At this holiday season, with much controversy flying around about political correctness, I would like to proudly and unapologetically say MERRY CHRISTMAS to one and all.  No matter whether you are black, white, Jew, or Gentile.  I realize that not all people on this earth, or even in this country, celebrate this season the same way.  However, I think it is entirely disgusting to see such a time of giving, love, and family spirit turned into a political and religious debate.  There is no reason why a person should not be able to speak the holiday greeting of their choice.  And, likewise, there is no reason why people should get bent out of shape and offended when the greeting given them does not fit their religious background or preference. 

I myself am a Christian, but I would not take offense at someone saying Happy Hannukah or even Kwanzaa, although the latter would seem especially odd given such circumstances.  I certainly would not demand that the person who greeted me in such a fashion use a different greeting or complain in any way about being forced to believe a different religion than I do. 

The part that I find ironic is that the solution to offending others by saying the apparently horrible word "Christmas" (which thus implies that this holiday is devoted to Christ) is to say "Happy Holidays".  The word itself implies spirituality, being a combination of the root words "holy" and "day".  Therefore, we have just in turn offended all those who do not view this season in any religious light whatsoever, neither Christianity nor any other religion.  So in order to accomodate the Jews and any other major religious group who finds offense at the mere mention of the Christ child, we have now alienated those who are purely atheistic and non-religious.  Why don't we just say "Happy December" and call it all fair, if we're going to nit-pick?  Or perhaps just follow the age-old advice given by many a mother: "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all?" 

It's a shame that such a wonderful time of year has been reduced to arguments over which way you should greet someone on the street.  It used to be that you could, without worry or fear, greet your neighbor, friend, or anyone in any way that came to mind.  But now we've got to hold back our own preferences to appease the world. 

Well, in closing, I simply wish to say that this whole fiasco will not change what I say this Christmas season.  I refuse to let political correctness ruin my favorite holiday of the whole year.  So what if I see this as a time to celebrate the birth of my Lord?  If someone is so sour as to take offense at a greeting I give them, then that is their own problem!  It seems as though this time of year will be overrun by a bunch of mean-spirited Scrooges and Grinches, but I'll do my best to keep that from spreading.  And you have my word on that!

This post will be in Braille for the sight-impaired!! ..::.:. .: :.: :.:: :..

No, it is a lie, I am very sorry!  I wish I knew Braille so I could translate my writing for the blind, but I was sick during that week of school.  I think I was sick a lot as a child, because it seems I was also sick during the week of school where they would have taught me to value education and to not steal office supplies!

I thought of the Braille thing because I went to the guitar store.  It is a small place in a strip mall, and outside every store next to the door there is a little plaque with the name of the store, and some braille underneath.  And of course, at the guitar store, it says GUITAR STORE .::.:.:... .:.:::. so blind people will know where to get their guitars!  I think this is eminently useful, because if I were blind, I would probably just play the guitar all day.

One thing you may not know is that every time you go up to one of these public plaques, close your eyes, and say, "Oh gosh, where am I?  Where am... (rubs fingers on Braille plaque) Oh thank goodness, I'm at the guitar store," your chance of getting run over by a bus increases by one percent.  That's not a lot, but if you do it a hundred times, you are toast!  Stay off the sidewalk!!!

Anyway I was in this trashy strip mall for a while, checking out the latest designs in horrible guitars, and then I walked back out to my car, because I do not really need a bad guitar made out of plywood in China!  I had walked up to the door and had my keys out, ready to unlock the door, when I saw written on the side of the car: "I WISH MY WIFE WAS THIS DIRTY!!"

I was aghast!  Why would a person write such a thing on my car??!  I licked my finger, washed out the word WAS, and wrote WERE beneath it.  I wish my wife were this dirty, in the subjunctive mood!  Much better, I thought, and went to get in the car.

But then I realized, this message is not specific!  If I am going to have a slogan on my car, I want it to be clear in its purpose and strident in its goals!  I smeared out the whole thing with the palm of my hand, and wrote I WISH MY WIFE WERE COVERED IN GRIME WHICH ONLY RINSED OFF IN HEAVY RAINS next to the smear mark.  Much better! I thought.  (Fortunately, my car is extremely dirty, which makes for high contrast should someone want to write on the side by removing some of the grime in the shape of letters!)

Then, I added a Braille translation below it, the best I could manage! .: .:..:: .. .:.:.:.:: .:..: ETC 

I had only gotten so far before I realized that I didn't know Braille, and was instead just putting periods and colons beneath everything I wrote.  The Braille translation was not really that helpful anyway as I would have had to raise small bumps on my car, and I don't think I am ready for that level of car modification quite yet.  When I am, though, I am going to get a giant spoiler on my old Honda, and it is going to say BRAILLE TYPE on the sides!  Except it won't say it in letters, they'll be raised bumps, so you can only read it if you are blind.

