Christian Core Values

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

I was listening to NPR and they were interviewing a woman who just wanted to pass the dream act, however, was voting for Romney, who opposes the dream act, because she disagrees with the Democrats core values.

Affordable heath care, affordable education, a balanced budget, green energy, pro equality for gay rights; really terrible stuff.  I'm not saying Obama is perfect, there were some bills he signed I found questionable, like making protesting a federal offense during certain political events, but I remembered how Congress passed the bill in the first place.

Every president signed questionable legislation at one time or another, like the wiretapping scandal, George W. Bush approved, but my question was, "What are Christian core values?"

I remembered what Jesus said: "Love your neighbor as yourself.", the second greatest commandment.  He did not say, if you agreed with your neighbor, only if your neighbor was straight, rich, or only if they were nice to you, just straight up love your neighbor.

The core value was plainly stated by Jesus, nothing about homosexuality, nada, and this was during an era where grown men were having sex with young boys.  Jesus wasn't passing judgment, he was about love and respect.

When I was a Christian, sometimes I felt the community was all about judging a person by how Christian they were.  I was even once told I could not be a Christian Liberal and was a person without morals.  Seemed to me some Christians needed to find what their true religious core values were before looking at mine.

Religious Manipulation

by JCWilmore

There are extremists apart of every religion from The Westboro Baptist Church to a Muslim cult found in Russia holding followers underground.

The NPR article reports children, ages 1 to 17, were held underground in an elaborate complex with their families with no heat or ventilation for over then years.

Thank the gods police found these families and now they are receiving medical care and hopefully the families will seek counseling to help through this mental trauma.

by Kareesa Tofa

Desperate people listened to this cleric and are now confused about what exactly was wrong with their thinking.  Fear was a powerful tool used to manipulate these families and it makes me sick.  

Manipulation corrupted religions in the past and it was no different for Paganism.  One example was how John Friend used his yoga studio and spiritual practices to manipulate women into being a kind of sex slave.

Of course the media sometimes explodes these scandals and also uses fear to manipulate the public into an overly questioning state.  This can be beneficial, but the lingering effects can be damaging to a majority of worshipers who just want to practice without prejustice.

People need to protect themselves from too good to be true stories from anyone about spirituality.  How?  Ask questions, if you feel uncomfortable voice how you don't and refuse to preform, read everything and don't drink the cool-aid.

Educating for the Future

by Southbanksteve

I am a product of the education system here in the United States and I listen to program after program on NPR only to realize the system does not benefit the children anymore.


Billions of dollars go into the US school system and unless a student is from a wealthy family or apart of a wealthy school, chances are he/she will have a severe lack in basic education.


California spends, on average, about $8,887 per student, this is about $260,000 going into the class room, $68,000, on average, goes to the teacher where is the rest of the money going?


When teachers buy their own supplies, work 70+ work weeks, have to pay off a master's degree where is the money to help they be paid for their time and energy in the classroom?  


Even though California is one of the lowest in paying per student in the public schools, a quarter of a million is still a huge chunk of change and if the teachers aren't getting it who is?


Obviously it's the infrastructure filled with janitors, secretaries, administrators, who take up most of the funding.  I'm not saying schools do not need infrastructure, however, it is far from streamlined considering how teachers have to buy simple school supplies like paper.


This is a monstrous problem in the system and I truly believe no one wants to deal with it.  charter schools can be better, but not always, however the greatest difference between a charter school and a public one is if the charter fails it's shut down, but if the public school is failing it receives more money.


How does that make any sense?  It sounds like an absent father who throws money at problems rather than go to the root of the issue.  I'm not saying looking into the school system will be easy, but it looks like the whole body needs a therapist.

by Stroble, David

Root causes for the issues pop up everywhere; teachers, money, parents, students the government, but I think we need to dig deeper to an older issue.  Placing similar age groups together, learning the same subject at the same time, different classrooms or no, has not  proven to be an effective teaching practice, honestly it is an experiment.  


To go to a more recent time, the 1950s, schools trained college bound students and blue collar workers on different tracks, but with the manufacturing leaving the US to countries like China this system is no longer valid.


