Terra Extraneus

Recently we listed Terra Extraneus on the Blog Oklahoma directory, which lists 301 blogs written “in or about Oklahoma.” Terra Extraneus’ focus is news, morality, law, and faith. As our category list reveals, our concerns include the health of the church, religious freedom, and events in the Middle East. In our first 50 articles, we have mentioned Oklahoma only three times.

However, Rod and I are Oklahomans, so I guess that makes TerraX an Oklahoma blog. Rod has lived here since he was 5 (except for out-of-state grad and law schools); I was transplanted here from Southern California as a teenager. Both of us choose to live in Oklahoma now because there is no place we would rather live. I decided to get acquainted with the other 300 blogs on the Blog Oklahoma list. That’s a lot of blogs, so I began with the first 16 (the “A’s”).

First on the list (because its name begins numerically rather than alphabetically) is 10,000 Fists in the Air. Jared Ozvath is a 28-year-old Best Buy computer tech in Midwest City who describes himself as an atheist, Buddhist, Democrat and “proud liberal.” On his homepage, Jared makes it amply clear that he is anti-Bush, anti-war, anti-Intelligent Design, and anti-Walmart. It is a stroke of comic genius that Jared is first on the list of Sooner bloggers, representing Oklahoma to the world.

Jared hasn’t posted to his blog since Nov. 14, 2005. That’s typical. A study by the Perseus Development Corp. found that two-thirds of all blogs have not been updated in the last two months. As a matter of fact, about one out of four blogs are “one day wonders.” Of the remaining abandoned blogs (those that posted more than once but have not been updated in the last two months), the average depth of the archive is just four months. The point: consistent quality blogging takes a lot of time, a lot of hard work – and something to say. The majority of bloggers run out of steam quickly and leave their blogs dangling in the Internet wind.

(Rule of thumb: When visiting a blog for the first time, check two things: the date of the most recent post and the depth of the archive. Time weeds out most of the amateurs. If a blog has been posting for more than a year and has been updated in the last few days, it is much more likely to be worth reading.)

Most of the blogs I perused were “dear diary” types about dating, dieting and such. James McMahon’s A Disciple’s Journey is a couple of cuts above the rest. James, who describes himself as a “conservative Christian,” is an MDiv student in Tulsa. He begins all his posts with a Scripture, and his categories are sections of the Bible. He has an emphasis on spiritual formation – an emphasis most of us desperately need in our lives.

James, one suggestion, if I may. Unlike the mass of blogs, you are certainly not a “dear diary” site. Thank you for that. But you go too far in the other direction. You reveal absolutely nothing about yourself. You love the Lord and you love His Word. But if you want to increase our interest in what you have to say about the faith, let us get to know you a little bit in the process. (Of course, if you achieve your dream of becoming an academic, scratch everything I just said).

Carrie Goertz is a UCO senior studying English, with the plan of an editing/publishing career. In other words, she is a fledgling writer. Her blog, A Speaking Picture, is a well-designed site, and Carrie makes great use of images (something most of us bloggers have not mastered). She writes mostly about literature, and is quite earnest. I hope she succeeds.

AN AUDIENCE OF ONE
The best blog by far among the Oklahoma “A’s” is Brian Stone’s An Audience of One. Brian has been publishing his blog faithfully since October 2003, and An Audience of One received the 2005 Best Inspirational Okie Blog Award.

Brian, 44, is the academic dean of a Tulsa middle school. His blog is mostly personal, with some politics, sports and rock and roll mixed in. What Brian didn’t know when he began his blog in 2003 was that he would end up creating a poignant online journal about an agonizing event many of us have endured: the end of a marriage.

On June 7, 2004 (June 2004 archives), Brian wrote:

I related in this blog recently about the romantic weekend my wife and I had in Leavenworth. What I didn’t tell was that the weekend retreat was something of an effort to save our marriage. Now it looks like that has failed. … [My son] is mildly autistic (Asperberger’s Syndrome), has A.D.H.D., is emotionally immature for his age, makes a lot of messes around the house, and does many inexplicable things. He was a major cause of the breakup of my first marriage and is the major cause of this one as well. … I’ve poured all of myself into this relationship and I don’t think I’ll ever get over it. I love her very much … This is going to require some changes in my life. I’m here in Washington without a network of family and friends and have two young children to raise by myself. So I plan to move back to Oklahoma this August. … I think it was Thoreau that said, “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Is that what my life is to become? Or will I find something to bring me peace and happiness?

