Tuesday, June 08, 2004
(9:57 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Writing-Related Program Activities
"Adam, what have you been writing other than your hard-hitting Weblog posts?"
You wouldn't believe how often I get that question. It deserves an answer.
In the past few days, I have written e-mail to Monica Bennett, Dr. Rebecca Belcher, and Thomas Garlitz of the Joliet Diocese Peace and Justice Committee. I have written multiple posts at the CRI General Forum regarding the proper place of patriotism in the church (my answer: none) and the appropriate level of approval the church should display toward wars (my answer: none). I am also on record as saying that we should have just let the commies take over in Vietnam and that "stopping the Holocaust" after nine million people had already been killed hardly counts as the humanitarian triumph as which it is often portrayed. I have written comments a A Tiny Revolution, à Gauche, The Pickle, and various other web sites. I have been engaged in lengthy IM conversations with Michael Schaefer, Richard McElroy, and Katie Morris (which is writing -- if we'd talked on the phone, it wouldn't count). I have written a piece on Kafka over at the University Without Condition, which is apparently dying, as well as another "policy" post on how we should approach poetry. I have written in my personal journal.
And today, although it doesn't involve writing, I have to help lead a Bible study over the mass readings for next Sunday (Corpus Christi). If things start to get slow, I'm going to gently guide people in the direction of wondering about the significance of religious language, particularly that of "sacrifice," in war propaganda and how such language might conflict with Christian language about Christ's once-for-all sacrifice. That's what they pay me the big money for.
Hopefully today will issue in a non-masturbatory post, but there is no guarantee of that.
UPDATE:
Despite being the one who wrote the damn announcement in the bulletin, I somehow managed to arrive at the Bible study event half an hour late. I didn't bring up my radical leftist point, but I did manage to dodge a few questions about my spiritual life.
A key point: I know Christianity must change or die, etc., and that the Bible is a very old and confusing book, but I think there's still some good stuff in there, and there are worse things to do with one's time than to look for it.
