proud of my alma mater

Some of you may have already read about the equality riders - a group of glbtq persons and supporters who are traveling around to christian colleges. Apparently they have had some interesting experiences, including being arrested at Cornerstone University, just down the road from Calvin (note, this is the school that just decided to stop offering tenured faculty positions. They are not my favorite). Anyway, they visited Calvin this week, and appear to have been overwhelmed by the loving attitude they encountered there.

I think this indicates an openness that I didn't observe when I was a Calvin student, only a few years ago. Although it seems they are still having serious debates about a religious understanding of gender and sexuality, they also seem to be focusing more on the primary calling of christians - to love others.

As I've mentioned before, I think that the way the church in the US has shown hate instead of love toward so many people is horrifying, and I seriously hope that a few decades of hindsight will leave us as ashamed of this time in our history as we are of slavery and Jim Crow. I'm glad to see that Calvin College is taking steps in the right direction.

Something about Virginia Tech

I can't imagine what it must be like to be a student or faculty at Virginia Tech this week. I saw a professor talking on CNN about one of the professors who died. He said what a great person and colleague he was, and that they both had daughters the same age. Sometimes I think that's all we know to do when confronted with tragedy - realize how similar the victims are to us. That person is so much like me, except they were touched by this unspeakable tragedy and I was not. It makes life seem random and unfair. It reminds us how much we all share. Maybe it brings us closer to real community, where we feel each other's pain and joy.

I wonder, too, how close we are to the perpetrator? What, before yesterday, made Cho Seung Hui different from any of us? What could possibly drive someone to do something so horrible? Is it possible that you or I could be driven to that point as well?

ADDENDUM: since I wrote this post, I've been thinking about the Sufjan Stevens song "John Wayne Gacy Jr." which makes a similar point, but more subtly. "And in my best behavior I am really just like him/look underneath the floorboards for the secrets I have hid."

weird covers

I'm sure many of you are aware of my deep love for weird covers. Let me direct you today to Lore Sjoberg's blog (he's a columnist for Wired) which features several that are new to me and even more in the comments. How exciting!

see also the dinosaur comic that expresses my love.