Curious to read more? I thought so. During the rest of 2004 and all of 2005, Stone chronicles coming to terms with the failure of his marriage, breaking the news to his children, saying goodbye to his wife, the cross-country move back home (to Oklahoma), starting his life over again. It sounds like quite a soap opera – and, of course, it is – but Stone never turns maudlin. He keeps his posts brief, honest, and heartfelt. He has a gift for understatement, like the example above: “This is going to require some changes in my life.” Brian’s blog does not read like the work of a would-be writer with an inch-deep life, but rather, like a person trying to make some sense of a complicated life, who takes a few moments each day to write about it.

Brian was raised a Baptist, but he doesn’t talk much about his faith. Brian’s blog is inspirational, not because he elaborates on matters of faith, but because of his optimistic view of life, no matter what life keeps throwing at him. Not that Brian gushes power-of-positive-thinking aphorisms, but he keeps moving forward, always an eye on the future — still hopeful that tomorrow holds something worth showing up for.

Despite the name of his blog, Brian draws about 175 readers a day. Make that 176. I’m adding An Audience of One to the TerraX blogroll.

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Terry Hull is working his way through all 300+ blogs listed on the Blog Oklahoma blogroll. For other reviews of Oklahoma blogs, see:
> “Oklahoma Blogs: Michael Bates and the ‘B’s.’”
> “Oklahoma Blogs: Time for Chase to Make Some Cuts.”
> “Oklahoma Blogs: More Blogs Filed Under C.”
> “Oklahoma Blogs: D Is for Dave World.”

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CNSNews.com reported that inquiries are being conducted about possible incursions into the United States by either regular Mexican military personnel equipped with Humvees and fifty caliber machine guns or by imposters yet similarly equipped. If the military hardware is owned by the Mexican government, then it is either stolen or rented under very loose terms, uniforms included. Moreover, the military appearing Mexican troops appear to be escorting illegal drug convoys.

I have no doubt that there are those that believe our porous southern border is hopelessly so. But, it seems more likely it is a matter of money. In the 21st century, we should be able to place satellites in geosynchronous orbit capable of monitoring our southern borders. We should be able to afford to fly squadrons of A-10 Thunderbolts, better known as Warthogs, up and down our borders from several air bases in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. If the Warthogs can find and destroy tanks, escort troops and have a range of 800 miles, coordinated with squadrons of helicopters, they could close the border, if need be. A couple of squadrons of Abrams M1A1 tanks running up and down the border on live fire training exercises might tighten things up, too. The point is deterrence. Most likely, a couple of shots over the heads of these invaders would likely end the problem. Photographing them would also assist conventional law enforcement.

The U. S. Border Patrol is not trained or equipped to confront foreign military units, especially rogues, nor military weapons. The Patrol is not large enough to protect our northern and southern borders, nor the coasts, from penetration by any determined group. The Patrol should have the support of the military and the military budget would only need to be increased incrementally to sustain such an effort.

The U. S. Border Patrol has more than enough to do regulating entry by individuals. Our thousands of miles of border can only protected by the military. That is the only source of technology, weapons and trained manpower necessary to deal with the issues created by terrain, rogue military incursions, and terrorists traveling enmass supported by foreign militaries.

The alternative is to ask conventional law enforcement forces to under take major new investments in equipment, weapons, technology and training. While it is true we do not want to try and use our military as policemen, we do not want to be forced to convert our para-military police forces into actual military units. Not only is that not cost effective, it has other negative implications, as well, in confusion of mission and tactics.

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A French man was fined $262,700 this week for attacking a urinal with a hammer.

Must be some urinal! You bet it is. A porcelain fixture manufactured by J. L. Mott Ironworks of New York in 1917. The urinal, now on display in a Paris art museum, has an estimated value of around $4 million.

Fountain is the most beloved work of French artist Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp, a leader of the Dada school of art, bought the urinal, scrawled the signature “R. Mutt” on its surface, and submitted it to an art show (it was rejected). In 2004 a poll of 500 British arts figures declared Fountain the most influential work of art of the 20th century. (Here’s a photo of Fountain, in case you’ve never seen one).

