I initially created this blog for my English 102 class, and our first assignment is due at midnight tonight. It's going to destroy the ambiance of my blog, but it seems to be necessary for passing the course.
This is played out in our lives in a number of different ways, but I want to look particularly at the "choice of subject" by the American Christian. In a survey of self-proclaimed "Non-Christians"-be they atheist, agnostic, or subscribers to an entirely different religion- a mere 3% of perceive Christians as "different from themselves" or "good". That minuscule percentage has devastating implications for the Christian, namely that we are claiming to follow a God who sets us apart and makes us new, while, simultaneously living lives that look exactly like the rest of the world. The every day Christian is not choosing a different subject than the average Atheist; our conversations are largely insignificant, our actions look similarly selfish, and our attitudes reflect the same impatience. And all this sameness distorts the picture that the outsider is getting; she lacks the ability to perceive and appreciate the image because of the limitations on her own empirically based thought processes. That is to say--the non-Christian is unable to conceptualize the Biblical Christian because so few of us are actually projecting that image.
Berger goes on to note that, prior to the invention of the camera, "what you saw depended upon where you were when." (142). Dustin Willis' sermon on the perception of Christians [the outside resource], suggested that, perhaps, it is our inability to consciously choose a subject that is so daring, so bold, and so counter-cultural that we are presenting a picture of Christ that is similar to those brief glimpses of landscapes the world caught prior to the existence of a camera. An outsider could observe that we're "nice" people who try not to cuss and seem to worship something bigger than ourselves if she were to step inside the doors of our churches. But when she steps outside and sees those same people living lives that are contrary to the desires of that same King, she cannot take that original picture with her. Because what she sees in Christians depends on where she sees them.
And then there is this perception of the "mission" of Jesus and it is confused, a lot of the time, with the "American dream". It seems that the world has impressed upon us that our "mission" in life should be to get more money, be in charge of more people, and, ultimately, own a really big yacht. But that does not seem at all compatible with the way Jesus has called his followers to live. And so there begins to emerge this sort of Christian "sub-culture", as Jon Ludavina puts it, where the goal is to go to church every Sunday, to go on mission trips every once in a while, and to smile at people a lot. And neither lifestyle is going to satisfy, and both are antithetical to the life Jesus lived on earth. We see Him entering a hurting world and taking that hurt and brokenness onto Himself, asking His followers to follow Him with their whole lives and to help others follow Him. If Christians started living that way, living like our hearts and our souls are being put back together, maybe "Christian" could mean something different in 2020 than it does today. Because the world will have seen the way people who claim to be redeemed actually live in response to that redemption. And because they've experienced the love radiating from them.
Back at the russell house at about 6:30, the Gamecocks for Barack volunteer team was huge and energized. Come to find out, CNN had been running a countdown timer until the polls closed at seven.
So we went absolutely CRAZY, right there in the middle of the grand market place. Everyone ran outside screaming and jumping up and down, and we proceeded to tell everyone that cared (or didn't care) that Barack Obama had just won South Carolina. All this at, like, 7:03.
Then, we hit up the victory party/speech/awesomeness and it was so incredible. There were thousands of people at the convention center, screaming every time CNN put up another poll he won (i.e. best platform: change). We cheered every time a new precinct reported, and watched his margin of victory get bigger and bigger.
This great band was getting the crowd pumped up and the crowd would sporadically start cheering "YES WE CAN" and "RACE DOESN'T MATTER" (every time the news said something about the white vote, the black vote..) and "O-BA-MA" and "FIRED UP? READY TO GO" (read here: Hakeem and I started that a time or two :D). Then a guy comes on stage with a sign that says "hope" and a sign that says "change" and the two sections of bleachers went back and forth yelling "hope" or "change" depending on their section. Then he comes out with a sign that says "SPEECH IN FIVE MINUTES". The crowd went crazy. :)
My new favorite group of people, which should henceforth be known as the slammin' six, went to dinner with Derek and Amin, our favorite out of state volunteers. We convinced the waitress to change the channel to CNN and had this guy who looked like he was about 16 come up to us to ask for a reason he should vote for Obama that affects HIM. George told him about the $4,000 tax credit he will get for college, I told him he could stay on his parents insurance until he was 25, and Mitch said, "..well, you won't have to go to Iraq because he is getting us out." Cheers erupted and they smiled and walked off.
