Jesus the Role Model.

I want to start by saying I don't consider myself Christian, or even religious, and for that matter, even spiritual (though others would probably beg to differ -- though, do anyone's opinions except my own matter?)

With that said, though, I want to say a little bit about Jesus.

Jesus is one of my biggest role models. Whether you're religious or not, I strongly encourage you to look into him as a historical figure instead of -- or in addition to -- him as a figure of faith. Why? Because Jesus was a socio-political radical. He was a revolutionary. He challenged society to act and believe in a whole new way. He was deeply mystic, he acted compassionately, he didn't look down on prostitutes or Gentiles, and he moved our world into a new belief structure that ended up shaping basically all of western society.

I don't want to say too much else on Jesus, because there is a lot out there already that I will refer you to rather than repeat. But I do hope what I've said so far has sparked your initial interest.

First, if you're an Alma College student like myself, one of the best courses I've taken was a spring term course with Kate Blanchard called "Jesus in Gospel and Film." We watched some mind-blowing movie interpretations of Jesus, everywhere from a Catholic Jesus in Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," a schizophrenic Jesus in Scorsese's "The Last Temptation," and a satirical Jesus in Monty Python's "Life of Brian." Supplementing that with discussing the canonical and gnostic gospels, as well as writing our own gospels at the end of the course, it challenged all of our individual views of Jesus.

Secondly, for everyone out there, I refer you to my favorite podcast: Interfaith Voices. One element that contemporary scholars have been discussing lately concerning Jesus is his race and color; it's very representative of larger issues of culture and society. On Interfaith Voices last month, there was in interview with Edward Blum, a co-author with Paul Harvey of The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America. If you're intrigued by the discussion surrounding Jesus, and have a spare 20 minutes, I can't imagine a better use of your time. 

I have more suggestions, and just a lot of ideas about Jesus in general (so there will be more posts to come), but I'll just stop here and leave you with my favorite image of Jesus. Yogi Jesus:

Humanizing and Compassion.

The Realization That Made Me Create A Blog.

In regards to what I'm "going into" as a career, I often think to myself, "I'm in the business of humanizing." I took that language from anti-war readings, where the basis of combat is in "dehumanizing the enemy" and thus taking away their human dignity. I realized a few months ago that this "dehumanizing" problem is my problem with virtually all of the social issues I care about. Gay rights. Religious understanding. Israel/Palestine. Women's issues. Labor rights. Etc.

Well today, while reading Marcus Borg's book "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time", I realized there's something else at the root of my desire to "humanize": I want to encourage compassion as a political virtue. 

This blog will be my thoughts on, well, the Politics of Compassion. This is a term which, honestly, is too complex for me to fully understand at this point in my studies and life. But I'm hoping through my own posts and your comments, we'll be able to discuss an array of topics all encompassed by the ideas of how we can come to a place in our world where we view all individuals with equal human dignity. An equal human dignity that can come out of a political emphasis on compassion.