And it won't have bass speakers, but it will have little treble speakers all over which play morse code!  I know that blind people don't necessarily all know morse code, but the sound of morse code is so intimidating.  I will roll up next to some glossy truck with shiny rims, blasting morse code, and rev my engine, and the guy will get all riled up for a second.  But then when he sees that the car is a tribute to blind people, he will think I don't know where I am going, and refuse to race me!  EAT MY BRAILLE YOU HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT!!!

So I hope this post has piqued your interest in visual disability, which is a real concern for web designers.  If you are making web pages, you will probably need some help in figuring out how to make them accessible to people who are disabled.  I found a good site which deals with accessbility issues with respect to web design!  Here is the url for the site: .:...:.:.:.::.:..:.:::.:.: OH GOSH I'M GOING TO GET HIT BY A BUS HERE IS THE REAL URL (http://www.makoa.org/web-design.htm)

The question has been posed to me of what I think about campus unity here at Johnson, and how I feel things could be improved.  I have been thinking on this subject for several days now, and it seemed to me that I had possibly already written on this topic in the past.  I did a quick search back through this journal and found such a post on January 17, 2005.  And while that post deals with how I feel about campus unity in regards to the gossip problem, it does not fully cover all my opinions on this subject.  Therefore I will try to dig a little bit deeper and cover some more ground than I had 6 months ago.

First of all, I would say that this campus does an excellent job of portraying the look of unity to those on the outside.  Flip through the pages of the latest Blue and White or take a quick trip to our internet site and you will see plenty of pictures and stories of friendship, Christian concern, and honest feelings of love and unity.  To a guest on campus, as I once was many years ago before enrolling as a student, Johnson Bible College is one of the most wonderful colleges within our brotherhood.

However, things are not always as they appear on the surface; and this school is certainly no exception.  There are many ways in which I feel the students, and faculty, here are lacking true unity.  But in saying this, you must also realize that I have felt that way in other areas too (church, church camp, and other Christian organizations such as these).  Honestly, no Christian institution can be completely, perfectly unified the way it should; our human nature prevents us from doing what we should all the time.  But I do believe that we should try to pick up the slack when we realize we are lacking and do our best to get as close to perfection as possible.

The first way in which I think the school could be more unified is by the elimination of cliques.  I realize that we all form little groups of friends around campus, especially in dorm life, because we gravitate towards those who share common interests with us.  It is perfectly natural to have a group of buddies to hang out with on a regular basis; I am not saying there is anything wrong with friend groups.  Not all friend groups are cliques, either.  I define a clique as a small group of people who associate exclusively with one another (as does the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary). 

Mostly during my days of living in the dorms, I had several groups of friends I chummed around with.  However, I was not exclusive about any of these groups; nor were these groups exclusive in their "membership" so to speak.  We were simply groups of people who had found each other by one means or another around campus and had formed bonds of friendship.  I often became friends with one person because we shared a mutual friend; and this would sometimes lead me to hang out with an entirely new group of people, thus perpetuating the cycle until I had plenty of friends and acquaintances to keep track of.

The biggest thing I have noticed, from the very beginning of my time here, is that there were certain other groups of people who fell into the clique category because they were exclusive.  Several of these groups even named themselves, which to me indicates a very strong sense of cliquishness.  They also took on certain symbols and trademark behaviors that became known as "theirs" around campus.  These are the groups that I feel damage the sense of unity on this campus.  Based on my own personal experience, plus knowing what others have said to me in respect to cliques on campus, I know that this behavior can make outsiders feel uncomfortable and looked down on.  And while these groups may not have intended to come off as such, their image is still looked upon as a threat to those outside their little closed-off circle.

Secondly, I feel that the gossip mill hurts our sense of unity on campus.  I have stated this before, and I still believe that it is true.  There are those on campus who are quite informed as to what is going on in the lives of others, but the problem begins when people start saying things about people they don't know, when they don't even know for sure if the facts are right.  Sometimes this is an innocent mistake made by a well-meaning individual who is not out to cause any problems.  But sometimes there are those around here who seem to make it their business to spread whatever they hear without verifying its truthfulness or stopping to consider if it should be kept private or not.  There is nothing wrong with having genuine concern for others; but when this concern gives way to plain old rumor-spreading, it becomes destructive to those who get talked about. 

