than what these ladies had as an excuse to get out of something, but these ladies pushed through any way.
I also liked the story she told about Danielle. Danielle’s mother died from an asthma attack brought on by smoking crack. She has eleven brothers and sisters. Some of her siblings are older and living on their own and others went to live with other relatives. She and four of her siblings were left parentless and an uncle moved in. There was a swimming trip planned for the church, but Danielle didn’t own a bathing suit, so Heidi Neumark took her to get one. They stopped at McDonald’s for lunch and Danielle got extra napkins and divided the bag of fries into five little piles. When Neumark asked her what she was doing she replied, “My sisters and brothers will feel sad that I got french fries and they didn’t. I’m taking them home to share.” Danielle did not keep the fries for herself; she shared them with her brothers and sisters, even if that meant she did not get as many french fries. She is a great example for everyone. She cared about siblings and so she shared with them. We should care enough about everyone around us who needs to be able to share with them, even if we get less than what we could have had.

In Second Isaiah, on page 189, I love the quote that says, "God's thoughts are higher than human thoughts." I think if I thought about that more often I would not worry as much about things and I would be more patient with God's plan. Everyone needs to realize that God's thoughts are higher. We do not always know what God is thinking and what He is thinking is always better than what we are thinking. So, we do not have to worry about the plans for our life because God's thoughts, God's plans are better than our own.

I really like things that Heschel said aboout justice. He says,"Justice is as much a necessity as breathing is, and a constant occupation." We need to have justice in everything we do and all the time. It is not just a good thing, it is a necessity. I also liked the quote, "yet the concern for justice is an act of love."

Final Project Update

I am going to watch movies that focus on poverty. I have a list of movies already and have narrowed them down to 12. I have already seen Slumdog Millionaire. I still have 11 movies to watch. I am going to blog about each movie and I need to start on that blog. The twelve movies that I am going to watch are:
Slumdog Millionaire, Pretty Woman, Hoop Dreams, The Pursuit of Happiness, The Color Purple, On The Waterfront, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, The Bicycle Thief, In America, Rent, The Grapes of Wrath, and Oliver Twist.
In case I watch a movie and feel that it does not deal enough with poverty I will also watch Of Mice and Men.
I am going to try to watch as many movies as possible with a minimum of 12.

I really loved a theme that kept coming up in the different pieces that Heschel never accommodated. He said that he is surprised to see the sunshine every morning and one of his students said that he loved trees everytime he saw them. He never got use to violence and war and that is why he was so against the Vietnam war. I think most people in our culture accommodate themselves to violence and war because it is on the news everyday and in the papers. Our media shows us violence so much that many people are no longer affected when they hear about war and violence. I love that Heschel neve accommodated himself to this. We need to spend more time realizing the beauty that is all around us by looking at things like we are seeing them for the first time and not accommodating ourselves to them. Looking at trees and the sunshine as precious and amazing everytime we see them. The world is beautiful, but a lot of people miss that because, unlike Heschel, they have accommodated themselves to it.
I also loved that Heschel emphasises that God hates to see suffereing. We should try to change the suffereing and hate to see it too. It is another thing that we should not accommodate to. Heschel also said that the opposite of good is not evil but indifference.

I liked the King readings. They showed how nonviolence really can win. I really like that he gave the three different types of love in the Greek language. More people need to understand these and more people need to love with agape love. Agape love "is an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return. And when you come to love on this level you begin to love men not because they are likeable, not because they do things that attract us, but because God loves then and here we love the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed that the person does." If everyone loved like agape love that would be great. Love we be more than just romantic and love between personal friendship. Eveyone could love each other.
I also like that he says, "I think every person who believes in nonviolent resistance believes somehow that the universe in some form is on the side of justice." If we faught for justice like God wants us too many more people could realize that the universe is on the side of justice because with God there is no need for violence to get to a good end.
I think that many people are too well adjusted to in life. Many people are adjusted to violence injustice, etc. We need to keep being maladjusted to injustice to change it. King said, "God grant that we will be so maladjusted that we will be able to go out and change our world and our civilization."
King wanted people to realize that nonviolent resistance is not a method of cowardice and that it does resist. It does not seek to humiliate or defeat the opponent but to win his friendship and understanding. If more people wanted this end instead of defeat of the opposing side the end result of resistance would be better and there would be more and more nonviolent resistance.
I think that many people need to realize what King says, "The end of violence or the aftermath of violence is bitterness. The aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation and the creation of a beloved community." If violence is used there usually is bitterness, there is not reconciliation with violence as there is with nonviolence. This was one of my favorite points that he made.

I had never heard the arguments for or against pacifism or just-war before reading this assignment. I will have to read more about the just-war argument before I decide what I believe because it is not an easy decision. It is debated and debated everywhere and sadly in a fallen world war will be present. In deciding what to believe a person also needs to look really hard at the Old and New Testament. God uses war, it seems, in the Old Testament to bring justice and to punish. Jesus directs Christians towards non-violence and God in the Old Testament does not want His people to go to war but to just trust in Him. I believe if everyone believed in God this would be an easy decision, because a nation that trusts God would never need violence such as shown in the prophets, God will provide. If everyone believed in God there would be no war and I think that this is the best argument for pacifism.