The roots of the educational system are flawed and unless we rip out the old dying roots the system will just try to grow again leaving the education of the future no better than before.

Nuns vs Vatican

uploaded by Sporti

I was listening to NPR and I heard this story on Fresh Air about an American Nun, Pat Farrell, the president of the Leadership Conference of Woman Religious, and the assessment of the group by the Vatican. 


The whole story was about how the group represents itself "on homosexuality and birth control and promoting 'radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith'".  

The most poignant question pertaining to this religious raking of nun was about the sex scandals surrounding the priests in the Catholic church.  Time and time again these sex offenders were left to teach under the ambiguous protection of the church, but these nuns are confronted with the fears as to how "'the church's interpretation of how we talk about God, interpret Scripture, organize life in the church — how have they been tainted by a culture that minimizes the value and the place of women'".

by José Cruz/Abr

Why I left Christianity in the first place was because of the suppression of women.  I never felt like I could be myself and follow the Christian faith, I think these nuns are hitting the same wall, but on a larger scale.

They wanted to provide services to the communities they but the Catholic church wants to control these nuns and black out their agenda of making women equal under the eyes of the church.

Again, the Catholic church was putting their image before the needs of the people.  Even in the assessment of the nuns their concern was not about how they were helping the poor;  "For example, the LCWR publicly expressed in 1977 its refusal to assent to the teaching of Inter insigniores on the reservation of priestly ordination to men" and that was the Catholic church finds important, the absolute power of the male priesthood.

by Gerbilo

Change comes slow, especially in the Catholic church, it took centuries for the Holy Bible to be interpreted into common English why should the equalization of women in the church be any different?  I hope Christianity grows from this, rather than shutting people who have a different perspective out.

American Colleges Murder Artists

Sweeney Hall SJSU Outside

I went through some depression while I was at SJSU and ranked up $20,000 in student loans.  Sadly this was not only a waste of time because I decided to peruse a Child Development degree at De Anza College, rather than my Creative Writing degree, but I couldn't complete hardly any of my classes because of how depressed I was.


The only problem I to have are getting the federal government to find my taxes for 2011.  I cannot simply print out my tax forms from Turbotax, no, they want documents from the government.   I've tried all my addresses, talked to a representative who said all the tax forms are not in yet, so there is a chance I will not be going to school in the fall.

Sweeney Hall Inside
What am I paying for?

If the school wants to encourage students it should be relatively simple for students who apply, especially when you have to have official documents from the federal government.  The government is slow and still cannot find my information.  I'm just so frustrated.


I believe De Anza is making their students do some of the legwork because of the lack of staff and horrible education cuts.  I just wish they chose another way to reduce their costs, because I cannot see how this is making a student's life any easier.


To go even further when a student works part-time it leaves less time for studying.  But he needs to work to pay off his bills, unless he lives at home or has financial support from his parents.  If he does need to work, he still doesn't earn enough to pay the bills and has to have a loan.  This makes the student acquire debt.

Coffee Backpack
by Rocketpacks1

Yes, education is an investment, but at what cost?  Lack of health care for the student, sleep deprivation, emotional stress, poor diet, long work hours, financial debt all promote health issues spanning well beyond college years.  


After a student acquires all of this stress and debt there is no other option but to "opt to major in fields that will give them more marketable skills in the current job market: Think computer science, information technology, and engineering" (From the interview with Andrew Delbanco on NPR).  The artists are dead because society has murdered them financially, so will only rich children shape the art in America?


I think all of this helps promote the stress and unhealthy fervor for money.  I plan not to pay back my student loans for as long as possible, because I do not think my higher education helped me peruse the goals I wanted.  I felt they threw a bunch of English classes together and some writing classes, only 15/48 units were writing classes; not even half the classes you are required to take focus on your personal writing ability.

by Axstrat

Perhaps this is just the major I chose, and changed after I was so unhappy, but if colleges cannot make an effort to help liberal arts students making a living in a field they love, what is the point of earning a degree?