There have been instances where friends of mine have had such things happen to them on campus.  And you can sort of tell when a story gets around accidentally and when words have been spoken with ill intent.  Typically the accidental issues are not major things that would potentially damage one's reputation or standing within our community.  I may hear from some random person on campus that they heard that a friend of mine got a job at some place, when in truth they just had an interview and were hoping for a job there but had no success.  Obviously, such instances do not make me think that someone has been spreading false information purposely to bring harm to my friend.  But when I have friends who get nasty anonymous comments from total strangers via mail or internet, or when they walk into a room and everyone turns to stare at them, I can fairly well guess that somewhere along the line, someone was doing something they shouldn't have.  This obviously does not build up a sense of unity, because those who become a victim of the rumor mill develop a sense of distrust and may feel less inclined to open up in the future when they have something weighing down on them.  I realize that it is impossible to stop all rumors on campus; there are those who have no regard for those who are hurt by telling a juicy tale.  However, we could all do our part to stop and evaluate what we are about to say before we say it.  A good test would be to think if there is any possible way that what we have to say is harmful to that person in any way.  Also, if you do have information, make sure your sources are correct.  If we all work a little bit harder to control the rumors that run around this campus, we will all benefit personally as well as be more united.

Another thing that I believe influences the unity on campus is the fact that certain students appear to be the "super Christians", while others tend to feel like lesser Christians in comparison.  I am not saying that it is wrong to be a good Christian, though.  What I am getting at is that we should all view each other as equals in Christ, as He intended for us to.  I know that some people here feel inferior to those who are always leading chapels, or who memorize huge chunks of Scripture, or who are involved in lots of ministry activities.  The purpose of Christian community is to lift each other up to a common goal for Christ, so we all need to work together so that no one feels like less in the eyes of God compared to their fellow brother.  I am not sure exactly how that would play out, and how it would be accomplished; but I feel that we could work towards more unity in this area somehow.

Next on my list:  the age-old struggle to be "cool."  It begins at an early age, kids in school dividing up into the cool/non-cool groups.  This probably isn't the biggest problem on campus, but I do notice that certain people tend to only hang out with other people who seem to fit a certain category.  Does there need to be division between those who only wear name brand trendy clothes and those who wear the cheapest clothes possible, whether due to finances or lack in style?  Sure, there are people around campus whose style of dress is less than up-to-date; but they are still people just the same.  When you get down to what's really important, style and status are insignificant.  I've met some phenomenal people who dress poorly, as well as some incredibly shallow people who dress like Hollywood.  And vice versa.  I just feel that our judgment of a person should be based on who they are and what they stand for, not the logo on their jeans or the kind of car they drive.  When we get to heaven, these will be left behind us; so we should focus on that which will last.  And who knows, those who have plenty today could wake up tomorrow and have all their worldly goods taken, and find themselves in the shoes of the less fortunate.  Or those who struggle to afford the nicer things today may end up being very fortunate someday, with all the comforts and pleasures they need.  So all I'm saying about this topic is just to view all people as equal, no matter how they dress or what their style is; you never know when you'll find yourself on the opposite side of the fence. 

Finally, I will just touch on the subject of leadership on campus.  There are some amazing leaders here among the professors, school staff, and faculty.  We have a handbook given to us to show us how to handle ourselves in all areas of life.  However, I do notice that there is a level of corruption on campus that chips away at the respect some students have for our administration.  I think it sends a mixed message when some students get in trouble or are targeted for certain things, while other students get away with the same (if not worse) things.  This is something that children pick up on at an early age--inconsistency.  A child learns not to respect an authority figure (whether parent, teacher, or otherwise) who is not consistent in discipline and rule enforcement.  Even the most respectful and obedient of students will feel disinclined to obey the rules here if they know that matters are not being dealt with equally across the board.  In such a case, it is not a matter of the student disagreeing with the rules; in fact they may feel that those rules are perfectly reasonable.  However, when a student sees one person getting in trouble for something while another person gets away with the same thing, it sends a message that the authority figures are unfair and show favoritism.  I have seen this in the lives of those close to me, as well as my own.  The true issue here on campus is not obedience, but sneakiness.  It's not what you do, but how well you hide it.  If you can keep things under school radar, you will be safe.  I simply ask for more consistency on the part of those enforcing the rules on campus, whether it be R.A.'s, school deans, or work study supervisors.  If everyone is consistent in enforcing rules and punishing those who do not obey, it will send a message to the students that they can respect those who are in authority.

These are just a few of the areas that I can think of right now.  I'm sure I could talk more if I had the time, but this is quite a long post as it is.  I hope that this answers the question.  However, I would ask that people who disagree with how I feel to please withhold saying anything harsh or condescending to me.  These are my honest, heartfelt opinions and I will not be swayed by someone demanding that I am all wrong.  I understand that not everyone will agree with my viewpoint, and that is okay.  I just ask that you do not react in a nasty or rude way.  We are all entitled to speak our opinions, and this is my forum to do so.