At the very beginning of the speech Strobel says, "The ramifications of poverty touch all aspects of our lives together. We cannot afford to ignore or gloss over these ramifications. Instead, we must raise them and face them honestly." I think people ignore what he says here, that poverty touches all aspects of our lives together. Some people just do little to help and don't think that poverty can touch them or affects them. Strobel is saying that it does touch all aspects of our lives together. People want to help the poor while distancing themselves from them at the same time. I love the quote Strobel liked from Dorothy Day, "She noted that the poor and the homeless had been studied and researched to death, but that all they needed was love." People need to help the poor more out of love than because of the bad statistics. More and more people should love the poor and helped them out of love. Reading this quote, Dorothy Day, and much of the other readings have given me an actual love for the poor that I didn't have before.

Final Project

For the final project I am thinking about looking at how movies portray justice. I could put together a powerpoint on the movies and their views of justice. The only problem with this is that there a lot of movies out there! However, I could just look at movies that have been at the top of the box office charts. I think it would be intertesting to see how popular movies show the viewer what justice is.

There were many quotes from the reading in Isaiah that I liked. From the very beginning of Assyria Shall Fall by a Sword Not of Man, I liked the lines that said, “Assyria with all her might and triumph was but a tool in the hands of God for carrying out His work against sinful nations.” Assyria thought that all of their winning over the lands around them was of their own doing and of their own swords, but it was really God who was involved. It is also said later that it is not a sword of man that will devour Assyria. The Lord will cause Assyria to have to pay attention to Him by devouring Assyria Himself, and not by the sword. I also like the quote that “Assyria’s power was a phantom, ‘but the Lord of hosts, Him you shall regard as holy; let Him be your fear, let him be your dread!”’ It shows God’s power over anything that the Assyrians might have seen as the greatest. God can overcome the phantom power of Assyria because He is holy and He is who needs to be feared. Sennacherib mocked God to try to get Judah to submit to defeat. However, God showed His might by sending a disastrous pestilence throughout the Assyrian camp. The Assyrians highly doubted the might of God. Today we I feel we just see God as the merciful God. We sometimes fail to realize or to mention the might and power that God has.
I also like the verse on page 99.
“You turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be regarded as the clay;
That the thing made should say of its maker:
“He did not make me”;
Or that the thing formed say of him who formed it:
“He has no understanding”?
This verse from Isaiah 29:16 reminds us that God is the Creator. We cannot mold Him to be what we want Him to be. We cannot say that I don’t like this certain part about God, so I will just not believe it. We cannot mold God to fit us.
We also see from this reading that God’s anger does not last forever. He IS a merciful God. Isaiah 30:18 says, “For the Lord is a God of justice, Blessed are all those who wait for Him.” It also says in the reading that “God is more than Lord and Owner; He is Father.” God loves us even when we do wrong and His anger will not last forever.

I like reading Ecclesiastes. It is not an exciting book of the Bible and it basically says that everything in the world is meaningless. However, that is something that I think about sometimes. Without God, most things would be meaningless. We could have all the fun in the world and enjoy our work, but why would it matter if there was no God?

I also like reading Esther. It is a great story about God and the way He helps his people. It is great to see that Esther, even though frightened, still goes into the king's ineer court. I also like what Mordecai says in Esther 4: 14, "Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?" Esther shows us how to trust God and how to help people even if it meant death.

In Genesis 1, we see God creating the world we know today. Genesis 1:1-16 is God creating the world through day four. He speaks each part of the world into exsistence. Genesis 37 is about Joseph. He goes out looking for his brother's who are with the sheep because his dad asked him to go. His brother's don't like Joseph because of dreams that he told eariler in the passage, but he still goes to look for them. I love the story Joseph and how he does great things even though his brothers just intedend to bring harm on him. It shows that God has plans through bad situations, like Joseph later tells his brothers. In Genesis 37:12-17 we just see Joseph out looking for his brothers.

Claiborne says many times that Christians need to show more of God’s love to those who we encounter everyday. I defiantly agree that as Christians we need to show God’s love by loving those around us. I love his call for action in the world and to show the world what Christianity is all about. However, I did feel that he spent a lot of time convincing us that the way to do this was through helping the homeless and the poor. This is great, but there are a lot of other ways that we can help the world and show love. God can be working anywhere. This seems like something Claiborne wants everyone to know, but he makes in seem like this is only being done on the streets.
In the book, The Irresistible Revolution, Claiborne writes that people don’t describe Christians with words like love, grace, or community. Christians are sometimes thought to just be complete hypocrites and that is terrible. As Christians we should spread love to the world. People who say that they are Christians and then turn around and act an opposite way to what the Bible says and just follows the world’s way give Christians a bad name. Claiborne confronts this, but sadly Christian hypocrites are probably not likely to read his book because they do not usually act like a Christian in the world.
I love the stories of forgiveness that Claiborne uses in Chapter 10. It reminds us of true forgiveness and of God’s forgiveness. The stories of forgiveness remind me just how much we need God’s help in this world. It would be hard for me to give forgiveness to someone who meant harm to me or people that I care about, but with God’s help and love I can learn how to forgive a lot easier.
I am not sure that God ONLY works in little ways. I guess it depends on the way a person looks at it, but God can do great things too. He chooses to work in all different ways. I see it from the perspective that anything that God does will be great in the end. Claiborne spends a great amount of the book talking about the small things God does and it seems like everything that is good is small, poor, or last. Many different types of people can do many different small (or great) things.