Earlier this month Pierre Pinoncelli took a hammer to the urinal, cracking it slightly. A Paris court this week handed Pinoncelli a three-month suspended sentence and the stiff fine. It’s not the first time Pinoncelli attacked Fountain. In 1993 he urinated in it.

What’s Pinoncelli’s problem with Duchamp’s plumbing masterpiece? Pinoncelli says he doesn’t have a problem with Fountain at all. Pinoncelli, 77, is a performance artist who says he was paying tribute to the work by participating with it. “I wanted to pay homage to the Dada spirit,” Pinoncelli testified at his trial. Pinoncelli’s argument is that his attack on Fountain constitutes another work of art.

Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) was a Frenchman who spent most of his life in New York City, creating “ready-made” art works (every-day objects which become art by being declared to be so) and playing chess. Duchamp called his art “anti-art” because it mocked traditional art and art standards. Dada “anti-art” is absurdist art and an early cousin of abstract expressionism. Other famous Duchamp works include The Bicycle Wheel (1913), which is – well, you know – a bicycle wheel mounted on a stool, and In Advance of a Broken Arm (1915), which is a snow shovel.

Another Duchamp masterpiece, L.H.O.O.Q. (1919), is a reproduction of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, with the addition of a moustache and goatee. When the letters of the work’s title are pronounced out loud in French, they form a phrase which refers lustily to Mona Lisa’s derriere.

In other words, Pinoncelli has been found guilty of vandalizing the art of an artist who has been hailed for creating art which the artist himself called anti-art because it mocked art by, for example, imagining the vandalization of traditional art. It’s a strange world.

By the way, the Fountain on display in Paris is not the original. The original has long since been lost. Duchamp did the world a huge favor in 1964, at age 77, by creating several reproductions. That’s right, the urinal in Paris, worth several million dollars, is only a reproduction of the original urinal masterpiece.

What would Duchamp himself say about Pinoncelli’s attack on his beloved Fountain? The artist once wrote:

The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.

Sounds to me that, were Duchamp alive today, he might be quite content with Pinoncelli “adding his contribution.” If not, of course, he could just reproduce another one. There’s always another urinal waiting to be declared a masterpiece.

Pinoncelli said he will appeal this week’s court decision. The world breathlessly awaits the outcome.

If only Frances Schaeffer were alive to see this.

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Terra Extraneus is one month old today. I believe Rod Heggy will agree that our first month of blogging has surpassed our expectations by every measure.

Our original plan was to put TerraX out there but keep it our little secret while we spent the first month or two getting it to look they way we want it to, and building some content. We imagined that nobody would know about it until we took some intentional steps to promote traffic. However, Rod put up our first post, on the topic of intelligent design, and less than two hours after Terra Extraneus went public, we had our first visitor and our first comment. It’s been that way ever since.

So far we have done nothing to promote TerraX, but the world has somehow found out about us. We have had readers from Brazil, Canada, England, Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Australia, Japan, and China – and a majority of the 50 states. Someone from the Palestinian Territory read a post of mine in which I respond to Pat Robertson’s comments about Israel, and a couple of days later I received an invitation to participate in an online discussion group of Palestinian Christians. TerraX has given Rod and I instant access to people literally all over the world. Amazing.

During our first month, we have had 311 visitors. (Our tracking software counts a visit as any number of page views by the same visitor with no more than 30 minutes between page views. In other words, if you come to our site and stay for several hours, that’s one visit. If you leave our site and come back an hour later, that’s two visits). That computes to an average of 13 readers a day, almost 100 a week. Rod and I have posted a total of 47 articles, and 11 readers have posted comments in response.

One measure of success that the top hitters in the blogosphere watch is links — how many other websites and blogsites link back to something we have posted on our blog. That has happened one time, when a pastor in California referred the readers of his blog to our review of George Barna’s book, Revolution.

How have people found us? One way is through search engines. The single biggest draw has been our review of Barna’s book. That has brought dozens of people from all over the world to our site. Another significant draw have been searches on the movies we have reviewed or commented on. Regarding many visitors, we don’t have a clue what brought them our way.

