Stealing

Today I am a victim of crime!

Unlike "accidental" incidents that might seem like stealing (e.g. someone in the office uses your coffee mug!), I was recently the victim of REAL CRIME!

On 9-18, 7 days after Patriot Day, I woke up, left for teaching (Tarpon Springs/Clearwater campuses of St. Petersburg College) and noticed that someone had actually stolen the celtic cross that sits near my front porch!

How could anyone steal a cross of Christ?

Well, short of feeling a little bit like the Bishop in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables (the one who had valuable silver utensils, etc. stolen from him!), I was quite unnerved!

Was this a "hate-crime?"

Was I being "targeted" just for being a Christian?! Will the cross turn up in some dumpster after a satanic ceremony had been performed on it? (the Tampa Bay Times, a free local newspaper had recently reported a series of animal cruelty cases in which dead cats were found, decapitated heads only, in front of newspaper stands!). After all, I even know of one incident in S. Korea in which a satanic cult had been broken up. The perpetrators? Practicing satanists in the U.S. Army! (their battalion commander, a staunch Catholic, had made sure that religious-hate acts would not exist under her reign!)

OR, was this just a petty crime?

Did someone really just want the cross to decorate his/her yard with?

(the price of the actual cross was only $10 or so and bought near the Lawn care section of a St. Petersburg, FL-area Lowe's Home Improvement store--in 2007! I guess the stealing of a cross is something that a fellow U.S. citizen could somehow "justify" to himself/herself, perhaps as a symbolic act, a hate-crime maybe? More than likely, just someone who likes to steal for the pleasure of doing something wrong! St. Augustine, prior to his conversion, apparently delighted in simply stealing fruit!)

Well, whether it was a satanic hate crime, a local drunk bar-hopper returning from a Tampa Bay Rays-Boston Red Sox game, or just someone who likes to steal, I am still QUITE unsettled!

First the cross stolen, and then what should I expect next? Hate crimes are anonymous, and yes, I have been a victim before (e.g. receiving racially-motivated graffiti in college on my dorm room marker wipe-board due to my strong racially-progressive and affirmative action viewpoints!).

CHRIST-FOR-ALL! Rob J. King (victim of Christian discrimination or just a Red Sox fan annoyed that the Tampa Bay Rays are in first place? By the way, if you read this, please return the cross and it will likely reduce your time in purgatory! I just prayed a Hail Mary for your eternal salvation . . . :-)

Artificial Reality, the 'Net and David Wilmington! :-)

The other day I received one of those Facebook application e-mails that "compares and contrasts" my different friends. The category was, of all things, who was the "most influential!"

Some names, such as Howard Dean, Chair of the Democratic National Party made sense! (Actually, he was considered the "most influential" of my "Facebook friends," many of whom are medical doctors, Duke University Professors, et al.).

BUT, the second most influential person was that ALL-time famous independent movie producer (and soccer coach, dad, Ph.D. student at Baylor University!), David Wilmington!

The Pope (also a Facebook friend!) apparently is not quite the "Mover & Shaker" that David Wilmington is (e.g. David, as an independent film producer, is on the Google search and thus MUST BE more influential than the POPE! ;-).

Well, as much as David Wilmington is a lifelong friend (M.T.S. from Duke; Ph.D. student in Theology at Baylor University!), due to the dynamics of Internet "search engines," etc. the "artificial reality" as created by the mass media is exactly THAT--namely, ARTIFICIAL!

BUT, and here is both the potentially interesting and also somewhat frustrating point, due to the ever-pervasive "star-producing" quality of the mass media, LEADERS can literally be FORMED OVER NIGHT (e.g. Sarah Palin, a soccer mom turned Alaska Governor turned V.P. Candidate ALL-IN-LESS-THAN 3 years!).

So, whether it is first-term Senator Barack Obama becoming "Mr. President" (or V.P. "Barracuda Palin" the point guard with a B.A. in Journalism . . .), 2008 A.D. is now the era of "mass production of fame . . . "

So, Mr. Wilmington, now that you are LITERALLY more influential than the POPE (Benedict XVI is losing his touch! :-) will you now become the next Shakespeare?!

