Catching up... #1

Picture at left: Thats me laying on top of an empty tomb in a grotta in Malta

Okay, so when I haven't been working for three weeks, you would think I'd have lots of time to post. Right?

wrong.

Basically, a cruise, thanksgiving, an Auburn game, and a Sunday stand between myself and this blog, but that will be rectified soon as I am back in the saddle. And it has been a while coming. I'm going to work backwards too, just so you know.

This past Sunday: After missing the past two sundays, I missed Church. Its true! You know, sometimes church can be lackluster and sometimes it just doesn't clock well, but after being gone two weeks, I missed it a lot more than I'd like to admit. Maybe I'm addicted to people, maybe I missed my friends, maybe I just enjoyed getting in front of a crowd and preaching again. Whatever the reason, I got more of a rush out of it than I expected. Yes, numbers were low because of thanksgiving, auburn/alabama game, etc, but that didn't matter to me. You can watch the sermon here if you feel so inclined. The weather is changing, and that is affecting my mood. I've been thrown out of wack. Existentialism abounds right now for me. I caught myself staring out the window just last night watching it rain and blushed because it was way too absent-minded of me.

Would you care if I cloned my index finger? Or grow it back? What about an extra pair of lungs? I recently read a Michael Chrichton book called Next and it brought up some awesome ethical/theological questions. The book is basically about the ramifications of tampering with genetics, etc. I remember at Candler we used to talk about the moral implications of cloning, genetic therapy, selective gene splicing, etc. and this book brought up all those issues.

Is it really all that wrong if we can create another human body just like ours but without a head? If I could clone myself, but without making it "cognizant" would it be okay? I could have a fresh, rejection-free set of kidneys. Is cloning flesh incorrect? I predict two things right here and now:

1) My generation will suffer liver problems just like people today suffer heart problems. Thats right, unless we find a way to clone and transplant livers, folks my age will be dying of liver failure. Why? Because we binge drink like its our job. Ask anyone who's gone to college... binge drinking is -almost- always a part of life. I read somewhere that college students spend more money on alcohol than books or any college expense combined.

2) The next big theological debate will not be about homosexuality, Christology, or social justice implications of Christianity. The next wave of division will be based on the understanding of the human being. Do we have a soul? Where does it reside? What if you clone a person? Will they have another soul? How we define ourselves will sharpen as we define our technological and theological limits. [ed. - these discussions have already been had btw]

Auburn/Alabama: another year another win. Frankly, most Alabama fans either won't bring it up with me or are overly congratulatory like it isn't a big deal for them and we have all won or something. *one* church member came up to me, and without looking at me, said "congratulations on the win" in a still voice as if he was afraid someone would hear him. Personally, I was crushed. My heart ached to know that he really was heart broken. I said thanks, and you know what? For him, I hope Auburn loses next year. It is a game after all.

Stupid football - someone has to lose.