Terra Extraneus is still far from what we envision it becoming. If we had our way, TerraX would still be our little secret, in the pre-launch stage. But the world and the Internet haven’t cooperated with that plan, so we are hurrying to make many of the improvements we have in mind during the coming weeks.

If you are reading this, you are probably one of those 311 readers who came to visit during our first month. Thanks very much for taking an interest. From the start, Rod and I have imagined Terra Extraneus as a conversation — not just with each other, but with you. We welcome any suggestions you have.

If you are visiting TerraX for the first time, welcome to the conversation. It’s a strange world, but together, maybe we can make some sense out of it.

* * * * * *
UPDATE (Jan. 31, 2006): Visitors participating in the Commonwealth essay competition, please see this special message just for you: “Every Secret Will Be Made Known.”

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Le Moyne College is a Roman Catholic institution of higher learning governed by the Jesuits and in its mission statement, claims to be called to “promote a more just society.” Even as a non-Catholic, I have always been intrigued by the Jesuits and not a little awed by their history and accomplishments. That makes the present controversy impossible to fathom.

CNSNews.com reported that LeMoyne College dismissed a graduate student from the graduate school of education because he wrote a paper favoring corporal punishment, spanking, as part of a program of discipline in an “ideal learning environment.” Litigation followed and a New York state court held that LeMoyne College violated its own handbook by failing to allow the student to appeal from the adverse decision. LeMoyne College has decided to appeal, according to the news report. By the way, the paper earned an “A-“ and the student’s grade point average was above 3.7, so the dismissal could not be cloaked as academic failure.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (“FIRE”) has posted the results of their work in the matter to their website, which included the decision of the NY court in favor of the student and ordering the school to follow its own handbook. The opinion is only three pages long and does not mention the separation of church and state or distinguish LeMoyne College as a private religious institution, but merely ruled on generic contract principles. FIRE’s letters and the college’s original dismissal letter are also posted.

This is my first chance to review FIRE’s work and it was impressive in this case to this point. For many years I have followed the work of Jay Sekulow, Esq. and even his opponents publicly recognize the quality of his work. FIRE may be playing a niche role with similar competence.

The private church run school was clearly wrong. But, are we happy to see a successful intervention by a secular court, even on secular contract grounds? However, without seeing the briefing filed by the college, it is impossible to know whether the school claimed its decision was based on religious views.

Equally troubling is that UCLA, clearly a leading educational institution in this nation supported by taxpayer funds, plans legal action against an alumnus that founded an organization targeting “political radicalism on campus,” according to CNSNews.com, and presses its views through a website that identified “radical professors” and then rated them according to their views and efforts to convert their students to those views. UCLA’s cease and desist letter was based on trade mark violations. The website dropped all trade marks and disclaimed official affiliation with UCLA, but a UCLA spokesperson indicated legal action was still being designed to silence the website. The lesson to be learned here is that even in California, where First Amendment freedoms have historically been cherished, there is a certain amount of hypocrisy about academic freedom. The professors have it, the students are the unwilling victims, and even a graduate of the school must not speak of it.

In both of these instances, the institutions of higher learning have become so afraid of the written word, even an unpublished term paper, that they have felt compelled to lash out and destroy the authors. Or worse, are these institutions so flush with cash that arrogance has replaced intellectual honesty? Oklahoma institutions of higher learning would never consider such ridiculous actions, and I suspect it is because they are too busy making ends meet to waste time or energy, or highly paid personnel and legal fees, on such. Insofar as the public record yet demonstrates, there has been no accusation of defamation or violence against the authors to be silenced.

On both coasts, it appears, academic freedom and intellectual debate of some persons, but not those in some privileged class such as the professors, can be attacked consistent with the mission statement of these institutions. This is sad and frightening if it is a representative trend.

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Two quotations added to the Quotations page:

“Almost anything you do will seem insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.”
Mahatma Gandhi

* * * * * *
“What in your life is calling you? When all the noise is silenced, the meetings adjourned, the lists laid aside, and the wild iris blooms by itself in the dark forest, what still pulls on your soul?”
The Box: Remembering the Gift
* * * * * *
Thanks to JKP for the Ghandi quote.