Just yesterday I was browsing around a website I found at random, a Christian webzine put out by Focus on the Family.  While there, I happened across a piece entitled "Should You Tattoo?"  The title caught my interest, so I decided to see what the latest "Christian buzz" is on this touchy topic.

From personal experience in my own family, I know that many Christians' only defense for the anti-tattoo campaign is a little verse found in Leviticus 19.  The 28th verse of this chapter says, "Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord."  This verse is the very one that has been quoted in my family whenever anyone has made mention of being in favor of tattoos, or (worse yet) wanting to get one themselves.

Now, taken alone, it is easy to see how this verse can be taken in its most literal context.  It leaves no room for doubt.  However, as with most careful Bible study, we must look at the surrounding passages to see what is going on in this chapter. 

This chapter starts out with overall rules and guidelines, such as "do not turn to idols," "do not steal," "do not defraud your neighbor," "judge your neighbor fairly," "do not seek revenge," etc etc.  These are all fairly basic, and I doubt many would contest the fact that we should be doing all those things in this day and age.  However, there are some other verses in this chapter that I doubt many Christians consider a part of daily living, and I think we have to consider the whole gamut rather than try to apply a single verse while ignoring the rest.

Verse 19 mentions things such as: "Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed" and "Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material."  So, taken literally, these two verses would indicate that little old ladies in churches all across this country are committing sin by growing all sorts of food and flowers in little patches in their backyards, and they certainly must be offending the good Lord by wearing cotton/polyester blend clothing.  Right? 

But that's not all.  We must continue on.  Verses 23-25 teach us that when we plant a tree, we mustn't eat from it until the fifth year.  For the first three years, the tree's fruit is to be considered forbidden.  In the fourth year, the fruit will be an offering to God.  Finally, in the fifth year, the fruit is safe to eat.  How many people follow this important commandment nowadays?

Verse 26 forbids us to eat meat with the blood still in it.  This would mean that any Christian who orders their steak on the rare side is sinning against the Lord.

Verse 27, the one right before the beloved tattoo verse, says, "Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard."  I would take this to mean that sideburns should be seen on every devoted male believer.  Also, what is to be said for the Christian men who are clean-shaven?  Even worse, what does this say about Christian colleges that do not allow facial hair on men?  (Here I am referring to Ozark Christian College, which at some point in their recent history did not allow any facial hair on students and professors.  I believe their rules may have changed now, but I know that at one point this was the standard there.)

Finally, there is verse 32.  And while rising in the presence of the elderly used to be considered polite and courteous, how many people actually follow that rule to this day?  How many younger people actually stand up when older persons enter the room?  Personally, I have never seen this happen, either in the church or otherwise.

I list all these verses to make a point, and my point is this:  While people are willing to grab onto one verse to condemn an increasingly popular form of self-expression, we must take a look at the whole picture.  It isn't right to pick and choose what verses we want to use and throw away the rest.  Other religious groups will cut and paste the Bible to fit their wishes, but as Christians we are called to keep every letter of the Word.  I say that if you want to preach against tattooing, you also need to consider what you grow in your yard, what kind of material you wear on your body, how you eat your steak, what sort of grooming style men prefer, and how to respect the elderly.

My personal opinion is that tattooing, in and of itself, is not a sin.  Just like any other thing we do to our bodies, we must take care of ourselves and be safe.  Whether it's tanning, eating junk food, tattooing, or body piercing, we need to make sure we are not harming our bodies.  Also, the issue of tattoos also depends on what is being put on one's body.  Obviously, I cannot condone violent, sacreligious, or otherwise explicit tattoos.  However, if someone wants something tasteful and meaningful put on their body, I believe that is their personal choice and they are not sinning if they do it.  Also, I honestly feel that religious tattoos can spark interest and initiate questions from non-believers. 

Another aspect to consider in this whole issue is how the anti-tattoo opinion will reflect upon Christians in view of the unsaved world.  I am not saying that we should be okay with tattoos just so we don't offend biker guys or something.  I am just saying that, to a non-believer, it may be a major turnoff to hear Christians saying that tattoos are a sin.  I believe that, many times, Christians are so wrapped up in their safe little sinless worlds that they fail to recognize how they drive away those they should be saving.

Ultimately, I think that there are much bigger issues to be worrying over than the tattoo debate.  I realize that it will always be a debate, because you can't convince everyone to believe the same way.  However, there are so many more problems in the world that need immediate action.  Instead of waving Leviticus 19:28 around, Christians should be trying to figure out how to reduce the number of abortions per year, or how to lovingly work against the acceptance of homosexuality.  In the end, I doubt that the salvation of many will swing on the issue of tattoos.