FAME, Artificial Reality! :-)

Love in Jesus Christ, Rob J. King (Roman Catholic and still a Vatican-loyal CATHOLIC! :-)

The Politics of God

Just for 'fun' I actually asked the Pope to be my Facebook "friend." After all, I am a staunch Opus Dei-supporting Catholic who believes (Acts 4:12) that ONLY in Jesus Christ are people saved.

I also believe that abortion is murder, that homosexual activity is a sinful sign of a distorted 'creature-worship.' Finally, I do believe that institutionally, although flawed in its historical fidelity, the Catholic Church nonetheless represents the true version of the Gospel. Yes there were the Crusades. Yes, there was the Spanish Inquisition. But, nonetheless the Catholic Church represents what is UNIVERSAL among Christian belief and practice (e.g. even Pentecostalism is an expression of Catholic theological self-identity!).

Well, in being On-Line Friends with the Vicar of Christ here on earth (i.e. Benedict XVI!), I was pleasantly surprised to see the Pope's own unique sense of humor. Although I have a somewhat awkward designation of my political affiliation of 'liberal/moderate economic, yet PRO-LIFE view,' the Pope just simply wrote, "God!"

Huh?

God

Well, I guess that makes sense!

God is the politics of the Pope . . .

Well, what do the politics of God look like? Yes, they would include the fullness of Catholic teaching, to include Catholic prohibition of artificial insemination, opposition to secularism, etc. BUT, the fullness of Catholic teaching also includes safeguarding the poor, the worker, the disadvantaged economically!

Huh?

Well, I guess I will VOTE GOD!

For a new, radical introduction to Jesus Christ, please see me, our supreme Pontiff, oh yeah, and the Dean of Duke University's DIVINITY SCHOOL!!!

PEACEINJESUSCHRIST<><ROBJKINGhttp://it.spcollege.edu/course_info/inquiry.cfm?number=1162

Being 'Conservative' AND Democrat . . .

Generally when one thinks of the word 'conservative' one immediately begins to label one a Republican. But is this necessarily the case?

I am pro-life, and against the homosexual agenda infiltrating our school systems and society at large, but when 'tested' on a Facebook political test, I came out as a 'liberal . . .'

Pope Benedict XVI and Nelson Mandela were the two closest world political figures to me on the supposed 'left' side of the spectrum.

But does this mean that it is 'liberal'?

Well, the Pope is Pro-Life and obviously any Catholic is against homosexuality as a violation of the Natural Law (men and men or women and women are not supposed to 'mate' with each other--even the lizards and the dogs know this!). But the Pope was listed as a 'liberal . . .'

BUT, having noted Facebook's propensity to come up with clever tests for anything from Movie Trivia to even putting me in touch with Howard Dean (Democratic Party Chair and a Faecbook 'Friend' . . .), here I am a CONSERVATIVE Democrat who is BOTH LIBERAL (Worker's RIGHTS . . .) while also being CONSERVATIVE (Pro-Life, anti-socialist governments, etc. . . .).

But, people like putting labels on me, and as such, how about just calling me "Mr. Wildcat . . ." Davidson College did, after all, end up as the top Cinderella story in this year's basketball tournament (eventually losing to Kansas, a #1 seed in the Elite Eight, and ONLY by two points . . .). From a Davidson College Offensive Lineman to Methodist Pastor to now a Political Activist and Professor of Applied Ethics and World Religion, I owe it ALL to the LORD GOD's PROVIDENTIAL ORDERING of my life, and a quite formative part of which was at Presbyterian-related Davidson College. Yes, yes, I am a Pope Benedict XVI Catholic through and through, but it was the small, basketball gem of a school called Davidson College that taught me to write, to research, and to pull ALL-NIGHTERS to meet a deadline . . .

FOR CHRIST, FOR TRUTH . . . Rob J. King (Davidson College Class of '94 and HUGE basketball fan . . .)