cogito

This website has compiled all of the State of the Union addresses in U.S. history and then analyzed them, visualizing the most-used words in a “tag cloud.” Very interesting and surprisingly telling.

Check it out: U.S. Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud

There is a little slider in the upper-right that allows you to scroll backwards in time through different presidents and speeches. Something that immediately jumped out at me was the frequency of the word “Constitution” in the earlier speeches, and its complete absence in recent years. Starting in about 1990, the word “Constitution” doesn’t show up in any of the speeches. Should that tell us something?

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Perhaps this is just an example of Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, but ever since I wrote an article about Christianity and government, I have been seeing the topic everywhere. For example, there was just recently an article in the Harding Bison entitled, “Whatever Happened to Christian Pacifism?” It’s a slightly different topic than I dealt with in my article, but I think the articles support one another to a large degree. The author - Keith Stanglin - introduces his piece with a quote from J.N. Armstrong, the first president of Harding University.

We cannot join in the hating, the bitterness, but must keep the spirit of Christ, and try to heal the wounds of the world in the love of men. The problems of the world are not ours to solve. Whether our statesmen in putting the nation into war are wise or otherwise is not ours to decide.We are sojourners and pilgrims, strangers on our way home.So we Christians are not in the war; it is not our war. We are not on either side.

Stanglin does a good job of criticizing the “method of discourse” (moral dilemmas, proof texts, etc.) in the debate between pacifists and just war advocates. It’s a thought-provoking piece. I look forward to exploring the concept of Christian pacifism (vs. “just war”) in the course of broadening my original article on Christian citizenship (or, a case for Christian Libertarianism).

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David Plotz over at Slate recently began Blogging the Bible. It poses the question, “What happens when an ignoramus reads the Good Book?” He says in his introduction:

My goal is pretty simple. I want to find out what happens when an ignorant person actually reads the book on which his religion is based. I think I’m in the same position as many other lazy but faithful people (Christians, Jews, Moslems, Hindus). I love Judaism; I love (most of) the lessons it has taught me about how to live in the world; and yet I realized I am fundamentally ignorant about its foundation, its essential document. So, what will happen if I approach my Bible empty, unmediated by teachers or rabbis or parents? What will delight and horrify me? How will the Bible relate to the religion I practice, and the lessons I thought I learned in synagogue and Hebrew School?

I wonder what “lessons” has he been taught “about how to live in the world” if they were not from the Bible? Reading his posts (he is currently in Joshua), I must say they are frustratingly irreverent and in many ways short-sighted. Then again, he compares himself to “many other lazy but faithful people”; I guess that shouldn’t come as a surprise. But is lazy really faithful?

I plan to address some of the same things from a different perspective. Rather than nonchalantly stumbling upon “how the Bible relate[s] to the religion I practice” I hope to look at the Scriptures as the Scriptures demand to be understood. That is, that what we practice must relate to the Bible. Check back for more (or feel free to subscribe via RSS or Email).

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There’s an interesting post over at Asphaleia on the names of God in the Bible. It’s worth a read. Here is an interesting little tidbit from the post:

The Hebrew system of numerals was a simple one in which the first letter aleph indicated one, the second letter beth was two, and so on until the letter yodh (y) which was the tenth letter and indicated 10. So to say eleven, one would write yodh aleph, for twelve, yodh beth and so on. Problem is when you get to 15 and 16, by this system they ought to be yodh he and yodh waw respectively (i.e. 10+5 and 10+6). Unfortunately, this would make YH and YW, two of the short forms of YHWH, and the sacred name was too holy to be used as common numerals. So instead, for these two numerals, one would write instead heth waw (9+6) and heth zayin (9+7).

Update: After spending more time over at Asphaleia I must say that the post referenced above is just the tip of the iceberg. Marvin’s got a lot of interesting things to say. I recommend checking it out and have added a link to his blog on my sidebar.

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