Miscellaneous Gripes

Gripe #1: It's getting really boring here. I've got to get out as soon as possible, even if prospective employers distrust someone who doesn't stay at a job for very long. And I now know from experience that they do, since my boss has the same reaction towards many of the applicants for M.D.'s position. "I was hoping that we'd be getting some resumes from new M.L.S. graduates, but I suppose they want jobs at large state schools," she said. I kept my mouth shut, but of course that would be the sort of institution I would have preferred working at as well. I also kept my mouth shut when she looked at one applicant's "Statement of Faith" and said "This guy is strange--he believes in demons." (On the other hand, she is quite satisfied with our reference/database librarian K.L., who not only believes in demons but claims to detect their presence by means of nausea. He got sick in new-agey Santa Fe for that reason, he told me.) Commendably, she has been taking the time to call the applicants' past employers rather than merely assuming the worst. In one case the applicant did have a good reason for leaving--missionary work in China--but in many of the other cases there was some problem. One fellow was an undergraduate here and worked in our library. The boss remembered him having conflicts with a couple of his professors, but told herself "People change--maybe he's matured by now." Apparently some personality traits are stubbornly ingrained because his current employer told her that the guy antagonized the ladies in technical services with his condescending attitude.

Gripe #2: I've had insomnia the past two or three weeks.

Gripe #3: The on-campus gym drastically reduced its hours for the summer, and I've gained five pounds as a result.

Gripe #4: Growing pressure from the gay caucus is splitting Anglicanism apart along the fault line between traditionalists and progressives. This could be the time for me to start looking at Orthodoxy more seriously. (Speaking of exotic eastern denominations, the owner of Delhi Palace--I'll just assume from now on that his name is "Mr. Singh"--told me there is a Mar Thoma congregation in Lubbock. As an Indo- and liturgophile (?), I would love to pay them a visit. I'm dreaming of a potluck with chole, daal, and samosas.)

Some Christians in favor of blessing same-sex relationships argue that Jesus said nothing about homosexuality. (I think there's even a bumper sticker to that effect.) It's true that Jesus never overtly dealt with the topic, but that is only relevant given a naive fundamentalist hermeneutic. The principles of sexual ethics laid down by Jesus entail the sinfulness of homosexual activity. First, Jesus proscribed extramarital sex. (Matt. 15:19, 19:10-12, possibly John 4:16-18). Second, everything Jesus said about marriage implies that it is by definition heterosexual. (e.g. Matt 19:4-6 and, if you think about it, Luke 20:34-36.) Ergo, homosexual behavior is prohibited.