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The First Amendment, U.S. Constitution

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Religious Freedom a Focus of Terra Extraneus
Terra Extraneus’ mission statement is: “To navigate the intersection of news, morality, law and faith.” One of the most crucial arenas in which law and faith are intersecting in modern America is religious freedom. The authors of Terra Extraneus do not oppose the separation of church and state when properly applied. As a matter of fact, it was to protect our religious freedoms that our founding fathers authored the Establishment Clause. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from establishing official state religion, and it also prohibits the government from restricting the free exercise of religion in our free society. In those ways, the Constitution “separates” the “state” (government) from the “church” (religious expression), and that is a good thing for all who wish to remain free.

However, the constitutional separation of church and state is being turned on its ear in modern times, used to accomplish the very thing it was meant to prevent. Christians and other religious practitioners in the U.S. are being prevented from the free exercise of their faith on supposed “separation of church and state” grounds.

Teachers, students, members of the armed forces, government employees, and average citizens in public places are being hindered from expressing their faith in the very name of the constitutional provision that was designed to protect our freedom.

Terra Extraneus will keep a spotlight on religious freedom: reporting relevant current events, providing commentary, answering questions, and supporting the work of individuals and groups who are doing good work to protect our religious freedom.

If you have news or comments about religious freedom under fire, if you have a question about your religious freedoms, or if you would like us to highlight the work you are doing, please contact us.

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CNSNews.com reports that the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire implemented a policy prohibiting Resident Advisors from leading or teaching Bible studies in their dormitory rooms. Resident Advisors are students living in campus dormitories provided with free housing in exchange for services as advisors to other student residents. The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire adopted the policy, CNSNew.com reports, based on the concern that student residents would feel unwelcome or pressured if Resident Advisors led Bible studies or hosted them in their rooms. Needless to say, one of the Resident Advisors has filed a federal law suit.

Typically, federal courts have enforced private rights of religious expression even on government-owned premises, as long as the religious expression was neither issued by government actors nor sponsored by government actors. Will the court view a college dormitory Resident Advisor as a government actor while acting in his own quarters? Common sense would prohibit such a view.

Our First Amendment rights are sacred. The citizens of Wisconsin should react accordingly.

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire apparently does not fear the voters or the legislature. Hopefully, the voters and legislature will be inspired to place additional budgetary limits on the university. For example, eliminating the position known as the “associate director of housing and resident life” (the university official who prohibited private residential Bible studies led or hosted by Resident Advisors) would be a first good move.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 11,011.90 on Monday — the first time the Dow has exceeded 11,000 since 2001. The Dow broke 11,000 for the first time ever in 1999, and hit its record high of 11,722.98 on Jan. 14, 2000, but plummeted when the tech bubble burst, and was further depressed by 9/11 (2001). The Dow is an index of 30 of the largest public companies. Here’s the NYT report.

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The Exclusion of Purely Ecclesiastical Disputes

While Christians are often concerned, or even angered, because Christian views and activities are stifled in public places, bodies and schools, there is a compensating balance. Each will have to decide whether it is enough to balance that which is lost in “separation of church and state.” Generally, my view is that it is for the best, because properly tithing churches and Christians can solve the impact of stifled religious expression in public places by simply privatizing their locations and funding.

In exchange, purely ecclesiastical disputes are not within the jurisdiction of the courts. The exact line between purely ecclesiastical disputes and disputes invoking the military power of the state, i.e., disputes over property and money, is often hard to find.

The Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church of Memphis, Tenn., fell into the black hole of bitter rancor when part of the membership sought to prevent a new employment contract between the church and its senior minister. Other disputes included concerns over contributions to a para-church organization, as well as bonuses to the senior minister. During the trial court proceedings, the members bringing the lawsuit were excommunicated.

The Court of Appeals of Tennessee dismissed the case and held that the issues involved were purely ecclesiastical disputes, disputes over which the court had no jurisdiction. That will be the result in most courts whenever internal church issues are presented. External issues, such as title to property and bank account ownership, would likely remain the province of judicial decision-making. As a result, Christians have no choice but to obey Paul’s admonition to settle their own disputes without involving worldly courts. 1 Corinthians 6:1-8. Thus, the separation of church and state may not be all bad.

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