It was such a freaking awesome night, and it ended with the slammin' six deciding to go to Georgia next weekend to GOTV with nicole. All this hinges on our ability to get George's mom's fresh mini van for the weekend :) We said our goodbyes to the out of staters, and came back to crash. and we've just woken up.
"Hi, Kathryn. My name is Aura Siegel and I'm calling because President Clinton gave the proposal on Darfur to his wife and she signed it today. I can leave it for you in the Hilton if you want to come get it. Just give me a call back. Thanks a lot."
I called her back. and went to the Hilton to pick it up. I just walked up to the desk and said, "Hi, Senator Clinton left something for me at the desk? My name is Kathryn Witzke."
Props to Bill Clinton for telling her all about it.
..and that's the text i received at 10:30pm tonight from my dog hans. and so we dropped everything we were doing and ran to starbucks to meet (former) President Bill Clinton.
Somehow, I ended up standing on a chair in the very middle of the room. Strategically, that put me right in Bill's line of vision. and so i went for it. wearing my giant orange "i vote for darfur" button (and my semi-subtle obama pin), i raised my hand to ask the former president of the United States a question.
I ended up saying something along these lines--"After the Rwanda genocide that happened during your administration, there was a lot of talk about never letting something atrocious like what happened in Rwanda happen again. Now, the same thing is happening again in Darfur. But Senator Obama is the only one who has signed the resolution that the Darfur Action Committee has been asking every candidate to sign for the past six months. Why hasn't Hillary signed it and what will she do about Darfur if she is president?"
He was a little taken aback, to be honest. He apologized to the crowd for not knowing anything about the said resolution and begrudgingly explained that he had no idea why his wife had not signed. He went on to talk for a brief second about her policies towards Sudan, claiming that she was the first democrat to call Darfur a genocide. (WRONG: That was Russ Feingold. Two thumbs up for him.) He proceeded to talk about all the great things he did in terms of foreign policy when he was president. He noted that he was "embarrassed" that he had not heard of the resolution and moved on to the next question.
A little later (it was moving in on midnight here), we decided to leave. Bill noticed I left and said "can you get me a copy of that resolution?" the crowd turned to look at me, and I ended up saying (TO BILL CLINTON!) in my most calm and collected voice, "okay, I'll get you one soon."
Long story short, we went and printed it. And I wrote Bill Clinton a letter. And we went back to give it to him (not without first speaking on the phone to Barack's Iowa policy advisor, Karen Richardson).
Mid conversation with me, I think he began to notice that everyone around him was wearing a bright orange button. He told us about an organization that someone had started in Texas to help with world hunger and explained different aspects of his foreign policy that benefited African countries, noting that currently, neither the U.S. or the AU have enough troops to end this genocide that is occuring in Darfur. We took a bunch of pictures, and he wanted to talk to Matt too, because he had asked what exactly the former president meant when he called Barack Obama's candidacy a "fairytale".
best night ever.
and to think that this week is only going to get better...
welcome to my life.
In order to preface this post, so as to not dissapoint or lose your interest, I find it important to note that: over the past several months (and even more over the next three days), my life revolves completely around Senator Barack Obama (D-Il.) So, welcome to my politically saturated life.
Yesterday, I introduced Michelle Obama to a crowd in a russell house ballroom that quickly became a "standing room only" event. I got to hang out with Auma Obama, Barack's sister from Kenya, while waiting to talk to Michelle for a while after the event. Did i mention that when I welcomed her to our school she rememembered having met me before? Consider it mentioned.
Over the past few weeks, I've gotten to spend time with Kerry Washington, Chris Tucker, Tatyana Ali, Kal Penn, and Samantha Power. I became best friends with Chris Hughes and talked to Michael Cera on the phone for a little bit. No big thing.
i really loathe Mark Sanford, John Edwards, and Mike Huckabee. i don't even want to link to their websites. and THAT is how i feel about that. Governor Romney is on the steady decline with his remarkably unoriginal campaign slogan of "change". cheers, mitt.
Michelle Obama is the most well spoken, articulate, incredible woman I have ever had the opportunity to see speak or speak to. I want to be her as of, oh, yesterday. what a life goal.
Speaking of women, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in one of her finer moments, said-- "Well, yes. I did vote for [that bill]. But I really hoped it would fail."
bloody brilliant.
