Blogs are the Devil

Shawn will probably have me assassinated, but I'll most likely be back at the school this year. If some retired PhD wants to teach Bible at a small Christian school than it might change, but probably not.

We're off for the next two weeks to Nova Scotia, but we'll be back with pictures for the two of you who look at this site.

Here's part of an article my pastor wrote in one of his weekly email updates:

Obviously, the reason for having a book table is to encourage our congregation to be reading good books. Such an encouragement is necessary because reading is an activity that is “at risk” in our culture. As many cultural observers have pointed out, the dominant influence of television, the internet, video games, etc. clearly indicate that we have transitioned away from being a word-based culture to being an image-based culture. This is far more significant than we may realize. Words communicate differently than images, and those whose participation in the world is primarily image-based will inevitably develop a different way of viewing the world, as well as a different sort of character.

Reading is an activity that requires discipline, an active use of the imagination, delayed gratification, and a willingness to set aside one’s own concerns in order to understand what someone else wants to convey to us. On the other hand, image-based activities such as television and video games cultivate a passive use of the imagination, shortened attention spans, and the demand for entertainment and instant gratification. Another way of putting this is to say that, while words are able to convey objective content, images are received much more subjectively. As a result, when the image overtakes the word as the dominant mode of communication in a particular culture, that culture becomes increasingly relativistic and individualistic. As Ken Myers writes “A culture that is rooted more in images than in words will find it increasingly difficult to sustain any broad commitment to any truth, since truth is an abstraction requiring language.”

I guess Shawn and I don't blog anymore.

Update: I've been working at the homeless shelter for a little over a month, I believe. It's been a great experience. It's a much more connected form of helping people than teaching. I help people find jobs and get the services they need. Just yesterday I hooked one of the residents up with parenting classes from a local Christian organization. This could change her whole life, for all I know. The change is physical and in sight. Of course teaching is shaping minds, but you always wonder how much good it's actually doing. I was shocked by many of the low grades on Final Exams last year. It made me wonder whether I was the only one who learned anything all year. And the best thing about working in the shelter...when I'm done with work, I'm done with work.
And the Salvation Army wants me to stay. They'd pay me a bunch more and I'd get full benefits, inluding retirement. It's tough to turn it down, but I think it's too late in the summer to tell my principal that I'm not coming back. Even April may have been too late.