(no subject)

[mari4212]

I'm rolling out the red carpet here with a welcome to my new friends from H_E.


The basics: I'm a twenty-year-old college student, my eventual goal is a Masters in physical therapy. Right now I'm working on my undergrad, studying Biology and Religion. Yes, I am insane for going for that major, no, they really don't overlap, yes, it does frequently mean that my schedule frightens small children and defenseless housepets. Normally I'm at the University of Evansville, this semester I got sick and came home. I took classes at a local community college to keep my credits up, count yourselves lucky that you came over late enough to miss my daily squeeing about my philosophy class.

I'm from a larger, loving, and reasonably insane family, while I'm at home you'll here me talk about them a lot. The cast of characters is as follows for easy reference:
Dad: Also know as glacierscout, as you may have guessed, he's my father. He reads my journal on a regular basis, he's a scientist, he loves to get into debates, and if you shove a cat in front of him he turns into a pile of cooing mush. This has been tested. Right now his main focus is the work he does as a adult leader in boy-scouting. He also loves to tell stories about me and my siblings, head over to his journal and ask him to spill if you want all the dirt.
Mom: My mother, obviously. She also reads my journal. You'll most likely hear Mom referenced when I'm talking about the kids, she runs a day-care of sorts in our house and I help out whenever I'm home. I get most of my personality straight from my mother, with a few added quirks for interest. We get along suprisingly well, according to others. I've also been told by various sources that she's either the coolest mom around or the meanest. I'm going with coolest.
Elizabeth: My oldest sister, she's currently living on her own. She's earned her bachlors in technical theater, specifically props. Currently, she's working as a cashier supervisor at a hardware store. Our personalities are radically different, in our own words, I'm the nice one and she's the evil one. For all that, we get along nicely, especially now that we're not living in the same house anymore.
Sara: My other sister. Technically, she's older than me. In practice, she's severely disabled, both mentally and physically, and I end up acting as the older sister by default. I love her, I couldn't imagine my life without her in it, but I also wouldn't wish her upon my worst enemy because taking care of her is hard work. She's also why I want to be a physical therapist.
Thomas: My little brother, I went away to college and he got cool on me. Currently he's spending the summer as a staff member out at scout camp.
The Kids: Three toddlers my mom watches. I help out, and make sure that neither my mother nor I myself kill them. I love them all dearly, but there are times when they drive me nuts.

I'm religious, Episcopalian if you want the specific brand. I'll talk about it sometimes, and it does influence a good portion of my life, but I won't shove it down your throat if you don't want to. If you do want to discuss religion, I'm always up for it. Just know that while I will respect your beliefs, I expect the same courtesy in return.

I'm also rather liberal, politically speaking. Again, I'm very willing to debate, but I'd appreciate respect for my beliefs while I'm respecting yours.

Serious stuff aside, let's talk fandoms. I will randomly squee about certain shows, especially Stargate, Atlantis, NCIS, and Doctor Who. I will also babble about several books and authors that I love. Right now Madeline L'Engle and C.S. Lewis are predominate, but others will come when I've recently re-read their work. Harry Potter is always present in the background.

I've recently started writing fanfic, right now I'm still playing around and learning how to do things. I've found I do best when someone has a specific request, so if you're ever in the mood for a story and you like my writing style, I'm very willing to at least attempt to write something for you. (warning, it's best to ask for gen, I'm still not sure of myself when it comes to writing most ship)

I'll be at times silly and serious, but I tend to have a rather sunny view of life and the universe, and it is reflected in my journal. If you're easily bored by happy people, you're going to be bored reading this journal.

And if all that didn't send you running away, welcome to my journal!

Comments

[svimmelhet.livejournal.com]

C.S. Lewis is shiny. ;)

Also, I'm considering changing my major to religious studies, what classes have you taken in that area?

[mari4212.livejournal.com]

Lewis is very shiny.

I've taken 300-level courses on Paul and his Letters, Women and Religion, and Images of Biblical Women in Art and History. (massive love for this last one, we dove into the midrash to see where some of our ideas about these women came from and at the end we wrote our own midrash. I've got mine somewhere one here, if you like I'll pull it up.)

I also got very lucky, one of the people who comes in to give the adult Sunday school lectures at my church is an expert in New Testament Scripture, I've been attending his lectures anytime I was in town.

Most of my courses focused on christian beliefs, mainly because it's a christian campus. I'd love to take some Eastern religon courses becuase I don't know that much about them.

[mel06.livejournal.com]

wooooooooooooooooo for liberal christians! im a practicing presbyterian myself, and though my deonomination (PCA) is traditionally VERY conservative... im... well, not! i'd love to chat religion sometime. whee.

[mari4212.livejournal.com]

My denomination's getting in the news for how liberal we're getting, we're the ones who just elected a female Presiding Bishop, much to the disgust of some of the most conservative parishes.

Have you heard of the Center for Progressive Christianity? It's designed for rather liberal Christians. The website's here: http://www.tcpc.org/template/index.cfm

But sure, anytime you want to talk religion, I'm definitely up for it.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Well the fact that she's female isn't the only reason people are upset.

July 3 e-mail from my dad:

Subject: Sometimes I learn more from people I disagree with.

If I'd just read straight (pun intended) news stories, I probably would have thought the controversy was mostly a matter of "uncomfortable with women in positions of power."

When actually there's a lot of fairly deep theological difference.

I wonder how much of that is simple reporter ignorance, how much of it is laziness, and how much of it is political/tribal: "She's one of the good people, like me. If I go into the theological details, most people are going to disagree with her and not like her, because, well, they're the base and ignorant Other. Besides, I know that she and her theology are progressive. So best to report this as part of the larger story of 'woman succeeding in formerly all-male field and for that reason meeting opposition'. Which makes the point that she is on the right side of history and will eventually win and meanwhile should be looked on sympathetically."

http://newsbusters.org/node/6237

For a one-sided view of "theological difference", the cited NRO article:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MjdkZjg3MzJlM2ZiMzczNDdhYTBiYzYwYWMxYTlmNjE=

[mari4212.livejournal.com]

Yes and no. The more conservative members of the Episcopal church are upset because she's liberal. A small fraction of them, three Diocese in particular, still do not believe in the ordination of women priests, and are thus also deeply offended that she's female.

Outside of the national Episcopal church, the wider Anglican communion is still very deeply torn on the issue of allowing women to be priests, and thus the idea of a woman being elected as Primate is very controversial. In the wider church, her political stance is almost secondary to her gender. That is, a lot of people would be just as upset about her if she held much more conservative views, but when you add in the fact that she's a liberal, it's just an extra slap in the face.

So it depends on who you're talking to and what framework you're looking on the issue with.

[samuti.livejournal.com]

*waves*

Images of Biblical Women in Art and History

Wow. That sounds right up my street. Am incredibly jealous. ;)

[mari4212.livejournal.com]

It was so much fun. Aside from the fact that our teacher gave us approximately three weeks to research and write our final papers, on which we could either write a 9-11 page Midrash with 5-6 page commentary, or produce a 12 page paper. That bit was just insane.